Xie Fan: ...
Were outsiders some kind of exotic species that needed to be observed?
Xie Fan couldn't shake the feeling that there was something strange about the way this little girl spoke. But considering that outsiders had never come to this village before, and almost no one except the successive village chiefs had ever seen people from the outside world, he could somewhat understand her excitement.
Still, there was absolutely no way he was going to see the protagonist group. Xie Fan didn't need anyone to remind him how the original A-Xie had died.
On the very first day the tour group arrived, he fell in love with the protagonist shou at first sight, offended the deity worshipped by the village, and ended up dying a miserable death!
There was absolutely, absolutely no way he was going!
Although Xie Fan was certain he wouldn't fall in love with the protagonist shou Shen Xun at first sight, if trouble could be avoided, then he would avoid it. He cleared his throat lightly and, coming back to his senses, decided to pretend he was sick.
"I think I've caught a cold, so I probably can't go today."
"Be good, Xiao Yao. Go find someone else to go with you."
His slightly low, hoarse voice really did sound somewhat weak.
Xiao Yao hesitated. "Is Brother A-Xie really sick?"
But he had seemed perfectly fine when he'd first gotten up.
Even though she was only seven or eight years old, Xiao Yao was clearly not easy to fool. Her pitch-black eyes rolled as she stared at Xie Fan. Only after seeing his pale complexion and the faint flush along his cheeks did she slowly blink in disappointment.
"All right. So Brother A-Xie really is sick."
"Then I'll go by myself."
"Brother A-Xie, make sure you take good care of yourself while you're alone."
Xie Fan: ...
Even if she was a child from Xican Village, wasn't this kid a little too mature in the way she spoke?
Feeling strange under Xiao Yao's gaze, Xie Fan put on an act and nodded. Only after the little girl went bouncing down the stairs again did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
But...
Listening to the thumping footsteps on the stairs, he couldn't help wondering: Had he not closed the door when he went upstairs to rest last night?
His memories of last night seemed to have been diluted by something. Xie Fan only remembered coming back, eating a peach, and then inexplicably falling asleep.
Pulling his gaze away from the stairs, Xie Fan was just about to stand up when he suddenly realized something was wrong.
Why was there something extra on the table?
The tabletop had originally held nothing but the cup of water, yet at some point, a white object had appeared there. Xie Fan walked over and discovered that it was actually...
A candle?
The white candle stood there silently. He had no idea when it had appeared.
Xie Fan froze slightly, feeling a chill crawl over his entire body.
Had someone come upstairs last night?
Or had Xiao Yao brought it when she came over?
His face pale, Xie Fan gritted his teeth and picked up the candle.
The first thing he noticed was that it felt slightly cool to the touch. It didn't seem to have been made from any of the strange, disgusting things he'd imagined. In fact, he could even smell a faint fragrance coming from it.
It smelled a little like...
Honey?
Xie Fan hesitantly made the judgment.
Last night, when he'd seen every villager carrying a candle, he'd assumed these candles must have been made from something special. Otherwise, the people of Xican Village wouldn't have taken them so seriously.
But now that he had one in his hands and could examine it carefully, Xie Fan discovered that it really did seem to be an ordinary beeswax candle.
It smelled sweet, so sweet that it even gave him the strange urge to take a bite.
Suppressing the thought of eating a candle raw, Xie Fan took a deep breath, still somewhat bewildered.
So...
Did this mean he had a candle now?
No matter what, once Xiao Yao came back from looking at the protagonist group, he definitely had to ask her about it.
It wasn't dark yet. Although the locust tree blocked much of the light and made the wooden house somewhat dim, visibility was still decent. Xie Fan carefully put the candle away, fetched some water, and washed up.
Fortunately, the original A-Xie's home was furnished very simply, so it didn't take much exploration for him to familiarize himself with everything.
Sitting in the woodshed, Xie Fan casually roasted a few potatoes. He turned his head and stared absentmindedly at the shade outside for several seconds.
Tch. If he ignored the surroundings, this really did look like some peaceful, secluded pastoral life.
Unfortunately, Xican Village wasn't some paradise, and this wasn't exactly a good place to relax.
The corner of Xie Fan's mouth twitched. No matter how he thought about it, he simply couldn't understand the protagonist group.
They could have stayed home and enjoyed their comfortable lives as rich young masters, so what the hell were they doing running all the way out here?
In the end, they even lost their lives.
The potatoes had only been in the stove for about ten minutes when their roasted aroma began wafting out. Xie Fan quickly turned them over.
Then, in the very next second, he noticed the sky outside gradually beginning to darken again.
Xie Fan: ...
What the hell was wrong with this weather?
He'd only just woken up, and it was getting dark again?
Had there not even been half a day's worth of daylight today?
Xie Fan wasn't the only one complaining about it. On the other side of the village, the rich young masters who had just returned from registering with the village chief had also noticed something was wrong.
"Wait, why does it get dark so fast in this village?"
"It's only three in the afternoon, isn't it?"
He Cheng glanced at his watch in surprise.
Tan Qingxian nodded as well. "I noticed it too."
"But I suppose it's only natural for an unusual place to have a few unusual things about it."
They had come precisely because of the unusual legends surrounding Xican Village. If they arrived only to discover that it was no different from any ordinary village, that would have been disappointing instead.
"True."
He Cheng scoffed and slowly swept his gaze over the villagers returning from the fields.
"Let's check out the guesthouse first."
"We can rest up today while we're at it." Shen Xun followed He Cheng's gaze thoughtfully.
"I heard before we came that the customs in this village are different from those outside. Everyone be careful and don't violate any taboos."
"Got it."
If anyone else had said it, He Cheng might not have taken it seriously. But since the one speaking was Shen Xun, whom he'd grown up with, he still gave him an answer.
The house the chief of Xican Village had prepared for them couldn't really be called crude. At least compared to the rest of the village, it was fairly decent. The furnishings inside were even newer than those in the village chief's own home.
Pei Jing swept his gaze around the room. After confirming there was nothing dangerous, he was just about to put his things down when he abruptly turned around.
"Who's there?"
Shen Xun paused.
At first, he'd assumed Pei Jing was simply overly tense after spending the whole day walking through the forest. But in the next second, when he turned his head, he saw a little girl's head peeking out from behind the large tree outside the door.
"Holy shit."
"Scared the hell out of me."
He Cheng stood up. "What's that girl hiding there for?"
It was already dark, and they were in this strange village. Anyone would be startled by a head suddenly popping out from behind a tree.
Shen Xun elbowed him. Only after He Cheng shut his mouth did Shen Xun stand up and walk over.
"Hello. Are you from the village?"
Only after approaching the tree did Shen Xun realize that the little girl looked even younger than her actual age. She was thin, with the appearance of someone slightly malnourished.
The blue cloth outfit she wore, however, looked brand-new. Perhaps her parents had only recently changed her into it.
Xiao Yao hadn't expected this group to actually come over to her. She froze for a moment before answering honestly,
"Yeah. I live nearby."
Although her home and Brother Xie Fan's home were on the opposite side of the village from the village chief's place, as long as you lived in the same village, that counted as nearby.
After speaking, she tilted her head.
"I've never seen outsiders before."
"So I came here specially to look at you."
Shen Xun: ...
Even Shen Xun was momentarily rendered speechless by such a straightforward answer.
So this little girl had been hiding behind the tree specifically to stare at them?
After saying that, Xiao Yao glanced at the sky and seemed to suddenly remember something.
"Oh, right. It's dark now. I have to go back and take care of Brother A-Xie."
"Otherwise, Brother A-Xie might start feeling worse."
The little girl grinned and waved before turning around and running into the trees.
Shen Xun frowned slightly and straightened up.
"That was pointless, wasn't it?"
"I knew there was something weird about that girl."
He Cheng was somewhat speechless.
Take care of her brother? What kind of older brother needed a child that young to take care of him?
And besides...
What normal little girl hid behind a tree in the middle of the night?
Tan Qingxian, who hadn't spoken until now, laughed.
"Maybe she was telling the truth."
"Besides, she's a little girl. That's still better than running into something genuinely strange."
"What strange thing could there possibly be?"
He Cheng gave him a mocking glance, not taking it seriously at all.
After what had just happened, no one was particularly interested in talking anymore.
Pei Jing put his things away and went back inside.
The guesthouse the village chief had arranged for them had two floors in total and was fairly spacious. There were more than enough rooms for each of them to have one to themselves.
Most importantly, Shen Xun discovered that the wooden building had terrible soundproofing.
That meant if anything happened, everyone could immediately come to one another's aid.
Although they'd come here to relax and sketch, these rich young masters weren't completely lacking in awareness of their own safety. After all, this was an unfamiliar, isolated village.
Shen Xun placed his suitcase on the floor and swept his gaze around the room. Only after the sounds of someone washing up next door had stopped did he get onto the bed and close his eyes.
As the sky grew darker and darker, Xie Fan lit the candle.
And surprisingly enough, the moment the candle was lit, even the wooden house stopped feeling so creepy.
The entire wooden house was illuminated by the candlelight, becoming bright and cozy. Even the locust tree outside seemed much less sinister.
The only thing that surprised Xie Fan was that although the candle looked no larger than an ordinary candle, once lit, the amount of light it produced made it seem as though the entire room were filled with candles.
"How does this work?"
Was this some kind of futuristic technology?
Xie Fan stared blankly at it for a moment and was just about to examine it when he spotted a figure running back outside the window.
The "thump, thump, thump" of footsteps continued until the person reached the bottom of the wooden house. Then Xiao Yao's slightly surprised voice rang out.
"So Brother A-Xie has a candle now."
"Oh, right. Is Brother A-Xie's cold feeling any better?"
"A little better."
Xie Fan coughed and deliberately answered in a slightly hoarse voice.
Xiao Yao nodded, immediately brightening.
"Then I'm relieved."
Xiao Yao, who had hurried out and then rushed back, was just about to head home when she suddenly heard Brother A-Xie, who normally didn't like talking very much, speak from upstairs.
"I left a roasted potato for you on the table downstairs."
Xie Fan felt that he hadn't deliberately saved it for her. There had simply happened to be one left over.
All right.
Actually, it was because on his first day here yesterday, Xiao Yao had helped him out by sharing her candle with him. As a grown man, Xie Fan felt strangely uncomfortable taking advantage of a child like that.
The young man upstairs pursed his lips and half-closed the window.
Xiao Yao froze for a moment, clearly not expecting Brother A-Xie to have saved food for her.
When her gaze landed on the roasted potato on the table ahead, her eyes lit up. The smile that had seemed almost deliberately pulled onto her face became slightly more genuine, and she grinned.
"Thank you, Brother A-Xie."
But had Brother A-Xie burned it?
Why did it smell kind of charred?
Xiao Yao tucked the slightly overcooked potato into her pocket and happily left.
Xie Fan breathed a sigh of relief as he watched her go.
Only then did he turn his head toward the candle with a puzzled expression.
So the candle he'd lit...
hadn't been given to him by Xiao Yao?