Zhang Yan Yan directly slapped the man: "Get lost! If it weren't for me having only this body at the time, would I have become a woman? Don't you fucking know your place? If it weren't for me bringing you along, you wouldn't have touched a woman!"
"What the hell are you in a hurry for?" The man looked at Zhang Yan Yan, his mouth splitting open. "Your stomach will still hurt, looking like you're gritting your teeth."
"How would I know my stomach would hurt! And bleeding too! I thought I was going to die!" Zhang Yan Yan grumbled.
In the darkness, Meng Lan heard everything clearly.
It was no different from what she had speculated.
The story could be pieced together now.
This place was called Longevity Village because the villagers had a method of body-snatching. They could find someone with a similar birth date when they were seriously ill or about to die and take over their body, which formed a human trafficking chain. The female ghost came to the village to find her missing sister, disrupted the ritual, and the angry villagers wanted to assault her. In her struggle, they accidentally killed her.
It was too dark to see who had killed her.
So.
Body-snatching.
—So the deceased weren't suicides at all, they were being body-snatched.
Meng Lan's pupils darkened.
So, the answer was out.
[She is him] That murderer.
The crazy Zhang Miaomiao stood next to her seriously ill mother, unable to understand what the men were saying, just laughing foolishly. Meng Lan carefully observed her skeleton and understood what the female ghost meant by saying her sister was alive and then dead again.
Zhang Miaomiao's body actually belonged to the female ghost's sister!
As Zhang Yan Yan's words fell, she wanted to scold her companion a few more times for getting them into this mess!
Even his brother wanted to touch her, is he still human?
—When he suddenly fell ill and was on the brink of death, he only found this girl with a matching birthdate through the village's unique body-snatching ritual, and continued to live on in this body! In the future, he must find a suitable substitute! Whether the village head allows it or not!
He gritted his teeth resentfully, and suddenly his brain throbbed!
Then, his hands started making clicking sounds uncontrollably, rotating 180 degrees, with each joint bending backward.
"Oh fuck! Ahhhhh it hurts!"
"What's wrong with you!" His companion was shocked.
"Uh... uh..."
Zhang Yan Yan's throat made a hoarse sound, and he looked at his companion in horror, while his hands uncontrollably squeezed his own neck.
Meng Lan thought to herself that this was not good.
"Do you have a knife?" Meng Lan asked.
"No." Zhang Yichi was ready to run wild in the darkness, "But I have a hoe!"
Meng Lan: ?
Two against three, they couldn't let the ghost get ahead of them!
Meng Lan and Zhang Yichi leaped up at the same time, the petite figure carrying the hoe for planting shouted and charged forward.
"Sister Ghost, let us handle this! We still have tasks to complete!" Zhang Yichi roared, afraid of being beaten to completing the task by someone else.
Ghost: ...
He Wan Wan: ...
Meng Lan: ...
—Isn't this bugged now?
—Even murder has to be rushed now!
Meng Lan didn't immediately save He Wan Wan, she leaped like an agile rabbit to Zhang Yan Yan's side, and the rusty hoe struck down on Zhang Yan Yan's body in one fell swoop!
She had the advantage in physique, towering over the little girl by a head and then some! Zhang Yan Yan's thin body couldn't resist Meng Lan's attack!
"Crunch!"
Blood splattered on her cheeks and chest, Meng Lan's entire body seemed to be thoroughly dyed red by the bright red paint!
Zhang Yan Yan's brain was split in half by the axe.
Red and yellow splattered like a fountain.
Meng Lan didn't have room for hesitation in this perilous world; she killed to save herself.
The red Meng Lan, the red murderer, the person who raised their hand and dropped the axe was dyed red with blood, explaining the initial clues.
"Dang!"
The door of the temple courtyard suddenly opened, and Zhao Che stood there unsteadily, holding a fruit knife. Meng Lan could tell that he had killed Qi Huan. When she told Zhao Che that "wrong people do wrong things more than once," she was reminding him not to get too close to someone with ulterior motives, lest he end up being hurt in the end.
Zhao Che stumbled inside.
His expression was wrong, and white mist surrounded him.
This was a sign of leaving the hidden world.
"You all won't be able to leave, the energy is mine, it's mine!" Zhao Che had gone crazy, charging towards Meng Lan with the fruit knife!
Zhang Yichi pushed Meng Lan hard; the fruit knife cut through his right arm! The thick smell of blood filled the air, and Meng Lan supported Zhang Yichi, whose body was falling backward, while her other hand reached for the rope on He Wan Wan's body.
The mist was thick, and it seemed like there was a wall separating them from Zhao Che.
Darkness.
Nothingness.
The lights dimmed.
The world spun.
As the mist dispersed, Meng Lan, He Wan Wan, and Zhang Yichi appeared in a suburban park. In the distance were the neon lights of the commercial district at night, and discarded Coke bottles littered the ground.
Zhang Yichi's wound was still bleeding, his face pale, his lips trembling: "It hurts... I'm dying, I'm dying..."
"We... we succeeded?" He Wan Wan asked.
"We succeeded," Meng Lan said.
Zhao Che was nowhere to be found around them.
Checking her phone again, Meng Lan found it could be used now. She dialed the emergency number.
The three of them supported Zhang Yichi towards the park exit.
He Wan Wan asked unsteadily, "Did you figure it out early on? When?"
Meng Lan said, "The second night, I was actually possessed again."
He Wan Wan shuddered with lingering fear, "That's really scary, fortunately we're still alive."
"I thought of something," Meng Lan said, mentally and physically exhausted but finally relaxed.
"What?" He Wan Wan asked.
Meng Lan thought for a moment, "Do you remember what I said to the village head?"
He Wan Wan complained, "You said so much, how am I supposed to remember!"
Meng Lan: "Never mind, kids shouldn't listen."
He Wan Wan: ...
"Ha—" Zhang Yichi couldn't help but laugh, his muscles twitching, causing a shiver from the wound.
He Wan Wan said sternly, "Don't laugh, if you laugh again you'll lose too much blood!"
The three of them walked on, watching one hobble.
"Do you need my help?" A low, unfamiliar male voice came, and a tall figure emerged from the darkness. He was wearing a black Versace star-patterned short-sleeved shirt, jeans outlining his smooth and long legs, and brown hair glistening with a golden sheen under the street lamp. He walked with his hands in his pockets, a mischievous smile playing at the corners of his mouth, enjoying the sight of the three of them in a sorry state.
Meng Lan turned back, "Sir, murder is illegal."
"You figured it out, huh," the man shrugged indifferently.
He walked up to Meng Lan, their eyes met, probing each other. The man's eyes were clear as mirrors, seeming to know all secrets with just one glance.
Clearly sharp-eyed, yet his attitude was completely different, like a visitor to an amusement park.
Meng Lan felt this man was somewhat familiar, but couldn't remember where she had seen him.
Was he a neighbor?
Or a classmate? Or a boy who had once pursued her?
"I want to help you. It's two hundred meters to the exit from here," the man said, not waiting for Meng Lan's invitation as he calmly took Zhang Yichi from He Wan Wan's hands and let him lean on his shoulder. Meng Lan had thought Zhang Yichi was quite a big guy, but next to this man, he seemed particularly fragile.
The scent of night breeze and the man's opium perfume blended together.
It inexplicably eased the agitation.
Meng Lan followed behind the man and thanked him, "Thank you, what's your name?"
"Jiang Celang," he replied nonchalantly, ignoring Meng Lan's previous coldness.
Meng Lan pondered, this name was also very familiar.
Jiang Celang smiled and said, "How many of you survived?"
"Four," Meng Lan said.
"Three of them newbies?" he asked again.
"Yes."
Jiang Celang laughed and sighed, "There was once a task where everyone was a newbie, with a survival rate of up to 80%. But as soon as an old hand was mixed in, it was like dropping water into a hot oil, sizzling all over the place. You're quite lucky to be able to survive from the hands of an old hand, instead of being used as cannon fodder."
His tone was casual yet powerful.
The laughter carried the penetrating power of a summer sea breeze.
Jiang Celang asked again, "What task?"
He Wan Wan was dizzy, she didn't even know what she had done and came out in a daze, "Longevity Village... uh, Lan Lan, you tell him, I don't know!"
Meng Lan said expressionlessly, "A man giving birth."
—Those curses she said back then had come true; if Zhang Yan Yan were alive, wouldn't he have to give birth?
Jiang Celang was surprised, "What?"
"A story of a man becoming a woman," Meng Lan didn't continue Jiang Celang's meaningless sigh, but instead asked, "How did you find me?"
"Someone could find you," Jiang Celang said, "I heard there were newbies in the hidden world, so I came to take a look. I thought you wouldn't survive, Miss Meng Lan."
Meng Lan stopped, calmly asking, "How did you know who I am?"
"You wouldn't fail to recognize me, would you?" Jiang Celang exaggeratedly looked like he had discovered a new continent.
Meng Lan remained silent, feeling conflicted.
—She really couldn't remember.
"I found you, and I've been looking for you for a long time," Jiang Celang's eyes held a shallow smile, not seeming to lie, "If you don't believe me, I have evidence in my office."
"That won't be necessary," Meng Lan directly refused.
Her cold expression was both cute and stubborn. She hardly ever hid any emotions, displaying them openly on her face. Jiang Celang glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, enjoying her conflicted expression like playing with a toy.
"Aren't you curious?"
"You're just trying to make me curious by saying that. I'm not curious, I don't have that big of an addiction."
Meng Lan inwardly cursed how someone could start flirting in such a manner, wanting to invite themselves into her personal territory, as if they were familiar with each other.
"You're cursing me."
"I'm not."
"Your lower eyelids are tense, blinking more frequently. When someone is angry..."
"Meng Lan: "Blood flows to the body, adrenaline is released, pupils dilate."
Jiang Celang: "Blood flows to the body, adrenaline is released, pupils dilate."
Speaking simultaneously.
Meng Lan made a disdainful sound in her throat, recalling who this man was!
The author has something to say:
Meng Lan: I don't remember you, probably because I don't care about you. Jiang Celang: Oh?