Transtor: der Transtions
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"The vilge doctor has already checked on her," the man said, "There’s nothing serious. The doctor especially reminded us that Hong Hong’s mother o rest."
"Is that so?" Jiang g looked at the closed door and nodded regretfully. "Then I won't disturb her."
"Thank you for your kindness, huests." The man bowed as they left.
On their way back, Xiaome gng at Jiang g, eared calm and posed, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
"That man is suspicious," Xiaomeng spoke up. "Hong Hong seems scared of him, and the words ‘men and women shouldn’t be close’ aren’t something a child would say. It sounds like somethiaught her."
Jiang g squinted, shielding his eyes from the setting sun, and casually replied, "Of course, he's suspicious. Why else would he choose this time to be out in the garden? It's obvious he saw us ing and rushed out."
The sun was about to set, and the night was fast approag. The night was a nightmare for the vilgers, yet the man chose this time to be outside. It made one wonder.
Xiaomeng added, "He doesn't look like someone who would be w in the fields. His shoes are brand new."
A stranger, ly dressed, g to be helping with the farm work at Hong Hong’s house... It was hard not to be suspicious.
Both of them fell silent. Havihrough the man’s false identity, the step was to determine his true purpose.
It was simple: pretending to work was just a cover. His true mission was to stop them from getting too close to Hong Hong’s family and learning anything important.
Most likely, it was something arranged by the vilge chief.
The vilge chief and his people had likely bee wary after the three of them visited the vilge.
As they walked through the vilge, they saw many small, dipidated houses. But from the vegetables in the gardens and the clothes hanging on the li was clear that people lived here.
Yet, they never saw aside.
Xiaomeng paused for a moment and whispered, "Have you ever sidered...?"
"I’ve thought about it," Jiang g interrupted.
"You know what I’m going to ask?" Xiaomeng asked, surprised.
Jiang g tinued walking without slowing down. "You’re w why, if the ghost has been killing people at this pace for 20 years, there are still so many me in the vilge?"
Xiaomeng’s eyes widened.
"But now you uand," Jiang g g her, "don’t you?"
Xiaomeng took a deep breath, her gaze distant. She slowly replied, "It’s the vilge chief and the others."
She looked towards the slightly taller, dipidated house of the Qian family and spoke meaningfully, "The vilge chief invited us to stay at the Qian family mansion because the ghost’s target is the Qian family. Since we’re staying there, the ghost will mistake us for Qian family members and kill us, while the rest of the vilgers remain safe."
"This is the secret that has allowed this isoted mountain vilge to tinue surviving. I think every now and then, outsiders are invited into Xiao Shijian Vilge for various reasons. They’re put up at the Qian family mansion aually meet a grim fate."
The information they gathered from Anping Town had firmed this theory. Outsiders who came to Xiao Shijian Vilge would occasionally disappear, and the woman who entered Anping Inn searg for her husband seemed different from the locals. She robably one of the outsiders lured into the vilge.
Her husband had already died at the ghost’s hands.
This expined why the people of Anping Town were so hostile towards the vilgers of Xiao Shijian.
As the old man at the edge of the vilge said, "Don’t get involved with the people from this vilge. They bring misfortune."
Jiang g looked at the woman beside him with i.
He didn’t mind bad people, because bad people usually had reasons for their as. But he hated fools, because foolishness had no excuse. They were just fools.
Fortunately, Xiaomeng wasn’t a fool. She was much smarter than Pei Qian and Zh, the two self-righteous idiots. That was why Jiang g had chosen her.
In nightmares, good and bad people might survive, but only fools die.
"Do you know the way out of here?" Xiaomeng raised an eyebrow.
"I don’t."
"Well," Xiaomeng suddenly smiled. "I do."
"Are you leaving now?"
"Why not? Wait for the vilge chief to tear off his mask?" Xiaomeng shrugged and took out the fruit. Nontly, she took a small bite.
The fruit looked small but was full of juice, making Jiang g’s throat tighten in hunger. "If we’re leaving, it should be at night. I’m going to che Hong Hong’s house."
"Suit yourself." Xiaomeng casually discarded the fruit pit.
By the time they returo the mansion, it was pletely dark. Fortunately, the charcoal fire inside was still burning, but the room was empty.
Li Lu and Yu Man hadn’t returned.
"Where are they?" Xiaomeng asked.
"What do you want from me?" Jiang g hummed. "I didn’t go out with them this m."
They hadn’t returned yet, which meant something had happened.
It was unclear whether they had entered the ghost or if they had uncovered the vilge chief's plot and were discovered, leading to them beiained or killed.
Jiang g had thought about the bance of the task before. Based on the avaible clues, it appeared the ghost didn’t kill women. But that didn’t mean female pyers were entirely safe in this task.
In Jiang g’s uanding, nightmares, despite their eerie nature, operated acc to a meticulous and plex system. The survival ces of each pyer at the start were the same.
Perhaps the ghost was somewhat more merciful to women, but acc to the rules of fairness, this mercy would be terbanced by other malicious forces.
He could almost imagihe sequences for two attractive young women wandering lost in this vilge.
They wouldn’t die, but their fate would be worse thah.
Xiaomeng realized this too. As a woman herself, her face darkened. "When we go to Hong Hong’s house tonight, we o stay alert. If we save them, it’ll reduce the risks at Anping Inn."
"Tsk," Jiang g gave her a bnk look.
Xiaomeng didn’t care about the life or death of Li Lu and Yu Man. She simply disliked the vilgers’ behavior. Her decision to save them was just to extract their remaining value and use them to pave the way for herself.
Logic triumphed over emotion. She was a woman who knew how to distinguish between priorities, and Jiang g was quite satisfied with that.
In trast, Jiang g suddenly thought of the zy fatty at home and his irresistible little cabbage braised with pork ribs.
(End of the Chapter)
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