Chapter 61

"Are all the people in this village highway bandits?"

Tan Wenbin found this hard to believe. Although his family had several generations of police officers, Tan Yunlong rarely discussed work at home, and the policing issues faced by different regions also varied.

Xue Liangliang explained, "It's uncommon, but not unheard of, for an entire village to act as a unit in committing crimes. For example, this village in the mountains has little contact with the outside world, and the villagers' living and working areas are restricted. With kinship as a bond, it's easy to understand how they could develop into a small criminal syndicate."

"But didn't anyone report them?"

Xue Liangliang looked at Tan Wenbin and countered, "Would you report your deskmate for cheating on a test?"

"That's different. Cheating on a test isn't the same as breaking the law and killing people."

"That's because you can recognize the difference. But even though smoking is clearly harmful, why would you still try it? You see your father smoking and your peers doing the same, and subconsciously you feel it's no big deal. When a large number of people in a village are engaged in criminal activities, those within it will develop similar thoughts, believing it's not that serious."

Tan Wenbin nodded thoughtfully, then turned to look at Zhu Yang in front of him, with a sigh of regret:

"He still has a wife and children at home..."

Zhu Yang was from their hometown, but that was secondary. More importantly, he was a genuinely good person—warm and honest. In his free time, he enjoyed reading novels and occasionally used a touch of literary humor when speaking. He said he didn't like being a truck driver, but for the sake of his family, he had to confine himself to the cab. Now, he was trapped here again.

Meanwhile, Xue Liangliang began discussing another matter with Li Zhuiyuan: "Xiaoyuan, if it weren't for that little girl, would we also have met our end by now?"

Rùnsheng tapped the steel pipe against his chest, producing a few dull thuds. It was his way of saying he was still capable of protecting them.

Xue Liangliang shrugged, "Rùnsheng, I know you're a good fighter, but what if they have shotguns?"

Rùnsheng frowned, unable to retort. That's why he now preferred watching wuxia films on TV to cop thrillers, because the latter involved guns.

Li Zhuiyuan said, "You can link it that way, but it's meaningless. That little girl wasn't trying to help us; genuine signs of death had appeared on all three of your faces. She just wanted to take your life essence. It just so happened that several bad things came together and produced a 'two negatives make a positive' effect."

Xue Liangliang added, "So the auto repair shop owner was just feigning honesty, saying the robbers ahead had shotguns, all to trick us into this village."

"He might also have been testing us. If we weren't afraid of the shotguns and kept driving, they would suspect we also had formidable weapons."

"Are they that cunning?"

"Yes, because I couldn't tell he was lying."

"Xiaoyuan, don't shoulder this responsibility yourself; none of us saw it."

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. Ever since he finished studying the "Compendium of Yin-Yang Physiognomy," he could generally tell when ordinary people lied in front of him. However, the auto repair shop owner showed no micro-expressions, which meant he not only had extremely strong psychological fortitude but was also highly experienced.

"Brother Liangliang, perhaps that auto repair shop owner is the leader here." Li Zhuiyuan waved his hand. "Let's go around and check inside the ancestral hall."

The water wasn't very deep; even Li Zhuiyuan could wade through it easily. However, they had to pass by the periphery of dense corpses, and the atmosphere was truly oppressive. Fortunately, the dead bodies in the pond hadn't undergone any strange transformations, allowing the four to pass safely.

Upon reaching the main hall of the ancestral hall, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly felt something. He looked up and saw numerous copper coins and bronze swords hanging under the eaves, some new, some old, likely due to regular maintenance. Li Zhuiyuan placed his palm on a pillar in front of him. The touch wasn't cold; instead, it faintly radiated warmth. As he scanned other corners outside the hall, noting how the details corresponded one by one, the boy's gaze involuntarily grew serious.

"What's wrong, Xiaoyuan?"

"Brother Liangliang, the person who built this ancestral hall was a true expert. Although the structure is small and modest, it creates a small closed loop reminiscent of a 'flood dragon drawing water.' Combined with the area's geomantic auspiciousness, it's like opening another small blessed land within a land of blessings."

"Does that mean this village's ancestors were once prosperous?"

"Yes, not just ordinarily prosperous. This technique was generally used for imperial tombs in ancient times."

"That's truly impressive. I once heard an old professor from another university say during my internship that ancient craftsmen capable of designing and building imperial tombs had far greater wealth and status than developers of the most prestigious communities in Beijing today."

"That's a peculiar analogy."

Xue Liangliang sighed, "But their descendants have ultimately fallen to such a state of decay."

Inside the hall, ancestral tablets bearing the surname "Wang" were placed on the offering table.

"Brother Liangliang, don't you think there seem to be too few ancestral tablets?"

"Hmm?"

"Compared to the construction era and architectural techniques used for this ancestral hall, there shouldn't be so few tablets enshrined here."

"In some family ancestral halls, the requirements for placing a tablet are quite strict. It's like that in my hometown village."

Li Zhuiyuan walked to the edge of the offering platform, jumped up, and took down one of the tablets from the very top. He flipped it over and examined it carefully.

"Brother Liangliang, that's not right. Even the highest-placed, oldest tablet isn't from a very distant year."

"Really?" Xue Liangliang took the tablet and looked at it. "I can't make sense of this. How did you figure it out?"

"I just happened to have been studying ancestral tablets recently."

"Xiaoyuan, what are you suspecting?"

"It's hard to say. But I think even if a family like this declined and its descendants became unworthy, it wouldn't be so absurd as to invite low-level Taoist priests or monks to perform rituals at the village entrance."

Li Zhuiyuan turned around and began circling the inner hall's walls. These weren't brick walls but stone walls. The stones varied in color and size, yet they were polished smooth, and the arrangement was very logical and pleasing. Xue Liangliang casually tossed the ancestral tablet he was holding onto the ground. Indeed, the ancestors of a village like this weren't worthy of respect. He then bent down and ducked under the offering table, which was covered by a curtain, to search for an exit.

Rùnsheng and Tan Wenbin weren't assigned specific tasks, but they didn't stand idle either. They tapped and stomped around, hoping to stumble upon something useful. After circling three walls once, Li Zhuiyuan stopped. He closed his eyes, pondered for a moment, then opened them and walked the path again. In fact, he had noticed something on his first pass. The stones of varying colors and sizes on the walls were actually three giant, scrambled puzzles. Ordinary people wouldn't have noticed; they would simply have found the arrangement solemn and aesthetically pleasing. The old Li Zhuiyuan wouldn't have noticed either. It was thanks to playing blind chess with A-Li when he was blind that he developed this skill. Coincidentally, playing three games of blind chess simultaneously had prepared him perfectly for these three walls.

After reviewing it once more, Li Zhuiyuan stood still, closed his eyes, and began assembling the puzzles in his mind. The puzzles contained characters. Soon, Li Zhuiyuan deciphered the first line.

"Qi Family Ancestral Instructions?"

But the ancestral tablets bore the surname "Wang." Li Zhuiyuan considered a possibility: this village might have originally been a branch of the Qi family, but in recent times, a group of people named Wang had taken it over. It wasn't a decline or unworthy descendants; it was a complete change of bloodline and surname. The plaque above the ancestral hall was inconspicuous, implying not only that the ancestors would be ashamed to see it, but also that their descendants were gone. If the Qi family's lineage had truly continued to this day, even if their heritage was lost, they wouldn't be so destitute as to lack even a moderately skilled geomancy master.

Li Zhuiyuan continued assembling and interpreting the puzzles in his mind. The next long section contained ancestral instructions. Aside from differences in phrasing, they were largely conventional, emphasizing virtues like benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. Li Zhuiyuan quickly skimmed through them. As he continued assembling, the characters that appeared became suggestive—no, more than suggestive, they clearly indicated a direction.

Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes and looked outside the hall. The target location was outside, precisely in the center of where the dead bodies were now gathered. The four of them had previously skirted the edges, missing the exit they were looking for.

"Xiaoyuan, did you find anything?" Xue Liangliang asked, dusting off his hands.

"Brother Liangliang, this village used to be surnamed Qi. This group named Wang are outsiders who later seized control."

Xue Liangliang paused, then said, "That certainly fits the villagers' way of doing things. It seems their ancestors weren't good people either."

"The exit is in the pile of dead bodies. We'll have to clear them away to get in, Brother Rùnsheng."

"Understood!"

Rùnsheng was the first to step out of the hall and into the pond. He reached out to push away the dead bodies in front of him, and Tan Wenbin also ran up to help. The dead bodies were like roly-poly toys; they would be pushed aside but would remain upright after some swaying, refusing to fall over. Moreover, after pushing aside several groups of dead bodies consecutively, the ones in front surprisingly moved to both sides, actively clearing a path. This bewildered both Rùnsheng and Tan Wenbin. For a moment, they weren't sure whether to proceed and could only look back at Li Zhuiyuan.

Li Zhuiyuan said, "Let's go."

The four walked inward along the narrow path cleared by the dead bodies. As they advanced, all the dead bodies on both sides, which had originally faced the ancestral hall's entrance, slowly turned to face them. Furthermore, they continuously adjusted their postures and directions according to the four individuals' movements. The atmosphere had already been oppressive when they skirted the edge of the corpse pile earlier, but the current scene was even more chilling.

Tan Wenbin whispered, "They aren't going to suddenly lunge at us all at once, are they?"

Rùnsheng, who was leading, said, "If they do, I'll hold them off. You all run out first."

Xue Liangliang guessed, "It doesn't seem like they're attacking us; it's more like they're trying to appease us."

Tan Wenbin: "Appease us?"

Xue Liangliang: "Yes, or you could say a request."

"Brother Rùnsheng, you can stop now. It's right here."

Li Zhuiyuan called out, and Rùnsheng stopped. In front of him was a Tai Chi symbol paved with stones. This spot was the true "Gate of Life."

"Xiaoyuan, is this it?"

"Yes."

"I'll try first." Rùnsheng stretched his neck. Just as he was about to step forward, he saw a familiar figure, Zhu Yang, moving out from the pile of dead bodies in front of him. He couldn't speak, showed no expression, and couldn't communicate, yet he had moved from his original position at the very front of the first row to this spot. He didn't stand within the Tai Chi symbol but outside it, clearly not intending to prevent the four from leaving.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Zhu Yang and said, "Don't worry. Once we're out, I'll call the police and get you justice."

Zhu Yang remained still. Suddenly, a chill wind swept through the area. It wasn't fierce, but it carried an overwhelmingly oppressive emotion: sorrow, resentment, and anger.

Li Zhuiyuan knew what they meant, but he could only raise his hand and explain, "I understand your intention, but I cannot agree. The four of us cannot solve this problem. Rest assured, the police will eradicate the evil here."

Tan Wenbin also spoke up then, "Yes, I promise."

Unfortunately, the dense array of dead bodies around them showed no reaction. The chill wind was growing colder.

Tan Wenbin asked somewhat confused, "Why does it feel like what we said had no effect?"

Xue Liangliang whispered, "Perhaps it's because this isn't your dad's jurisdiction."

Li Zhuiyuan decided not to dwell on it further. He nudged Rùnsheng from behind. Rùnsheng understood and stepped onto the Tai Chi symbol. Nothing happened. Rùnsheng looked around on his own and asked, "Xiaoyuan, do we need to do anything else?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "Brother Rùnsheng, you step out, I'll go in."

"Okay."

Rùnsheng stepped out, and Li Zhuiyuan stepped in. Then, Li Zhuiyuan also stepped out, motioning for Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin to follow suit one by one. Even after all four had stepped onto the Tai Chi symbol, nothing happened.

"Brother Xiaoyuan, what do we do next?" Tan Wenbin asked nervously. He noticed white mist already rising from the dead bodies around them. The water in the pond was also growing colder, gradually becoming bone-chilling.

To this, Li Zhuiyuan gave only a one-word answer: "Wait."

The temperature plummeted. The parts of their legs submerged in water had already turned red from the cold. Rùnsheng bent down and lifted Li Zhuiyuan up. Li Zhuiyuan didn't refuse and naturally climbed onto Rùnsheng's back. Scanning their surroundings, Li Zhuiyuan saw that the dead bodies were beginning to freeze. Their own exhaled breaths also produced white mist, and Tan Wenbin and Xue Liangliang were already shivering.

Li Zhuiyuan comforted them, "Just hold on a little longer."

Tan Wenbin hugged his arms, his voice trembling, "Will this really get us out?"

Xue Liangliang's teeth chattered as he said, "Xiaoyuan must be right. Even if we've found the 'gate,' it will take some time to exit. Remember how the truck disappeared after we entered and then left the village?"

Tan Wenbin: "My brain is frozen stiff; I can't think straight. Just tell me."

Xue Liangliang: "It's like entering and exiting this spatial interlayer isn't a one-time thing; it's more like squeezing toothpaste."

By this time, all the surrounding dead bodies were completely covered in ice crystals, looking like a vast expanse of ice sculptures. The four's endurance was also nearing its limit. Even Li Zhuiyuan, on Rùnsheng's back, was starting to find it unbearable.

Tan Wenbin: "Is it because we didn't promise to help them get revenge that they want to freeze us to death and drag us down with them?"

After experiencing the little girl on the train repaying kindness with malice, Tan Wenbin no longer held out any hope for humanity from such "filthy things."

Xue Liangliang: "Xiaoyuan, maybe we should just agree to them. Promise them that once we're out, we'll call the police and then figure out a way to get them revenge."

The four of them had no ability to help them get revenge. Calling the police first and then seeking revenge was essentially pointless, but at this moment, it was the only way to appease them.

Tan Wenbin's lips were purple with cold, yet he couldn't help but say, "Brother Liang... you're really good at... fooling ghosts."

Xue Liangliang couldn't help but glare at him: "Your... brain is frozen... don't be so blunt... saying it out loud."

Li Zhuiyuan laboriously raised his hand and said, "If you two have time to talk... you might as well hug each other for warmth."

Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin immediately understood. Like penguins, they huddled together. While the warming effect was minimal, it at least had some psychological benefit.

Li Zhuiyuan continued, "This has nothing to do with them... We... are about to exit."

No sooner had he spoken than Li Zhuiyuan felt his surroundings plunge into darkness. As the cold vanished completely, he himself began to fall.

"Splash!"

Below was water, very, very cold water. But compared to the previous freezing environment, this water could be called warm, though it was somewhat viscous and greasy. Moreover, because the fall was so sudden, and Li Zhuiyuan had been lying on Rùnsheng's back, he landed face down and flat on the water's surface. Although it was water, the impact was still painful. This caused him to be momentarily stunned upon impact, and his body began to sink further.

When Li Zhuiyuan regained consciousness, something suddenly smacked him on the back, causing his body to inevitably move in the direction of the force. But quickly, a hand grabbed his clothes, then an arm wrapped around his waist, and a powerful force pulled him rapidly upward.

Upon reaching the surface, Li Zhuiyuan began to cough violently.

"Xiaoyuan, are you alright?"

Although it was pitch black all around, Li Zhuiyuan recognized that the person holding him in the water was Rùnsheng. Rùnsheng must have dived down to find him earlier. Since there was no light, he could only continuously swing his arms and legs to increase his contact area. The smack Li Zhuiyuan felt earlier was probably Rùnsheng's hand or leg brushing against him. Fortunately, Rùnsheng quickly realized and pulled him up.

"Cough, cough, cough..." This was Tan Wenbin's coughing sound, nearby.

"Xiaoyuan, Xiaoyuan, Binbin and I are here." Xue Liangliang's voice came. Xue Liangliang must have pulled Tan Wenbin up, as Xue Liangliang was an excellent swimmer, being someone who would rendezvous in the Yangtze River, after all.

They gradually moved closer, guided by the sounds, and finally gathered together. Xue Liangliang said, "Is this a pool? It's so deep. Since there's no light, it must be a rock cave above us. We should have emerged from the spatial interlayer."

Li Zhuiyuan said, "The problem now is how we get out of here and onto dry land. We can't see anything, and we don't know how large this pool is."

Rùnsheng: "Xiaoyuan, you all wait here for me. I'll swim in one direction and see how long it takes to find the shore. If it's a rock wall, I'll swim back and try another direction. After a few attempts, I'm sure I'll find land."

"Okay, Brother Rùnsheng, but don't swim too far. We'll call out to each other. When you feel you can barely hear us, you must come back, or we might get separated here."

Rùnsheng had matches and a tinder stick on him, but after the previous freezing and now falling into the water, they were certainly unusable.

Xue Liangliang lamented, "Next time I go out, I'm definitely bringing a waterproof flashlight."

"Brother Liangliang, it wouldn't matter even if you had one. All our luggage is still in the truck."

"Oh, right."

Just as Rùnsheng was about to start swimming, Tan Wenbin, who had swallowed several mouthfuls of water earlier, suddenly cried out, "There's something down there touching my foot!" Everyone was startled by this. Rùnsheng didn't swim away but dived down.

Tan Wenbin continued to yell, "It's hands! I kicked hands! More than one pair!"

Xue Liangliang also said, "Yes, my foot touched something too. I think I just stepped on someone's head."

Li Zhuiyuan was shorter, so he wasn't as submerged as they were, but he felt it too. It wasn't just a sensation; when he reached forward in the pitch darkness, he touched something swollen and greasy. It felt like a human face, just inches in front of him.

Li Zhuiyuan immediately recoiled his hand.

Xue Liangliang: "Binbin, is this your arm?"

Tan Wenbin: "I'm holding you."

Xue Liangliang: "You're not holding me right now."

Tan Wenbin: "..."

Rùnsheng surfaced at that moment, shook his head, and said, "Xiaoyuan, below us are nothing but bodies floating up."

"Gurgle..."

"Gurgle..."

Continuous bubbling sounds came from nearby.

Rùnsheng said, "That's corpse gas, escaping as the bodies swell and float to the surface. They're releasing gas."

Li Zhuiyuan looked up at the invisible ceiling. "We should be in a mountain crevice beneath the ancestral hall. These bodies are the victims we saw in the hall earlier, before we came out." Things seen in the spatial interlayer might differ slightly from reality, but they also have a connection. No matter how brazen the villagers were, they wouldn't be foolish enough to neatly arrange all the bodies of their victims inside the ancestral hall. Therefore, since those bodies were previously in the center of the hall, it meant their coordinates were aligned vertically here.

It had to be said, this was indeed a good place to dispose of bodies without a trace. Kill someone, dump the body here, and it would truly go unnoticed.

Tan Wenbin whispered, "They... they won't turn into zombies, will they?"

If all these bodies turned into zombies right now, the four of them would surely be finished. Even if only two or three turned, Rùnsheng could only handle one alone. The rest would be enough to gnaw the three of them to death.

"They won't."

"Brother Xiaoyuan, it's okay, you don't need to comfort me; I can face it bravely."

"The ancestral hall above has a very clever 'blessing within blessing' layout. Within that blessing lies peace, which naturally has the effect of suppressing evil spirits. These bodies, theoretically, cannot turn into zombies. Unless someone upstairs went mad right now and smashed and dismantled the ancestral hall, tearing down even the pillars, then the suppression below might be lost, but at most, only one or two bodies could turn. For all of them to turn, the feng shui of the ancestral hall would have to be altered. A neutral-to-benevolent feng shui layout is difficult to change, but an extreme 'blessing within blessing' layout like this is relatively easy to alter from one extreme to another."

Tan Wenbin: "Brother Xiaoyuan, you only needed to say the first sentence. You didn't have to say the last few."

Li Zhuiyuan: "My apologies, I'm used to this problem-solving approach."

He seemed to have always had this cognitive habit: whenever he saw a formation, his first thought was how to make it worse and more vicious. It was all Wei Zhengdao's fault! Of course, it wasn't too strange for him to have such thoughts now. Almost every body here had suffered a violent death, so their resentment was considerable. The terrifying cold experienced earlier in the spatial interlayer was actually a materialization of these bodies' grievances. Moreover, while the ancestral hall's formation could prevent them from becoming zombies, it wasn't specifically designed to suppress evil spirits. Thus, the resentment would only continue to accumulate, and the bodies would constantly be preserved in this pool of water. It could be said that this was a terrifying "biogas digester," needing only a professional technician to light a match for it to fully explode!

At this moment, Li Zhuiyuan heard a dense, faint sound of water flowing. It wasn't from animals or fish. He began to pinpoint locations in his mind based on the sounds. Then, he quickly realized that after floating to the surface, the bodies slowly began to move.

Tan Wenbin: "Huh, where did the bodies next to me go? Just now, several were leaning against me, and now they're all gone."

Xue Liangliang: "I can only feel one here."

Li Zhuiyuan immediately said, "Brother Liangliang, feel around the body next to you, front and back, and see if you can feel any other bodies."

"Okay, wait a moment." After a series of close-by water sounds, Xue Liangliang's reply came, "Xiaoyuan, there are bodies at both ends. They seem to have lined up."

Tan Wenbin: "Lined up, for what?"

Li Zhuiyuan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "They're forming a bridge for us, guiding us to shore."

Xue Liangliang was initially startled by this, then immediately realized something was amiss: "Damn it, thank you!"

Xue Liangliang asked, "Xiaoyuan, is the direction we should go the one their heads are facing?"

"Yes, follow this direction for now."

"Then follow along, holding onto these bodies to move forward. Don't fall behind. I'll go first, Binbin second, and Rùnsheng, you and Xiaoyuan bring up the rear."

Next, the four of them moved through the pool, holding onto the bodies as if they were railings. Most of these bodies were plump, though some were thin—those were people recently murdered and thrown in, who hadn't yet reached the stage of 'giant' appearance. Especially as they passed a particularly normal-looking body, Li Zhuiyuan's left hand brushed against it, and whether by coincidence or something else, it became lodged in the body's hand, unable to be pulled out for a moment.

"Xiaoyuan?" Rùnsheng, behind him, saw the boy stop and quickly asked.

"I'm fine." Li Zhuiyuan used his other hand to touch the body's face. He couldn't perform 'blind bone-reading,' but he had either possessed or experienced the two elements needed for it. Through touch, the body's face appeared in Li Zhuiyuan's mind. Though not very clear, he could recognize that it was Zhu Yang. Li Zhuiyuan pulled his hand back from Zhu Yang's face, wanting to pat his chest to tell him to "rest in peace." Though telling a dead person to "rest in peace" felt strange. But for now, it could only be assumed that he had died with unfulfilled grievances.

However, with that pat, his hand sank in, slipping into the body's chest. He... had been disemboweled. Li Zhuiyuan truly couldn't understand why killing people and stealing their belongings wasn't enough for the villagers; they had to treat the bodies this way too. No, a more reasonable explanation would be that the bodies weren't desecrated after death, but that the victims had been tortured to death. Recalling earlier, when he had "acted like a ghost" and kicked open the door of a civilian house, seeing the corpse water on the bed and in the cabinet, and the cured meat Tan Wenbin had brought back, it was unimaginable that such concentrated evil still existed in this day and age.

His hand, still inside Zhu Yang's chest, felt something hard and thick. When he squeezed it twice, it crumbled apart. It was books. The thick, ink-smudged pirated novels Zhu Yang kept in his truck to read in his free time. They had stuffed all these books into Zhu Yang's body.

"I understand now." The hand that had been gripping Li Zhuiyuan's, released its hold. The boy withdrew his hand and moved on without delay, catching up to the two in front.

The area of this pool was truly terrifyingly vast. Even with bodies to hold onto for support and rest, everyone gradually became exhausted. Without these bodies as "landmarks," finding the shore in complete darkness would be almost impossible. Even if Rùnsheng swam single-mindedly in one direction, he would eventually stray from a straight line.

Finally, the sound of water breaking ahead signaled they had reached shore. Rùnsheng, from behind, gave Li Zhuiyuan a boost, helping him onto the rock. All four lay exhaustedly on the ground, gasping for breath.

Li Zhuiyuan: "Time in the spatial interlayer is likely consistent with the outside world. It should still be dark outside, so let's not delay and get out while it's still night."

All four stood up. Except for Rùnsheng, the other three immediately swayed. They had been in the water for too long and were somewhat unaccustomed to the feel of gravity on land.

Xue Liangliang: "The last body was angled towards here. We'll follow that direction."

The four proceeded along a small protruding section outside the rock face. They could feel that it was winding, but the further they went, the more they sensed the wind's response, and faintly, they could discern a glimmer of light—moonlight. Beside them, the pool also narrowed, becoming more like a stream. It seemed the villagers wouldn't walk so far inward when discarding bodies; they'd simply throw them in from the outside, letting the current carry them into the deepest part of the pool.

Continuing outward, the path suddenly opened up, and they saw the moon above. This location was likely at the base of the mountain slope where the village was situated, while the path leading to the main road was on the other side of the village. Li Zhuiyuan and Xue Liangliang simultaneously pointed in one direction: through the mountains. Going back through the village to the main road was clearly impossible; if discovered, it would be suicide. The only option was to go around the mountain.

This time, Li Zhuiyuan led the way. Not long after starting up the slope, the boy heard sounds. He immediately raised his hand, making a downward motion. Everyone crouched down and remained still. Li Zhuiyuan slowly edged forward. His hearing was excellent, and he soon heard a conversation from the bushes under a tree further up the slope—a man and a woman:

"Why are you so impatient? Don't rip my pants!"

"Then hurry up and take them off! You're killing me with anticipation."

"I'm taking them off, aren't I? Let go! If you don't let go, I won't do it."

"Oh, come on, don't waste time. Your man drank tonight, but he holds his liquor well. He might wake up in the middle of the night and come looking for you if he finds you not in bed."

"What's there to be afraid of? He won't wake up until at least the middle of the night. Isn't that enough time for you to finish once?"

"I want to finish once, rest a bit, then do it again."

"Look at you, so eager."

Soon, muffled moans came from the man and woman.

Li Zhuiyuan turned sideways and gestured to Rùnsheng behind him, indicating there were two people under the tree above and that he should subdue them directly later. Worried Rùnsheng might hesitate and allow the couple to make noise if things went wrong, Li Zhuiyuan also made a throat-slitting gesture, meaning Rùnsheng could choose a more extreme method if necessary. Rùnsheng nodded vigorously. But just as Li Zhuiyuan made the gesture for action, the muffled moans ceased with the man's drawn-out sigh.

Li Zhuiyuan and Rùnsheng froze in place. The boy felt he had gestured quickly, but he didn't expect the other party to be even faster.

"How was it? Feel good?"

"You're satisfied, but you left me hanging."

"Don't worry, the second time will last longer."

"The village chief must have gotten a fat target this time, right?"

"Fat nothing. The truck was carrying steel cables."

"How is that possible? I heard steel cables are very valuable."

"Valuable, yes, but hard to move. Selling them in the town down the mountain would be too conspicuous. The truck could only be dismantled and sold for scrap metal, and even then, only bit by bit."

"What about cash?"

"There was some cash, but the village chief said the four 'fattest' young ones—they wore really good clothes, looked like they had plenty of money in their pockets—had disappeared."

"Where could they have gone?"

"Who knows? The village chief originally planned to organize a search up and down the road, but something strange happened in the village, so they had to invite someone to perform rituals today, and everything was delayed."

"This whole thing is truly strange. Nobody was there, but those two doors broke open on their own, the cabinets inside were opened, several bundles of corn on the cob drying outside my house disappeared, and cured meat was stolen from inside. It's incredibly eerie. Do you think vengeful spirits came out to cause trouble?"

"What's there to be afraid of? Like the village chief told us, even the most powerful ghost fears a butcher. Besides, in our village, from old to young, whose hands haven't been stained with blood? In the eyes of ghosts, our village is the true living King Yama, hahaha!"

"There's no living King Yama that fast."

"The first time doesn't count. Just let me recover for a bit, and I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

"So this time, we didn't get much out of it, did we?"

"It's fine. The village chief found the driver's home address and the village's phone number. He also found love letters the guy wrote to his wife and a letter to his daughter in the truck. We'll call them later,