How had he ended up dreaming about the protagonist group?
Xie Fan was drenched in cold sweat, his entire mind blank.
The white outdoor jacket he'd seen in the dream was obviously not something a villager would wear. He couldn't help pressing a hand over his heart, and only after his heartbeat gradually calmed down did he get up and pour himself some water from the table.
The slightly honey-sweet sugar water warmed his body. When he looked up, the sky was only half-light, half-dark. It wasn't even five o'clock yet.
He had literally been scared awake!
Xie Fan sucked in a cold breath. Feeling the early-morning mist drift through the treetops, he couldn't help shivering. He had no idea how long passed, but it wasn't until a loud rooster crowed and the sky fully brightened that he finally relaxed.
The feeling of sweat covering his entire body made him frown slightly. He wanted to take a bath, yet for some inexplicable reason, he was afraid.
But it was daytime now. It should be fine, right?
After hesitating and struggling with himself for a moment, his fear ultimately lost to his obsession with cleanliness, and Xie Fan picked up his clothes.
There was a large water vat on the first floor of the wooden house. Normally, heating water for a bath was troublesome, but honestly, having hot water at all in a village like this was already pretty good.
Xie Fan clumsily heated the water. As he untied his hair ribbon and washed his hair, however, he failed to notice something: in all the days since he'd transmigrated here, he had never once gone out to gather firewood, yet the woodshed was always completely full, and the water vat had never once run out of water.
As though it had always been that way...
The steaming hot water left his thoughts hazy, yet he vaguely sensed that something wasn't right. Just as Xie Fan found the feeling strange and instinctively tried to grasp that fleeting thought, he suddenly heard a knock at the door.
Someone had come this early in the morning?
Slightly startled, Xie Fan casually wiped his hair, quickly put on his clothes, and stood up. When he reached the door, he remembered that he wasn't the original owner of this body. Coming back to his senses, he let his hair fall loose.
That morning, A-Qi returned carrying a bag of mushrooms. When he passed the western side of the village, he inexplicably stopped.
By the time he came back to his senses, he was already standing outside A-Xie's house.
Forget it. Since I'm already here, I might as well see whether something happened to this guy. It's been several days, and I haven't seen him leave the house once.
A-Qi instinctively frowned. He had always looked down somewhat on people who hid inside their houses all day, but A-Xie had been like this since childhood. He had no idea why he'd suddenly decided to meddle in his business today.
After a brief moment of confusion, A-Qi darkened his expression and stopped thinking about it.
He waited several minutes and knocked again before finally hearing hurried footsteps approach and the door open.
When he raised his head, he saw a slender figure standing in the doorway opposite him, one hand still gripping the door bolt.
A strange expression crossed A-Qi's face when he noticed that there was still moisture clinging to the other man's hair.
Had he just finished bathing?
Wet black hair hung messily over his brows and eyes, revealing only a small portion of his cool, pale jaw, yet for some inexplicable reason, it drew the eye.
And... maybe it was just his imagination, but didn't A-Xie's lips seem a little redder than before?
What had A-Xie looked like before?
His thoughts became strangely hazy. A-Qi realized that he had rarely paid any attention to the other man in the past. He frowned slightly and withdrew his gaze.
“There's a meeting as usual today.”
Before he could finish speaking, A-Qi suddenly paused.
“What's that smell?”
Xie Fan: ...?
What smell?
Why was this guy acting so weird?
Xie Fan suppressed his irritation at his face blindness and spent ages trying to identify the person in front of him. Before he could even react, the other man's sudden question left him completely baffled.
Within his field of vision, the village chief's nephew, who had always been a man of few words, coughed deeply.
“Your hair.”
His hair?
What was wrong with his hair?
He just hadn't had time to dry it.
That wasn't a big deal, was it? He had even seen people bathing by the river before. Surely the villagers weren't that particular about this sort of thing.
Xie Fan looked puzzled, unable to understand why the man opposite him was reacting so strongly.
From less than a meter away, wave after wave of a clean, cool jasmine fragrance drifted into A-Qi's nose.
A-Qi felt uncomfortable all over. He used soap to bathe too, but he definitely didn't smell as... fragrant as this brat A-Xie.
Unable to find a suitable word for it, A-Qi awkwardly took a step backward, his brows lowering.
“It's nothing.”
Xie Fan: ...?
While his head was still full of question marks, A-Qi irritably shoved the mushrooms in his hand toward him.
“They're in season these days. The mountain's covered in them. I picked these up on my way back. I don't like eating them, so you can have them.”
The cold-faced man finished speaking and left without even waiting for Xie Fan to respond.
Huh?
Xie Fan was completely speechless.
A heavy bag of wild mountain mushrooms had been stuffed into his hands. He frowned slightly, still confused. What was wrong with this A-Qi? One moment he was inexplicably snapping at him, and the next he was giving him wild mushrooms?
Still, his hair...
Xie Fan lowered his head slightly and did indeed catch the faint scent of jasmine.
Was this guy allergic to jasmine or something?
He didn't think the soap smelled that strong.
Forget it. No point thinking about it. A-Qi had acted just as weird the last time. Maybe everyone in this village simply had some kind of strange quirk.
Xie Fan shook his head and stopped thinking about it, then looked at the wild mushrooms in his hands. He had just been wondering what he should eat for breakfast today.
How about mushroom soup? It would be perfect for driving away the chill.
Deliberately avoiding any further thoughts about last night's dream, Xie Fan turned and walked into the woodshed. He carefully washed the mushrooms one by one. But just before putting them into the pot, he looked at the wide variety of mushrooms and hesitated again.
Cooking all these together wouldn't poison him, right?
There were so many mushrooms in there that he'd never even seen before.
Whatever. It should be fine, right?
This was the world of a horror novel. Whenever something happened to people here, it was always supernatural. Who the hell would die from mushroom poisoning?
After struggling with the decision for only a second, Xie Fan was defeated by the thought of delicious mushroom soup. He tossed all the wild mushrooms into the pot, brought over a stool, and quietly waited.
Mountain delicacies that grew naturally in the forest really were something else. They hadn't even been cooking for long, and without needing much seasoning at all, just a simple pinch of salt was enough to bring out a rich aroma.
Xie Fan smelled wave after wave of savory fragrance coming from the pot and forcibly resisted the urge to take a taste. Only after letting it cook for another half hour or so did he finally pick up a spoon.
At the very first sip, Xie Fan's eyes widened. It tasted so good that he nearly couldn't speak.
So delicious!
Were wild mountain mushrooms really this good?
He eagerly filled a bowl and immediately bit into one of the mushrooms.
Its crisp, tender texture carried a faint natural sweetness, completely crushing any mushrooms sold outside.
Only after seriously finishing an entire large bowl did Xie Fan finally feel full.
The delicious mushroom soup left his stomach feeling incredibly comfortable. He lightly rubbed his abdomen. Although his head felt a little dizzy, he didn't pay it any attention. After all, ever since arriving in this terrifying village, he'd frequently felt dizzy.
He casually put away the remaining mushroom soup and returned to the second floor.
Meanwhile:
Only after A-Qi had walked several li away did he finally stop. His expression looked strange. He didn't know what had gotten into him just now.
Actually...
He hesitated.
That jasmine fragrance had smelled pretty nice.
That faint, cool scent seemed to linger at the tip of his nose. When A-Qi came back to his senses and realized he could no longer smell it, his brows furrowed again.
Forget it. He'd ask A-Xie that evening whether he had any more of that jasmine soap. If necessary, he'd switch to the same kind.
A-Qi's expression finally returned, more or less, to normal.
In the afternoon, the sun gradually began to set. The members of the tour group had spent the entire day wandering around the village.
Shen Xun was in unexpectedly good condition. He hadn't coughed even once all day.
“I think it was because it kept raining the past few days and the mountain was a little cold, so my cold kept coming and going. The sun came out today, and after sitting in it for a while, I feel much better.”
He casually set his drawing board aside.
Shen Xun hadn't felt this comfortable in several days, and a faint smile couldn't help appearing on his face.
“I should be able to go out sketching tomorrow.”
Seeing that his childhood friend was fine, He Cheng's expression improved as well.
“The weather in this shitty place is awful. I don't know how they ever dared advertise it.”
He sat carelessly in the chair, bored out of his mind.
Tan Qingxian scoffed. “They never advertised it. We're the ones who came looking for this place ourselves.”
Xican Village was different from tourist attractions outside. Not a single scrap of information about it could be found online. Tan Qingxian and the others had only learned about it from a senior schoolmate.
Strangely, however, after that senior had mentioned it during a gathering, she later flatly denied everything and insisted that she had never heard of the place at all.
“Are you saying we really have to wait a whole month? Is that Dissociation Spring really that miraculous?”
He Cheng glanced at him. For once, he didn't respond with some foul-mouthed retort and merely looked irritably at the sky.
“These past few days here have been boring as hell.”
Tan Qingxian corrected him. “Technically, there are only a little over twenty days left until that ritual their village holds.”
“As for Dissociation Spring... who knows?” He shrugged and started organizing the things they would need for sketching tomorrow.
Both he and Shen Xun had studied art. The only difference was that after graduation, one became a painter while the other became a photographer. Both of them were very interested in Xican Village's untouched natural scenery. He Cheng was the only one who found the whole place boring.
There was no point talking to that hypocritical pretentious bastard, so He Cheng turned toward Pei Jing instead.
This guy could actually stand being here too?
Pei Jing hadn't attended the same school as them, but since their families moved in the same social circle, they were fairly familiar with one another. When he'd heard that Shen Xun was gathering people to visit a primitive village deep in the southern mountains, he'd simply come along. But the guy had been taciturn and cold-faced throughout the entire journey, leaving He Cheng with no idea what he was thinking.
And it was strange. Pei Jing didn't seem like someone who would be interested in the scenery of an ancient village at all.
If He Cheng remembered correctly, wasn't this guy into extreme sports?
Their gazes met.
Pei Jing's expression didn't change.
“I don't mind.”
“Just think of coming here as a health retreat.”
He Cheng: ...
What kind of bullshit was that?
A health retreat?
Shen Xun had been sick as hell just a few days ago. He hadn't seen anything about this village that made it suitable for recuperation.
Whatever. Forget it.
Speechless, He Cheng stood up and prepared to return to his room.
Tan Qingxian, however, glanced at Pei Jing. He couldn't shake the feeling that this guy's reason for coming here wasn't that simple...
He just couldn't say exactly what it was.
Night quickly deepened. After experiencing the village's unpredictable weather, none of them had any intention of going outside. If a torrential downpour trapped them somewhere during the day, at least someone might know about it. At night, they could scream themselves hoarse and no one would come to help them.
After casually tidying up, they all prepared to sleep.
Strangely, however, the moment He Cheng closed his eyes that night, he felt inexplicably restless and irritated. No matter what he did, he couldn't fall asleep.
After tossing and turning several times, he smelled the faint mustiness inside the wooden building and finally frowned and sat up.
“What a shitty house. All this rain has made the damn place moldy.”
With no other choice, He Cheng darkened his expression, dug a mask out of his bag, and put it on again.
But just as he closed his eyes, he suddenly heard waves of footsteps outside the inn.
It sounded like people were converging on this place from every direction...?
The villagers really were all heading toward the threshing ground.
Each of them carried a candle. No one spoke. They simply walked forward in silence with expressionless faces.
Xie Fan was the same.
Of course, he was only pretending to be expressionless.
In reality, his steps were uneven and unsteady.
When he'd first come downstairs, Xie Fan hadn't realized anything was wrong. It wasn't until he'd been walking for a while and felt his body growing weaker and weaker that he finally stopped, realizing that he could barely muster any strength in his arms.
What was going on?
The hand holding his candle felt completely limp. Xie Fan stopped beneath a large tree, his expression strange.
A tall, handsome young man was also standing beneath the tree, with a scar on his left arm.
After waiting for a moment, the man smiled at him.
“Why aren't you walking?”
If Xie Fan had been clearheaded, he would have realized that every one of this man's distinguishing features was identical to those of the missing Sun Zhou.
Even those deep honey-colored eyes were exactly the same.
But right now...
After countless tiny figures began dancing before his eyes, Xie Fan turned his head toward the man with utmost seriousness.
“I've been poisoned by mushrooms.”