Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 2: The Trial of the Maze City
"I am back."

He pushed open the gate and shouted as usual.

I just looked up and saw that the yard was overgrown with weeds, and I could no longer hear the response in my memory.

The old house looked particularly run-down, the paint on the corners had long since peeled off, and the windows were broken and swaying gently in the wind. He sighed softly and walked in.

The weeds in the yard were already taller than the ankles and made a rustling sound when stepped on.

Xiao Ran walked into the house and looked up to see the spirit tablets of his parents and the spirit tablets of his ancestors.

He took out the incense box from his backpack, took out three incense sticks, lit them and inserted them into the incense burner.

Smoke rose up, and after a simple worship, Xiao Ran began to clean up.

I came back not only to repair my cousin's body, but also to do a simple cleanup of the old house.

After all, it is our old house. I will keep it for the future and maybe I will come back to it in the future.

The weeds in the yard were easy to clean up. Xiao Ran had almost finished cleaning up all the weeds in less than an hour.

There is nothing furnished in the house, it is empty, but there might be mice, so I cleaned it a little more carefully.

Especially the old man's room, there were some miscellaneous items piled up that needed to be sorted out.

There were several boxes of different sizes, which were the belongings that the old man did not take away, but there was nothing valuable inside.

Open a box at random and you will see all kinds of strange knives inside.

Xiao Ran casually took out a razor, gestured with it a few times, and then threw it back into the box.

"No wonder grandpa didn't bring these things with him. If someone saw them, he would at least go to the police station."

After packing up all the boxes, Xiao Ran leaned over under the bed. It was pitch dark and he couldn't see anything clearly.

Thinking that his grandfather might come back to live with him for a few days in the future, Xiao Ran simply swept the room a few times with the broom.

"Bang!" sound.

Xiao Ran looked down and saw that the broom hit something and a wooden box was swept out.

The box is square and looks like it can be picked up in one hand, but it is extremely heavy.

"Whoo~"

Xiao Ran blew away the dust accumulated on it and wiped it a few times, revealing the bright red paint surface underneath.

"Hey! It's a lacquerware."

Xiao Ran looked at the box and felt like he couldn't let it go. He opened the box and saw a piece of red cloth underneath it. After lifting the red cloth, a bronze plate appeared in front of Xiao Ran.

Xiao Ran picked up the bronze medal and held it in his hand to examine it carefully, but he couldn't see what was special about it, and he didn't recognize any of the words on it.

Placed aside, there was also a set of knives wrapped in cotton cloth and various needles and threads in the box.

What surprised Xiao Ran was that there were more than a dozen dark yellow candles.

"Candle……"

Xiao Ran held the candle in his hand. It was heavy and as thick as a corn. He rubbed it with his fingers a few times and smelled a strong hazelnut milk aroma.

"Good stuff." Xiao Ran's eyes lit up.

The candle may look ordinary, but it is a genuine candle made of ghee.

The older this thing is, the better. These candles are useless to others, but to a shoemaker, they are often life-saving things. Obviously, these are tools left over from when the old man was a shoemaker. I don't know why my grandfather didn't take them with him.

I put the things back into the box and stuffed the box into my backpack, planning to take them back with me when I go home. Even if I can't use the things in the box, I still have to take them with me, after all, the box looks quite precious.

"Buzz..."

At this moment, Xiao Ran's cell phone vibrated.

I picked up the phone and it was Uncle Li.

After Xiao Ran pressed the answer button, he heard a hoarse, urging voice coming from the phone.

"Xiao Ran, if you are free, come over now!!" Uncle Li's voice was particularly mysterious, and there was a sense of urgency in his words.

"I'm still in my hometown." Xiao Ran said helplessly.

"Hometown?" Uncle Li was stunned at first, and his tone immediately became disappointed. "Forget it, I can't wait for you. I'll give this order to someone else first. Come back early and I'll arrange it for you."

After saying that, he hung up the phone without waiting for Xiao Ran to speak.

Xiao Ran didn't think there was anything wrong with this. Uncle Li was an old partner (middleman) who mingled in the funeral home. He relied on being well-informed and was able to take on some of the dirty jobs that the funeral home was unwilling to take on, such as corpses that needed to be put together. Although this kind of work was not easy, it was lucrative. If he could not give guarantees to the family members sooner rather than later, the order might fall into the hands of other old partners.

"You're so eager, it must be difficult. Is it a puzzle? Or a plastic surgery? A car accident? A fall from a building? Uncle Li is too unreliable. He doesn't even explain the situation. Isn't this keeping me in suspense?"

Xiao Ran narrowed his eyes and began to feel expectant. He immediately prepared to take a bus home. The price of the order could be negotiated, but this kind of difficult work was really rare nowadays.

Xiao Ran has an extremely fanatical attitude towards corpses, it can even be said that it is a bit pathological. The more difficult it is, the more he likes it, especially those corpses that need to be pieced together bit by bit. The feeling of sewing up every piece of flesh and perfectly restoring the deceased's appearance before death is like stepping into the realm between life and death, an indescribable sense of accomplishment.

If I had to describe it, Xiao Ran felt... at that moment, he was more like a god walking between yin and yang.

Close the gate, lock it, and walk along the village road to the bus stop.

Now that the country's infrastructure is good, there are buses that go directly to the city center on the national highway outside the village. I heard that there will be a subway in two years, which will make things much more convenient.

Just as Xiao Ran was about to walk to the entrance of the village, he saw the village director and his group of people rushing over. After seeing Xiao Ran, someone immediately came up and asked, "Xiao Ran, have you seen these three children?"

As he spoke, he began to gesture with his hands and feet: "About this tall, about eight or nine years old."

Xiao Ran shook his head. He had just come out of the house and indeed didn't see many children.

"Search, keep searching to the east!!"

The village director quickly pointed to the east and asked people to continue looking in the east. When he saw Xiao Ran with a backpack, he shouted to Xiao Ran for some reason, "Xiao Ran, come and look together. There is strength in numbers."

Xiao Ran sighed: "It seems that this order is really not meant for me."

However, even if the village director didn't say anything, Xiao Ran wouldn't just walk away. The corpse was important, but not the most important. Xiao Ran knew which was more important.

The village was not big, and soon everyone searched the entire village, but still could not find the whereabouts of the three children.

The sun gradually set, its long shadows swayed, the villagers' footsteps became more hurried, and an anxious atmosphere spread in everyone's hearts.

At this moment, Xiao Ran suddenly noticed an old man squatting on the ground at the entrance of the village, with his hands clasped in his arms, squinting his eyes and not moving at all. When people walked past the old man, no one noticed the old man's figure, as if the old man himself did not exist.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran hesitated for a moment, but still walked forward and asked, "Uncle, have you seen the three children? Two boys and one girl, about this tall, around eight or nine years old."

The old man raised his head woodenly, a hint of surprise flashing in his turbid eyes, as if he didn't expect Xiao Ran to see him.

After staring at Xiao Ran for a few seconds, he stretched out a finger and pointed towards the woods in the east.

Xiao Ran looked up in the direction of the forest and couldn't help frowning. He was familiar with that place. There was an old house in the forest, which was the charity cemetery of the village in the past.

When I was a child, my grandfather would help people clean up the bodies here, and he would occasionally come here to deliver meals. Could it be that those three children ran into the charity cemetery?

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran thanked the old man and walked towards the woods.

"and many more!"

At this time, the old man called out to Xiao Ran, then lowered his head and hesitated to speak. After a moment, he said in a very low voice: "Be careful."

"Ah? Oh...thank you, sir."

Xiao Ran turned around to look at the old man and wanted to ask a few more questions, but the old man lowered his head and waved his hands. His attitude was very clear and he was unwilling to say more.

Xiao Ran felt strange, but since the old man didn't say anything, he didn't dare to ask. He could only walk over and take a look.

No one noticed Xiao Ran walking into the woods. After waiting for a while, the villagers came back from all around and asked, but still couldn't find any trace of the child.

At this time, the village director looked around and found that Xiao Ran was not there. He frowned and asked, "Where is Xiao Ran? Is he gone?"

Everyone looked at each other, and then someone said, "I think I saw him walking towards the old forest in the east."

"Old Linzi?"

The village director then remembered that there seemed to be an old house over there, and immediately said, "Let's go over there and take a look."

As he said this, he led his men towards the old forest. However, when they arrived at the entrance of the woods, the village director who was walking in front of them suddenly stopped.

"and many more!!"

Then he picked up the flashlight and shone it forward.

I saw a white mist appearing around the forest at some point. It seemed to be pouring out from inside the forest. When I shone the flashlight on it, the original forest was shrouded in mist like an abyss, and I couldn't see anything...

……

"Swish..."

The air is filled with the fresh scent before the rain.

Suddenly, a few drops of rain silently slid down from the treetops, hitting the thick leaves, making a "tick, tick" sound.

Xiao Ran raised his head and looked at the haze above his head: "It's raining?"

"I don't remember rain in the weather forecast?"

Looking ahead at the vast expanse of white fog, the forest in front of him seemed to be different from what he remembered.

I have the impression that this forest is not very big.

Xiao Ran felt uncomfortable, as if a stone was pressing on his chest.

"Go back first!"

Xiao Ran turned around and was about to go back, but just as he turned around, he heard the sound of night watchmen beating behind him, "Dong! Dong! Dong!"

Xiao Ran was startled, and then he felt a chill rising from his spine, and his heart seemed to be grasped by someone. In an instant, a strong sense of strangeness surged through his body, making his limbs become stiff.

Bright red light began to appear in the sight before my eyes, turning my vision into scarlet.

[You have been locked in as a participant in this maze city trial, please follow the following rules]

Tip 1: After completing the main quest, you can leave the village.

Tip 2: Walking around the village more often will bring you unexpected gains.

[The god on duty in this maze is the evil god Xingxie. You can please the god by offering pain and gain temporary special power. The higher the degree of pain, the stronger the power you gain! ]

(End of this chapter)