tkworld #511 - Strange deserted village
#511 - Strange deserted village
Tang Yin was caught off guard by this sudden question. He was stunned for a moment, then smiled and replied, "No way, people are people, how can they turn into wolves?"
Wang Lina's face lit up with a bright smile when she heard Tang Yin's answer. She said cheerfully, "It seems you really are a gentleman. Come, let's continue drinking!" With that, she raised her glass, signaling to clink glasses with Tang Yin.
Although Tang Yin cooperated by raising his glass, his heart began to murmur.
Good heavens, was that just a test to see if I'm a pervert?
So, I passed the test?
He felt that Wang Lina's words seemed to be diverting the topic. Were those discussions about dangerous animals, and the sudden mention of wolves, just to bring up this strange question?
But soon, Tang Yin shook his head self-deprecatingly. He remembered the original intention of his trip, which was to pursue some unexpected events and excitement. Enjoying a drink late at night with a cute girl, although her words and actions are still a bit suspicious, it must be said that this is indeed a very enjoyable thing.
Tang Yin took a sip of wine, feeling the warmth of the liquid sliding down his throat. He looked at Wang Lina again, thinking that this might be an unexpected surprise brought by impulse. Although there are still many questions that have not been answered, the atmosphere at this moment makes people reluctant to break it.
As the night deepened, the sound of insects chirping outside the house was faintly audible. Tang Yin and Wang Lina continued their conversation, sometimes talking about lighthearted topics, and sometimes touching on some profound philosophies of life. After a few rounds of drinks, Tang Yin felt his head dizzy, but his heart was filled with a strange sense of satisfaction.
He knew that this night was destined to be unforgettable. Whether Wang Lina was a simple country girl, or hiding some unknown secret, this experience would become a special chapter in his life journey...
...
Tang Yin's consciousness gradually blurred, and the effect of alcohol made his thinking slow. Before he completely passed out, the last memory flashed through his mind. He and Wang Lina were sharing their recent embarrassing experiences, and the atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant.
Driven by alcohol, Tang Yin unexpectedly confessed to Wang Lina something that made him ashamed. He stammered, "Do you know, last year when I was drunk at a friend's house, I actually, actually wet the bed in his bedroom." After saying that, his face turned red, both from the alcohol and from shame.
Wang Lina was stunned for a moment after hearing this story, and then burst into laughter. She laughed so hard that she almost fell off her chair. "Hahahaha, you actually... hahaha..." She laughed so hard that she couldn't catch her breath, and even started foaming at the mouth. Finally, she also passed out on the table, falling asleep with Tang Yin.
After an unknown amount of time, Tang Yin slowly opened his eyes. The dazzling sunlight shone into the room through the frosted glass window, making him squint. He felt a splitting headache, and his mouth was so dry that it felt like he had swallowed a handful of sand. He struggled to lift his wrist to check the time, and found that it was already the next morning.
Tang Yin barely managed to sit up, looked around, and the scene in front of him instantly sobered him up a lot. The whole room was a mess, with traces of vomit everywhere. Obviously, Wang Lina was not spared from the consequences of being drunk last night.
Tang Yin took a deep breath, endured the discomfort caused by the hangover, and began to clean the room. He found a rag and cleaning agent, and wiped the floor and furniture bit by bit. This process was long and disgusting, but Tang Yin knew that he had to restore the room to its original state.
After nearly two hours of effort, the room was finally restored to basic cleanliness. Tang Yin wiped the sweat from his forehead, then walked to Wang Lina, who was still sleeping soundly, and gently shook her shoulder.
"Hey, wake up, it's almost noon," Tang Yin said softly.
Wang Lina slowly opened her eyes, her face full of the pain of a hangover. She looked around confusedly, seeming to be trying to recall what happened last night.
Seeing Wang Lina wake up, Tang Yin said, "I'm going out to take a look, you rest for a while." After speaking, he walked out the door.
The moment he stepped out of the door, Tang Yin was shocked by the scene in front of him. After last night's rain, the abandoned village apartment was surrounded by an eerie silence. In the sunlight, this isolated place seemed even more unreal.
Tang Yin stood in the open space in front of the apartment building, looking around. The distant mountains were exceptionally clear in the sunlight, but they gave a feeling of unreality, as if they were a huge backdrop painting. The surrounding trees were exceptionally green because of the rain, but there was not a single sound of wind blowing the leaves, and the whole world seemed to be muted.
The ground around the apartment building was covered with puddles of water, reflecting the image of the sky. These puddles were like entrances to another world, giving the illusion that one could be sucked in at any time.
Tang Yin noticed that the outer walls of the apartment building were covered with vines, which looked particularly lush in the sunlight. But on closer inspection, the way these plants grew seemed a bit unnatural, as if they were deliberately covering something.
Even more strangely, although it was approaching noon, there was no sign of activity in the entire area. There were no birds chirping, no insects calling, and not even a single flying insect could be seen. This unnatural silence made Tang Yin feel a chill down his spine.
He tried to find traces of other residents, but in the entire apartment building, except for the room where he and Wang Lina were, all the other windows were tightly closed, and the curtains were drawn tightly, as if no one lived inside at all.
Tang Yin took a deep breath, and there was a vaguely indescribable strange smell in the air, neither the fresh air after the rain, nor the normal smell of soil, but an unsettling mixture of odors.
...
Tang Yin stood in the open space of the abandoned village apartment, his eyes unconsciously drawn to the window of the next room. The window was tightly closed, and the curtains were drawn tightly, but for some reason, he always felt that there was some secret hidden inside.
"Is there anyone living in the next room?" This thought lingered in Tang Yin's mind. With a strong curiosity, he quietly approached the window. The window was surrounded by dense bushes, almost covering the entire windowsill.
Tang Yin took a deep breath, carefully reached out his hand, and gently pushed aside the branches of the bushes in front of the window. At this moment, a shocking scene suddenly appeared in his sight.
On the weedy ground, a strange girl wearing a white Taoist robe stood quietly. Her appearance was so abrupt, forming a sharp contrast with the surrounding desolate and dilapidated scene, as if she were an elf who had strayed into this place from another world.
The girl didn't look very old, about sixteen or seventeen years old.
She was wearing a snow-white Taoist robe, embroidered with intricate and delicate golden runes, shimmering with a mysterious light in the sunlight. Her long hair was as black as a waterfall, casually tied up with a white jade hairpin, and a few strands of broken hair hung playfully by her ears, adding a bit of liveliness to her.
The girl's face was like a finely carved piece of white jade, her skin fair and translucent, as if it could reflect sunlight. Her eyebrows were like distant mountains, her eyes were like autumn water, her nose was high and straight, and her lips were like vermilion. Her whole person exuded a transcendent temperament, incompatible with this mundane world.
The most surprising thing was the girl's eyes. Those eyes were as deep as the starry sky, as if they contained endless wisdom and secrets. When her gaze met Tang Yin's, Tang Yin felt that his soul seemed to be seen through, and an indescribable sense of shock swept through his body.
However, just as Tang Yin was shocked by this incredible scene and couldn't speak, in the blink of an eye, the white-robed girl disappeared into thin air. As if she had never appeared, leaving only the empty weedy ground and the slightly swaying bushes.
Tang Yin gasped, and a cold sweat broke out on his back instantly. He rubbed his eyes hard, and looked again at the place where the girl had just stood, but there was nothing there except weeds.
"Is this a hallucination?" Tang Yin muttered to himself, his heart beating faster. He began to doubt his senses, maybe the aftereffects of the hangover were causing him to hallucinate? Or, is this someone's carefully planned prank?
But whether it was a hallucination or a prank, Tang Yin could not ignore the strong sense of unease in his heart. He looked around and suddenly realized that the weirdness of this place was far beyond his imagination.
"What the hell is this place!" Tang Yin couldn't help but curse in a low voice. He began to question everything Wang Lina told him. Is this really just an isolated and poor place? Or, is this actually a secret gathering place for some outlaws?
Various possibilities flashed through Tang Yin's mind, and each assumption made him feel more uneasy. He realized that he might have fallen into an unknown and dangerous situation, and he knew nothing about it.
Tang Yin swallowed and tried to calm his rapid breathing. Although his heart was full of fear and doubt, he knew he couldn't back down now. If he didn't find out the truth here, he might never be able to leave in peace.
Taking a deep breath, Tang Yin made up his mind to find out. He recalled the direction in which the white-robed girl disappeared, where there seemed to be a hidden path leading to the forest behind the apartment.
"Maybe that girl knows something," Tang Yin thought, "Even if it's just a hallucination, walking in that direction might reveal some clues."
His every step was full of caution, for fear of alarming some potential danger.
The path in the forest was winding and overgrown with weeds, obviously it had not been walked for a long time. Tang Yin kept a high degree of vigilance while moving forward, constantly paying attention to the surrounding movements.
The occasional rustling sound between the leaves made his heart beat wildly, and every shadow might hide an unknown threat. But Tang Yin knew that he had to keep moving forward. Because only by finding that mysterious white-robed girl could he possibly uncover the secrets of this strange place.
...
Tang Yin carefully walked through the forest, following the path that was almost buried by weeds. The surrounding trees became more and more dense, and the air was filled with a humid and decaying smell. Suddenly, his steps stopped, and an unexpected scene appeared in front of him.
A dilapidated board house stood alone in the forest clearing, like an island forgotten in this wilderness. This was the kind of temporary residence commonly seen on construction sites, used to house workers for short periods of time. But obviously, this board house had been abandoned for a long time.
Tang Yin cautiously approached the board house, carefully observing the surrounding environment. He noticed that there were obvious landslide traces on the hillside not far away, and large areas of exposed soil and scattered rubble indicated that a landslide had occurred here. "It seems that the project was forced to be interrupted because of this disaster," Tang Yin thought.
Although the board house looked dilapidated, judging from the growth of the surrounding weeds, the time it had been abandoned should not have been very long. The weeds were lush, but had not completely engulfed the entire building. This discovery gave Tang Yin a glimmer of hope, maybe there were still some clues left here.
Just as Tang Yin was about to further inspect the board house, he suddenly noticed a series of faint footprints on the ground. These footprints looked very fresh, obviously left recently. Tang Yin's heart beat faster, could this be the trail left by that mysterious girl?
With a strong curiosity, Tang Yin decided to continue forward following the footprints. He carefully followed the footprints, passing through a dense thicket. Just as he pushed aside the last clump of bushes, the scene in front of him surprised him so much that he couldn't speak.
An ancient village hidden in the deep mountains suddenly appeared before him. This village seemed to be completely isolated from the outside world, surrounded by rolling mountains. The village was surrounded by terraced fields, which presented a strange beauty in the sunlight.
However, the atmosphere of this village made Tang Yin feel a chill. The whole village was shrouded in an eerie silence, with no birds chirping, no human voices, and not even the sound of wind blowing. The architectural style of the houses was very old, looking like buildings from hundreds of years ago, but strangely, these houses did not show the proper sense of disrepair.
The streets in the village were winding and paved with irregular cobblestones. The houses on both sides of the street were closely connected, and the eaves were low, almost touching people's heads. Every window was tightly closed, and the curtains were drawn tightly, as if deliberately hiding something.
What made Tang Yin feel most uneasy was that there was not a single person in the entire village. It was daytime, but the village had no vitality, like an abandoned ghost town.
Tang Yin plucked up his courage and continued to walk forward. Suddenly, his gaze was attracted by a statue in the center of the village. It was a huge statue, but completely different from the common gods in other places. This statue was shaped like a wolf-headed human, which could not help but remind people of the ancient Egyptian god Anubis.
The statue was about three meters high, and was carved from a black stone. The wolf's head was lifelike, with its fangs exposed, and its eyes were piercing, as if watching everyone who approached. The human body part was wearing a wide robe, and the robe was covered with strange symbols. The statue's right hand was raised high, as if casting a spell, and the left hand was holding a long staff.
The entire statue exuded an unspeakable sense of majesty and mystery, making people involuntarily feel awe. Tang Yin stood in front of the statue, feeling that his soul seemed to be watched by those wolf eyes, and a sense of inexplicable fear arose spontaneously.
Faced with this village full of weirdness and mystery, Tang Yin felt his courage was rapidly fading. He realized that he might have been involved in a dangerous situation far beyond his imagination.
Tang Yin swallowed and suppressed the fear in his heart. He decided to go back and ask Wang Lina to make it clear. Maybe she knew some information about this village, or could explain the origin of that mysterious girl.