The hearing is filled with the elastic rhythm of slow rocking music, gradually awakening Chi Nan from his deep sleep.
Even without opening your eyes, you can still feel the warm sunlight dancing on your face, and the air is filled with the raw smell of dry dust, mixed with a little industrial smell of leather and gasoline.
The body jolted violently, and Chi Nan and the sleepwalker in the car woke up completely.
Because the sun was too strong, everyone subconsciously stretched out their hands to cover their eyes, slowly adapting to the sudden strong light environment through their fingers.
Chi Nanmeng blinked a few times and confirmed that he was sitting in the back row of a seven-seater off-road vehicle by the window on the right side. Besides him, there were four other people in the car, the driver who was driving and a man sitting in the second row. A woman, two passengers, and a young woman who sat in the back row with him, leaning against the left window.
Among them, the back of the woman with the big wavy hairstyle on the left side of the second row, Chi Nan felt very familiar.
All the passengers had just woken up and began to observe the environment of this nightmare while adjusting to the bright light.
The off-road vehicle is running on an empty and barren road at a speed of 60-80km per hour. The sun is so hot that the skin hurts. The driver is happy and humming along with the slow shake, as if he is on a road trip on vacation.
Seemingly aware of the awakening of the passengers, the driver whistled happily: "Welcome to the 404 road trip."
The big wave in the second row from the left stretched a lot. She subconsciously touched her hand in her pocket and found a lighter and a pack of cigarettes.
She kindly lit the cigarette and handed it to the driver: "This car is EM00404"
Before entering the copy, everyone received a photo of the license plate with "EM00404" written on it.
"Thank you," the driver bit his cigarette, "yes, I am the driver of this car, and I will be responsible for driving for you during the next 4,000 kilometers journey. I hope you can enjoy this road trip full of surprises. "
The numbers in the copy NPC's mouth are often important information tips. Chi Nan wrote down the information point of 4,000 kilometers.
The driver continued: "Because this trip is special and the time is relatively tight, we can't get off the bus and walk on the road at will. Only when we arrive at the rest service station can we get off the bus for activities."
Big Wave puffed out smoke: "What if you want to go to the bathroom? Can't you park?"
Driver: "Trust me, you don't have to worry about going to the bathroom."
Da Wave raised his eyebrows: "Why?"
The driver smiled: "You will know when the time comes."
Chi Nan grabbed the key question: "How much time do we have?"
The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror: "I can't say this well, the time on the road is naturally determined by our itinerary and road conditions. You know, the car will always encounter many unexpected situations on the road. Everything."
Big Wave: "Then why did you just say that time is tight?"
The driver had no intention of answering her question. He whistled loudly and started humming along.
Big Wave: "..." seems to be a hidden information point.
She turned her head and handed the cigarette to the remaining three, only the middle-aged man sitting on the right in the second row took it.
"It seems that there are only four of us in this nightmare book. My name is Jiang Yu, and 404 is the sixth book," Da Wave introduced himself, turned to Chi Nan and smiled, "I didn't expect to play the book together so soon."
The face-blind Chi Nan finally remembered now that this big wave was Jiang Yu in the "Dusk Cruise".
The middle-aged man looked at Jiang Yu suspiciously, and then at Chi Nan, with a very friendly smile: "You two met before? In reality?"
Jiang Yu exhaled frankly: "No, we lived together."
The middle-aged man nodded, maintaining a warm smile: "My name is Pei Mo, and this is the second time I have passed the book."
In addition to him, there was only one male present, Chi Nan, and he extended his hand towards Chi Nan.
"Sorry, I'm not used to physical contact with people," Chi Nan politely declined Pei Mo's invitation to shake hands and said simply, "My name is Chi Nan, the fifth book."
Pei Mo smiled and retracted his hand: "It's okay, it's okay, I can understand..."
The young woman sitting in the back row with Chi Nan has been silent: "Lu Baizhou, the third book."
She also explained her situation simply and clearly, and moved out of the car window with flickering eyes.
Jiang Yu glanced at Lu Baizhou in the haze, and suppressed the doubts in his eyes: "They are all experienced sleepwalkers. It's convenient, but it's also difficult."
Pei Mo nodded in agreement, his brows furrowed into a ball: "It's very difficult to have no newcomers. Now the rules given by the driver are very vague, and we don't know the specific purpose. There is only information about road trips, and we know too little. Totally clueless..."
After speaking, he smiled very friendly, "But fortunately, you are all big brothers who have read several books. Please give me more advice when the time comes."
The remaining three turned a deaf ear to his praise, and finally Jiang Yu bit the cigarette and said, "You have to rely on yourself, don't expect blindly."
Pei Mo's face froze awkwardly for a moment: "That's the truth..."
"This time is different from the closed environment of traditional nightmares in the past." Jiang Yu looked at the warm sunlight outside the window and the vast expanse of wilderness, squinting his eyes slightly, "The sky and the earth are vast and barren, so there are many possibilities."
Chi Nan thought for a while and said, "I think it's very similar to the previous "Dusk Cruise", they all move forward in a closed vehicle, and the destination is unclear. "
"In a closed vehicle..." Jiang Yu smiled silently for a moment, "Let's look for clues in the car first."
"And each of them." Chi Nan added.
Compared with the previous villas, cruise ships, towns and schools, the range of a seven-seat off-road vehicle is much smaller. Within five minutes, Chi Nan found an old newspaper cut out under the stool in the front seat.
Chi Nan picked up the old newspaper and showed it to everyone: "There is a notice of missing people, which should be a useful clue."
"Name: Qu Yijun, Age: 27 years old, wearing a white dress and red high-heeled shoes before disappearing, wearing red coral ear studs, has not returned for many days, anyone who knows, please call 4040404, there is a heavy payment."
The missing person notice also attached a photo of Qu Yijun. In the black and white photo, she has delicate and gentle features, and she loosely rolls up her beautiful long hair that looks like a shampoo advertisement.
Jiang Yu looked over while looking for clues, his eyes were instantly attracted, his eyes narrowed and he said in a low voice, "She's a beauty."
As she spoke, she pulled out a purse from her jacket pocket. The purse was unfamiliar in craftsmanship and apparently belonged to a "character".
Jiang Yu's face changed suddenly when he opened his wallet: "This is..."
She took a photo out of the wallet. In the photo, the two girls were wearing loose shirts, kissing sideways in a hugging posture. Among them, Jiang Yu was standing behind with both hands around each other's waist, and was hugged from behind. The girl who was in the 'Missing Person' is Qu Yijun on the missing person notice.
The most numbing thing is that the lower right corner of the photo is soaked in black and red blood, and countless dried blood fingerprints are superimposed on the photo.
Jiang Yu's hand holding the photo trembled, and his brows were furrowed.
Chi Nan: "Do you know her?"
Jiang Yu shook his head: "I don't know, the photos should belong to "characters". "
Lu Baizhou, who hasn't talked much, looked at the photos, then looked at Jiang Yu and said, "It looks like it's your girlfriend. "
Jiang Yu shrugged: "This character is not shallow, but..."
She paused, "My 'girlfriend' is obviously much less fortunate."
Chi Nan looked at the photo, and judging from the number of bloody handprints, this photo must have been taken out by the 'suspect' for countless times.
Lu Baizhou asked again: "I take the liberty to ask, are you bent?"
Jiang Yu's action of biting the cigarette paused: "It doesn't matter, at least the current clues show that my character is curved, and the disappearance of this girl is obviously related to the nightmare plot."
"Then let's continue to look for clues?" Pei Mo cautiously suggested that the clues could not go on.
No one answered him, and the three continued to search for clues in the car in silence.
There is not much space in the car, and the four of them have almost rummaged through it before long. Let the driver hum a song and ignore it, but it is not in the way.
Too bad people didn't get much.
Chi Nan pulled out a pair of iron rings from his pocket. It looked cheap but the handwork was extremely delicate. The people who made them were obviously very attentive.
Pei Mo turned to a book under his seat, titled "Nowhere to Escape Killing Intent", and the author's pen name is "The Judge".
There are a few oily spots on the side of the book, like the marks that were accidentally splashed on the table while eating takeaway.
Lu Baizhou took out a neatly folded piece of paper from his cosmetic bag. After unfolding it, the handwriting was scribbled, and it could be seen that it read: Doctor He: 4040404.
This string of numbers is obviously a contact number, and the writing on the address on the note has been blurred and soaked in water.
"This number is the same as the phone number to find Qu Yijun." Lu Baizhou quickly discovered the similarities between the clues.
Jiang Yu turned around again: "Unfortunately, this copy did not leave us a communication tool."
Chi Nan looked at the driver: "Excuse me, do you have a mobile phone?"
The driver whistled and shook his head to indicate no.
"Then do you know where to call?" Chi Nan asked again.
The driver glanced at him in the rearview mirror: "Wait until the rest area, there should be a phone in the hotel."
Chi Nan nodded: "Thank you."
At this moment, the radio that was playing the slow rocking suddenly rang for a while, and then a female voice came from the radio to announce—
[Listeners and friends have a good trip. Now is the weather forecast. It is expected that in the next two hours, the entire section of Highway 404 will usher in heavy rain. The road will be slippery in rainy days, and the vision will be greatly affected. Please drive carefully and be safe. First…]
Everyone looked at the cloudless weather and wondered, does it look like it's going to rain
And which radio station's weather forecast is calculated by the hour
Just when everyone was puzzled, the originally clear sky was quickly covered by dark clouds, and the sunlight disappeared.
In less than three minutes, the horizon at the end of the highway was swallowed by the surging black clouds, the wind was blowing with thunder, and the off-road vehicle driving on Highway 404 was like a small boat in the center of the storm.
The slow-moving music on the radio disappeared, and the driver stopped humming. The inside of the car fell silent immediately, the wind whistling in his ears, and the closed windows trembled in the wind.
Everyone fastened their seat belts and leaned on their back chairs without consciously breathing lightly. On the eve of the endlessly spreading wilderness storm, their inner sense of security was shaky.
Pei Mo cautiously suggested: "Should we stop for a while and then drive forward after the storm?"
The previous happiness was no longer in the driver's voice: "Can't stop, this is not a place to stop."
Pei Mo continued to fight: "But driving in such bad weather is too unsafe. What if there is a traffic accident?"
The driver gave him a cold look from the rearview mirror: "It's okay, it's okay to have a traffic accident."
Pei Mo got goosebumps from his stare, and leaned deeply into the back chair.
Jiang Yu frowned and said, "It should be because the rules do not allow parking, so don't waste your energy."
Pei Mo: "..."
Chi Nan always behaves like a good student with discipline: "Do we need to pay attention to anything in rainy days?"
The driver turned his eyes to him: "The scenery along Highway 404 in rainy days is unique, you can enjoy it to the fullest."
After a pause, he smiled stiffly again, "For example, those hitchhikers waiting by the road in rainy days, you must not see them anywhere else."
"Hitchhiker? This ghost place?" Jiang Yu asked with raised eyebrows.
Driver: "Yes, you may see it later. When it rains, those who can't go home will wait on the side of the road to catch a ride and start their journey."
Pei Mo's face was full of doubts: "But...why did they wait for a ride on a rainy day?"
The driver smiled again: "Have you heard a saying? Dead souls need water as a medium to walk on the highway in the world, so it rains almost every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, just to wet the road and make the road wet. Dead souls go on their way."
His words were enough to make everyone's scalp tingle, only Chi Nan looked calm.
The torrential rain had already fallen, and through the rain curtain flowing like a waterfall on the car window, Chi Nan looked at the gray wilderness for a moment.
After about ten minutes of driving in the rainstorm, a silhouette appeared in the rain.
The outline is like a long-haired woman, without an umbrella, standing alone in the grass by the roadside, flashing past the fast-moving car window.
"I saw people waiting for the car." Chi Nan said.
But he turned to look from the back window, and there was no shadow where the woman stood just now.
"I saw it too," Jiang Yu looked at the car window on her side and pointed to the billboard not far away, "She was standing there just now, she..."
As neat and straightforward as Jiang Yu, she choked hard, "I saw her face, it's in the missing person notice... Qu Yijun."