The eyes are full of desolation, and the wind turns over the page, and the dust is flying.

The houses are not far apart, messy and dilapidated, with weeds growing everywhere.

Under the sunlight, these old-fashioned houses are covered with cobwebs, some of which have collapsed and formed debris in the weathering.

Yu Xing stood blankly, a thought lingering in his mind: How could this be...

He stepped on the land outside the house, his heart beating fast, and looked back.

Old Zhang's house is no different from the other houses, although it has not collapsed, it looks as if it has not been inhabited for a long time. The ropes and nets used for hunting are hanging on the outer wall, already faded and decayed, as if they would break with a pull.

"..." Yu Xing was a little scared and shrank.

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Did he just oversleep? Why does it feel like the world has turned upside down when he woke up?

Where is Old Zhang? What about the woman who gave him porridge? And Mai Mai?

Is it an illusion? But... how to explain the new bandages on his body and the obviously clean but slightly old pants?

He walked cautiously for a while, confirming that there was no one in this small village, and the forest was outside the village, leading to an unknown destination.

A sense of loneliness arose, and Yu Xing blinked and returned to Old Zhang's house.

This place is so strange, he thought.

He entered the kitchen, trying to find traces of Old Zhang's family, but he was disappointed. There was no food in the kitchen, but there were more mold in some grooves than in other places.

"What happened here?" Yu Xing squatted down and carefully observed for a while, a guess rising in his mind.

He searched Old Zhang's house and found a rusty kitchen knife and some other small tools in the spider webs and nameless insects, wrapped in a tablecloth that had been gnawed by insects and carried on his body.

"I need to find out the reason..." Although he had lost his memory and could not remember the past, and was full of doubts about the current strange events, it did not mean that he would sit and wait for death.

He seemed to have a natural aversion to backing down, even if there might be unknown dangers around him.

Yu Xing decided to search all the accessible houses first, focusing on figuring out the reason for the abandonment of the village. For example, whether the people in the entire village had moved away, or whether they had encountered an accident. It would be even better if he could find some usable supplies.

He couldn't figure out why he was here now.

Old Zhang's house was at the edge of the small village. Yu Xing used this house as a base point and circled around the village, memorizing the locations and collapse conditions of all the houses, completing a simple map in his mind.

This place is really small, with only twelve houses at most, that is, twelve households. He numbered them for easy record-keeping.

"..." He still didn't speak, listening to the sound of the wind blowing through the weeds, and walked into the second house.

This was a well-preserved house, unlike the surrounding third, fourth, and fifth houses, which had collapsed into ruins, completely blocked and impossible to enter.

Yu Xing pushed open the door, and the harsh scraping sound made him frowned.

Under the sunlight, the dust became visible, and Yu Xing was choked by these particles, coughing violently a few times, feeling as if the wound on his chest was about to burst.

He wiped away the tears caused by coughing, and squinted to look inside the house.

The house was very messy.

All the small items were scattered on the ground, and even the larger items were askew.

The table was leaning to one side, supported by four wooden legs, and the tabletop was against the wall, as if it had been thrown over by someone.

Yu Xing sniffed and smelled a strong moldy smell, very pungent.

The floor was also dirty, but Yu Xing didn't care about it now. He walked in and then discovered something wrong on the wall.

What are these?

Large patches of black marks were splattered on the wall, but the wall was originally black and yellow, so it was hard to see if you didn't look closely.

The black marks were scattered here and there, and strangely, once they were within a meter from the ground, they disappeared completely.

Yu Xing approached with a strong sense of unease. These black marks were too old, and had long since merged with other things, unable to be separated.

"Is it blood?" The dried bloodstains had turned from red to dark brown, and finally to black.

His intuition told him that he was right, this place seemed to have borne witness to a death.

But why did the bloodstains disappear below?

Were they wiped off?

Yu Xing remembered this point, and did not waste time on other ordinary things, but observed the shape of the damaged things on the ground, and then searched the cabinets that could still be opened.

These furnishings were all old-fashioned. Although Yu Xing couldn't remember where he had seen modern ones, the concept naturally appeared in his mind.

He opened every drawer, not sure what he was looking for, but he felt that he should find some useful information.

Nothing.

The drawers contained either rotten banknotes, unimportant remnants of daily necessities, or were completely empty.

"Forget it..." Yu Xing muttered and walked outside. When he passed by the door, he saw a hoe lying on the ground.

He paused.

In the subsequent investigation, while looking for clues, he also noticed if there were any hoes in the other houses. Sure enough, almost every household had one.And, the furnishings in every room were in a mess, with more or less bloodstains. It could be said that except for Old Zhang's house, the other houses looked like they had been robbed.

After searching through the six small houses, apart from Old Zhang's house and the five houses that had already collapsed, Yu Xing had to admit, "There are no clues."

The sun rose to its zenith, and he searched every house carefully, wasting a lot of time.

"Grumble..." His bandaged stomach began to growl with hunger, but Yu Xing had no way to satisfy it.

There was nothing to eat here, and he didn't know if there were any animals in the woods that he could eat. Even if there were, he wouldn't know how to hunt.

"Forget it, let's walk around and see if there are any other villages." He guessed that there was more than just this twelve-house village in this area, because he saw a hoe in the villagers' houses, but didn't see any fields.

There should be a separate field nearby.

And the land suitable for cultivation would generally not be too small, only giving these twelve families land to cultivate seemed a bit unfair.

After thinking for a while, Yu Xing decided to go in the opposite direction of Old Zhang's house, because since he fainted at the door of Old Zhang's house, it meant that he came from the direction of Old Zhang's house.

The direction where the thing that injured him was. If he encountered it again while walking, wouldn't it be like walking into a trap?

It would be better to walk in a direction that might be safer.

The trees in the mountains were sparse, and occasionally a few were uprooted and fell towards the direction of the village. Yu Xing felt more and more dead silence around him as he walked, even though the sunlight shone on him, he still felt an indelible gloom.

Touching the rusty kitchen knife on his body, Yu Xing's skin rose with goosebumps, and he couldn't help but look around and mutter, "…It's so scary."

Fortunately, after walking for about ten minutes, Yu Xing saw a very hidden path that had been covered by grass and trees. It was obviously trodden by people, and he knew he was going in the right direction.

Not far ahead, there was indeed a field. It wasn't very obvious, just that this place was relatively flat, and the traces of cultivation could be vaguely seen, but it was now abandoned.

Yu Xing crossed the field and continued walking forward.

He also wanted to try to walk directly out of the woods to a place where there was human activity.

He had nothing to eat, nothing to drink, and was covered in injuries. No matter how you looked at it, he was not suitable for wilderness survival, and he didn't have any relevant knowledge. He would probably die.

But speaking of injuries, Yu Xing felt that he was recovering quickly, and many of his wounds no longer hurt.

After walking for a while, he saw the outline of a large village in the distance.

However, at this time, the sun was hidden behind the clouds and was slowly setting, and it was getting dark again.

The flow of time at this moment was not normal, as if it had been fast-forwarded four times. Yu Xing also realized that it was abnormal and hesitated for a while.

"Isn't a normal day supposed to be twenty-four hours?" He almost suspected that his common sense was wrong, after all, there was nothing in his memory to support his thoughts.

"It's too weird. Everything has been weird since I woke up... Am I really not dreaming?" Watching the sky visibly darken, Yu Xing shook his head and quickened his pace towards the large village.

As he approached, he could see smoke rising, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief - there were people in this village, and he wouldn't starve to death in the mountains.

But he looked too disheveled, and he might be seen as a strange intruder by the villagers.

He finally entered this obviously large village, took a deep breath, and knocked on the first door.

"Bang, bang, bang."

"Is anyone there?"

Yu Xing called out nervously.

After a dozen seconds, the door was opened, and a thin middle-aged man poked his head out. He clearly hesitated when he saw Yu Xing.

Yu Xing hurriedly said, "Hello, I'm just passing by, can I..."

"Peng!" The man suddenly closed the door with a look of disgust.

Yu Xing: "…"

Was that necessary?

He turned and knocked on another door, and this time a thin woman opened it.

At least the woman didn't close the door directly, but she blocked the door crack, looking wary. "Who are you?"

"Hello, I'm just passing by, I want to..."

"Don't look for me." The woman interrupted Yu Xing, her face numb and indifferent, pointing in a direction. "Go find the shaman. Only the shaman can allow you to stay, and then we will take you in."

Shaman?

Yu Xing followed her finger and saw only one house over there, the largest house in the village at first glance.

He said sincerely to the woman, "Okay, thank you..."

"Peng!" The woman also closed the door.

"…"

Why are they so mean to me?

Yu Xing felt a little wronged, feeling like he was being rejected by the whole world.

There was nothing wrong with that. The Old Zhang family and these two villagers were the entire world he remembered.

He even thought: Is it because I'm too ugly and scared them?

After much hesitation, he decided to go find the shaman.

Scare them if he must, he just didn't want to starve to death.

The shaman's residence was even larger than it looked from a distance, with a fence surrounding the house, enclosing it properly."When pigs and chickens are usually kept in pens, why would a house be fenced off? Who are they trying to prevent from escaping?" When Yu Xing pushed open the fence, a thought crossed his mind.

Looking back, it was now evening at the restaurant, and many households were cooking. Although no one came out, the smoke from the chimneys carried the aroma of food, making Yu Xing feel a bit dizzy.

So hungry... so hungry... so hungry...

The shaman's house didn't have any smoke coming out, it was cold and desolate.

Yu Xing put his hand on the wooden door, and suddenly his heart started beating fast.

It felt like something bad was about to happen.

This was an inexplicable premonition, and Yu Xing didn't know whether to believe it or not.

But since he woke up, nothing good seemed to have happened. At worst, it wouldn't be worse than starving to death.

So he knocked on the door.

"Thud..."

As soon as his finger touched the door, it opened a crack on its own, as if it hadn't been closed at all.

Yu Xing didn't go in directly, a feeling of indescribable unease grabbed his legs, making it difficult for him to take a step.

A cool breeze came through the crack in the door, brushing over his exposed fair skin. As if compelled by a ghost, he peeked inside through the crack.

There was no light inside, just a piece of clothing swaying in the darkness.

Yu Xing was startled and took a step back, but couldn't help but continue looking.

He wasn't mistaken, it was really a piece of clothing... hanging from the ceiling beam, swaying back and forth.

The limp legs hung down, stiff and straight, and the person hanging there stared at him through the crack with wide eyes.

The body was soaked through, and drops of water dripped from the tip of the shoes, gathering into a dark puddle on the ground.

Yu Xing was only surprised for a moment, but when the light from outside illuminated the interior, he saw the face of the person hanging.

"Old... Old Zhang!" Yu Xing was so scared that he covered his mouth, not letting himself make a sound.

How could this be?

How could Old Zhang be here, and hanging dead?

His pupils contracted, and a sense of grief and anger that didn't belong to his subjective feelings surged in his heart. He thought he was just frightened, and hadn't reached the point of extreme sorrow for the death of Old Zhang, but the feeling in his heart erupted uncontrollably, as if he had experienced all of this before.

It wasn't just Old Zhang.

The crack in the door widened a bit, and Yu Xing saw more.

Old Zhang's wife, Mai Mai, who was shy but also curious and agile, as well as many other people he didn't know, men and women, old and young, were all hanging from ropes, each with a puddle of water underneath, and it was growing.

There were shadows of people inside.

The bodies inside were swaying like pendulums.

Just like the ghost child Junxiong in "The Grudge" who played with the hanging bodies, the scene in front of him seemed like countless hands were pushing the bodies.

Wait, what is "The Grudge"?

Yu Xing thought blankly.

But this was just a fleeting episode in his mind. For now, he was very afraid.

Was this place, filled with hanging bodies, the shaman's house?

He'd rather starve to death! He didn't want to go in!

"What are you looking at?" Suddenly, a low, female voice came from behind Yu Xing, and a chill ran from the soles of his feet to his forehead, making him shiver.

He stiffly turned around, and in that instant, he saw an ugly woman standing very close to him.

The woman had a good figure, and was wearing a Chinese-style black dress that was out of place in this village. Her hair was tied up in a beautiful and steady bun, exuding an exquisite air.

It was a pity about her face, which was probably burned. Most of her face was covered in scars and scabs, and one eye had no eyelid, the eyeball exposed to the air, as if it was constantly glaring at others with resentment.

Just like now, she seemed to be glaring at Yu Xing, as if she wanted to strangle him.

"Ah!" Yu Xing couldn't help but cry out in fear, and as he stepped back, his bare foot stepped on a sharp stone, causing him to yelp in pain and lose his balance, falling to the ground.

His head was buzzing, and with a pained expression, Yu Xing looked up and was stunned once again.

In front of him was a beautiful woman, with smooth and fair skin, and her features found a delicate balance between gentleness and sharpness. Time had left shallow traces at the corners of her eyes, but had compensated with a thick temperament.

Where were the burns and scars?

Seeing his strong reaction, the woman seemed somewhat surprised, and a little displeased, but still asked, "Are you okay?"

Alarm bells were going off in Yu Xing's mind.

Regardless of which image of her was real, the appearance of a woman who stood out from the villagers meant something.

It meant that her status was different from the villagers.

She was the shaman!

The dangerous person who had many bodies hanging in the room!

Yu Xing got up, relieved that his feet weren't cut, and tried to maintain his composure. "I'm fine, I'm fine."

"Are you afraid of me... when you see me?" The woman's tone was as full of suspicion and coldness as before, and she took a step closer to him.

At this moment, Yu Xing himself didn't know why, but he said, "I'm sorry! I, I'm inferior..."

"Oh?" The woman indeed seemed a little less cold and a little more surprised. She smiled with interest and asked, "Inferior about what?""I, I am covered in scars, too ugly..." Yu Xing said, covering the bandages on his chest and abdomen with his hands. It was, of course, in vain, but it was just to draw the woman's attention to his wounds.

His expression was downcast, his tone urgent: "I don't even know where I come from, who I am, why I have such a useless body, and, and the long hair... I'm sorry, I must frighten you, I'm sorry, so sorry..."

The woman surveyed him, then let her gaze rest on his face, her expression suddenly softening: "It sounds like you're a lost child."

She smiled and stroked Yu Xing's head, her peripheral vision catching a glimpse of his long hair, reminiscent of that worn by ancient men: "Don't worry, you're not ugly at all, your body is the most perfect I've ever seen, and your looks are enviable. Believe me, once your wounds heal, you will be very, very handsome..."

The moment her hand touched his head, Yu Xing felt a cold breath coursing through his limbs and torso, making it difficult for him to breathe, dizzy and lightheaded.

A sweet, metallic taste rose in his throat, and he couldn't hold back, a trickle of crimson liquid slowly seeping from the corner of his mouth.