Chen Yang has always felt that the boy was not a normal person, and tonight he was even more certain that he was a lunatic.
The boy couldn't squat on one leg and was unwilling to sit on the ground, so he forced Chen Yang to pick up the body. He took out the mobile phone he had not taken out before, turned on the flashlight, and bent down to get closer.
Almost face to face with the corpse.
Chen Yang retched and said, "The fertilizer smells so strong, and you dare to get close to it."
He didn't notice that the boy suddenly looked at him with an ambiguous look.
"Are you ready?"
Chen Yang's lips were pale and the corpse he was holding was cold and stiff. The warmth penetrated into his flesh through his fingertips and the blood in his veins froze.
He didn't dare to open his eyes or raise his head, for he was afraid to see the boy who had turned into a ghost smiling at him.
Imagination is one of human instincts and cannot be controlled.
After a while, the boy stood up and said, "Let's go."
Chen Yang was about to put the body down when he heard him say, "Wait."
"Ghost, a ghost is coming?" Chen Yang was about to faint.
He was shaking violently, and the body in his hands was shaking as well. The boy whispered, "Don't move."
Chen Yang stopped shaking unconsciously.
The boy approached the corpse again. He stretched out his hand and pinched his thumb and index finger together, as if he wanted to pinch something out of the corpse's eyes.
It seemed that the thing was extremely small and he couldn't grasp it.
Just then, there was a cough outside. Old Mrs. Li woke up and seemed to get out of bed with a rustling sound.
Chen Yang thought of the wooden urine bucket in the toilet and his eyelids jumped. Li Dafu forgot to put it in Old Lady Li's room. So if Old Lady Li wanted to relieve herself, she couldn't do it in the room, she had to go to the toilet.
Just in case, Chen Yang pushed the body to the boy and quickly closed the door of the utility room.
After a while, the door creaked open and Old Mrs. Li came out carrying a kerosene lamp, coughing as she walked towards the toilet.
The toilet is outside the back door, passing through the utility room.
There were two people and a dead body in the darkness.
When Chen Yang heard Old Lady Li exclaim, his back stiffened and he dared not breathe.
"Why is the gate open?"
Old Mrs. Li shouted repeatedly, her old voice carrying a bit of piercing panic: "Da Fu? Da Fu?! Da Fu!"
Then he asked himself and answered himself: "Dafu went to a meeting, and Sister Qi had to go to a meeting to collect fertilizer."
"Fertilizer, fertilizer..."
The old man started coughing again, with a long and turbid sigh faintly mixed in. He repeated those two words in his pursed mouth, which sounded a little strange.
The island was in an uproar that night.
Aunt Liu's youngest son Luobutou died, and he also died in the house of Li Dafu next door. Both of his clenched hands were filled with fertilizer.
The bizarre death has left every household uneasy.
Chen Yang and his companions finally met Grandma Qi.
The oldest person on the island was wearing a black coat, with dry skin exposed outside. Her sparse silver hair was tied up in a bun. Her manner was dignified and graceful, just like an old lady from a prominent family, without any eerie or weirdness.
The old woman is not a ghost, which fits the peaceful and tranquil life on the island.
But now that two teammates are gone and a nine-year-old child has died, this peace seems particularly incongruous.
There was an old doctor on the island. He was called by Grandma Qi. He examined Aunt Liu's youngest son, twisted his eyes and pulled his mouth, inserted acupuncture into his limbs and bones, and patted his chest and back. After an autopsy, he said that there was no poisoning and no abnormalities, but that the son was possessed by an evil spirit.
This theory of being possessed by evil spirits seemed to be used more than for the first time and was easily accepted by the islanders. Their entire family went out in the middle of the night, praying devoutly to the mountains and the sea, and comforting Aunt Liu, advising her to be more positive and not be too sad, as the child was gone but life had to go on.
Aunt Liu cried and fainted while holding her youngest son's body.
Funerals on the island follow the customs passed down by the older generation. If a person dies from evil spirits, the body cannot be brought into the house. Instead, it must be placed in the mountains, put in a coffin, and buried the next day.
In the middle of the night, the coffin was pushed open, and several heads gathered around it.
The boy in the coffin was lying flat on his back with his hands on his stomach. He was wearing a new green jacket that his mother had replaced for him.
He also had a pair of new shoes on his feet, made of velvet and bright red.
Chen Yang stared at the red cotton shoes, and a chill ran up his ankles: "He will turn into a red-clothed evil spirit."
Zhao Yuan's teeth chattered: "Brother, can you please stop talking about ghosts all the time? If you talk too much, it will think you want to see it and come to find you."
Chen Yang: “…”
Zhang Yan said, "If there is a ghost in a mission, there is only one."
"Otherwise, those who died in the real world or the mission world could all come out as ghosts and move around. That would be a mess."
Chen Yang stepped back to the side of the boy sitting on the stone and asked: "Do ghosts in this world also have restrictions?"
"I told you to stop being so naughty, why are you still talking so much?!"
Zhao Yuan and Chen Yang were talking at the same time, their voices drowned out his, so Zhang Yan and Lin Yue couldn't hear clearly what he said.
Chen Yang also wanted to ask, since everyone who comes in has an ID number, will every mission have the same world background
Forget it. This was Zhang Yan and Lin Yue’s second time coming in, so they wouldn’t know much. He felt for the ID number in his inner pocket through his coat. He should just figure out the answer himself.
It's a dark and windy night, it's time to watch the corpses.
Zhang Yan stuck his head into the coffin and checked from a distance: "The body doesn't look abnormal, it looks like it's asleep."
Lin Yue used her phone to illuminate the room: "Dead bodies don't smell like this either."
"It's definitely not evil."
Zhao Yuan, who was standing further away, said, "It's not a viral infection. The flowers, plants, seafood, etc. are all fine, which means there's nothing wrong with the air and water sources."
His eyes lit up: "Could it be witchcraft?"
Zhang Yan: “Not likely.”
"It should be some kind of curse, but this time it's different from the atmosphere I encountered in the last mission. It seems calm and not dangerous. I have no idea."
I just don't know what kind of curse it is that makes living people eat fertilizer? The bodies of the two newlyweds were never found. They died in vain.
“That’s not right!”
Zhao Yuan suddenly yelled, pointing at the body in the coffin with a strange look on his face: "Even if he changed his clothes, there must be something in his mouth, nose and hair. Didn't Chen Yang say that the smell of fertilizer is very strong? Why can't I smell it at all?"
Zhang Yan and Lin Yue's expressions changed.
Zhao Yuan saw their reaction and asked, "You didn't smell the fertilizer either?"
"No."
The first thought that came to Zhao Yuan's mind was that the party with more people was right, so...
He pointed a shaking finger at the young man who had his head lowered and whose expression could not be seen clearly: "Only you, only you can smell that smell!"
Then he dropped another bombshell: "You vomited at noon today!"
He originally didn't want to say it, after all, they were teammates, even if it was temporary, it was fate that they met each other, but he was afraid and said it anyway.
Chen Yang was being stared at strangely by three pairs of eyes, feeling a little cold. He put his hands in his pockets and touched a nail and a circle of wire.
Zhang Yan looked at him and frowned, "It seems that you have been cursed."
Chen Yang didn't say anything.
Even at a distance, the smell of fertilizer in the coffin still drifted into his nostrils, making his breathing difficult.
Chen Yang moved his legs inadvertently and touched a cold, hard object. It was the boy's crutch, which was sticking to his pants. This made him feel like he was not alone either.
Chen Yang's tense body relaxed a little and his thoughts became active. When the boy's body was carried out of Li Dafu's house, all the people on the island came and surrounded him inside and outside, with their mouths pried open. When he thought about it carefully, he found that they did not show any panic caused by the smell of fertilizer and hid their faces.
I just feel pure grief for Aunt Liu.
And Aunt Liu herself couldn't smell it, otherwise she would have discovered the abnormality of her youngest son long ago.
When Chen Yang thought of this, his eyes wandered between Zhang Yanlin Yue and Zhao Yuan, and a strange guess emerged in his mind.
Could it be that you are all cursed and I am the only normal one
Chen Yang didn't say that guess.
A team without trust is fragile and cannot withstand temptation.
"It seems that the curse is indeed related to fertilizers, but it doesn't mean you will die if you are hit by it. Don't panic, Chen Yang," Zhang Yan said soothingly, "If we find the cause of the curse, those of us who are not hit by it can avoid it, and we can also find a way to complete the mission and get out."
Zhao Yuan calmed down after hearing Zhang Yan's words. He looked at Chen Yang with an awkward look. He hesitated and walked closer: "Brother, I'm sorry. I was afraid just now. I'm only eighteen years old and don't want to die here."
As he spoke, he choked up, put his arms over his eyes, and started sobbing.
Fear and the desire to survive gradually eroded the innocent young man.
Chen Yang glanced at the boy who was about the same age as him, but was sleeping with his head buried between his legs, and was speechless.
Zhao Yuan couldn't control himself and burst into tears as if he was at a funeral.
"One crying person dies, and here comes another one!" Lin Yue's face turned cold with annoyance.
"That's enough!" Zhang Yan defended his teammate again and said in a gentle voice, "Chen Yang, you must have smelled the fertilizer from the deceased's mouth this morning. Recall what you did and said at that time."
Chen Yang revealed the details of his interaction with the child.
Zhang Yan fell into deep thought. Zhao Yuan sat on the ground in a daze because he was tired of crying. Lin Yue was still leaning over the coffin to examine the body.
Chen Yang stood up and inspected the forest for a long time before sitting back down. The boy had woken up, with one hand on his leg and the other rubbing his eyes.
Suddenly harmless.
Chen Yang was stunned for a moment, and approached him and asked, "Don't you smell the fertilizer either?"
The boy kept rubbing his eyes, neither admitting nor denying.
Chen Yang knew the answer, stared at him for a long time, and said in a voice that only he could hear: "I have no appetite for fertilizers. You have personally tested this for me, and only you know it. Don't tell anyone else."
The boy's eyelids drooped, his brow bones hidden in the shadow cast by his hair. He had just woken up and didn't have much energy. He said listlessly: "In addition to the smell of fertilizer on the corpse, you also smelled something else."
A firm tone.
Chen Yang paused and asked suspiciously, "Is there?"
The young man turned his head to look at his confused look and said, "How about I take you to the coffin and let you smell it again."
Chen Yang's hair was resisting, and he immediately sobered up: "Let me think about it!"
The boy did not urge and sat quietly.
"I can't think of it," Chen Yang said to himself, "It seems that I smelled something, but I don't have a specific memory. Now I smell it a few more times and it's the same. I can't describe it."
Boy: “Stupid.”
Before Chen Yang could react, he was interrupted by a scream.
"You can talk?!"
Zhao Yuan only heard the word "stupid" and stared at the boy next to him in disbelief: "I thought you were mute..."
The other person looked at him calmly, and he shuddered, and his voice stopped abruptly.
Neither Zhang Yan nor Lin Yue looked over there.
This young man is hard to tell from his true nature, has a strange personality, cannot walk without a cane and is almost disabled. He can't go to many places, but he can use his face to get information from little girls, but he obviously won't use it.
There is no need to spend time thinking about them. Don't make friends or enemies, just ignore them.
Besides, the mission was only one day away, and they just wanted to avoid the curse and get out alive.
Several people guarded the coffin vigilantly, waiting for the corpse to undergo any unusual changes.
"During the meeting, I overheard that every household had ordered fertilizers based on the number of people. It was Grandma Qi's idea, and everyone listened to her."
Zhang Yan said: "Tomorrow they will all haul fertilizer home."
"Where can we put so many?" Zhao Yuan muttered, "People here live in small courtyards with a few rooms. The area is not very large."
"I heard them mention the cellar."
Zhao Yuan suddenly raised his head and looked at Lin Yue: "I didn't find the cellar!"
Lin Yue's expression was very ugly, and she didn't. They split into two groups and went into the homes of those people on the island tonight. Although they didn't search all of them, they did search half of them, but they didn't find anything.
Now it seems they missed the cellar.
"I think we shouldn't search every house, it's a waste of time, let's go to that Granny Qi's house," Lin Yue said anxiously, "She asked everyone to order the fertilizer, she must know about the curse."
Chen looked up at the ghostly moon in the mountains and listened to Zhao Yuan say, "If that old woman knew about the curse, why didn't she panic when she saw Aunt Liu's youngest son die?"
"Nine times out of ten, just like us, we can't smell the fertilizer smell in that kid's mouth."
At this point, Zhang Yan's eyes passed over Chen Yang who was cursing: "She just has doubts and is uncertain. She will definitely do something next."
Zhao Yuan shuddered: "Then shall we go to her house now?"
"Wait a little longer, we'll go around 1am, just the three of us." Zhang Yan said to Chen Yang, "You stay here."
Chen Yang nodded: "Okay."
When the time came, Zhang Yan and the other two left. The coffin was particularly eye-catching. Chen Yang had the illusion that the mountain wind had turned into a cold wind. He hugged his arms and rubbed them: "Are you cold?"
The young man remained silent. Chen Yang looked at him blatantly. His sportswear was not as thick as his, and there was a faint blue stripe inside the collar, like a hospital gown.
Chen Yang, who thought he had returned from the hospital, opened his eyes and asked, "Did you sneak out of the hospital?"
The boy answered the question irrelevantly: "Is there anything to eat? I'm hungry."
Chen Yang: “…”
Next to the coffin, Chen Yang handed a plate of milk slices to the boy and explained under his strange look: "My sister likes to eat it. She is gone, so I always buy it and put it in my pocket, so I am used to it."
The boy didn't ask what was behind him. He just took the milk slice and silently put it in his mouth.
Chen Yang didn't eat himself. He smelled the fertilizer, looked at the coffin, and thought about the corpse lying inside. He really had no appetite.
"I heard that Granny Qi is 115 years old, the oldest person on the island."
Chen Yang tried to find a topic to ease the tension: "There are quite a few people on the island who are over 90 years old. They all live quite long lives on average. The climate and soil here seem to be very good."
Suddenly, tiny dots of light appeared at the foot of the mountain, moving. Chen Yangteng stood up and said, "Oh no! Someone has entered the mountain!"
Without delay, he quickly took the boy to the hiding place he had chosen long ago.
The ones who went into the mountain were Aunt Liu who had woken up, and a few men including Li Dafu. They each carried a kerosene lamp and a shovel, and came to the place where the coffin was placed.
Aunt Liu staggered and threw herself on the coffin, crying miserably.
Li Dafu hung the kerosene lamp on a nearby tree, and others did the same.
There was a bright spot around the coffin.
Chen Yang hid in the weeds that were half a person's height. He saw Li Dafu and the others went to the same place. They muttered something to themselves and started digging.
The rustling sound was swept by the wind, and Chen Yang smelled the smell of earth: "What are they digging?"
"A pit for burying coffins."
Chen Yang got goosebumps. "Why are you digging in the middle of the night?"
After asking, he realized that this was a custom on the island and was related to a curse. He carefully pushed aside the grass leaves and stared at the coffin: "Speaking of which, I went into the mountains this afternoon to look for the water jars that Zhang Yan mentioned. By the way, I walked around that area and saw a lot of earth mounds. They should be graves. There are no tombstones."
The young man sat on the grass and said calmly, "If you don't erect a monument or offer sacrifices, no one will claim you after you die."
Chen Yang turned his head and looked at him: "Isn't that a wandering ghost?"
"It looks like he did something bad and doesn't dare to stand up."
This must be a very old secret. Very few people know about it, and most people don't know about it. However, they still abide by the custom of not erecting tombstones for deceased relatives, which shows how high the prestige of Granny Qi is.
The Queen Mother on the island.
"Second son!"
"Second son! Second son!"
"Second son!"
"Second son!"
Aunt Liu was calling her youngest son's name, as if calling for his soul. Every cry sounded like the cry of a dying crow, tearful and eerie.
Chen Yang had a problem, he liked to count. When he arrived at the island, he counted the fertilizers carried by the crew. Now he was counting the number of times Aunt Liu called him. As he counted, his breathing stagnated.
"Do you feel something behind you?"
The boy ignored him.
This did not affect Chen Yang's imagination. He scratched his neck and back nervously, and patted his shoulders on both sides, but he still felt a chill on his back. Just when he was about to sit in front of the boy, he suddenly heard a loud noise.
"Bang--"
Something exploded.
The sound came from the coffin.
Chen Yang thought about what it was and looked over with a pale face. The coffin lid flew to the ground and large pieces of white fluff flew out of the coffin.
Aunt Liu fainted from fright. Li Dafu and his companions dropped their shovels in horror and ran down the mountain, screaming like crazy as they ran.
Exploded!
The coffin exploded!
Dandelions! All dandelions!