Chapter 179

... Something is wrong.

... This road, this direction... No matter how you think about it, something is wrong.

On the empty roadside, He Qingyu looked around nervously, and finally couldn't help reaching out and gently tugged at the sweater sleeve of the person next to her.

"Xiao Qi." She whispered, "I think this place is not right... Let's go back?"

Du Huan frowned at her and pulled out his sleeve.

"Go back? Where to? To that weird shopping mall?" Du Huan said, rubbing her face irritably, "Use your brain and think about it. Is that a place for people? What kind of shopping mall would put models on the elevator? And the main entrance of such a big shopping mall is only open at night. If I hadn't been smart, we would be trapped inside now..."

She muttered unhappily, fixing her hair and looking around again. Seeing that He Qingyu looked thoughtful, as if she was convinced by him, she sighed softly: "I know you are very scared now. But calm down first, think about it carefully, and make a decision after you understand it, okay? The only one we can rely on now is each other. If we can't work together, then it's really over."

He Qingyu: "..."

"I don't want to argue with you, I just think this road..." She thought about it and still felt hesitant, "It's too weird. We have passed the same intersection three times..." "

Where is the 'same'?" Du Huan clicked his tongue, and simply stepped forward, pulled He Qingyu's shoulders, and asked her to look back.

"Do you see that shopping mall building? It's getting farther and farther away from us. It means our thinking is right and the direction of escape is also right. Right?"

He Qingyu pursed her lips and said nothing. Du Huan looked at her and pulled her body back: "So, how can you go back after running out? If you want to go back, you can go back by yourself. Anyway, I still have to keep going forward."

She said this, but her feet did not move. She just stared at the road in front of her, as if waiting for something stubbornly.

He Qingyu opened her mouth, closed it again, and thought about it and said nothing. She

just lowered her head to adjust her skirt, closed her eyes, and waited silently with her friends.

The cause of the incident can be traced back to three hours ago.

Or rather, it was what He Qingyu thought was "three hours" ago - for some reason, she had an inexplicable thought that the time she saw now might not be accurate.

He Qingyu is a senior this year, and she was supposed to go to the company for an internship today. She took a special leave to come out and have fun - in her favorite shopping mall, there is an underground street that specializes in selling lolita skirts and Hanfu. There is an anniversary event this week, and it is said to be very lively

. She was very interested, so she called her friends to come here to go shopping and check in. It should be like this.

However, she just went to the bathroom, and when she came out, the situation outside had completely changed.

The street that should have been full of beautiful dresses was left with only naked models, without heads or feet, just standing there quietly. When walking past them, you can feel the obvious sight. All the shops are still open, but the houses and the outside are all empty. A wind blew from somewhere and blew the anniversary event flyers everywhere.

He Qingyu walked carefully alone, plucked up the courage to pick up a flyer, but found that it was not printed with any anniversary event, but lines of red fonts that had never been seen before -

[Dear tourists, welcome to Sunshine Mall

[In order to ensure your travel experience, please read these rules carefully and try to comply with them...]

What was written at the end?

He Qingyu couldn't remember clearly. She was so scared at the time that she just took a quick look. She vaguely remembered something like "Except for the basement floor, all floors of this mall have professional service desks. If you encounter any problems, you can go to the service desk to ask", "If you see a moving service robot, you can ask for help directly. It will take you to the nearest service desk", "Please do not use the shared power banks in the mall, because this mall does not provide related services", "This mall has only one entrance and exit, located on the first floor. It is only open after 7pm. If you see a sign similar to an exit on other floors, please ignore it directly"...

Oh, yes, there is one more.

"If you are on the basement floor when you see this rule. Please find the elevator to the first floor as quickly as you can. Do not linger, do not use direct elevators or stairs. Do not..."

Hey, strange, what's the next one?

He Qingyu really couldn't remember.

She only remembered that her hair exploded almost instantly after she saw this rule. Without saying a word, she called Du Huan beside her and hurried to the elevator. She saw the rows of people standing on the elevator from a distance and breathed a sigh of relief. However

, the moment she approached the elevator, her expression froze again.

The elevator was still running as usual, going up and down on its own. The people standing on the elevator steps were not living people, but models in clothes.

Du Huan felt something was wrong at the time and pulled He Qingyu to tell her not to go upstairs and wait downstairs. She gritted her teeth and mixed in with the models and took the elevator to the first floor.

If everything is fine upstairs, she will come to pick up He Qingyu; if something is wrong upstairs, He Qingyu will pick her up. If she doesn't come back after a long time, He Qingyu will ignore her, don't go upstairs, and run away quickly - according to Du Huan, at this time, it is necessary to test separately, and you can't be wiped out.

He Qingyu actually didn't want to stay alone, but she trusted Du Huan. So after hesitating for a long time, she still followed Du Huan's arrangement.

Because she was afraid of the warning in the rules, He Qingyu didn't dare to wait on the underground floor. She simply took advantage of a loophole and stood on the elevator until it was about to reach the first floor. Then she turned around and ran down, and went up again. It was strange that the plastic models that rose and fell with the elevator came from nowhere. They disappeared naturally when they reached the top, and appeared naturally when she looked back, one after another, like leeks. They obviously had no expression, but when she met her eyes, she always felt that they were smiling.

Every time she repeated the process of going up and down the stairs, the smiles on the models' faces seemed to be more obvious. He Qingyu's heartbeat was getting faster and faster. Fortunately, Du Huan came back not long after.

She seemed to be in a hurry when she came back, and almost fell off the elevator. Without bothering to explain, she grabbed He Qingyu and ran downstairs, knocking the plastic model standing on the elevator all over the place. He Qingyu was confused and followed her subconsciously. She took the time to look back and saw a strange thing standing on the top of the elevator -

it looked like a service robot, but the metal body was covered with bloody muscles and throbbing nerves. There was no light where the screen should be, only a large group of eyeballs that were spinning around like grapes.

Her stomach churned, and He Qingyu hurriedly retracted her gaze, quickened her pace and followed Du Huan all the way until she hid in the bathroom, then she breathed a sigh of relief.

She asked Du Huan what happened, but Du Huan did not answer directly. Instead, he took out his mobile phone and showed her the video he had recorded after going upstairs.

——The area around the service counter was full of corpses. Mutilated corpses.

"The flyer is a lie, they trick people into going upstairs and then killing them!" Du Huan said tremblingly, dragging the progress bar to show He Qingyu with shaking fingers, "Look, look at these, they are all models upstairs - look at the skin on their bodies, this one even has a tattoo on his arm! How can a model have tattoos!"

"..." He Qingyu raised her hand to cover her mouth, her eyes instinctively began to ache, "You mean, these skins are..."

"They divided the body. The model took the skin, and the robot took the meat and eyes." Du Huan rubbed his eyes hard and took a deep breath, "We can't go upstairs, if we go upstairs we're done!"

"...But if we don't go upstairs, where else can we go?" He Qingyu tried to control her nasal voice, "It's written in the rules, the exit is only on the first floor..."

"Are you stupid? This rule is obviously fake and harmful, and you still believe it!" Du Huan's eyes widened, and then he seemed to think of something, his eyes suddenly lit up, "Wait, if this rule is not credible, doesn't that mean it's all lies..."

"In other words, there are exits on more than one floor?" He Qingyu followed her train of thought, "And if you follow the other exit signs, you can find the exit?"

"Yes, yes, that must be it!" Du Huan slapped his thigh, as if afraid of disturbing something, and suddenly lowered his voice, "And think about it, it specifically mentioned not to leave the basement floor - that means there must be something here that it doesn't want us to find."

"It...?" He Qingyu frowned, "What does it mean?"

"Oh, that's the person who wrote this rule!" Du Huan said anxiously, picked up the flyer again, studied it carefully for a long time, and finally made up his mind. He took He Qingyu's hand and walked out carefully.

... Surprisingly, their next action was unexpectedly smooth.

Du Huan made up his mind to go against the rules on the flyer and kept looking for the exit sign of the underground street. I don't know how long I walked around, but I actually found a small green sign. Following the direction of the sign, I found a staircase leading up. I walked up the stairs and came directly to the ground.

I walked directly to the small square outside the mall.

Under the clear sunlight, it seemed like another world. Her tense nerves finally relaxed. He Qingyu hugged Du Huan's arm and almost cried.

... But not long after, she found that the situation still seemed to be wrong.

There was still no one outside the mall.

A few steps ahead of the square was the main road. Across the road was another mall. It was supposed to be a place with a high flow of people - but except for the two of them, there was no one.

The strangest thing was the road in front of them. There was

a crosswalk right in front of them. There was a traffic light at each end of the crosswalk, and both were dark at the moment. The height of the traffic light was a bit low, and there was a ladder next to the traffic light on her side. There

was a piece of paper taped to the ladder. He Qingyu picked it up and saw only a few simple lines of words on it:

[Go when the light is red, stop when the light is green, remember the traffic laws.

[Walk on the zebra crossing and walk a few steps to the other side of the street.

[Crossing the road is the most dangerous, the road ahead is vast and you can't see it.]

...What does it mean?

Why is it go when the light is red and stop when the light is green? And aren't the lights here...all off?

He Qingyu was puzzled and discussed it with Du Huan, but they had no clue.

There was no other way but to find another way out. However, the thing that He Qingyu feared the most still happened. It was like

a ghost wall.

No matter which direction you go, no matter how you walk, you will eventually return to the starting point, back to this crosswalk.

...It was as if it was really like what was said on the paper, "The road ahead is vast and you can't see it."

It seems that the only way out of this dilemma is to start the traffic light and cross the road according to its instructions. But all the reliable traffic lights are broken. He Qingyu climbed up and down the ladder for a long time, but she couldn't find anything that looked like a switch...

At this moment, she heard a "pop".

A bird flew in from somewhere and hit the traffic light heavily. Bright red blood spurted out and flowed down the surface of the lamp, spreading across a large area.

Then there was another "squeak".

The traffic light on the opposite side of the road lit up.

The light bulb in the same position as the dead bird lit up with a dazzling red color. He Qingyu's eyes hurt from the dazzle, and before she could react, she was dragged by Du Huan across the crosswalk.

This time, they did not return to the starting point.

They came to the second intersection, a street away from the shopping mall. On the other side of the street, there was still another shopping mall, and both sides of the road were also empty.

There were only two extinguished traffic lights, and the same instructions and ladders as before.

Knowing that it was useless to go in other directions, the two could only wait quietly together. After waiting for an unknown amount of time, another bird finally flew over and hit itself to death - however, this time the bird did not hit the surface of the lamp directly, but hit the lamppost at a weird angle.

The blood on the lamppost will naturally not flow up backwards. He Qingyu and Du Huan stared at each other with pale faces for a long time, and finally made up their minds. They picked up the dead bird and smeared its blood on the surface of the traffic light.

"Snap". The traffic light on the opposite side turned red again. The two walked over quickly.

When they walked to the other side of the road, they looked back and found that they were one street away from Sunshine Mall. However, in front of them was not the exit, but another crosswalk.

Tacitly, the two waited again. After waiting for a long time, they did not wait for the third bird.

They only waited for one person.

A strange man ran up from behind them with a panicked look. Before He Qingyu could be happy about seeing the third living person, he saw him shouting "Don't eat me, don't eat me" while rushing onto the road without looking back.

At the moment when he rushed to the middle of the crosswalk, a truck came out from nowhere and rushed straight towards the crosswalk. The man's body flew high and fell in front of the two people with a thud. His neck was tilted and he was no longer breathing.

Both of them were shocked by the scene in front of them. When He Qingyu finally remembered to look up, the truck that caused the accident had disappeared.

On the other side, Du Huan stared at the corpse on the ground for a long time, but seemed to understand something. He slowly squatted down and used his hands to pick up the blood gushing out of the other side.

"...Xiao Qi?" He Qingyu looked at her in shock, "What are you going to do?"

"Get out." Du Huan said firmly, without letting He Qingyu go to the side, he climbed up the ladder next to the signal light, shaking his body and reaching his hands up.

"It's all fake, it's all fake, everything is fake..." He Qingyu heard her muttering while trying to smear the blood on her hands on the signal light.

The signal light on the opposite side lit up again. Du Huan jumped off the ladder, but did not rush to leave, but leaned over to search the man.

He Qingyu did not see her movements clearly, but only noticed that she seemed to have taken something from the other side's pocket. After asking tentatively, Du Huan just shook his head.

"It's okay." She said with a pale face, "Let's go."

So they crossed the crosswalk again - and then, they came here.

It was three whole streets away from Sunshine Mall. There was still a crosswalk in front of them.

He Qingyu always felt that something was wrong with this road, and a strong sense of uneasiness surged in her chest. However, she couldn't refute Du Huan's words, nor did she want to abandon him and go back alone. After hesitating for a long time, she still waited with Du Huan.

However, this time, they waited for nothing.

No birds, no corpses, no blood. Time passed by minute by minute, and the uneasiness in He Qingyu's heart became stronger and stronger. After an

unknown amount of time, she finally heard Du Huan speak.

She said, I just found a knife on that person.

"!" He Qingyu turned around in surprise, and saw her taking out a Swiss folding knife from her pocket. She unfolded the knife, gestured on her arm, and murmured, "If it's just used to paint the signal light, it won't take much blood, right? After bleeding, we will wrap it with clothes... No problem, right?"

"No... No!" He Qingyu realized where her strong sense of uneasiness came from. She wanted to snatch the other party's knife but didn't dare, so she had to speak hurriedly, "No, no, don't - Xiaoqi, listen to me, there is no need to do this, we don't need to..."

"We... Yes, we can go back! We can go find the body before..."

"The road behind is empty - the corpse disappeared after we painted the traffic light! Didn't you notice!" Du Huan raised his voice, "The corpse is a hint! And those birds are hints! They are reminding us how to turn on the light - don't you understand? All the hint levels have been completed, and there are no more free benefits for novices. We have no other choice but to bleed!"

"Well... okay, bleed, and then what?"

"Then we'll go over! Look, the exit is just opposite, not far away-" "

Are you sure?"

"I...?"

Wait, that wasn't He Qingyu's voice just now.

Who was talking then?

The words suddenly stopped, and Du Huan turned her head in surprise. Suddenly, something passed through her palm, lightly rolled up the knife in her hand, and threw it aside.

The next moment, a figure jumped down from the signal light above. A

bright red Lolita dress, long golden curly hair. The whole face was wrapped in a veil, and a work badge on the chest swayed back and forth, reflecting the light in the sun.

"Strange Talk Demolition Office, intermediate salesperson, Guangye Cassia."

The person adjusted the lace on the cuffs, glanced at the pale Du Huan, and then his eyes fell on He Qingyu.

Then, He Qingyu saw her nod at him:

"Don't be nervous, I'm here to save you."