Chapter 4 The Dead Man's Face

  This time we came, was to investigate the female corpse's strange smile, this stone monument's smile, undoubtedly like a needle deeply pierced our most sensitive nerves.

  I have a guess that this strange face can appear on the stone tablet, especially when it is hidden in the stratum, it's not just simply painted like that, it hides something.

  I pondered for a long time, but couldn't think of any reason, finally Panzi looked down at the strange face and found that under it, there was a line of small words faintly engraved.

  The small characters were originally covered with plants, and just now they were cleaned up by the two of us. The red water flowed out and soaked them thoroughly. I touched my backpack, pulled out a small piece of toilet paper from inside, and wiped it clean on top.

  After cleaning up, this line of small characters is thoroughly exposed, which reads "Danger: Forbidden Zone!"

  I'm quite puzzled, thinking this isn't the border of Weichang Village? Why was it a restricted area before?

  Now neither of us was in the mood to hurry along, and we both squatted down beside this stone monument. I also took out that small gift box and looked at the bone wind chimes inside. I had a feeling that these wind chimes would definitely be useful for us, but what exactly they were used for, I couldn't say yet.

  At this time, a burst of laughter suddenly came from afar, hehehe, like the kind that three or four-year-old children make when they're being mischievous.

  In this desolate wilderness, such a laugh suddenly appeared, absolutely chilling. Panzi and I were both startled, looking around in all directions together.

  We didn't notice where the laughter came from, and now it's hard to tell, I said the laughter came from our left, but Panzi suspected it was on the right.

  If it was said that the stone bleeding before was due to plant juice, then this laughter is absolutely inexplicable by plants. In my memory, I have never heard of any plant that can laugh.

  The two of us stood up on purpose, perked up our ears and waited, hoping that the laughter would appear again. But before we could wait for the laughter, other strange things appeared.

  A dark cloud appeared in the distance, moving in a very regular pattern along the dirt road, rapidly approaching us.

  I could vaguely make out that it was a group of birds, and the occasional cawing sounds that came over confirmed to me that they were crows.

  I've never seen so many crows before, and they don't look very friendly either. I didn't want to make a fuss, so I said to Panzi, "Let's go hide in the bushes for now!"

  We both lifted our feet and rushed into the bush together. We didn't run less this time, and stopped about 50 meters away from the dirt road, squatting down and looking up at the same time.

  This group of crows is particularly fast, my companion and I had just crouched down and hadn't even adjusted our breathing yet when they rushed over. I thought they would keep flying past without stopping, but unexpectedly they suddenly slowed down.

  I and Panzi didn't make any excessive moves, nor did we provoke them, but one of them took the lead and led this group of flat-haired beasts to charge at us.

  We were forced into a corner and didn't have time to dodge, so I had no choice but to grit my teeth and call out to Panzi, preparing for a fight!

  We two old men, normally facing a group of crows wouldn't be a big deal, but strangely, this group of crows was very clever, surrounding us and attacking from all sides.

  They say two fists are hard to contend with four hands, we both paid close attention, but after a stalemate for a while, I also found an opportunity. Panzi was caught off guard and was pecked at the back of his neck by a crow several times.

  The crow's claws were sharp and instantly scratched several blood vessels on his neck. These birds are all wild, I took a look at Panzi's wound and secretly worried in my heart, afraid that the bird had avian flu or something like that.

  Pan Zi couldn't hold it in anymore, let out a muffled hum, turned his head and ran away. I wanted to call him not to run, because facing these flying birds, we can't escape no matter how hard we try.

  But I shouted a few times, Panzi's heart was confused and didn't listen to me. In the end, I had no choice but to turn my head and chase after him together into the house.

  This group of crows followed us, with a posture that refused to give up. As a result, the two of us fought and ran, and we estimated that we had run at least one mile away. Moreover, it was difficult to walk in the grassland, so in the end, both of us were covered in wounds and panting heavily.

  This group of crows also got tired, temporarily let us two go, flying randomly in the air. I said it's not good now what feeling, my heart is quite stuffy, and also with a hint of helplessness. Unexpectedly, we just entered the territory of Suizhong Village and hadn't done anything serious yet, but were bullied by a group of birds.

  I knew this group of crows would definitely launch a second wave of attack, so I encouraged Panzi to cheer up and not run away in a moment, the two of us worked together to try to get rid of them as soon as possible.

  But then something unexpected happened. A brief and rapid strange laugh came from the front bush, "Hehehe!"

  I was startled by a burst of laughter and thought, "What's next?", the crow hadn't even settled down yet, and now this ghostly laugh is joining in on the fun.

  Panzi was also forced to desperation, taking out a desperate attitude, ferociously gritting his teeth and shouting, "Damn it, I'll do whatever it takes!"

  I stood back to back with him, ready. What's strange is that after the crow heard this laughter, it became timid and didn't care about us anymore, all of a sudden it turned around and flew away at an incredible speed, flapping its wings.

  According to legend, the crow's danger has been eliminated, and we should also be relieved. However, in reality, the two of us have become even more vigilant. This group of crows is afraid of ghostly laughter, what does this imply?

  This time both Panzi and I heard it clearly, knowing the source of the laughter. Neither of us needed to remind the other, we all looked towards the same thicket together.

  This thicket is particularly large, almost as far as the eye can see, especially with dense shrubs inside, at least one person tall. I warned Panzi to be careful and told him that we would go in and take a look to see what the laughter was all about.

  Pan Zidong nodded and said yes. I went first, opened up a bush, and found a place to land. It felt like this bush was particularly hard and had some elasticity. When I opened it, I really had to use some force, otherwise it would all squeeze back.

  I struggled with this thorny bush, which made it easier for Panzi to follow behind me without much effort.

  I was scratching the bushes with one hand and perking up my ears to listen, although I couldn't see what was inside, but my eyes were also scanning around. I thought I was being careful enough, but still got caught off guard.

  Just as I parted another bush, a face suddenly appeared from the thicket in front of me.

  His face wasn't normal, it was pale and bloodless, with bulging eyes and a big mouth, wearing a sinister smile.

  This head poked out just in time and almost bumped noses with me.

  I was stared at by this dead face at such a close distance, and in an instant, I was scared to the point where all my hair stood up.

  I shouted and quickly pulled my head back.

  Panzi was walking behind and didn't know what was going on. Not only did he not retreat, but his nose was also knocked by the back of my head. He covered his nose and hummed.

  I was blocked by Panzi, and the fear in my heart had not dissipated yet. I hastily dodged to the side, still wanting to retreat a bit further, keeping a certain distance from this dead man's face.

  As soon as I flashed, Panzi's field of vision suddenly widened, and he also saw the dead man's face. With just one glance, he forgot about his pain and was frightened to a standstill for a moment.

  He then went on a rampage, he was absolutely ruthless, holding the spring knife and pouncing on the dead man's face, stabbing him repeatedly while cursing "fuck your mother" in his mouth.

  I noticed a detail, when Panzi's spring knife stabbed into the dead person's face, it went in with a "hiss" sound, this wouldn't happen if it were a real human face, no matter how much force Panzi used, one stab wouldn't be able to penetrate so deeply.

  I came to myself and thought, could this be fake? I pressed down the chaotic feeling in my heart and shouted a sentence, telling him to calm down.

  Pan Zi was a bit stunned, and it took him several more stabs to come back to his senses. He looked at me again, and with a hint of vigilance, he touched the dead man's face.

  It so happened that there were several holes poked in the dead man's face, and Panzi dug into these holes with his fingers. When he pulled out his hand, it was wrapped around a piece of straw mixed with cotton wool.

  This was actually a scarecrow. I was puzzled again, and I also went over to feel around the face of this person, and even cut off some shrubs nearby with my knife to clear out a space.

  After a lot of fuss and bother, the Scarecrow stood before us, his entire body visible.

  It's about the same size as a real person, with a wooden stake inserted into the ground at an angle, especially that face is deliberately protruding forward, although it's already full of holes on top, but still grinning at us.

  I know that a scarecrow is a person who guards the fields, preventing birds from damaging the crops. But here it's just a bush thicket, and the bushes are even taller than the scarecrow. What's the point of putting up such a realistic scarecrow?

  Panzi thought of another aspect and stared at the scarecrow, asking me a question, "Du Rui, do you think that laughter just now was made by this scarecrow?"

  At first, Panzi's words sounded a bit far-fetched, but after searching for so long without finding anyone, there was only the scarecrow in front of us. Could it be that Panzi had actually hit the nail on the head? What was strange about this scarecrow that made it emit human laughter?