A Land Rover and a Hummer.
At six o'clock, the engines started up and rolled forward.
Inside the cars, the atmosphere was tense.
Leo Liu was now driving the Hummer, while Harvey Chen sat in the back seat, his face dark and his right shoulder covered in blood. He looked a bit pale.
The cars continued on their way.
By six o'clock, the road ahead opened up wide.
After winding through twists and turns, the two vehicles finally spotted a small mountain village not far ahead.
What met their eyes were rows of mud-brick houses, the kind slapped together with earth. No matter how you looked at them, they seemed ready to collapse at any moment.
At the front of the village stood a bulletin board, still plastered with production slogans from decades ago.
One slogan, painted in red, read: 'If you want to be rich, have fewer children and plant more trees.'
Above, a few wooden signs were nailed together, crookedly spelling out 'Oxhorn Village.'
The handwriting was wobbly and weird, like ants crawling across the wood. The sign itself was old and weathered, clearly having seen many years.
Both vehicles parked at the entrance to the village.
Inside the village, a few kids in ragged clothes, faces smeared with dust, clung to the mud walls, snotty and dirty, staring curiously at these sudden steel beasts.
Not far from the gate sat an old man missing an arm, puffing on a long pipe. His hair was white, bones jutting out, looking like a skeleton on his last legs, as if he could die at any moment.
Seeing these outsiders, the old man's face stayed wooden, completely expressionless.
The car doors opened.
Leo Liu and the others got out, their faces looking rather grim.
But Bella Xiao stayed as calm as ever, glancing around with a laid-back air.
She carried her DSLR, walked up to the five kids nearby, dug in her pocket, and took out five chocolates to hand to them.
The five kids looked at Bella Xiao, a little timid.
Bella smiled gently, her face soft and kind. Soon, one kid gathered his courage, took a chocolate from her hand, tore off the wrapper, and stared curiously at the dark treat. He tried a bite—it was sweet, his eyes lit up, and he wolfed down the whole thing.
Once the first kid went for it, the rest jumped in right after.
They snatched up all the chocolates from Bella's hand, unwrapped them, and popped them into their mouths, faces full of delight.
Click.
Bella raised her DSLR and snapped a shot of the scene.
The five kids munched happily on their chocolate, grinning from ear to ear.
"We'll stay here tonight. Unless there's a real reason, no one goes out after dark. And most important, we stick together—no one goes missing." Zane Wang walked over, face cold and eyes alert.
"Hey, old man, is there a hotel in this place?" Leo Liu walked over to the old man sitting by the wall, the missing arm making him look a bit creepy.
"No hotel. If you want to stay, go to the Charity Mortuary at the west end." The old man spoke woodenly, lifted his head, and gave Leo Liu a dry, chilly smile. His eyes were cold, making Leo Liu jump and mutter, "Freak."
"He says there's no hotel here, wants us to spend the night at the mortuary. What kind of crap is that?" Leo Liu grumbled as he walked back.
The whole village wasn't very big—maybe a hundred households at most. And just one look showed plenty of houses with their doors removed, clearly abandoned for ages.
"They told us before we came: Oxhorn Village is the only place to stay in Jingnan Mountain. After eight p.m., you need to find shelter—don't stay outside." Chen Huaiyuan stepped up, glancing at Bella Xiao still busy snapping photos, and frowned slightly.
"Fine, mortuary it is. Let's go check it out first. If it doesn't work, we'll just find an empty house and camp there."
Zane Wang made the call. They unloaded their luggage from the cars, slung it over their backs, and headed into the village.
As they walked, Bella Xiao kept snapping photos with her DSLR.
Claire Liang glanced at the rundown houses along the road, her heart pounding.
In front of every house, a redwood coffin sat by the main door—and beside nearly every coffin, an elderly person on their last legs.
The elders' eyes were wooden and lifeless, coldly watching Leo Liu and the group.
"Why does this feel so off? Everyone's guarding their own coffin? Afraid someone might steal it or something?" Claire Liang took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves.
They'd expected Oxhorn Village to be weird, but not this creepy.
"Maybe it's some kind of local custom," Leo Liu said, sounding unsure. He hurried ahead, and soon the group reached the Charity Mortuary at the west end of the village. When they pushed open the door, they saw eight coffins neatly arranged in the courtyard, forming the shape of the Big Dipper—a ladle pattern.
"What the hell is this?" Liu Bai couldn't help cursing. Zane Wang shook his head and signaled him to be quiet, then led the way into the main hall.
......
"So this is the Oxhorn Village marked on the map?"
Evan Lin stood outside the village, gazing at it from afar. He frowned slightly and walked in.
The village was almost empty and dead quiet. Outside, two cars that totally didn't fit the place were parked. A faded slogan on a nearby sign, painted in red, read: 'If you want to be rich, have fewer children and plant more trees.'
Above, a few wooden signs were nailed together, crookedly spelling out 'Oxhorn Village.'
As soon as Evan stepped inside, his eyes swept the area and spotted five kids standing not far away.
The five kids stared at Evan warily, eyes full of both fear and greedy hunger.
Not far off, the one-armed old man sat by the wall. When he saw Evan enter, he puffed on his pipe and stared woodenly in Evan's direction.
"Using your own arm bone as a pipe—now that's some refined taste," Evan remarked as he walked past. The old man's eyes darkened, but he said nothing, just kept puffing on his silver-white pipe.
"Master, this place feels really strange."
"Yeah, super weird."
"Seriously, it's just... weird."
The Three Maiden Spirits circled Evan, baring their fangs at the elders watching from the doorways, looking fierce and menacing.
Some of the elders, seeing this, suddenly looked terrified, leapt up with surprising agility, flipped open their coffin lids, and dove inside.
Their quick movements were nothing like frail old folks—more like young people.
Every house had an old person and a redwood coffin.
Some elders stood at the window, only their pale faces visible, staring coldly in Evan's direction.
Their eyes looked like they wanted to eat him alive.
Inside the mortuary, Bella Xiao checked the photo she took of the five kids when they first arrived. But in the photo, they weren't kids at all—they were five men in their twenties or thirties.
Their faces were blank, holding chocolate in their hands, mouths hanging open and drooling blood, looking utterly terrifying.
Bella's expression didn't change. She just deleted the photo on the spot.