Ye Chang's footsteps paused again, he thought for a while before nodding: "It's very important."
His tone at this time was more serious and determined than ever.
Chi Nan has always been not very interested in other people's affairs, but after hearing what Lao Yu said today, he was stunned and asked persistently, "Can I ask why?"
Ye used his fingertips to rub the smooth surface of the pocket watch. After a moment of silence, he smiled: "It is left by a very important person as a souvenir for me."
"Where did he go?" Chi Nan asked again.
"died."
Ye Chang lowered his eyelids, and even Chi Nan, who couldn't sense the emotions of others, could feel Ye Chang's loneliness and regret at the moment.
"I'm sorry." Chi Nan knew that he couldn't ask any more.
Ye Chang shook his head and suddenly looked at Chi Nan: "Last time, why didn't you open it to confirm?"
Chi Nan frowned: "Last time?"
"Well, during the nightmare of the cruise ship at dusk, you helped me pick it up and put it on the bedside table, right?" Ye Changding looked at him.
Chi Nan recalled it, and said as a matter of course: "I can't see your privacy without asking for your consent."
Ye Chang smiled: "What if I allow you to watch it?"
Chi Nan hesitated for a moment, then shook his head: "Forget it."
If it was such an important thing to Ye Chang, he didn't think he was qualified to touch this field.
"Then, let's have a chance." Ye Chang pushed his glasses and hid his smile behind the lenses.
As everyone expected at the beginning, they did not find Ruirui in the town.
About seven o'clock, the group turned back to the dormitory building.
As soon as Lao Yu stepped into the corridor of the dormitory, he was frightened by the figure wandering like a wandering spirit at the end of the corridor.
"You are finally back," You Ling at the end of the corridor raised her head and looked over through the faint candlelight. She scribbled her unkempt hair to reveal her face, "I found an important clue, I will wait for you to come and see."
It was the young mother, who was walking towards the crowd with the doll in her arms.
Perhaps it was because her face was bloodless, her hair was dry and scribbled around her ears, and she was wearing a disturbing black funeral dress, and holding a puppet with a weird smile in her hand, she shuffled forward through the long corridor. , the creepy sense of oppression also approached.
Xia Wei shivered, and subconsciously hid behind Ye Chang and appeared, and said to the young mother, "Hey, wait, are you a human or a ghost now?"
The young mother had been staying alone in the dormitory building just now. The ghost knows if she had any accident during this time, and what happened to her.
The young mother changed her fragile appearance and said calmly, "Don't worry, I'm not a ghost."
Although her voice was a little hoarse and weak from crying for a long time, her tone was firm and neat, different from the fragile mother who was crying because her daughter disappeared.
Her sudden transformation was hard to convince. Everyone looked at her suspiciously countless times from head to toe, but couldn't see anything, only Chi Nan noticed the doll in her hand.
The doll was cut open from the back of the neck to the tailbone by someone with a sharp tool, and the yellow cotton wool under the old rags was faintly visible.
"Is the important clue in the doll?" Chi Nan asked.
The young mother nodded, and put her hand directly into the cut doll's body and plucked it out.
Lao Yu was confused, this woman didn't treat the baby like a baby in the morning and wouldn't let anyone touch it, so how can she cut it now? I'm afraid it's not a split personality, right? Or was her sanity partially restored
"I felt the baby's belly was very hard just now, and felt that something was wrong, so I cut it open and found this thing." The young mother took out a password box similar to a music box from a pile of messy cotton wool.
Lao Yu raised his eyebrows slightly: "It's an eight-digit combination lock."
The combination lock is a bit similar to the safe in the captain's room of the "Dusk Cruise". There is a line of reminders scribbled at the bottom of the box. The edges of the strokes are rough, as if they were made by a sharp object. The handwriting is also unique to children.
"Please enter the most important day for Ruirui, I believe my mother will remember it"
The two girls also came over at the moment, Wu Ying said as a matter of course after seeing the handwriting: "The most important day is usually the birthday, right?"
The young mother shook her head with a pale face: "I tried it, but the birthday is wrong."
As she said that, she directly dialed the combination lock to "20080102" and showed it to everyone, and the lock did not move at all.
"Is there any memorable day for Ruirui? For example, the important admission day, the day of confession, the day when I first came to my aunt..." Wu Ying began to brainstorm.
Dysonson squinted at her: "Rui Rui is only twelve years old, what the hell is the confession day, don't blindly guide you..."
Wu Ying stuck out her tongue: "Did you not like someone when you were twelve years old? I don't believe it..."
Lao Yu watched the young mother fiddle with the combination lock again and again, and the lock was still tightly fastened with no signs of loosening.
He thought about it for a moment, but the instinct to save his life still prevailed over kindness, and finally said, "Why don't you try the date of the funeral, or...the date of her death."
He always liked simplicity and directness, but in the face of a mother who had lost a child, Lao Yu endured it to the end, and did not say the words "Rui Rui's death".
The movement of the young mother's hands was obvious. She bit her dry lips nervously, and the strong fishy sweetness permeated her teeth without even noticing it.
"Funeral? No funeral." Her eyes became empty and confused again, because her lips were torn and blood seeped out, making her originally pale face a little more morbid and gaudy.
The moment Lao Yu looked at her, white sweat broke out, his throat slipped nervously, and he swallowed the words that were on his lips.
"No one died, no funeral, no one died, no funeral..." Mom fiddled with the combination lock on the box again and again, her fingernails scraping against the iron making a sour sound.
Xia Wei gave her a weird and terrifying look: "But if there is no funeral, what are you wearing?"
The young mother's movements were obviously stiff, she didn't answer, and the air became eerily quiet.
Wu Ying said strangely: "What do you mean? Didn't you say... it was Ruirui's father's funeral?"
She asked both the old Yu and the young mother, and she was completely stunned without seeing the photo of her wallet.
Chi Nan: "try birthday again, Ruirui's second birthday."
The second birthday naturally refers to the rebirth date of Rui Rui in the nightmare world.
The young mother Kong Mo's eyes finally recovered a little bit of expression, she stared blankly at the doll she cut open, and blinked blankly.
"I really can't remember, you can open your wallet to confirm, maybe the birth certificate is still there?" Ye Chang added.
The young mother's body trembled visibly, as if the out-of-body soul had returned to her body, her facial features and limbs gradually regained consciousness, and after a while, Yiyan took out the purse containing only the "death certificate" from her bag.
With the movement of the wallet being opened, she and Rui Rui in the posthumous photo looked at each other.
But at this moment, the trembling on her body stopped instead. She only used the fastest speed to pull out the posthumous photo from the transparent interlayer of her wallet, flip to the photo and write down the date on it.
Xia Wei, who took a peek at his wallet, widened his eyes in shock. Just before he could say "Ah", Lao Yu quickly covered his mouth, compared to him pulling his mouth tightly, and explained with the shape of his mouth: " I'll explain to you later in the dormitory."
Xia Wei still stared at him, shivering and nodding frantically.
The young mother quickly stuffed the posthumous photo back into the mezzanine again, but this time she turned the back side up so that she couldn't see Rui Rui's black and white smile.
She entered "20201030" on the combination lock, and within half a second, the combination lock popped open with a 'ding'.
A naive crayon painting was displayed in front of everyone.
The style of the painting is childish and weird. Two-thirds of the picture is occupied by a huge wax figure of a candle man. The wax figure has no candle wick. Instead, it is a little girl in a black funeral dress. Her neck is solidified in the wax block. The long, black hair was combed into a braid, winding down along the outline of the wax figure like firecrackers, a cluster of flaming flames waited at the end of the drawing paper, and the beating flames were waiting for the opportunity to move in the direction of the braid...
Underneath the tender and eerie painting is a line of anagrams written crookedly: "Guess what, after digging out four hearts in one go, what is left of Ruirui?"
Everyone 'appreciated' this creepy children's painting by the weak candlelight in the corridor. Chi Nan's eyes fell on the word puzzle and blurted out: "Candle wick."
Dig out the cores of the four hearts, leaving only the cores, which are candle wicks.
The content of the painting and the message of the female foreman telling the child to look for the light to run away from home and the return of Candlemas also confirm this well.
The young mother's fingers holding the painting froze. She stared at the picture for a moment without making any sound for a while.
Lao Yu sighed: "It seems that my previous speculation is correct. The reason why a twelve-year-old girl like Ruirui appears in this dungeon is because of the needs of the original setting."
"It turned out that the giant candle that lit the Candleman Festival requires a little girl as a candle wick to sacrifice and ignite. No wonder the female foreman always emphasized the importance of the candle wick to us before. It turned out to be a reminder, but we ignored it..."
Lao Yu suddenly straightened his face, squatted down and asked the young mother: "It seems that Ruirui has a lot to do with the copy this time. If you tell the truth, we have a good idea. Regarding the resurrection of Ruirui... what do you have left? How much memory?"
The young mother tensed her shoulders instantly, put the painting into the box, sealed it again and stuffed it into the puppet's stomach, pursing her lips into a straight line, refusing to speak.
Lao Yuxun is good at tempting: "then do you know who resurrected Ruirui?"
Everyone waited for the answer without any hope, and the atmosphere did not dare to make a sound.
After a long while, the young mother who had packed up the doll said softly, "Me."
After saying that, she didn't plan to speak any more, and locked herself back to 105 with the doll in her arms.
Several sleepwalkers couldn't help but say "ah" in surprise.
Only Ye Changzhang said to himself: "Without the candle wick, there is no way to hold the Candleman Festival. Maybe it will be a breakthrough."
Chi Nan: "Do you have a solution?"
Ye Chang raised the corners of his lips: "I'm not sure yet, but I'm a little sure."
Too many things happened on this day, and the atmosphere among the volunteers was extremely depressed.
"Let's all go back to your dormitory to rest first, don't forget that lack of sleep can easily affect your wakefulness," Lao Yu suggested, turning to Chi Nan and the others, "Although you already had experience last night, you didn't know that alienation behavior would affect your wakefulness. It won't evolve, you'd better be careful."
Chi Nan: "Well, we know."
Lao Yu glanced at Ye Chang again, said nothing, waved his hand and went back to his dormitory.
Although the unfortunate box tonight is still in the 101 dormitory, because the trigger conditions for Rui Rui's disappearance are unknown, sleepwalkers are extra cautious.
Lao Yu walked around the house, using sheets, clothes and other things to seal all the windows and vents tightly, trying to keep the weird light from the yard from getting in.
After two days, almost everyone had ptsd about candlelight and their own shadows. No one thought that one day they would have to guard against their shadows like a thief.
"Uncle, can you be safe by sealing it like this?" Xia Wei lay in the dormitory that was completely plunged into darkness and asked Lao Yu, who was busy with work.
Lao Yu said with a cigarette in his mouth, "It's hard to say whether it's safe or not, but at least I feel more at ease. I feel uncomfortable when I see my own shadow now."
Xia Wei sighed softly and used frivolity to cover up his sadness: "Gu Xiao is here, I hope that little brother Ye Chang will be okay."
"Little brother? Talented in the third year of high school, is he younger than you?" Lao Yu sneered, living in such a crisis-ridden environment all the year round, they have become accustomed to using ridicule to dilute their fears.
Xia Wei rolled his eyes: "Uncle... Do you think that little brother really means big brother?"
Lao Yu raised his eyebrows: "What is that?"
Xia Wei tutted, too lazy to answer him, and yawned a long time: "I'm sleepy, I'll go to bed first."
After yawning, he said, "I hope I can live until tomorrow, I don't want to be a candle that burns and crackles."
Lao Yu: "...Don't set up flags, go to sleep."
He was too lazy to talk nonsense any more, he turned over and went to sleep in the complete darkness. Before falling asleep, he opened his eyes several times to confirm that there was no shadow of himself on the wall before closing his eyes with peace of mind.
In the middle of the night, Lao Yu heard chattering voices coming from the direction of Xia Wei's bed, the voice was light and strange, like a man whispering with his throat choked.
If I have to describe it, it is like those lovers who meet in the middle of the night, afraid of being caught and secretly communicating.
Years and months of nightmare dungeon experience made Lao Yubi more alert, but this night it was as if he had been pressed on the bed by a ghost, and he couldn't open his eyes or move his limbs to get up from the bed. Like a big rock solidified on the bed.
Can't speak, can't open eyes, can only listen quietly.
In the silence, he clearly heard the footsteps of Xia Wei getting off the bed. He seemed to walk to the door, talking to the people in the corridor through the door, and occasionally there were a few chuckles.
Lao Yu also heard clearly, Xia Wei called "little brother" to the people outside the door.
His heart skipped a beat. Could it be that the person in the corridor was Ye Chang
Immediately afterwards, there was the sound of 'clicking' the door lock popping open, and as the door was pulled open, the light from the corridor hit Lao Yu's face.
Even though he couldn't open his eyes, he could still feel a dazzling discomfort through his eyelids.
There was another footstep, followed by the sound of the door closing.
The dormitory returned to darkness again, and Lao Yu opened his eyes almost at the same moment.
Xia Wei's bed was empty, and there was no trace of him in the room. It seemed that he really went out.
But in the middle of the night, what did Ye Chang come to do with Xia Wei