"Okay, let's go."
Regarding Ruan Bai's decision, Gu San raised his eyebrows and nodded approvingly.
The two walked towards the Taoist temple in the middle of the mountain while other players were not paying attention.
The Taoist temple is a little far from the village, and there is an unobtrusive path in the middle, which may be the reason why people often pass by, and there are still scattered footprints on the path.
When walking on the path, Ruan Bai lowered his head and found that these footprints were quite large, like the feet of grown men.
"Did any player go to the temple last night?" Ruan Bai thought for a while and asked, "Are there any other men in the village?"
When she came over yesterday, all she saw were old people.
Gu San answered very simply: "No."
He got up very early, and when Ruan Bai woke up, he had already wandered around the village several times to figure out the situation.
"I tried it out, and found that Qin Yu and the others didn't seem to know anything about the Taoist temple. Of course, they might be pretending," he said slowly, "As for the village, there are only old people and children."
Having said that, he paused, and said, "And there are only boys, no girls."
When Ruan Bai heard this, he always felt as if he had caught something.
Standing on the mountainside, she turned her head and glanced at the village, only to realize that most of the fields in the village were desolate, and she rarely saw chickens, ducks and fish.
Young and middle-aged men and women have disappeared, and the fields in the village are not cultivated, so it is impossible to be self-sufficient.
What do people living in the village eat and how do they survive
This village must be connected with the outside world. The footprints they saw just now were probably left by the young and strong in the village.
While she was thinking, they had unknowingly walked in front of the Taoist temple.
Compared with the dilapidated houses at the foot of the mountain, this Taoist temple is so exquisite that it is out of place with the mermaid village. The steps and walls are very clean, and fresh fruits are placed in front of the hall.
They went in and took a look, and found that there was a female god with a kind face and a fish tail enshrined on it. She has the same round eyes as the woman from last night, without eyelids, and a long, flat mouth.
The two walked around the temple, trying to find some other clues.
This Taoist temple is small and there is nothing else. Except for this statue, I didn't see anything else.
Something's wrong, Ruan Bai thought in his heart, didn't the bell last night come from here? Where's the bell
Thinking of this, she paused, and suddenly raised her head to look at the statue in front of her.
If she remembers correctly, things like statues don't have to be solid, do they
At this moment, Gu San was standing outside the hall, as if he was doing something.
So Ruan Bai stopped acting like a delicate girl, rolled up his sleeves, and climbed directly to the side of the statue.
She first shook the statue slightly, then knocked on the shell of the statue to confirm that it was hollow inside.
Then, Ruan Bai stretched out his hand and hugged it tightly.
"System," she asked, "do I still need to pretend to be a white lotus when no one is around?"
[As long as the behavior is not too outrageous, it is fine.] The system sensed something was wrong, and said hesitantly, [However, host, what are you going to do? ] It warned: [You haven't taken the role of White Lotus seriously since last night. If you lose your character design, your rating will be lowered! ] She is about to die, who is in the mood to play Xiao Baihua.
Ruan Bai was silent, but an innocent smile appeared on his face: "I'll just move something."
After finishing speaking, she gritted her teeth and exerted all her strength to move the statue abruptly!
Ruan Bai's strength was surprisingly strong, but for some reason, this idol was much lighter than it appeared on the outside. She quickly removed the idol and found a black box from under its base.
She lowered her head to open the box, and saw a blood-red bell with a strong fishy smell inside.
It was placed in a pile of talisman papers. Under the dim light, blood seemed to flow on the dark red torso, showing some ominous signs.
If nothing else, the bell that rang last night was related to it.
Ruan Bai looked at the blood bell, and suddenly stretched out his hand, trying to take it out of the box.
However, what surprised her was that the bell seemed to be the size of a palm, but it seemed to weigh a thousand catties. She couldn't take it out or move it.
The more he couldn't get it out, the more anxious Ruan Bai became.
For some reason, she wanted this bell very, very much. It seemed to have an invisible attraction, which attracted Ruan Bai tightly.
While panicking, Ruan Bai's fingers touched the black wooden box next to her, and with a flash of dark light, she felt a pain in her fingertips.
A drop of blood fell and hit the blood bell.
In a trance, Ruan Bai only saw that the bell seemed to emit a fleeting light.
In the next second, the weight of the blood bell suddenly disappeared, and she picked it up easily.
At the same time, the system's notification sounded: [Congratulations to the host, you have obtained the quest item "Mermaid Bell"!]Mission props
Ruan Bai was overwhelmed with surprise, quickly put away the mermaid bell, and carefully moved the statue back.
In the previous worlds, she has also found mission props, which are usually relics of the hero's mother, or things like dolls that the hero gave her when he was a child, which have a great effect on clearing the world.
It seems that this bell may help them find some clues.
As a result, after she jumped off the base, she patted her clothes and looked back. She was almost scared to death.
After the bell was taken away, the statue of the granny mermaid changed drastically, and the original smile on her face disappeared!
At this moment, the mouth of the idol split open, revealing densely packed sharp teeth, and the pupils of the black eyes turned red, staring at Ruan Bai with a look of resentment and resentment!
At this moment, she heard Gu San's low voice from outside the observation: "Bai Ruanruan, hurry up, someone is coming outside!"
After hearing this, Ruan Bai responded in a low voice, covered his pockets, and ran out quickly.
When she and Gu San went down the mountain, they bypassed that road and walked to a deeper and more remote place.
Not long after, they saw two adult men appearing near the Taoist temple.
The two men turned around, and after finding no sign of anyone, they turned and left without entering the temple to take a look.
Ruan Bai recognized at a glance that these were two unfamiliar faces, not players.
She guessed right, there were indeed other people hiding in the mermaid village, but she didn't know how long Bell's disappearance could be concealed from them.
Ruan Bai touched the bell in his arms, and went down the mountain carefully with Gu San.
When they went down the mountain, it was already one or two o'clock in the afternoon. After the meal time, all the villagers had finished their lunch.
Because of the death, all the people in the village gathered at the village chief's house, discussing something.
Ruan Bai glanced at it from a distance, and all the old people's faces were numb and emotionless, as if they were used to death.
And when some players passed by, someone showed obvious jealousy towards them. One of them caught Ruan Bai's sight, but he didn't dodge or dodge, instead he opened his mouth maliciously at her.
Ruan Bai was taken aback for a moment, and in the next second, those old people returned to their original appearance.
They also met other players on the way, but they didn't communicate much with each other. Everyone hurried around, looking for clues.
On the contrary, the female white-collar worker smiled at Ruan Bai with a very gentle expression.
Behind her, the newcomer girl named Wang Wenwen followed her very dependently.
Ruan Bai had no intention of getting close to her, seeing the female white-collar worker approaching, he just nodded perfunctorily, turned around and followed Gu San.
At this time, there was only one child named "Little Tiger" left in the family they were staying in.
Ruan Bai spent 2 points looking for the system to exchange a few boxes of instant noodles, and soaked a bucket for Gu San in a doggy manner. Seeing the little tiger standing aside eagerly, Ruan Bai opened another bucket for him.
"Thank you sister!" The little boy was quite obedient, took the instant noodle bucket, and smiled at Ruan Bai with eight teeth.
"It's okay," Ruan Bai patted his head, and said softly, "Eat more if you're not full."
Xiaohu nodded and devoured the instant noodles.
Ruan Bai has been working outside for a long time, and has played the role of the white lotus for so long, so he knows how to make himself look more kind.
She originally looked good, her appearance was not aggressive, and she was a woman, so she was easier to get close to NPCs than the cold Gu San.
When Xiaohu was eating noodles, she chatted with him about topics that children would like, and gave him two boxes of instant noodles.
After a while, Xiaohu lost all the initial unfamiliarity with her, and called "Sister Bai" one by one.
Seeing that the time was ripe, Ruan Baizhuang asked unintentionally: "I also have a younger brother who happens to be about the same age as you, Xiaohu, besides your grandma, is there anyone else in your family?"
"There are mom and dad, and sister," Xiaohu replied quickly, "Mom and dad will come back to see me and grandma every month!"
"What about the older sister?" Ruan Bai continued to ask, "I've never seen a girl in the village. Are you the only one here who has an older sister?"
"No, they all have older sisters, and Ergou has three older sisters," Xiaohu's tone became hesitant when he said this, "Sister... went to a far away place, grandma said, Ergou's older sister can come back, But my sister is not coming back."
Ruan Bai was slightly taken aback when he heard this.
Ergou's sister can come back, but Xiaohu's sister can't
What does it mean
At this time, Gu San suddenly fake coughed twice, interrupting their conversation.
Ruan Bai looked up and saw Xiaohu's grandma outside.
She quickly changed the subject, and chatted with Xiaohu about the popular children's cartoons recently.
After Grandma Xiaohu arrived home, she didn't find anything wrong and thanked her for the instant noodles.
Ruan Bai chatted with her casually, and after expressing their silent condolences to the dead villagers, they excused themselves to take a nap and entered the guest room where they slept before.
After closing the door and confirming that no one was around, Ruan Bai lowered his voice and asked, "Gu San, do you have a clue?"
"certainly."
Gu San took out a pendant from his pocket and casually threw it to Ruan Bai: "I found this outside the temple."
When Ruan Bai moved the Buddha statue before, Gu San stayed outside the temple.
At that time, he found a few long hairs of a woman stuck in the soil outside the temple. He felt that something was wrong, so he dug it up and looked, and there happened to be this pendant hidden inside.
The back of the pendant is engraved with small words "For my beloved mermaid girl".
Ruan Bai opened the pendant, and inside was a mugshot of a young woman.
"Do you remember the woman we met last night?" Gu San folded his arms and said, "She looks exactly like the woman in this pendant."
Ruan Bai took a look and found that it was indeed the case.
Although the woman's face was a little swollen last night, her eyebrows and eyes were exactly the same as in the photo, so there was no mistake.
Could it be that she is a mermaid
"In this village, we have never seen any women other than the elderly," Gu San casually said, "Based on the age of the owner of this pendant, I speculate that the reason why those women have disappeared is because they It is the 'mermaid' in the 'mermaid village'."
Ruan Bai and Gu San obviously wanted to go together.
When she came to this village on the first day, she was puzzled. Why is a village surrounded by mountains and without water called "Mermaid Village"? Shouldn't mermaids live in the sea
Now that I think about it, maybe it is because the people in this village have some kind of genetic status, so some of the girls born will look very much like the legendary "mermaid"!
"Deformed people are 'useful' in many places," Ruan Bai said after thinking everything through, "The mermaid village's source of income probably depends on these mermaids."
And Xiaohu's parents have been waiting outside the village for a long time, probably to deal with those mermaids, sell them, and cover up the existence of the mermaid village.
As for the women in the village, they should be normal women who can give birth to deformed children. They are old and lose their fertility, so they are left here to take care of the next generation.
"But why is there no little girl here?"
Ruan Bai turned to think about it, and felt wrong, "Huzi's sister can't come back, which means she is probably a mermaid, and it's normal to be taken away, but since Ergou's sister can come back, then they should be normal people, why? And don’t keep them in the village?”
There are also the rune wooden plaques hanging under the eaves of the village, the resentful mermaid statues, and the adult men acting strangely...
The secrets of the mermaid village are definitely more than that.