“Speak if you have something to say.” Granny Wang squeezed these words out from between her teeth, looking utterly cold.
“This woman’s heart is so ruthless, our Chi Ling is completely stunned.” (Audience No. 673 tipped 200 points)
“To the person above, why don’t you mention that Chi Ling interrupted someone’s sleep?”
“What do you mean by ‘our Chi Ling’? Stop acting like you’re so familiar with him.”
“So annoying, can’t we just watch the stream properly?”
“We’re here to see how he clears the instance, not to chase after idols.”
“Uh, can I go inside and talk?” Chi Ling still tried to bargain.
Granny Wang’s murky eyes gazed steadily at him before she finally relented. Walking into the house, she said to Chi Ling behind her, “Come in!”
“I know you deeply loathe this village, and you surely want to avenge your child. I can help you.”
Chi Ling didn’t step all the way into the house. Instead, he stood not far from the door, even showing a gradual tendency to step back, clearly planning to bolt the moment anything felt off.
Granny Wang’s face was plunged into darkness while the candlelight illuminated half of her body. Turning slightly sideways, she flashed a bizarre gleam in her eyes.
Chi Ling’s heart skipped a beat, but seeing that Granny Wang showed no obvious signs of rejection, he had no choice but to continue the conversation.
With a loud bang, the door closed automatically. Chi Ling’s scalp tightened; gritting his teeth, he took the initiative to step forward.
Granny Wang sneered, “With courage like yours, you still want to talk about cooperation with me.”
Chi Ling: “…”
He felt deeply insulted, and what is more, he had evidence of it.
However, this clearly wasn’t the time to be angry. Chi Ling still bit the bullet and sat down opposite Granny Wang.
This spot felt awfully familiar.
“People in the village used to worship the Earth God, but due to certain reasons, they stopped doing so and instead turned increasingly toward ancestor worship, eventually deciding to renovate the ancestral hall. Grandpa Liu contributed the most during the renovation, even sacrificing his only daughter to do so.”
With every single word Chi Ling spoke, he felt the surrounding atmosphere grow colder and more chilling.
“You’re right.” Granny Wang suddenly laughed out loud, her cries full of grief and boundless despair, resembling a mother beast that had lost her cub.
“Liu Desheng is a rotten-hearted piece of trash. Back then, when my daughter got accepted into university, he put on a hypocritical act saying he would send her to school. Little did I know that just to get his name carved onto the merit stele of the renovated ancestral hall, he actually planned to sell my daughter off as a wife to a man over thirty years older than her. When I discovered it, he even claimed he was sending her to live a good life.” Lost in her sorrow, Granny Wang slammed the table and stood up, blood and tears already streaming from her eyes.
“I argued with her, I fought with her, I hated him so much I wanted to kill him, but he still refused to tell me where Xiaoxi was…” Granny Wang seemed trapped in the memories.
Chi Ling sighed inwardly, ruthlessly cursing Liu Desheng as an absolute piece of garbage.
He was simply a lunatic. That was his own biological daughter, right in the prime of her youth and having finally managed to test into university so she could escape the mountains, only to have her life snuffed out just like that.
He considerately left Granny Wang some space to grieve alone, knowing no one in this space could truly resonate with her frequency anyway.
Seeing that Granny Wang’s emotions had calmed down a bit, Chi Ling continued to ask, “Did you guys ever try calling the police?”
Granny Wang’s chest heaved violently. After a long while, she regained her calm, swept a glance at Chi Ling, and shook her head. “There’s no cell signal here, calls won’t go through. If you want to make a phone call, you have to walk for hours to a village at the foot of the mountain before you can get a signal.”
“Only to be discovered halfway and dragged back.” Chi Ling picked up right where she left off.
Chi Ling had arrived by car and observed carefully along the way; this place was indeed extremely remote and surrounded entirely by mountains. If you didn’t follow that road down the mountain, you would have to scale one of the surrounding mountains just to get out.
Yet neither path was easy to walk.
Chances were you would be captured and brought back before you even made it out.
“Granny Wang, were you human-trafficked here?” The lifestyle and women’s status in this village easily brought human trafficking to mind.
Granny Wang silently shook her head before speaking, “I wasn’t trafficked here, but there are indeed quite a few women in this village who were. They should be willing to help you.”
Having said all she needed to say, Chi Ling decided to leave first and go back to chat with Third Aunt.
“Wait. You’re the first person in all these years to walk right up to me. Take this, and try not to die too early.”
Granny Wang tossed over a small, exquisite sachet embroidered with the characters Ping’an Xile (peace and happiness).
[Congratulations player for obtaining high-level item: Ping’an Sachet x1. Transformed from Granny Wang’s intense motherly love, it can allow the “daughter” to recover ten minutes of sanity.]
[System Prompt: Congratulations player Chi Ling for triggering the commissioned task “Reunite Granny Wang with her daughter Liu Xizhao.” Task completion reward: 200 points.]
[Granny Wang spent all these years silently grieving and missing her daughter under the belief that she was sold off. In reality, her daughter passed away more than twenty years ago, and her remains are hidden directly beneath the new ancestral hall’s main gate. In recent years, Granny Wang’s yearning grew increasingly intense, constantly feeling that her daughter never left, unaware that her daughter had been right by her side all along.]
“Granny Wang, actually…” Chi Ling wanted to say something, but paused and left it unsaid.
At this point, which was more cruel: not knowing the truth, or knowing the truth?
Perhaps, as Granny Wang had once stated, sometimes the less you know, the happier you live.
“I’ll come visit you again.”
Chi Ling decided against telling Granny Wang for now, planning to wait until he had seen Third Aunt and understood more of the situation before deciding.
By the time Chi Ling returned, most people were already awake, and the cook had finished boiling noodles. His cousin even scooped a bowl for Chi Ling, eagerly bringing it over as if vying for merit.
Thanks for the offer, but the sight of food right now made him mildly nauseous.
“I’m not hungry right now, don’t want to eat. Where’s Third Aunt? I have something I want to ask her.”
He was actually hungry, but short of risking his life, Chi Ling would rather starve than eat, even though the noodles looked decent enough in appearance.
“Aunt should be in the east side hall, why don’t you go check.” His cousin mumbled with a mouthful of noodles, his voice fuzzy.
Chi Ling: “…”
“Fine, go play by yourself then! I’m going to find Third Aunt.”
The scene of the corpse hopping around last night was still fresh in his mind, and Chi Ling genuinely didn’t want to lay eyes on that coffin in the east side hall again.
“Third Aunt? Aunt!” Chi Ling called out twice without receiving any response, so he gently lifted a corner of the curtain with his finger and slipped inside.
Third Aunt was standing by the window looking outward. The sky was still hazy and grey, and viewed from this angle, only endless rolling mountain ranges came into view.
“What is it?” Third Aunt turned her head impatiently. Seeing it was Chi Ling, her expression softened slightly, and she nodded gently at him.
“Does Aunt think the view outside is nice? Every day all you see is the exact same sky; people in the village probably feel the same way. Especially the young folks in the village, they probably have no idea what the outside world is like.” Chi Ling stood beside Third Aunt, looking out the window together with her.
Third Aunt narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing Chi Ling carefully as if she had never met him before. After a moment, she shook her head.
“You aren’t him either, but you’re a lot like him. I don’t dislike you, so go ahead and say whatever’s on your mind.”
“Aunt, do you want to liberate this village and give those young people who haven’t committed wrongdoings a chance to change their future?” Chi Ling wore a smile, his words full of confidence.
“You aren’t the first person to say that to me. The ones who said those things before didn’t succeed, and by now their bones probably can’t even be found anywhere.” Third Aunt maintained a calm expression and a lonely gaze, still staring into the distance.
“If you’re willing to trust me, I can change all of this, because those previous people weren’t me.”
Seeing Third Aunt didn’t react, Chi Ling continued, “You’re so strict with Jiahao because you want him to become a good kid, right?”
Though Chi Ling had some confidence in himself, he didn’t have absolute certainty, but that didn’t stop him from spinning grand visions.
Third Aunt turned her head to look at him, smiled, and suddenly opened her mouth wide as she leaned in close. Her bloody red flesh instantly filled his vision like a monster opening its maw, capable of effortlessly biting off his head and chewing it to pieces.
Chi Ling could even make out the texture inside her mouth and smell the incoming reek of blood. His pupils contracted sharply, yet his expression remained completely still.
Steady, you must stay steady!
Realizing she hadn’t startled him, Third Aunt let out a disappointed expression, clicked her tongue, and morphed back to normal.
“Thought I could scare you. Those previous people turned pale enough to wet their pants the moment they saw me like that. Fine! I agree, but I might not be able to offer you too much help, considering the others are only stronger than me.” Third Aunt withdrew her gaze, continued looking out the window, and said meaningfully.
Chi Ling raised his head and twitched the corners of his mouth weakly. That scared me to death!
Had he not sensed any dangerous aura, Chi Ling probably would have bolted out the door long ago. Heaven knew how much willpower he used to restrain himself.
“State your plan, let’s hear it.” Third Aunt raised her chin.
Chi Ling adjusted his state, raised his eyes to look seriously at Third Aunt, and said, “I hope Grandpa Liu can be buried ahead of schedule, starting tomorrow.”
“I can’t pull that off. Relying on me alone won’t change so many people’s minds.” Third Aunt rejected him flatly.
Unfazed, Chi Ling stepped closer and whispered a few words to Third Aunt.
“What did they say?”
“Didn’t catch it.”
Players watching from the perimeter of the game universally expressed that they hadn’t heard a thing, which suited Chi Ling’s intentions perfectly.
After listening, Third Aunt nodded, signaling that it was feasible, and the two struck an immediate accord.
The moment Chi Ling stepped out the door, he spotted his cousin standing outside and immediately waved him over.
Running up eagerly, the cousin asked with curiosity, “Older brother, what were you talking about with Aunt just now?”
“Want to know?” Chi Ling’s tone carried a seductive allure.
The cousin nodded hurriedly.
“If you want to know, help me do one thing, okay?” Chi Ling smiled gently as he looked at his cousin.
Staring at Chi Ling’s face, the cousin fell into a momentary trance and nodded subconsciously.
Wait, no, what did I just agree to?
Before the cousin could shake off his daze, Chi Ling had already shoved him out to do chores, leaving him with the lingering sensation that he had gotten the short end of the stick.
“Bad news, bad news! Just now by the ancestral hall entrance, I think I saw a female ghost in red clothes with unkempt hair. Her entire head and face were covered in blood, and she had a huge bloody mouth wide open like she wanted to eat people.”
“Huh? Really?”
“What should we do? I’m so scared, shouldn’t we go find Grandpa Village Chief?”
“I don’t believe it, you’re definitely lying.”
“I actually heard my mom mention before that this ancestral hall is weird.”
“Anyway, there’s a lot of us. Why don’t we go check it out together?”
As soon as the cousin brought this remark back to the west side hall, the place blew up into a frenzy, with no one paying attention to how absurd those descriptions sounded.
Unkempt hair and a face covered in blood, just how did you manage to see that? Chi Ling twitched the mouth corner slightly, briefly wondering if his brain had short-circuited when he handed the task to his cousin earlier.
Yet the group of youths in the west side hall bought it completely. Being a pack of half-grown teenagers at the peak of their curiosity, the moment someone suggested checking it out together, they immediately set off.
And upon checking, trouble ensued. Near the entrance corridor, there actually seemed to be a figure in red, causing the bunch of young men to shriek and scatter in all directions.
“What’s going on? I told you guys to stay put honestly in the west side hall. Why are you running to the main hall to make a huge racket?” Spotting the chaos, several elders stepped forward to scold their juniors.
“Grandpa, it’s bad! We just saw a ghost!”
“Dad, it’s true! She was wearing red clothes, with disheveled hair, and she was super scary.”
“She swooshed and suddenly vanished.”
With so many people swearing they saw it, the crowd gathering around grew denser. Every elder who assembled wore a solemn expression, quickly herding the juniors back to the west side hall before beginning a discussion right there on the spot.
Clutching the micro-projector tightly in his hand, Chi Ling returned to the west side hall alongside his cousin and the rest of the gang, successfully concealing his deep merits and fame.
Now, everything rested on Third Aunt.
“Hmph, do no evil and you won’t fear a knock on your door in the dead of night. If you haven’t done anything wicked, what are you afraid of?”
“Liu Fang, you can’t put it that way. We didn’t actually do anything.”
“If you didn’t do anything, why are you shaking so much you don’t even dare say her name?”
“Even if someone’s looking for trouble, they shouldn’t come for us! Every debt has its debtor, shouldn’t the person she’s looking for be the one lying in that coffin?”
“Stop arguing, hurry up and figure out what we should do!”
“How about we just bury Uncle Liu tomorrow? Better than letting complications arise from dragging it out.”
Third Aunt sneered as she watched the group scramble about in a panic, feeling a sense of sorrow, whether for herself or for someone else, it was hard to tell.
Still, the objective had been achieved, hadn’t it?