Jiang Chuyan couldn't figure out what had happened to Bai Ke?
Was he burned in the hot spring? But Bai Ke acted perfectly normal on the way back. It's impossible that he didn't feel anything at all from such a serious burn, right?
But if it wasn't burns, what happened to his legs?
besides...
And who got the missing flesh from his body?
Jiang Chuyan felt his mind was in a mess. He kept covering his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting on the ground like Xu Yuanzhou.
For a moment, he even thought he might be having a nightmare.
After all, how could such bizarre and terrifying things happen in reality?
But no matter how he pinched himself, he still couldn't wake up.
Bai Ke was lying not far from him. His former college classmate was now half cooked, with pieces of flesh missing.
"Chu Yan, it's okay...it's okay..."
It was not until He Yuan suddenly hugged him and kept repeating this sentence in his ear that Jiang Chuyan slowly regained some strength.
He mustered up his courage and forced himself to go to Bai Ke's bedside to check on the situation.
Even though he had no medical background, he could see that Bai Ke's current condition was very bad.
The boy lying in bed had become extremely weak in breathing, and his body temperature was very low. Looking at his pupils, he found that their reaction was also very weak. Jiang Chuyan frantically pulled out his phone, but when he looked closely, the signal bar on the screen was gray.
After nightfall, there was no cell phone signal in the entire Longzhao Village.
Jiang Chuyan's heart sank.
"We need a doctor."
Jiang Chuyan bit himself. The taste of blood and the stinging pain on the tip of his tongue calmed him down.
He spoke to He Yuan word by word, "Bai Ke is in such a condition that she won't make it to dawn. There are so many people in Longzhao Village, so there should be a health center here. Generally speaking, there should be a doctor in the village. Let's call someone over to deal with the emergency first, and then we'll drive back to the city immediately."
"There's no clinic here." But after hearing Jiang Chuyan's words, He Yuan's face was solemn, "...There's no doctor here either."
"Are you kidding me—"
"People in Longzhao Village are in good health and rarely get sick, so I've never seen a doctor here."
He Yuan rubbed his face and muttered.
"But we can go find Budacuocuo and ask him to take us to the village witch. Generally speaking, the village witch usually also has the duty of acting as a doctor."
Hearing this, Jiang Chuyan no longer hesitated.
"Then let's go find Budacuocuo!"
After saying that, he was about to walk out.
"No, don't go!"
Before Jiang Chuyan could even walk out the door, he was grabbed by someone.
When she turned around, she saw Xu Yuanzhou's pale face: "Chu Yan, didn't you hear that? You can't go out at night... You can't go out at night..."
He spoke incoherently.
"Maybe there really are water monkeys. Didn't the village chief say that... He said it's not safe at night. Look, Bai Ke was eaten. He, he was eaten by a water monkey..."
Jiang Chuyan frowned, and with a stern face, he pushed Xu Yuanzhou away. "When has this been the only thing on your mind? Bai Ke is dying! If we don't find the village chief and find someone to deal with it, he might die before daylight, don't you know?"
"But, Water Monkey... Oh my God... Why, why did we come here? Something is wrong here..."
Xu Yuanzhou collapsed on the ground, holding his head in his hands, and kept chattering like a mental patient.
When Jiang Chuyan looked at Xu Yuanzhou like this, his chest felt heavy.
"Let's go."
He Yuan walked past Xu Yuanzhou and pulled Jiang Chuyan.
He handed the flashlight to Jiang Chuyan: "Although I don't know what happened to Bai Ke, we are classmates and we can't just leave him to die like this. Budacuocuo should understand."
Although he seemed to be talking to Jiang Chuyan, He Yuan's eyes were on Xu Yuanzhou.
Seeing the two of them heading straight out, Xu Yuanzhou wanted to stop them again, but Jiang Chuyan's face completely darkened.
"Xu Yuanzhou, Bai Ke is in such a bad condition. I need you to calm down and take good care of him. Also, go wake up Liu Tianyu and have him stay with you. We don't know what happened, but for safety's sake, don't separate."
After saying that, Jiang Chuyan rushed into the dark night outside the small building without looking back.
"First words——goodbye——"
Xu Yuanzhou's lips moved, and the final words of dissuasion came out of his throat with difficulty.
At this moment, He Yuan, who was about to leave the platform, suddenly turned his head.
The boy's head turned 180 degrees behind him, his light-colored pupils staring straight at Xu Yuanzhou.
Xu Yuanzhou's body suddenly jumped up, and his eyes widened almost popping out of their sockets.
He looked at He Yuan in horror, his whole body shaking like a sieve. No matter how he opened his mouth to scream, his mouth seemed to be blocked and he couldn't utter a word.
["Shh——"]
In a trance, he seemed to see He Yuan speaking silently with his mouth.
The boy's smile, filled with malice, was as bright as a flower.
The corners of his mouth widened, almost reaching below his ears, revealing his sharp white teeth and his long, dark red tongue.
It happened so quickly that in the next second, He Yuan turned his head back and jumped off the high platform.
Xu Yuanzhou covered his mouth with his hands and could only gasp for air.
Just now...
What...was he seeing?
He Yuan, what on earth is he?!
*
Late at night, there is a stagnation and oppression in Longzhao Village that makes it difficult to breathe.
There is no wind.
There are no insects chirping.
There was not even the crackling sound of the low-quality lamp oil burning beneath the stilt houses, as if all the sounds were swallowed up by the darkness of the car.
The air was very humid, and it seemed that it had indeed rained while they fell asleep. The mud on the crisscrossing paths in the village had melted due to the rain, making it sticky and slippery to walk on, just like walking in a swamp.
I don't know if it was an illusion, but Longzhao Village at night seemed different from the village during the day. It seemed larger, more complex. The stilt houses, huddled together, stood in the darkness like some giant monster, silently gazing at the two humans who had intruded into the night below.
Jiang Chuyan gritted his teeth and tried hard to convince himself not to be too flustered.
"This way—"
He Yuan held Jiang Chuyan's hand all the time and hurried towards Budacuocuo's house, one step deep and one step shallow.
Fortunately, he led the way, otherwise Jiang Chuyan suspected that he would have been lost before finding Budacuocuo's house.
However, when he stood downstairs of Budacuocuo's house, Jiang Chuyan was shocked to realize that he might not be able to go to the village chief's house and knock on the door - he stared at the platform more than two meters high, completely dumbfounded.
In order to keep out water monkeys, the villagers of Longzhao Village have to pull up the stairs once it gets dark.
Hmm, it seems they forgot to tell Xu Yuanzhou to put away the ladder when they left just now...
A thought flashed through Jiang Chuyan's mind quickly, but he completely ignored it the next second, because he saw He Yuan remained calm, took a running start, jumped up, and hooked his hands directly on the edge of the platform.
The boy suddenly exerted force on his waist and abdomen, arched his body with incredibly strong core strength, and then turned over and stepped onto the platform.
"Chu Yan, come——"
Then he lay on the platform and stretched out his hand towards Jiang Chuyan.
Jiang Chuyan didn't hesitate and handed his hand to He Yuan. However, the moment He Yuan pulled him up...
"Crash—"
Something seemed to brush past his ankle.
Jiang Chuyan's heartbeat suddenly quickened, but when he climbed onto the platform and looked back downstairs, the only thing he could see were the hanging lights swaying constantly under the platform, and their shadows cast on the ground.
Wait, shadow?
Jiang Chuyan's gaze froze on the shadow on the ground for a moment.
Because the light source is under his feet, Jiang Chuyan's shadow cannot appear on the ground at all.
But now, facing Jiang Chuyan, a figure was lying motionless on the ground.
Just like Jiang Chuyan was staring at it, it seemed to be staring at Jiang Chuyan as well.
Jiang Chuyan bit his lips tightly, and in fear he unconsciously took two steps back. His heel was tripped by the uneven wooden planks of the platform, and Jiang Chuyan's body shook and he almost fell.
By the time he reached the edge of the platform, suppressing his panic, he had discovered that the shadow that had appeared a few seconds earlier had vanished. It was as if Jiang Chuyan was hallucinating.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
Behind him came the sound of He Yuan knocking on the door.
"Budacuocuo, open the door, one of us is in trouble!"
"Bang, bang, bang—"
"Buda Cuocuo!"
…
Jiang Chuyan took a deep breath and told himself that now was not the time to think too much. Then, he followed He Yuan and began to bang on Budacuocuo's door.
However, with such poor soundproofing and such a quiet night, no matter how much he and He Yuan knocked on the door or called out for help, the small building remained completely silent. Even the nearby buildings were silent, with no one even asking questions through the windows.
Jiang Chuyan felt more and more that something was wrong.
It's so strange, everything is so strange.
In a village where emotional connections are so strong, is it really possible for someone to be so apathetic and indifferent to everything happening around them? Also, is it really possible that Budacuocuo could sleep so soundly, not waking up despite such a loud noise?
"what to do?"
Jiang Chuyan looked at the silent door and asked in panic.
"Why don't they open the door…"
"I don't know." He Yuan turned to look at Jiang Chuyan, his expression filled with helplessness, "Looks like we have no choice but to resort to force."
"Hard?"
Before Jiang Chuyan could even ask what "being tough" meant, he watched He Yuan take two steps back and then kick the wooden door in front of him.
The thick and tall wooden door made a sharp scream under He Yuan's feet. After several consecutive kicks, Jiang Chuyan keenly heard the sound of wood breaking. It was the door bar behind the door, which was kicked off by He Yuan.
"Crack—"
The door slowly opened a crack.
It was pitch black inside the door.
Even with such a loud roar, there was no sound in Budacuocuo's house.
A chill ran down Jiang Chuyan's back.
The sweat from my hands soaked the handle of the flashlight.
"He Yuan."
He uncontrollably grabbed He Yuan's sleeves.
"It's okay, don't be afraid."
The next second, He Yuan directly held his hand with his backhand.
Then, he turned on the flashlight, pushed the door open with his shoulder, and walked in with Jiang Chuyan.
Although he had a vague feeling that everything around him was wrong, Jiang Chuyan was still shocked when he really entered Budacuocuo's house.
Even though he and He Yuan could only rely on flashlights for lighting at this moment, all the areas illuminated by the aperture showed one thing very clearly - no one had lived here for a long time.
Dust, dust everywhere, and wisps of spider webs covered in dust.
Everywhere I looked, all the furnishings were covered in a thick layer of dust. There wasn't a single intact piece of furniture in the entire house, only discarded items and junk scattered in every corner.
In the darkness, an extremely evil aura that made people's backs chill was slowly coming along with the stale and damp smell, and gradually covered the two people who were stunned in the hall.
"He Yuan...did we come to the wrong place?"
Jiang Chuyan asked in an extremely stiff tone.
"But, I've been here before. This should be the place where Budacuocuo is—"
Just as He Yuan opened his mouth, the flashlight's aperture suddenly caught sight of a smooth, pale face without any wrinkles.
No one knew how long it had been there. In the darkness, it just hung quietly in the air, its empty eyes staring straight at the two people in the hall.
It has a smile on its face.
…
Jiang Chuyan could no longer make a sound.
As he stepped back, he stumbled, his knees gave way and he almost fell to the ground.
The feeling of fear came over him like a tidal wave, and Jiang Chuyan even felt his internal organs tighten.
"Woo, He Yuan——"
Jiang Chuyan hugged He Yuan tightly uncontrollably.
"Wait, wait, don't be afraid..."
Fortunately, He Yuan seemed much calmer than him.
After taking a short breath, the boy stepped forward and poked the swollen, pale face with his hand.
"It's just a mask."
He murmured hoarsely.
"It's made from a pig's head. It probably hasn't dried properly yet, so it looks like a human face..."
However, while he was speaking, the mask, which still had some elasticity, suddenly moved.
"Ahhhhhhhhh—"
Jiang Chuyan couldn't control himself this time. He grabbed He Yuan and screamed.
"Pah—"
Then, he watched the mask's mouth slowly open, and a huge strange insect swayed its tentacles and squeezed out of the mask's mouth little by little. Its belly was abnormally swollen, and through the translucent belly, Jiang Chuyan could even see the nematodes that had already hatched inside its body constantly swaying and wriggling inside its body.
This makes the strange insect's movements appear very clumsy.
It fell straight out of the mask's mouth.
However, once it landed on the ground, its movements became unusually fast. Perhaps frightened, it avoided the light and slithered into the gaps between the debris. As luck would have it, Jiang Chuyan happened to be standing in its escape route.
Jiang Chuyan jumped up, his hair standing on end as he uncontrollably stepped back. Caught off guard, he felt a sharp pain in his back, and unexpectedly, he bumped into a pile of miscellaneous items stacked crookedly behind him.
After a series of chain reactions, the old double-door wardrobe with broken legs made a sharp friction sound, and the undamped doors suddenly opened, and a lot of things fell out with a crackling sound.
One of the backpacks, which was covered in dust and had faded in color, brushed past Jiang Chuyan's shoulder and fell to the ground.
"Chu Yan, are you okay?!"
He Yuan hurried over and pulled Jiang Chuyan up from the ground.
Jiang Chuyan was in a daze for several seconds before forcing himself back to his senses.
"No, it's okay, I was just... scared."
Jiang Chuyan admitted dryly, the trembling in his voice never disappearing.
He Yuan stared at Jiang Chuyan for a long time before he spoke.
"Don't be afraid. You should know that no matter what happens, I will always be with you."
Jiang Chuyan's eyelashes trembled slightly.
He Yuan's gaze seemed focused and soft at this moment.
Something followed his line of sight and entered Jiang Chuyan's body.
I am too close to He Yuan.
It was so close that He Yuan could kiss her if he just lowered his head - in fact, Jiang Chuyan really thought that He Yuan was about to kiss her.
However, He Yuan did not do so.
The tall boy suddenly leaned back and put some distance between himself and Jiang Chuyan.
He raised his hand and gently wiped the corner of Jiang Chuyan's eyes.
"You're so timid, what are you going to do in the future..."
The boy sighed.
It was only at this time that Jiang Chuyan realized that he had already shed some physiological tears due to the shock.
The small piece of skin that He Yuan touched was terribly hot.
"...It seems like there's really no one here. Let's go next door."
He Yuan shone the flashlight around the ruined building again, then spoke.
Jiang Chuyan nodded and was about to follow him when his toes accidentally touched something. He lowered his head and found that he was stepping on a notebook.
It turned out that the zipper of the backpack that had fallen beside me had opened at some point, and the notebook fell out.
Jiang Chuyan didn't think much about it, he just picked up the notebook subconsciously.
Before I figured out what to do with the notebook——
In the extremely silent Longzhao Village, a faint scream was heard.
Jiang Chuyan felt a chill down his spine.
He could tell it was...
That was Xu Yuanzhou's scream.
*
Earlier...
After Jiang Chuyan and He Yuan left, Xu Yuanzhou returned to his room in a daze.
He didn't get too close to Bai Ke because the fear that kept lingering in his chest was almost driving him crazy.
He kept grabbing his hair, his mind a mess.
What had he just seen? What was going on with He Yuan? And why, why did he feel that everything before him was so familiar? It was so familiar that he was still trembling, as if he could vaguely guess what would happen next.
No, no, he didn't know the details, he only knew that something terrible and terrible was going to happen next.
And he had nowhere to escape.
"Crack—"
At this moment, Xu Yuanzhou heard extremely clear footsteps.
He trembled for a moment, then mustered up the courage to slowly turn around.
"Liu Tianyu?"
It took him a while to connect the man in front of him with a strange expression and a swollen face with his former classmate.
It's really strange. Although Liu Tianyu is still Liu Tianyu when you look closely, when you look at him suddenly, Liu Tianyu's face feels like it is about to melt at any time.
Liu Tianyu was staring at Xu Yuanzhou, with a faint, strange smile on his lips.
"You finally understand."
Xu Yuanzhou was infuriated by Liu Tianyu's laughter. His face twitched and he couldn't help but glared at Liu Tianyu hatefully and said unhappily.
"Such a big thing happened, and you just slept in your room. You had a nosebleed and acted like you were going to die. Now you just laugh here. What the hell is so funny? Are you happy that Bai Ke is going to die?"
"Aren't you tired?"
But before Xu Yuanzhou could finish his words, Liu Tianyu interrupted him.
The boy looked at Xu Yuanzhou strangely.
That deep and dark look made the strange feeling in Xu Yuanzhou's chest even more obvious.
Liu Tianyu's nonsensical questions made him even more confused.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Are you really not tired?" Liu Tianyu kept nagging like a moaner, "I feel so tired just looking at you. You've been carrying those two people on your back. Don't you feel heavy and tired?"
Xu Yuanzhou paused.
"Liu Tianyu, what on earth are you kidding? I'm warning you, don't do such boring things at this time..."
He asked incredulously.
Liu Tianyu walked straight into Bai Ke's room, then carefully held the broken mirror and pointed it at Xu Yuanzhou.
"I'm not kidding."
Liu Tianyu's serious answer rang in Xu Yuanzhou's ears.
"If you don't believe me, you can see for yourself. They've been lying on your back the whole time and won't get off. That's why I asked if you were tired."