What came into view was an ancient village, with houses made of old stone structures, very distinctive in character.
The entire village was situated at the foot of a mountain, surrounded by green trees, appearing as if it was wrapped in a blanket of green.
Shen Yue had just arrived and took a quick look at her surroundings. They were all together, with a small pond in front of them and a vegetable patch beside it.
However, the vegetable patch was overgrown with weeds.
"My thing, my thing, you haven''t returned it to me yet!"
Before she could look around much more, Fan Quguang''s voice rang in her ears.
"How did you get in here too?" Shen Yue watched as Fan Quguang rushed to her side.
"Me? Oh no! This is bad!" Fan Quguang now realized he had also entered, filled with regret.
Shen Yue quickly tried to calm him down.
"So this is the small world? We''ve really traveled through time and space to arrive at this place." The speaker was Chen Si, a new tenant.
His face wore an expression of disbelief.
"This is nothing to be happy about," Number 75 snorted coldly.
"So, are we supposed to go to that village up ahead?" Wang Chuxue, another new tenant, asked quietly. Her boyfriend, Lin Le, was very introverted and didn''t say much.
"I suppose so, there''s nowhere else to go," Shen Yue checked the sky, noticing it was already evening. "If we don''t go there, we''ll have nowhere to stay tonight."
"Then let''s get moving quickly."
This time, Chen Si took the lead.
With him leading the way, the other newcomers followed behind. Then came the tenant from Room 75.
Shen Yue, Kun Yao, and Fan Quguang fell to the back of the group.
"Have you been to this small world before?" Shen Yue asked as they walked.
Fan Quguang shook his head: "Of course not."
He looked up towards the village and sighed:
"Who knows what''s waiting for us in that village."
"Try not to worry too much, it should just be simple villagers there, right?" Shen Yue tried to reassure him, but she didn''t even believe her own words.
As they walked, Shen Yue''s gaze involuntarily fell on Kun Yao in front of her.
Since entering this small world, no, actually since leaving her room until now, she hadn''t heard Kun Yao say a single word.
Her entire demeanor was very cold.
"What do you think, Kun Yao?" Shen Yue reached out and poked Kun Yao''s shoulder.
The person in front remained silent, and just as Shen Yue thought she wouldn''t answer, she finally responded.
"...I don''t know."Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
"Look at those people in front," Fan Quguang suddenly said in a low voice.
Shen Yue craned her neck to look. The people walking at the very front were in pairs, chatting and laughing.
They really looked like couples out for a leisurely trip.
It was unclear whether the administrator had told them something, or if they were just that naive.
"They look so energetic, so youthful," Shen Yue commented with a sigh.
Fan Quguang gave her a dissatisfied look: "I''m the oldest one here, what exactly are you implying?"
Shen Yue coughed: "Sorry about that."
After walking for a while, the stone houses drew closer.
The people in front suddenly stopped by a small pond.
Shen Yue and the others walked over and saw a middle-aged woman washing vegetables by the pond.
So they had encountered a villager.
"Oh, hello there, where are you all from?" The woman seemed quite surprised to see them.
"We''re..." Chen Si wasn''t sure how to respond.
"We''re tourists from the city, here for sightseeing," the girl next to Chen Si spoke up. Her name was Zhou Tongtong, and from their behavior, they seemed to be a couple.
Shen Yue remembered that when they first entered the apartment, these two were hugging each other.
"Ah, tourists! That''s wonderful." Upon hearing this, the woman''s face lit up with a smile. She quickly gathered up her vegetables and put them in her basket.
"Indeed, since you''re tourists, and it''s about to get dark, you probably don''t have a place to stay, right?" The woman asked as she packed up her vegetables.
"That''s right, auntie, so we were wondering..."
"That''s exactly what I mean. I have beds at my house, why don''t you all come stay with me? I''ll make sure you''re all well taken care of."
The group was delighted.
"Is this the task? It seems so simple..."
"Yeah, it feels pretty good."
Hearing these new tenants say such things, Fan Quguang was at a loss for words and rolled his eyes.
At this moment, Shen Yue was sticking close behind Kun Yao, almost hiding behind her.
"What''s wrong with you?"
Kun Yao moved a little further away from her.
Shen Yue forced an ugly smile onto her face: "It''s nothing, nothing."
She pinched her thigh hard, forcing herself to walk forward.
Seeing her like this, Kun Yao suddenly glanced ahead and slowed her pace.
"Did you see something?"
Shen Yue paused. With this question, the scene she had just witnessed flashed through her mind.
When the woman was washing vegetables, a small black shadow had flashed under the water.
Shen Yue''s breath had caught in her throat. She had to hold back from crying out.
When the woman finished washing the vegetables and threw them into the basket, the black shadow crawled out from under the water.
Shen Yue covered her mouth, hiding behind the others as she watched clearly.
A small ghost, about three or four years old, crawled out of the water. It was covered in rotten mud from the pond, and the exposed skin was the pale white of a corpse.
Its face was also ashen, with large eyes that were completely white.
After coming out of the water, it climbed into the vegetable basket.
Only its ashen white arms were visible, clinging to the edge of the basket.
Shen Yue shook her head and pointed at the vegetable basket in the woman''s hands without speaking.
Kun Yao seemed to understand and also glanced at it.
"What did you see?" Fan Quguang asked in confusion, looking left and right.
The group followed the woman towards one of the stone houses in the village.
This stretch was an uphill path of uneven stone slabs, not easy to walk on but full of ancient charm.
"Oh my!"
The woman walking in front, either too excited or for some other reason, suddenly tripped and fell, sending her vegetable basket flying.
"Oh no, are you alright, auntie?"
Shen Yue watched as the basket rolled down the stone slabs, coincidentally stopping right in front of her.
The little ghost in the basket had also been thrown out, landing bottom-up with its head buried in the vegetable leaves.
The ghost''s legs were kicking frantically.
"Pfft..." Despite her fear, Shen Yue couldn''t help but laugh.
However, in the next second, the little ghost in the basket suddenly pulled its head out, its large eyes with only whites staring fixedly in Shen Yue''s direction.
Shen Yue held her breath!
The expression on her face was like a color palette.
She wanted to laugh, but she was also terrified, forcibly holding it in and controlling her gaze to move elsewhere.
Fortunately, the little ghost crawled back into the basket.
"Oh dear, it''s nothing, just my vegetables." The woman hurried over, picked up the vegetables, and grabbed the basket.
"Auntie, did you hurt yourself anywhere?" Wang Chuxue asked with concern.
"No, no, I''m perfectly fine. Come along now, my house is just ahead." The woman didn''t seem bothered, dusted herself off, and went back to leading the way.
Walking at the back, Shen Yue was desperately patting her chest.
The breath she had held in earlier was stuck in her chest, making her incredibly uncomfortable.
"Is someone tripping really that funny?" Noticing Shen Yue''s state, Fan Quguang was thoroughly confused.
Unable to explain, Shen Yue could only glare at him.