I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

The three sat down around the stone table, and none of them spoke.

The flame of the eternal candle burned quietly, and the wax body gradually shrunk.

Zhao Weilai looked at the candlelight and said softly, "I wonder if the two of them will be able to succeed."

"We definitely can." Deng Ziwen held her hand; her hand was icy cold. "Two people together is always better than one person alone."

That's what he said, but he wasn't really sure himself.

Liu Guilan walked alone and almost didn't come back.

Ding Feifan remained silent.

He leaned against the pavilion pillar, repeatedly pondering Weng Yang's words, "Be careful of the candles," and Liu Guilan's words, "Hurry up and leave."

Be careful with the candles...

Why be careful with candles? Candles are supposed to protect them.

Could it be... that the candle will go out?

Or is the candle itself the bait?

He looked up at the lake.

Under the thick fog, the lake water was dark and murky, like a block of solidified ink.

The water was very calm, without even a ripple.

But the calmer it was, the more uneasy it made people feel.

"etc."

Zhao Weilai frowned deeply: "...Weng Yang told us to be careful with the candles—could it be that the candles are very important?"

What if the last person takes the candle, and then the last burning candle used to start the fire goes out?

……

……

Song Mo, who was watching the scene unfold, nodded approvingly.

……

……

Upon hearing Zhao Weilai's reminder, the remaining two simultaneously considered the same possibility:

The quest hint is: [It will follow you. Shh, don't turn around. Be careful, be careful of the candle in your hand.]

What if this wasn't a single sentence, but rather two separate task prompts?

The first sentence instructs participants not to look back.

The second sentence: Be careful with the candle.

If your candle goes out while you're walking around the lake, you'll be punished...

Correspondingly, the candles in the pavilion in the middle of the lake are extinguished—what will happen to them?

The remaining two recalled the strange events they encountered when they entered the dungeon yesterday, and a fine layer of white sweat involuntarily rose up on their backs.

"If the candles in the pavilion go out..."

"Don't you guys think," Ding Feifan suddenly spoke, his voice a little hoarse, "that this mission was a trap from the very beginning?"

Deng Ziwen and Zhao Weilai looked at him at the same time.

"What do you mean?"

"It says, 'Hold a candle and walk around the lake once, without looking back, and the candle must not go out,' which makes us all feel that the person walking around the lake is the most dangerous."

Ding Feifan speculated, "If, in reality, the person holding the candle is safe..."

"As long as the candle doesn't go out, there's no danger to life, but without a candle—the real danger is for those left in the pavilion without a candle?"

Zhao Weilai suddenly stood up:

"Weng Yang rushed back then to warn us?"

"Yes." Ding Feifan nodded. "She may have discovered something, which is why she ran back so desperately."

Before leaving, Aunt Liu said, "Hurry up and go"—could she have been trying to warn us that the pavilion wasn't safe and we shouldn't stay there?

Deng Ziwen's expression also changed: "What do we do now? Let's go!"

"We can't leave."

Ding Feifan sighed and spread his hands to show the two people the thick fog behind them:

"I just noticed that the fog is getting thicker and thicker... The most dangerous thing is that we go into the fog without candles."

So all we can do is wait, wait for Fu Qinqin and Tan Moli to come back.

"But what if neither of them comes back?"

Deng Ziwen, his face pale, asked a question.

As soon as the words were spoken, the pavilion fell into a deathly silence.

……

……

Time passed second by second.

Ding Feifan raised his hand to check his watch; Fu Qinqin and Tan Moli had been gone for forty-three minutes.

Based on Weng Yang's pace of 40 minutes and Liu Guilan's pace of 47 minutes—even if the two of them walk very slowly, they should be back by now.

But there was still no movement in the fog.

There wasn't a sound, not even footsteps, let alone people.

"Why aren't you back yet?"

Zhao Weilai couldn't sit still any longer. He stood up, walked to the pavilion entrance, and looked into the mist.

But it was all white, and you couldn't see anything.

The fishy stench grew stronger and stronger, several times more intense than before.

The sultry, humid air was so thick that inhaling it made one's chest feel tight.

"If they had understood the importance of the candles earlier, they should have sent someone else."

Deng Ziwen stood up, gripping the mop handle tightly. "Have you noticed... the stench in the air is getting stronger and stronger?"

The three of them looked at the ever-burning candle on the stone table.

There were far fewer candles now, and the short candles stood on the stone table, their flames smaller than before.

The green halo also shrank considerably.

In places where the green light couldn't reach, wisps of white mist tore through layers of water vapor.

The light that used to illuminate the entire pavilion now only covers a small area around the stone table.

The three of them were forced to squeeze together around the narrow stone table.

"The candle is burning faster than before."

Ding Feifan was extremely nervous, constantly wiping away sweat. "Something's not right, something's really not right. I just recorded it—the candles are burning much faster than when Weng Yang and Aunt Liu were there."

Zhao Weilai's heart sank.

She hadn't noticed it before, but now that she looked closely:

Sure enough, the candle used to burn very slowly, but now the wax drips down like water, forming a thin layer on the stone table.

At this rate, the candles will burn out in at most another twenty minutes.

twenty minutes.

Can they hold out until Fu Qinqin and the others can get back?

When the pavilion in the middle of the lake is covered by white mist, will something from the mist come in?

"Gurgle... gurgle gurgle..."

The sound of bubbles rising on the lake grew louder and louder, almost like water boiling.

The three of them looked at the lake at the same time.

Bubbles kept rising to the surface of the dark water.

The bubbles burst, splashing up tiny water droplets that drift upwards from the water's surface, carrying a misty vapor.

"There's something in the water." Deng Ziwen's voice was full of frustration and fear: "...Someone glanced at me from underwater."

Zhao Weilai and Ding Feifan both shuddered at the same time.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a loud "creak" was heard.

—That's the sound of footsteps crushing the wooden planks of the Nine-Bend Bridge.

The sound was very soft and slow.

It was definitely not the sound of Tan Moli and Fu Qinqin's footsteps.

Zhao Weilai's heart leaped into his throat.

She gripped Deng Ziwen's hand tightly, her nails almost digging into his flesh.

"Squeak... squeak..."

The sound was getting closer and closer.

It was accompanied by heavy, wet footsteps.

This time, the footsteps were clearer than the previous two times.

"Pat...pat..."

One step, two steps, and they walked towards the pavilion in the middle of the lake.

The three of them held their breath and stared intently at the direction of the pavilion entrance.

A bulky, dark figure slowly emerged from the thick fog.

It is very tall and wide, like a moving wall.

The dark figure walked to the entrance of the pavilion.

It stopped.

Immediately afterwards, the first wet footprint appeared on the concrete ground at the edge of the aperture.

The footprint was large, swollen and deformed, with the toes spread apart like a soaked bun.

Then came the second, the third...

The footprints extended step by step into the circle of light.

Something unseen is moving in.

……

"The candle, the candle is still burning, how... how did it get in?" Deng Ziwen's voice trembled uncontrollably.

Ding Feifan panicked too.

"We can't leave the area of ​​light!" Zhao Weilai jumped onto the stone table and grabbed Deng Ziwen and Ding Feifan.

The two men were pressed tightly together on the stone table, with Ding Feifan's foot on the stone bench.

The three of them couldn't see anything in the fog at all.

But the footprints showed that the thing was still moving forward.

When it stepped entirely into the area illuminated by the candlelight, the three of them finally saw what it looked like.

It was the corpse of a giant.

Its belly was swollen high, like a rotten watermelon that would burst open if you touched it.

Zhao Weilai and Deng Ziwen both let out a short scream, then quickly covered each other's mouths.

Ding Feifan trembled with fear, his back pressed firmly against the stone table, his legs shaking uncontrollably.

—He had lived for over twenty years and had never seen anything so disgusting.

A moving, rotting corpse.

It's easy to think of soaked boneless chicken feet... Zhao Weilai covered his mouth to keep himself from spitting it out.

This is a scene that no human could even imagine.

The water ghost stood outside the circle of light, seemingly sizing up the three of them.

It did not act immediately.

It's more like they're toying with their prey.

"Gurgle...gurgle..."

As the aperture narrowed, the lake began to churn violently.

The water splashed against the shore, making a "splashing" sound.

Ding Feifan stared at the enormous water ghost corpse before him, his mind blank, only one thought remaining in a daze:

run.

He can't stay here and wait to die.

Ding Feifan glanced around and knew that there was a lake behind the pavilion.

Jump in, swim to shore, and perhaps there will still be a glimmer of hope.

Anyway, it's better than staying here and waiting for the candles to go out so that the water ghosts can tear it apart.

Once the thought popped into my head, I couldn't suppress it at all.

Ding Feifan took half a step back, climbed over the railing, and was about to jump down—

"Instructor Ding! Don't jump!"

Deng Ziwen and Zhao Weilai reacted quickly, grabbing his arm and dragging him back.

"Are you crazy! Look closely! You'll die even faster if you jump!"

Ding Feifan glanced at the lake subconsciously, and in that one glance, his blood ran cold:

"A ghost... Oh my god..."

—On the lake surface, countless pale human faces floated up.

There are men and women, old and young.

Their faces were all swollen and pale from being soaked in water, their eyes were tightly closed, and the corners of their mouths were curled up as if they were smiling.

Her hair spread out in the water like black seaweed, rising and falling with the splashes.

It stretches as far as the eye can see.

Faces floated on the water, slowly drifting towards the pavilion in the middle of the lake.

"We're doomed..." Ding Feifan squatted on the stone bench in despair, holding his head and muttering to himself, "If they don't come back, we'll all die here."