Chapter 59

"Brother Xiao Yuan, Runsheng, our seats are here. Yo, it's a soft sleeper! Brother Liang is generous!"

Xue Liangliang laughed at Tan Wenbin: "It's not the Spring Festival travel rush; soft sleeper tickets aren't that hard to get."

This room with four upper and lower bunks was just right for the four of them.

After the train left the station, Li Zhuiyuan climbed onto the upper bunk. Opposite him was Xue Liangliang, and Runsheng and Tan Wenbin were on the lower bunks.

At this moment, Tan Wenbin had already taken out his exercise book and placed it on the small table to start doing problems.

"Hey, doing homework as soon as you get on the train." Xue Liangliang teased, "So diligent, it's a waste to get into our Haihe. Apply to those two universities in the capital."

Tan Wenbin said very honestly: "My foundation is poor, and I've wasted too much time. It'll be a blessing if I can get into Haihe."

"Do you want incense?" Runsheng handed over a stick of incense.

Xue Liangliang reminded: "Runsheng, if you want to smoke, go to the carriage connection."

"Okay, got it."

Runsheng put the incense into the iron box. This was incense specially made for him by Liu Yi, wrapped in a layer of paper on the outside, very short but very thick.

He stood up, pushed the door, and went out, arriving at the carriage connection. There were two people standing there smoking. Runsheng also leaned over, took out a fire-starter, twisted off the cap, and blew on it.

The fire-starter was also made by Liu Yi; after all, it was very troublesome to light short, thick incense with matches.

After lighting the incense, Runsheng took a puff and exhaled a smoke ring. The rich fragrance began to permeate, most of which was carried away by the gap in the carriage door.

The two people next to him were very curious when they saw this.

"Brother, what is he smoking?"

"You don't understand this, do you? It's been in the movies—a cigar."

After finishing a stick of incense, Runsheng walked back. On the way, he saw an old woman with white hair in black clothes sitting on a small seat in the aisle, and a girl in red clothes in front of the old woman.

"Grandma, I'm hungry."

The old woman sighed and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

Runsheng felt his pocket, took out a few candies, and handed them to the little girl.

"Thank you, big brother." The little girl smiled happily.

Returning to the soft sleeper room, Runsheng lay on the bed and took a nap.

Waking up, he was hungry. After asking the others, they all said they were hungry, so he took out the food brought from home.

There were dry rations, salted cured meat, and a bottle of wine.

The wine was put there by Li Sanjiang, saying that drinking a little wine while looking out the window on the train had quite an atmosphere.

But none of the four young people drank.

After the meal, Tan Wenbin kept doing homework without stopping.

Li Zhuiyuan and Xue Liangliang chatted while looking at the scenery passing by outside the train window. Most of the time, Li Zhuiyuan was listening, and Xue Liangliang was talking, as if they had started a night tea party in a college dormitory.

From rural house structures to living standards in various places, and even industrial development plans, Xue Liangliang mainly studied water conservancy and architecture, but he also knew about other industries, although he couldn't be called very proficient.

However, in this era when information acquisition channels were extremely inconvenient, being able to know so many things was also a rare skill.

The sky gradually darkened, and the scenery outside couldn't be seen. One could only know where they were when the conductor came to announce the station every once in a while.

Xue Liangliang got off the bed and said he was going to buy boxed lunches.

On the way, he met an old woman in black clothes with a little girl in red clothes standing beside her.

"Grandma, I'm so hungry."

Xue Liangliang passed them, went to the dining carriage, bought ten boxed lunches with meat, carried a large bag back, and when passing by the little girl, took one out and handed it to her.

"Thank you, brother."

Xue Liangliang smiled, walked back to the soft sleeper room, and distributed the boxed lunches to everyone.

He and Xiao Yuan each had one, Tan Wenbin ate three, and Runsheng ate four.

Li Zhuiyuan felt that the food in this white plastic box was unexpectedly fragrant, especially this gluten-braised meat; it was really delicious.

After Tan Wenbin ate three portions, he unbuckled his belt and exposed his belly. He was stuffed, so he continued to take out his exercise book, intending to digest by doing problems.

Runsheng ate four portions and was still not satisfied, but there were still dry rations and salted sauce brought from home, so he could still find something to supplement.

After the meal, the tea party started again. The daytime was realism plus future development reports, and the nighttime was historical interpretation.

Li Zhuiyuan could participate in this topic, but he still mainly listened to Xue Liangliang. Only when Xue Liangliang asked "Who was that" or "What was that place called" would Li Zhuiyuan give an accurate answer.

This kind of support made Xue Liangliang feel very satisfied.

It wasn't until the second half of the night that everyone fell asleep.

Waking up in the morning, Runsheng went to get water for everyone to wash up. Tan Wenbin finished washing up first, and just as the train stopped at a station, he went down to buy breakfast for everyone.

On the way, he met a grandma with her granddaughter. The granddaughter shouted that she was hungry, and the grandma wiped her tears in sadness.

When he came back, Tan Wenbin gave them a few steamed buns and stuffed buns, and also gave them a bag of soy milk.

The soy milk was in a bag. After bringing it back, Tan Wenbin tore it open and poured it into cups for everyone.

After breakfast, Xue Liangliang took out some design drawings from his backpack. Li Zhuiyuan saw them and simply left his bunk and went to Xue Liangliang's bunk. The two leaned together and looked at them.

What made Xue Liangliang feel surprised was that Xiao Yuan could actually understand the annotations and data on them, so he took the opportunity to tell the boy about some professional matters.

Approaching lunchtime, a conductor was helping to sell roasted sweet potatoes on the train. Li Zhuiyuan walked into the train aisle and bought a bag.

It wasn't the conductor selling them; she was just helping to shout, and then the seller on the platform came over to collect money and give the items.

When carrying the bag back, Li Zhuiyuan passed by an old woman. The old woman was sitting there with a dull expression.

At her feet was an altar-shaped object wrapped in cloth, looking like an urn.

Li Zhuiyuan didn't stop and returned to the soft sleeper room.

Runsheng ate the roasted sweet potato while feeling pained: "How can they sell it so expensive."

When eating, Runsheng even licked the inside of the sweet potato skin carefully, afraid of wasting even a little bit.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the train entered a small county town called Mishui again, and then the broadcast and loudspeakers began to announce that there was a road collapse ahead and the train couldn't move for the time being.

Everyone could continue to wait on the train, or calculate the distance and get a refund, and get off here.

After asking the conductor to confirm the specific location of the collapse, Xue Liangliang judged that it would take a day or two to resume traffic, so he led everyone off the train.

After leaving the train station, they first found a restaurant to eat. The roasted sweet potato eaten at noon was digested too quickly, and everyone was hungry again.

On the outer wall of the small restaurant was a propaganda slogan: "Beat the car bandits and road tyrants to death, no crime and a reward!"

While eating, a person sitting alone heard Runsheng's accent, smiled, stood up, and asked in Nantong dialect. It turned out to be a fellow townsman.

This person's surname was Zhu, called Zhu Yang, and he was a truck driver. Upon learning that the four were from the train station and their destination was Shancheng, he very enthusiastically invited them to take his truck to Shancheng together.

After all, he spoke with a hometown accent, and he was indeed driving a truck loaded with steel cables. Most importantly, he said it very straightforwardly:

No fare, just consider it traveling together to have company, so as not to be unsafe on the road.

After the meal, Xue Liangliang helped Zhu Yang pay the bill, went to a small shop to buy some drinks and two packs of cigarettes, and handed them to him.

Immediately, everyone got on the truck.

The truck head had been modified, and there was a horizontal board in the back where the driver could lie down and rest.

Although the space was still very cramped, everyone sat in.

Tan Wenbin couldn't do his problems, but he took out his English vocabulary book and started memorizing words.

Runsheng envied the truck driver profession and sighed: "Really good, can earn money while traveling all over the country."

Zhu Yang gave two bitter laughs and replied: "No matter how much I travel, I'm just sitting in this small truck head. If it weren't for my wife and children at home, I wouldn't be willing to trap half my life in here."

Li Zhuiyuan noticed several thick novels placed under Zhu Yang's seat, the kind of mimeographed pirated copies. It seemed he relied on these to pass the time on weekdays.

In addition, Li Zhuiyuan also saw two steel pipes and a knife.

In this day and age, these were standard equipment for long-distance truck drivers.

Approaching dusk, the truck drove into the mountain road. As a result, as he drove, Zhu Yang felt something was wrong, stopped the truck, got out, and cursed:

"Conscience-less bastards, a nail punctured the tire."

Tan Wenbin asked suspiciously: "Is it a nail that fell off the car in front?"

Zhu Yang gave a cold snort, lit a cigarette, and pointed to the front: "Walk forward a bit; there should be a repair shop ahead."

Tan Wenbin's brain was sharp. He didn't say "What good luck," but immediately cursed: "Are they that shameless?"

Zhu Yang sighed: "This is already considered a civil fight."

Immediately, he looked at Runsheng and said: "Accompany me to hold the field. Let's raise our momentum and lower the price."

Runsheng: "Sure!"

Zhu Yang took Runsheng forward to find the repair shop. Tan Wenbin continued to memorize words in the truck, and Li Zhuiyuan and Xue Liangliang came to the side of the road.

Below was a slope, and below the slope was a river. Because the leaves were beginning to wither, the view became quite good.

Li Zhuiyuan couldn't help but sigh: "The feng shui here is really good."

A place where dragons crouch and phoenixes perch, a place of spiritual land. In ancient times, it was a good place to build a village and establish a town, but with the development of modern transportation, this place seemed a bit off to the side.

Xue Liangliang's occupational disease flared up, and he nodded: "It is indeed a good place, suitable for building a small hydroelectric power station."

Sure enough, there was a repair shop not far ahead, because Zhu Yang and Runsheng soon came back with a middle-aged man and a young apprentice.

At first, Li Zhuiyuan thought Zhu Yang was acting, because he was very enthusiastic toward the repair master.

But gradually, Li Zhuiyuan discovered it wasn't. Zhu Yang was sincere, because the other party's asking price wasn't outrageous at all, but rather very friendly.

At this price, even if the nail was really scattered by this repair master, Zhu Yang would have to praise: "Well scattered!"

Finally, it was repaired. Zhu Yang wanted to give a pack of cigarettes but was pushed away by the other party, who only took the agreed-upon portion of money.

However, the repair master said faintly: "It's getting late, and there are fewer cars on the road, so don't drive forward anymore. It's not peaceful ahead."

Zhu Yang asked curiously: "How so?"

The repair master shook his head: "Hard to say."

Zhu Yang gathered his courage: "We have many people, it's fine."

"They have guns."

Zhu Yang was silenced.

The repair master pointed below: "Did you see that small road when you came? Turn in there, there's a village. Stay there for a night, and when there are more cars tomorrow at dawn, drive forward again."

Zhu Yang asked: "Is that the village you live in?"

"No, I live ahead."

"This..."

"Sigh, believe it or not, it's up to you."

The repair master left with his apprentice.

Zhu Yang got on the truck and rummaged under his seat for his "weapon," but after hesitation, he still chickened out. He poked his head out of the window and said to everyone:

"To be safe, let's drive back a bit and rest until dawn."

When turning around to drive back, Tan Wenbin said: "I heard my dad talk about this kind of thing before, but I didn't expect it to be so exaggerated."

Zhu Yang responded while keeping an eye on that small road: "Actually, it's not that exaggerated. It's just that we happened to encounter it. I'm doing my own job this time and couldn't catch up with a convoy."

Runsheng was quite excited and said: "This is the jianghu!"

The small road was found. Not long after driving down, a small village appeared, with only a few dozen households, many of which still had lights on.

Zhu Yang apologized: "Everyone, make do and rest. We'll set off at dawn. It'll be just one step on the gas pedal to reach the destination tomorrow."

He didn't intend to enter the village, nor did he consider staying overnight, just wanting to find a place with people to park and rest.

If he really stopped on the side of the road where no birds shit, that would be truly dangerous.

Zhu Yang had dry rations in the truck, and Runsheng also had them in his snake-skin bag. Everyone ate casually and prepared to rest.

Li Zhuiyuan and Xue Liangliang slept in the truck, while Runsheng, Tan Wenbin, and Zhu Yang slept with the steel cables in the back, covering themselves with clothes and plastic film.

Originally, Tan Wenbin could also sleep in the truck head, but he said he was a policeman's son and insisted on going outside to keep watch.

Li Zhuiyuan had a light sleep and woke up quickly. He intended to go down to pee.

He opened the truck door and got out. It was really cold in the mountains in the second half of the night, making him subconsciously rub his arms.

Because he had had several experiences of things going wrong when going out to pee at night in a strange environment, Li Zhuiyuan was now very cautious and careful about getting up at night. After going down, he immediately went to find Runsheng.

Runsheng was holding a steel pipe in his hand, eyes open, not sleeping.

Seeing this, he immediately turned over and got out of the truck to accompany him.

Not daring to go too far, just a few steps away, Runsheng unbuckled his belt, and Li Zhuiyuan didn't need to; he had elastic pants.

After finishing, Runsheng even took out a bottle of water and poured it for Li Zhuiyuan to wash his hands.

"Heh heh, creek water I filled."

"Brother Runsheng, are you sleepy?"

"Not sleepy, it's fine. I can just sleep in the truck during the day."

"Then I'll sit with you for a while."

Climbing onto the truck bed, the two sat back in the corner where Runsheng had been waiting.

Tan Wenbin's snoring was very loud, like a solo performance in the quiet night. After all, he was maintaining the intensity of third-year high school studies while also traveling, so how could he not be tired?

"Not right..."

Li Zhuiyuan's ears trembled. He didn't hear Zhu Yang's movement. Even if he didn't snore, he should at least have some breathing, right?

He stood up, came to the corner where Zhu Yang was sleeping, lifted the plastic film, and found that there was only a coat inside; the person was gone.

"Ah?" Runsheng was also confused. "He wouldn't have gone to take a shit, would he?"

"Brother Runsheng, did you talk to him at night before?"

"No, I always thought he was sleeping there, covered with the quilt and plastic film."

"When did you officially start keeping watch?"

"After Binbin fell asleep, no one talked to me, so I watched the surroundings myself. Could he have gotten off the truck when we just went to pee?"

"It could also be that he got off the truck very early."

"He wouldn't have entered the village, would he? Thinking that sleeping outside in the truck was too hard, so he went into the village to find a room to stay?"

"Then why didn't he call us?"

"Afraid of paying for our accommodation?" After Runsheng finished speaking, he shook his head himself. "He wouldn't do that."

Although he hadn't been with Zhu Yang for long, the person was still okay. For example, he gave the truck head to him and Brother Liangliang to sleep in, and went to sleep in the back himself.

In addition, most importantly, even if he wanted to stay in the village, he didn't need to pay for the accommodation. Brother Liangliang had always been very generous.

After waiting for a while, Zhu Yang still hadn't returned.

Li Zhuiyuan went to wake up Tan Wenbin and Xue Liangliang. Everyone gathered at the truck bed and began to discuss the situation.

This kind of action was actually a bit like being startled by every gust of wind.

But fortunately, all four had experienced that kind of thing, and no one felt it was making a mountain out of a molehill.

"How about we go look for him?" Xue Liangliang suggested.

"No." Li Zhuiyuan rejected this proposal directly. "Before Zhu Yang returns, we will take turns in pairs, take turns to nap for a while, and first hold out until dawn."

Everyone agreed.

Next, it was a matter of holding out through the time bit by bit. Finally, the sky turned white, and the view became much brighter.

But in everyone's hearts, it became increasingly heavy, because Zhu Yang still hadn't returned.

By the time the sun really rose, it was already eight o'clock in the morning, and everyone still hadn't seen Zhu Yang's figure. Even if he had really gone to the village to stay overnight alone last night, he should have returned by now.

How could a truck driver stay away from his truck?

Tan Wenbin ate dry rations while saying in confusion: "Is this person really missing? Or is it that he was certain that none of us could drive a truck?"

Continuing to wait, by ten o'clock, everyone finally decided to do something. No matter what, they had to go look for him.

And the first place to look was undoubtedly the small village ahead.

"Did everyone notice?" Li Zhuiyuan's gaze swept over the other three. "From morning until now, we haven't seen a single villager pass by our truck."

There was only this one road out of the village to the main road; behind the village were mountains.

The truck was parked on the side of the road where the village entrance could be seen.

Of course, it could also be understood that the villagers in this village relied entirely on the mountains, were self-sufficient, and didn't need to communicate much with the outside world.

But on the basis of Zhu Yang's disappearance, and then superimposing this discovery, everyone began to have some doubts in their hearts.

Li Zhuiyuan said: "Let's go, let's go into the village together to look."

Xue Liangliang: "Should we leave someone to watch the truck?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head: "No need. If the goods and oil are stolen, they are stolen. If we really find Zhu Yang, at worst we can argue about it later. Anyway, it's not our fault.

If we leave someone to watch the truck, what if the person left behind also disappears?

Or, if the person left behind waits and waits, and can't wait for the people who left to return, how anxious and fearful they must be."

Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin looked at each other and nodded. Yes, just thinking about this scene was terrifying.

The four of them got off the truck together and walked toward the village.

Li Zhuiyuan felt that the team was still quite easy to lead; at least the ideas could be integrated.

This was probably because he had been with Great-Grandpa for too long. Suddenly being paired with so many normal teammates made him feel a bit uncomfortable.

The villagers' houses weren't simple, and there were obvious traces of living people. And when the truck drove in last night, they saw many lights on in the village. But after walking in, they didn't see any figures moving.

Tan Wenbin: "Do the people in this village get up so late? It's noon and they're still sleeping in?"

Xue Liangliang looked around: "How about we continue walking inside to see?"

Li Zhuiyuan stopped and said: "No, let's retreat."

Everyone didn't ask why and followed the boy to retreat toward the village entrance.

When they arrived in front of the first residential house at the village entrance, Li Zhuiyuan stopped: "Brother Runsheng, go knock on the door."

"Okay!"

Runsheng walked to the door and knocked with his left hand.

Inside his right sleeve, he was hiding a steel pipe.

Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin each had a knife and a steel pipe hidden on their bodies. When they got off the truck, they had brought all of Zhu Yang's gear.

Of course, before encountering danger, these things couldn't be shown; otherwise, they would really look like bandits robbing houses.

"Bang bang bang!"

After knocking for a long time, there was no response.

Runsheng turned back and shouted: "Xiao Yuan, it seems there's no one inside."

"Knock harder!"

"Okay!"

Runsheng began to pat the door vigorously, making the door panel vibrate.

There was still no response from inside, and the neighbors didn't move either.

"Brother Runsheng, smash the door!"

"Okay!"

"Boom!"

The door panel was kicked open by Runsheng.

Li Zhuiyuan and the others walked in.

This kind of behavior was indeed wrong, but in the team, no one accused Li Zhuiyuan of being overly cautious.

If a misunderstanding really occurred, at worst, they would pay money and apologize.

Unlike the things hanging outside, inside the house, dust was deep and heavy, completely looking like no one had lived there for a long time.

On the bed in the bedroom, there was also a large puddle of sticky stuff.

Runsheng sniffed it and concluded: "Xiao Yuan, this is the smell of corpse water!"

Li Zhuiyuan believed Runsheng's judgment and said: "Let's go, let's open another door."

"Boom!"

The second door was also kicked open by Runsheng. Inside, it was still covered in dust, and bowls and chopsticks were placed on the dining table, inside which was long-moldy food.

It could vaguely be seen that the last meal eaten was noodles.

There was no such dirty stuff on the bed in the bedroom, but after Runsheng sniffed, he walked to the cabinet and reached out to open the cabinet door. Inside were several layers, all of which had turned into solid mucus.

"Still the smell of corpse water."

Tan Wenbin and Xue Liangliang had already taken out their weapons by now. There was nothing to worry about; what normal village house had corpse water residue?

"Brother Xiao Yuan, what should we do next? Continue opening boxes?"

"No."

Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the house, signaled everyone to follow, and walked directly toward the outside of the village.

Xue Liangliang and the others followed and asked in a low voice: "We're just leaving like this?"

"Mm."

"Not looking for Zhu Yang anymore?"

"After we get out, call the police."

"Oh, okay."

Li Zhuiyuan gave up very decisively. He didn't intend to continue exploring this village because there was really no need to take this risk forcibly when he wasn't prepared.

However, when the four walked out of the village for a distance, everyone was dumbfounded.

The truck was gone!

Tan Wenbin: "Zhu Yang wouldn't have returned and driven the truck away directly, would he? We went to look for him, but he didn't wait for us?"

"No." Xue Liangliang squatted down and pointed forward: "Not only is the truck gone, but even the tire tracks are gone."

Tan Wenbin asked suspiciously: "What's going on?"

Xue Liangliang stood up, shaking his knife with his right hand and akimbo with his left: "We're in trouble this time."

If the goods or gasoline on the truck were stolen, that was normal. Even if the thieves knew how to drive and used wires to start the truck and drive it away without a key, it wasn't incomprehensible.

But the problem was, who would clean up the site after stealing things? Were they that professional!

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the place where he and Runsheng had peed last night. He remembered that Runsheng had peed a groove here last night. Now, this groove was also gone.

"I think, maybe the truck wasn't stolen. The truck is still waiting in place. What's not in the 'original place' is the four of us."

Once this was said, the other three looked at each other.

Xue Liangliang immediately asked along the train of thought: "Then isn't Zhu Yang not missing?"

Li Zhuiyuan nodded: "Maybe, now Zhu Yang is looking for us who have gone missing."

Xue Liangliang waved his hand: "This is too absurd and bizarre."

"Brother Liangliang, no matter how absurd, can it be more absurd than your experience?"

"This..."

Tan Wenbin scraped the mud with the sole of his shoe: "Then where are we exactly?"

"Brother Runsheng, the compass."

Runsheng immediately took out the compass and handed it to Xiao Yuan.

Li Zhuiyuan held the compass and began to observe the feng shui and weather around him.

The result was... very normal.

He looked at it again, but still couldn't find any clues.

"Brother Runsheng, support me for a minute."

"Understood."

Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes, lightly covered his face with the compass, and then leaned toward Runsheng after a sway of his body.

After Runsheng caught him, he grabbed Li Zhuiyuan's arm and began to count in his heart.

Li Zhuiyuan had gone into the underworld.

The surrounding environment hadn't changed, only Xue Liangliang and the other two were gone.

Then, Li Zhuiyuan heard movement, coming from the village.

He turned around and looked toward the village. He saw many figures walking inside, and many people gathered at the two houses at the village entrance.

Someone was shouting angrily:

"Who smashed my door panel? Who exactly smashed my door panel!"

"My door panel was also smashed. Who exactly did it!"

Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew, making Li Zhuiyuan shiver, and the people in the village also quieted down all at once.

They were still there, not disappeared, but the next moment, that group of figures, like a silent silent film, collectively turned and began to walk toward this road outside the village.

Pain struck. Time was up. Runsheng was waking him up.

Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes and said without hesitation: "Run!"

The truck was gone, so there was no luggage. Everyone ran after the boy without saying a word.

Running out of the small road and arriving at the main road, Li Zhuiyuan chose a direction to go back and led everyone up.

All three realized that the situation had changed. No one asked why, and all followed closely, with their gear also held in their hands.

Fortunately, they didn't see any vehicles along the way; otherwise, they would definitely have been mistaken for car bandits and road tyrants by the drivers.

"Let's run a bit further, don't stop!"

This was said to Tan Wenbin and Xue Liangliang. Li Zhuiyuan had trained his endurance through horse stance and breathing, and Runsheng's physical fitness was already ridiculously good. But Tan Wenbin and Xue Liangliang were more inclined toward traditional useless college students.

They could burst out for a short time, but if they really had to run long distances, they would soon be panting.

Li Zhuiyuan let them continue to persist because according to past experience, the effect of this kind of weird effect often had a range, just like that time at Zheng Haiyang's house. Once they were out of the dam, it would be fine.

This time, it should only be...

Li Zhuiyuan stopped, and Runsheng also stopped.

Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin bent over and panted.

"Brother Xiao Yuan, are we out?"

"Xiao Yuan, are we safe?"

Before getting a timely answer, the two raised their heads and looked forward, and then they saw the small road they had come out of earlier.

They had clearly run in the direction of going back for so long, but they had run back again.

Li Zhuiyuan turned around: "Let's try running in this direction."

When saying this, the boy had no confidence, because he seemed to have already foreseen the result.

The others were the same. When running, everyone was relatively silent, so this time, everyone ran a little slower, without that strong desire to quickly escape the danger zone.

Finally, they walked back to that small road entrance from another direction.

"Down!"

Since they couldn't walk on the road, they would go down the slope.

Going down the slope was very dangerous and quite steep. Everyone grabbed trees and moved down bit by bit.

Li Zhuiyuan stared fixedly at the river below. But the view on the highway was good because you were looking from a high point. When you really walked into the forest, the view would definitely be blocked.

After peeling away the withered leaves in front of him, Li Zhuiyuan found that he had returned directly to the small road this time.

Ahead was the open space where he and the others had parked the truck last night, and walking up a bit further was that small village.

Tan Wenbin sat paralyzed on the ground.

Xue Liangliang staggered two more steps and finally knelt down. He swallowed hard and asked: "Xiao Yuan, is this a ghost-hitting-wall?"

"More or less. It should be considered a kind of miasma. Everyone, take a rest."

The four people sat on the ground.

Not long after, the sky began to turn gloomy, as if it were going to rain.

There was no way; everyone had to get up. They didn't dare to go to the village, so they found a big tree to shelter under, preventing the rain from suddenly falling and soaking everyone into drowned chickens.

Tan Wenbin could actually take out an exercise book and a pen from his pants pocket at this moment.

He sat down with his back against the tree and spread the book on his lap, really doing problems.

This scene amused everyone, and even he himself laughed.

Actually, he was doing problems for show; he wanted to liven up the gloomy atmosphere.

Xue Liangliang said helplessly: "I feel like I passed my bad luck to you guys. Xiao Yuan, every time you are with me, you get implicated and encounter things."

"Brother Liangliang, don't say that; I'll blush."

According to the frequency in the past, it was really hard to say who implicated whom.

Li Zhuiyuan felt that maybe it was his own reason. The concentrated outbreak of dead bodies near his home village had subsided, and now that he had gone on a long journey, he had started attracting them again.

Tan Wenbin yawned and said: "It seems the old people saying you have to look at the almanac when going out is right. If I had known, I should have burned incense and bathed, and calculated the departure date."

Runsheng lit a stick of incense and stuck it in the soil in front of him.

Tan Wenbin couldn't help but roll his eyes: "What's the use of burning incense now?"

The dark clouds became heavier, and the humidity in the air began to increase. Rain could fall at any time.

Li Zhuiyuan, who had been burying his head in thought about how to escape, looked up and was immediately stunned.

Because on Xue Liangliang's face, a texture like dark wood appeared. Even if Li Zhuiyuan didn't usually read faces for people around him, this kind of face was already similar to a very straightforward bonus question. Although it wasn't the same thing, it was close to the common jargon of charlatans: "I see your forehead is black!"

This was bad luck clinging to the body, luck falling to the bottom, disasters easily connected. Generally, only people on their deathbeds would have this kind of face, because for them, any small accident or blow could extinguish their life lamp.

Li Zhuiyuan immediately looked at Runsheng and Tan Wenbin and found that they were the same.

Then wasn't he the same?

The four of them had been together all the way, sharing the same breath and branch. If they were going to have bad luck, they would definitely have it together.

He reached out and picked up the knife Xue Liangliang had placed in front of him, using the blade as a mirror to look at himself.

Immediately, a strong sense of nausea struck.

Although he wasn't deducing his own destiny, although it was clear and easy to understand, looking at one's own face was also a taboo.

Most importantly, the boy had already transformed what he had learned into an instinct. Even if he only wanted to take a shallow look, his brain had already been running completely, just like a person seeing a one-plus-one problem and being able to calculate the answer without thinking.

Throwing the knife away, Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes, soothing his dizziness and nausea.

After recovering, Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes, his eyes full of thick incomprehension and doubt.

Because he discovered that his own face was normal, completely different from the "exhausted" state of these three partners.

"Brothers, I have a very serious question to ask you."

The three raised their heads, looked at the boy, and waited for the question.

"On the road, did you guys secretly do something together behind my back?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 60 =====