Chapter 106 Chapter 106

"Misty Village," Taylor frowned as he looked at the things he had unpacked from the file bag. "No one sent by the foundation has ever returned. They may have left by accident, but it's hard to say what happened inside. Almost every once in a while, someone disappears inside, either alive or dead. The most recent case was a tour group of 100 people, all of them disappeared."

He took a deep breath, shook the papers in his hand, and handed them to Li Qingshan. "A hundred people is not a small number. If they are dead, there should be bodies. Even if there is a way to deal with it, it is impossible to deal with it easily. But it's strange that no one is found alive or dead, this is strange!"

"Could it be that he walked out? Because he is not in the village at all, so he cannot be found?" Li Qingshan took the paper and took a look, and asked hesitantly.

Taylor laughed: "It is possible, but I think it is very unlikely."

Li Qingshan nodded, scanned the content on the paper again, returned the paper to him and asked: "Today or tomorrow?"

Taylor took back the paper, looked at the content on it, frowned and said: "Tomorrow, this kind of thing is not easy to delay, but today is too urgent. I don't think Ayn Rand will urge us right away."

"Then what is our mission goal in the past?" Li Qingshan asked.

Taylor sighed with a bit of melancholy: "Solve the problem."

Li Qingshan squinted his eyes, a little surprised: "Solve the problem? We?"

Taylor glanced at him and smiled: "Yes, we."

Li Qingshan hesitated and asked: "Will there be others?"

Taylor shook his head: "This mission is not easy. The foundation has sent many people there before without any results. How can we send many new people there for no reason? Isn't that sending people to die?

If the people of the foundation die there, it will increase something there, and it will be more troublesome to deal with it later, so it's better to have fewer people.

What's more, our relationship with others is not very good, so if we want We are teaming up with other people in the foundation, and I'm afraid that others will not be willing to listen to us.

If we count our qualifications, we haven't been in the foundation for long, and no one will be willing to listen.

Unless we use force, but what's the point? We can use force, and so can others. Maybe when we get there, they will do the opposite. No matter what, they will kill us first, and then things will be even more troublesome!"

Li Qingshan sighed and nodded, saying, "That's right."

Taylor suddenly smiled and said, "This mission was given to me by Ayn Rand, who only let me pick one person. I picked you, and there is no room for others, so I can't add anyone else! Unless Ayn Rand finds someone else."

Li Qingshan nodded.

The next day, they arrived at the misty mountain village.

As they were walking on the road, a large green bus suddenly drove slowly in the fog behind them. Perhaps because of the fog on the road, they were afraid of accidents if they drove too fast, so the speed of this bus could be said to be slow. When it passed by them, they could clearly see that the bus was not full.

The driver was a thin middle-aged man with a long face. His serious expression made his face look longer. There was a little stubble on his chin, which was blue. His eyebrows were wrinkled, as if he was thinking about a life-and-death problem. His eye circles were dark, and his eyeballs were staring straight ahead, but they were a little distracted, as if half of his soul was in a daze. Like the bus, he was slow.

From this point of view, the driver and the bus were a perfect match.

Behind the driver, there were some people sitting here and there.

One of the young girls was holding her brown schoolbag tightly in her arms, blinking her eyes vigorously, looking very nervous.

Her face was pale, with obvious triangular dark circles under her eyes, a short chin, and the second tooth next to her right front tooth was a little crooked and relatively far back. It was not obvious at first glance, but if the upper teeth bit her lips, the red and white contrasted, you could immediately see that the teeth were uneven. She

sat by the window with the window open, perhaps to breathe fresh air and avoid motion sickness, and she was facing the window with her face turned sideways, looking out the window all the time.

Her breathing was a little rapid, her body was a little trembling, and when she saw someone, she was refreshed, as if she had drunk a cup of coffee after staying up late. She closed her eyes, trying to control herself from blinking so frequently, and raised her hand as if she wanted to say hello to someone outside, but before she raised her hand, it fell again, and she hugged her schoolbag even more tightly, as if there was something important in it.

But from Li Qingshan's point of view, the things in the schoolbag were probably just some very ordinary supplies, not very important. The reason why the girl hugged the schoolbag so tightly was because there was nothing else to hug except the schoolbag.

She needed to hug something to relieve her nervous mood.

From this point of view, this was the least calm one in the group. If this car was going to the village, they could ask the girl after getting off the car, and perhaps they could get more information than asking others.

The car slowly disappeared in front of Li Qingshan and Taylor.

Li Qingshan and Taylor looked at each other without saying anything, lowered their heads and hurried on. After walking for a while, they finally reached the entrance of the village. The fog at the entrance of the village was much thinner than that on the road. Suddenly, the vision in front of them became clear, like a nearsighted person suddenly wearing glasses, and the whole world became brighter.

The big green bus that had been seen on the road before was parked beside the path not far in front of the village entrance, close to a pile of green trees and grass, and it felt like it would flip over if it was not careful.

Everyone in the car stood at the entrance of the village. The driver stood at the front with no expression on his face. The others looked a little panicked, holding or carrying their own things in their hands, and talking in a low voice, as if they were afraid that the noise would be too loud and disturb something.

Li Qingshan and Taylor walked over slowly. Those people noticed them and gradually became quiet. No one spoke, just looked at them.

An elderly man walked out of the village, and the atmosphere in the air that was about to solidify was suddenly broken. Everyone looked at him. There were many people behind him, dressed similarly, probably all villagers.

"Hello," the old man cleared his throat, looked at them all and said, "I am the chief of this village.

Welcome to this place. It's a small place and there are no hotels. You can stay at my house. My house is big and can accommodate many people.

But you can't stay here for free. You have to do some work here during the day. At night, you can choose a room by yourself and we guarantee that you will have everything you need for daily life.

Don't worry, we have enough people working and we won't need you to do any particularly troublesome work. You just need to help out a little."

A burly aunt, with her hands on her hips and eyes wide open, asked loudly, trying to show her momentum: "Where exactly are you?"

"Misty Little Mountain Village!" The village chief pointed to the side, where there was a sign with the name of the village written on it.

"I was clearly taking the bus to the market!" The auntie raised her eyebrows and said angrily.

"Then you got on the wrong bus, don't blame us," the village chief smiled, a little like a mouse, "The bus here comes once every seven days, and it has already come today. If you want to leave, you have to wait seven days!"

He stopped smiling, stared at the auntie, and said coldly: "I can't control other places, but if you make trouble here, we won't be polite to you!"

The auntie was already stared at. The village chief was a little timid, but still refused to give in. He frowned and questioned angrily: "You're welcome? What can you do to me?"

The village chief smiled slowly again, this time with a rather cold smile: "You can try."

This time, the aunt was completely unable to make a fuss. She stepped back a little, looked at them very carefully, frowned, as if she just realized that she was in a dangerous situation, and calmed down.

No one else said anything.

The village chief's smile returned to a friendly state: "Everyone, don't stand there, come into the village quickly, I will take you to my house to rest, it's getting late."

Everyone looked at each other, and the driver was the first to go up.

The village chief slowly turned around and led a group of villagers to his home. Li Qingshan and Taylor followed. The others on the bus hesitated for a moment and hurried to follow.

They were afraid of being left behind and getting into trouble, so they hurried and hurried, almost running, as if they were scrambling to get to the village chief's house.

The village chief led them to the yard with a smile, pointed to a bunch of rooms and said, "You can live in any of these rooms. You don't have to work today. You can rest or have fun. You must go back to your room before dark. Remember to close the doors and windows before resting. It's best to lie down in bed early and don't go out at night. There are no lights here, it's dark, and accidents are easy to happen."

The young girl shivered violently and seemed to be almost unsteady. She needed to hold on to the wall to walk.

The driver stood expressionless, like a wooden stake.

The aunt looked around, curled her lips, and said in a disdainful manner, "It's not a big place, but there are a lot of things to do."

The smile on the village chief's face gradually faded: "Then I'll leave first."

The aunt's voice became louder, and her expression was smug as if she had won a battle. She couldn't wait to say, "Let's go!"

The village chief turned around and left, and a group of villagers also left in a hurry.

The driver frowned, as if he wanted to say something but hesitated. The aunt picked a room at random, opened the door and walked in, and the others also chose their rooms one after another.

Li Qingshan stepped forward and stopped the driver and asked, "What did you want to say just now?"

The driver looked at him, squinted his eyes and said, "The village chief hasn't said anything about eating yet. If we don't eat today, we have to eat tomorrow. I don't know what will happen yet!"

Li Qingshan nodded and asked, "Have you been here?"

A meaningful smile spread across the driver's face: "I'm the driver."

Li Qingshan nodded.

The driver chose a room, opened the door and said, "I want to rest. If you have something, you can find me, but I may not be free. You can go."

Li Qingshan and Taylor chose a room and moved in. After closing the door, they kept quiet and tried to listen to the movements next door. They could hear some, but it was not clear.

Li Qingshan found a seat and sat down, then asked Taylor, "What time do you think it is now?"

Taylor glanced at the time, then thought about the day before he came in, frowned and said, "In theory, it's around noon now, but the sky doesn't look like it at all. There's fog, and it looks more like dusk or dawn here."

Li Qingshan nodded, "I want to go out for a walk."

Taylor asked, "Okay, but where do you want to go?"

Li Qingshan frowned and said, "Just walk around nearby. Go wherever you can, and we'll talk about places we can't go later. Anyway, we have time."

Taylor nodded, stood up and said, "Let's go!"

They walked around the yard. The yard was cleaned very neatly, as if it had been cleaned not long ago. On the surface, there seemed to be nothing wrong, but there was a subtle smell of blood in the corner, and he didn't know if he smelled it wrong.

But if someone died here before, or if the people here have the habit of watering the flowers with blood, then this smell is probably the smell of blood, no doubt about it.

When they went out from the gate of the courtyard, there was a servant outside, half hiding not far away, staring at them timidly. He didn't look very old, with two buns on his head, not very tall, wearing pink clothes, dressed like a little maid in ancient times, but not completely like one, because the clothes were modified to facilitate movement.

The little maid turned around and ran away immediately after they found out that she was peeking, as fast as a cat with its tail stepped on.

Instead, there was an older male servant, wearing a brown buttoned jacket with a longevity pattern, black trousers, and even cloth shoes. When he appeared in the shadows with his waist bent, it was as if he had been waiting here before.

He appeared at the side of the courtyard exit. Although he was bent over, his eyes were looking at people. His posture was a little weird. His expression was like he was dying with his eyes open. His body was like a puppet. The wrinkles on his forehead were not so heavy that people could see them at a glance, but they were not so heavy that people could ignore them completely. He was smiling, but it was not obvious at first glance.

"What do you two need?" the old servant asked respectfully.

"We want to go out for a walk," Li Qingshan said, "Can you tell us if there is any place in the village that we can't go to?"

The old servant lowered his head and thought for a while: "We can't go to the back mountain. If we are not careful, we will get lost. There are many wild beasts there. It is even more dangerous at night. The beasts may sneak out. They are always hungry and eat everything. If they can't find people, they will eat animals. If they can't find animals, they will eat crops. If there is no crops, they will eat houses. Be sure to close the door at night! Don't leave any windows! Otherwise, the beasts will sneak into the room through the gaps, and that would be bad!"

He said bad things, but a smile gradually appeared on his face, especially when he said the last sentence. He was like a sunflower covered with honey, looking extremely happy, but he didn't laugh out loud.

Li Qingshan nodded and asked, "Is it only the back mountain?"

The old servant smiled and said, "This is the only place you can't go. If you can't go anywhere else, someone will stop you."

Li Qingshan nodded and prepared to leave. The old servant stood at the door and said, "It's getting dark, it's best not to go out. It's easy to get into trouble."

Taylor said, "Thank you! We will be back early."

The old servant sighed, shook his head, turned and left.

Mr. Li and Taylor walked around the village. The fog in the village was much thicker than at the entrance. The sky was getting darker and darker, and the road was getting harder and harder to walk on. The houses around looked more and more like wild animals squatting on the ground and observing their prey.

There was no one on the road, but walking on the road, you could always hear some strange sounds coming from not far away, either behind or in front of you, or on the left or right. They didn't sound like cats, dogs or birds, but more like human voices.

"It seems that we won't get anything today. Let's go back." Taylor said, holding Li Qingshan and blinking.

Li Qingshan nodded, and the two turned back to the yard. Fortunately, they didn't get lost in the fog and soon returned to the gate of the yard. The fog here was a little lighter than the fog on the village road. There was a group of people at the gate, arguing.

The two walked over and saw the aunt standing at the door with her hands on her hips, arguing with the old servant. Behind the old servant stood a group of young servants with blank faces and fierce eyes, holding sticks in their hands, looking like they could use violence at any time.

The aunt shouted loudly: "I don't care! I want to go home now!"

The driver stood at the door and watched the quarrel from a distance, expressionless.

The young girl secretly opened a crack and put her eyes on the edge of the crack to quietly observe the situation outside. When she met Li Qingshan's eyes, the young girl was startled and slammed the door shut.

Some other people stayed in the room indifferently, while others tried to dissuade the aunt from going home: "It's late at night and there are no cars. How can you go home even if you want to? You should rest first!"

The aunt shook her head vigorously: "No, no!

My grandson is still at home waiting for me to go home and cook for him. I don't know if anyone has picked him up from kindergarten. How can I not go back? If I don't go back, there will be no one at home!

What about my grandson? What if he gets lost on the road? What if something happens or it's lost?"

Someone next to her frowned: "You didn't mention this before, why did you suddenly think of it? When you were choosing a room here, did you still think you could go home before dark?"

The aunt was choked by this and sneered: "I set the alarm and it just rang! Usually at this time, I would have prepared dinner at home, how could I not be anxious?"

The others looked at each other and said nothing more.

The aunt suddenly turned her head and looked at the old servant, frowning and asking angrily: "What are you doing here? You don't allow me to go out? That's illegal! Be careful or I'll sue you!"

The old servant lowered his eyes and took a step back, as if he was unwilling to argue anymore: "If you must leave now, then fine."

The other servants made way for the aunt, but just stared at the aunt, as if they were afraid that the aunt would suddenly change her mind and stay or fight with them, without saying anything.

The aunt snorted coldly, strode triumphantly, swung her arms, rushed out like the wind, and soon disappeared in the mist.

A young woman in the crowd looked worried. She looked around and asked hesitantly, "Can I really get out? It's late, I'm not familiar with the road, there's no car, and I'm walking alone. Is it really okay?"

A middle-aged man next to her sneered, "We've tried to persuade and stop you, but there's nothing we can do to someone who wants to die! Instead of meddling in other people's business, you should take care of yourself. You still have to stay here for seven days! Do you think it's that easy? You're too free!"

He turned around and left, returning to his room. When he closed the door, it made a bang, as if he was very unhappy. It was unclear whether he was unhappy because he couldn't leave or because someone left in front of him.

Others also returned to their rooms gradually.

Li Qingshan and Taylor stayed in the room, checked the doors and windows, and closed them. Li Qingshan sat aside and asked, "Do you think Auntie can go out?"

Taylor smiled and said, "Normally it's impossible, but maybe?

Maybe leaving now is the way out, and staying here is a dead end.

Among the people who stay here, only one person can survive. The lucky person who survives will run out while watching the people around him die one by one. When everyone around him is dead, he will see Auntie coming back with people and cars.

How absurd, how ridiculous, how desperate, isn't it?"

Li Qingshan smiled, nodded and said, "It sounds very sad."

"Although it seems that I didn't eat anything today," Taylor looked at him, "but I'm not too hungry, how about you?"

"Same." Li Qingshan replied.

"Then let's go to bed early." Taylor said.

Li Qingshan nodded.

There were two beds in the room. One person was lying on one bed, closing his eyes and wrapping himself in a quilt. The weather here was very comfortable, and the quilt was just right. It was neither stuffy nor hot nor cold, and he soon fell asleep.

When Li Qingshan was lying on the bed half asleep and half awake, he suddenly heard a knocking sound coming from the wall. It was not obvious at first, so he continued to rest with his eyes closed and did not move. But gradually the sound became clearer and more regular, which had a great impact on his sleep. Li Qingshan woke up all of a sudden.

He opened his eyes and looked at the wall. The wall was clean and empty, just like before he closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, suppressed his irritability and anger, and looked around the house. There was nothing in the house.

At this time, the knocking sound suddenly stopped, and an old, hoarse woman said faintly, "I found you!"

Li Qingshan shuddered and was startled, but he still lay on the bed and didn't move, because he remembered that both the village chief and the servants had repeatedly told him to close the doors and windows at night and not to go out.

He didn't plan to open the door and run away now, because going out now would probably be courting death!

He pressed himself against the bed, closed his eyes, and tried hard to control his body from shaking violently. The slight sound of the bed board caused by his shaking gradually stopped.

Instead, there was the sound of slow footsteps outside the door. The sound sounded like someone was dragging their legs, as if they couldn't lift them up. People in poor health or the elderly do walk like this. If they were wearing slippers, the sound would be even more like this.

But in addition to the footsteps, there was also a little dripping sound. At first glance, it sounded like the faucet was not closed properly, but the dripping sound was getting closer and closer to the door with the footsteps. It was obviously not the sound of real water!

Li Qingshan smelled a bloody smell and glanced at the crack of the door.