Chapter 1 Introduction

“Since we have some time, let’s introduce ourselves. I’ll start. My name is Gao Yanqing, and I'm an animal trainer in real life. I work at an aquarium.” The skinny man sat on the ground, a wound visible on his forehead.

Noticing the fat man staring at his wound, Gao Yanqing didn’t shy away. He proactively brushed aside his bangs, displaying the wound openly. “Injuries are common in our line of work, but I really like this job. I prefer being with animals to being with people. Some people are worse than animals anyway.”

“Zhang Qizheng, I am the curator of a library.” The old man straightened his back, exuding a composed demeanor.

“Li Bai, a surgeon.” Li Bai nodded slightly to everyone.

“Yao Shunyu, hotel front desk.” Yao Shunyu said naturally, following Li Bai.

“Wang Fugui, I’m a truck driver.” The fat man followed Jiang Cheng’s advice, knowing that the more he said, the more mistakes he would make. His self-introduction was as concise as the previous two.

“Jiang Cheng.” Jiang Cheng said very naturally, “I don’t have a fixed job. My most recent job was writing books, online novels. Fortunately, the readers who read my books are supportive, so I can make a living.”

“Tang Qisheng, my profession is rather special. I am a folk customs investigator.” The middle-aged man with a dignified appearance spoke in a muffled voice. “My main task is to gather local customs in various remote areas, then organize them, and finally compile them into books.”

“Zhu Jie, I am a mortician, working in a funeral home. I am responsible for stitching up corpses so that family and friends can see the deceased for the last time. In special cases, I also help corpses that cannot close their eyes to do so.” The woman who came with Tang Qisheng said slowly. The woman looked very serious, with a maturity beyond her age.

Next was a woman around 40 years old. The woman was slightly plump, wearing glasses, giving a comfortable feeling, but what Jiang Cheng and others didn’t expect was the woman’s identity, “You can call me Lu Qin. I am from a rather special organization called the Night Watchmen. Since we can meet here, you must be no ordinary people, so I still want to be frank, which will save a lot of trouble.”

Sure enough, after hearing the words Night Watchmen, several people present changed their expressions, but quickly returned to normal. Jiang Cheng understood that everyone was not intimidated by the words Night Watchmen, but simply couldn't understand why this woman named Lu Qin would be so frank, revealing her identity as a Night Watchman right away.

Jiang Cheng had roughly two guesses. First, Lu Qin was impersonating a Night Watchman, wanting to deter other teammates with ulterior motives, but after thinking about it, Jiang Cheng felt the possibility was very low.

Second, Lu Qin was indeed a Night Watchman, and she was here for his group. Revealing her identity was to create confusion. If this was the case, then there must be her accomplices among the remaining people.

However, there was also something illogical about this. Jiang Cheng thought about it but couldn't come to a conclusion. The task had not officially started yet. No matter how he looked at it, revealing her identity now was too early, and the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.

Lu Qin, who had revealed her identity, still had a calm expression, and her eyes did not particularly scrutinize or warn Jiang Cheng and the others. The fat man became alert immediately after hearing the words Night Watchmen, but after waiting for a long time, nothing happened, which made him very strange.

After Lu Qin, there was only one person left. Everyone subconsciously turned their attention to him. This was a young man, around 25 years old, with ordinary looks, wearing an ill-fitting dark green army coat, loosely draped, but his eyes were very bright, as if he had been waiting for a long time. “It’s my turn, it’s my turn. My name is Shao Tong, I am a Daoist priest. Everyone respects me very much, because I am always victorious in subduing demons and eliminating evil!”

Fat Man: “???”

Hearing these words, Jiang Cheng and his group were a little confused, but looking at the expressions of Zhang Qizheng and the others, they had obviously been shocked by Shao Tong once before, so this time they were not surprised.

Noticing that the other party was staring straight at him, Li Bai couldn't figure out the other party's intention, so he had to bite the bullet and perfunctorily say: "Mr. Shao, what a good skill, subduing demons and eliminating evil, I hope with you here, everything will go smoothly this time."

"Amitabha, good, good." Shao Tong put his hands together after receiving the response, his face full of piety.

Fat Man: “???”

Everyone: "..."

In the midst of awkwardness, everyone ended the conversation. In order to cope with the situation, everyone found a place to rest. Fortunately, this room was not small and could accommodate all 10 of them.

Leaning against the haystack, listening to the occasional sharp sound of the wind blowing through the cracks in the wooden boards outside, the fat man became more and more uneasy. He and Jiang Cheng were in the same corner, which was quite hidden with the haystacks blocking them.

The fat man put his face close to Jiang Cheng's ear, "Are you asleep?"

His voice was very, very small, and with the wind outside as cover, it was almost negligible.

Jiang Cheng opened his eyes and glanced at the fat man, "Don't overthink it. Hurry up and rest. It will be difficult to rest after dawn."

The fat man looked bitter, "I know, but I can't sleep no matter what. Why don't you talk to me? To tell you the truth, my heart is pounding, and my right eyelid is twitching badly."

Speaking of this, the fat man glanced outside and lowered his voice even more, "I feel like these people are not quite right. Listen to their self-introductions, especially that Shao Tong, a Daoist priest, Amitabha, he seems to have a problem here." The fat man pointed to his head.

Jiang Cheng didn't take it seriously, but still patiently explained to the fat man: "Those who can survive until now are not simple characters. The only meaning of introducing ourselves is to give us a bridge to communicate, which is a good start. As for the content, we didn't tell the truth, and neither will they, but there are very strong techniques involved."

"Take Gao Yanqing as an example. He said that he is an animal trainer and works in an aquarium, but I don't think so. People who are in contact with water all year round won't have skin like his, and the wound on his face is also strange. I can't think of what animal would leave such scratch marks. He should have been scratched by someone."

"People?" The fat man recalled the scars on Gao Yanqing's face. The scars were very obvious and deep, scratched by sharp claws, which didn't seem like something a person could do.

Seeing that the fat man was still not enlightened, Jiang Cheng took a breath and mouthed a word.

The fat man's face changed the moment he understood, because the word Jiang Cheng said was 'ghost'.

This was a very strange feeling. At the same time that Jiang Cheng said the word, something seemed to flash through the fat man's mind, making him almost immediately sure that this was right, what really hurt Gao Yanqing was a ghost!

Following this line of thought, a very terrible guess emerged, Gao Yanqing's injury... when exactly was it caused?

Was it before entering this world?

Or after entering this world?

If it was the former, that would be fine, but if it was the latter... the fat man's heart skipped a beat, then this matter would be troublesome. This at least showed that Gao Yanqing had encountered a ghost, but he not only survived, but also didn't mention it at all.

Why?

What was he afraid of?

Also, did Zhang Qizheng and the others know about this?

The fat man didn't expect that soon after entering this world, without even figuring out what exactly happened in this world, he would encounter such a thorny situation.

"Don't think too much, hurry up and rest, we will figure it out." Jiang Cheng reached out and patted the fat man's shoulder, then continued to lean against the wall and closed his eyes.

Seeing Jiang Cheng like this, the fat man simply stopped thinking about it, steeled his heart, and leaned against the haystack. After an unknown amount of time, he actually fell asleep, and had a series of strange dreams.

In the dream, he was sometimes chased by ghosts, and sometimes fell into an endless abyss. In short, it was better not to sleep this night. When he woke up, he felt sore all over, as if he had been beaten hard.

At this time, his side was empty, the doctor was gone, and the room was empty.

The fat man's heart was in his throat. Light came in through the gaps between the wooden boards. It was already dawn outside, which gave him a little confidence. He slowly groped towards the door. The door was ajar, and sounds gradually came in.

Someone was talking, outside the door.

After confirming that he heard Jiang Cheng's voice, the fat man carefully pushed open the door. Outside, everyone was sitting together, talking intensely about something, and the atmosphere seemed wrong.

"Brother Fugui, you're awake."

Yao Shunyu was facing the door and was the first to notice the fat man poking his head out furtively.

Inviting the fat man to come over and sit down, Jiang Cheng handed him a water bag and also stuffed him two hard-baked cakes. The fat man didn't feel anything at first, but the next second, he realized, where did these things come from?

Seeing the fat man's doubts, Yao Shunyu explained: "When you were sleeping just now, someone came, people from this world. They claimed to be the soldiers guarding the city. Their clothes and dress are just like the straw men we saw last night. They told us people who took the notice to pack up and go find them later. These food and water were also brought by them."

"Took the notice?" The fat man asked in surprise, "What notice?"

"Still don't know, but it's just a step to advance the plot, the purpose is to let us get familiar with our identity in this world as soon as possible." Zhang Qizheng lowered his voice and said, "Compared with this matter, the matter I just said is even more surprising."

"That's right, this is indeed very strange." Zhu Jie said, her brows were furrowed tightly, and her eyebrows were full of tension, "Our vigilance shouldn't be so poor."

The fat man couldn't help but interject, "You... what are you talking about? Please tell me again, okay?"

"How did you sleep last night?" Jiang Cheng turned to look at the fat man.

The fat man nodded embarrassedly, "Very good, I thought I would have insomnia when I first came to this world, but I didn't expect to actually fall asleep, and I slept until just now, I didn't even know you guys came out, it's just that the dreams were very strange." The fat man said the last sentence a little nervously.

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng was silent for a long time, and said very seriously to the fat man: "Actually, it's not just you, all of us fell asleep. We were all woken up today, by those soldiers who had already walked into the door and came to us."

The fat man was stunned, and then asked back: "How could this happen, didn't we leave someone on guard?"

Hearing this sentence, Li Bai and Lu Qin were a little unnatural. Finally, Li Bai spoke: "This time should have been my and Lu Qin's watch, we two were chatting in a low voice at the beginning, but I don't know why, we actually fell asleep, we two have no consciousness at all, and can't recall exactly what happened."

"In short, those soldiers were already standing in front of us when we woke up."

Lu Qin added: "The strangeness of this matter lies here, Li Bai and I are two people, if only one person accidentally fell asleep, the other person would definitely wake her up, but there was not, we don't even have this aspect of memory, so I think we two should have fallen asleep at the same time."

"This is not in line with common sense, we should have been affected by some kind of force."

"Also, I think you all won't completely trust two strange teammates to keep watch, so there must be quite a few of you secretly observing, but the final result is that everyone fell asleep."

They were all old hands, so Lu Qin didn't beat around the bush.

At this time, Tang Qisheng, who rarely spoke, slowly opened his mouth, his voice was magnetic, giving people a deep feeling, "I said... could it be like this, I mean if, the straw men soldiers we saw last night, and the soldiers who came to us this morning, could the two be... the same group?"

Hearing Tang Qisheng's words, everyone's faces changed slightly, this guess was too terrifying, could it be that the standing straw men could actually come alive?

And even came to them this morning?

"If this guess is true, then perhaps this is the rule inside this city, there are no living people inside this city, or in other words, there are none at a certain time, at night all the people will exist in the form of straw men, and when dawn comes, these straw men will all come alive again, and the moment of the transition between yin and yang is the moment we fall asleep."

"This is a mandatory rule." Tang Qisheng finally added.

"This is just a guess, we still need to observe the specifics, but what is certain is that there is something very strange about the night in this place, and the feeling it gives me is not entirely because of those things." Zhang Qizheng said thoughtfully.

After eating, the group walked outside, walking in the direction the soldiers said, the more they walked, the more familiar they felt, "Isn't this the direction we came from last night?" the fat man asked in a low voice.

"That's right, we walked along this street last night." Li Bai nodded.

But at this time, this street was no longer the gloomy scene of last night, although there were not many people, but...

Everyone keenly realized that these passersby were all in a hurry, with a preoccupied look, as if they were worried about something, a feeling of fear permeated, making people uneasy.

Jiang Cheng reached out and stopped a mother and son. The mother looked no more than 30 years old, but considering this era, the woman's real age might be only 20 years old, and she was holding a 4 or 5-year-old child in her hand. The mother and son were walking in a hurry, as if they were going to flee.

"Don't stop us anymore, we don't want to live in the city anymore, something happened again last night, this time... this time it was the Wu shopkeeper's family at the Fu'an Inn!" The woman seemed to have mistaken them for someone else, and roared at Jiang Cheng and the others with red eyes.