When Tang Ning saw the finger bone, his hand trembled and the spoon hit the edge of the bowl, making a clanging sound. Everyone looked over. Tang Ning was about to say that there was a finger bone in the fish, but then he suddenly realized that he needed to keep silent. The words he hadn't said turned into a soft "hmm".
Tang Ning's chest rose and fell violently because he stopped talking suddenly. His skin was very white, and any emotional fluctuations were reflected on his face, which turned red with embarrassment.
Lin Yun was the closest, and he saw that Tang Ning's mouth was tightly closed, like a resisting clam, with its soft tongue hidden behind its lips and teeth.
For some reason, Tangning seemed even more...
Seeing him looking over, Tang Ning felt like she had found a savior and quickly pointed at the things in the bowl.
Lin Yun shifted his gaze away from Tang Ning's face and looked down along the slender white fingers. When he saw what was in the fish soup, Lin Yun's expression darkened. "Why is there a finger bone in it?"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone put down their bowls and chopsticks and looked at the old boatman warily.
The old boatman was surprised and asked, "What?"
He looked like he had no idea. He picked up Tangning's bowl, scooped out the food with a spoon, and his face turned pale when he looked at it. He apologized to Tangning and the others repeatedly.
"Sorry! This is really... It's a good thing you didn't eat it! Otherwise, I will refund your food expenses... half of it, okay?" When he said half of it, the flesh on the boatman's face twitched with heartache.
"The food expenses are not a problem. We just want to know what happened to this piece of bone." Lin Yun said calmly.
"I don't know, this, this..." The old boatman kept apologizing, "I'll ask my old lady to make you a new one!"
"No, we can just buy some food." The players refused one after another. No one dared to eat anything in an unfamiliar copy, especially after seeing finger bones in the fish soup.
The boatman looked very lonely, as if he felt very guilty towards the players. Lin Yun asked at this time: "Uncle, we came here to travel and experience the local customs and practices. I want to ask if there are any special customs such as festivals or ceremonies here. If so, we can't miss it."
The system introduction of this copy mentioned, "As tourists, you should be prepared to experience the various folk customs of the town." Any information that appears in this copy introduction is quite critical, and following the ideas provided by the system will help improve their survival rate.
Unexpectedly, when Lin Yun asked this question, the boatman who looked very guilty in the last second suddenly changed his expression in the next second. He said stiffly: "We don't have these things. When you want to eat, tell me. If you don't want to eat here, I can take you to the next door now."
This is probably the result of hastily asking for NPC news before even getting the favorability. Lin Yun knew that he was too hasty, so he slowed down his tone, "Uncle, we came all the way from other places and just got off the boat. Everyone's appetite is not very good. Even if the gods cook, we are not in the mood to eat at this time. And the food next door may not be as good as yours."
The boatman's expression softened a lot, "You must be tired after coming all this way. You and you..." He pointed at Lin Yun and Tang Ning, "You two are staying here. Let me show you the house now."
He then looked at the other six players and said, "You don't live with me. You can live with whoever brought you here. They are all next door. Go find them yourself."
The players dispersed, and Tang Ning and Lin Yun went to check out where they would be staying tonight. They went to adjacent rooms, each of which was small, with a wardrobe, mirror, bedside table, and narrow bed. It looked like nothing special.
After giving some instructions, the old boatman returned to his own house. That house looked like the main house and was relatively large, where the boatman and the old woman lived together. Tang Ning stood in the middle of the yard and looked around, and saw a house with closed doors and windows. A bowl of fish soup and a bowl of white rice were placed at the door of the house.
"Let's go to the bridge and take a look at the situation." Lin Yun walked up and said in a low voice.
Tang Ning subconsciously wanted to reply "OK", but he soon realized that his copy couldn't talk, so he frowned and nodded.
Not being able to speak was really troublesome. Tangning picked up her phone and typed on the memo carefully, "Do you have any tape here? I want to put it on my mouth so I don't talk accidentally. My skill is that if I don't speak for a day, I can get a chance to sing. The monster won't attack me when I sing."
The card he drew looked pretty solid, at least better than nothing. But he didn't know how he would sing when the time came, and whether he could sing indefinitely.
Lin Yun was stunned for a moment when he saw the contents of Tangning's memo. He couldn't help but look at Tangning's lips. He almost subconsciously said, "Your skin is not suitable for tape. It will leave red marks."
Tangning glanced at Lin Yun, looking rather disappointed. He typed, "Is life more important than leaving a scar?"
Lin Yun: "But this time, you really can't sing when you encounter a strange thing."
Tang Ning thought about this and decided to remind himself not to speak every moment from now on.
Thinking of this, Tangning pursed her lips even tighter.
Tangning looked at Lin Yun's stern face and suddenly wanted to hear what she was singing.
Tang Ning poked Lin Yun and raised his chin slightly, signaling them to move quickly.
On their way to the river, they saw other players, and many NPCs coming and going in that direction. These townspeople were young and old, and the older generation was even so old that they had to walk with crutches. When children wanted to help their elderly parents, they were slapped away by the elderly parents in anger.
Perhaps everyone in the village who could come out was here? But the old boatman who received them seemed to stay indoors
Tang Ning walked to the shore and saw many people surrounding the old Taoist priest. Because he had encountered bad Taoist priests many times before, Tang Ning subconsciously developed prejudice against Taoist priests when he saw them now.
The old Taoist priest, with white hair and a youthful face, stood in front of the corpse and spoke calmly to a middle-aged man. Tang Ning was far away and could not clearly hear what the old Taoist priest said, but seeing the middle-aged man next to the old Taoist priest had a solemn expression and shook his head slightly, he could guess that the words were probably not good things to make people happy.
The townspeople gathered on the shore kept talking about it. An elderly man tapped his cane and said, "I told you not to blow up the bridge! You can't blow up the bridge! Ah! You insisted on blowing it up!!!"
There seemed to be a young man in the crowd mumbling, "But we found a body from a long time ago. There are so many people in this world, so where haven't people died?"
"Shh, keep your voice down."
The reminder was too late. The old man was so angry that he coughed and pointed at the young people around him with trembling fingers: "This town is old, I am old, and you are strong enough. Okay, okay!" After saying that, the old man walked back tremblingly.
"They are young and ignorant. Don't get so angry that you get yourself in trouble!"
Several young people gathered on the shore whispered: "Did I say something wrong? Isn't that the case?" "But this is really creepy." "Okay, okay, stop talking. Why do you have to make the old man angry?"
If this had happened before entering the game, Tang Ning would have definitely stood in the camp of young people and nodded frantically. However, now, Tang Ning took a look at the corpse lying on the shore. I don't know if it had been moved by anyone. The corpse had changed from lying flat to lying on its side in the mud. The empty eye sockets were facing Tang Ning. The muscles on Tang Ning's back continued to tighten, and goose bumps spread from the center of his back to his neck. He silently took a step back and hid himself behind Lin Yun.
Although Lin Yun was tall, Tang Ning was very nervous. He took out his phone and wanted to type a message to Lin Yun, but when he opened the phone, he was attracted by the group chat.
Jiang Mianmian: "This group of NPCs called the Taoist priest and the mayor. The Taoist priest said that if they want to build a new bridge, they must drive in piles. The mayor doesn't seem to agree with this method."
Chang Hanliang: "This doesn't seem like a proper Taoist priest. How could a Taoist priest continue to have people hit with stakes? Didn't he put the red envelopes down by the river in advance?"
Mayor
Tang Ning glanced at the middle-aged man standing next to the Taoist priest. Their conversation seemed to have come to an end. The Taoist priest shook his head and left, parting unhappily with the mayor.
There was a corpse that needed someone to move, so a brave young man volunteered to collect it. The onlookers left one after another. Tang Ning and other players stayed on the shore for a while, and only turned around and left after making sure there was nothing to follow up.
It was already dark, and the players decided to split up and walk around the town. Tang Ning and Lin Yun decided to look for the old man. They asked the townspeople about his address and arrived at the old man's doorstep.
The door of the old man's house was closed. Lin Yun knocked on the door while explaining his purpose. After a while, the door suddenly opened, revealing half of a gloomy face behind the door.
"Strangers, what are you doing here?"
Lin Yun said sincerely: "Old man, when we came here, we happened to encounter a bridge explosion. The bridge looks like an ancient building. It is rare to see such a well-preserved ancient bridge outside. It is a pity to blow it up. We are outsiders, and it is difficult to stop it when we see it. When the bridge collapsed, my heart was bleeding..."
Tang Ning looked blankly at the nonstop Lin Yun. The other party's tone was sincere, as if he was really sad about the destruction of an ancient building.
The old man sneered, "You don't understand at all."
Lin Yun stopped and looked at the old man sincerely, "Old man, you have walked more bridges than I have eaten salt. In front of you, I am naturally a young boy who knows nothing."
He seemed to be belittling himself, but implicitly his words were also scolding the group of young people who had been murmuring before.
The old man looked at Lin Yun solemnly, then turned his back, left the door open, and said as he walked in, "Come in."
Tang Ning secretly gave Lin Yun a thumbs up, and he followed Lin Yun into the old house like a little tail.
The old man sat on a rattan chair in the middle of the yard, smoking a dry cigarette. He smoked for a long time before saying, "My grandfather's grandfather told me when I was very young that the bridge was the lifeline of the town."
The old man took a long puff of his cigarette, his wrinkled face showing the traces of time. "If the bridge is gone, the whole town will die."
When I came out of the old man's house, it was already completely dark.
Tang Ning was afraid of walking at night in the dungeon, so he followed Lin Yun closely and walked quickly. Fortunately, this place was not far from the boatman's house. After walking for about five or six minutes, they saw a faint light in the house.
Tang Ning breathed a sigh of relief. He walked towards his room, but suddenly stopped halfway.
"What's wrong?" Lin Yun asked.
Tang Ning picked up his phone and typed, "The meal is gone." He pointed to the room with closed doors and windows, and an empty porcelain bowl placed at the door.
That room was right across from his room. Tang Ning remembered that when they went out during the day, there was food in that porcelain bowl.
Is there anyone living in this house
Lin Yun frowned and said, "Take a rest."
It was getting late, so they'd better go back to their rooms early and wait until daytime to explore again.
Tang Ning had no objection, and they returned to their respective rooms. There was a thermos in the room, so Tang Ning poured a basin of water and prepared to wash up. She put her fair and slender fingers into the water, stirring the surface of the water slightly. Her reflection in the water seemed a little strange.
Tang Ning paused, and water dripped from his fingertips back into the water, creating ripples. He looked haggard in the water. Tang Ning exhaled slowly, wiped his face, turned off the lights, and went to bed.
The strange copy, strange environment, and strange fear made him toss and turn, unable to fall asleep.
His mind was filled with what the old man had said. The old man said there was a legend in the ancient town that the evil incarnation of the river god would come to the human world to transcend tribulations. If the incarnation lived as he pleased in the human world, the evil of the river god would be infinitely magnified.
If the incarnation suffers torture in the human world, the evil of the river god will be suppressed. When the evil of the river god is reduced, there will be fewer disasters in the human world.
There is a very simple way to determine who is the incarnation of the river god walking on earth, just look at who has ichthyosis.
Because of this legend, the town holds a fixed ceremony every year, where they select people to torture the incarnation until it is on the verge of death.
This ceremony has been held for many years, but in recent years, young people in the town are not used to these customs and have been preventing the ceremony from being carried out. In addition, a new mayor was elected this year. Although the new mayor is middle-aged, his ideas are in line with those of young people. As soon as the new mayor took office, he did a lot of things, including developing tourism, demolishing the ancient bridge, and stopping the previous ceremonies.
The old man believed that the actions of the mayor and those young people would completely destroy the village.
Tang Ning closed his eyes, his brows knitted in discomfort. Scenes of the old man's expression as he talked about the ceremony flashed through his mind. It was so obvious that Tang Ning felt uncomfortable. He shook his head hard to stop thinking about it.
Go to sleep quickly! Otherwise you will be exhausted tomorrow!
Tang Ning kept tossing and turning in bed, trying to make himself fall asleep. He didn't know how long he lay there before he fell into a dream. Tang Ning felt like he was dreaming, but also like he was awake. It was a very strange state. At this moment, Tang Ning suddenly heard Lin Yun shouting, "Oh no! Luo Chuxue ran into the river!"
Luo Chuxue, the unlucky female player who found the red envelope.
Tang Ning suddenly woke up. He saw Lin Yun's anxious expression outside the window. Tang Ning quickly put on his shoes and clothes and walked out. Lin Yun said to him, "Come with me! Jiang Mianmian is too weak to stop Luo Chuxue!"
Jiang Mianmian said that red envelopes would be placed by the river after hitting a living stake. Although Luo Chuxue used a wooden root to touch the red envelope, in this card world where karma is not enforced, it is probably due to cause and effect.
Thinking of this, Tang Ning hurriedly started running after Lin Yun. However, he was hindered by his physical condition, and even if he ran as fast as he could, he would always be one step behind Lin Yun.
The river was not far from where they lived, and it only took five or six minutes to run there, but they were one step too late.
In the night with only a pale moon hanging in the sky, an equally pale hand appeared on the sparkling river surface. The hand seemed to be desperately grasping something, but there was nothing around it. How could it grasp that slim chance of life
"Luo Chuxue!" Lin Yun rushed into the river to save her. He had good swimming skills and swam to the hand in no time. Lin Yun grabbed the hand tightly and held Luo Chuxue, whose face was covered by black hair, in his arms. He tried hard to swim towards the shore.
Tang Ning, who was standing on the shore, was extremely nervous. He saw Lin Yun dragging Luo Chuxue closer and closer. At the moment when Lin Yun was about to reach him, Luo Chuxue, who seemed to be in a coma before, suddenly struggled desperately.
The most terrifying situation when rescuing a drowning person is that the drowning person is in extreme panic and desperately grabs everything he can, strangles the rescuer's neck, and drags the rescuer into the water!
And now, Lin Yun is facing this situation!
Tang Ning was anxious. He saw a wooden stick on the shore. Tang Ning quickly handed one end of the stick to Lin Yun. Lin Yun tried hard to pull off Luo Chuxue's hand with one hand, and struggled to reach for the stick handed over by Tang Ning with the other hand.
His body sank up and down, violent water splashed around, and his trembling fingertips kept reaching for the wooden stick. Tang Ning tried his best to pass the stick over, but just when it was about to touch, Lin Yun, who had been strangled by the neck, finally reached his limit. His hands softened, and he sank into the river together with Luo Chuxue, whose face was covered by black hair.
With its mouth and nose submerged in the water, its eyes looked straight in the direction of Tang Ning.
Just like Ji Ke who was hanged at that time, he looked over.
Tang Ning's mind went blank.
His brain didn't react to what was happening, and his body jumped down instinctively!
Tang Ning had learned swimming for the physical education exam. Although he hadn't swum for many years, it was just like riding a bicycle. Even if he was unfamiliar with it at first, his body would remember how to use it.
The river water was icy cold. Tang Ning sank into the water. The water poured into his ears, rushed into his eye sockets, and rushed into his nose. The underwater world was strangely quiet. Tang Ning vaguely saw Lin Yun break free from Luo Chuxue. The action of breaking free seemed to have exhausted his last bit of strength. Luo Chuxue sank, but Lin Yun's body slowly floated to the surface of the water.
Tang Ning paddled awkwardly, then raised his head, his snow-white face emerging from the water. His red lips opened and he took deep gulps of air. The moonlight sprinkled on his wet face, and the broken waves reflected countless fragments of Tang Ning's breathing.
Tang Ning sank into the water again, his long legs swaying in the water like a swaying fish tail. His skin was so white in the water that it was almost translucent. His black hair spread in the water like thick seaweed. His eyes were dark and sparkling at this moment.
The river water was so cold that Tang Ning almost fainted. He didn't have much strength to begin with, and he was out of breath after doing anything. Swimming in cold water was really hard on his body.
Tang Ning almost wanted to swim back directly, but that would be tantamount to giving up Lin Yun.
You can't do this.
He once asked Lin Yun, they cannot entrust their lives to teammates.
Now that you have made a promise, you must keep it.
Tang Ning stretched out his hand to reach Lin Yun. He was very close, only a palm's length away. Tang Ning's exhausted body regained some strength and he swam forward a little further. His fingertips were so close to Lin Yun's sole that they were about to touch. But somehow the waves pushed Lin Yun. Lin Yun's floating body suddenly moved forward a little.
Seeing this, Tang Ning had no choice but to squeeze his almost immobile body. It was really too cold, so cold that his hands and feet were cold and numb like a puppet, and he couldn't move flexibly underwater at all.
Only the chest was a little warm on the whole body, as if a hot pack was attached to it, but in fact there was only a piece of coral jade hanging there.
Wait, why is coral jade hot
Tang Ning was stunned for a moment. The skin touched by the coral jade was indeed incredibly hot. It was so hot that Tang Ning couldn't help but float her head out of the water and take a deep breath of fresh air again.
"Tang Ning!" A voice belonging to Lin Yun came.
Is Lin Yun awake? !
Tang Ning looked at Lin Yun who was floating on the water nearby.
“Tang Ning!!!” The sound became even louder, but Lin Yun in front of him kept his eyes and mouth closed.
Tang Ning turned around following the sound and saw Lin Yun standing on the shore shouting at him anxiously.
what happened
Tang Ning widened his eyes in disbelief. The person desperately calling out to him on the shore was indeed Lin Yun. The other person looked like he wanted to jump into the water, but hesitated and did not come down.
Although Lin Yun often abandoned him and ran away when they first started getting along, ever since Lin Yun attached the talisman to his head, Tang Ning knew that Lin Yun would not do something similar and run away again.
He had no reason and only made this judgment based on his intuition.
Tang Ning believed that if he encountered danger, unless Lin Yun could not swim, he would not stand idly by, because in his impression, although Lin Yun was a very sophisticated egoist, he would sometimes do crazy things.
Since Lin Yun would not risk her life to save Tang Ning, whom she just met, then she should do the same to Luo Chuxue, whom she just met.
Will Lin Yun risk his life to save Luo Chuxue
Tangning's head buzzed as he suddenly realized a terrible problem. Since the real Lin Yun would never save Luo Chuxue, then who was the "Lin Yun" who had just jumped into the water, the "Lin Yun" he had always wanted to save?!
Tangning turned around suddenly and saw a scene that made his heart stop.
The "Lin Yun" who had been floating on the water suddenly turned around strangely and pounced on him without hesitation!