夜色,如浓墨一般,完全弥漫了整个鬼婚村.王二的翼房不再是一个住处,而是一个四面墙上都有眼睛的笼子.
那句"陌生人,你的袖子沾满了槐树的蜡",就像跗骨上的蛆虫,在沈长安的脑海中挥之不去,让他心生不安.每一个细微的声音,树影在窗纸上擦过的声音,甚至是角落里落下的灰尘,都仿佛是隐藏在黑暗中的"东西"在移动和窥视.
他不能留在这里等死.
然而,顾小曼通过脑海传达的警告——"晚上别出来"——就像一条冷链,束缚着他的脚步.这个村子白天还是很怪异的,晚上的恐怖恐怖恐怕是难以想象的.
时间一分一秒地过去,每一秒都像是在沸腾的油底壳里受苦.沈长安在脑海中反复权衡利弊,试图从混乱的线索中找出一条出路.日记里的"血"地砖,婴儿的哭泣,七西郎的血,"脱皮"...顾小曼的黑血,勒死痕迹,蛇一般的嘶嘶声...还有那只半簪子,还有顾雪信中提到的"镜子".
线索越来越多,但他们所指向的真相却越来越模糊和恐怖.
就在他被这无形的压力几乎逼疯的时候,院门外传来了沉重而缓慢的脚步声,然后...一些重物被拖拽的声音.
沈长安立刻屏住呼吸,熄灭了桌上微弱的油灯,躲到门后,从门缝里往外看.
月光苍白,仿佛在院子里铺了一层薄薄的霜.几个穿着灰蓝色布衣服的村民面无表情地走了进来,抬着一个简单的,没有上漆的木制担架.担架上有一个人影,上面盖着一张破烂的草席.
领头的不是别人,正是白天坐在屋檐下编织草绳的王二.不,此时此刻,它应该被称为...王二的身体.
他的脸色比白天还要蜡黄,甚至带着一种奇怪的蓝灰色,眼睛紧闭着,嘴唇微微张开,身体僵硬.
村民们把王二的尸体抬到院子中央,放下担架.其中一人上前,对着沈长安几乎麻木的语气说道:"陌生人,王二...走了.按照村里的规矩,今晚...你应该去慈善公墓看守他.
那声音直截了当,没有任何情绪,却透露出一种毋庸置疑的命令.
沈长安的心顿时沉了下去.守望?去慈善墓地?在一个连"安全屋"都满眼的村子里,夜晚的亦庄简直就是龙虎窝!
他没有立即回应.
门外的村民似乎没有预料到他的回答,只是继续用麻木的声音说道:"午夜之前去.最大的一个在村子的西端.
之后,几名村民转身离开了院子,留下王二冰冷的身体和简单的担架,在苍白的月光下散发着不祥的气息.院子的门又轻轻地关上了,仿佛什么都没发生过.
Shen Changan leaned against the cold door, and cold sweat had soaked his clothes.
This was a naked conspiracy. They knew that he had found the diary and knew that he had sensed the danger, so they used this method to force him to leave this room and force him to go to another more dangerous place-Yizhuang.
Yizhuang, where the body was parked. In such a village entangled with death, sacrifice, and resentment, what would the charity cemetery look like? Was Wang Er's death really just a coincidence? Or... was he silenced because he kept the diary privately?
He had no choice. If he didn't go, he might immediately lead to more direct violence; if he went, he might still have a glimmer of hope, or... at least he could get more core information about the village's death ritual.
The night wind was getting colder, and there was a faint smell of decay in the air. Shen Changan took a deep breath, clenched the folding knife and the half hairpin in his pocket, pushed open the door, and walked towards the stiff corpse in the yard.
He didn't touch Wang Er immediately, but observed carefully first. Wang Er's death was very calm, not like he had struggled, more like... asleep? But under this calmness, there were disturbing details. There seemed to be some tiny, black silk-like objects embedded in the cracks of his fingernails, which were difficult to see clearly in the moonlight. His lips were slightly open, as if... holding something in them?
Shen Changan endured the discomfort and gently opened Wang Er's lips with the tip of the knife.
By the moonlight, he could see clearly. Wang Er's mouth was actually stuck with half a piece of... wedding candy! It was the kind that the villagers gave him during the day! The candy had melted a part, and the sticky syrup mixed with saliva dyed his mouth a strange dark red.
This half piece of wedding candy was like a silent mockery, and also like a fatal warning.
Shen Changan no longer hesitated, walked around the corpse, walked out of Wang Er's yard quickly, and walked towards the west end of the village.
The charity cemetery at the west end of the village was larger and more dilapidated than expected. The dark wooden door was open, like a huge mouth that was ready to eat people. There was not even a plaque on the lintel, only mottled marks left by years of wind and rain. A strong cold air mixed with dust, mold and a faint smell of corpse rot came from the door.
Shen Changan stepped into the charity cemetery. The light inside was extremely dim, with only a few bean-sized oil lamps swaying in the corner, casting ghostly shadows. The air was icy cold, as if it could freeze people's blood. The interior of the charity cemetery was very large, with more than a dozen wooden coffins of different colors lined up against the wall, most of which were covered with coffin lids, appearing quiet and depressing.
In the center, there was an empty space, which was obviously reserved for Wang Er.
He did not see any vigil keepers, and the entire charity cemetery was empty, with only himself.
This absolute silence was more frightening than the noise. He found a position relatively close to the door where he could observe most of the coffins, and leaned against the cold wall, raising all his senses to the extreme.
Time flowed slowly in the dead silence. The flame of the oil lamp occasionally jumped, lengthening and shortening the shadow of the coffin on the ground. The occasional cry of a night owl in the distance added a bit of gloom.
Shen Changan held the folding knife tightly, and his eyes swept over each coffin vigilantly. He recalled the contents of the diary, trying to connect these cold wooden boxes with those horrible rituals. The seventh Xilang... buried alive... nails...
Suddenly!
A very subtle sound, like liquid dripping, broke the silence.
Tap... tap... tap...
The sound came from a coffin that looked particularly old and black in color in front of him on the left.
Shen Changan's heart instantly rose to his throat. He held his breath and stared at the coffin.
I saw a dark red, viscous liquid like syrup seeping out and overflowing from the gap of the tightly closed lid of the black coffin, dripping on the cold ground, gathering into a small pool, reflecting a strange luster in the dim light. The color, the texture... are very much like the half piece of melted wedding candy in Wang Er's mouth!
The coffin... is bleeding? !
Before Shen Changan could react, something even more terrifying happened!
"Click... squeak..."
The black coffin lid that was "bleeding" actually made a tooth-grinding friction sound, and slowly... moved upwards a little!
Then, a pale, skinny hand with long nails and a green glow suddenly stretched out from the gap!
Then, another hand!
Two hands grabbed the edge of the coffin and pushed hard!
"Bang!"
The coffin lid was opened from the inside by a huge force and fell heavily to the ground!
A figure wearing tattered shrouds and with a shriveled body like a zombie, staggered... and sat up from the black coffin!
It was Wang Er!
He turned his neck stiffly, making a "click" sound of bone friction, and his tightly closed eyes suddenly opened. The whites of his eyes were cloudy, but his pupils shrank to the size of a needle tip, looking straight at Shen Changan!
Shen Changan felt that the blood in his body was about to coagulate! Wang Er's body was clearly still in the yard outside! Who is... in this coffin? ! Or... what is it? !
He noticed that after this "Wang Er" sat up, the hands that were clinging to the edge of the coffin had a few... withered, thin hairs clearly embedded in the nails! That was... Gu Xiaoman's hair!
And in his open mouth, which was dripping with dark red mucus, was stuck the other half of the wedding candy!
This thing that occupied Wang Er's form, with half a piece of wedding candy stuck in its mouth, Gu Xiaoman's hair in its fingernails, sat up from a "bleeding" black coffin... All of this combined together formed a crazy and terrifying picture!
Just when Shen Changan was about to raise the knife out of control, a faint sound of paper rubbing came from the door of the charity cemetery.
A folded, rough yellow paper was blown in by a gust of cold wind and fell lightly at his feet.
Shen Changan looked at the door in doubt. There was no one outside, only the bleak moonlight and the howling night wind. He forced himself to calm down and bent down to pick up the yellow paper.
On the paper, a line of crooked small characters was written with the same black viscous liquid (is it black blood?):
"Open the coffin at midnight, and there will be a return gift."
Another "return gift"!
Shen Changan looked up at the black coffin. The "Wang Er" still remained in a sitting position, staring at him straight, with a strange "smile" on the corner of his mouth.
Open the coffin? Which coffin? This black coffin? What other "return gifts" would there be in it besides this "Wang Er"?
Now, it was almost midnight.
Great fear and strong curiosity (or the desire to survive) were fighting in his heart. The existence hidden in the dark led him step by step into deeper mysteries and dangers. He knew it was a trap, but he seemed to have to step into it because the clues might be there.
In the end, the instinct for survival and the obsession with finding Gu Xue overwhelmed the fear. He took a deep breath, gripped the folding knife tightly, and walked towards the open black coffin that exuded a bloody and decaying smell.
The inside of the coffin was deeper than it looked from the outside, and the bottom was covered with a thick, dark red, mud-like substance. The lower body of "Wang Er" was soaked in it.
Shen Changan suppressed his nausea and used the tip of the knife to poke in the dark red mud.
Soon, he felt the tip of the knife touch several hard small objects.
He carefully picked them out one by one.
There were seven in total.
It was wedding candy!
It was exactly the same as the one the villagers gave him during the day and the one Wang Er was holding in his mouth! However, the red candy wrappers of these seven wedding candies were covered with the dark red mud at the bottom of the coffin, exuding a stronger smell of blood and earth.
Is this the so-called "return gift"?
Shen Changan picked up one of them and observed the candy wrapper carefully in the dim light of the oil lamp.
His pupils suddenly contracted!
On the candy wrapper, in addition to the sticky mud, there was a line of words recorded with even finer marks that looked like a needle tip:
"On the first day, under the locust tree, pick up the hairpin."
He was shocked and quickly picked up the second one.
"On the second day, in the mill room, get the note."
The third one.
"On the third day, Wang Er's house, see the diary."
…
Until the seventh one!
"On the fourth day, in the charity cemetery, take back the gift."
These seven wedding candies covered with mud at the bottom of the coffin, each of which clearly recorded his key whereabouts every day after entering the ghost marriage village! From the moment he found Gu Xue's hairpin, his every move was recorded and "gifted" to him in this way!
The cold fear of being completely monitored and nowhere to hide once again overwhelmed him like a tide!
He tightly grasped the seven candies that were like death warrants, and his fingers trembled slightly because of the force. Who is the other party? Is he a human or a ghost? What kind of terrifying power does he have to be able to do this? !
After the extreme fear, a trace of ruthlessness was born. Since the other party was pressing step by step and sent the clue to him in this way, then he... would see what the end of this clue was!
He picked up the last candy, which was the one that recorded "On the fourth day, in the charity cemetery, the gift was taken back", and peeled off the candy paper covered with mud.
What was revealed inside was a dark red candy with a rough surface.
Shen Changan put the candy into his mouth without any hesitation and bit it hard!
"Crack!"
The touch from the teeth was not the hardness and sweetness that a candy should have! Instead, it was a kind of... sticky substance mixed with small, hard fragments and with a strong smell of rust!
It was blood! It was broken bones!
The strong fishy smell and nausea rushed straight to the taste buds and nasal cavity!
But Shen Changan did not spit it out. He endured the disgusting taste and taste, and used the tip of his tongue to carefully feel the inside of the broken "candy heart".
There seemed to be... words engraved there?
He used the tip of his tongue to identify the uneven marks mixed with blood and bone residue with difficulty.
Two words.
Coldness and despair, like a declaration from the depths of hell, hit his soul hard:
"Gu Xue"
...There seemed to be more words behind it! He endured the severe pain and nausea and continued to identify.
"In"
"Coffin"
Gu Xue...In the coffin!