Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Broken Hand
September 24, 2006, at 21:01 pm.
In the empty residential building, hurried footsteps sounded from the fifth floor.
Ye Xiao opened the door vigilantly, and used a flashlight to illuminate the face of the person who came—it was the man in his forties from the tour group, his name was Cheng Cheng, and he was also Huang Wanran's husband.He was wearing a set of expensive pajamas, and there was no one else in the dark corridor.
"The Frenchman is awake?"
The man in pajamas nodded, and Ye Xiao and Li Shu followed him down the stairs.
In the big room on the fourth floor, there was a fifteen-year-old girl standing in the living room, that was Qiuqiu, the daughter of Jiancheng and Huang Wanran.The girl inherited her mother's beauty, but she was so taciturn that it was hard to get close to her.
The injured foreigner was lying in the master bedroom, Huang Wanran sat beside him and took care of him, Ye Xiao went up and asked, "How is he?"
Candlelight illuminated Huang Wanran's face, this gentle woman of thirty-eight years old was at her most charming age.She replied softly: "The wound is not serious. It seems to be all right now. He just woke up for a while and can still talk."
"What did you say?"
"It seems to be French. I didn't hear it clearly."
At this time, the Frenchman who was lying down began to speak again, uttering a few French words that no one in the room could understand.Li Shu sat by the bed and whispered something to the Frenchman, and he slowly opened his eyes.
"Do you know French?"
"No, I speak English."
Li Shu continued to talk to the French, and the French seemed to understand, so they answered in English with difficulty.Ye Xiao was worried about his health, but Huang Wanran indicated that it was fine.Cheng Cheng came up and put his arms around her shoulders, looking coldly at the people in the room.
Fortunately, this Frenchman can also speak English, and Li Shu's English sounds very good, the two exchanged a few simple words.Then Li Shu relayed in Chinese: "He is French, his full name is 'Henry Pepin', he is thirty-five years old, and he often lives in Paris."
Henry opened his eyes wide and terrified, looking at the Chinese people in front of him, as well as this strange house, the endless night rain outside the window, and the dim candlelight.Li Shu hurriedly comforted him in English, telling him that there are good people here, and they saved Henry's life.Ye Xiao urged again: "How did he pass out on the road?"
Li Shu pressed several questions, and Huang Wanran gave Henry a drink of water before he answered intermittently.Li Shu made a simultaneous translation: "They are a tourist group from France. The whole group arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday, and they left for the Lanna King's Tomb this morning."
"They also passed by the village that eats monkey brains?"
"No, they set off at eight o'clock in the morning. They drove past the village very early and didn't stop for lunch."
Cheng Cheng shook his head and said, "It seems that the French are luckier than us."
Li Shu communicated with Henry a few more words, and translated with difficulty: "They were eating lunch in the car, when a dog appeared on the road—the dog crossed the middle of the road, and the bus was driving too fast. It was too late to brake, and the dog was run over and killed on the spot."
"It's so miserable!"
Huang Wanran frowned with disgust, maybe she also has a dog at home.
Ye Xiao sighed: "Actually, long-distance drivers often encounter this kind of thing, especially on this kind of mountain road. They are afraid that these kittens and puppies will appear. If they are unlucky, the car will be destroyed!"
"The driver of the French tour group stopped the car and wanted to clean up the front of the car before driving away. Suddenly an old lady came out of the woods—Henry said that the old lady looked like a legendary monster with long white hair. With a stooped and thin body, wearing a black dress, he does not look like a local Thai, with deeply sunken eye sockets and a high nose bridge like a gypsy."
Then Henry spoke a lot of English, and it seemed that he had recovered a lot.Li Shu explained in Chinese: "The old lady cried bitterly while hugging the dog that was run over to death. It seemed that she had a deep relationship with the dog. She was covered in dog blood and kept chanting spells. The driver wanted to take the dog to death. She persuaded her to leave, but her vicious look made people frightened. The tourists on the bus felt sorry for her, and everyone pooled up a hundred euros to compensate her, but no one expected that the old lady would actually tear up the one hundred euro bill Broken!"
Cheng Cheng said contemptuously: "Maybe she doesn't know what the euro looks like at all."
Li Shu ignored this guy and continued to be Henry's simultaneous interpreter: "After the old lady tore up the euro, she read a long series of words that seemed to be curses to the bus of the tour group, and even used dog blood on the bus. What kind of symbol was painted on the car body. The driver was also frightened by her and did not dare to wipe the symbol. Henry couldn't tell the exact shape of the symbol, it was very weird anyway. The driver didn't care about the old lady anymore, and continued to drive the tourist bus. After about ten minutes, the car drove to the turning point of the road, and the driver suddenly trembled and convulsed!"
Huang Wanran was fascinated, as if watching a horror movie, and hurriedly took another sip of water for Henry.Looking at the rainy night outside the window, the Frenchman spoke a lot of English tremblingly, his tone becoming more and more fearful.
Ye Xiao basically understood, but still asked Li Shu to interpret again: "The driver seemed to be possessed by a demon, and the car drove wildly on the road, and Henry was also shaken to motion sickness, he opened the window and poked his head out to vomit. No Thinking of the bus rushing out of the cliff, it just threw his whole body out of the car window. He only felt a whirl, screams from the car behind him, and then fell down on the road and lost consciousness."
"This kid is really a blessing in disguise!" Shaking his head, Li Chengli said, "Otherwise he would die under the cliff!"
Henry wanted to struggle to get up, and asked how the other people in the car were doing in English.But Li Shu didn't answer him directly, worried that the terrible truth would irritate him, and only said that he was found lying alone on the road.
Then, Huang Wanran asked Henry to continue to rest, and set up to let her sleep in another room, and he would accompany the Frenchman beside him.
Ye Xiao and Li Shu walked out of the room and asked Huang Wanran to lock the doors and windows.They took another look at the fifteen-year-old Qiuqiu. The girl just stood aside indifferently, as if wrapped in plastic film, bright and hard to touch.
They went up the dark stairs to the room on the fifth floor.Ye Xiao lit the candle again and asked, "Do you believe what the Frenchman said?"
"It's unbelievable—the driver of the French tour group was possessed by a demon? Is it the old woman's curse?" Li Shu couldn't help but sat down on the sofa, as if he was at home, "Do you know Gu?"
"insanity?"
Ye Xiao, of course, just shook his head pretending not to understand what it was.
"Witchcraft, which is common in Southwest China and Southeast Asia, may also be a kind of poison and insect control techniques. Usually, old women cast voodoo, and people who are inflicted with voodoo will suffer catastrophe! I have edited several books The thriller novel about 'Gu', many times I have insomnia after reading the manuscript in the middle of the night."
"Don't rule out this possibility. However, I think this Frenchman may be lying!"
"why?"
"Intuition—the police's intuition." Ye Xiao said calmly, "Maybe today is a strange day, and we will come to this strange city."
"Strange?"
Just when they were racking their brains, there was an earth-shattering loud noise in the night outside the window, and then the floor and walls began to shake...
"My God! What's that?"
They flung themselves to the window in terror.
At this moment, a crack opened in the window pane on the third floor. The loud noise was deafening like thunder, and with the torrential rain pouring down outside, the whole building was trembling. "what!" Lin Junru covered her ears and hid in a corner in fright, the dust stained her skirt.A wall lamp fell from the wall and shattered with a loud noise outside the window.Another girl hurriedly blew out the candle before it fell and caused a fire. While the room was plunged into darkness, the loud noise gradually subsided. Thirty seconds later, everything returned to dead silence, only the endless rain in the dark night. "What's that sound?" Lin Junru was still hiding in the dark corner, holding her head in her hands and said, "Based on my experience in Taiwan, this may be a high-intensity earthquake!" "You really are from Taiwan?" "I was born and raised in Taipei - the first minute after an earthquake is the most destructive, seven years ago my mother died in the '920' earthquake." "Sorry." Another three minutes passed, but the floor and walls did not shake anymore. Will there be aftershocks?Lin Junru got up cautiously, patted the ashes on her skirt, and poked her head to the window to have a look. The rainy night outside was pitch black, and she could only faintly see the building opposite the green trees.Lin Junru let out a long breath, but her heart still did not calm down. The tragic experience seven years ago told her that waiting for the moment when a disaster is about to happen is the most frightening thing. In addition to the heavy rain outside, she also heard some kind of slight sound, what is the girl on the other side doing?There was no light in the room, and the other person's face could not be seen clearly. The voice was as soft as a flying insect flapping its wings, lingering in the ears of the two young women. I couldn't help but turn on the flashlight. In a circle of white light, there were the half-opened eyes of the woman opposite, and the earphones hanging on her temples—it turned out that she was listening to MP3. "Oh, I thought it was an earthquake coming again!" The woman on the opposite side was twenty-five or six years old, with a pair of big eyes inlaid on Guazi's face, which looked like a Buddha statue under the beam of the flashlight.She didn't seem to hear Lin Junru's words, she still leaned against the wall with her earphones on, blinked her long Jie Mao, and closed her eyes peacefully. Where do you seem to have seen it?Lin Junru shook her head in admiration: "You can really calm down! We are trapped in this ghost place, and there may be a big earthquake at any time. I'm already in a cold sweat, but you seem to be on vacation." In fact, the other party had already heard what she said, so he responded with a mysterious smile, with the tip of his nose slightly raised, and the corners of his mouth twitching: "What we need most now is music." "Music?" But in this quiet and cold night, music is really out of bounds, Lin Junru smiled bitterly and said, "Is it so important?" The woman on the opposite side was not afraid at all, but seemed to be enjoying the feeling of fear, suddenly opened her eyes again, and said in an unusually standard northern dialect—— "When the music sounds, you feel like you are in the ocean. Every note that appears is like a stirred-up wave, caressing your face; you want to catch her, but she has already passed your body and drifted to the other shore, so face to face With music, you just listen quietly." Her voice was neither fast nor slow, sending out sound waves in the light circle of the flashlight, rippling in this dark room, seemed to be able to dissolve all the silence, as well as Lin Junru's instinctive fear. "Ah——" Lin Junruo was also moved by her, so he turned off the flashlight beam and let the other party continue to listen to MP3 in the dark, "You are so good!" "Hehe, that's not what I said." "Who said that?" "Socrates." It turned out to be what the ancient Greek philosophers said. It seems that Mr. Socrates is also a music enthusiast, which reminded Lin Junru of the cash drawers in Taipei and Shanghai. "By the way!" Lin Junru patted his head suddenly, "Until now, I still don't know your name?" "Top top." "Sounds familiar, what do you do?" A pair of beautiful eyes flickered in the darkness: "Musicist." "singer?" The other party was silent for a moment and replied: "It's okay." "Oh my god, I remembered, I saw you sing on TV, it was very good! Top? Is that you?" "Yes, you can also call me Ding Ding." The conversation between the two young women in the dark did not wait for the expected violent aftershock.Ding Ding took off her MP3 earphones, stood up and lit a candle, the dim light illuminated her face, the bright eyes under the long eyelashes, combined with the eyeliner and the outline of the face, she had the feeling of a woman in a Dunhuang mural. "Top top? No wonder your face is so familiar." Lin Junru just sat down on the bed. This is a double bed, which should have been slept by a couple.She touched her shoulder and said, "In such a scary place, I will definitely not be able to sleep alone. Can we both sleep here?" "Ok." He sat cross-legged on the bed, but didn't intend to sleep.She was thinking about everything that had happened on this trip, from the coup d'état that had happened when she first arrived in Thailand, to the amazing Buddha statue she saw in the ancient city of Ayutthaya.There is also the thrilling journey of the tour group starting from Chiang Mai today.In the afternoon, she was amazed to see a city in the mountains, as silent as if asleep.The hidden memory in her mind seemed to be awakened at once—it was it, the city in front of her, surrounded by mysterious rain and fog, that summoned her here from far away Beijing. Also, the man I saw when I came out of the toilet in the evening.She knew his name, and knew about him in the novel, but what kind of person was he?Looking at his eyes in the mirror, they seemed to be covered by a layer of fog. What did he want to say? Lin Junru had already lay down with difficulty, she blew out the candle beside the bed, and said to herself: "Will there be aftershocks tonight?" Ding Ding was still sitting cross-legged, her slender waist and body contours resembled a sleeping god in the dark.Suddenly, she heard something—it wasn't a loud noise outside the window, nor was it the precursor of an earthquake, but a slight, soft sound in the living room. She couldn't tell what it was. Get goosebumps. She finally stood on the ground, walked gently into the living room, and irradiated every corner with the flashlight.There seemed to be nothing unusual, but there was something wrong with their suitcases, and Lin Junru's suitcase had a hole.The voice came from the kitchen again, Ding Ding walked in on tiptoe, only to see a few black shadows passing through the ground.Her heartbeat accelerated violently, and she shot the ground with a flashlight, chasing her all the way to the bathroom. The light beam was aimed at the bathtub, and she saw several huge mice! The black mice quickly jumped into the bathtub and then into the open drain. They twisted their bodies like snakes and quickly disappeared into the flashlight beam.Ding Ding was so frightened that he almost fell down, and took a deep breath to calm himself down.Then she found a bunch of rags and plugged the bathtub drain firmly.But she was still worried, and pressed it with a basin of water. Suddenly, a hand rested lightly on the back of his shoulder, and he turned his head in horror, only to see Lin Junru's blank face: "What did you see?" "mouse." Lin Junru's face was earthy and said: "Huh?" "The rats are gone, big rats." "Before the arrival of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons, rats are usually the first to respond. They will predict the disaster and run for their lives." Ding Ding returned to the bedroom calmly: "Then let the disaster happen earlier."
It was already ten o'clock, and the thunderous sound had never sounded again, and there was still a palpitating heavy rain outside the window. On the fifth floor of the residential building where the tour group stayed, next to Ye Xiao and Li Shu's room, a dark candle was burning.The jumping candlelight illuminated Sun Zichu's face, opposite him was the young tour guide Xiao Fang. "Why did the voice stop again?" "earthquake?" "The devil knows!" Xiao Fang waved his fist excitedly, "What should I do? What should I do?" The tour guide is the most nervous person in the tour group. He bears the safety of more than a dozen tourists on his shoulders. Any mistakes are his responsibility—and now he doesn’t know how to compensate the tourists? Food poisoning...beast attack...driver lost...lost comms...don't even know where I am!Any one of the crimes is enough to make him lose his job.If something happened to someone, he was even in danger of going to court-and all this imagination was based on the fact that they could return to the world. What if, what if you can't get out? Xiao Fang immediately slapped himself.Don't think about it anymore, I hope everything is just a nightmare, and I wake up in the hotel in Chiang Rai tomorrow morning. "I'm sleeping, call me if you need anything." Sun Tzuchu patted Xiao Fang on the shoulder, "Hey, I wanted to take a closer look at the legendary tomb of King Lanna, but now I walked into another tomb!" This guy has no taboos about speaking, he fell asleep when he walked into the next bedroom, leaving Xiao Fang sitting alone.He looked at the difficult night outside the window, and thought of the eyes everyone looked at him today, the faces full of suspicion, as if they wanted to swallow him up. Xiaofang majored in international tourism in university, and joined one of the largest travel agencies in China right after graduation.At the beginning, I took foreign tourists to travel in China, which is a very enviable profession.This year, the travel agency suddenly adjusted internally, and he was transferred to the Overseas Tourism Department.His English and French are good, and he originally wanted to lead the European group.But because of the personnel struggle of the travel agency, he was dispatched to Southeast Asia.Xiao Fang was already holding back his anger, but he didn't dare to explode, so he could only swallow his anger and go to Thailand to check out. When he stepped into the Lanna King's Tomb half a year ago and saw the huge tomb, his whole body seemed to be drained.He followed his colleagues in the travel agency and stepped into the dark underground palace of the king's tomb. The lights illuminated the coffin of King Lanna, and the legendary queen lay in it.Xiao Fang touched the sarcophagus secretly, and found that it still had the temperature of a living person.He hastily withdrew his hand back, and saw a strange Buddha statue carved on the opposite cave—it was so real, with lifelike eyes wide open, it seemed that it was not carved on a stone, but a picture that had been carved by time. Washed black and white portrait photos. The Buddha statue in the underground palace is smiling at Xiao Fang.For a moment, he felt something conquered, as if his soul had stayed here forever. In this memory, he slowly closed his eyes, and that mysterious smile was in front of him... I don't know how long it took, it was about midnight, and there was a slight knock on the door. Xiao Fang opened his eyes vigilantly, walked to the door in the dark, and asked loudly, "Who?" But no one answered outside, could it be his hallucination?When he was about to go back to sleep, the knock on the door rang again—no, it was definitely not a hallucination, there was really someone outside. He asked loudly who was outside the door, but the person only knew to knock on the door without any answer.Xiao Fang looked back in fear, and ran to Sun Zichu's room, only to find that the bed was empty!He hurriedly turned on the flashlight and searched in the bathroom and kitchen, but Sun Zichu had long since disappeared. God, where did this guy go? Xiao Fang was the only one left in the room, standing anxiously behind the door, while the terrible knocking sound continued.Xiao Fang took a deep breath, holding a flashlight in his left hand and an iron wrench in his right. After trembling for a few seconds, he slowly opened the door. However, the corridor was dark, and he looked around with a flashlight, but he couldn't even see a ghost. A cold wind blew into the hallway, and the damp air made people dizzy.Xiao Fang looked at the stairs vigilantly, there were faint footsteps moving.He walked to the door of the next room, and suddenly the door behind him opened. He hid aside in fright, but the flashlight in his hand exposed himself, and another flash of lightning hit his face.Xiao Fang narrowed his eyes subconsciously, only to see a man in his fifties standing at the door.The purple-black face with a stubby beard looked weather-beaten. "Tong Jianguo?" Xiao Fang called out the name of the longest member of the tour group, "How did you come out?" "It's up to me to ask you that question." Tong Jianguo's name, as the name suggests, was born in 1949. He stared at the iron wrench in Xiaofang's hand. Xiao Fang immediately hid the wrench behind his back: "This is, this is for self-defense." "Really? Can't sleep at night?" "right." Tong Jianguo shook Xiao Fang's eyes with a flashlight: "I think you have a problem." "what?" "You are the tour guide of our tour group. Only you know the route we have taken the best. How could we get lost? You were the one who took us to that village for lunch and ate the damned 'golden meat', and ended up being entangled by a big monkey Did you kill us on purpose? First lead us to this ghost place, and then kill us one by one!" Xiao Fang finally couldn't bear it anymore, pushed Tong Jianguo's hand away and shouted: "What are you talking about? Please don't doubt people casually!" "Hmph, kid, be careful yourself!" Tong Jianguo immediately returned to the door and closed the door heavily.Xiao Fang was left alone in the corridor again. He shone the flashlight on the dark front, dazed and at a loss. Suddenly, someone behind him called his name: "Xiao Fang!" He slowly turned his head...
The night is long. The tour group's first night in the mysterious city passed. five o'clock in the morning. Our driver opened his eyes. This is the second floor of a residential building, and the room is even darker.He got up with difficulty and walked to the closed window. The rain stopped. The outside world was silent and there were occasional drops of water falling from upstairs. He was glad that he survived until the next day. The Thai man sat down on the bed again, took out a small Buddha statue from his arms, and silently recited scriptures of Theravada Buddhism.After reading the scriptures, I turned on the phone again, but there was still no signal—I was supposed to call my wife and son to report their safety last night. I guess they had another uneasy night.Thinking of this, he clenched his fists and pounded heavily on his chest. During the financial crisis in Thailand in 1997, his original travel company closed down, and he was unemployed for a whole year.It was a nightmare year, and I could only do odd jobs and drive illegal cars to make a living. Even my wife once went to the streets to solicit customers.The most pitiful thing was my son, who had just turned one year old, who had a serious illness but had no money to send him to the hospital, and died soon after.He sent the dead child to the temple, soaked it in potion and became a "ghost boy"-the soul would never be reincarnated, and wandered alone in the world.Later, when Thailand's economy improved, he found a job in this travel agency again, and his wife gave birth to a son for him.He vowed that he would not let his wife suffer anymore and his children suffer. However, the nightmare seems to have really come—on the night of receiving the Chinese tour group, a coup took place in Thailand.Then he began to dream of devils, winged devils on white horses, the kind of statues you see in grand palaces.On the night before he left Bangkok with his tour group, he went to the temple to see his first son who died in infancy. The "ghost boy" is still soaked in the potion, as if he just came out of the house.Suddenly, he saw his dead son open his eyes!Those astonished pupils are like adults, and there is a sleeping city inside.He knelt down before his dead son, knowing that the spirit of the child was watching him, was it some kind of warning to the father? Yesterday, the tour group came to Chiang Mai to visit the famous Shuanglong Temple, also known as the Shariputra Buddhist Temple, as usual.There is a big golden pagoda in the middle of the temple, which is said to preserve the relics of Buddha Sakyamuni.The driver also followed everyone into the temple, knelt in front of the Pasin Buddha statue introduced from Ceylon more than 600 years ago, and prayed for the peace of his son's soul. However, at night, the nightmare came again, and the two-winged devil arrived on a white horse, carrying a little black boy on his back—"Ghost Boy", the driver's son, who kept screaming miserably until he recovered from the nightmare. wake up. He didn't sleep well all night, and he was listless when he got up in the morning and drove. When the car was driving on a dangerous mountain road, he could only sing a little song to relieve his fear.But he still drove the wrong way and led the tour group into a labyrinthine canyon. Could it be that the devil has already entangled him, or is standing behind him? The driver turned his head back in fear, saw the devil bared his fangs, smiled evilly at him, and then disappeared into the air. "Who are you?" He gave a yell of rage, then picked up a stick and slammed it into the air with all his might.It seemed that all the bad luck in this life was given by this devil. Suddenly, there was a hasty knock on the door. The driver felt a little strange, it was still dark, who would knock on his door?Could it be that the owner of this house has returned? He hurriedly and carefully walked to the back of the door, and yelled out in Thai against the crack of the door: "Who?" Outside the door, the Chinese words came to mind: "It's me, Sun Zichu!" Of course he remembered this knowledgeable but talkative Chinese university teacher. The driver hurriedly opened the door for him and shone a flashlight on Sun Zichu's face. This guy drooped his sleepy face, but he insisted on opening his eyes wide, and shouted in panic, "Xiao Fang... Xiao Fang...he's gone!" "Missing?" The driver also felt baffled and asked in Chinese instead. At this time, Tu Nan, who was in the same room, was also woken up by them, and ran to the door rubbing his eyes: "What's the noise? Don't let people sleep?" Sun Zichu quickly explained the reason: he and the tour guide Xiao Fang temporarily lived in a flat, but when Sun Zichu got up to go to the bathroom in the early morning, he found that Xiao Fang's bed was empty.I searched every corner of the house with the flashlight again, but there was no sign of Xiao Fang, and his luggage and various belongings were still left in the room. "Did he come to you?" It turned out that Sun Zichu suspected that the tour guide Xiao Fang had come to discuss things with the driver. "No, no!" The driver shook his head quickly, no one knocked on his door all night. "Strange, where did he go?" "Will there be tourists looking for him?" The driver managed to utter a complete sentence in Chinese, "Did him be taken to another room?" "Okay! I'll go to every room and ask!" The grandson Chu Feng was about to knock on the door next door, but Tu Nan stopped him and said, "Look at what time it is now, he must be drooling in a deep sleep, you are immoral or not!" "Fuck you!" Sun Zichu didn't care about other people's face at all, he raised his fist and knocked on the door of the next room. Both the driver and Tu Nan could only shake their heads. They waited for two full minutes before carefully opening the door. Yang Mou pointed a flashlight at them and said, "What are you doing? What time is it?" "Has the tour guide Xiao Fang been here?" "Neuropathy!" Then Yang Mou closed the door angrily, and the frustrated grandson Chu continued to knock on the door until Yang Mou opened the door again and said loudly: "He hasn't been here! Please don't bother me any more!" Sun Tzuchu was silent for a few seconds, and said to himself, "Okay, the second floor is ruled out, let's go to the third floor!" The other two could only follow him, and knocked on the door of a room on the third floor. After waiting for a long time, a soft female voice sounded from the door: "Who is it?" "I'm Sun Zichu, may I ask if Xiao Fang, the tour guide, has been here?" "No!" The voice was Yu Ling, who was obviously stimulated by the words just now - if the tour guide Xiao Fang came in the middle of the night, wouldn't it be ruining his reputation?Naturally, he would not admit it even if he was beaten to death! Sun Tzuchu knocked on the door of another room. As usual, he waited for two minutes before being shut down and scolded severely by the Taiwanese girl in the door. In desperation, they bit the bullet and went up to the fourth floor, knocking on the door of the largest unit. A minute later, the door opened, and a flashlight was shining inside. Jian Li, who was in his forties, stood at the door aggressively holding a stick. Sun Tzuchu could only ask the question politely, but the answer he got was: "No, please go away! Don't wake up my daughter." After the door was slammed shut, Tu Nan tugged at the corner of Sun Zichu's clothes, and said softly, "Forget it, let's go back to sleep, maybe Xiao Fang will come back by himself soon." But grandson Chu Meng shook his head: "Go to the fifth floor!" Both Tu Nan and the driver lost to him, so they could only walk up to the highest level in pain. Fifth floor——Just as Sun Zichu was about to knock on Ye Xiao's door, a scream sounded in the darkness! It was a young woman's voice, she couldn't hear what she was shouting, it seemed to be outside the corridor.Their hearts were almost shattered, and they immediately shone a flashlight on the corridor, and they saw a shaking shadow. Tu Nan rushed up quickly and grabbed the man's hand, but heard a very familiar English sentence: "Shit!" He immediately replied: "Damn it!" Only then did the flashlight illuminate the other person's face. It turned out to be the American girl in her twenties. She disheveled her hair in a panic, faced them with a pale face, her mouth was already incoherent. Tu Nan asked several times in broken English, and the American girl began to answer in Chinese: "Upstairs...upstairs..." upstairs?This is already the highest floor of the residential building, where is there any upstairs? Unless—it's the rooftop on the top floor. But she ran towards the end of the corridor. It turned out that there was still a small staircase, which seemed to lead to the roof of the building. The American girl pointed lightly at the top, the driver was the first to go up to the roof, and Tu Nan followed closely behind. The rain has stopped and the sky is slightly brighter. There was still some water accumulated on the roof, and the early morning cold wind was blowing from all around, and the air was so humid that it would melt people. The three of them came to the open rooftop, and Tu Nan carefully looked around. Most of the surrounding buildings were shorter than this one, and he could see most of the city from a height, but many blocks were covered by dense trees. See tufts of green leaves and roofs.He looked back at the American girl and asked, "WHAT?" "Behind you—" Tu Nan and the driver turned their heads, only to find a man's body lying on the railing of the roof behind them. They rushed to the man's side, and saw a face of extreme horror—the whole face was festered, and it was simply horrible.The dead man's fingers gripped the ground so deeply that he almost picked white spots out of the cement. The only things that can be seen clearly are his eyes. No!Just a pair of eyeballs, almost popping out of their sockets, staring blankly at the gloomy sky. what did he see What terrible thing is there that can make a person's eyes so terrified? Tu Nan gasped, almost fell to the ground when his legs gave way.Even the well-informed driver quickly closed his eyes, clasped his hands together, and silently recited the Sutra of Passing Rebirth.And the American girl hid behind them, not daring to look at the corpse for a second time. "Poor little Fang!"
Five fifty in the morning. Ye Xiao, Sun Zichu, Li Shu, Tu Nan, the driver, Qian Mozheng, Tong Jianguo, and the American girl who first discovered the corpse all gathered on the rooftop of the fifth floor. The body was still lying beside the railing—it was their tour guide, Xiao Fang. He is the first! Ten minutes ago, the American girl brought Tu Nan and others to the rooftop and found this terrible corpse. The driver recognized Xiao Fang's eyes, and his clothes had not been changed.In Xiao Fang's trousers pocket were his passport and various documents.The driver still remembered the scar on Xiao Fang's hand, and it was exactly as it was in memory.Although the whole face is not human, everyone can still see his appearance. There is no doubt that he is the tour guide Xiao Fang, who died tragically on the rooftop. Afterwards, Sun Zichu ran downstairs, knocked on the doors of the other two rooms on the fifth floor, and ran up to the rooftop with Ye Xiao, Qian Mozheng and others. At this moment, people gathered in a circle and looked at Xiao Fang.Everyone was afraid to speak, and silence hung over the city and these people like a dark cloud in the sky. Finally, someone crouched down and vomited. Li Shu couldn't take it anymore, and vomited out all of yesterday's dinner.The American girl has already vomited twice, and she can no longer vomit anything in her stomach. Ye Xiao looked up at the sky, and sighed, "The most worrying thing happened!" "You are a police officer." Sun Tzuchu grabbed his clothes and said, "It's up to you here!" "No, I didn't bring any tools. I can't judge the cause of Xiao Fang's death now. And his face is rotten like this, it must be a very special reason. Everyone, please take a few steps back and stay away from the corpse, so as not to spoil the case. Discovery scene." He began to command the scene again, as if surrounded by his agents.When everyone retreated far away, Ye Xiao turned around and stopped the American girl: "What's your name?" "I... Elena." "You speak Chinese very well, where did you learn it?" "I started learning Chinese when I was in high school in the United States, and later I learned Chinese in Beijing and Shanghai." Ye Xiao suddenly lowered his face: "How did you find the tour guide's body?" "Me?" Yi Lianna didn't dare to look at his face, turned her head and said, "I didn't fall asleep all night, I couldn't bear it just now, so I quietly went out for a walk." "Where did you go?" "No, I didn't go anywhere. I just walked from the third floor to the fifth floor in this building, and then I wanted to take a look on the roof—so, I found this corpse." Yi Lianna replied nervously, the tones of many Chinese characters were outrageously wrong, which was completely different from her fluency yesterday.Ye Xiao shook his head: "Okay, you can go back to your room and have a rest." Then he said to Li Shu: "You send her down." Li Shu wiped his mouth that had just vomited, and took Yi Lianna downstairs. "You suspect the American girl?" Sun Zichu asked softly in Ye Xiao's ear. "have no idea." Ye Xiao's silence is as unpredictable as the city. At this moment, Tu Nan yelled: "I think she probably has a problem! A girl, why would she come out to wander around at 5:30 in the morning? And she just ran to this rooftop? Didn't you agree not to come out at night?" It was Qian Mozheng who spoke for Yi Lianna: "Americans, maybe they think differently from us." "How did Xiao Fang die? Was it a murder or an accident? Or some other reason?" "I said I don't know!" Ye Xiao clenched his fists. He knew that he was not Sherlock Holmes, not even half of Watson. He only had the anger and flames in his heart. "I just don't understand why Xiao Fang Will he come to the rooftop? Judging from the traces around him, it is impossible for him to be dragged to the rooftop after being killed elsewhere." "The corpse is on the edge of the railing on the roof. Could it be that he wants to commit suicide by jumping off the building?" "It is not ruled out that he committed suicide, but there must be other reasons that hurt him in the end." "It's the devil, it's the devil!" Our driver screamed wildly and ran down the roof quickly. 叶萧摇摇头说：“我们也快点下去吧。” “那小方怎么办？” “就让他躺在这里吧，我们不能破坏现场，更不能移动尸体，否则会破坏更多的线索。等我们逃到清莱或清迈以后，再带泰国警方回来处理尸体吧。” 钱莫争却皱着眉头说：“这里有很多鸟，还有老鼠，这些小动物都会破坏尸体的！” “那我们只有祈求老天保佑小方了。” 说着，叶萧第一个走下了天台，其余人也只能跟着他下来。 在他下楼梯的时候，走到童建国身边问：“昨晚，我似乎听到门外有人在说话。” “哦，真的吗？”五十多岁的童建国一脸平静，“我整晚上都在睡觉，除了那声巨响之外，没有其他的动静。” 叶萧没有再说下去，只是看着童建国回到五楼的房间。 他一个人站在冷冷的楼道里，抬头看着天花板。仅仅隔着一层水泥，正躺着一具可怜的尸体。 “也许，真是恶魔干的？”
晨曦。 如水珠从窗户洒进来，渗透入玉灵的眼皮，逐渐刺激着瞳孔收缩，越来越小越来越小——变成一个细微的针眼，突然出现了导游小方的脸，就在针眼里缓缓破碎，挤出浑浊的绿色尸液，整张脸全部腐烂剥落下来，变成一具白色的骷髅。 骷髅头穿过瞳孔的针眼，进入玉灵的大脑深处。 "what!" 她猛然睁开眼睛，从床上直起了身子，天光刺激双眼很难睁开，窗外寂静无声连鸟鸣都没有。 后背心里满是冷汗，她解开胸围坐在窗台，胸口这才舒服了一些。真想现在就脱了衣服跳进河里，泰家乡村女孩几乎每天下水洗澡，并不避讳什么授首不清。或许每天接触大自然的水分，才能让年轻的女子美丽动人吧。 现在刚过清晨六点，她居然又睡着做了个梦。十几分钟前，敲门声把她从沉睡中叫醒，孙子楚在门外询问是否见到小方？真是活见鬼了，她和小方是第一次认识，即便是导游同事的关系，有什么事不能天亮说吗？ 等她把孙子楚等人骂走后，却发现同屋的美国女孩不见了。玉灵又在房间里找了找，发现伊莲娜所有的东西都在，只是人不知道跑哪去了？她也接待过美国的游客，知道美国人喜欢夜生活，不过这里到哪去HAPPY呢？ 伊莲娜是个典型的美国女孩，说话做事都雷厉风行，总是一身运动探险的装束。白天好像不把自己当个女人，只有晚上睡觉之前，才换身睡袍放下头发，做个面膜保养一下。她的中文说得真好，从十四岁就开始学了，和玉灵说起话来像汉语考级比赛。她们的母语都不是中文，却必须在这一群中国人里，来到这曾经居住华人的城市，睡在一对年轻华人夫妇的床上。 两人聊到子夜过后，其实主要是伊莲娜在说话，偶尔夹杂几句英文，简直把中美两国的贫嘴饶舌合二为一。聊到后来玉灵困得支撑不住了，伊莲娜还在对面滔滔不绝，几乎要唱出顺口溜了。 直到那地震般的巨响，才封住了伊莲娜的嘴巴。玉灵从小在泰北长大，也从没遇到过这样的地震。她们赶紧缩到床上，抱着脑袋祈祷房子不要塌下来，就在恐惧中渐渐睡着了…… 刚才怎么会梦到导游小方的？不过是第一次见面，就遇上了这么倒霉的事。对，孙子楚不是说他不见了吗？大概就是受到这个影响吧，可小方会去哪呢？从第一次见到他起，就感到他的眼睛里藏着什么。那时大家还没开始拉肚子，山魈也没跳到车顶上。而小方依旧是忧愁的面容，就连看她的表情也如此古怪——虽然通常男人都会多看她几眼，但绝不是小方的那种眼神，似乎带着几分怀疑与不信任。既然如此，他为何当场不说出来？却还装作完全信任她的样子，继续旅行团的行程，很快就爆出了“黄金肉”的秘密，接着便是“山魈来袭”。 Xiao Fang? 他究竟怎么了？梦代表了什么？是真实发生的事情，还是某种奇特的预兆？玉灵不愿再想下去了。 她缓缓穿戴好筒裙，摸了摸自己吹弹可破的肌肤，这二十岁的身体还未曾献给过别人。 窗外，又一片白色的雾气飘过，缭绕在青翠的树叶之间，视线像被蒙上了一层轻纱。 眼睛又似乎被微微刺痛了一下，这片白雾是如此熟悉又如此陌生，就像十六岁那年的清晨——少女玉灵从恶梦中惊醒，光着脚丫走出寂静的村子，她穿过碧绿的稻田，进入那片黑色的森林。传说这里被恶魔和亡魂统治者，还有老虎、野牛、黑熊等猛兽出没，村里的坟场就在森林深处。 是的，就和眼前的白雾一样，十六岁的玉灵投入禁忌的森林，被神秘的白雾包裹起来。脚底是泥土、落叶和小动物的骨骸，沾满了冰冷的露水，湿滑地浸入皮肤和血管。耳边似乎响起某种声音，轻轻呼唤她的名字—— 她在露水与白雾中走啊走啊，离身后的村子越来越远，直到完全被黑色的森林覆盖。那里如同永恒的地狱，正午都似傍晚般昏暗，光线被高大茂密的树冠阻挡，到处垂挂着藤蔓等植物。常有不知名的动物在树上叫喊，发出巨大而恐怖至极的声音，传说只要走到这种地方，便会永久地迷失方向，灵魂也将被恶魔们取走。 但玉灵似乎忘记了一切，只顾着穿破雾气去寻找那个声音。当她转过一颗大榕树时，忽然撞到了一个人。 a monk. A young monk. A young and handsome monk. 可惜是个僧人。 玉灵直视着他的眼睛，他也直视着玉灵的眼睛，他们都因在这个地方看到对方而惊讶。他大概只有十八岁，还没有完全长成男人的身体，一副瘦弱不堪的样子，或许好几天都没吃东西了。他的头发剃得很干净，一身僧袍却异常地破烂，脚边放着个缺口的陶钵。嘴唇上只有些绒毛，大眼睛里却闪烁着某种东西——多情又抑郁的目光，如此残忍又有些无奈。 白雾依然缠绕着他们之间，玉灵好奇地打量着他，柔声问道：“你是谁？” “谁是你？” “我就是玉灵，刚才是你在叫我的名字吗？” “不，是另一个人，另一个灵魂在呼唤你。” "Where are you from?" “另一个世界。” 另一个世界——玉灵再度睁开眼睛，骤然回到二十岁的现在。那个记忆中的可怕清晨，已随着森林的白雾而不再清晰。 她抹去额头的冷汗，心里空虚的感觉，仿佛还停留在森林深处。面对三楼窗外的白雾，她闭上眼睛要忘掉那张脸，那张年轻的脸，年轻又英俊的十八岁的脸。 可惜，他是个僧人。 当玉灵难以从回忆中自拔时，外面响起一阵急促的敲门声，她像被针刺了一下跳起来，冲出去打开房门。 门外是美国女孩伊莲娜，旁边有厉书搀扶着她的身体。她变成了美版林妹妹，面色苍白失魂落魄，嘴里嘟囔着几句听不清楚的英文。 厉书的面色也不太对，他将伊莲娜送到玉灵房里，说了句“照顾好她”，便匆匆转身离去。 “到底发生什么了？”玉灵抓住伊莲娜的手，而她紧咬牙关不肯回答，“他欺负你了？” 伊莲娜立刻摇了摇头，虚脱似的坐倒在沙发，闭上眼睛再也不说话了。 玉灵盯着恐惧中的她，渐渐浮起那个针眼里的恶梦，渐渐剥落腐烂的小方的脸…… 难道真的是他？
清晨七点，楼里的所有居民——旅行团成员都被叫醒了。 有的人还没睡够，脸上尽是眼屎骂骂咧咧。但更多的人是彻夜难眠，黑着眼圈变成了熊猫。叶萧让大家在屋里解决早餐，但不要动人家留下来的食物。他和孙子楚、厉书去了附近的小超市，“借”了很多保质期内的快速食品回来。至于饮水问题，有人自带着小锅子，就把自来水烧开了饮用。 这顿特殊的早餐，足以让旅行团员们终生难忘——假定他们的终生不是很短的话。 然后，大家都被招呼出了房间，带着各自的行李物品。叶萧打开手机看了下，依然收不到任何信号，看来这里不会有手机店铺和移动业务了。随后他关掉手机，和大家商量着做出了决定——趁着早上没有下雨，由司机开车去加油站，加完油旅行团便离开这里。 各人拖着沉重的行李，十几号人艰难地走下楼梯，来到住宅楼外的巷道上。受伤的法国人亨利恢复很快，已能在别人搀扶下走路了。雨后的清晨异常湿润，每次呼吸都怕湿气把鼻孔堵住，很有中国西南的重庆或贵阳的感觉。 大家先是谈论昨晚那声巨响，所有人都被这声音吓到了，但谁都说不清那是什么，尽管来自台湾的林君如咬定是地震。 接着又有人发现导游小方不见了，再加上一个多钟头前，孙子楚等人打扰了许多人的好梦，便有人开始疑心疑鬼起来。 而屠男这家伙是个大嘴巴，竟把天台上的悲惨事件说了出来——叶萧气得差点扇他耳光，早上还关照过这件事要绝对保密，不能让大家陷入恐慌之中。他甚至已编好了一个理由：昨晚小方已出去寻找救援了，正带领援助人员向这里赶来。 但已经太迟了，小方的死讯传遍了整个旅行团。 女人们都恐惧地窃窃私语起来，连黄宛然的老公成立都搓着手说：“糟糕了！法国人说的是真的？所有人都被那个老太婆诅咒了？” 林君如也紧张地问：“连导游都死掉了，那我们该怎么办呢？” 杨谋的小娇妻恐惧地趴在新郎怀中——他们多半是来泰国度蜜月的新人，她有些神经质地说：“已经死了第一个——还会有第二个吗？” 然而，玉灵的表情却没有变化。 虽然伊莲娜守口如瓶不说，玉灵仍隐隐猜到了恶梦成真。只是这可怕的消息来得太快，亦证实得太快了，就连她自己也说不清楚，究竟是如何猜出来的呢？ 在玉灵如水的表面底下，却是一颗砰砰乱跳的心，她竭力让自己冷静下来：“我要到天台上去看一看！” 说完她就要往楼道里冲，但叶萧一把抓住了她，在她耳边冷静地说：“请相信我，小方已经死了，我不希望再有人看到他的样子。” “真的吗？他死得很惨吗？” 叶萧默默地点头，目光沉着地对着玉灵。 两个人对峙了一分钟，最后还是玉灵认输了，缓缓退回到大伙中间。 又是令人窒息的沉默，死亡最大的恐惧，是能像瘟疫般传染给每一个人，谁都不知道下一个是谁？ 突然，伊莲娜低声抽泣起来。厉书搂着她的肩膀，用英文轻声安慰了她几句。 玉灵已迅速恢复了镇定：“大家不要惊慌，虽然小方发生了意外，但我会担负起他的责任，作为导游把大家安全带出去的！” 但是，现在谁会相信一个二十岁的泰国小姑娘的话呢？ 叶萧让玉灵先留在这里，保持大家的稳定。 他和司机去开车加油，孙子楚和钱莫争也紧跟着他们。 四个人走出小巷，又注意了一下那辆无主的丰田车。清晨无人的街道上，弥漫着一股特别的白雾，地上积着许多昨晚的雨水。 钱莫争和司机快步走在前面，叶萧和孙子楚却落后了许多。孙子楚焦虑地说：“我们快点赶上去吧。” “等一等，我想单独问你一下。” 叶萧继续放慢脚步，在确信前面两人听不见他们的谈话后，便轻声问孙子楚：“你和导游小方是一个房间的，也是你最早发现他不见了踪影。” “是啊，有什么不对吗？” “晚上小方有何异常？” 孙子楚想了想说：“没什么啊？只是随便聊了聊天，就在那声地震般的巨响之后，我们就各自睡觉了。” “他说到了什么？” “没什么特别的，到了这种地方，又遇到这种事情，大家的心情都不太好，连我的话也少了很多呢。” 就这也算“话少了很多”？叶萧苦笑道：“算了吧！你也不知道他何时出门的？” “我不是说过了吗？凌晨五点多钟，我起来上厕所，才发现小方不见了。” 叶萧看着前面的司机和钱莫争越走越远，转头盯着孙子楚的眼睛：“我问你，整个晚上，你都没有出过房门吗？” “当然！问这个干嘛？你以为我是宁采臣啊，半夜里跑出去和聂小倩幽会？” 叶萧却不再说话了，将脸沉下来看着前头：“快点跟上去吧！” 说罢他们两人快跑前进，很快追上了钱莫争和司机。 “你们两个在说什么悄悄话啊？”钱莫争回头调侃着说，“两个男人总是粘在一块儿，不正常哦！” "Nonsense!" 孙子楚立即冲了一句，这时已转过了十字路口，四个人沿着进城大道向外走去。 巨大的刘德华广告牌下，就是旅行团的大巴——他们的挪亚方舟。 司机仔细检查了车子，一夜大雨冲刷掉了许多污垢，也没有其他人动过的痕迹。接着四人都上了大巴，司机坐上驾驶座发动车子，发动机轰鸣着踩下了油门。 车子缓缓驶离广告牌，在叶萧的指示下开往加油站。
车子经过进城大道，笔直开过了十字路口，很快来到加油站前。 这里的规模不小，设施也颇为现代化，和上海等地的加油站差不多，就连文字也都是繁体中文，当是所有进出城车辆的必经之地。 他们四个都走下车子，仔细查看空无一人的加油站。钱莫争大叫几声也没反应，叶萧走进加油站办公室，发现收银台里还有很多钱，大部分是泰国铢，也有美元和人民币。司机则一直在摆弄加油的机器，他确定这里有汽油，在看怎么才能把开关打开。 这时，叶萧看到加油站对面站着两个人，他飞快地冲了出去——原来还是旅行团里的人，杨谋正端着DV拍着他们，身边倚靠着他的新娘子。 叶萧走到他们跟前，严肃地问：“干嘛自己出来？不是说好等车子开过来的吗？” “我是电视台的纪录片编导，拍摄DV是我的工作也是最大爱好。”杨谋尴尬地笑了笑说，“这次旅行所发生的神秘事件，我一定要用摄像机全程记录下来，这将是本年度最精彩的纪录片！” 叶萧摇摇头说：“对不起，我可不想做你的演员。” 忽然，杨谋身边的新娘脸色大变，惊恐万分地尖叫了起来。 “你怎么了？小甜！” 杨谋放下DV，紧张地抓住新娘的肩膀。 “瞧！那里有个人！” 新娘小甜抬起颤抖着的手，指向右侧的一条小巷子。 叶萧和杨谋都转头看着右边，巷口只有一棵茂盛的木棉树，并没有半个人影。她的尖叫声也吸引了对面的人，孙子楚和钱莫争都从加油站跑过来了。 钱莫争过来大声地问：“你真的看到有个人吗？” “是的，我真的看到了，但一眨眼就消失了。” “是我们旅行团里的人吗？” 小娇妻斩钉截铁地回答：“不！是一个年轻的女人，我从来都没有见过！” 叶萧迅速冲进巷子，孙子楚和钱莫争也紧随其后。这条巷子非常深，两边是些破旧的老楼，还堆放着乱七八糟的杂物，地面坑坑洼洼有许多积水。 那个影子，在小巷迷宫般的尽头，他似乎看到那个影子了！ 然而，就在同一秒钟，他们听到身后传来某种奇异的声响…… Earth-shattering! Deafening! 加油站爆炸了！ 在两又四分之一秒的瞬间，巨大的冲击波如狂风般卷过。叶萧只感到身后有一只大手，将他强行摁倒在了地面上。而周围的孙子楚、钱莫争、杨谋和他的新娘子，全都被冲击波重重地打倒了。 爆炸持续了二十秒钟。 时间停滞，世界禁声，万物轮回。 冲天而起的火焰，还有浓重的汽油味道，让所有人都感到一阵灼热。等到他们重新睁开眼睛时，四周全都是灰尘和碎屑——破碎的塑料招牌、玻璃渣子、扭曲的钢筋…… 这就是传说中的人间地狱？ 小甜的后背盖满了尘屑，幸好穿了一件长袖的厚衣服，否则非搞惨了不可。突然，有什么东西掉到了她头上，她抓起那东西一看，才发现是一只烧焦了的断手！ 这是我们旅行团司机的手。 她尖叫着把断手甩出去，正好扔到自己老公的头上。杨谋揉着眼睛一看，又大叫着扔到孙子楚手中。孙子楚像接到个手榴弹，又赶紧塞进钱莫争怀里。钱莫争干脆往天上一扔。 最后，接住这只断手的人是叶萧。 他已经笔直地站了起来，头发给冲击波弄得鸟巢似的，衣服沾满了泥水。他仔细看着这只断手——只剩下手掌和半个手腕了，还缺了两根手指——小指和无名指。 这只可怜的手完全被烧焦了，大概在爆炸的一刹那，就从司机的手上炸断了出去，又高高地飞上天空，最后落在了他们头上。 叶萧再回头看看加油站，烈火仍在燃烧，四周的空气仿佛被蒸发了。而旅行团的豪华大巴，则已被炸得无影无踪。车上所有的钢架和铁板，都炸成了金属碎片，就连轮胎钢条也成了锯齿形！ 而加油站则被炸成了平地，只剩下几块断垣残壁，还在被油库的大火灼烧着。浓烈的黑烟升上天空，几乎把半个城市都覆盖了。 唐小甜痛哭着躲进杨谋怀里，孙子楚和钱莫争也互相支撑着，他们脸上都满是泥泞和烟尘。还算是这五个人命大，没被炸出来的金属碎片击中，否则很可能被切断脑袋或手脚。 而叶萧依旧抓着司机的断手，似乎那剩下的三根手指还在抽搐！ 孙子楚倒吸了一口冷气，拍着他的肩膀说：“把这个东西放下吧，我们的司机死了！” 我们的司机死了。 他是第二个。
At this moment, a crack opened in the window pane on the third floor. The loud noise was deafening like thunder, and with the torrential rain pouring down outside, the whole building was trembling. "what!" Lin Junru covered her ears and hid in a corner in fright, the dust stained her skirt.A wall lamp fell from the wall and shattered with a loud noise outside the window.Another girl hurriedly blew out the candle before it fell and caused a fire. While the room was plunged into darkness, the loud noise gradually subsided. Thirty seconds later, everything returned to dead silence, only the endless rain in the dark night. "What's that sound?" Lin Junru was still hiding in the dark corner, holding her head in her hands and said, "Based on my experience in Taiwan, this may be a high-intensity earthquake!" "You really are from Taiwan?" "I was born and raised in Taipei - the first minute after an earthquake is the most destructive, seven years ago my mother died in the '920' earthquake." "Sorry." Another three minutes passed, but the floor and walls did not shake anymore. Will there be aftershocks?Lin Junru got up cautiously, patted the ashes on her skirt, and poked her head to the window to have a look. The rainy night outside was pitch black, and she could only faintly see the building opposite the green trees.Lin Junru let out a long breath, but her heart still did not calm down. The tragic experience seven years ago told her that waiting for the moment when a disaster is about to happen is the most frightening thing. In addition to the heavy rain outside, she also heard some kind of slight sound, what is the girl on the other side doing?There was no light in the room, and the other person's face could not be seen clearly. The voice was as soft as a flying insect flapping its wings, lingering in the ears of the two young women. I couldn't help but turn on the flashlight. In a circle of white light, there were the half-opened eyes of the woman opposite, and the earphones hanging on her temples—it turned out that she was listening to MP3. "Oh, I thought it was an earthquake coming again!" The woman on the opposite side was twenty-five or six years old, with a pair of big eyes inlaid on Guazi's face, which looked like a Buddha statue under the beam of the flashlight.She didn't seem to hear Lin Junru's words, she still leaned against the wall with her earphones on, blinked her long Jie Mao, and closed her eyes peacefully. Where do you seem to have seen it?Lin Junru shook her head in admiration: "You can really calm down! We are trapped in this ghost place, and there may be a big earthquake at any time. I'm already in a cold sweat, but you seem to be on vacation." In fact, the other party had already heard what she said, so he responded with a mysterious smile, with the tip of his nose slightly raised, and the corners of his mouth twitching: "What we need most now is music." "Music?" But in this quiet and cold night, music is really out of bounds, Lin Junru smiled bitterly and said, "Is it so important?" The woman on the opposite side was not afraid at all, but seemed to be enjoying the feeling of fear, suddenly opened her eyes again, and said in an unusually standard northern dialect—— "When the music sounds, you feel like you are in the ocean. Every note that appears is like a stirred-up wave, caressing your face; you want to catch her, but she has already passed your body and drifted to the other shore, so face to face With music, you just listen quietly." Her voice was neither fast nor slow, sending out sound waves in the light circle of the flashlight, rippling in this dark room, seemed to be able to dissolve all the silence, as well as Lin Junru's instinctive fear. "Ah——" Lin Junruo was also moved by her, so he turned off the flashlight beam and let the other party continue to listen to MP3 in the dark, "You are so good!" "Hehe, that's not what I said." "Who said that?" "Socrates." It turned out to be what the ancient Greek philosophers said. It seems that Mr. Socrates is also a music enthusiast, which reminded Lin Junru of the cash drawers in Taipei and Shanghai. "By the way!" Lin Junru patted his head suddenly, "Until now, I still don't know your name?" "Top top." "Sounds familiar, what do you do?" A pair of beautiful eyes flickered in the darkness: "Musicist." "singer?" The other party was silent for a moment and replied: "It's okay." "Oh my god, I remembered, I saw you sing on TV, it was very good! Top? Is that you?" "Yes, you can also call me Ding Ding." The conversation between the two young women in the dark did not wait for the expected violent aftershock.Ding Ding took off her MP3 earphones, stood up and lit a candle, the dim light illuminated her face, the bright eyes under the long eyelashes, combined with the eyeliner and the outline of the face, she had the feeling of a woman in a Dunhuang mural. "Top top? No wonder your face is so familiar." Lin Junru just sat down on the bed. This is a double bed, which should have been slept by a couple.She touched her shoulder and said, "In such a scary place, I will definitely not be able to sleep alone. Can we both sleep here?" "Ok." He sat cross-legged on the bed, but didn't intend to sleep.She was thinking about everything that had happened on this trip, from the coup d'état that had happened when she first arrived in Thailand, to the amazing Buddha statue she saw in the ancient city of Ayutthaya.There is also the thrilling journey of the tour group starting from Chiang Mai today.In the afternoon, she was amazed to see a city in the mountains, as silent as if asleep.The hidden memory in her mind seemed to be awakened at once—it was it, the city in front of her, surrounded by mysterious rain and fog, that summoned her here from far away Beijing. Also, the man I saw when I came out of the toilet in the evening.She knew his name, and knew about him in the novel, but what kind of person was he?Looking at his eyes in the mirror, they seemed to be covered by a layer of fog. What did he want to say? Lin Junru had already lay down with difficulty, she blew out the candle beside the bed, and said to herself: "Will there be aftershocks tonight?" Ding Ding was still sitting cross-legged, her slender waist and body contours resembled a sleeping god in the dark.Suddenly, she heard something—it wasn't a loud noise outside the window, nor was it the precursor of an earthquake, but a slight, soft sound in the living room. She couldn't tell what it was. Get goosebumps. She finally stood on the ground, walked gently into the living room, and irradiated every corner with the flashlight.There seemed to be nothing unusual, but there was something wrong with their suitcases, and Lin Junru's suitcase had a hole.The voice came from the kitchen again, Ding Ding walked in on tiptoe, only to see a few black shadows passing through the ground.Her heartbeat accelerated violently, and she shot the ground with a flashlight, chasing her all the way to the bathroom. The light beam was aimed at the bathtub, and she saw several huge mice! The black mice quickly jumped into the bathtub and then into the open drain. They twisted their bodies like snakes and quickly disappeared into the flashlight beam.Ding Ding was so frightened that he almost fell down, and took a deep breath to calm himself down.Then she found a bunch of rags and plugged the bathtub drain firmly.But she was still worried, and pressed it with a basin of water. Suddenly, a hand rested lightly on the back of his shoulder, and he turned his head in horror, only to see Lin Junru's blank face: "What did you see?" "mouse." Lin Junru's face was earthy and said: "Huh?" "The rats are gone, big rats." "Before the arrival of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons, rats are usually the first to respond. They will predict the disaster and run for their lives." Ding Ding returned to the bedroom calmly: "Then let the disaster happen earlier."
It was already ten o'clock, and the thunderous sound had never sounded again, and there was still a palpitating heavy rain outside the window. On the fifth floor of the residential building where the tour group stayed, next to Ye Xiao and Li Shu's room, a dark candle was burning.The jumping candlelight illuminated Sun Zichu's face, opposite him was the young tour guide Xiao Fang. "Why did the voice stop again?" "earthquake?" "The devil knows!" Xiao Fang waved his fist excitedly, "What should I do? What should I do?" The tour guide is the most nervous person in the tour group. He bears the safety of more than a dozen tourists on his shoulders. Any mistakes are his responsibility—and now he doesn’t know how to compensate the tourists? Food poisoning...beast attack...driver lost...lost comms...don't even know where I am!Any one of the crimes is enough to make him lose his job.If something happened to someone, he was even in danger of going to court-and all this imagination was based on the fact that they could return to the world. What if, what if you can't get out? Xiao Fang immediately slapped himself.Don't think about it anymore, I hope everything is just a nightmare, and I wake up in the hotel in Chiang Rai tomorrow morning. "I'm sleeping, call me if you need anything." Sun Tzuchu patted Xiao Fang on the shoulder, "Hey, I wanted to take a closer look at the legendary tomb of King Lanna, but now I walked into another tomb!" This guy has no taboos about speaking, he fell asleep when he walked into the next bedroom, leaving Xiao Fang sitting alone.He looked at the difficult night outside the window, and thought of the eyes everyone looked at him today, the faces full of suspicion, as if they wanted to swallow him up. Xiaofang majored in international tourism in university, and joined one of the largest travel agencies in China right after graduation.At the beginning, I took foreign tourists to travel in China, which is a very enviable profession.This year, the travel agency suddenly adjusted internally, and he was transferred to the Overseas Tourism Department.His English and French are good, and he originally wanted to lead the European group.But because of the personnel struggle of the travel agency, he was dispatched to Southeast Asia.Xiao Fang was already holding back his anger, but he didn't dare to explode, so he could only swallow his anger and go to Thailand to check out. When he stepped into the Lanna King's Tomb half a year ago and saw the huge tomb, his whole body seemed to be drained.He followed his colleagues in the travel agency and stepped into the dark underground palace of the king's tomb. The lights illuminated the coffin of King Lanna, and the legendary queen lay in it.Xiao Fang touched the sarcophagus secretly, and found that it still had the temperature of a living person.He hastily withdrew his hand back, and saw a strange Buddha statue carved on the opposite cave—it was so real, with lifelike eyes wide open, it seemed that it was not carved on a stone, but a picture that had been carved by time. Washed black and white portrait photos. The Buddha statue in the underground palace is smiling at Xiao Fang.For a moment, he felt something conquered, as if his soul had stayed here forever. In this memory, he slowly closed his eyes, and that mysterious smile was in front of him... I don't know how long it took, it was about midnight, and there was a slight knock on the door. Xiao Fang opened his eyes vigilantly, walked to the door in the dark, and asked loudly, "Who?" But no one answered outside, could it be his hallucination?When he was about to go back to sleep, the knock on the door rang again—no, it was definitely not a hallucination, there was really someone outside. He asked loudly who was outside the door, but the person only knew to knock on the door without any answer.Xiao Fang looked back in fear, and ran to Sun Zichu's room, only to find that the bed was empty!He hurriedly turned on the flashlight and searched in the bathroom and kitchen, but Sun Zichu had long since disappeared. God, where did this guy go? Xiao Fang was the only one left in the room, standing anxiously behind the door, while the terrible knocking sound continued.Xiao Fang took a deep breath, holding a flashlight in his left hand and an iron wrench in his right. After trembling for a few seconds, he slowly opened the door. However, the corridor was dark, and he looked around with a flashlight, but he couldn't even see a ghost. A cold wind blew into the hallway, and the damp air made people dizzy.Xiao Fang looked at the stairs vigilantly, there were faint footsteps moving.He walked to the door of the next room, and suddenly the door behind him opened. He hid aside in fright, but the flashlight in his hand exposed himself, and another flash of lightning hit his face.Xiao Fang narrowed his eyes subconsciously, only to see a man in his fifties standing at the door.The purple-black face with a stubby beard looked weather-beaten. "Tong Jianguo?" Xiao Fang called out the name of the longest member of the tour group, "How did you come out?" "It's up to me to ask you that question." Tong Jianguo's name, as the name suggests, was born in 1949. He stared at the iron wrench in Xiaofang's hand. Xiao Fang immediately hid the wrench behind his back: "This is, this is for self-defense." "Really? Can't sleep at night?" "right." Tong Jianguo shook Xiao Fang's eyes with a flashlight: "I think you have a problem." "what?" "You are the tour guide of our tour group. Only you know the route we have taken the best. How could we get lost? You were the one who took us to that village for lunch and ate the damned 'golden meat', and ended up being entangled by a big monkey Did you kill us on purpose? First lead us to this ghost place, and then kill us one by one!" Xiao Fang finally couldn't bear it anymore, pushed Tong Jianguo's hand away and shouted: "What are you talking about? Please don't doubt people casually!" "Hmph, kid, be careful yourself!" Tong Jianguo immediately returned to the door and closed the door heavily.Xiao Fang was left alone in the corridor again. He shone the flashlight on the dark front, dazed and at a loss. Suddenly, someone behind him called his name: "Xiao Fang!" He slowly turned his head...
The night is long. The tour group's first night in the mysterious city passed. five o'clock in the morning. Our driver opened his eyes. This is the second floor of a residential building, and the room is even darker.He got up with difficulty and walked to the closed window. The rain stopped. The outside world was silent and there were occasional drops of water falling from upstairs. He was glad that he survived until the next day. The Thai man sat down on the bed again, took out a small Buddha statue from his arms, and silently recited scriptures of Theravada Buddhism.After reading the scriptures, I turned on the phone again, but there was still no signal—I was supposed to call my wife and son to report their safety last night. I guess they had another uneasy night.Thinking of this, he clenched his fists and pounded heavily on his chest. During the financial crisis in Thailand in 1997, his original travel company closed down, and he was unemployed for a whole year.It was a nightmare year, and I could only do odd jobs and drive illegal cars to make a living. Even my wife once went to the streets to solicit customers.The most pitiful thing was my son, who had just turned one year old, who had a serious illness but had no money to send him to the hospital, and died soon after.He sent the dead child to the temple, soaked it in potion and became a "ghost boy"-the soul would never be reincarnated, and wandered alone in the world.Later, when Thailand's economy improved, he found a job in this travel agency again, and his wife gave birth to a son for him.He vowed that he would not let his wife suffer anymore and his children suffer. However, the nightmare seems to have really come—on the night of receiving the Chinese tour group, a coup took place in Thailand.Then he began to dream of devils, winged devils on white horses, the kind of statues you see in grand palaces.On the night before he left Bangkok with his tour group, he went to the temple to see his first son who died in infancy. The "ghost boy" is still soaked in the potion, as if he just came out of the house.Suddenly, he saw his dead son open his eyes!Those astonished pupils are like adults, and there is a sleeping city inside.He knelt down before his dead son, knowing that the spirit of the child was watching him, was it some kind of warning to the father? Yesterday, the tour group came to Chiang Mai to visit the famous Shuanglong Temple, also known as the Shariputra Buddhist Temple, as usual.There is a big golden pagoda in the middle of the temple, which is said to preserve the relics of Buddha Sakyamuni.The driver also followed everyone into the temple, knelt in front of the Pasin Buddha statue introduced from Ceylon more than 600 years ago, and prayed for the peace of his son's soul. However, at night, the nightmare came again, and the two-winged devil arrived on a white horse, carrying a little black boy on his back—"Ghost Boy", the driver's son, who kept screaming miserably until he recovered from the nightmare. wake up. He didn't sleep well all night, and he was listless when he got up in the morning and drove. When the car was driving on a dangerous mountain road, he could only sing a little song to relieve his fear.But he still drove the wrong way and led the tour group into a labyrinthine canyon. Could it be that the devil has already entangled him, or is standing behind him? The driver turned his head back in fear, saw the devil bared his fangs, smiled evilly at him, and then disappeared into the air. "Who are you?" He gave a yell of rage, then picked up a stick and slammed it into the air with all his might.It seemed that all the bad luck in this life was given by this devil. Suddenly, there was a hasty knock on the door. The driver felt a little strange, it was still dark, who would knock on his door?Could it be that the owner of this house has returned? He hurriedly and carefully walked to the back of the door, and yelled out in Thai against the crack of the door: "Who?" Outside the door, the Chinese words came to mind: "It's me, Sun Zichu!" Of course he remembered this knowledgeable but talkative Chinese university teacher. The driver hurriedly opened the door for him and shone a flashlight on Sun Zichu's face. This guy drooped his sleepy face, but he insisted on opening his eyes wide, and shouted in panic, "Xiao Fang... Xiao Fang...he's gone!" "Missing?" The driver also felt baffled and asked in Chinese instead. At this time, Tu Nan, who was in the same room, was also woken up by them, and ran to the door rubbing his eyes: "What's the noise? Don't let people sleep?" Sun Zichu quickly explained the reason: he and the tour guide Xiao Fang temporarily lived in a flat, but when Sun Zichu got up to go to the bathroom in the early morning, he found that Xiao Fang's bed was empty.I searched every corner of the house with the flashlight again, but there was no sign of Xiao Fang, and his luggage and various belongings were still left in the room. "Did he come to you?" It turned out that Sun Zichu suspected that the tour guide Xiao Fang had come to discuss things with the driver. "No, no!" The driver shook his head quickly, no one knocked on his door all night. "Strange, where did he go?" "Will there be tourists looking for him?" The driver managed to utter a complete sentence in Chinese, "Did him be taken to another room?" "Okay! I'll go to every room and ask!" The grandson Chu Feng was about to knock on the door next door, but Tu Nan stopped him and said, "Look at what time it is now, he must be drooling in a deep sleep, you are immoral or not!" "Fuck you!" Sun Zichu didn't care about other people's face at all, he raised his fist and knocked on the door of the next room. Both the driver and Tu Nan could only shake their heads. They waited for two full minutes before carefully opening the door. Yang Mou pointed a flashlight at them and said, "What are you doing? What time is it?" "Has the tour guide Xiao Fang been here?" "Neuropathy!" Then Yang Mou closed the door angrily, and the frustrated grandson Chu continued to knock on the door until Yang Mou opened the door again and said loudly: "He hasn't been here! Please don't bother me any more!" Sun Tzuchu was silent for a few seconds, and said to himself, "Okay, the second floor is ruled out, let's go to the third floor!" The other two could only follow him, and knocked on the door of a room on the third floor. After waiting for a long time, a soft female voice sounded from the door: "Who is it?" "I'm Sun Zichu, may I ask if Xiao Fang, the tour guide, has been here?" "No!" The voice was Yu Ling, who was obviously stimulated by the words just now - if the tour guide Xiao Fang came in the middle of the night, wouldn't it be ruining his reputation?Naturally, he would not admit it even if he was beaten to death! Sun Tzuchu knocked on the door of another room. As usual, he waited for two minutes before being shut down and scolded severely by the Taiwanese girl in the door. In desperation, they bit the bullet and went up to the fourth floor, knocking on the door of the largest unit. A minute later, the door opened, and a flashlight was shining inside. Jian Li, who was in his forties, stood at the door aggressively holding a stick. Sun Tzuchu could only ask the question politely, but the answer he got was: "No, please go away! Don't wake up my daughter." After the door was slammed shut, Tu Nan tugged at the corner of Sun Zichu's clothes, and said softly, "Forget it, let's go back to sleep, maybe Xiao Fang will come back by himself soon." But grandson Chu Meng shook his head: "Go to the fifth floor!" Both Tu Nan and the driver lost to him, so they could only walk up to the highest level in pain. Fifth floor——Just as Sun Zichu was about to knock on Ye Xiao's door, a scream sounded in the darkness! It was a young woman's voice, she couldn't hear what she was shouting, it seemed to be outside the corridor.Their hearts were almost shattered, and they immediately shone a flashlight on the corridor, and they saw a shaking shadow. Tu Nan rushed up quickly and grabbed the man's hand, but heard a very familiar English sentence: "Shit!" He immediately replied: "Damn it!" Only then did the flashlight illuminate the other person's face. It turned out to be the American girl in her twenties. She disheveled her hair in a panic, faced them with a pale face, her mouth was already incoherent. Tu Nan asked several times in broken English, and the American girl began to answer in Chinese: "Upstairs...upstairs..." upstairs?This is already the highest floor of the residential building, where is there any upstairs? Unless—it's the rooftop on the top floor. But she ran towards the end of the corridor. It turned out that there was still a small staircase, which seemed to lead to the roof of the building. The American girl pointed lightly at the top, the driver was the first to go up to the roof, and Tu Nan followed closely behind. The rain has stopped and the sky is slightly brighter. There was still some water accumulated on the roof, and the early morning cold wind was blowing from all around, and the air was so humid that it would melt people. The three of them came to the open rooftop, and Tu Nan carefully looked around. Most of the surrounding buildings were shorter than this one, and he could see most of the city from a height, but many blocks were covered by dense trees. See tufts of green leaves and roofs.He looked back at the American girl and asked, "WHAT?" "Behind you—" Tu Nan and the driver turned their heads, only to find a man's body lying on the railing of the roof behind them. They rushed to the man's side, and saw a face of extreme horror—the whole face was festered, and it was simply horrible.The dead man's fingers gripped the ground so deeply that he almost picked white spots out of the cement. The only things that can be seen clearly are his eyes. No!Just a pair of eyeballs, almost popping out of their sockets, staring blankly at the gloomy sky. what did he see What terrible thing is there that can make a person's eyes so terrified? Tu Nan gasped, almost fell to the ground when his legs gave way.Even the well-informed driver quickly closed his eyes, clasped his hands together, and silently recited the Sutra of Passing Rebirth.And the American girl hid behind them, not daring to look at the corpse for a second time. "Poor little Fang!"
Five fifty in the morning. Ye Xiao, Sun Zichu, Li Shu, Tu Nan, the driver, Qian Mozheng, Tong Jianguo, and the American girl who first discovered the corpse all gathered on the rooftop of the fifth floor. The body was still lying beside the railing—it was their tour guide, Xiao Fang. He is the first! Ten minutes ago, the American girl brought Tu Nan and others to the rooftop and found this terrible corpse. The driver recognized Xiao Fang's eyes, and his clothes had not been changed.In Xiao Fang's trousers pocket were his passport and various documents.The driver still remembered the scar on Xiao Fang's hand, and it was exactly as it was in memory.Although the whole face is not human, everyone can still see his appearance. There is no doubt that he is the tour guide Xiao Fang, who died tragically on the rooftop. Afterwards, Sun Zichu ran downstairs, knocked on the doors of the other two rooms on the fifth floor, and ran up to the rooftop with Ye Xiao, Qian Mozheng and others. At this moment, people gathered in a circle and looked at Xiao Fang.Everyone was afraid to speak, and silence hung over the city and these people like a dark cloud in the sky. Finally, someone crouched down and vomited. Li Shu couldn't take it anymore, and vomited out all of yesterday's dinner.The American girl has already vomited twice, and she can no longer vomit anything in her stomach. Ye Xiao looked up at the sky, and sighed, "The most worrying thing happened!" "You are a police officer." Sun Tzuchu grabbed his clothes and said, "It's up to you here!" "No, I didn't bring any tools. I can't judge the cause of Xiao Fang's death now. And his face is rotten like this, it must be a very special reason. Everyone, please take a few steps back and stay away from the corpse, so as not to spoil the case. Discovery scene." He began to command the scene again, as if surrounded by his agents.When everyone retreated far away, Ye Xiao turned around and stopped the American girl: "What's your name?" "I... Elena." "You speak Chinese very well, where did you learn it?" "I started learning Chinese when I was in high school in the United States, and later I learned Chinese in Beijing and Shanghai." Ye Xiao suddenly lowered his face: "How did you find the tour guide's body?" "Me?" Yi Lianna didn't dare to look at his face, turned her head and said, "I didn't fall asleep all night, I couldn't bear it just now, so I quietly went out for a walk." "Where did you go?" "No, I didn't go anywhere. I just walked from the third floor to the fifth floor in this building, and then I wanted to take a look on the roof—so, I found this corpse." Yi Lianna replied nervously, the tones of many Chinese characters were outrageously wrong, which was completely different from her fluency yesterday.Ye Xiao shook his head: "Okay, you can go back to your room and have a rest." Then he said to Li Shu: "You send her down." Li Shu wiped his mouth that had just vomited, and took Yi Lianna downstairs. "You suspect the American girl?" Sun Zichu asked softly in Ye Xiao's ear. "have no idea." Ye Xiao's silence is as unpredictable as the city. At this moment, Tu Nan yelled: "I think she probably has a problem! A girl, why would she come out to wander around at 5:30 in the morning? And she just ran to this rooftop? Didn't you agree not to come out at night?" It was Qian Mozheng who spoke for Yi Lianna: "Americans, maybe they think differently from us." "How did Xiao Fang die? Was it a murder or an accident? Or some other reason?" "I said I don't know!" Ye Xiao clenched his fists. He knew that he was not Sherlock Holmes, not even half of Watson. He only had the anger and flames in his heart. "I just don't understand why Xiao Fang Will he come to the rooftop? Judging from the traces around him, it is impossible for him to be dragged to the rooftop after being killed elsewhere." "The corpse is on the edge of the railing on the roof. Could it be that he wants to commit suicide by jumping off the building?" "It is not ruled out that he committed suicide, but there must be other reasons that hurt him in the end." "It's the devil, it's the devil!" Our driver screamed wildly and ran down the roof quickly. 叶萧摇摇头说：“我们也快点下去吧。” “那小方怎么办？” “就让他躺在这里吧，我们不能破坏现场，更不能移动尸体，否则会破坏更多的线索。等我们逃到清莱或清迈以后，再带泰国警方回来处理尸体吧。” 钱莫争却皱着眉头说：“这里有很多鸟，还有老鼠，这些小动物都会破坏尸体的！” “那我们只有祈求老天保佑小方了。” 说着，叶萧第一个走下了天台，其余人也只能跟着他下来。 在他下楼梯的时候，走到童建国身边问：“昨晚，我似乎听到门外有人在说话。” “哦，真的吗？”五十多岁的童建国一脸平静，“我整晚上都在睡觉，除了那声巨响之外，没有其他的动静。” 叶萧没有再说下去，只是看着童建国回到五楼的房间。 他一个人站在冷冷的楼道里，抬头看着天花板。仅仅隔着一层水泥，正躺着一具可怜的尸体。 “也许，真是恶魔干的？”
晨曦。 如水珠从窗户洒进来，渗透入玉灵的眼皮，逐渐刺激着瞳孔收缩，越来越小越来越小——变成一个细微的针眼，突然出现了导游小方的脸，就在针眼里缓缓破碎，挤出浑浊的绿色尸液，整张脸全部腐烂剥落下来，变成一具白色的骷髅。 骷髅头穿过瞳孔的针眼，进入玉灵的大脑深处。 "what!" 她猛然睁开眼睛，从床上直起了身子，天光刺激双眼很难睁开，窗外寂静无声连鸟鸣都没有。 后背心里满是冷汗，她解开胸围坐在窗台，胸口这才舒服了一些。真想现在就脱了衣服跳进河里，泰家乡村女孩几乎每天下水洗澡，并不避讳什么授首不清。或许每天接触大自然的水分，才能让年轻的女子美丽动人吧。 现在刚过清晨六点，她居然又睡着做了个梦。十几分钟前，敲门声把她从沉睡中叫醒，孙子楚在门外询问是否见到小方？真是活见鬼了，她和小方是第一次认识，即便是导游同事的关系，有什么事不能天亮说吗？ 等她把孙子楚等人骂走后，却发现同屋的美国女孩不见了。玉灵又在房间里找了找，发现伊莲娜所有的东西都在，只是人不知道跑哪去了？她也接待过美国的游客，知道美国人喜欢夜生活，不过这里到哪去HAPPY呢？ 伊莲娜是个典型的美国女孩，说话做事都雷厉风行，总是一身运动探险的装束。白天好像不把自己当个女人，只有晚上睡觉之前，才换身睡袍放下头发，做个面膜保养一下。她的中文说得真好，从十四岁就开始学了，和玉灵说起话来像汉语考级比赛。她们的母语都不是中文，却必须在这一群中国人里，来到这曾经居住华人的城市，睡在一对年轻华人夫妇的床上。 两人聊到子夜过后，其实主要是伊莲娜在说话，偶尔夹杂几句英文，简直把中美两国的贫嘴饶舌合二为一。聊到后来玉灵困得支撑不住了，伊莲娜还在对面滔滔不绝，几乎要唱出顺口溜了。 直到那地震般的巨响，才封住了伊莲娜的嘴巴。玉灵从小在泰北长大，也从没遇到过这样的地震。她们赶紧缩到床上，抱着脑袋祈祷房子不要塌下来，就在恐惧中渐渐睡着了…… 刚才怎么会梦到导游小方的？不过是第一次见面，就遇上了这么倒霉的事。对，孙子楚不是说他不见了吗？大概就是受到这个影响吧，可小方会去哪呢？从第一次见到他起，就感到他的眼睛里藏着什么。那时大家还没开始拉肚子，山魈也没跳到车顶上。而小方依旧是忧愁的面容，就连看她的表情也如此古怪——虽然通常男人都会多看她几眼，但绝不是小方的那种眼神，似乎带着几分怀疑与不信任。既然如此，他为何当场不说出来？却还装作完全信任她的样子，继续旅行团的行程，很快就爆出了“黄金肉”的秘密，接着便是“山魈来袭”。 Xiao Fang? 他究竟怎么了？梦代表了什么？是真实发生的事情，还是某种奇特的预兆？玉灵不愿再想下去了。 她缓缓穿戴好筒裙，摸了摸自己吹弹可破的肌肤，这二十岁的身体还未曾献给过别人。 窗外，又一片白色的雾气飘过，缭绕在青翠的树叶之间，视线像被蒙上了一层轻纱。 眼睛又似乎被微微刺痛了一下，这片白雾是如此熟悉又如此陌生，就像十六岁那年的清晨——少女玉灵从恶梦中惊醒，光着脚丫走出寂静的村子，她穿过碧绿的稻田，进入那片黑色的森林。传说这里被恶魔和亡魂统治者，还有老虎、野牛、黑熊等猛兽出没，村里的坟场就在森林深处。 是的，就和眼前的白雾一样，十六岁的玉灵投入禁忌的森林，被神秘的白雾包裹起来。脚底是泥土、落叶和小动物的骨骸，沾满了冰冷的露水，湿滑地浸入皮肤和血管。耳边似乎响起某种声音，轻轻呼唤她的名字—— 她在露水与白雾中走啊走啊，离身后的村子越来越远，直到完全被黑色的森林覆盖。那里如同永恒的地狱，正午都似傍晚般昏暗，光线被高大茂密的树冠阻挡，到处垂挂着藤蔓等植物。常有不知名的动物在树上叫喊，发出巨大而恐怖至极的声音，传说只要走到这种地方，便会永久地迷失方向，灵魂也将被恶魔们取走。 但玉灵似乎忘记了一切，只顾着穿破雾气去寻找那个声音。当她转过一颗大榕树时，忽然撞到了一个人。 a monk. A young monk. A young and handsome monk. 可惜是个僧人。 玉灵直视着他的眼睛，他也直视着玉灵的眼睛，他们都因在这个地方看到对方而惊讶。他大概只有十八岁，还没有完全长成男人的身体，一副瘦弱不堪的样子，或许好几天都没吃东西了。他的头发剃得很干净，一身僧袍却异常地破烂，脚边放着个缺口的陶钵。嘴唇上只有些绒毛，大眼睛里却闪烁着某种东西——多情又抑郁的目光，如此残忍又有些无奈。 白雾依然缠绕着他们之间，玉灵好奇地打量着他，柔声问道：“你是谁？” “谁是你？” “我就是玉灵，刚才是你在叫我的名字吗？” “不，是另一个人，另一个灵魂在呼唤你。” "Where are you from?" “另一个世界。” 另一个世界——玉灵再度睁开眼睛，骤然回到二十岁的现在。那个记忆中的可怕清晨，已随着森林的白雾而不再清晰。 她抹去额头的冷汗，心里空虚的感觉，仿佛还停留在森林深处。面对三楼窗外的白雾，她闭上眼睛要忘掉那张脸，那张年轻的脸，年轻又英俊的十八岁的脸。 可惜，他是个僧人。 当玉灵难以从回忆中自拔时，外面响起一阵急促的敲门声，她像被针刺了一下跳起来，冲出去打开房门。 门外是美国女孩伊莲娜，旁边有厉书搀扶着她的身体。她变成了美版林妹妹，面色苍白失魂落魄，嘴里嘟囔着几句听不清楚的英文。 厉书的面色也不太对，他将伊莲娜送到玉灵房里，说了句“照顾好她”，便匆匆转身离去。 “到底发生什么了？”玉灵抓住伊莲娜的手，而她紧咬牙关不肯回答，“他欺负你了？” 伊莲娜立刻摇了摇头，虚脱似的坐倒在沙发，闭上眼睛再也不说话了。 玉灵盯着恐惧中的她，渐渐浮起那个针眼里的恶梦，渐渐剥落腐烂的小方的脸…… 难道真的是他？
清晨七点，楼里的所有居民——旅行团成员都被叫醒了。 有的人还没睡够，脸上尽是眼屎骂骂咧咧。但更多的人是彻夜难眠，黑着眼圈变成了熊猫。叶萧让大家在屋里解决早餐，但不要动人家留下来的食物。他和孙子楚、厉书去了附近的小超市，“借”了很多保质期内的快速食品回来。至于饮水问题，有人自带着小锅子，就把自来水烧开了饮用。 这顿特殊的早餐，足以让旅行团员们终生难忘——假定他们的终生不是很短的话。 然后，大家都被招呼出了房间，带着各自的行李物品。叶萧打开手机看了下，依然收不到任何信号，看来这里不会有手机店铺和移动业务了。随后他关掉手机，和大家商量着做出了决定——趁着早上没有下雨，由司机开车去加油站，加完油旅行团便离开这里。 各人拖着沉重的行李，十几号人艰难地走下楼梯，来到住宅楼外的巷道上。受伤的法国人亨利恢复很快，已能在别人搀扶下走路了。雨后的清晨异常湿润，每次呼吸都怕湿气把鼻孔堵住，很有中国西南的重庆或贵阳的感觉。 大家先是谈论昨晚那声巨响，所有人都被这声音吓到了，但谁都说不清那是什么，尽管来自台湾的林君如咬定是地震。 接着又有人发现导游小方不见了，再加上一个多钟头前，孙子楚等人打扰了许多人的好梦，便有人开始疑心疑鬼起来。 而屠男这家伙是个大嘴巴，竟把天台上的悲惨事件说了出来——叶萧气得差点扇他耳光，早上还关照过这件事要绝对保密，不能让大家陷入恐慌之中。他甚至已编好了一个理由：昨晚小方已出去寻找救援了，正带领援助人员向这里赶来。 但已经太迟了，小方的死讯传遍了整个旅行团。 女人们都恐惧地窃窃私语起来，连黄宛然的老公成立都搓着手说：“糟糕了！法国人说的是真的？所有人都被那个老太婆诅咒了？” 林君如也紧张地问：“连导游都死掉了，那我们该怎么办呢？” 杨谋的小娇妻恐惧地趴在新郎怀中——他们多半是来泰国度蜜月的新人，她有些神经质地说：“已经死了第一个——还会有第二个吗？” 然而，玉灵的表情却没有变化。 虽然伊莲娜守口如瓶不说，玉灵仍隐隐猜到了恶梦成真。只是这可怕的消息来得太快，亦证实得太快了，就连她自己也说不清楚，究竟是如何猜出来的呢？ 在玉灵如水的表面底下，却是一颗砰砰乱跳的心，她竭力让自己冷静下来：“我要到天台上去看一看！” 说完她就要往楼道里冲，但叶萧一把抓住了她，在她耳边冷静地说：“请相信我，小方已经死了，我不希望再有人看到他的样子。” “真的吗？他死得很惨吗？” 叶萧默默地点头，目光沉着地对着玉灵。 两个人对峙了一分钟，最后还是玉灵认输了，缓缓退回到大伙中间。 又是令人窒息的沉默，死亡最大的恐惧，是能像瘟疫般传染给每一个人，谁都不知道下一个是谁？ 突然，伊莲娜低声抽泣起来。厉书搂着她的肩膀，用英文轻声安慰了她几句。 玉灵已迅速恢复了镇定：“大家不要惊慌，虽然小方发生了意外，但我会担负起他的责任，作为导游把大家安全带出去的！” 但是，现在谁会相信一个二十岁的泰国小姑娘的话呢？ 叶萧让玉灵先留在这里，保持大家的稳定。 他和司机去开车加油，孙子楚和钱莫争也紧跟着他们。 四个人走出小巷，又注意了一下那辆无主的丰田车。清晨无人的街道上，弥漫着一股特别的白雾，地上积着许多昨晚的雨水。 钱莫争和司机快步走在前面，叶萧和孙子楚却落后了许多。孙子楚焦虑地说：“我们快点赶上去吧。” “等一等，我想单独问你一下。” 叶萧继续放慢脚步，在确信前面两人听不见他们的谈话后，便轻声问孙子楚：“你和导游小方是一个房间的，也是你最早发现他不见了踪影。” “是啊，有什么不对吗？” “晚上小方有何异常？” 孙子楚想了想说：“没什么啊？只是随便聊了聊天，就在那声地震般的巨响之后，我们就各自睡觉了。” “他说到了什么？” “没什么特别的，到了这种地方，又遇到这种事情，大家的心情都不太好，连我的话也少了很多呢。” 就这也算“话少了很多”？叶萧苦笑道：“算了吧！你也不知道他何时出门的？” “我不是说过了吗？凌晨五点多钟，我起来上厕所，才发现小方不见了。” 叶萧看着前面的司机和钱莫争越走越远，转头盯着孙子楚的眼睛：“我问你，整个晚上，你都没有出过房门吗？” “当然！问这个干嘛？你以为我是宁采臣啊，半夜里跑出去和聂小倩幽会？” 叶萧却不再说话了，将脸沉下来看着前头：“快点跟上去吧！” 说罢他们两人快跑前进，很快追上了钱莫争和司机。 “你们两个在说什么悄悄话啊？”钱莫争回头调侃着说，“两个男人总是粘在一块儿，不正常哦！” "Nonsense!" 孙子楚立即冲了一句，这时已转过了十字路口，四个人沿着进城大道向外走去。 巨大的刘德华广告牌下，就是旅行团的大巴——他们的挪亚方舟。 司机仔细检查了车子，一夜大雨冲刷掉了许多污垢，也没有其他人动过的痕迹。接着四人都上了大巴，司机坐上驾驶座发动车子，发动机轰鸣着踩下了油门。 车子缓缓驶离广告牌，在叶萧的指示下开往加油站。
车子经过进城大道，笔直开过了十字路口，很快来到加油站前。 这里的规模不小，设施也颇为现代化，和上海等地的加油站差不多，就连文字也都是繁体中文，当是所有进出城车辆的必经之地。 他们四个都走下车子，仔细查看空无一人的加油站。钱莫争大叫几声也没反应，叶萧走进加油站办公室，发现收银台里还有很多钱，大部分是泰国铢，也有美元和人民币。司机则一直在摆弄加油的机器，他确定这里有汽油，在看怎么才能把开关打开。 这时，叶萧看到加油站对面站着两个人，他飞快地冲了出去——原来还是旅行团里的人，杨谋正端着DV拍着他们，身边倚靠着他的新娘子。 叶萧走到他们跟前，严肃地问：“干嘛自己出来？不是说好等车子开过来的吗？” “我是电视台的纪录片编导，拍摄DV是我的工作也是最大爱好。”杨谋尴尬地笑了笑说，“这次旅行所发生的神秘事件，我一定要用摄像机全程记录下来，这将是本年度最精彩的纪录片！” 叶萧摇摇头说：“对不起，我可不想做你的演员。” 忽然，杨谋身边的新娘脸色大变，惊恐万分地尖叫了起来。 “你怎么了？小甜！” 杨谋放下DV，紧张地抓住新娘的肩膀。 “瞧！那里有个人！” 新娘小甜抬起颤抖着的手，指向右侧的一条小巷子。 叶萧和杨谋都转头看着右边，巷口只有一棵茂盛的木棉树，并没有半个人影。她的尖叫声也吸引了对面的人，孙子楚和钱莫争都从加油站跑过来了。 钱莫争过来大声地问：“你真的看到有个人吗？” “是的，我真的看到了，但一眨眼就消失了。” “是我们旅行团里的人吗？” 小娇妻斩钉截铁地回答：“不！是一个年轻的女人，我从来都没有见过！” 叶萧迅速冲进巷子，孙子楚和钱莫争也紧随其后。这条巷子非常深，两边是些破旧的老楼，还堆放着乱七八糟的杂物，地面坑坑洼洼有许多积水。 那个影子，在小巷迷宫般的尽头，他似乎看到那个影子了！ 然而，就在同一秒钟，他们听到身后传来某种奇异的声响…… Earth-shattering! Deafening! 加油站爆炸了！ 在两又四分之一秒的瞬间，巨大的冲击波如狂风般卷过。叶萧只感到身后有一只大手，将他强行摁倒在了地面上。而周围的孙子楚、钱莫争、杨谋和他的新娘子，全都被冲击波重重地打倒了。 爆炸持续了二十秒钟。 时间停滞，世界禁声，万物轮回。 冲天而起的火焰，还有浓重的汽油味道，让所有人都感到一阵灼热。等到他们重新睁开眼睛时，四周全都是灰尘和碎屑——破碎的塑料招牌、玻璃渣子、扭曲的钢筋…… 这就是传说中的人间地狱？ 小甜的后背盖满了尘屑，幸好穿了一件长袖的厚衣服，否则非搞惨了不可。突然，有什么东西掉到了她头上，她抓起那东西一看，才发现是一只烧焦了的断手！ 这是我们旅行团司机的手。 她尖叫着把断手甩出去，正好扔到自己老公的头上。杨谋揉着眼睛一看，又大叫着扔到孙子楚手中。孙子楚像接到个手榴弹，又赶紧塞进钱莫争怀里。钱莫争干脆往天上一扔。 最后，接住这只断手的人是叶萧。 他已经笔直地站了起来，头发给冲击波弄得鸟巢似的，衣服沾满了泥水。他仔细看着这只断手——只剩下手掌和半个手腕了，还缺了两根手指——小指和无名指。 这只可怜的手完全被烧焦了，大概在爆炸的一刹那，就从司机的手上炸断了出去，又高高地飞上天空，最后落在了他们头上。 叶萧再回头看看加油站，烈火仍在燃烧，四周的空气仿佛被蒸发了。而旅行团的豪华大巴，则已被炸得无影无踪。车上所有的钢架和铁板，都炸成了金属碎片，就连轮胎钢条也成了锯齿形！ 而加油站则被炸成了平地，只剩下几块断垣残壁，还在被油库的大火灼烧着。浓烈的黑烟升上天空，几乎把半个城市都覆盖了。 唐小甜痛哭着躲进杨谋怀里，孙子楚和钱莫争也互相支撑着，他们脸上都满是泥泞和烟尘。还算是这五个人命大，没被炸出来的金属碎片击中，否则很可能被切断脑袋或手脚。 而叶萧依旧抓着司机的断手，似乎那剩下的三根手指还在抽搐！ 孙子楚倒吸了一口冷气，拍着他的肩膀说：“把这个东西放下吧，我们的司机死了！” 我们的司机死了。 他是第二个。