This is not a weird story

Wei An counted on his fingers.

The third watch is roughly between 11 a.m. and 1 a.m., while the fifth watch is between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.

That is to say, during these two periods, I have to go out on patrol.

"But what time is it now?"

He looked around the residence and found nothing else of note here.

Well, except for the bundle of incense that I don’t know how to use yet.

Wei An was stunned for a moment, his eyes fixed on the bundle of incense.

According to the "Instructions for Those Left Behind", other copper plates, paper money and other items are useful, but this bundle of incense does not seem to have been used.

But since this thing appears here, it must have its purpose and cannot be a decoration.

At this time, Wei An remembered that just before entering this residence, he smelled a faint smell of incense from the end of the long and narrow courtyard, that is, from the direction of the hut not far from the residence.

"Could this be the smell that comes out after burning incense?" Wei An was surprised.

In ancient times, watchmen had some special ways of telling time, such as looking at the hourglass or burning incense.

For example, one stick of incense can last half an hour or one hour, depending on the craftsmanship of this type of incense. As for incense candles in temples, one stick can usually burn for about an hour.

So the time for one stick of incense is basically one hour.

In the real world where I live, sometimes a stick of incense only represents fifteen minutes, or even five minutes.

Wei An came outside the house and immediately smelled the faint scent of incense again. He followed the direction and walked to the corner of the latrine.

Sure enough, I soon saw the light of a not too bright incense candle, and the faint fragrance became stronger, dispelling the stench that was constantly filling the latrine.

Wei An squatted down and took a look, and found a stick of burning incense stuck in the soil on the ground. There were two sticks beside it that had burned out, leaving only the bottom stick.

Next to it was a ventilated window sill of the hut, with a piece of black charcoal placed on it. There were a lot of graffiti drawn with black charcoal on the wall of the hut. After looking carefully, Wei An found that these were not graffiti, but that someone had drawn a lot of them. horizontal lines, and then wiped away again, so repeatedly that the wall was covered with stains.

Fortunately, I can clearly see the newly drawn horizontal lines, and there are three in total.

"Three articles, three updates?!" Wei An muttered to himself.

The incense stick is still half burnt out, so if it is midnight, it is the time for Wei An to patrol.

The last stayer may have been keeping track of time through this method, and the burning incense is exactly the same as the bundle of incense in the room of the residence, with each stick being thicker.

One stick of incense lasts about an hour, and after burning two sticks, the first watch has passed. So after the stick of incense burns out, it will be the fourth watch.

"You have to hurry up and conduct your first patrol, otherwise the time is almost up!"

Wei An immediately stood up, walked through the long and narrow courtyard, entered the passage, and walked around to the front of the lobby.

This time he walked to the right side of the lobby, while when he went to his room just now, he walked to the left side of the lobby.

The journey was uneventful. After patrolling the passage to the main entrance of the lobby, Wei An glanced at the burning oil lamp standing in the lobby. It seemed that the light was very stable, but if there was no door covering the door, there was no guarantee that a strong wind would not blow in. I'm afraid it will blow out the kerosene lamp.

So Wei An thought that he would still find two door panels during the day and repair the door.

Because he had just entered the lobby, the patrolling security guard did not enter again this time. Instead, he passed through the lobby door and went around to the courtyard passage on the other side, preparing to go to his room.

The patrol route was very short, so it didn't take much time and effort. Just as he entered the passage, he heard an unusual sound in the lobby behind him, like the sound of a wooden board hitting lightly, but it ended quickly.

Wei An was stunned. He paused, but did not go back to check, because the "Instructions" said that if he heard any abnormal noises from the lobby during patrol, he should ignore it, so although he was curious, But suppress it immediately.

Soon he returned to his residence. The first patrol was over. After waiting for a while, Wei An took another stick of incense and went to the corner outside the hut. When the stick of incense was almost burned out, he immediately continued to light it, and the same Put the incense in your hand into the soil.

Then he took the piece of black coal on the window sill and drew a fourth line on the wall, indicating that it was now the fourth watch.

At the same time, he also put a stick of incense beside him as a backup to light it later.

After these two sticks of incense are burned out, it represents the end of the fourth watch.

But there is a disadvantage, because Wei An has to change the fragrance alone, which makes Wei An unable to sleep at all, and he has to get up every hour to change the fragrance.

But he didn't feel sleepy at the moment. Maybe it had something to do with the rules of Yizhuang Kaitan.

Because of the frequent incense changes, patrols, and the calculation of the three-day storage time for corpses, if a person stays here alone, there is basically no time to rest, so Wei An can't feel the "lock" in the previous ghost story here. The feeling of hunger, sleepiness and urination and defecation that are full of human fireworks when you are in the "door".

Since he was not sleepy, he picked up the record book again. In order to see it more clearly, he stood outside the door of the residence so that the light of the lantern could shine on the record book.

The previous person who left behind me recorded it in a very standard way. In addition to the records of the three corpses, this person also recorded his own night patrols, changing incense and candles, and his inspection of the lobby, residence, passages, courtyards, kitchens, and latrines. Cleanliness, etc.

This guy seemed very serious, taking everything in detail, and even wrote down the number of days he had been here in the record book.

But on the last page Wei An turned to, he wrote about the sixth day of his duty.

In other words, this guy either left successfully on the sixth day, or failed the mission and died here, and there is no record afterwards.

However, Wei An speculated that the chance of him successfully leaving was low, because the "Instructions" had stated that the mission would be completed after ten days. This guy's record disappeared on the sixth day, so he must have encountered an accident.

Either the other party has found a way to break this strange rumor in advance, or...

"Could it be that the sixth day of his arrival is actually the tenth day of the strange mission?" Wei An felt suddenly.

This possibility also exists, but it needs to be confirmed after a security investigation.

There are many clues hidden in this workbook. He plans to spend this night reading the workbook to see what happened before so that he can be prepared.

However, after starting to look at the first page, he counted it carefully and found that it only recorded the work information of three left-behind people.

It was impossible that no one had come in before, and the traces might have been wiped away.

Thinking of this, Wei An knew that he would also record the first day's information on it. He hesitantly glanced at the thin brush and then at the rough inkstone.

First, I scooped a little water from the large water tank outside, poured some into the inkstone, and rubbed it gently for a while. Then I awkwardly picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and started writing on the workbook.

Sure enough, my calligraphy is terrible, but as long as I can recognize it, it's fine. The brush in my hand is very small, because the workbook is actually not big.

Wei An wrote carefully, recording the events of his day.

I had just written a sentence when a faint singing sound suddenly came from the front of the lobby.