Chapter 169
The scene Cui Hao described in his diary reappears before Li Zhuiyuan at this moment.
It's not inside the earthen building, not at night, but in a wild field during the daytime.
This proves again that the old change woman is absolutely not some minor figure who only makes noise to scare people in specific, narrow, gloomy environments. Her main operational range is extremely broad.
The tractor's engine is loud as it drives towards the village.
On the hillside, Runsheng waits for instructions from Xiaoyuan.
Li Zhuiyuan hesitates, not speaking.
The youth's mind is not currently focused on the safety of Xue Liangliang and Lin Shuyou, at least, that's not the top priority.
His focus is on thinking: if the evil things on the tractor are himself and Runsheng, then why can Lin Shuyou sit face to face with them and not detect anything?
Bai Hezi, also known as the Lead Road Child in the Official General System, is good at insight.
According to past experience, when encountering evil things in reality, Lin Shuyou's vertical pupil would naturally open.
But now, it hasn't. They're even chatting and laughing.
Even setting aside the vertical pupil's detection role, Xue Liangliang is also sitting on the tractor at this time.
Last night, he had clearly informed Xue Liangliang that the mission situation was complex and strange things would appear. According to reason, Xue Liangliang would be on high alert.
Lin Shuyou might occasionally be careless, but Xue Liangliang isn't.
The evil things are imitating themselves and still communicating. Doesn't Xue Liangliang have even a slight suspicion?
At this moment, Li Zhuiyuan himself suspects whether the four people sitting on the tractor are all fake, and what he witnessed was just an illusion?
But when the youth looks up and surveys his surroundings, he finds that the surrounding wind, water, and weather are all normal. This means he hasn't entered an illusionary realm, nor is he in some kind of array.
"Runsheng brother."
"Mm."
"Follow them."
"Okay!"
Runsheng starts running.
Fortunately, the tractor wasn't driving too fast, and this road was bumpy and difficult to navigate, so the speed was just right. Runsheng could easily follow the tractor along the side of the hillside.
However, after following a little closer, Lin Shuyou, who was sitting on the tractor, seemed to detect something and actually turned his head to look back.
This made Li Zhuiyuan, who was on Runsheng's back, feel a bit helpless. You have the ability to perceive things far away, why can't you spare more time to look at what's in front of you?
"Runsheng brother, increase the distance a bit, don't be so close."
"Okay."
Runsheng pulls back a distance, ensuring the tractor is still within their line of sight.
Just like that, one rolls forward on four wheels, and the other follows behind on two legs.
The four people on the tractor just chat occasionally, but nothing changes.
Finally, Ran Dacheng drives the tractor into the village and stops.
All four people get off. After a simple exchange of words, Xue Liangliang and Lin Shuyou continue towards the earthen building. "Li Zhuiyuan" is then carried by "Runsheng" towards another direction, quickly disappearing after entering the house ahead, losing their line of sight.
"Runsheng brother, let's go!"
"Okay."
Although he has walked such a long mountain road on foot, Runsheng's strength is still not exhausted. At this time, he no longer hesitates and starts running quickly.
Ran Dacheng, who was just turning the tractor around, sees this scene and scratches his head in surprise.
He just saw these two people go in that direction, how did they encounter them here again?
After that house is a firewood pile, with no human figures visible.
Runsheng steps on the pile, and Li Zhuiyuan on his back surveys the surroundings from a high vantage point, but finds nothing.
That pair of "himself" and "Runsheng" just disappeared into thin air.
Li Zhuiyuan pats Runsheng's shoulder. Runsheng straightens up, allowing the youth to slide down from his back.
"Pa da!"
The youth feels a sound transmitted from the sole of his shoe. He lowers his head to look and discovers a puddle of glass powder.
He squats down and looks carefully below, finding that there is still a lot of such powder under the firewood pile.
He reaches out and lightly scoops up a bit, then lets it slide down gently. Li Zhuiyuan notices that there are also quite a few crystal-clear pieces on many of the nearby firewood piles and on this side of the mud wall. Under the sunlight, their traces are very obvious.
Just now, a large piece of glass must have exploded here, shattering into powder.
However...
Li Zhuiyuan picks up a handful of fine slag with his hand and places it in front of him to observe carefully:
Is this really glass material?
It's a pity that traffic is inconvenient here, and there are no material analysis institutions in the nearby county. To confirm its specific composition, it would have to be sent to a big city. By the time it's sent and the results come back, it will be too late.
Even so, Li Zhuiyuan still takes out a plastic bag from his backpack and puts some slag inside.
He has a premonition that this thing should be a key point.
After sampling, Li Zhuiyuan and Runsheng return to the earthen building together. At the door, they meet Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng, who have returned simultaneously.
Lin Shuyou happens to be carrying a water bucket out, planning to fetch water from the well outside.
"Xiaoyuan brother, you found Bin brother and them back so quickly."
Li Zhuiyuan: "Did I say I was going to find them?"
Lin Shuyou says in surprise: "Yes, you told me and Liang brother to come back and cook first, and you and Runsheng were going to find Bin brother and them..."
Facing Li Zhuiyuan's serious questioning gaze, Lin Shuyou becomes a little unsure of himself as he speaks.
Li Zhuiyuan: "Let's have a meeting back inside the house."
Everyone gathers and sits in the courtyard. Li Zhuiyuan describes the scene he saw earlier.
Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng are simply extremely surprised.
Xue Liangliang and Lin Shuyou stand up directly.
Lin Shuyou: "Xiaoyuan brother, do you mean that we came back sitting on a tractor with two evil things that looked like you?"
Xue Liangliang: "How can you prove that you are the real Xiaoyuan?"
"Oh, right!" Lin Shuyou immediately blocks Xue Liangliang's front, lowering his center of gravity, ready to make a move at any time.
In his understanding, he can confirm that Xue Liangliang, who has been with him all day, is definitely real.
Xue Liangliang's counter-question and Lin Shuyou's actions don't make Li Zhuiyuan angry. Instead, he is quite relieved by this.
Li Zhuiyuan takes out the plastic bag with the sample and throws it in front of the crowd.
"I suspect that the evil things split and collapsed into this."
Lin Shuyou picks up the sample bag, touches it himself, then hands it to Xue Liangliang. Xue Liangliang pours some out, observes it carefully for a moment, and says:
"Glass?"
"I don't know if it's glass, but it's necessary to find a testing institution to confirm its specific composition."
Li Zhuiyuan draws out an exquisite dagger from the edge of his boot, burns it on the bonfire for a while, then cuts his left palm. A wound appears, and fresh blood flows out.
The youth picks up a bowl from the ground and lets his fresh blood drip into the bowl before starting to treat the wound.
"Let's use the most primitive method to confirm our identities, then exchange the bowls of blood for others to confirm."
Runsheng immediately follows suit, first drawing his finger across the edge of the Huanghe Chan, then dripping fresh blood into the bowl.
Xue Liangliang nods, also takes out a small knife, breaks open his finger, and drips blood.
Lin Shuyou lifts his foot, swings his arm down, smoothly draws out the dagger from the side of his boot, then very smoothly makes a cut on his hand:
"Hiss..."
The cut is deep, and blood immediately overflows.
Li Zhuiyuan subconsciously feels that Lin Shuyou's blood doesn't need to be checked again, it should be real.
But he immediately dismisses this thought. He still has to check, because the fakes seem to be able to act just like the real ones.
After these four people have all dripped blood, Li Zhuiyuan looks at Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng and asks:
"What are you two hesitating about?"
Tan Wenbin shrugs his shoulders and says: "Ah, do we also have to do it? I thought we didn't go out of the village today, so there's no need to suspect our identities."
Yin Meng: "I think so too."
Li Zhuiyuan laughs.
Runsheng raises the Huanghe Chan, and Lin Shuyou grabs the trident.
The two of them, one left and one right, sandwich Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng in the middle.
Runsheng and Lin Shuyou both sense that something is wrong, because Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng rarely don't actively respond to Xiaoyuan's commands.
Even if Yin Meng doesn't need to do it, she will do it anyway, even if she gets criticized afterwards: you didn't actually need to do that.
Tan Wenbin will be more actively cooperative with this behavior.
In any case, this time's refusal to cooperate just means there is a problem with their identities.
"Hey hey hey, what are you doing, are you still suspecting us? Alright then, Mengmeng, let's also verify our true identities."
"Mm."
Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng both draw out the daggers from the sides of their boots.
Li Zhuiyuan: "Make a move."
Runsheng doesn't hesitate, and slams the shovel over!
Lin Shuyou hesitates for a second, then stabs with the trident.
Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng let out a sharp howl and collectively rush towards Li Zhuiyuan.
But their sneak attack is already too late.
Tan Wenbin's head is shattered by Runsheng's shovel, and Yin Meng's neck is pierced by Lin Shuyou's trident.
The two let out tragic screams, then their bodies quickly wither and flatten, gradually becoming transparent, and at an extremely fast speed, they become something similar to glass, and immediately... explode.
"Bang!" "Bang!"
Glass fragments fly in all directions. Runsheng blocks in front of Li Zhuiyuan, opening the air gate and sweeping away these glass debris with an air wave.
Lin Shuyou's body retreats, pulling Xue Liangliang with him, and the two of them fall down together, avoiding the affected area.
This kind of glass slag doesn't have much lethality, but if you're not careful, it can cause many wounds on your body. If it gets embedded in the skin, it's also quite troublesome to deal with.
Crystal clear everywhere in the surroundings. Below the positions where Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng originally stood, there are two piles of fragmented powder.
Li Zhuiyuan twists open the water bottle and takes two sips of water.
He finally understands now why Xue Liangliang and Lin Shuyou couldn't recognize that the people they were sitting with on the tractor earlier were fakes.
Because from the moment they met at the door until the two didn't respond to his request to cut their fingers and drip blood for the first time, Li Zhuiyuan himself didn't discover that Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng were fakes.
The two of them, in terms of appearance, expression, actions, language, etc., were flawless.
But this is impossible.
Appearance is easy to imitate, but how can you imitate the reaction content during dialogue and chat?
Li Zhuiyuan doesn't believe that this old change woman can achieve omniscience and omnipotence.
The youth lowers his head and begins to recall all the dialogue after encountering Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng at the door earlier.
Only under his later coercion did their language show distortion. Before that, it was all very... no, not.
Li Zhuiyuan suddenly realizes something. In the period of time just now, although he had a dialogue with Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng, there was no information in this dialogue.
The two of them were arranged by him to stay in the village today to conduct visits and should have obtained a lot of information. And during past meetings, when he spoke, Tan Wenbin would also cooperate and try to infer things.
In the contact just now, none of these things were expressed.
Is it because he was the main speaker just now, and at the same time, he didn't specifically give them an opportunity to speak?
Li Zhuiyuan goes over the words he said earlier in his mind again.
No, when he was narrating, he was actually following his past habits and handing over the speaking initiative to Tan Wenbin.
Because of Tan Wenbin's presence, he could say fewer words. After Tan Wenbin understood some things first, he could help him explain them to others.
And this time, when he handed over the speaking initiative, Tan Wenbin did respond, but he just mixed it over with a kind of extremely normal "laughing it off" way.
But he didn't feel the slightest strangeness. Is it because the other party was acting too well?
Or rather, the other party wasn't acting.
Li Zhuiyuan looks at Xue Liangliang and asks: "Liangliang brother, recall what you chatted with that 'I' on the tractor when you came back."
Xue Liangliang: "I told you, no, I told that fake you a lot of things I discovered at the work site, and that fake you also told me a lot of things."
Li Zhuiyuan: "Did that 'I' tell you about things in Miao village?"
Xue Liangliang lightly pats his forehead, lost in thought.
Lin Shuyou then says: "Seems to have said something..."
Li Zhuiyuan looks at Lin Shuyou: "Said what?"
Lin Shuyou frowns: "Said a little, then said, we'll talk in detail after we get back."
Xue Liangliang stops patting his forehead, widens his eyes, and says with a heavy tone: "That you said a lot of words to me, but not much was useful!"
Li Zhuiyuan hears this and nods. Indeed, that's the case.
Xue Liangliang says doubtfully: "It shouldn't be. Now that I think about it, it feels very strange, but at that time, I really didn't feel any sense of discord. How did he deceive me?"
Li Zhuiyuan points to the glass fragments on the ground and says: "It didn't deceive you, but you deceived yourself."
The youth stands up, picks up the fire tongs, and pokes the glass slag on the ground:
"I don't know how they are made.
But they are truly like a mirror. Only, an ordinary mirror reflects oneself, while this mirror reflects the person you think they are in your mind.
Let's give an example, using myself as an example.
The best imitation effect is not to completely become an identical me.
But as long as it imitates the image of me in your eyes, then it is the real me, even more real than myself."
Xue Liangliang: "No wonder."
Lin Shuyou echoes somewhat guiltily: "Oh, so that's how it is~"
Runsheng takes out a compressed biscuit and eats it. He doesn't like participating in the brain-moving parts, and moreover, he is indeed hungry.
Xue Liangliang: "So in my view, how the real you would respond to me, and how that fake you would react, is actually just me deceiving myself.
Does this world actually have such bizarre existences?"
"This world has many bizarre things, for example..."
"Okay, no need for examples." Xue Liangliang quickly raises his hand, "Then what is her purpose in doing this?"
Lin Shuyou takes over the conversation and says: "Right, Xiaoyuan brother, this thing seems to have no attack power. Just now, I poked it with the trident, and it just collapsed and shattered."
Li Zhuiyuan opens his mouth and says:
"I suspect that while we are investigating her, she is also investigating us."
At this time, footsteps are heard from outside the house, and the figures of Tan Wenbin and Yin Meng appear at the door.
Tan Wenbin's face is red, and he smells of alcohol. He must have drunk quite a bit, but he is not drunk, his mind is still clear.
"Yo, everyone is back. Xiaoyuan brother, I have a major discovery to report!"
Lin Shuyou throws his dagger over and says: "Bleed first."
"What?" Tan Wenbin catches the dagger, looks at everyone with some doubt, and finally his gaze falls on Li Zhuiyuan's body.
The youth nods, pointing to the bowl of blood placed beside them.
"Okay." Tan Wenbin uses the dagger to cut a wound on his fingertip, finds a bowl, and while dripping blood into it, he asks, "Did that dirty thing impersonate us? Just like what was said in Cui Hao's diary?"
After dripping the blood, Tan Wenbin hands up the bowl, then sucks on the wound on his fingertip.
Yin Meng also neatly dripped her blood.
After confirming their identities, everyone sits down again, and Lin Shuyou begins to narrate what happened earlier.
But Ayou's narration is stuttering, the logic is unclear. He speaks three sentences, and Tan Wenbin has to ask two. Finally, Xue Liangliang takes over the job and begins to narrate.
After listening, Tan Wenbin smacks his mouth: "This move is really evil enough. That thing wants to get to the bottom of us all? After getting to the bottom?"
Lin Shuyou says as a matter of course: "After knowing yourself and the enemy, then make a move on us."
Tan Wenbin spreads his hands: "Then we all split up today, why didn't she take advantage of this opportunity today and make a move directly?"
Lin Shuyou is stunned for a moment and says: "Perhaps, she is more cautious?"
Tan Wenbin lights a cigarette: "But if it were me, I would choose to first take advantage of finding a single pair, try to make a move, and see if I can kill two first."
Lin Shuyou is convinced, nods, and says: "Right, I would also first try to make a move and see the effect."
Tan Wenbin takes out the Zhuiyuan talisman paper, pastes it on the glass slag on the ground, and the talisman paper does not change color: "The talisman paper doesn't detect it?"
Lin Shuyou: "Even the array arranged by Xiaoyuan brother doesn't react to them. The good thing is, they don't have any attack power, and their threat is very low."
Tan Wenbin: "Then what is her purpose in spending so much effort to make this? She doesn't kill people directly, is she showing off her technology to us?"
Li Zhuiyuan: "Let's first summarize the information collected by each group today. Maybe her real purpose is hidden within."
Next, the three groups of people begin to report the results of their investigations.
Xue Liangliang went to check the work site. The work site is generally normal. Of course, because the work site is still shut down, it is also very difficult to see anything.
However, Xue Liangliang and Lin Shuyou discovered some details, that is, in many corners of the work site, offering tables and incense burners are placed, and some positions are pasted with talisman paper.
This means that the construction unit did not fail to suspect the frequent accidents at the work site in that regard, and should have also tried to invite some masters from nearby to perform rituals and drive away evil, but obviously, it did not play any role.
Tan Wenbin, through visiting this village, obtained quite a lot of useful information.
Some villagers suspected that they saw Cui Hao and Li Ren in the nearby mountains on New Year's Eve, because they were wearing work clothes, and only technicians in the construction team wore that kind of clothes in the entire village.
However, after shouting to them, the two people ran away like frightened animals. This made the villager suspect whether he was seeing things.
There was also a villager who said that the next day, he took his wife back to her mother's home, and when he came back the next day, he found that a lot of the New Year's goods left at home were stolen, but there was money left on the table.
Tan Wenbin suspects that Cui Hao and Li Ren may still be alive, but they are hiding in the mountains and dare not show their faces in the village.
The people who stole things and left money should also be them. After all, as outsider technicians, these two people's survival skills in the wild are definitely worrying, not even as good as the young children in this village.
Besides, villagers generally report that in recent years, not only this village, but also nearby villages and even the town, have often spread rumors of selling children and women.
As soon as there is a child, they will encounter an old woman in ragged clothes while playing, who will take their hand and ask them questions.
Bolder children struggle free and run away directly, while timid children directly burst into tears and attract adults.
But no adult has ever seen this woman, and in recent years, they have not heard of any child being really abducted.
Children are forgetful. They just remember things vaguely after sleeping or being separated for a few days, or they exaggerate more and more.
Adults only think that children are being naughty and deliberately making up lies, or that someone in someone's family told the story of the "old change woman" too vividly and deeply, which caused the story to spread among children, and they think they have met the old change woman when they see an old woman.
This kind of matter would not have been mentioned by villagers originally, but a family in this village firmly believes that their child did not lie and really saw the old change woman.
It was after the New Year, when their daughter, who married into a city outside the province, came back to the village with her son-in-law and grandson to visit them.
Their grandson can't even speak the local dialect, and he doesn't play with the children in the village. Moreover, he arrived in the evening, and the next morning he said that he was pulled out of the house by an old woman last night and touched things on the dam, and the old woman still told him 'not good, not satisfied'.
The grandson got a fever from being scared, and the daughter and son-in-law left the village early with their grandson.
The people at the wine table said that his daughter and son-in-law were not used to living in the mountains, but he was not convinced and said that his daughter was very good, and his son-in-law also helped with chopping wood and doing work at home, not at all spoiled by being a city person, it was just his grandson's bad luck, he just came back home and encountered the old change woman.
Li Zhuiyuan also narrated his experience in Miao village.
Tan Wenbin shakes the cigarette ash and can't help but laugh:
"Combining this story of the old change woman, it's a Grimm fairy tale exclusive to the children of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan."
Runsheng, who had been eating compressed biscuits all along, drank a large can of water, then let out a long sigh of relief. The tractor used him during the day, and now he finally filled up the 'oil'.
While eating, he was actually always listening attentively. Although what went into his left ear basically went out his right ear, at least a little bit was left in his brain.
Runsheng gives a full burp and says:
"How does she pick children?"
...
In the dark underground rock cave, thick liquid oozes from the surrounding rock walls from time to time, then extends downward, fading miscellaneous colors, forming a crystal-clear inverted cone.
Below, there is a small shrine.
The symbols that originally should have flickered around the shrine are now mottled and peeling off.
On the central circular platform, a thick iron chain that was originally heavy is also broken and rotten.
A disheveled woman sits there. Her skin is rough and cracked. Many places are cracked too deeply, and you can even see white bone.
She lowers her head and pats her belly with her hands.
"Pa! Pa! Pa!"
Amidst the patting sound, her belly becomes bigger and bigger, and the skin of her belly becomes more and more transparent, eventually becoming like a piece of glass, allowing you to clearly see inside her belly.
Inside, lies an infant. The infant's eyes are closed, its whole body is black, and it is dead silent.
The woman's hands are constantly touching the transparent skin of her belly. Her left eye reveals fierceness and ferocity, while her right eye is kind and pitiful.
"Child, after so many years, Mother has finally found a satisfactory you.
Mother will continue to use the mirror to shine him, shine him bright and clear, and you will become him.
You will like his appearance and everything about him, because he is good-looking and smart, hee hee..."
As the woman narrates and touches, the child in her belly slowly fades its black skin color, gradually presenting the texture of a normal ordinary child. At the same time, the child is also constantly growing, from an infant to a child, finally forming a very uncoordinated feeling.
Because its size should be similar to a five-year-old child in reality, but he is still inside the woman's belly, not yet born.
And,
The child's appearance has already become five points similar to Li Zhuiyuan.
---
The word count of this chapter is small, everyone don't panic, there will be another chapter during the day to supplement today's word count.
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