Me? I was transported into a book? And I became a vicious villain?

Chu Mengmeng staggered towards the light. The forest behind her was like a giant beast, trying to devour her again. Hope was beating in her heart, and every step she took was like walking on the edge of a knife. Finally, she walked out of the forest, but the scene before her made her heart sink.

It was not any place she was familiar with, but a strange town. A few dim oil lamps swayed in the cold wind, the wooden houses were low and dilapidated, the streets were muddy, and the air was filled with a smell of corruption.

"What is this place..." Chu Mengmeng murmured to herself, the uneasiness in her heart entwined around her like a vine.

"careful!"

Suddenly, Xiao Yichen jumped out from behind her and pulled her behind him.

"What's wrong?" Chu Mengmeng was still in shock.

"There's someone." Xiao Yichen stared ahead vigilantly and spoke in a low voice.

Several dark shadows walked out from the darkness. They were tall and ragged, holding simple weapons in their hands and staring at them with cold eyes.

"Who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing here?" one of the men asked in a rough voice.

"We..." Chu Mengmeng was about to explain but was stopped by Xiao Yichen.

"We are travelers passing by. We lost our way and came here by accident. May I ask where is this place?" Xiao Yichen answered neither humbly nor arrogantly.

"Travelers passing by?" The man sneered, "No caravan has passed by here recently. Where did you come from?"

"We really just got lost..." Chu Mengmeng explained, but her words became weaker and weaker under the men's cold gazes.

"Don't waste your time talking to them, just catch them first!" another man said impatiently, and was about to step forward to catch them.

"Wait!" Xiao Yichen stood in front of Chu Mengmeng and tried to reason with them, "We have no ill intentions. We just want to find a place to rest and leave early tomorrow morning."

"Leave?" The men burst into laughter as if they had heard a joke.

"This is not a place where you can come and go as you please!"

"Just follow us!"

As they spoke, the men rushed forward and surrounded Chu Mengmeng and Xiao Yichen...

Xiao Yichen protected Chu Mengmeng behind him, dodging the men's brutal attacks flexibly. He was not a martial artist, but years of life on the edge of a knife had trained him to have sharp reactions and agility. He seized a flaw and punched one of them in the abdomen. When the other person bent over in pain, he kicked the other person to the ground with a sweeping kick.

However, the other side had more people and more power, and Chu Mengmeng was powerless. Seeing Xiao Yichen gradually losing the upper hand, she was anxious but helpless.

"Stop! What are you doing?!"

An old voice came from outside the crowd. Everyone turned around and saw an old woman with a cane walking towards them. She was thin, but she had a sense of majesty, which made the arrogant men unconsciously step back.

"Mother-in-law, these two strangers are acting suspiciously. We suspect they are..."

The old woman waved her hand, signaling them to shut up. She looked at Chu Mengmeng and Xiao Yichen with her cloudy eyes and asked, "Where are you from? What are you doing here?"

Xiao Yichen briefly recounted their experiences along the way, omitting the part about the mysterious voice. After listening to her, the old woman sighed deeply and said, "Poor child, you came at a really bad time. This town has been cursed."

"Curse?" Chu Mengmeng and Xiao Yichen looked at each other, feeling even more uneasy.

"That's right," the old woman nodded, pointing to the huge dead tree in the center of the town. "That's the source of the curse. It sucks the vitality of the town, making the people here more and more numb and crazy..."

Before the old woman could finish her words, a cold wind suddenly blew over, all the dim oil lamps were extinguished, and the whole town was plunged into darkness.

"what!"

There was a cry of surprise from the crowd and someone lit a torch, but the light of the flames only made the terrified expressions on people's faces more prominent.

"Oh no, the curse has been triggered!" the old woman exclaimed and slammed the ground heavily with the cane in her hand.

In the darkness, Chu Mengmeng felt a cold breath wrapped around her ankles, as if an invisible hand was dragging her into the abyss. She tried to break free in fear, but found that her body was getting heavier and heavier, as if it was filled with lead.

"Mengmeng!" Xiao Yichen noticed that something was wrong with Chu Mengmeng and wanted to reach out to pull her, but was bounced away by an invisible force.

"Hahaha, you can't escape! The curse has been activated, and you will stay here forever!" The old woman's voice echoed in the darkness, full of despair and madness.

Chu Mengmeng and Xiao Yichen stood back to back, looking at everything around them in horror. In the darkness, something seemed to be waking up, approaching them with a suffocating sense of oppression...

The darkness was like thick ink, completely engulfing Chu Mengmeng and Xiao Yichen. The screams and cries around them were distorted by the endless darkness and turned into creepy wails. Chu Mengmeng tightly grasped Xiao Yichen's hand, her fingertips were cold, as if she was holding a piece of ice. She could feel the cold breath spreading up along her ankles, swallowing up her warmth and strength bit by bit.

"Xiao Yichen, I... I'm so cold..." Chu Mengmeng's voice trembled, as if it came from an extremely cold place.

Xiao Yichen held her tightly in his arms, trying to warm her with his body temperature: "Don't be afraid, Mengmeng, I'm here, I will protect you."

However, his voice seemed particularly weak. The invisible force also wrapped around him, making his limbs feel heavy and his breathing difficult.

The old woman's crazy laughter echoed in the darkness, like a demon from hell, mocking their ignorance and powerlessness.

"Give up, you can't defeat the curse! This town is doomed, and you will become a part of it!"

Chu Mengmeng and Xiao Yichen certainly would not give up easily. They groped forward, stumbling, trying to find the dead giant tree the old woman had mentioned. They believed that as long as they found the source of the curse, they would be able to find a way to lift it.

However, the layout of the town seemed to have changed in the darkness. They were lost in the intricate streets and alleys, and every turn seemed to be back to the starting point.

What was even more terrifying was that they found that their bodies were gradually becoming weaker. Chu Mengmeng's originally fair skin turned gray, and Xiao Yichen's strong arms became weak. They couldn't even tell whether it was the power of the curse that made them weak, or the despair that made them collapse.

"Cough cough..." Chu Mengmeng covered her chest and coughed violently. She felt as if her lungs were on fire, and every breath was accompanied by piercing pain.

Xiao Yichen supported her anxiously, but there was nothing he could do. He had never felt so helpless as he did now.

"Mengmeng, hold on, we will definitely find a way!"

His voice was filled with despair, but his eyes were still firm. He couldn't give up, he had to protect Chu Mengmeng, even at the cost of his own life.

Just like that, they groped and struggled in the darkness, like two drowning people trying desperately to grab a life-saving straw.

Suddenly, Xiao Yichen's hand touched something. It was a cold, hard object, hidden in a dark corner, as if forgotten. He squatted down and gently brushed away the dust on it with his hand. An ancient book wrapped in black leather appeared in front of him.

"Mengmeng, look..."

Xiao Yichen's voice trembled. He felt like he had grasped a glimmer of hope, but he was afraid that this hope was too fragile and could not withstand any blow. Chu Mengmeng endured the discomfort and moved her heavy steps closer to Xiao Yichen. In the darkness, she could not see the specific content of the book. She could only vaguely see some strange symbols and patterns, emitting a faint green light. The green light reminded her of the old woman's malicious eyes, and a chill rose in her heart.

"What is this?" Chu Mengmeng's voice was weak, as if it would be blown away by the wind.

"I... I'm not sure either." Xiao Yichen carefully turned the pages of the book, and felt a sharp pain in his fingertips, as if he was pricked by a needle. "But judging from these symbols and patterns, this should be a book that records ancient magic. Maybe..."

He paused and didn't continue, but Chu Mengmeng understood what he meant. Maybe this book contains the method to remove the curse.

A faint flame of hope once again ignited in their desperate hearts.

Xiao Yichen flipped through the book page by page, trying to find content related to the curse. However, the words on the pages were ancient and obscure, and he didn't recognize a single word. What's worse, he found that the book seemed to have been tampered with, and many pages were blank, as if someone had deliberately torn them off.

"How could this happen..." Xiao Yichen muttered to himself, his tone full of disappointment and frustration.

Are they destined to be trapped in this cursed town and become part of the darkness?

At this moment, his fingers touched a dent on the page. The dent was so small that it was almost imperceptible, but he still keenly sensed that something was wrong. He carefully felt the shape of the dent, and suddenly an idea flashed through his mind.

"Mengmeng, look, does this look like a keyhole?" Xiao Yichen pointed at the depression with a hint of excitement in his tone.

Chu Mengmeng took a closer look and found that the concave shape did look like a keyhole, but it was much smaller than an ordinary keyhole.

"Could it be..." A bold guess flashed through Chu Mengmeng's mind, "This book is locked up?"

Xiao Yichen nodded: "It's very likely. If I'm not mistaken, this book contains a very important secret, so it was hidden and can only be opened with a specific key."

New hope, along with new mysteries, appeared before them.

They must find the key to unlock the secrets of the book and find a way to lift the curse.

But where is the key?

"Let's split up and look for it." Xiao Yichen said, carefully putting the book into his arms, "Remember, once you find any clues, come back here and meet up immediately."

Chu Mengmeng nodded, and the two of them supported each other and walked towards the depths of the darkness. Their figures soon disappeared in the maze-like streets.

Only the ancient book lay quietly in Xiao Yichen's arms, as if waiting for the moment when its secrets would be revealed...