Jiang Chuyan rushed out of the room, covering his mouth. There was a bloody taste in his throat, which he had forced himself to bite out.
However, no matter how hard he bit, it was useless on a night like this. He couldn't even feel the pain.
"Chu Yan, take your time. Damn, I told you not to look."
He Yuan chased out, hugged Jiang Chuyan tightly, and kept patting Jiang Chuyan's back with one hand.
The boy hugged him tightly, and his chest was unusually hard and thick, as if as long as he curled up in this embrace, he could completely isolate himself from everything that happened tonight.
For a moment, Jiang Chuyan even wanted to give up.
He wanted to just let it go and allow himself to have a complete mental breakdown.
However, after taking a few extremely suppressed deep breaths, Jiang Chuyan finally forced himself to break free from He Yuan's arms.
"Liu Tianyu."
He spoke incoherently, and then he rushed to the second floor.
"Liu Tianyu is still in the room!"
He stumbled up the stairs and came to Liu Tianyu's room on the second floor.
After a few quick knocks on the door, there was no movement in the room, and strangely, Jiang Chuyan found that he didn't seem surprised at all.
"Crack—"
A sudden intuition made him reach for the handle.
The door was not locked and opened easily.
An extremely strong stench rushed towards Jiang Chuyan after the door was opened.
Jiang Chuyan covered his mouth and nose and walked in. After turning on the light, he could see Liu Tianyu lying motionless on the bed.
His body had swelled to incredible proportions.
He had clearly spoken to him today, but now Liu Tianyu looked as if he had been dead for several days, and the degree of decay of his body was horrific.
Jiang Chuyan felt his brain go numb.
My breathing seemed to be stuck.
Heartbeat too.
He stared intently at Liu Tianyu. On his swollen, purple flesh, tiny white worms the size of rice were wriggling restlessly. Especially on Liu Tianyu's face, where maggots were so densely packed they looked like a white beard, constantly pouring out of his nostrils and ears.
"Liu Tianyu, what exactly happened?"
Jiang Chuyan heard himself asking the corpse in front of him.
"Tell me...what happened?!"
The sharp and hoarse voice was so unfamiliar that it seemed to come from someone else. Jiang Chuyan felt as if he had suddenly split into two people. Part of his soul had floated out of his body and was watching the scene from afar.
That's so funny.
He could even hear another voice mocking him.
What the hell are you doing? Why are you screaming at a dead man? Do you think he'll ever wake up and answer you?
Yes, why...
But Jiang Chuyan just couldn't control himself.
The stench of the highly decomposed corpse and the extremely broken emotions made Jiang Chuyan's eyes blurry.
Nearly on the verge of collapse, he allowed He Yuan to drag him out of the room.
"Wait, Chu Yan, calm down a little, we all need to calm down..."
He Yuan's voice seemed to come from far underwater. Jiang Chuyan lay on the edge of the stairs, retching for a long time before slowly standing up.
"Bai Ke is dead."
He muttered to himself.
"Liu Tianyu too."
After a while, he slowly turned his head and looked at He Yuan, his only remaining companion.
"But Xu Yuanzhou might still be alive. He, he was just calling for help... Yes, yes, he must still be alive. With so little time left, there's still hope. There must be hope..."
Jiang Chuyan kept talking with tears in her eyes.
It seemed that as long as he said this, he would have one last straw to save his life.
However, even though he kept calling Xu Yuanzhou's number, the phone always had that hollow and mechanical voice.
"The number you dialed is out of service area."
But Jiang Chuyan still mechanically dialed the number back with a numb look on his face.
"Chu Yan, stop fighting——"
He Yuan frowned and looked at him solemnly. He spoke cautiously.
"Although we don't know what happened, Xu Yuanzhou is probably beyond saving. The most urgent thing is to find a safe place to hide and wait until dawn to find someone to help."
As he spoke, he reached out and prepared to turn off the phone in Jiang Chuyan's hand.
For some unknown reason, Jiang Chuyan instinctively retracted her hand and dodged He Yuan's fingers.
"Don't--"
He spoke hurriedly to He Yuan.
He Yuan paused.
Jiang Chuyan raised her eyes and looked at him, and found that He Yuan's brows were furrowed, and there was a flash of emotion in his eyes that Jiang Chuyan did not understand.
"Ensuring your own safety is the most important thing. You don't have the energy to care about Xu Yuanzhou right now..."
"I know," Jiang Chuyan said tremblingly, "I know, I know everything, but, but I brought them all here... I brought them all... How could I let them die here in such an unclear way... It's all my fault."
It's all my fault.
This thought pierced Jiang Chuyan's heart like an ice-cold steel needle, almost making it impossible for him to breathe, let alone escape.
"Chu Yan, how could this be your fault?"
He Yuan's voice became low and soft.
"You don't want to encounter this kind of thing, do you?"
"Be obedient, let's find a place to hide first..."
Jiang Chuyan's breathing calmed down a little under He Yuan's patient comfort. However, at this moment——
"Beep…beep…beep…"
The phone that had been repeating that it was out of service suddenly began to emit the unique electronic sound of a call waiting to be connected.
Immediately afterwards, a clear telephone ring sounded in the small building with poor sound insulation.
He Yuan's expression suddenly changed.
Jiang Chuyan stood up suddenly.
"Xu Yuanzhou?!"
He shouted, then walked quickly in the direction of the sound.
…
"Today is another good day, I am with my friends..."
Xu Yuanzhou's cell phone ringtone had just been changed to a nostalgic and upbeat old song before he came. After the second arrangement, the original old song sounded unusually harsh and noisy.
At this moment, as the bell rang, the sharp melody of the song echoed throughout the building.
Jiang Chuyan easily found the source of the ringing sound - at the door of the toilet, there was a row of thermoses.
The ringing sound came from one of the kettles.
Jiang Chuyan's originally bright eyes dimmed for a moment when he saw the kettle.
It was obvious that Xu Yuanzhou had only left his phone here, and he still had no way to find Xu Yuanzhou himself. But no matter what, finding Xu Yuanzhou's phone still gave Jiang Chuyan, who was already extremely anxious, a sense of comfort.
He picked up the thermos and shook it, feeling a little confused.
"Why did Xu Yuanzhou leave his phone in the kettle?"
The sound from the kettle was a bit muffled. It didn't sound like there was water in it, but rather like something was stuffed inside.
Thinking of this, Jiang Chuyan carefully opened the stopper of the thermos.
Another familiar smell of blood came out from the bottle, and the ringing of the cell phone became louder after Jiang Chuyan opened the cork.
Jiang Chuyan subconsciously looked inside the bottle, but the bottle was stuffed tightly and he could only see a dark mass, not even the light from the phone screen.
Jiang Chuyan's doubts deepened. He reached into the mouth of the thermos, but the mouth was too narrow, so he could only fit two fingers in. The thing his fingertips touched was slightly warm, soft, and very wet.
When Jiang Chuyan retracted his hand, he looked at the blood on his fingertips and his heartbeat slowed down. He didn't know why he suddenly felt cold all over.
What on earth did Xu Yuanzhou hide in the thermos?!
Just when Jiang Chuyan was feeling anxious, He Yuan suddenly raised his hand and took the thermos.
"Let me do it."
He said to Jiang Chuyan.
"Stay away."
After saying that, he raised his hand and smashed the thermos hard onto the ground.
"Bang--"
The hot water tank broke into pieces as the brightly colored plastic shell of the thermos shattered under He Yuan's extremely violent actions.
"Today is a good day... I'm with... my friends..."
Unfortunately, Xu Yuanzhou's phone wasn't spared from the rough knocks. It fell directly to the ground, the ringtone suddenly changed, and then the entire phone went dark, and the song stopped abruptly.
At the same time, everything Xu Yuanzhou had hidden in the thermos fell out.
Jiang Chuyan took a few steps forward and looked at the ground intently.
…
He saw something wrinkled and strange.
It was like a crumpled piece of brown paper, stained with blood, hair, and some irregular holes.
"What's this..."
Jiang Chuyan moved a little closer and squinted his eyes to take a closer look.
Then he realized that this was not just brown paper.
This is a human skin.
Human skin that had just been peeled off and was still warm.
...The human skin belonging to Xu Yuanzhou.
"…"
Jiang Chuyan lost his temper for a moment.
At this moment, he didn't even feel fear.
He just felt that everything was so strange, so empty, and so weird.
Like a nightmare without logic.
Yeah, maybe this is just a nightmare without logic.
Otherwise, how could a piece of human skin be stuffed into the thermos?
How could Xu Yuanzhou become such a bloody mess?
…
"Xu Yuanzhou?"
Jiang Chuyan even stared at the human skin on the ground and murmured the other person's voice.
"Ka--"
"Kachakaka—"
"Ka--"
As a result, the next second, he heard small knocking sounds coming from the remaining kettles in the corner.
"First words."
A muffled, strange sound came from the kettle.
"It's so crowded."
"I can't breathe."
"Please let me out."
"It's really crowded here."
…
From the kettles came the muffled groans of pain.
In Jiang Chuyan's fixed gaze, sticky blood was bubbling out from the gap in the stopper of the thermos.
Yes, if the human skin was under his feet, then where did the rest of Xu Yuanzhou's body go?
He couldn't help but think.
…
Then, Jiang Chuyan's body shook and he fell to the ground uncontrollably.
He finally fell into a coma.
*
"Ahhh, this is so annoying. Where can I study rural folklore these days? Damn..."
Jiang Chuyan blinked, and in a daze, he heard a familiar complaining voice.
The sharp and slightly artificial voice undoubtedly came from Bai Ke.
"Ah, Brother Chuyan, isn't your hometown deep in the mountains and forests, and you've been holding a Dragon God Festival lately? Why don't you just take us back to your hometown?"
Jiang Chuyan stared blankly at the boy in front of her and didn't speak for a long time.
The smile on Bai Ke's face froze for a moment.
"Brother Chuyan?"
He stretched out his hand and waved it in front of Jiang Chuyan.
"How do you know there's a Dragon God Festival in my hometown?"
Jiang Chuyan spoke subconsciously, but what he said was not what he was thinking at the moment.
Bai Ke raised her eyebrows and glanced at Xu Yuanzhou.
"Ah, Brother Yuanzhou mentioned it before..."
"Ahem, yes, well, wasn't I right next to you when your family called? It sounded quite interesting."
Xu Yuanzhou coughed lightly, glanced at Bai Ke, and then looked at Jiang Chuyan awkwardly.
"Speaking of which, don't you have to go back anyway? The village is about to be relocated, and your mother's things left there need to be sorted out and brought back... Since you're going back anyway, why don't we go with you? That way, we can help you sort things out."
"Right, right, right. You're going somewhere else anyway, and you're going back home anyway, so you might as well just do the group assignment and write the paper..."
The slightly plump boy also echoed.
…
Jiang Chuyan rubbed his temples, the scene before him made him feel familiar.
In a trance, he nodded unconsciously.
"Well, then, okay, this time the group assignment will be based on my hometown..."
Jiang Chuyan listened numbly as he spoke to the three people in front of him.
But there was a voice in my heart that kept screaming.
[No——Don't go!]
Don't go!
[Absolutely, absolutely don't go——]
However, his dreams and his soul seemed to be completely separated.
No matter how much he screamed in his heart not to go back to his hometown, he still finalized all the itineraries with the other three people and reached a plan to drive into the mountains together and return to Longzhao Village during the short holiday.
After finalizing all the procedures, Jiang Chuyan stood up and packed up all the debris.
Then he put on his backpack and walked out of the classroom.
…
The corridor was very quiet.
The light is dim.
The oil lamps hanging on both sides of the corridor crackled in the darkness, emitting a faint light.
Jiang Chuyan's footsteps suddenly stopped.
He gasped for breath and stared at the long and narrow corridor in front of him.
When I looked down again, I found that the originally smooth floor of the school corridor had turned into rough stone slabs, and under the stone slabs was a gurgling stream.
So strange.
How did my school become like this?
Jiang Chuyan was full of doubts. He couldn't help but look back into the classroom, only to find that the lights were off.
But Xu Yuanzhou, Bai Ke and Liu Tianyu still stood there without moving.
"You guys... aren't you going to leave?"
Jiang Chuyan asked in confusion.
"Puff…"
Bai Ke laughed in the shadows.
"Brother Chuyan, what nonsense are you talking about?"
The boy's voice gradually became shrill and strange.
"We can't leave here anymore, right?"
At that moment, Jiang Chuyan felt as if he was in an ice cave.
Only then did he realize that the three people standing in the classroom now had corpse spots all over their faces, and the smell they emitted was even more foul.
It turned out that they had already died.