Who could it have been?
For some reason, Xie Fan inexplicably thought of Sun Zhou, the villager who had brought him the peach last night.
Could it have been him?
It wasn't impossible.
The thought flashed through Xie Fan's mind. He tried to recall the man's face, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember it. Still, that didn't matter. He should be able to recognize him if they ran into each other in the village, right?
He remembered that the man was quite tall and had a scar on his left arm.
Because of his face blindness, whenever Xie Fan couldn't distinguish someone by their voice, he would make an effort to remember more of their other distinguishing features. And because Sun Zhou had spoken so boldly during the meeting in the square that day, Xie Fan had deliberately paid extra attention to him.
……
Xie Fan woke when the rooster began to crow. He sat dazedly on the bamboo bed for a while, still unused to mornings like this. Everything still felt like a dream, but the voices of villagers chatting as they headed out to work in the fields not far away dragged him completely back to reality.
After washing his face to wake himself up, Xie Fan went downstairs and immediately heard the villagers discussing the outsiders who had arrived yesterday.
Those people had gotten up as soon as dawn broke. Apparently, they had said they wanted to see the scenery and headed toward the back mountain early in the morning.
Xie Fan suspected that the protagonist group was most likely interested in the "Dissociation Spring" at the summit of Xican Village's back mountain, which was why they had gone there. But if he remembered correctly, wasn't the back mountain currently blocked off by the village chief?
Sure enough, it wasn't long before the group returned.
"What the hell?"
"There's nothing in this village, and they won't even let us climb the mountain?"
He Cheng and the others had gotten their gear ready early that morning and headed up the mountain. But after walking less than a kilometer, they found the mountain path densely barricaded with hoes.
Every passable route had been blocked by hoes, and some kind of disgusting black substance had been smeared over them.
The group exchanged glances and had no choice but to turn back for the time being.
It was only their first day here, and they didn't want to start a conflict with the villagers just yet. Besides, who knew what that black liquid on the hoes was? If it was poisonous, the supplies they had brought might not necessarily be of any use.
Still, making the trip for nothing left the young master with a bellyful of anger. He kicked a stone on the road with a dark expression, and because he kicked it so hard, the stone even smashed into some ants by the roadside.
Shen Xun: ……
"Forget it."
"Let's ask the village chief later why we aren't allowed up the mountain."
They hadn't come here purely for a vacation. That "Dissociation Spring" was also one of the major reasons. For some reason, the instant Shen Xun had heard its name, his spiritual intuition had suddenly erupted in his mind, inexplicably urging him to come here.
He pressed his fingers against the space between his brows and turned his gaze toward the roadside.
They had entered the village too late yesterday. The sky had gone dark almost as soon as they arrived, so they hadn't had a chance to properly observe the village yet.
Now that it was morning, all the villagers had come out, and food was even cooking outside some of the houses.
Having eaten nothing all morning, Shen Xun casually walked up to one of the wooden houses and knocked on the door.
"Hello, we're with the tour group that just arrived. We saw that you were cooking. Could we buy some breakfast?"
The villager: ……
Normally, they would never have paid any attention to these outsiders, but the village chief had given them instructions just the day before yesterday. The woman cooking in front of the stove still scooped several ladlefuls of food into bowls and brought them over, expressionless.
"Trade. Something for it."
Their guide had already warned them before coming here about how isolated the village was, so Tan Qingxian wasn't surprised. He took a lighter from his pocket.
"Will this do?"
The lighter was obviously expensive at a glance, and the woman's brows relaxed slightly.
"Fine."
After taking the lighter, the woman tending the fire went back into the inner room. Only then did the group sit down and properly rest.
"What the hell is this?"
He Cheng stirred the contents of his bowl a couple of times, and his face immediately turned green. It wasn't as though he had never spent time in the wilderness, so he wasn't normally this fussy, but whatever was in front of him clearly wasn't ordinary farmhouse food, was it?
He Cheng felt that he could have accepted even a bowl of plain congee.
But what was this?
Bugs?
Pei Jing frowned as well. "They really are bugs."
"And we saw them this morning."
When they had gone toward the back mountain earlier, they had seen this exact kind of insect on the leaves beside the road.
Yellow insects had been wrapped in wheat flour, steamed, and served in bowls. Just looking at them made their stomachs churn.
Pei Jing put down his chopsticks and stood up. A few minutes later, he emerged from the woodshed with an ugly expression.
"They really do eat this for breakfast. It's edible."
"There are lots of poisonous insects in the mountains. For some reason, they say that after eating these bugs, poisonous insects will instinctively avoid you."
Of course, Pei Jing wasn't the kind of person who would simply believe whatever someone told him. It was only because, as soon as he went inside, he saw the villager who had served their food and her husband eating the same thing. Only after confirming that it was indeed identical did he relax his guard slightly.
There really were some mountainous regions where people ate insects. It was rare, but not unheard of.
He Cheng's face looked positively sickly. Even Tan Qingxian found it somewhat difficult to accept. After taking one bite, he put down his chopsticks.
"This place really is strange. Did you notice just now?"
"There aren't many children here."
Because of the layout of the wooden houses, once the doors were opened in the morning, the interior was clearly visible at a glance. At first, Tan Qingxian had merely exchanged polite greetings, but after a while, he finally realized what had felt strange earlier.
"How are there not many?"
He Cheng looked up. "Didn't we just see a little girl yesterday?"
"Maybe all the kids ran outside to play and aren't at home."
As he spoke, his sharp eyes caught sight of the familiar blue figure they had seen only yesterday.
He Cheng immediately waved.
"Kid, come here."
Xiao Yao: ……
Carrying a basket on her arm, Xiao Yao hesitated before walking over anyway.
"What is it, big brother?"
He Cheng was just about to ask, "Where are you going?" when Shen Xun cut in, lowering his head as he asked, "Yesterday, you said you had to go back to take care of your sick brother. Is he feeling better?"
Given He Cheng's arrogance, Shen Xun was worried that if he kept talking, he might make the little girl cry, so he bent down and spoke first.
Only then did Xiao Yao's expression improve.
"Brother A-Xie is much better."
He had even gotten up on time this morning.
But Brother A-Xie didn't like the bug rice she'd brought him, so Xiao Yao planned to trade for a few more eggs and let Brother A-Xie make scrambled eggs.
There were other things to eat in the village after all. They just didn't normally eat them very often.
The moment he heard that eggs could be bought, He Cheng let out a strange cry.
"You've got to be kidding me. Then what the hell is this stuff we're eating?"
Were they supposed to consider themselves adventurous eaters?
Xiao Yao didn't understand why these people were making such a fuss and tilted her head slightly. Bugs were a local specialty here. Why were these people acting so strangely?
Outsiders really were outsiders.
"Did you go to the back mountain this morning?"
"You're normally not allowed to go up the back mountain."
It was only opened during the annual ritual.
"Why is that?"
After exchanging glances, Tan Qingxian took a piece of candy and handed it to the little girl opposite him.
Shen Xun hadn't expected him to still have something like that left. He looked surprised for a moment, only to see this senior of his from the same art department smile faintly.
Xiao Yao had just opened her mouth when the woman who had gone inside earlier came back out. She glared in their direction, her tone displeased.
"Xiao Yao, your family is looking for you."
"Got it."
As soon as she finished speaking, Xiao Yao grinned and made a face, suddenly snatched up the strawberry candy, then turned around and ran off.
Tan Qingxian: ……
Had he just been played?
Tan Qingxian, who was always mild-mannered and maintained a courteous façade, raised an eyebrow. Then he heard He Cheng seemingly laugh.
"That's what you get for putting on an act."
"You can't even fool a kid."
Tan Qingxian couldn't be bothered with him. His gaze shifted toward the woman's retreating back after she had come out to interrupt their questioning and then gone inside again.
"Looks like they don't want us to know."
"Do you think the village chief will tell us if we ask him?"
Just from speaking with him yesterday, He Cheng had already gotten the impression that the village chief was even more of an old fox. He clicked his tongue irritably.
"Why is this village such a pain?"
"But—" His eyes shifted. "The more they act like this, the more interested I get."
……
Xie Fan really couldn't stomach Xiao Yao's bug feast that morning. He had originally planned to roast potatoes again. Although he had no idea why the original owner had stocked up on so many potatoes, there were at least enough to last him a week or two.
Who would have thought that after Xiao Yao saw that he didn't like the bugs, she would suddenly rush off excitedly to trade for eggs?
Xie Fan waited for half an hour without much hope before finally seeing Xiao Yao return with her basket.
"Brother A-Xie, I traded for eight eggs."
Xie Fan: ……!!!
She actually got them?
He had thought Xiao Yao was joking.
So there were actually still some normal things in this village?
Thinking this over, Xie Fan reached out to take the basket and casually asked, "How much were they?" The instant the words left his mouth, he realized his mistake and quickly corrected himself. "Ahem, I mean, what did you trade for them?"
Xiao Yao blinked.
"Strawberry candy."
Xie Fan: ???
Wait, where did she get strawberry candy?
It wasn't that Xie Fan was being overly suspicious. There were simply very few traces of modern life in this village. Forget strawberry candy—even brown sugar was rarely seen.
He was still bewildered when he heard Xiao Yao cheerfully tell him how someone had asked her about the back mountain that morning.
No wonder.
So the protagonist group had given it to her?
Xie Fan gave Xiao Yao a strange look and couldn't resist probing.
"Then did you tell them?"
The back mountain was extremely mysterious throughout the entire book. All Xie Fan knew was that Xican Village held its annual ritual on the back mountain. Beyond that, he knew nothing.
Xiao Yao looked up innocently.
"Of course not."
"Didn't the village chief say we're not allowed to talk about it? Don't worry, Brother A-Xie. I didn't violate the taboo."
Xie Fan: ……
"Mm, that's good."
But… violate the taboo?
Xie Fan silently committed the connection between the back mountain and the taboo to memory. Then, coming back to himself, he said:
"It's hot right now, so the eggs won't keep for long. Let's just cook all of them at once."
They might as well eat them while they were fresh.
"Okay, okay."
"I'll listen to Brother A-Xie."
Xiao Yao hurriedly nodded. Her pitch-black eyes unconsciously drifted toward the basket of eggs, looking a little greedy.
Although this kid's expressions were kind of creepy, after looking at her for long enough, she was actually a little cute?
The corner of Xie Fan's mouth twitched. The moment he realized what he was thinking, he quickly threw the thought out of his mind and carried the basket into the woodshed.
Thanks to having lived at his grandmother's house when he was young, although he wasn't particularly skilled at it, he still knew how to use the kind of large stove found in the village. After familiarizing himself with it, he lit the fire, heated the oil, and cracked all the eggs into the pan.
Before long, the aroma began to spread.
Xie Fan stir-fried the eggs a few times and saw Xiao Yao bring over a plate.
"Brother A-Xie, here."
There was no technique whatsoever involved in farmhouse-style scrambled eggs. It all depended on the natural quality of the ingredients.
The golden free-range eggs looked so appetizing that even Xie Fan thought they had to be delicious.
Fortunately, their house stood at the westernmost edge of the village, in an extremely remote location where almost no one normally came. Otherwise, this would definitely have attracted attention.
"Have some."
Xie Fan gave half to Xiao Yao.
Xiao Yao swallowed, thinking that it smelled so good.
Come to think of it, her family cooked food too, so why had it never smelled this good?
Xiao Yao was only puzzled for an instant before she stopped caring about anything else. Leaning over the table, she quickly picked up her chopsticks and began eating.
Xie Fan sat down and took a bite as well.
Not bad. Unlike yesterday's roasted potatoes, which had been slightly burnt, he had gotten the heat just right today.
He Cheng had just left the village chief's house when he reached the main road and caught a whiff of something.
"What's that? Why does it smell so good?"
"I don't smell anything." Tan Qingxian looked puzzled.
"You've got a dog's nose or something?"
He Cheng, whose sense of smell was the sharpest among them, clicked his tongue and couldn't help muttering, "Smells kind of like scrambled eggs."
"You're just being influenced by what that little girl said today." This time, even Shen Xun sounded amused.
Suspecting that he might really be hallucinating the smell because he had been thinking about eggs, He Cheng fell speechless for a moment.
"That old village chief really wouldn't tell us anything. What do we do now?"
Pei Jing was recalling the village chief's expression and had just been about to say something when he saw the villager who had led them into the mountains yesterday walk out.
"The village chief said that if you're really that curious about the back mountain, there is a way."
"But you'll have to wait a month. Once the day of the God Worship arrives, you'll be able to go up the mountain with everyone."
"God Worship?"
Shen Xun looked surprised for a moment.
A-Qi gave him an unreadable look.
"That's right. God Worship."
"It's a tradition unique to our village."
"Only on that day is the back mountain opened. There are no exceptions at any other time."
Without waiting for them to ask anything else, he turned and limped away, leaving Shen Xun and the others frowning.
"What does this 'God Worship' mean?"
"They came up with some gimmick about past and present lives. Don't tell me they seriously believe there's some mysterious power in these mountains?" He Cheng scoffed, clearly unconvinced.
Nothing could be read from Pei Jing's face.
Shen Xun, however, thought for a moment before saying, "We've already come all the way into the mountains. It would still be a shame not to see that Dissociation Spring."
Tan Qingxian had no objections. Truthfully, he was no less interested in the mysterious Dissociation Spring than Shen Xun was.
"Why don't we wait a little longer?"
"I think this village is pretty interesting."
Pei Jing glanced at him. "And figure out what god this village worships during its God Worship ritual?"
Although he had always been a materialist and didn't believe in such things, Pei Jing had no desire to blindly participate in some mysterious ritual held by a remote mountain village.
It somehow felt like asking to get killed.
Tan Qingxian smiled.
"Of course we'll need to find that out."
If it turned out to be some disgusting, bizarre custom, they might as well sneak up the mountain themselves.
Talking among themselves, the group returned to the guesthouse.
Xie Fan had just finished eating when he heard Xiao Yao ask:
"By the way, Brother A-Xie, the ritual is next month."
"Are you ready?"
Xie Fan: ……???