Ye Tiancheng knew that overthinking was useless and would only lead to annoyance and disrupt his state of mind. Therefore, after making an excuse to comfort the little fox, he decided to stop his own endless thoughts.
Otherwise, if he spoke eloquently and convinced others, but couldn't let go himself, it would be even less convincing.
Moreover, at this juncture, Ye Tiancheng clearly had to make choices that were beneficial to them.
There was nothing that could be done by rushing at this time.
Ye Tiancheng and the little fox discussed trying to make contact again the next day, and after settling the matters concerning Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, they simply rested.
Only by having enough energy could they continue to face what would happen tomorrow.
While Ye Tiancheng and the little fox rested, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were in a different situation.
According to the timeline of Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, they were originally guarding those young people to prevent them from encountering accidents and to save their lives.
However, something unexpected happened later.
Some young people, being truly ignorant, agreed to go to the ruins of the hotel, which they called a haunted house, to play ghost games. In such an unsafe place, this suicidal behavior was simply speechless.
However, no matter how helpless Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were, they couldn't just let it go. Even if they could truly harden their hearts, who knew if those people had any important clues? If they were allowed to meet with misfortune like this, then some clues might never be found by them.
Of course, the greater reason why Nie Chongyang and the others made such a choice was their professional ethics.
For people like them, it was truly difficult to choose not to save someone in such a situation.
Unfortunately, Nie Chongyang, along with Liang Ping and Ding Yijie, went to the ruins of the hotel and returned, but they did not find any trace of those people.
Although they could see some signs of their activities in the ruins, there were no people to be seen.
It was absolutely impossible for them to have left.
On the one hand, it could be determined from the traces, and on the other hand, this was not a normal situation. Once someone acted recklessly, something bad would usually happen, so simply leaving was basically impossible.
Moreover, the villagers here also said that they found unfamiliar, ownerless vehicles on the outskirts of the village, and after cross-referencing and verifying, they confirmed that the probability of the car belonging to those young people was very high, which further indicated that those young people were unlikely to have left.
No matter what the reason, if these young people left the village, they would not have left without their car.
If they stayed in the village, they had nowhere to stay.
The impression those young people left on the villagers the day they arrived was not good.
Therefore, if they wanted to stay in the village, they would definitely encounter some unpleasantness. Given the disposition of those young people, they might choose to settle in this village.
Besides, the villagers were also very enthusiastic in their help.
They had already searched the entire village. Even if those young people had settled in the village, or if they didn't want to meet or interact with other villagers, and chose to find some abandoned empty houses to temporarily shelter in.
Even so, with such a large-scale search by the villagers, it was unlikely that they would not be discovered.
Unless there was another possibility: the villagers here were all problematic.
However, in the eyes of Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, the probability of this possibility was quite low.
At the very least, regarding this aspect, they could only make such a guess, but they had not found any clues or evidence related to this.
Therefore, this point would not be considered for the time being.
Even if there were people with ill intentions among these villagers, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping believed that such people would not be the majority.
Therefore, at this juncture, there was no need to worry too much.
Even if such people existed, at this time, as long as the other party did not want to expose themselves, they would not act against the wind, so there was no need to worry about them first.
Since they knew that the people should not have left, they must still be trapped in those ruins. It was possible that something had already happened, or they might still be alive. Anything was possible.
In short, if they wanted to find the whereabouts of the four missing young people, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping had to go back and search from the beginning.
As for Ding Yijie, they really couldn't take care of him.
So, Ding Yijie was arranged to go to Old Cui's place.
Because Ding Yijie's attitude now was much better than before, and this time Ding Yijie did not actively seek death.
Although Ding Yijie appeared to be somewhat frivolous on the surface, like a young man involved in social issues, after getting along with him, one would find that Ding Yijie was only rebellious in appearance. In reality, he was a sensible person who could listen to advice.
For such a person, Old Cui and the others would not have any conflict with Ding Yijie because of what happened before.
On one hand, Ding Yijie knew that the situation was more severe now, and Nie Chongyang and the others needed to go to more dangerous places to continue searching for his friends, and they couldn't protect him. Therefore, he naturally couldn't drag Nie Chongyang and the others down.
On the other hand, because Old Cui and the others could accept him now, he was not afraid to interact with Old Cui and the others. After all, compared to his other friends, he was much more pleasing to the eyes of the villagers here. At least he was willing to listen and obey, and he hadn't done anything he shouldn't have.
Without Ding Yijie as a burden, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping could naturally act more freely in their subsequent actions.
When Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping returned to the ruins and entered the first floor, they suddenly felt that something was not quite right.
Liang Ping observed the place, which seemed to have undergone no changes, and couldn't help but frown. He said to Nie Chongyang, "Do you feel it? I don't know if it's my imagination, but I feel like this place has undergone some subtle changes."
"I can't quite explain it, but I just feel that this place is different from when we were here before."
Nie Chongyang had this much vigilance.
He also nodded and said with a solemn expression, "I have a vague feeling too. We need to be careful."
Liang Ping thought for a moment and then said to Nie Chongyang, "How about we go to the entrance to take a look?"
Nie Chongyang said, "You mean...?"
Liang Ping said, "No matter what the situation is, we'll know once we go out and take a look. If there are really new changes here, then we might have gone to the right place, and there's a high probability that we won't be able to get out of these ruins."
Based on experience, this was a very likely scenario.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping exchanged a glance and then walked towards the main entrance together.
Logically speaking, this place had not been demolished and rebuilt since the great fire a hundred years ago. The buildings at that time, not to mention the walls, had many wooden doors and windows. Even if the windows had glass, the main doors might not have been spared.
Moreover, even if the doors were durable, during the escape of so many people from the hotel back then, even if there were main doors, they must have been broken or knocked down in the panic.
After that, the ruins of the hotel after the fire had always been plagued by strange occurrences, making people reluctant to speak of them.
Even if people later wanted to demolish this place and build new buildings, it was always unsuccessful, and gradually, no one paid attention to it anymore, and it gradually became desolate.
In this situation, it was even less likely that anyone would spend money and effort to install a main door for these ruins again.
Moreover, it was already known that its original form was a hotel, and a fairly large hotel at that. It was open for business, and the main door was really very large. Only a doorway and a door frame remained, without a door.
No matter who entered such a place, if they wanted to leave, no one could stop them from entering and exiting through such a main door.
If there were no abnormal situations, and there were people inside, even if something really happened, as long as they wanted to escape, they should have run out through the main door. But with the disappearance of people, it could basically be determined that once something happened and they entered an abnormal space, this main door was probably just a decoration.
No matter who it was, standing here, they couldn't get out through that main door.
As Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping gradually walked to the main entrance, just as they were about to step out, their vision blurred, and then the scene in front of them changed.
If they hadn't stopped quickly enough, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping would have both bumped into the wall.
This was still the scene of the ruined building, but Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping were originally on the first floor of the ruined building, but now they appeared on other floors. According to their understanding of this building, they should now be on the third-floor corridor.
Nie Chongyang frowned in confusion and said, "...What is going on?"
As he spoke, he reached out his hand and touched the wall in front of him. The feel was exceptionally real. There was indeed a wall in front of them, and this was not an illusion.
It seemed their guess had come true.
Liang Ping also touched the wall in front of him, then sighed slightly and said, "This time, it's probably not simple."
"No wonder those young people left only traces after sneaking in here, but their people disappeared. If they also encountered such a situation, they might have really been trapped in this ruined building and couldn't find a way out."
Nie Chongyang said, "Being trapped here is still a minor issue. At least there is still hope of being found and brought back by us. But if..."
Liang Ping understood Nie Chongyang's unspoken words.
They were afraid that those young people were not only trapped here, but also experiencing more terrifying things.
After all, those fearless young people were not just here for adventure; they were also playing more dangerous ghost games. If they really attracted something, what resistance could those ordinary people have?
It was likely that by the time they found the people, these young people would already be dead.
No matter how they thought about it, this matter was probably not that simple. Liang Ping felt that there were still some issues, and they lacked some clues to connect everything.
There were still points that did not make sense.