Mo Yi's scalp exploded, and a chill instantly spread from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, and his hairs stood on end.
The fingers couldn't help shaking, and the heavy music box slipped from the unsteady hand, and fell straight to the ground, cushioned by the carpet, and then rolled into the darkness with a rumbling sound of metal hitting the wall.
It was so loud in the silence that one could almost feel the tremors in the air.
He turned his head abruptly, looking straight behind him.
—there is nothing behind.
The whitish light of the flashlight pierced through the dense darkness behind him, and shone directly on the uneven and dirty carpet, leaving a faintly shaking circle of light on it.
The carpet was covered with a thin layer of dust, and there were a pair of shallow footprints on the dust.
As if... someone was standing there just now, watching him quietly.
Mo Yi's throat felt a little dry, and he moved his Adam's apple to forcefully suppress the chill in his heart.
There was a cold touch on the wrist.
Mo Yi looked up.
I saw the mist standing in the darkness, almost blending with the background color—as if born and bred in this place, the fit is unbelievable.
He looked at him quietly with a pair of light-colored eyes, which seemed to be condensed with deep and shallow mist.
Pale, bony fingers rested softly on his protruding wrist bones.
A faint coldness came from the place where the two skins touched, and there seemed to be an inexplicable sense of peace of mind, which even calmed down the anxiety and uneasiness in Mo Yi's heart for a while, and the negative emotions settled down.
Mo Yi smiled, his extremely dark eyes were cold and calm, as if there were only two emotions left: calmness and rationality.
The lines of Misty's face were slightly soft, and she moved away the fingers that were attached to Mo Yi's wrist.
There was no communication between the two, but they seemed to understand each other naturally.
Mo Yi settled down and turned around. Moving the flashlight in his hand, he looked for the music box that had just fallen.
Soon, the mottled metal box reappeared in his field of vision. It rolled miserably on the ground, and its body was already separated from the fall. The faded velvet cushion and the ceramic figure on it were thrown out in half.
Even so, the small ceramic hands of the two children were still tightly clasped, as if they were not affected by external forces at all.
Mo Yi paused, and reached out to pick up the music box that had been split into two halves.
The moment the music box was lifted off the ground, a piece of yellowed paper folded in half fell out of it, and landed silently on the dusty ground.
Mo Yi couldn't help being taken aback, turned his wrist, and carefully observed the metal box in his hand.
It turned out that there was a secret compartment hidden under the velvet lining, just under the two ceramic dolls and on top of the metal parts inside the music box.
It was hidden extremely cleverly, if it wasn't for such a fall, it might be hard to find.
And at the bottom of the shadow box, there is also a silver necklace hidden. It has been blackened due to long-term storage, and a corner of the necklace was randomly entangled on the metal spring at the bottom of the box. Was thrown out in the fall.
A small oval photo frame dangled from the silver chain, shining brightly in the light of the flashlight.
Mo Yi pursed his lips, reached out and lifted the silver cover above the photo frame, revealing the portrait hidden inside.
The yellowed black-and-white photo was already blurred, but the outline of the portrait's face could be seen—there were two photos, which happened to be hidden one by one in the opening and closing photo frame.
It was a little boy, and a little girl.
The unclear facial lines melted into the confrontation of black and white, and the two of them could only be seen smiling shyly at the camera.
The nursery rhyme I found in the kitchen flashed through my mind in no time.
Mo Yi frowned slowly.
It's all little boys and little girls... Could there be some kind of intrinsic connection here
He blinked in confusion, and put the necklace in his hand back into the dark compartment inside the music box. The silver pendant collided with the bottom of the metal box, making a crisp "clang".
Mo Yi placed the box on the carpet, then reached out to pick up the folded note.
The yellowed paper was wrinkled, as if it had been soaked in water, and the handwriting on it was also blurred. The edge of the dark ink was smudged, giving off a cold blue color, but the content on it was still clearly visible.
This is a piece of letter paper, but there is no signature, no date, and only one sentence without beginning and end:
"it-can-never-happen, i-won't-allow-it"
[It will never happen, I will not allow it]
At the bottom of the entire letter paper, there is a line of small characters crookedly written, as if written by a delirious person, and it is extremely laborious to read.
Mo Yi carefully identified it for a while before he realized that what was written on it was:
GOD-PLEASE-HELP-ME
[God save me]
There was a chill behind him, Mo Yi subconsciously shrugged his shoulders, then refolded the letter paper, and stuffed it back into the hidden compartment of the music box.
He reinstalled the ceramic figurine on the music box. The color and shape of the inner lining matched the surroundings exactly, and there was no trace of being dropped.
The broken mirror embedded in the lid shone brightly.
Mo Yi deliberately didn't look into the mirror, lest he recall the unpleasant experience just now.
This time, he saw clearly the small words written in bronzing fonts under the mirror: "MY-LOVE"
my love.
Mo Yi's frown became tighter and tighter, as if doubts had gathered deeper and deeper as he explored, accumulating in front of his eyes, making him unable to see clearly the true appearance of this dungeon.
He let out a deep breath, closed the lid of the music box, and put it in his backpack.
Mo Yi stood up from the ground.
But because he had been squatting down for too long, he stood up abruptly at this moment, his eyes darkened, his numb legs couldn't support his precarious body, he lost his balance for a moment, and fell to the side.
Wu Qi, who had been quietly watching his every move, stretched out his hand quickly at this moment, and with just one force, he helped Mo Yi who had fallen to the side.
It took several seconds for Mo Yi to recover from his dizziness. He blinked, and belatedly realized that he was so close to the other party.
The cool breath like a pine forest after the rain lingers on the nose, and the cold and hard side face is close in front of your eyes.
In the darkness, two men of similar height leaned together, and the still-on flashlight fell to the ground, projecting the silhouettes of the two onto a wall, which seemed extraordinarily intimate.
Mo Yi gave a dry cough in embarrassment, then stood up straight, and said embarrassingly:
"Sorry."
Seeing that the distance between the two was opened, Fog lowered his eyelashes lightly, said "um" without any emotional fluctuations, and said, "It's okay."
Although his expression didn't change, but for some reason, Mo Yi could feel the depression all over him.
He hesitated for a few seconds, then stretched out his palm and touched the top of the opponent's head with a somewhat unfamiliar movement.
Fog suddenly raised his eyes, a pair of light-colored eyes suddenly brightened like morning fog, locking Mo Yi's face tightly.
—It's a pity that the blush spreading behind his ears damaged his momentum.
Different from the usual habitual smile that floats on the surface, although Mo Yi's face is expressionless at the moment, there is a rare trace of real softness in his eyes.
It looked... extraordinarily vivid.
Seeing Wu staring at him for a moment, Mo Yi, who thought it was nothing at first, couldn't help feeling a little unnatural.
He turned his head, bent down and picked up the flashlight that had been neglected for a long time on the ground, and changed the subject with some embarrassment:
"Let's go, we're running out of time, we haven't started exploring upstairs yet."
There was a three-point smile on the foggy face, and he responded in a low voice, then followed Mo Yi in front of him, and walked forward side by side with him.
As Mo Yi walked forward slowly, he moved the flashlight to illuminate the road ahead. Following the light in his mind, he slowly outlined the outline of the space in front of him.
After walking out of the stairs, there is a narrow corridor, with crooked walls framing the curved floor, and three rooms protruding obliquely from both sides of the corridor, the distribution is neither even nor symmetrical, and the structure is very strange.
The dirty carpet under his feet absorbed the sound of footsteps, and when he stepped on it, he could only hear the muffled sound and the creaking of the clearly blurred wooden boards, which looked quite scary in the dark and cold corridor.
Mo Yi's pace suddenly stopped.
He turned his head and looked into one of the rooms beside him.
Through the dark room, you can see the window on the other side of the room. The dirty glass on the window is like a blurred curtain, with a blue countdown clock that is slowly beating outside the window.
Mo Yi's gaze sank.
From this point of view...
This should be the one, the manned window he saw downstairs.
Mo Yi clenched the flashlight tightly in his hand, feeling the heat on its metal shell from his own body temperature.
He took a deep breath, the icy air flowed down the airway to his chest cavity, and the dry air scratched his throat, making him more emotional.
Mo Yi turned and walked in.
This room is large and looks messy, and it looks even more messy under the lighting of the lights, as if a cloud of gray shadows is lurking in the darkness.
He went straight to the window and looked down through the glass.
Just so you can see the twisted porch you came in.
Mo Yi pursed his lips.
... Sure enough.
He leaned forward and carefully observed the traces on the glass—there was a faint, almost dissipated handprint on it.
Mo Yi took a step back, scanned the room roughly with the flashlight, paused his wrist slightly, and saw a few big crooked words written on the uneven wall opposite the window.
GOD-PLEASE-HELP-ME
[God save me]
Compared with the writing on the letter paper, the wall was even more chaotic and crazy. The blackened liquid flowed down, and then dried up on the rough wall, leaving crooked marks, which glowed a dull brown under the light.
Mo Yi was all too familiar with this color.
— Bloodstains.
The large English letters were written in blood, printed on the dirty wall, scrawled and messy, like a person's crazy mental state, shocking and frightening.
Mo Yi subconsciously touched the backpack he was wearing slung across his body.
Through the nylon fabric, the metal music box was hard against his palm.
Mo Yi was taken aback suddenly, and a coldness rose from behind.
It occurred to him... that black and white photographs were a nineteenth century invention.
And according to their previous speculation, this copy should be related to the Black Death.
But the last time the Black Death ravaged Europe on a large scale...
It is the 17th century.
The author has something to say:
The flashlight that was forced to stuff a mouthful of dog food lay miserably on the ground: ... What did I do wrong, you want to hurt me like this