Chapter 179 : The Same Door, Don’t Knock Twice
Chapter 179: The Same Door, Don’t Knock Twice
As soon as Long Tao and True Person Mingzhu heard the words “knock on the door,” the awkward thoughts about their “husband and wife identity” instantly vanished.
Both of them straightened their backs at the same time and focused intently on Du Yiluo.
Du Yiluo, meanwhile, stuffed the flatbread into her mouth in two or three bites, licked the oil from her fingertips in satisfaction, and brushed the crumbs from her hands.
Beneath the ambiguous red glow filling the room, her crimson eyes appeared strangely harmonious with the atmosphere of this bridal chamber.
“When you arrived, the Village Chief should have told you the rules,” she said. “You must knock before entering a house. But he would definitely also say that you can randomly find an empty house and just go straight in.”
Long Tao recalled what had happened yesterday and nodded subconsciously, faintly grasping at a thread of insight.
“That’s precisely the most bizarre part of this village.” Du Yiluo lowered her voice slightly, as though sharing a secret.
“If you knock, a villager will definitely open the door. And when I say villager, I mean the native ‘original residents’ born and raised in this village. Not outsiders like us.”
“And if you don’t knock and just push the door open… it’ll be an empty house?” Long Tao asked.
Du Yiluo smiled and nodded.
“If it hasn’t already been occupied by another outsider—meaning there isn’t a nameplate hanging at the door—then yes, it’s an empty house you can freely enter. But once there’s a nameplate at the entrance, that means the house has an owner. Like I said earlier, barging in without invitation brings bad luck.”
“In other words… every house can have two households? One being the original villager, and one being the outsider who moved in?”
“Exactly. The original villagers are always those same people. Take your bridal chamber for example—if you had knocked before moving in, the ones who opened the door would have been another newly married young village couple.”
“In that case,” Long Tao pondered, “as long as we carefully observe whether there’s a nameplate at the door, we can avoid the risk. It doesn’t sound… too difficult.”
Du Yiluo seemed to have expected that response. The corner of her lips curled into a faintly mocking smile. “Heh. You’re thinking too simply. The truly fatal part is precisely that ‘knocking’ action.” Her expression suddenly turned extremely serious.
“Remember this: absolutely—absolutely do not knock on the same house twice.”
Seeing the instant suspicion and questions rise in their eyes, she continued firmly before they could speak.
“Don’t ask me what happens if you knock a second time. I don’t know. No one among the living knows. Because everyone who has done that has disappeared. Not died, not turned into a puppet—completely disappeared.”
Long Tao and True Person Mingzhu both sucked in a sharp breath almost simultaneously. The old lady’s warm invitation yesterday, and the blacksmith’s ill-intentioned “come find me”—so it hadn’t been hospitality or lust at all. It had only been an attempt to lure them into knocking again.
Although they had already sensed something wrong yesterday and had been cautious about knocking, hearing the confirmation now still left them with lingering fear.
“So… as long as we restrain ourselves and avoid knocking as much as possible, we can avoid this trap?” True Person Mingzhu’s voice remained calm.
“In theory, yes.” Du Yiluo spread her hands helplessly and gave a bitter smile. “The first people who figured out this rule thought the same as you. But strangely enough, people still kept disappearing. Because in this village, there will always be things that tempt you, guide you—or even force you—to knock.”
“Could you be more specific? What kind of methods?” Long Tao pressed, his palms growing slightly damp.
Du Yiluo slowly shook her head. A lingering shadow of fear flickered through her eyes. “Sorry. The specific forms and details of those ‘temptations’ aren’t something that can be exchanged for just a couple of meat flatbreads. I paid a price to learn them.”
The two of them fell silent and nodded in understanding. Intelligence that determined life and death would never be given away lightly.
To ease the heavy atmosphere—and to gather more background information—Long Tao changed the subject. “Miss Du, how long have you been trapped in this village?”
“According to the time here, about two months.” A trace of weariness entered Du Yiluo’s voice. “When I first arrived, there was another group of older outsiders—consider them seniors. Unfortunately, most of them are gone now for various reasons. At present, aside from me, only Big Brother Xin remains.”
Her tone noticeably softened when mentioning him. “Come to think of it, Big Brother Xin is from the same hometown as you—both from the Uncircumvented Heaven World. If there’s an opportunity, I can introduce you.”
True Person Mingzhu caught the key point in her words and asked with a sliver of hope, “Among those seniors who are no longer here… was there anyone who successfully found a way to leave?”
Du Yiluo let out a short, bitter laugh. “Heh. Unfortunately… no. Not a single one. As far as I know, there are usually only three ‘endings’ here.”
She raised one finger.
“First, as I said earlier—knock on the same door twice and disappear completely. That’s the most thorough. Second, continuously violate the village’s rules. Once it accumulates to a certain point, you either become like the current Village Chief—a hollow puppet who only acts according to the rules—or the third ending… you are permanently expelled from the village and become a ‘drifter’ wandering the wilderness outside.”
“Drifter?” Long Tao immediately recalled the old lady mentioning the term yesterday. “What does that mean exactly?”
“People who’ve been driven out.” Du Yiluo frowned slightly. “They can no longer step into the village at all. They can only wander around the wasteland and roads near the outskirts. To be honest, their condition is strange too. Sometimes they approach the village and the roads, even initiate conversation—but they don’t attack. I’ve never responded to them, so I don’t know much.”
At this point, Du Yiluo stopped offering further information. Exchanging two meat flatbreads for this much life-saving intelligence was already an enormous profit. If they had relied on themselves to explore, the price would likely have been unbearable.
Especially the rule about not knocking twice on the same door—although the Village Chief had hinted at it before, who would have imagined the punishment was total disappearance?
Though they still had countless questions about the rules, Du Yiluo clearly had no intention of continuing the topic. Instead, her crimson eyes turned inquisitive as she stared at the Storage Pouch at Long Tao’s waist.
“Now let’s talk about that pouch of yours. Why is it that only your spatial magical artifact still works?”
Long Tao placed the pouch on the table and smoothly took out a mid-grade Spirit Stone.
Suddenly, inspiration struck him.
Ever since arriving in this village, everyone had become mortals. True Person Mingzhu’s necklace and Du Yiluo’s bracelet, in mortal understanding, were merely decorative items. Could it be…
“Is it because, in a mortal’s view, a pouch is naturally meant to store things—so my Storage Pouch still works? While your bracelets and necklaces, in mortal common sense, can’t possibly hold objects, so the rules classify them as ordinary jewelry?”
As a transmigrator, Long Tao instinctively approached the problem from a purely mortal perspective.
“This…” Du Yiluo stroked her bracelet, realization flashing in her eyes. “That’s actually possible! The rules of this cursed place are so strange—it might really work that way.” She sighed regretfully. “If I’d known, I would have prepared more types of storage artifacts.”
After a moment’s thought, Long Tao picked up a brush from the table and easily slipped it into the pouch.
Under the puzzled gazes of the two women, he then tried to lift a wooden stool and stuff it inside—but no matter how he tried, it wouldn’t go in.
“As expected.” Long Tao set the stool down with a smile. “The rules here probably operate according to mortal perception. The brush is smaller than the pouch, so by common sense it can fit—even though it’s actually entering a storage space.”
Du Yiluo half-doubtfully reached into the Storage Pouch to feel around. Sure enough, she wasn’t the owner and could only feel the texture of an ordinary cloth pouch. She couldn’t sense the internal space at all—but she also couldn’t feel the brush, meaning it had indeed entered the storage space.
Long Tao continued explaining, “But the stool is obviously larger than the pouch. In mortal common sense, it’s impossible to stuff it inside—so the rules won’t allow it to enter the storage space.”
True Person Mingzhu nodded thoughtfully. “So this village has completely reduced us to mortals, while also imposing rules on all objects based on mortal cognition.”
“More or less. But the fact that the storage space still functions clearly means there are loopholes in the rules.”
“No matter what, it’s good that this loophole benefits us. By the way… how many meat flatbreads are left inside?”
True Person Mingzhu asked with a blush.
She was still completely hungry.