doll city

Chapter 50 Paper Doll Alley (2)

"Do you guys think that this hunting ground... is quite hellish?"

The headlights of the Maoxiong bus disappeared into the corner of the street. In the cold wind, the seven people who participated in the hunt looked at the gloomy alley and fell silent.

In Ciling, they have seen many hunting grounds, but this is the first time for such an underworld.

The people of M82 had already made preparations. He Ming shook out a hand-drawn map and sent one: "Although it has been moved forward for a week, the layout of the Paper Doll Alley may be different, but generally speaking, it should not be the same. There are too many changes."

Yan Ge took the map, and the whole Paper Man Alley was roughly in the shape of a Chinese character, the aisle was narrow, and could only accommodate one car in a single row, and the left and right sides were crowded with small shops. In the center of the Chinese character, there was a three-story wooden tower building. , which seems to be the pagoda where the ashes were enshrined in the past, is now abandoned.

Standing on the periphery and looking over, there are several non-staple food and tobacco restaurants with pale lights, breakfast shops, and a butcher shop that emits a stench.Further inside, there is no light at all, and we can only see rows of lifeless shops selling paper wreaths and paper money by relying on the thin skylight.

The information provided by Dai Chengze is very reliable, because there is a cemetery nearby, and the paper man alley survives only by serving customers who go to the grave.

"Let me first talk about the information we have collected here." It is rare that the teammates seem to be more reliable this time, Yan Ge took the initiative to share the information, "There are more than a dozen funeral supplies shops, including 'Zhizhawu' Ji' is a time-honored brand on Changge Street, which is consistent with previous information, and the hunting ground should be in the three-story building of Wuji Shop."

"Wuji seems to be in decline now, but when it was prosperous, it used to be the main supplier of ceremonies such as Ciling's "God of Wandering" or "God of Porcelain Sacrifice". Their most famous thing is not these paper wreaths, but 'Paper figurines' range from the heavenly soldiers and generals to the eighteen Yamas, and there is no paper figurine that Wu Ji can't make... This is the origin of the name 'Paper Doll Alley'."

Experienced hunters quickly captured the key words in this piece of information: antiques, handicrafts, human figures.

This is almost the most difficult element they can handle.

In the handicraft level, all things that resemble human figures must be extra careful, otherwise they don't even know how they died.

He Ming muttered, "The preparations are quite comprehensive", and then continued: "According to the information we collected, there is a taboo in this Paper Man Alley, that is, you can't see 'open flames' after the start."

"why?"

"I have to ask Mr. Li." He Ming looked at Li Ya, "Mr. Li, do you still remember how those people died last time?"

"Of course, they tried to set a fire in it, and then—" Li Ya blew into his palm, "They became as flammable as paper dolls, and there was no ash left after burning, so , You'd better throw away the lighters, igniters, fire pockets and the like."

As soon as he said it, many people seemed to be caught. Although they were reluctant, they took out all the ignition items in the bag and threw them aside.

"Anything else to add?"

"Also, at the beginning of the 'Wandering Gods', close your eyes, line up in a row, walk on the shoulders of the people in front, and don't look at those 'Gods'."

After he finished speaking, the street lights suddenly flickered and went out one by one, and the light tubes in the surrounding small shops also dimmed.

No one dared to speak out, they stood together tacitly, someone looked back and said in a low voice:

"The exit is gone."

With the faint light, they saw the place they had just entered behind them. At this moment, an old ancestral hall appeared silently. It's so tight that it doesn't fit in with the surroundings.

"The whole alley, and that ancestral hall, are the hunting grounds for this time."

"So can we explore now?"

"No, we have to wait."

"Wait for what?"

Yan Ge suddenly hissed, his eyes passed through the dark alley, and looked to the side of the "Hui" shaped alley behind him.

He didn't need to explain, everyone heard the "rustling" sound of paper scraping from the walls and floor tiles in the dark part of the alley.

A cold spiritual radiation penetrated the darkness and gradually filled the entire Paper Man Alley.

"Did you play 'drive the train' when you were in elementary school?" Li Ya adjusted his sunglasses and pointed to his shoulder, "Hold the shoulder of the person in front of you, lower your head and look at your feet, and follow without making a sound."

"But that's a handmade living doll..." Someone uttered fearfully, but quickly shut up again.

Usually, when encountering manual-level dolls, a second-level powerhouse is needed to deal with them. It is common sense for first-level people to escape.But the living puppets in the hunting ground were all kinds of strange things, and they also chose to escape under that kind of impulse, but they were the first to die.

Everyone lined up, let Li Ya be the first guide, and the rest waited with their heads down.

"I'll say it one last time, don't look at the faces of those paper figurines."

About 2 minutes later, the "rustling" sound of paper scraping the ground was approaching, and a cold air flow seemed to be alive, drilling into people's collars and cuffs, but everyone felt it at the same time. When it reaches the throat, it sends out a signal of thirst.

It was as if the moisture in the air had been taken out by half.

Yan Ge lowered his head and looked at his toes. The sudden thirst made him lick his lips, and then his eyes turned to his feet.

What first appeared at the edge of the field of vision was a white lantern with the word "囍" on it, and then behind the lantern, a colorful skirt appeared. The inside of the skirt seemed to be supported by bamboo props, and the edge was on the ground Scratching, then issued a "rustling" sound.

Behind the hem of the skirt, there appeared in turn a little boy holding birthday peaches, a big-bellied arhat holding a cattail leaf fan, and after that, four bearers, carrying a red soft sedan chair, slowly walking from the sweaty The human "floats" past.

"They" are all the same, without feet.

"Don't make a sound." Li Ya whispered, stretched out his hand to grab the air, and then stepped up to follow the red sedan chair at the end of the line.

His pace was very slow, as if he was taking a walk. He stopped every ten meters, grabbed a handful again, and continued on his way.

What is he doing?

When the fingers of the person behind him tightened on the shoulders, Yan Ge and they discovered at the same time that the subtle sounds of their own footsteps, breathing, and other natural body movements disappeared.

Li Ya cut off their voices.

It seems that after doing this, even if they follow behind in such a long line, the paper figurines can't find them.

Yan Ge kept his advice in mind, and did not look at the faces of those paper dolls, nor could he see how his actions had affected the surrounding environment.While secretly guessing, there was a loud cry from behind.

"Where is this? Where is the exit?! Fuck, what the hell is this!"

It was a man's voice, appearing in the night without warning.

Yange’s ears moved, and he found that he could grasp a lot of information in a short sentence—the speaker should be around 30 years old, there may be divorce or debt in life, smoking habits or violence Behavior, just drinking, there are two or more chronic diseases.

And most importantly, he might be a rookie who just came here, and unfortunately he was thrown into the hunting ground.

At this moment, Yan Ge heard a paper figure in the front line of paper figures seemed to have heard the man's cry, turned around, and "swimmed" behind him like a ghost.

"Don't move." Li Ya grabbed the back of Yan Ge's hand.

The dangerous aura exuded by the paper figurine team in front forced Yan Ge to calm down. After a while, after the man fled in the opposite direction, the paper figurine that left the team floated back and joined the end of the team again.

The paper figurine team welcoming the bride moved slowly forward again.

Yan Ge subconsciously glanced at the paper figure that fell at the end of the line, and a drop of cold sweat involuntarily rolled down his back.

...The paper figurine has feet, a pair of paper feet wearing red shoes.

……

About 10 minutes later, Li Ya led the team to stop and go, and after a full circle, they returned to the vicinity of the ancestral hall. At this time, the paper man team stopped and lowered their heads. The spiritual radiation of the entire alley disappeared like fog, standing in the middle of the street as if returning to a dead state.

Li Ya stretched out his hand and snapped his fingers, and the sound of wind and footsteps around him came back again.

"Now you can move around and observe those paper figurines. But it's still the same as before, don't light a fire, and it's best not to use a flashlight."

The team members raised their heads in amazement, first looked around, then hesitated, and tentatively looked at the paper figurine team in front.

"It seems... yes."

They were all skilled people, and they were not that timid. Seeing Li Ya letting go, they approached the paper figurine team vigilantly.

There are more than [-] paper figurines in the team. From front to back, there are dragon and phoenix lanterns, golden boy and jade girl, Hehe Erxian, bed male and bed mother, etc., and the biggest one is the "God of Joy" wearing a heavenly official robe. ".

The information provided by Dai Chengze is very comprehensive, and the gods to be worshiped at the wedding and funeral are also recorded in it. Yan Ge is very sure that this is a team sending off relatives.

However, they have no face.

"It's weird, isn't it said that living puppets can only move if they have eyes? Why do these faceless guys also become living puppets?" Some daring people tried to touch the paper dolls, but after finding that there was no danger, they twisted the paper dolls carefully material, make sure it's really a dead thing.

"It turned into a puppet without eyes... Could it be that these are parts of an orphaned puppet?"

He Ming shook his head: "There should be more than a few of us in the orphan-level hunting grounds."

At least it was a hunting ground with several second-level characters, and it was impossible for them to be the only ones who were still wandering around the first level.

"Hey, the last paper figurine seems to have a face."

The people nearby looked around and found that as expected, the paper figurines in front had blank faces, only the last one should be a paper figurine similar to "Boy holding fruit". The paper on his face is very round, but his face is It is very strange to draw.

"This face is so realistically drawn..." the onlookers muttered.

It was the face of a middle-aged man, depicted in black and white ink, in a rough and rough way, with three white eyes, high cheekbones, heavy tear troughs, and a sinister expression, which was extremely unpleasant.

After everyone studied it carefully, Yan Ge suddenly turned around, and a "ghost of the ancestors floats here" flashed on the other side of the street, picked up a middle-aged man from behind a barbecue stall at a food stall, and dragged him back.

"let me go!"

After realizing that Yan Ge's hand was warm, the man cried out.

"Are you sick? Are you pretending to be a ghost here in the middle of the night? Is it the rubbish of those live broadcasts on the Internet? I have already called the police and told you! You have to compensate me for mental damage!"

"Tsk." The man from M82 became impatient.

That's why they don't like to bring in newcomers. One is that the newcomers don't cooperate, and the other is that they are prone to bad things.

At this moment, as a painter, Xiao Yi, who kept a distance and stretched her head to observe the paper figurine, pointed at the man in surprise.

"Look... is the face of the last puppet exactly the same as his?"

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The author has something to say:

The sacrificial personnel disappeared at the beginning of this chapter, Amen.