Ning Que stood in a cloud of black fog, with only a winding path before him, illuminating with fireflies, its end in sight. Then, a mournful, yet strangely joyful, melody drifted towards him from the end of the path.
Although Ning Que had never heard of this song, he had an inexplicable premonition in his heart that this song was - joyful, and it was almost certain that it was not something from the mortal world.
A red and white sedan chair floated over, with four people playing suona in the front and a total of eight sedan bearers. There were also two rows of maids on the left and right sides, each holding a lantern. The candlelight in the lantern was bright red and hung motionless in the air, like bleeding eyes.
My heart was beating wildly. It was obvious that this thing was not a good thing, but my limbs were stiff and my body was out of my control and stiff.
Two maids and a matchmaker appeared from nowhere. The mole on the corner of the matchmaker's mouth clearly revealed their identities. Their faces were pale and nothing could be seen.
Two maids held Ning Que's arms and floated him into the sedan chair. Although he tried hard to bend his body and not go in, it was of no use.
"Lift the sedan chair!" the matchmaker's sharp voice echoed in his ears. Ning Que could only see two distinct blushes on the faces of the two maids in the sedan chair; nothing else was visible. They clung to a corner, their bodies twitching faintly as the sedan moved.
I don’t know how long it took, but it should have been a short while, Ning Que was helped down as if he was sleepwalking. No, the word hijacked would be more appropriate.
Ahead lay a village, dammed by a deadly silent river, with a single stone bridge spanning the middle. Black mist swirled across the river, wisps of it lingering everywhere. The village seemed shrouded in a black veil, a solemn and dignified atmosphere, filled with a sense of deep remorse and chill. I didn't know why I felt that way.
Ning Que's hands and feet gradually warmed up, and he immediately broke free and started running back the way he came. The crowd behind him was still dead silent, but he could hear faint sounds.
My steps became heavier and heavier, my throat began to burn, and when I turned around, I saw a big face with dead fish eyes and overly red lips and cheeks. I was so scared that I almost had a cardiac arrest.
The matchmaker appeared from nowhere again, throwing out a red embroidered handkerchief embroidered with intertwined flowers and birds and a dark mass of something unknown. The handkerchief spun larger and larger, finally pressing down on Ning Que's head like a thick quilt.
Two pairs of pale and cold hands clamped Ning Que's arms like two pieces of iron, and they returned to the river again. At this time, red candles were floating on the river, and the originally silent village was lit up with lights like a sky full of fire. It was completely different from before, with a vibrant atmosphere of fireworks.
Ning Que watched himself drift across the stone bridge like a dying man in a funeral procession. The entire village was like a beast's mouth with its mouth wide open, waiting for food to be served.
The thick veil still carried a strange smell of dust and fishy odor, but Ning Que could still see the scene outside for some reason. In the bright lights, the bleak and thin shadows of the trees were dim, casting a shadow on the ground.
There was a long procession but not a trace of anger. Everything was quiet, with only a strange joy floating in this silent village.
The buildings in the village are all one or two stories high. The tallest one is a three-story tower in the middle. Red lanterns are hung on the eaves of all six sides, but there is no trace of joy.
Walking along the avenue towards the tower, the doors of every household were wide open. Looking inside, there was nothing but a cloud of black fog and a few red lanterns, like fireflies in the eye sockets of a skull.
The road went down, the bluestone slabs were wet, reflecting a faint cold light, and suddenly stopped in front of a wall. The wall, which was two people high, was particularly abrupt in this village.
As the cold wind blew, the two doors that emitted a strong smell of rust creaked, and an old man in red clothes came out with a cane, and said something to the matchmaker.
Ning Que was carried in. What impressed him most was the well in the center of the tower. It was a neat hexagon with moss growing all over the edges. There was also a string of bells hanging next to it. The bells were covered with rust and moved silently, which looked very strange.
In a blink of an eye, I found myself sitting in a house, unable to see anything. Then a man's shoes appeared in front of me, and my veil was lifted up.
He was wearing a black robe with gold threads hidden in it, and a jade pendant hung around his waist. He looked very familiar. He bent down and leaned his shoulder against Ning Que's, then tilted his head slightly.
Ning Que felt a slight chill on his neck, and suddenly an idea came to his mind: He wants to eat me!
In order to protect himself, Ning Que immediately bit back, and with a tilt of his head, he took off a piece of flesh. Then he felt a warm sensation on his neck, and he couldn't breathe, and woke up suddenly.
I saw Dandan covering his face and crying loudly in front of his bed.
Ning Que scratched his head, intending to coax him first, but found that Dandan backed away desperately when he saw her. After a long time, when she put her hand down, she found a bright tooth mark on his right cheek.
"I told you not to come into my room casually. You deserved to be bitten by me!" Ning Que was complaining for a while when he suddenly noticed that he was holding a jade pendant in his hand. It turned out that she had put it in her pocket before going to bed.
"Dandan, give me back what's in your hand. It's very dangerous." Ning Que immediately got out of bed and grabbed Dandan. Before he could finish his words, he heard a mechanical voice in his mind, "Begin."
So, Ning Que appeared on a small path holding Dandan. He looked at the green path and then at the child in his arms in a daze.
This, this,..., what should I do if I carry an unidentified object?
"Uh, uh, you should be called Ning Huo, you are prone to getting into trouble." So, Ning Que decided on Dandan's name very hastily, and tied a knot on the rope around his neck.
"Assist the players in unlocking the secrets of this village, but a certain number of players must be sacrificed, bringing the death rate to more than half."
Ning Que touched his head, then looked at the child in his arms, and saw that the child's butt was twisting constantly as if he had hemorrhoids. So he put the child down, casually broke a vine nearby and tied it around the child's waist before walking forward.
At this moment, a man suddenly appeared from behind, looking at all this in horror, walked up quickly, and wanted to talk to Ning Que.
"Sister, how old is your child? Do you know where this is?"
"Why are you walking so fast? Are you from the mountains? You're dressed quite fashionably. By the way, my name is Lu Shi, and I'm a reporter for the X City Daily."
…
Ning Que looked at the man in a suit struggling to walk along the mountain road and said, "I don't know. Go ask someone else."
Fortunately, not long after walking, I heard someone singing a folk song, "The bride, wearing a flowery dress, is not happy with red and wants to wear black..."
The high-pitched and penetrating singing voice won everyone's attention. An old man wearing a conical hat, with a pipe hanging on his waist, was riding a cow, and the cow's tail was occasionally swung to drive away the horseflies on its body.
He looked like a toiling peasant, his face to the loess and his back to the sky. The old man squinted his eyes, counted the number of people, and pursed his lips, "One more person is missing. Let's wait until everyone is gathered before we go! Otherwise, we won't be able to enter the village without the right number of people."
After a while, two girls came out from the right side of the intersection and looked at the eight people present in surprise.
The old man raised his voice and said, "Let's go!" Then he could be heard trembling with fear, "Why... why... there's one more person."
Ning Que looked at the balls he was still digging into the ground, and silently looked up at the sky.
Can you have one more? Just the one I have.
The cow silently retracted its raised foot and mooed softly.
The old man stroked his sparse chin, looked at the setting sun, and pursed his lips again. "Someone has to stay here. I can't break the rules of entering the village. No more than eight outsiders are allowed. You decide for yourselves!"
Then he took the pipe from his waist and started puffing smoke on the cow's back.
There were five women and four men present, including a little kid. Everyone was looking at each other, as if wondering who had the weakest fighting ability. When Ning Que tried to take out the mirror, he heard a reminder in his mind.
"This derivative version prohibits the use of the function of this prop."
"So you're saying that if I take it out and use it, it'll just be an ordinary mirror?"
"Yes."
Ning Que lowered his head and looked at Dandan, who was still picking at the dirt on the rope, and started to negotiate with the intelligent voice in his head, "Why can't I use it? I was able to use it before, but the number of times was limited. Why is there a limit now? Why?!"
As long as I put the balls back in, I will have solved my worries. Carrying a child is really too much of a burden.
"Yiping, get out here! What's the point of hiding behind the electronic sound? You brought this kid in by mistake, and you're not taking care of him now! What's the point?"
Yiping listened to the voice and scratched his head in distress, "Huanhuan, ah, ah, why did you bring this child in? Logically, this shouldn't happen."
Shu Huan sat up and looked at Dan Dan, who was scratching the dirt on the screen. "Everything has a reason, and this is her derivative work. We don't have the right to make major changes. We can only give her some convenience when the time comes. As for the mirror, don't give her permission."
At this time, Ning Huo on the screen raised his head, his pair of dark eyes staring at the present, which frightened Yiping so much that he turned off the control center in excitement.
After Ning Que heard the electronic sound that had been pestering him disappear, he looked at Dandan in front of him looking at the sky and realized that something was wrong with the people around him.
The others looked at it as if it were a sheep, ready to devour it in one go.
Ning Que looked at the old man who was looking at this place with great interest. He looked familiar with this phenomenon, so he picked up Dandan and said loudly, "I know what you are going to do, but I have a good idea that everyone can go for."
Everyone was stunned, but there was still suspicion in their eyes, and they were very alert. The old man held the pipe in his hand, as if he wanted to see what Ning Que was up to.
Ning Que walked up to the old man holding Dandan and looked at him with a smile.
The old man opened his mouth wide, with wisps of white smoke wafting out of the pipe. He didn't know what Ning Que was going to do.
"Dandan, just call uncle some random name." Ning Que patted the egg in his hand and said to the old man in front of him.
Dandan blinked, called out obediently, and buried her face in Ning Que's neck.
Ning Que patted the old man's shoulder, "Alright, he calls you uncle now, so we're relatives, not outsiders. Now that we're all here, let's go!"
Old Man: ...
"What? You don't recognize such a good child?" Ning Que looked at him with a smile, and in one hand he was shaking a kitchen knife up and down. If his hand slipped, it would chop off part of his head.
The old man looked at the kitchen knife that was shining with a cold light, swallowed his saliva, and didn't know what to do, but for the sake of his nickname, he agreed.
Ning Que greeted the players next to him enthusiastically, as if he didn't mind their actions towards him just now. The players also gathered together due to the increasingly dark sky.
There are more or less trees planted on this road, some are dense and some are sparse. You can see the fields behind, but there is no one.
The old man sat silently on the cow's back, driving the cow slowly, while the players followed behind at a moderate distance.
Yu Zixi looked at Ning Que, who was holding the child, and couldn't help but start chatting with Ruan Ni, whom she knew. "This young mother is really miserable. I have a feeling that she will be the first to get into trouble."
Ruan Ni looked at Ning Que walking very quickly and shook her head. "I don't think so. What if she explodes? Judging from the way she walks, it doesn't look like she hasn't practiced before."
At this moment, a head passed through their midst, and Lu Shi waved his press card in front of them. "Ladies, I'm a reporter from the X City Daily. May I interview you two?"
Yu Zixi and Ruan Ni: ...
Forget it, I'll popularize it to newcomers, maybe...
Ning Que turned around and saw several heads swaying against the increasingly dark background. Black fog was encroaching on the road from deep within, as if urging them to enter the village.
The old man looked into the distance, took out some tobacco leaves and put them in the pipe, and just took a puff.
She couldn't help but narrow her eyes and tentatively started a conversation with the old man, "Uncle, is it okay for me to live in your house? You see, we are related, and I can't get used to living in someone else's house."
The old man's cigarette was still in his lungs, and he choked out of shock. Ning Que gently patted his shoulder, "Uncle, why are you so careless? You're old, don't smoke. It's not good for your health." He was so frightened that he started coughing again.
Ning Que's naked eyes surveyed the pipe, which had been polished to a patina. "The child is young and cannot smell the smell of tobacco. Please excuse me."
The old man had just felt a bad premonition when he found that the pipe at his lips had been snatched away and was being twirled nimbly between her fingers.
With a click, Ning Que saw Lu Shi holding up the camera and taking a picture of her, his eyes flickering. "Sister, may I ask why..."
Ning Que covered his mouth with one hand, "As for the interview, can we talk about it after we get to the village? This road seems a bit inconvenient."
Lu Shi touched his face and agreed.
After walking for a long time, a crescent moon appeared faintly in the slightly dark sky, and the gorgeous fiery clouds in the western sky illuminated the remaining half of the sky.
After passing through a dense forest, we arrived at the village. A tower stood in the middle of the village, and the sparkling river was across our way. Strangely, the stone bridge was not facing the entrance of the village, but a little to the right.
There was no one at the entrance of the village. The old man pointed at the entrance and said, "Just go in."
Ning Que pulled the ox by the horns and pushed them forward, "Uncle, let's go!"
The old man looked horrified: ...
After crossing the bridge safely, the old man sat on the cow and refused to get off. Ning Que didn't care what others thought. He took Honghong and tied up the cow's hooves, along with the old man, and then walked towards the village gate in a carefree manner.
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