The girl's face was pale, her eyes were full of red bloodshot eyes, her mouth was grinning exaggeratedly, and transparent saliva flowed from the corners of her mouth to her chin, but she didn't care, still staring straight at Xiaolan who was facing her.
.
There was no light inside and outside the tent, and the flying raindrops pitter-pattered on the surface of the tent. Xiaolan could clearly hear her own heartbeat, slow and heavy.
What's going on?
Are you dreaming?
There was a rustling sound behind him.
"Xiaolan?..." Qin Yin was awakened by the cold night wind that poured into the tent. She rubbed her eyes and looked at Xiaolan who was kneeling beside her in a daze.
"...Xiaolan!"
Qin Yin also saw it.
A hand fell on Xiaolan's shoulder. Xiaolan felt the temperature of that hand, and a surge of courage rose in her heart, but this courage was also accompanied by fear.
Everything in front of me is real.
But why is there no light? Where are the night watchmen? Where are the fool and Baomu?
And, the person in front of me.
"What's going on?!" Qin Yin pulled Xiaolan back with force, and touched the flashlight with his other hand, "Xiaolan, come here quickly!"
With a click, the flashlight turned on, and white light instantly penetrated the dark space, illuminating the girl's face.
"What's going on?!" Qin Yin hugged Xiaolan and huddled in the corner of the tent.
Xiaolan stared at the girl and shook her head stiffly, "I don't know."
"No... Where's the man? Where's the man?!... Idiot! Baomu!..."
Qin Yin's shout was drowned by the heavy rain, but it woke up Wen Ling.
The girl had no intention of entering the tent. When she saw that the three of them were awake, she laughed a few more times.
"What are you doing?!" Qin Yin pointed the flashlight at her and shouted angrily.
"Hey hey hey hey..."
The girl's eyes scanned the three people in turn.
She spoke.
"The crow is returning to its nest..."
The three of them held their breath.
"The locust flower will fall asleep..."
This unknown nursery rhyme appeared again in an unexpected way.
"The child wants to go home, and there is a mother at home..."
"How could you..."
Before Xiao Lan finished speaking, a bright light suddenly appeared in front of the three of them.
"Ah!..." Wen Ling nervously grabbed their sleeves.
The three of them were stunned.
That girl was on fire.
A stream of flames rose up from the girl's feet and instantly enveloped the girl's body. When the raindrops fell on the flames, instead of extinguishing the flames, they increased the intensity of the fire. The girl stood motionless in the fire, her skin and flesh burning and choking her nose.
The smell soon filled the humid air.
"Tent!" Qin Yin shouted.
But her worries were unnecessary. The flames licked the fabric of the tent without any intention of igniting it.
The only thing burning is that girl.
The girl burned in the rain for a long time.
The flame became smaller and smaller until the deepest night passed and some colors appeared on the horizon. The flame on the ground faintly extinguished and the girl disappeared without leaving any trace, not even dust.
The rain kept falling.
The three of them kept hugging each other, huddled in the corner of the tent exhausted.
Xiaolan tentatively unzipped all the tent zippers. It was empty outside, as if nothing had happened.
There are trees, grass in the open space, and raindrops flying in the air.
"It seems to be over," Xiaolan leaned out of the tent, "She disappeared..."
Xiaolan turned her eyes and was stunned.
There was only their tent in this open space.
"It's not good!" Xiaolan crawled out of the room.
"What's going on? What's going on?..." Qin Yin and Wen Ling grabbed their raincoats and rushed out.
"Wow..." The raincoat in Qin Yin's hand fell directly to the ground, "Where are they?"
Another tent, and other companions.
All gone.
***
The fool was woken up by the raindrops falling on his face.
He lay on his back with his mouth open, and his mouth was filled with dirty rain. He suddenly sat up and retched several times.
Baomu was lying on his side next to him, soaked all over. The fool quickly pushed him awake.
"Brother idiot... ugh!... What's going on... did I fall asleep?"
"We both fell asleep," the fool shook the raindrops from the inside of his raincoat, "I don't know what happened."
"Oh my god, Xiaolan and the others are still waiting for us to ask them to change shifts. It's already dawn, Xiaolan..."
Baomu looked behind the fool, blinked his eyes, turned his head, and took a deep breath.
"Where are their tents?!"
The fool turned around sharply.
The girls' tent is gone.
"Xiaolan! Xiaoyin!" The fool stood up from the ground and shouted loudly.
Their names echoed in the mountains.
Fool and Baomu looked at each other, immediately knelt down and opened the boy's tent next to them.
It's empty inside.
Taoist priest, Luo Jiutian, and Zhang Boyin all disappeared.
"What's going on?" Baomu pressed his temples and gasped, "Is...did they go somewhere else while we were asleep?"
The fool looked through the items in the tent.
Sleeping bags, supplies...their luggage is all here, but the people are missing.
"They won't tell us." The fool's voice was low.
The two were silent for a while.
"It's all my fault!" Baomu hit his head angrily, "It's all my fault for falling asleep!...I..."
"It's not your fault, nor my fault. We definitely didn't fall asleep on our own." The fool turned over and sat dejectedly in the tent, with flames burning in his eyes. "It was the mountain that did something to us."
Baomu's mentality relaxed a little, "Brother Fool, how much do you remember about last night?"
"I just remember..." The fool raised his eyes, "It's almost three o'clock, and I remember that the rain has become very stable, and then I heard... something..."
"Is it a chirping of birds?" Baomu asked hurriedly, "Is there a chirping of birds in the woods?"
"Yes!" The fool hammered the ground with his fist, "I heard the chirping of birds. It was strange how could there be birds chirping on such a rainy day. Then I followed the sound and looked over, and my memory after that was gone."
"Me too," Baomu nodded, "but I recognized that bird's call. It was the sound of a nightingale."
"nightingale?"
"Yes," Baomu said quickly, "I was very surprised at the time, because there should be no nightingales here."
The fool understood, "This is a trap."
"That's right," Baomu nodded, "This is a trap, to separate us."
***
When Luo Jiutian woke up, he only felt pain in his waist and back, and his whole body was in a panic.
Although the sleeping bag is not as good as the bed at home, it is not...
He opened his eyes.
There is no sleeping bag at all.
He leaned his body against the cold cliff.
There was a person sitting in front of me.
"You're awake," the Taoist priest's voice came, "get up quickly...