Seventeenth Day (5) Curse Dispersed

  The two donkeys ran out quickly, and Xiao Pang said, "It's really urgent, it seems that the kidney is not good."

  Everyone burst out laughing, but it's strange to say that with one less person, everyone suddenly didn't know what to say. In that instant, no one spoke, and each person stared at the wine glass in front of them as if thinking about something. Silence descended upon us all of a sudden.

  This sudden silence is quite oppressive. Xiaodidian spoke up, "Why wait for the second donkey to speak? Come on, let's have a drink."

  Everyone raised their cups and took a sip of wine. I said, "Was this inn also built by you?"

  Little fatty, no, no. It's been there before.

  I said, since the village was so remote in the past, how could there be an inn? You had it when you were young.

  Xiao Pang shook his head and said to Xiao Bu Dian, "This place didn't exist before, did it?"

  Xiao Budian said, "The village is getting more and more deserted. What kind of inn would be here? This must have been built later."

  I said, isn't this strange? There's no one in the village, yet a hotel has been built. I thought it was you guys who had built it to welcome tourist groups.

  Xiao Pang said that at the time, we really had this idea, but Er Lvzi said that his brother-in-law had such a place that could be used by the company. Isn't this a good thing? Moreover, Er Lvzi's brother-in-law is someone we all know and has been very kind to us, taking care of us since childhood, right?

  Xiao Budian said, "Yes, Ma Ge is really good to us. With him, no one dares to bully us."

  Xiao Ai suddenly lowered her voice and said, "Isn't this inn a bit strange? Brother Ding has discovered..."

  I knew Xiao Ai was going to mention that salt thing, so I quickly and secretly pinched her leg from under the table. Xiao Ai looked at me in confusion, and I shook my head.

  Xiao Pang said, what did you find?

  I said, what have I discovered? There's someone killing people here, and I've found several dead bodies. You want me to say that college students are capable of murder? The ghosts and gods they see, aren't those all fake? No, could it be that everything is fake? Are the dead bodies also fake? Are they also just actors in a crowd?

  Little fatty said, "University students really aren't kidding when they say someone died. We also know that because of this, we've been punished for several days." As for what you said about seeing ghosts and gods, whether it's true or not, we don't know. Actually, we didn't mean to scare you for so long, really didn't. At the time, we just wanted to trick you into coming, then have Little Not-Point use technology to scare you a bit, and after everyone meets up, we'll all be together and happy. Right, Little Not-Point?

  I recall those strange phone calls and TVs, including the sudden ringing this morning. I asked Xiaobudian, were you behind all that?

  Xiaobudian nodded with a pleased expression and said, "My skills aren't something you can get by just eating."

  I said, no way, just now my ringtone rang, and then the phone answered itself, is this also your doing? How did you do it?

  Xiao Buzhen said, actually you're scared silly. You thought that was your phone ringtone? It wasn't, it was the alarm sound of your watch. I recorded it in advance and then took advantage of when you were in Xiaoyi's room to swap it with yours. That's all there is to it. Those blank calls, TV static, electromagnetic interference you heard before - all very simple. Just take a look at my equipment later, even more outrageous things can be done.

  I say, it's simple, but it's really scary.

  Xiao Bu Dian said, you were just scared by your own imagination earlier, otherwise it wouldn't be so easy to scare you.

  Xiao Ai had been watching me all along. I shook my head at her, then leaned in close to her ear and whispered softly, "This matter can't be known by others, or else it will be very dangerous."

  Xiao Ai nodded slightly. Xiao Pang said on the other side, "You see, they're still whispering to each other." The feelings between you two have been great these days, right?

  I feel my face burning and I say to them, "Have you been staying at the inn all along?"

  The little fatty nodded and said, this inn actually has an underground floor with four or five rooms, we prepared them in advance. But I really didn't think of scaring you for so long, the conditions downstairs are not good, it's hard for us to live there.

  I said, why wait so long?

  The little fatty pointed to the upstairs and said, "It's not like they're dead." We originally planned to scare Xiao Ai a bit after you rescued her, and then we would all come out and be happy. But the next day, the police came. You say that if we had come out at the time, wouldn't it have been suspicious for three or four people to suddenly appear from nowhere? Wouldn't we have been taken away as suspects on the spot? At the time, we hesitated for a moment, and Ma Ge said we should still hide for now and wait until the police left before doing anything. Otherwise, this would also be a stain on our reputation, which wouldn't be good for our company's future IPO. We thought he was right, so we hid.

  Xiao Bu nodded and said, "Still, Er Baozi's elder cousin has a broad vision."

  I casually asked, what does that Ma Ge do? Doesn't seem like someone who runs a hotel here.

  Xiao Pang said that Er Duzi's older cousin is a hoodlum, a notorious figure in the town. Er Duzi had worried his mother before because he was hanging out with his older cousin. We don't know why they opened this inn either. But we've agreed with them that when tourism develops in this area, this inn will be turned into a star-rated hotel and let him run it. Doing business without having someone from the underworld backing you up just won't work.

  I nodded and said, go on.

  Just as we were talking, the two donkeys came back, pushed open the door and laughed at us, saying "What's going on? It's so lively."

  Xiao Pang said, Dingding asked Brother Biao why he opened a hotel here.

  The smile on the face of the second donkey paused for a moment, then said, "I'm also very curious, why did my brother run to this place to open a hotel?" However, it seems that Old Zhang asked my brother to come and protect him. He seems to be looking for something here.

  I said, it's been said before that this inn has another boss, who is it?

  Xiao Pang said, I don't know about other bosses, but these two have said so, what's the point, Second Donkey.

  The two donkeys said that there was no other boss and that Zhang was the leader, but it seemed they were saying this to avoid drawing attention to themselves. I'm not sure either.

  I changed the subject and raised my glass saying, come on, let's have another drink for our reunion.

  After drinking this wine, I said, what's next? Why didn't you come out and meet us?

  Xiao Pang said that previously, his elder brother did not allow them to come out, fearing the police would catch them. Afterwards, they saw real dead people, so they decided to secretly look for the murderer, and thus changed the script.

  I said, on the night when the mountain cave collapsed, you all went out too.

  Xiao Pang said, nonsense, who knows if it's an earthquake or not, the three of us ran out at that time.

  I let out a cry and stood up saying, "So you're saying the real killer is actually among the students? This isn't a ghost killing people, but a human killing people?"

  Little fatty said, why say so.

  I nodded and said, one, two, three, you three. That night, Siyao checked the number of people again and found that there was one more person, which means that at the time, two students did not go out. One was Sun Fangfang, and the other was naturally the murderer, right?

  Xiao Pang said, that's the reason, but it has nothing to do with us, let's continue. We've been hiding downstairs for days, but we really haven't found any clues, mainly because we don't dare come out and let you see us. Wasn't it that day when Er Zhuzi ran out to take a look at the situation, and he was even seen by you?

  I said, so the figure in the kitchen at that time was you. At that time, I was really scared to death. No wonder Xiaoyi insisted on coming in at that time, it turned out to be afraid of your danger.

  The two donkeys hehe smiled and nodded their heads. He said, "It's me, it's me. Xia Ai knows best who is the most heartbroken."

  Xiao Ai said, I was quite scared at the time, that was a real murderer, just thinking that you might encounter him in the hotel, I thought of coming to inform you. Brother Ding, do you have any other questions? I've been afraid for you these days, wanting to terminate the performance at any time and place, but feeling that you're fine, so I didn't terminate it, don't be angry, okay? No matter what, I won't be angry with you anymore.

  I thought for a moment, then said, you discovered the time-space capsule a year ago and had the idea of revitalizing your hometown, then operated tourism development and land, and then found someone to hype up the ghost village, but most of you have already done it, why come find me now?

  Xiao Pang said that previously, because of this matter must be kept confidential, otherwise we might have spent a lot on land investment, so I've been dragging my feet and didn't look for you. Now everything is settled, if I don't find you now it will be too late, right? As I just said, when we came back here, we found our past memories, of course, good things are done together by brothers, aren't they?

  The two donkeys nodded and said, let's do it together.

  I said, what do you want me to do?

  Xiao Pang said, now you are the great military strategist, from now on creative planning will be under your control. Whatever you need to do, just say a word and the company will allocate funds for you. However, based on our previous ideas, when you go back, you'll definitely write a book, writing a story about a thirty-day countdown of life, I've even thought of a name for it, called "Farting and Urinating for Thirty Days".

  Xiao Ai said, this is a crappy name.

  Xiao Pang'er laughed and said, "This book will be published by our company at its own expense. We'll get the company to heavily promote it, then we'll find someone to make a movie out of it. Xiao Ai must be the female lead, so let's get Yang Mi. You can be the male lead, let's get Huang Bo. I have to be the big boss image, let's get Chen Daoming."

  I said, I spat, are you still looking for Chen Daoming? Does Chen Daoming have a belly like yours? However, writing a book is really a good idea. As for the movie, we can also discuss it. I think if Yang Mi is paired with someone, it's better if I take on the role myself. Later, I'll add some emotional scenes to the book, passionate and exciting, after all, everyone loves to read that kind of thing.

  Xiao Ai hummed and said from the side, "Are you still asking me to kick your kidney?"

  I say I'm doing this for art's sake, but in fact everything I did was unwilling, and I can only imagine Yang Mi is you.

  Xiao Ai raised her hand to hit me, I hastily said to Xiao Pang, but the title of your book is too disgusting, I'd rather be called and can live for another 30 days.

  Xiao Pang said, I can still live for 30 days, or even pee and fart for 30 days, anyway you are the creative director, does that mean you've invested?

  I nodded, stood up and raised my glass, saying, "Cheers to our company's smooth progress and successful listing."

  Everyone raised their glasses to celebrate, and then another bottle of white wine was drunk. After that, everyone got drunk. When people get drunk, there's only one characteristic - no matter how much wine is left, they'll drink it all. I didn't know anything anymore; all I knew was that everyone had too much. In a daze, I felt someone dragging me back to the room. People were moving around me, but I couldn't open my eyes.

  The whole world is soft and fluffy, I don't know how long I've slept, this is one of the few peaceful sleeps I've had in these days, the ticking sound in my mind has completely disappeared.

  All of this was just a kind joke, my friends tricked me back for the sake of our hometown, and had me plan all of this with them. This is also a great opportunity for me to return to my roots.

  I opened my eyes on the bed, still feeling dizzy and swollen-headed. I sat up, stretched a bit, got out of bed and knocked on Xia'ai's door. Xia'ai answered in her sleepwear and said to me, "You're awake."

  I nodded and said, what about them?

  Xiao Ai said, their newly opened room, those two, are adjacent.

  I walked over and knocked on the door again, Xiao Pang and Er Duzi both came out and opened two doors. I said, get up and move around, we drank too much yesterday, today we need to plan a good itinerary.

  Xiao Pang'er nodded and said to Er Lu Zi, "What about Xiao Bu Dian?"

  The two donkeys said, "Aren't we in the same room with you?"

  Xiao Pang said with a smile, I'm the CEO, I've always stayed in a single room, didn't Xiao Dian stay in the same room as you?

  The two donkeys said, I don't know, I drank too much yesterday, maybe he ran into another room yesterday.

  Two donkeys let out a few loud shouts, and several students ran out. They were excited to see that there were more people at the inn. Siyao asked, "Is it true that the mountain cave has opened? Can we leave now? How did you get in?"

  It's too suspicious to say they were hiding in the inn before, several students have died and no suspects can be found. I said they were friends I mentioned earlier, playing in the mountains, and got trapped by the rainstorm, only finding this place last night.

  Xiao Pang'er is clever and nodded his head, saying that he almost died in the mountains, this is no joke.

  I saw Feng Yue smile at me with a profound meaning on her face, I felt a bit embarrassed, all the girls were there among the students, only Xiao Bin jumped out among the boys, Jin San Pao and Zhang Da Zhuang were nowhere to be seen.

  I asked Fengyue about them.

  Fengyue said, one morning he ran out and said he wanted to find a way out, also saying that if they stayed here, they would all die sooner or later.

  I let out a sound and couldn't explain what had happened in the ancient temple last night, those students looked suspiciously at the two extra people.

  Just as the atmosphere was solidifying, a shout was suddenly heard from downstairs.

  Shouting here has never been a good thing, we ran downstairs and saw Jin Sanpang and Zhang Dazhuang, also saw the dwarf and Ma Tiancheng.

  Jin Sanpang was bent over, panting heavily, Zhang Dazhuang's face was pale, and when he saw us come out, he pointed outside the door and said, "The village...the village...there is a person on that locust tree...dead...not our people...never seen before."

  Everyone in this mountain is here except Xiaobudian.

  I let out an "ah" and rushed out without looking back.