Chapter 57 Black Hat
After telling the mayor about finding the child's body, the three of them went to the cannery again.
But when they arrived at the place where they saw the body yesterday, Lin Qiushi found that the place where the body should have been was empty. Only the hollowed-out tree trunk remained, telling Lin Qiushi that what they had experienced yesterday was not an illusion, but something that really happened.
Ruan Nanzhu frowned slightly when he saw this scene and was about to explain, but the mayor seemed to have expected it. He sighed and said, "In fact, we usually can't find..." No one can be found, and no body can be found. The missing child just disappeared out of thin air in the town and would never appear again, so even if the body disappeared, it was not a strange thing, and it was already a night since yesterday.
Ruan Nanzhu looked at the wooden stake and fell into deep thought.
Later, the mayor left, but Ruan Nanzhu still showed no intention of leaving. Lin Qiushi knew that he wanted to check the cannery again, so he waited quietly by the side.
"Why did this noodle man suddenly change his personality?" Ruan Nanzhu asked, "Did he really become stronger?"
Lin Qiushi shook his head, indicating that he couldn't say for sure.
"Let's go and take a look inside." Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi entered the cannery through the side door.
This cannery has been out of operation for a long time.
The machine was covered in rust. Lin Qiushi checked and confirmed that the power was out. Neither the machine nor the lighting equipment could operate.
Ruan Nanzhu's gaze lingered on the canning machine. Lin Qiushi followed his gaze but saw nothing. However, he sensed that Ruan Nanzhu had noticed something. Ruan Nanzhu walked over to the machine and said, "This machine has only been used in the past few days."
Lin Qiushi: "...Are you sure? But there's still rust on it."
Ruan Nanzhu: "I don't know what method he used." He looked around and said, "It really makes me feel uncomfortable."
It was indeed uncomfortable. As soon as Lin Qiushi came in, he felt that someone was staring at him, but he couldn't find the specific source of the gaze.
Ruan Nanzhu seemed to recall something: "What do you think will happen to the man in the hat?"
Lin Qiushi: "Maybe missing? Maybe dead?"
Ruan Nanzhu smiled when he heard this, but did not answer.
Lin Qiushi thought he was just laughing casually at the time, but when he saw the man in the top hat again in the afternoon, he finally understood what Ruan Nanzhu was laughing at.
A very strange change occurred in the man wearing the black hat.
His hands and feet began to become thin and long, and his height also began to increase. Although the facial features were still there, they gave people a very blurry feeling, even making people feel that they were a little unclear.
If someone else without any clues saw this scene, they might just find it weird and terrifying, but Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu both knew very well what the changes in the man meant - his body began to transform into a thin and tall ghost.
Its hands and feet were as soft and slender as snakes, and it grew taller and taller. Finally, its face turned white, and all its facial features seemed to be embedded in the human skin.
Such changes happened to this person within one day, which is really scary.
Lin Qiushi also saw this scene and silently looked away.
Unexpectedly, Ruan Nanzhu suddenly stood up, wiped his mouth with a tissue, and walked directly to the man in the top hat.
When the man saw Ruan Nanzhu, he didn't say anything, but raised his almost blind eyes to look at him.
Ruan Nanzhu's next move frightened Lin Qiushi. He smiled, then suddenly reached out and grabbed the black hat, pulling it hard.
"Ah!!!" A sharp cry came out of the man's mouth. Lin Qiushi was stunned. He even suspected that he had seen it wrong. The top hat was actually connected to the flesh and blood on the man's head. For the man, Ruan Nanzhu's action was like tearing an organ off his body. No wonder he let out such a shrill cry.
The man seemed to be in great pain, with anger in his eyes.
Ruan Nanzhu immediately let go of his hat and apologized calmly: "Sorry, I just think your hat is so beautiful that I couldn't help but take a closer look."
The man calmed down after being praised, and mumbled, "I... think it looks good too."
Ruan Nanzhu turned and left.
Other people in the restaurant also saw this scene, and someone finally broke free from the state of being possessed. They no longer thought that the man in the top hat was normal, and began to look at him with fear in their eyes.
The man ate and left the restaurant. Everyone looked at his back and fell into noisy whispers.
"What happened to him? How did he become like this..."
"Why did I realize something was wrong with him only now... Is he going to turn into a monster..."
"It's so scary. It's impossible to guard against it."
There were countless remarks like this, but Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu seemed very calm.
Lin Qiushi typed to Ruan Nanzhu: Why don’t we go out and take a look?
Ruan Nanzhu thought for a moment and said, "You wait here, I'll go out and take a look."
Lin Qiushi: Let’s go together.
Ruan Nanzhu reached out and pinched Lin Qiushi's face. "Just wait here, little mute girl, just listen."
Ruan Nanzhu was firm in his attitude, so Lin Qiushi had no choice but to nod to indicate his agreement.
Ruan Nanzhu stood up and walked out, probably following the man's trail.
Lin Qiushi had no appetite to eat anymore, so he stood up and prepared to return to his room. But as he reached the door, someone grabbed his arm. Lin Qiushi turned around and saw Wang Tianxin.
Wang Tianxin squinted his eyes and looked at him with a very bad look, and said: "Hey, little mute girl, your friend is not here."
Lin Qiushi had a cold expression on his face. He glanced at the restaurant, thinking about how to smooth things over after beating up Wang Tianxin.
Fortunately, before he could come up with a solution, Wang Tianxin wisely pulled Lin Qiushi and started to sneak into the corner.
Lin Qiushi pretended to be powerless as he was dragged away, and cooperated by showing a frightened and scared expression.
"Don't be afraid, this kind of thing is very interesting." Wang Tianxin smiled very evilly. He looked at Lin Qiushi's frightened expression and felt it was even more exciting.
Anyway, the person in front of him wouldn't speak, no matter what he did to her...
"Has he fucked you yet?" Wang Tianxin said, "I promise I'm better than him..." Extremely vulgar words came out of his mouth.
Lin Qiushi looked around and after making sure that there was no one around, he smiled at Wang Tianxin.
Wang Tianxin thought he was willing and was about to reach out and peel off Lin Qiushi's coat when she heard the pitiful little mute girl in front of her open her thin lips and utter, "You're so awesome! I'll kill you."
The voice belonged to a man. The moment Wang Tianxin heard it, his expression froze.
But this stagnation was only for a moment, because soon he found that he was no match for the person in front of him.
Lin Qiushi didn't often fight, but he was an adult man after all. Facing a man like Wang Tianxin whose body was hollowed out by alcohol and sex, he easily defeated him.
Wang Tianxin was beaten so badly by Lin Qiushi that his face was covered with blood, and he trembled as he was stepped on by Lin Qiushi.
Lin Qiushi said, "Didn't you say you were better than him? Is that all? You useless piece of shit, get up—"
Wang Tianxin nearly burst into tears. He had previously thought Lin Qiushi was pathetic, weak, and helpless, only to realize today that the pathetic, young, and helpless person was actually himself. He was completely no match for this mute girl before him... Ugh! This cross-dressing stunner!
Wang Tianxin said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was wrong... Brother, I was wrong!" He kept begging for mercy with a pleading face.
Lin Qiushi: "Who the hell is your brother, Wang Tianxin? Remember this: if you dare harass me again or tell anyone about what happened today, I will kill you." He bent down and whispered coldly in Wang Tianxin's ear, "Anyway, killing someone here isn't illegal."
Wang Tianxin shuddered and nodded heavily to indicate that he understood.
Lin Qiushi exhaled a breath of foul air, put her feet back together and straightened her clothes. After a moment, she turned back into the pitiful, weak little mute girl.
He glared at Wang Tianxin and turned away.
Wang Tianxin looked at his back with a dazed expression.
When Lin Qiushi returned to the restaurant, Ruan Nanzhu had already returned. Seeing him come in, she asked, "Where have you been?"
Lin Qiushi typed: Just now, Wang Tianxin tried to do something bad to me, and I beat him up.
Ruan Nanzhu looked at the words and curled his lips: "Amazing."
The looks of the others were a little subtle, and it was unclear whether they thought of some other images when they saw Lin Qiushi's slightly messy clothes.
Fortunately, there was someone in the team who couldn't stand it and carefully walked over to tell Ruan Nanzhu that Lin Qiushi had been taken away.
Ruan Nanzhu was probably in a state of excitement. After hearing this, he slammed the table and shouted angrily, "He dares to touch my people!!" Then he left the table in anger. Not long after, Wang Tianxin's ghostly howling could be heard from outside, followed by an extremely miserable plea for mercy.
Lin Qiushi took a sip of the water in front of him and pretended not to hear. A dishonest bitch like Wang Tianxin deserved to be punished.
The man in the top hat who just went out disappeared completely. He disappeared from the town in just a moment. I'm afraid he is in great danger.
Lin Qiushi had been mentally prepared for this, so he wasn't surprised. However, in the evening after the day ended, he encountered something.
At that time, Ruan Nanzhu was taking a shower in the bathroom, and Lin Qiushi was standing by the window, looking at the woods and thick fog outside.
Night had just fallen and there was still some faint light. The woods were shrouded in gloomy fog, and one could only barely see the scenery inside.
Lin Qiushi saw a tall figure appear in the depths of the fog.
The figure, at least as tall as two men, stood quietly in the sparse woods, seemingly gazing in the direction of Lin Qiushi. Its arms and legs were not of normal human proportions, but rather elongated like those of a spider. Its entire figure, framed by its slender arms, looked both tall and thin. At first glance, it resembled a withered tree.
After seeing this thing, Lin Qiushi was about to look away, but he found that it seemed to have made new moves.
It slowly approached the window, step by step, its target being exactly where Lin Qiushi was.
Lin Qiushi was startled, and his first reaction was to draw the curtains. However, when his hand touched the curtains, he felt that the texture of the curtains was wrong. These were not the curtains of a hotel.
Lin Qiushi was very surprised. He turned around, but the view of the hotel that should have appeared turned into another place - his home.
That’s right, it’s where Lin Qiushi used to live.
Same living room, same decor, same cat.
Li Zi was standing in the middle of the living room, meowing at Lin Qiushi.
This should have been a heartwarming scene, but Lin Qiushi felt a chill run down his spine. There was a person sitting in the middle of the living room sofa. They looked exactly like him, slumped over. Even though he couldn't get close and could only watch from afar, Lin Qiushi was certain they were dead.
This person, who looked exactly like him, had been dead for a long time. Over time, his skin had begun to swell, and green liquid had seeped out from his body. Li Zi jumped onto the corpse, rubbing against it and meowing, trying to wake his master.
But how could a dead person wake up? So Li Zi began to bite Lin Qiushi's face. It seemed to want to use the pain to wake its master, but it couldn't control its strength and gnawed a hole in the corpse until the bones were exposed.
Lin Qiushi knew what this was; it was something he feared deep in his heart.
He was afraid of dying alone. He was afraid that even if he died at home, no one would find out that he was dead.
His body was not discovered until a week or even a month later, after neighbors smelled the stench of a rotting corpse.
Seeing one's own corpse being gnawed by a cat wasn't a pleasant experience. But Lin Qiushi quickly pulled himself out of the scene. He recalled the clues about the noodle men; these monsters seemed adept at exploiting human fear.
It knows what humans fear the most. What they fear is not ghosts, but the hidden meaning behind ghosts... death.
Few people are not afraid of death, and Lin Qiushi is no exception.
But the scene behind him couldn't touch the deepest part of Lin Qiushi's heart. He turned around, looked at the shadow standing outside the window, and said softly, "Sorry, should I tell you that I've moved?"
The ghost stopped.
Lin Qiushi said, "I have a lot of friends around me now. If I die, they will definitely find out." He thought for a moment and added, "Maybe if we call 120, we can still get him saved."
The ghost stood quietly in front of Lin Qiushi. Although the face without facial features was covered by mist, it gave Lin Qiushi the feeling of being stared at.
"So I'm not really scared." Lin Qiushi's tone was calm, not trying to force composure. "How about you find someone else to scare?"
"Bang." Something fell from the treetop. Lin Qiushi looked closely and found that it was a black top hat.
When he saw the top hat, he immediately thought of the man wearing a hat in their team...that man looked to be in great danger.
The ghost slowly bent down and picked up the top hat.
Lin Qiushi had originally thought he would turn and leave, but who knew he would actually hold his hat in his hand and bow to Lin Qiushi—a gentleman's salute. Then he turned around and disappeared into the mist.
Lin Qiushi stared at his back, his expression dazed. Then, a pair of hands patted his shoulders. He shuddered with fear and turned to see Ruan Nanzhu.
"What are you looking at?" Ruan Nanzhu asked him.
Lin Qiushi pointed to the woods in front of him and said, "I just saw that thing."
Ruan Nanzhu raised an eyebrow: "Noodle man?"
Lin Qiushi nodded: "I saw the illusion he created."
Ruan Nanzhu said, "What illusion?"
Lin Qiushi said, "I died at home. A cat bit my face." His tone was indifferent, as if he was describing a story that had nothing to do with him. "Now that I think about it, Li Zi despised me so much. I don't know if she would be willing..."
Ruan Nanzhu: "..." He felt despair at how much of a cat slave Lin Qiushi was.
But no matter what the process was, Lin Qiushi was not bewitched by it. He guessed that if he was bewitched, then he would be the next person to wear a top hat.
"Nanzhu, what are you most afraid of?" Lin Qiushi asked him.
Ruan Nanzhu said: "I'm not afraid of anything."
Lin Qiushi: "Really?"
Ruan Nanzhu smiled, entwined his fingers with Lin Qiushi's black hair, and gently stroked it with his fingertips. His voice was low and deep, "Really. I'm the same as you." His tone was firm, and he didn't sound arrogant at all.
Lin Qiushi also believed it.
"I noticed it when I passed the first door," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Lin Qiushi, you're actually...very suitable for this place."
Lin Qiushi raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Literally, your ability to adapt is very good." It can even be said to be too good. After Ruan Nanzhu went out to investigate and found out that this was indeed Lin Qiushi's first time entering the sect, he knew that Lin Qiushi was a person who was very compatible with the world inside the sect. Finding such a person is not an easy task.
Ruan Nanzhu thought casually that fortunately he was lucky enough.
The night passed like this, without wind or rain, quiet and peaceful.
The next day, only eleven people showed up in the restaurant - two more disappeared that night.
The two missing people are both girls. It is said that they were fine before going to bed last night, but when they woke up, they were gone.
The people who shared the room with her said someone had been in their room and that the window facing the woods had been opened.
"She must have been taken away by that thing," someone said. "She's in great danger."
The others didn't say anything, but they were thinking the same thing as this person.
Lin Qiushi thought of the ghost that had appeared outside his window the previous night. He didn't want to speculate what would have happened if he hadn't calmly rejected the illusion. Would he have suddenly vanished into the silent night like that girl?
Before Lin Qiushi could come up with an answer, they made an even worse discovery—another child was missing.
"There are only eight children in this town," Ruan Nanzhu said. "I think the missing members of our team have some connection to these children."
Lin Qiushi agreed. He said, "Why don't we go look for the remaining children and see if there are any clues?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "I want to go to the cannery again." The two looked at each other for a moment, and then they had an answer, "Split into two groups?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "That's fine, but it would be inconvenient if you can't speak."
Lin Qiushi didn't think it mattered: "Just bring your phone."
Ruan Nanzhu: "Okay, if you can't find anything, go back to the restaurant and we'll meet there."
Lin Qiushi nodded.
Then the two parted ways on the street and went to their respective places.
Lin Qiushi went to a shabby grocery store in the town. It was said that the owner's son was a seven-year-old boy. After he arrived there and explained his purpose, the owner's attitude was very resistant.
“My son doesn’t see strangers right now,” the boss said. “I’m not sure you can guarantee his safety.”
Lin Qiushi patiently advised, "I understand what you mean, but you have to know that thing is getting stronger and stronger. If we don't find its nest and eliminate it soon, your son might be the next to go missing." Other children were also hidden at home, but they also disappeared.
When the boss saw these words, his attitude softened slightly.
After Lin Qiushi persuaded for a long time, the boss finally agreed to let Lin Qiushi talk to his son, but not for too long.
Lin Qiushi breathed a sigh of relief. After entering the house, he saw a little boy sitting on the sofa with his head down playing games.
Lin Qiushi walked up to him and greeted him on his cell phone.
The little boy glanced at him and seemed reluctant to speak. He answered Lin Qiushi's questions in a disjointed manner until... Lin Qiushi mentioned the hat.
"Hat, are you talking about that black top hat?" The child's expression showed a hint of fear. He seemed to have thought of something and swallowed hard. "I think I've seen it before..."
Lin Qiushi’s eyes lit up: Have you seen it?
The child's eyes moved to the stairs in fear.
According to the owner, the building has two floors. The first floor is used to sell groceries, and the second floor is where the family lives. The boy's room is on the second floor.
"I've seen..." The thing was hanging at the corner of the stairs. The little boy was trembling all over and his words were intermittent and illogical, but Lin Qiushi at least understood what he meant. The little boy said: A dozen days ago, a black top hat suddenly appeared upstairs in his house. No one thought there was anything wrong with the top hat, so they just left it upstairs and no one cared about it.
Lin Qiushi: The top hat is upstairs? Can you take me there?
The little boy hesitated for a moment and then nodded.
Lin Qiushi and the little boy walked toward the stairs together. They climbed straight up and soon saw the second floor and the black hat the little boy had mentioned hanging in the corner. The moment he saw the hat, Lin Qiushi suddenly felt something was wrong. He paused, his expression filled with suspicion. "Are you saying this hat has been at your house for over ten days? You... haven't encountered anything else strange besides this hat?" He didn't believe the slender figure had the patience to wait quietly in the little boy's house for over ten days.
The child also stopped and turned his head expressionlessly to look at Lin Qiushi.
Lin Qiushi was startled by his expression. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the little boy tilt his head, and then his head fell straight to the ground.
Even though Lin Qiushi had encountered many such scenes before, he was still frightened to the point of choking. The child's head rolled all the way downstairs. Lin Qiushi looked at the top hat again and saw a pale arm extending from it.
The pale hand stretched longer and longer, as if searching for something. It finally located Lin Qiushi and ran towards him.
Lin Qiushi turned around and ran wildly, almost being caught by the hand. He rushed downstairs and saw the head that had rolled down the stairs. It was standing on the ground, grinning at him with a bright smile.
Lin Qiushi: “…” Damn, your head is about to fall off, yet you’re still laughing so happily, are you brainless?!
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