Two hundred and eighty-one. The cruel facts came to him
Strange villagers will also be affected by the lightless night. In the dim evening, light lights up behind the windows of the houses, and a bonfire is rising in the center of the village.
Rustling...
A folded page of paper was stuffed under the door. Lu Li walked over, picked it up, and unfolded it. There were strange, elongated words written on it, like the necks of villagers.
[Hello, stranger... My name is Jones Strice. No outsiders have come here for a long time, and I yearn for the outside. The village chief said that strangers are very afraid of strangers, and asked us not to have contact with you, but I am very curious... No
Do you know if I can chat with you?】
A slender figure vaguely appeared behind the curtains.
Lu Li put the paper on the table, stood up, unbolted the door, and opened the door.
A shy head slipped through the door and led the girl's body into the house.
Gently closing the door, the girl lowered her head and said, "Hello, stranger."
"Hello."
The girl's neck is slender and longer than that of other villagers, with a decorative bow tied at the base, which makes her head and body look like two unrelated entities.
The head looked at Lu Li with curiosity and shyness, especially his neck: "In the past, many foreigners had short necks. I heard that there are many patients like you out there... Is it true?"
"We've always been like this and haven't gotten sick." Lu Li replied.
Lu Li guessed that the local villagers' perceptions might be biased. Because of the lack of information, they were unable to discover the strangeness about themselves.
Aliens are different from the majority and are a minority. In a village where all are aliens, normal people are the aliens.
As for the reason why they became strange... maybe it has something to do with the Silt Fruit.
The villagers were originally normal, but due to eating silt fruits or coming into contact with other strange things, their necks became longer and longer.
This explains why everything in the village looks like any other village.
"If you are not sick, then...will it be us who are sick?" The girl's face turned pale and she murmured.
If it were other travelers, they might have hinted tactfully or concealed it in good faith, but Lu Li would only tell her directly: "Yes."
"It turns out that's really the case..."
The girl who had long suspected that she was in despair.
She had wondered a long time ago why the low door had to be lowered to enter, why the bed was so short and one had to curl up his neck uncomfortably when sleeping, why there were no accessories to decorate the neck, why lovers' kisses in romance novels did not wrap around the neck...
"But why didn't we notice? It seems that our necks have been like this since we were born..."
"There is a deviation in your cognition."
The girl easily thought of a traveler not long ago. He was afraid of the villagers and thought the people here were monsters. But after eating the silt fruit, the traveler's neck began to grow longer and he no longer thought it was strange and settled down in the village.
"Thank you, stranger."
The girl who knew the truth left the house.
Lu Li hung up the door latch again and returned to the bed.
Night has completely arrived, and the strange fog has just landed, and it will still take some time to reach the interior.
The bonfire in the center of the village has been lit, and a figure with a snake-like neck is walking in front of the bonfire.
Late at night, Lu Li, who was resting on the bed with his eyes closed, opened his black eyes and looked at the window blocked by the curtains.
Waves of whispers spread from the campfire and into the house.
Lu Li left the bed and walked to the window.
Local villagers gathered around the bonfire to disperse the strange fog. The heads on their slender necks were like seaweed, gently swaying with the whispers.
The villagers seemed to be performing ancient evil rituals.
At a certain moment, the village chief suddenly turned his head, looking at the house where Lu Li lived with a cold face under the firelight——
Lu Li returned to the bed and rested on the bed.
After a while, there was a sudden and rapid knock on the door.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang——
An anxious whisper sounded through the crack of the door: "Are you in there? The village chief said you are here to spread disease and plague, and he wants to kill you as a sacrifice!"
Click——
The latch was removed, the door opened, and Lu Li's calm face appeared behind the door.
The girl lowered her head and said hurriedly: "I will take you to hide, come with me!"
Lu Li did not respond. He remembered the village chief's reminder: Don't go out and don't look outside.
"What's wrong? Hurry up... they will be back at any time." The girl outside the door urged anxiously, while looking at the bonfire again and again, worried that she would be discovered by the villagers.
"I'll get something." Lu Li said, returned to the bed, picked up the "Lighthouse", and walked to the door.
The "lighthouse" he held in his hand suddenly lit up, and the gentle light full of vitality like the morning sun shone on the hut, and also passed through the figure of the girl outside the door.
She has no body and no shadow.
She stood outside the door without setting foot in the house.
"Hurry up—" the girl urged Lu Li, who was stopping in front of the door.
Lu Li raised his hand, and when the girl's face changed from anxious to expressionless, he closed the door and hung the bolt again.
Don't go out or look outside after dark.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang——
The knock on the door rang quickly again, but this time there was no call, only disturbing continuous knocks.
The strange knocking on the door lasted for dozens of seconds and disappeared into silence.
Outside the dim window, there were still a few people around the campfire, and no villagers seemed to notice anything strange here.
Lu Li sat cross-legged on the bed, with the "Lighthouse" in front of him within easy reach.
He was not lured out of the house by the strange presence, but a more terrifying trouble was surrounding Lu Li: alone, it was difficult for him to distinguish the difference between reality and the "door"'s tricks.
Perhaps through an accidental opening of the door, an accidental response, and an accidental contact, Lu Li fell into the trap of the "door" and entered the third stage.
At this time, it seems that we can only hope that during the ceremony of the rope of the gods, the "door" will be difficult to enter.
Although the "Gate" had visited once not long ago.
It was always quiet outside the house shrouded in strange fog. After the episode, nothing disturbed Lu Li.
The bonfire burned all night and was extinguished just before dawn.
The first glimmer of light in the morning shines through the cracks in the curtains.
Lu Li, who had been sleeping lightly, woke up.
After waiting for a few minutes to wake up enough, Lu Li left the bed, put on his cloak, and opened the door with an oil lamp.
A chill was coming, the morning mist shrouded the village, and the acrid smell of burning wood lingered in the air.
Green smoke rose from the extinguished bonfire, and sitting around the bonfire... low-profile villagers.
Their necks and heads were missing, leaving only empty chests filled with blood.
In the silent mist, the long-cooled corpses of the villagers gathered in front of the extinguished bonfire, clasping their hands together and praying on their chests.
This scene is full of bloody and terrifying beauty.
Lu Li's gaze swept over dozens of bodies and paused slightly at one of them.
He saw a bloody bow.
"We must leave after daybreak."
Thinking of the village chief's warning words, Lu Li silently pulled up the hood of his cloak and left the silent village.