"Don't tell me you're still half-asleep?"
A-Qi had originally been about to say there was something wrong with his head, but when he saw A-Xie's face suddenly turn deathly pale, he inexplicably changed his wording and restrained his tone a little.
"Hey, are you all right?"
"Forget someone named Sun Zhou—there isn't even anyone surnamed Sun in our village."
There were only so many households in the village. As someone born and raised in Xican Village, how could he not know?
A-Qi gave him a strange look.
But Xie Fan took a step backward, completely unable to believe it.
There was no one named Sun Zhou in Xican Village……?
He opened his mouth, his first instinct being to argue. If there was no Sun Zhou, then who had questioned the village chief at the meeting before the tour group arrived that night?
A buzzing rang in his ears. It felt as though something had exploded inside Xie Fan's head. He only felt that what A-Qi was saying was utterly absurd, and he didn't even notice how awful his own complexion had become. He looked as though he were about to faint.
"Hey? Hey?"
A-Qi called him twice more. Seeing that A-Xie wasn't responding at all, he couldn't be bothered with him anymore and limped away with his cane.
Xie Fan stood beneath the tree. It was clearly broad daylight, yet he felt chilled to the bone.
He couldn't even spare the thought to worry whether his reaction just now might make anyone suspicious. The moment he recovered, the first thing he did was run toward Xiao Yao's house.
Today, Xiao Yao's parents had both gone out to prepare the Five Sacrificial Animals, leaving her home alone.
Xie Fan took a deep breath. When he reached her door, he comforted himself: maybe A-Qi simply disliked him and had deliberately played a prank on him.
After all, the original owner hadn't been very popular in the village. It was entirely possible that A-Qi had deliberately tried to scare him.
Silently talking himself down and calming his emotions, Xie Fan raised his hand and knocked on the door, still somewhat dazed.
Xiao Yao opened the door and looked up.
"What's wrong, Brother A-Xie?"
The little girl dressed in dark blue found it strange.
Why did Brother A-Xie seem so distracted today?
After accepting the sugarcane water Xiao Yao poured for him, Xie Fan watched her skip over and sit on a chair. He paid no attention to the cup in front of him. His mind was completely occupied by what A-Qi had just said.
"Xiao Yao, there is someone named Sun Zhou in our village, right?"
Sun Zhou?
Xiao Yao propped her chin on her hand, looking confused.
Was there someone like that?
"Brother A-Xie, did you make a new friend behind my back?"
"But Sun Zhou? I've never heard of him. Is he one of the people in the tour group that arrived yesterday?"
She thought for a moment, then shook her head.
Xie Fan felt as though he had fallen into an icy abyss.
There really wasn't?!
That lame man A-Qi hadn't lied to him.
This person didn't exist at all?
But Xie Fan had clearly seen him attend the village chief's gatherings twice, and that night, he had even brought Xie Fan a peach!
Xie Fan struggled to breathe. In an instant, the air seemed unbearably hot and sticky, making even his throat turn hoarse.
Only when he saw that Xiao Yao was actually about to go find the tour group and confirm it did he snap back to himself and stop her.
"He's not with the tour group."
"Maybe I remembered wrong."
Abruptly jolted awake from the seemingly peaceful life of the past two days, Xie Fan barely managed to tug at the corners of his mouth.
Calm down, calm down.
He couldn't panic now.
This was Xican Village.
How had he forgotten that?
How had he somehow lowered his guard so completely over the past few days?
Xie Fan wanted to slap himself.
And Sun Zhou……
How did he even know that person's name was Sun Zhou?
No one had ever called him by name!
Xie Fan desperately tried to recall the scene from that day, but his memories only grew increasingly indistinct, as though they were shrouded in a layer of fog. He turned toward Xiao Yao.
"Xiao Yao, do you remember the meeting before the outsiders arrived? Did anyone say anything to the village chief?"
"Mm."
Xiao Yao said, "Brother A-Qi asked him something, I think?"
"Then did anyone object to letting the outsiders into the mountains?" Xie Fan immediately asked the question he cared about most.
"Of course not."
Xiao Yao shook her head firmly. "If the village chief said it, he must have already prayed for the deity's permission. Why would anyone object?"
So in Xiao Yao's eyes, there had never been any questioning that day, much less anyone challenging the village chief.
The village chief had simply announced the time the outsiders would enter the mountains, and the meeting had proceeded as usual?
Xie Fan closed his eyes.
Sure enough.
In an instant, he could almost reconstruct the scene from that day inside his head.
The meeting in his memories and the meeting Xiao Yao remembered were two completely different things!
But the most terrifying part was that he now had absolutely no idea which of them had seen the truth.
Had this person called Sun Zhou simply been a figment of his imagination and never existed at all?
Or had someone really appeared under the name Sun Zhou, only to then be……
"forgotten" by everyone?
Either possibility was horrifying enough to send chills down his spine.
Xie Fan's fingertips went cold. The fact that he was still alive and sitting here perfectly well suddenly seemed like incredible luck.
And Xie Fan realized something else.
This wasn't the only thing that had become blurred in his memory.
There was also the main room……
The murky fog that had been covering his thoughts finally dispersed, and Xie Fan remembered at last.
After returning home that night, he had originally intended to inspect the main room on the second floor of the wooden house. But after eating that "peach," he had inexplicably become overwhelmingly sleepy after his meal and completely forgotten about it.
Until noticing that something was wrong with "Sun Zhou" today, he hadn't even remembered it at all!
That wasn't normal.
Xie Fan was certain he wasn't normally that forgetful.
So……
He lowered his head and stared at the sugarcane juice in his cup.
Had his forgetting about the main room actually been connected to something supernatural?
With the various threads in his mind gradually sorting themselves out, Xie Fan thought back over everything that had happened during the two days since his transmigration and felt that danger was simply impossible to guard against.
"Brother A-Xie, what's wrong?"
Xiao Yao tilted her head and looked at him.
Xie Fan came back to himself.
"Nothing."
"I was just thinking about running into A-Qi today."
He casually brushed it off and stood up.
"It's getting dark. I'll head back first."
Xiao Yao didn't think much of it and nodded. Only after watching Brother A-Xie leave did she noisily lock the door behind him.
When Xie Fan returned home, he felt cold all over.
Now, when he raised his head and looked at the rooms on the second floor, he was almost afraid to even go upstairs.
Who could have known that while he thought nothing had happened, something supernatural had been right beside him all along?
That invisible force had been preventing him from opening the door to the main room.
Who the hell knew what was inside?
Xie Fan felt that he should simply ignore the main room as though nothing had happened, just as he had before.
But……
When he thought about the fact that the room was only a few meters away from him and that he still had to sleep inside this house every night, he couldn't do it.
If he didn't investigate, he might die.
If he investigated, he might die too……
Standing in front of the door, Xie Fan gritted his teeth and charged upstairs with a series of rapid thuds. In the end, he still placed his hand on the bolt.
The old wooden door wasn't securely locked. He had only just pulled the bolt aside when the entire door was suddenly blown open by the wind.
"Bang!"
It slammed against the wall.
Xie Fan took a deep breath and encouraged himself.
"I'm only taking a look. Nothing will happen just from looking."
Besides, something had already happened.
What was there left to be afraid of?
With chaotic thoughts running through his mind, he looked inside by the last remaining glow of the setting sun.
At a glance, however, all he saw was an empty room.
There was nothing?
He froze slightly, wondering if he had seen wrong.
The village chief had specifically mentioned locking the main room, and this place had also been deliberately "hidden" from him.
How could there possibly be nothing here?
None of the countless scenarios Xie Fan had imagined appeared.
He frowned and swept his gaze over the very center of the room.
He vaguely felt as though something should have been there.
But the main room really was completely empty.
Xie Fan lightly pressed his fingers against his temple. He didn't know whether his nerves were simply stretched too tight, but a stabbing pain had begun throbbing there.
He felt as though he had fallen into some enormous illusion. Everything he saw seemed unreal, just like that "Sun Zhou," making it impossible to distinguish truth from falsehood.
The light and shadows of the sunset expanded before his eyes.
Larger and larger.
Xie Fan's mind spun into dizziness.
He didn't even know when he lost consciousness.
Even when he woke the next day, he was still somewhat confused.
Last night……
What happened?
Xie Fan opened his eyes, unable to remember at all what he had done the night before.
He had only just gotten out of bed when he heard a knock at the door.
"A-Xie, are you there?"
The familiar rough voice instantly woke Xie Fan completely.
A-Qi?
The village chief's nephew?
What was he doing here?
Although he found it strange, Xie Fan still arranged his hair and headed downstairs. From a distance, he saw the cold-looking, limping man carrying an oil-paper parcel in his hand.
A-Qi glanced at him and spoke as brusquely as usual.
"This is to make up for scaring you yesterday."
Xie Fan: ……?
Make it up to whom?
Him?
Was A-Qi really this polite?
Xie Fan looked somewhat bewildered. He remembered that on the first day after his transmigration, hadn't this guy barely even bothered to look at him?
His gaze fell on the oil-paper parcel. While Xie Fan was still wondering what had gotten into him, A-Qi put the parcel down, turned around, and limped away.
On a nearby hillside:
"Hey, isn't that A-Qi?"
He Cheng and the others had just walked out onto the main road from the guesthouse when they saw A-Qi returning from outside early in the morning, his body covered in moisture.
"What did he go out to do?"
He Cheng found it strange. At this hour, dawn had only just broken. It would be early even to go work in the fields, wouldn't it?
Tan Qingxian looked over as well.
"Maybe he had something to take care of."
"But judging by where he came from, he should've been returning from the west?"
They spoke casually and didn't take it to heart.
When A-Qi returned to the village chief's house, the village chief noticed him as well.
The old village chief, who was eating, raised his head.
"You went out this morning?"
A-Qi froze.
He was just about to say something when the memories in his mind suddenly became blurred.
He fell into a daze for a moment.
All he could remember was that he had gone to the back mountain this morning?
Right.
The back mountain……
"I went to inspect the back mountain this morning."
"Those outsiders probably haven't gone there again."
The village chief didn't think much of it and nodded.
"That's good."
"Did you notify the outsiders yesterday?"
"I did."
A-Qi took off his straw hat and served himself a bowl of bug rice as well.
The village chief glanced at the sky outside.
"Looks like it's going to rain today. Let's start the welcoming ceremony at seven tonight."
"The sooner we start, the sooner we can finish."
"Call over a few of the more lively young people too."
More lively young people……?
For some reason, A-Qi suddenly thought of A-Xie, whom he had run into on the road yesterday.
But that guy couldn't possibly be described as lively.
A-Qi shook his head slightly and came back to himself.
"Got it, Uncle."
Just as he finished speaking, thunder suddenly boomed outside.
A dry clap of thunder rang out in the early morning, illuminating half the sky with a different hue.
Xie Fan raised his head. He hadn't expected the weather to change so abruptly.
He had only just frowned when he heard Xiao Yao shouting at the top of her lungs through her open window not far away.
"Brother A-Xie, close your doors and windows!"
"The wind will pick up soon."
"Mm, got it."
Xie Fan waved to show that he had heard her.
After locking all the doors and windows that could be locked and tying down everything else so the wind wouldn't blow it away, he casually picked up the oil-paper parcel from the table and headed upstairs.
Only when he lifted it did Xie Fan realize……
It was actually still warm?
Hm?
What was inside?
He hadn't paid any attention to the thing A-Qi had brought over as some sort of apology, but now that he was holding it, he finally sensed that something wasn't quite right.
Xie Fan hesitated for a moment. After sitting down by the window, he eventually opened the oil-paper parcel.
The instant he unfolded the paper, a rich, mouthwatering aroma of roasted meat wafted out.
Xie Fan's eyes widened.
Only then did he realize what it was.
Roast chicken?