"I am really honored that you are here as my guest. I hope that Stone Village can leave you with a wonderful experience and memories..."
Li Jin opened his mouth as if he wanted to refute, but then he closed his mouth tightly again for some reason.
"You have helped the village a lot during this period. I have a gift for you. Although it is not expensive, it does represent the thoughts of our village. I hope you don't despise it..."
The village chief put down his old pipe, sat up straight, and signaled Xie Ying to get something with his eyes.
Yang Jia could hardly contain his excitement and couldn't help asking, "Who does the village chief plan to give this gift to?"
Meng Qingqing also smiled and said: "Of course the gift given by the village chief is worth a fortune, but I don't know who among us has this honor..."
The village chief glanced at them and said slowly: "You will know later."
Meng Qingqing couldn't help but frown. She didn't expect that the village chief was so good at keeping people in suspense.
Xie Ying walked over and placed the plate covered with silk cloth on the table. Because of the cloth covering it, no one could see the appearance of the long-desired "return stone".
Meng Qingqing stared at the red cloth, as if she wanted to see a hole through it. The other guests had the same expression as her, and their eyes were all fixed on the tightly wrapped plate.
They can't wait to know what this legendary "return stone" looks like...
Meng Yao's gaze also followed. It was impossible for her to say that she was not curious. She needed to confirm her guess.
The village chief looked around and slowly uncovered the silk cloth on the plate: "This is the gift I want to give you."
When the contents of the plate were exposed, everyone was dumbfounded.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Why are there so many stones? What does this mean?"
"Is this the return stone? Isn't this it? It looks like an ordinary stone!"
…
The village chief ignored their questions and just pushed the plate to the middle: "There are six stones in total, each of you take one."
No one responded for a moment, and Yang Jia asked, "Village Chief, is this the return stone?"
The village chief slowly shook his head: "I don't know what you are talking about, let alone the so-called return stone."
Yang Jia's face was grim: "So this is not a return stone at all? The so-called gift is just this ordinary broken stone?"
The eyes of the village chief and his family suddenly became sharp. Yang Jia realized it belatedly and said, "That's not what I meant!" She waved her hands anxiously, "What I meant is that this is not what I imagined..."
However, it was too late. The village chief looked at her with a colder gaze. Perhaps no one could tolerate having their beliefs insulted.
Zhang Jiamin spoke slowly: "Everyone, don't worry. According to the program team's previous routine, is it possible that the real return stone is mixed in with these stones? The guest who gets the real return stone will be the final winner of this episode?"
After hearing his analysis, the other guests all felt that it made sense and agreed with this speculation.
Now they didn't dare to take these stones rashly. Meng Qingqing was embarrassed: "Then how should we distribute these stones?"
Ranran raised her hand and volunteered, "Let Ranran help you divide it!"
Of course Meng Qingqing didn't believe her. After all, everyone saw how well the little girl and Meng Yao played together. She politely refused, "Thank you, Ranran, but we still want to divide it among ourselves."
Ranran put down her hand in disappointment, but did not insist on anything more.
"There's nothing to draw lots here, so let's play rock-paper-scissors, and the winner gets to choose first," Zhang Jiamin suggested.
Several people gathered together, but Meng Yao was the only one who did not move. She was still leisurely eating melon seeds, and her attitude was so relaxed that it seemed as if she was isolated from the show.
Zhang Jiamin called out, "Yaoyao, come over here and play rock-paper-scissors."
Meng Yao showed a lack of interest: "You guys play, I'll be the last one."
Han Mei moved his lips as if he wanted to persuade her, but in the end he said nothing.
Zhang Jiamin wanted to persuade her but was interrupted by Li Jin: "If she wants to be at the bottom, let her be at the bottom. Meng Yao never cares about winning or losing. Let's not bother with her."
Luck is a difficult thing to predict. If you don't know which stone is the return stone, it doesn't necessarily mean that the first person to pick it will get it. Thinking of this, Zhang Jiamin stopped trying to persuade them.
Xie Ying brought Meng Yao a plate of snacks: "Aren't you going to join us?"
Meng Yao shook her head: "It's boring."
She had already confirmed her guess when the village chief brought out the plate of stones. There was no need to choose one over the other, as all the stones were the same. In other words, they were all return stones.
From the beginning, the guide suggested "get along well with the villagers" instead of going through a lot of trouble to dig and search. After a series of events, it is not difficult to guess that every time you get along well with the villagers, you will get the stones they give you, that is, the "return stone".
The "return stone" is not just a specific "one", perhaps only when a certain number of return stones are reached can it be successfully activated.
The purpose of the program team's guidance this time was to make the guests understand how to obtain the return stone, but they didn't expect that others were still thinking about choosing the most favorite one from a pile of return stones.
Meng Yao slowly withdrew her gaze and no longer looked at the other guests.
The results of the rock-paper-scissors game over there have come out. Meng Qingqing was the first person to make a choice. She fumbled for a while and finally chose the least conspicuous stone.
Yang Jia gritted his teeth and said, "Do you want me to change another one?"
The program team is good at using reverse thinking. If we calculate in this way, the more ordinary the stone, the more likely it is to be a "return stone."
Meng Qingqing smiled and held the stone tightly in her hand: "No need, I want this one."
Yang Jia sighed in frustration.
What was left was a beautiful round and smooth stone with beautiful patterns on it. Meng Yao held the stone in her hand and played with it. It felt cool and smooth to the touch.
Meng Qingqing couldn't wait to hand the stone to the photographer for inspection, and asked excitedly: "Is this the return stone?"
What he got was the other party shaking his head.
Meng Qingqing lost all her strength at once, unable to believe it.
Yang Jia couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and handed over his stone, but he got the same answer as before.
The guests went to verify it one after another, but they got a negative answer.
The photographer had a complicated expression and said bluntly: "Don't show it to me anymore. The stones in your hands cannot be used as a condition for returning."
What he said was vague, and to some extent hinted at some information, but all the guests became furious at the negative answer.
(End of this chapter)