Baili Xin: "If you won't say it, then I'll say it instead."
"I'll tell you what I guessed."
"The beginning of the story should be similar to what the village chief said. The village has been suffering from drought for two years and has no harvest. The wealthy businessman Huang Youcheng passed by and took a fancy to the girl Baoer. In order to get the beautiful Baoer, Huang Youcheng made a condition that the village could not refuse - food and money."
"I don't know how Bao Er got on the pirate ship yet, so let's skip this part and talk about the rest."
"The village chief said that Baoer killed Huang Youcheng and then committed suicide because he hated the village, but I just went to Huang Youcheng's house."
"They stayed here for the first few days of the river cruise, but the room was mostly filled with women's clothes, with very few men's clothes. This shows that Huang Youcheng rarely lived here. And there is a secret passage in Huang Youcheng's house that leads to your house. Who is it for?"
"It's for Sang Baoer and Huang Youcheng at the beginning..."
Baili Xin paused and looked at Granny Sang, "Or is it for Madam Huang and the village chief in the future?"
Granny Sang was shaking like a sieve. She looked at Sang Jiuchi in shock, staggered back twice, and sat down on the rocking chair.
"Did you guess it?" Granny Sang swallowed, and her usually crazy tone became much calmer.
Granny Sang: "You guessed right. That tunnel was used by Bao Er after she married Huang You Cheng... to have an affair with Li Yi Zhi."
"There was a severe drought 30 years ago. Huang Youcheng was attracted by Baoer's appearance. He spent a fortune to get her and was willing to provide food to the village. The village chief lied to us about offering sacrifices to the river god, but we are not stupid. If there was really a sacrifice to the river god, why did it take until two years after the drought, or not long after Huang Youcheng came?"
"And Bao'er and Li Yizhi were in love at the time. The former village chief knew about this. Just when Bao'er was ready to die and refuse to obey, Li Yizhi came."
"He was full of morality and told Baoer that this was for the greater good, for the village, and for hundreds of lives."
"Bao Er said that she loved him, and then Li Yizhi came up with a bad idea."
"He let Baoer marry Huang Youcheng and gave her body to Huang Youcheng, but they were lovers in spirit. He told Baoer that this was to accumulate virtue for himself and that he would have infinite glory in his next life."
"Bao Er finally accepted Li Yizhi's idea, acquiesced to the lie of the river god's sacrifice, and married Huang Youcheng."
"It was also from that time that she began to have an affair with Li Yizhi."
"It just so happened that Huang Youcheng chose a house closest to my home in order to pursue Baoer. In order to facilitate their affair, we secretly dug a secret tunnel. Because the distance was short, the tunnel was dug quickly."
"After the tunnel was dug, Baoer found an excuse to miss home and asked to live in the village permanently."
"Huang Youcheng has a business in the town and is not often with Bao'er. He only comes back every one or two days and leaves in a hurry the next day. This gives Bao'er and Li Yizhi plenty of time to have an affair."
"But is there any wall that is impenetrable?"
"Then one day, Huang Youcheng discovered their affair."
"Li Yizhi was beaten up by Huang Youcheng and kicked out of the Huang family. From that day on, the news of Baoer's immoral private life spread everywhere. Everyone could poke her spine and scold her, calling her a fickle woman and a bitch."
"But these people have all forgotten that they only have the strength to curse after eating the food that Baoer bought with his body."
"Later, Bao Er couldn't bear the humiliation and poisoned Huang Youcheng on the day of the river cruise before committing suicide."
"Since then, strange things have happened in the village. First, a monster that had never been seen before appeared in the mountains. Then everyone found themselves trapped in the village and unable to leave. Later, some women in the village continued to have fevers and died one after another. That's when the river god's curse appeared."
"All the women in the village are sick, except me. Everyone says that it is Baoer's vengeful spirit that is causing trouble. She cursed the village because she hates it. We can only appease her anger by sacrificing a pure girl every three years."
"The villagers were afraid that Bao'er would turn into a ghost at night and seek revenge on them, so they built a cenotaph for her on the mountain and went up the mountain to worship her every day."
Ding! Congratulations to the player, you have unlocked 20% of the truth about the River God's Curse, and the current completion rate is 90%/100%.
Granny Sang: "I don't care about the curse or not, I just want my daughter's body back."
"As the saying goes, fallen leaves return to their roots. Her surname is neither Huang nor Li. Her surname is Sang. She is a child of the Sang family. I should let her have a place to live after her death instead of becoming a lonely ghost."
The wind blew, bringing a yellow fallen leaf into Grandma Sang's hand.
Baili Xin looked down at the hunched old lady in front of him. Her face was so stiff that she couldn't show much expression, but he could still read the mother's attachment and sadness for her child.
Baili Xin: "So that means there is no Baoer's body in the grave on the mountain?"
Granny Sang: "Humph, of course not. If there was, I would have dug it out long ago."
Baili Xin: "Where is Bao'er's body?"
Granny Sang: "It's in the river. It sank with Huang Youcheng and never came up again. I went down to fish it out, but the water was too deep and there were so many aquatic plants that I couldn't find it at all."
"That's why you often go to the river to fish for corpses, just in case Miss Bao'er's body floats up from the river one day." Baili Xin glanced at Granny Sang's wrinkled face, "I will find a way to get Bao'er's body back for you."
Granny Sang tried to open her eyes wide, her eyeballs almost falling out of their sockets, "Really?!"
Baili Xin: "Grandma, you look so cute when you stare."
"Don't stare next time."
Granny Sang: “…”
Blue and thin mushroom.
—
In the live broadcast room.
90%! 90%! 30 hours left. This time they might be able to complete the mission without any sacrifice!
My dears, I'm dying of laughter, "You're so cute when you glare," "Don't glare next time," hahaha, these NPCs seemed scary to me before, but now the more I look at them, the cuter they become.
… The kind of cuteness that doesn’t require you to act cute
God Xin cured my fear of NPCs that I had suffered for many years.
It turns out that Sang Baoer's body has been in the river all along. I thought the one on the mountain was it.
What happened to the blacksmith trio
Who cares about them? They deserve it for daring to tease Baili Xin!
But what happened just now? Why did they suddenly run away? It seemed like something hit them. Are there other supernatural beings in this copy
I don't know, no. When I entered this game, there were only Red Spider and NPC.
—
When the blacksmith trio woke up, Baili Xin was no longer around.
Huang Mao asked the blacksmith with a trembling voice: "Boss, what, what should we do?"
The blacksmith's face turned pale: "What else can we do? Let's get out of here!"
Thin Man: "Boss, Bai, Baili Xin is missing."
Blacksmith: "Don't talk about Baili Xin. Even if Qianli Xin is missing, it has nothing to do with me! Go!"
When Baili Xin came out of Granny Sang's house, he happened to see the three blacksmiths fleeing in panic. Seeing that the three were still alive, Baili Xin felt relieved.
There was still more than an hour before sunset, and Baili Xin didn't want to waste any time, so he simply went to the river.
The diligent duo of strong men were still washing clothes. Baili Xin slowly walked up to them and half-knelt down like them. "Let me ask you something, brothers."
The laundry duo was stunned, a look of hesitation flashed across their pale faces, probably wondering why these two background NPCs had suddenly become someone's concern.
One of them spoke slowly, his voice stiff, like a stuck robot: "What's up, bro?"
Baili Xin: "Do you wash clothes here every day?"
Washerman: "Yes, from dawn to dusk."
Baili Xin: "So you guys face the mountains every day, have you ever noticed the monsters on the mountain coming down the mountain?"
The two laundry men heard the monster shrink its neck. One of them creaked and turned his neck and said, "No, they don't come out during the day. They just wander around in the mountains at night and never come down the mountain."
Baili Xin: "Not even one?"
The face-washing man nodded like a puppet.
Baili Xin stood up and said, "Okay, I understand. Thank you, brothers. You continue."
Baili Xin was walking upstream along the river bank when he suddenly received a message alert from the discussion group in his friend list.
Discussion Group
Xia Chi: Brother, something serious has happened! Those five players are fighting with the NPCs! You said that we can't stop them if they want to dig the grave, so we just watched from the side. Then when they were halfway through digging the grave, a few villager NPCs suddenly appeared and stopped them. The NPCs didn't let them dig the grave, but they insisted on digging it, and now the two sides are fighting each other.
Baili Xin: Come back.
Xia Chi: But we haven’t found Sang Baoer’s body yet!
Baili Xin: I just saw Granny Sang. Sang Baoer's body is not there, but in the river. Who among you is good at swimming
Li Cancan: I, I used to be on the school swimming team, and now my speed has increased by 300%.
Xia Chi: I can do it too. I have written about scuba diving before. I can hold my breath for about 2 minutes.
Liang Xi: …I’m a landlubber.
Zhou Guang: Um, I can’t do that either.
Baili Xin looked up at the sky. The platinum-colored sun had gradually set and turned into an orange-red color.
Baili Xin: Then the three of us, Xia Chi, and Li Cancan, will go down to look for the body. Zhou Guang and Liang Xi will support us upstairs. The sun is about to set, so you guys should come back quickly.
Everyone: Okay.
When the four people hurried back, Baili Xin had been waiting by the river for a long time.
Because it was a fishing village, the river diving equipment in this village was quite complete. Baili Xin relied on her status as a "saint" to search the village and borrowed three sets of diving equipment.
Goggles, underwater searchlights, flippers, and several bundles of hemp rope for wrapping around the waist.
It was completely dark at this moment, and the laundry duo NPC also left quietly.
During this time, he also returned to his residence and punched the Red Spider, who was tied up in the corner and gradually regaining life.
Chi Zhu looked at Baili Xin's fist in shock, his eyes rolled back with reluctance, and he fainted again.
This time, it can sleep for a long time.
Xia Chi ran up to Baili Xin, breathing heavily, and said, "Brother, those five people haven't come down yet."
Just as he finished speaking, the roar of the Red Spider was heard from the mountain.
Ding! 1 player died, 12 players remaining.
Ding! 1 player died, 11 players remaining.
Ding! 1 player died, and there are 10 players left.
The system prompts sounded one after another, and a few minutes later, two panicked figures emerged from the dark crevice in the mountain.
Behind the two figures were several huge black shadows.
Seeing the two people leaving the forest, the black shadow did not continue to chase them. Instead, it rubbed its claws restlessly a few times on the spot, turned around and disappeared into the dark forest.
The two players ran out of the woods quickly without stopping, shouting as they ran across the bridge and rushed into the village, quickly blending into the darkness.
The quiet village returned to its deathly silence. The people by the river looked at each other, with no joy on their faces.
The atmosphere was somewhat solemn.
They are not familiar with those players, and even have some conflicts with them. They hypocritically say that their sadness is fake, and all they have is empathy and fear.
As long as the mission has not been completed, they have not struggled out of the abyss of death, and their fate will be the same as these people in the near future.
45 hours have passed, and only the last 27 hours are left. No, it should be said that 26 hours are left.
The nights in this copy are particularly long. It takes 13 hours from now to the crowing of the cock the next day. After the crowing of the cock, they will enter the compulsory working hours.
It is not yet known how long tomorrow's mandatory work will be, but it is likely to be 8 hours or even more.
If it is 8 hours, it means that it will be dark as soon as the work is finished tomorrow. And the work intensity is getting heavier and heavier. In order to cope with the work, they also need to maintain adequate rest and physical strength.
It is best to retrieve the bodies during the day when the light is good, but now is not the time for them to take the lead and make a choice, and they don’t have much time left.
After a long time, Zhou Guang took a deep breath and slapped his cheek hard.
"Everyone cheer up, there's only 10% left, we can definitely get out of this alive!"
Liang Xi and Xia Chi also calmed down quickly, only Li Cancan's face was still a little ugly.
Xia Chi couldn't bear it: "Sister Cancan, why don't you stay here and wait for me and Brother Xin up there?"
Li Cancan pulled the corner of his mouth and shook his head. "No, I'm fine. If I can't even overcome this, what will happen to so many things later? It's impossible for me to meet good partners like you in every game copy."
Xia Chi: "Okay then, come on."
Five minutes later, the three were fully dressed. They all had ropes tied around their waists, so that if Zhou Guang and Liang Xi found something wrong, they could pull them up on the river bank.
Several people stepped into the river on flippers.
The freezing water immediately rolled up to their ankles, freezing Xia Chi so much that hair stood on end from head to toe.
Before coming, he asked Granny Sang about the approximate location where Sang Baoer fell into the water. Starting from this location, the three of them split into two groups.
Xia Chi and Li Cancan were in one direction, while Baili Xin was in the opposite direction.
There was a lot of mud in the river and visibility was very low. Even with an underwater searchlight, they could only see objects two or three meters in front of them.
Several people dived and floated up in the water, constantly grasping the river bottom and moving forward to search.
The river channel has long been filled with silt after years of erosion, and the upstream has continuously brought down sand and gravel to cover the riverbed. After thirty years of changes, the things that sank to the bottom of the river have long been buried under the silt. If it weren't for digging bit by bit, it would be impossible to find the bones of that year.
—
In the live broadcast room, the audience could only see a few heads occasionally emerging from the water to breathe.
Are you kidding me? They also block it by default when it’s underwater. Is this live broadcast poisonous
I saw Baili Xin poking his head out! Did you notice that Baili Xin held his breath for a long time? Xia Chi and Li Cancan poked their heads out twice on average, while Baili Xin poked his head out only once.
My idol is indeed my idol! What else can't he do
It's scary to watch them retrieve bodies in the middle of the night. It's painful to retrieve them, and it's also painful to not retrieve them.
I want them to get it, but I also want them not to get it. I'm tormented.
I just got a piece of gossip. The Shahai Guild has secretly spread the word that as long as Baili Xin enters the game hall, he will be invited to join the guild as an exception.
The Sand Sea Union? Did I hear that right? That's the third-ranked union?! Don't people usually have to go through layers of screening before they can get in
It is absolutely true. These words were spoken by the president of the Shahai Labor Union himself.
Oh, what's the sand sea? I heard that the Fury Union is also preparing to snatch people.
Holy shit, Fury?! The second-ranked union!
Idols are really amazing. Ordinary people try their best to get into the big guilds, but the big guilds are already preparing to snatch Baili Xin before he even comes out of the trial. I admire Baili Xin more and more.
—
Baili Xin searched the ground meticulously. He pushed aside the dense aquatic plants beneath him and reached his hand into the mud and sand.
Suddenly, he felt a hard, ring-shaped object in the accumulated mud.
Baili Xin pulled the thing out with a little force and found it was a ring.
Because it is made of pure gold, the ring is slightly deformed but not rusted.
There are two words engraved on the inside of the ring.
Mulberry & yellow.
It is the wedding ring of Sang Baoer and Huang Youcheng.
The ring is here, are the bodies of the two people also nearby
Baili Xin's breath holding ability had reached its limit. After recognizing his current position, he prepared to swim upstream, intending to take a breath and continue searching near where he had just found the ring.
Just as he shook his flippers and prepared to swim, a stream of clear and clean water forcefully and gently pried open Baili Xin's mouth.
The clean water flowed into his mouth in an instant, and along with the water, a flow of fresh air also poured into Baili Xin's chest.
Baili Xin's pupils shrank slightly.
At the bottom of the cold river, clear water slowly spread out a dense and sufficient protective shield around Baili Xin. All the river water in the shield was squeezed out, leaving only rich oxygen and several streams of clean water flowing continuously.
A stream of water wrapped around Baili Xin's back, and another stream of water turned into water and pinched his chin.
The water unscrupulously washed every corner of Baili Xin's mouth, grinding the other's delicate lips.
The water on his back slowly moved down and wrapped around Baili Xin's waist.
Baili Xin exclaimed softly, and his body suddenly tensed up. Because of the tension of the water, he had to raise his neck with force, and ripples appeared in his eyes, and the tail of his beautiful eyes gradually turned pink.
I don’t know how long it took before the water let Baili Xin go, and before leaving, it slid across the other’s lips and cheeks with reluctance.
All the water flows tightened and finally fell on Baili Xin's neck, turning into a crystal clear water chain.
Baili Xin was breathing heavily inside the barrier, his eyes a little dazed.
There was a faint gasp in the hoarse low laugh, "This is the interest I paid you before, and I'm taking it now. But I just helped you get oxygen, so you owe me again."
Baili Xin: "..."
Damn! It's not a gentleman to take advantage of others when they are in trouble!
In a trance, the rope around Baili Xin's waist was suddenly pulled up heavily, and then Baili Xin's body was pulled out of the water uncontrollably by a force.
Baili Xin emerged from the water and heard Zhou Guang's anxious cry: "Baili Xin, are you okay?!"
Baili Xin coughed lightly, his voice slightly hoarse: "I'm fine, I found Sang Baoer and Huang Youcheng's wedding ring."
Zhou Guang on the shore breathed a sigh of relief: "You just went down for seven minutes and didn't come up. I was worried that something happened to you."
Baili Xin shouted towards the shore, "I'm fine. I'm a good swimmer and can hold my breath for a long time. I'll be fine."
With that said, Baili Xin turned around and dived into the water again.
The barrier opened again and wrapped around Baili Xin, helping him to break through the turbulent river water and mud. Baili Xin swam flexibly in the river like a fish, and soon came to the place where he had found the ring just now.
He fished in the mud for a while and soon felt a long, thin, hard object.
Baili Xin's eyes suddenly changed, and he pulled hard with his hands, pulling the thing out of the mud.
It's a skeleton.
When you pull out a radish, you also get dirt. To be more precise, two skeletons.
Two skeletons, one large and one small, were entangled with each other, and worn and faded clothes were tangled around the skeletons, wrapping them up like a large piece of seaweed.
There was a ring hanging on the finger of one of the skeletons, and that ring was exactly the same as the one Baili Xin had just picked up.
The two skeletons in front of me must be Sang Baoer and Huang Youcheng.
Baili Xin no longer hesitated and swam towards the shore, dragging the two skeletons.
Dijia's voice came to his ears again, "You're leaving now? You don't want to play for a while longer? I can give you more oxygen. I have plenty of oxygen, enough for you."
Baili Xin glared around.
Childish, only children play with water!
Ten minutes later, Xia Chi and Li Cancan also came ashore.
Five people were holding flashlights and looking at the two skeletons in a daze.
Zhou Guang: "Why... are their bones so black?"