Chapter 22 Silent Mountain Village
On the other side, Panwang Mountain.
Squad after squad of police officers, using the clues obtained from Liu Haoyu, had already sealed off all entrances to the mountain.
As for drug traffickers and their contacts, they were directly shot and killed on the spot.
Wang Wenqi was naturally among the search party.
He looked at the wind-swept mountain forest before him, a vague sense of unease in his heart.
“Eagle, you said it yourself, why did these two drug dealers have to run here? Isn’t this just asking for death?”
As a member of the Special Task Force, Wang Wenqi naturally understood the terrifying nature of Panwang Mountain.
To put it bluntly, even the most staunch atheist.
Anyone who was a local would stay away from Panwang Mountain upon hearing the name.
Long before the 1970s, there were frequent reports of hauntings here.
Some residents of Panwang Mountain would even occasionally see terrifying black shadows wandering in the mountain forest.
This led to more and more people moving from Panwang Mountain to Jiangliu City to live, and eventually, the dozen or so villages within began to fall into disrepair.
As the population became sparser, these empty houses looked like ghost towns.
Years ago, a tour bus entered the mountain for sightseeing. It seemed like a trivial matter.
But they entered the mountain in the evening…
Three people went missing.
The police and search teams in Jiangliu City searched for more than two months but did not find any clues.
The bodies were never found, as if they had vanished into thin air, leaving no trace.
If this was still just an ordinary missing person case, then that would be a big mistake.
After returning, the tourists experienced nightmares of varying degrees, and some, in more severe cases, were driven to insanity.
These people repeatedly uttered the same sentence.
“Go home… go home…”
Subsequently, these people, as if possessed, returned to Panwang Mountain from thousands of miles away. When people found them again.
All of them were found dead in those dilapidated houses.
Even more bizarre was that on their faces, there were no signs of contortion or pain associated with death.
Each corpse, each person’s face, was filled with a happy smile, their bloodshot eyes staring straight in the direction of the mountain, as if warmly welcoming guests.
Later, the case was classified as a suicide, as no evidence of murder could be found.
However, at the national level, tourism in Panwang Mountain was almost explicitly prohibited, and even the roads leading up the mountain were no longer maintained.
It was left to fall into disrepair, without further development.
And now look at this, these two drug dealers chose to enter the mountain in the dead of night. It’s unlikely their bodies will even be found.
As a member of the Special Task Force, Wang Wenqi naturally understood that the fewer people there were, the higher the probability of supernatural events occurring.
He looked at the pitch-black mountain forest before him and sighed.
“Alright, Eagle, hurry up and get to work. This is considered our Special Task Force’s job after all.”
“To be honest,” Eagle’s face was also a little grim, “leaving aside the ghost stories, those two drug dealers had real weapons. According to intelligence, they had two shotguns and nearly a hundred rounds of ammunition. If it weren’t for the bad mountain roads, I would have wanted to bring a Type 92 armored personnel carrier.”
“Who wouldn’t want that?”
Wang Wenqi chambered his handgun, engaged the safety, and said.
“I hope we can find the bodies of those two.”
The police enjoy the protection of the state, so naturally, there’s some psychological comfort.
But as for those two drug dealers… Wang Wenqi only prayed they could leave behind intact corpses, to make it easier for him to give an account to those outside.
Wang Wenqi got into the driver’s seat. As the police car started, everyone slowly drove up the mountain.
The mountain road was dark, desolate, and very barren.
Only the headlights of the police car could ward off the darkness.
As they went deeper, the road became muddy.
Until there was no road left, Wang Wenqi and his team had to get out and proceed on foot up the mountain.
This trip was not just Wang Wenqi and Eagle; there were also Feiying and Sunying in the back, making a total of four people.
They were also a team.
Wang Wenqi turned on his police flashlight, illuminating the way forward.
However, because it had just rained, the mountain road was full of puddles and mud. Walking on such a road, a single misstep could lead to falling to the ground.
The police car was parked halfway up the mountain, and from here, they could still see the bustling Jiangliu City not far away.
The city was brightly lit, but here it was pitch black. The contrast made it even more eerie and terrifying.
Locking the police car and gripping his handgun, Wang Wenqi walked at the front of the team.
The others followed behind.
“Team Leader,” said the younger Sunying, “those two drug dealers are outsiders. They don’t know the danger here, so I estimate they’ll likely hide in those abandoned villages.”
“Speaking of villages…” Feiying chimed in, “it reminds me of a horror movie, what was it called, Village of the Living Dead? It was terrifying.”
“How can a horror movie be as scary as being there in person?” Sunying look at the dim abandoned village not far away and said with melancholy, “To be honest, only desperate people would dare to come to this place.”
There was no moon that night, only the mountain wind that never ceased, making the four of them feel cold.
The village was not far from the four of them, but the houses with their doors wide open were like the mouths of abysses, and stepping into them could very likely mean certain death.
Coupled with the tragic incident from a few years ago, just looking at this place sent an inexplicable sense of fear and coldness through Wang Wenqi’s heart.
Around the village, there were fields of abandoned rice paddies, with weeds growing more than a meter high.
But among these weeds, there was a deathly silence, which indirectly proved one thing.
This was definitely not a place for the living.
At the very least… even a patch of weeds should have the sound of insects chirping.
However, only the cold night wind blowing through the weeds could produce a faint rustling sound.
And even that sound was not pleasant; it made one feel as if something would leap out from within.
“Team Leader? What do you think?”
“To be honest, I really don’t want to go into this ghost place.”
Sunying said so, but as a member of the Special Task Force, he had no retreat.
Wang Wenqi was in the same situation. His gaze fell on the dark, dilapidated wooden houses. After staring intently for more than ten seconds.
Then he looked at the situation outside the village, and after confirming there were no signs of activity, he spoke to the three behind him.
“Let’s enter the village quietly… remember not to fire.”
The four police officers carefully moved forward.
The most terrifying things in the world are not guns and cannons, nor are they eerie ghosts.
It is the fear from the deepest part of the human heart—the unknown.
Because it is unknown, you cannot defend against it.
Because it is unknown, you may not know how you died until you are dead.
After walking along the small path on the outskirts of the mountain village for a while, the suffocating pressure weighed heavily on the hearts of the four of them.
At this point, Sunying finally couldn’t help but whisper.
“I heard there are still people living here, but… does this really look like a place where people live?”
Feiying followed him and replied.
“Some elderly people can’t bear to leave the homeland they’ve lived in all their lives, so they haven’t left. It’s normal.”
As police officers, Feiying had heard about the elderly people in these mountain villages. They would often die for one or two weeks, or even more than a month, and only when the smell of decay permeated from the mud-brick houses would they be discovered.
“If I had to stay a night in a place like this, I reckon I’d go crazy…”
“Quiet.”
Wang Wenqi silenced their murmurs and pointed towards the village entrance.
“The perimeter is secure, prepare to enter the village.”
“Yes.”
The group entered the mountain village.
Along the muddy dirt road were old-fashioned black brick houses, or houses built with straw and yellow mud.
Even during the day, such a place would send chills down one’s spine.
Let alone coming here in the middle of the night.
If it weren’t for the duty they bore, why would Sunying come to such a place?
He was a police officer, but he was also human.
Humans are always afraid.
“Team Leader, look at this.”
At this moment, Feiying pointed to the shoeprints on the ground and said.
“These footprints look like they were just made, and judging by the size and depth of the prints, they should belong to those two drug dealers.”
“It seems they’ve entered this village…”
Upon hearing this, Wang Wenqi breathed a sigh of relief.
This mountain village was an outer village of Panwang Mountain. He didn’t want to explore the next village.
The light from the flashlights carried by the four illuminated the road on both sides of the village, but it seemed to attract the attention of something terrifying.
Every time the light swept across the empty houses, Wang Wenqi always felt as if something was looking at him through the rusted iron windows.
The further they walked, the stronger this eerie feeling became.
Perhaps many unseen and intangible things were standing at the doorways of these houses, watching the four of them.
This led Wang Wenqi to have an illusion.
This silent, dead village was actually bustling…
Driven by fear, Wang Wenqi carefully observed the roadside buildings and found only dark, empty houses emitting the smell of decaying wood.
There was no one there.
But yet, there seemed to be many people…
Wang Wenqi unconsciously tightened his grip on his handgun, his palms sweating incessantly.
However, as the four turned a corner, they suddenly noticed the door of a house.
It was open.
The gazes of the four immediately shifted to the door, staring intently.
From within the dark, deep doorway, it seemed as if a monstrous and terrifying creature would pounce out at any moment.
Time ticked by, second by second.
The heart rates of the four were also soaring.
Was there someone inside?
Or… had the person inside already come out?
Wang Wenqi swallowed hard, moistening his dry throat.
Just as he was about to signal to the people beside him to leave, a sound of footsteps echoed from inside the room.
The footsteps were very light and slow, and a trace of candlelight appeared from within the door.
When the footsteps reached the doorway, Wang Wenqi finally saw the true face of the other party.
It was an old woman with a face full of wrinkles, holding a lantern in her hand.
Upon seeing the clothing of the four police officers, she paused, then said nervously.
“Officers? What brings you to a place like this?”
Seeing the old woman’s nervous state, Wang Wenqi first observed her.
There was a shadow.
The candle in her hand did not react.
He could feel the old woman’s rapid breathing…
She should be alive?
As Wang Wenqi was thinking, a very strange sound suddenly emerged from the previously silent and dead village.
It was the creaking sound of a door opening.
And one after another.
But the problem was, Wang Wenqi had confirmed those houses, and there was no one inside!
Who opened the doors then?
When all the doors were opened, nothing came out.
The village soon returned to its previous eerie and silent state.
However, Wang Wenqi felt a terrifying chill creep from his spine all the way to his brain.
At this moment, the old woman’s face was filled with terror. Her withered hand gripped the door, as if she had seen something terrifying and horrifying, and quickly said to the four police officers outside.
“No time to explain! Come in quickly!”
After exchanging glances, Wang Wenqi and his three companions finally decided to trust the old woman before them.
As Wang Wenqi had observed earlier, she should be a person…
After the four entered the black brick house, the old woman used a wooden board to relock the door.
Her movements were slow and cautious, as if afraid of alarming whatever was outside.
After confirming the door was securely locked, the old woman finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She looked at the four police officers and said.
“Officers, what brings you here so late at night? This place is not to be trifled with!”
Seeing that the old woman could communicate normally, Wang Wenqi, as the team leader, stepped forward and asked her.
“Grandma, we’re here to track down a criminal with a gun. Has he passed through your village?”
“A criminal with a gun?” The old woman pondered for a moment and then shook her head, saying, “No.”
After speaking, she looked out at the world through the peephole and hushed her voice.
“Officers, you can leave once those doors outside close again.”
“Alright.”
The old woman’s kindness also gave Wang Wenqi, who was deeply influenced by the “fish and water” relationship between the army and the people, a sense of warmth.
“After this journey, I’ll go and fetch you officers a bowl of mutton soup. The villagers just slaughtered two sheep this afternoon, and everyone got some meat.”
“Mmm… thank you.”
Wang Wenqi was looking outside at this moment and casually responded.
However, when he turned around, he saw the stiff expressions of his companions.
He looked at them in confusion, only to find that in the blackened pot the old woman had brought… two human heads were floating!
“Drink up, officers, this soup is quite good.”
