Chapter 23 I only ask about your coming, but not your return
The sun was three poles high, and the dense water vapor accumulated in the sky above the basin, covering up the scorching sun and turning it into drizzle.
When people have something to do, they always feel that time passes quickly. Braving the rain, Ning Zhe glanced at the time. It was already 11:49 noon, close to lunch time.
He could no longer remember how many households he had eaten as offerings to the snake god. His stomach, which had been filled with food, no longer felt distended and painful, as if everything he had eaten before had never stopped. exist.
"It's almost time." Ning Zhe put the phone back in his pocket, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
This is the end of what he can do. Soon, the villagers of Hejia Village will start preparing lunch. Whether he can make progress in his attempt to crack the rules of Hejia Village depends on the next few dozen decisive minutes.
"Let's go back to the ancestral hall." Ning Zhe led the silent Feng Yushu through the crowded streets and alleys, and walked toward the ancestral hall together.
If Hejia Village at night is empty, giving people a feeling of loneliness and death, then Hejia Village during the day is completely the opposite. Walking on the streets paved with bluestones, Ning Zhe can see every shop. The whole village is filled with noisy people, from traditional Chinese medicine to children's toys, from traditional Chinese medicine to children's toys, from vendors pushing carts selling vegetables, to restaurants with constant shouts and shouts.
But this lively scene did not dispel the worry and fear in Feng Yushu's heart at all, because the people walking on the street, whether they were men or women, tall, short, fat or thin, had a mask on their faces. Covered by square old yellow paper, no expression or facial features can be seen.
The content written on the paper on each person's face is different, but what they have in common is that these are people's names, and they all start with the word "He".
Everyone in Hejiacun each used a piece of yellow paper to put their name on their face, and lived as usual while covering their eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
The movements of these people whose facial features cannot be seen are very slow, and the steering of their joints is sluggish and stuck. They look like old cars that lack maintenance. He ran back and forth step by step, imitating the bustling scene where the place once had its endless flow. The more normal their life scenes look, the more they give people an indescribable and strange feeling.
This feeling is not fatal, but it makes people feel very uncomfortable and depressing, as if something is coming all the time, but it never comes.
Raindrops as thin as cow's hair sprinkled down diagonally, and the two braved the rain and returned to the ancestral hall.
Feng Yushu stood at the door and looked in. The ancestral hall was still the same, and the snake god was still the same, but something seemed different.
"Did you see it?" Ning Zhe said softly.
“What did you see?” Feng Yushu was puzzled.
"Snake God." Ning Zhe gently brushed off the raindrops on his shoulders, walked into the ancestral hall, and looked up at the Snake God on the lotus platform: "The Snake God looks different from before."< br>
Feng Yushu took a closer look, and sure enough, the snake god in front of him and It was indeed different before: the corruption and ulceration on its body became more obvious, a thick layer of mildew stuck at the roots of the scales, and milky white hyphae grew wantonly... like a terminally ill old man with only the last mouthful left. Ruo Yousi's breath has not been swallowed for a long time.
"The snake god's illness has become more serious." Feng Yushu looked at Ning Zhe and said softly: "Is it because of you...?"
"Who knows?" Ning Zhe spread his hands, leaned his shoulders lazily on the pillar on the left side of the snake god, and looked down at the time displayed on the phone screen.
He could feel that the decisive moment was coming.
The wait for the results after completing a task is always the longest, just like the score settlement after a game is already very fast, but players always hope that it will be faster and faster.
I don’t know how long the silence passed until wisps of smoke drifted out from the buildings in Hejia Village.
Ning Zhe knew that ‘something’ happened.
He raised his head out of nowhere and looked at the statue of the snake god on the lotus platform. He saw that his figure was still flying, and it seemed to be no different from a few minutes ago. But when Ning Zhe took a closer look, he discovered something strange: - the snake god. His right eye is also blind.
In just a few minutes, the right eye of the snake god wooden sculpture was filled with milky white mycelium, and he was completely blind.
"Succeeded...?"
As soon as this idea came up, Ning Zhe's eyes went dark, and he lost all perception of the world around him without warning.
He felt that a thick darkness like ink was surrounding his brain, without a trace of visible light. He had too many words to describe this darkness: wide, big, profound, vast, magnificent... But each of them The vocabulary is so inaccurate.
In the deep and silent darkness, Ning Zhe heard a strange sound.
This fluttering voice is as soft as the sound of wind blowing from afar, and it is also like the rain that is falling outside the ancestral hall. Every raindrop is a clear and refreshing word.
If the villagers who gathered together to worship the snake god before read out a bunch of complex sacrificial words with weird accents and unclear meanings, then the voice that sounded in Ning Zhe’s mind at this time , is more like a quiet famous actress humming a song to her sweetheart under her breath. The tune is gentle and melodious, conveying a touch of sadness:
【I miss you so long, and I sigh and my eyes are full of tears. 】
[I cherish you in my heart, I look forward to you, and the fog fills the window. 】
【I have missed you for a long time, and the house is filled with flowers because of your fate. 】
A faint humming sound drifted into the ears, making people confused.
In the watery smoke cloud, Ning Zhe dimly saw an open window. There was a drizzle outside the window, and a charming girl was sitting inside the window.
She was wearing a bright red loose dress, but it could not hide her slender figure. She leaned lazily by the window and looked at the drizzle outside the window. Her hands were as smooth as her wrists. Her jade bracelet was even more lustrous, and her face, whose facial features could not be seen clearly, was as pale as snow. A faint red plum was dotted on the snow, and her delicate lips contained a hint of resentment.
Her bright red lips opened and closed slightly, humming a soft and resentful tune, like a frustrated little daughter-in-law curling up in her husband's arms and acting coquettishly. Her red mouth was full of resentment, but her eyebrows were filled with water. of tenderness.
【But I ask you to come, not to ask you to return. 】
【But for the sake of you, I don’t want to hear your sorrow...】
That gentle gaze fell on Ning Zhe, making him shudder.
Obviously he is a person without facial features, so why does such a clear gaze fall on him?
Ning Zhe woke up from the hallucination with a cold sweat on his head. In front of him was the ancestral hall that had been in disrepair for a long time. The critically ill snake god was enshrined on the lotus platform. Feng Yushu squatted beside him with a worried face, supporting him nervously. shoulders.
"Ning Zhe, what's wrong with you?"
"I..." Ning Zhe closed his eyes and rubbed his temples: "I seemed to have seen something just now? Or maybe it was Who? I'm sure I saw it, but I forgot...I just woke up. Ning Zhe's consciousness was still blurry when he arrived. He felt that he had received very important information, but he could not remember the content of the information. Only a sad piece of music was still echoing in his mind, containing the tenderness of water. , gentle and deadly:
【But I ask you to come, not to ask you to return】
[But for the sake of you, I will not hear your sorrow...]
(End of this chapter)