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"Hehe..." The little boy laughed twice, which made Ruan Jiyan's heart tremble.

"Them, who else?" Ruan Ji Yan was frightened by the child unconsciously. Her voice was trembling a little, but she tried to be calm and asked him gently.

The little boy's smiling face suddenly changed, his eyes became cold, as if he regarded Ruan Jiyan as an enemy. His head was slightly lowered, but his eyes were looking up at Ruan Jiyan.

Ruan Jiyan took two steps back, watching the boy suddenly look fierce, wondering what was wrong with him. He wanted to ask him again, but the boy ran away in panic as if he had seen something scary.

"Ruan Jiyan!" Yang Si called out to Ruan Jiyan who was about to run after the little boy not far away in front of the house.

Ruan Jiyan stopped helplessly, turned around and looked at Yang Si with a questioning look on his face.

"Although he is a child, he is also an NPC. You really dare to play in the mud with him. Aren't you afraid of what he will do to you in the next second?" Yang Si said, looking at the impatience on her face.

Seeing that Ruan Ji Yan didn't say anything, she gave another instruction: "In the copy, except for the few people who entered the game together, don't mess with other people easily." Maybe she would die at any time without knowing why.

Ruan Jiyan stared at the place where the little boy disappeared, still wondering who the child was talking about. After hearing what she said, he remembered that he should not act too aggressively, otherwise it would be troublesome if they suspected him.

So she didn't dwell on what the little boy had just said, and thought of finding a chance to ask again.

Several people searched inside and outside the house and around it, but couldn't find the key that could open the door.

Yang Si glanced at the four boys coldly, and then said impatiently: "I told you that you could just open the door with one palm, but you had to spend time looking for it, and now you haven't found a single hair!"

Everyone knows that she has a bad temper, and her attack power is considered strong among the players. So what if she has a bad temper? Everyone will just say that she has personality.

But they still stopped her, and this time it was Ruan Jiyan who spoke up: "Don't be impulsive, what if you really overturn the house with one palm?"

Yang Si rolled her eyes at her unhappily, then when she saw that several people were looking at her with the same look, she reluctantly rolled her eyes and withdrew her hand.

Afterwards, they searched for a while, and Ruan Ji consciously walked over to the place where the little boy had not finished playing with the mud and squatted down.

The pile of mud that he got wet from somewhere had already solidified a little, and there were three bowl-shaped and three little man-shaped mud piled on the ground.

Then there was a piece of unfinished clay with an imprint that looked like an old-fashioned copper key.

Ruan Jiyan took a closer look and the more he looked, the more he felt that the mark looked like the key they were looking for.

It was unclear whether the child left it there accidentally or on purpose, and Ruan Jiyan could only follow his lead.

"I think we still need the help of that child." She stood up and said with her back to the group.

A few people who were originally looking melancholy saw her observing something and hurried over to take a look.

Ruan Jiyan pointed at the piece of soil and said, "This key pattern should be the key pattern of the copper lock on the door. Maybe this child knows something."

No one thought too much about it and simply thought that maybe the child took the key to play with it.

Then they prepared to find the child first, but two people had to guard here.

Yang Si raised her hand first: "I'll stay here and guard it, you guys go ahead." She felt that they were a little suspicious, and she also didn't like that weird kid, so she finally decided to guard here. If anything happened, she could just slam the door open.

Ruan Jiyan turned around and looked at her with a firm gaze. She felt that the child must know something.

Finally, Ruan Jiyan and three boys went to find the child, while Yang Si and another boy of a higher level stayed there and waited.

They walked all the way out, even going some distance outside the village.

But the child was never seen, the doors of other houses in the village were closed, and there was no one on the roadside.

Just now I saw the child's figure sneaking all the way here, and in the blink of an eye he disappeared.

The three boys were a little suspicious and asked Ruan Jiyan in a bad tone: "Are you sure that the child ran over here? Are you sure you saw him wrong?"

Although it is daytime now, the sky is still gray and a little dark.

The already strange village looked even more eerie in such an environment. Several people followed behind Ruan Jiyan and did not dare to take the lead.

Ruan Jiyan did not respond to them, but stared straight ahead, then ran forward.

Not far ahead there is a very thick mountain banyan tree with many roots exposed on the surface. The plate-like roots inside and outside the soil are also very large, almost as wide as a bench.

The tree is very thick and big, and it must be nearly a hundred years old. There are many green vines hanging down from the branches, bending one by one, like a swing or a rope for hanging.

A few people walked slowly to the tree with some caution, and saw a lump of soil on the plank-like roots.

Ruan Jiyan bent down to pick up the lump of soil, and heard a childish but cold voice behind him: "What are you doing?"

The four of them were startled and turned around to find that the child who was talking was the one they had been looking for.

The little boy walked silently, but he suddenly spoke behind them, which really scared them.

In the period of time since he left, the little boy's face has turned much paler. A boy next to Ruan Jiyan thought that the four of them scared him.

So he put on a smile that he thought was very kind, squatted down and said to him: "Little friend, we are looking for you. We want to ask if you saw a key when you were playing in the mud just now."

There was no expression on the child's slightly pale face, as if he didn't hear what they said, and his eyes were staring blankly at a certain place.

Ruan Jiyan saw that he was holding a piece of mud in his hand, so he squatted down and came to his side, and asked in a gentle voice: "What is that piece of mud in your hand?"

The mud was long and thin in shape, and he was holding it tightly, but no one knew what was in it.

The little boy heard it this time, and opened his tightly clenched hands to reveal the mud inside. There was something wrapped in the mud, not tightly wrapped, with a corner of it slightly exposed.

Ruan Jiyan carefully took the piece of mud from his hand, observing his expression at the same time, and only skimmed the mud away after seeing that he had no reaction.

Without the cover of mud, the key appeared in the sight of several people.

The two boys standing behind him were somewhat happy, but the next second Ruan Jiyan returned the key to the little boy.

She ignored the two boys' unhappy voices behind her and patiently asked the little boy, "Would you like to give this key to your sister? Your sister needs its help."

The little boy gripped the key again and stared at them warily.

Seeing that the little boy was unwilling, Ruan Jiyan asked again: "Then how can you give it to your sister?"

He really started to think about it, and finally he suddenly laughed and said, "Sister, bring me a new toy in exchange, and I'll give it to you."

He smiled happily, but in Ruan Jiyan's eyes there was some horror, as if there was some calculation in the little man's eyes.

Ruan Jiyan was a little flustered, and quickly agreed and prepared to leave.

Before leaving, the little boy called her back, "Sister, you can come to Granny Huang's house to find me."

She was really frightened by the child's sudden change in expression and demeanor, and she left quickly.

…

When the four of them came back, they saw Yang Si sitting in front of the door with a look of despair, and another boy was rubbing the mud that had not yet completely solidified at the place where the children had played with it before.

Seeing the four of them, the two seemed to come alive, and asked with a hint of anticipation on their faces: "Have you found it? Does the child know?"

"We have to find something else to exchange with him." The boy behind Ruan Jiyan said dejectedly.

Yang Si glanced at the four people and said speechlessly, "What does he want?"

"I want a toy."

To put it bluntly, that kid is also an NPC. Even if they don't want to waste time with him, they still have to complete the tasks issued by the NPC.

So several people began to divide the work and cooperate again.

This time Yang Si decided to go with them to complete the mission. It was too boring to stay here, so two boys took over to guard here.

They went to the only grocery store in the village and found that there were not many toys, but there were a lot of candies. Yang Si exchanged two life points for a bag of red and green candies.

"If we don't have the toy he wants in the end, just give him this one. If that doesn't work, just do it yourself!" she said irritably.

After buying the candies, they asked the canteen owner where they could buy toys for the children.

The boss just shook his head apologetically and said, "We don't sell any special toys here. The kids just catch crickets on the ground and make butterflies out of straw. They can play like this all day long!"

Several people were enlightened by their boss. Yes, if there are no conditions, they can create them.

The six of them walked towards the entrance of the village. There wasn't much tall grass in the village, and the front of each house was kept very clean.

They planned to walk a little outside to see if there were any crickets in the land where the grass grew better.

Sure enough, it was not too late and the sound of insects chirping could be heard from the weeds by the roadside.

Two boys walked into the grass first and looked for insects in the dim light.

Crickets are not that easy to catch. The two boys tried for a long time but didn't catch any. One of the boys looked up and saw a few dirty empty bowls on the road. He went up and took one without hesitation.

He took a palm-sized porcelain bowl and started to cover the ground with it. It took him several tries before he finally caught one.

None of them had the skill to weave grass, so they tried hard to catch a few insects, stuck a few small sticks into the insects, and held them up to go find the little boy.

The boy casually threw the bowl he had just borrowed over, and the crisp sound made by the collision of several bowls was particularly loud.

As the sky gradually darkened, they walked all the way to Granny Huang's house, hoping to get the key before it got completely dark.

According to the system prompt, Granny Huang's house was at the other edge of the village, but when they groped their way there, they didn't see anyone.

Granny Huang's house doesn't have a front door, so you can just walk in.

Once someone breaks into a house, there will be another one. The men hesitated outside for less than a few seconds and then went straight into the house.

This place is also very run-down, and at first glance it looks like no one has lived here for a long time.

However, there were much more things here than in that house. When Ruan Jiyan entered the inner room, he saw a book placed on the kang. The cover of the book had turned yellow, but when he turned to the latest chapter, he could still smell the fresh scent of ink, which meant that the things written on it were not very long ago.

Ruan Jiyan flipped through it and looked at the rows of words on it.

It read: The old lady of the Huang family passed away at dusk in the year... She had no children, only one... child... who was... in the back hills...

Some of the words were blurred by the ink and could not be seen clearly. Only a few words could be seen intermittently.

The old lady of the Huang family, is she the grandma Huang mentioned by the child? But the old lady of the Huang family has died a long time ago. What is the relationship between the child and her? Why did they come here?

She flipped through a few pages and found that a few words on each page were blurred by the ink and could not be seen clearly, and the words "Hou Shan" appeared on every page.

So she suspected that perhaps the child asked them to come to Granny Huang's house not because he wanted them to find him, but because he wanted them to see some clues and go to the back mountain.

Not knowing whether his guess was correct or not, Ruan Jiyan did not say it directly, but just showed them the book in his hand.

After watching it, several people had the same idea as her and wanted to go to the back mountain to find out what was going on.

Just like that, they started running towards the back mountain again.

The road to the back mountain is outside the village. The fork in the road they encountered when they first came in that day, the one going up is the road to the back mountain.

After they left the village, they saw the ruined temple and went straight to the back mountain without stopping.

I didn't feel anything at first when I was a little lower down, but the further I went up the mountain, the more foggy it became, and there was a faint blue light in the fog that came from nowhere.

Looking in the light, there seemed to be someone in the fog, and the four people began to feel a little timid.

Yang Si bravely walked forward, putting his hands on his chest as if to attack, and took one step at a time.

Finally, the fog gradually faded and became clearer. The person in the fog did not come out as imagined. Instead, a bunch of graves and dummies appeared in front of me.

The four of them were stunned. They felt a chill in their hearts and began to get scared.

"Fuck, is this their prank? This is too scary!" a boy cursed in a trembling voice.

Perhaps it was due to the psychological feelings of a few people, the cemetery was particularly gloomy and the wind was biting.

Yang Si was also frightened. He glanced around randomly and prepared to go back. "This is just a grave. What hidden mission is there? It's all our own imagination. Let's go quickly. It's not good to stay here for too long."

Indeed, no matter what, they became more and more frightened staying in this desolate cemetery in the dark night, and several people agreed to leave here first.

"elder sister……"

Hearing a voice from behind, Ruan Jiyan turned around abruptly and saw the little boy standing in front of a grave, looking at them with a smile.

"Wow!" A boy jumped up in fright and quickly hid behind several people.

Not only were they startled, but several players in the cloud broadcast room were also startled.

[Oh my god, this is Midnight Horror, it's so scary!]

[Why is this kid here?]

[No, there is something wrong with this little boy. He is not afraid at all when he is alone in the wilderness!]

[I always feel that he is weird. A few adults would be a little scared in a place like this at night, but he is like waiting for friends to come to his house.]

[Don't talk nonsense upstairs, this is not his home, what if the child doesn't understand these things and is just here for fun.]

He was comforting himself in the cloud broadcast room, but those words did not comfort the people in the game at all.

The little boy was still staring at Ruan Jiyan, with the key in his hand.

Ruan Jiyan tried hard to suppress the fear in his heart, slowly walked towards him, and then stretched out his hand.

A few dead crickets strung together with a straw rope were handed to him. The little boy's pale face first showed a hint of surprise, then changed into a sinister smile and handed the key to Ruan Jiyan.

Ruan Jiyan stood up and kindly asked the little boy, "Why are you here? Do you want to go down the mountain with us?"

Then he was stunned for a moment, shook his head with a sinister smile, and just stood there watching several people leave.