Chapter 2 The Second Stone Door

"Fatty," Jiang Cheng's voice interrupted his speculation. When he came back to his senses, he found that they had already arrived at the second stone door.

The doctor and Chen Ran had already separated from their conjoined twin-like intimacy.

The two of them occupied a position on the left and right respectively.

"Wait for me outside," Jiang Cheng said in his usual cadence, "I need to go in with Brother Chen to take care of some things. Don't come in to disturb our good time unless I call you."

Hearing this, Fatty was stunned for a moment, his brain still stuck on his previous speculation, not reacting. But out of trust in the doctor, he nodded, his mouth twitching as he said, "You two take your time, no rush, I can wait."

Chen Ran grinned, squinting at Fatty, and said, "Then thank you for your trouble, Brother Fatty."

"What's the trouble for him?" Jiang Cheng glared at Chen Ran, complaining, "If anyone's going to be troubled, it's me!"

Chen Ran tilted his head, glanced at Jiang Cheng, and then, leaving a look, he took a step back, turned around, and flashed into the stone door.

Seeing Chen Ran leave, Fatty immediately trotted to Jiang Cheng's side, and said in an eager but suppressed voice, "Doctor, will you be alright going in by yourself? I feel like there's something..."

Jiang Cheng smacked his lips and turned to Fatty, who looked concerned, and said, "Don't worry." He patted his waist, grinning. "Don't you know how awesome I am? I'm the king of the night..."

Fatty automatically blocked out the rest of his words, but he still advised the doctor to be careful. If anything went wrong, he should shout loudly, and he would run in to help.

"Stay here and be sharp," the doctor stared at the steps they had come up, his playful expression suddenly gone. He retracted his gaze, pointed to the position under his feet, and said after a few seconds, "There's a problem below."

Fatty slowly widened his eyes.

......

"Brother Hao," Chen Ran looked at Jiang Cheng, who cautiously slipped in, and said with a smile, "What are you doing? With me here, are you worried about someone ambushing you behind the door?"

Jiang Cheng patted his clothes and said apologetically, "Don't mind me, Brother Chen. I was bitten by a dog hiding behind a door when I was a kid."

He looked around. Apart from the old woman huddled in the corner, there was no sign of Su An anywhere.

Su An... had also disappeared.

But unlike the two people who had disappeared before, they were sure that Su An had disappeared in this room, and because he was seriously injured, it was impossible for him to leave.

So... the two of them looked at the trembling old woman in the corner at the same time.

The culprit was self-evident.

Both of them were intelligent people. From the information they had obtained from the stone disk and the dark patterns carved on the stone pillars, coupled with their own judgment, it was enough for them to reconstruct most of the plot.

It had to be said that the history of Black Rock Town was far more complicated than they had previously thought.

And the story told by the "things" in Black Rock Town was a complete lie.

They were not natives at all.

Jiang Cheng had long suspected, how could the natives of this isolated island create ironware for weapons?

And mass-produce them.

They were invaders who came here on huge wooden ships.

Just like the Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock in America in the 15th century, who were not tolerated by the government at the time.

The first carved picture on the stone pillar recorded the origin of these invaders.

Huge waves raged on the sea. These invaders probably discovered the island by chance, or perhaps after a shipwreck, the wooden ship ran aground on the coast near the island.

The simple local natives kindly received them, giving them the necessary food and shelter.

Soon, they became acquainted with the local natives, who were the true townspeople of Black Rock Town.

This was also what the second picture wanted to express. Two groups of people dressed in completely different clothes gathered together, with the sea in the background. The figures twisted and danced, as if singing and dancing.

In the third picture, some people were cutting firewood in the forest, while others were climbing up and down the wooden ship stranded on the beach, looking like they were helping to repair the ship.

But strangely, whether it was those cutting firewood or repairing the ship, they were all locals dressed in strange clothes, while the foreigners, who should have been doing it themselves, were gathering in the dark, whispering, and pointing at the forest from time to time.

Obviously, they had discovered something.

And it was precisely because of this discovery that they were unwilling to leave Black Rock Town, but instead had other ideas.

In the following paintings, the perspective was no longer singular, but began to jump continuously, and the brushstrokes became more sharp and bold.

One pitch-black night, a long dragon-like team gathered from outside the town, then set off, and silently entered the forest.

The reason why they could understand the intention of "late at night" and "silently" was because the painter used a contrasting technique.

On the left side was the team entering the forest, while on the right side of the same painting, a group of people were lying in bed, snoring loudly.

The people entering the forest were the natives, while the ones snoring were naturally the foreigners.

The natives intentionally chose to enter the forest quietly in the middle of the night, naturally to avoid the eyes and ears of the foreigners, and... several of them were carrying something that looked like a wooden board.

On the wooden board, lay a person.

A dead person, with one arm limply hanging in the air.

Late at night, a group of townspeople, without torches, silently carried a dead person into the depths of the forest. Just thinking about it was eerie.

But even more eerie were... those foreigners.

They were lying on the bed in various postures, each with a comfortable sleeping position, but in the place representing the eyes, a slit was deeply carved from top to bottom.

Just like the vertical pupils of a snake.

They were certainly not monsters. Jiang Cheng slowly took a breath. He thought that what the painter wanted to express was probably... they were just pretending to be asleep, but in fact, they were all awake and had not fallen asleep.

And they were fully aware of what was happening outside.

The next painting also confirmed this point.

In the next painting, the perspective changed abruptly, much like a modern candid shot.

In the middle of the picture, a group of people in strange clothes were gathered around the edge of a huge stone disk, holding hands. Some were kowtowing, some were crying.

A person was lying motionless on the stone disk.

Then, a woman in a white dress slowly walked out of the stone disk. The depiction of this woman was much more detailed than that of the others, giving the feeling that even the wrinkles on the skirt could be seen clearly.

A townsperson respectfully stepped forward and handed her a jar-like container. The woman took it, raised the container above her head, and then suddenly tilted it.

Inside the container was blood!

Bright red blood!

It was not just a guess, but the person who painted this part of the picture had filled it with blood. The bright red color had not faded with the passage of time, and it was still dazzlingly red.