Chapter 103: The Lost Deserted Village (Part 7)

Chapter 103: The Abandoned Village (Part Seven)

"Zhu Ning!" Jin Tao noticed something was amiss and his first reaction was to call out to her from outside, hoping she would come back, but no matter how many times he shouted, there was no response. "Zhu Ning!"

He ran over quickly; Zhu Ning and the others had only just entered, not even a minute ago.

"Zhu Ning!" Jin Tao tried to open the door, the broken wooden door should have been fragile enough to be pushed open easily, even by someone of his build. But at this moment, it wouldn't budge.

It seemed as if the door were made of steel, with not even a crack visible.

The old woman standing by the window continued to stare at him through two bloodshot eyes, her face twisted into an eerie smile.

She seemed to step closer, her nose pressing against the glass, deformed by the pressure, yet still smiling.

Jin Tao had the strange feeling that the old woman could actually crawl out.

Zhu Ning walked into the house.

Inside, there were no lights, and with the sky growing dark, the room was dimly lit by the setting sun, casting an eerie glow.

Her first action upon entering was not to survey the surroundings but to turn and look at the window. No one was there; the old woman had vanished.

What happened? Wasn't she just standing here?

Moreover, from inside the room, she couldn't see outside. Normally, when she came in and looked out the window, she should have seen Jin Tao and the rest of the team.

But all Zhu Ning saw now was an empty village road, the sunset casting a red hue on the cobblestones, as if they were soaked in blood.

And this road seemed more desolate than when they arrived, with wildflowers and weeds sprouting between the cracks in the stones, like a truly long-abandoned path.

Had they entered another anomalous space?

Zhu Ning walked to the window and, looking down, saw a pair of clear footprints.

The house was abandoned, with a thick layer of dust accumulated inside. Any movement would leave a trace on the surface.

If Zhu Ning's team was the first to enter, their footprints should be the only ones.

But there was another set of footprints, pressed tightly against the wall, deep from standing for a long time.

It was as if you had moved a sofa that had been in place for a long time, leaving a clear imprint when you moved it.

These must have been left by the old woman.

At that time, the old woman stood there, staring unblinkingly out the window. What was she looking at? There was only barren grass outside.

These footprints were also peculiar, showing only the marks of standing, with no signs of walking towards or away from them.

It was as if the old woman had stood there for a very long time, until the thick dust covered her.

But how did she leave? Did she suddenly disappear?

Wait, why assume she disappeared? She might still be present.

Was Zhu Ning... close to her, just unable to see her? Could the old woman be right in front of her, still looking out the window, her back of the head touching Zhu Ning's helmet?

Zhu Ning suddenly held her breath.

When Li Nianchuan entered and saw the window, he knew something was wrong. The old woman had disappeared, and so had Jin Tao and the others.

Zhu Ning's first reaction was to check the window, while Li Nianchuan's was to try to push the door open, thinking that if he could open it again, Jin Tao and the others might reappear outside.

The wooden door creaked, looking quite fragile.

Li Nianchuan reached for the doorknob, expecting resistance, but to his surprise, it opened easily.

Wasn't this door supposed to be pushed from the outside? How could it be opened from both sides?

After opening the door, Li Nianchuan was stunned. There was no sign of Jin Tao and the others; outside was just an empty village road.

The road was overgrown with wild grass, and the wind sent shivers down his spine.

Li Nianchuan tried closing and reopening the door several times, but the result was always the same. The cleaners who were supposed to be guarding outside had vanished.

Suddenly, Li Nianchuan paused, as if he had heard something.

He stopped immediately and listened carefully. With his canine genes, his hearing was naturally better than most people's.

It sounded like... someone was shouting? He couldn't make out the words, but for some reason, he felt the person was screaming at the top of their lungs. Li Nianchuan could hear someone shouting but couldn't understand what they were saying.

Jin Tao was pounding on the door, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his voice to reach Li Nianchuan.

Two timelines intersected, with Li Nianchuan and Jin Tao standing at the entrance of the abandoned house, their figures overlapping, yet unable to communicate with each other.

"Did I hear wrong?" Li Nianchuan was puzzled. "I never mishear anything."

Li Nianchuan could even sense the other person's emotions. They were shouting something, filled with fear, which sent a chill down Li Nianchuan's spine.

"Hey, come over here," Xu Meng called out.

Li Nianchuan stopped worrying about the sound. Xu Meng had found a clue, and Zhu Ning, who had been lost in thought by the window, also moved away upon hearing Xu Meng's voice.

Upon entering, Zhu Ning's first reaction was to check the window, Li Nianchuan's was to try opening the door, and Xu Meng's was to inspect the house.

Xu Meng had already conducted a quick patrol of the house. It had six small rooms and a small courtyard with a vegetable patch.

The furnishings were nothing out of the ordinary: leather sofas, a large TV, wicker chairs, and all the necessary equipment.

If this village hadn't been abandoned, it would have been perfect for city workers seeking a retreat. When Li Nianchuan mentioned wanting to live in seclusion in the mountains, this would have been the ideal place.

Walking into the backyard, what was once a vegetable patch was now overrun with wild grass.

Next to the vegetable patch stood a small wooden shack, a common sight in rural areas where many households would arrange their space this way, using the shack to store farming tools.

Now, the wooden shack was covered in moss, and an unknown species of vine had entwined itself around the right side of the shack.

The lingering fear from that yellow flower still hung in the air; Xu Meng approached the plants cautiously, knowing that if they mutated, it could be troublesome.

Despite the beauty of the scene—the sunset, the wooden shack, the tranquil village—it offered no comfort, as if every cell in her body was screaming at her to run.

Since entering the backyard, Xu Meng felt an eerie sense of being watched, as if an invisible pair of eyes were following her shadow.

She carefully approached the wooden shack, but the vines showed no reaction. With a creak, Xu Meng pushed open the door.

Xu Meng used to be a demon hunter, having entered many contaminated zones before, and even she frowned at what she saw inside.

"Hey," Xu Meng called out, "come take a look."

Hearing her voice, Zhu Ning and Li Nianchuan hurried over. The house wasn't large, so they quickly found Xu Meng in the backyard.

Xu Meng stood before a wooden shack, inside which was... a row of surveillance equipment?

The large screens of the monitors emitted a cold light, their black surfaces reflecting the three of them like mirrors. They could see their own reflections as soon as they looked up.

Zhu Ning often felt the world of the wasteland was chaotic, sometimes with highly advanced technology and other times with very retro items.

This abandoned village was no different. There were some surveillance devices in the house, which seemed more sophisticated than those from Zhu Ning's time, extremely precise.

It appeared to be a workroom, dark inside, dedicated to monitoring.

Thinking about the old lady who had been peering through the window, Zhu Ning wondered what the owner of this room was doing. Who were they monitoring?

Li Nianchuan pressed the power button on the surveillance equipment, but there was no response. "No power."

The interior of the shack was unlike what they had seen outside; without electricity or lighting, all electronic devices were non-functional.

The night vision in their helmets automatically activated, casting everything in a green hue.

Their cleaner suits had power, and Li Nianchuan initially thought about using his suit's power to charge the computer, but after connecting, there was no response. This contaminated zone could even cause their internal clocks to stop, making it likely ineffective.

The computer wouldn't turn on, and the only usable information was a work log. When all technology fades away, words remain the most enduring way to preserve information.

The notebook was old, already yellowed, and not a standard one—just a few pages stapled together, looking rather hasty.

Perhaps because they had computers for recording, this work log was used as a backup or scratch paper.

Zhu Ning, Li Nianchuan, and Xu Meng gathered around, seeing the title on the cover of the work log: *Observation Report of Bliss Village*.

The handwriting was elegant, indicating a high level of education, likely belonging to the old lady who had been peering through the window.

Why observe a village? Was she a scholar? Isn't that an invasion of privacy?

It turned out the village was called Bliss Village.

The first page only had a date: Year 10, New Calendar, November 1st.

Zhu Ning frowned. It was the New Calendar? Did this happen after the radiation?

Xu Meng explained, "Initially, people lived outside the first-level protection wall. There were original residents here, and the Federation provided free public housing to move them inside the wall, but they preferred living outside. At the time, the pollution levels were still manageable, and the area outside the first-level protection wall was quite safe."

Li Nianchuan said, "Captain knows a lot."

Zhu Ning glanced at Xu Meng, who was definitely a former demon hunter with more experience.

The Federation had offered options to move inside the wall, but many refused, finding the houses allocated by the Federation less comfortable than their own yards.

The buffer zones between walls used to be densely populated, even attracting city dwellers, but as pollution worsened, fewer people remained.

Zhu Ning recalled that most of the villagers were middle-aged or elderly, with no young people in sight.

She understood their mindset; her grandmother, for example, disliked living in the city. If her grandmother, that tough old lady, were in the wasteland, she would probably think she was going to die anyway and might as well die at home.

Xu Meng flipped through the logbook.

"Old Zhang is really acting like a hero, insisting I help him solve cases. Who do I think I am, solving his cases? He says I should get into the habit of recording everything I see on the monitors, even my thoughts, to make it easier to submit evidence later. What a show-off, just bossing me around."

The opening was a rant, and Zhu Ning could imagine the old lady writing, perhaps bored, pouring her heart out on the scrap paper.

"Lately, people keep disappearing from the village. Some say it's the mutated pollutants killing them. How scary! Our village is so small. Old Zhang asked to borrow my equipment to monitor things, saying it's advanced and hidden, and no one knows I have it. He's such a cheapskate, getting free use of my stuff."

Zhu Ning seemed to understand. This equipment was unique to this family, likely owned by the old lady living alone outside the wall, where it wasn't safe, so she had invested in a high-end setup.

"Old Zhang said he requisitioned several devices in the village, not just mine, but also Old Li's, the convenience store next door, and his own. Other villagers will also keep an eye out, using their eyes if they don't have equipment."

She began to understand the villagers' watchful gazes. It wasn't just her imagination; they were indeed monitoring something, and something must have happened in the village.

"What a jerk, Old Zhang, making me work for free. Nothing unusual today. Finished."

Year 10, New Calendar, November 7th

"Another person has disappeared, this time it's Old Lady Xu. I met her on the back mountain just a couple of days ago. I'm really puzzled. The village is full of old people, not worth much, and they're too tough to eat. Why would anyone grab us?"

The notebook seemed to record more personal thoughts than observations.

"Nothing interesting on the monitors today. Finished."

Year 10, New Calendar, November 8th

"I ran into Ah Fen today. She was acting strange, asking me if the old locust tree at the village entrance was getting bigger. I think she's a bit off. Trees aren't like grass; they grow slowly, and you can't see them grow. Besides, old trees don't grow much. I've known that tree for half my life, and it's always been the same size."

"But today is really strange. The missing Old Wu has returned. After the village doctor examined him, he said there was nothing wrong except for some eye pain. When we asked him what happened, he wouldn't say, and he seemed very wooden."

"Later, we sent him home. For the first few days, we were worried that something might happen again, so several people in the village helped keep an eye on him. But Old Wu seemed fine, and many people stopped paying attention to him."

"But Aifen told me that Old Wu had been replaced. The current Old Wu is not the same as before. The evidence is that the old Old Wu used to play the piano; he was quite talented and often played for us during festivals. Now, he can't play well at all; it's all over the place, like his hands are new. He plays worse than I do."

"I asked Old Zhang if we should continue monitoring. Since the missing person has returned, maybe after some time, those who went missing before will also come back on their own. Old Zhang said yes, but he didn't tell me why specifically."

"Nothing was captured today. Anyway, whoever did it probably didn't pass by my house. I don't know if others have captured anything. End."

Year 10, November 9th

"Today, I captured Old Wu on camera. I don't know why he was loitering around my house. He came at 11:30 PM, just standing there, looking up at my surveillance camera like a ghost. I was already asleep when he came. What does he want here?"

"What does he want here?"

The next sentence followed, possibly because the diary owner found it strange and was thinking.

"I kept the footage and gave it to Old Zhang. He told me to keep watching, but I don't know what he's looking for. I installed a few more cameras, even in the backyard. End."

Year 10, November 10th

"Aifen said she also bought a camera. She secretly installed one, and recently, many people in the village have been acting strangely. Some have even started praying and worshipping. But Aifen is the strangest; she told me she captured Old Wu on camera."

"Old Wu not only came to my house but also to Aifen's? What does he want? Is he a pervert? I'll talk to Old Zhang tomorrow. If this continues, the village is doomed."

"I didn't see Old Wu on the camera today, but while I was watching, I saw a flash, like an eyeball staring at me through the camera."

"When I blinked again, the eyeball was gone, like an illusion. I didn't dare tell anyone, afraid they would think I'm sick. I can't afford to be thought of as sick, but this village is really getting sicker."

"I've been using my eyes too much lately, and they're starting to hurt. I'll go get some eye drops tomorrow. End."

Year 10, November 11th

"Old Zhang said a contaminant has entered the village!" The handwriting in the notebook became very messy, as if the writer was in a hurry: "But we don't know who it is, so we privately call it a ghost."

"Who is the ghost? Is it Old Wu?"

"My eyes are hurting more and more, and the eye drops aren't working. I need to see a doctor inside the wall."

The diary ended here. Xu Meng flipped through the pages, but there was nothing written afterward. Was it that from then on, the diary owner only wrote electronic versions?

Or... did the diary owner die after writing that sentence?

Why were her eyes hurting?

Zhu Ning blinked, unsure if it was her imagination, but after reading the diary, her eyes felt a bit strange, making her want to rub them.