The sudden thought made Shen Na shiver all over, and even her teeth trembled. She tried to recall the faces of the thirteen people in the photo, but she couldn't remember them.
She quickly wiped herself clean, opened the bathroom door, and took out her cell phone to check.
There were thirteen people in the photo. She compared each face with her companions during the day and found that none was missing.
What is the order for taking group photos
First it was her, then An Xingyu, then...
Outside the door, the clock struck eleven.
Shen Na was startled and went to bed immediately. Before she went to bed, she saw Ding Conglu lying in the bed next to her and fell asleep.
First of all... follow the rules.
The next day, no one in the group dared to sleep in. They all got up early, lined up quietly and sat downstairs, asking the hotel waiter in a low voice to order food.
Yesterday, everyone had read the village rules that He Lou brought back, and they had to follow them. They even took photos of them in case they forgot. Of course, everyone also knew that people here could get up after eight o'clock.
The proprietress was very satisfied with their compliance with the rules and was all smiles.
However, time passed by minute by minute, and most people had finished their breakfast, but four people had not come down yet.
What's wrong with them
After finishing their meal, one of them cautiously asked the proprietress about the matter. She seemed to be in a good mood and smiled and replied, "Those who follow the rules will of course be punished."
She didn't say what happened to those two people, but it was obvious that their fate was not good.
The others looked at each other, and after breakfast, they decided to go upstairs together to check.
This is not against the rules.
The hotel was also made of wood, and the wooden planks creaked slightly when stepped on. Probably because the village chief's son needed to get married, a whole row of white lanterns were hung outside the wooden corridor on the second floor, swaying gently.
It's not festive, just cold.
He Lou walked at the back. He carefully looked at the lanterns hanging in the corridor. An Xingyu walked side by side with him and asked in a low voice: "What did you see?"
He Lou: "These lanterns are very similar to those in the village chief's house. Also, do you remember? The proprietress said on the first day that the specialty here is their paper lanterns. Could it be these paper lanterns?"
An Xingyu: "I'll ask later."
As they were talking, they had already arrived outside two rooms.
There were four people who got up late yesterday. Out of some unknown mentality, when they divided the room, they put the four people who didn't get the free bag together. No one wanted to live with them. Now, the room is empty. Their luggage is still there, their cell phones are charging on the bedside table, and even their pajamas are neatly laid out on the bed, forming a human figure under the quilt, but the person is nowhere to be seen.
"Look carefully, are there any clues?" Shen Na said.
It was recorded in the village rules that rummaging through things was not allowed, but she did not do it herself. Instead, she watched others start rummaging.
There was not enough space for too many people in one room, so they split into two groups and went into their own rooms. He Lou did the same. Suddenly, his eyes focused, he walked to the bed, bent down, and picked up a thin, long, withered straw by the bed leg.
Why is there straw in the room
Another companion followed behind him. His name was Qi Yan. He had great respect for He Lou, who had completed eight missions. He kept following him, trying to "suck up to him". When he saw He Lou picking up a straw, he immediately came over.
"Brother Lou, is there anything wrong with this straw?"
He Lou shook his head: "It cannot be confirmed for the time being."
He put the straw back to its original place and said, "Let's go to the next door and take a look."
There was also nothing found in the other room. He Lou went to the bed and looked carefully. Surprisingly, he found a straw in the crack of the bed.
Shen Na came over and asked, "What's wrong?"
He Lou: "In both rooms, a piece of straw was found beside the bed. What clue could this be?"
"Did you get stuck by mistake while walking on the road? There are a lot of scarecrows in the fields around here."
An Xingyu still had an inorganic look in his eyes, and even his tone of voice was flat: "If it only appeared in one room, it might be an accident. If it appeared in both rooms, it is very likely an anomaly."
After discussing what happened in the room, they noted the anomaly and walked out with the door closed.
As soon as they stepped out of the door, they could see the lady boss downstairs looking up at them. Her eyes were very strange, cold and cold, which made people feel particularly uncomfortable. However, after a short moment, she seemed to realize that this was in accordance with the rules, and immediately retracted her gaze, smiling and asking them if they wanted to go out and play.
It was as if the cold and strange look just now was just their illusion.
After An Xingyu went downstairs, he took the initiative to ask the proprietress about the paper lanterns.
"You are talking about lanterns. They are a specialty here and every household can make them. Look, are they beautiful?" The proprietress smiled and pointed at those hanging on the second floor.
Her smile was inexplicably a little uncomfortable. A closer look revealed that although the corners of her mouth were raised, the area around her eyes had not changed at all, and there was no trace of smile in her eyes.
An Xingyu didn't say much, but nodded, which made the proprietress smile even more: "Here, when there is a wedding or funeral, every household has to hang lanterns. This is the rule."
Rules again...
"If you want to buy lanterns, you can go to Uncle Wu in our village. He is the best craftsman. He lives in..."
An Xingyu listened to a few questions, thanked him and left.
He still walked with He Lou. As soon as they stepped out of the door, they saw Shen Na standing under a tree in the distance waiting for them.
Shen Na raised her cell phone and motioned for them to come over.
"Do you remember? We took some group photos yesterday."
The two nodded.
"Do you remember the order for taking photos?" Shen Na took a deep breath and calmed herself down.
He Lou: "What happened?"
Shen Na pulled out the photo album and handed it over: "You'll know when you take a look."
He Lou took the phone and looked down at it with An Xingyu. As they looked, their pupils shrank: "This, this is..."
"You've noticed, too, right? The number of people is wrong." Shen Na swallowed her saliva to moisten her dry throat, "We came with thirteen people in total, but... there are also thirteen in the photo."
An Xingyu's voice remained unchanged. He took the phone and placed it in front of Shen Na: "It's obvious that the problem now is just quantity."
In the photo, the faces of the four people who disappeared this morning have become completely blurred, just like a paper picture that has been stained with water, with their faces completely blurred and unable to see their original appearance clearly.
Thirteen people stood in a neat line, showing the same smile, and the faces of four of them were blurred. Moreover, Shen Na didn't know if it was a psychological effect, but she always felt that the faces of those people were distorted into a very strange pattern.
It's like...
It looks like a smiling face, with two curved lines for eyes and one curved line for a mouth, similar to the kind of smiling face drawn by children.
Shen Na, who had originally been hoping for the best, finally realized that those four people... were most likely back.
"Is there any problem with this photo? Should I delete it?" Shen Na asked.
He Lou shook his head: "At present, there is no danger, so you can keep it for now."
Shen Na was noncommittal.
These photos were in her phone and also in the other person's phone, he said lightly.
She agreed on the surface, and the three of them went to the home of Uncle Wu, whom the proprietress had just introduced.
Along the way, Shen Na was thoughtful: "If there were no strange events, it would be nice to come to Honghe Village for a vacation. It's a pity..."
She was right. The scenery in the village was beautiful. The main road was clean and tidy. Walking on the road, there were paddy fields on one side and small woods on the other. The wind brought the fragrance of plants. Although the weather was a bit gloomy, cloudy days also had a different flavor.
An Xingyu walked at the back, his pair of pure black, almost inorganic eyes carefully surveying the fields on the right.
Too... neat.
He had never been to the countryside, but he had personally experienced farm life in order to write his essay. Although the rice fields in the countryside were neat, they were definitely not as neat as those here, as neat as if they were measured with a ruler. Even the scarecrows in the fields seemed to have been measured at a certain distance, and the difference in distance between them was estimated to be more than half a meter.
Wait! This scarecrow's hat
An Xingyu's eyes suddenly widened.
That hat is...
A small group of sparrows flew down. They seemed not to be afraid of people. Some of them even landed on the scarecrow, chirping and jumping.
Suddenly, the birds that had landed on the scarecrow fell headfirst into the green rapeseed field.
"What's wrong?" He Lou suddenly realized that An Xingyu hadn't caught up with him, and walked to his side in two or three steps.
In He Lou's opinion, An Xingyu is very smart and quite calm, and is a good partner. They can definitely cooperate on future missions.
An Xingyu raised his hand and pointed at the scarecrow: "That hat looks familiar."
Shen Na's eyes fixed, and she immediately took out her cell phone to check the photo album.
One of the missing people was wearing this hat!
In the photo, his features became more blurry, but the smiling face gradually became clearer.
Shen Na suddenly understood why she felt so familiar just now.
The blurry smiling face in the photo is exactly the same as the stick-drawn smiling face painted on the scarecrow's face.
Shen Na immediately closed the photo album and stopped thinking about it.
Thinking of the straw in the room, the three of them looked at each other, understood, and felt a chill in their hearts.
After a while, He Lou said, "Let's go to Uncle Wu's house."
Uncle Wu lived a little far away. He farmed and made a living by selling lanterns. The boss's wife said he lived alone deep in the woods. It was already noon when the three of them arrived. The sun was smothered in dark clouds, and the woods were rustling in the wind.
From a distance, several people saw a corner of the eaves exposed on the hillside. When they walked over quickly, they were all stunned.
Since he makes lanterns for a living, it is not surprising that the front and back of his house are full of lanterns. However, these lanterns are really too weird. No matter what shape they are, whether rabbits or cats, they are all very bright colors that make people uncomfortable.
Moreover, the expressions on those animal lanterns were very strange, with bright red paint on their upturned mouth corners, but no smile in their eyes. Although the lantern-making technique was extremely delicate, these lanterns always gave people a comfortable feeling.
Shen Na wanted to tell He Lou about her discovery, but she saw that he was staring in another direction in a daze. She pushed He Lou and asked, "What did you find?"
"Nothing." He Lou shook his head.
He just... saw a very familiar figure, and then he thought, if he could escape with the mission, how could that person survive? He thought it was an illusion and ignored it. On the other side, An Xingyu was waving his hand to let them go in quickly.
Uncle Wu was working in the yard with a large table in front of him. The few of them didn't want to disturb him, so they just watched from the side.
The frame of his new lantern was a bit peculiar, with a thin bamboo base, a round top, and a circle at one-third of the way up, making the bottom even rounder and bigger, and at first glance it looked like a gourd. Uncle Wu oiled a layer of leather made of an unknown material, applied some paste on it, and pasted it on the thin bamboo.
His craftsmanship was indeed very good, and he could wrap the soft leather without any gaps even with the irregular base. After pasting a lantern, Uncle Wu picked up a brush and began to outline it carefully.
The three of them finally understood that Uncle Wu was making a lantern for a girl doll. He painted two dark buns, a face as round as a doll in a New Year painting, and arms and legs like lotus roots sticking out of the bellyband. After the outline was drawn, Uncle Wu changed to a brush and carefully colored the bellyband.
The dark red sticky paint made He Lou couldn't help but think of the Red River in the village, and... human blood.
Uncle Wu was very fast, and soon reached the last step - drawing the face. He used a fine brush to draw a face... which was not much different from the scarecrow's face, with no smile in the eyes but a smile with the corners of the bright red lips curved high.
"Finally, the painting is done." Uncle Wu looked at the lantern in the basket with satisfaction and placed it carefully on the ground.
"Very good, you are very well behaved and did not disturb me while I was working." He chuckled. The old man's voice was a little hoarse, his eyes were cloudy, and when he stared at people, it made people feel particularly comfortable.
"Uncle Wu, may I ask what this lantern you made is...?"
Uncle Wu took out another lantern from under the table. It was a boy doll, and placed together with the girl doll, they looked like a pair of golden boy and jade girl. He explored the two lanterns bit by bit with extremely fascinated eyes, but finally put the lanterns away reluctantly.
"I want to give these two lanterns to the village chief. His son finally got married, so he has to show off his talents." Uncle Wu chuckled again and his gaze lingered on Shen Na for a while.
He Lou complimented it against his will. Seeing this, the other two also complimented it and suggested buying a few more after they left.
Uncle Wu agreed and invited them to stay for lunch.
Several people looked at each other and agreed. After Uncle Wu pushed them into the house, they found that Uncle Wu was a disabled person who could not walk and could only rely on a wheelchair.
In this case, as a group of tourists who follow the rules, they naturally have to help cook. He Lou and Shen Na went into the kitchen, leaving An Xingyu outside to chat with him.
After lunch, the group was quite calm and nothing unusual happened. Before leaving, Uncle Wu gave each of them a small white lantern. After they returned to the hotel, the other people saw it and also decided to try Uncle Wu's place.
There were many specialties in the village, so they went to look for them separately. He Lou picked up a mushroom that someone else had brought back, and he felt that this red mushroom was a little strange.
This is the law of nature. The brighter the color, the more poisonous it is. This bright red mushroom…
With a light scrape of the fingernail, a layer of skin was scraped off the plump mushroom, and the bloody red juice oozed out and dripped down.
"Is this really edible?" He frowned.
An Xingyu: "For safety reasons, don't do that for now."
Soon, the others came back one after another, each holding a small lantern. There was nothing to do today, and everyone was just waiting for the banquet in the evening.
Night falls quickly.
In the early autumn, the weather becomes especially chilly at night, with the cold wind rustling the leaves. Lanterns in every household on the streets suddenly light up, swaying in the wind.
“This… This is…” Everyone gathered at the entrance of the hotel, stunned.
When the lanterns were lit, the patterns hidden under the white paper were fully revealed. Smiling faces drawn with stick figures fluttered in the air, their lips were as red as blood, their eyebrows and eyes were curved, which was particularly comfortable to look at.
"The auspicious time has arrived—welcome the bride—"
I don't know where it came from, maybe from all directions, there was an old man shouting with a long voice. After that, the high-pitched sound of suona suddenly rang out, resounding through the sky.
The sound of suona, blowing the trumpet of new life, wedding and death, came from the head of the village in a high and loud voice.
The bride is coming.
The sound of firecrackers rang out, and every household opened their doors and people came out one by one, all smiling. The taskers followed the proprietress out of the door, also smiling, and joined the crowd to go to the village chief's house.
There were many people, all holding lanterns, but the light on the road seemed unable to illuminate the dark night. Faces were blurred in the night, and only smiles could be seen, which made people feel cold for no reason.
Just like... a paper man.
The crowd formed a long line and went to the village chief's house. The village chief's house was big and could not accommodate so many people. Fortunately, there was a platform in front of his house, which had been arranged neatly with many tables and chairs during the day.
There was an altar at the top, with three white incense sticks burning, the curling white smoke blurring the face of the young man in the black and white photo. Under the altar, there were piles of wreaths, paper houses, paper gold and silver ingots, etc. In the front row were paper figures half the height of a person, with small red mouths, pale faces, black hair, and smiling eyes.
The whole village gathered together, but there was no lively atmosphere at all. According to the rules, people were not allowed to talk nonsense at other people's wedding banquets, and had to wait for the host to speak.
"Today is my son's big day..." The village chief was very happy and spoke in front of the altar. He was obviously very satisfied with this marriage and kept praising his future daughter-in-law.
I think his son was also very satisfied, because in the photo, the corners of his mouth were raised a little.
All the mission executors noticed this anomaly and felt a chill on their backs. For the sake of rules, no one dared to speak out.
The same thing happened to He Lou. Before he knew it, his entire body was shaking.
What shocked him was not the smiling photo, but a young man standing next to the village chief who was listening to the speech attentively.
That person...if it's not Lu Yanli, who else could it be