It had become a sleepless night for the eight people. However, when tomorrow came, none of the villagers who saw them touring around at 5:30 am realized that these foreigners had not slept a wink after being awakened by a terrible nightmare.
They only thought city people were actually not as they imagined, privileged individuals who woke up late waiting for everything to be served to them.
How was the feeling of being praised for changing the lazy impression of rural people on city folks like them?
It was explained by their strange, forced smiles. Red-eyed, they wanted to roar, "What do you guys know? We fell asleep around 10:30 pm and woke up sharp 12. Do you think it"s a wonderful experience?"
Of course, none of them genuinely wanted to not sleep! But what could they do when some mysterious ent.i.ty had forced them to take part in a nightmare game?
Hours later, the weird state of the foreign students finally entered the eyes of the villagers. They saw them walking around separately as if they were looking for something. It was not simple sightseeing.
Every hour, these youths would suddenly stop in place and sport various strange reactions that could be categorized in two: first, relief, second, grief.
For example, this 9 am, at separate locations, the locals saw one of the boys suddenly convulsing and perspiring in pain while the rest were sighing in relief or dancing around in happiness. Towards the former, they acted concerned for a while then left when An Ming politely declined their help.
"Too sinister!"
The eldest among the college students was still gasping for breath and trembling when they met up in the temple. The man only reached the place through a friend"s help. He was the one who received the latest punishment, still feeling angry yet scared from suddenly losing his sense of sight.
"An Ming, bear with it for some time. If the pattern is correct, your blindness should only be temporary."
The man grumpily replied in a crying voice, "Easy for you to say because you"re not the one who turned blind! b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
"Hey. We"re sorry about what you"re going through. But believe okay? You"ll return to normal in about an hour. At least at this point, it"s still just playing with us. Look, Guo Hanying failed the 8 am mission and turned bald, then, she magically regrew her hair around 9 am."
"... Can you stop mentioning that?" The embarra.s.sed girl whispered in a fierce tone. Her face reddened in shame, remembering her head was actually not the only thing that went bald. However, about this fact, she didn"t dare share with anybody.
His friends comforted An Ming for a while, but since they were also tired, they soon prioritized getting rest. They didn"t talk much, preserving strength for the next "quest" which they knew would come in a few minutes.
Sure enough, Fan Zheng and the others soon saw words getting written by an invisible on the trunk of a tall tree. They congregated around it to check the next weird mission the d.a.m.n ghost wanted them to do.
"Find the seven most beautiful children in the village and rank them from highest to lowest. Time limit: 10 minutes. Make sure to conceal your goal from the other villagers to not appear like a spiteful pedophile in their eyes. Good luck!"
"Punishment for failure: secret"
The playful words made them grit their teeth with hate. "I really want to exorcise this annoying spirit," they all thought.
But upon grasping that they had so limited time to check the village kids one by one, they then chose to spring into action.
Time was precious and their lives were at stake so they didn"t dare waste time with other matters, completely devoting themselves to the task. They even ignored their growling stomach and just smiled at the kind villagers that offered them food.
The village head glanced at the tallest boy who was strangely acting blind then asked, "It"s past twelve and you youngsters have been playing around for hours. Are you all sure, you really do not want to eat?"
Although resentment was brewing within them, they laughed and said, "Don"t worry about us, Chief. We"re fasting."
"Fasting?" The humble-looking villager looked confused. "Is there an event warranting such in February? I am not that cultured, but if I remember correctly, there"s only the New Year Festival, but it"s a celebration too, so there is no need for people to starve themselves."
"... It"s our show of grat.i.tude to Buddha for letting us survive the previous bleak days. Haha."
Zhao Guo did not understand it fully so he could only nod. The students who were preoccupied with something more pressing did not notice that the middle-aged man was frequently stealing glances of the beautiful and fair-skinned ladies.
Ten minutes quickly pa.s.sed.
Along with another boy who was not good at coaxing kids or creating excuses for parents to allow him to see their children, the pitiful An Ming who had temporarily become blind cried so hard after losing in default and vomiting a handful of earthworms as a result.
The man regained his sight later, but precisely because he could once again see that he howled harder. How could it be easy to accept such disgusting things had come out of his mouth?
When he involuntarily imagined the worms collectively wriggling and traversing his stomach and intestines, he bent over and started to vomit. More tears sprung forth from his eyes. The inexplicable aftertaste from his throat almost made him pa.s.s out.
As for the others, they stilled and watched in disbelief. What the two had vomited grossed out their friends and made them break out in cold sweat. Who knows if they would be the next victims? What if the crazy evil being stepped up his game and directly placed sh*t or something similar in their mouths?
"Let"s work harder to not end up like them," they silently encouraged themselves. Their faces were pale. They had no idea the extreme fear they were harboring in their hearts made their hated ghost stronger.
The next game mission was as weird as the previous ones, making them wonder if the ghost was deliberately teasing them before tossing a death game to them.