Chi Nan, who was just about to clear the tableware, paused for a moment. Before he could speak, the dark tea across from him rushed to answer: "It's a poor child, but if he grows up, I don't think he's a normal person."
"Huh? Why do you say that?" Ye Chang seemed to be very interested in this young master, and his tone was a little different from before.
"How can a child who grows up in this environment be normal? The family of origin has a great influence on a person's character," Hei Cha expressed his opinion, "With such parents, they have been treated as sacrifices since childhood, and they are not crazy anymore. It needs a very strong mental strength, what is normal to talk about..."
"Yes," perhaps because of the light, Ye Chang's eyes were hidden behind the lenses, making it difficult to see his expression, "Brother Nan thinks the same way?"
Chi Nan was silent for a moment, then shook his head: "It's quite a likable child."
Ye Chang gave him a fixed look, and raised the corners of his lips lightly: "Really?"
"Hey, your hobby is too unique, will you go in this direction to find someone in the future?" Black Tea teased Chi Nan.
Chi Nan didn't care if he was joking, and thought about it seriously: "If you can still find it."
"Wow, you really like being sickly," Hei Cha asked after watching him clear the plate, "are you ready to eat?"
"Well, eat slowly. I'll go around the cruise ship first to see if there are any clues. We will meet at the banquet hall at 7:50."
Chi Nan left the restaurant and started looking for a breakthrough along the map icon in the corridor.
Now that he has eyes, he no longer has to rely on his teammates to search for clues like the previous instance, and he can immerse himself in the nightmare world.
In fact, he has always felt a little pity in his heart. If he could have seen things earlier, he would have been able to see Xiaoyouyu in person.
As for Ye Chang's question just now...
He will always remember the last time in the fire, Xiao Youyu raised his angelic face and said to Bai Yingzhi, "Mom, let's go to hell together, I love you" with crazy and innocent eyes.
So is this an abnormal behavior in the human world
But at that moment, he was clearly attracted by the extremely crazy and dangerous beauty of Xiao Youyu, unable to take his eyes off...
Chi Nan didn't understand very well, and shook his head in his heart.
Chi Nan quickly pulled away from his emotions and noticed that the Dusk was not particularly big, with a total of five floors.
Restaurants, banquet halls, public bathrooms, gyms, recreation rooms, libraries and other public areas as well as rest areas for ship crews are concentrated on the first and second floors, while guest rooms are mainly concentrated on the third, fourth and fifth floors. Chi Nan took pictures of the space of the cruise ship Schematic.
He noticed that the northernmost area on the first floor was a painting exhibition hall.
Chi Nan is very sensitive to information related to paintings. With the mentality of giving it a try, he asked the waiter who just passed by: "Hello, is the painting exhibition hall open to the public now?"
The waiter showed him a stiff smile unique to NPCs: "Dear guests, during your free time, you can go to any public area for entertainment."
"Okay." Chi Nan thanked the waiter and planned to go to the painting exhibition hall according to the picture.
"Wait a minute, sir," the waiter suddenly stopped him, and then handed a travel brochure-like thing to him with both hands, "this is the introduction of our painting exhibition hall, maybe you can use it."
"Thank you." Chi Nan took the brochure and immediately opened it.
The booklet only briefly introduces the background of the painting exhibition hall, including the construction date, the number and scale of the paintings, and the concept that the entire exhibition hall wants to convey—death and eternity.
Chi Nan's eyes stayed on the date of the painting exhibition hall for half a second, and recorded the time point of November 27, 1927.
When he closed the manual and looked up again, the waiter who was standing in front of him was gone, completely disappeared in the corridor without any forks.
Everything just happened just as if he happened to be there, guarding Chi Nan and asking questions and giving him the booklet.
At the end of the corridor is a closed red door, locked, with a sign indicating the painting exhibition hall.
Chi Nan paused for a while, and continued to move forward to see more clearly.
Just one step away from the gate, something strange happened. There was a sound of the key turning from the door. After a while, the red gate opened slowly, and the lights in the exhibition hall also turned on, as if to welcome Chi Nan's arrival. .
Just as he was about to take a step on his front feet, a familiar voice sounded behind him: "Do you want to go in by yourself?"
Chi Nan turned around and saw Ye Chang standing in the corridor with a bottle of Coke in his hand.
Somehow this bottle of Coke reminded him of the one the Dreamers prankly handed him at Dawn Base...
Not a pleasant memory.
"Do you mind if I go with you?" Ye Chang said again.
"Are you really afraid?" Chi Nan asked.
Ye Chang smiled and quickened his pace to keep up: "Don't be afraid, in fact, I quite like these... It's just the things that everyone finds scary."
After a pause, he pushed up his glasses embarrassedly: "Is this very strange to ordinary people?"
"It's a coincidence, so do I." After speaking, Chi Nan and Ye Chang turned into the exhibition hall.
The exhibition hall is about 200 square meters, and hundreds of paintings are densely hung on the four walls. The compact layout makes the small exhibition hall seem cramped and depressing.
Of course, the most breathless thing is the content of the painting.
Although the content and style of each painting are different, the theme is eerily unified, all depicting the process of human death.
Falling from a building, car accident, cutting wrists, hanging, drowning, burying alive... Hundreds of paintings show hundreds of ways of dying, some of which are cunning and unheard of.
And these deaths, without exception, were depicted incisively and vividly by the painter with pen and ink, and the fear and pain on the faces of the deceased also appeared on the paper.
"Look, there seems to be a series of numbers marked under each painting."
"19970808, 20011126, 19990223..." Chi Nan looked at the numbers one by one, "It looks like it should be the date, maybe the creation time of each painting? But it's not in order."
Ye Chang also followed the painting: "Is it possible that the characters in the painting died?"
Chi Nan thought about it: "Or, the creation time of the painting and the death of the characters are the same."
"But how are these paintings created? Why put them here again? Are they trying to tell us something?" Ye Chang said to himself while looking at the paintings, "The paintings are too real and detailed. "
"By the way, Brother Nan, how did you come to the painting exhibition hall?" Ye Chang asked again.
Chi Nan blinked and lied: "Love art."
Ye Chang: "..."
Chi Nan: "How about you?"
"I'm here to find you." Ye Chang's eyes curled behind the lenses.
"Um?"
"I met a waiter in the corridor just now, and I asked him if he saw you, and he pointed me to the direction of the painting exhibition hall," Ye Chang said sincerely, "Brother Cha said that you are excellent at finding clues, I I want to follow along and learn.”
"Maybe whether I come to the showroom or not, he will point you here."
Chi Nan quickly looked at all the paintings and confirmed that there was nothing he was looking for.
"There seems to be a painting missing here." Chi Nan walked to the deepest part of the exhibition hall, where there was an empty picture frame, and the paintings in the frame were nowhere to be found.
Ye Chang's eyes followed him, and he saw obvious scratches under the painting: "The numbers at the bottom were also deliberately erased."
Although knowing is an important clue, there is still too little information to make effective inferences.
The two walked around the death painting exhibition hall for a while, until 7:40, when they left the exhibition hall and walked towards the banquet hall.
Black Tea stood at the entrance of the banquet hall and waved to them from afar: "Fuck I just went to get a dessert, why did you turn around and disappear."
"Ah, sorry, I went to find Brother Nan..." Ye Chang was very embarrassed, "I forgot to tell you when I left."
Of course, black tea doesn't really care: "How is it? Did you find any useful clues?"
Chi Nan said all the discoveries in the death painting exhibition hall, and after hearing it, Hei Cha was horrified: "Fortunately, it was you who were discovered... Normal people are not allowed to suffer from ptsd in the art exhibition..."
Ye Chang said: "The strange phenomenon on the Dusk seems to be related to 'death' and 'the process of death itself'."
"There are also supernatural beings." Hei Cha felt a little hairy at the thought of telling ghost stories on such a ship later.
It's exactly eight o'clock.
The old captain's rich voice sounded in the center of the banquet hall: "Dear guests, thank you for participating in the Twilight Horror Story Night on time. We have prepared drinks and snacks. I hope you can have a wonderful night."
The sleepwalkers in the banquet hall looked different, and it was a night of horror stories, how could it be so wonderful
"You can sit wherever you want, but try to stay as close as possible to facilitate the exchange of stories." The old captain smiled energetically and bowed slightly.
Chi Nan picked a place where he could not hear the sound and sat down. Dark Tea naturally wanted to sit next to him, but Ye Chang sat down ahead of him and looked like he didn't notice.
Black tea can only move a stool and sit on the other side of Chi Nan.
"It's already eight o'clock in the evening, and the sun really shows no sign of going down." Ye Chang looked out the window and said.
Their location is facing a large floor-to-ceiling window on the west side, and the sunset rays slanted in through the window, and the entire banquet hall was plated with a layer of red.
Chi Nan subconsciously glanced in the direction of the floor-to-ceiling window, Ye Chang's position was facing the direction of the light, Chi Nan looked over, and the afterglow outlined his profile.
Because of the angle, Ye Chang's lenses have always been reflective, and even his face has become blurred.
Hei Cha said happily: "Dusk is better than night, isn't it more terrifying to tell ghost stories in dark lights..."
The old captain seemed to have heard their conversation, smiled and said: "Dusk is in the transition between day and night, in fact, it is closer to another world than midnight."
His voice was so loud that the rest of the sleepwalkers in the room could hear him clearly, and his back was hairy.
The old captain smiled: "Just kidding, have a good time."
Everyone: "… "
Seeing the cold expressions of many people present, the old captain seemed satisfied: "Let me tell you another legend about the ship."
"There are not many supernatural things at sea. In the long journey, accidents are always inevitable. There are always careless waiters who are not so careful when cleaning the accident room, or do not deal with it when they are in a hurry. The next group of passengers will find some clues in the cabin."
"The Dusk has been floating on the sea for nearly a hundred years. Passengers come and go, and those souls who stay on the ship because of various accidents are likely to be trapped at sea, unable to leave again, and stay on the Dusk journey forever."
Having said that, the old captain smiled tenderly and nostalgically, and everyone present was horrified.
The big wave broke the weird atmosphere, and suddenly sneered, took out a white sheet from the designer bag and threw it in front of the old captain: "This clue is too conspicuous, should I complain that your service is not in place?"
The old captain picked up the sheet and unfolded it, and the snow-white fabric was mottled and covered with old blood stains...
Several newcomers at the scene screamed, but the old captain put his finger lightly on his lips, indicating to keep quiet: "We people living at sea need to maintain a tacit understanding, and even if we see terrible things, we should not make too much movement to be alarmed. 'they'."
"Because, like 'them', we are trapped in the sea and have to respect each other."
The faces of several newcomers turned pale with fright, and they hurriedly covered their mouths to silence.
Da Wave lit his cigarette and bit his mouth and said, "Even if there is a supernatural event, I'm still staying on the boat. Should the room service give me an explanation? Can I change rooms?"
The old captain said apologetically: "We are sorry for the unpleasantness caused to you. The sheets will be replaced with clean ones immediately. As for your request for changing rooms, we are temporarily unable to meet your needs. On the Dusk, all rooms have been arranged properly, no Temporary replacement is allowed."
The big wave did not continue to mess around, it was an understatement, and he smoked on his own.
"This girl was trying the rules. Before, she only said that she was not allowed to change the bed without permission, but she did not say that she could not change the bed because the service was not in place, so she brought the sheets on purpose."
It is rare for dark tea to be so insightful, so he hurriedly explained to the newcomer Ye Chang.
Chi Nan: "I guess there are "death marks" in every room. "
Black Tea: "..." He shuddered at the thought of the ashes in his house.
"My guide is here, and I will give the time to all the guests," the old captain's eyes swept across the faces of the sleepwalkers one by one, "Those who tell the story well will be favored by the Dusk and reap rich rewards. ."
As soon as the old captain said these words, the old sleepwalkers understood that storytelling was closely related to gaining favorability points.
Everyone who came to complete the task immediately cheered up and began to search for horror stories.
In terms of telling ghost stories, black tea has a huge advantage because of its professional relationship. He was the first to speak: "When I was searching for materials before, I heard a real thing, which is very evil."
"About seven or eight years ago, a bus in Z city rushed off the bridge and fell into the river. It was a rainy night, and it was the last bus. The bus was crowded with people. In the end, 72 people died, but only 100 people were caught. Of the 71 corpses, one female body was searched for more than half a month and could not be found, and it may have been swept away by the undercurrent."
He paused, and several sleepwalkers in the room straightened their necks and listened intently.
"Originally, this matter has passed, but the evil is here. The girl who was washed away has a twin sister. It is said that for a long time, the sister's mobile phone will ring in the middle of the night, and there is no caller number displayed, but if you don't answer It never stops, it keeps ringing, even if it is turned off, it still rings correctly, but there is nothing in the call log."
"And every time my sister answers the phone, the other side doesn't say anything, but I can vaguely hear the sound of water flowing. According to the client, her ears follow the water after answering the phone, and the tinnitus will continue until dawn. Everything is separated by a layer of water."
"Later, the elder sister asked someone to find a professional in metaphysics, and after a few rituals, she was finally able to hear the message that the younger sister wanted to convey on the phone."
"Afterwards, according to the content of the call, the investigators finally found my sister's body more than 300 kilometers downstream from the accident site. The fish had already eaten up a few pieces of meat, but the strange thing was that my sister was only left with bones and fleshy hands. Still holding on to the damaged cell phone..."
The black tea stopped at the most creepy part, and the banquet hall fell silent, and the sound of waves crashing on the deck could be vaguely heard not far away.
The triplet sisters sitting in the far corner looked particularly ugly. The girl Hei Changzhi trembled and asked, "That...is that really a call from my sister from the bottom of the water?"
Hei Cha shrugged: "There is no standard answer to this kind of supernatural event. Anyway, the body was finally found, and the family sent it to cremation."
"Then..." Hei Changzhi bit his lip and said, "What happened to that elder sister?"
"This... I don't seem to have heard of my sister's follow-up." Hei Cha scratched his head.
The middle-aged woman on the side came over and said, "I heard that there will be telepathy between your twins and triplets. Is this really the case?"
The three little girls were obviously a little embarrassed, and the girl with the ponytail finally said, "It varies from person to person, we don't have this situation."
"I also know a real thing," this time it was the man in the cultural shirt who said, "My mother likes to play mahjong with my aunts. I have heard a saying, maybe you have heard it too, it's called 'the four return to the west'."
Chi Nan, who had never even played mahjong, couldn't understand it at all, but fortunately there was someone who knew how to explain it.
"I've heard of this too," said the aunt who looked older, "after the four people have drawn their cards, each player will play a 'West' from the dealer on the first lap, that is, four people will return to the west, which is very unlucky. Yes, if there is another 'one tube', it will be even more evil."
The t-shirt nodded: "Yes, my mother used to have a card friend who played mahjong with her until dawn. It is said that they played the game of returning to the west together. At that time, I was still a little concerned, but everyone was talking and laughing. After dawn, the mahjong game broke up. Only after receiving the bad news did the poker friends know that an aunt who was playing mahjong just now died in a car accident on the way here, or that a big cement truck ran over and died on the spot..."
"Later, the remaining three card friends all suffered accidents one after another, and they really returned to the west together..."
After he finished speaking, the air in the cabin suddenly cooled down.
Two middle-aged aunts, look at me, I look at you, and one of them laughed nervously and said, "We also have this kind of legend in our poker games. In fact, they are all just to scare people. How can you take it seriously."
Another aunt agreed: "Yes, we have been playing mahjong for so many years, what kind of situation have we encountered? Nothing happened..."
Hei Cha just wanted to say something like this flag, it's better not to say it, but Nian is not too young to understand what the flag means, so he swallowed the words back into his stomach.
Next, inspired by the Dream Maker's favorability, the sleepwalkers in the banquet hall began to vividly describe the horror stories they knew one by one.
It was almost half past eleven, and only Chi Nan and Ye Chang hadn't spoken yet.
"The last two remaining, which one of you will share first?" the old captain asked politely.
Because Chi Nan has no concept of terror, he can only make up one that he thinks 'normal people' would be afraid of.
"A naughty child," the beginning was boring, his voice was cold and insincere, "I was restless to sleep, kicking the quilt at night in winter, because my mother scolded me countless times for this."
Everyone: "..." Oh.
"I scolded, beat and beat him, so I almost tied him up with a rope. Later, my mother couldn't help it, so she bought him a new quilt."
Everyone: "...?" Is this really a horror story
"This new quilt is a bit special. If the sleeping person doesn't cover it tightly, then the exposed part of the quilt will be cut off," Chi Nan paused, but his voice still didn't fluctuate, "so the new quilt was replaced. The next day, the mother opened her son's bedroom and found that his son's severed limbs and head were neatly placed beside the bed."
"After... what about later?" Black Tea asked.
Chi Nan thought for a while: "Mom had a busy day, sewed her son up and put it back on the bed, covered the old quilt tightly, washed the new quilt, and sold it on the second-hand platform."
Everyone: "...!" Damn, it sounds very ordinary at first, but because the style is too weird, the stamina is really big... It's very scary to think about it.
The old captain nodded with satisfaction: "Then, there is only one guest left in our story tonight."
Everyone turned their attention to Ye Chang, who was sitting quietly.
Ye Chang also smiled uncomfortably: "My story shouldn't be considered a horror story, it's probably an idea."
"If the nightmare world we are in is a fictional world, we experience an infinite cycle of death, fear, and despair in each instance, but in fact the so-called wish exchange is useless, because we are already dead in our own world, only Being able to 'live' in a nightmare world...should be scarier than a horror story."
Ye Chang calmly and peacefully talked about his conjecture, and the sleepwalkers present were not doing well.
"Does that mean we're all dead, and that's why we were invited to the nightmare world?"
"You said it like "Terrorist Cruises"... so scary..."
"By the way, this movie happened to be on the cruise ship..."
"Student Ye, you are also one of the sleepwalkers, don't scare yourself so much," Hei Cha patted Ye Chang on the shoulder, comforting him and himself, "How can it be of no avail? You see Chi Nan's eyes as exchange wishes An example of reaching the pinnacle of life.”
Ye Chang smiled gently as always: "I know, it's not that there is no story to make up the number, don't take it seriously."
But the power of the subconscious always overrides the intellect. Many times the intellect knows that it cannot be taken seriously, but the subconscious cannot control the suspicion in this regard.
Fear is also, usually tell yourself not to be afraid, often more afraid, the more afraid, the more unable to bear to find out.
A cruise ship story will come down, and most sleepwalkers have left a terrifying shadow in their subconscious, and even the red light of the setting sun seems to be stained with blood.
According to the rules, everyone went back to their rooms to rest after the story meeting ended.
A few old sleepwalkers seem to be more nervous than newcomers. Often the first night is the most dangerous night. Because they don't know the rules, many things cannot be avoided. All they can do is try to control their emotions as much as possible and keep their sobriety values relatively low.
After the first night, many potential clues will come to light.
Chi Nan and Hei Cha said goodbye in the corridor, and locked the door after entering the room.
Chi Nan was too sleepy, the green eyes were misty, and after washing, he lay down directly on the bed.
Ye Chang was a little embarrassed: "Brother Nan, I may have to review until late, will I disturb you to sleep?"
Chi Nan shook his head: "If you can't wake me up, you can do whatever you want."
He is very knowledgeable and confident about his sleep.
"But if..." Ye Chang didn't finish his words, turned around and found that Chi Nan had been breathing evenly and fell asleep.
He froze for a while, then smiled, took off his glasses and put them on the side of the table, walked slowly to Chi Nan's bed, and watched silently for a while.
Their house just faced the west, and the sun shines unreservedly into the house, falling on Chi Nan's quiet sleeping face.
He lightly tapped Chi Nan's eyelids with his fingers, and Chi Nan's tears leaked out unconsciously, sliding down the corner of his eyes and onto the bridge of his nose.
As if seeing something interesting, Ye Chang narrowed his eyes and squatted down. Before Chi Nan's tears rolled down the pillow, he took out a handkerchief and wiped it off for him.
Although I watched it countless times on the monitor, it was still very different from the other person who slept next to him and shed tears.
Touchable, warm.
"Thank you, I think I'm likable."
He just moved his lips silently, neatly folded the handkerchief stained with Chi Nan's tears, and put it in his pocket.
Then he closed the curtains: "Good night."