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墨書 Inktalez
"Is she going to the bathroom? She hasn't come back yet?"
"Seriously, what's wrong with her? She just leaves without saying a word."
Ye Chenfeng felt speechless at Qin Keqing and Shen Binghan's words. "You two are abandoning your posts. If this were during the war, I think you both would be traitors—cowardly, afraid of hardship, seeking comfort..."
"Enough! Just because Sun Hong is missing, you're putting the blame on us. What about you, Ye Chenfeng? Don't think that just because we give you face, you can push us around." Qin Keqing was also anxious. She actually liked Sun Hong a lot. With him gone, she and Shen Binghan felt responsible, but who wanted to be in this situation?
Seeing Ye Chenfeng and Qin Keqing at odds over Sun Hong's disappearance, Shen Binghan knew it was not the right time to escalate things. He quickly intervened, "Alright, let's all calm down. The most important thing right now is to find Sun Hong."
"Find him? Where do we even look? Do you have any idea how dangerous this place is?" Ye Chenfeng almost blurted out about Ghost Granny, but he knew that would only complicate matters. He never intended for the three of them to come here; he didn't want anything to happen to his friends.
But now that Sun Hong was missing, what could they do?
Ye Chenfeng glanced toward the dark farmhouse in the distance and resolutely walked toward it.
"What are you doing?"
"We're not sleeping tonight. We need to find a free guide as soon as possible to locate Sun Hong."
Shen Binghan admired him and gave a thumbs up. "As expected of the leader—calm and resourceful. A true role model for us."
"Stop flattering me and hurry up," Ye Chenfeng snapped.
The four of them headed together to the farmhouse to find the uncle with asthma.
The old man heard the sound of barking and shouting, and hurriedly turned on the light. The creaking of the wooden door sounded like a ghostly wail. Ye Chenfeng calmly looked at the old man inside and handed him a red bill, saying, "Sir, our friend is lost. We would like to ask you to be our free guide. Here’s a hundred yuan, and if you find our friend, I will reward you further."
The old man, who coughed as he got up, squinted his murky eyes to scrutinize the four of them before muttering, "How many of you are there?"
"Four—no, five. One is lost, so now there are only four of us."
The old man furrowed his brows and said, "I remember when you came in, there were only four of you. How did another one appear?"
Ye Chenfeng was puzzled.
Qin Keqing was surprised.
Su Bei rested her chin on her hand, contemplating the old man's words.
Shen Binghan was anxious and explained, "No, we were originally four when we encountered a beautiful woman along the way, and she came here with us."
"Oh." The old man thought that perhaps when they arrived, that beauty hadn’t followed them after all; it seemed she really had gotten lost. This was the second incident of someone getting lost in Zhanglin Village recently. However, the old man didn’t mention this to them; he simply warned them not to wander around too much because there were dogs on the farm that could bite.
The old man agreed to help them find their friend, which made Ye Chenfeng and the others very happy as they hurriedly followed him in another direction.
"Sir, what is your surname?"
"No need for formality... cough cough... my surname is Zhang, called Zhang Bi... cough cough cough."
Zhang Bi—Struck Down by the Staff!!!
A strange name indeed. Zhanglin Village did not seem to be named after the fragrant Zhanglin, but rather because nearly two-thirds of the village's inhabitants bore the Zhang surname. Ye Chenfeng and the others learned this anecdote from Zhang Bi, leaving them both amused and bewildered.
"Uncle, is there a story behind the name Zhang Bi?"
"There is. In Zhanglin Village, we have few literate people; those with education are like a grain of gold among gravel, very precious. Here, names are given based on a person's features. I am called Zhang Bi, and there are also names like Zhang Hands and Zhang Feet..."
This, dirty hands and dirty feet—how peculiar! Su Bei was quick to find words that sounded similar.
As they walked, the muddy ground was indeed difficult to traverse, full of pits and hollows, far worse than the asphalt road they had seen earlier. In the areas illuminated by their powerful flashlights, it was rare to find a flat surface; most were filled with large holes and small depressions.
Moreover, the houses here were made of walls smeared with cow dung. Walking through the village, the air was thick with the stench of manure.
In addition to this, there were many abandoned ruins scattered about. Zhang Bi explained that these people had left the village in search of work during a famine and never returned.
Su Bei blurted out whatever came to mind, "They must have gone out to make their fortune; who would want to come back to this broken place?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Bi stiffened for a moment, shook his head, and sighed, "If it were in the past... you would be in trouble..."
Ye Chenfeng quietly asked, "What does Uncle mean by that?"
Zhang Bi replied, "Our Village has an ancient rule unknown to outsiders: no outsider is allowed to enter the village; otherwise, they will offend the spirits and invite misfortune upon themselves."
Qin Keqing quietly nudged Su Bei and shot him a glare. Su Bei understood immediately and stuck out his tongue, no longer daring to speak up.
"Uncle, if that's the case, won't we be causing trouble? Besides, you..." Ye Chenfeng didn't want to drag this honest uncle into their mess. He hoped the uncle would go back while they searched for Sun Hong themselves.
"I'm taking you to the village chief's house. As long as he agrees to let you look for someone in the Village, I can safely accept the money you gave me."
Ye Chenfeng thought to himself: You've already taken the money; what else is there to worry about? But he politely replied, "Thank you, Uncle."
The village chief's house was located to the west, with a tall Persimmon Tree standing silently by the side of the entrance, its leaves long gone, braving the cold wind. The branches of the Persimmon Tree stretched toward the roof of the village chief's house. In summer, when the unripe fruits hung heavily, it would be quite a sight.
The village chief was an older man with a face resembling a strawberry placed on dough, his mouth full of yellow teeth. After listening to Zhang Bi's introduction, he scrutinized Ye Chenfeng and his companions as if evaluating an unexpected item. Then he took the red ticket handed to him by Zhang Bi and said, "Try not to attract attention; let Zhang Bi handle it! You all go back and rest while waiting for news."
In this village, the chief was like a king. Zhang Bi mentioned that no one dared to defy him, so Ye Chenfeng and his group couldn't follow along and had to return to their tent to rest.
Zhang Bi went alone to find Sun Hong, but how could he search without any leads?
At that moment, Qin Keqing carefully described Sun Hong's appearance and emphasized that she was a well-educated journalist.
When Zhang Bi and the village chief heard that she was a journalist, their expressions darkened. In a cold tone, the chief said, "A journalist? Then there's no need to look."
Ye Chenfeng and his companions were confused and asked in unison, "Why not?"
"What’s there to find about a dead person? Are you here just to stir up trouble?"
"Dead people!" they said, "Sun Hong is dead!" Qin Keqing was furious, rolling up her sleeves and ready to confront the village chief and Zhang Bi.
Ye Chenfeng shook his head at her, signaling her not to act rashly.
"What do you mean? The person is missing, and we can't even search for her. They... they even say she's dead..." Qin Keqing was at a loss for Ye Chenfeng's intentions, but she couldn't push it; after all, this was someone else's territory.
Ye Chenfeng hinted to Qin Keqing that he had something to say.
On the way here, he had seen Sun Hong waving for a ride, her face pale as paper, but he hadn't thought much of it at the time. Just half an hour ago, he had a dream in which the woman resembled Sun Hong.
There were many things Qin Keqing and the others didn't know. Anyone or anything that entered Ye Chenfeng's dreams had a reason behind it.
This reason was not something that could be clarified immediately, but every situation must come to an end eventually. Next, Ye Chenfeng called his brothers to head back the way they came, while Zhang Bi stayed behind under the village chief's subtle suggestion.
Shen Binghan was not intimidated by the village chief of Zhanglin Village; instead, he found it interesting. He remarked that this visit was quite timely, as everything he saw and heard here could serve as a foundational reference for his thesis after graduation.
Su Bei was less optimistic. He felt dejected; this must be related to Sun Hong's disappearance. Coupled with what the village chief said to Zhang Bi, it directly affected his mood. He pouted and said, "I wonder what those two old men are discussing as a strategy against us intruders in their forbidden village."
"Damn it! A living person becomes dead in their mouths?" Qin Keqing was most concerned about Sun Hong's safety. She turned to the silent Ye Chenfeng and asked, "Do you think Sun Hong went where she shouldn't have and violated Zhanglin Village's taboos? Otherwise, why would they say she's dead?"
Ye Chenfeng gazed into the distance at the sparse cottages, the uneven road surface, and the countless empty houses with dark windows that sent chills down his spine. He sighed and said, "Complaining now won't help. We should go back and rest well; let's see what tomorrow brings."
He couldn't be certain about Sun Hong's situation right now; at least until the truth was revealed, he couldn't tell them whether she was alive or something else entirely.
They returned to their campsite, feeling dispirited and unable to resist glancing at Sun Hong's tent a couple of extra times.
Ye Chenfeng suddenly said, "I'm going to sleep in her tent."
Unexpectedly, the others misinterpreted his intentions and refused, saying, "That's not okay. What if she suddenly comes back?"
"You can relax; Sun Hong won't be back tonight," Ye Chenfeng replied.
As he spoke, he raised a powerful flashlight and shone it into Sun Hong's tent. The beam illuminated a half-torn piece of paper lying on top of a sleeping bag, which he picked up casually. It was a torn photograph showing the upper halves of four people.
One of them was Sun Hong, while the other three—two men and one woman—appeared to be intellectuals, all looking refined and wearing glasses. Their smiles were bright, and nothing seemed amiss.
Holding the half photo, Ye Chenfeng suddenly recalled that the last time Sun Hong had shown up in front of them was when she had been holding this very picture.
Sun Hong had mentioned that her colleague was missing and that Cold Crow had been seen where she appeared. Cold Crow feasted on rotting flesh and animal carcasses, and it had attacked them in the car. Did that mean Cold Crow could see that Sun Hong was not human?
This thought frightened Ye Chenfeng.
But if that wasn't the case, then Cold Crow's unprovoked attack on them made no sense at all.
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