1TWITF[C Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The entire Red River Village was in utter chaos, with all the villagers chasing after Zhao Chuan. The sky had turned a gloomy gray, pressing down lower and lower, and the chilling, damp atmosphere grew increasingly 未分.

In another direction, away from the villagers’ pursuit, He Lou, Shen Na, An Xingyu, and Wang Jing were running frantically.

An Xingyu’s memory had not yet recovered, and he kept clamoring to go back, questioning He Lou about why they were running away. If the village hadn’t given him years of virtual memories that made him implicitly trust He Lou, He Lou wouldn’t have been able to drag him along.

Even so, He Lou was growing impatient. Seeing An Xingyu still shouting about going back, he simply let go of his hand and ran forward with Shen Na and the others.

When they had first arrived, Red River Village had appeared to be a thriving place, with wide roads and neatly arranged houses and crops. But now, the entire village had lost all traces of its daytime prosperity. Everything was dilapidated, the roads had visibly narrowed, and the ground was covered in jagged rocks and withered, tangled weeds clinging to the stones.

“Lou, Brother Lou, are we really running out of the village?” Shen Na followed behind, careful not to trip. Her memory had just returned, and her mind was still a little confused. Although she didn’t quite understand why they were running out of the village now, since He Lou himself was fleeing, she had no reason to doubt him.

Even if He Lou wanted to use her as a scapegoat, she was confident she could handle him.

“But, it hasn’t been a month yet,” Wang Jing added.

Wang Jing had only experienced two missions, and everything was still a blur to her. In this strange world, she was even more confused, surviving purely by luck.

He Lou knew that if he didn’t explain things to Shen Na, she would remain suspicious, so he had to briefly reiterate the information Lu Yanli had passed on while running.

Shen Na understood as soon as she heard it, but Wang Jing was still a little confused. However, she vaguely understood one thing: she could escape the village now!

This village… was chaotic.

Wang Jing thought, so, it was really possible to leave?

After running for a while, they had moved away from the main road and entered a dense forest. The already dim weather was even darker in the forest, and the path was difficult to see clearly. The soil under her feet was a little damp, as if it had just rained.

No, don’t… am I the only one left? Wang Jing shivered with fear. She continued forward, her mind completely gone. Suddenly, she saw a white shadow flash past the corner of her eye!

A ghost!

“Ahhh!”

She ran forward, completely disregarding everything, terrified to the point of exhaustion. The overlapping branches in the forest scratched her all over, but Wang Jing couldn’t even feel the pain in her fear, only running forward.

Escape! I must escape!

She really couldn’t run anymore, and it was better to conserve her strength.

Her eyes were only focused on that flickering light, so she didn’t notice that the soil under her feet was becoming increasingly damp.

What Wang Jing saw was…

“Ah!!”

*

Shen Na’s heart sank.

This wasn’t He Lou!

Seeing that the situation was bad, Wang Jing followed.

As she ran, Shen Na thought, this village was chaotic, so they had to follow the rules. According to the current situation, once someone broke the rules, the village would fall into complete chaos.

Like now—the sky was flickering, the roads were strange, a smooth highway connected to a small path, lush trees connected to withered ones, and the weather was suddenly hot and cold.

It was as if time and space had been completely disorder!

Was this the path to survival?

In this chaotic village, if they really lived “one month” according to the literal meaning, who knew when this month would be twisted?

Ten minutes ago, she had passed this pond.

How to get past it?

When she looked back, Wang Jing was running up, panting, and said, “Shen Na, what, what should we do now?”

“Okay,” Wang Jing said, panting.

She came to Shen Na’s side and slowly put her hand on her shoulder.

“Stay away from me!” Shen Na was very wary, and she dodged to shake her off. But out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the pond.

Yes, only her own reflection.

A chill quickly spread through her body, and Shen Na’s heart trembled. But she had long developed courage, and she kicked “Wang Jing” into the river, then ran away without looking back!

After “Wang Jing” fell, she floated lightly on the water, rising and falling with the small waves. Soon, her entire face was wet.

After running for an unknown amount of time, Shen Na gradually felt at ease.

So, when running out, as long as you pay attention to the terrain of the village and find the path, is that it?

Just as she was feeling a little relieved, she felt something strange.

Why did she feel a little… a little breathless?

What was going on?

She opened her mouth involuntarily, her face flushed, and she couldn’t stand steadily. The lack of oxygen blurred her vision, and she finally noticed something cold on her neck.

Shen Na barely lowered her head and saw… two pale hands!

The moment she shook off Wang Jing, those two hands had broken off from her body and hung on her neck, and she only realized it now!

However, she couldn’t shake them off anymore.

The water in the small pond instantly turned red, and soon, that red spread throughout the pond. Two pale female corpses floated on top, their eyes wide open. Strangely, their hands were gone.

A young man passed by in the distance. He took off the binoculars hanging around his neck and looked at them with a cold expression.

“Brother Lu, where are we going now?”

The entire village was in chaos, and the villagers went to chase Zhao Chuan. And Shen Na, He Lou, and Wang Jing didn’t know why they were running out of the village. An Xingyu ran with them for a while and was abandoned, and he happened to run into Lu Yanli.

Now, Lu Yanli was taking him somewhere.

Lu Yanli said, “We’re going to help find Zhao Chuan.”

An Xingyu nodded, and he subconsciously opened the diary, but suddenly stopped.

“I…”

His expression was a little painful, and some of the memories in his mind gradually blurred, while others became clearer.

Mission… Red River Village… Ghost marriage…

An Xingyu suddenly came back to his senses.

He also completely understood and took a few quick breaths.

An Xingyu nodded and quickly regained his composure: “Didn’t you just say you were going to find Zhao Chuan? Shall we go now?”

Although he didn’t know who Lu Yanli was, based on his memories during this time, he could trust him for now. Even if he was also an impersonating ghost, prematurely exposing him during the impersonation period would have immeasurable consequences.

Therefore, his attitude was quite friendly.

“Why are we looking for Zhao Chuan now?” An Xingyu asked as he ran.

Since An Xingyu was showing kindness, Lu Yanli wasn’t the kind of psychopath who would kill someone as soon as he saw them. The two had tacitly reached a cooperative relationship, and Lu Yanli had nothing to hide from him.

He urgently needed to find Zhao Chuan, or rather, to find the village chief who was chasing Zhao Chuan. The village chief was the source of everything.

He had a question long ago, and today he could just take this opportunity to solve it. Although it involved a great risk, he couldn’t care less.

He had installed surveillance in everyone’s rooms long ago, and naturally saw some strange scenes.

He recorded it in his diary in obscure code. After the initial disappearance of the four companions, although they guessed that these four had become scarecrows, he later went to the Red River again and happened to see a few skeletons.

An Xingyu immediately widened his eyes after integrating Lu Yanli’s words with what he had just said.

Lu Yanli: “Have you figured it out too?”

An Xingyu nodded, but didn’t say it out loud, because that guess was too terrible.

Perhaps… the village chief was this river, or rather, the village chief was some existence in the river.

It wasn’t that the Red River gave birth to all the villagers, including the village chief, but that the village chief came first, followed by the Red River and other villagers! Otherwise, if the entire village was part of a weird existence, their conversation would have been discovered long ago.

The village chief could create so many incarnations, but those villagers could only act by relying on the village chief and could not independently punish violations.

They were all the village chief’s eyes, helping the village chief determine violations, but they were just eyes.

“No wonder…” No wonder the four early-rising companions only faced the innkeeper’s warning on the first day and didn’t die on the spot.

Because she couldn’t do it herself.

That day, the village chief opened his mouth wide, his mouth full of red liquid close to the Red River water, and was about to devour He Lou; according to this situation, they should have understood—only the village chief could punish violators.

Or themselves, like Shen Na to Ding Conglu.

An Xingyu quickly substituted equations into his mind: Village chief = rules = Red River, Villagers = the village chief’s eyes.

“So, what is our path to survival?”

The source of everything was the village chief, and now they were going to find the village chief? An Xingyu believed that he wouldn’t go to his death, but couldn’t help but wonder.

If He Lou didn’t understand this and rashly ran out…

Lu Yanli was looking forward to it.