The night was as dark as a pool of ink, and I really couldn't see my fingers. The rose could only discern the direction by a few faint bits of starlight, and walked cautiously on the narrow ridge.

But the night was so dark that her feet were weak and weak, and she hardly listened to her. I didn't have any strength on my body, I couldn't do light work at all, I didn't go far, I tripped over the dirt under my feet, and although I tried my best to stabilize my body, I felt a burning pain in my left ankle. As if they had been poured with cement, their feet and necks quickly became too hard to move.

"Oops." She screamed, and when she lowered her head, tears fell from her eyes, and she couldn't stop it.

The pain in her feet was bearable, but she was really hungry, and her head was dizzy and painful. The body was hot and cold, and cold sweat broke out on the back. Her vision was also blurry, and there were many small shiny stars flying in front of her eyes.

As uncomfortable as it was, I had to move forward. Thinking about Xiao Tian who had become weird and the events of the past two days, and maybe there were some other things, Rose limped forward. But the village is so far away, I haven't seen anyone after moving for a long time, and there is only endless darkness all around.

Finally, there was a dim light ahead. There was a burst of ecstasy in his heart, and as soon as he stepped on the air with his right foot, a dog fell to the ground. Then he didn't catch his breath for a long time, gritted his teeth and sat up.

It's so uncomfortable, she's really uncomfortable, it's like all the strength of her body has been drained. She couldn't move, and she couldn't move when she saw the light.

In the haze, the dim light grew larger, moving steadily in her direction.

After a while, there was a figure behind the light. The figure slowly approached, and when Rose was ten paces away, she finally saw the person clearly.

It was the man named Feng Jiu, who held an ancient bright red oil-paper umbrella in his left hand and a lantern in his right hand, on which were depicted delicate peonies. The colored firelight stained his handsome cheeks with a strange color: "Miss Rose," looked at me with a smile, "why is the black light blinding, why are you sitting here alone?" ”

Rose's nose was sour, but she was still unconvinced: "Look at the stars, in the middle of the night, you play this kind of umbrella, carry this kind of lantern and pretend to be a ghost, and you want to scare people to death?" ”

"It's not pretending to be a geist, it's looking for a geist. You slowly admire the stars, and I'm gone. He turned around and left.

At this time, I don't care about my face, and I don't know where the strength comes from. Rose jumped up from the ground and chased after it, but she didn't want her right foot to be so weak that she couldn't stand at all. The body jerked forward, hands quickly hanging around his neck, cheeks against his hard back.

A faint fragrance lingered on the tip of his nose, it was the fragrance on Feng Jiu's body.

"Oops......" he sighed softly, but didn't say anything, didn't move.

Jumping on one foot and standing up straight, his hand still around his neck: "Feng Jiu, can you send me back to the Rose Dock?" ”

"Oh." Feng Jiu didn't look back, "What can you pay me?" ”

"Whatever you want." Rose said cheerfully.

He chuckled softly, "It's refreshing enough." I know Miss Rose is not short of money, but neither am I. It's better to trade one of your things for it. ”

"What's that?"

"I haven't thought about it yet, how about it?"

"Okay."

"That's right," he said, crouching □, "take the umbrella and the lantern, and remember, the umbrella must be on your head." ”

Rose was stunned: "What are you doing?" ”

"Carry you, come up."

Surprised and delighted, Rose took the umbrella and lantern and lay on his back. He stood up holding Rose's hips, but did not move, but sighed heavily: "Alas, I regret ......"

She was puzzled: "What's wrong?" ”

He chuckled and walked up, "Miss Rose, you're very heavy." ”

When she was hungry, her temper was not good, and Rose immediately took revenge, and her legs clamped hard: "Drive." ”

He laughed out loud and glanced sideways at her, "Can't you be magnanimous, Miss Rose?" ”

Suddenly, I saw a village not far away. There was no light in the village, only a few blackened houses. Sensing that something was wrong, Rose whispered, "It's so dark in the village, where have all the people gone?" ”

"There was no one in the first place." Feng Jiu smiled.

Hearing this, Rose should have wondered, but her head was already dizzy and she didn't have any extra energy to think about anything else. Even when she saw the strange old man sitting there with a fan and still standing there with a fan next to the stone table at the entrance of the restaurant, she didn't feel strange.

Walking to the door of the restaurant with the roses on his back, Feng Jiu pushed the door without hesitation. The restaurant was also dark, and the owner didn't know if he was there. Feng Jiu didn't shout, and went straight up the stairs to the second floor and entered a room. Lighting the oil lamp, Feng Jiu put her on the edge of the bed and sat down, took the lantern and umbrella from her hand and put them by the wall.

At first glance, this room looks like a typical hotel room, with only one wooden bed in the room. There is a bedside table next to the bed, and a large soup pot is placed on the bedside table. The soup pot is covered with a plate, and a bowl is placed next to the soup pot. Rose's nose became special because of hunger, and she could smell the aroma of rice coming from the soup pot through the plate.

She couldn't help but swallow her saliva, her eyes staring straight at the soup pot: "Feng Jiu, what's in the soup pot?" ”

He smiled: "Porridge." ”

"Can you ......?"

Before he finished speaking, he refused: "No, my night ......"

Some people say that when you are hungry, you will become a beast, but Rose is already so hungry that her blood burns like a mad beast. Before he could finish speaking, she lifted the plate from the soup pot, picked up the soup pot and poured it with a big gulp. poured porridge all over his face and body, and he didn't care about it, just swallowed it in his mouth one bite at a time. The fragrant and thick white rice porridge with sugar, milk, and raisins in the porridge is better than everything in the world.

After drinking half a pot in one go, she paused and inhaled as she munched on the raisins.

Feng Jiu sat beside her, the corners of his eyes curled slightly, as if he was smiling: "After staying in this world for two nights, you can still grab other people's food to eat, Miss Rose, you are really fateful." ”

Between swallowing, he asked puzzledly, "This world?" ”

"You're almost dead, Miss Rose," suddenly raised his hand to her chin and leaned her face over, "Do you know what you've done?" ”

There was something in the stomach, and the body regained some strength as a result. Shaking his head, he wrenched his chin from his grasp.

Feng Jiu didn't care, and the smile on his face became happier: "But your life is so big, you can survive two nights." Looks like that thing doesn't want to kill you, but he can't do it. ”

"Boom", the window suddenly made a muffled sound, as if someone was knocking on the window from the window.

"It's coming so fast," Feng Jiu said to himself as he stood up and walked over, casually picking up the red umbrella by the wall and holding it open, stuck in the middle of the window. He turned his head to Rose with the handle of the umbrella in his hand and said, "You're running out of time. ”

As soon as the words fell, another voice came from outside the window: "Boom." ”

Then there was another voice: "Boom." ”

Then one after another, like raindrops, became more and more urgent: "Boom, boom, boom, boom......"

Realizing that something was about to happen, Rose divided it by two, grunted, drank a large bowl of porridge as if it were drinking water, and stuck out her tongue to lick the bottom of the soup.

Seeing her put down the soup pot, Feng Jiu smiled: "Is it delicious?" ”

She nodded.

"Feng Jiu, what is it?"

He looked at the rose and smiled: "Come and kill your thing." Will you wait for death, or will you give it a go? ”

"Whoa......" As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sound of glass falling to the ground outside the window.

Rose didn't know what was going on at all, but now believing that Feng Jiu seemed to be the wisest choice, and quickly replied, "I, Rose, of course can't wait to die." ”

"Listen, there's a piece of paper under the pillow, look for it."

It's easy to find, and she finds it when she opens the pillow. A piece of yellow paper, folded into a triangular shape.

Feng Jiu advised: "Carry the lantern in the corner and go back to the villa and find the master bedroom." There is another piece of paper under the pillow in the master bedroom, and you swap the two sheets of paper and destroy the original paper. Remember, hide it from the people inside. As he spoke, a clump of oily hair came out of the junction of the oil-paper umbrella and the lower left corner of the window, followed by a man's head.

She recognized the man's face, he was the man who had squatted under the table in the cottage dining room during the day. At this moment, he squeezed himself out of the small gap like toothpaste. First his neck, then his shoulders, half of his body was exposed in a blink of an eye, and he was so hard that he was lying across the window, and the dirt fell down with his movements. Because there are no black eyes, the eyes look like they are staring at the rose without blinking.

"What are you doing, get the lantern." Feng Jiu's low shout sounded in his ears.

Rose came back to her senses: "I'm not going back to the villa." ”

If what happened before was called weird, then the man who was trying to squeeze into the house now was called vicious. The source of the evil must have come from that mountain house, and she didn't want to go back.

"If you want to live, you have to go back." Feng Jiudao.

Inexplicably annoyed.

Turning his head and looking at him resentfully: "Don't go ......"

"If you don't go, you'll die." If he categorically intercepted the rose, Feng Jiu looked straight at the rose. Suddenly realized that when Feng Jiu became serious, his eyes only had one color, blue. The color was extremely cold, a kind of cold that seeped into the bone marrow.

Stunned, Rose jumped up from the bed suddenly, picked up the lantern in the corner, and chased after him: "Feng Jiu, wait for me." ”

The door was opened, and the suffocating darkness flooded over the sky like a flood. Stretching out his hand, the darkness passed gently over the rose like a cold breeze. Feeling no abnormality, she slowly opened her eyes, and found that the peony flower pattern lantern in her hand actually ignited by itself, and the small blue flame swayed left and right on the wick, jumping strongly. Holding the lantern and looking around, the room behind him was gone, everything around him was gone, and everything that came into view was completely opaque.

Just as he was looking for his way out of his head, he suddenly heard a sobbing sound not far away, and his breathing immediately tightened. It was the only sound she heard in the darkness, and despite her fear, she limped forward a few steps and brought the lantern forward.

Through the dim firelight, she saw the vague shell of the villa again, and Xiao Tian sitting on the steps of the doorway. He kept his head down, his fingers between the dark red head, and his shoulders kept rising upward. Sensing the movement in front of him, he slowly raised his head, his brown eyes looked at her through his messy hair and teary eyes, and his face was faintly white in the light of the fire.

After hesitating for a moment, he sniffed, and a bright smile bloomed on his tear-stained face: "Rose, you're back." ”

Familiar faces, familiar smiles, but at the moment people are unreasonably scared.

Rose took a step back: "What do you want to do?" ”

The smile in his eyes froze, and then he jumped to his feet and rushed over to hug the rose fiercely.

The sudden action touched the swollen ankle, and the lantern rolled to the ground, and the fire was suddenly extinguished. Rose took a painful breath and was about to raise her hand to push him away, when his soft voice sounded in her ears: "Can't live without you, don't leave me behind......"

"Xiao Tian, my feet hurt." Rose said softly.

The lights in the master bedroom were dim and flickered from time to time. It was still dark outside the window, and even the starlight was swallowed up by the darkness.

Xiao Tian sat beside the rose, carefully using a hot towel to help her swelling and purple feet and neck. The hot water slowly rose, wrapping around his soft hair, and the wisps of it were all at the tip of his brow. In the light, the handsome cheeks are outlined by the darkness and light like delicate jade carvings.

But after all, the feet and necks are still swollen and higher and higher, and they can't disappear in ten days and a half months.

Xiao Tian sighed: "What is it to go out and run at night, how dangerous it is." ”

"What do you say I'm running?" Rose gave him a blank look.

His eyes were fixed on Rose's swollen ankles, and his warm fingertips gently massaged her, thoughtfully: "What do you see?" ”

"All," accentuated the tone, "especially the bug soup." ”

He looked up at the rose, "Will you go?" ”

Nodding: "If you don't tell the truth, I will." ”

Without saying a word, he held the rose's feet, and for a moment, he spoke: "Do you believe me?" ”

Rose looked at him, speechless.

"I'll tell you all." Xiao Tian blinked and slowly talked about him:

When he returned from his studies that year, he wanted to make a career so that he could come to Rose. However, I didn't expect his paintings to be appreciated by many people. He was unwilling to rely on his parents to support him. At this time, Wu Fushang, the owner of this mountain villa, found him and asked him to paint dozens of murals. For the money, he took the job and came to this villa. He thought he would go back to Rose when he made the money. A few months later, the day before all the murals were about to be completed, he woke up in the morning with a sharp pain in his stomach and wanted to go into the village to buy medicine, but when he was discharged from the hospital, he hit his head against a wall. The wall was bounded by an iron fence and surrounded the courtyard, formless and incomparably hard. No matter what method he used, or any tool he used, he couldn't break through this wall and couldn't get out of the yard. And no matter how hysterical he shouted, those passers-by could not hear or see him.

The most terrible thing in the world is that hope seems to be within reach, but it is not at all touchable. The transparent thing imprisoned him in this courtyard, completely cut off from reality, and he could see the scenery outside, but he couldn't even touch the most ordinary grass outside the fence.

He thought he was going to starve to death, but a few days later a pile of food inexplicably appeared in the kitchen, and a few more clothes in the closet, after which these things would appear every few days. Sometimes a bouquet of flowers will pop up out of thin air in a corner of the house, including white roses, lilies, and chrysanthemums......

These flowers have no fragrance and will disappear into thin air after a few days, just as unreal as anything else in the yard. The only real thing is the sun, moon and stars, rain, snow, wind and frost. When he was about to be driven crazy by loneliness, he often couldn't help crying and shouting in the wind and rain, hoping that someone could hear his voice and save him out......

At some point, there was another man in the yard. At first he was ecstatic to see this man, but soon he was disappointed. The man hid in the shadows all day, seemed to be afraid of his appearance, and never spoke to him. Only when eating will he appear under the table out of nowhere, timidly stealing some scraps and burning cold. It seemed that the man, like him, was trapped in this courtyard and turned into a monster without reason.

Fearing to become a monster like that man, and because hope was gradually dying, he chose to commit suicide by hunger strike. But he was horrified to find that he would not go hungry no matter how many days he did not eat. So he changed to cutting his wrists, but when he woke up the next day, he was still lying in the room with his wrists intact.

Even death could not save him from this purgatory......

Speaking of this, Xiao Tian choked up.

And the rose is dumbfounded.

The desperation word by word was spit out by him tremblingly.

After two years of lonely captivity, Rose doesn't know how he survived, and she doesn't know what the hell this house is.

It turned out that Ling Ying was not the owner of this villa, and it seemed that he had also come here and was killed by the actual owner of the villa!

Xiao Tian...... reached out to touch the side of his face, only to find that he was trembling.

Holding the back of Rose's hand, hot tears seeped into his palms and cheeks, and he suddenly cried bitterly: "Rose, you don't know how happy I was when you walked into the villa. You can see me and talk to me. Don't take me for a monster, I didn't mean to give you bugs. You can't eat anything in the villa, you can't eat anything except the rain I usually pick and the cucumbers you pick yourself, and you'll go if you're hungry. I really couldn't find anything you could eat, and I remembered that my grandmother said that you could eat bugs in the old days, so I dug up a few bugs in the yard. I'm so scared that I don't dare to tell you the truth, I'm sorry, don't leave me......"

"Boom Boom ......"

A hurried voice suddenly sounded in this silent moment, and Rose subconsciously looked over Xiao Tian's shoulder and followed the sound towards the window.

I saw the face of the man in the dining room whose facial features were flattened by the glass, staring at the white balls, and he was raising his hands and slapping the glass fiercely.

At that moment, the oil lamp flickered, and then it turned on, and then the filament snapped, and the room was dark.

Rose's heart chuckled, and she lowered her voice: "Xiao Tian, the strange man you said is ...... outside the window"

In the dark, Xiao Tian stopped crying, pressed her hand and did not answer, and her cheeks under the palm of her hand gradually became hot.

The "boom......, boom" percussion continued.

"Xiao Tian!" I couldn't help but raise my voice and screamed again, "Didn't you say he was afraid of you?" How to get rid of him? ”

Xiao Tian grabbed his palm violently and pulled the rose in front of him.

"Are you afraid?" Pressed against Rose's ear, he asked softly. There was a mocking smile in his tone, unfamiliar to the extreme.

Caught off guard, he pulled hard, touched his ankle again, and suddenly the swollen area was on fire, and the pain was very great. Rose tears almost flowed out: "Xiao Tian, what are you doing?" ”

"Are you afraid?" Without answering Rose's question, he added. And just then, the sound of banging on the window stopped. The room was so dark that you could hear the sound of needles falling on the ground.

Feeling numb and cold, Rose suddenly withdrew her hand, and rubbed her body against the head of the bed a few times: "Are you Xiao Tian?" ”

"Hehe......" he smiled lowly, "I'm Xiao Tian." ”

His left foot was still on his lap, and his palm was still stained with his wet tears, but he had completely changed. Staring at him who was completely shrouded in darkness, his heart tightened quietly little by little, and Rose suddenly lost her breath: "Xiao Tian, don't scare me......"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly stood up and took a few steps back, and said to himself, "Rose, run." The voice stopped ridiculing, and seemed to have returned to its original appearance, but with a little more hastyness.

I couldn't see him clearly in the dark, and asked blankly, "What do you mean?" ”

"Can't let you die." Throwing these words, Rose heard him rush to the door of the room with a lunge, grabbed the handle and writhed to open the door, and rushed straight out.

What the hell happened to him? Why leave her alone at this time?

What to do? (To be continued.) )