Tomb Raiders Codex

Chapter 34 Yin Yang Liubu Village

Everyone was exhausted, and the rabbit meat from last night had already been digested. Braving the cold rain, they walked towards the light source hungry.As the distance gets closer, a large building can be vaguely seen standing in the rain.

At the moment, I have bad legs and feet, and I fell behind when I walked. Instead, Mao Rooster and Gu Wenmin walked in the front. Suddenly, Gu Wenmin stopped and called to us: "Look, there is a stone tablet here."

Looking along, I saw a stone tablet standing in the wild grass in front of us, half hidden among the weeds, the exposed part was incomplete, and some vines climbed on it.

From the looks of it, this stele must be very old.

Tofu squinted his eyes and said, "What's written on it?" He was a bit short-sighted, and his glasses had already been broken when he fell down. Now that it was raining heavily, it was even more difficult for Tofu to see.

I heard that I tore off the vines on the stele, and with the dim light of the flashlight, I saw five large characters in ancient script on the stele. After careful identification, it turned out to be an extremely strange name: Yinyang Liubu Village
Gu Wenmin was obviously a little surprised, and said: "What a weird name, Yinyang Liubu Village? What do you think it means?"

I shook my head, completely confused. The stele is hundreds of meters away, our destination. At this moment, I can vaguely see the shapes of the buildings. They are all very retro. They seem to have been around for a long time. There are lights in the village. I don't think it's a deserted village.

Hairy Rooster's cold teeth chattered, and he stammered: "The name of this village... is old and weird. I have been driving here, here, for so many years, and I have never heard of such a village in this area. I, I see Still... don't, don't go."

Tofu is even more confused, his eyes rolled around all of us, he looked a little hesitant, and suggested: "Let's go in and have a look, we can't be drenched in the rain all the time."

Mao Rooster immediately retorted: "Wan, if something happens, who will be responsible?"

Tofu got angry, and shouted: "I'm in charge, okay!" He was always as timid as a mouse, but at this moment, he pointed at me and Gu Wenmin and said, "They all have wounds, and the cloth bands on their foreheads are already leaking. It’s bloody, if I continue walking in the rain like this, my brother will die! Fuck it!” Tofu cursed, stared at the rooster viciously, and said, “If you don’t go, get out, we’re going in to find healing medicine " After speaking, he looked at me with firm eyes, but I knew Tofu very well, and I could still see uneasiness in his firm eyes.

I subconsciously looked at Gu Wenmin's forehead, and sure enough, blood started to ooze again. I must be not much better than her now.Our situation is indeed not suitable for continuing to walk in the rain. Tofu is right, no matter how weird this Yinyang Liubu Village is, we must go in and take a look.

Seeing that there were so many of us, Mao Rooster didn't dare to argue with Tofu, and followed us with a mournful face.

Behind the stone wall is a muddy path washed by rain, leading straight to the village.We advanced along the path and gradually came to the front of the village.

In the middle of the village is an empty road, paved with irregular bluestone slabs, with wooden houses on both sides, most of which are two or three stories high, and there is a corridor outside the building. crop.

This is a typical architectural structure of the first generation of Tujia people in Xiangxi, but it also incorporates the characteristics of some Han buildings. It is dark and connected together, and the criss-crossing paths lead to nowhere.

The whole village is shrouded in a layer of darkness. The only few lights are the few lanterns we saw before, hanging irregularly on the corner eaves of some wooden buildings. The silk lanterns are surrounded by The wind swayed erratically, and the village looked like a deserted village with no one in it.

That being the case, who lit the lanterns on the village building?
We stood in the rain, looking at the dark wooden buildings in the rain curtain, feeling a little apprehensive in our hearts, Gu Wenmin moved closer to me unconsciously, his bare arm, the muscle against my arm, was cold.

I looked at her sideways, the raindrops were sliding down her eyelashes, she looked very vigilant, probably because she often walks in the mountains, although her expression was nervous, she didn't scream like ordinary girls, she seemed calmer.

Our eyes couldn't help looking at those lanterns.

Why are they on?

Who lit them up?
Are there any people living in this village?
When we were thinking about this question, a thin figure suddenly flashed in my sight. That figure was on the second floor of the wooden building, like a ghost, flashing past in the dim light of the lantern.Even though I've always been bold, I don't need to be scared. My heart tightened and my brain thumped.

At this moment, the figure who had just turned around turned out from the corner again. This time everyone found out, and he also found us.

Due to the distance, we couldn't see his face clearly, but we could judge his approximate age. He was a thin old man, standing under a lantern and looking at us.

Before I could make a sound, Gu Wenmin bravely said to the other party: "Old man, we are lost travelers, can you open the door for us and let us stay overnight?"

The old man didn't answer after listening, turned around and merged into the darkness again. After a while, he saw the door on the first floor downstairs was opened from the inside. Obviously, the old man accepted us and let us go in to shelter from the rain.

From this point of view, we were overwhelmed before, and there are people here.

The few of us were overjoyed, and trotted into the room quickly, without bothering to inquire, turned around and closed the door to block the cold wind and rain outside, but when we came to our senses, we didn't see the old man who opened the door for us.

Tofu hissed and asked in confusion, "Where's the person?"

Mao Rooster stared nervously at the surroundings, and said, "It's haunting, and the light is, too dim."

On the first floor of the entire wooden building, there was only one wooden table, and a kerosene lamp was lit. With the dim light, I took a closer look and found that there were no wires or anything like that. That is to say, in this age, There is no electricity in this village!

This is really weird enough, I became vigilant, and said to the empty wooden building, "Old man, thank you for letting us in, do you have anything to eat?"

I was already a little drumming in my heart, thinking, could it be that my bad luck has really added to my body, my luck has declined, and ghosts have come to trouble me. Could it be that I have encountered something unclean again?Only then did he deliberately open his mouth to test, but as soon as the words fell, an old hoarse voice came from the second floor: "There is food in the cupboard below, you can take it yourself. I sleep on the first floor. I live alone, so it is inconvenient." Let you come up to the second floor."

Although the voice was ugly, it was undoubtedly human. After all, if it was a ghost, I am afraid it would not be so kind to get us something to eat.

Tofu had been hungry for a long time, and he became more courageous after hearing the words. He glanced around and locked on the old wooden cabinet not far away. After he walked over and opened the cabinet, there was indeed some food in it.

Tofu hurriedly brought out the food, and it could be seen that these were all leftovers, leftovers picked up by the old man.

A large bowl of white rice, a bowl of sweet potatoes in a rough porcelain bowl, and half a bowl of wild pheasant chicken. We are also hungry now, so how can we dare to be picky? We divided our food and sat on the table to eat and drink.

There wasn't much food, and we were all only half full, but it was better than starving and suffering outside.

Gu Wenmin found a dark place and changed out of her wet clothes. Her backpack was waterproof because she had to carry equipment, so her clothes didn't get wet.Tofu and I were not so lucky. We could only wring out the excess water, put on a pair of underpants, and hang the wet clothes to dry, hoping to dry them the next day.

It is summer at the moment, and it is reasonable to say that the weather should be muggy, but this place may be because it is located in a deep mountain, and it is cold on rainy nights.The old man who took us in for the night didn't seem to like strangers. Although there were a lot of doubts in our stomachs, we couldn't ask them.

Due to the cold, everyone didn't sleep soundly, and I was awakened by a faintly strange sound in a daze.Opening his eyes, he realized that Gu Wenmin had also woken up at some point, maintaining a posture of half-supporting his upper body, listening to the movement with his ears, and his expression seemed very vigilant.

She glanced at me, shook her head slightly at me, and motioned to keep quiet.

I also listened to the movement, and after a while, I found that the movement came from the second floor above our heads, which seemed to be the sound of a bell.

The tofu and the rooster were still sleeping like dead pigs, Gu Wenmin frowned slightly, and said in a low voice, "Chen Xuan, why is this old man ringing the bell upstairs in the middle of the night?"

I shook my head, feeling weird in my heart, thinking of all kinds of weirdness in this place, I lost my drowsiness, and whispered: "This place is not right, I'm afraid there will be something unsafe, you stay here and don't move, I'll sneak around Go up, check the situation, and see what the old man is up to."

Gu Wenmin hesitated for a moment, then nodded again, and said in a low voice, "Then be careful."

(End of this chapter)