The two continued to draw cards, and the old gravekeeper, who was in a very good mood, did not forget to continue his story:
"The villagers' legends are not much different from the rumors you can hear elsewhere. They believe that there is a ghoul hiding in this cemetery, but it is not interested in corpses or living people. Instead, it occasionally comes to the village and steals the chickens, ducks, geese and sheep raised by the villagers."
Xia De took a look at his hand:
"But is it really a ghoul? Could it be a wild animal like a wolf or a fox?"
"The church thought so too. They sent people here to conduct routine inspections, but you know there is no evidence for such rumors. Besides, there have never been any casualties, so the investigation ultimately yielded no results."
The old man shrugged, looked at his cards, and smiled confidently:
"Two cards are suspended. I'm a little too lucky today. Moon is 10, Flower is 9, and I have 19 points."
Although Xia De did not stop playing, he also revealed his hand:
"I am now Sun 5 and Sun 13, so I will continue to draw cards, hoping that I won't burst..."
He flipped up a corner of the third card and threw it towards the chair. The card hit the wood with a snapping sound, and the two leaned over to see: Flower 2.
"20 points, I win the second game."
Xia De breathed a sigh of relief, and the old gravekeeper didn't care:
"Go on, now it's the third round. I don't believe you'll still have 20 points in the third round."
The two reached out to touch the cards, and the local story continued:
"So has anyone actually seen that ghoul? Not a weird shadow, but a real monster."
Xia De was very curious about this, and the old gravekeeper shook his head:
"If you exclude the drunkards' claims, of course not. But if you're interested, you can go to the row of run-down houses east of Lower Griol Village. Some people say they saw strange things there. The house originally belonged to Mika's family, but they moved to Pukhov Village more than ten years ago. The house has been empty all this time, so maybe the person who was seen was actually a homeless person."
After saying that, he kept silent and focused on the last round of the card game.
In the third round of the game, the two players quickly drew out their two cards, put the two cards together, held them in front of their eyes and slowly twisted them apart, then they both showed confident smiles.
They drew the third card together and revealed the final result:
"Flowers 3, 11, and 5 are all the same color... I'm 19."
This was the result of the old gravekeeper, and Shade placed the three cards in order on the chair:
"Moon 4, Sun 4, Star 13. Sorry, I'm 21."
He brushed his hand across the three cards arranged together, looking at the chair surface with obvious wood grain, the cards with thick paper, and the three points, and felt that the pressure accumulated over the past few weeks due to various things had all disappeared at this moment.
The old gravekeeper looked at the result in surprise, and nodded after a long while:
"Well, losing to 21 is not a bad result. Young man, if you have any other questions, go ahead and ask."
"Put aside the ghoul's question for now. I actually have other questions."
He smiled sheepishly and pointed to his own "Moon 4":
"Your Moon Four is an urban legend, a non-existent street. I wonder if you are willing to sell this card?"
Shade really likes the card with a picture of a deserted street under the moon:
"I can buy it at a premium to the market price."
He was sincere. After all, a true Rhodes fan would not easily sell his cards:
"Don't rush to refuse. I'll offer you this price."
I wrote a number on my notebook and handed it over:
"With this money, you might be able to visit more places and meet more poker players in your later years. You might even be able to participate in the next Big City Players."
The old gravekeeper touched his chin hesitantly and looked at the tempting number again:
"I won't sell my own Rhodes cards easily. I even want them to accompany me to the grave. But your suggestion... How about... Let's play three more games, no, five games, no, seven games. If you beat me, I will sell them to you, how about that?"
"That's great. This way, we'll have time to continue telling the story of the ghouls."
The sun shines through the church door, illuminating Shad's face and the scattered cards beside him. In the future, strangers may occasionally miss such spring mornings, after all, the weather is really good.
An hour later, Shad left the cemetery with Urban Legend: Non-Existent Street, feeling satisfied. He added it to his real deck in a deserted place and assimilated it with his treasured possessions.
He wanted to control the smile on his face, but because he was in such a good mood, he couldn't help but curl his lips. The bad emotions about water ghosts, islands, ancient families, desires, bloodlines, etc. in the past few weeks really disappeared all at once. Xia De then remembered that he seemed to have not played cards with others for a few weeks. Recently, he attended banquets and was dealing with girls. He had no time to get in touch with the card players in the Green Lake area:
“I put too much pressure on myself.”
He even thought that nothing at this moment could disturb his mood this morning.
Loyal love.
"She" suddenly said, Xia De was startled, but continued to walk forward:
"The facts cannot be changed. I cannot give up anyone around me now. In this case, I might as well use other ways to prove my feelings and intentions towards them, and to express my guilt towards them. Loyalty to love? I will not lose to desire, I will definitely win. I am greedy, but I will never let go, never."
"She" smiled softly, and no one knew what she wanted to express.
The old gravekeeper said that the rumored ghouls might live in the dilapidated house east of Lower Grieol Village. Shade left the cemetery and headed towards the village. Today the weather outside the city was exceptionally good. Even though the dark clouds of conflict between the two countries were still hovering in the sky above Green Lake, it did not affect the lives of the villagers living in the countryside.
Rural life in the steam age did not change much due to the development of the steam industry. The farmers who went out with hoes on their shoulders lived a life very similar to that of their ancestors who lived on the same land.
However, outsiders have heard about large steam-mechanized farm tools in newspapers, and have also heard that large grain merchants in the city have already used equipment such as semi-automatic shelling machines, but they don't know when these changes will spread to the countryside.
The sky was blue, with large clouds floating in the air, like cotton fluffed by millet. The farmland on both sides of the country road had already grown neat and tidy rice seedlings, and the wind blowing in the face also carried the smell of the countryside in spring... probably a mixture of cow dung and soil.
Instead of entering the village, Shade walked around the village and came to the vicinity of the "broken house in the east". There was an apple grove between this place and the village. A sheep from nowhere was looking up and eating the drooping treetops. Its back was slightly raised, and its limbs were slender and flexible. When Shade passed through the woods, the sheep turned its head to look at Shade, and then continued to chew the leaves slowly. Watching it eat like this, Shade even felt that time was slowing down.
After passing through the woods, we came to a building that looked like it had no trace of life. There were four houses surrounded by fences, and the roof of the smallest house had collapsed. Although it was shabby, I had to admit that the scenery here was really nice, and it was completely different from the city.
Since there was no one there, Shade didn't need to greet anyone. He jumped over the fence and checked the houses one by one. Because there had been no owner for a long time, everything in the house had been taken away, even the windows had been removed.
There was not even much ash on the ground in the open area, but there were traces of bonfires, footprints of children running around, animal feces, and even piles of firewood stored by villagers.
After a quick look around and finding nothing, Shade returned to the woods to look for the sheep. It was still in the same place, but it was eating leaves from a different tree.
Shad recalled and confirmed that sheep were not a species that liked to eat fish, and then put the fish training ring on its horns.
The sheep, which had drooped bloodshot eyelids and looked not very smart, raised its head and looked at Shade again after the relic took effect, but then continued to eat the leaves.
"The relic is useless?"
Xia De thought suspiciously, considered the words, and asked:
"Can you talk now?"
"Yes."
The sheep answered slowly, with a long tone. It spoke in the Drarion language with a slight accent, and its voice was really slow.
"I thought you would speak immediately after you gained the ability to speak."
Xia De was relieved. The sheep chewed and stared at the leaves and said:
"Eating is important, talking is not important. I want to survive."
It made a swallowing motion, and its grayish white wool reflected the warm light in the spring morning sun:
"What can I do for you?"
The sheep asked, motioning for Shad to follow it, and then found a place where it could lower its head to eat leaves.
Xia De thought this sheep was very interesting, and began to look forward to whether Mia would be as interesting as this calm sheep once she could talk:
"I want to ask, have you always lived around here?"
"Yes."
"Do you know that house over there?"
"Take a break from time to time."
"Have you seen anything dangerous there?"
This time the sheep did not answer immediately, but paused. Of course, it may also be because it was trying hard to swallow what it chewed:
"How do you define dangerous, man?"