"Don't touch."
Tian Qi turned his head blankly and saw A Heng staring at him expressionlessly, the chill rising from the bottom of his eyes was extremely terrifying.
A Heng took Tian Qi's hand and led him away from the dolls.
At the same time, the chill surrounding Tian Qi dissipated.
Tian Qi asked blankly, "These dolls..."
A Heng resumed his innocent smile again, as if everything just now was Tian Qi's illusion. "Beautiful, aren't they? Aunt Qiu made them all."
Hearing this, Feng Chengyuan frowned. From the moment he entered the room, he had an uncomfortable feeling. The room was dim. The thick curtains blocked all the light trying to shine into the room, completely separating this room from the outside world into two different worlds.
Especially after seeing this row of dolls, Feng Chengyuan always felt that the room was shrouded in a layer of black mist that could not be dispelled, and the source of the mist was exactly this row of dolls.
Yu Nian glanced at Feng Chengyuan, then hooked his little finger and shook it reassuringly.
Feng Chengyuan's eyelashes fluttered. Suddenly, he felt much more at ease, and the room didn't seem so unpleasant anymore.
Yu Nian looked at A Heng and said regretfully, "I heard that Aunt Qiu's daughter and husband passed away one after another a few years ago. Do you know how they died?"
Just like a page was suddenly turned in a book, A Heng's whole expression darkened instantly. He drooped the corners of his mouth and showed a sad expression.
Yu Nian squinted his eyes and thought that A Heng's expression was really a bit perfunctory. There was not even a trace of sadness in his eyes, and the smile hadn't even faded away.
"Maybe you know the Flower-Falling Cave Maidens? My cousin Xiaoyan offended the cave god on her wedding day and passed away."
As soon as these words were said, many contestants looked up in shock.
But before they could ask, the door was slowly pushed open, and an old woman with a hunched back walked in, bringing in a gust of cold wind.
The old woman was wearing the traditional Miao ethnic minority clothing. Her upper body was a dark cyan cross-collared jacket, and her lower body was a floor-length pleated skirt.
Her silver hair was neatly combed and wrapped in a dark headscarf, without a single strand of loose hair.
Aunt Qiu was not tall. Her old and dark face was covered with wrinkles. There was a series of mysterious tattoos on both sides of her neck. At first glance, they were like two swimming snakes, dangerous and mysterious.
Yu Nian looked at the old woman for a while and knew that she was the long-awaited Aunt Qiu.
Aunt Qiu greeted the Taoist priests and then suddenly stood still on the spot. She stared straight at everyone with her cloudy eyes. She carried a bamboo basket almost as tall as herself. No one knew what was in the bamboo basket, but it was constantly dripping blood.
A Heng let out a soft cry and stepped forward warmly to take the bamboo basket from Aunt Qiu. Then he chattered a series of words in Miao language. Only then did Aunt Qiu slowly nod her head.
However, she didn't seem to care about the others. She casually scanned the crowd. Her gaze only paused for a moment when it touched Yan Qing, and then she sat down at the table on her own.
Aunt Qiu slowly bent down and painstakingly took out clumps of fragmented flesh and black hair that were stuck together like sea grapes from the basket.
After taking out enough, Aunt Qiu carefully took out a human head that had been gnawed by wild beasts and only half of the face remained from the bottom of the basket.
She neatly arranged these things on the ground, took out a needle and thread, and squinted her eyes to sew.
Aunt Qiu's sewing speed was extremely fast. Almost in the blink of an eye, the few pieces of fragmented skin that were originally scattered on the ground had been sewn together, and almost no stitches could be seen.
After sewing the skin, Aunt Qiu took out seven or eight small wooden boxes the size of a palm from the drawer. Just like making dumplings, she stuffed minced meat and herbs into the empty human skin shell together. She would sew a stitch every time she put in the stuffing twice. In just a few moments, the soft pile of things on the ground had begun to take on a human shape.
For a moment, the stench of the corpse and the smell of herbs filled the small space on the first floor. Qi Rongsheng covered her mouth tightly with a handkerchief and felt so nauseous that she could hardly breathe.
But when Aunt Qiu was sewing the chest, her movement suddenly stopped and she frowned tightly.
This bloody scene caused double damage to the contestants' eyes and stomachs. In the midst of the retching sounds, a black dialogue box suddenly popped up in everyone's minds, and the words "The mission begins" popped up one by one.
[The mission is officially announced: Please find the remaining twenty stitching materials that the elderly Aunt Qiu lacks. The time limit is 24 hours. If the contestants can find the materials within the specified time, they can leave the illusion - the timing officially begins.]
At the same time, several pictures of herbs flashed by like a slideshow and finally fell silent.
As soon as the mission was announced, the atmosphere in the room suddenly changed, and the contestants began to discuss again.
"Where can we find herbs in the middle of winter? Isn't this deliberately making things difficult for us?"
"There are only twenty materials in total, but there are twenty-five contestants in the illusion. Doesn't that mean that five people are destined to stay in the illusion?"
"Why are you all sighing? Now that we finally have a way out, let's just rely on our own abilities!"
This was originally a competition. The contestants had only temporarily united because of the illusion. Now they had just returned to a competitive relationship.
Most importantly, this competition was also related to their lives.
The contestants no longer hesitated and rushed out of the room one after another.
Just as Xue Yier and Qi Rongsheng were about to leave, they saw Yu Nian still standing there thoughtfully, so they asked.
"Yu Nian, why aren't you leaving? What if they pick the herbs first?"
Yu Nian looked calm and said softly, "You don't need to pick the herbs to get out of the illusion. The illusion is formed by people's obsessions. If I can break the obsession of the owner of this illusion, I can take all the contestants out of here safely."
Xue Yier was slightly stunned. "This illusion is very realistic everywhere and can even change the seasons. It shows that the obsession of the owner of the illusion is very deep. It's not easy to break it."
Before Yu Nian could speak, Yan Qing in the corner of the room sneered. He stood up, and a strong sense of hostility flashed in his eyes. "You're still as naive as ever. See the killing intent in their eyes? Under this competition, you're undoubtedly the most threatening person. You want to save them, but maybe they're plotting how to kill you."
The room fell silent for a moment. Yu Nian suddenly looked at Yan Qing, his eyes full of scrutiny. "Have we met before?"
The two stared at each other silently for a moment. Suddenly, Yan Qing sneered and walked towards the door without answering.
"Let's wait and see. You can be the good Samaritan. When those useless people kill each other, I'll definitely enjoy the look of regret on your face."