Chen Ke and the old man were as stiff as two statues. Although those people were still trying to change the topic, as time went by, they naturally discovered the strange stiffness of these two people.

This stiffness is different from the flexibility just now, which makes people uneasy inexplicably. Even though the two people are facing away from them, at this moment, people can't help but wonder what their faces look like.

Everyone realized that something must have happened just now that made these two people suddenly become like this. But what happened left everyone scratching their heads.

What did they do just now? They refused to drink soup, interrupted Chen Ke's questioning, and changed the topic... After counting one by one, everyone suddenly discovered that they didn't know when the other party suddenly fell silent.

After a long time, it seemed that even the soup had gone cold. Chen Ke suddenly asked, "Why don't you drink it?"

"Uh... we..." Several people looked at each other and said, "We'll drink right away. We're just worried about you. You seemed... a little uncomfortable just now."

"We have nothing." Chen Ke said immediately, but he said it so quickly, which made everyone feel like they were hiding something, and even caused a slight embarrassment in the scene.

"Then, let's try it?" A girl whispered. Xiao Chong closed his eyes, his heart skipped a beat, picked up the bowl and took a sip. After finishing the drink, the expression on his face gradually became strange.

.

"How is it?" Someone nearby looked at Xiao Chong's strange expression and was slightly frightened, so he asked in a low voice.

Xiao Chong closed his mouth and tasted it for a few seconds, then said a little confused: "It's quite delicious."

When he said this, other people also showed strange expressions on their faces. It seemed that everyone thought it was normal to taste bad and abnormal to taste good...

The oldest person in charge also picked up the bowl and took a sip. He had an antidote on him, which can detoxify ordinary poisons, so he drank it neatly.

After finishing half the bowl of soup, he put the bowl down and said, "It tastes good."

"After you finish drinking, if you have nothing else to do, just take a shower and have a rest." The old man said calmly.

"Aren't we... going to leave right away?" someone next to him asked in a low voice.

His words were accidentally overheard by the old man. While clearing away the dishes, the old man said, "You can go out, but you have to wait until tomorrow morning."

He looked up at the sun that was about to set and said, "Recently, you must not go out at night. It is a bit dangerous outside. After you go to bed at night, no matter what sound you hear, don't open the door."

…

At night, they crowded into a room. The old man and Chen Ke lived behind the stall. This was originally the house configuration of an ordinary hawker.

The house of the old man and Chen Ke is relatively dilapidated. It has a master bedroom, a side bedroom, a guest room, and a small woodshed.

The master bedroom is relatively large, and Chen Ke originally slept in the side sleeper. There were many people today, so both the old man and Chen Ke went to sleep in the guest room.

The bed in the master bedroom should not be occupied by one person, but since they came here, they have never met Chen Ke's mother.

Originally, boys and girls were supposed to live in separate rooms, but tonight was a bit special. No one dared to sleep on the side sleeper. Finally, after discussing it, they all squeezed into the master bedroom.

The weirdest thing about the house here is that all the surrounding windows are boarded up - note, it's not that there are none, but they are boarded up.

This magical structure simply makes people feel magical, and then they can't help but wonder whether they will be overheated to death if they live in such a house in the summer...

The master bedroom also had some daily necessities, including embroidered flowers and some old red quilts. Xiao Chong walked around the room and suddenly discovered the outdated dressing box and bronze mirror placed on the table.

The dressing box is made of carved mahogany, and one of the legs seems to have been broken and then reattached. Although the dressing box is old and almost no one uses it, it has been wiped clean.

This is a woman's dressing cabinet, but it doesn't look like there is a woman here.

"Why did they suddenly become so strange during the day?"

There is no one around at night, so everyone can discuss in a low voice what happened during the day. But no one can figure it out no matter how hard they think.

"I think the two of them became weird when they mentioned the man in the black hat." A girl said hesitantly.

"What did Chen Ke ask you during the day? He said do you want to be like a normal person?" The older person in charge frowned and said, "What did he mean?"

"Does that mean he can live like a normal person?" Someone next to him replied, "He does look like a normal person, more so than I have seen before... but sometimes he is a little strange."

The person in charge is always more concerned about this sentence.

He thought about it and said, "You guys stay here, I want to go out and take a look."

"Huh?" Someone next to me was worried, "Didn't the old man just say that we can't go out?"

"We can't stay in this room forever." The person in charge said, "Even the windows here are sealed. We don't know what's going on outside. We can't sleep tonight. I want to see why he told us not to

go out."

"Then I will follow you out." As soon as the person in charge finished speaking, Chen Ke also stood up.

The two people secretly opened the door and took a look at the scene outside. It was dark everywhere. At some point, all the vendors outside had closed their stalls, and the whole street was dark.

The guest bedroom also had a window, so I couldn't see clearly what it looked like inside, and I didn't even know whether the lights were on or not.

When they came out, they even felt a little cold on their backs. The darkness outside gave people a scary feeling. Even if they didn't care, after listening to the old man's repeated warnings, going out at night would still feel a bit scary.

The two people walked cautiously toward the outside, tiptoeing on tiptoes. Just as they were holding their breath and concentrating, a heavy "thud" suddenly came from outside, which almost scared them to the point of shouting.

I turned around and saw that the thing that made the sound just now was the small basket hanging at the door. It kept knocking on the door panel. It seemed that there was something heavy in it, so it kept making such a banging sound.

.

The two people retracted their gaze, suppressed their emotions, and secretly came to the guest room. The person in charge took out something like a receiver from his pocket and placed it on the wooden board in front of the window.

The sounds inside could be faintly heard. The two people were indeed not asleep and were still chatting.

"Why did they mention a man wearing a black hat?" Chen Ke's voice came from inside.

His voice sounded deeply uneasy.

The old man kept comforting him and said, "Don't be afraid, without this person, they are all talking nonsense."

"Are they talking nonsense?" Chen Ke's voice was filled with distrust, and he said, "But Dad, how do I remember that I have seen such a person before?"

"Is he thin, tall, and holding a knife?"

"There is no such person." The old man just kept repeating seriously, "You just fell asleep when you were dreaming. You have been having some strange dreams a long time ago."

"Is...is that so?" Chen Ke's voice gradually became uncertain, and he seemed not to be so sure about his memory.

Perhaps it's because his own memories are very hazy, so he can't quite tell what is real and what is illusory.

"Look, aren't you still normal now?" Although the old man's voice was wooden, he kept repeating it again and again patiently, "Since you are still normal now, the person wearing the hat definitely does not exist.

of."

Chen Ke seemed to accept this explanation.

Although this explanation sounded baffling to the two people outside the door, why did Chen Ke just prove that the man wearing the hat did not exist? What is the logic between the two?

After a while, Chen Ke seemed to have recovered. He said, "Dad, where is my mother? I want to eat the noodles made by my mother. Where is my mother?"

"Your mother has gone out. You have a good sleep now. Your mother will be back soon..."

The two people at the door glanced at each other in unison, each seeing a hint of surprise in the other's eyes.

Does the man wearing the bamboo hat exist or not? Now the two of them are almost confused. Before coming here, they would have said categorically that he did not exist without hesitation, but at this point, even they themselves are confused.

not sure.

What's even more amazing is that even the old man and his son's statements were different, but the old man did not completely deny what the son said, but said that he had dreamed it all.

Who is that man wearing a bamboo hat? From which corner did he come out? The two of them were puzzled.

The person in charge and Xiao Chong didn't pay much attention to the remaining sounds, because they heard footsteps coming from outside, and gradually a beam of light came over. Both of them held their breath and quietly took a step back.

, let that light pass under their feet.

The two of them went out and took a look. The person holding a lantern outside seemed to be a woman.

She was wearing white clothes, her face was pale, and she was holding a white paper lantern in her hand, which gave off a pale light.

"That person...is the person from the Yamen they mentioned?" Xiao Chong looked incredulous.

"Probably." The person in charge nodded, but the woman couldn't look anything like a yamen agent.

Not to mention that there are already very few female police officers nowadays, and besides, there has never been a police officer who patrolled the streets dressed like wearing sackcloth and mourning.

The two people looked at each other again and quietly followed the weird "catcher", wanting to see where this magical "catcher" came from.

They walked out of the door and passed the small basket that kept banging. When they went out, the basket was still banging. Xiao Chong inadvertently looked up, and suddenly in the light that had not disappeared, the light came through.
Chapter completed!