194 Help
◎Burn by fire◎
Qi Qiuxue drew out the bone knife in an instant and took defensive action.
Her brain worked extremely quickly, calculating how she should deal with the current situation. If she escaped, where would be the breakthrough point? If she fought, what would be her chances of winning?
But before she could think too much.
The picture in the camera returned to normal in the next second, as if everything that had just happened was just her illusion. The paper man in front of her was still standing quietly in the same place, without turning back from beginning to end.
Including the paper figures behind her - their expressions were no longer panicked or frightened, and they returned to their original appearance.
It was quiet all around and nothing happened.
Is it really just like that?
Qi Qiuxue refused to miss any clues, so she used her camera to focus on the two paper figures with their birth dates written on their backs, and took several photos in succession, including other strange features, which she recorded one by one.
She didn't stay long after that, and quickly left the warehouse and returned to the main house.
The living room was quiet and no one was there. Qi Qiuxue used her memory to find the location of the study in the dark and met up with Li Yiqing.
There was no light in the study. The only source of light was the light from the lighter that Li Yiqing had stolen in advance. But it was this small light that allowed Qi Qiuxue to easily find her lover.
"Did you find anything?" She squatted beside her and asked in a soft voice.
"Found it." Li Yiqing handed an old newspaper to Qi Qiuxue. "I quickly checked everything on the bookshelf, and apart from this newspaper, I didn't find any other clues."
"Axue, look here." She pointed to a section of the newspaper. "This is from ten years ago. Just like those returnees said, the story about the fire was indeed published."
"Including some photos, such as burned-out houses and buildings, dead animals after the fire..." Her fingertips slid across the newspaper, finally stopping at a photo, "and the empty gasoline drums and intact clothes that appeared at the fire site."
It was a black, worn, dirty suit.
Newspapers from ten years ago were printed in color, and the images were clear, even tiny details could be seen at a glance. Qi Qiuxue noticed that there was a big hole at the cuff of the top of the suit, and cotton could even be seen leaking out. There was a large area of what looked like oil stains on the pants, and a cartoon patch was sewn on the right knee.
The most important thing is that there are no signs of burns on this suit, not even a trace.
“…”
It is indeed extremely strange that when everything was burned to ashes by the fire, this set of clothes was still preserved intact. Regarding this photo, the reporter tried to analyze it from various angles, but no matter which angle, the explanation was far-fetched.
Qi Qiuxue used her camera to take a picture of the contents of the newspaper, and then handed it back to Li Yiqing, asking her to put it back where it was.
"Go back to the house first." she said later.
Li Yiqing nodded: "Okay."
The two returned to the bedroom safely and locked the door.
There was only a small single bed in the room, which was barely enough to accommodate two people. The temperature tonight was hotter than yesterday, and a strong wind started blowing at some point, whistling and hitting the window frames.
Li Yiqing held Qi Qiuxue tightly in his arms. The two of them huddled together in the small single bed, silently checking the photos taken with the camera.
One photo, two photos, the scene changed from newspapers to paper figures. Li Yiqing saw the words written on the back of the paper figures, their pale skin and strange expressions.
For several consecutive photos, Qi Qiuxue took pictures of the front face of the paper man. At first glance, there seemed to be no difference between the photos, so Li Yiqing sped up the speed of switching photos.
Soon, both of them noticed something was wrong.
As the photos switched back and forth, the paper man's mouth suddenly began to move slightly, as if it was saying something to the player on the other side of the camera.
"ju, ju..."
Qi Qiuxue tried to read their lips and pieced the results together—
"Save, save, me, save, save, me."
The paper people are asking them for help.
“…”
After a brief silence, Li Yiqing slowly spoke: "I think that perhaps, under the influence of some force, the paper man and the two owners of the house swapped bodies. If this is true, many doubts can be explained."
"Yeah." Qi Qiuxue agreed with Li Yiqing's opinion, "So this so-called mom and dad don't need to eat, but rely on incense to stay alive. That's why the original owner's birth date and time will appear behind the paper figurine, and try to ask for help from the players whose bodies have not been taken away."
"I think it's not just these two villagers whose bodies have been taken away. All the villagers left in Chigu Village have been 'contaminated' by the paper dolls."
"But why does the paper figurine that successfully takes over a body have two forms?" Qi Qiuxue paused. "Is it related to the method used? The time? Or the owner of the body?"
"It shouldn't be easy to successfully seize the body, otherwise we would have been killed the moment we entered the village, and wouldn't have waited until now. It seems... they are waiting for a certain opportunity."
"Everything will become clearer tomorrow when we find the man who came back from the dead." Li Yiqing said this and continued to switch the photos downwards. Since entering Chigu Village, Qi Qiuxue has taken about a hundred photos.
The rooms they lived in, some strangely shaped buildings, hidden and remote alleys, and the group photo of the villagers at the meeting that night.
"Wait!" When switching to a group photo, Qi Qiuxue suddenly stopped and pointed to the corner of the photo, where a man with his head buried deep in his clothes was dressed in baggy and sloppy clothes.
Her fingertips traced the gaping hole in the man's cuffs, the large stain on his pants, the cartoon patch on his right knee.
"His clothes are the same as the ones in the newspaper." Qi Qiuxue lowered her voice and frowned.
“There’s no difference.”
“…”
"Bang!"
Before Li Yiqing could respond, the wind outside the window suddenly intensified again. A huge insect was hit against the glass window by the strong wind, and blood splattered all over the window.
The two people on the bed sat up at the same time, listening attentively to the screams and roars hidden in the wind, but compared to the previous nights, there seemed to be more meaningless syllables in the wind today.
Li Yiqing quickly stood up and opened the window, while Qi Qiuxue cooperated perfectly and took out the recorder to record the entire sound of the wind.
Then she tried playing the recording backwards.
For a moment, painful groans and helpless roars hidden in the wind were heard at the same time, and time seemed to have gone back to ten years ago, the night when the fire mercilessly devoured the village.
The heat, the thick smoke, the flames that lit up the entire sky, and the excruciating pain in my body.
What can be heard continuously are the miserable wails and cries of the villagers——
"It's so hot, I'm going to burn to death!"
"It hurts so much, it hurts so much!"
"Can anyone help me, please help me..."
Help.
【Author’s words】
Here we come!
Thank you for your tickets and nutrient solution, thank you for leaving comments and reading, hug you tight!
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