Nightmare Shuttle

The setting sun completely sank behind the woods, and the last rays of light disappeared.

Chu Yi ignored the strange eyes. In his peripheral vision, he seemed to catch sight of the director holding his chopsticks to put a piece of red meat into his mouth. He still remembered his objective, complete the filming of the movie. How could he do that, if the director was dead?

With a flick of his wrist, the wooden chopstick flew up, and with a short cry, everyone could see Chu Yi's chopsticks hit the middle ages man's wrist, shaking his hand that was going to pick up the vegetables.

The director looked at him with doubt, saliva still dripping from the corner of his mother, "Chu Yi? Are you okay?"

"Don't eat this meat."

He spoke in a low tone but in the silent hut it was extremely loud, he looked around at everyone at the table his eyes weren't sharp but inexplicably everyone felt a cold chill.

"This piece of meat cannot be eaten."

He repeated, and the expressions of the hidden players visibly changed, especially those who ate fast due to the dishes' mouthwatering scent, and their faces were even more ugly.

"What are you talking about?"

"This is our village's special dish..."

"Why don't you eat?"

The villagers spoke in staggered and choked voices as their throats were being projected through a scratchy windpipe, in his ears, Chu Yi heard a series of low dings but he ignored it, looked at the director and the crew, and asked in a low voice, "Have you eaten it?"

The director scratched his greasy face and nodded slowly, so did the other crew members. The scent of the dish was too delicious and its taste even more appetizing, if it wasn't that Chu Yi as their lead actor brought over with a high price, they would have been angry at such a temperamental ancestor.

Chu Yi's eyes fell on their plates. Unexpectedly the fish head had not been touched, but the meat was almost finished.

Compared to the fish that seemed irresistible on the ship, the fleshy red meat seemed to have turned into the crowd favorite. Most of the crew members had already eaten most of the bowl their bellies bulging as if they had been filled with water.

"What's wrong with this piece of meat?"

Even though he tried his best to keep his voice calm, he knew that he was very nervous when he saw the blind boy clutching the guide dog's leash tightly and his face turned pale. He choked and stop talking but Chu Yi had already picked out some keywords.

The director who had come for filming wasn't unaware of the secrets of the Island.

"Follow me."

He stood up and took the lead to walk out, the crew resisted the urge to continue eating followed behind him like scared chicks. Ruan Quixi was the last to leave the room, he turned back silently and dark eyes filled with a smile met hungry and malicious ones.

The villager's hostility continued to bury their heads in their food, but the other passengers looked at each other in dismay, and a few persons who also ate the piece of meat couldn't help but feel uneasy and wanted to follow him out, wanting to figure out the hell was going on but were too scared of garnering the villager's hostility.

In any case, they would soon know, since was willing to stand out then why should they.... seeing that everyone else was motionless, the ones that wanted to follow hesitated and sat down but the meat in front of them no longer looked delicious. Arescio seemed to mouth something and Ruan's that were still lazy abruptly sharpened terrifyingly.

Arescio trembled as if he had been hit, naturally dropping his gaze, and a hint of red suddenly appeared on the corner of his lips. With a small sneer, he turned his head and walked out of the hall coldly, 

A burst of low laughter came from the head of the table and one man who had been ignored through the whole process, held his hands to his face and his shoulders shook with laughter, getting louder sad louder with each passing second until the entire hall was filled only with the sounds of his raucous laughter.

When he raised his head again, his eyes were filled with maliciousness and greedy excitement. "Brother Ke?...." The man looked at Arescio with a flattering smile, pieces of flesh still stuck in his teeth.

The crazy man glanced at him with a half-smile, and suddenly raised his hand to throw the wine glass at him harshly! Hitting the man on the forehead. The glass shattered onto his forehead and blood instantly sprayed onto his half-eaten dish.

Arescio dropped his hand, the darkness slowly engulfing his figure with an indifferent and poisonous voice he commanded coldly, "Continue to eat....No one leaves until I'm satisfied."

The atmosphere was stagnant, and no one dared to move the chopsticks. Seeing the man's eyes getting more and more dangerous, a player, who was sitting closest to him, gritted his teeth, picked up a piece of meat, and placed it in his mouth.

Soon enough, the sound of silverware clinking against the plates resounded in the night sky. 

In the time, it had taken them for the banquet to be on the way, night had already fallen.

The crew was surrounded in a remote corner. The director's fat face was a strange illuminant white in the darkness and he stood closest to the two. Chu Yi raised his hand and skillfully clenched his fingers into a fist.

A smile crept onto the edge of his lips and the director suddenly had the uncanny need to run away but in the end, it was too late. Without anyone being able to react, a swift and heavy punch suddenly landed directly into the director's guts. There was a sickening gurgling sound and the director's lips opened and he puked almost immediately!

The moment the vomit hit the floor, a crew member, Zhao Yuan cried in horror, he saw that the director who had vomited out of control first vomited out a few pieces of undigested fish pieces, and then began to spit out yellow waste, mixed with scarlet blood and red meat, which was extremely terrifying and disgusting.

But even when there was no more stomach acid left to puke, the director was still retching, foaming from his mouth, trembling all over his body, tightly covering his bulging stomach, and tremblingly screamed: "It hurts, it hurts!"

Chu Yi who had just brutally mauled the man didn't seem guilty about his actions and slowly turned his red eyes to the rest of the crew. They hurriedly soon their heads and stepped back collectively, "No, No we can do it ourselves!"

Then he finally turned his head away and looked at the man that appeared like a shadow. If he did not pay attention, he would disappear silently.

The sound of retching came from behind him,

Ruan Quixi rubbed his wrist and looked back at the hall they came from.

At that moment, Chu Yi could feel the tense atmosphere. He looked like he was going to do something, but after a while, he just looked back at him and spoke unhurriedly: "Like a bug, dirty and ugly, the more you see them, the more you want to crush them into the dirt."

Chu Yi glanced at Ruan strangely. Although he didn't deal with the man very much, he had to admit that Ruan Quixi had a special temperament. It was as if the rules and regulations didn't bind him at all.

Even if stood there smiling, it still gave people a feeling that...he would break out at any time and go on a complete rampage. His concessions and compromises, like a lion taking a lazy nap, didn't lower his aggression. 

A man slowly sneaked up to their side and after peaking to make sure the others were occupied, he held his breath and whispered to them quietly, "Hey, I don't know if I should tell you this but something strange is going on in the island."

Chu Yi looked at him and slowly raised an eyebrow, "Define strange." The man was a bit anxious and waved his hands much like the director, "I can't explain it but I just know it's strange, do you know, after we finished filming the first scene in the afternoon, went back to the room to rest and you know what I found it, " He lowered his voice mysteriously, "The rainwater tanks that I had found earlier were all empty!"

There was a faint pause as he waited in anticipation for a cry of fear.

Not seeing the reaction, he wanted, Zhao Yuan thought they weren't taking him seriously and his voice picked up an octave, "I'm serious, such big rainwater tanks, can they just be emptied on one day!"

Chu Yi looked at him, "Couldn't the sun have just evaporated it?"

"I thought of that, but when just stepped back from the tanks, I found a wet trail crawling from the tanks to the door. Let me tell you, I can't make this stuff up!"

He wanted to continue speaking but the crew seemed to have gotten better after a bit of vomiting and with pale faces, they slowly stood up and he hurried away.

The director waved his hands weakly and stopped any discussion before they could begin, "Let's go back, it's probably just bad stomach from eating bad meat. With the primitive ways of the villagers, it's not surprising."

"Thank you Chu Yi for reminding us."

The crew seemed to have accepted this and with weak and stumbling footsteps, they started their walk back. Chu Yi followed from behind with Ruan Quixi beside him. 

At the moment, the sound of slow footsteps stepping against the road echoed in the silent night before them. The crew stopped in their tracks. A dark shadow coming from the corner became longer and longer under their bated breath until the figure's form was finally revealed. It was a woman. Carrying a heavy bucket in her hand, she hurriedly made her way home.

Zhao Yuan who was relatively courageous, immediately ran up and stood in her path blocking her way, "Sister, let me ask you a question, how long have you lived here?"

She tried to walk around him several times, shook her head, and said, "I don't know, no one knows."

"Sister the only reason I asked this is because, we came here this time to film because we want to explore the island and share its beauty with the world, so we would like to hear about the island from the natives ." Finally, the woman paused and stopped trying to run, 

The woman spoke softly, "This island is truly beautiful, truly beautiful, peaceful and quiet we are all very happy....the children are happy."

Zhao Yuan felt that he had asked the key point, and suddenly became excited: "Is everyone in your village happy?"

"Did no one ever leave?"

The woman nodded: "Yes."

"Where are they? Where did they go?" The woman shook her head: "They're just gone, we don't know where they went. Maybe they crossed the sea? It suddenly disappeared anyway."

"Does anyone know?" The woman shook her head again: "No, they just disappeared but everyone is happy so it doesn't matter."

Chu Yi suddenly came up from behind, and asked a strange question, "Is there a god here?" The woman's fidgeting hands paused.

She was quiet for a while, then suddenly looked up at everyone and laughed. With such a smile, she seemed to have resumed the happiness of the day.

She raised her hand awkwardly and pointed casually:

"Have you seen these woods?"

Everyone glanced to the front.

The rolling woods surrounded an airtight circle, wrapping the entire mountain village in it. The woman smiled and said, "The woods are where the gods sleep, the gods are happy so everyone is happy."

The woman suddenly glanced behind her and hurriedly picked up the iron bucket.

"Wait." Zhao Yuan grabbed her.

The woman struggled immediately: "What are you doing?! It's night, don't arrest me! I need to go home!"

She was more powerful than they expected, with a few hard tugs she broke free. The woman took a few steps back with the bucket in her hand, urging everyone with kindness, "Hurry back to the house, too. It's getting close to midnight!"

"What's wrong with midnight? Does something happen at that time?"

She looked back at them with strange bulging eyes,

"The darkness is very very dangerous."

After the woman said this, she hurried away with the iron bucket. Under the night, she walked very fast, and in the blink of an eye, the figure had already reached a house in the distance.

She opened the door, glanced left and right, then cautiously got into the house, the doors and windows were immediately closed.

For a while, everything was silent.

There were sporadic kerosene lamps on the outside in several houses, but the lights were too dim and occasionally swayed slightly, which made it even more disturbing. A strange wind blew, the long grass swayed in the cold breeze.

In the end under the cover of the night, they hurried back to their house just barely making it back before midnight. Ruan Quixi followed Chu Yi into his room cheekily. "What are you thinking?"

Chu Yi didn't look at him, with narrowed eyes, he slowly walked to the window's side and pushed away from the thin curtain. The night was still. Chu Yi couldn't help taking a deep breath.

Dozens of villagers came out of their house with no light in their eyes, glassy like dead fish and the corners of their mouths stretched to the fullest in a creepy grin.

They happily smiled and walked to the center of the village, one by one, turned their heads back, and faced the sea with their entire bodies before some started to sway softly like tall grass.

Others were all motionless, standing upright as if the sea would make them taller.

Chu Yi was covered in goosebumps, and at this moment, Granny Li suddenly turned to look towards him.

Even with such a long distance, Granny Li seemed to pierce through the night and land on his body, she smiled strangely.

Then those "people" also looked over, their bodies didn't move, but their necks turned 180 degrees.