“Illness”? Xie Fan frowned slightly before he finally remembered.
Right, the village chief’s nephew had been sick before, and even the doors and windows had been sealed shut. Had he recovered now? Xie Fan kept feeling that something was wrong, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember what it was.
He had thought... A-Qi’s illness would be related to some supernatural incident, and that something might have already happened to him over the past few days? Yet unexpectedly, A-Qi had actually recovered and seemed completely fine.
Had he simply been overthinking it?
Xie Fan’s expression turned strange. He felt somewhat uncomfortable with his own sudden thought, as though he had been cursing A-Qi or something.
Forget it. No matter what, recovering from an illness was a good thing.
Outside, cicadas chirped intermittently. Sunlight carrying the muggy dampness of the air filtered in through the wooden window.
It had poured all day yesterday, and the rain had finally stopped this morning. But by now, all the accumulated water outside had already disappeared. Aside from the dirt roads still being a little sticky underfoot, there was no sign left of how terrifying yesterday’s rain had been. Even the villagers had resumed their normal lives, coming outside one after another to bask in the sun.
Xie Fan suppressed his strange thoughts and tugged at the corner of his mouth.
He didn’t say anything, and Xiao Yao didn’t mind. She merely grinned and said,
“Actually, even though Brother A-Qi is a little serious, he’s a pretty nice person.”
“Everyone can relax now that he’s okay.”
“Oh, right, Brother A-Xie. There’s something else important.”
Xiao Yao’s expression grew more serious as she spoke. “The village chief said this sacrifice might be moved forward.”
“Sigh, maybe those outsiders aren’t blessed by the deity. It’s been raining especially often lately. If it keeps raining like this, something’s going to happen to the village.”
In all the years since Xiao Yao had been born, she had never seen a rainy season last this long. Last night in particular had been terrifying.
She even shuddered as she spoke.
Xie Fan, however, froze.
The sacrifice had been moved forward?
How could that be?
He should clearly have felt frightened and uneasy, yet for some inexplicable reason, he calmly accepted the news.
“I understand.”
“As long as you remember, Brother A-Xie. I’ll be going, then.”
Xiao Yao waved and hurried away again.
After all, she had animals to take care of these days and was extremely busy. And now that the sacrifice had suddenly been moved forward to some unknown date, she needed to make preparations ahead of time.
Xiao Yao went downstairs and left.
Xie Fan stood in front of the window with a frown and instinctively called out, “System?”
“Mm.”
The voice appeared in his mind right on cue. Xie Fan’s brows relaxed slightly, though his tone remained hesitant.
“Do you know why the rainy season has lasted longer this time?”
Xiao Yao had said the tour group wasn’t blessed by the deity, but how could that possibly be true? The protagonist shou was in the tour group. How could the deity possibly reject him?
Besides, it was the evil god who had lured the protagonist group to Xican Village in the first place.
Fragments of the original novel flashed through his mind.
Xie Fan remembered that the Spider God’s abilities seemed to have something to do with... dreams?
When he thought of the “Spider God,” there wasn’t the slightest trace of surprise on his face. The fear and dread he should have felt toward the otherworldly evil god were unconsciously dulled, yet Xie Fan himself noticed nothing.
The “system” quietly watched him, its tone unchanged.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know either.”
Right. How could the system possibly know?
If the system knew, they would have escaped long ago.
Coming back to his senses, Xie Fan irritably raked a hand through his hair. He only felt a strange, contradictory sense of nausea weighing heavily somewhere deep inside him.
The system watched Xie Fan mess up his hair. Then, when Xie Fan took his afternoon nap, it gently combed through his hair bit by bit, putting it neatly back in place.
A beautiful, lively cat should wake up every day with smooth, fragrant hair.
“Sun Zhou” lowered its eyes to examine its handiwork, the corner of its lips curving into a faint smile.
Not bad.
Xie Fan felt that sleeping was the only time of day when he could truly relax.
At some point, he had developed the habit of taking afternoon naps. Clearly, losing consciousness under any circumstances in this village was dangerous, but perhaps because he had spent so long in a constant state of mental tension, Xie Fan simply couldn’t suppress the urge to sleep whenever things became unbearable.
As though once he fell asleep, he wouldn’t have to think about anything anymore.
After spending half the day tense and restless, he unknowingly drifted off again. Through the haze, he vaguely sensed a hand resting on his hair.
Was it the system?
The thought instinctively flashed through his mind, and Xie Fan stopped caring.
...
The village sacrifice had been moved forward. Logically speaking, they should have been happy about it. After all, they no longer needed to wait an entire month.
But for some reason, this time even Tan Qingxian, the one who most wanted to see the mysterious spring, felt that something wasn’t right.
Especially yesterday...
He suddenly remembered how he had felt when they went to pry open the village chief’s door and came face-to-face with A-Qi. Almost instinctively, Tan Qingxian had placed a hand at his waist, assuming the same posture he used when dealing with large wild beasts.
But the person standing opposite him had clearly been human.
Deep in thought, he watched the smiling village chief turn and leave after delivering the news, then closed the door.
“Does this count as good news?”
“What good news? Looks more like a trap to me.”
He Cheng couldn’t help making a sarcastic remark.
They had asked so many times before and had never been allowed to go. The villagers had insisted they needed to wait until the sacrifice began a month later. Yet now, all of a sudden, the sacrifice had been moved forward. Even an idiot could tell something was wrong.
He Cheng sneered. “I’m telling you, there’s definitely something strange about this village.”
Pei Jing raised his head and suddenly remembered something they had pushed to the back of their minds during the recent torrential rain.
“We still don’t know exactly what this village is sacrificing to.”
He Cheng paused. “Wait. You’re right.”
Shen Xun had been quietly listening to them the entire time without joining the conversation. Only after He Cheng called his name did he slowly come back to his senses.
“What is it?”
He Cheng said, “Why do you seem so weird these past few days?”
He frowned slightly, but Shen Xun paused before saying, “I was just thinking... the doors to the main rooms in every household in the village are tightly shut. Could whatever they worship during the sacrifice be kept inside?”
His sudden remark made even Pei Jing instinctively look over.
With that reminder, He Cheng remembered too.
Right. The main rooms.
Whenever they had gone out to eat during this period, whether it was at the village chief’s house or the home of the woman who cooked for them, the doors to the main rooms upstairs had always been locked.
There was definitely something fishy about that.
If everything was normal, why lock them up so securely?
And every single household kept theirs locked. Wasn’t that too much of a coincidence?
He Cheng’s eyes lit up. He thought it was genuinely possible.
Pei Jing, however, scrutinized Shen Xun.
The fact that every household in Xican Village kept its main room locked could indeed indicate that something was wrong.
But the person who had suggested it was—Shen Xun.
Although Pei Jing wasn’t as familiar with Shen Xun as He Cheng and the others were, they still moved in the same social circles. And throughout their journey from the outside world into the mountains, Pei Jing had gained some understanding of Shen Xun’s personality.
Compared with Tan Qingxian’s superficial politeness, beneath which still lurked the hypocrisy and arrogance of their upper-class social circle, Shen Xun had none of a wealthy young master’s temper. He was genuinely mild-mannered and... devoted to art.
His head was filled with painting. He even possessed something of an artist’s aloof purity.
But now...
He had seemingly casually pointed out the abnormality of the main rooms. For an instant, Pei Jing even suspected that Shen Xun was “guiding” them into entering one.
The thought abruptly surfaced in his mind.
Pei Jing fell into contemplation. He didn’t know whether spending so many oppressive days in Xican Village had simply made him overly vigilant, or whether there really was something wrong with Shen Xun.
After giving them the reminder, Shen Xun paused slightly, as though he had only just realized what he had said. His expression became somewhat apologetic.
“I was only saying it offhand. It might not actually be the case. Maybe they keep something else inside.”
“The customs in this village are different from those outside. We should probably avoid offending them. If someone catches us and a conflict breaks out, that would be troublesome.”
The young man standing beside the table had barely taken back his earlier words when He Cheng stood up.
“A-Xun, why are you thinking so much about it?”
“If we know there’s something wrong, then obviously we have to go take a look.”
His brows instinctively knitted together as he paced around the guesthouse. “I didn’t notice it before, but now that I really think about it, there are way too many suspicious things about those main rooms.”
That day at the village chief’s house, the rain had already flooded the entire first floor. Yet A-Qi, who had been perfectly capable of moving around inside, had shown absolutely no intention of going up to the main room on the second floor. He had even locked the wooden door blocking the staircase.
Although the front door had later been pried open from inside, proving that A-Qi could leave whenever he wanted and there was no need to worry about him drowning...
He would still rather remain in the floodwater than go upstairs.
Didn’t that prove there was something wrong?
Tan Qingxian had thought of the same thing. His expression became slightly grave before he made his decision with a false smile.
“All right. We really should take a look at the main rooms.”
“Let’s rest first. They still haven’t told us the exact time of the sacrifice. Tomorrow, once we’re well rested, we’ll investigate properly.”
With Tan Qingxian making the final decision, no one in the group objected.
After all, they had come all the way to this unfamiliar mountain village to see the legendary mysterious spring said to reveal one’s past and present lives. They certainly hadn’t come here to get inexplicably tricked by a bunch of ignorant villagers over something completely unrelated.
After all, in some villages... sacrifices could be extremely primitive.
Tan Qingxian lowered his eyes slightly, concealing the thoughts within them.
...
Early the next morning, the exact date of the sacrifice was announced.
There was no broadcast calling everyone to a meeting, nor did anyone gather on the threshing ground.
Yet inexplicably, the instant everyone opened their eyes, they all knew the exact date in their minds.
Even Xie Fan.
Xie Fan had only just gotten up that morning when he froze slightly.
“Ten days from now?”
It had actually been moved forward by that much?
But...
How did he know?
Xie Fan’s expression turned strange. It was as though, in the blink of an eye, he had simply known it naturally. His certainty about the date of the sacrifice felt as ordinary and unquestionable as eating or drinking.
Was this... the Spider God’s ability?
He was slightly dazed, then puzzled.
“But why ten days from now?”
Did that particular day have some special significance?