After splitting up, the efficiency was very high, and everyone carefully inserted the key into the door lock to test it, trying to only open the lock and not push the door, trying not to disturb the invisible "owner" in the room.

In less than ten minutes, the six people who received the task of pasting Spring Festival couplets found the corresponding apartment room through the key, which were house numbers 103, 202, 203, 305, 306, 307, 401, 501, and 502.

Among them, 401 is Mrs. Xu's room, which has been excluded from the object of the couplet, and there is one more room left, at this time, Qi Zhen is extremely nostalgic for the existence of Emperor Ou Qin Rang, if he is judged, there is a high probability that he can find that special door and avoid it.

Qi Ji carefully examined the eight doors he found one by one, and there was no doubt that these were the places where Mrs. Xu's family had lived.

His eyes fell on the uneven cement brick wall next to the door frame, in those days, the Spring Festival couplets were directly pasted with paste, and the paper was glued to the wall and it was difficult to tear it off completely, and it was inevitable that some debris traces would remain.

There are mottled marks on the walls of almost every house that have not been torn clean, but after looking closely, Qi Ji quickly realized that something was wrong-

The paper paste marks in the innermost room of the corridor on the third floor are much lighter than those of other doors, and there are some slight noticeable residues in the center of the door, but unlike the red paper traces left in other rooms, the paper scraps on the door of room 307 are white.

Moreover, the position of the 307 door lock also has traces of being pasted with paper, but even if it is a poster and an advertisement, no one will choose to stick it in such a strange position, so that the people who live here will not be able to unlock it.

Qi Zhen frowned, and a possibility that sounded a little absurd quickly passed through his mind, but he couldn't confirm it yet.

"So... Was the 307 door originally pasted with white paper? Under the guidance of Qi Yan, a player asked cautiously.

"Since the red paper is "blessing", the white paper reminds me of "lay"..."

“… Damn, can you not be so underworld? ”

"Don't talk nonsense, the room at the end of the corridor is easy to be stained with some unclean things, and it's even more terrible for you to say this, how can a good residential building be labeled with "Lay"?"

"Maybe it's just the owner of the house who put up a poster, or maybe it's a prank by the children in the building, right?"

After a brief discussion, it was decided to exclude room 307.

Moreover, Qi Zhen has the "Prophetic Cat Doll" obtained from the black cat soothsayer in the previous dungeon, which can help him identify the risk in advance, since the doll did not give any warning, it means that their judgment is correct.

He was even more interested in Room 307, an unusual room that could well be a breakthrough to find important clues.

And, what identity will 079 appear in this copy?

Qi Yan has already begun to look forward to it.

After confirming the target room, everyone assigned their respective tasks, began to post the Spring Festival couplets in a tense and orderly manner, and finally stuck the seven pairs of Spring Festival couplets outside the correct room before the task time node came.

At this time, the last light of the sky has disappeared on the horizon, fine snow is floating outside the apartment, and the lights on the corridor are also lit one after another, and the public facilities of the old building are in disrepair, and the lights on the corridor are flickering and dim.

The smell of food came from the kitchen on the fourth floor, and because of the cold and humid weather, everyone who had been busy all afternoon was more or less hungry.

However, the eating part of the copy is not expected, especially the "Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner" with special symbolic meaning.

As soon as the time came, Mrs. Xu came down from upstairs to check one by one, and after confirming that the seven pairs of Spring Festival couplets had been pasted on the correct door, she raised the corners of her lips with satisfaction: "As long as the Spring Festival couplets are pasted, at the right time, they can find their way home." ”

was obviously looking forward to the child's return home for the New Year, but everyone felt a chill down their spines when they heard it.

Mrs. Xu's "going home" seems to have a hidden meaning.

At this moment, there was a sudden screeching sound of broken porcelain from upstairs.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound, and it seemed that one of the players preparing dinner had accidentally broken the porcelain bowl.

Mrs. Xu's face instantly became gloomy, her chaotic eyes flashed, and then she said lightly: "Everyone has been busy all afternoon, it's time to go to dinner." ”

"Breaking a bowl on Chinese New Year's Eve is not a good sign, but it's okay, it's okay... In the days of waiting for reunion, don't have bad emotions because of bad things, everything will pass. ”

She muttered to herself, her back disappearing into the dimly lit stairwell.

*

Room 405 has a large round table that can accommodate more than a dozen people, and a large plate of hot dumplings is placed on the table.

Qi Zhen finally met the other two groups of players, who were assigned to prepare the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner and cut the window flowers, respectively.

"What are you doing? Hurry up and sit down and get ready for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner," Mrs. Xu beckoned to everyone, "I won't arrange a seat for you, you just treat this as your own home, just sit casually." ”

In such a winter twilight, hot dumplings can easily whet people's appetite.

But the hungry travelers did not dare to move their chopsticks easily.

The interior of this room is also very old-fashioned, the lower part of the wall is also painted gray and green, the TV cabinet is squarely placed against the wall, the thick old TV is covered with a TV cloth transformed from curtains, and above the TV cabinet is a color photo of six people.

This group photo gives people a strange sense of penetration, in the center of the photo sits a middle-aged woman in a cheongsam, although the photo is not very clear because of the age, but it can be vaguely identified that this cheongsam woman is Mrs. Xu when she was young, she is holding another woman in a blue cheongsam on her side, smiling brightly and confidently, as if immersed in the best years.

But the weirdness of the photo is that except for Mrs. Xu, the faces of the other five people have all been torn off, and the vacancy is pitted, as if someone has scrawled five holes with their fingers.

In the photo, only Mrs. Xu is complete, only she is smiling calmly and brightly.

Other than that, everyone's faces vanished, disappearing into the uneven darkness at the edges, as if it were this apartment building, and only Mrs. Xu lived in it as if nothing had happened.

Mrs. Xu didn't seem to realize the abnormality of the photo, and even framed the tattered and weird photograph and hung it upright on the TV so that the guests could see it as soon as they entered the hall.

Everyone's eyes lingered between the steaming dumplings and the eerie photos, all showing embarrassment and hesitation.

"The dumplings are not delicious when they are cold, let's sit down and move the chopsticks, the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner should be reunited, and it is interesting to sit and eat together." Mrs. Xu urged again.

Everyone had no choice but to sit down.

Qi Ji noticed with his afterglow that several players in charge of preparing the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner began to look at each other, and they were the first to sit down.

Qi asked Mrs. Xu tentatively: "May I ask if the photo hanging on the wall is a photo of you and your family?" ”

The mechanical smile on Mrs. Xu's face was a little softer: "Yes, it was a photo from many years ago." ”

As she spoke, she moved her gaze to the strange group photo, and didn't seem to notice anything wrong.

And her calmness magnifies the weirdness of the moment.

"Although this Chinese New Year's Eve dinner was prepared in a hurry, luck and surprises were hidden in the dumplings." Mrs. Xu suddenly changed the subject, her eyes turned to everyone and smiled-

Chapter 185: Year (4)

"You will know when you move the chopsticks, while it is hot, the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner will pay attention to eating hot."

Mrs. Xu saw everyone's shocked looks in her eyes, the smile on her face gradually expanded, and the dry skin was twisted and stacked together, making this old face a little more weird, and the originally chaotic eyes were unusually clear at the moment.

Qi Yan saw a bit of forbearance in Mrs. Xu's eyes looking at the dumpling plate, and he had a bad premonition.

Still no one moved the chopsticks, Mrs. Xu rolled her eyes and looked at everyone quietly.

A female player who looked a little student-like asked, "Mrs. Xu, when you say lucky and surprised, you don't mean that there are coins wrapped in dumplings, right?" ”

The reason why she asked this is because there is a custom in her hometown for the Chinese New Year, and eating dumplings wrapped in coins symbolizes good luck in the new year, and as far as she knows, such a custom is very common.

Mrs. Xu smiled but did not answer, and changed the topic: "Among our sixteen guests, only one guest can enjoy such luck and surprise, I hope this guest can convey his luck to everyone, the meaning of the Chinese New Year is to share and reunite." ”

Qi Ji tentatively speculated: "The luck you are talking about, is it related to the family reunion? ”

Mrs. Xu once again moved her gaze to the color headless photo above the TV stand, and said nostalgically with a look of looking into the distance: "Yes... What could be happier and luckier than a Chinese New Year reunion? Of course, you young people can have many ways of understanding luck, and I know you young people, you don't like to hear me talk about the same old things..."

Mrs. Xu smiled helplessly, "As for the surprise, it can't be regarded as a surprise when you say it, I think you young people will like this surprise very much." ”

Everyone hesitated and exchanged glances, and the female teacher who had completed the task of pasting Spring Festival couplets together before asked cautiously: "If there is only one lucky person, aren't the guests in charge of making dumplings taking advantage?" They know better than anyone which dumplings the so-called 'lucky things' are wrapped in. ”

Mrs. Xu glanced at the female teacher fixedly, and did not speak immediately, but said lightly: "Let's eat." ”

On the contrary, a middle-aged male player with slightly bald hair suddenly responded: "The dumplings all look the same, and they are even more mushy when boiled in water, can you be sure that you can recognize the dumplings you wrapped?" Don't be funny. ”

As soon as the slightly bald middle-aged man said this, all the players who were preparing the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner were stunned.

Just now, Mrs. Xu only ambiguously changed the topic and did not directly answer the question of "there are coins wrapped in dumplings", but the middle-aged man's overreaction answer was simply three hundred taels of silver here, indirectly admitting that several people in charge of their Chinese New Year's Eve dinner wrapped "lucky things" in dumplings.

And the reason why these players who are responsible for preparing the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner just now is most likely because they are not allowed to move chopsticks before Mrs. Xu talks about "opening the meal".

Under the condemnatory gaze of several teammates, the bald middle-aged man finally realized that he had talked too much, so he simply didn't do anything, picked up his chopsticks and rummaged around in a plate of dumplings very impolitely, and quickly aimed at the target dumpling clip.

For quest players with item blessings, it can be said that finding the target from a plate of dumplings can be said to be a breeze.

The rest of the players were naturally unhappy, and the other team directly knocked off his chopsticks, and with the sound of "bell", the chopsticks and dumplings in the hands of the bald middle-aged man were directly knocked down on the table, because the dumpling skin was too slippery, and the dumplings bounced from the table to the ground in the scramble between the two.

The bald middle-aged man's behavior of not abiding by the player's morality also caused dissatisfaction among his teammates, who originally discussed that they would share this special dumpling together, but they didn't expect the bald man to suddenly take the lead and completely ignore the previous agreement in the group.

The two players who were also in the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner group couldn't sit still and were about to snatch it, but a woman with a calm look in a bun knocked on the table, and the two players who were eager to try were slightly stunned, looking at her, only to see her shake her head lightly, signaling not to make a move for the time being.

Although these two players didn't know why, and were even a little unwilling, they finally chose to retreat.

The absurd behavior of the bald middle-aged man and other players competing on the ground to chase dumplings continued, and Mrs. Xu sat on the main seat, watching this farce with a blank face-

"Don't make noise during the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, let alone have bad feelings with each other, since sitting at a dinner table, we are a family, family and everything is prosperous, sit down and have a Chinese New Year's Eve dinner with Meimei is more important than anything else, home and everything is prosperous..."

"There are a lot of dumplings, don't hurt your anger for one dumpling..."

Mrs. Xu, who suddenly spoke, made everyone slightly stunned, and the slightly bald middle-aged man took advantage of the fact that everyone was stunned, and suddenly crawled on the ground like a hungry dog, and swallowed the dumpling that rolled to the ground.

Seeing this, several travelers who had robbed him immediately pounced on the slightly bald middle-aged man, stuck his greasy neck and tried to make him spit out the dumplings.

Qi Xiaonian was dumbfounded on the side: "This is really crazy, could it be that they have been..."

Qi Zhen knew what Qi Xiaonian was suspicious of, and nodded: "They have all been affected by the decrease in pleasure value, and now their spirit value has seriously declined, especially the traveler who swallowed dumplings." ”

And Qi Xiaonian, who participated in the "Exile No. 1 Middle School" dungeon, has a "True God Statue" in his inventory that can help restore pleasure points, so he is almost not affected by the current weird atmosphere.

But in the end, it was still a step too late, and the bald middle-aged man didn't chew it, and he had already swallowed the dumplings wrapped with foreign objects directly.

But in the next second, his originally red face instantly turned iron-blue, and I saw that his throat spasmed violently a few times, his upper body tilted forward violently, and with a disgusting vomiting sound, a stream of turbid scarlet mucus squirted out of his mouth.

Fortunately, there was no one standing directly in front of him, and no innocent players were "polluted" by him.

"Grass, it's disgusting."

"This guy is crazy."

“… The thing he spat out doesn't look like a coin, does it? ”

Reminded by one of the players, the remaining players held back their nausea and looked at his vomit, and the next moment, almost all the players' eyes widened, and at this moment the emotions of shock and horror had completely surpassed the nausea -

In the sticky, pus-yellow vomit lies a human eyeball.

The eyeball was not static, but fluttered in the slime like a fish caught ashore by the waves.

"Damn, what the hell..."Everyone subconsciously covered their mouths and noses with their hands and stepped back

What really felt devastated was this slightly bald middle-aged man who ate "solitary food".

He seemed to be awake for a moment, staggering to his feet as he staggered to his feet, and for a moment he looked at the eyeballs fluttering in the vomit.

In the next second, he let out the most miserable scream of his life from his throat.

Through the windowpane not far away, he could clearly see that his left eye had begun to bleed, fester, and collapse without warning, leaving a cloudy hole in his face.