Chapter 9: Foreign Dolls

  The tall guy asked: "Where did this thing come from?"

  My heart tightened, Erliang seemed to be afraid of the tall figure in front of me, but now he was nonchalant and said: "I was worried that I wouldn't be familiar with the environment before coming, so I went around looking for materials, and as a result, I got this one. It's said to have been painted by someone from the village several years ago, I don't know if it's true or not, so I brought it over."

  The tall guy flipped the paper over and looked at it again, muttering to himself "heh heh" twice, saying: "It's Chu Jiangshan again, you really are a lingering ghost." I didn't understand what he meant by this sentence either. Er Liang asked cautiously: "Then... aren't we going?"

  The tall man said, "This paper should be quite old, but when we came in, those intersections were still fine. It can be seen that this is just someone intentionally sabotaging behind the scenes." He looked at Erliang and said, "I think you don't believe these things yourself, otherwise why bring them out only now?"

  The tall man's analysis was very reasonable, but unfortunately he didn't know that this paper wasn't the data Erliang collected from outside. Erliang's face turned red: "But this paper is written by Chu Jiangshan!" The implication being that the sketch on the back might also have something to do with Chu Jiangshan.

  The tall man sneered and said, "You're all afraid of Chu Jiangshan. In my opinion, that's just a dream. Whether you go or not is up to you, I'm leaving first." After finishing speaking, he didn't care about us and walked towards the village by himself.

  I looked at him with a worried expression, and he followed the tall man. To be honest, I had an inexplicable fear of the tall man, perhaps because I had discovered too many strange things about him in the past few days. But if I didn't follow him to the village, it would be dangerous to camp outside at night, even with Erliang's equipment. So I could only reluctantly choose to follow him into the village. Erliang saw me following and could only follow with a bitter face.

  Since we chose not to believe that there was any danger in this village, or as Er Lang put it, since every house had a sign indicating danger according to the map, it didn't matter which one we stayed in for the night. Everyone casually entered a house that looked less dilapidated, and inside, there was a small courtyard. At this time, the sky wasn't too late yet, and with the snow reflecting light in the courtyard, the lighting wasn't too dark either. We saw a black-and-white portrait hanging on one side of the wall in the courtyard, which was an old man. This photo we had also seen online, and it's said that when the exploration team found it, it was lying on the ground, but later, out of respect for the deceased, they picked it up and re-hung it on the wall.

  When Er Lang Yī saw the portrait, he immediately wanted to move out and change houses. He said that although every house has its dangers, at least they don't know what those ghosts look like. But Xiānzi ā saw that there was a deceased person's portrait here, according to local customs, it is likely that this old man was buried near the house. Now living in someone else's home, he always felt that the eyes of the old man in the photo were staring at him, and his heart felt a bit creepy.

  Gao Gezi naturally ignored Erlang's words, Erlang looked at me, I couldn't do anything, to be honest, I also had some strange feelings in my heart, but it wasn't easy to say out loud. The most important thing is that I think Gao Gezi's ability to survive in the wild should be stronger than ours, if we leave him, I'm afraid that with our half-baked level, it's easy to have an accident. Besides, it's just one night, we can get through it.

  Er Liang was very supportive of my proposal, and somehow managed to find a piece of cloth to wipe the glass on the portrait clean. My friend and I stood up straight and bowed together in front of the portrait, and just as we finished bowing, I slowly stood up and naturally looked at the portrait again. But in an instant, my body stiffened, and my scalp exploded: through the glass of the portrait, I saw a small figure far behind us, despite being very small, but I could see clearly that it was a woman, wearing a black dress, with her head down, long hair falling down, unable to see her face, but I could see her feet, she was wearing a pair of red embroidered shoes.

  I was stunned for a moment, then suddenly let out a loud shout, startling both High and Er Liang. Er Liang was so frightened that he didn't know what had happened and also let out a burst of ghostly cries. It wasn't until High shouted loudly to calm him down that they both stared at me blankly, asking: "What did you just see?"

  I pointed at the portrait and stuttered: "Shoes... a pair of embroidered shoes."

  Er Lang's face turned pale, the tall man looked gloomy, gripping the knife in his hand tighter, walked forward to take a look at the portrait, shook his head at me and said: "No."

  "I exclaimed, 'How is that possible? I clearly saw it.' As I spoke, I looked back at the portrait, but all I could see was the old man in black and white. I stared blankly at Gaizi and Erliang, my mouth agape. Just a moment ago, I had definitely seen a woman wearing red embroidered shoes and a black skirt in the portrait. How did she disappear in the blink of an eye?"

  The two of them didn't stop scolding me, saying I was frightening people to death. The tall one remained silent for a while, then asked me how I had seen that woman. I thought for a moment and carefully recounted what had happened. The tall one pondered for a bit, then stood up from his position, bowed down in front of the portrait, and made a series of bows while gazing at it. After a while, I saw his body stiffen too - I knew he had also seen the woman. Before I could say anything, the tall one suddenly turned around, lifted his head to look upwards towards the courtyard, and after a brief moment, pointed with his hand and said: "Look over there!"

  Following his finger, on the back of the gate at the far end of the yard, a doll was hanging, wearing a black long skirt, with long hair falling down and covering its face, and a pair of red embroidered shoes on its feet.

  Now we all understand, the doll we saw in the portrait just now should be this one. It can only be seen from a certain angle, so Gaizi and Erliang also bowed with me but didn't find anything. The light wasn't particularly good, so I thought this small doll was farther away from me.

  "This is who's hanging here, almost scared me to death." After scolding, he suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly bowed and apologized to the portrait and doll, saying that he was a child and asked them not to take offense. The tall one found a stick and took down the doll from the wall, parted its hair, and the doll's head hung low, with a rope tied around its neck, two empty eye sockets, which made us think of someone at the same time: Xiaorui.

  Because we have the same memories, many things don't need to be explained and everyone can understand. From their facial expressions, I know they must also think of that girl who made my heart move in the hypnotic world. But is she really exist? Where is she?

  What they didn't know was that this wasn't the first time I had seen a doll like this here.

  Just then, another strange cry came from outside, and the old man shouted again: "Only one can live!" The tall man threw the doll into my hands and rushed out immediately. I felt that the doll's hair was smooth to the touch, just like a real person's hair. I lowered my head, looking at those two empty eye sockets, and somehow I thought her mouth corners were slightly raised, smiling at me.

  I let out a loud cry and threw the doll away, Erlang was startled again, asking "What's wrong?" I hastily said it was nothing, then adjusted my breathing and said: "Let's follow him and take a look, whether that talking thing is a ghost or human, he must know more about the secrets of this village than we do. Whether we can get out depends on him."

  Er Liang said okay and rushed out immediately, his speed was incredibly fast, I don't know if it's because he really had good physical strength or was afraid of this house. He ran with a big backpack on his back, surprisingly faster than me. I followed behind him, somehow thinking of the small footprints that appeared at the door after he followed the tall guy out that day. The tall guy said they were made by a pair of red embroidered shoes, and those footprints had been following Er Liang ever since. I still haven't found an opportunity to ask Er Liang if he saw such a woman or a pair of embroidered shoes.

  As I ran, I thought: That day she followed behind Erlang, was it just like me now?

  Thinking so, my eyes involuntarily glanced down at my own feet.