Chapter 188 : I Understand Everything!
Chapter 188: I Understand Everything!
Shi Wenyuan looked around and lowered his voice.
“Last night, someone on our side almost fell for it again. Someone outside the window imitated his younger sister’s voice, crying and begging to be let in. If I hadn’t woken up in time and snapped him awake… sigh…” He rubbed his temples tiredly. “If this keeps going, everyone’s going to break down.”
At this moment, Shi Wenyuan had already assumed the two of them knew most of the rules here and did not explain anything, instead directly voicing his grievances.
“By the way, could you share some of the information you obtained from knocking on doors earlier? Even the most basic things would help.” Long Tao asked cautiously. “I heard you knocked on quite a few doors when you first arrived.”
A helpless bitter smile appeared on Shi Wenyuan’s face again.
“Of course we did. At the time we were panicking like headless flies, knocking from house to house. The stupidest thing was that everyone crowded together, wasting who knows how many chances.” He shook his head, then quickly pulled himself together. “But by sheer luck, we still managed to ask out some things.”
Shi Wenyuan did not hesitate much. After a brief pause, he continued,
“At the beginning, everything we asked was basically nonsense—like confirming this place is a village and so on. Only later did we gradually find out which houses can be lived in, and how many people should stay in each…”
“May I ask something?” Mingzhu suddenly interrupted. “If the house you stay in on the first night doesn’t match the required number of people or gender, and the next day there’s no nameplate appearing at the door, what would happen?”
Facing Mingzhu, Shi Wenyuan clearly still had the reaction of an innocent young man meeting a goddess. He immediately blushed and shook his head.
“I… I don’t know. On the second day our group encountered Big Brother Xin and Sister Du. They told us the basic rules, so on the second night we already arranged the houses properly. But judging from our experience these past days, if you don’t hurry and become an official resident with a nameplate, I guess points will be deducted every day until you’re eventually driven out and become drifters.”
This speculation sounded reasonable. Long Tao and Mingzhu both nodded in agreement.
“Back to the main point,” Shi Wenyuan continued. “What we mainly tried to find out was where this place is and how to leave. Many villagers deliberately mentioned words like ‘general’ or ‘official’.”
Long Tao and Mingzhu exchanged a glance. At the same time, they remembered that the old woman on the first day had also mentioned it. Originally they thought it was just the villagers’ casual way of referring to some big figure, but now it seemed it was not that simple.
“A general?” Long Tao pressed. “Did they also say something like… only a general can enter the city to live?”
“Exactly!” Shi Wenyuan confirmed immediately. “But until now we still haven’t found anything in this village related to the identity of a general. None of the households are generals or their relatives, and we haven’t seen armor or anything like that.”
“Could it be some kind of hint?”
“No idea. Later another villager mentioned that near this village there’s a burial place for a general. But we searched for a long time and didn’t even see a single grave mound.”
Long Tao scratched his head in frustration. They had gathered information, but the mysteries had only increased. Still, at least one thing could be confirmed—the term was very likely related to the key for leaving this place.
Just then, the youngest boy among the group of youths from yesterday ran over in a hurry, panic written across his face.
“Brother Shi! Ji Boxiao… he suddenly went crazy or something and is causing a scene in front of the house at the western end of the village!”
Shi Wenyuan’s expression changed drastically. He no longer cared about continuing the conversation with Long Tao and Mingzhu and immediately turned to follow the boy running toward the west. Naturally, Long Tao and Mingzhu also went to see what had happened.
The village was not large. The four quickly arrived near the western entrance. All the youths were gathered around Ji Boxiao. Some were angry, some were trying to persuade him, but Ji Boxiao himself stood in the middle wearing a confident expression that seemed to say, “I’ve already understood everything.”
“Boxiao! What are you making a fuss about again?” Shi Wenyuan pushed through the crowd and rushed in front of him.
“Brother Shi, I just received a knocking task.” Ji Boxiao’s eyes shone. “I think this is an opportunity.”
“A knocking task? If it’s a door that’s already been knocked before, just find someone who hasn’t knocked on that house yet to do it for you!”
“No! That’s not what I mean. I mean… I’ve already figured out the real way to leave this village.”
“Calm down first,” Shi Wenyuan pressed his hands on his shoulders. “We still have time to slowly search for clues. Your current state isn’t right. Go back and rest first.”
Not just Shi Wenyuan—anyone present could see that Ji Boxiao was overly excited. But in this cursed place, being emotionally normal would actually be strange.
At that moment, Long Tao and Mingzhu also ran over. When Ji Boxiao saw the fairy-like woman he admired appear, his eyes became even more fervent, as if eager to prove something.
“I’m very calm! Brother Shi, and everyone else—haven’t you noticed? When we first arrived, the Village Chief already explained the rules about knocking on doors and directly pushing them open. Later we all thought it was just a way to open two different spaces.”
He took a breath. His expression became even more excited, his gaze firmly stuck on Mingzhu, clearly craving her attention.
“But now I’ve figured it out. That was actually the Village Chief giving us the real hint. You remember, right? Every time we knock on a door, the villager inside doesn’t open it immediately—they wait a moment. That pause is actually a gap deliberately left for us. If we knock first, and then push the door open before they come to open it, what do you think will happen?”
Everyone looked at one another. Several people indeed showed thoughtful expressions.
“Don’t mess around! In such an extremely eerie place, how could the way out and its clues possibly be something this simple?”
Shi Wenyuan still tried to calm Ji Boxiao and continued persuading him, but the other party was clearly already carried away.
“Simple?” Ji Boxiao sneered. “On the contrary! The horror here has made us timid and cautious. We only follow the rules left by those before us and don’t dare cross any boundaries. But this village is exploiting exactly that psychology! The real breakthrough lies precisely in the place we’re most afraid to try!”
Ji Boxiao’s words actually made everyone—including Shi Wenyuan—fall silent. He even saw Mingzhu lowering her head in thought.
A huge sense of accomplishment surged in Ji Boxiao’s heart. At last he had shown his wisdom and courage in front of this fairy-like woman. If he pushed open the door and found a key clue, then pursuing the woman of his dreams might not be impossible.
“In any case, I have to try.” He said confidently. “This village is terrifying at night, but no one has ever died during the day. At least we’ve never seen it happen. And it’s my first time knocking on this house’s door. Even if I’m wrong, nothing will happen.”
While speaking, Ji Boxiao had already stepped into the courtyard of that household. Seeing that they truly could not stop him, the others involuntarily stepped back. After all, as long as they did not hear the villager inside speak, the knocking opportunity would not be used up.
Yet none of them wanted to leave. Everyone wanted to see whether Ji Boxiao would actually gain something.
As outsiders, Long Tao and Mingzhu naturally did not interrupt. Besides, they were also curious to see what would happen.
Ji Boxiao forced himself to remain calm as he walked to the door. After taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door three times. Then, without waiting at all, he roughly pushed the door open.
In an instant, the scene inside the house appeared before everyone’s eyes.
It was just an ordinary household. No one stood at the entrance.
Ji Boxiao revealed a smile and boldly walked in. After looking around inside for a few moments, he turned toward his companions outside and shouted with a grin,
“See! If you knock first and then come straight in, it’s just an ordinary empty house. Wait until I find some clues inside and then we can—”
Bang!!
A gust of wind suddenly blew toward the crowd.
It messed up everyone’s hair and violently slammed the open door shut. Ji Boxiao’s unfinished sentence stopped abruptly, as if it had never sounded at all.
The scene fell into dead silence.
No one spoke. No one dared step forward to open the door. Everyone stood frozen in place, unable to move even half a step.
All the doors in this village opened inward. Wind from outside could not possibly blow them shut. And that gust of wind just now had clearly blown from inside the house outward.
An evil wind…
Though fear pinned them in place, everyone hoped Ji Boxiao would push the door open from inside and walk out safely.
However…
Several breaths passed.
The door remained tightly shut, completely motionless. As if everything that had just happened had been nothing more than an illusion.