This Damned Thirst for Survival

Sleeping in the Datong bunk has such disadvantages, Jiang Luo resignedly tidied up his hair, and separated the people on the left and right sides with the quilt.

After a difficult night, at six o'clock in the morning, the contestants will leave the rest area.

Liao Si moved slowly, and when he packed up, there were no other people in the room.

He was not in a hurry at all, he slowly packed his luggage, took out twenty plastic bags the size of a palm, picked up the hair from the bedding of all the contestants except himself, put them together, and wrote their names one by one.

He put these plastic bags in the suitcase, and finally took out a plastic bag that he packed last night.

In a small plastic bag, a slender strand of hair was twisted and twisted. Among all the contestants, only one had such long hair.

Liao Si looked at it curiously for a while, and said to himself, "Hua Li, why did the master control me to press Jiang Luo's hair yesterday?"

"If you want hair, can't you just pick it up in the morning?"

There was no one in the room except him, but another cold voice came from out of nowhere: "How do I know what the master is thinking, your thoughts can be read by the master, why don't you ask the master."

Liao Si smiled and said: "You also know that the master can manipulate my body at any time and know my thoughts, but I was curious and thought all night last night, and the master didn't answer me a word. Isn't that why I want to ask you ?"

Huali didn't want to continue this topic with him, "If you don't go out, someone will come looking for you."

Liao Si sighed leisurely and walked out of the resting place.

Jiang Luo was listening to the staff talking about the third level.

The staff said: "In the dense forest, there is an isolated village called Shentu Village. One and a half months ago, the police received a call from Shentu Village, but when they drove to Shentu Village, they found There is no telephone in Shentu Village. After the police investigated Shentu Village, they found that there had been many strange diseases in Shentu Village many years ago, and each strange disease would cause half of the people to die. But even so, Shentu Village People have never left the village. In recent years, there have been no strange diseases in Shentu Village, but even stranger things have happened—"

"Every time a person dies in Shentu Village, there will be a new life in the village. The total population of their village has never changed in the past few years."

The staff said: "All contestants, what you need to do is to unlock the secrets of Shentu Village within a week and survive successfully."

The next step is still the familiar set of signing the death exemption agreement, but the expressions of everyone are much heavier than the previous level.

On the road to Shentu Village, cars can't drive in, so they can only go on foot.Baihua University and Shanhai University had the largest number of people. People from the two schools were naturally divided into two teams. Others who participated in the competition alone looked at each other and formed the last temporary team.

But one person ignored anyone, picked up the compass and walked into the dense forest alone.

"That person is from Wenxing University, He Zhi." Liao Si slowly walked to Jiang Luo's side, "This person is very unique. But I am not alone, Jiang Luo, can I go with you?"

Jiang Luo turned to look at him, and Liao Si smiled weakly, "Although I'm not in good health, at least I'm a corpse chaser, so I won't drag you down."

The identity of a corpse chaser is really popular, and here is Xiangxi, Jiang Luo has no reason to reject Liao Si.He nodded, and asked casually: "Isn't a corpse driver supposed to have a good body? After all, occasionally he has to drive a corpse from a foreign country back to his hometown. He has traveled through thousands of mountains and rivers on the way, relying only on a pair of legs." effort."

"What you're saying is," Liao Si said calmly, "I've learned how to drive corpses, but I've never driven corpses. Because of my congenital inadequacies, I can't support me to walk such a long way. If possible, I would like to try The feeling of chasing a dead body."

He sighed, "But if you want to apply what I've learned, I guess you can only change your body."

After Liao Si joined the team, their schedule slowed down.

It is true that Shentu Village is located in the dense forest, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and it is not false that it is remote and backward.There was only one foot-stepped mountain road to enter the village, and Liao Si was already sweating from exhaustion before halfway there, and his face was pale.

Kuang Zheng and Lu You took turns supporting him, and three hours later, the group arrived at Shentu Village.

At the head of Shentu Village, there is a large loess tree with luxuriant branches and leaves. The loess under the locust tree is flat, and a large shadow covers it. The breeze blows and the leaves dance.

A group of people walked under the shade of the tree, and the coolness rushed over their faces.Liao Si leaned against the tree to rest, breathing quickly, Lu Yi teased him, "Liao Si, you are even more useless than Jiang Luo before."

Jiang Luo smiled, raised his head and took a sip of water, but suddenly saw a pair of naked blue-purple feet on Lu You's head.

He stopped and looked up.A dead man who had been hanged for an unknown number of years was hung on a locust tree with a rotting face, directly above Lu Yi.

Jiang Luo: "Lu Yi..."

The moment he spoke, the male corpse disappeared instantly.

In broad daylight, the hideous corpse just now seemed to be Jiang Luo's illusion.

Lu looked at him sideways: "What's wrong?"

Jiang Luo licked his dry mouth, "Come here, don't stand there."

Although Lu Yi was puzzled, he obediently walked up to him, and after drinking half a bottle of water, he said strangely: "Don't tell me, I just stood there and felt my scalp itchy, as if something was scratching me. Same hair, much better standing here."

Jiang Luo didn't have the heart to tell him that it was a pair of dead feet that touched his hair.

When it was almost time to rest, Jiang Luo urged them to get up and leave under the big locust tree.

At the entrance of the village, the village head is receiving the contestants with his son Wang Qian.

The attitude of the two of them was neither hot nor cold. According to the village chief, Jiang Luo and the others were the slowest of the three groups of contestants.

But Jiang Luo found that the village head didn't seem to know that they were contestants who came to explore the secrets of the village, but regarded them as a team of ordinary college students who went out to travel.

The competition party should have given Shentu Village a lot of money, and the room Shentu Village vacated for them should be better than the resting place prepared by the competition party.

After sending them to the room, the village head said indifferently: "Our village has a sacrificial activity tonight, you can participate, but you can only follow at the end without making a sound. If you participate, please remember that unclean people cannot To participate, you can't utter foul words at the sacrifice, you can't point your finger at the altar, and you can't touch the things on the table with unwashed hands."

These are the basic rules when offering sacrifices, they naturally understood, and nodded upon hearing the words, without any doubts.

The village chief nodded in satisfaction, and his attitude softened a little, "We have a lot of snakes, insects, rats and ants here. Don't go up the mountain if you have nothing to do. If you are bitten, come to me quickly."

After the instructions, the two village chiefs left.

All the contestants lived in this room, except for He Zhi who took the lead in entering the village, the other 21 people were all there.

Xu Yan from Shanhai University hesitated for a moment, then walked over and asked, "Did you meet any villagers when you entered the village?"

Jiang Luo nodded, "I met a few people."

"I just asked the village chief. There are 311 people in their village," Xu Yan said. "It's the same as what the staff said. The village chief said that this number has not changed for several years."

311, if analyzed from the perspective of the number corresponding to the innate gossip, it is Gen hexagram, Gen is a mountain, implying barriers and obstacles.

Jiang Luo narrowed his eyes, "Why did you tell us this information?"

He now looks at everyone with suspicion, for no reason, who will share information during the game?

Xu Yan said in a low voice: "We want to thank you for the last level. Thanks to your information, we can advance..." His expression darkened, "It's because you found out about Brother Bai being possessed by a demon. Brother Bai was rescued, otherwise we would have no face to continue participating in the competition."

After confirming that his demeanor was not fake, Jiang Luo said in a big voice, "You're welcome for a small matter."

Xu Yan shook his head, "If we get any clues in the future, we will tell you. Thank you for helping us advance, and thank you for saving Brother Bai's life."

After speaking, he was afraid that Jiang Luo would refuse, so he turned and left without waiting for Jiang Luo's reaction.

Zhuo Zhongqiu sighed and said: "During the last level, this guy named Xu Yan was very wary of us."

Jiang Luo said solemnly: "This is called good will be rewarded."

They went back to their room and put down their luggage. Before it was night, they hurriedly walked around Shentu Village.

Shentu Village is even bigger than they imagined. The village is surrounded by two high mountains, enclosing Shentu Village in the middle.They divided into five groups to see if they could figure out the layout of Shentu Village today.

Jiang Luo and Lu Yi saw many villagers from Shentu Village along the way.These villagers are no different from those in any other village. On the contrary, they look extremely happy, and more than half of them have smiles on their faces.

With green mountains and green waters, old men and young children, at first glance, this place is like a paradise for escaping the world.

Lu Youdao: "The people here seem to be living a good life."

While talking, they had reached the edge of the village.There were overgrown weeds on both sides, Jiang Luo suddenly said: "Something is wrong."

Lu Yi asked, "What's wrong?"

Jiang Luo pointed to the vegetable field among the weeds, and said, "Look at these fields, they are so languid, and the crops are all withered, it's obvious that they haven't been taken care of for a long time."

Lu Yi scratched his head: "Is it because the person who planted this land is too lazy?"

"In the countryside, especially in this kind of isolated village, most of the food, clothing, housing and transportation are done by yourself," Jiang Luo shook his head, "When cooking, I go out to pick a green onion and pluck a vegetable, so the vegetable field is generally Plant them in your own yard or at the door of your house. People who can run to the edge of the village to grow vegetables are because they don’t have enough vegetables to eat at home. They will only work harder and not be lazy. Otherwise, why bother to plant them? ?”

Lu Yi also thought it made sense, "Shall we go back and have a look?"

This time when they went back, they looked more carefully.Sure enough, there are more or less vegetable fields planted in front of each household, but some of them take care of this piece of land with extra care, while others have a single dead tree and sparse vegetation in front of their doors.

It's not that there is no one in the family whose fields are withered, but some people don't care about the life and death of the vegetable fields. It seems that the only reason is laziness.

The two returned the same way, and when they were about to reach home, a little girl in red suddenly rushed out from the corner and bumped into them.

The two of them staggered back a step. Jiang Luo helped the little girl in time, put on a deceptively kind face, and said with a smile, "little sister, what are you doing so fast?"

The little girl in red was about eleven or twelve years old, and she just reached Jiang Luo's waist.She has the same long black hair as Jiang Luo, her bangs are messily pasted on her forehead, her face is covered with dust and dead grass leaves, her eyes are big, but they are hollow and lifeless, as inorganic as a doll.

The little girl said, "I'm going to find Mom and Dad."

Lu Yi enthusiastically said, "Where do your parents live? We'll send you there."

As soon as the words fell, a couple ran up behind the little girl.The woman was still wearing an apron, and the man was wearing slippers, with the same anxious faces. They were overjoyed when they saw the little girl, "Little girl, it's time to eat, why are you running?"

The facial features of the two of them are faintly similar to that of the little girl, and it is easy to see the kinship between them at a glance.Lu Yi told the little girl, "Your parents are here."

The little girl ignored the calls behind her, and said dully: "I'm going to find another mom and dad."

Another mom and dad?

Jiang Luo couldn't bear to think too much, the couple had already run to the little girl, and they coaxed the little girl carefully and softly.The mother gently patted the dead branches and leaves off the little girl, and the father lovingly touched the little girl's forehead. After a few words, he led the little girl back.

Their love for the little girl is palpable, even a little overwrought.

Jiang Luo frowned as he watched their gradually disappearing figures, and returned home with Lu Yi.

Soon, others returned.Everyone didn't get any useful information, and could only wait for the sacrificial activities at night.

At six o'clock in the evening, Wang Qian, the son of the village chief, brought them a cloth mask that could cover the lower half of their faces.

A red smiling lip was crookedly embroidered with needlework on the mask. The fabric was rough, and four thin threads were sewn on the sides, which could be tied into a knot at the back of the head.

Wang Qian repeatedly urged, "You must smile when offering sacrifices. If you can't smile, you can wear a mask and go out. This is the custom in our village, please respect our custom."

He said the important thing three times, but Wang Qian said it five times. Before leaving, he was afraid that they would forget, and looked back three times worriedly.

After he left, Jiang Luo put on a mask in front of the mirror.In the mirror, a distorted smile unfolded on his lips, all the way to the ears.It is extremely uncomfortable to look at it at first glance. If you look at it a few more times, you will even faintly feel that yourself in the mirror becomes strange and distorted.

Jiang Luo took off his mask, turned around, and suddenly met another distorted face laughing.

Liao Si stood behind him with a smile, and the mask on his mouth fit perfectly on the bridge of his nose. When he spoke, the mask trembled, as if his red embroidered lips were constantly opening and closing, "The embroidery of this mask is not very good. Sample."

A good sick and beautiful man, but after wearing a mask, he looks like a perverted murderer. Jiang Luo twitched his eyebrows, "Can you take off the mask?"

Liao Si took it off obediently, "There seems to be music playing outside."

Jiang Luo listened carefully, and there was indeed music playing outside. They went out with their masks in hand, and saw villagers coming out from every household. The crowd soon formed a long line, swaying along with the music. .

There were children laughing and waving toys in their hands, and the adults were chatting together in twos and threes, and everyone was smiling without exception.

The contestants followed at the back of the crowd, Jiang Luo didn't want to wear this somewhat permeable mask, so he curled up the corners of his mouth and mixed in with it with a perfunctory smile.

When the crowd arrived in front of the ancestral hall, the sky darkened, and a purple-red fire cloud burned.

The altar is placed in front of the ancestral hall, and there are many tributes on the ancestral hall.Fruit, pig's head and bread, look at the regulations, should be worshiping a certain god.

The village chief was walking back and forth anxiously in front of the altar, and he asked his son, "Has the god come yet?"

Wang Qian wiped his sweaty head, "Not yet."

The village chief's expression twisted for a moment, and his pupils constricted with deep fear, "Is it because we haven't prepared enough?"

Wang Qian's voice trembled, "Impossible, we put everything up."

He quickly looked at the altar, "Incense burner, candlestick, vase, eight offerings, one tea bowl...a lot."

The village chief looked over everything, and after confirming that there was nothing missing, he felt a little relieved, and said to himself: "It should be that Shen Gong has something to delay, let's wait a little longer."

Jiang Luo, who was at the back of the crowd, laughed so hard that his face froze, and the sacrifice in front hadn't started yet.He maintained his expression with a half-smile, and looked around, and saw that most of the contestants were already wearing masks and rubbing their faces.

Liao Si also put it on, and he looked at Jiang Luo curiously, "Don't you wear it?"

Jiang Luo immediately put the mask on his face, "Everyone is so ugly, I don't have to worry about it anymore."

Liao Si laughed a few times, coughed again, and said weakly, "The temperature is starting to cool down."

Suddenly there was a burst of cheers ahead, Jiang Luo looked up, and it turned out that a man in black with a black hood came out of the ancestral hall.

The man walked up to the village chief and whispered a few words to the village chief.The village head nodded again and again, his face became more and more red, and his joy and eagerness were beyond words.

After the man in black finished speaking, the village head turned to face the villagers, pressed his hands down, and said solemnly: "The sacrifice begins."

The sacrifice ended unexpectedly quickly. Before the moon had risen in the middle, the village head announced that they could disband. Before disbanding, he said a word.

"Tomorrow is the day for selecting candidates for the ancestral hall," the village chief said loudly. "Whether you are selected or not, it will not affect God's favor for us! If you are sincere, the gods will appear. I have to say these words once a year. This year is no exception, everyone, don't worry! Don't cause disputes! Tomorrow at [-] o'clock in the afternoon, we will still gather here, do you hear me?"

The villagers said in unison: "I heard it!"