Chapter 29.2: The Promised Land
The village was not big, and most of the houses were made of wooden structures. At first glance, they looked very shabby. When you walked into the houses, you would find that it was decorated with various beautiful wooden ornaments, some of which were decorated with colorful and exotic feathers.
Lin Banxia and Alexei entered the nearest room and checked around the room but found nothing.
“Where do you think they all went?” Alexei said, “There is no one here. Could it be that they were attacked by some large wild animal?”
Lin Banxia said: “What wild animals can block electronic signals?”
Alexei said: “That’s right.” He was not keen on things like searches. He rummaged around for a while, lazily found a soft stool, and sat down, before he took out his black leather notebook and started taking notes. He seemed to be enjoying it, but it wasn’t known what he was writing.
Lin Banxia was still worried about Li Su’s whereabouts, and naturally wanted to collect clues as soon as possible. However, he walked around the house and didn’t see anything, so he wanted to go outside and take a look around again, so he asked Alexei to come with him.
Alexei stood up and said, “Where are you going? There may be bears nearby.”
Lin Banxia joked: “Don’t you often keep bears as pets?”
“It can’t be done now,” Alexei said frankly. “It’s illegal to keep bears now.”
Lin Banxia: “…So you were really keeping them before?”
Alexei: “Yes.”
Lin Banxia: “…” Okay, you guys are awesome.
After coming out of the house, Lin Banxia and Alexei went to several other houses nearby, but found nothing. Each of the rooms was exceptionally clean, and there were no traces of violent entry. It was as if the villagers there all turned into dust overnight and were blown away by the wind. However, Lin Banxia noticed that all the power equipment in the village was still running. Even when Alexei entered a certain room, he was startled by the sound coming from the TV that was on. He patted his chest and said: “Why is the TV still on?”
Lin Banxia said: “Maybe they didn’t shut it off it when they left?”
Alexei said: “Oh, then he’d better not come back, otherwise the electricity bill will make him cry.”
Lin Banxia thought to himself. Little brother, you really have a sense of humor.
Apart from that, they had gained nothing else. Lin Banxia was a little disappointed, but there was nothing he could do. After he went to meet Song Qingluo, Li Ye and the others, he learned that the other people had not found any useful information either.
“Then let’s rest for today.” Song Qing said, “It’s getting dark. It’s not safe to continue investigating.”
Li Ye didn’t speak, he just kept a cigarette in his mouth and smoked silently.
Song Qingluo ignored him, found a house with several bedrooms in the village, divided each bedroom, and mentioned some things to pay attention to at night.
Li Ye said: “No need to give me points, I can’t sleep.”
“Are you planning to continue searching at night?” Song Qingluo said.
“He’s waiting for me.” Li Ye said calmly, not as if he was arguing with Song Qingluo, but the tone of his voice was so unquestionable that it was impossible to say any words of comfort.
“Okay.” Song Qingluo stopped trying to convince Li Ye. He said coldly, “I hope you won’t regret it when Li Su finds out about your decision.”
Li Ye’s green eyes looked deeply at Song Qingluo: “I will be back at dawn.”
Song Qingluo: “I hope so.”
After Li Ye said this, he opened the door and disappeared into the dark night.
“Let’s rest.” Song Qingluo didn’t bother much about Li Ye. As if he was used to it, he turned around and went into the house to rest, leaving Lin Banxia and the rest of the people looking at each other in confusion.
Li Ye left, which meant that there was no translator. Lin Banxia had to say good night to Irina and Sergey in broken English. Fortunately, Alexei could help Lin Banxia communicate with her, making the situation less embarrassing.
***
It was late at night, and there was a deep darkness outside the window, but Alexei didn’t feel sleepy. He lay on the bed for a while, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. Finally, he simply sat up and returned to the living room.
The living room was not big, and there were messy handicrafts everywhere. This seemed to be a common problem in this village, everyone’s homes were full of them.
Alexei grabbed a few random things and looked at them. He didn’t see any clues, so he threw them aside. There was no signal on the phone at this time. He was really bored, found the remote control on the sofa, and turned on the TV that had been turned off during the day.
The TV screen flickered a few times, and a picture popped up. Alexei sat on the sofa and watched for a while. He looked at the people coming and going on the screen and felt that this melodrama was really boring. He picked up the remote control and wanted to change a few channels. Who knew that when he pressed other channels, the TV was full of snowflakes, and only this channel was still playing late-night programs.
Ah, this is so boring, Alexei thought. Does anyone really watch such a show? Why hasn’t the program group closed down yet? However, Alexei really had no choice, so he continued watching out of boredom.
Spring nights were supposed to be noisy, with chirping insects and croaking frogs. There were always such sounds in nature. However, at this time, the wilderness was as quiet as if someone has pressed the mute button. Except for the noise of the TV playing in the house, nothing could be heard.
Alexei felt a little uneasy while watching the TV series. This uneasiness came very suddenly, as if his sensitive intuition discovered something strange before his reason did. He took a look at the program on TV. It was still the same boring sitcom that happened to show the father quarreling with his rebellious daughter. There was nothing wrong with the picture in front of him, but Alexei felt unexpectedly uncomfortable. He didn’t know why he felt like this, so he just hurriedly pressed the power off button, returning the TV screen to darkness.
The TV went silent, and the room fell silent for a moment.
Although Alexei was still not sleepy, he decided to go to bed and lie down. He stood up and hurriedly walked towards the bedroom. When passing by the dining room, he accidentally saw a family photo placed on the TV. There were five people in the family photo, all smiling brightly. It was supposed to be a heart-warming photo. However, when Alexei saw the faces in the family portrait clearly, he felt as if someone had poured a basin of ice water on his head. He knew everyone in the family portrait. It was exactly the actors as in the scene that was played on TV just now. Goosebumps appeared all over his body almost instantly. Alexei would not be stupid enough to think that he happened to encounter the show they were performing.
He licked his lips heavily, rushed into the next bedroom, and woke up the sleepy Lin Banxia.
Lin Banxia opened his eyes blankly and saw Alexei’s pale face. He immediately realized that something happened and said, “What happened?”
“I seem to have found a villager.” Alexei said, “Do you… want to come and take a look?”
The answer to this question seemed to be unnecessary. Lin Banxia immediately followed Alexei to the living room, but when the two of them turned on the TV, the program inside was gone, leaving only endless white snowflakes.
“I really saw it; it wasn’t a hallucination.” Alexei was a little anxious, fearing that Lin Banxia would think he had seen it wrong.
Lin Banxia patted him on the shoulder and said, “I believe you.”
“Then what should we do now?” Alexei said, “Why did they appear on TV?”
Naturally, Lin Banxia couldn’t answer. After thinking about it, he simply walked to the TV and checked it carefully. It might have been better not to look at it. After a quick look, he could see some clues. He saw a black liquid overflowing from the cracks of this old TV. At first glance, it looked like asphalt used for sealing, but if you poked it gently with a hard object, you would find that it was soft.
“What is this?” Alexei swallowed, “Is this… a part of the TV?”
Lin Banxia felt that this was obviously not a part of the TV. He even had a guess about this liquid. He glanced at Alexei and whispered: “Go and get Song Qingluo… the monitor I was with.”
Alexei said yes, turned around and ran to the bedroom to find Song Qingluo.
Lin Banxia went to find a handy tool next to his luggage, then returned to the TV and carefully took apart the old TV case bit by bit. Song Qingluo arrived very quickly. When he arrived, Lin Banxia had just removed the shell and revealed the contents inside.
Lin Banxia’s expression froze for a moment when he opened the TV case. He saw the electronic accessories inside and a muddy black liquid attached to the components.
“What is this?” Lin Banxia asked softly, as if he was asking Song Qingluo, but also as if he was asking himself.
Song Qingluo looked down at the black liquid inside, picked up a tool, and lightly touched the surface of the liquid.
An incomprehensible scene happened. The black liquid started to scream. Yes, scream. Above the liquid, several black mouths that looked like a human’s were formed, and they let out shrill screams like night owls. There were both men and women in the screams. Alexei almost shuddered violently the moment he heard the sound. His eyes widened and he took a few steps back, almost falling to the ground. After he calmed down, he looked at Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia, only to find that the faces of these two monitors, who had come from afar, did not show any fluctuation.
Even the one named Lin Banxia gently poked the liquid with a tool and said in shock: “Could this be…?”
Song Qingluo said: “That should be it.”
Lin Banxia was silent.
He still remembered that in the video sent by Li Ye, the woman suddenly melted. She seemed to have turned into a pool of black liquid, but it did not remain on the ground, and instead completely integrated into the ground. Relating to the TV program and family photos Alexei saw just now… Could it be that these things in front of him were… Lin Banxia thought of this and pursed his lips slightly: “Then what should we do with these…?” He originally wanted to say ‘people’, however, the object of this form in front of him was beyond the scope of a human being.
However, before Song Qingluo could give an answer, this black sludge-like thing began to slide down the TV, fell to the ground, and then merged into the ground through the gaps in the floor. This process happened extremely quickly, and within a few breaths, it had disappeared without a trace.
The room was quiet, and Lin Banxia froze in place until Song Qingluo softly said: “Go to sleep first.”
Lin Banxia said: “What should I do with this TV?”
Song Qingluo said: “Just leave it there, don’t look at it.” He glanced at Alexei.
Alexei understood Song Qingluo’s words and nodded hurriedly.
So, the three of them went back to their rooms. Lin Banxia fell into bed and slept, but Alexei tossed and turned and didn’t sleep much all night. It wasn’t until dawn the next day that he got up from the bed with two purple circles under his eyes.
The others had already started eating, and Li Ye, who went out last night, also returned safely. They did not touch the water and food in the investigated area but chose to eat the dry food they brought with them.
When Lin Banxia saw Alexei waking up, he greeted him with a smile. There was no trace of gloom on his face, as if everything that happened last night was Alexei’s hallucination.
Alexei smiled a little reluctantly. He knew that the monitors were all a group of freaks, and there was always something abnormal about them to deserve this name. When he first saw Lin Banxia, he was still muttering in his heart. How did this young man with a handsome face and gentle temperament become a monitor? Now, he had the answer to his question. Sure enough, none of the monitors were normal. people.
Alexei ate something casually and heard Li Ye talking about the information he got last night.
Li Ye went out and roughly figured out the surrounding environment. What was different from the map was that there was an unmarked swamp in the southeast of the village.
Swamps were actually very common on the West Siberian Plains. It was cold there in the prehistoric ages, and the permafrost was deep. Although there was little rain, if there was any precipitation it would be difficult for water to penetrate the deep layers through the solid permafrost, so swamps were formed everywhere.
Nevertheless, according to the official map, there was no swamp next to the village, so the existence of the swamp was abnormal.
“It was too late, so I didn’t enter the swamp to take a closer look.” Li Ye said, “But there are indeed traces of bears around here. Try to be careful.”
Song Qingluo briefly told everyone what happened last night and waited for Li Ye to continue. He knew that if he learned nothing, Li Ye would not come back.
“We have to go through that swamp.” Sure enough, Li Ye said surprisingly, “I found clues about the previous team in front of the swamp.”
Lin Banxia said: “What is it?”
Li Ye took out something from his backpack and placed it in front of everyone – it turned out to be a human skull. They couldn’t tell what had eaten away the skin and flesh, leaving only the white bones. The empty black sockets stared blankly at the five people in front of it, and a silence spread among everyone.
Sergey, who didn’t speak Chinese, whispered something. Li Ye looked at him expressionlessly, and he immediately stopped talking.
Lin Banxia, who was still holding the compressed biscuit in his hand, took a bite, and said politely: “Can you let us finish the meal and then take this out.”
Li Ye said: “Okay.” He actually took it back.
Unfortunately, even after taking it back, no one wanted to eat anymore except for Lin Banxia. Song Qingluo held up his chin and asked Li Ye if he could consider the tolerance of the masses, so that everyone could eat.
Li Ye looked away, but his expression was obviously very dissatisfied. Even Lin Banxia seemed to be able to read the sentence in his heart: That’s it?
The author has something to say:
Alexei: How are you not afraid?
Lin Banxia: The best way to defeat fear is to face it.
Alexei: Got it!
Three months later, Lin Banxia: Ahhhhhhhh! Song Qingluo help me, there seems to be something strange in our TV set.
Song Qingluo:…How do you teach others?
Translator’s comments:
Hey guys, I’m the translator for this novel. If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer everything. If you notice any inconsistencies or errors, drop a comment and I will fix it. Thanks so much for reading Phantom Skeleton Painting, I hope that everyone enjoys the novel. If you are interested in fluffy BL novels, consider giving the other novels that I am translating a try. They are ‘I’m Really a Dragon’ and ‘The Leader’s Warpet Hamster’. New chapters released everyday.
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