The driver slowly parked the car on the side of the road and looked at Chi Nan in the rearview mirror: "Where do I go next? The choice is left to you."
Chi Nan: "please take the path on the left, thank you."
The driver turned on the signal and drove to the left side road. Because the road surface was uneven, the speed dropped to 30km/h, and the road was slow.
"Chi Nan, are you sure it's safe to take the fork in the road?" Pei Mo's voice was trembling, whether it was because of bumps or nervousness.
Chi Nan: "I'm sure it's not safe to go either way."
Pei Mo: "..."
Lu Baizhou questioned: "Since it is inferred that the end point of 404 is death, we are running out of time. Wouldn't it really delay the main mission time if we go to the fork?"
Jiang Yu's body was covered in bruises, and her whole body hurt when the car bumped. She held the front seat and straightened her body and looked out the window: "There are no road signs with any kilometers on both sides of this fork, so it shouldn't be counted in the total mileage. An independent mission point that won't take up our time."
After a pause, she added, "And the motel proprietress specially instructed us before that we are in a car and must be neatly arranged to reach the end. I suspect... Nightmare needs every 'murderer' to complete the redemption in order to clear the customs collectively. In the end, no matter who makes a mistake, it will cause us to fail.”
The implication is that although this fork in the road is a plot branch opened by Chi Nan's suicide, it is closely related to the completion of each of them's tasks.
Pei Mo: "I suddenly have an idea... Now there is not enough time. If we collectively adopt Chi Nan's suicide method for 'redemption', can we speed up the progress?"
Hearing this, Jiang Yu and Lu Baizhou frowned and said nothing, but Chi Nan shook his head: "My situation is special, you'd better wait for the 'victim' to kill himself."
After all, You Yu said that they could be counted as one person in a sense, so Chi Nan's suicide could also be counted as a 'homicide'.
"Special? What kind of special method?" Pei Mo looked over in confusion.
Chi Nan thought about it for a while, but couldn't really sum up the appropriate wording, so he picked a saying from You Yu: "I have a physical relationship with the 'victim'."
The inside of the car suddenly became eerily quiet, and finally Jiang Yu murmured to break the silence: "I didn't expect it..."
Pei Mo thought thoughtfully: "It turns out that only this kind of relationship can commit suicide? I can't do that."
Chi Nan: "Well."
Everyone: "… "
At this time, the sun had been swallowed up by most of it, and only half a fingernail-sized crook was hanging above his head, and the horizon at the end of the wilderness merged with the endless gray.
Two solitary headlights shone on the potholed road, and the sense of security of the occupants in the car was shattered.
About twenty minutes later, the sun was completely blocked by the shadows, as if night had fallen.
Everyone vaguely saw the outline of a tall building ahead, standing quietly at the end of the road, like a monster lurking in the dark waiting for its prey to arrive.
The darkness makes people instinctively afraid of things with huge outlines. When the sleepwalker in the car sees the building, he breathes lightly and straightens his shoulders.
Until the car lights shone on the rusted gate outside the building, and after the dilapidated door number that said "Angel Welfare Home" above the iron gate...
"Angel Welfare Home?" Pei Mo shuddered, and intuitively told him that encountering a Welfare Home in the nightmare world would definitely be worse.
Chi Nan fixedly looked at the house number: "it should be where my character lived."
Jiang Yu quickly loosened the seat belt: "Let's go, maybe it's a very important clue location."
Lu Baizhou asked the driver more thoughtfully, "Excuse me, can all of us get in? Or is it only Chi Nan?"
Driver: "Everyone can enter."
Hearing this, Pei Mo hesitated, and hesitantly said, "Go on, I'll wait in the car for you to come out, hurry up and come back."
Jiang Yu pushed the door open for a while: "You really don't plan to go with us?"
Pei Mo smiled shyly: "Actually, I'm quite afraid of places like the welfare home... Those abandoned or born disabled children have a lot of resentment... I'm really afraid..."
Jiang Yu pouted: "Okay, you can do whatever you want, but I think this new map is a very important point of favorability. It's unwise to choose to give up if you have a favor."
Lu Baizhou made up the knife: "I don't know if I will encounter anything if I stay in the car for six hours during the total solar eclipse."
Pei Mo's expression changed rapidly, and after hesitating, he finally gritted his teeth and said, "Then, I'd better go with you."
Jiang Yu sneered silently and closed the door tightly.
Chi Nan turned his head and asked the driver, "If we don't get out after the total solar eclipse, what will be the consequences?"
The driver gave him a fixed look, patted the steering wheel and said, "You will stay in the orphanage forever to accompany these poor and hospitable children."
The faces of the three of them changed, only Chi Nan didn't change: "Thank you."
"Wait a minute," the driver suddenly called out to the four people who were leaving the orphanage and stuck his head out of the car window, "I have some props that I can lend you, maybe I can help you."
Having said that, he got out of the car, opened the trunk, took out two flashlights and a half-meter-long machete and handed them to everyone, "You know, some children are naughty and difficult, and they need to be taught a lesson."
Jiang Yu, who had the highest force in the team, took the machete, Lu Baizhou and Pei Mo scrambled to get two flashlights, only Chi Nan was empty-handed.
He subconsciously touched his shirt pocket, and suddenly he felt the dagger that had been put into his pocket at some point.
It was the one he used to cut his neck, and it was secretly stuffed by You Yu... The corners of Chi Nan's lips twitched indistinctly, and he didn't even notice it himself.
The driver cracked the corners of his stiff lips and raised his hand towards them: "Good luck to you."
Everyone: "… "
The gray wall on the right side of the door was badly damaged, and the mottled paint peeled off. A notice was posted on the wall, which provided the relocation information and contact number of the "Angel Welfare Institute", which is the familiar number 4040404.
This orphanage has been abandoned for a long time, and the place where Chi Nan called last time was the new location of the orphanage.
It seems that the story background of the two character brothers is deeply related to the abandoned orphanage. Chi Nan thought of a possibility that the younger brother chose to abandon the orphanage in a place where no one would disturb him to imprison his elder brother. After his younger brother was killed by his elder brother, The body of the younger brother is also likely to be buried here.
Moreover, the two brothers grew up in the Angel Welfare Center, and they are all familiar with each other here.
The door of the orphanage was half-open, and the four entered lightly with a long knife and two flashlights.
They had just stepped into the orphanage with their hind feet when the driver behind them suddenly turned off the lights, and the surroundings instantly fell into darkness.
At almost the same time, the bell of twelve o'clock came from the direction of the main building of the orphanage. With the loud bang of the 'bang' iron, the door behind them suddenly closed and locked tightly.
Everyone was trapped in an abandoned orphanage in the dark, with no way out.
Pei Mo was so frightened by the sound of the iron gate that he almost jumped up, Lu Baizhou's face was also very bleak, only Chi Nan remained unchanged, and Jiang Yu, who tried his best to appear calm.
Jiang Yu couldn't stand Pei Mo's grumbling and cowardice, so he grabbed the flashlight in his hand, opened it neatly, and scanned the surroundings.
The front yard is not big, about the size of a basketball court. The ground is full of books, children's toys and various sundries that were too late to clean up during the relocation. There is an abandoned angel sculpture fountain in the center of the yard. The angel is badly damaged and there is water in the pool It was also mostly dry, covered with fallen leaves and covered with moss, giving off the stench of decaying branches.
There is an old iron swing on the right side of the yard. It is clear that there is no wind, but the swing is swaying and swaying higher and higher. The 'creaking' sound of iron chains rubbing echoes in the empty yard, making people shudder.
What exactly is swinging on the swing, everyone knows.
The torch in Jiang Yu's hand fell on the door of the main building. Unfortunately, the thick iron door was locked.
"Looks like we have to figure out a way to get the lock open to get in," Jiang Yu said.
Lu Baizhou: "I happen to know how to pick locks, but I'm not very skilled. Maybe I can try it."
Chi Nan feels very lucky that almost every time he crosses the book, he can meet teammates who can pick locks, and he can always come in handy at critical times.
Jiang Yu nodded: "Then I and you are here to study how to unlock the lock. Chi Nan and Pei Mo are looking for clues in the yard."
Chi Nan: "No problem."
He was just about to take the flashlight that Jiang Yu handed over, but Pei Mo grabbed it one step ahead: "I'll light it up."
Saying that, he didn't consider Chi Nan's decision, and walked towards the walls on both sides of the yard with a flashlight.
After all, human beings are light-oriented creatures, and light can bring him a certain degree of security, and he cannot let this comfort be taken away from him.
Chi Nan himself didn't mind it very much. Jiang Yu, who was beside him, saw Pei Mo's actions in his eyes, and sighed secretly while feeling understanding.
Pei Mo's flashlight beams shone on the red brick walls on both sides of the main building, and after walking about five or six meters, Pei Mo's footsteps froze, and terror spread quickly on his face.
Chi Nan followed his line of sight and saw that the long red brick wall was covered with chalk paintings. These chalk paintings were in a naive style, obviously from the hands of children in the orphanage, but the content of the paintings was so unified that it made people shudder. —
A murderer carrying a chainsaw to decompose a corpse, a pica patient enjoying a dinner of human flesh, a soldier being hanged, a doctor tying prisoners to chairs and injecting death drugs into their veins...
All the chalk paintings depict the process of murder, and the immature painting style brings a very shocking visual impact. The level of weirdness and horror in the chalk paintings of murder is even higher than the colorful death painting exhibition in "Twilight Cruise".
Chi Nan looked at it for a moment with evaluation eyes, thinking that the use of the dream maker's imagery fits the theme of the nightmare of 'murderer' and is very helpful for the sublimation theme.
Pei Mo was so frightened that he took a step back unconsciously, but he also knew that he couldn't keep being like this, so he swallowed his saliva and forcibly suppressed his fear and nausea, raised the flashlight again and looked at the chalk on the wall one by one.
Maybe the clues to his character's death can be found in these paintings... maybe...
The speed of light of the flashlight froze again. This time, Pei Mo suddenly froze in place like a sculpture, looking at the pica patient's human flesh baking dinner on the wall.
In the picture, the patient sets up a roaring bonfire, strung the freshly cut calf of the female nurse on the grill, keeps turning the grill with his left hand, and brushes cumin sauce on the charred and cracked skin with his right hand... and he is not far away , the dying female nurse was tearfully watching the desperate picture of her calf being roasted...
Pei Mo seemed to be stunned, and he was very fascinated. His pupils gradually lost their luster. He was raising his flashlight to approach the wall step by step, and even stretched out his hand to touch...
Chi Nan on the side was looking for his own murder chalk drawing in another direction because he had better night vision than ordinary people. He tried to find clues about the corpse through the drawing, and didn't pay too much attention to Pei Mo's unusual behavior.
Until Pei Mo's desperate scream broke the silence of the orphanage, everyone looked over at the same time, and Jiang Yu quickly raised his flashlight to look at Pei Mo's location.
When they saw the horror of Pei Mo's current situation, everyone could not help but take a breath.