Chapter 59: A Village for a Few
The photographer still remembered how he looked when he was pierced by the stick and asked, "How did you escape? How did you run so far?"
"They hung me there and left. I escaped secretly when they weren't paying attention. It hurt so much..."
The photographer saw that he was pale and bleeding, so he immediately ran over and asked worriedly, "How is it? Can you hold on?"
The security guy covered the hole in his stomach: "You... you help me quickly... they are coming..."
The photographer didn't suspect anything and simply put down the wooden bar he used for self-defense and tried to pick up the security guard from the ground.
The security guy reached out and grabbed him tightly, a hideous smile on his pale face that didn't look like a human.
A ball of burning flame was reflected in the photographer's pupils.
In the flames, the security guard's face quickly carbonized and shrank, breaking into pieces. In the darkness, the smile grew wider and wider, as ferocious as a ghost.
The photographer was stunned for a moment and immediately tried to pull his arm free, but the other person's hand was like a steel ring, holding him tightly.
This, this is not a human being at all!
The photographer remembered the thing that screamed and banged on the door on the first night he arrived here.
That... is that him?
There really are ghosts in this world!
There was no time for him to think about it, because the burning flames had quickly passed through the security guard's hands and onto his body.
Ahhhhh!
For a moment, the intense pain made him want to let out a heart-wrenching scream, but the burning fireman jumped up, covered his mouth, and pressed him to the ground.
Hmm!
The flames immediately reached the photographer's mouth, making it impossible for him to make any sound. The photographer wanted to struggle, but the man who was so weak just now was now full of strength.
In just a short while, both of them were burned to ashes.
But a moment later, the photographer reappeared at the same place, neatly dressed and in good condition, as if nothing had happened before.
He kicked the ashes on the ground as if he didn't notice anything, then turned around and started walking back.
As soon as he returned to the stilt house, he said happily: "I found a wild fruit tree! Come and pick some with me."
The girl gulped. "Really? Where?"
Xiao Liang felt something was wrong and was a little suspicious: "You didn't bring back a few?"
"As soon as I saw it, I hurried back to call you. I didn't have time to pick it."
**
When Lu Jiamu ran back with the box, he heard three people from the program crew talking about wild apples.
Where are the fruit trees in this barren mountain?
Lu Jiamu glanced up and down and immediately noticed that there was a layer of dust on the toes of the photographer's shoes.
Do they all like kicking ashes so much?
He put the box down and smiled: "Did you just start a fire?"
The photographer shook his head: "Why would I light a fire?"
Lu Jiamu nodded, but did not go into the house. He crossed his arms and leaned against the door: "Don't go. Wild fruits are poisonous."
The photographer came over and tried to grab him with his hands, but Lu Jiamu dodged swiftly to prevent him from touching him.
Lu Jiamu casually opened the exquisite and beautiful music box, and the golden gears inside began to rotate, making a clear and ethereal beautiful sound.
After a while, the rest of the people came back one after another.
The last person to return to the stilt house was Kou Man. She ran in carrying the injured Yu Leng on her back, put him on the broken bed, and pressed the wound on his stomach with her clothes.
"They were just chasing us, and this place may not be safe either. Let's go quickly."
There was also a piercing wound on Yu Leng's stomach, and the blood could not be stopped at all. He grimaced in pain. It should be that he was caught by the villagers and stabbed with a stick.
Wang Biao saw the box at Lu Jiamu's feet, opened it and took a look, then immediately looked up: "Gunpowder?"
Lu Jiamu nodded.
"Where did you find it?"
"This should be leftover from Fang's family."
Wang Biao rummaged around and found a few tubes, then immediately stuffed the medicine powder into the tubes.
At this time, Lu Jiamu suddenly kicked the box lightly and winked at the photographer.
Wang Biao noticed it immediately, slowed down the process of filling the tube, looked at the photographer, and coughed lightly.
Kouman also noticed it and patted Yu Leng gently, indicating that he should press the wound himself.
Yu Leng was about to roll on the ground in pain and was not paying attention to anything else, but he still obediently pressed the wound on his stomach.
The photographer saw a few people suddenly looking at him: "Huh?"
Coleman jumped up from the ground, rushed towards the photographer, grabbed his head without saying anything, and with a "click", he broke his neck with great force.
Xiao Liang and the girl were so frightened that one of them fell silent, while the other screamed, "What are you doing!"
Coleman looked at the two girls warily: "Anything else?"
Lu Jiamu shook his head: "It should be gone. It hasn't had time to make a move yet."
The photographer's neck was broken unexpectedly. He seemed to have not reacted yet and did not immediately show signs of death. He staggered two steps and a vague shadow began to cover his body.
Based on their previous experience, several people guessed that he was about to become a ghost. It was better not to provoke him.
Kou Man picked up Yu Leng, and Wang Biao started running out: "Run, run, run!"
Although Xiao Liang and the girl were confused and frightened, they still supported each other and ran out.
As soon as they came out, the photographer had turned into a tall and thin black shadow, chasing after them with long arms and legs.
Not far away, some villagers had already noticed the situation and started screaming, "Monsters! They really are monsters!"
The leading old man began to say: "We must burn these monsters to death!"
Yu Leng covered his stomach in pain: "Why... did they suddenly attack us? Did they start during the day?"
"The photographer was burned to death. He might have met the security guard." Lu Jiamu's eyes rolled. "The previous rules have been broken. They have completely torn their faces with us."
Before this, the one-on-one death between villagers happened among the villagers and would not directly affect these outsiders. Instead, the villagers who seemed to be "alive" would try to kill them out of fear.
However, now, the security guy, who had never shown any malicious intent, suddenly killed the photographer. Why?
Is it because this round of death performances within the village has ended, and it is the security guy’s turn to kill?
But so far, only 32 villagers have died.
Are the remaining people still alive until now?
No, definitely not. The rest of the people may have died from other reasons.
Lu Jiamu listened to other people's stories about today's investigation and built an accurate network of relationships in his mind.
"Only these thirty-two people died. I have sorted out their order. Now I have one last question."
Several people looked at him.
"I'm going to find that idiot."
"good."
They all had great trust in Lu Jiamu's judgment, and when they heard what he said, they immediately changed direction and started running towards the dilapidated house where Guan Shazi lived.
They were running in front, and the villagers were chasing them from behind with farm tools, kitchen knives and other items. The red bracelet girl and the photographer boy turned into shadow ghosts and indiscriminately blocked the running people from time to time.
Xiao Liang and the girl who was taking the photos were not in very good physical condition to begin with, and they hadn't eaten for a long time, so they felt dizzy after running a few steps.
The girl taking the picture stumbled and didn't see the road clearly. She was tripped by a stone and fell to the ground.
The villagers behind her caught up with her and hit her ankle hard with a rake.
The girl screamed and was unable to get up, so the villagers skewered her with a stick.
Amid the fierce shouts of "Burn her! Burn her!", Xiao Liang hesitated and did not dare to turn back to save her.
The villagers slowed down because they caught a stranger, and were soon left behind.
They ran to the shabby house where the village idiot was imprisoned. When the idiot saw them, he wanted to rush over, but was restrained by the chains that tied him. He fell on the dirty straw and giggled foolishly: "Food, food, hungry!"
Coleman tore down the tattered wooden door made of wooden strips with a few strong pushes, then walked closer and tried to tear apart the chain that tied the idiot.
The damp, moldy, urine and feces smell spread out from the dilapidated house.
Lu Jiamu squatted down, took out the beautiful and exquisite music box in front of the fool, and opened the lid.
The golden gears inside began to turn, making a beautiful, crisp, ethereal sound.
The fool was stunned for a moment, the corners of his smiling mouth quickly turned downwards, and a few tears squeezed out of the corners of his eyes.
He waved his arms wildly, trying to lift up the broken straw to attack everyone: "There's a ghost! There's a ghost!"
But he was stopped by Coleman who pulled the chain.
Lu Jiamu stared at him: "You are not a stranger at all. You are the son of the village chief who came to the city, right? It's just that they have all forgotten you."
The fool pouted and shouted in confusion, wanting to hit him.
Lu Jiamu pressed on: "You've seen the ruins. Do you know who created them?"
The fool shook his head in pain, and shouted with bloodshot eyes: "No! No!"
"Who is it?"
He screamed indistinctly, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Lu Jiamu paused for a moment, and suddenly asked tentatively: "He actually loves you very much, right?"
"So he loves the outside world as well as the people in it. This is his choice, right?"
The fool was suddenly stimulated by something and rolled over on the ground screaming, almost fainting.
The last question had been answered, and the villagers had caught up again. Lu Jiamu said, "Let me tell you a story."
The story is very simple. Once upon a time there was a simple and secluded little village. The village chief's son had always been longing for the outside world, so he walked out of the mountains and went to the city to work, only occasionally bringing back some novel little things.
The village chief was reluctant to eat the candies and use up the beautiful notebook, so he kept them and the music box in the bottom of the box.
The village chief learned a lot from his son and began to yearn for the outside world, but what he longed for more was to modernize his village and keep his son.
So he began to hope that some outsiders would inadvertently pass by their place, appreciate the primitive mountain scenery, take pictures and post them on the Internet. This would bring tourists to their place and promote their modernization.
Until that day, eight strangers parachuted into the vicinity of the village and came along the way. The whole village warmly welcomed them, and the village chief clumsily and flatteringly made fried insect pupae and steamed mice, hoping to please them.
The eight strangers claimed that they were going to investigate something, and after a short stay, they went deeper into the mountains.
In the following days, they heard no more news about this group of strangers. Until one day, explosions were heard from deeper in the mountain, and finally only a woman ran out with wounds all over her body, claiming that all her companions were dead.
The villagers kindly arranged for her to stay and eat and tried to heal her wounds, but the woman lost too much blood, developed an infection and a fever, and soon she was on the verge of death.
Before she died, the woman made a final note in a hardcover notebook, warning those who came later that it was dangerous deep in the mountains and that they should not explore any further. She had already blown up the road into the mountains.
But what she didn't know was that she had already brought the danger out.
The woman died soon after and the villagers buried her body, but the next day she came back again.
The villagers couldn't understand, but the woman said she was not dead and she was still alive when they threw her out.
The villagers accepted it.
The woman said that she didn't want to live alone, so she was arranged to live in Fang Yatou's house.
But the next day, people started dying in the village, and the first one was the old lady who was always talking nonsense in front of women.
The villagers didn't think much of it and untied her body and carried it out of the village, but soon she came back.
The villagers were very confused and thought it was a monster, but the village chief believed in science and gave many scientific explanations for the fake death. Everyone soon accepted the person who had returned.
But on the third day, two people died in the village, and after being clearly confirmed dead, they returned again after being transported out of the village.
The villagers felt a little uneasy and decided to draw a black circle on the wall of the courtyard where the person had returned to mark the area so that everyone could avoid it.
On the fourth day, four people died in the village.
Death spread like a plague, and the villagers began to panic, thinking that perhaps those who had returned were killing people.
On the fifth day, eight people died in the village.
By this day, as the number of deaths increased, they began to have neither the energy nor the courage to deal with the bodies, and they could not even be sure who had died.
Because death is only a moment, maybe they are just called out and die in the shadow. But after death, they will come back just like they were in life, and return to their homes without any abnormality.
The panicked villagers began to feel that their neighbors were dead, their friends were dead, and anyone who was alone with other people might be dead.
Because of this fear, they began to report on each other and draw scribbled circles on the walls of other people's homes, one after another, messy and even disconnected. Everyone was in danger but could do nothing.
Some people started to attack the first returnees. They cut off the head of the hanged old lady, stabbed several people in the stomach and burned them on the fire.
Because the village chief was felt to be too indecisive, a new leader emerged in the village and personally designated who should be killed without any evidence.
The village chief felt overwhelmed.
On the sixth day, sixteen people died in the village.
Under the shadow of death, all the villagers went crazy and stopped drawing circles.
Maybe the neighbor is a ghost...
No, maybe my family members are ghosts!
Only by killing all the ghosts can you survive!
On this day, the villagers began to kill each other and were completely confused. It no longer mattered who was human and who was a ghost, and it was difficult to tell them apart.
The bewildered village chief finally realized that this was a plague, a plague that continued to spread and spread death, and everyone was sick. He realized that the original village had ceased to exist in just six days.
Such a horrible thing has spread from the depths of the mountains to their village, and will spread to the outside world. They are just a new source of infection.
Once those invisible things spread, perhaps the beautiful world outside will soon become like their crazy self.
So on this day, the village chief detonated the gunpowder and destroyed the village he once loved the most with his own hands, burying the crazy village and the mountains together.
The wildfire burned deep into the mountain following the wind direction, scorching an entire area.
At that time, the village chief's son was on his way back and was shocked when he saw the flames rising into the sky from afar.
He got off the bus at the stop and walked all the way back to the village day and night, but he only saw ruins. He didn't know what had happened, so he found the location of his former home, sat there and cried, unwilling to leave for a long time.
The young man had never regretted so much. He wondered why he couldn't stay with his family more and had to go to the city.
He didn't have a wreath, so he picked small white wild flowers from the mountains and placed them on the ruins to commemorate the dead.
But on the sixth day after the village was destroyed, the whole village suddenly came back.
The houses and buildings reappeared on the ruins in an instant, and all the villagers were strolling leisurely on the village roads as usual.
The village chief's son was stunned and asked stupidly, "Aren't you all... dead?"
The villagers were confused, but they seemed to no longer recognize him: "There's a fool in our village!"
The village chief seemed to no longer recognize him: "This stranger is so pitiful. I don't know how he got here. He will die if he runs into the mountains again. We will take him in."
So the village chief's son was arrested.
He began to shout and yell, trying to ask the villagers why they didn't recognize him. But every time he spoke, the villagers just looked at him with pity, as if they didn't understand what he was saying at all.
The scary thing is that people started dying again in this recreated village from the first day.
…
The village chief's son tried to resist and stop it at first, but the villagers thought he was too crazy, so they tied him up with iron chains, locked him in a dilapidated house, and would not let him out.
For more than a year, he watched what happened in those six days again and again, watched the villagers die, watched them kill each other again and again, watched his father be at a loss again and again, lose his authority, and then be burned to death in a fire.
The rest of his life seemed to be forever confined to this six-day cycle, watching it over and over again.
At first, he would cry every midnight: I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry…
But later, under the dual torture of mental and physical pain, he went completely crazy.
After Lu Jiamu finished his last sentence, the villagers outside who were originally shouting and yelling suddenly became quiet and were frozen in place.
Flames began to extend from the inside to the outside of their bodies, burning their faces into pieces like porcelain.
The fire spread from them and soon spread throughout the village. Everything was ablaze.
In Lu Jiamu's story, the order of everyone's death was correct, and he completed his interpretation of the truth about the village.
Next, it’s time to fulfill the villagers’ wishes.
Those "villagers" outside are all ghosts, but the fool in front of him is a real villager.
Lu Jiamu lowered his voice: "So what is your wish?"
The fool held his head and cried loudly, unable to organize any words.
Lu Jiamu asked again: "Does your wish mean that someone will find out what's going on here and save you? The reason you've lived until now is actually because you don't want to become that kind of thing, but your wish has always been to be reunited with your family?"
"Now that we know the truth about the village, the cycle is broken and you won't become that thing again."
The fool jumped up and looked back at Coleman with a pleading look in his eyes.
Coleman hesitated for a moment and loosened the chain in his hand.
The fool rushed into the overwhelming flames with tears in his eyes and was soon burned to ashes.
The village chief's son's wish was fulfilled. The five people looked around, but did not see the light door appear anywhere.
What's going on?
Lu Jiamu suddenly added: "On the night the village was set on fire, a mother pushed her daughter into a well. Fortunately, there was not only water in the well, but also an air hole, which allowed the girl to escape. She was the last villager in the village, but she was also trapped and could not get out."
"But when the reenactment began, the ghost who was transformed from a stranger took her place and disguised herself as her, which is why she had two red bracelets. She is Fang."
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