Chapter 4: The siege

Xiao Xia opened her mouth wide in shock and sat there stiffly. Seeing Zuo De twisting around, he kept that look like a freeze in a movie, and the black shadow over there suddenly became a little shorter after not moving.

Its head disappeared, only its figure was left! And it began to float and retreat at the moment of its broken head, quickly hiding in the darkness!

Zuo De slowly turned his head, and Xiao Xia saw in horror that his face was no longer his own face, as if he had been replaced with the whole face, and he became another person!

He has a square face and a straight facial features. There are two vertical black moles on the left side of the cheek, as if two drops of mud tears were hanging on his face, making his face, which was originally beautiful and beautiful, look a little crying!

He smiled, "Go into the city!" he said slowly in Zuo De's voice.

"Ah--" Liu Hong behind her screamed again.

Xiao Xia instinctively turned her head to look at her. She saw that she was not screaming because she saw Zuo De's abnormality, but was frightened by the many round things that were rolling down the hillside.

Under the chaotic but sharp light of the flashlight, everyone present could see that those things were skulls one by one!

Then, the hillside seemed to be tilted, and no one could sit still, and was washed down by an invisible mountain torrent!

This time it was too sudden. Xiao Xia was caught off guard and rolled down with the group of people amidst the frightening sounds around her! She knew that it was an hallucination, but she could not control her body. She tried her best to pull the weeds beside her, but she still couldn't stop the downward momentum.

Below is the empty city. They have been avoiding entering, but they finally have to enter!

The sound of slap and exclamation came everywhere. Xiao Xia only felt her body falling heavily on the hard asphalt road. The severe pain from her shoulders made her faint immediately and lose all her consciousness.

I don’t know how long it took, but Xiao Xia woke up and felt that she was lying on the flat road. Although her shoulders were still burning and painful, she was very clear-headed.

The rain had stopped, but the sky was not right. It was logical that it should be at night, but the sky was gray, roughly like it was almost five o'clock in the morning in summer.

I remember that before I fell last night, it was around 11 o'clock in the evening. Did I actually fall into a coma all night? So what about the others?

She struggled to get up and looked around. She saw more than a dozen people scattered on the ground like ragdolls, and happened to face a small artificial lake. When she looked at the surrounding environment carefully, she was obviously in an empty town.

This artificial lake is located at the intersection of two wide streets, one horizontal and one vertical. There are many shadows on both sides of the street, but the surrounding area is very spacious, with marble ground and some flowers and plants around it, forming a square centered on the lake.

A tower was built in the lake like an isolated island!

This pagoda was seen outside the town. At that time, I thought it was very tall. I found that its architectural style was still very gorgeous, like a golden-stage jade tiles. Although I don’t know if this pagoda has anything to do with Buddhism, it gives people the feeling of a temple. It is built in the center of the lake, and only a seven-turn open-air corridor leads there. You have to pass through it when you enter and exit, otherwise you will have to swim.

"Where is this?" Liu Hong's voice came from beside her. She was the second one to wake up after Xiaoxia. She knelt on the ground and looked around in horror. Without Xiaoxia's answer to her, she also understood what this place was.

"What time is it now?" she asked again.

Xiao Xia usually doesn't wear a watch, so she had to take out her phone and look at it. She saw that the time on the phone showed 23:17. As soon as she took out the phone, she reminded her that the main function of the phone was to talk, but she immediately found that there was no signal at all!

Xiao Xia smiled bitterly and understood that she was too stupid. This was clearly a trap. The town was like a demon waiting quietly in the corner, waiting to devour these people. Now that the prey has been caught, how could it be left to them easily to escape? Although she didn't understand why this happened, nor did she understand that this was a prank by the demons or that some of them ignored intentionally or unintentionally, offended or hurt so that they would be like this?!

Liu Hong, who saw Xiaoxia's behavior, remembered that she also had a cell phone, so she hurriedly took it out and fiddled around, calling for help like a loss of mind.

Although she understood that Liu Hong kept talking in fear, it was a way to relieve her tension, but Liu Hong's shouting still made Xiao Xia unbearable. She glanced around and saw that others were waking up one after another. She quickly stood up and walked to the lakeside of the artificial lake, and whispered to the bracelet, "A Bai, do you know what's going on?"

The bracelet was quietly hung on her white wrist, motionless!

Xiao Xia was startled, shook her wrist twice, and louder her voice, "A Bai, are you there? Answer me!"

Still no movement.

"Abai, don't scare me, are you here? Are you okay?" Xiao Xia was almost anxious, but she didn't dare to scream too loudly.

silence!

What's wrong with this? Could something happened to Abai?

In an instant, Xiao Xia's heart twitched and she felt double fear! She originally thought Ah Bai was by her side all the time, so she could remain calm in fear, but Ah Bai was not there, which made her suddenly fall into a state of panic!

On the other hand, she was afraid that something would happen to A Bai. After all, A Bai would not leave without saying a word! What happened when she was unconscious? She was unlucky and was involved in it by accident, or was there any conspiracy waiting for her! But no matter what, don't implicate the innocent and kind A Bai!

"I'm leaving! I'm leaving! Zuo De! Where are you?" Liu Hong's sharp voice came from a distance, "Zuo De, take me out of here! Zuo De!"

Zuo De? Where did the photographer possessed by a black shadow go?

Xiao Xia watched around silently and cautiously, and saw that everyone stood up, only a round and burly figure lay beside the flowerbed in the square, without moving, as if he was dead.

"Zuo De!" Liu Hong also saw Zuo De's place, got up and ran towards him, and the others followed.

Liu Hong turned over his body and shook him desperately, hoping that her protector would wake up. Under her shaking force, Zuo De, who was obviously confused, slowly woke up.

"Where is this? New Town?" He shook his head, glanced around, and asked in confusion and surprise.

As soon as the word "New Town" came out of his mouth, it immediately ignited the fuse, igniting the panic in everyone's heart!

"Let's leave now!" said one person, and many people agreed immediately.

"Go here, this leads to the east gate, and go out of the east gate and return to the old town!" Another person said, and then ran east without waiting for someone to respond!

There was a man running, and the rest didn't even think about it for a second, and followed behind and rushed towards the east, just like the birds in the trees fleeing in panic after hearing a gunshot, and they were completely useless. Not only Xiao Xia, but Liu Hong and Zuo De did not move.

Xiao Xia didn't run because she had experienced too many such things. She knew that running was useless and would only waste physical energy. She also reduced the possibility of survival in vain. She had to make a calm judgment to have a chance. Unfortunately, these people ran away blindly without waiting for her advice, but she expected that they would run back here.

It is now clearly a siege!

But why didn’t Zuo De run away? Is he clear-headed and understood the situation or is he no longer ‘him’?

Xiao Xia looked over with suspicious eyes and happened to see Zuo De looking over! At this time, his face returned to his original appearance, and his expression was normal. His eyes were full of admiration when he looked at Xiao Xia, as if he was surprised that she, a woman, could be calm in the face of danger.

But Xiaoxia is full of vigilance against him! Is he really the original Zuo De?

"Let's go too!" Liu Hong helped Zuo De up, pulled his arm tightly, and said anxiously.

"The situation is unclear, and it is better to be quiet than to move!" Zuo De patted Liu Hong's hand.

"But I want to leave. This town is too quiet and makes people feel scared!" Liu Hong said while watching.

Xiaoxia also felt the silence she said.

Originally, this was an empty town that had not yet lived in. It was supposed to be without movement, but it was unusually quiet. It was not that there was no sound at all, but that feeling of gloomy and dead silence. Even my breathing and heartbeat were not the same as it was, as if this was not an empty city but a grave!

"Don't be afraid! I will protect you!" Zuo De comforted Liu Hong for a moment, then got up from the ground and walked towards Xiaoxia.

He seemed to have hit his head, and there was a big purple bag on his forehead, which was still shaking when he walked. But he stopped suddenly after only a few steps. At the same time, a "swish" sound came from behind Xiao Xia.

The three of them looked in the direction of the sound in unison, and saw a fountain suddenly gushing out of the artificial lake, and a snow-white column of water sprayed high from the lake into the air. Because there was no sign before, the three people present were shocked.

"What's going on?" Liu Hong asked tremblingly.

No one answered her, but in fact no one knew what was going on! Is it funny or has other meanings?!

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta--

A burst of rapid footsteps broke the silence between the three of them. When she turned around, she found that it was exactly as Xiao Xia expected that the first person who ran away ran back.

This time, there were many people accompanying the team on the legal education journey, and Xiao Xia was very tired of it, so she couldn't remember the name of anyone who had no characteristics. She only remembered the name of this person, Song, who was a propaganda person. She saw him sweating and panting, probably because he had not exercised in the office for many years, which made him seem to have reached the limit of his physical strength.

He was also stunned when he saw Xiao Xia and the other two. Unexpectedly, he would go back to the square again and collapse to the ground, crying in despair, "I can't see the east gate, I can't see the east gate! We can't go out! Can't go out!"

"Why can't you see the east gate?" Liu Hong screamed and rushed over to ask.

The man ran back again indicating that hope of running away was basically shattered.

"Don't say that there are strange things in this empty city, even if not, this is a big town with more than 50,000 people. The facilities are so advanced, complete, and omni-directional. How could you run from the town to the east gate so quickly!" Zuo De rebuked, "If I read it correctly, this is indeed the center of the town."

"That's right." Liu Hong nodded desperately. On the surface, he agreed with Zuo De's words, but in fact he wanted to convince himself, "He must be lost, and others may have already-"

She stopped, and the hope of running away was completely shattered, because panicked footsteps came from all directions, and eight more people returned to the square from different directions. In this way, none of the nine people who ran away had gone out!

"How could this happen?" Zhao Jiayuan muttered to himself, looking at Mao Fu at a loss, "When our town was built, it was from south to north!"

Mao Fu could not answer him because the original plan was indeed horizontal and vertical. If you look down from the air, the whole town would be like a square Go board, which was extremely neat. This was because their mayor loved order, so he designed it like this. In theory, if you take a telescope, you can see the west gate from the east gate without any obstacles.

They just kept running and never turned around. The road in front of the square is the main road, so there is absolutely no mistake, but why did they turn back here?!

"Maybe we were too panicked and so foggy, so we might even go wrong," said reporter Tan from the town newspaper.

After he said this, Xiao Xia noticed that the entire city had fog in summer! The fog was very heavy and weird, which wrapped the entire town in, but kept the square in a clear state!

"We should try again, right," said a horse face named Zhang. "We should all go out, one person holds one person's hand, line up, and walk along the isolation line in the middle of the road, so that we will not return."

"But I don't think this is a good idea." Zuo De interrupted, "The situation is unclear now, and the fog is strange again. You should stay in a relatively safe place and think of a good countermeasure before taking action, or wait for the weather to get better."

"No." Someone immediately refuted him, "Waiting here is waiting for death. We must have run the wrong way because of the heavy fog. We have been walking all the time this time, and there will definitely be no mistakes."

"Can you have a chance?" Zhao Jiayuan asked Mao Fu.

At this critical moment of life and death, he still had no idea. He only followed Mao Fuma, completely lost the ability to think independently, and his slavery was deeply rooted in the bones.

"Okay, let's have a try." Mao Fu gritted his teeth and waved his hand boldly, but the next sentence revealed his psychological fragility. "If it doesn't work - come back together and find a way. Anyway, it's safer for everyone to be together. What do you think?"

"I firmly object to it, this is the stupidest way to do it," said Zuode.

Xiao Xia shook her head as Mao Fu's eyes swept over.

"Okay, we'll have a democratic solution. Those who are willing to make a breakthrough are here and come and queue up." Mao Fu sighed.

Xiao Xia watched coldly, always feeling that he was anxious to leave here not just because he was afraid of being besieged, but because he looked a little guilty. At this time, the twelve people had been divided into two factions, one had ten people and the other had two.

Xiao Xia originally thought that she, Zuo De and Liu Hong would stay, just like before, but she didn't expect that what she left was Wang Wenge. Zuo De was strongly opposed to doing this, but Liu Hong insisted on trying it out. Zuo De obviously had a different relationship with Liu Hong and wanted to protect her, so although he was unwilling to do so, he had to follow her.

This also made Xiao Xia feel relieved. She was a little afraid of staying alone with Zuo De, because the black shadow incident made her unable to believe him completely. Although he seemed to be the most sober among the group, she was afraid that he would suddenly transform and told her that he was not Zuo De.

Xiaoxia watched the group walk into the white mist that was as thick as milk. Seeing the white mist rolling around, it seemed to suck people into a bottomless hole, and suddenly remembered the dream he had in the hotel last night.
Chapter completed!