Chapter Seven A Pair of Embroidered Shoes

  The tall man seemed to be very familiar with Fengmen Village. Even though the ground was now covered in white snow, he easily led me to the place he mentioned, a place that we were both very familiar with - the small temple where three people first met.

  I don't know why the tall one said that Erliang might be here. Does he suspect that the figure in the mirror is Erliang? At this moment, there are only three of us in Fengmen Village, plus an old man who has run off somewhere. In that case, isn't it possible that I am also suspected by the tall one?

  It seems like Gao Ge believes I trust Er Lang more than him, does he know something?

  In the small temple, I didn't see Er Liang. The wind and snow outside grew even more intense. My tall companion and I had no choice but to take shelter here. He sat on the ground, lost in thought. After a while, he asked: "What did you see in the mirror?"

  I've been worried that he would ask me this question, and indeed he had asked once before, but I didn't answer. This time he asked again, and after hesitating for a long time, I finally told him the truth, including what the old man said about "only one can live". After all, the situation here has already exceeded my expectations, and some inexplicable things have happened in the village. Nobody knows what will happen next, so being honest with each other is actually a good thing at this point.

  The tall guy furrowed his brow, thinking for a long time but still couldn't figure it out. However, he comforted me with a few words: "Actually, you don't have to worry about ghosts. Even if they really exist, who has ever seen one come out and kill someone? At most, they just come out to scare people, and those people are actually scared to death by themselves."

  I thought about what he said, and indeed it made sense. I felt a bit more at ease in my heart because the tall one had hardly slept all night, and just as he had fallen asleep, I woke him up again. Plus, earlier we were searching for Erlang, so he looked very tired. He gave me a nod, took out his sleeping bag and crawled inside, asking me to keep watch for a while. Of course, he still tightly grasped that knife and didn't give it to me.

  I also don't have any other ideas, Gao is a person with a strong sense of self-protection, he believes that the knife is safer in his own hands than in others'.

  According to the information I found earlier, there are three small temples in the village, but the most famous one is the one we are currently in. The two official statues that are said to be ghost images are already old and worn out, with clothing styles from the Song and Ming dynasties. Anyway, I'm not an expert in this field, and I didn't have much interest in it either. After taking a few glances, I thought the broken and tattered statues weren't worth looking at, so I turned around to take a look behind the statue to see if there were any discoveries.

  As I lowered my head and walked past the female statue on the right, I suddenly felt that something was wrong, so I hastily retreated a few steps. This time, I finally found out what was wrong.

  At the foot of the dilapidated female statue, there was a pair of red embroidered shoes.

  Of course, there couldn't have been a pair of embroidered shoes next to the stone carving before, otherwise they would have been discovered by the previous expedition teams. It's extremely noticeable that a red patch suddenly appears next to the gray statue. If it weren't nighttime now, I'm afraid I could have easily found it as soon as I came in.

  Erlang was the first to arrive here, did he discover anything?

  The snoring of the tall man continued, I suddenly remembered the scene he and I talked about. Now he was lying on the ground with a pair of red embroidered shoes beside him, only it wasn't Er Liang standing by his side but me.

  Looking at the embroidered shoes, I had more and more cold sweat on my body. I didn't know if it was just a pair of shoes or if there was someone invisible wearing them standing next to the statue looking at me. With difficulty, I lifted my head up. The female statue had been severely eroded by time, its head almost incomplete. If someone were wearing those shoes, would they also be a person without a head?

  Fear had taken over my entire body and mind, I wanted to shout out loud to the tall one, but somehow couldn't open my mouth. Just then, a strange cry came from outside the house again, saying: "Only one can live!"

  I recognized the voice of that old man, the cry was not loud, but I heard it clearly. At this moment, a thought suddenly popped up in my mind: if the pictures in those mirrors will eventually become reality, and if this sentence means that only one of us three can survive, then why don't I kill the tall guy now and increase my own chances of survival?

  The scene that tall guy described to me became clearer and clearer, and the thought in my heart became stronger and stronger. Just as I was about to rush over to tall guy's side to grab his knife, suddenly footsteps came from outside, followed by a person rushing in like a whirlwind. I immediately snapped back to reality, without even having time to think about why I had that murderous thought just now. At first glance, I looked at who the person was, and couldn't help but exclaim: "Erlang!"

  The person who just rushed in was the second good that I and the tall one had been searching for all night but couldn't find. He was still wearing that red down jacket, and when he saw me, he clearly got a fright, obviously not expecting to see me here. The tall one also woke up from my shout and quickly got up to block the doorway, treating the second good as if he were a criminal, afraid that he would run away.

  Er Liang saw the tall man, and his body obviously shook, he leaned towards me, seemingly seeing that he was very afraid. I also didn't know what unclear inside story there was here, and it wasn't good to ask openly here, so I asked Er Liang: "Where did you run off to? We looked everywhere for you but couldn't find you!"

  Er Lang gave a dry laugh and said, "Can't sleep, just going out for a stroll." This was clearly an evasion. Since he didn't want to say anything, we couldn't do anything about it. We had originally wanted to ask him about the embroidered shoes, but since he responded like this, it was clear that we wouldn't be able to get anything out of him, so we just didn't speak up. The tall one asked, "How did you end up here?"

  Er Lang still said the same thing: "Can't sleep, go for a walk." This time even I didn't want to help him, but he turned his head and winked at me, showing a pitiful and pleading expression. I could only sigh in my heart and change the subject, saying: "Forget it, let's put this aside for now, what do you think this is?"

  I shifted my body to reveal the pair of red embroidered shoes, and the tall one's face changed instantly. He couldn't help but glance at me, I think he must have thought of that scene and what he saw in the mirror too, fortunately nothing happened. Although I was looking at the tall one, my eyes were fixed on Er Liang, but I found that apart from being surprised and frightened, he didn't show any tension or panic as if his secret had been exposed.

  My first reaction was that Er Lang didn't know that a pair of embroidered shoes were following him that day, so why did he go out alone that day and where did he go?

  "Too tired, I want to sleep for a while, let's all sleep together." He looked at his sleeping bag and said, "I'm not used to using things that others have used, you can use the sleeping bag instead. Er Lang and I will sleep together, it'll be warmer."

  What he said "second best" is me, I remembered his whole body was cold, just wanted to object, but he secretly made a wink at me, I don't know what trick he has up his sleeve, anyway with so many people around, I believe he won't do anything to me, so I agreed.

  The tall one didn't say anything, looked at Erliang again, then looked at the embroidered shoes and coldly said: "Putting on airs." Then he picked it up with a knife, lit it with a lighter and threw it outside, crawled back into his sleeping bag and said: "There are only a few hours left before dawn, hurry up and sleep, we'll be going down the mountain soon, take care of your physical strength."

  Er Lang seemed to be afraid of tall people, making an excuse to avoid the wind, wanting to sleep with me in another corner. I hesitated for a moment and agreed, wondering what he wanted to say to me.

  Because the ground was too cold, neither of us dared to lie down, and we just crouched in the corner of the wall. Erliang occasionally glanced at the tall one with the corner of his eye, and when he heard him breathe evenly, he put his mouth close to my ear and whispered: "Do you know why I went out alone?"

  "This was what I wanted to know, so I didn't care about the chill he emitted and nodded. Erliang looked at Gaoliang with a face full of fear and said: "I went out to follow that guy, guess what I saw?"