Chapter 67 Wugu Village 10

"Today I saw a girl pounding herbs with her bare hands, and the wild flowers in the mountains were in full bloom."

"Excuse me for disturbing you, because my mind is hard to control."

"Today I learned the girl's name and thought of the beautiful valley where I was lucky enough to grow up when I was a child. It is also the dreamland I often think about and never forget. I want to find an abandoned stilt house in Wugu Village and open a small clinic. I wonder what the girl thinks."

"I don't know why I made the girl angry. I can't find the answer after thinking about it. If I was too presumptuous, I will be more restrained in the future. Please don't get angry and hurt yourself. I saw the book you were reading the other day, and I happen to have the second volume here. I'll take this as my apology. I hope to see you again in the future."

"I understand. I'll take you out of here."

"sorry."

…

These love letters are not long, some even have only one sentence, but they contain too much information.

"What is this?" Qiao Youlin on the third floor shouted.

Xia Bai closed the small door, took the love letter and went up to read it immediately. After just one glance, he said, "It's silkworm-raising tools, such as silkworm plaques, silkworm racks, and mulberry storage tanks."

"What are these things in there..." Qiao Youlin asked, pointing at the things on the bamboo weaving.

Xia Bai: "That's a silkworm cocoon."

"It's not a Gu worm. I thought I found one." Qiao Youlin said with some disappointment. Then he immediately realized, "No, it could be a Gu worm, right? Isn't there a Gu called golden silkworm Gu?"

"Yes! There is, and the golden silkworm Gu is very famous." Fu Yuqing said when he heard the voice.

"Golden Silkworm Gu also has the ability to transfer wealth." Qiao Youlin said, "And it has a characteristic that the more people it harms, the greater its power. This is very consistent with the situation in Wugu Village where so many people were harmed, and the villagers' fear and hatred of Xue Ligu!"

The more Qiao Youlin thought about it, the more he felt it was right. "With the Cat Ghost Gu and the Golden Silkworm Gu, these two most terrifying and powerful Gu, she doesn't need any other Gu to kill the villagers cleanly and peacefully! We found the evidence!"

Tao Baobao said: "We have already confirmed that Xue Ligu is a grass ghost woman. We have seen it from the villagers' true words time and time again. None of these villagers lied."

Qiao Youlin's excitement seemed to be poured with a bucket of cold water, and he said unhappily: "We can't just guess to complete the game. Even if we guess correctly, we need evidence to support it. Although what we say in our hearts is true, it can't be considered as evidence. It has to be substantial evidence like these."

"Qiao Youlin is right." Fu Yuqing said, "We need this evidence."

"I don't understand." Xia Bai had a blank look on his face, with pure confusion on his face. "Does this count as substantial evidence? Does a girl who raises cats and silkworms mean she is a grass witch who harms people?"

"What do you mean? Isn't there already a cat ghost?" Qiao Youlin fiercely protected the evidence he found, "The cat ghost was you, Xia Bai, who said it."

Xia Bai: "First of all, we can't be sure that the cat ghost is the cat raised by Xue Ligu. Secondly, even if the cat is the cat raised by Xue Ligu and it is indeed a cat ghost Gu, we can't use the present to prove the past. It means that Xue Ligu who raised a cat in the past was raising a cat ghost Gu. Now you are a player, but were you one in the past?"

Qiao Youlin was silent for a few seconds and glanced at Xia Bai, "You're still talking about Su Mao, you're also a nitpicker."

Xia Bai: “…”

Fu Yuqing once again agreed with Qiao Youlin's statement, "Xia Bai, you are really a quibble maker, quoting out of context. What you said makes sense, but we have to look at it in the bigger context. We have already determined that Xue Ligu is a grass ghost who harms people. What's wrong with finding these as evidence?"

Xia Bai muttered quietly: "Who said she was a grass witch who harmed people?"

“…”

Now even Jing Yan had to speak up, "Xia Bai, I won't lie. The villagers' true feelings must be true. They can't even pretend to be sincere."

Lin Xiang laughed and said, "Xia Bai is serious and cautious. This is a matter of life and death, so it's better to be cautious."

Xia Bai pursed her lips and looked at Ling Changye who had just come up. He looked a little dazed, but if you look closely at his slightly pursed lips and his eager eyes, you can see a little bit of grievance in them.

Ling Changye suddenly lowered his head. It was unknown what he was doing. After a second or two, he raised his head and asked Jing Yan with his usual casual and friendly smile, "Are you sure that what the villagers said is true?"

If he doesn't even trust the game settings and his own skills, there's no need for him to enter the game.

Jing Yan was a little unhappy when asked this question. After entering the game, he really had never lied to them even once, nor had he ever thought about his own little thoughts. He really just wanted to pass the level and get points. He didn't think about whether it was the props reward from the Game Management Bureau or the game.

At the beginning, he did come to Xia Bai and the others with the intention of currying favor with them, but after spending some time together, even though it was a short time, he really became sincere towards them and really liked them a little.

Does he naturally like to play games alone and doesn't want to join any clubs or teams?

No, he also wanted to have friends who could play the game together, but the players who played the game with him at that time, after knowing his skills, became wary and distanced themselves from him. He could understand that no one wanted others to see their inner thoughts. He couldn't even tell his closest family members about this skill and could only move forward alone.

Xia Bai and the others were exceptions. After knowing his skills, they didn't say anything and didn't take precautions. They just acted as usual, as if he was just an ordinary player. To him, "ordinary" and "normal" were very precious.

He saw a kind of open and casualness in them.

It is because we treat each other sincerely and like each other very much that we become unhappy and feel hurt when we sense that there is no trust.

He was very sure and said with great force: "Yes, I am sure that what the villagers said in their hearts is true."

Ling Changye then asked: "What does it mean that what the villagers said is true?"

Jing Yan didn't know what he meant, so he said, "It means they didn't lie."

Ling Changye stared at him for a few seconds with a smile. For some reason, Jing Yan felt a little guilty when he was stared at by him. He was obviously still smiling, and even the look in his eyes when he looked at him was not focused.

He asked: "And then? What does it mean? What does it prove?"

"What does it mean?" Jing Yan repeated it unconsciously and immediately found the main point, "It means Xue Ligu is the grass witch who harmed people!"

"Jing Yan, you rely too much on your skills." Ling Changye said, "You even have the wrong logic. What's in your heart is the true reaction of your heart. It can prove that a person is not lying, but does not lying mean that what you say is the truth?"

People who have been cheated so many times all know that what they say cannot be trusted. There is also a saying that you can judge a person by his face but not by his heart, so many people subconsciously think that what they say is unreliable and only what they say in their heart are reliable.

If you can see that someone says what he thinks, you will be very willing to trust him.

But are the words in your heart really reliable?

Jing Yan was stunned, his eyes gradually widened, and he looked as if his worldview had been severely impacted.

Ling Changye gave a simple and common example, "If a mother feels from the bottom of her heart that her son is the cutest child in the world, does that mean that her son is really the cutest child in the world?"

"The example you gave is inappropriate. It is too subjective for a mother to think her son is cute," said Xue Ligu.

Ling Changye asked calmly, "Isn't it subjective for the villagers to think that Xue Ligu is a harmful grass ghost?"

"How can it be subjective?" Fu Yuqing said, "When I first heard Li Gui think this way, I couldn't be sure, but Liu Fu and his wife also thought the same thing, and so did the many villagers who surrounded us. Of course it must be true."

Ling Changye: "As the saying goes, three people make a tiger, and what many people believe in their hearts may not be true."

Fu Yuqing said: "There are objective facts to support their words!"

Ling Changye: "What is the objective fact?"

Fu Yuqing said, "Didn't someone say that Xue Ligu planted insects in his son's body and killed him?"

Ling Changye: "He may have misunderstood. This is not an objective fact."

"..." Fu Yuqing said: "Why don't you say he is hallucinating? You are also a nitpicker!"

“…”

The two people who were labeled as argumentative people stopped talking.

Fu Yuqing continued to scold them, "The strange disease is right in front of us, and the villagers who were terribly harmed by Xue Ligu are right in front of us. Why are you arguing at this time? If the facts that harmed them were all false, why would the villagers be so angry and aggrieved?"

Xia Bai had a blank face, and Ling Changye smiled without saying anything.

Jing Yan slowly squatted down with his head in his hands, rethinking his life and his skills.

He felt that Ling Changye was right, but this was a very scary thing for him.

He has indeed always relied too much on his skills. He is too confident and does not rely on thinking to find the truth, but relies entirely on reading the inner thoughts of the characters in the game.

This is even more terrifying in this game, that is to say, it may be his dependence that leads everyone in a wrong and fatal direction.

No, maybe there is still hope. Ling Changye often cooperates with him using skills, but he has never been truly sure that what the villagers say is the truth, so he may not believe it. Is there any other way?

Lin Xiang squatted with them and lowered his head. He also realized that Ling Changye was right, the villagers' inner thoughts were not necessarily the truth, but there were so many of them, if their unified inner thoughts were not the truth, then... He suddenly felt that the small village of Wugu Village was a very scary place.

Slowly, the others fell silent.

"You don't really think..." Qiao Youlin said, "How is it possible? There are so many villagers..."

Tao Baobao said painfully, "That is to say, we still haven't been able to confirm the first core issue, right?"

Fu Yuqing was getting annoyed. "What the hell is going on? This is a crappy game!"

Ling Changye said: "Let's try it one last time and make your own judgment."

Lin Xiang immediately stood up and asked, "How do we try?"

Ling Changye said: "Let the villagers tell us in person, in detail, what they think happened and why."

Lin Xiang: "How could they possibly say that?"

"Why wouldn't you say anything when faced with a strange disease? Didn't Liu Fu and the others speak up?" Ling Changye said.

"But they didn't say it..." Lin Xiang understood what Ling Changye meant as he spoke.

Last time, Liu Fu and his men did want to tell them, but they were so angry because they wanted him to tell others about the slander of Xue Ligu, and they didn't do it. Now they continue to use the method of breaking the curse to let the villagers tell them about the harm they suffered from Xue Ligu, and they should be able to tell it, but now the villagers are hostile, so some skills are needed.

Xia Bai opened his phone and looked at it, then said, "Let me try. Lin Xiang, cooperate with me."

Lin Xiang immediately said: "Xia Bai, you say!"

Xia Bai: "It's still the way we can break the curse. As long as they believe it, they will tell you when they are tortured by the strange disease."

Lin Xiang: "The problem now is how to make them believe that we can break the curse."

Xia Bai: "I didn't abandon the two people in the stilt house. I put corpse-controlling talismans on them. They are nearby now."

“…”

Lin Xiang really wanted to rub Xia Bai's silly baby face, "I understand, just look at me!"

He pushed open the window of the stilt house and looked out.

The villagers had not left yet. They were standing outside with torches in their hands, neither approaching nor leaving, staring at them angrily.

"Brothers and sisters!" Lin Xiang shouted at them, "Are you calm now? Can we have a good chat?"

Their expressions showed no. Lin Xiang seemed not to notice and continued, "We really found a way to break the curse."

Of course the villagers didn't believe him. The village chief narrowed his eyes and asked him, "What are you thinking of?"

"I know you don't believe me, but do you remember that we also had two companions who got a strange disease? One of them was like Brother Liu Fu, with blood all over his body. That day, he was wrapped in bandages and moved to Brother Liu Fu's house." Lin Xiang said, "His curse has been broken, and the curses of both of them have been broken!"

Indeed, many villagers saw it, because they wanted to attract a lot of people that time.

The village chief sneered: "Don't lie to us anymore. If you know what's best for you, come out and leave our Wugu Village. We won't do anything to you yet."

"See for yourself whether I have deceived you or not." Lin Xiang looked towards the woods on the right.

Two people walked out from there, one of them was covered in blood, with not much flesh left on his body due to being scratched. He walked towards them step by step in the moonlight, looking so terrifying that several villagers subconsciously took a step back.

They also knew the other person, who was indeed their companion. He fell from a building and had his stomach cut just like Wang Er. Wang Er was still unconscious, but he was able to walk.

Jing Yan and Tao Baobao were very shocked when they saw the two dead people walking towards them. Even Fu Yuqing looked at Xia Bai twice.

Jing Yan asked Xia Bai: "Xia Bai, is your skill to control corpses?"

"Yes." Xia Bai said, "The prop skill, the cinnabar pen can be used to draw corpse-suppressing talismans and corpse-controlling talismans. When I escaped, I happened to be in their room and pasted the corpse-controlling talismans on them."

Xia Bai did not tell the whole truth. In fact, the dead Su Mao was indeed the one who had the corpse-controlling talisman he had put on him, and although Qi Yan also had one put on him, his corpse was signed by his own skill.

When he asked Qi Yan if he was willing to give him the body, he saw Qi Yan's mouth moving, but he couldn't hear what he said, so he thought it didn't work. Just now, when he opened the game app, he saw that he had signed successfully. Qi Yan agreed at that time, but he didn't hear it.

This is much more convenient. As the second owner of Qi Yan's corpse, he is much more useful than the Corpse Controlling Talisman.

Even so, Jing Yan gave him a thumbs up in surprise, "This is the most awesome prop skill I've ever seen."

As Qi Yan was walking over, his shoelaces came loose, and he bent down very naturally to tie them.

Even with his stomach cut, he could still bend over and tie his shoelaces!

The villagers watched in shock. If this wasn't breaking the curse, then what was?

Liu Fu's wife looked at Su Mao, who was covered in blood, in shock. He was scratching like a ghost because of the cursed itch, just like her husband. No, his condition was worse than her husband's. But he stopped scratching now and could even walk, while her husband was still lying on the bed screaming in pain. She could even faintly hear the hissing sound.

The two walked into Xue Ligu's stilt house. Before entering, Xia Bai's lips opened and closed silently. Qi Yan turned back to look at them and said, "My curse has been lifted. They got it wrong at the beginning. In fact, as long as the cause and effect of the victimization are explained clearly and they catch Xue Ligu's fault and judge him, the curse can be lifted."

Having said this he came in amid the shock and excitement of the villagers.

Lin Xiang said, "I don't need to say more, right? You saw this with your own eyes. Did you see the talisman paper on the back of their heads? It is the improved version that my sister made after researching. As long as you tell the truth, we can use it to block the curse when we find Xue Ligu's fault."

Fu Yuqing said, "Unfortunately, I only have ten left. We have to keep some for ourselves to prevent being cursed."

Liu Fu's wife saw with her own eyes how Fu Yuqing used the talisman paper to detect Xue Ligu and the insect, and she also saw with her own eyes how the two people with strange diseases recovered. When she heard that there were only a few talisman papers to ward off the curse, she immediately hunched over and ran forward, raised her hands and shouted to them: "I'll say it first! Please give me one. If Liu Fu dies, how can I live!"

Fu Yuqing said, "Okay, since you trusted me, I'll give you one. You tell me everything about how Xue Ligu harmed Liu Fu. Remember, if anything you say is untrue, this curse-avoiding talisman will be ineffective and may even backfire."

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you, I'll tell you carefully and honestly." Liu Fu's wife wiped her tears and started talking.

"It was probably one day in mid-September last year. Liu Fu went to the back mountain to hoe the land. He passed by Xue Ligu's stilt house and was bewitched by Xue Ligu."

Fu Yuqing asked: "How do you know for sure that she was the one who put the Gu on you?"

"Because she is a grass ghost woman!" She said as a matter of course: "And Liu Fu felt it that day, a bug fell from the window and landed on his head. It was so direct, what else could it be but a curse?"

Looking at her self-righteous and resentful expression, Fu Yuqing was speechless.

Xia Bai suddenly asked: "Why do you say she is a grass ghost?"

"Because she really used Gu to kill people! Uncle Liu in our village is the village chief's father..."

The village chief frowned and scolded her with red eyes: "Stop talking about my father!"

"Village chief, just let me tell you. Liu Fu couldn't wait any longer. What would I do if he died? There's nothing we can't say." She cried to the village chief, and then hurriedly said, "Doctor He treated Uncle Liu, and when he was about to recover, Uncle Liu suddenly died. Doctor He found out after the examination that he was killed by a poison!"

"It's Xue Ligu! She doesn't get along with the villagers. She moved to this shabby stilt house by herself. She stays at home every day and behaves strangely. She also raises a bunch of bugs and an ominous black cat with green eyes. Who else could it be but her!"

The players on the stilt house felt a sinking feeling in their hearts.

Isn't this their evidence and inference? But their previous inference was based on the fact that Xue Ligu was a grass ghost who harmed people, but she concluded that Xue Ligu was a grass ghost who harmed people just because of this.

Xia Bai’s words are still in my mind. Just because she raises silkworms, just because she raises cats?

Yes, that’s what Liu Fu’s wife believed. She didn’t deliberately frame her. Jing Yan had read her true feelings and she believed that firmly.

A sense of absurdity and inexplicable terror surged into the players' hearts.

Liu Fu's wife was still indignantly recounting Xue Ligu's crimes, "After Liu Fu returned home, he became extremely itchy, and his body was covered with ulcers. He spent a lot of money but couldn't be cured. At the time, we didn't know why, but later we learned from Liu Bo's death that she was a grass ghost woman. Thinking back on the details of the incident, we realized that he was bewitched by her at the time!"

The players were speechless.

Fu Yuqing said after more than ten seconds: "Okay, this is indeed Xue Ligu's crime. I'll record it for you."

Liu Fu's wife cried as if she had been vindicated. "Thank you, thank you. We finally don't have to suffer anymore."

Fu Yuqing looked at the other villagers and asked, "Anything else?"

"have!"

"Me! Here, I'll speak first!"

"Mine is the most outrageous, I'll say it first!"

"Xue Ligu put a Gu in my knee. My knee still hurts every time I walk. The Gu worm ate away the cartilage there."

"How did you get bewitched?"

"A year ago, my mother passed by her stilt house and she gave her a basket of vegetables. At that time, we didn't think she was a grass ghost, so we ate it. One or two days after eating it, my knee suddenly hurt as if it was pierced by needles!"

"Xue Ligu gave me something similar to a love poison. My wife, everyone in our village knows that I am an honest man. But one time when I went to the city to wash my hair... I felt sorry for my wife. To punish myself, I never left the village again."

"The night before I entered the city, when I passed by here, I happened to see Xue Ligu opening the window, holding a flower and smiling at me, and the petals fell on my feet. She is so powerful that she can cast a curse like this. It's so scary."

"My mother is a famous healthy old lady in the village. After I scolded her that day, she fainted when she got home. She was unconscious for a long time and she was not feeling well when she woke up. She used Gu to steal people's lifespans. No wonder she has no wrinkles on her face at her age."

"She cast a spell on me and stole my fortune. We used to live a very good life, but ever since she passed by our house and looked up, our fortune has been gone. We can't make money no matter what we do. We are so poor that we can't even afford to eat. Please break this curse. We really need money..."

…

The players on the stilt house were speechless anymore.

The villagers downstairs talked about their experiences with grievance and anger, and cried out of heartache when they thought of their relatives at home who were suffering from strange diseases.

If they use the emotions caused by Xue Ligu's loneliness and beauty as an excuse to deliberately slander, suppress and hurt Xue Ligu, they will only sigh familiarly at the darkness of human hearts.

But no, they really believed from the bottom of their hearts that Xue Ligu was a vicious and omnipotent grass ghost who had harmed them terribly.

There must be a reason why their lives are so miserable.

That's it, when players look at their genuine faces, they find it absurd, so absurd that it's terrifying.

The horror of ignorance.

Fu Yuqing asked meaninglessly: "You...do you really think she did it?"

The villagers said firmly: "Of course it was her. She admitted it herself when she was drying the grass ghost! How could it be false?"

The author has something to say:

The inspiration for the section about the grass-drying ghost came from Shen Congwen's "Phoenix". I still remember the terrifying feeling when I saw the grass ghost confessing all her sins in a crazy manner.