1343: Red Lantern

Red Lantern

She saw a scarecrow standing in the field on the left. The scarecrow was unlike any common scarecrow, it was simply straw tied together and stood upright.1

It was dressed in a flowery dress and wore a black pointed hat with both hands wide open, facing the wind and its back facing her. The long flowery dress covered the bamboo that supported the straw standing in the field. Because the sky was dim, when looking at it inadvertently, it looked as if someone was carrying her, but her body was stiff and strange. 

She calmed her mind and looked away. However, when her eyes landed on a place, her breath condensed as she saw a figure lying in the water-soaked field. In the dim light, it looked vaguely like a four or five year old child. But when her spirit intent swept across the figure, she was unable to detect any breath of life.

Dead?

A thought came to her mind and her footsteps took her from the road to over there. She walked along the little road in the fields. Her shoes stepped on the wet mud and made it a little troublesome walking. 

However, when she got there, she was startled by what she saw and her brow wrinkled up slightly. 

From a distance it looked like a child, but when she took a closer look, it turned out to be a rag doll. A doll made completely out of worn-out clothes, about the size of a four or five year old child, just lying face down like that. 

She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She raised her eyes and looked at her surroundings. Because of the dimness of the sky, she could only just see a few scarecrows standing up facing the wind in many places. There was a strange atmosphere in this place without smoke or fire….

She left the little road and went back onto the original road, rubbing her shoes against the dry sand on the ground, wiping the red mud off her shoes and continued to walk forward. 

After walking some distance, she saw an old rag doll discarded on the road. The rag doll was made in the same way as the rag doll the size of a four or five year old child, but the difference was their clothes were different. What was even stranger was that this doll was wearing makeup and it had a grin on its face.

The doll's face had eyebrows and eyes, a nose and mouth, and red cheeks, but it looked weird nonetheless. 

After walking further along, she saw some rag dolls with broken hands and feet abandoned by the side of the road, some of the dolls didn't even have heads. When she heard the sounds of the insects in the night, she frowned. 

She was the only person in this empty place, and occasionally these strange and creepy things would appear, causing her to pause her footsteps slightly as she walked forwards towards the inside. 

It was pitch black in here, and though it was a small town, she hadn't even seen anyone. There was probably no one here, she had better not go inside. Moreover, this strange and creepy feeling made her feel really uncomfortable. 

When she thought of this, she planned to leave not long after coming in. However, just as she had turned to leave, she heard a hoarse and old voice.

"It's a foreigner!"

The sudden sound of the voice gave her a fright. There was obviously no one here so when she suddenly heard a hoarse and old voice, of course she was frightened, anyone would be too. 

Especially when she had explored the surrounding area earlier and couldn't detect any human aura. How did someone suddenly appear?

So, with vigilance, she followed the sound. 

In the dark night, she only saw a red lantern swaying back and forth not too far away from her….

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