Although Ma Chunhua died in a strange way, Xiao Shu was mentally disturbed.
Within just a few days of entering the village, the archaeological team had lost most of its members, and even Wang Zhongmin and Zeng Guangwen were hesitant.
But his attitude didn't change at all.
He was as determined as if the ruins in the cave were the last remaining candle in the darkness, clinging to life and death and refusing to let go.
Of course the conversation ended unhappily.
Everyone was worried, and no one was even in the mood to wonder: How did Li Changan notice the changes on the ground in the cave?
A night of silence.
the next day.
The rain seems to have become lighter, but the leaden clouds are heavy and low, which does not give people hope.
In the old house, the staleness and dampness are increasing, and the body feels heavy and tired after getting up, which makes people always suspect that the mold has taken the opportunity to get into the human body.
It is spreading and growing in the lungs.
The kitchen had run out of rice and vegetables, and Wang Zhongmin planned to "borrow" some more from his fellow villagers, so Li Changan proposed to accompany him.
Although he believed that there was something hidden underground that was secretly causing trouble, he also understood that the reason why he thought so was mostly due to the mission information and preconceptions. There was no evidence at all and it was just speculation.
But if the speculation is true, most of the seven remaining villagers in the village will have something to do with it.
The Taoist priest planned to investigate carefully to see if he could find a breakthrough.
…
The seven old men are scattered throughout the village, but their life trajectories are almost exactly the same. They eat, sleep, and spend the rest of the time looking for a statue or mural to chant or be in a daze.
No communication with outsiders, not even internal communication.
When asked, he either ignores you or stares blankly at you until you go away.
Other than that, he is just like ordinary people.
Li Changan followed Wang Zhongmin and observed them one by one, but in vain, and finally had to return without success.
Return to the ancestral hall.
Only then did we find out that Xiao Shu had a low fever again in the morning, which was a great torment for the people left behind.
Everything was bad, but not without good news. Professor Shao finally relaxed.
He found Li Changan, who looked like he had aged ten years overnight, and proposed that both parties should take a step back.
He promised not to enter the underground village again and to temporarily seal the cave entrance, but before that, he had to bring out the unfinished mural fragments.
The reason is simple.
If there really is a dark secret underground, it's probably hidden in the murals!
No need to say more.
Without further ado.
…………
The clouds and rain are dim, and it is difficult to know how the sky is changing.
Li Changan and others have been away for a long time and have not returned yet.
In the ancestral hall.
Xiao Shu's low fever subsided and his mental condition improved a lot.
Although he still had a pale face and a panicky expression, he no longer had the calmness that made him commit suicide from time to time.
Yi Baohua hurriedly worked hard to get her some food. He did not dare to untie her. He only made a bowl of sesame paste and fed her with small mouthfuls with a spoon. Zeng Guangwen stood by to prevent her from going crazy again.
At first glance, this scene looks like two adults serving a child.
And Xiao Shu was really like a child, dodging the spoon, sobbing softly, and mumbling:
"I don't want to stay here. I want to leave. We all have to leave. If we don't leave soon, it will be too late..."
"You believe me."
Yi Baohua hesitated for a long time before he forced a smile and said, "I believe you. Come on, be good and eat something first."
Xiao Shu turned his face away and smeared sesame paste on his face, which was washed away by tears.
She repeated those words.
"Let's go? How to go?!"
Zeng Guangwen suddenly spoke.
The voice was urgent and fast.
"The road collapsed, can you walk by foot? The wind is strong, the rain is heavy, and the mountain road is long and bad. What should I do if I encounter a mudslide on the way? What should I do if I slip and fall down the mountain? What should I do if I freeze to death in the mountain due to hypothermia?
?”
Xiao Shu did not answer. In fact, she was frightened and huddled up again. After a while, she timidly answered:
"There is a ghost here."
"ghost?"
Zeng Guangwen laughed out loud.
Suddenly he stood up and brought down the stool, which hit the ground with a "snap" sound.
But what was more intense than his actions was his tone.
"Ghost! Ghost! Ghost! Ghost! Ghost! There is a ghost! Where did the ghost come from?! Where is the ghost?!"
Xiao Shu was so frightened that he cried loudly and twisted his body to hide in the bed.
"Glasses!"
Yi Baohua stood in the middle.
"I know you feel bad, but you can't take it out on others."
"Why did I lose my temper? I just asked where the ghost came from."
for a while.
Instead, the two men became at loggerheads.
But after a while, both parties realized that too many things had happened in the past few days, and everyone's emotions were too tense. There was no need for this to happen between friends who were in the same boat.
Zeng Guangwen's eyes hesitated a little, and Yi Baohua was also thinking about a few soft words to say.
At this moment.
"some."
Words floated softly in my ears, accompanied by warm breaths brushing against my earlobes.
Goosebumps appeared on Yi Baohua's neck.
He turned his head.
Xiao Shu's face poked out from behind his shoulder. His face was pale, but his eyebrows had a crooked smile.
she says:
"It told me that Ma Chunhua brought it out of the ground and hid it in the corpse."
Yi Baohua's heart skipped a beat.
Then, opposite Zeng Guangwen, there was a heavy breath.
Not surprised, but angry.
He rushed forward suddenly and stretched out his hand to pull the rope that tied Xiao Shu.
"what you do?"
Yi Baohua hurriedly stopped him, but was pushed away by him.
"I'll take her to hell!"
The shock brought a brief silence.
Xiao Shu cried "Wow" again.
Yi Baohua was shocked and angry.
"Zeng Guangwen, you are crazy!"
"I'm not crazy, she is crazy! All the nonsense has been blamed on Andai and the others!"
"She is a patient and she talks nonsense."
"Yes! That's why you need to get medical treatment quickly. If you are seriously ill, you need heavy medicine!"
"Where did the medicine come from in this damn place?!"
"Truth is medicine!"
"We have to let her see with her own eyes whether there is a ghost, so as not to keep thinking wildly and going crazy. Last time it was Li Changan who was very skilled. What about next time? Who will save her?"
Zeng Guangwen grabbed Yi Baohua by the collar and stared into his eyes, word by word.
"Aren't you afraid that if we don't watch carefully, she will kill herself!?"
Yi Baohua opened his mouth, but in the end nothing came out.
The blocking arms hang down helplessly.
Zeng Guangwen pushed him away.
He grabbed Xiao Shu, who was crying and struggling, and forcefully pulled her out of the bed.
…………
It was dusk.
Rain clouds gathered around and the sky was extremely dark.
The sunset penetrated into the courtyard with the wind and rain, giving the decaying ancestral hall a hint of bright red.
There was a big hole missing in the roof of Xiangtang, and no one was there to repair it. Wind and rain came in through it, causing the doors and windows to creak from time to time. It also poured water all over the floor, enough to submerge the feet.
The coffins of the young couple were put on benches by their companions and moved to a corner protected from wind and rain.
There was no one to take care of the ancestors in the Xiangtang. The falling rain combined with dust and cobwebs to cover the sacred tablets. They were densely packed on the altar, enduring the dampness and filth, coldly facing the three uninvited guests.
Zeng Guangwen stepped into the stagnant water first. Xiao Shu, who he dragged over, might have lost his voice from crying all the way. He gave her to Yi Baohua who was following him, and he went straight over and opened Ma Chunhua.
's coffin.
As soon as the decision was made, Zeng Guangwen felt a little regretful.
He has been working in the archaeological team all year round and has opened many ancient coffins and seen many corpses, dry, wet, rotten with only bones left, and the skin is still elastic...but he has never seen anything like this.
The skin and flesh on Ma Chunhua's bones melted like wax and pooled in the coffin. Thick mold grew wantonly among her flesh and blood, almost filling the small space.
Zeng Guangwen has always scorned the theory of ghosts and gods, otherwise he would not be so angry at Xiao Shu's words.
He believed that all the strange phenomena that occurred in the village had scientific explanations, such as some unknown bacteria... In this case, was it a bit rash to open the coffin without any protection?
But he quickly put this thought behind him, pointed at the corpse, and looked at Xiao Shu:
"Come here and take a closer look. Have you seen a ghost?"
Xiao Shu did not answer. The struggle and crying seemed to have taken away all her strength. She collapsed in Yi Baohua's arms and silently focused her eyes on the other coffin in the room.
“My heart will never die until I see the Yellow River.”
Zeng Guangwen sneered, closed the lid of Ma Chunhua's coffin, and turned to Xiang Andai's coffin. This time, he had a claw hammer in his hand. In order to prevent Ma Chunhua from stealing the body again, Xiang Andai's coffin was sealed with coffin nails.
Understand.
"Sheep's horn" embedded in nail cap.
Amidst the sour sound of "crunch, crunch", the long iron nails that sealed the coffin were pulled out one by one.
Until the last one.
The wind and rain suddenly came up suddenly and roared into the house. Several sacred cards fell into the water, and the doors and windows shook.
Yi Baohua, who had been silent all this time, felt an inexplicable shiver run down his spine. He didn't know whether it was due to the cold water seeping into the soles of his shoes or the musty smell that filled the room.
"Glasses." He hesitated, "How about forgetting them?"
Zeng Guangwen ignored him, prying up the iron nails and pushing open the heavy coffin lid.
Xiang Andai is lying here.
His body was in very good condition, not rotten or moldy, and his friends had tidied him up before he was placed in the coffin.
At this time, he had his hands folded on his abdomen, a pair of beautiful red phoenix eyes half-opened, staring into the void, a smile on his lips, and his skin looked particularly shiny, just like it was before he was alive.
Seeing his old friend's peaceful face, Zeng Guangwen's anger also subsided a little.
"Come over and take a look now. How does he look like a ghost to you?!"
Xiao Shu still didn't answer, but she seemed to be frightened again. She grabbed the skirt of Yi Baohua's clothes tightly and buried herself in his arms, trembling.
On the contrary, it was Yi Baohua.
"Glasses."
"What's wrong?"
"Do you feel...something is wrong?"
"Are you also epileptic?"
Yi Baohua pursed his lips.
For a while.
"His nails are getting longer."
"After death, people become dehydrated, their skin and flesh shrink, and their nails look longer." Zeng Guangwen closed the coffin lid and said angrily, "Have you forgotten this bit of common sense?"
Yi Baohua hesitated for a moment, but when he saw Xiang Dai'an's body for the first time, he vaguely felt something strange, but he couldn't say it for a while.
He tried to recall the appearance of the body in the coffin, its hands, its face, its skin, its... eyes?
"Glasses..." Yi Baohua heard his voice trembling.
"What are you going to say again?!"
"The last time he got off the coffin, his eyes probably weren't closed..."
Beside the coffin, Zeng Guangwen was packing up the hammers, and the movement of nailing suddenly stopped.
Yi Baohua carried his last hope, his voice dry.
"Right?"
no respond.
In fact, no one spoke anymore, and all three of them seemed to be nailed by invisible nails.
There was silence in the room for a while, only the whimpering of the wind and rain remained.
at this time.
The rain clouds seem to have dispersed a bit.
More skylight came in, but it was all dark red, casting a gloomy gloom on the increasingly white faces of the two men.
"Creak~"
Suddenly there was a slight sound mixed with the wind and rain and penetrated into people's ears.