Both of them woke up, and it was already dawn, still some time before the ninth hour.
“Yesterday really scared me!” Meng Jingzhou recalled last night’s experience, still feeling lingering fear.
Lu Yang remained calm: “Familiarize yourself with the rules first, and you won’t be afraid.”
Meng Jingzhou nodded.
The two of them checked the twenty-one rules to ensure there were no memory deviations before feeling relieved.
“What time is it now?”
At this moment, the sound of drums came from outside, and the night watchman shouted loudly while beating the drum, “The ninth hour has arrived!”
The two of them hurried downstairs.
On the first floor, two itinerant merchants were angrily confronting the innkeeper, holding a saddle in their hands. “Yesterday, we left the horses in the stable at the back yard. How come there’s only one saddle left today?”
Lu Yang remembered the huge monster they encountered last night. It might have eaten the horse.
They didn’t hear the horses neighing last night, indicating that the horses didn’t even have a chance to resist. It was truly a terrifying monster.
Ignoring the merchants, the two of them ran out of the inn.
The Immortal Fairy reminded them, “These two merchants have heavy resentment attached to them. They are not ordinary merchants.”
Lu Yang nodded, indicating that he remembered.
The street was filled with the aroma of food. The restaurant opened its doors, and steamy dishes were served, arousing people’s appetites. However, strangely, the restaurant was empty. One steamer basket had a sign on it that read “Meat Buns.”
The commoners in Buyi Town wore brown coarse linen clothes. They had already gotten used to this and took their breakfast, sitting down to eat. They avoided the meat buns.
Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou followed suit, eating three pancakes and a bowl of soy milk, savoring the delicious taste.
Lu Yang noticed that people ate very quickly, some even ate while walking, showing great urgency.
A commotion came from one side of the street, and a group of people hurriedly fled. Those who were eating also abandoned their food and ran away.
“Let’s run too!” Lu Yang grabbed a pancake and started running.
The two of them ran to the other side of the street and turned around to see what had just happened.
A group of people dressed in black clothes, about dozens of them, walked over with knives hanging from their waists.
“Hey, you there!” A person in black clothes called out to someone who was running away. The person instinctively turned his head, and his head directly rotated 360 degrees, hanging loosely on his neck.
The person in black clothes burst into laughter and sat at the entrance of the restaurant, lifting the steamer basket and eating the meat buns, with oil dripping from his mouth.
The person whose head had turned suddenly lifted his head again and twisted it back, returning to normal, as if he had forgotten what had just happened, and slowly left the scene.
“They are the yamen officers. According to the rules, we are not allowed to eat meat buns, but they can. It means that the rules they need to follow are different from ours,” Lu Yang analyzed in a low voice.
“There are many types of breakfast, but all the yamen officers choose to eat meat buns, which means they can only eat meat buns.”
“And according to the rules, we are not allowed to turn our heads. It seems that turning our heads will break our necks!”
The two of them exchanged glances and decided to leave, trying to stay as far away from the yamen officers as possible.
“At the beginning of life, human nature is inherently good. People are similar by nature, but habits make them different…” When they passed by a private school, they heard a clear and mature voice reciting the Three-Character Classic. The voice sounded like a group of adults reciting it.
However, Lu Yang remembered that the rules stated, “The private school has been abandoned for many years, and there are no private school teachers in the town. Only the sound of dogs barking can be heard from the private school, not the sound of reading.”
This was definitely unreasonable.
The two of them quickly walked away but were stopped by a person in gray clothes in front of them. “You two look unfamiliar. Are you from somewhere else?”
[Rule 9: The person wearing a gray robe is a private school teacher. If you encounter a private school teacher, no matter what they say, pretend not to hear.]
[Rule 10: Do not make eye contact with the private school teacher. If you make eye contact, you will turn into a black dog.]
The two of them reacted first, lowered their heads, and walked forward without looking into the private school teacher’s eyes or listening to what he said.
The private school teacher persisted and said beside them, “I see that both of you are dressed unusually, you must have cultivation. Could it be that you also believe in the rules written on the white paper?”
“Not all the rules written on the white paper are true. Some parts are misleading.”
“In fact, the person who arranged these rules didn’t have any malicious intent. He just wanted to protect himself, so he came up with this plan. When he learned that you two had arrived, he specially asked me to help you.”
“I have a way for you to leave the town, but the price is that you will lose your memories of the town.”
“As long as you recite the Three-Character Classic in the private school for three days, you can leave the town! I’m not lying to you. Yesterday, someone already left the town with my help.”
The private school teacher suddenly ran in front of the two of them, bent down, and made eye contact with Lu Yang.
Lu Yang closed his eyes and walked forward. Before closing his eyes, he saw that the lower half of the other person’s face had no skin, revealing red muscles, which was very creepy.
Seeing that the two of them ignored him and continued walking, the private school teacher had no choice but to give up and shouted from behind them, “This is your only chance to leave the town. You will regret it if you don’t accept my help.”
The Immortal Fairy said in the spiritual space, “Lu Yang, don’t believe his words. Only part of what he said is true.””A part of it?” Lu Yang was somewhat surprised, he had thought that the other party was just bluffing.
“He indeed has a way to let people leave the town, but not in the form of a ‘human’, but as a ‘black dog’. I saw him release several black dogs last night.”
“And before he met you, someone made eye contact with him. After the eye contact, that person suffered from a splitting headache, eyes filled with bloodshot, arms gradually growing black hair, and then walked into the private school.”
A chill ran down Lu Yang’s spine. The private school teacher’s abilities were quite tricky and not easy to deal with.
“Let’s go to the tailor shop.” Lu Yang had some ideas that needed to be verified.
The two of them visited all the tailor shops in the town, but none of them sold black, white, or gray clothes, nor did they have the corresponding fabrics.
While strolling around the town, the two of them encountered a problem: “Where is the ancestral hall?”
According to the rules, the ancestral hall should be safe, but there were monsters in the ancestral hall. Such a contradictory statement, this place must not be simple.
However, after a round of searching, they did not find the location of the ancestral hall.
By this time, it was already late, approaching the hour of Hai, the two of them had to return to the inn.
“Two guests, you have returned safely. Our inn is very safe, you two don’t need to be so nervous, I will protect your safety.” At the entrance of the inn, the smiling waiter greeted the two. The waiter had no whites in his eyes, his pupils were pure black, as if he could see things that ordinary people couldn’t.
The two of them felt their hairs stand on end. This voice was unmistakably the one knocking on the corridor door last night!
It was him last night!
“Waiter, it’s not time yet, go back to your room!” The innkeeper drove the waiter away.
The waiter stared at the innkeeper for a long time before he reluctantly left.
Lu Yang noticed that the waiter went to the third floor, which was the Tian character room.
(End of the chapter)