尘土飞扬的土路尽头,就是鬼婚村的入口.
沈长安停了下来,呼吸不由自主地停滞了片刻.并不是因为旅途的疲惫,而是眼前那棵多节的,巨大的老槐树和挂在树上的东西,带来了强烈的,不切实际的视觉冲击.
槐树郁郁葱葱,枝繁叶茂,层层墨绿色的叶子,几乎挡住了天光,投下了大片沉重的阴影.然而,本应充满生机的景象,却被悬挂在粗枝之间的十三个人大小的纸人完全扭曲了.
他们穿着制服的老式灰蓝色布衣,在微风中轻轻摇曳,动作僵硬而怪异.每个纸人衣服的底部边缘都绣着四个用猩红色丝线编织的弯曲小字——"欢迎外国客人".
这本该是某种怪诞的欢迎仪式,但沈长安的目光却盯着那些纸人的脸.
这不是一幅粗糙的画,也不是一幅简单的素描.那些脸上露出一种让人头皮发麻的质地——细腻,光滑,带着风干皮革一样苍白淡淡的质地,仿佛...仿佛是用什么真皮材料小心翼翼地贴上去的.五官的位置精准,却毫无生气,就像一张精致的面具.
更令人不寒而栗的是,在每个"脸"的眼角下,都用粘稠的半凝固油画了两条长长的,泪水般的痕迹.颜色是深红色,浓郁得无法溶解,仿佛某种油与颜料混合在一起.
十三个纸人,十三张"人皮"面孔,十三对"血泪"的空洞眼窝,就这样,在村口的老槐树下,静静无声地"欢迎"着他这个外人.
沈长安紧紧攥着口袋里有烧痕的婚礼糖果纸,指尖冰凉.序幕中的不祥预感,现在像冰水一样涌上了他的身体.他强迫自己把视线移开,走进了槐树的阴影里.
他脚下的道路是用青石板铺成的,缝隙里填满了干土.村子里异常安静.听不到鸡或狗的声音,也看不到人或烟雾.只有风吹过槐树叶的"沙沙"声,以及纸人衣服相互摩擦的微妙声音.
时间似乎在这里凝固了.
沈长安抬手看了看手表,指针刚好指向十二点.
就在那时——
"叮--!"
一声遥远而沉闷的钟声毫无征兆地从村子深处传来,打破了寂静.那声音不像普通寺庙的大钟,而更像是一个古老而沉重的铜钟,在重击时发出金属般的震动.
然后,出现了第二个声音.
"叮--!"
第三个声音.
"叮--!"
...
沈长安默默数着钟声.一,二...十,十一,十二.
中午十二点钟,敲响十二声钟似乎是合理的.
然而,就在第十二声钟声的回声还没有完全消散的时候——
"叮--!"
第十三声钟声!
那声突兀而尖锐,仿佛已经耗尽了敲钟人最后的力气,也充满了无可置疑的决心.第十三声钟声响起,像是一记沉重的锤子敲在沈长安的心脏上,让他的心顿时紧绷起来.
为什么是 13 个钟声?
几乎就在铃声响起的那一刻,原本空无一人的村道两旁紧闭的木门吱吱作响,同时打开.一个个穿着同样灰蓝色布料的村民面无表情地从门后走了出来.
他们的动作千篇一律,仿佛已经排练了无数次.有男有女,有老少,但他们的脸色相似,说不出的迟钝和麻木,眼神空洞,直直地盯着沈长安.
沈长安停下脚步,肌肉瞬间绷紧,他环顾四周,警惕地看着突然出现的村民.他觉得自己就像一只误入蜘蛛网的苍蝇.
一个看起来最年长的老妇人,弓着背,颤抖着走到沈长安面前.她的脸上布满皱纹,皮肤干得像失去了水分的橘子皮,但她浑浊的眼睛里却流露出一种奇怪的"热情".
"Foreign guests... it's good to be here..." Her voice was hoarse like sandpaper rubbing, "You have come from afar, eat some candy, and get some joy."
As she said, she took out a handful of candies wrapped in red paper from her lapel and stuffed them into Shen Changan's hands without saying anything.
The red candy wrapper was sticky to the touch, as if it was covered with a very thin and slippery biological film. Shen Changan almost immediately thought of the bloody candy wrapper in Gu Xue's letter. He subconsciously wanted to refuse, but the old woman's cloudy eyes were staring at him straight, and the eyes of all the villagers around him were also focused on him, with an invisible pressure.
He did not move.
Seeing that he did not move, the old woman's "smile" on her face seemed to deepen, revealing her yellow and sparse teeth: "Eat it, eat the candy, you are one of us..."
Shen Changan was silent and did not open the candy wrapper immediately. He could feel the eyes from all directions, with scrutiny, expectation, and even... a subtle threat.
He squeezed the candy in his hand with a little force.
"Crack... Crack..."
A subtle, tooth-aching sound came from inside the candy wrapper. The sound was not like the breaking of hard candy, but more like... the sound of some tiny bones being squeezed and the friction of joints.
A chill spread rapidly along his fingertips.
He slowly raised his head, his eyes swept over the expressionless villagers, and finally fell back on the old woman's face, and asked calmly: "Excuse me, old man, is there any happy event in the village?"
The wrinkles on the old woman's face squeezed together, like laughing, but also like crying: "Yes... a big happy event... our village... is going to hold a ghost marriage..."
Ghost marriage.
These two words pierced Shen Changan's eardrums like ice chips. He held the strange wedding candy and felt the red mark on his palm left by the candy wrapper began to hurt again.
He didn't ask again, just nodded, then put the wedding candy into his pocket as if nothing had happened and continued to walk forward. The eyes behind him were like thorns in his back, but he didn't look back.
His eyes fell on the bluestone road under his feet. One, two... He counted silently. These stone slabs were of different sizes and the arrangement was not completely regular, but they all showed a grayish white color worn by time.
Until the thirteenth piece.
The bluestone slab was obviously darker than the surrounding ones, showing a dark color, as if it had been soaked in some liquid for many years. Its surface was also smoother, as if it had been repeatedly stepped on by countless feet.
More importantly, something seemed to be stuck in a long crack near the edge of the dark bluestone slab.
Shen Changan paused and slowly squatted down.
The villagers around him did not seem to have any intention of stopping him, but just stood far away, like silent statues.
He stretched out his hand and carefully picked up the thing from the narrow crack.
It was cold to the touch, with a plastic texture.
It was a hairpin, or rather, half of it. The sky blue plastic material was made into the shape of a butterfly wing, and it was dotted with tiny stars with silver powder.
Shen Changan's breathing stopped completely the moment he saw this half hairpin.
His mind was blank, and only this half of the blue butterfly wing was infinitely magnified in his eyes.
This style, this color, this distribution of silver powder...
He recognized it.
This was the butterfly hairpin that Gu Xue had been wearing on her head before she disappeared! She liked this pair of hairpins very much and almost never took them off. Why...why did it break and half of it was stuck in the crack of the thirteenth bluestone slab at the entrance of the ghost marriage village? !
The warning in the prologue, the thirteen strange bells, the bleeding candy wrappers, the sound of finger bones rubbing, the numb expressions of the villagers, and the half hairpin that belonged to Gu Xue in front of him...
All the clues, like countless cold poisonous snakes, instantly entangled his heart, tightening more and more, almost suffocating him.
Gu Xue's disappearance, no, perhaps death, is definitely directly related to this ghost marriage village full of weirdness and the so-called "ghost marriage ceremony"!
He tightly grasped the half cold hairpin, as if grasping the last straw. The nails dug deep into the palm of his hand, bringing a slight sting, which made his confused thoughts slightly condensed.
He raised his head, looking through the silent villagers towards the vaguely visible ancestral hall deep in the village from which the sound of bells came.