The night is long.
When the first ray of sunlight in the morning shone into the house through the window, Jia Qing felt a little breathless in his sleep and opened his eyes in a daze.
In the field of vision, a strange man with an unshaven beard and a pale face was standing coldly in the middle of the room. It was unknown when he broke in.
Jia Qing screamed "Fuck", waking up the others instantly.
They jumped up from the ground, and Song Yang in another corner said, "It's okay, it's a ghost."
He and Xia Jing woke up the moment the man entered the room.
Under everyone's vigilant gaze, the strange man ignored them and walked unsteadily across the living room, through the wooden door, and into the inner room.
The feeling of suffocation gradually faded away, and from the inner room came the creaking sound of a wooden bed being pressed, followed by snoring.
The ghost began to sleep.
Everyone in the living room breathed a sigh of relief.
They looked at each other.
Song Yang untied the bandages on his body - after a night, his injuries had almost healed.
Putting on a spare shirt from his space bag, he said, "Let's go and take a look at the next room."
*
I don't know if it's because I was so frightened yesterday, but my brain has completely shut down.
Fu Lan and Huang Yulian in the next room were not awakened by the ghost's return. They slept soundly until Song Yang and others arrived and were abruptly awakened.
Xia Jing and Song Yang walked straight to Liu Mingyang's body and squatted down.
His headless body remained in the same state as when he was dissected last night. Most of the internal organs in his upper body had been taken out, leaving only his intestines lying inside. The scene was extremely bloody and horrifying.
Gao Sheng and the newcomer Zheng Shu couldn't bear to watch this scene, so they stopped at the door far away, fearing that they would vomit.
Xia Jing whispered, "The bat was gestating in the corpse on the roadside yesterday, close to the pelvis. Liu Mingyang's was gestating in the left ribcage. It seems the location of the bat's gestation is random."
If the location is not good, the ghosts may not even need to take action, as the parasite will have its internal organs pierced by bats, its bones crushed, and die from internal bleeding.
After hearing what Xia Jing said, Song Yang nodded and said, "If Liu Mingyang had waited a little longer yesterday, his heart might have been completely destroyed."
On the other side, Feng Shi and Bian Ya were asking Huang Yu and Fu Lan whether anything special had happened while the three of them were searching for clues yesterday.
Fu Lan's face paled as she recalled the events before shaking her head. "Yesterday, the three of us were all together. I don't remember anything unusual happening, and Liu Mingyang was acting perfectly normal. When the ghost came to visit him, he himself didn't understand why."
Huang Yu also shook his head repeatedly.
He was so frightened yesterday that he even stuttered a little: "I, I don't remember either. Brother Liu was with me the whole time. I, I didn't notice anything!"
Feng Shi and Bian Ya frowned.
Jia Qing mustered up the courage to walk over to Xia Jing and Song Yang and asked, "Brother Yang and Brother Jing, what did you find?"
After Song Yang finished chatting with Xia Jing, he began to use a knife to shave the flesh attached to Liu Mingyang's spine and back ribs.
Jia Qing was so frightened that he leaned back.
When Song Yang and Xia Jing observed the corpse, the first thing they noticed was the front ribs scattered around.
They vaguely remembered that there were some mottled black marks on the pelvis of the skeleton on the roadside yesterday, and they wanted to see if Liu Mingyang had the same thing.
If you don't find any black marks on the front ribs, look for them on the back ribs and spine.
Anyway——
"It should be roughly the same place where bats are conceived." Xia Jing said.
Song Yang's technique was quick and efficient, and he quickly shaved out several bones.
Then, the two of them looked at each other and found what they expected.
However, the black mark attached to one of Liu Mingyang's ribs turned out to be—
Xia Jing raised his eyebrows and slowly said, "...'not planning'?"
Their discovery attracted the attention of others.
Everyone gathered and took a closer look—
The black mark on Liu Mingyang's back ribs was the three neat black Chinese characters "not intending".
This discovery is truly puzzling.
"'Not planning'?" Feng Shi frowned. "What does that mean?"
Of course, they would not think that this was something that was originally present in Liu Mingyang's bones.
That must have been after he was chosen by the devil and was born in his body along with the gestation of the bat.
But why is it text, and why are it the three words "not intending"?
Song Yang thought for a moment, then turned around and asked Huang Yu and Fu Lan: "You still have no idea?"
Fu Lan still shook her head in confusion.
As for Huang Yu, he stared at these three words intently.
It was not until he noticed Song Yang's gaze on him that he came to his senses and immediately shook his head.
Song Yang looked at him for a few seconds and turned back.
Huang Yu, who was standing behind him, swallowed secretly, and a look of surprise and doubt gradually appeared in his eyes.
The group made a discovery, but this discovery was a new mystery. In order to solve one mystery after another, they could only continue to look for clues.
It was around eight in the morning.
Song Yang said: "Let's follow yesterday's grouping and act separately."
…
Today, everyone is moving even faster than yesterday.
What happened to Liu Mingyang and Song Yang last night scared everyone. They wished they could solve all the mysteries of this copy and leave this haunted place before tonight.
However, it is not so easy to pass a four-star copy.
At noon, they checked the center of the main road.
There is a stone building there, about two stories high. It is very different in style from other houses and is much more imposing. It looks very much like the central building of a small town, perhaps the "administrative center" of the town.
Nine people gathered together and entered the small stone building.
As soon as they entered, they were choked by the dust inside as usual.
The light in the building was very dim, so Song Yang took out a flashlight.
Feng Shi took Bian Ya, Gao Sheng, and Zheng Shu up to the second floor. Within five minutes, they came down and said, "There are only four desks upstairs. There's nothing there, not even a piece of paper. I have a feeling they haven't used this place at all; it's just for show."
Zheng Shu complained, "I feel like the people in this town are, how should I put it, so lazy? We've checked many houses, and in many, people are either sleeping, eating, or arguing. This place, which looks like a government building, doesn't even show any signs of life."
Xia Jing and Song Yang listened to them while observing the empty building.
Is it possible that there is not even a single clue in such a special building?
Xia Jing suddenly noticed something, turned around and walked towards a corner where the light was particularly dim.
It's a place that looks like a corner, with a low sense of presence and is easily overlooked.
Song Yang followed, and the others followed closely behind.
Xia Jing walked to the corner, turned around and faced left.
Everyone leaned over to take a look.
Fu Lan was surprised and asked, "Underground?"
What appeared before them was a half-open wooden door, and behind the door was a faintly visible staircase leading downwards.
Song Yang walked in front with a flashlight: "Go down and take a look."
The nine people walked down carefully in pairs, with the seal behind them.
This is a stone staircase.
Secret passages and mysterious underground spaces.
Of course there couldn't be any windows in a place like this, and there were no candles either, so it was completely pitch black.
They had to take out a few more flashlights to supplement the light in their field of vision.
As we slowly went deeper, the air became increasingly stagnant.
This is not the feeling of suffocation caused by the ghost's resentment, but the difficulty in breathing caused by the long-term lack of air circulation.
Gradually, the smell that reached my nose turned into a musty and foul odor...
There were even black and red handprints on the stone wall, which looked like...
Huang Yu trembled: "This place, can't it be——"
Everyone had a bad feeling in their hearts.
When they stepped down the last level of stone steps, this enclosed space of neither too big nor too small was completely revealed in front of them.
Several people gasped.
The walls were splattered with old blood.
Five wooden shelves that were almost completely soaked and stained with black and red blood.
Whip, neck catch, mercury.
Rusty saws, chains, shackles, and iron cages.
There were many more torture instruments that they could not recognize at all, but which made their scalps tingle and their hair stand on end at a glance.
Two or three skeletons were lying on the ground or leaning against the wall.
"This, this is—" Jia Qing's face turned pale, "Isn't this a torture chamber?!"
——This place might be where the residents of this town were tortured before they died.
The bloody smell was so strong that it chilled people to the bone.
The group stayed there for a long time.
When they gradually recovered from the shock and fear, Song Yang and Xia Jing took the lead, looked around, and walked in.
Gao Sheng and Zheng Shu really didn't dare to go in, their legs felt a little weak.
Zheng Shu held onto the wall and saw two wooden chairs that looked a bit strange. There were two round holes on the "backrests" and the "legs" were a bit high. Zheng Shu, a young man of 1.78 meters tall, could probably lift his feet off the ground when he sat on them. But he couldn't stand anymore, so he walked over shakily and wanted to sit down.
At this moment, Bian Ya reminded him, "This is a torture device called a 'throne'. The two round holes on the 'backrest' are used to fix the victim's feet. This way, the victim can be forced to stand upside down. The executioner can then pour water into his mouth to suffocate him, or he can be whipped like this."
Zheng Shu fell to the ground with a thud, wanting to cry but unable to, "Damn, I really thought this was just a weird-looking wooden stool!"
He wanted to stand up, and casually touched the ground for support, but he touched a rusty iron tool with fairly fine workmanship lying on the ground.
It looks a bit like an air pump for inflating balloons, except that the "air pump" part is a bit like an elongated oval pear with a pointed corner at the top.
Zheng Shu just touched it subconsciously, and Bian Ya said lightly: "This thing is called a blossoming pear. The pointed part is used to stuff it into the victim's mouth or..."
His gaze drifted towards Zheng Shu's buttocks.
"After inserting it," the man laughed, "turn the handle to open the 'petals'. The victim's teeth, bones... and anus will all be shattered and torn apart."
Zheng Shu was about to urinate. He trembled and said, "Brother Bian, why are you so knowledgeable? I'm so scared."
Feng Shi passed by the two of them, feeling somewhat helpless. He whispered to Bian Ya, "...Don't scare the newcomers."
Bian Ya shrugged. "It just happened to be within my knowledge, so I said it without thinking too much."
On the other side, Xia Jing and Song Yang came to a wooden table that looked like a desk.
There were quite a few pieces of parchment scattered on the table.
The two of them picked up a few of them, shook off the dust, and looked at them carefully.
Song Yang said: "This is the interrogation record."
The handwriting on the paper was very messy, recording every interrogation that had taken place in this torture chamber by date.
Xia Jing opened the small wooden cabinet under the table, took out a thick thread-bound book from it, and opened it to take a look.
"This is a record of events in the town." Xia Jing said.
The nine people gathered around the desk again and began to divide the work and check the two documents.
The town's event records began on x month x day, xxxx.
Since this date is so different from the date in their real world, they don't know how long ago it happened in the copy.
Jia Qing flipped through a few pages and saw key information in the town's event record book.
He pointed to a line of words and said, "Look, this is the first case of demonic possession recorded in this booklet!"
Everyone rushed over.
The recorder's narrative tone is very casual, much like writing a diary.
He wrote: "The devil has descended upon our small town of Gramez, but this isn't the first time. In fact, over the past few years, whenever there has been a fire or plague, the devil has quietly descended upon us, and we've always found evil people possessed by the devil! But this time, we didn't expect the person possessed by the devil to be Mayor Is!"
"This record book was compiled a month ago. Mayor Is felt it necessary to preserve a historical record for Gramez. We have to admit that he has done a lot of good things since coming to Gramez."
"But he never saved us when demons descended in the past. The incompetent Mayor Is—who would have thought that this time, he would become the demon himself. Fortunately, he died this morning on the side of the road."
"It must have been a demon who killed him. The demon got tired of this body, so it broke out and escaped. When we found Mayor Is's body, his abdomen was already open, and inside was a charred, tiny, baby-like arm. That must have been a trace left by the demon, an evil creature bred by the demon within his body."
"No wonder Mayor Is's mood has been so unpredictable over the past month. We just thought he was furious after the Laer brothers played a prank on him, but now I think he must have been possessed by a demon."
After reading this text, Xia Jing narrowed his eyes.
He took the event record book from Jia Qing and flipped through it.
Just one month before "Mayor Is" was found dead on the street, the prank by the "Lal Brothers" was recorded in the incident log.
The brothers got drunk in the middle of the night and pushed Mayor Is into the river outside the town while he was walking on the roadside.
Fortunately, the mayor was not drowned, but the Lal brothers insisted that they were drunk and remembered nothing. Even if they really did it, they did it unintentionally, which made the mayor's daughter Elizabeth very angry.
Song Yang stood behind Xia Jing and thought: "The Lal brothers should be the twin ghosts from yesterday. Mayor Yis is..."
"It's the man in the devil's portrait," Xia Jing said.
Someone ostracized by the entire town, someone directly portrayed as a demon—that person must be the initiator of this series of demonic possession incidents.
He was regarded as the source of disaster by the entire town.
Xia Jing's slender fingers turned the pages quickly.
For about forty-one days after the death of Mayor Is, the record book was filled with trivial matters in the town.
Two families had a quarrel over a potato.
One person threw feces at the other's door and started a fight.
Who committed adultery with whom, slept together, and was caught, but they refused to admit that they were having an affair and simply attributed it all to the effects of alcohol.
…
Until the forty-first day.
Xia Jing stopped turning the pages.
On the forty-first day after Mayor Is's death, his daughter, Elizabeth, disappeared.
Later, incidents of demonic possession began to occur frequently in the town.
The recorder's handwriting became more messy, revealing his inner anxiety, confusion and panic.
"Today, xxx's belly suddenly swelled up. He's a man, how could he be pregnant? What on earth was that strange thing? Everyone in the town worked together to capture him. When they cut open his belly, they found a living bat. This is exactly the same as Mayor Is's situation. This is something that the devil has bred in a human body. xxx has also been possessed!"
…
"Another resident of this small town has been possessed. Fortunately, her neighbor noticed something was wrong with her. During the interrogation, xxx kept claiming her neighbor was the real demon. Although we eventually found a bat's head in xxx's leg, we decided to bring her neighbor in for interrogation just in case."
…
"...We are issuing a warning to all residents of this town. Demonic possession is occurring more and more frequently, unnoticed. The town of Gramez is undergoing a test, and everyone must exercise extreme vigilance. If you notice anything amiss, if you have any suspicions, please inform us immediately. We will arrest all suspects and ensure no one is left unpunished."
…
"Today we found two possessed people. The devil is too cunning. Poor villagers! Damn that incompetent Mayor Is! It all started with him. He brought disaster to this innocent town..."
…
"XXX died during interrogation! Poor XXX, we dissected every part of his body and found no trace of a bat. He's innocent! The person who accused him, XXXX, is the real devil. His bat is hidden in his stomach!"
…
"We're finding more and more people possessed by demons. How many times have we killed the demon? When will it leave, or will it never let us go?"
…
"I began to feel panic. How did the demon possess the townspeople? How did he choose the lambs?"
The incident record ends here and there is no further content.
But seeing this, almost everyone can imagine——
"Could it be like what Zheng Shu said, that everyone in this town...was possessed by demons and died?" Jia Qing was shocked.
Gao Sheng said with a pale face: "But where did the bodies of these townspeople go?"
So far, they have only found four skeletons in total.
But judging from the number of ghosts, there are at least hundreds of people in this entire town.
So many people died in this town, where are their bodies?
Xia Jing put down the event record book and looked at Feng Shi and Bian Ya: "What did you find over there?"
The two men were reviewing the interrogation records.
Feng Shi said: "Most of the recorded interrogations were about demonic possession. They only recorded who denied being a demon, who identified who, and who was eventually dissected to confirm their demonic identity."
Bian Ya said, "I have a few pieces of paper here that record the content of the debate between the two sides in a small court on the fifth day after Mayor Yis's death."
The two sides of the debate were Elizabeth, the mayor's daughter, and the Lal brothers.
That's right, Elizabeth didn't believe in the idea of demonic possession at all. She was sure that her father must have been killed by people in the town.
And the charred arm found in her father's body must have been a prank by the murderer.
Who in this town would do something so vicious?
——Of course, it's only the evil Lar brothers!
The brothers did nothing all day long. They didn't work, didn't support their family, and just lived a life of eating and waiting to die, begging for money and food from others.
They have always been unhappy with Mayor Yis, because how could Mayor Yis not give them money and food, and how could he let them starve?
They had previously pushed Mayor Is into the river, so it was no surprise that they would now kill Mayor Is, dissect his body, and disguise the murder as a bizarre case of demonic possession!
However, in this debate, the Lal brothers naturally continued to deny it.
What on earth does this have to do with them? Does Miss Elizabeth have any evidence?
They had said long ago that they pushed Mayor Is into the river because they were drunk and it was unintentional!
How could you still hold a grudge against them and try to frame them as murderers when they are innocent?
At the end of the debate, the judge asked the townspeople for their opinions.
After considering it, the townspeople said that the Lal brothers were indeed bad people in normal times, but it was also true that the mayor had been acting strangely recently.
One town resident said, "It's been so hot lately, it's almost killing us. How many similar disasters have happened in this town since Mayor Is took office? This is a disaster brought by the devil, so this is definitely another demonic event, there's no mistake!"
Elizabeth sarcastically said, "When there were fires and plagues in the past, you all said it was the devil. What evidence do you have? You just drag innocent people to the scaffold and force them to admit their 'devil' identity.' You always try to find someone to blame, as if killing that person would make everything better!"
"But those 'demons' you caught back then, those innocent people, did you ultimately confirm their demonic identity? Unlike my father, who was put into a charred arm as a prank, there was nothing inside their bodies! You killed them on your own accord, not even bothering to dig a grave, and simply dumped them into that river. How could they be so innocent?"
"As for the fire? The day before the fire broke out in the fields, weren't the Mel children seen playing with fire? Was it really an act of God?"
"When the plague broke out, my father wanted to help everyone fight it, but you didn't trust him. Ah, let me be more precise, you were too lazy to move!"
"You always hope that by killing an imaginary enemy, an imaginary demon, everything will naturally get better. However, such a good thing will never happen in this world!"
"It's been very hot lately, yes. So what? So you can just stay home and do nothing? If you don't work, will money automatically come to you and food automatically appear in your mouths?"
"In the past, you always thought that the mayor should unconditionally bring prosperity to you lazy people and let you live a good life. Now that my father is dead, do you still think so?"
After Elizabeth's speech, the villagers' attitudes began to become fierce, as if they were angry and embarrassed.
The continuous speeches made the nine players in the torture chamber frown.
"Mayor Is is the devil. Stop making excuses. Or are you also possessed by the devil? I suggest you torture her!"
"That's right, cut her body open and take a good look!"
"I once saw the mayor's eyes turn blood red. They were the eyes of a demon!"
"My son never played with fire in the fields, Miss Elizabeth, please don't talk nonsense!"
"Mayor Is once burst into crazy laughter right in front of me. He must have been possessed by a demon!"
"Me too. I've also seen strange things happen to Mayor Is..."
"Me too..."
…
Zheng Shu moved his lips and said, "Why do I feel so breathless reading this debate record... It's so infuriating!"
Jia Qing angrily said, "I think Mayor Yis is being wronged! These villagers have simply had their minds exposed by Elizabeth, and they're still stubborn and determined to put the blame on the mayor!"
After Xia Jing finished reading the records, he said calmly, "But the beginning of this series of events was indeed the death of the mayor."
Although it took forty-one days after the mayor's death for the demonic events in Gramez to officially begin.
But there is definitely a connection between the two.
"There's one thing worth noting," Song Yang pondered. "Regarding the demonic possession incident forty-one days later, the villagers have always been able to identify that the demon-possessed person's body was bred with a 'bat,' but they have always referred to the thing that originally appeared in the mayor's body as a 'charred arm.'"
The subtle difference between the two is a very obvious loophole, which can serve as a starting point for them to uncover the truth.
Xia Jing put down the parchment and said, "We have to find the mayor's body first."
Song Yang nodded.
Jia Qing hesitated again, "However, so many people have died in this town. It's been proven that after the possessed person dies, the demon escapes and begins searching for its next victim. How can we kill this invisible and intangible being?"
Feng Shi speculated: "Metaphysical things can only be handled metaphysically. This instance either contains something akin to a spell, or there's some way to make the demon appear."
Song Yang exhaled and said, "Let's go up first. It's already noon, and we'd better explore all the remaining houses within today."
Everyone nodded and was about to move their position.
Suddenly, Fu Lan screamed.
Everyone immediately turned around to look at the sound.
Fu Lan stared at Huang Yu in horror, while Huang Yu covered his left cheek in fear and confusion.
The next second, everyone saw——
Under Huang Yu's fingers, on his left cheek, something suddenly pushed out from under his skin, forming a huge bulge.