When he returned to his residence after work, as soon as Lu Chen pushed the door, he saw a rope set up in the yard, on which several freshly washed clothes were hanging, and the water droplets on the cuffs of the clothes that had not been wrung out fell due to the effect of gravity, smashing out a puddle with a large bowl mouth on the ground paved with red bricks.

Qian Duoduo pushed open the door of the bathroom and walked into the yard, and there were still a few pieces of clothes that had not been dried in the washbasin in his arms.

"You're off work." Qian Duoduo saw that Lu Chen first said hello excitedly, and then he didn't know what he thought, his face was flushed, and he was embarrassed to hesitate.

"Lu Chen, that... I washed my clothes without your consent...."Qian Duoduo lowered his head and stared at the still wet clothes in the basin and muttered quietly, unsure if the other party would be angry at his own arbitrary decision.

"Thank you."

The hand holding the basin trembled, Qian Duoduo raised his head and looked at the other party in surprise, the word "thank you" is still so big The first time someone said this to himself, the blush on his face deepened, "No.. It's okay, if you don't get angry. ”

"You help me do the laundry, why am I angry?" Lu Chen walked up to Qian Duoduo and took the basin, and then stretched out his hand to hold the other party's right hand with a wound.

"Thanks, this is the first time someone other than my mom has done my laundry. Haha, I'm a little embarrassed. Thank you, it's just your hands..."The gauze wrapped around Qian Duoduo's hands was soaked with laundry water, and the sunlight was glowing with water stains.

"I'll change the gauze for you."

The gauze was lifted layer by layer, and the wound on the wrist was no longer oozing blood, because of the long-term soaking in water, the edge of the wound turned white, Qian Duoduo stretched out his fingers and gently pressed the edge of the wound with his nails, pinching out a crescent-shaped trace.

"Itchy?" Pulling his hand away, Lu Chen took a closer look at the two wounds, they were almost healed, and it seemed that there might not be any scars.

The radio waves of the radio are too bad to be a decent station, and Lu Chen is still not used to the habit of sleeping as soon as it gets dark here, rubbing in the dark room, not knowing how to toss to be comfortable.

Qian Duoduo beside him was already asleep snoring, and the quilt was overheaded, leaving only a head outside the quilt, Lu Chen was worried that the other party would be stuffy, so he pulled several times, but in the end, the other party was still babbling and moving his body to cover the quilt over his head again.

Alas, Lu Chen gave up the confrontation with the other party, climbed out of bed lightly, put on his clothes and walked out of the house.

There was no wind outside, the dense canopy of the jujube trees in the yard was a little gloomy in the dark night, and the sky was still blue with not a single star in sight. Strange to say, Lu Chen has never seen stars in the sky once since he came here, not a single one.

Maybe it's because of the town's location? Lu Chen couldn't think of a reasonable answer, and he didn't bother to think about it. Anyway, it's not normal anywhere here, and there isn't much of this.

The sound of footsteps sounded behind him, and Lu Chen turned around just in time to see Qian Duoduo coming out of the darkness.

"Aren't you sleeping?"

"I woke up and found that you hadn't slept again." Qian Duoduo rubbed his eyes and sat down beside Lu Chen.

"I'm sleepy, I'm not sleepy." Lu Chen said softly.

"Hmm... Uh-huh. Qian Duoduo agreed slimily, "Let's sleep later." ”

The moonlight depicts the outline of the jujube tree to the ground, finely fragmented and scattered. Lu Chen felt that his shoulders were sinking, and the other party leaned in.

"Heh", he smiled in his heart, he suddenly remembered the cat raised at home, neurotic and fragile, often for some reason suddenly fried hair, sometimes even pounced on you to give you a bite, but when it let down its vigilance, it will be soft and mellow around you, rubbing around and around will reveal a soft belly defenseless for you to touch.

At this time, Qian Duoduo was like the cat at home, staying by his side unsuspectingly, revealing his softest belly for himself to pet.

"Lu Chen, do you know why you can't see stars in this town?" In the silence, Qian Duoduo opened his mouth, his voice was glutinous, and he was a little sleepy.

"Why?" Lu Chen asked.

"There is a legend in the town about the stars in the sky." However, the other party did not answer the question but told the story, "Legend has it that the stars in the sky also die, and when each star dies, a new star will replace it." And when a star dies and there is no new life to take its place, the devil will appear that night. This town came into existence on a starless night. ”

Lu Chen was stunned after hearing this, looked up at the starless sky, and said with a smile, "Tell ghost stories." ”

"It's not a ghost story." Qian Duoduo vetoed it seriously.

"That's the legend."

“....”

In the silence of the night, the sound of someone moving could be heard in the distance, the soles of their shoes rubbing against the ground step by step, walking unhurriedly.

Qian Duoduo originally wanted to say something, but at this time he stopped talking, put his index finger to his mouth to signal Lu Chen not to make a sound, and then pushed the other party back to the room lightly.

"What's wrong?" After entering the room, he could no longer hear the sound of walking outside, and Lu Chen wanted to ask the other party what he had discovered and was suddenly so cautious. But Qian Duoduo still vigilantly covered Lu Chen's mouth, and it wasn't until a few minutes later that he seemed to feel that the crisis had passed, and he slowly moved his hand away.

"What happened just now?" As soon as the other party moved away, Lu Chen couldn't wait to ask, he was really a little strange.

"It's the people who just passed by." Qian Duoduo replied.

"Patrolling? Do you want to play more? Lu Chen remembered what he saw in the TV series, when people were asleep at night, carrying lanterns around the town and shouting "The weather is dry, be careful of the candles".

"Almost." Qian Duoduo warned solemnly, "You must not be discovered by him at night, you know!" ”

"What if it's discovered?"

"It's going to disappear from town."

Disappear again ....

"I'm definitely not lying to you." After the other party finished speaking solemnly, he lifted the quilt and re-entered the quilt and let out a sleepy yawn.

"Lu Chen!!"

The wooden door of the office was suddenly pushed open, and Lu Chen, who was still nodding and dozing off, was pulled up from the chair by the intruder and shook it vigorously before he could react.

"Lu Chen, something happened!!"

“！！”

Lu Chen, who was shaken and disturbed, finally sobered up, and only then did he realize that the intruder standing in front of him turned out to be Liu Qiang.

"What happened? In such a hurry?! Sorting out the clothes that were messed up by the other party, Lu Chen glanced at the location of the security room through the window, and the doorman was talking to someone through the door.

"I...."Liu Qiang subconsciously turned his head to look at Secretary Liu, who was also in the office, "My mother lost it again!" ”

"Your mom lost it again?!"

Looking at the other party's anxious face, Lu Chen couldn't help complaining in his heart, your mother's crazy appearance, of course you will lose it if you can't look at it. But even if you are very disdainful in your heart, you can't show indifference on your face.

"What?! Your mom lost it again? Did you look for it? What Lu Chen didn't expect was that Secretary Liu, who obviously had nothing to do with it, was more anxious than himself.

"I just didn't find it, and then I came to ask for help." Liu Qiang was anxious and didn't know what to do, staring at the street outside the government through the glass window, for fear that he would accidentally miss his lost mother. "I've looked for everything I can on the street, but I haven't seen her..."

"Then I'll tell the mayor, and we'll look for it together." Without waiting for what the two were saying, Secretary Liu opened the door and rushed out in a daze, without his usual calmness at all.

"Where will it be?" The few people who were wandering around the street aimlessly finally couldn't stand it, Lu Chen patted Liu Qiang, who was sweating profusely and still shouting his mother's name, pulled the other party aside and asked quietly.

"You said your mother can't go back to the forest?"

"How is that possible?!" Liu Qiang's eyes widened and he wondered, "How could my mother go there?!" It's better to say that my mother went to the factory..."

"Hey, shut up!" Seeing that the situation was wrong, Lu Chen covered Liu Qiang's mouth and looked at Mayor Wu who was asking passers-by vigilantly, and lowered his voice to the lowest, "You want to die!" So loud! ”

Liu Qiang also realized his recklessness, and learned Lu Chen to lower his voice and say, "Shall we go to the factory to find it?" ”

"But how are we going to get there?" Lu Chen asked quietly.

"What are you talking about?" I don't know when Secretary Liu came closer, tilted his head to look at Lu Chen and then at Liu Qiang with a puzzled face, as if he wanted to see something from the faces of the two, but without waiting for the two to answer, he pointed to the street behind him lively.

"Mayor Wu said that he had searched all over the town and planned to go to the factory to have a look."

Lu Chen and the two exchanged glances with each other, and followed the two in front of them silently without chatting towards the factory.

When passing by the door of the store, Qian Duoduo, who was buying something and came out of the store, saw Lu Chen who was following Secretary Liu, and just wanted to run over to ask if there were any other things at home that he needed to buy, but before he could take a step, he saw Mayor Wu and Liu Qiang who were following last, and his face instantly became gloomy.

Lu Chen turned his head and inadvertently saw the other party, he glanced behind him, and the two of them were seriously following the team, each with their own concerns. Seeing that no one was looking at him, Lu Chen turned his head and blinked in the direction of Qian Duoduo.

He was sure that the other party saw it, because he saw that Qian Duoduo's face became more ugly, and he made a grimace at himself that he thought was scary, turned around and ran away angrily.

Is this guy angry? Angry with yourself? Lu Chen shrugged his shoulders helplessly, followed Secretary Liu and continued to move forward.

Everyone came to the deserted residential area again, which was still so quiet that it was frightening, and it still made Lu Chen feel a sense of discomfort in his back.

But when I looked around, I couldn't see a single figure, and all the doors and windows were black, as if I would enter the endless abyss when I stepped in.

"Mayor Wu!!"

The silence was broken, the hunter's sight disappeared, and the "Zhongshan suit" who rushed to Mayor Wu's side in a panic was very abrupt in this environment.

"Mayor Wu, something is wrong!!' 'Zhongshan suit' ran to Mayor Wu's side, and before he could stand firmly, he panicked and shouted loudly.

"What are you doing!!" Wu Zhenchang's face was full of displeasure, and he took a step back and distanced himself from the visitor.

"It's... It's—" 'Zhongnan' face was full of panic and anxiety, "That—" he looked around vigilantly, as if something was going to pop up at any moment.

After repeatedly making sure that he was safe for the time being, the "Zhongshan suit" but Mayor Wu leaned into the other party's ear with a disgusted expression and whispered a few words.

"What?!" The expression on Mayor Wu's face became complicated, blue and white for a while, and finally he couldn't suppress the serious editor from panicking, "Are you telling the truth?!" ”

"Absolutely." "Zhongshan suit" looked firm, and almost erected three to swear to the sky.

"Did you notify the above?"

As soon as these words came out of his mouth, Mayor Wu suddenly realized that he had said the wrong thing, and quickly glanced at a few people who thought that others could not see it, and tried to control his emotions in the most current and calmest tone, "Have you notified the factory to give everyone a holiday?" Quickly send someone to find out what went wrong and caused the power outage in the whole area. ”

After saying this, Mayor Wu had already regained his usual composure, and the panicked look on his face could no longer be found, but he didn't see it.

At the end of the alley where Mayor Wu had his back, there was a "person" who walked quickly and disappeared on the other side of the alley in a strange manner.