C30 – Nuo Mask [III]

 

Although this scene really amused people, at this moment, all the players and NPCs on the scene felt ridiculous that they could play like this.

The most important thing was that when they thought about it, it seemed that there was nothing wrong. He was very thoughtful and asked before identifying.

Are you the owner here?

no

Oh, of course you are a guest.

Naturally a guest, of course, you can also be identified – and you just took a knife to cut people without blinking, of course you’re a ghost.

“……”

What the hell is wrong with you?

You’re not afraid that the NPC will get angry and turn around and cut you?

His knife hadn’t been put down!

The Nuo masks sat in their chairs, a little panicked, eyes not moving away from the white Nuo mask, afraid that he was offended by this sentence. However, the white Nuo mask just stared at Kou Dong for a while, even the wooden mask couldn’t cover his burning gaze.

 

Kou Dong didn’t panic, but stared back calmly. His Zhong Kui Nuo mask was much scarier than the white one.

After a long time, White Nuo mask took the lead in looking away.

“The guest guessed correctly.” He said darkly, raising the kerosene lamp a little higher and shining his white mask. “The banquet tonight is over. Tomorrow evening, please come on time.”

Anyone could hear the displeasure in his tone. White Nuo mask turned around, put the cylinder back into the temple and quietly walked away, its floating white robe gradually disappeared at the end.

The Nuo masked people were frozen on their chairs for a while. When they looked at Kou Dong, they thought that this guy was really powerful and that he was really bold.

Such identification was simply a blatant provocation of the NPC’s majesty.

But it also gave them a new idea. The fish spirit Nuo mask first spoke: “In this case, we can also identify him tomorrow?”

They all saw what happened when they just failed to identify him, and it was shocking to the eyes. Everyone’s mind was calculating how they could escape this tomorrow, or at least still have a way out.

Kou Dong shook his head, “It’s just a fluke, I’m afraid not tomorrow. –He is not stupid.”

The people thought about it. Besides, if they were really asked to identify the NPC, they didn’t have the guts.

Not everyone was as desperate as the man in front of them.

Finally, someone said, “At least we’ve survived today, why don’t we go back first?”

It was late at night, the blood moon was in the sky, no one wanted to wander outside on such a night. After hearing this, several people dispersed one after another, and didn’t talk to each other.

Kou Dong’s pace was the slowest and fell at the end.

He said to Ye Yanzhi, “I want to go see the temple again.”

It was just the right time.

He turned around and silently slipped in along the door. The temple was built with little difference from ordinary temples, with colorful flags and cloths draped inside, the moon was hazy, only a little dim candle flame in front of the statue barely brightened the view.

The huge red cloth was covered from the top of the statue, and the cover was tight, leaving only a faint human figure.

Ye Yanzhi hung firmly on his chest and said, “The red cloth covers the top to ward off evil spirits.”

Kou Dong said, “Since they invited a god, why do they need to ward off evil spirits?”

The villain clasped his arms and said meaningfully, “It is easy to invite the gods and difficult to send them away.”

In particular, if the evil god who came from unknown ways was invited to come without distinguishing between right and wrong, what they brought might not be a blessing, but a disaster.

Kou Dong hesitated whether to pick the red cloth, but finally didn’t do it.

Since the cub said red cloth warded off evil, it was naturally evil.

He had to be careful.

“Then let’s see the temple.”

The temple was covered with the usual incense and candle offerings, Kou Dong went around to the back of the temple, but was stunned.

There was a shelf, densely packed with all the long-lasting lamps, there were hundreds of them. The light from the lamp was extremely weak, and not as bright as ordinary lamps, so Kou Dong couldn’t see from afar.

He came closer, and only then saw that the lights had notes on top.

The first was the year, and the second was the believer girl or the believer man who brought the whole family. The ever-burning lamps were full of oil, enough to burn for several months.

It was too far for Kou Dong to light a lamp to worship god. After reading it, he couldn’t help but complain to his son about the disadvantage of not popularizing compulsory education.

Ye Yanzhi: “…”

He found that Kou Dong often deviated.

“If so, don’t say it in other people’s temples.” Ye Yanzhi said, “Don’t talk about gods and ghosts.”

Kou Dong straightened his chest and said that his socialist successor was fearless. Ye Yanzhi hung on him and thought he was hopeless.

Kou Dong began to look through these lights one by one. He had a good memory, after roughly looking around, he roughly remembered the name of each family.

The little man kept looking and suddenly said, “It’s not quite right.”

Kou Dong: “What?”

Ye Yanzhi continued, “There are too many.”

He looked the lights over again and explained, “The number of people in each family, it’s too much.”

Kou Dong was stunned, he suddenly reacted to where the sense of alienation came from. In real life, how many grandparents, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters were in a family?

Especially the grandparents, they were often the first to pass away. But in so many families in this village, the elderly were actually all alive, which was obviously not common.

And then thinking about looking at the village head who was over the age of the elderly but walking lightly, obviously this was extremely unusual.

At this time, Kou Dong suddenly heard the sound of breathing. The sound was extremely subtle, if not for the silence in the temple, it would be impossible to distinguish.

As if there was a person around him, gently breathing in his ear.

Kou Dong didn’t raise his head, he spoke in passing: “cub, you’re hot?”

Ye Yanzhi: “What?”

“You’re panting a little loud.”

Ye Yanzhi looked a little confused. He stood on Kou Dong’s shoulder and said, “You heard me panting?”

“Of course,” Kou Dong said, “You can’t hear yourself?”

Ye Yanzhi’s expression changed, “I don’t need to breathe.”

He was now, not even considered a person, he was just an object, so naturally he didn’t need to breathe.

“……”

Kou Dong’s hand holding the lamp loosened. He put the lamp down and held his breath –

That breathing sound was still on the side, it wasn’t his illusion, and it became even more clear.

The candlelight was dim.

Kou Dong saw his own shadow, dragging a long thin line on the ground. There was no Ye Yanzhi on his shoulder, Ye Yanzhi didn’t have a shadow.

A little further away, the shadow of the idol shrouded in red cloth like a small mountain, was sitting peacefully.

Kou Dong’s eyes skimmed over the top and moved back with a jerk.

He didn’t know if it was his illusion, he actually saw the shadow of the idol, move slightly ……

At that moment, a bad feeling immediately enveloped Kou Dong’s heart. He moved a step forward as lightly as he could, his eyes staring without a mistake.

Under his gaze, the shadow moved again, it was extremely small, just a slight shoulder up, but it was enough to prove that it wasn’t an illusion.

As if the thing underneath trembled, wanting to burst out from under the red cloth of the hood.

Kou Dong carefully observed the frequency of the trembling, and he heard the breathing all the same.

He also finally knew where that breathing sound came from.

…… was the idol.

This idol – was actually alive!

 

This discovery made Kou Dong’s scalp start to tingle – he jerked his legs away and ran towards the door without a second thought!

The statue of the god moved more. He slowly raised his arms and leaned forward as if he was going to stand up from this divine throne.

Kou Dong didn’t know what would happen if he caught him, but it would certainly not be fun. Good thing the door was close at hand, he ran forward a few steps and was already completely covered by the huge shadow cast by the idol.

The shadow leaned closer and closer toward him, arms outstretched, literally just a step away.

Immediately–

Kodon gritted his teeth.

Immediately, it was the doorway–

His toes were about to touch the high threshold.

At the same time, the temple door gave a heavy creak, and with a flash of the corner of the white robe outside, someone had actually closed the door from the outside!

This door wasn’t light, it was old and dilapidated, so pushing it open would need a little time. But Kou Dong already felt the arm that touched him and was already about to graze his clothes.

It was too late.

Ye Yanzhi firmly grabbed him, “Substitute!”

Kou Dong quickly pulled something out of his pocket and threw it backward – almost simultaneously, the idol that had been reaching out to him suddenly changed direction, probing the large hand under the red cloth envelope toward what he had thrown out, and grabbed it firmly!

Kou Dong took this opportunity to lunge forward, relying on the gravity of the body, and crashed through the creaking temple doors. His hand braced against the cold ground, almost stumbling, and from the shadow of the ground he could still see the idol behind him. The idol pulled the tiny piece into the red cloth, and immediately, right underneath it, there was a creepy movement, as if something was rubbing against human skin.

It began to shake.

Kou Dong stumbled forward two steps, finally far from the temple, his heart was still thumping.

It was too close.

He was only two steps away from being left here for good.

The first prop he drew from the exchange pool, the paper man, had been consumed.

Only then did Kou Dong understand the benefits of props. At the critical moment, this was simply an extra life.

He returned to the room before slowing down and talking to Ye Yanzhi about the flash of a figure outside the door.

At that time, Kou Dong ran away in a hurry. He couldn’t see clearly, he only saw a corner of his clothes. The corners of the clothes didn’t cause much recognition. Today, everyone wore the same white robe, even had the same body shape.

Ye Yanzhi saw a little more, he glimpsed the Nuo mask from the side of his eye.

“It’s too late to find today,” said Ye Yanzhi, “it is now night, no one will come out. If we wait until tomorrow, the Nuo mask will be replaced.”

There was no way to find the person who did them harm.

Kou Dong said, “Is it a man or a ghost?”

Ye Yanzhi replied, “Naturally, it’s a ghost.”

Kou Dong was deeply convinced.

This copy, people didn’t need to kill each other, as long as you answered the riddle, you could get out. But ghosts were different, the purpose of ghosts was clear from beginning to end.

They wanted Kou Dong to stay behind.

Ye Yanzhi sighed, “Go to bed early. Tomorrow we’ll look again and see if there are any other clues.”

Kou Dong hummed and covered himself with the quilt, still wearing his Nuo mask. Ye Yanzhi also drilled in, leaned against him, and unhappily fondled the Nuo mask, “it’s blocking you.”

Kou Dong’s mentality had stabilized, he quietly laughed in response.

“What,” he said, “you still want to see daddy two more times?”

The little man frowned and muttered a few words in a low voice, which Kou Dong couldn’t hear. But immediately after, Ye Yanzhi leaned into his mask, his hand patted his head like he was coaxing a child.

Kou Dong closed his eyes, and didn’t make a sound.

In fact, he got great comfort from such a gesture.

Knowing that there was someone around who didn’t want him to stay here, who was on his side –

It made him less isolated. When he stood on the edge of life and death, he had a real comrade.

Perhaps because he had experienced so much this day, Kou Dong had a rare dream as he laid in bed.

He wasn’t a frequent dreamer, and when he first lost his memory, he had wondered if he would find some memories in his dreams – but soon this luxury was shattered by his too-good sleep quality.

Sleeping too well was also a sin.

But, he had a dream today. In the dream, he seemed to be walking on the road with a shoulder bag slouching over his shoulder, and someone beside him hooked his neck and asked him to go play basketball with him after school.

“What basketball game?” He heard himself say in a trance, “are you still playing or not?”

The people around him shouted.

“Yes, of course!”

“I’m counting on my brother to take us through it ……”

“Who’s home at night? Your house?”

“OK, a piece, let’s order a takeaway to eat secretly, don’t let my mother find out ……”

A few people walked on one side and talked on the other. Suddenly someone asked Kou Dong, “Brother Dong, why are you standing there?”

Kou Dong didn’t move. He stayed where he was and jerked his head around to look behind him.

Behind him were a few girls who were also laughing and fooling around, looking at them.

The friend wondered, ” …… Kou Dong?”

Kou Dong stroked his hair and muttered, “I saw a ghost.”

He still felt like someone was looking at him. The gaze was so hot and rolling that it was impossible to ignore – but whenever he turned his head to look for it, he could no longer find any trace of it.

A peeping Tom?

Kou Dong spat out those three words and heard his friends around him chuckle.

“No way, Brother Dong, you’ve been playing too many horror games? Peeping Tom?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Brother Dong has this face, and you don’t.”

 

Someone else said, “It’s okay, maybe it’s a sister who wants to chase you. It’s not like you haven’t met one before. Brother Dong is a junior sister killer, isn’t it?”

Kou Dong finally came back to his senses, he laughed and cursed then he quickly followed, and was soon dragged out of his mind by the exclaims of his friends beside him, “What a nice car”.

It was an illusion, right??

He thought so.

Kou Dong could no longer see the following picture clearly. They seemed to bet that it depended on who owned that luxury car. They couldn’t learn it anymore, so they squatted beside it. They squatted until someone opened the door——

Who was it? What did they look like?

The scene rippled like the water, and Kou Dong couldn’t tell it.

He suddenly woke up from the dream, and Ye Yanzhi was still lying beside his head, his head against his head, sleeping soundly. Kou Dong blinked and thought about the dream he had just made. He found that he couldn’t remember it at all.

He shook his head and went back to sleep.

After waking up, there was a new Nuo mask on the bed. Eyes askew, mouth askew, a red hat askew, like a clown from a circus.

——It was Qin Tong.

After last night, this Nuo mask really couldn’t make people feel happy.

Kou Dong picked it up and found that his Zhong Kui Nuo mask had disappeared. Obviously, today he was Qin Tong, but he didn’t know what kind of Nuo masks other people got.

This basically amounted to starting over with clues every single day. Kou Dong felt that the rules wouldn’t be so complicated, there must be something else associated with the identity of this, they just haven’t found it today.

He simply washed his face, put on his Nuo mask and went out. He saw that the Nuo masks were far away from him, one hiding from the other.

Those who finally came up to talk were also trembling. Obviously, the scene that Qin Tong lifted his mask yesterday and smiled at the monk was too dark for them.

The person who came to answer the question was Guijing, who asked fearfully, “Did you… change?”

Kou Dong: “…guess?”

Guijing said, “I… I think you have changed.”

He was still a little frightened. After saying this, he looked at Kou Dong. Kou Dong was silent for a moment, and immediately smiled darkly. He pretended to lift his mask, “Guessed wrong.”

This scared the turtle and he jumped three feet high. After finding out that Kou Dong was only teasing him, he was almost out of breath. He said that he had never seen such a naughty person here before. It was the one who identified NPC last night.

 

Kou Dong was amused and thought it was very funny. He walked in the village and heard the gong and drum playing again. This time, it wasn’t for the Nuo mask opera, but because someone was dead.

As soon as Kou Dong heard these words, he remembered the lamp he saw behind the temple and followed the sound to the other end of the village. The dead man’s family had carried out the sealed coffin, and the young woman lay down on it and sobbed. It seemed that it was her husband who died.

She also held a four- or five-year-old child in her right hand, the child was standing next to her, but didn’t cry, she seemed quite overwhelmed.

Kou Dong stood watching for a while and asked the people around him, “How did he die?”

–He didn’t think that a person could die normally in such a strange village.

The neighbor looked very reluctant to answer and kept his mouth firmly shut. Kou Dong tapped him three times before hearing him say reluctantly, “He died of illness.”

“Died of illness?” Kou Dong frowned, “What disease?”

The neighborhood lips pursed tighter, it was half a day before he spoke, “consumption.”

After saying that, he didn’t say anything anymore.

Kou Dong knew that this was the limit of what the NPC could say. He surveyed the group, suddenly squeezed forward and reached out to help lift the coffin.

This move caught them off guard, and several villagers froze, before they pounced to block him.

“What are you doing?!”

Kou Dong saw the vigilance in their eyes, “I just want to help.”

“No need for your help,” someone said viciously, “you outsider, hurry up and go!”

“Go!”

“Go!”

Someone had already taken out the big broom when talking. Kou Dong would be swept out of the house if he didn’t leave. Kou Dong had to withdraw. He was very unbalanced and complained to his cub.

“Isn’t it true that NPCs love me? Is that how they love me?”

Did they want to hit him if he didn’t agree?

Shouldn’t they have offered all the clues he wanted with both hands and even fed them to his mouth!

Ye Yanzhi lying on his shoulder looked backwards and said calmly: “You should be thankful now. If they did not love you, just now you’d have been beaten.”

Kou Dong twisted his head and really saw a similarly going Nuo mask was blown away before he got close enough to look, it looked like he had taken a lot of hits on his head and body.

He was finally comfortable.

Ye Yanzhi spoke first: “The coffin is empty.”

Kou Dong was really surprised, “How do you know?”

Just now when he took advantage of the chaos to lift the coffin, Ye Yanzhi couldn’t move at all.

The little man said: “I can see it.”

He said lightly: “The coffin with dead things, and the coffin without dead things, the difference is very big.”

He could tell the difference at a glance.

Kou Dong praised: “My cub is really smart.”

He said, “There is nothing inside, I doubt whether someone is dead or not.”

But looking at that coffin, it didn’t give him a good feeling.

Ye Yanzhi was still looking at the family from afar, not knowing what he was looking at.

He suddenly said, “That child, looks familiar.”

Kou Dong turned his head and also looked far away. The child was only four or five years old, being held by the adult’s hand, she seemed bewildered, as if she didn’t understand what was happening at all.

“You have seen her?”

Ye Yanzhi frowned, pondered for a moment and replied, “I can’t recall.”

“It’s okay,” Kou Dong stroked his head, “you may have seen her then, didn’t I make clay people for them that day?”

The children surrounding him at that time were a large group.

Speaking of clay people, Ye Yanzhi didn’t say anything, but the old village chief’s shocked expression came to mind.

Seriously, that second he was also very shocked. Before finding Kou Dong, he had never seen such an expression in the game NPCs; after Kou Dong returned, the NPCs’ expressions were really getting more and more, slowly developing in the direction of expression packs.

He was silent, which made Kou Dong misunderstand. Kou Dong thought about it, he suddenly lowered himself to dig a piece of soil, and dipped into the water and began to work.

Ye Yanzhi was a little surprised, “What? …… you want to coax the children again?”

This posture was very skillful.

Kou Dong squatted down to the corner and rubbed the mud ball with great concentration. When it was round, he began to look for sticks everywhere.

Ye Yanzhi didn’t understand, but still subconsciously wanted to help him. “There is one.”

Kou Dong saw it, went up and picked it up, and began to pestle there carving the five senses.

Ye Yanzhi had been watching him, the more he looked, the more it seemed wrong. He used so much effort, it was a lot of trouble. He said suspiciously: “Who are you going to manipulate?”

At this time, Kou Dong also pinched it, he poked the carved head of the little man on the stick, smiled and gave it to Ye Yanzhi, “Hold it!”

Ye Yanzhi: “???”

Him?

Why?

Kou Dong: “You don’t want?”

Ye Yanzhi was stunned by this sudden gift.

Why would he want it? –He was a mature twenty one year old man!

Kou Dong was permeated with the glory of an old father, “If you want to, you can say that your father does everything for you. Don’t envy anyone”

“…”

Ye Yanzhi’s mentality collapsed.

 

 

 


 

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