At this moment, Gu Xizhou had already closed the window of the toilet. Then, a few black figures approached from afar and slowly grew bigger. The faceless monster that was being strangled by Gu Xizhou looked at Gu Xizhou with a pair of big eyes. Its companion was pressing its face against the window, but because of the newspaper blocking its view, it did not know that there was someone in the toilet.
The ferocious ghost: What's strangling my throat?
"That's a good boy. Don't worry, as long as you're obedient, I'll let you go after I interrogate you." Gu Xizhou smelled the strong scent of blood and raised his eyebrows slightly. He said calmly, "I'll also find your face."
The ferocious ghost: "?"
In the room, there were two silhouettes on the window. Fu Yiran sat on the bed and wrapped himself in a blanket, his back facing the silhouette on the window behind him.
About two hours later, Gu Xizhou released the monster in satisfaction and violently threw it out. At the same time, it bumped into another faceless monster that had taken its place outside. That faceless monster roared and wanted to rush over —
The faceless monster that had been beaten up by Gu Xizhou grabbed its' little sister 'and disappeared into the night.
Gu Xizhou came out of the toilet. At this moment, Fu Yiran was sitting on the bed with a blanket wrapped around his body. When he saw Gu Xizhou, he seemed to be relieved.
When he saw Gu Xizhou sitting on the edge of the bed, Fu Yiran's black eyes silently looked at Gu Xizhou in the dark. When Gu Xizhou lay down on the bed, he asked curiously in a low voice, "Hey, you're sleeping already?"
Gu Xizhou pointed at the silhouette outside the window and whispered, "What should I do if I don't sleep? Go out and chat with them? "
Fu Yiran wrapped himself in the blanket and turned to look at the silhouette on the window. "…"
On the last day.
Gu Xizhou opened the door and smelled the fragrance of food.
They walked into the dining room and met the woman who had been cooking for them for the past few days. The table was filled with a sumptuous meal, and it was even more sumptuous than last night's dinner. Fu Yiran sat down and asked the woman in confusion, "Why is there such a sumptuous breakfast today?"
The pot-bellied woman wiped her hands with a handkerchief and smiled. "We're going to worship our ancestors tomorrow."
"Oh," Fu Yiran nodded matter-of-factly. "It's the last meal. I understand. It's very humane!"
Si Yu: "…"
Gu Xizhou: "…"
Everyone: "…"
Liu Kai, who was supported by others, trembled slightly when he heard this. The expression on his face was uglier than crying.
During breakfast, the atmosphere was very tense. Gu Xizhou noticed that Fu Yiran was very relaxed. Gu Xizhou quickly finished his breakfast, and the group entered the ancestral hall again.
Just as they started, the woman inside began to cry again. Needles fell from the sky.
The face under the broken piece of marble that the man who disappeared yesterday had disappeared. Gu Xizhou noticed that there were fewer women crying today than yesterday.
"Sigh … I really can't do it this time. It's over. It's not a loss. I have late-stage stomach cancer. I should have died long ago." One of the teammates sat down dejectedly. It was obvious that he had given up.
Fu Yiran also sat down. He supported his chin with one hand and looked at the sky outside. He even had the mood to sigh. "Needles falling from the sky is quite beautiful."
"Gu Ran, look. Those needles are twinkling under the sun. Don't they look like stars?!" Fu Yiran pointed at the sky outside and shouted to Gu Xizhou.
Gu Xizhou walked to his side and frowned. He glanced at Fu Yiran and asked in a low voice, "Aren't you afraid?"
Fu Yiran winked at him playfully and said, "Of course I'm afraid. But I know that there are at least two people here who can bring me out of here alive."
Gu Xizhou: "?"
"But compared to the other person, I hope that you will be the one to bring me out of here," Fu Yiran said.
Gu Xizhou: "What do you mean by that?"
Gu Xizhou looked at Fu Yiran. He was a little suspicious. Did he hear him torture the female ghost in the bathroom yesterday?
However, when Gu Xizhou asked again, Fu Yiran stopped talking. He looked at him with his black eyes and smiled slightly. He stopped answering Gu Xizhou's question and looked at the sky in the distance.
Just as Si Yu was thinking about the meaning of the Buddha statues, Gu Xizhou said to Si Yu, "The current situation is that we have to stand on the black marble in order to break the other marbles. Some of the marbles shouldn't have faces under them. The problem now is how to determine which ones don't have faces under them!"
"Did you think of something?" Si Yu asked as he put down the plaque in his hand.
"Hmm … I was thinking about it before I went to bed yesterday," Gu Xizhou said. "The foundation of the Buddha statues shouldn't only be used to restrict the monsters. At the same time, it should be a hint. There must be a reason why the number of Buddha statues is different."
Si Yu, who had been thinking with his head lowered, turned to look at Gu Xizhou and said casually, "I also think that the Buddha statues are the key hint."
Gu Xizhou looked at Si Yu and said, "… I'm just giving an example. We can treat each marble as a square. If there is a Buddha statue on one of the squares, it means that there is only one square next to the Buddha statue with a human face. If there are three Buddha statues, it means that there are three other squares with human faces."
"There are many Buddha statues on the ground. The circles they form can be used to verify each other and help us determine the location of the human faces under the marble!"
"…" Si Yu looked at him. "Minesweeper?"
When Gu Xizhou heard this, he was stunned. Yesterday, he had spent a lot of time with the female ghost to figure out the purpose of the Buddha statues. He had spent a lot of effort to figure out the rules and guessed for two hours. In the end, Si Yu had just said two words.
Gu Xizhou thought carefully about his conversation with the female ghost. There was nothing wrong with Si Yu's use of the word 'minesweeper'. What he had just said was' minesweeper '. "Yes."
The Buddha statues were the numbers in a minesweeper game. The human faces buried under the ground were the landmines in the game. The only difference was that stepping on a landmine would not result in a game over. However, the person who stepped on the landmine would die. What they had to do was dig the landmine out.
Si Yu looked at the black marble and found the location of the missing teammate. Based on the position of the surrounding Buddha statues, according to the rules of minesweeper, there was indeed a 'landmine' below the marble.
"It's possible," Si Yu said softly after some time.
Seeing that Si Yu was a little hesitant, Gu Xizhou said, "Let me do it. You have to remember the location. Tell me and I'll do it."
In the ancestral hall, there seemed to be hundreds and thousands of women crying at the same time. Gu Xizhou looked at Si Yu and said, "Don't worry! We'll go back. "
Si Yu stared at him for a while and then looked at the sky outside. Finally, he nodded reluctantly. His gaze fell on the Buddha statues and the marble for a moment before he said to Gu Xizhou, "I've memorized it. Let's start from here."
Si Yu pointed at a marble slab not far from him and asked Gu Xizhou to stand on it.
Gu Xizhou broke the first marble slab and was fine … Si Yu's gaze was fixed on him. Then, Gu Xizhou pried open the second marble slab. Si Yu stared at the soles of Gu Xizhou's feet. After confirming that Gu Xizhou was fine after breaking the second marble slab, he let out a long sigh of relief.
When Gu Xizhou broke the third and fourth marble slabs, Si Yu was no longer as nervous as before. He leaned against the wall where the crying sounds were coming from and calmly gave orders. However, his gaze never left Gu Xizhou.
The crying sounds on the wall stopped abruptly when Gu Xizhou broke all the thunders.
Gu Xizhou raised his head and saw the walls around him slowly being soaked in blood. A blood-colored human figure appeared, just like when Liu Kai sat on the Buddha statues. The only difference was that these women were neither laughing nor crying.
The faceless women left the wall and walked between the four of them until they reached the broken bricks in front of Gu Xizhou. One of the women grabbed a face on the ground and passed it to each other until one of the faceless women got hold of the face and stopped. She spread the face on her hands and covered it with her hands.
It was an ordinary-looking woman. She revealed a satisfied smile before her body began to collapse and dissipate like a weathered stone.
The last faceless woman held the face in her hands and walked towards Gu Xizhou hesitantly. She seemed to be afraid. Gu Xizhou immediately recognized her as the one he had beaten up last night!
She placed the face that she had just obtained on her face. Gu Xizhou saw a gentle and beautiful woman. She had a unique aura. Her eyes were smiling and her mouth was moving. Although there was no sound, Gu Xizhou could vaguely guess what she meant.
She was saying thank you.
As the last 'it' disappeared, the entire ancestral hall fell silent.
Fu Yiran, who was standing outside, grabbed the plaque on the ground. With the help of another person, he placed the plaque on the ground. Fu Yiran jumped down from the ladder and said, "Done!"
"The people in this village are really perverted. They put their faces on the ground and let thousands of people step on them." Fu Yiran sighed.
Another person frowned and asked, "Why did they do that?"
"Open the door and go in. You'll know." Fu Yiran sneered. "It's just the dregs of history."
Fu Yiran then took a step towards Gu Xizhou and smiled at him. "See you next time."
Gu Xizhou was speechless. Who wants to see you!
When that person heard this, he agreed and did not hesitate. He had wanted to leave for a long time. After thanking them, he opened the door and left. After Fu Yiran and Gu Xizhou finished talking, he did not say anything to Si Yu. He smiled and walked into the house.
Gu Xizhou and Si Yu still had to go back to look for Liu Kai, who was left in the house. Hence, they did not leave immediately. Instead, they went back to fetch Liu Kai.
"Don't worry. After leaving the mission world, your eyes should be fine." Si Yu interrupted Liu Kai's thanks. After he and Gu Xizhou forcefully escorted Liu Kai into the house, Si Yu gestured to Gu Xizhou. "You first."
"Okay." Gu Xizhou nodded and said, "See you outside."
Gu Xizhou opened the wooden door. Just like before, his consciousness soon blurred.
It seemed to be night. The woman was locked in a narrow and dark place. She saw streaks of light coming in through the paper window. They seemed to be torches because the light source was a little erratic.
The woman felt extreme fear. She was crying for help. She wanted to escape from this place. However, no matter how hard she struggled, knocked, and cried for help, the people outside did not seem to hear her. They did not come in her direction at all. Instead, they walked further and further away.
The woman used all her strength to claw at the wooden board. She scratched until her fingernails broke and bled. She kept struggling, but the ropes on her body trapped her.
There seemed to be no logic to this story. Gu Xizhou only felt that time seemed to have been fast-forwarded.
It was about the third day.
"Master Zheng, we can't find your wife! Did she meet some bad people? "A man wearing an ancient constable's uniform frowned and asked.
The man who was called Master Zheng said anxiously, "Look again. It can't be. My wife …"
"But we really can't find her. Master Zheng, you have just passed the imperial examination. The magistrate wants to promote you, but the young lady will definitely not be a concubine …" The constable pulled Master Zheng aside and continued, "Why don't you take this opportunity to marry the magistrate's daughter as your wife?"
"You, what are you talking about! What a disgrace to the educated! "Prime Minister Zheng flung his hand, flinging the magistrate away as he spoke righteously.
Master Zheng searched for a whole day, but he still could not find his wife. He dragged his tired body and said goodbye to his relatives and friends. He closed the door of the courtyard. Outside, he heard the whispers of his friends and relatives.
"Humph, only Master Zheng is willing to find that woman. That woman looks pitiful and very seductive. I'm afraid she didn't get lost. She ran away with that wild man, right?"
"That's right. That Zhengliushi is too beautiful. She can't raise a family."
"I heard that the magistrate's daughter likes Master Zheng. I don't know if it's true?"
"It's true. I heard a few friends talk about it last time. The magistrate's daughter made a fuss about marrying only Master Zheng! But before this, Master Zheng already had Zhengliushi in his family. Master Zheng is an upright person. He is unwilling to abandon his wife, so he refused. I think there is a turning point now. "
The few of them whispered as they walked. Prime Minister Zheng listened for a while until he could no longer hear them. Then, he returned home. When he returned home, he walked to his room and took down the heavy object on the cabinet. He opened the cabinet in his house.
Gu Xizhou's mind was very clear at this time. The woman's body had no temperature. The originally soft body seemed to have turned into a piece of ice. The man opened the cabinet. Gu Xizhou saw the man's face clearly.
His hand hurt, very much. Gu Xizhou looked down at the woman's hand. The blood on the woman's index finger had coagulated. She was very weak. When she saw the light, she thought she finally had a long time. But when she saw the person who opened the cabinet, the woman burst into tears.
Suddenly, there was no fear of death, no pain. She felt nothing.
Gu Xizhou saw a memory, a woman's memory.
In the courtyard, a beautiful and gentle woman sat on a small wooden stool, washing clothes diligently. There were many clothes in front of her, but they did not seem to be hers. Because many of them were gorgeous and did not look like they could be worn by a woman.
In the middle of the day, when the sun was the brightest, she sat there. She did not finish washing the pile of clothes in front of her until sunset. Then the woman got up to feed the poultry in the house. When she finished, it was almost lunchtime. She began to cook again.
After the gentle woman finished cooking, she served the paralyzed mother-in-law respectfully. After dinner, she carefully turned the old woman's body to avoid bedsores.
The old woman could not move, but her mind was very clear. She looked at the woman and said, "Xiao Lian, how lucky my husband Zheng is to marry a wife like you! When he is in high school, you will be the wife of an official! "
The woman called Xiao Lian smiled shyly and said, "It is my blessing that the official likes me."
"You are such a good child."
About two years later, the old woman died. She died of an illness.
As time passed, Gu Xizhou heard the sound of gongs and drums. Xiao Lian stood in front of the door, looking forward to it.
"Master Zheng won!"
Hearing this sentence, Gu Xizhou felt the woman's heartfelt happiness. The woman who usually did not like to smile was smiling like a flower.
This woman was loyal to her husband. She respected and took care of the elders in the house. She did housework without complaint. In order to support her husband's studies, she never disliked the hard work.
In her life, she only had heavy housework. Other than that, she only had a husband who read books.
However, at this moment, the woman was locked in a cupboard, and the person who locked her in was the person she loved wholeheartedly.
"Xiao Lian, I'm sorry, I'm sorry …" The man knelt in front of her and cried bitterly. "I really need the help of the magistrate. I'm sorry, I'm sorry …"
"Please forgive me, I beg you, I'm sorry, you promise, promise me to leave, as long as you pretend that you ran away with someone else, I'll let you go, you nod, okay?" The man cried a lot of tears.
The woman looked at him weakly and shook her head firmly. She did not find a wild man. She would not leave … She could leave, but she did not run away!
The man cried, but he did not untie the woman. He did not give her anything to eat. The woman was not willing to agree to the man's request. On the fourth day, Gu Xizhou felt hungry. He knew the woman was dying.
The woman curled up in the dark and narrow cupboard and took her last breath.
Because he could not 'find' the woman, Master Zheng gave up. After a day of drinking, he pretended to be drunk and complained to his friends. He said that when Zheng Liushi disappeared, the family lost a lot of money. The people around him had different expressions. The next day, just as Master Zheng thought, the neighbors were crazy to say that Zheng Liushi ran away with a wild man.
His actions, in the eyes of others, were that of a good man who loved his wife deeply and wanted to give her a chance to repent. The people around them all sighed. Half a year after Zheng Liushi disappeared, Master Zheng married the daughter of the magistrate as he wished and rose up the ranks, all the way to Jingdou.
Time seemed to be fast-forwarded again. Gu Xizhou heard the sound of quarreling.
Gu Xizhou suspected that he was still in "Xiaolian's" body. Decades had passed, and Xiaolian's body had long withered. However, because of the special environment where Prime Minister Zheng had dumped the body, Xiaolian's body had decayed but not decomposed, just like an Egyptian mummy.
The quarreling outside was between two young people. The two of them argued over Xiao Lian's body. Because the body was not weathered, they mistakenly thought that Xiao Lian was someone who had just died. In the end, the two of them decided to report it to the magistrate!
The magistrate of the magistrate was a man in his forties. When he saw Xiao Lian's body, he was stunned. After leaving the court, he found his uncle, Master Zheng, who had resigned and came back. He told him about this matter.
"Uncle, I saw that the woman was wearing a bracelet. It seemed to be left by my grandmother. It was exactly the same as my mother's bracelet."
When Master Zheng heard this, he was very scared and did not want to see it. But his wife said, "Then go and see if it's her!"
Finally, according to the bracelet, it was confirmed that this was' Xiao Lian 'who had run away with a wild man. She was the husband's ex-wife.
The people around said that things were as usual. If Xiao Lian had not run away, she would have been the wife of an official and lived a rich life. At this time, someone suggested —
"Master Zheng generously donated money to repair the ancestral hall. Why don't we embed this dirty woman's face on the ground, burn her body, and smear her ashes on the wall and let her watch herself being trampled on by thousands of people?"
"Yes, yes, yes. We should also warn the women who marry into our village to abide by the three obediences and four virtues."
At this time, Master Zheng opened his mouth, but the people around him were filled with righteous indignation. He could not say a word.
In this way, the woman's face was embed on the ground, and her ashes were smeared on the wall with mud. Since then, she had been trampled on by thousands of people. As time passed, there were more and more women like this in the ancestral hall of the Zheng family.
At first, there was only one woman crying in the ancestral hall. Then there were two …
"Why are you wronging me?"
"I just choose the person I like. I don't believe in the words of my parents or the words of a matchmaker!"
Gu Xizhou heard low murmurs. Slowly, more and more women came.
"Why do women have to rely on men?"
"I'm also human. Why should I be divided into ranks? You can have three wives and four concubines, but I want to be faithful to one."
"Why?"
When Gu Xizhou heard this, a familiar voice sounded in the air. Countless chains slid down at the same time, as if they were falling from the sky and hitting the ground heavily.
Gu Xizhou quivered. He wanted to take another look at the woman behind him, but he had already returned to reality.
Those women …
Gu Xizhou sat on Si Yu's sofa in a daze, unable to let go.
When he opened the door and came back, he seemed to have been on the wall the whole time. He saw the women being escorted into the ancestral hall. He saw the people piercing their faces with needles, peeling off their skin and putting it on the ground. At first, it was mud, then it was marble …
Those women …
He could only watch helplessly as his face was trampled on.
They could only cry. They kept crying.
Gu Xizhou thought of the cries in the ancestral hall. The women's cries seemed to still be ringing in his ears.
"Do you want something to drink?" Si Yu patted Gu Xizhou's shoulder and smiled at him.
Gu Xizhou nodded. He drank two mouthfuls of hot coffee and felt a little better. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
After drinking two cups of coffee, Gu Xizhou felt a little need to pee. He walked towards the toilet and felt something in his trouser pocket. Gu Xizhou touched his trouser pocket.
A note?
He was sure and certain that it wasn't his! When he entered the world, he didn't have a note on him. Instead, he had a pair of handcuffs.
Gu Xizhou took out a note the width of his index finger from his bag. He opened the note and there was a line of words on it —
'6' for life, '1' for death. Good luck.
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