Strange Tale

"Passing the village in front, we will soon be Dushuo City."

On the edge of the cliff, Si Ren pointed to a village faintly visible in the distance surrounded by clouds and mist.

Long Jiu narrowed his eyes and took a closer look, "Why doesn't it seem popular?"

"You can see it so far away?"

"Feel."

"Probably too far away."

Long Jiu shook his head and didn't say anything more.

At noon the next day, they reached the village.

Seeing the stone stele at the entrance of the village, Si Ren asked to stop the car. Everyone got out of the car and stretched their limbs.

Ye Chang's legs are almost healed.He walked to the stone tablet and tapped it with the crutch in his hand, "Er Shen Village? The name is quite interesting. Oh? What's the matter with this talisman? Why are there still symbols on the boundary monument?"

Si Ren squatted down and wiped the dust on it with his hands, "This is a relatively old Yu Talisman, I don't remember that it was not there before. It is newly engraved? What happened?"

Long Jiu also came over, "It's almost time to enter the village, why can't I feel the breath of a living person?"

Si Ren stood up and muttered to the direction of the village for a while, his face darkened, "Why don't you wait here, I'll go over and have a look first. This is the way I walked when I left Dushuo City. At that time, the village was full of people and very lively."

"I will go with you."

Si Ren knew that Long Jiu would definitely say this, he patted the unicorn in his bag, "What about you?"

Before Qilin could answer, Huan'er ran over and hugged Si Ren's thigh, "I'm going too!"

Si Ren decisively took Qilin out of his backpack and threw it on Huan'er's shoulder, "Let Xiaolin play with you, and you don't want to follow."

Qilin jumped onto the ground and transformed into a human form, "Who wants to play with her?! Have you asked me?"

Huan'er grinned and was about to laugh, but her expression froze when she heard Qilin's words, and the next moment she turned around and ran away crying.

Qilin frowned, "What's wrong with the dead girl?!"

Si Ren put his hands on his hips, "Go and chase it back for me!"

Qilin went to chase Huaner, Si Ren and Long Jiu left, and the rest often sat on the side of the road and played chess with stones when they had nothing to do.

It didn't take long to play chess, Xu Hai couldn't help raising his head to look around.

They often turn their necks as well, "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, it's okay." Xu Hai sat upright and shook his head, "I just feel flustered for no reason."

Si Ren and Long Jiu walked all the way into the village without seeing a single person.The surrounding people were so quiet that there was not even a chicken crowing or a dog barking.The scorching sun was in the sky, there were no clouds and no wind.Only they and their shadows can move, and only their own footsteps can be heard.

After walking along the main road in the village for a while, Si Ren stopped. He pointed to a courtyard at hand, "If I remember correctly, the family name is Zhang. The owner of the house is an uncle, with two sons and daughters, a family of four. "

"How do you know?" Long Jiu walked to the door and looked into the yard.

"I used to run out to play, and stopped at Uncle Zhang's house to drink water."

"Then... let's go into his house and have a look?"

Si Ren walked behind Long Jiu, reached out and knocked on the wooden door.

"Obviously no one is there, why are you knocking?"

"What if there is."

Long Jiu glanced at Si Ren, and waited with him honestly for a while.

Unsurprisingly, there was still no sound at all.Si Ren and Long Jiu looked at each other, and Long Jiu raised his hand and opened the door.

Nothing abnormal could be seen in the yard, it was clean as if it had just been swept.It's just that a big chicken frame is empty, without a single chicken feather or chicken feces, which looks a little weird.The two didn't stop much, and walked directly to the door of the house.This time it was Si Ren who directly opened the door.

"Is anyone there?!" Si Ren stood at the door and shouted.

Naturally, no one in the room answered.The sunlight coming in from outside the door casts directly on the stove, and where the beam of light passes, fine dust swirls up and down and dances non-stop.The house is neat and clean, it doesn't look like no one lives there.

Si Ren stepped over the threshold and walked towards the back room on one side.

Long Jiu went to the side of the stove and touched it with his hand: it was indeed very clean.He twisted his fingers with one hand, and opened the lid of the pot next to him with the other: there was nothing in the pot.Long Jiu's gaze moved to the side again: a cutting board was on top of a cupboard, and a kitchen knife was on the cutting board.The kitchen knife was lying on the cutting board, as if someone was using it to cut vegetables just now.

Si Ren opened a cabinet, which was full of clothes, and the color of one layer was somewhat different from the other layers.He took it out and looked at it in turn: it turned out to be the baby's clothes and diapers.

"Did you find anything?" Long Jiu came in.

Si Renjin frowned and looked at the diaper in his hand and shook his head, "It's really strange, it seems that Uncle Zhang's son has already married a wife and had a child. The child's clothes and diaper are all there, why is he missing?"

"Well, it's quite strange. And it seems to disappear out of thin air and disappear suddenly."

"You think so too?"

"Obviously, all the daily necessities are there." Long Jiu walked to the side of the long bed under the window, "Look at the teapot with the lid open, there is already tea in it but no water yet. And look at the bed .Although the quilt was neatly folded on one side, the traces on the quilt and pillow, it is obvious that someone turned over and got up after a sleep just now."

Si Ren put the clothes in his hand back into the cabinet, "Let's look elsewhere."

Soon they reached the next house.This time, Si Ren picked it randomly, without looking for someone he used to know.And he didn't knock on the door, let alone shout.They went straight in and took a quick look. The situation inside the house was not much different from that of the Zhang family.Without saying a word, Si Ren turned around and rushed out of the door and entered another adjacent house...

Then Si Ren ran for more than a dozen courtyards in one breath, Long Jiu followed at first, and then he simply stopped in the middle of the road and watched Si Ren running around with an anxious and depressed expression on his face.

In the end, Si Ren finally had enough tossing around, and stopped in front of Long Jiu, panting, "Why... why?! Why is it good... Duanduan's village, if everyone says it's gone, it will be gone?!"

"I want to know too. Remember what I said when I saw this place on the cliff?"

"You said you weren't very popular."

"Well, you said you were far away at the time, but I still don't feel a trace of popularity all the way here."

"But... I can't feel the evil spirit or Yin energy. What happened? It won't happen for no reason."

"For now, there are no monsters or ghosts nearby, but..."

"But what?"

Long Jiu sniffled, "Can't you smell it?"

Si Ren imitated him and also sniffled, "What?"

"It smells like blood."

"what?"

"There are still a few yards and houses just now, and some of them have obvious traces of being cleaned deliberately."

"what?"

Long Jiu was helpless, "Then what are you looking at while running around?"

Si Ren scratched his head, "Look for someone."

"This...it's obviously impossible to find someone."

"I don't think about what happens."

"Just in case. And..."

"Anything else?"

"Don't you think there's one thing that's missing in this village that's everywhere?"

"thing?"

"Uh, it's not a thing, it's an animal."

"dog?"

Long Jiu shook his head.

"pig."

Long Jiu shook his head.

"what?"

"Flies. Although it's autumn now, the weather at noon is still quite hot. Anyway, it's not the season when flies are extinct. It can be seen that there is really no living thing in this village."

"Ai──" Si Yan sighed, squatting on the ground discouraged, "Then what should we do now? I wanted to take a break and eat something."

"What I mean is to get out of here quickly and go to Dushuo City."

"There is not much dry food left. It will take three or four days to get to Dushuo City. Even if you don't eat anything, we are still reluctant."

"Actually, Huan'er, Qilin and Yechang don't need to eat them. They will be fine for three or four days."

"You want to get out of here so quickly?"

"Well, it's very evil here."

"Huh? There are also things you are taboo about."

"I just don't want to waste my energy on things that don't work."

"Aren't you curious? What happened here?"

"Hmph, I haven't seen anything after living for so long. There is nothing in the world that makes me curious."

"But……"

"I think if you're wondering what happened, you should just keep going."

"why?"

"Maybe someone in the nearby village knows about it."

"There are no other villages before Dushuo City."

"Then go to the city and ask."

"Okay." Si Ren stood up, and he couldn't think of a better way, "Go back and find them, let's go straight through the village."