Chapter 35: The entire population of Anping County, numbering over a hundred, has vanished!
Yu Chen Prefecture, Anping County.
A tall stone tablet stands in front of the city gate, with three large red characters indicating to passersby that they have arrived at that place.
Anping County.
"This compass can only point this far." Bai Yuheng fiddled with the compass in her hand, thinking to herself that even though Dong Xuan had worked overtime to make it, it still had some flaws and could not point completely. Moreover, the compass would only react violently when the perception was strong.
Li Tiankuo said, "It's getting late, let's find a place to stay first."
Several people agreed that they had been rushing and tired these past few days, so now that they had arrived, they should rest well and make a decision after they had recovered.
Cui Mingcan walked ahead, carrying a kitten.
As they walked down the street, the vendors on both sides flinched at the sight of strangers approaching, then glanced at them with half-closed eyes.
The sun had already set, and in no time, all the vendors and pedestrians on the street had disappeared.
The four people and one cat looked around in confusion.
“It’s strange.” Cen Ying frowned and said in a low voice, “Logically speaking, the Jianghuai region is the most prosperous, and even the county towns and villages under the prefecture are full of tourists. Every night, it’s even more lively, with carriages and horses coming and going shoulder to shoulder. But in Anping County, as soon as the sun sets, people can’t wait to pack up their belongings and go home. Even the pedestrians are in a hurry…”
"Did you see that? Just now, when those people saw us coming, they stared at us with seemingly unintentional but actually suspicious eyes, as if they were afraid of us?" Cui Mingcan also voiced his discomfort.
Li Tiankuo nodded and said, "It's more of a feeling of vigilance than fear."
Bai Yuheng said, "We need to find an inn quickly; I reckon things aren't going to be peaceful in Anping County tonight."
"Um!"
After saying that, the group quickened their pace and finally passed by an inn just as it was closing.
Guangyuan Inn.
"We're fully booked!" The waiter rushed over to ask them to leave as soon as they entered.
"Hey, is it full? I can't hear a sound!" Cui Mingcan said, straining his ears to listen to the voices upstairs.
"Oh, the guests are all asleep! Please go somewhere else!"
Having said that, he was about to push them out.
"..."
Such blatant expulsion of customers is even more suspicious.
Cen Ying and Bai Yuheng stepped forward, each grabbing a waiter's hand, while two others behind them circled around and leaped up to the second floor.
"Hey! How could you do this?!" the waiter struggled and shouted.
Bai Yuheng smiled enigmatically: "Young man, why are you so nervous? Is your shop a shady establishment?"
The waiter immediately became anxious: "Heaven and earth bear witness! Our Guangyuan Inn is the most trustworthy inn in Yu Chen County! No one within a hundred miles is as good as our inn! We are all law-abiding citizens, how could we possibly do such illegal and disorderly things!"
"Then why are you in such a hurry? My two younger brothers are just going up to take a look; they won't interfere with your business."
"This...this..."
As they were talking, Li Tiankuo and Cui Mingcan also jumped down. Cui Mingcan walked over angrily and grabbed the waiter, saying, "There's clearly no one in this shop, why did you lie to us?!"
The waiter panicked upon hearing this, his eyes darting around, and he stammered, "Where are there no customers?! The customers have all gone out to play!"
"Bullshit!" Cui Mingcan grabbed his collar. "The guest rooms are all empty!"
“Speak! Why won’t you let us stay? Could it be…” Cen Ying pulled a silver needle from her sleeve, pretending to scare him, “Could you really be a black-hearted inn? Murder and robbery?”
"I'm innocent!" the waiter cried out.
Bai Yuheng gestured to Cen Ying and Cui Mingcan not to act rashly, and after they released him, she asked softly, "Where is your manager? Let him come out."
Upon hearing this, the waiter frowned even more, looking as if he had just eaten a bitter melon.
"Our manager is not in the shop today."
"Then what right do you have to stop us from staying if you're not the manager?" Cui Mingcan asked, raising his eyebrows. "Could it be that you're a spy for another inn, and you don't want your manager to make money, so you're refusing to do business with us!"
Cui Mingcan's guess terrified the waiter, who exclaimed repeatedly, "Oh dear, sir, please don't say that! I'm utterly loyal to our manager, how could I possibly do such a thing!"
"Then why are you so resistant to us staying at your hotel?"
The waiter, with a bitter face, sighed heavily and said, "I'll be frank with you then!"
The group pulled him to the table and sat him down, and even the kitten lying on the table was staring at him intently.
The waiter swallowed hard, pointed to the door, and said, "Close the door first."
Cui Mingcan had no choice but to comply.
"Also, put up the talisman paper on the counter!"
Cui Mingcan picked up the bright yellow talisman, and his eyelids twitched.
"Your shop is haunted!?"
As he finished speaking, a chill seemed to creep up his back, along his spine to his neck, and suddenly a cool breeze blew behind his ear.
"Aaaaaah!"
Cui Mingcan threw down the yellow talisman, put his arm around Bai Yuheng, and plopped down on Li Tiankuo's lap.
The kitten bared its teeth at him, its soft, docile fur standing on end.
Cui Mingcan had no time to care about the "son" she had adopted; she hid in Li Tiankuo's arms, trembling.
Cen Ying chuckled and said, "Look at you, so pathetic."
After saying that, he stuck the fallen talisman back onto the door.
She sat down and tried to stroke the kitten's fur, but the more she stroked it, the more its fur became agitated.
Following the kitten's gaze, Cen Ying pushed away Cui Mingcan's paws that were holding Bai Yuheng's hand. "Let go! Let go! The kitten has a problem with you!"
Cui Mingcan was still shaken by his own fright. He gulped down a mouthful of cold tea to calm himself down, then squeezed out of Li Tiankuo's seat and sat between Bai Yuheng and Li Tiankuo.
"Son, come here." He tried to hug the kitten, but it ignored him and jumped straight into Bai Yuheng's arms, letting her rub it.
"Is he still my son?!"
"..."
"Hey! It rolled its eyes at me!" Cui Mingcan was intrigued and wanted to touch it, but was smacked and had to reluctantly withdraw his hand.
Bai Yuheng tapped the table to change the subject.
"Waiter, please continue," Bai Yuheng said, stroking the cat's back as she listened to its purring. "Has something happened in this shop, no, in this county?"
The waiter let out a long sigh.
“Anping County used to be one of the wealthiest counties in Yuchen Prefecture, but ever since those things happened, we haven’t seen a single guest for ten days or half a month…”
"The story begins last month..."
"Last month, the Liang family in our area got married. They had a grand three-day celebration, and it was extremely lively. But then—"
"What happened? The bride disappeared?" Cui Mingcan couldn't help but blurt out, based on how it was described in the stories he had read.
Cen Ying gave him a blow with a hammer.
"Quiet."
The waiter sighed, "This isn't a bride, it's the entire Liang family, every single one of them, all gone!"
"What!?"
"All one hundred people are gone?" Cui Mingcan stared in disbelief, a chill running down his spine.
"Yes, even the guard dog lost its life."
Bai Yuheng: "Any clues?"
"The authorities investigated, but found nothing. Everything was fine when we were having a wedding banquet last night. But when the night watchman struck the last watch the next day, he found the brightly lit and festive Liang mansion completely silent, with only blood overflowing from the gate..." The waiter trembled as he spoke.
"All those who died were tied to a frame."
"A frame?" Bai Yuheng asked in surprise, pondering for a moment before guessing, "Could it be a sacrifice?"
The waiter shook his head: "The reason is still unknown."
“No wonder it’s so deserted here, everyone seems so uneasy,” Cen Ying couldn’t help but remark.
Li Tiankuo asked, "Do you know the specific details of that day?"
"How would I, a nobody, know? I've only heard about it." The waiter couldn't help but think of the scene, and his stomach churned. "I heard that the entire Liang family, over a hundred people, were skinned and bled, tied to racks, and the racks were filled with firewood underneath. When someone reported it to the authorities, the firewood spontaneously combusted in front of the officials, and they couldn't put it out. The hundreds of people, along with the dogs' corpses, burned for days and nights..."
"..."
Several people couldn't help but gasp. Such a cruel act could not be resolved even by a blood feud.
"That's not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is..." the waiter lowered his voice and leaned closer to them, saying, "Before that, Chenjia Village, a hundred miles away from Anping County, was completely wiped out! It was all burned to the ground by an unknown fire!"
"!!!"
The four of them gasped.
"besides……"
"There's more!?" Cui Mingcan grabbed Li Tiankuo's arm, his teeth chattering. Had he stumbled into a ghost town?! With so many innocent people dead, the yin energy must be incredibly heavy!
"Furthermore, this month, any family with a happy occasion is bound to suffer! Especially weddings!"
How to say it?
"Every time this happens, the groom gets kidnapped!!!" the waiter suddenly shouted, "And the kidnapped groom is still missing, his fate unknown!"
Li Tiankuo asked, "Did your government find anything?"
The waiter shook his head: "How would we know? The authorities only said that a notorious bandit lurking in Huaizhou wanted to steal money and had made enemies of the Liang family, so they slaughtered the entire family. As for Chenjia Village, it was just a stronghold that the bandits seized... As for the grooms, there's still no conclusion, so no one dares to hold a wedding now, for fear of being caught in the crossfire!"
Cen Ying sighed, "No wonder everyone here looks at us outsiders like we've seen a ghost."
The waiter nodded: "So it's not that we don't want to provide you with a place to stay, it's just that we're really afraid!"
After he finished speaking, he said mysteriously:
"And now many people are guessing that those grooms were captured by female ghosts and monsters, like fox spirits!" The waiter told them the popular speculation. "Didn't the folk tales and supernatural stories say that fox spirits and monsters love to suck the life essence of men..."
"So we ordinary people, who are powerless to even kill a chicken, are even more afraid. Every night, we close our shops and markets... When other outsiders found out, they were unwilling to come here to visit or do business, and they didn't even want to pass by! They would rather take a long detour!"
"Don't worry, we are disciples of the Tianyan Sect, specializing in capturing demons and monsters!" Cui Mingcan reassured him, standing tall and proud. "With us here, we will definitely capture those monsters and restore peace to you!"
"Whoosh—Bang!"
As soon as Cui Mingcan finished speaking, a gust of wind blew in, bursting through the door and shaking off the yellow talisman pasted on it.
"Is it...is it a demon?" The waiter, protected by the four people behind him, stammered in fear.
"No, it's just windy." Bai Yuheng stepped outside and glanced around, but didn't find anything unusual. She looked at the yellow talisman pasted on the door and said, "This yellow talisman of yours is useless. It's all written wrong."
"Oh no! What should we do?!" the waiter exclaimed in panic.
"Don't worry, I'll set up a barrier for you tonight. As long as you don't leave the barrier on your own, nothing else can get in."
The waiter breathed a sigh of relief and said gratefully, "Thank you so much, fairies!"
Cui Mingcan chuckled and said, "Now you should let us stay at the inn, right?"
The waiter smiled, looking both humbled and apprehensive: "Of course, of course, you can stay for as many days as you like!"
After paying the deposit, the group planned to take a good rest.
"Boil some hot water for us later, and prepare some food," Cui Mingcan said generously, pulling out a few more silver coins from his pocket.
"Enough, enough! I'll arrange some local specialties from Anping County for you, I guarantee you'll all be satisfied!"
The group went upstairs one after the other.
Suddenly remembering something, the waiter hurriedly reminded them, "Gentlemen, please wait!"
Four people, each holding a cat, stood awkwardly on the stairs, looking back at him.
Li Tiankuo: "Is there anything else?"
"Remember, sir, do not open the door after midnight tonight! Even if you hear any noise inside, do not open the door out of curiosity."
The waiter repeatedly warned, "Remember this! Under no circumstances should you open the door!"
Bai Yuheng smiled and nodded: "Thank you for informing me."
After nodding in greeting, the group returned to their respective rooms, put away their belongings, and sat down in Bai Yuheng's room.
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Author's Note: Thank you Xiao Ai and Xiao Bao for urging me to update! [Laughing][Laughing][Heart] Because there are no rankings this week, I can only update three chapters~ [Laughing][Hugs] Thank you for your support! [Let me see][Laughing][Laughing][Hugs]
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