Desperate Night

Bright golden sunlight fell.

A piece of Baiqiu Village surrounded by dark green mountains and forests, like a piece of dark chocolate in a dark green cake, stood out and eye-catching.

The entire Baiqiu Village is located on a large gray-white hill, at the top of the hill.

There are more than 30 tiled houses scattered throughout the village.

At this time, on the outskirts of the village to the west, a pale man was walking slowly, looking around from time to time, with a nervous look.

The man was wearing a gray T-shirt and yellow casual pants, which were dirty and wrinkled. It was obvious that he had not washed for a long time. His hair was also condensed into a Mohawk hairstyle by sweat.

A pair of gray sneakers on his feet that could not see the original color, stepped up and down on the mud, and seemed to be very unaccustomed to the roads here.

There were no insects chirping or birds singing around the entire Baiqiu Village, only the man slowly moving forward and stepping on the ground, making a slight sound.

‘It’s been almost fifteen minutes. ’

Yu Hong took out the mobile phone from his trouser pocket and opened it to take a look. He didn’t want to replace the old-fashioned mobile phone because of nostalgia, but he didn’t expect it to become a key auxiliary tool here.

He had been lying in bed for several days. If it was a smart phone, it would have run out of power long ago. But this old-fashioned mobile phone has a small screen and a large battery, and it can last for more than a week. It is also resistant to smashing, wear and water.

At this critical moment, it gave him great psychological comfort.

The time was clearly displayed on the mobile phone interface: March 5, 2024, 15:32.

"Alas" Yu Hong sighed lightly. This was the time before he came here.

But now it's meaningless.

Looking at the empty signal grid in the upper right corner of the mobile phone interface, he realized that he was probably not in the original world.

Whether it was the previous newspaper reports, the common sense that Xiao Jieba and Dr. Xu said, and the messy and weird situations he encountered, it all showed that this was not his world.

He looked up at the bright sunshine.

Yu Hong lowered his head and made a mark on the muddy ground under his feet, using several stones to form a small triangular structure.

This is a mark to prevent getting lost.

It has been fifteen minutes since Dr. Xu and Xiao Jieba left. During these fifteen minutes, he walked around the village for a while.

But to his disappointment, there seemed to be no living people in this place except the three of them.

‘It may be that the living people are hiding and not showing up. After all, even in the daytime, there may be great danger. ’

Yu Hong sighed in his heart, holding the enhanced white stone tightly in one hand at all times.

The previous experience made him deeply understand that in this place, the effect of the white stone is the only guarantee of his safety.

According to what Dr. Xu said before he left, there will be no black bugs when there is sunlight during the day, and at most there will be a few ghosts.

And these ghosts will not be in great danger during the day as long as they bring white stones.

Because the ghosts seem to be very weak during the day.

Yu Hong believes this, otherwise Xiao Jieba and Dr. Xu would not be so careless to go out continuously.

He calmed down and looked back at the marks he had made along the way. After making sure they were still there, he continued to move forward.

Quiet.

Dead silence.

Wow.

Wow.

There was no movement around except the crisp sound of him stepping on the weeds.

Even the wind was barely audible.

More than ten minutes passed.

Yu Hong finally walked around the entire village with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

He stood at the initial gravel intersection, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and kept memorizing some of the places he had just discovered, important places.

The most important of them was the well.

Just now, he saw from a distance that a well had been dug in the courtyard of a family.

There were many footprints coming and going around the stone well, which obviously meant that there was a rare source of drinking water for living people here.

But from a distance, more than ten meters away, he felt a biting cold, constantly radiating from the well.

Even the sun couldn't suppress it. He felt something was wrong, so he didn't get close, but just remembered its location.

"It's very strange. A small village located on a hill actually dug a well at a high place." Yu Hong was puzzled. Generally, wells are dug in low-lying places, after all, water flows to low places.

But this place is different from other places.

Standing on the gravel road, he looked up and looked around.

The village is surrounded by endless dark green mountains and forests.

The mountains and forests are connected into a large area, like a sea of ​​trees.

There are no birds singing, no living things, and even the dark green trees and grass give people an uncomfortable sense of horror.

Yu Hong stared at the only old road leading to the outside world for a long time before turning back to the village.

There was nothing wrong along the way, and he returned to the stuttering little home.

He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he completely closed the wooden door.

"This place is too weird." When he thought that he would have to live here for an unknown period of time and there was no hope of returning, he felt a strong sense of despair in his heart.

"I've already seen it when I was walking around just now. There are no cars but there are wheel marks on the ground, which means there used to be a car here, but it was driven away later."

Yu Hong found a piece of charcoal in the corner of the sundries and drew a map of Baiqiu Village on the wall.

The map is very simple, with some simple lines and small squares representing houses.

And the well, the old road he left, and the little stutterer's house where he was were all marked by him.

The three places formed a triangle structure.

'What should I do now?' Yu Hong looked at the map, quickly suppressed the despair in his heart, and thought about his future path.

‘I can’t always rely on Little Stutter. I must first learn to deal with these dangers by myself, and at the same time learn to find food and shelter by myself. ’

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he wrote and drew on the wall with a charcoal pencil in his hand.

Then he raised his hand and stared at the black mark on the back of his hand.

‘And this mark, if I don’t want to be discovered, I must choose to live alone. Otherwise, in this extremely dangerous environment, it will be very dangerous for others to know my ability! ’

Although it is not clear whether others have similar abilities, Yu Hong can be sure that Little Stutter and Dr. Xu definitely don’t.

This can also be seen from some subtle details.

“Learn how to find food and drink first, and then move out!” Yu Hong quickly determined his plan.

After making a decision, he got up and returned to the bed, planning to rest again and wait for Little Stutter to come back.

Dong, Dong, Dong.

Suddenly.

The door rang again.

One after another, very rhythmic.

Yu Hong’s throat moved and looked at the wooden door. No sound.

This kind of knocking sound is wrong.

But he ignored the other party, held the enhanced white stone tightly, took a deep breath, lay down quietly, and prepared to rest.

Dong Dong Dong.

The knocking sound was still ringing.

One after another.

But Yu Hong didn't say anything, just pretending not to hear it.

He lay on his side on the bed, staring at the door, holding the enhanced white stone in his hand, his body tense, ready to react at any time.

Fortunately, the knocking sound lasted seven times and then stopped.

Instead, it seemed that someone was peeking at the window.

Looking inside through the gap in the seal.

Yu Hong felt scared, turned his head and stared at the window, lowered his voice and took a deep breath.

The strong sense of crisis constantly stimulated his adrenaline secretion, the blood in his body flowed rapidly, accelerated the circulation, and his face flushed.

I don't know how long it has been.

The figure outside the window seemed to lose patience and left quietly.

The window was no longer blocked by light and returned to normal.

Yu Hong tightly held the enhanced white stone, feeling that the stone and his palms were full of sweat.

Lowering his head, he took a deep breath and adjusted his body. He stood up and picked up another piece of white stone, this time it was an unused white stone.

Then he looked at the number displayed on the stone: 2 days.

‘It only takes two days to strengthen an unused stone? ’ He breathed a sigh of relief.

Listening to the questioning voice in his ear, he silently gave a confirmed answer to strengthen.

Soon, the numbers on the surface of the white stone disappeared instantly, and the whole stone seemed to be covered in a layer of slippery grease, and the black mark strengthening began.

Yu Hong put it in his other trouser pocket without even looking at it.

Then he fell down with squinting eyes, set an alarm on his mobile phone, and fell into a deep sleep.

This time he didn't sleep for long, nor did he sleep well, and he woke up quickly.

‘Little bastard is not coming back tonight, which means I will be the only one staying in this room tonight.’ Yu Hong looked at the dim sunlight outside the window gap, and his heart sank slightly.

He got up and went to the sundries corner, took out a big candle that Little bastard gave him before leaving, and something like a match.

Prepare it and put it beside the bed, where you can reach it at any time.

Then, just like that, Yu Hong half-lying on the bed, waiting for the night.

Time passed little by little, and soon, the sky outside became darker and darker, gradually falling into darkness.

This time it was very quiet, there were no black insects from last time, and no strange shadows.

It seemed that everything had forgotten him, and there was peace.

In the haggard waiting and vigilance, the night passed quickly.

Until dawn, Yu Hong saw the bright sunlight shining through the window, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

But although it was dawn and nothing happened overnight, the long-term vigilance, tension and torment made him extremely tired mentally and physically.

This also made him want to find a truly absolutely safe resting point more and more.

He is not a little stutterer. If he continues like this and can't rest well, he will die.

He got up and filtered some water in the house and drank it, and Yu Hong's stomach began to growl again.

Although he had eaten all the food stored by the little stutterer yesterday, it has been so long that his stomach has already digested it.

He got up and went out. Taking advantage of the sunshine, he wandered around at the gravel intersection.

This time, he walked down the old road for a while, trying to find edible plants and insects.

But unfortunately, he found nothing on the road, not a single insect, and he didn't recognize any plants at all.

None of the plants here were what he had seen before. Even the most common wild chrysanthemums and dandelions were nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately, finally, Xiao Jieba and his partner came back.

Poof.

In the room, Xiao Jieba put the big package on his back on the ground with great effort.

Then he opened the bundle.

Inside were packages of dried meat, dried mushrooms, and dried insects.

Yu Hong came forward to help and found that the dried meat was mainly some black meat particles, and he didn't know what animal it was from.

The dried mushrooms were also broken into pieces, and he couldn't tell what species they were.

And the dried insects.

"Is this... cockroach??!" Yu Hong's face changed a little.

"It's a mouthful of fragrance." Xiao Jieba shook his head and corrected. Then she picked up a thumb-sized dried cockroach and put it into her mouth.

"Delicious!" She raised her thumb and chewed quickly, making a crisp sound. Her eyes were wide open, full of joy.

"." Yu Hong was speechless.