1TWITF[C Chapter 21

Lu Yanli glanced at the backs of the twin sisters and turned to enter the elevator.

The air inside the elevator gradually grew cold, and liquid dripped.

Lu Yanli felt an itch on his neck, a sensation similar to hair gently tickling him. He lowered his head slightly and noticed a few strands of black hair hanging down between his neck out of nowhere.

The mirror in front of him gradually blurred, but he could still vaguely make out his figure. The area where his face should have been was blocked by a head covered in long black hair.

But from Lu Yanli’s perspective, he could only see his pale face in the mirror under the cold light. The sensation on his neck felt like an illusion.

He didn’t pay much attention to it, saying nothing. The elevator’s stuttering and flickering lights didn’t change his expression. Finally, he safely returned to his floor, unlocked his door, and made dinner as usual.

Lu Yanli nodded. The female host on the screen smiled with satisfaction and continued to read the news.

Outside the window, a figure fell, emitting a shrill scream.

Lu Yanli ignored it and focused on watching TV. Not long after, another identical figure fell, emitting the same scream.

It was as if the hundreds of suicide incidents last night were all an illusion.

“Today, for our all-knowing and all-powerful Lord… I will forever praise Him and live with Him forever in the sacred Heavenly Kingdom…”

The leading man finished reciting the prayer, and the next second, the park “boom”ed, with a huge explosion.

Lu Yanli had already stepped into another street at the corner. Hearing the explosion, he didn’t turn his head and continued walking forward, entering the subway station.

Lu Yanli nodded: “I brought it.” With that, he placed a USB flash drive and a thick envelope on the table.

He smiled at Lu Yanli: “The ghost marriage customs in this village are very famous. For many years, all the girls have been married off as ghost brides. Go and study it.”

Lu Yanli didn’t say anything and agreed.

This world… this world has been crazy for a long time.

However, only the weirdness revived, not the gods. Humans had no power to resist, or rather, people in a state of chaos didn’t think of resisting and greeted the new world with almost cheerful attitudes.

They lived in a truly peaceful and happy world.

That village was called Red River Village. It was said that the village’s rules were very strict. People who violated the rules had to have their blood drained and thrown into the river at the entrance of the village. Over time, that river turned into a red river of blood…

As he was looking, the elevator he was riding shook, and suddenly plummeted. The numbers on the elevator display screen decreased rapidly, finally stopping at the number -18.

The elevator door opened.

Outside the door was a raging fire. Above, an inverted blood pool surged and boiled, and heads wailed in the blood pool.

The floor was wrong. Lu Yanli didn’t step out. He stood in the corner to avoid crowding the other passengers. After a while, the elevator shook, as if it was full of people. The car door closed and slowly rose.

That strand of black hair wrapped around again, climbing around his neck in circles. Lu Yanli remained motionless until the elevator reached his floor before stepping out. The black hair pulled out a woman, who fell in front of him with a bang.

It was a pregnant woman. She grabbed Lu Yanli’s trouser leg, looked up at him, and smiled at him: “Give birth… Let’s have a child… Have a child, okay?”

Lu Yanli didn’t answer yes or no. He couldn’t answer directly in this situation, and the other party was holding his trouser leg too tightly, so he couldn’t leave.

Looking at the pair of dark eye sockets that were still dripping water, Lu Yanli squatted down, took out the knife he carried with him, and gestured at her stomach.

Soon, the little babies crawled around the floor with their eyes closed, and the hall was full of scarlet, twisted umbilical cords, while Lu Yanli had already left.

Since he was going to Red River Village, he naturally wouldn’t delay. After returning home, he packed his things and rested at home for nearly a week, and then went out when the time came.

They were newly moved sisters, the older sister was called Li Fangwan, and the younger sister was called Li Fangzhi. They had a very good relationship and were always together.

Lu Yanli nodded, said goodbye to them, went out to take a taxi to the station, and boarded the train to Red River Village.

*

“This mission is very strange. Stay in Red River Village for a month?” Chen Zhenghao said, “And I don’t know why, but the name Red River Village just makes me feel uncomfortable.”

“It probably makes people think of a red river. It’s a bit… a bit like a river of blood,” the girl sitting next to him, Ding Conglu, said with emotion, holding Chen Zhenghao’s hand tightly. She said very seriously: “We can definitely do it, don’t give up!”

“Yes, we will,” Chen Zhenghao looked at his girlfriend’s delicate face and suddenly hugged her tightly, “Xiao Lu, we must live.”

Ding Conglu immediately broke away from her boyfriend’s arms and looked at the person with some embarrassment: “Yes, we are also going to Red River Village. My name is Ding Conglu, and this is my boyfriend Chen Zhenghao.”

Before long, everyone arrived one after another. After counting, there were twelve people in total. The oldest looked to be in his forties, and the youngest was a high school student with a naive look on his face.

Shen Na said calmly: “Everyone’s goal is to survive, so it’s best not to have internal conflicts. We should discuss everything. Now everyone can talk about how many missions they’ve done, and then we’ll use the experience of the person with the most missions as our guide.”

The questioning man’s face stiffened: “Three times.”

Ding Conglu and Chen Zhenghao were a little embarrassed and said softly: “Twice.”

In fact, they were newcomers, and this was only their second mission, but in order not to be discriminated against, they had discussed lying about it beforehand.

“Three times.”

“Twice.”

Now everyone couldn’t help but turn their attention to him, all a little surprised.

Speaking of so-called missions, it was unknown when they started. They all suddenly received some kind of consciousness by accident. That consciousness told them word by word that if they wanted to live, they had to go to another world at a certain time to do some missions. If they succeeded, they could live, but if they failed… the consequences of failure, of course, were death.

At first, no one believed this kind of message, thinking they were dreaming, but from then on, they would have nightmares every night, dreaming that they would experience all kinds of ways to die because they didn’t carry out the mission. That kind of pain was hard to believe that it was a dream. Some people didn’t believe in evil and didn’t arrive at the designated place to gather when the time came, and died on the spot in a very miserable state.

As for the other world where they carried out the mission, on the surface it looked similar to their own world, but after the mission really started, that world would become fraught with dangers, and every move could put them in a deadly situation.

So, it was really amazing that An Xingyu, who was so young, had already done six missions.

Ding Conglu couldn’t help but ask him: “When did you start doing missions?”

An Xingyu glanced at her with almost inorganic eyes and said word by word: “I performed my first mission on January 14th of this year.”

Calculating it, that was a frequency of almost twice a month.

When would this ever end…

Everyone was silent for a moment. Shen Na said: “Eight times.”

The person who had questioned him earlier was even more silent, and felt a lot of comfort in his heart.

Generally speaking, they only needed to be wary of local residents who might be disguised as ghosts, and the weird rules that they could violate at any time. If it was determined that the local residents of the other world were humans, everyone wouldn’t pay too much attention to them.

On the contrary, they were happy to use the local residents to explore the way for them. Because they regarded those people as tools that could be used in the game, even though those local residents were like them, able to talk, laugh, and have their own thoughts, most people still called them NPCs.

It was like numbing themselves, that this was just a game. Those people were NPCs, so they could safely use them to survive.

Shen Na: “It’s not me.”

“It’s not you? Then who could it be?”

Just as they were curious, a voice came from the corner: “It’s me.”

A stern man stood up and walked to the middle of them, “I posted the post.”

In this way, there were now thirteen executors.

“Literal meaning,” He Lou’s face was still a little pale.

Although his body was restored after returning to the world, the psychological shadow was still there, and he was worried from time to time that his lower limbs would be cut off again at some point.

“Have you ever thought that those NPCs, like us, are living people with their own thoughts, how could they be so easily used by us?”

It seemed that he had suffered a great loss from the NPCs.

He Lou didn’t mean to say too much. He had done his best to remind them, and this attitude made the others somewhat uneasy.

At 11:00 AM, the train slowly drove from the night and stopped in front of them, the windows emitting a warm glow.

The carriage door in front of them opened directly, and everyone filed in.

As expected, the carriage was empty. They found seats at random and chatted in groups of two or three.

He Lou stared at the dark scenery receding rapidly outside the window and suddenly remembered that man again. His eyelids jumped.

Taking him as an example, he received a new mission again in just one week.

I wonder what will happen this time…

“…The train is about to arrive at the station – Red River Village, please take your belongings with you…”

He Lou opened his eyes and found himself sitting in a crowded train. The conductor was walking back and forth, reminding everyone that the station was about to arrive. He quickly glanced around at the other passengers in the carriage, and then sharply counted the number of his companions, and was relieved to confirm that none of them were missing and that they were all awake, and walked to the door to wait.

Red River Village, arrived.

“Hey, are you also going to the village?” An uncle with a plain appearance saw him planning to get off the train and asked.

He Lou smiled: “Yes, we’re going there to play.”

He Lou shook his head: “I don’t know.”

While talking all the way, the train arrived at the station, the carriage door opened, and thirteen people got off the train together.

“Let’s rest in the hotel tonight? Tomorrow we’ll go to the village. Everyone is here to play, so let’s get a good rest.”

Everyone had no objection to this. The group entered the hotel, asked about the price, and paid.

The magical thing about the two worlds also lies in this, even currencies can be exchanged with each other, and there are no problems with documents. If they couldn’t search for information about reality in this world, and couldn’t contact people in reality, maybe they would really think this was the same world.

A peaceful night’s sleep.

“Auntie, isn’t it inconvenient for you to use water normally?”

“No, the water we drink is clean.”

Shen Na interjected: “Where is that Red River? I want to see it.”

“Okay, thank you, Auntie,” An Xingyu said, “By the way, Auntie, what other fun things are there besides the Red River? Can you introduce it?”

While talking, others also came out one after another, and gathered around to listen.

“Ah, we’re just here to play, would it be disturbing to just go like that?” Ding Conglu asked.

“It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. That’s how our village is. When one family holds a banquet, everyone has to go. It’s against the rules if you don’t go. Besides, you just have to wrap a white envelope, you don’t need to wrap too much, just to show your heart.”

“White envelope?” Isn’t it generally a red envelope? The others were a little confused.

Everyone looked at each other in dismay, but Shen Na was the first to take it. She said, “Then thank you, we’ll go and ask for a drink of happy wine tomorrow.”

“Or… do you not want to go?”

Whether it was an illusion or not, when she asked the second half of the sentence, even the temperature in the air dropped a little.

“Go, of course we’ll go!” The few people who didn’t take it shuddered and hurriedly took the white envelope.

Only when they held it in their hands did they feel that the white envelope had a rough texture, which was no different from the texture of paper money used for burning.

“Also, once you enter our Red River Village, you must abide by the rules of our Red River Village. You arrived too late yesterday, and I didn’t tell you. Tomorrow when you go for a drink, let the village chief tell you.”

It could almost be said that she turned her face and didn’t recognize people, but she had a smile on her face, and no one could say that her attitude was bad.

She didn’t give him a white envelope either.

With that, he stood aside unhappily.

Not only did they not get white envelopes, but they didn’t even get breakfast. The few people who got up late regretted it in their hearts, but they had no other way. After everyone gathered, the group went to the Red River on the west side of the village.

Abiding by the rules… He Lou recalled these words, as well as the landlady’s reaction, and vaguely realized something.

A road led from the entrance of the village to the end, and it was quite conspicuous for more than a dozen people to walk together. He Lou’s contemplation was not very noticeable. He lowered his head and searched for news about Red River Village online.

It had been a bit cold recently, and the wind had gotten a lot stronger, which made people feel a little cold. One of them wore a hat. The wind blew hard and blew his hat off, landing in the rice field next to him. The others didn’t pay attention, glanced at it, and looked away.

The man also didn’t pay attention. He squatted on the side of the road and reached out to reach it, but he couldn’t reach it. He casually broke a branch and tried to pick it up, but he couldn’t pick it up. Looking around, there weren’t many villagers here, so he carefully stepped into the field to get it.

With the hat back in his hand, he patted off the dust and put it on.

Damn, damn… it’s a ghost!

Help me! Save me!!

But that group of people had already gone far, and no one looked back.

His eyes widened, and he could feel his internal organs being hollowed out alive…

*

Shen Na turned her head unintentionally, and always felt that something was wrong, and counted the number of people in her heart, and was suddenly shocked.

“Wait! One person is missing!”

Hearing this, everyone immediately panicked and stayed where they were to count carefully.

One person was really missing!

Who was it?

Was it possible that the ghost had already started to attack on the first day?!

Everyone couldn’t help but be a little commotion. Some of them turned pale, because the missing person, like them, didn’t take the landlady’s white envelope!

It was surprisingly the missing person.

The people who had just been scared by their own imaginations breathed a sigh of relief, and complained in unison.

“Exactly! You scared us to death. Who drops out of the group casually?”

They had just passed a public toilet not long ago. Hearing this, the others didn’t care, and reiterated to each other again that they must not act privately and that they must notify others of where they went.

While speaking, they arrived at the Red River.

The color of the river water… was too thick, viscous, scarlet, and flowing slowly. Not only was there no grass growing on the bank, but there was also no sign of any living creatures in the river. It was as calm as stagnant water, with not a single bubble.

“This Red River is a bit like…” Everyone had some bad associations, and one of them muttered quietly, and the tail sound also disappeared, not daring to continue.

But who didn’t know what he meant?

“Okay, let’s take pictures now,” Shen Na said.

“The landlady said just now that we can take pictures here.”

She also said that we can go to the village chief’s son’s wedding banquet. Who knows if this “can” really means must?

Many people understood the key, and agreed.

“Very good, everyone came to eat on time today, and no one was late. In our Red River Village, the most annoying thing is being late,” the landlady applauded them and welcomed them in and sat them in the private room. One of the only two waiters in the store brought the dishes from the kitchen.

An Xingyu said thank you, and He Lou also said a word.

Shen Na followed and said a word.

Without him saying so, the landlady repeatedly emphasized the rules several times, as well as the reactions of the villagers on the road, all made them aware of the strangeness of this village.

Must… abide by the rules.

He Lou and An Xingyu walked together, and they decided to go to the village chief’s house to take a look first.

An Xingyu said as he walked: “Don’t you think this village is too strict about the rules? So strict that they can’t be violated at all.”

He Lou nodded: “I checked it online before, and this village is a bit famous. They are now developing tourism, and their village wants to make a name for itself as a village of etiquette, so they are particularly concerned about this aspect.”

“Let’s ask the village chief first,”

In the yard, there were two rows of paper figures neatly arranged, each half a person tall, with pale faces, scarlet mouths, smiling eyes, and gorgeous clothes.

Looking at it from afar, it was quite terrifying.

The village chief happened to be at home today. As the hotel landlady said, he was in a particularly good mood recently. After He Lou chatted with him for a few words, he went with the flow and talked about his son’s ghost marriage.

“It also saves him from bothering me every day…” At this point, the village chief seemed to realize that something was wrong and immediately changed the subject.

The two pretended not to hear. In this Red River Village, where rules were greater than the sky, if they pestered him, they might be driven out the next second.

He Lou: “Of course we’re willing, as long as you don’t mind that there are too many of us.”

The sentence “abide by the rules” made a chill run down the two of their backs.

He Lou tentatively asked: “Village chief, may I ask, what will happen to those who accidentally violate the rules?”

He Lou smiled, sat for a while, and found an excuse to leave with An Xingyu.

After leaving, they began to read this booklet.

An Xingyu said: “It feels stricter than military training, training people into puppets.”

If people live under such strict rules for a long time, they will either collapse or be tamed.

After answering this sentence, the two were thoughtful.

Perhaps the first day had preferential treatment, but by the evening, their treatment was not so good. The landlady stared at them eating, talking, sitting, walking, etc., and if anything was wrong, she would sink her face and threaten them that Red River Village would not welcome them.

In the evening, everyone went