"While we have time now, let's introduce each other. Let's start with me. My name is Gao Yanqing. In real life, I am an animal trainer and work in an aquarium." A very thin man sat on the ground and spoke. There is still a wound on his forehead.
Realizing that the fat man was staring at the wound on his forehead, Gao Yanqing did not shy away. He took the initiative to lift the curtain and showed the wound to him openly, "Injuries are common in our industry, but I quite like this profession. Compared to When in contact with people, I still prefer to be with animals, after all, some people are worse than animals."
"Zhang Qizheng, I am the director of a library." The old man straightened his back and had a calm temperament.
"Li Bai, surgeon." Li Bai nodded slightly to everyone.
"Yao, Shunyu, hotel front desk." Immediately after Li Bai, Yao, Shunyu said naturally.
"Wang Fugui, I am a truck driver." The fat man followed Jiang Cheng's teachings and knew that the more he spoke, the more flaws he would find. His self-introduction was as concise as the first two.
"Jiang Cheng." Jiang Cheng said very naturally, "I don't have a regular job. My latest job is writing books, which is online articles. Fortunately, I am a good reader and can make ends meet."
"Tang Qisheng, my profession is quite special. I am a folklore investigator." The middle-aged man with a good appearance said in a dull voice, "My main task is to go to various remote areas to collect folklore, and then come back to sort it out, and finally compile it into a book."
"Zhu Jie, I am an embalmer and work in a funeral home. I am responsible for sewing up corpses so that family members and friends can see the last side of the deceased. Under special circumstances, I will also help the corpses who cannot rest in peace to close their eyes." Come with Tang Qisheng. The woman said slowly. The woman looked very serious and mature beyond her age.
Then there was a woman around 40 years old. The woman was slightly fat and wore a pair of glasses. She looked very comfortable. But what Jiang Cheng and others never expected was the woman’s identity. “Just call me Lu Qin. I come from a There is a rather special organization called the Night Watch. Since everyone can meet here, they are definitely not ordinary people, so I still want to be honest, which will save a lot of trouble."
Sure enough, after hearing the word "night watchman", the expressions of several people present changed, but they soon returned to normal. Jiang Cheng understood that everyone was not shocked by the word "night watchman", but they just couldn't understand that this person was called Lu. Why would Qin's woman be so honest and reveal her identity as a night watchman?
Jiang Cheng probably had two guesses. First, Lu Qin was pretending to be a night watchman in order to scare other teammates with ulterior motives. However, after thinking about it, Jiang Cheng felt that the possibility was very low.
Second, Lu Qin is a night watchman, and she came here for her group. She revealed her identity in order to disrupt the public. If this is true, then there must be her accomplices among the remaining people.
However, this point does not make sense. Jiang Cheng thought about it and couldn't come to a conclusion. The mission has not officially started yet. No matter how you look at it, it is too early to reveal your identity now, and it will do more harm than good.
Lu Qin's face remained calm after revealing his identity, and his eyes did not look at him in particular, or meant to warn several people in Jiangcheng. The fat man immediately became vigilant after hearing the words "night watchman", but after waiting for a long time, nothing happened. This made Lu Qin He was also very strange.
After Lu Qin, there was the last person left, and everyone subconsciously turned their attention to him. This was a young man, about 25 years old, with an average appearance. He was wearing a dark green military coat that didn't fit very well. It was baggy, but His eyes were bright, as if he had been waiting for a long time, "It's my turn, it's my turn, my name is Shao Tong, I'm a Taoist priest, and everyone respects me because I can kill demons and demons without any disadvantages!"
Fatty: "???"
Hearing these remarks, the four people in Jiangcheng were a little confused, but judging from the performance of Zhang Qizheng and others, it was obvious that they had been shocked by Shao Tong once, so they were not surprised this time.
Realizing that the other party was staring directly at him, Li Bai couldn't figure out the other party's intention, so he had to bite the bullet and deal with it: "Mr. Shao is good at slaying demons and demons. I hope that with you here this time, everything will go smoothly."
"Amitabha, that's good, that's good." After receiving the response, Shaotong clasped his hands together with a pious face.
Fatty: "???"
Everyone: "……."
Amid the embarrassment, everyone ended their chat. In order to cope with the upcoming situation, everyone found a place to rest. Fortunately, the room was not small and could accommodate 10 of them.
Leaning on the haystack, listening to the sharp sound of the occasional wind blowing through the gaps between the boards outside, the fat man became increasingly uneasy. He and Jiang Cheng were in the same corner, which was blocked by haystacks and was relatively hidden.
The fat man put his face close to Jiang Cheng's ear, "Are you asleep?"
His voice was very small, covered by the wind outside, and could almost be ignored.
Jiang Cheng opened his eyes and glanced at the fat man, "Don't think too much, take the time to rest. It will be difficult to rest after dawn."
The fat man's face turned bitter, "I know, but I can't fall asleep. Why don't you talk to me and tell you the truth? My heart is pounding and my right eyelid is twitching badly."
Having said this, the fat man glanced outside and lowered his voice, "Why do I feel that something is wrong with these people? Listen to their self-introductions, especially that Shaotong, the Taoist priest, and Amitabha. He seems to be here. There's a problem." The fat man nodded his head with his finger.
Jiang Cheng didn't take it seriously, but he patiently explained to Fatty: "No one who has survived to this day is a simple person. The only meaning of his introduction is to give us a bridge of communication, which is a good start. As for We didn’t tell the truth about the content, and neither would they, but there was a lot of skill in it.”
"Take Gao Yanqing for example. He said he is an animal trainer and works in an aquarium, but I don't think so. People who have been exposed to water all year round will not have the same skin as him. Also, the injuries on his face are not right. I can't think of any animal that would leave scratches like that, he must have been scratched by someone."
"Human?" Fatty recalled the scar on Gao Yanqing's face. The scar was very obvious and deep. It was scratched by sharp claws. It didn't look like something a human could do.
Seeing that the fat man still didn't understand, Jiang Cheng took a breath and made a mouth gesture.
The moment Fatty understood it, his expression changed, because what Jiang Cheng said was a ghost word.
This was a very strange feeling. When Jiang Cheng said this word, something seemed to flash in Fatty's mind, making him almost immediately convinced that this was true. The one who really hurt Gao Yanqing was a ghost!
Thinking along this line of thinking, a terrible guess emerged. When was Gao Yanqing's injury... caused?
Before entering this world?
Or after entering this world?
If it's the former, that's it. If it's the latter... Fatty's heart skipped a beat, then this matter would be troublesome. This at least meant that Gao Yanqing encountered a ghost, but not only did he survive, he never mentioned it.
Why?
What is he afraid of?
Also, do Zhang Qizheng and others know anything about this matter?
Fatty didn't expect that he would encounter such a difficult situation not long after he entered this world, and he didn't even understand what was going on in this world.
"Don't think too much. Get some rest and you'll figure it out." Jiang Cheng reached out and patted the fat man's shoulder, then continued to lean against the wall and closed his eyes.
Seeing Jiang Cheng's appearance, the fat man simply stopped thinking about it. He calmed down and leaned against the haystack. After an unknown amount of time, he actually fell asleep and had a series of strange dreams.
In his dreams, he was sometimes chased by ghosts, and sometimes fell into the endless abyss. In short, it was better not to sleep that night. When he woke up, he only felt sore all over his body, as if he had been beaten severely.
At this time, there was nothing around him, the doctor was gone, and there was no one in the room.
The fat man's heart was lifted. There was light coming through the gap between the wooden boards. It was already dawn outside, which gave him a sense of confidence. He slowly groped towards the door. The door was ajar, and gradually there was a sound. Come in.
Someone was talking, outside the door.
After confirming that he heard Jiang Cheng's voice, the fat man carefully opened the door. Everyone was sitting together outside the door, talking fiercely, and the atmosphere didn't look quite right.
"Brother Fugui, you wake up."
Yao, Shun, and Yu were facing the door and were the first to notice the fat man sneaking his head out.
Inviting the fat man to come over and sit down, Jiang Cheng handed him a water bag and stuffed him with two baked hard pancakes. The fat man didn't feel anything when he received it, but the next second, he realized that these things Where did it come from?
Seeing the confusion of the fat man, Yao Shunyu explained: "Just now, when you were sleeping, someone came to find you. They were people from this world. They claimed to be soldiers guarding the city, and they were dressed like the straw men we saw last night. , they asked those of us who revealed the list to pack up and go find them later. They also brought the food and water."
"Reveal the list?" The fat man asked in surprise: "Reveal what list?"
"I don't know yet, but it is nothing more than a step to advance the plot. The purpose is to make us familiar with our identity in this world as soon as possible." Zhang Qizheng lowered his voice and said, "Compared with this incident, the incident I just mentioned is more important. It surprised me.”
"Yes, this is indeed strange." Zhu Jie said, her brows furrowed tightly and filled with tension, "Our vigilance shouldn't be so bad."
The fat man couldn't help but interrupt, "You...what are you talking about? Can you please tell me again."
"How did you sleep last night?" Jiang Cheng turned to look at the fat man.
The fat man nodded sheepishly, "Very good, I thought I would have insomnia when I first came to this world, but I didn't expect that I actually fell asleep, and I slept until just now. I didn't even know you came out, but the dreams I had were quite strange. Yes." The fat man said the last sentence a little nervously.
After hearing this, Jiang Cheng was silent for a while, and then said to the fat man seriously: "Actually, it's not just you, all of us were asleep. We were all woken up today by the soldiers who had walked through the door and walked in front of us."
The fat man was stunned for a moment, and then asked: "How could this happen? Didn't we leave someone to keep watch overnight?"
Hearing these words, both Li Bai and Lu Qin felt a little uncomfortable. Finally, Li Bai spoke: "This time is when Lu Qin and I should be keeping vigil. At first, the two of us were chatting quietly, but for some reason, we fell asleep in the end. , the two of us were completely unconscious and couldn’t recall exactly what happened.”
"Anyway, when we wake up those soldiers are already standing in front of us."
Lu Qin added: "This is the strange thing. Li Bai and I are two people. If one person accidentally fell asleep, the other person would definitely wake her up, but no, we don't even have the knowledge in this regard." memory, so I think we both fell asleep at the same time."
"This is not normal. We should be affected by some kind of force."
"Also, I don't think you can completely trust two stranger teammates to keep watch, so there must be quite a few of you observing secretly, but in the end, everyone fell asleep."
They are all veterans, so Lu Qin doesn't mince words when speaking.
At this time, Tang Qisheng, who seldom spoke, spoke slowly. His voice was magnetic and gave people a deep feeling, "I said...could it be like this? I mean, what if, the straw man soldiers we saw last night, and The soldiers who came to see us just now... could they be the same group?"
Hearing Tang Qisheng's words, everyone's expressions changed slightly. This guess was too terrifying. Could it be that the straw man who stood last night could actually come back to life?
Are you still looking for them this morning?
"If this guess is true, then maybe this is the rule in this city. There are no living people in this city, or there will be no living people within a certain period of time. At night, all people will exist in the form of straw men, and after dawn, These straw men will all come back to life, and the moment when yin and yang change, is the moment when we fall asleep."
"This is a mandatory rule." Tang Qisheng finally added.
"This is just a guess. We still need to observe the details, but what is certain is that there are a lot of weird things in this place at night, and the feeling it gives me is not entirely because of those things." Zhang Qizheng was thoughtful.
After eating, the group of people walked outside and followed the direction the soldier said. The more they walked, the more familiar they felt. "Isn't this the direction we came from last night?" the fat man asked in a low voice.
"Yes, we walked along this street last night." Li Bai nodded.
But at this time, this street is no longer the gloomy scene it was last night. Although there are not many people, but...
Everyone was keenly aware that these passers-by looked anxious and worried, as if they were worried about something. A feeling of fear permeated the air, which was unsettling.
Jiang Cheng stretched out his hand to stop a mother and son. The mother looked like she was only in her early 30s, but considering this era, the woman's real age was probably only 20 years old. She was holding a 4 or 5-year-old child in her hand. The mother and son were walking quickly. , as if trying to escape.
"Don't stop us again. We don't want to live in the city anymore. Something happened again last night. This time... this time it's the turn of Shopkeeper Wu and his family from Fu'an Inn!" The woman seemed to have recognized the wrong person, and shouted at the people in Jiangcheng with red eyes.
(End of chapter)
