Many sides
A very strange picture flashed through my mind at this moment.
I seemed to be in very deep water and walked into a door.
A very kind old woman led the way for me. Her long shawl and cloud-shaped shoulders rustled with her movements, and countless long black hair extended from her shoulders and under her clothes.
The strange thing was that I seemed to be walking alone at this time, and I seemed to hear the voice of my companion talking to me, but I never uttered a sound in response.
As we talked, the black hair grew longer and longer until it reached my feet. Then, I heard a faint blowing sound.
No, that's not right, it's not the sound of blowing, it's several very small voices mumbling something at the same time. But because they were speaking very quickly and vaguely, at that frequency, it became a buzzing sound similar to the vibration of insect wings.
I tried hard to distinguish, but I only heard a voice that sounded like someone who had suddenly realized something, saying softly: "So... I am, me?" The voice only lasted for a moment, and was drowned out by another crazy laugh that was shouting that it was going to rain, and above that was an extremely shrill and helpless cat's cry.
But the source of the sound was so strange, very close and in the wrong position, as if it was sticking to my back.
I subconsciously turned around to look for the source of the sound, but my shoulders suddenly felt heavy and someone held me down.
Then, a pungent fishy smell immediately woke me up.
At this moment, I discovered that the miniature banyan tree on the human head had completely turned into a pool of black water, and the fishy smell was coming from above.
The hand that was pressing on my shoulder loosened, and Brother Zhang smiled: "You can vomit now."
My throat became dry, my entire neck ached, and my stomach felt bitter.
Trying hard to hold back the acid reflux, I waved my hand to tell everyone to leave me alone, and went to the side to get some fresh air to relieve myself.
They continued to check. The team leader picked it up again and asked with a frown, "Is this thing meat or vegetarian?"
I almost felt sick because of this sentence. Brother Zhang said calmly: "It depends on whether people eat it or it eats people. However, nothing is absolute, there are carnivorous plants."
At this time, the tour guide said nothing, turned around and was about to leave. My eyelids jumped, and I saw three guys silently blocking her way.
She was furious: "You paid me to be your tour guide, not my life."
Brother Zhang had always asked her questions without saying anything. Now he looked at her and suddenly smiled, "Have you ever thought about this? How did your tourist sneak back with the money?"
The tour guide said coldly: "I'm just a tour guide, it's none of my business."
"Yeah, yeah, that's right. A wise move." He waved goodbye to her, lowered his head and flicked the shrunken head again, and sighed.
"I remember there were children in that car. They shouldn't have followed the adults in making trouble. But... the people in your car smell much more earthy than us. Why did they bring a child with them?"
The tour guide stopped in his tracks, opened his eyes wide, and his expression suddenly became very fierce.
I thought to myself, this is bad. I'm afraid that child is the only one who is not a tourist.
Looking at the tour guide's age, I was a little horrified: "Is that your daughter or niece?"
She bit her back teeth hard and started to unbutton her clothes. This action was very fast, and I subconsciously wanted to use my coat to block her, but I saw a small bottle hanging on her neck after she opened her collar.
Inside was a translucent object that looked like a dried jellyfish, with a tiny black dot in the middle.
It can be seen that she has taken very good care of this thing. There is even a layer of patina on the outside of the bottle from frequent rubbing.
What's this?
"The company told us that we must carry a seed with us when we lead a tour." The tour guide stared at the bottle for a while, then placed it solemnly in my hand, "Please, Ruirui is only five years old. If something happens to her..." He was choking up before he finished his words.
"I was hired by the company more than half a year ago. The driver, Lao Zhao, is a son-in-law of my aunt from the same hometown. At that time... at that time, he asked me if I was willing to change jobs and take this job. Although it is hard work, it allows me to take Ruirui with me in the car all the time, and he can also help me look after the child in the car when I lead a tour."
The tour guide paused, and this time his tone was full of resentful sneer.
"After I came here, the company has provided us with training and physical examinations many times, and the treatment is really good. This route is rotated among our tour guides. Every once in a while, there are always tourists coming to fill up the bus. Every time I come here by company bus, the bus stops at the entrance of the valley. I don't know where Lao Zhao picked up the people from."
“What is the focus of your training regarding the Valley?”
She was silent for a moment, a little uneasy, and insisted that I hold the bottle first, then she said with difficulty: "Company regulations, first, do not ask about the identity of tourists; second, do not deviate from the mountain road and scenic spots; third, you must go to the homestay and the lake."
"That's all? Any details?"
"there is none left."
I was lost in thought.
Strangely, the regulations did not mention the small bottle that must be kept with you, nor did they mention the roadside statues and shrines that the tour guide mentioned. There was no mention of tourist safety either.
Especially now that I see this kind of ghost place is actually a man-made landscape, I always feel that if that's the case, those shrines are not just randomly put together.
Why is that not in the regulations?
Can't be mentioned? Are they really insignificant? Or are these things bound to be followed and don't need to be emphasized?
Seeing me in deep thought, the tour guide seemed to have a dry mouth. He swallowed subconsciously and his Adam's apple moved.
It was obvious that she was trying hard to recall. Sure enough, she recited a few more sentences silently and added:
"There is no set introduction for the shrine, corridor, or guesthouse. No one asked us about it along the way. The company just let us do whatever we want."
"—but about the lake."
"The introduction to the lake is set in stone and cannot be changed a single word. But the content has always seemed strange to me."
"No, to be precise, it's not about the lake. It's about..." She paused, seemed to be even thirstier, and unscrewed the bottle of mineral water that she had just used to rinse her mouth and took a small sip.
After drinking the water, her expression eased a little, she fell into memories, and tried to get into the working state of a tour guide, introducing us with almost emotion:
“——”
For no apparent reason, my whole body tensed up.
There was a sudden buzzing in my ears, and the dizziness caused by the severe tinnitus covered my entire body from top to bottom.
The tour guide's mouth was opening and closing, but strangely, I couldn't seem to hear what she said.
All you can see is the passion and concentration on her work on her face, which seems to be filled with a smile.
But there were only fragmentary words, which I could roughly piece together by reading lips. The meaning was completely chaotic and illogical.
"Lakes... aquatic plants, animals, sponges and comb jellies... rainfall greater than 5 mm..."
"...Please don't...banyan tree"
"Gray, tall, slender... with branches and roots... cilia..."
"…and wish for…protection."
My whole body was shaking, my vision was flickering, and everything and every sound was flashing.
Her speech suddenly became clear and fluent, and it was a seemingly normal science popularization. She said:
"Sponges and comb jellies are carnivorous and gregarious creatures. They have a very high demand for food. Please provide them with enough food regularly. Cilia belong to sponges and comb jellies."
She took another sip of water.
A creepy feeling suddenly came over me.
No, I almost blurted out, and said sternly: "Don't drink it!"
She felt someone move next to her. It was Brother Zhang who suddenly came in front of her, asked her to lean forward, and hit her abdomen with his fist to make her vomit.
The shaking of the vision suddenly stopped, and all the colors and sounds returned.
I looked at her blankly, then looked around and found that everyone else was suddenly freed from their stillness. There was an extremely obvious and dizzying sense of stagnation that made me feel nauseous again.
But at this moment, I noticed that the tour guide's originally unhealthy complexion became very rosy.
An unprecedented chill swept over my body, chilling my bones.
Because at this time, the tour guide was rapidly aging and getting thinner, and her face was suddenly covered with fine lines, and it seemed as if something was crawling under the fine lines. This made her face become extremely unfamiliar in an instant, but it overlapped with a certain picture in my memory.
Because of the extremely short shrinkage, the skin on her body became extremely loose, and it slipped down, layer by layer, and fell together, like some kind of complicated cross collar.
Her expression suddenly became peaceful.
I froze as I watched her take a step forward. Her old, spotted hands stretched out toward me, with strands of hair-like things under her fingernails.
The tour guide spoke in a professional and skilled tone, smiling, and said in an ancient way: "The immortal touched my head, tied my hair, and granted me immortality."
The last sound of the second half turned into an extremely hoarse and chaotic buzzing sound.
Before it touched my head, the hand stopped, and then my whole body, like a brocade shawl, floated in the air, and countless tiny milky white things that looked like insect eggs or dandelions disappeared into the wind.
"clatter."
Only a head that seemed to have rotted for many days rolled to the ground, covered with gravel along the way, and finally rolled into a haystack where the harvested grass was piled up.
The air is filled with only the fresh fragrance of lush vegetation.
That huge, pale face is still visible in my field of vision.
An image that I thought was an illusion but couldn't understand the meaning of appeared again, this time it was clearer.
I looked at myself, no, it was more like my perspective was parasitic on Gao Liu. In a deep boulder, I found an old woman. The face that crawled out of the bluestone was exactly the same as the female tour guide who had changed at this time.
The picture of a woman opening the door, I murmured in my mind.
You can trust Zhang Tianyi, go in and walk into the wall. I said to Gao Liu again.
But the next scene was split into two.
Half of it is the vision of a senior high school student.
She was fleeing with a group of kind strangers, and the woman who looked like a tour guide was holding her hand very gently, almost affectionately. There were also a few young people who seemed confused about the situation and were making jokes on the side.
Zhou Tingmao was also there, staring blankly in silence, only occasionally making a vague response that was incoherent.
The other half of the vision is my own.
It was very strange and I shuddered, as if in that scene, I was a player, and Gao Liu, who was unfortunately parasitized by me, was the poor little character in the game.
In my field of vision, there was only a huge object protected by countless tree roots.
She, no, He, was very fairy-like, wearing gorgeous and extremely clean robes with long loose hems.
Under its transparent chest, Gao Liu was sleeping in pain. Countless pale and huge human faces were surging around it, touching each other up and down, as if kissing her forehead lovingly.
One of the faces was screaming violently. It was Zhou Tingmao, whose skin had been peeled off and whose limbs were bent backwards.
He screamed in pain, "Make a wish..."
In an instant, as if she had finally found an anchor in the deep water, the "Fairy Concubine" suddenly emerged from the deep dive. Her green robe, which had originally been in the dark deep water, suddenly changed and turned into a bright red.
It's like an extremely gorgeous blood-red wedding dress that can satisfy all desires and fantasies.
The huge pale face, dragging a bloody wedding dress, suddenly broke through the water and pounced over.
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