1TWITF[C Chapter 22

Chapter 22

The sudden thought made Shen Na feel cold all over, and even her teeth couldn’t help but chatter. She tried to recall the faces of the thirteen people in the photo, but she couldn’t remember them at all.

She hurriedly dried herself, opened the bathroom door, and took out her phone to check.

All thirteen people were in the photo. She matched each face with her companions from the daytime, and found that none were missing.

What was the order of taking the group photo?

First her, then An Xingyu, then…

Outside the door, the bell rang, it was eleven o’clock.

Shen Na was startled and immediately went to bed. Before going to sleep, she saw that Ding Conglu in the next bed was already lying in bed asleep.

Must… abide by the rules.

Yesterday, everyone had read the village rules that He Lou brought back, and had to do so, fearing that they would forget, they even took a photo of them. Naturally, everyone also knew that waking up here could not be later than eight o’clock.

The landlady was very satisfied with their behavior of obeying the rules and smiled.

What happened to them?

One should not speak while eating or sleeping. After one of them finished eating, he asked the landlady, who was probably in a good mood, and answered with a smile: “Those who don’t obey the rules will naturally be punished.”

She didn’t say what happened to the two of them, but it was clear that it wouldn’t be good.

The others looked at each other. After breakfast, they decided to go upstairs to check.

This does not violate the rules.

The hotel was also made of wood. The wooden planks creaked slightly when stepped on. Probably because the village chief’s son needed to get married, a whole row of white lanterns were hung outside the wooden corridor on the second floor, swaying gently.

He Lou was walking at the back. He carefully looked at the lanterns hanging in the corridor. An Xingyu walked side by side with him and asked in a low voice, “What did you see?”

An Xingyu: “I’ll ask later.”

As they spoke, they had already reached the outside of the two rooms.

“Look carefully, are there any clues?” Shen Na said.

It was recorded in the village rules that it was not allowed to rummage through things randomly. She didn’t do it herself, but watched others start searching.

Why are there straws in the room?

“Brother Lou, is there anything wrong with this straw?”

He Lou shook his head: “I can’t be sure yet.”

He put the straw back in its original place and said, “Let’s go see next door.”

There was no harvest in the other room either. He Lou came to the bed and searched carefully. Sure enough, he found a straw in the gap of the bed frame.

Shen Na came over and asked, “What’s wrong?”

He Lou: “I found a straw near the bed in both rooms. Could this be a clue?”

“Could it be that they accidentally stuck to it on the road? There are many scarecrows in the fields nearby.”

An Xingyu’s eyes were still inorganic, and even his tone of voice was unwavering: “If it only appeared in one room, it might be an accident. If it’s in both rooms, it’s very likely an abnormality.”

They couldn’t discuss anything in the room. They noted this abnormality, closed the door, and went out.

It was as if that cold and weird look just now was their illusion.

After An Xingyu went downstairs, he took the initiative to ask the landlady about the paper lanterns.

“You’re talking about lanterns? This is our local specialty. Every household can make them. Look, aren’t they beautiful?” The landlady smiled and pointed to those hanging on the second floor.

An Xingyu didn’t say much, but nodded. This made the smile on the landlady’s mouth rise even higher: “In our place, once there are any weddings or funerals, every household has to hang lanterns. This is the rule.”

Rules again…

“If you want to buy lanterns, you can go to Uncle Wu in our village. His craftsmanship is the best. He lives in…”

An Xingyu inquired about many questions, thanked her, and left.

He was still walking with He Lou. As soon as they stepped out the door, they saw Shen Na standing under a tree not far away, waiting for them.

Shen Na raised her phone, signaling them to come over.

The two nodded.

He Lou: “What happened?”

He Lou took the phone and lowered his head with An Xingyu to look. As he looked, his pupils shrank: “This, this is…”

An Xingyu’s voice was still unwavering. He took the phone and put it in front of Shen Na: “But obviously, the problem now is not just the number.”

In the photo, the faces of the four people who were missing this morning were completely blurred, like a piece of paper picture soaked in water, their faces completely blurred, and their original appearance could not be seen.

It was like…

Like a smiling face, or two curved lines for eyes, and a curved line for a mouth, that kind of simple smiling face similar to a child’s drawing.

Shen Na, who had originally held a fluke mentality, finally confirmed at this moment that those four people… were probably not coming back.

“Is there something wrong with this photo? Should I delete it?” Shen Na asked.

He Lou shook his head: “From the current point of view, there is no danger. You can keep it for now.”

Shen Na remained noncommittal.

These photos were in her phone, not in his. He said it lightly.

She agreed on the surface, and the three of them went to Uncle Wu’s house, which the landlady had just introduced.

Along the way, Shen Na was thoughtful: “If there were no weird events, it would be really nice to come to Honghe Village for a vacation, but unfortunately…”

An Xingyu walked at the back, carefully looking at the fields on the right with a pair of pure black, almost inorganic eyes.

Too… regular.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t been to the countryside. He had personally experienced rural life in order to write essays. Although the rice fields in the countryside were neat, they could never be as neat as here, as if they had been measured with a ruler. Even the scarecrows in the fields seemed to have been measured for distance. Visually, the interval difference would not exceed half a meter.

Wait! The scarecrow’s hat?

An Xingyu’s eyes widened suddenly.

That hat was…

Suddenly, several birds that landed on the scarecrow plunged down and fell into the green vegetable field.

“What’s wrong?” He Lou didn’t know when he noticed that An Xingyu hadn’t followed, and came to him in a few steps.

In He Lou’s view, An Xingyu was very smart, quite calm, and a good partner. They could totally cooperate on future tasks.

An Xingyu raised his finger and pointed at the scarecrow: “That hat looks a bit familiar.”

Shen Na’s eyes narrowed, and she immediately took out her phone to check the album.

One of the missing people was wearing this hat!

Shen Na suddenly understood what her familiarity was all about.

The blurred smiling face in the photo was exactly the same as the simple smiling face painted on the scarecrow’s face.

Shen Na immediately closed the album and stopped thinking about it.

Connecting it to the straw in the room, the three of them looked at each other, understood, and couldn’t help but feel a chill in their hearts.

After a while, He Lou said, “Let’s go, to Uncle Wu’s house.”

From a distance, the few people saw a corner of the eaves exposed on the small hillside, and when they walked over quickly, they couldn’t help but be stunned.

Since he made a living by making lanterns, it was not surprising that the house was full of lanterns, but these lanterns were too weird. No matter what shape they were, whether they were rabbits or cats, they were all uncomfortably bright colors.

Shen Na wanted to tell He Lou her discovery, but saw that he was staring in another direction in a daze. She pushed He Lou: “What did you find?”

“Nothing.” He Lou shook his head.

He had only… seen a particularly familiar figure, but when he thought about it, since he could leave through the mission, how could that person survive? He thought it was an illusion and ignored it. Over there, An Xingyu was waving his hand, urging them to go in quickly.

Uncle Wu was working in the yard, with a large table set up in front of him. The few people didn’t want to disturb him too much, so they watched from the side.

The frame of the lantern he was newly making was a bit peculiar. The bottom was made of thin bamboo strips, the top was round, a circle was stuck at one-third of the position, and the bottom was even rounder and larger. At first glance, it looked like a gourd. Uncle Wu oiled a layer of skin of unknown material, brushed it with paste, and carefully pasted it on the thin bamboo strips.

Only then did the three of them understand that Uncle Wu was now making a girl doll lantern. He painted two dark and shiny hair buns little by little, a round face like a New Year picture doll, and lotus root-like arms and calves exposed outside the bib. After outlining the shape, Uncle Wu changed another brush and carefully colored the bib.

The deep red, viscous paint made He Lou couldn’t help but think of the red river in the village, and… human blood.

Uncle Wu’s speed was very fast, and soon he reached the last step – drawing the face. The fine brush painted little by little a… smiling face that was not much different from the one on the scarecrow’s face, with no smile in the eyes but bright red corners of the lips raised high.

“Finally finished painting.” Uncle Wu looked at the lantern in his hand with satisfaction and placed it carefully on the ground.

“Very good, you are very obedient and didn’t disturb my work.” He chuckled, the old man’s voice was a little hoarse, and his eyes were turbid. When he stared straight at people, it made people feel particularly uncomfortable.

“Uncle Wu, may I ask what is this lantern you are making…?”

Uncle Wu took out another lantern from under the table, which was a boy doll, and placed it next to the girl doll, like a pair of golden boys and jade girls. He explored the two lanterns little by little with an infinitely obsessed gaze, and finally reluctantly put the lanterns away.

“These two lanterns are what I want to give to the village chief. His son finally got a wife, and I have to show off my housekeeping skills.” Uncle Wu chuckled again, his gaze lingering on Shen Na for a while.

He Lou praised a few words against his will. Seeing this, the other two also praised a few words, and proposed that they wanted to buy a few when they left.

Uncle Wu agreed and invited them to have lunch.

The few people looked at each other and agreed. After Uncle Wu pushed himself into the house, they realized that Uncle Wu was actually a disabled person who could not walk on his legs and could only use a wheelchair to get around.

Under this circumstance, as a group of tourists who abide by the rules, they naturally had to help with the cooking. He Lou and Shen Na went into the kitchen, leaving An Xingyu outside to chat with him.

The few people had lunch, which was considered peaceful and no other abnormalities occurred. Before leaving, Uncle Wu gave each of them a small white lantern. After they returned to the hotel, the others saw it and also planned to go to Uncle Wu’s to try.

There were many local specialties in the village, and they went to find them separately. He Lou was holding a mushroom brought back by others, and always felt that this red mushroom was a bit strange.

He lightly scraped it with his fingernail, and a layer of skin was scraped off the bulging mushroom, oozing out a scarlet juice and dripping down.

“Is this really edible?” He frowned.

An Xingyu: “For safety’s sake, don’t for now.”

Not long after, the others returned one after another, each carrying a small lantern. Today was considered uneventful, and everyone was just waiting for the evening banquet.

Night fell quickly.

In the autumn season, it was particularly cool at night. The cold wind blew the leaves, rustling. Lanterns suddenly lit up in every household in the streets and alleys, swaying gently in the wind.

“This… this is…” Everyone gathered at the entrance of the hotel, dumbfounded.

After those lanterns lit up, the patterns hidden under the white paper were completely revealed. Smiling faces painted with simple strokes swayed, their lips were as red as blood, and their eyebrows and eyes were curved, looking particularly uncomfortable.

“The auspicious time has arrived – welcome the bride -”

From somewhere, perhaps from all directions, came a shout that dragged out the sound of a strained voice. After the shout, the high-pitched suona sound suddenly rang out, resounding through the clouds.

A suona sound blew in new life, blew in weddings, blew in death, high-pitched and loud, coming from the entrance of the village.

The bride was coming.

The sound of crackling firecrackers rang out, and every household opened their doors. People walked out one by one with smiling faces. A group of people walked out of the door behind the landlady, also with smiles on their faces, and gathered into the crowd to go to the village chief’s house.

Obviously there were many, many people, and everyone was carrying lanterns, but it was as if they could never illuminate the heavy night on a road. The faces were blurred in the deep night, and only the smiles on their faces could be seen. That smile made people feel cold for no reason.

The whole village was gathered together, but there was no lively atmosphere at all. According to the rules, one could not talk nonsense at other people’s banquets and had to wait for the host to speak.

“Today is my son’s big day…” The village chief was very happy and spoke in front of the sacrificial altar. He was obviously very satisfied with this marriage and kept praising how good his future daughter-in-law was.

Presumably, his son was also very satisfied, and the corners of his mouth in the photo were raised a little.

All the mission executors had discovered this abnormality, and only felt like a cold wind was blowing past, and their backs were chilled. But according to the rules, no one dared to say it.

He Lou was the same. Unconsciously, his whole body couldn’t help but tremble.

What shocked him was not the smiling photo, but a young man standing on the side of the village chief, listening attentively to the speech.

If that person wasn’t Lu Yanli, who else could it be?