Handprints?!
Tang Ning, who was still half asleep, sat up suddenly and stared at his pillow with wide eyes.
There were indeed wet fingerprints on it, and more than one.
Two wet handprints were left on both sides of the pillow. The handprints were slightly larger than Tang Ning's hands, and it didn't look like Tang Ning had pressed them there himself.
Tang Ning's heart was pounding violently. He lifted the quilt and found that there were not only handprints on the bed, but also the human-shaped print he had seen on the ceiling last night!
An intense fear swept over Tang Ning's body. He almost collapsed on the bed. His weak limbs fell on the blanket that still had traces of his human figure. A slight dampness came into contact with his skin through the blanket. Tang Ning couldn't help but have the horrible illusion that he was touching something that didn't exist.
Absurdity, fear and shame stimulated Tang Ning's tense nerves at the same time. He was dizzy and wanted to climb out of bed, but his legs were hooked by the quilt. Tang Ning rolled off the bed weakly. The pain made Tang Ning almost scream, but he didn't know that the card setting would not allow him to groan in pain, so he had to cover his mouth with his hand.
The quilt was hooked by the toes and slid off the bed, falling on Tang Ning. A strange damp fragrance hit her face. It was the smell Tang Ning smelled in the bathroom last night. Lin Yun said it was the smell of river water, but Tang Ning only smelled a faint fragrance after sniffing for a long time.
He was surprised by the fragrance of shower gel!
Tang Ning covered his mouth tightly, fearing that he would not be able to hold back and let out a sound. The damp blanket covered his body, and the remaining strange fragrance seemed to turn into an undercurrent, seemingly surrounding Tang Ning like water that could penetrate any pore!
It's that monster!
It was the monster he met last night! He actually slept with that monster all night without even noticing!!!
Every cell in Tang Ning's body was screaming. He threw away the wet blanket, struggled to get up from the ground, put on his shoes hastily, picked up his phone, and stumbled out of the house.
In the morning, a hunched figure sat in the middle of the yard, holding the fish's tail with his leather-gloved hands, and using a sharp blade to cut the tail fin, easily slicing it off, then moving upwards to cut off the anal fin and dorsal fin...
"Bang!"
The bloody fish-killing knife fell on the fish's head, and the old woman chopped off the fish's head easily with the knife. The dark red blood splashed everywhere. After chopping the fish's head into four pieces, the old woman grabbed the fish's tail again and quickly removed the scales, gutted and opened the belly, chopping it into neat pieces of fish meat. A strong fishy smell came from the chopping board piled with fish meat.
The old woman, with blood splattered from her chin to the sides of her face, raised her head and silently looked at Tang Ning who had just run out of the house.
Tang Ning's breathing stagnated, and he felt an indescribable nausea. He covered his mouth and said nothing. The white-haired old woman also did not speak. They looked at each other in silence. The fish in the bucket kept struggling, as if trying to jump out of the bucket.
"Get up?" The boatman's voice broke the silence. He stood upright in the door frame, half of his body covered by the shadow behind the house. He slowly raised his skinny hand and waved to Tang Ning, "The fish porridge is ready. Come over and have breakfast."
Tang Ning slowly took a step back.
"What's the matter?" The old boatman continued to wave at him, "Come here quickly, it won't taste good if it's cold."
Tang Ning looked at the old woman holding the fish knife, and he quickly retreated back to his room and closed the door with a click. The old boatman shouted from outside the door, "Why are you going back? Come out and eat!"
Tangning pulled out her phone with trembling hands, and saw a bunch of group messages appearing on it.
Jiang Mianmian: "Let's tell each other what we have heard. I want to know the traditional rituals of this town."
Tang Ning had learned almost everything about this ritual from the old man yesterday. He checked the source of the information and found that the players had gotten up long ago, popping up around 5 or 6 o'clock. At that time, it was still light outside, so they were full of energy to investigate everywhere.
Yi Yao: "Okay, I just learned that the NPCs put the two bodies in the river in a small house yesterday, and today the two bodies disappeared."
Chang Hanliang: "Fuck, I know the same thing. The NPCs in this town are too useless. I even hired a Taoist priest to suppress those two ghosts, but I didn't expect them to run away in less than a day."
Nie Tong: "I heard that a male NPC died last night. His name was Zhang Shunping. He was used to soaking his feet before going to bed. This morning, his family found him with his head buried in a foot bath tub. He was drowned. Yes, there were also small footprints on his neck."
Nie Tong: "It seems that this time the ghosts will attack NPC players indiscriminately. What I am more worried about is whether the dead NPCs will become new ghosts."
There were many more group messages, and Tangning didn't just read them. He quickly typed, "Help me! The family I'm staying with seems to be in trouble!"
"Knock, knock, knock." There was a knock on the window, startling Tang Ning. He turned his head stiffly and saw the face of the old boatman outside the window. He looked at Tang Ning through the glass, as if trying to judge what Tang Ning was doing. Then he slowly walked towards the door.
Tang Ning was almost unable to breathe. He saw the door open at this moment. The old boatman walked towards him with a bowl of steaming fish porridge and said, "Have a bite."
Tang Ning kept backing away. He didn't look at the road and his foot was tripped by the quilts piled on the ground, causing him to fall to the ground. From this perspective, the old boatman was walking with his back to the light, his face so dark that his outline could not be seen. He was holding the bowl of fish porridge, and a rich and delicious aroma wafted from the bowl. Tang Ning seemed to see the scene of the old woman slashing with the knife.
"Have a bite." The old boatman slowly bent down, his cloudy eyes like fish eyes looked at Tang Ning, his skinny and powerful hands firmly grasped Tang Ning's wrist, and Tang Ning pulled down his hand that was covering his mouth.
With his other hand, he put the bowl of porridge to Tang Ning's mouth, trying to force the hot porridge into his mouth!
no!
Tang Ning tilted his head back and opened his lips. His voice flowed out like a piece of white silk, swirling around the beams, floating out of the small window, sliding over the roof, and floating in the courtyard.
The old boatman fell into a daze, like a puppet frozen in place.
Because of yesterday's attempt, Tang Ning found that he could only sing for a little over ten seconds at most. He didn't have enough energy to sing today, so he started singing during the day. Tang Ning had a feeling that he could only sing for ten seconds at most, so he couldn't waste a single second of these ten seconds!
Tang Ning crawled away from the old boatman, ran out of the door while singing, and faced a bloody fish knife.
Tang Ning's mind went blank and he almost forgot to sing.
The old woman didn't stand at the door for long. At this moment, she was immersed in the singing just like the boatman.
Tangning quickly avoided the old woman and rushed towards Lin Yun's house! He only had seven seconds left! These seven seconds were enough for him to run out of the yard, but there was still no news about Lin Yun. He had to see what happened in Lin Yun's house!
six.
Tang Ning rushed to the window of Lin Yun in the room next to his. He looked inside and saw Lin Yun lying on the bed with a talisman stuck on his forehead. There was a green-skinned child squatting beside him at the head of the bed, looking down at him. Drops of water fell from the child's hair and dripped onto Lin Yun's face.
five.
At this moment, Lin Yun, the little monster, had a look of infatuation on his face. Lin Yun was so infatuated that he forgot to maintain his expression. If the singing stopped and the little monster reacted before Lin Yun, then Lin Yun would be exposed!!!
Four.
Tang Ning was going crazy. The singing time was not enough. Three seconds was only enough for him to rush into Lin Yun's house, but not enough for him to take Lin Yun away. When the time was up, both he and Lin Yun would die!
three.
Tang Ning ran towards Zhang Yun's house. Since Zhang Yun was able to save him from the river with monsters once and make the monsters in the bathroom avoid him once, he should be able to scare off these monsters for the third time now!
two.
He knocked desperately on Zhang Yun's door, but no one responded. Tang Ning suddenly remembered that when he was looking through the group messages, there seemed to be a message saying that Zhang Yun had something to ask the mayor.
one.
The singing stopped abruptly. Tang Ning turned around blankly. Everything seemed to be played in slow motion. He saw the grandmother holding the knife turned around woodenly, a skinny hand stretched out from the door frame, the old boatman stuck his head out, and the ghost child at the head of Lin Yun's bed turned his head to look at Lin Yun with wide eyes.
He ruined it all.
He was not decisive enough. He should have started singing immediately when he saw the old boatman. Ten seconds were enough for him to rush to Lin Yun's room and drag Lin Yun away from this place.
It was because he failed to extract the key information. If he had kept Zhang Yun's message while quickly scanning the group messages, he would not have wasted the crucial three seconds. At least he could have escaped from this place by himself, instead of killing Lin Yun and losing his own life.
Why, why couldn't he be smarter? If he could be smarter, he could use his cards to their full potential and save Lin Yun himself, instead of always playing a good hand of cards to pieces.
"Were you singing just now?" A deep and magnetic voice suddenly sounded from outside the yard.
The moment this voice appeared, the old woman and the boatman stood there as if they were playing "123 statues", and the ghost child hid under the bed from the head of the bed. Tang Ning felt that the voice was familiar for no reason. He turned around blankly and saw a tall figure in a bathrobe.
Continuous drops of water fell from this man. He seemed to have just come out of the bathroom, with his bathrobe not even fastened tightly. His muscles like continuous snow-capped mountains were faintly visible. Behind his curly and messy hair, a pair of deep black eyes exuded a sharp and greedy desire like a wild beast.
Tangning was almost pinned to the spot by this gaze.
He saw the stranger take out a pair of equally wet glasses from the pocket of his bathrobe, and with a slightly trembling hand, as if he could not suppress his excitement, he placed the glasses on his high nose bridge, and then his slender hand pushed back the hair on his forehead, revealing a handsome and pale face.
The thin lips with sharp and delicate lines turned up, and the eyes seemed to soften through the lens. The strange man said politely: "I am a new tourist who lives next door to you. I heard your singing while taking a shower just now. It was so beautiful—"
"Excuse me, my name is Shao Yu, may I ask who you are?"