The river water covered the crazy woman and the stone statue. They floated underwater and were pushed slowly downstream by the current.
There was something eerily peaceful about the scene.
Chen Yang was about to go down to the river, but Chao Jian stopped him and said, "He's dead."
"It didn't sink." Chen Yang murmured.
Chao Jian said nothing.
Chen Yang's gaze followed the corpse and stone statue in the water. He blinked his dry eyes, and at that moment he seemed to see something under the water.
Layer upon layer.
Just when Chen Yang was about to get closer to the river, everything in front of him became blurry and he closed his eyes unable to open them.
Chao Jian knocked away his hand that was rubbing his eyes: "Look up."
"It's dust." Chen Yang raised his face and let Chao Jian pull his eyelids.
A cool breeze blew into his eyes, followed by a faint smell of smoke, milk, and medicine, all familiar smells.
Chen Yang's mind went blank. Usually, when something got stuck in his eyes, he would just rub it out casually. No one had ever blown it for him.
This feeling is indescribable, it's like I've become a child.
Chen Yang had a little tinnitus, which was not right. He was already 25 years old, and this age did not fit in with being a kid. Just thinking about it made him sick.
Before Chen Yang could say anything awkwardly, Chao Jian had already stepped away, frowning in annoyance: "Don't rub anything in your eyes. It can easily cause inflammation and damage the cornea. This is common sense, don't you understand?"
“… I live a rough life.” Chen Yang looked into the river and saw nothing unusual. The layers of black shadows that had appeared in his sight before were just illusions.
The discomfort in his eyes came back, and Chen Yang subconsciously wanted to rub it with his hands, but the back of his head was held, and he was forced to tilt his head back under the force.
Chao Jian took out some water from Chen Yang's backpack, screwed on the lid, put the bottle mouth towards his red left eye, and used his other hand to press on his eyelids to prevent him from closing his eyes.
A stream of cool water rushed into his pupils, and Chen Yang's eyelids twitched. He grabbed Chao Jian's arm and said, "It's okay."
Chao Jian rinsed his right eye with water.
Chen Yang's outer corners of the eyes are wide and blunt, and he has double eyes. He has very standard almond-shaped eyes. When he was young, he was energetic and his eyes were bright. Later, when something happened, his eyes were gray and dark until he entered the mission world...
Now there was light in his eyes again, but it was no longer as bright and blazing. He always kept it under control, and when he occasionally let it go, it was always when he was unconscious and he was unaware of it.
"Okay." Chen Yang wiped his head and face to remove the water marks: "Where did all the dust come from..."
Before he could finish his words, his throat became sticky and ash went into his mouth.
Chen Yang didn't complain. He pulled Chao Jian and walked upstream along the river against the wind, all the way to the bottom of the waterfall, where there was a pile of ashes.
Someone has held a memorial ceremony here.
There were still some unburned pieces of paper money in the ashes.
Chen Yang narrowed his moist eyes. When the fish tide came the day before yesterday afternoon, there was no ashes on the riverside.
This was burned after that.
Who could it be? The image of a crazy woman popped into Chen Yang's mind.
The stone statue of the crazy woman and her child lay in the river with a peaceful look on her face. It is very likely that she had put her family's ashes or corpses in the river and was just reuniting with her family.
Then her motive of paying tribute to her family before committing suicide was valid.
But…
Chen Yang looked at the area of the ashes. It didn't look like it was burned for just a few people. It looked like it was burned for a large group of people. It looked like several sacks of paper money were burned. He was shocked by the thoughts in his mind, and then calmed down.
In a sense, this river is no different from a place of execution.
Chao Jian walked to the ashes with a crutch. He reached into the ashes and stirred them, then extended the end of the crutch in front of Chen Yang.
Chen Yangfu reached out to touch it with his heart.
Hot!
The person who burned the paper left not long ago.
Chen Yang's breathing quickened a bit: "It's not the crazy woman. It's not her who burned it. I don't think it's her."
Chao Jian put down his cane and said, "Who do you think it is?"
Chen Yang pressed his scalp with both hands and scratched it randomly. He squatted down, facing the ashes, and human faces flashed before his eyes.
"It's Gao Degui!"
Chen Yang stood up and said, "He is the mayor. It is reasonable for him to burn so much paper money to commemorate the villagers who died in the fish tide."
As he spoke, he grabbed a handful of ashes. The temperature at his fingertips made his scalp tighten. He looked around, and the sparkling river water made him dizzy. Where was Gao Degui hiding
When Chen Yang and Chao Jian returned, they still didn't see a single town resident. They walked through the streets where paper money was floating around and returned to the inn amidst the deadly atmosphere.
Everyone's condition was worse than the other, except for the painter, whose spirit was obviously getting better.
The painter smiled at Chen Yang, which scared Chen Yang quite a bit.
"That guy slept with your clothes in his arms last night." Xiangdong said to Chen Yangyan, "If I didn't know he was sick, I would have thought he was a pervert and kicked his balls apart."
Chen Yang waved his hand: "I don't smoke."
Xiangdong put the cigarette above Chen Yang's ear and said, "Hold it. Your partner is a heavy smoker. He showed his smoker's tail last night. From now on, the smell of cigarettes in his mouth will kill you."
Chen Yang didn't care. Chao Jian had good self-control. Before last night, he had no idea that he smoked.
"Do you use air freshener?" Chen Yang suddenly asked.
Glancing at him from the east: "What medicine?"
"Fresh air," Chen Yang said, "Spray it into your mouth after smoking."
"Why spray that stuff?" Xiang Dong said as he moved closer to Chen Yang, licking his lips and smiling, "If you kiss me wetly and find me smelling like cigarettes, I don't recommend buying it to spray."
"..." Chen Yang originally wanted to ask Xiangdong if he used it, and if so, recommend one to him. However, it turned out to be a complete waste of time. He rubbed the screen of the phone with his fingertips, and his thoughts were a little wandering.
At the train station, Chen Yang told Chao Jian that he was not a heavy smoker and would smoke when he had cigarettes and not smoke when he didn't. Every word he said at that time was true.
But for some reason, every time he smoked, the thirst between his lips and tongue would grow stronger.
I always feel like there's something missing in my mouth.
Chen Yang felt that the smell could only be cigarettes. He thought that he should carry an extra lighter and a pack of cigarettes with him.
In order to prevent Chao Jian from discovering how often he smoked, he needed a cigarette air freshener.
"If we can go back alive this time, I will give you a box of air freshener and a box of cigarettes." Glancing eastward into the room, the young man was lying on the single bed, his legs bent and unable to move, his chestnut head tilted on the edge of the bed, his eyes closed, and he fell into a deep sleep.
At first glance, he really looks like a docile little lamb.
Xiangdong suspected that Chen Yang was deceived by the little turtle's appearance. He was about to pull Chen Yang away for some ideological education when a cold light came from the room.
The young man stared at him, his clear eyes filled with gloom and coldness.
Xiangdong had a look of disdain on his face, and all the dirty words in his heart were combined into one word: "fuck".
This guy named Chao not only pretended to be asleep flawlessly, but he was also able to see through his mind from his eyes and give him a warning silently.
Is this fucking human
no.
Xiangdong was stroking his lighter with his eyes half open. This kid only acted like a human being when Chen Yang encountered an accident. In other situations, he was calm and composed, as if he was strolling in his own garden. He didn't seem to worry about his own safety at all and was focused on training Chen Yang.
How much mission experience does this kid have? And how many digits is his ID number? Could he be younger than the painter
Xiangdong thought of something and started to grind his teeth. Did Chen Yang tell him his ID number? It seemed that he hadn't.
Shit, their relationship was a million miles away from being close before.
Now, after one and a half missions, the distance of ten thousand miles has been reduced by at most a fraction.
Unless Chao Jian is deleted, he and Chen Yang will have a life-and-death battle alone, otherwise the previous 100,000 will remain unshakable.
Xiangdong's back molars are about to be worn out.
Chen Yang found that Xiangdong was panting like a pig in a pen. When he was about to ask, he saw Xiang Zimu walked out of the room.
Both of Xiang Zimu's hands were wrapped in white gauze.
Chen Yang went over and asked, "What's wrong with your hand?"
"I got a little skin scraped off while repairing the stone statue last night." Xiang Zimu said lightly.
Chen Yang said: "Fortunately you repaired the stone statue, otherwise we wouldn't be able to appease the crazy woman."
Xiang Zimu still spoke in the same tone, as calm as boiled water: "It's nothing."
"She's hard to deal with when she goes crazy." Chen Yang looked at the woman in front of him calmly. She was wearing the same clothes she came in, with blue stripes being the only color on her body.
Xiang Zimu's right hand is always on his left wrist.
Chen Yang's eyes barely noticeably swept across her clasped hands, wondering, is there something on her left wrist
"Mr. Chen, can you give me a milk tablet?"
The voice in his ear made Chen Yang startled. He subconsciously touched his trouser pocket, took out a milk slice and handed it over.
Xiang Zimu took the milk tablet, but didn't eat it. He just held it in his hand.
Chen Yang remembered what Zhu Zhu said, and couldn't help asking: "Have you seen my brother? I mean, before coming here."
"No." Xiang Zimu said, "I haven't seen it."
Before Chen Yang could say anything, Xiang Zimu returned the milk slices to him.
"…?"
Chen Yang was pinching the milk slice in confusion, watching Xiang Zimu walk out of the back door.
Xiangdong put his arm around his shoulders from behind: "Do you like that woman?"
Chen Yang opened the milk slice and ate it, then asked, "Don't you think she is a mystery from head to toe?"
"Not interested." Xiangdong shrugged. "She is not my relative. I just met her when I was doing this mission. In my opinion, this is no different from 419. There will be no after-sales service. Who cares about her?"
Chen Yang's mind turned again and again when he heard this. Xiangdong was right and he understood the logic, but every time Xiang Zimu appeared, his attention would always shift away from her.
"I'm very interested in her." Chen Yang said carefully.
Xiangdong walked around from behind Chen Yang to the front, looked at the expression on his face and asked, "Want to be her partner?"
Chen Yang: “Ah?”
"Then change them." Xiangdong raised his voice. "In the mission world, if you don't choose the right partner, you will lose your life. If you choose the right partner, you can have an extra life. Your partner is related to life and death, so he must be the best."
Chen Yang kicked Xiangdong: "Keep your voice down."
"I'm serious." Xiangdong kept his voice unchanged, "If a more suitable partner appears, even a fool would know to replace the previous one."
Chen Yang kicked Xiangdong again: "Don't do that again..."
He caught a glimpse of a figure at the door and almost choked on the milk in his mouth.
The figure at the door turned around and went back to the room without even looking at Chen Yang.
Chen Yang's eyelids twitched, and he glared at Xiang Dong angrily: "You are looking for trouble, you deserve a beating."
"Then why don't you hit me instead of just talking every time." Xiangdong witnessed Chen Yang pushing open the door that Chao Jian had closed and squeezing in. His face was full of colors. Could it be that I was the one who assisted by accident
No, absolutely not.
God, please be nice to your brother Dong and don’t be so cruel.
In the room, Chao Jian sat on the bed, wiping his crutches without saying a word.
Chen Yang stood beside the table. He rolled the milk slice from the left side of his cheek to the right side, and then back to the left side. His entire mouth was filled with a faint sweet milk flavor.
"Xiangdong is talking nonsense." Chen Yang said.
Chao Jian, who was beside the bed, didn't even raise his eyelids. He said in annoyance, "Who cares about that ugly freak?"
Chen Yang was confused: "Ignore him? Then you are..."
"You heard me say that I'm interested in Xiang Zimu." Chen Yang scratched his short hair, "There are reasons for this, from many aspects."
Not getting a response, Chen Yang pulled out a chair and sat down, biting the milk slices and swallowing them. He thought for a moment and made up his mind: "Well, this time when we go out, I will talk to you once and tell you everything about me."
Chao Jian's action of wiping the crutches was slightly slow, and then he continued: "You told me everything, and then what, you want me to reciprocate?"
Chen Yang smiled and said, "If you want."
Chao Jian also smiled: "I don't want to, don't think about it."
Chen Yang twitched his lips: "Alright." He unconsciously tolerated and coaxed, "Then I'll go first, you can do whatever you want."
Chao Jian raised his eyelids and looked at Chen Yang with his dark eyes. He looked at Chen Yang until he thought there was something on his face, so he lowered his eyes.
"My privacy does not conflict with being your partner." Chao Jian put down his crutches.
"Yeah, I know." Chen Yang touched the tip of his nose. This was the reason why he could trust Chao Jian even though he hadn't peeked into his inner world.
Chao Jian paused: "Where are the milk slices? I want to eat some."
"It's in the bag." Chen Yang said, but he reached into his pocket and grabbed one for him.
Chao Jian saw him peeling the milk slices for him, frowned, and became angry for some reason: "If you want to know something about me, figure it out yourself. Don't expect me to pour everything out to you like pouring beans!"
"… good."
Chen Yang gave the milk tablets to Chao Jian and sighed. Actually, it would be better for him to tell him about the things related to the ID number diary. At least it would allow him to clear some space.
There are really too many things piled up in my heart, and there is no one else I can talk to except Chao Jian.
"Don't pay attention to irrelevant people." Chao Jian's voice was vague, "A person's brain can only hold a limited amount of things, so don't make things difficult for yourself."
Chen Yang smiled and nodded: "Teacher Xiao Chao is right."
Chao Jian glared at him with his cheeks puffed out. What a piece of shit. He only knew how to say that but didn't change.
"By the way, the painter gave me a handful of diamonds. I forgot to tell you about this last night." Chen Yang picked up the incense and secretly observed Chao Jian's emotional changes.
Chao Jian remained expressionless throughout.
Chen Yang suppressed his frustration and suddenly heard Chao Jian ask, "Does the diamond look good?"
"It's quite shiny." Chen Yang blurted out.
Chao Jian pinched his well-proportioned fingers, wondering what he was thinking.
Just when Chen Yang thought that the matter seemed to be over, Chao Jian said, "Go and get your clothes back."
Chen Yang hesitated: "But the painter..."
"Take mine." Chao Jian said.
The fish tide is coming tomorrow and the mission deadline is almost up, but the situation is not entirely clear. The membrane blocking the truth is just a little thin, it has not broken.
Chen Yang felt that their current situation was very strange.
The road to the mission seemed broad, but in reality it was a dead end.
Assuming this mission is regarded as a game, and the town is a dungeon, their current situation is that the monsters have disappeared, and the big boss cannot be spawned, and they are anxious in the dungeon.
Chen Yang was a little anxious. There was no mission prompt this time. It was evil from the beginning. Now the mission deadline was almost over, and he hadn't seen any of the main NPCs or the secondary NPCs.
"Don't think about a problem in a single line. Put aside what cannot be checked and check what can be checked." Chao Jian said when Chen Yang was about to bite his thumb nail off.
Chen Yang bit his nails and looked at Chao Jian. He couldn't find the person and couldn't check for the time being. Now the only thing he could check was the object. He quickly thought of a place and a thing.
Chen Yang pushed open the wooden door of the small house in the corner of the yard, and the first thing he saw was the portrait on the wall.
The last time Chen Yang came in was at night, and the light from his cell phone suddenly shone on the portrait, which was very scary. This time it was daytime, but it made him even more creepy than last time.
Because the woman in the portrait...
"Why is she lying down?"
Zhuzhu's panicked voice suddenly came from behind, and Chen Yang was startled. He took a deep breath to suppress the heartbeat that was jumping up his throat, and looked at the portrait with bated breath.
The black and white photo shows a woman lying flat on her back with her eyes closed, her hands on her abdomen and her feet together.
Head toward the wall, feet toward the door.
This posture reminded Chen Yang of two words—enter the coffin.
"Are you going to sleep?" Zhuzhu hid behind Chen Yang and stretched her head out tremblingly.
Chen Yang turned his head to look at her, then looked at the portrait: "Sleeping?"
"Yes, she looks like she is sleeping, sleeping soundly." Zhuzhu unconsciously wanted to stand on tiptoe to grab Chen Yang's shoulder, but a piercing cold look came over her, and she retracted her hand, "Rest in peace, sleep forever."
Chen Yang couldn't help but think of the scene of the crazy woman lying in the river.
There is something wrong with that river.
A bold guess emerged in Chen Yang's mind. The fish did not come down from the waterfall, but from the river. The source of the curse was that river!
"Where are you going?" Chao Jian grabbed Chen Yang who was about to run.
"By the river." Chen Yang grabbed Chao Jian, put him on his back, and walked away with him on his back.
"Wait for me!" Zhuzhu caught up with Chen Yang. Her shouting alarmed the others, and they all followed her.
The big guys searched by the river for a long time. Those who could go into the river went into the river, and those who could lie in the water also lay down, but still found nothing.
The time was not up, so there was no unusual movement in the river. Chen Yang only thought of this possibility. He insisted on his guess and firmly believed that the river was the source.
"Where should we go now? Should we go back to the inn?" The burn on Qian Han's arm started to worsen after improving for a while. He could feel the skin and flesh there shrinking and rotting, and there was a high possibility that he would not survive until the moment when the mission target appeared.
Qian Han hoped that the mission could progress faster and faster so that he could hold on until then. He didn’t want to die, and he wanted to go back alive and cry to his brother.
When Chen Yang heard Qian Han's voice, the first person he looked at was Ge Fei. He was more seriously injured than Qian Han, and seemed to be dying and could collapse at any time.
"Let's go to Gao Degui's house." Chen Yang said, "We're all here now, let's search thoroughly, thoroughly."
"I agree to a thorough search. First, the most dangerous place is the safest place. Second, we have no other choice."
When the painter agreed, he smiled at Chen Yang, full of life, even though his cheekbones were still prominent and the skin on his face was still dull.
Chen Yang couldn't remember how many times he had felt this way today. The painter really came back to life.
Gao Degui's house was still the same as it was yesterday, and everyone searched separately.
Chen Yang and Chao Jian were in charge of the study. He flipped through the books on the shelf and said, "Gao Degui is an intellectual."
Chao Jian sat at the table, holding a large stack of papers covered with calligraphy.
Gao Degui has the habit of practicing calligraphy.
Chen Yang discovered that there was a book on the second shelf that was different from the others. There were signs of it being favored frequently. He pulled it out and took a look. It was a book about fortune-telling.
Chen Yang opened the book and what caught his eyes were the annotations one after another. Gao Degui, like Widow Zhou, believed in fate and karma. There seemed to be no flaw in his position of dissuading people from eating fish to shorten their lifespan.
Chen Yang thought of another person who believed in karma, Xiang Zimu.
"Do you think people really have past lives and present lives?" Chen Yang couldn't help but ask.
Chao Jian threw the paper in his hand aside and glanced at the other one: "There is no past life, only this life."
"But I didn't believe in ghosts before." Chen Yang muttered. He suddenly remembered something, quickly opened his backpack, rummaged around, took out a gun, and put it on the table.
"I forgot we had this when I went upstairs last night and you didn't remind me."
Chen Yang didn't believe that Chao Jian would forget it, so he said, "This is much better than a cane. If I carry it with me, I won't get hurt."
He threw the gun away from Jian: "Can you make sure you can hit her when you shoot?"
Chen Yang was stunned by the question and was not sure because he had never used a gun.
"You can't kill her with one shot. If you carry it with you, it will do more harm than good." Chao Jian said, "If the gun falls into her hands, you will be the one to die."
Chen Yang silently put the gun back into his bag.
That's very true. If he really brought a gun with him and it was snatched away by the crazy woman, he would not only have a scratch on his back, but at least one more hole on his body.
A cane is better. It can protect him without hurting himself.
"But the crazy woman doesn't have any moves when fighting, she just attacks with her body." Chen Yang said, "She may not be able to use a gun."
There were deep wrinkles between Chao Jian's brows, and his tone was cold and hard: "Can we bet on this?"
"No." Chen Yang answered immediately. He only had one life. When he was on a mission, he would only gamble when he was desperate. At other times, he was very cautious.
There was a noise coming from outside, mixed with Xiangdong's shouting. Chen Yang quickly stuffed the fortune-telling book into his backpack. Just as he was about to zip it up, he stuffed a few pieces of rough paper towards Jian.
Chen Yang put the paper into his bag without even having time to see what was on it. He zipped it up and quickly pulled Chao Jian out.
Xiangdong found a passage in Gao Degui's utility room, and there was a basement under their feet.
The current team consists of nine people, including Xiangdong, seven of whom are injured, and the rest are him and the suspicious Zhuzhu.
Xiangdong decisively chose to go down alone. He wanted to find out what was going on and capture Gao Degui if he caught him.
Chen Yang and others were waiting upstairs.