Chapter 602 Haining Cat Island (12) [VIP]

"I'll go open the door," Guan Hongyan walked forward a few steps and looked at the key in her hand, "This door lock looks quite old."

As she said this, the remaining three members of the exploration team all looked towards the key in her hand.

"Oh my god," Fang Xiang was shocked. "What kind of key is this? So retro?"

The key in Guan Hongyan's hand is completely different from the key in the modern sense.

The handle of this key is extremely long, almost half the length of her forearm, and the gears are simply distributed. Unlike the irregular wavy gears of common modern keys, it is composed of some raised squares scattered on the handle.

"Padlock." Bai Jinshu uttered two words.

This thing is rare for most ordinary people, but he is familiar with it.

This kind of prop is often seen when filming costume dramas or modern dramas.

Unlike most modern locks that are built into the door, padlocks are generally used to lock double-door doors. With such a large key, the lock will only be larger.

"It's backward," Guan Hongyan shook her head. "What era is it now? You still use this kind of lock. It can be opened easily with just a pry."

She had some common sense about lock picking. Compared with the common keys nowadays, this padlock was very easy to open. Even a person who had no training could slowly grope his way through it with a handy tool.

This is why most padlocks are hung inside the door.

But now the key is in their hands, which only means that the lock is outside the door. I don’t know whether this family is too kind-hearted or the security on the island is too good to use this kind of lock to lock the door.

"That depends on whether anyone pries it open..." Fang Xiang muttered, "If I were a thief, I would never pry open the door."

That's true.

Bai Jinshu twitched his lips and looked at the house where they would be living for eight days.

Compared with the bright and beautiful B&B next door, this house can only be described in one word - shabby.

Cats have much better night vision than humans. While the other three people only vaguely felt that the house was too dark without lights on compared to the other B&Bs, he had already seen the old house clearly through Huai Jiamu's eyes.

The mottled exterior walls, the somewhat rotten wooden doors, the copper bells hanging on the eaves that have been covered with rust under the moist sea breeze, and the moss vaguely visible in the corners of the house.

Some of the items are more than just keys and padlocks, and the house is obviously more old.

If he were a thief, he wouldn't steal from this house.

While I was looking around, Guan Hongyan, holding the key, had already stepped forward and opened the door.

The front door opened to a huge living room. Fang Xiang turned on the flashlight on his phone and walked a little inside: "Brother Li said the switch is on the right, I'll go turn it on."

With a few crisp sounds of power switches, the house finally lit up.

Under the bright light, the house was in far better condition than anyone had imagined.

As soon as you enter the first floor, you will see a huge living room with many modern electrical appliances, and even a TV in the middle.

Lu Changfeng turned it on and took a look out of curiosity. The TV display was normal, but probably because there was no set-top box installed, there were no programs no matter how he adjusted the TV, just a blue screen.

Apart from the TV that could not be watched, other electrical appliances were also preserved in very good condition. Although the models were a bit old, they could surprisingly be used normally after being powered on.

Brother Li said that before his neighbor left, he left him the key to the house and asked them to help take care of the old house during the holidays. Now it seems that he was right. Although the house looks a bit old and shabby on the outside, it is surprisingly clean and tidy inside.

The house has been uninhabited for many years, but there is surprisingly not much dust on the ground. It should be that Brother Li cleaned the house roughly before they came in order to let them live here temporarily.

After Fang Xiang turned on the power, he walked around the house and saw how to arrange the room for the next few days.

"There are three bedrooms here, one master bedroom, two guest bedrooms, and an empty room with two simple sofa beds. It's enough to sleep in," Fang Xiang calculated, "but it's not easy for us to sleep with so many people."

There are eight members in the exploration team, three women and five men. All the rooms are double rooms, so if two people stay together, one person will definitely be alone.

"That's easy," Guan Hongyan came out of the kitchen, not worried at all, "We can just clean up another room and turn it into two single rooms."

The house was big enough, and the owner had left more than ten years ago, so there weren't many personal belongings left inside. Many rooms were empty, and as long as the tables and bookcases were moved to the corners, another bed could be put in.

And the condition of the room was indeed much better than everyone had imagined. When they saw the exterior, they had been prepared to do a thorough cleaning after moving in, but they didn't expect that there would be nothing else to do except moving a bed.

Just then, there was a loud "grunt" sound.

Guan Hongyan: "Whose belly..."

Before she could finish her words, she suddenly looked towards the direction of Bai Jinshu's head as if facing a great enemy.

No way, no way, didn’t the leader just finish a box of tap water? How come he is hungry so soon? Is there a black hole in his stomach?

"You can't eat the electrical appliances here!" The next second, Guan Hongyan reacted quickly, slammed the table and stood up, "If you want to eat, eat the TV!"

In the whole house, except for the TV with a blue screen, other appliances such as microwave ovens and refrigerators are all practical appliances.

【TV set--】

[Small machine——]

[I haven’t had time to say goodbye to you——]

Bai Jinshu felt that his vision subconsciously turned towards the TV as Guan Hongyan spoke.

Wait, that stomach growling just now wasn’t made by Huai Jiamu, right?

At least not from above his head?

"No... No," Guan Hongyan suddenly frowned and murmured before Bai Jin could explain, "You can't eat the TV either. What if the owner comes back? This model of TV is no longer available. What can we use to compensate him..."

"Sister Guan, what are you talking about?" Fang Xiang was still confused. "Who wants to eat the TV?"

"I remember seeing some stainless steel spoons and spatulas in the kitchen cabinet just now..." Guan Hongyan ignored his doubts, looked around the house, and hurried to the kitchen. Soon, she came out holding a few spatulas, "Would you like to eat this?"

Fang Xiang:?

Fang Xiang was shocked: "Du Zhongsheng wants to eat the TV?"

The ocelot, which was lying gracefully on top of the Son of the Redemption Society, gave him a cold glance.

"Let's make a deal. Although stainless steel shovels and spoons are rare, I will ask Lu Changfeng to buy a new faucet now," Guan Hongyan said earnestly. "You really can't eat TV, and you can't eat refrigerators, nuclear bombs, or microwave ovens either."

The leopard cat turned its head and refused to cooperate.

Guan Hongyan probed: "Buy you new stainless steel pipes?"

The ocelot seemed to roll its eyes.

Guan Hongyan gritted her teeth: "A new stainless steel door for the cat cage?!"

The leopard cat stretched out its tail out of boredom and began to play with Du Zhongsheng's neck.

Guan Hongyan broke down: "A new big color TV!"

The ocelot was indifferent.

Guan Hongyan: ...I can bear it.

Isn't it just that he is picky about food? There are so many stainless steel things. If you keep asking, you will always find something that the leader is willing to eat. Who asked... who asked Chao Yougan to give the money.

"What do you want to eat?" She took a deep breath.

Does the leader ever really feel full?

In just one afternoon, He ate a cat cage door, a mouse, a scalpel, a pair of scissors, and a box of faucets. Now, less than an hour has passed, and He is already hungry again.

His stomach is a bottomless pit, but what is he taking in by eating metal...

"Sister Guan... Sister Guan, it's me..." Before she could continue thinking, Lu Changfeng, who was sitting next to Bai Jinshu, spoke weakly, "I didn't have dinner and I'm a little hungry."

It was still afternoon when they went out. They had just bought a stainless steel faucet when they were taken to rescue a cat. Now they haven't had a chance to eat a hot meal.

Guan Hongyan: ...

Guan Hongyan: "Why didn't you say so earlier?"

She raised the shovel and looked at Lu Changfeng speechlessly.

Lu Changfeng: "I didn't react..."

Guan Hongyan's series of actions were so smooth that he didn't react for a while, and only had the chance to interrupt just now.

Guan Hongyan rolled her eyes: "...You should have said earlier that you were hungry. Since you are hungry, let's move the bed first."

Bai Jinshu:?

Barrage:?

So when the leader is hungry, he can eat some food with a shovel and spoon. When Lu Changfeng is hungry, does he move the bed first?

People are not as good as cats, people are not as good as cats...

He silently took off the Huaijia wood on his head, touched the leopard cat's smooth fur, and watched the two people enter the room and start moving the desk and bookcase.

A few lines of words floated silently on the barrage:

[#Sister Yan'er bullies the weak and fears the strong#]

[It's so funny, what a sharp contrast. ]

[The leader can eat spoons and shovels, but we rice noodle rolls can only move tables. Is this the disparity in the world? ]

[You can also use a spoon or a shovel to eat rice noodle rolls. 】

【That’s not necessary. 】

…

In the unknown space, the kitchen spoons and spatulas had no idea what kind of disaster they had escaped.

When the temporary bedroom was in full swing, there were a few knocks on the door that was closed by four people: "Knock knock."

Is someone knocking on the door?

Bai Jinshu stood up from the sofa.

"Yun Guang and the others are here, right?" Guan Hongyan also heard the knock on the door and called out while moving the bookcase, "Du Zhongsheng, just open the door and let them in. Ask them if they've eaten yet. If not, we'll get together later."

Everyone had no time to eat lunch when they set out to rescue the cat. Now that Lu Changfeng said he was hungry, she belatedly realized that she also felt a little hungry.

Now the other three people in the room were moving the bookcase. Bai Jinshu did not refuse. He picked up Huai Jiamu who was lying next to the sofa with one hand, held him in his arms, and pushed open the door.

Unexpectedly, the person at the door was not Yun Guang, but a few young-looking men and women.

The first one was a literary man with half-tied hair: "Hello, hello..."

He didn't seem to expect that the person who opened the door after knocking would be like this. He froze at the door for a moment, stuttering two or three times before he finally said, "Hello... Hello, we are the residents of the B&B next door, the... the residents of the Warm B&B next door."

"The B&B next door?" Bai Jinshu looked to the side.

This street is now basically full of homestays, and there are very few houses where people actually live. The name is too common, and he doesn't remember whether he has seen it before.

"Um...we..." The arty man stuttered, "We just saw the lights next door were on, so we wanted to ask if you guys wanted to join us for a barbecue or something...we have a lot of meat on skewers tonight..."

"Tsk, let me tell you something," a girl wearing a traditional local long skirt said behind him, finally unable to bear it any longer. "Hello, we are residents of the B&B next door. We usually have barbecues and sing together in the open-air courtyard at night. Today, we prepared a lot of meat and vegetable skewers. We happened to see the lights on in this house that had been dark for several days, so we came to knock on the door and ask if you want to join us."

"Okay," Guan Hongyan walked out of the room and dusted off her hands. "How much more barbecued meat and vegetables did you prepare? We have quite a lot of people."

They had been in the unknown space for a whole day and had not had much contact with tourists. According to previous exploration experience, it was best to contact all possible clues in the early stages of exploration when no clues had been confirmed. This was a good opportunity to contact the tourist group, and Guan Hongyan immediately made up his mind.

"We still have four people who haven't come back yet. How about I ask them to bring some more meat, vegetables and beer?" She rested one hand on the door frame and spoke in a familiar manner. "By the way, my name is Guan Hongyan. How about you? Are you here for tourism? Or are you here for the cats on the island?"

"Also... also for the natural scenery here," the artistic man scratched his hair, "I'm a singer... a folk singer, and I came here to find inspiration."

"Just call me Ranran. I'm here for the cats," the girl in the local long skirt said hello to the two people behind Guan Hongyan, "Are you local residents of Haining? Are you a family?"

Her eyes moved between the four faces.

These four people don't look alike at all.

"No," Bai Jinshu adjusted the position of the leopard cat in his arms, "It's just a staff dormitory. We are also from other places and came to Haining to work."

As soon as he opened his mouth, everyone's eyes inevitably fell on him again.

To be fair, the reason why Ran Ran, the girl in a long skirt, could ask that question was inevitably because she was too eye-catching.

Guan Hongyan, Fang Cheng, and Lu Changfeng don't look alike, but there are many relatives who don't look alike. Generally speaking, if they live together, or live in an old house like this one, everyone would assume that they are relatives. But Du Zhongsheng's appearance is too outstanding.

He stood at the door holding the cat. This shabby-looking house was filled with a holy aura that came from nowhere. Even the cold white lights in the living room turned into holy light.

Such an aggressive sense of holiness would have been enough to make people want to look up and worship him uncontrollably, but what he held in his hand was not some holy relic of the church, but a leopard cat.

It was this cat that seemed to pull him back to the human world, making him suddenly seem much closer.

The same thing popped up in everyone's mind - it's understandable that the artistic guy stutters.

Anyone would stutter when facing a face like this.

*

Countless experiments have told us that humans are visual animals.

In the warm courtyard of the homestay, Guan Hongyan numbly held the beer, looked at Du Zhongsheng sitting in the middle of the crowd, and silently drank half a bottle in one breath.

She didn't use a single bottle of beer to get more information, as she drank it all by herself. Du Zhongsheng, who was supposed to be the mascot, hugged the leader and became the center of the crowd. Even though he didn't say a word, people still chased after him and performed in front of him.

As long as he put a puzzled expression on his hateful face, countless residents would come forward to help him answer their questions.

And barbecue...not to mention barbecue.

Du Zhongsheng had never grilled a skewer of food himself. Others would grill it and then take it off the skewer, dip it in sauce and pass it to him. She even saw several people fighting over the position of grilling skewers for him.

As for her, she couldn't even squeeze in.

This is the first time I've seen someone rushing to do such a strenuous job.

As for Du Zhongsheng... I don't know if he finally realized that his sect should be called a cult in human society, or if during this hour or so, he finally remembered that he was a member of an exploration team and had the task of filling in the rules and now needed to get words from the natives.

In short, it was good news that Guan Hongyan finally didn't see him talking or chopping his hands and feet again.

"Just grilled meat." Just as Du Zhongsheng was thinking about whether she had opened her eyes to the world or turned back, a skewer of grilled meat with a layer of barbecue sauce suddenly appeared in front of her. Yun Guang sat next to her with a plate in his hand. "What are you looking at?"

"Look at Du Zhongsheng," Guan Hongyan held up her chin, "He has been sitting there for an hour, and the longest sentence he has said is 'This is my cat, called the leader.' Among the twenty-one people surrounding him, the most he has said is about how he won the third place in the city competition of the Olympic Award when he was in elementary school."

As long as this person sits there, holding the cat and showing the slightest tendency to communicate, people around him will rush over to him one after another.

Guan Hongyan took the skewer and took a bite, wonderingly, "If I had known, I would have bought some wine."

Most people speak the truth when they are drunk, but Du Zhongsheng is much more effective than alcohol, so it is enough for him to sit there.

Among the crowd, Bai Jinshu himself was not surprised at this situation.

For Du Zhongsheng, this part is very familiar.

In the Redemption Society, every Saturday a group of believers would sit in a circle around the Son of God and share with each other their lives or insights from the past week, trying to convey their words to God through these people who have the closest relationship with God.

People who have lost a part of their body and are no longer healthy tend to become more paranoid and extreme. If the "Son of God" among the crowd does something that the "Son of God" should not do in this process, some not-so-good endings will often await him.

The old president of the Redemption Society was an extreme psychopath. Du Zhongsheng was already blind when he was sent here. He didn't know what that man looked like, but through the complaints of those "companions" who were once alive, he knew that he was an extremely ugly, even vicious man.

In stark contrast, according to the believers' accounts, he was an extremely gentle and loving man who treated the believers as kindly as his own family.

In short, each party held a different view, and Du Zhongsheng could not see anything. In his mind, the image of this so-called president was actually a smooth boiled egg. It was during this process that he developed a skill called "maintaining a compassionate expression no matter what he heard."

The residents sitting around him probably didn't know why they had unknowingly gathered around him and told him their own stories.

For Du Zhongsheng, this job is much safer than the sharing day in the church. After all, compared with those neurotic believers, these residents are gentle and amiable. No one will suddenly get furious just because the "Son of God" raises his eyes, and no one will suddenly attack because the "Son of God" makes an unpleasant reaction.

Bai Jinshu only sat with the leopard cat Huai Jiamu for more than an hour, but he already had complete control of the identity information of everyone in the homestay.

The literary man Zheng Feng who came to visit them was a small singer on the Internet who mainly wrote folk songs and had several thousand fans. He came here to collect folk songs, and other than that he was not very interested in cats. However, in order to take advantage of the Internet's popularity and marketing, he pretended to like cats very much.

Ranran, who was wearing the local traditional long skirt, is a rich second-generation with two older brothers and many pets at home. She came here because she had just broken up and wanted to relax in an underdeveloped, slow-paced island.

These two people are basically the two most active figures in this homestay. The literary guy likes to sing with a guitar when everyone gets together, and he has the identity of a folk singer as a buff. The rich second-generation Ranran is generous and has a good temper, so everyone has a good relationship with her.

With these two people acting as go-betweens, and with Fang Xiang and Lu Changfeng involved, Bai Jinshu was able to get a lot of information out of the B&B owner.

Similar to their judgment, all the homestays on this street were converted after Haining Island became popular. Since their old house is relatively large, it has attracted more tourists after being converted into a homestay.

Haining Island was an ordinary small mountain village before it became popular as a tourist destination. However, due to the sudden popularity of Cat Island, many old houses on the island were converted into B&Bs due to their proximity to scenic spots. On the contrary, hotels and B&Bs in the city area that are far from the beach are now deserted.

Apart from that, there seemed to be nothing strange about Haining Island. Guan Hongyan and Yun Guang came here and asked several times in different ways, but found nothing unusual. It seemed to be just an ordinary island with no rules and no strange things.

The owner of the old house next door has indeed not returned for more than ten years. It is said that the daughter of this family settled down in a big city in the inland and brought the whole family over. Since they left, the house has been empty. Usually only the cat visits, and occasionally during the holidays Li Ge and his people will come to clean.

The group stayed here with other tourists until after midnight, but did not get much useful information, as if this unknown space was indeed a holiday space.

At about one o'clock, the group yawned continuously and finally gave up on the tricks and returned to the old house.

There was no time to worry about whether to share rooms or not. Guan Hongyan, as the only high-end female team member, was qualified for a single room, while Bai Jinshu was unanimously left in a single room by the remaining four people.

Bai Jinshu was also very sleepy and fell asleep almost as soon as he hit the bed.

Folk singer Zheng Feng sings like a lullaby, no wonder he has only a few thousand fans. Everyone he sings makes them drowsy. Guan Hongyan is even more sleepy and says that this guy may have chosen the wrong track. If he doesn't say that he is a folk singer but a hypnotist singer, then according to the current level of sleep anxiety among the public, he will definitely have a million fans in the near future.

The cats in the yard became more energetic as the night went on. The later it got, the crazier they got. In the end, they even rushed and jumped around in the yard. Bai Jinshu seemed to feel that Huai Jiamu was trying to stretch out his tentacles to scare the other cats, so he quickly carried the cats back to the next room and fell asleep.

While I was half asleep, I seemed to hear some strange noises outside the window.

The watch vibrated twice. Bai Jinshu narrowed his eyes and saw two messages pop up in the temporary group chat:

Wu Meng: [There seemed to be a strange noise in the courtyard, like something was crying.]

Yu Changlin: [It felt like some kind of hoarse crying sound.]

The remaining four people in this copy were all new exploration team members. It was their first time entering the unknown space of the Foundation. Although they had an extremely easy time during the day, when they heard such strange noises at night, they couldn't help but get goose bumps.

Fang Xiang: [Don't scare me, it's not a ghost, is it? ]

Wu Meng: [I didn’t scare you. I just cried again. Listen.]

Nursery Rhyme: […Can we pretend we didn’t hear anything?]

The group was silent for a few seconds, and then a very hoarse and strange cry was heard from outside the window. Even Bai Jinshu, who was in a room far away from the courtyard, heard it.

Wu Meng: [!!!]

Nursery rhyme: [Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! ]

Fang Xiang: [Oh my god, it’s a good thing I didn’t sleep alone…]

Children's song: [Should we go wake up Sister Guan and Brother Du? In horror movies, it seems that being alone is the easiest thing to get into trouble.]

Fang Xiang: [Uh... Brother Du...]

Not to mention the cat on his head that seemed to be able to eat the TV, they didn't dare to call such a person who would chop off his hands as soon as he opened his mouth.

I feel that as a high-end team member, he is scarier than a ghost.

Yu Changlin: [Why don’t you call me Sister Guan first…]

Wu Meng: [I agree.]

Fang Xiang: [Agree +1]

Nursery Rhymes: [+2]

The four of them voted unanimously, got out of bed carefully, gathered together, and knocked on Guan Hongyan's door with flashlights.

At 3:30 in the morning, Guan Hongyan was woken up from bed yawning and listening to the "sound of ghosts crying".

Ten seconds later.

She said expressionlessly: "Do you have a cat at home?"

Four people: "Ah?"

Guan Hongyan: "This is the sound of a cat in heat."

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