Chapter 49
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“Cough, cough,” Liu Cheng’s neck was choked by Lou Yan, and he couldn’t breathe properly. He reached out in panic, clutching Lou Yan’s arm, his face flushed red, “I don’t know! I really don’t know!”
Lou Yan didn’t let go of him, but instead tightened his grip, pulling him closer, his temples throbbing, “You were the first ones to come to Liushu Village, think about it carefully.”
They had all been misled.
Everyone had been misled by the anomalies hidden until now.
Thinking carefully about all the clues related to the anomalies so far, Liu Kang said that his parents died only after touching the red coffin, and that night during dinner, his parents had already been replaced by anomalies, with black spots covering their faces.
If this was the red coffin’s method of killing, then the red coffin needed others to touch it in order to kill.
But many of the dead were actually killed by anomalies disguised as human beings, and these people had not touched the red coffin at all.
Lou Yan had always thought that these anomalies disguised as villagers were also one of the methods of the red coffin killing, but now he began to doubt this fact. Did the red coffin really have the ability to make anomalies pretend to be human?
If the red coffin really had this ability, then why did it let the anomalies pretending to be humans have such obvious features as black spots?
Lou Yan assumed that the red coffin did not have this ability, and then assumed that there was an anomaly, let’s call it anomaly A, who had been hiding behind the red coffin all along and using the name of the red coffin to kill villagers. Then it became clear.
There were two anomalies in Liushu Village killing people: one was the red coffin, whose method of killing was that anyone who touched the red coffin would die; the other was anomaly A, who, while the red coffin killed villagers, used its own anomalies to disguise itself as the killed villager, spreading like a plague in Liushu Village.
The black spots on anomaly A were all personally deceiving and harming people, not offering villagers to the red coffin. This represented the difference between the two. Moreover, these anomalies with black spots were even more sinister and cunning. The anomalies pretending to be Old Wang even posted on the internet, using the psychology of human greed to lure people to Liushu Village. Such methods of harming people were completely different from the anomaly methods Lou Yan experienced in the internal world of the red coffin.
Anomaly A lurked behind the red coffin and killed most of the villagers of Liushu Village. The black marks intentionally left on its body while impersonating a villager were meant to mislead others into thinking that the false villagers were the mysterious work of the red coffin. This made people believe that Liushu Village only had one anomaly, the red coffin, and eliminating it would equate to removing all the anomalies within Liushu Village.
Two anomalies, two methods of murder, two distinctly different styles, all cleverly merged behind the red coffin, making it difficult for others to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
However, when looking at the results, one would find that the deaths of the villagers fell into two categories. One was like Liu Kang said, dying after touching the red coffin; the other was killed by the anomaly false villagers with black marks.
Indeed, cunning, this anomaly A.
Lou Yan’s anger surged, sinking deeper in his heart. If it weren’t for the psychological shadow caused by Fu Xuezhou’s final betrayal in his previous life, if he hadn’t conducted this “final check,” then they would all have been deceived by this anomaly A.
What would be the consequences of being deceived? Lou Yan didn’t know, but he knew it wouldn’t be anything good. It’s very likely they would face a wave of annihilation!
This anomaly A posted online enticing people to buy furniture, indicating that the people of Liushu Village were no longer enough for it to feed on. And the most likely time for such a deeply hidden anomaly to be exposed would be when outsiders first entered Liushu Village from the outside world!
It was when Liu Cheng and Huang Xin arrived!
Seeing Lou Yan’s brutal actions, Huang Xin screamed and tried to rush over to hit him, “Let go of my boyfriend!”
Lou Yan looked at her expressionlessly, “And what about you? Did you notice anything unusual?”
Huang Xin’s attempt to step forward was forcefully halted by Lou Yan’s gaze. Tears welled up in her eyes, feeling both shocked and scared. She felt Lou Yan’s gaze was more terrifying than a wild beast’s, sending shivers down her spine.
Lou Yan was the most handsome man Huang Xin had ever seen in real life. His every move exuded the grace of a wealthy man, with a charming temperament and a hint of wickedness. When Huang Xin first saw Lou Yan, she couldn’t help but take a few more glances at him, even though she had a boyfriend. She couldn’t help but pay more attention to him because of his looks and charm. Although she never thought about anything happening between her and Lou Yan, she couldn’t help but have some girlish fantasies. But Lou Yan’s current behavior made Huang Xin feel a chill in her heart, shattering all those feelings and fantasies. Even though Lou Yan still looked good, Huang Xin felt like he was a devil!
Liu Cheng’s tears started flowing. Lou Yan lifted him off the ground, his tiptoes barely supporting his weight. “I really don’t know! Big brother, please let me go, I really don’t know!”
The crowd around Lou Yan, stunned by his actions, quickly stepped forward to intervene and persuade him to let go of Liu Cheng. However, Lou Yan continued to grip Liu Cheng’s collar as if he hadn’t heard them. The veins on the back of his hand protruded as he spoke slowly, “You need to think carefully. When you came to Liushu Village, did you notice anything unusual? The villagers, the weather, the houses, the mud, everything about the environment… Did you see anything, feel anything out of place?”
Tears and mucus streamed down Liu Cheng’s face. He tried hard to recall the scenes from yesterday when they arrived, but the more nervous he became, the harder it was for him to remember. Finally, he broke down and shouted, “I really don’t know… I can’t remember… I, cough, cough…”
The people around tried to persuade Lou Yan to let go, but most of them didn’t understand why Lou Yan suddenly acted this way. Even Teacher Lin couldn’t help but come over and advise, “Mr. Lou, let’s talk it out peacefully without resorting to violence.”
Li Sanxin, Duan Zege, and Lu Haoxiu didn’t know what Lou Yan had figured out, but they unconditionally supported his actions. They helped to block the crowd, creating space for Lou Yan.
As time passed amidst the escalating noise, a choked female voice suddenly spoke up, “I… I remember!”
Everyone turned to look, and it was Huang Xin, tears streaming down her face, who spoke.
Lou Yan immediately released Liu Cheng and walked quickly to Huang Xin, bending down to look at her. “What do you remember?”
Huang Xin struggled to suppress her panic, speaking somewhat incoherently, “The ground, it’s the ground!”
She remembered that when they first arrived at Liushu Village yesterday, she kept looking at the ground because she was wearing new shoes. When Liu Cheng knocked on the door, she stood beside him, playing with her phone, but her eyes were still fixed on the ground.
If Lou Yan hadn’t just mentioned the mud, she probably wouldn’t have noticed anything wrong with the ground. Huang Xin spoke quickly, “There were no footprints on the ground when we entered Liushu Village! The ground, which should have easily left footprints, was completely clean when we arrived that day, as if… as if no one in the entire village had ever walked on the muddy ground! It was like… like a newly refreshed map in a game!”
After saying this, Huang Xin almost collapsed.
Li Sanxin remembered something when he heard this, and he looked at Lou Yan intently, “Yanzi, the ground was already very muddy when we came in. It was completely different from what she said. We walked on a normal rural mud road, you remember, right? And we didn’t see anyone from Liushu Village on the way here, so it was impossible for those roads to become so muddy in such a short time.”
Lou Yan nodded.
Huang Xin cried, “I’m not lying to you. The ground was really clean when we came!”
“Nobody said you were lying,” Lou Yan looked at Teacher Lin, squinting slightly, “Teacher Lin, Old Wang told us yesterday that you were all in the fields saving the crops, so there was no one in the village. Were you really all in the fields yesterday?”
Teacher Lin was already somewhat bewildered. She nodded instinctively, explaining, “It has been raining here for several days. The fields were about to be flooded, so many of us in the village went to the fields during the day to save the crops. Only a few people stayed at home to cook and pack things. But because of the rain, our village was sealed off again, so nobody wanted to come out.”
“Yes, Teacher Lin is right. Many of us were busy in the fields all day yesterday!”
“Yeah, yeah, our skin was all wrinkled from being soaked!”
The villagers behind Teacher Lin chimed in.
“So, this is the loophole,” Duan Zege folded his arms, saying lightly, “Miss Huang and the others came when the ground looked one way, and when we entered a few minutes later, it looked different. The anomaly should have also noticed something was wrong, so it promptly patched up the loophole.”
Lou Yan paused, a flash of insight crossing his mind. He muttered to himself, “When we entered Liushu Village, it started raining… Do you remember the weather forecast we checked before we came?”
Lu Haoxiu hesitated, “The weather forecast seemed to show no rain here…”
“Yeah, no rain. But none of us remembered this fact, as if this part of our memory was deliberately blurred. Even though the villagers mentioned many times that it had been raining here for many days, we didn’t react at all,” Lou Yan’s eyes flickered, his thoughts becoming clearer, “Do you remember when we first arrived in Liushu Village? The moment I saw Liushu Village, I told you all to be cautious, that there was danger in Liushu Village. That’s because my crisis perception alerted me. But was it really because I saw Liushu Village that my crisis perception kicked in? Looking back now, when I saw Liushu Village, I had just stepped into the range of the rain.”
“On our way to Liushu Village, the weather was clear all along until we started climbing that small hill, and the weather turned from sunny to rainy. If ‘Furniture Boss’ was a deceptive guise, then is the route it provided really the way to Liushu Village?”
Lu Haoxiu couldn’t quite understand. He solemnly rested his chin on his hand, trying to follow Lou Yan’s train of thought, “But we did arrive at Liushu Village.”
Lou Yan continued to mutter to himself, “…able to disguise as a human… cunning methods… altering memories of weather forecasts… changing the shape of the road…”
Each of these pieces of information matched up with some anomaly data in Lou Yan’s mind.
Suddenly, Li Sanxin had a faint guess and looked up at the sky in disbelief. Drizzling rain fell, hitting his face and slowly sliding down his cheeks.
“Yanzi,” Li Sanxin hesitated, calling out to Lou Yan, his tone uncertain, “this rain has been the same size since yesterday. It hasn’t changed at all.”
Lou Yan smirked coldly and lifted his rain-soaked face, “Yeah.”
The fine rain wet his eyebrows and lips. Lou Yan’s eyes were filled with anger and coldness. Suddenly, he laughed, looking around and raising his voice so that everyone could hear him clearly, “This is a nightmare created by Nightmares! We are all in a dream right now!”
“Everyone, wake up immediately—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Lou Yan’s vision went black, his brain dizzying. In the next moment, he abruptly opened his eyes.
The glaring sunlight filtered through the leaves, birds chirping loudly, and perched on branches, peering curiously at Lou Yan and the others.
Lou Yan shielded his eyes with his arm and sat up from the ground. Looking around, he saw Lu Haoxiu and the others lying next to him, still unconscious. They were in a grove of trees, which Lou Yan recognized as the small hill leading to Liushu Village, the place where they “dreamt” they got soaked in the rain. A few steps ahead, and they would see Liushu Village.
Lou Yan brushed off the ants from his body, the metallic wristwatch on his wrist gleaming brightly. The one he had discarded in the dream was still on his wrist in reality… Hmm, a trace of displeasure flashed in Lou Yan’s eyes. After a brief pause on the watch, his gaze quickly moved away. He was about to wake up Li Sanxin and the others when he heard a few groans. Li Sanxin and the others were already rubbing their heads and getting up groggily from the ground.
“Ouch, my head is spinning.”
“Darn it, this place looks so familiar. Were we really dreaming just now?!”
Lou Yan cleared his throat, and all eyes immediately focused on him. Lu Haoxiu exclaimed eagerly, wanting to pounce over, with admiration shining in his eyes. “Brother Lou, you’re amazing! You’re so clever, bro!”
Lou Yan took a step back, avoiding Lu Haoxiu’s enthusiasm mercilessly. “Li Sanxin, check if your anomaly skin is still there.”
Li Sanxin rolled up his sleeve and looked at his normal wheat-colored skin. He then felt his abdomen, not sure whether to be happy or sad, and sighed deeply, “The ghost baby is still there, but the skin is gone. It turns out that the anomalies in the dream was real.”
“Nightmares, B-grade horror anomaly, they weave dreams invisibly. If people die in the dream, their bodies die in reality too,” Lou Yan slowly recounted the information he knew. “Nightmares don’t have domains, but their abilities are almost as powerful as those of domain anomalies. The method to escape from a nightmare’s dream is difficult to describe. It’s as simple as realizing that it’s a dream, and people will wake up from the dream.”
Lou Yan spoke, touching the back of his neck. The spinal cord whip under his fingertip skin twitched slightly, reminding him that the Red Coffin was not a nightmare-created anomaly.
Lou Yan looked at his right hand again. He had no wounds on his body, except for the crack in his palm, which was still there.
Frowning slightly, Lou Yan continued, “Nightmares are very cunning anomalies. They will collaborate with other anomalies. The ghost baby in our dream was brought in by the fanatic cultists. I don’t know what’s going on with the Red Coffin, but it’s also a real anomaly.”
No wonder he had never heard of the Red Coffin in his past life. It turned out that the Red Coffin had been hidden in the nightmare’s dream all along.
Then…
Did Fu Xuezhou really die?
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