“The eighth day of every month is an auspicious day.”
The system’s voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
Xie Fan was somewhat bewildered. He wanted to think more deeply about it, yet it felt as though there were some kind of barrier inside his mind. The trace of doubt had barely arisen before he forgot it.
Forget it.
The eighth was the eighth.
He shook his head and instinctively opened the cabinet.
Ever since the system appeared two days ago, quite a lot of things had accumulated inside his cabinet. They were all foods he loved, and there was even plenty of food from modern society!
Xie Fan casually took out a slice of bread and bit into it, feeling as though he had returned to the city.
The sweet, soft texture melted in his mouth. Xie Fan pushed his hair aside, then suddenly remembered something.
“Right, did you comb my hair last night?”
Otherwise, why had he woken up to find his hair completely free of tangles?
This long hair annoyed Xie Fan to death every single day. Combing it was troublesome every time, and washing it was even worse. He could hardly be bothered taking care of it anymore.
The system chuckled softly.
“Mm.”
“I did it while I was at it.”
The system really was incredibly capable!
Xie Fan felt as though he were dealing with an all-purpose housekeeping robot, except this robot definitely had a soul and could even be considered... his friend.
He felt slightly awkward inside. Having the system comb his hair made him feel like some kind of lazy bum.
Rapidly skipping past that subject, Xie Fan pursed his lips and asked curiously,
“Will it rain again today?”
“No.”
The system gave him a straightforward answer.
Xie Fan nodded. “Then those people from the tour group... will they still be around the village today?”
He hadn’t heard any news about the tour group these past few days. Xie Fan guessed that those wealthy young masters had also been trapped inside the guesthouse by the rain and hadn’t gone out for several days in a row.
Now that the weather had cleared, they would definitely go out and wander around.
Xie Fan had originally been planning to go outside, but he hesitated. Worried that he might run into the protagonist group, he glanced outdoors.
“Forget it. I’d better stay home.”
Being alone in the wooden house had been unbearably boring before, but things were much better now that the system was here.
And the system had even brought him... comic books!
God knew how pleasantly surprised Xie Fan had been when he saw them. If this village weren’t so inexplicably bizarre, staying in this wooden house would practically feel like living in a secluded paradise.
Lying on his stomach on the bamboo bed, Xie Fan idly flipped through the comic book. At first, he was only using it to pass the time, but the more he read, the more engrossed he became. Before he knew it, he had actually spent the entire afternoon reading.
By the time he came back to his senses, it was almost dark.
Hm?
Noticing that his surroundings had grown dim, he blinked and turned his head, only to see the sun slowly setting outside.
The red sun quickly disappeared behind the distant mountains. A cool breeze blew inside, and the light beyond the window faded completely, especially when the locust tree blocked his view.
“Having this tree here is pretty nice for keeping cool, but it’s seriously creepy at night,” Xie Fan couldn’t help complaining.
Who planted a locust tree right in front of their door? And one that had grown this huge, at that. Although he didn’t know much about folk customs, even he knew that locust trees attracted yin energy.
The system followed his gaze and casually smiled.
“Maybe whoever planted it didn’t know about that.”
Xie Fan had no idea whether that person had known or not. He had only said it casually anyway. It wasn’t like he could saw the tree down.
“Forget it. I’d better light the candle first.”
By now, he had developed a strong sense of dependence on the candle.
This thing was practically a life-saving tool in this village. As long as he had it, he wouldn’t be... corrupted by the Spider God.
Xie Fan’s mind went hazy for a brief instant.
The next second, he became completely certain that this was true.
The white candle was lit again, its flame flickering faintly. In an instant, Xie Fan was filled with a sense of security.
He instinctively put away the match and blew on his hand. Just as he was about to return to the bamboo bed, a sudden series of ear-piercing pounding noises erupted throughout the village.
“Bang, bang, bang, bang.”
The sound came from every direction, like something sharp was being violently driven straight into his ear canals.
Xie Fan had only just covered his ears in pain when, the next second, the sound disappeared.
No—it hadn’t disappeared.
He simply couldn’t hear it for the moment.
The system had covered Xie Fan’s ears. Confused, he asked, “What’s going on?”
Nights in the village had always been extremely quiet. Why would such an ear-piercing pounding sound suddenly appear in the middle of the night?
And it was so obvious. Weren’t they afraid the outsiders in the guesthouse would hear it?
After all, they had even held their meetings while deliberately avoiding the outsiders.
Xie Fan had only just begun wondering about it when he saw A-Qi approaching along the path opposite his house with a group of people. A-Qi’s expression looked terrible.
“Everything all right at your house?”
He knocked on the neighboring door first and asked in a grave voice after Xiao Yao opened it.
Xiao Yao shook her head. “Everything’s fine, Brother A-Qi.”
A-Qi instinctively raised his head and glanced at the main room on the second floor. Seeing that its door was still securely locked, he nodded and headed for the next house.
Wait...
The next house was his!
Xie Fan immediately turned around nervously and called for the system in his mind. Fortunately, the “system” had probably heard the commotion and disappeared just as the villagers were approaching.
Xie Fan imperceptibly breathed a sigh of relief and hurried downstairs to open the door.
“What happened?”
His slightly puzzled voice sounded through the darkness. To A-Qi, his tone seemed unusually soft, making him inexplicably freeze for a moment.
The next second, without even realizing it himself, A-Qi’s voice became considerably gentler when speaking to A-Xie.
Clutching his candle irritably, he lowered his voice.
“Those damned outsiders. We never should’ve let them in!”
“Something happened.”
Behind him, the other young and able-bodied villagers were still searching everywhere for something. They held candles in their hands and were even searching through the bushes.
Xie Fan blinked blankly. He had no idea what could have happened to make everyone this nervous.
A-Qi was anxious to continue the search. Seeing that nothing was wrong at Xie Fan’s house, he hurriedly said,
“All right, no time to explain.”
“Those outsiders pried open a door and stole the idol the village enshrines in the main room. Now we don’t know where they’ve hidden themselves.”
“If you run into them, be careful. Whatever you do, don’t go outside for the next few days!”
“Those outsiders aren’t ordinary tourists. The things they’re carrying aren’t ordinary either.”
A-Qi’s expression darkened as he said this.
“A-Qi, there’s nothing in the haystack over here.”
Zhang Hai walked over.
Hearing the voice, A-Qi glanced at Xie Fan once more before quickly leaving.
Xie Fan watched the group disappear into the night, still processing what he had just heard.
Those outsiders had stolen an idol and run away?
“No, why would the protagonist group steal an idol?”
Were they insane?!
Had this happened in the original plot?
Xie Fan thought for a long time and realized that the original novel had only said that, after the welcoming ceremony, the protagonist shou seemed to have been regarded by the villagers as the “god’s wife.” Nothing else had been mentioned.
And there definitely hadn’t been anything about stealing an idol.
At the beginning, the protagonist group had always been treated as honored guests by the villagers. How could they possibly end up being hunted throughout the entire village like criminals, as they were now?
Xie Fan froze slightly.
Something didn’t seem right.
“Sun Zhou” quietly watched from the side. When it saw A-Qi speaking to Xie Fan, it raised an eyebrow slightly, seemingly surprised.
It failed?
How strange.
The puppet had clearly been reshaped. Logically, all the emotions and perceptions it had developed should have been completely wiped clean.
Yet when the puppet called “A-Qi” saw Xie Fan, it seemed... different from usual even now.
The deity’s eyes were indifferent as it watched A-Qi’s departing back. The corner of its lips curved upward, seemingly with a hint of puzzlement.
Xie Fan turned around. For an instant, he caught sight of the hazy honey-colored depths of the “system’s” pupils and inexplicably felt that the color looked familiar.
“What should we do now?”
He opened his mouth, instinctively seeking the system’s advice.
“You should go to sleep,” the system said.
Outside, the night had grown so dark that not even the slightest glimmer of light could be seen.
A-Qi searched with his candle for the entire night. Unexpectedly, they never managed to find anyone from the tour group.
“The village is only this big. Where could they possibly have gone?” Han Da asked in confusion, holding a hoe.
They had searched from one end of the village to the other. Logically, they should have found them no matter what, yet they hadn’t even caught a glimpse of anyone.
Were these outsiders really that good at hiding?
A-Qi was growing irritated as well.
They couldn’t find the people, and the idol had been taken. The ominous feeling in his heart grew stronger and stronger. Nothing this serious had ever happened in the village in previous years.
It was an outrageous act of disrespect toward that one.
“Search!”
“Keep searching. They must still be in the village.”
The group crossed the path and continued searching along the outskirts.
...
Inside a dilapidated, abandoned house:
He Cheng brushed the dirt from his clothes and climbed out of a pit in the ground, looking somewhat surprised.
“How did you know there was a cellar here?”
He looked at Pei Jing in confusion.
They had been trapped here during the previous torrential rain and had sheltered from it for several hours. Even then, He Cheng hadn’t noticed there was a cellar underneath the house.
Yet Pei Jing had somehow noticed it at a glance?
And after the villagers discovered them, he had accurately led everyone here to hide.
Pei Jing glanced at him. “Hollow ground sounds different from solid ground. That day, I was only guessing.”
It just so happened that his guess had been correct.
“Then I guess we got lucky.” He Cheng laughed and looked toward the red cloth in Tan Qingxian’s hands.
“What exactly is this thing? Those villagers have practically gone insane. They’ve been searching for us all night.”
Truthfully, when He Cheng pried open the door to the main room, he hadn’t expected the villagers to react so violently. Their reaction had been completely beyond his expectations.
More importantly...
They had barely made a move before the villager who had already walked away somehow seemed to know what they had done and immediately began shouting loudly for the others. There hadn’t been the slightest delay.
Silently cursing, He Cheng hadn’t even had time to take a proper look. He and Tan Qingxian exchanged glances, grabbed the object covered with red cloth from the center of the offering table, and escaped through the window.
After that... they had hidden all the way here.
Everything had happened so quickly that even now they hadn’t fully recovered from it. But the villagers’ reaction convinced He Cheng that they had taken something important.
Everyone’s gaze simultaneously fell on the object beneath the red cloth.
Tan Qingxian paused.
“Are we sure it’s safe now?”
Pei Jing looked outside. “Those villagers already searched this abandoned house just now.”
They probably wouldn’t come back for a while.
He said nothing more. Once everyone had relaxed, he walked over and directly reached out to pull away the red cloth.
Unexpectedly, beneath it was actually a... statue?
What the hell was this?
He Cheng was startled.
While they were fleeing earlier, several of them had taken turns carrying the object. When He Cheng held it, it had clearly felt sticky and viscous, almost as though he were touching melted candle wax. The texture had been indescribably strange.
Yet after removing the red cloth, it turned out to be a statue?
The statue before them was extraordinarily lifelike. Once uncovered, it gave off a strange sense of sanctity. If they hadn’t touched its peculiar material earlier, they might even have mistaken it for something carved from some kind of precious jade.
He Cheng felt slightly dazed as he stared at the idol, never realizing that he had been unable to make out its facial features the entire time.
“Why does this thing feel kind of sinister?”
Tan Qingxian was the first to break the silence.
Not wanting to hold the idol any longer, he frowned, placed the statue on the ground, and instinctively took a step back.
No one knew that, just moments ago, he too had become mesmerized while staring at the idol.
It was only when breathing became increasingly difficult that Tan Qingxian abruptly came back to his senses. His wrist suddenly felt cold.
He lowered his head and discovered that the protective jade charm his family had spent a fortune obtaining for him had somehow shattered!
The circular jade pendant had silently disintegrated without leaving behind so much as a speck of debris.
A chill instantly ran through him.
Tan Qingxian swallowed, his pupils contracting.
“Why does this idol have... eight spider legs?”
There was confusion in Shen Xun’s voice as well.
“I don’t think there’s anything like this among traditional deities?”
Inside the silent cellar, the breathing of the group was almost inaudible.
“I’ve never seen anything like this either,” Pei Jing said coldly.
“So this is... the Spider God?”
He Cheng frowned and couldn’t help looking at the idol again. When he spoke this time, his voice had unconsciously dropped much lower, carrying a rare trace of apprehension.
“This is what the villagers worship?”
Shen Xun came back to his senses as though abruptly awakening and rubbed his temple.
“Probably.”
“After all, it was placed on an offering table, and they treated it with such solemnity.”
“Cover it.”
Pei Jing suddenly spoke.
Everyone felt uncomfortable looking at the idol.
Even he seemed to have been... affected.
His gaze darkened. He walked over, picked up the red cloth from the ground, and prepared to cover the idol again.
But the instant he raised his hand, Pei Jing suddenly paused.
This thing on the idol... what was it?
The sinister idol’s face was impossible to make out clearly. Its long, curly hair had been carved with extraordinary precision, so logically there shouldn’t have been any mistakes.
Yet beneath the slightly lowered hair at its back, Pei Jing saw a single carved lock of straight hair.
It intertwined with the curly hair cascading over the spider legs, tightly entwined together.
For some inexplicable reason, it looked somewhat like the human custom of... binding one’s hair together in marriage?
His gaze turned strange, and he remained motionless for a long while.
Tan Qingxian raised his head, concealing what remained of the protective jade charm at his wrist.
“What’s wrong?”
Pei Jing dismissed the absurd thought in his mind and shook his head.
This idol was so sinister. How could it possibly have anything to do with the traditional marriage custom of “binding hair”?
That lock of straight hair might simply have been a mistake made during the carving process, or perhaps there was some other explanation.
Pei Jing calmed himself, withdrew his gaze, and stopped hesitating.
He covered the idol with the red cloth again.
...
Xie Fan had no idea that a lock of his hair was missing.
After all, the system was the one taking care of his hair these days.
As his hair was being combed, he grew drowsy and couldn’t help turning his head.
“They still haven’t found them?”
They had searched for an entire night, yet they really hadn’t found the protagonist group?
It was honestly unbelievable.
The villagers had even searched the sheep pens, yet still found nothing.
Xie Fan had been surprised when Xiao Yao told him about it that morning. He yawned and looked at the misty morning clouds, hesitating.
Could the protagonist halo really be protecting them?
If that was the case, he might have to start worshipping it himself.
Although the protagonist halo couldn’t protect cannon fodder like him...
Well, he might as well benefit from it however much he could.
The instant the thought crossed his mind, the voice behind him suddenly paused.
“Don’t move.”
Hm?
Xie Fan immediately froze. From the corner of his eye, he saw the system having to pick up a lock of hair again and carefully secure it with the silver ribbon.
Only then did he realize that his sudden movement had made things difficult for the system.
Once the beautiful knot was tied, Xie Fan immediately felt that his head was much lighter. Unable to resist, he praised it.
“Great craftsmanship!”
“Not bad?”
The system raised an eyebrow, amusement in its expression.
Only when its gaze fell upon the left side of Xie Fan’s head... where a lock of black hair was missing, did its eyes darken slightly.
Binding hair in marriage?
That seemed rather nice.