Of course, it is not yet certain whether all the villagers of Yu Xi have disappeared, but Qian Cangyi had this premonition, and it was extremely intense!
Nine out of ten, all the villagers of Yu Xi have vanished.
"Hello! Is anyone there?" Qian Cangyi began to recite Bian Zhe's lines from the script.
"I think there's no one around, we can just go in and have a look, anyway, the door isn't closed." Hawkeye said with a calm tone.
"Yeah, but it'd better be careful." Qian Cangyi said soberly, remembering that Hawkeye had mentioned acting according to the script can boost character rating, he tried to express the emotions of Bian Zhe in the script as much as possible.
After they finished their lines, they entered the house.
The living room scene that met their eyes was identical to the description in the script.
Qian Cangyi walked over to a chair, picked up the teacup, glanced at the tea leaves inside, and then placed it down by the chair leg:
"Is there anyone there? If so, make a sound."
His voice echoed within the living room.
"Stop calling out, you search the left, I'll search the right, just call out if something happens." After saying this, Hawkeye went off to search the bedroom on the right on his own.
"Are we sure we want to split up to search? In many horror movies--" Qian Cangyi seemed somewhat hesitant, but his speech was cut off halfway by Hawkeye.
"---Do you believe that staying together would allow us to survive?" Hawkeye turned back to ask a question.
"What I meant was that some dangers could be avoided." Qian Cangyi frowned.
"Most dangers can lead to annihilation." Hawkeye responded calmly.
Qian Cangyi licked his lips, not saying anything in return.
"Learn to rely on yourself." Leaving these words behind, Hawkeye entered the bedroom on the right.
Since Hawkeye had already said this much, he wouldn't stubbornly follow Hawkeye into the right-room bedroom, as doing so would be close to causing "disturbance".
Qian Cangyi sighed softly and headed towards the bedroom on the left.
The dark red bedroom door was not locked.
Qian Cangyi placed his right hand on the edge of the door and gently pushed.
With a creak, the bedroom door swung fully open.
Qian Cangyi stood at the doorway, did not enter the bedroom straightaway, he first surveyed the inside of the bedroom.
A double bed came into view with a red-patterned quilt covering it, a blue wardrobe was at the wall, and an elliptical mirror was hanging on the surface of the wardrobe.
There were no signs of struggle inside the bedroom, furniture wasn't moved around, no matter from which angle one might look, the person living in this room showed no signs of leaving Yu Xi Village.
Qian Cangyi carefully stepped into the bedroom, on guard for any potential jump scares, and checked under the bed and in the wardrobe, but did not find any clues.
Both the living room and the bedroom gave off the impression that the villagers had just left whist no villagers could be found anywhere.
Fear began to rise from the bottom of his heart.
Having checked all potential hiding places in the house with no results, Qian Cangyi decided to return to the living room.
At this moment, Hawkeye had already been waiting in the living room, his expression serious, as if faced with a very troublesome matter.
"What happened?" Qian Cangyi asked softly.
"The teacup, it seems to have been moved." Hawkeye's right index finger pointed to the teacup that Qian Cangyi had just examined.
Qian Cangyi's eyes widened and he turned to look in the direction that Hawkeye was pointing at.
Beside the chair, the white teacup was about 10 centimeters away from the chair leg.
Just now, for easier recollection, Qian Cangyi had placed the teacup right next to the chair leg, but now the gap between the teacup and the chair leg was noticeably larger.
Just as Hawkeye had said, the cup had indeed been moved by someone!
"It did get moved." Qian Cangyi agreed to Hawkeye's statement.
Who moved the teacup?
Qian Cangyi turned to look at the door outside, as he thought back to the situation when he was searching the bedroom.
There were windows in the bedroom, the bedroom door was always open, he could have noticed the outside situation while searching.
If the movement of the teacup was indeed intentional, then the person who did this must have deliberately hidden from the two of them.
Even if they purposely hid, they might not avoid detection.
The surroundings are very quiet, and any slight noise would attract attention.
What is the point of them doing this? Is it a prank?
Qian Cangyi doesn't believe that the villagers of Yu Xi would be in the mood for such pranks; the situation must be more complex, he asked:
"The teacup was indeed moved, who could have done it? I didn't see anyone pass by earlier."
He turned his head to look at Hawkeye, hoping the latter could provide an answer.
Hawkeye's gaze turned towards the living room's main door, answering:
"There's no way to tell for the time being, but it might not necessarily be a human."
"Wait, I think I remember something."
Just as Hawkeye paused, some memories also surfaced in Qian Cangyi's mind, memories belonging to the character, Bian Zhe.
The student Li Ling had a habit of writing diaries.
If they could find the diary, they might get new clues.
"I also remembered something." Qian Cangyi's index finger and middle finger came together, gesturing to his temples.
Hawkeye proceeded to the door, stating:
"Seems like we need to find Li Ling's home first, maybe we could find useful clues in Li Ling's diary."
Qian Cangyi followed him.
They both exited the house.
After Qian Cangyi's right foot crossed the threshold, he felt something was off, so he looked back at the teacup, wondering if it had moved again.
However, the white ceramic teacup hadn't moved, it stayed where it was.
...
They were walking on the muddy road of Yu Xi village, surrounded by lush green rice fields on both sides.
The houses in Yu Xi village were not clustered together, but scattered across different locations, meaning there was a set of houses every few steps.
By the area alone, Yu Xi village wasn't small, but its residents were few.
They had already searched two houses earlier with no significant discoveries.
The only worthwhile discovery was that the villagers of Yu Xi indeed seemed to have disappeared, along with their livestock and some larger animals, such as birds. Insects, however, were still visible.
At the end of the road, a lone orange tree caught their attention.
Next to the orange tree, there was a house.
Qian Cangyi pointed in its direction and said:
"That should be Li Ling's home. He wrote in his diary that there was an orange tree next to his house."
Details related to Li Ling surfaced in their minds as fragments of memory along their way. The information was intricate and incomplete, full of useless trivia, but they could still find some clues from it.
They quickened their pace.
The structure of Li Ling's house was similar to the previous ones, there were no distinct features.
Qian Cangyi and Hawkeye stood before the door of the living room.
The living room door was unlocked, and they could see inside through the crack in the door.
Qian Cangyi took a peek inside with his right eye pressed against the door gap, the chairs and tables in the living room were neatly arranged, looking as if they had just been cleaned.
"No one's here."
After he finished speaking, he took a deep breath, placed both hands on the door, and gently pushed it open.
At the same time, the script for the Third Act appeared in Qian Cangyi's mind.