The Seventeenth Day (12) The Greatest Crisis

  I looked around and everyone was scared. This is actually a very strange phenomenon. Just now, when we mentioned ghosts, everyone was scared, but when we mentioned humans, everyone was even more scared.

  Actually, everyone is very clear that although the affairs of ghosts and gods are mysterious and unpredictable, they are ultimately somewhat illusory and may not necessarily befall oneself. On the other hand, what's most frightening in this world is humans; if human forces intervene, it's possible that no one will survive.

  I paused, then continued, "It was this morning that my friend discovered the tape and was silenced. And this morning, only the two of you went out, right? If we're looking for a way out, wouldn't the first thought be to go to the mountain cave? Why did you two turn back to the village and coincidentally discover my friend hanging from the pagoda tree?"

  Xiao Pang said, right? You guys came back and still didn't dare to enter Hou Mingyu's room, did you? Because he was also drugged by you. All of this is what you've done, why do you want to kill us all off? We said, we don't know you at all.

  We now have the upper hand in terms of momentum, and the student parties have suffered one misfortune after another. At this moment, they can't even beat us, and several people look terrified, glancing at each other.

  This is actually a very sad phenomenon, the confined space-time has caused all the beastly nature of human beings to come into play. Here, law and morality have lost their dominant position, and what can decide the right to speak is not knowledge or money, but precisely the thing that humans have used most skillfully for thousands of years - fists.

  Thousands of years of evolution have given us civilization, but civilization is an illusion. Here we seem to have returned to the primitive era, back to the age when beasts spoke.

  Jin Sanpang got up from the ground and returned to the student group, saying, "You guys shouldn't be so quick to curse others. We were indeed the first to discover your friend's death, but... you're just cursing blindly and confusing the issue. I still have that question, where did you few people come from? Have you been secretly stirring up trouble behind our backs these past few days?

  I continued to observe everyone and didn't find anything too suspicious. Everyone was very scared, including the few of us.

  The two donkeys were certain that Jin San Bao and Zhang Da Zhuang were the murderers. He stretched out his hand to hit them, but I stopped him and said, "Everyone is reasonable, let me ask you first, are you looking for a way out? Do you want to go to the mountain cave first?"

  Jin San patted his head and leaned back, then said, "I didn't go."

  I'm telling you, it's better if you don't lie.

  Jin Sanpang said, "We just didn't go." Why did we have to go to that cave?

  I said, normal humans should also go to the cave first to take a look at the situation, this is a shortcut out of the mountain.

  Jin San said, "That's your idea. If the cave opens up, naturally someone will come back to look for us, right? No one comes, the cave doesn't open, why should we go?"

  This sentence is so reasonable that I was at a loss for counterarguments for a moment.

  Jin San said, "We two plan to cross the village and go up the mountain opposite to take a look. You can go out and see for yourself that the mountain head opposite the village is obviously shorter than other places. One glance will tell you that we are not lying. Since we planned to climb the mountain to get out, we must be looking for a shorter mountain head, right? After passing through, we two finally climbed up with great difficulty, but after crossing that mountain head, it was still mountains everywhere. We had no choice but to return, and as we passed through the village, we saw the hanged person."

  I said, did you pass by there before? Was it during your trip that Xiaodidian hanged himself on the pagoda tree?

  Jin San said, we started by going around the mountain, since we were looking for a way out, we must have looked around. After circling to that side and coming back, the village was a shortcut, so we naturally walked through the village.

  I frowned, and Er Duzi clenched his fists, saying, "You guys talk like farting, Xiao Xiaoduan must have been killed by you, right?"

  Jin Sanpang said, you're the one who farted, what's your origin? Where did you come from? You said you came from the mountain, okay, which side of the mountain did you come from? Tell me.

  The two donkeys said, I'll tell you clearly today.

  After finishing, I hurriedly stopped him, and Fengyue said that in fact, under the current circumstances, it is also reasonable for everyone to distrust each other. There must be many people among us who have lied about many details for various reasons. Why don't we all speak frankly and openly? Let's reveal all the hidden details?

  I was taken aback, then remembered that I had lied multiple times about hiding drugs, and couldn't help but think that my previous lie about drinking water from the thermos would only make the whole situation even more confusing.

  But if I tell the truth, that thing is not a poison, it's really a poison, I'm afraid I'll really die here.

  Since I have this reason to lie, and this unavoidable reason to disturb everyone's reasoning, don't others?

  The words "wind and moon" awakened me, I looked around, everyone may be lying about everything, maybe they all have secrets that can't be said, each person grasps a certain part of the truth, but they may all have the same reason as me, unable to speak.

  This inn is like Rashomon, everyone's description of things has lies, everyone's words have a purpose, no one here is absolutely fair, even I, the so-called troublemaker, and the neutral person in spring also repeatedly lead everyone away from the truth for their own benefit.

  In such a situation, can we find the truth hidden by everyone in this eerie space-time?

  The two donkeys loudly said, we did not lie.

  Zhang Dazhuang was originally timid, but this time he spoke up and said, "How did you guys come here? You absolutely didn't come down from the mountain, you're lying."

  The two donkeys were furious, I waved my hand and said, okay, let's have an open and honest talk. I asked a question first, Fengyue, why did you wear a long dress and appear in the corridor at 12 o'clock last night?

  The wind and moon smiled at me, then said, "Girls in this wilderness go to the toilet outside, if I only wear a nightgown, do you dare to go out? You know the toilet is outside the door, I have to pass through many rooms. Yesterday, didn't you hug me? If I was wearing real silk ultra-thin nightgown at that time, and you touched my skin, can you guarantee there won't be any beastly behavior? Do you dare to guarantee for everyone?"

  I was taken aback, not expecting Feng Yue to be so frank. Then I felt Xiao Ai glare at me fiercely from behind, really, even if the back of my head didn't have eyes, I could still feel that fiery glare.

  I nodded awkwardly, and Fengyue spoke up, "Alright, since you've started this, I'll ask you, where did your friend come from? You'd better explain clearly to everyone."

  I thought for a moment, then said, "Okay, it's not that big of a deal." Let me explain to you simply. You guys came to this place, the so-called "ghost village" that was hyped up online, which is actually a tourism project. This person is in charge of this project and is also our company's CEO. Of course, this project is still in its hype phase, and we haven't officially opened for business yet. They were doing some basic work here, then to create some effect, they tricked me into coming here. When I was a kid, I had several wishes that I couldn't tell you about in detail. This village has a legend that anyone who makes a wish here will be cursed. They used this curse to scare me, and I rushed over here to save Xia'ai. Yes, you guys knew her name was Da'ai before, but actually, she's Xia'ai.

  I grabbed Xiaoyi's hand and pulled her to my side. I said, "Earlier in the ancient temple, what you saw was all arranged. You can think of it as a scene from a ghost village drama, one of our tourist projects. We didn't mean to scare you, but since you came to explore the ghost village, our tourism company will definitely serve you with sincerity. These past few days, they've been hiding in the hotel's underground rooms. The rooms are available for you to go take a look. They don't have any interest in you." I finished speaking.

  It has apparently entered a question-and-answer session. Siyao said, I suddenly thought of a question, if they were always in the hotel, then on the night when the cave collapsed... did they go out too?

  I nodded and said, including the little one outside, all three of them ran out. I know what you want to ask, that night Sun Fangfang stayed in the room with the murderer, as long as we find this person, we will also find out who the murderer is.

  Xiao Yao exclaimed, "That day when I was checking on people, I found an extra person. It turned out it wasn't an extra one, but rather one less."

  I nodded, Siyao said, when I came in and grabbed you, the two of us can prove each other. I also saw Ma Ge and Zhang Laoshi, after all, Zhang Laoshi is relatively easy to recognize in the dark.

  Fengyue said, after we came back, the four of us girls were talking in the corridor, does this count as evidence?

  I nodded and then asked, "What about you guys?"

  Jin San said, I didn't prove it, and when I ran out at that time, I was too flustered. However, I do have another question, why must it be our person who killed Fangfang? Can't one of your people be missing instead? Right?

  Two donkeys said, "We don't know you, why kill you?"

  Jin San said, "Just now you said the cave was blown up by someone. What if you are all murderers? What if your travel company wants to create a sensation and plans to kill a few people? What if you take advantage of the chaos to steal things and happen to meet Fang Fang who runs slowly? What evidence do you have to say we are the killers?"

  The two donkeys were originally very hot-tempered, and at the slightest spark, they would ignite. They wanted to beat up Jin San Bao, but were stopped by a crowd of students. The second donkey pointed at Jin San Bao and Zhang Da Zhuang, saying "It's just you two, today we'll tie you up together, with this murderer in the same room, so that we won't be in danger."

  Jin Sanpang also ran to the back of the crowd, and the girl blocked in front. Er Duzi said, what are you blocking me for? You two killed my friend, don't blame me if I'm not polite again.

  Fengyue looked at me and said, "What are you people doing?"

  I say, they two have the greatest suspicion.

  Fengyue said, after all, we've known each other for a long time and came together. If it's about trust, we definitely believe in them a bit more. Right? Now you can't take away all the boys, what about us few girls left behind? What if you're not good people? At this time, don't think that we'll betray our own people just because of your words.

  Si Yao said, right, if there's a problem, it's also our problem.

  The two donkeys said they killed my friend.

  Si Yao said, "Just now you said that you don't know us, why kill us?" So I also ask you a question, we don't know you, why kill you?

  The two donkeys were stunned, and the goddess continued, "We won't hand over everyone to you for disposal. If you really want to be violent, then take action directly, right now."

  The students have never been so united before, but what they said also makes sense. After all, they came together and played together as friends, so in terms of trust, they definitely believe in each other more.

  The Second Donkey was already mad because of Xiaodidian's death, he gritted his teeth and stood beside me, panting heavily. At this time, Ma Tiancheng walked over and patted the Second Donkey's shoulder, saying, "Brother, what they said makes sense, you can't just condemn someone based on a few words and some guesses, right? This isn't the time for fighting."

  Fengyue said to me, "You have two daggers in your hand, give me one."

  I was stunned for a moment, then handed it over. Fengyue took it and said, "Sorry, just in case." Starting today, the girls will move into one room, and the boys will be in another room. Everyone will live next door to each other. It's okay if three people squeeze together.

  Feng Yue obviously became the leader of the student party, and the other five people nodded in agreement. Feng Yue said to me, "We're not that we don't believe you, but now there must be a murderer hiding among us. If it's really a ghost, then so be it. But if it's human, for us girls, safety is the most important thing."

  I nodded and said, "You're right. Since everyone has been so open and honest, I actually hope we can do something before you guys move rooms."

  What's up?

  I said, starting with me, let's search everyone's luggage, don't look for anything else, just take a look at this kind of dagger.

  Feng Yue nodded and said, "Alright, that's best. Let's search each person's room one by one and see what we can find." And also, regarding the hallucinogen issue mentioned earlier, let's have everyone look for it as well. Since this thing was found in a thermos, let's also take a look at the thermoses and see if we can find any clues.

  I felt my soul tremble, and I was like falling into an ice cave. My pores were crawling with cold worms, and I thought my heart would jump out. The whole world seemed to be spinning dizzily.

  When I said search the room, my attention was only on the dagger, and I didn't think of the thermos.

  At least half of what's in my thermos is poison, I don't know what kind of reaction it would have with water, but I can guarantee that if you pour it out, anyone who sees it will know it's not water.

  My hands and feet are icy cold, I'm desperately looking at the wind and moon, at this moment I have no way out, what can I do? What should I do?

  Fengyue stared at my eyes and said, let's start with your room.

  What should I do?

  What should I do?

  What should I do?

  I heard a ticking sound, this time it was slow and weakly ticking away.

  Is this going to be the end of my life?

  Is there still a way out for me?