193 Warehouse
◎Gazing at myself◎
At exactly seven o'clock in the evening, Qi Qiuxue and Li Yiqing appeared outside the gate together.
Li Yiqing raised his hand and knocked on the door in front of him. After waiting for a while, someone came to open the door. It was a middle-aged woman in her fifties with short hair, thin figure, relatively simple clothes, and a strange smell all over her body.
——Like the smell of burning incense.
Li Yiqing called her, "Mom, I'm back."
"Why are you back?" The woman smiled warmly. "Didn't you say you'd be staying at Xiaoqi's house for a while..."
Before she could finish her words, she glanced and suddenly noticed Qi Qiuxue standing behind her.
The woman paused, then quickly said, "Oh, isn't this Ah Xue? Auntie almost didn't recognize you just now. After all these years, you've become even more beautiful."
"Thank you, Auntie." Qi Qiuxue responded with a polite smile.
"Why are you back this time...?"
"I miss you and Dad," Li Yiqing said, holding the woman's hand intimately, like a daughter coquettishly flirting with her mother, his eyes full of smiles. "I haven't been back for so many years, I have to make some time to spend with you."
"Mom, let us in quickly." She ignored the woman's behavior of deliberately blocking the door, and took her arm and led her into the house. Qi Qiuxue followed her pace, and the two of them smoothly entered the main house from the yard.
As soon as I stepped into the house, a man quickly came to greet me.
"Why did you come back suddenly?" The man asked a question very similar to the woman's.
"Of course I can go back to my own home whenever I want. Why don't you welcome me?" Li Yiqing pretended to be unhappy and complained, but his eyes quietly wandered around the room.
When she first entered the dungeon, firstly, it was too late and many details were hidden in the shadows, making them difficult to discover; secondly, she was worried about Qi Qiuxue being alone that night and was anxious to find her, so she didn't have much time to pay attention to the things around her. Now, after taking a closer look, she really found many clues that she had not noticed.
First, the altar and incense burner——
She noticed that her so-called family was indeed worshipping something, an indescribable object carved out of wood, without a face, hands or feet, and a very strange shape that could not be described by a single god, Buddha, ghost, demon, etc.
In the incense burner next to them were countless burning incense sticks. The sheer number of them showed how punctually and devoutly the two worshipped this indescribable "god" every day.
"What is this?" Li Yiqing asked with some doubt in his tone.
"It's a belief that blesses our family with happiness and health." The woman replied.
"What's its name?"
"XXXX." The woman uttered a few syllables of an unrecognizable language, and her pronunciation resembled the four words "Nagaye'e".
"Didn't you guys not believe in these things before?" Li Yiqing turned around and looked at her.
"Yes, but that was in the past." The woman laughed. "It was only later that we realized the value of faith. Sometimes, faith gives us happiness and life."
"You will need this faith in the future," she said softly.
“…”
Li Yiqing withdrew her gaze and temporarily changed the subject, asking about the second thing she cared about: "Mom, Dad, have you two had dinner?"
"We've eaten." The two looked at each other and said quickly, "You know we always eat early."
"Really?" Li Yiqing nodded, "But Axue and I haven't eaten yet."
"Why are there no snacks or fruits in this room?" She aimed in the direction of the kitchen, walked quickly to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and checked the things inside. There were whole barrels of milk, bundles of vegetables, and a lot of fruits, but they were all placed in the refrigerator without being washed or taken out for consumption.
When I opened the freezer layer at the bottom, I found that not a single piece of meat had been thawed, all of it was frozen hard. All kinds of fast food were intact and had not been unpacked.
Li Yiqing quickly glanced at the sink and trash can. There were no bowls in the sink and no water stains around it. There was no smoke or the aroma of food in the kitchen, and there was no kitchen waste in the trash can.
“…”
Judging from the freshness of the vegetables and fruits, as well as the date printed on the milk bottle, you can roughly judge that these things were recently stocked in the refrigerator.
Was it originally prepared to accommodate some guests from afar, such as her and Qi Qiuxue, or perhaps other returnees? But things changed. Li Yiqing didn't come back to stay, so he didn't eat. And this so-called family member didn't eat either.
A refrigerator full of things just sits there quietly, with no one enjoying them.
How do these two make a living?
Just as I was thinking about it, the woman came over quickly and closed the refrigerator. The scent of burning incense enveloped her body and came over again: "What are you doing, kid? Why are you so reckless!"
"I want to eat the food you two cook." Li Yiqing smiled, and once again took her arm in a flattering manner, begging playfully, "Help me and Axue make something to eat, okay?"
"Okay." The woman raised her hand helplessly and scratched the tip of Li Yiqing's nose. A stronger smell of burning incense came over. "Old man, come here. Your daughter wants to eat the food we cook."
Does it smell good?
Li Yiqing looked at the backs of the two and gradually stopped smiling.
Is the method by which these two people maintain their lives "popular"?
-
Can a creature that can survive without eating be considered a human being?
Qi Qiuxue and Li Yiqing looked at each other, and neither of them left the kitchen. Instead, they used the excuse that they didn't want their elders to work too hard, and helped cook together.
In the process, Qi Qiuxue failed to control the angle well and "accidentally" cut the man's hand when she handed the knife to him.
In an instant, blood gushed out from the cut skin, dripping onto the ground. The man looked like he was in pain, and the woman quickly left the kitchen and went to the medicine cabinet to look for a Band-Aid.
Judging from these points of view, they seem like two normal people.
"I'm sorry." Qi Qiuxue sincerely apologized to the two.
"It's okay, it's okay." The man shook his head but was not angry.
About an hour later, the meal was finally ready.
Qi Qiuxue and Li Yiqing sat down at the dining table together, and the so-called mom and dad were coaxed by Li Yiqing to come over and chat. They took the opportunity to get more information and tried to let the two taste the delicious food placed in front of them.
"We are old, and eating too much will cause indigestion at night." At first, the two always shook their heads and refused.
Until Li Yiqing said seriously: "Mom, Dad, are you hiding something from me?"
"No, of course not." They said in unison.
"What's there to not eat? Even a taste is fine!" Li Yiqing said again. At this moment, the man's stomach suddenly growled, "Mom, look, my dad didn't even eat enough tonight!"
"That's because your dad is trying to lose weight. He's already in poor health, and if he gets any fatter he'll get even sicker." The woman laughed and made up an excuse to get out of it. Seeing she couldn't refuse, she just agreed and picked up her chopsticks. "Okay, okay, then have a few more bites."
After that, they each tasted some dishes.
Qi Qiuxue and Li Yiqing waited for a while, but nothing happened. The normal food did not cause any rejection reaction in their bodies.
So it’s not that you can’t eat it, but you shouldn’t eat it if you don’t have to.
“…”
How do they exist?
At this moment, no one can tell.
After dinner, Qi Qiuxue and Li Yiqing returned to their room to rest together. The door was closed and silence soon fell outside. About ten minutes later, a strong fragrance poured in through the crack in the door.
Her "Mom and Dad" are burning incense again.
"Before they go back to rest, let's look around the room first," Qi Qiuxue said. "The most urgent thing is to try to find the report about the fire that year. If there's nothing, then we can go look in the study."
"We'll split up when the time comes," Qi Qiuxue said. "There seems to be a room in the southwest corner of the yard that looks like a warehouse. When I entered the yard, I noticed the door was ajar, and there were vaguely some wreaths, gold ingots, and other things inside."
"Suddenly, so many people in this village have started working in the funeral industry. There must be some secrets. I will try to find out."
"Okay." Li Yiqing responded, "Be sure to be careful. Don't worry, Axue, go ahead. I'll cover you here."
Qi Qiuxue nodded: "Yeah."
About an hour later, the lights in the living room went out, and Qi Qiuxue and Li Yiqing heard with their own ears the two people outside the door return to the bedroom and close the door.
After a thorough search of the bedroom, Qi Qiuxue and Li Yiqing did not find many clues, except for a childish drawing with three crookedly drawn little people on it, with "Mom", "Dad" and "Me" written on their heads.
The scene in the painting is a birthday. There are cakes, candles, and birthday hats in the painting, but what is special is that there are two birthday hats, one on the head of "Mom" and one on the head of "Dad".
Title: "Happy Birthday to Mom and Dad".
Date: xx/xx/xx.
Do they both have the same birthday?
Qi Qiuxue used her camera to take a picture of the painting, and then as agreed, Li Yiqing went out first and entered the living room. After noticing that there was nothing unusual, he waved to Qi Qiuxue who was inside the house.
So Qi Qiuxue left the bedroom and went to the yard, then came to the warehouse and gently pushed the door open.
Soon, the door opened. There was no light in the room, but with the help of the camera's night vision function, Qi Qiuxue could still barely see what was placed inside.
The first thing that caught the eye was a pile of colorful wreaths, bundles of candles, bags of gold ingots placed on the ground, and some other miscellaneous items.
But as she went deeper, Qi Qiuxue discovered that there were paper figures hidden behind the wreaths. All of the paper figures had pale skin, but the two spots on their cheeks were very dark. They stood quietly and strangely in the darkness, "staring" at Qi Qiuxue with their lifeless eyes.
Although she had gone through several copies and was used to seeing all kinds of terrifying and gloomy scenes, when she saw these densely packed and neatly arranged paper figures, Qi Qiuxue still felt a chill emanating from the bottom of her heart.
She subconsciously held her breath and walked into the pile of paper figures.
One, two... There was no difference between the paper people. They all had strange smiles on their faces and stared at the rude intruder motionlessly. Their paper arms brushed against Qi Qiuxue's skin and their shoulders brushed against hers.
Slowly, Qi Qiuxue walked to the end of the warehouse.
At the very end of the warehouse stood two paper figures. Compared to the pale faces of the other paper figures, the skin of these two seemed normal. Qi Qiuxue held up the camera and carefully recorded the full appearance of the paper figures. When the camera came to the back of the paper figures, she found that something had been written on the backs of the two paper figures.
It is the birth date.
Two birth dates with the same year, month, and day.
The same birth date and time as Li Yiqing’s mother and father.
“…”
The camera moved along with Qi Qiuxue's movements. She returned to the front of the paper man, raised the camera and took a picture of the paper man's face.
This time, the paper man's expression seemed to change.
They stopped smiling, their lips that had been raised were now wide open, and their paper eyes were no longer lifeless, but filled with despair and fear.
Their gazes seemed to pass through Qi Qiuxue in front of them and stare intently at what was behind her.
So Qi Qiuxue also looked back.
On the camera screen, countless paper figures turned their heads 180 degrees and stared at him with cold eyes.
【Author’s words】
Here it comes! I only updated a little more in this chapter but failed to update twice, so as usual, I will give everyone a small red envelope in the comment section of this chapter as compensation, and shout before the next chapter is updated!
Thank you for your Bawang tickets and nutrient solution, and thank you for leaving comments and reading~
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