Chapter 5: The Dreamy Sealed Village

  I rubbed my temples with both hands, pressing hard to keep myself awake and think carefully about what was going on. Suddenly Zhang Bao shouted at me: "Xiao Long, come over here quickly."

  "What's wrong?" I replied as I ran towards his location.

  "There's a note!" Zhang Bao handed the note over to me.

  Took over the note and took a look, only to see that there were just a few words written on it: 'If you want to know the answer, go to the woods at the entrance of the village. Everything you want to know is inside.'

  "Doesn't this handwriting seem unlike Wang Hui's?" I asked Zhang Bao.

  "It shouldn't be, but I think this looks like a person's..."

  At this point, Zhang Bao seemed to want to say something but stopped himself. I saw his hand trembling again, and suddenly a chill ran down my spine once more. Because I also felt it, the handwriting should be Wang Xiaoya's.

  "Zhang Bao, are you saying that this handwriting is Wang Xiaoya's?" I asked him intently.

  "Hmm!" Zhang Bao nodded and said, "It seems so."

  I nodded and said, "Okay, I agree with you, but Wang Xiaoya is already dead, that's an indisputable fact. Now there's only one reason, which is someone imitated her handwriting to scare us."

  "Are you trying to scare us on purpose? Are you saying that someone knows it was us who killed Wang Xiaoya back then?" Zhang Bao's emotions seemed a bit agitated, his eyes were also quite frightening.

  "Ah..." I sighed and said, "What's meant to come will come, what's meant to go will go. I don't know, but since someone left us a note, I've decided to investigate."

  "I'm not going!" Zhang Bao directly vetoed me, "Few people have entered that forest, it's said to be very eerie, even if there are no ghosts or monsters, I reckon there will be plenty of strange birds and insects, no way am I going."

  "But Wang Hui is gone now, can we pretend that nothing happened? And the bloodstains that appeared several times just now, don't you want to know what's going on?"

  I know it's useless to argue with Zhang Bao, he won't compromise, so I can only debate theory with him.

  He took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth, saying to me: "This time listen to you, we will go into that forest, I don't believe it, people who have been dead for many years can come back to life or what? It's weird."

  Although he spoke tough, I knew he must be very scared in his heart. He took out his mobile phone and looked at the time, it was already 1 o'clock in the morning. The moon was still very round and bright, giving people a feeling of gloominess, everything could be seen clearly.

  It's July now, the weather is very hot and humid, but I feel a cool breeze from time to time. My heart is tangled, I don't even know what I'm thinking about. If it were Wang Xiaoya teacher's soul coming back for revenge, she probably wouldn't wait eight years. But if it's not Wang Xiaoya teacher's revenge, then what's going on? What about the mysterious disappearance of Wang Hui twice before, and that cryptic note, what's the story behind all this?

  Zhang Bao handed me a cigarette in front of Linzi and said: "Take a puff, boost your courage!"

  I'm not usually into this sort of thing, but he said it would give me courage, so I took a couple of puffs. Liquor can make a coward brave, and that cigarette seemed to have some effect too. We took a few more drags and then walked into the woods.

  This is my first time coming to this forest, it's very quiet, no insect calls, every step we take will have a response. Stepping on it can have a crunchy feeling and the thorns are piercing.

  At this moment, I suddenly felt that there was someone behind me, also following us forward. Sweat poured out from my forehead like a swarm of bees. I pulled Zhang Bao's hand and asked in a low voice: "Is there someone behind us?"

  Zhang Bao didn't talk to me, but instead walked forward directly. At first, I thought he hadn't heard my words clearly, so I asked him again, but he still didn't respond and grabbed my hand, walking forward.

  "Hey, what are you doing? What's going on?" I tried with all my might to shake off his hand, but couldn't no matter how hard I tried.

  At this moment, I found that he seemed to have changed into another person. Seeing him ignoring me, I rushed towards his face and punched him with a "bang" sound, knocking him to the ground.

  "Zhang Bao, are you okay?" After knocking him to the ground, I lowered my head and prepared to help him up.

  If what happened before can't be explained, then this thing is unacceptable to me. At that time, Zhang Bao disappeared right in front of my eyes. The moment he fell down, I squatted down, but still couldn't see him.

  I suddenly turned my head back, only to find that there was no one behind me. I started looking around and it was still quiet all around, nothing at all, just a bright moon in the sky. My scalp felt numb and goosebumps rose all over my skin. I wanted to call out Zhang Bao's name, but I suppressed it in my heart. I was worried that something might appear here.

  I took a look at the time, it's almost four o'clock now, and in less than two hours, the sky will be bright. I chose to wait, for me this forest is strange, it's terrifying. Now I don't dare to move forward, nor do I dare to go back, perhaps not being scared silly is a blessing in disguise.

  I leaned against a tree and closed my eyes, I didn't dare look at everything around me.

  It was like this, I don't know how long had passed, when I suddenly heard a girl's voice, as if she was calling out my name.

  I slowly opened my eyes to see a girl wearing a white hat and sportswear standing in front of me. Seeing that I was awake, she leaned down and asked: "Where are you from? How did you end up here?"

  I rubbed my eyes and found myself beside a highway, with several cars passing by from time to time.

  "I asked her in confusion: 'Where is this place? How did I end up here?'"

  "This is Fengmen Village!" The girl said casually.

  "Ah?" I involuntarily cried out, because I had seen legends about Fengmen Village in the science books I was reading, which said that this place was inhabited by ghosts.

  "What's wrong? Why are you making such a face?" the girl asked me.

  I put away the fearful expression and said to her, "It's okay, I think I should go now. I should head back. Can you tell me how far it is from here to Rongshu Village?"

  "Yongshu Village?" The girl was stunned for a moment, "Within a hundred miles around here, there's only our own Fengmen Village. I've never heard of any other village. Just look at how new this highway is - it's clear that nobody ever comes through here."

  Isn't anyone going? I clearly saw several cars passing by just now, did I get dizzy?

  I took out my phone, ready to check the GPS location to see where I was, but my phone was dead. I asked the girl, "Can I go to your house and charge my phone?"

  The girl stared blankly for a moment and said to me: "There is no electricity here, electronic devices don't work well here."

  "Is there no electricity?" I asked in surprise.

  "Right, there's no electricity. It seems you're not too familiar with the environment here. Alright, follow me home and I'll get a map for you. Maybe then you'll know where this is."

  "Alright, I'm in trouble!" Now I have no choice but to follow her home and see where I am, since my phone is out of battery and I somehow ended up in this godforsaken place.

  She led the way in front, and I followed behind. When we arrived at the village, I immediately became uneasy because the layout of Fengmen Village was exactly the same as Rongshu Village.

  "Wait!" I shouted loudly.

  The girl heard me shout and turned back to ask: "What's wrong?"

  "Where is this place? Who are you?"

  "This is Fengmen Village, I'm Xiaorou. What happened to you just now?" The woman who called herself Xiaorou patiently explained to me.

  At this time, two villagers happened to walk over and said to Xiaorou: "Xiaorou, playing with friends?"

  While they were talking, they also had a scrutinizing gaze at me, making me feel very uncomfortable.

  "Yes, auntie, a new friend I just met."