The thick fog dissipated and the quiet town became lively.
Residents who were hiding in their houses came out, carrying buckets to fetch water nearby, or went to the edge of the town to look for food, or met and hugged their lovers whom they hadn't seen for a day...
When residents passed by, they saw this group of players lying on the ground resting exhausted, and couldn't help but sigh.
The residents of the town were actually grateful to these foreign adventurers. No matter what their original intention was for entering the town, they were trapped in the town and some even helped them pick mist grass for food.
Adventurers are not protected in the town of Ella. They cannot rob the townspeople's houses or bully the townspeople at will. Their identity as adventurers does not give them much advantage in the town of Ella.
Since they have never suffered any loss at the hands of adventurers, the residents are very grateful to them.
Several children around ten years old held kettles and handed them cups made of fruit shells filled with water.
"You, you guys drink some water."
They said this nervously, fearing that the group of adventurers would refuse.
Gu Jiu took the water handed to him by a boy and said thank you softly. The boy blushed and said you're welcome, then ran away quickly with the kettle.
The other players accepted the children's kindness nonchalantly, and most of them didn't take it seriously.
Even though they know that the game world is actually the real world and these NPCs are actually living beings, because players are just passers-by completing missions and have few interactions with them, it is difficult for them to have any emotional resonance with the NPCs.
As long as these NPCs do not hinder them from completing their tasks, players' attitude towards them is indifferent, and their good intentions or bad intentions have nothing to do with them.
After resting for a while, the players dispersed.
Gu Jiu and Lu Ji went to Xiao Ella's home first.
The area of the town is actually not small. It would take more than three hours to walk around it. However, if the player is fast on foot and deliberately speeds up, it is not a big deal.
Little Ella was leaning against the window and looking out.
When she saw Gu Jiu and Lu Ji coming, her eyes lit up and she pushed the door and ran out.
"Adventurer sister!" Little Ella said happily, "My grandmother is back to health now. Your medicine is very useful. Thank you."
She waited here specifically to say thank you to Gu Jiu and the others.
Gu Jiu touched her head and found that the little girl had dressed up specially today. Her loose black hair was combed into two braids that hung down in front of her chest. Her little face was fair and tender, and she was wearing a slightly old little skirt. Because it was starched and clean, the little girl looked very cute.
Gu Jiu smiled and said, "Really? Then I'll go in and see the old lady."
Little Ella hummed happily and led them inside.
Little Ella's grandmother sat on the bed, her eyes looking at her quietly in the darkness.
Gu Jiu lit the oil lamp on the table.
She brought this oil lamp yesterday. She had bought it casually in the game world before, just for convenience at times like this. Little Ella's family was short of supplies and had no oil lamps to use. Gu Jiu was not stingy with this little thing.
But it was obvious that the grandparents and grandchildren were reluctant to use oil lamps.
"Grandma, are you feeling better today?" Gu Jiu's tone was gentle, as if filled with infinite concern.
The old lady said, "I feel much better today, thank you."
"You're welcome. We are destined to be together with little Ella." Gu Jiu said, and pinched little Ella's skinny little face, causing the little girl to look at her with bright eyes. She liked her intimate attitude very much.
The old lady watched the scene silently without saying anything.
Gu Jiu talked to the grandparents for a while, left some food and left.
Little Ella blushed and said reluctantly: "Adventurer sister, will you come tomorrow? I will go find food later and treat you to a meal tomorrow."
"Okay." Gu Jiu said with a smile, "Then we will come over as guests tomorrow."
Little Ella hummed happily.
After leaving Xiao Ella's house, Gu Jiu and the others walked towards the mayor's house.
As soon as I arrived at the mayor's house, I happened to see Odinson and several Western players walking out of the mayor's house. Apparently they had also come to the mayor's house to inquire about the news.
Odinson was not surprised to see Gu Jiu and the other person, and nodded slightly to them.
The mayor looked delighted. "Why are you here? Come in and sit down." While greeting them, he asked the mayor's wife to pour them some water.
The group of Western players standing at the door of the mayor's house were speechless when they saw this scene.
Is this a bit too enthusiastic
They were all adventurers, and when they came in just now, the mayor treated them politely, but he didn't even give them a sip of water.
Before they could investigate, the door was closed.
The Western player left, puzzled, and asked, "What did these two Eastern players do to make the mayor so enthusiastic about them?"
Someone speculated: "Could it be that the two of them gave the mayor a lot of Misty Grass?"
"We also picked Misty Grass and gave no less than a hundred of them to the mayor."
Knowing the use of Misty Grass, the players took the opportunity to pick a lot of it and use it to gather information from the townspeople. Logically, everyone's starting point is the same, no one is better than anyone else, and the mayor's attitude should also be the same for everyone.
In the house, after drinking the water, Gu Jiu asked the mayor for news.
"Are you talking about Ella and her grandchildren who live in house 58, Lise Street?" the mayor confirmed.
"Yes." Gu Jiu nodded.
The mayor was a little confused. "How did you suddenly find out about them? Could it be that they..."
Gu Jiu mentioned her chance encounter with little Ella and the treatment she gave to old Ella, and as expected, she won the mayor's favor again. The mayor answered all her questions.
"Old Ella is over sixty years old this year, and she is also a pitiful person. She was born and raised in the town. She was a beautiful girl when she was young, and she had many suitors in the town, but she fell in love with a young man in a caravan passing through our town. The young man was handsome and was also good to Old Ella. But after he left with the caravan, he never came back. Old Ella became pregnant with his child, and she never saw the young man until the child was born..."
Later, old Ella raised the child alone.
Old Ella's son married a girl in the town and had a daughter. However, not long after his granddaughter was born, his son and daughter-in-law fell ill and died, leaving the two generations to depend on each other.
"What disease do they have?"
"It's nothing serious, just a fever."
Fever refers to a cold or fever. In the era when the medical system was not well developed, a small cold could indeed be fatal. The current medical system in the town of Ella is similar to that of the Western Middle Ages in the real world.
After learning about Ella's grandmothers, Gu Jiu asked the owner of the Witch Tavern.
"Old Joseph is also a poor man." The mayor said with sympathy.
The owner of the Witch Tavern is called Joseph, and people who are familiar with him are used to calling him Old Joseph.
The Witch Tavern was the property passed down to old Joseph by his father, and was taken over by Joseph after his father passed away.
Old Joseph never got married and had no offspring. In the eyes of the small town residents, he was a weirdo. He ran a shabby tavern alone and seldom communicated with his neighbors. If it weren't for the Witch Tavern's good geographical location and being open for business every day, people would have forgotten the existence of the tavern.
"In fact, the tavern's business was not very good." The mayor recalled, "It was not easy for Old Joseph to keep it open. I heard that it was because he charged too much. The wine in the tavern was obviously not very good. A glass cost a silver coin. The accommodation fee was even more ridiculously expensive, costing a gold coin a night. He used the money he earned to buy a lot of strange things..."
Gu Jiu nodded from time to time.
What the mayor said was pretty much what they knew now.
"Mayor, the Witch Tavern was established when the town was first built. Didn't it have the protection of the witch's magic?"
The mayor shook his head. "Definitely not. If there was, the Witch Tavern wouldn't be in such a state. However, I heard that the Witch Ella did live in the tavern at that time, but she left later..."
Suddenly, the mayor thought of something and said, "I remember, I heard from the elders that old Ella and old Joseph knew each other before. One of them was beautiful and the other was handsome. I thought they would be together, but old Ella fell in love with a young man from the caravan, and old Joseph never got married..."
The mayor sighed, thinking it was pitiful that these two had wasted most of their lives and were now alone.
"So that's how it is." Gu Jiu continued to nod.
After asking the mayor some more questions, Gu Jiu and Lu Ji got up and left.
"Ajiu, is there something wrong with old Ella?" Lu Ji asked.
Gu Jiu shook his head, "I don't know either, I just think it's all too coincidental."
"You mean little Ella and her grandmother?"
Gu Jiu nodded first, then shook his head and said with a smile: "Maybe I was wrong, they are just ordinary residents in the town."
It was only because Little Ella showed up at the right time that I was able to devote some attention to the grandparents and grandchildren. I didn't expect that Old Ella and the tavern owner were old acquaintances, which was a good gain.
"Should we go back and look for them?"
"No!" Gu Jiu pulled him forward, "Old Ella doesn't seem to like interacting with outsiders. We won't be able to get anything out of him if we go."
In the following time, Gu Jiu found some residents nearby, exchanged the mist grass with them, and asked them about old Ella and old Joseph.
Most of the young people in the town didn't know about the story of these two people, but the older ones, like the mayor, knew what happened to the two when they were young, and they all sighed after hearing the story.
It was not until three o'clock in the afternoon when thick fog rose that Gu Jiu and his friends returned to the tavern.
As soon as I entered the pub, I saw the pub owner standing behind the counter, doing some weird things again.
After staying in the tavern for two days, the players roughly know that the tavern owner usually appears in the tavern in the afternoon, and at other times he is said to be resting in the backyard on the first floor of the tavern.
Players returned to the tavern one after another.
Until the thick fog completely covered the entire town and the monsters appeared again, the players did not see the two Western players, Groot and Tok.
They did not show up.
At this point, it was finally confirmed that the two people were missing.
Everyone subconsciously looked at the boss behind the counter with unclear expressions.
"It seems that this old man cannot be touched." Chai Yingying said thankfully, "Fortunately, we are all civilized people and did not provoke him."
"The tavern cannot be moved either." Jiang Ze followed.
In the end, they didn't understand whether the two Western players disappeared because they damaged the tavern's things or because they scared the tavern owner.
However, the disappearance of the two made the players more cautious and they dared not attack the tavern owner casually.
Just when the players decided to wait and see cautiously, they saw Gu Jiu walking towards the counter.
Lu Ji naturally followed her.
Gu Jiu called out to the tavern owner, "Old Joseph."
Anyone who has asked the residents about the Witch Tavern knows the name of the tavern owner, so it is not surprising to hear Gu Jiu call him that.
Old Joseph glanced at her casually, still looking cold and indifferent, and lowered his head to carefully fiddle with the things on the counter.
Gu Jiu's eyes fell on these things and he said with a smile, "These things are quite strange. I heard from Little Ella that these are used to make magic items, right?"
Old Joseph, who had been indifferent at first, looked up at him with a sharp look in his eyes.
"Which Ella?"
There are so many girls named Ella in the town that it is easy to confuse them without a clear address.
Gu Jiu said, "It's little Ella from house 58, Lise Street. She has a grandmother also named Ella."
Old Joseph stopped moving and looked at Gu Jiu with gloomy eyes. His old face looked even more eerie and strange in the dim light, which made the players nervous.
The author has something to say: Second update
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution during 2020-12-28 01:14:43~2020-12-28 18:44:55~
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