The little girl reached out and patted the dog's forehead: "Go back quickly!"
The dog named Awang woofed, bringing up a gust of fishy wind, and soon disappeared into the forest.
Lu Yanli ran back behind Lili and asked in confusion, "What happened?"
Lili's face was solemn: "Something is broken."
Her expression didn't look like a little girl, but rather like a wild animal, fierce, sharp, with murderous eyes.
Because of anger, her whole face gradually changed into that of some ferocious beast, her pupils erected, her fur standing up, she was wearing a beautiful red dress, she looked up at Lu Yanli, and suddenly stretched out her hand to ask him to take her home.
So, what Lili just sensed was the tasker, or was it something that invaded this village
Lu Yanli didn't ask, and pulled her back. Lili's behavior became much more normal, no different from an ordinary little girl.
As soon as the two returned home, Aunt Zhang walked around the yard anxiously. When she saw them coming back, especially Lili, she breathed a sigh of relief, as if she had found her backbone. She went to greet them and said, "Lili, what do you say we should do? A villager just came and said that his old lady was possessed by something and passed away."
"Gone?" Lili puffed up her face and frowned, "What is that?"
Aunt Zhang shook her head: "I don't know. I heard from the villagers that something called her name, and the old lady ran away and died."
"I'll go and take a look!" Lili's face was full of unhappiness.
"Oh..." Aunt Zhang was clearly worried, "The village has been in chaos recently. If you're not here, there will be some things in the back mountain."
Normally, it would be fine if Lili left to play, but now she was clearly going to deal with something. If something in the back mountain escaped...
Lili frowned, thought for a moment, and took out a bone whistle from her neck. She looked at Aunt Zhang and threw the whistle to Lu Yanli: "If there is a problem, just blow it and call Awang over. But after you call him, you have to feed him fish and make sure he is full."
Lu Yanli took the bone whistle: "Okay."
Aunt Zhang clearly wanted a bone whistle, but she was hesitant and didn't dare to take it. She rubbed her hands and told Lili to be careful, then went back to the house to cook. After Lili left, she poked her head out of the house and whispered to Lu Yanli who was standing in the yard: "Did she take you fishing just now?"
Lu Yanli: "Yes, I caught one."
Aunt Zhang's expression was filled with fear for a moment. She looked up at Lu Yanli and made sure that he was intact before she said with a sigh, "No wonder I gave it to you."
"Why don't you go and rest in your room? I've packed it for you."
Aunt Zhang's change of subject made Lu Yanli vaguely understand that "fishing" seemed to be a test.
Under Aunt Zhang's gaze, Lu Yanli did not resist rashly. He showed an inner smile and went into the house obediently.
Before entering the house, I saw Aunt Zhang's head sticking out of the kitchen door.
Lu Yanli sat in the room, looking around.
The orientation of this house is very strange, facing the back mountain sideways, and the window where the black shadow appeared last night happens to face the back mountain.
What is there in the back mountain
Considering what Lili said about "stealing" and the fact that Luo Ying deliberately provoked Zhang Huixuan and left alone, and has not contacted him or carried out any missionary activities so far, Lu Yanli speculated that this village must be guarding something.
Luo Ying's target is the thing that the village is guarding.
Could it be related to the back mountain
Lu Yanli held the bone whistle in his hand, the icy touch made him sober.
He wanted to go to the back mountain to have a look, but...
Let’s go back two days.
In a restaurant box in a small county town dozens of kilometers away from the village, six people gathered together to look at a map.
To be precise, they were looking at maps of the area that were decades old.
Lin Chu seemed to be thinking: "Speaking of which, this Shangxian Village is really strange. Other villages know to go out, but they are going deeper and deeper into the mountains."
"What do you think would make a group of people willingly live in the mountains?" Although she was asking, her tone was firm. "Either they are hiding some secrets, or there is something that forces them to stay away from people. These two reasons can also exist at the same time."
In her hand, she was holding a piece of grilled beef tendon that she brought from another world. After taking a bite, Lin Chu continued, "We went back to the village to worship our ancestors... but it's strange that we all have different surnames. Generally speaking, a village will have several surnames at the top, and the more remote the village, the more likely it is to be like this. But we are not, and the villagers don't suspect us. Is it because of the interference of the mission, or because this doesn't seem strange in the village?"
When he first entered this society, Lin Chu collected a lot of items and quickly read the history textbooks of this world. At the same time, he watched popular TV series and movies on various video platforms. Finally, he had to admit that this world was like a turn in some directions of the world they lived in. It was similar in every way, but also different in every way.
The others had already been stunned by the newcomer's fierce action, and unconsciously thought along the lines of what she said.
Yu Xianguang couldn't figure out anything. He looked left and right and asked weakly, "When are we going in?"
Lin Chu finished eating one and wiped his mouth: "No hurry, since the mission is to return home to worship our ancestors, we just need to go back before the specified time. And the whole village is in danger as soon as we hear it, so why not make more preparations outside."
Yu Xianguang looked at the table in confusion, where Lin Chu had brought back a pile of things.
Metal knives, ropes, miniature flashlights, etc. Lin Chu already carried a lot of weapons with him, and he loaded a lot of necessary tools on himself. He jumped and felt that it was a little heavy, and there was some distress on his baby face.
"What are you bringing these for?" An Xingyu pointed to the dozens of storage bags on the table.
Lin Chu took a look and said, "Let's take a look. Let's take some back for research." She lowered her voice and said, "Don't you want to know what ghosts are made of? Yes, I saw it on the website. People often encounter zombies, goblins, and other things. These things that cannot be explained by science, why not use science to study them?"
Her eyes were full of interest: "It would be great if I could get some zombie tissue this time."
Among the taskers, a man named Yu Huan rubbed his arms and couldn't help asking, "Aren't you afraid? What if something happens to you when you encounter something like this?"
Lin Chu looked up and sighed: "Compared to dying awake, I am more afraid of living in a muddle. I am not afraid of dying, but dying in ignorance and stupidity, which is what I am most afraid of."
Others retreated one after another.
Lin Chu looked left and right, spread his hands and smiled: "It's okay, I know I'm weird, I've been like this since I was a child. Besides, I'm responsible for all these things, I will never drag you down, nor will I seek death on purpose."
Yu Xianguang immediately said to her: "Don't talk nonsense."
An Xingyu also said: "We are not worried about the problem of being dragged down."
Lin Chu took off a lot of things from her body, leaving only a few metal knives and a portable flashlight. She put all the storage bags into her waist bag and smiled at An Xingyu: "It is indeed scary to lose your life, but if you lose it for the sake of exploring the truth, then to me, it is a worthy death."
"You..." Yu Xianguang tried to stop her, but Lin Chu waved her hand: "Okay, okay, I won't say anything."
The group stayed outside for a few more days, and after finding out the exact location of Shangxian Village, they rented a car and headed into the mountains.
"This place is getting more and more desolate the more I look at it." Lin Xueyuan sighed as the car circled on the lonely and narrow mountain road.
The deeper you go into the mountains, the colder it gets. Jagged rocks stand on one side of the narrow mountain road, and on the other side is a deep forest. Although it is approaching winter, the trees are still lush and green. The winter is cool, and the greenness makes people feel cold in their hearts.
Lin Chu was sitting behind the computer, looking at the screen.
She controlled a drone to fly over the car, but perhaps because of the poor signal, the transmitted image kept freezing, and when it flew to a certain height, the image started shaking wildly. Lin Chu had to lower the drone and fly it slowly in front.
The navigation system broadcast the message conscientiously, "It is 75 kilometers away from Shangxian Village, and it will take about ..."
"Ah... why is it so far? The mountain roads here are really too winding, right?" After hearing that it was several dozen kilometers away, the others in the car sighed.
The straight-line distance is not far, but the winding mountain road makes the distance longer.
At this moment, the screen Lin Chu received suddenly went black.
She looked out the window suddenly, just in time to see her drone falling from the sky into a surging sea of green trees.
"I'll go..."
There was a tunnel ahead. The car drove into it. Lin Chu did not give up and adjusted it again, but finally had to admit that he was unlucky. As soon as he got out of the tunnel, the navigation voice sounded again, "... It is 80 kilometers away from Shangxian Village, and it will take about..."
"What's going on? Why are we getting further and further away? Did we take the wrong path?" Another tasker, Xie Ziqing, was puzzled.
Yu Huan, who was driving, was also very puzzled: "There is only one mountain road here, how could I have gone the wrong way? I just followed the navigation."
Combined with Lin Chu's drone crash just now, everyone guessed something and kept silent. Only the vehicles continued to move forward and voice broadcasts from near and far could be heard from time to time.
After a while, Lin Chu said: "At this rate, we won't arrive until tomorrow afternoon." What she didn't say was that although the car was fully fueled, if this situation continued, the fuel might run out and they wouldn't be able to reach Shangxian Village.
In the village, Lu Yanli was sitting in the room. He pulled the curtains and looked outside, only to find that the glass used in the windows was all frosted glass, with wooden bars nailed on the outside, which could not be opened at all.
He tentatively pushed the door open and walked out. Aunt Zhang immediately poked her head out of the kitchen and asked him what he was doing.
Lu Yanli pretended to wander around the yard.
Luo Ying sent him a message, saying that her plan was successful. Someone in the village died prematurely. She required Lu Yanli to replace one of the places in the funeral procession and find the burial site for the villager.
Even without her saying anything, the Zhang family was eager for Lu Yanli to come over.
Lu Yanli was confused.
It was believable that Zhang Huixuan was too weak to carry the coffin, but it was too far-fetched to say that she couldn't even join the funeral procession.
Looking from the yard, Zhang Huixuan's doors and windows were still closed. He seemed to stay at home all day and never go out.
Lu Yanli went to the kitchen.
Aunt Zhang was a little surprised. She held the dish and asked him, "What happened to you?"
Lu Yanli said, "I'm free anyway, I'll give a hand." After that, he rolled up his sleeves and started working, helping to cut vegetables, regardless of Aunt Zhang's dissuasion.
Aunt Zhang was naturally happy to have someone to share the burden with. The two chatted in the kitchen. Lu Yanli asked casually, "Why doesn't Lili's father go out for a walk more often? It's good for his health to walk more."
He lied calmly, "I was weak when I was a kid, but my family made me go out often and run around with other kids. Then I gradually got better."
Aunt Zhang shook her head when she heard this: "No, he doesn't want to go out all the time."
"It's the day for the old lady to be buried. Won't he go?"
Aunt Zhang was about to pick up a chicken, and when she heard this, she slashed the rooster's neck with a kitchen knife, letting the thick chicken blood flow into the bowl. She sullenly said, "Don't ask so many questions!"
Lu Yanli always felt that she wanted to put the knife across her neck, shut up and stop asking questions.
At noon, Uncle Zhang came home, but Lili was nowhere to be seen. He heard from him that Lili was helping out at home in the village.
"You don't know, the old lady is very strange. I heard that she left because she opened the door for something that shouldn't be opened. I put it in her room, but a mountain cat from nowhere ran into the room. The old lady came back to life immediately, jumped up and ran around..." Uncle Zhang said while eating, his face full of relief for surviving a disaster.
"You didn't see it, the old lady's face turned like a mountain cat, with yellow and white streaks. Suddenly, she stretched out her claws and wanted to bite people. If Lili hadn't been there, the villagers wouldn't have been able to control her."
Zhang Huixuan scooped a bowl of soup and thought: "Where is this civet cat?"
Uncle Zhang shook his head: "I don't know. Anyway, it's almost the New Year and things are not peaceful. He ran out from the back mountain." Just after he finished speaking, Zhang Huixuan pushed him lightly. She glanced at him and indicated that Lu Yanli was there. Uncle Zhang immediately changed the subject.
Aunt Zhang followed suit and smacked her lips: "What a jerk! Shouldn't Mrs. Qian be buried quickly?"
"No, Lili said that we need to bury him quickly tonight and send him home."
"Tonight?" Aunt Zhang was also surprised.
"There's nothing we can do. I have many nightmares at night. Let's bury it quickly so that my son can calm down." Uncle Zhang took a bite of his rice and turned to Lu Yanli and said, "I'll ask you to take care of your brother Huixuan tonight."
Lu Yanli agreed.
He also wanted to know where that "somewhere" that they were talking about was.
The night was cool.
The whole village worked together and the funeral was quickly held in a proper manner. The mourning hall was built and the old lady's body was placed in a coffin in the main room.
What surprised Lu Yanli was that the heavy wooden coffin was covered solidly with a circle of nails nailed tightly, and the chicken blood was stuck and wrapped around the outside in several circles, as if to prevent it from escaping.
Next to the black and white portrait, there were two statues of Grandma Hu San, one on the left and one on the right. The grandchildren of the old lady were kneeling on the futon in the yard, while her son and daughter-in-law were burning paper money, gold and silver ingots, and several pale paper figures.
After a room full of men and women in mourning had wailed one by one, the suona began to blow loudly, ringing and piercing in the dark mountain night.
"The time has come—"
The crying became louder.
The villager threw himself in front of the coffin, howling loudly. He didn't cry for long before Lili, who was wearing a red dress, kicked him: "Enough, if you keep crying, everyone will be awakened by your crying, shut up!"
Her order was very effective. For a moment, all the crying in the mourning hall stopped, and everyone's eyes were fixed on Lili.
"Everyone go out now and let the old lady be quiet for a while. After midnight, we can go in and bury her." Lili said seriously, "Remember! No one is allowed to go in!"
At her command, everyone in the family retreated and moved to the other yard to have the banquet.