Chapter 63 Ghostly Encounter
Bai Chenzhu unconsciously held his breath. He took a few deep breaths, looked around, walked to the nearest old lady, and half-squatted down. "Hello?"
The old lady had wrinkled skin and kind, curved eyes. She was weaving a flower bracelet, which was yellow and very pretty, but she estimated that the flowers would wither after a day.
Hearing the voice, the old lady opened her toothless mouth and replied in a local accent, "Hello, would you like a bracelet? It would be very pretty for your girlfriend."
Could it talk? As Bai Chenzhu was thinking this, the old woman suddenly reached out to him. Her withered fingers looked just like a zombie's. Just as her fingers were about to touch him, Bai Chenzhu's heart skipped a beat. Sensing the danger, he quickly grabbed her hand, stopping it from going any further.
Bai Chenzhu frowned as he felt the wrinkled skin beneath his palm.
It was actually possible to touch it.
Bai Chenzhu casually released his hand. "Then give me a bracelet. By the way... my friend and I are here for tourism. What's the name of this village?"
The old lady took out her prettiest bracelet and handed it to him, saying, "Our place is called Golden Autumn Village."
Bai Chenzhu patted his pockets, of course, he didn't have a single penny; he hadn't carried any money since the apocalypse. So, with an apologetic expression, he took out a piece of candy and tentatively asked, "Can I exchange this for something else?"
The old lady actually agreed, smiling as she said, "Sure."
The color of the rapeseed flowers in Jinqiu Village is very similar to that of the surrounding fields. Bai Chenzhu thought to herself, and casually put the bracelet away.
He chatted with the old lady for a while and learned that this was indeed a village with many elderly people and children left behind. The population was small, but because of that large field of rapeseed flowers, it had become a tourist attraction by chance, and many people drove here to take pictures every day.
Bai Chenzhu couldn't ask any more questions. The old lady would always steer the conversation back to her flowers. Occasionally she would talk about the village, but if anything else came up, she would stop answering.
He walked against the flow of people towards the village entrance and saw a stone tablet standing there, which read: Golden Autumn Village.
Where their vehicles should have been parked, only a few elderly men were selling steamed buns and dumplings.
"Grandpa, have you seen a black car?" Bai Chenzhu asked as he went up to him.
The old man shook his head. "What black car? Parking is never allowed here. You'll get a fine if you do."
Bai Chenzhu walked around the village entrance again and again, but couldn't find a car. He was getting a little anxious, so he walked along the only country road at the village entrance.
On both sides were vast fields of rapeseed flowers, and young people kept laughing and joking as they passed by him. He walked against the flow of people and reached the end, where he saw the stone tablet of 'Golden Autumn Village' again.
Bai Chenzhu turned around abruptly and found that the direction of the crowd had changed at some point and was now walking towards him.
An old man at the village entrance asked him, "Young man, want to buy some steamed buns?"
Bai Chenzhu refused to believe it. He took a breath, turned around and walked out of the village again. He walked against the crowd on the country path, and kept walking until he reached the end where there were few people. He saw the stone tablet of 'Golden Autumn Village' for the third time.
When he looked back, the crowd that had been walking against him was now coming towards him.
This is unbelievable. Wait, what about Jiang Ye and the others...? Bai Chenzhu suddenly turned and ran away.
He pushed open the door, panting, and Zhou Zhuohua, who had gotten up to use the restroom, was startled. "Xiao Bai, what happened? Why are you covered in so many injuries?"
Bai Chenzhu looked down and realized that his clothes were dirty, some with holes and bloodstains, and there were scratches on his arms, chest and back, as if he had been scratched by a zombie.
He recalled the bustling street just now, the crowds that had inadvertently squeezed through, and the 'people' who had unintentionally approached him. Fortunately, he was used to disliking people getting close and was careful to avoid them. He walked and ran at a fairly fast pace.
In other words, he traversed an unseen horde of zombies. It was a perilous journey, and he sustained only minor injuries.
"Sister," Bai Chenzhu said gravely, "something has happened."
——
They woke up the others, and the gate was already open. The crowds of tourists, the elderly enjoying the cool air, and the dogs wagging their tails were all clearly visible on the road. Everyone reacted in the same way as Bai Chenzhu.
They first confirmed that what they were seeing was real, and that it wasn't another 'holographic projection'. Then they went to look for the car—still to no avail. So they went back to the house and looked at each other in bewilderment.
"It's a ghost! It's a real ghost!" Bai Tao paced back and forth. "Why can't we get out? Did we wander into some kind of haunted village last night?"
"Don't scare yourself," Zhou Zhuohua reassured her. "With everything still unclear, the worst thing you can do is panic."
Bai Tao sat on the sofa, puffing out her cheeks, so forcefully that Tang Zhao, sitting on the other end, was jolted up. Tang Zhao rubbed the goosebumps on his arm. "So, do you think it might be related to time?"
"Time?" Bai Chenzhu, lost in thought, turned to look at him.
“That’s right,” Tang Zhao guessed. “We arrived at night, and the village was very dilapidated then. But now it’s daytime, and the outside looks like it’s from before the apocalypse. So, could we get on the bus and leave at night?”
Bai Chenzhu thought it made a lot of sense. He looked up at Jiang Ye, who was standing behind him, and asked, "What do you think?"
Jiang Ye rested his hands on the back of the sofa, looking down at him. "I think he might be a superhuman."
"That can't be!"
Before Bai Chenzhu could speak, Tang Zhao exclaimed in shock, "Are there really superhumans who can do this? It's incredible! Everything we touched was real! This could change the world!"
Bai Tao murmured, "Whose superhuman is so powerful that they can bring the dead back to life and defy fate?"
Zhou Zhuohua's ideas were different from theirs.
She rubbed her temples and thought for a moment, "Jiang Ye is talking about psychic ability users?"
Everyone looked at her. Zhou Zhuohua tapped her temple and continued, "Mental energy directly affects the brain. Tao Tao and Xiao Bai's mental energy are like that."
"Is it possible that we are being influenced by a superhuman?" She looked at the crowd outside the door. "Seeing is not necessarily believing. He/she may have only affected our five senses. He/she did not change the world, but only affected the five of us."
Having already treated her wounds, Bai Chenzhu tossed out the clothes she had worn that morning. "Yes, I went out this morning and came back with small, scattered wounds on my body and many scratches on my clothes. Zombies still exist, and the world hasn't changed. What has changed is us."
Jiang Ye sat directly on the armrest of Bai Chenzhu's seat and clapped his hands. "I think so too, but we'll have to wait until tonight to discuss the specifics."
——
Given that their five senses were most likely affected, and the mutants outside were real, and they were blinded by the illusion and unable to fight back against the zombie attacks, they did not go out again and used the things inside the house.
As the sun set, fewer and fewer people were outside the door. The sky grew darker, and the shadows of people stretched out, gradually merging into the darkness of the house.
The clock was placed in a prominent position, its hands ticking away.
It was quiet outside the door, just as quiet as when they arrived, and gradually the familiar stench of decay began to fill the air.
Bai Chenzhu leaned against the door and looked outside. The small stool was crooked and overturned in the corner. The kind old lady who sat on it during the day was nowhere to be seen. He took out the bracelet from his pocket to look at it.
The fresh yellow flower bracelet that had been there during the day was nowhere to be seen; in its place was a withered blade of grass.
Jiang Ye walked over and saw him staring blankly at the withered grass. He asked, "What's wrong?"
Bai Chenzhu then told him about the old lady and the bracelet.
Jiang Ye said, "So that's when that person's superpowers disappear at night."
Tang Zhao leaned closer and asked, "When are we leaving?"
Jiang Ye looked outside. In the darkness, only their room was lit. Zombies roamed the night, and the still-warm human figures on the ground reeked of a foul stench.
"Now."
They packed their things and headed towards the village entrance under the moonlight.
——
At the village entrance, a familiar car was parked, fully loaded with goods. Also nearby, a skeleton-like zombie lingered.
It was pressed so close, as if someone were inside the car, that it had its entire face pressed against the window glass.
After months of desensitization, Tang Zhao was no longer afraid of zombies. He excitedly rushed over to open the car door, but the zombie screamed and then turned into a black shadow and quickly ran into the alley.
Tang Zhao screamed in fright, and Jiang Ye immediately realized that it was a person and not a zombie. He rushed over, and Tang Zhao followed.
"That person is a superhuman?" Bai Tao jumped up.
Bai Chenzhu opened the trunk and rear door, while Zhou Zhuohua opened the front door, glanced at the driver's seat, and nodded to Bai Chenzhu, "It's just like it was before we left."
Bai Chenzhu said, "The supplies here haven't been touched either."
Before long, Jiang Ye and Tang Zhao returned.
Jiang Ye said, "That guy knows the roads here very well, runs very fast, and has hidden himself."
Tang Zhao clenched his fists indignantly, "Sneaking around like this late at night, he's up to no good. If I catch him, I'll give him a good beating."
"Let's go." Jiang Ye got into the passenger seat, and the others got into the car one after another.
The car turned a corner and drove through the middle of the flower field, just the way they had come. After driving a little further, they could get onto the main road and leave this awful place.
However, after driving a short distance from the village entrance, just like Bai Chenzhu Bai Ri, they returned to the village entrance and saw the stone tablet of 'Golden Autumn Village'.
Jiang Ye took a deep breath, his patience almost wearing thin, "Will this ever end?!"
Bai Chenzhu tapped the window. "That superhuman doesn't want us to leave."
Bai Tao asked in confusion, "Isn't his ability only useful during the day? It's nighttime now!"
Anyone would be envious of such a truckload of supplies. Bai Chenzhu sighed, "Because we're being watched, 'under close surveillance'."
Bai Chenzhu didn't believe in superstition. He sat in the passenger seat and found a strap to blindfold himself. "I'll drive, Jiang Ye. I'll point where you want to go, and you drive where I want to go."
"OK."
So, at Bai Chenzhu's instruction, Jiang Ye drove the car into the flower field, trampling the yellow flowers all over the ground. They walked through the flower field, and everything went smoothly until Bai Chenzhu heard Bai Tao's exclamation and Tang Zhao's frightened gasp.
"Brother Bai, there's a big river ahead!" Bai Tao said urgently.
Bai Chenzhu paused for a moment, rubbed his aching temples, and said firmly, "Jiang Ye, drive over there."
Amidst the gasps of the crowd, Jiang Ye calmly traversed the swift-flowing river.
Then, one after another, large pits appeared, followed by houses...
They never saw a main road.
Frustrated, Bai Chenzhu took off the blindfold and covered his head with both hands, which was throbbing with pain.
He can use his supernatural abilities to explore the truth in his mind, but an unfamiliar spiritual force is constantly hindering him, continuously constructing false images for him.
He had to devote more attention to shattering the illusions and finding the truth, but the illusions kept coming one after another, as if the other party didn't need to rest at all.
This is truly bizarre! What is that person trying to do? With such powerful abilities, why doesn't he just show himself?
Jiang Ye looked at him worriedly and stopped the car. All around were fields of yellow flowers, and the bright moon shone high in the sky. Jiang Ye patted him on the back, "What's wrong?"
"He's really going at me like this, like he's got a death wish." Bai Chenzhu was feeling dizzy and couldn't hold back any longer. He pushed open the car door, staggered two meters out, bent over, and vomited all over the ground.
Jiang Ye got out of the car with a bottle of mineral water, patted him on the back to comfort him, and handed him the water to rinse his mouth. "It's okay, we'll just go back and find him."
The buzzing in Bai Chenzhu's ears was loud enough to drown out Jiang Ye's voice. He took a long time to catch his breath, rinsed his mouth, and took a deep breath. "No, I have to settle this with him tonight."
“The barefoot aren’t afraid of those wearing shoes. He’s risking his life, are you going to stick with him?” Jiang Ye said helplessly, waving to the three people looking back. “Everyone, we have to go back to the village.”
They drove the car back to the village.
This time they didn't get out of the car; they waited patiently.
But perhaps the guy was frightened, and he didn't show up. It was dark and quiet outside, and the group took turns on duty, getting through the night.
——
The next day at dawn, the car was still parked at the village entrance when several old men pushed their carts over to sell steamed buns. They complained that the car was blocking the entrance and demanded that the car pay a fine.
Jiang Ye raised his eyes, glanced at the chattering old men outside, and called out to Tang Zhao, who had gotten out of the car to argue with them, "Come back first, who knows what kind of people they are."
Bai Chenzhu teased Tang Zhao deliberately: "Yeah, what if it's a zombie, or a tree? Tang Zhao, are you going to argue with these things?"
Tang Zhao was startled. He released his hand from the door and sat up straight. "So what do we do now?"
Bai Chenzhu pondered for a moment, "How about we go down and search around?"
Everyone agreed that after Tang Zhao got out of the car, he punched the old man who was chanting sutras like a monk, but unexpectedly he hit nothing in the air and almost fell down himself.
Bai Chenzhu looked at the spot where the old man had disappeared. "It seems he went to great lengths to stop us last night."
So much so that even the sense of touch can no longer deceive you.
Zhou Zhuohua offered to stay in the car, saying, "I don't know which people are zombies. You all know I'm just an ordinary person. What if I accidentally come into contact with someone infected..."
Everyone understood what she left unsaid.
Jiang Ye said, "We're not here, so be careful."
So, apart from Zhou Zhuohua, the four of them paired up and walked in opposite directions, intending to search around the village.
Zhou Zhuohua sat back in the driver's seat. The sun was warm and felt nice on her skin. Seeing that they wouldn't be back for a while, she stretched, yawned, and rested her head on the steering wheel for a nap.
As I was drifting off to sleep, I heard a sound outside the car window.
Zhou Zhuohua looked up groggily, found her glasses and put them on. Only then did she see that Tang Zhao, who had run back at some point, was outside the car, and he was urgently knocking on the car window.
Zhou Zhuohua only rolled down the car window a crack, "Where's Tao Tao? Weren't you two traveling together?"
Tang Zhao grinned and said, "Her stomach hurts, so she went to find a place to squat. Sis, I'm a little hungry, do we have any food in the car?"
Zhou Zhuohua's eyes flashed, and she said sharply, "Are you a pig? You only ate three pieces of bread this morning and you're still saying you're hungry?"
Tang Zhao clicked his tongue. "Three loaves of bread aren't enough. We need to get more."
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