Nineteenth Day (1) Forbidden Space

  Darkness only brings fear, after a loud noise last night, the whole hotel fell into darkness, I don't know how long I lay in the dark, my mind kept thinking about the rumor that we have one more person.

  Normally, no one would mind if it were in peacetime. After all, the sky was very dark, so dark that you couldn't see your fingers, and people were also flustered, they wouldn't stand there neatly, it's normal to make mistakes when checking heads in such a situation.

  But now it's not a normal space-time, all my cognition has been overturned in this desolate village, I can no longer distinguish between true and false, so there is an extra person's statement in my mind.

  Is it human or ghost?

  I don't know how long I had been daydreaming, but in the end, I fell asleep. However, it was a light sleep, and it seemed like I had just closed my eyes when the first dream began, followed by an earth-shattering wail.

  I sat up with a start, still feeling frightened after that loud noise yesterday, and didn't dare take off my clothes all night for fear of something happening.

  As soon as I heard this cry in the morning, I had a feeling of being prepared for it, and without hesitation, I jumped out of bed and rushed out.

  I saw a tall girl standing at the door, leaning against the wall and shouting.

  I never knew the names of that tall girl and short fat girl in our student union, they were so ordinary, just like irrelevant passersby.

  I wasn't familiar with her, I hesitated at the door for a moment, and then all the doors opened, and everyone ran out.

  It seems that everyone was sleeping in their clothes like me last night, and everyone was very nervous. In the morning, before anyone found out what caused the loud noise, this cry was enough to make everyone collapse.

  Several students rushed over immediately, and a boy asked, "Ai ya, what's wrong?"

  The tall girl pointed to her own room, covered her mouth and shook her head, seemingly having no strength to respond.

  The students entered the room, and I also walked over there, following at the end, and saw the scene on the bed and was shocked.

  That short and stout girl was wearing pajamas, with a dagger inserted into her abdomen, and had stopped breathing.

  The students exclaimed in surprise, and Ma Tiancheng rushed over, pushing through the crowd to take a look. He let out a muffled grunt before asking, "What's going on? How did this happen? Who did it?"

  It seems that no one can answer this question, everyone is backing down, I see the students' faces are all panicked, Ma Tiancheng walked around in the room, stretched out his hand to cover the short and fat girl's body with a quilt, then he turned around, with a serious face, saying "This is my hotel, you can't mess around." Who exactly is it?

  The words were also quite unconvincing, and the students were more panicked than sad at this moment. They looked at each other, shaking their heads, when Ma Tiancheng suddenly shouted, "Everyone go to the dining hall, not a single person can be missing, let's go!"

  He quickly went downstairs after finishing speaking, and the students inside the house followed him out, but they didn't listen to him. They all stood at the door, not knowing what to do. Ma Tiancheng and the dwarf came over from that side, each holding a kitchen knife in their hands.

  The students let out a cry of surprise, and I was startled too. I shielded Xiao Ai behind me and looked at Feng Yue in the distance with some concern. Then I said, "Ma Ge, what's going on?"

  Ma Tiancheng waved the kitchen knife and said, "Don't worry, this is self-defense. Everyone get downstairs. Today, I must find out who did this and tie them up. Otherwise, I think we'll all die here."

  The boy named Xiao Bin stood in front of Feng Yue, I saw Feng Yue's hand gently patted Xiao Bin's shoulder, then Xiao Bin opened his mouth and said, we should still leave, this place is too eerie, right? Let's go to the town first, to the police station. Once at the police station, let the police investigate clearly.

  Xiao Bin's words make sense. If something like this happens in an inn, who would be the most suspicious? There have been many black inns since ancient times, and it seems we've run into one.

  Now I'm thinking this way in my heart, after all, the two people opposite me are coming up with knives.

  Ma Tiancheng thought for a moment, bent down and discussed with the dwarf for two sentences, then he said, damn it, what bad luck, there's also a dead body in the inn. If you all want to leave, can you guys carry this person away?

  I saw the students' faces all turned white, and another boy said, "Let's not touch the scene anymore, okay?"

  Ma Tiancheng thought for a moment, then said, "Alright, we'll go with you. Everyone will explain everything clearly at the Public Security Bureau. Not one of you is allowed to run away." Let's move, gather all your belongings, and let's head down together. No one is allowed to be missing. It's just ten minutes, the mountain road is not easy to walk on, everyone hurry up and pack up. If there are things that can't be taken, leave them here and let the police come and take them away. This place is too eerie. Hurry up!

  After finishing, the two people carried kitchen knives downstairs, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone wanted to escape this haunted place. In less than ten minutes, everyone really went downstairs, and each person packed up properly.

  Xiao Ai followed me and whispered, "I haven't found Xiao Ai yet, what should I do?"

  I sighed and said, nothing can be done, something like this has happened, I can't stay in this place anymore.

  Xiao Ai responded with a "oh" and then said, "Wherever you go, I'll follow you there. However, you have to promise me that you'll help find Xiao Ai."

  I nodded slightly, Xia Ai walked over and linked her arm in mine, smiled, then said, "It's really blissful."

  This happiness gave me a chill, I hastily covered Xiaoyi's lips with my fingers and whispered, don't say such words.

  Xiao Ai smiled and removed her lips from my fingertips, then nodded and said, "No one expected it to turn out like this."

  I was taken aback and asked in return, "What?"

  Xiao Ai said, "Nothing much, I was saying that those students didn't think that something like this would happen when they came out to travel, right?"

  I nodded, looking at the group of students. They were originally five boys and five girls, but now two had died. The whole team looked like it was carrying a dead atmosphere, with each person keeping a great distance from one another. Although they formed a small group, there wasn't much communication between them.

  I think you both must be suspecting each other in your hearts.

  I sighed, tourism has become a tragedy, these shadows will probably follow them for the rest of their lives.

  No one wanted to linger here for a second, everyone tacitly walked out of the inn, counted the number of people at the door, and silently climbed the mountain after confirming that no one was missing.

  Everyone was silent, the whole road was muddy, yesterday's rainstorm washed out one mud pit after another on the mountain, and these mud pits were hidden in the green grass, these traps were hidden on the road, making everyone look embarrassed, almost crawling to the entrance of the cave.

  When everyone stood at the entrance of the cave, nobody moved. Everyone understood the source of that loud noise yesterday.

  The cave collapsed and a huge boulder sealed off the entire entrance without leaving any gap.

  Everyone fell silent, and then the next second everyone went crazy. The girls started screaming, the boys rushed over to dig up the stone with force. I stood aside, my head spinning, was my fate really like this?

  Stranded in this desolate mountain wilderness, I don't have the ability to survive the remaining twenty days, which means I won't be able to escape.

  And I implicated everyone?

  As I was lost in thought, I heard a few more cries of surprise. The commotion subsided and then I saw a boy being carried out by someone. His face was covered with blood, and there was a huge gash on his forehead that was bubbling with blood. Xiao Bin was carrying the boy, who seemed helpless, looking at Ma Tiancheng and then at me.

  He finally let go of the boy and ran over to me, saying "What should I do?"

  As soon as he asked me, the other students looked at me, and in an instant I seemed to have become their leader. I glanced up at the sky, this damned weather was still gloomy, seemingly with signs of a storm. I asked Xiaobin, "Is it possible to pass through the mountain cave?"

  Xiao Bin shook his head and said, "It's too dangerous, and I don't know how deep the blockage is. Why would this good cave collapse?"

  I remembered the loud noise from yesterday, that earth-shattering sound must have come from here, and at that time the ground was shaking too. In this situation, there are only two possibilities: first, an earthquake is the main cause, and the collapse of the cave is a secondary effect; second, because of this, I dare not think about it at this moment.

  I said it should be an earthquake, how is your friend?

  Xiao Bin said, it's just a superficial wound, but what can we do?

  I said, otherwise let's go back, it's going to rain soon and it's too dangerous.

  Xiao Bin thought for a moment and said, let's discuss it.

  He ran back to the group of students, and after a discussion that lasted for half a day, he said, "Let's go back. Can you speak up at the inn? We're a bit worried about them."

  I know the students are scared, he walked over and talked to Ma Tiancheng for a few words, Ma Tiancheng saw the cave collapse and had no way out, told the dwarf two sentences then said there is another way out of the mountain, crossing the mountain will be fine, but now the road is too slippery, there is no road on the mountain, it's too dangerous. Ask the students if they dare to cross the mountain, if not, we can only go back to the hotel. But one thing is clear, if you follow me back, everyone must tell what happened last night honestly, we must find out who killed the person, otherwise we are all in danger.

  I nodded and summarized Ma Tiancheng's words to the students, highlighting the key points. Fengyue walked over and whispered to me, "I'm a bit scared, that inn doesn't seem like a good place. Are you brave enough to say this about climbing mountains?"

  This girl's courage is really not ordinary, I shook my head and said, I don't dare, I advise you not to have this idea either. This is Stone Mountain, due to the existence of caves, there are no roads on the mountain at all, it's not certain that we can climb up even if it doesn't rain, let alone on a day like today when it's going to rain.

  Fengyue said in a low voice, you're right, but this cave has been repaired for so many years, why did it collapse with just one earthquake? If I had to say, was someone blowing it up?

  I had a chill run down my spine, this is another possibility I thought of, but I'd rather there wasn't such a possibility.

  I comforted Fengyue, and also comforted myself by saying that this village has been deserted for so long without anyone to take care of it, so it's naturally not as good as before. Don't think nonsense, let's hurry up and leave, or else it will rain again.

  Fengyue nodded and suddenly said, "You're not a bad person, are you?"

  I was taken aback, then said, "No, are you relieved now by saying that?"

  Fengyue's face turned red, she shook her head and walked away.