Yue Qi glanced at Yan Qing but didn't say anything.
Wen Jiajia was secretly filled with resentment. It was Yan Qing again! In just two days, she had managed to gain the trust of someone as cold as Yue Qi.
So she could only turn to Yan Qing, and unusually became gentle and kind, "I wonder what you think, Yan Qing?"
Yan Qing neither agreed nor denied it. Instead, she raised a question she was curious about.
"Based on what you've said, shouldn't you have information related to the rituals? Then can you tell me what this so-called 'evil god' is?"
Wen Jiajia smiled and glanced at her. "That's simple. Based on my guess, the evil god is currently enshrined in one of these seven households. Also, no one has ever been inside the temple, so we think we can all explore it together."
Yan Qing wasn't going to fall for her tricks; she didn't want to be cannon fodder for someone.
"Cooperation is certainly possible, but we currently have too little information about the temple. Also, we haven't found all the rules for clearing the level yet."
She glanced at Wen Jiajia, her tone meaningful, "Could it be—that you've already found the remaining rules for clearing the level?"
Wen Jiajia's face darkened. This Yan Qing was really the type to not act until she saw a clear benefit.
"We haven't found any other way to pass the level, but we do know where the little girl in the stationery store is."
Yan Qing's expression hardened. "There's no one in the stationery store. Where did this little girl come from?"
Wen Jiajia looked at her with a half-smile, "There's a family of three in the stationery store. The couple looks to be in their early thirties, and their little girl is six years old. But you probably won't see them."
“Their whole family went to the temple at the alley entrance early this morning. I found this in the stationery store.”
Wen Jiajia took an envelope out of her bosom and reluctantly handed it to her.
Inside the envelope was a pink letter with an unremarkable message: someone wanted to visit their home.
To my dear neighbor
Tonight at midnight, I will come to your door for a chat.
Don't worry about me.
The handwriting on the letter was crooked and messy, like a child's scribbles.
The envelope had a peculiar fragrance that made Yan Qing realize what it was all about.
Isn't this the strange fragrance she smelled in the middle of the night last night? Moreover, not only here, but this morning, she also smelled the same scent in the stationery store.
She remembered clearly that Yue Qi had said that the "evil god" should have come to see her last night. But for some reason, it had mysteriously disappeared, leaving only a pool of dark green blood.
The thing Wen Jiajia is taking out now is connected to the evil god again.
She suddenly had a guess: could this family have rushed to the temple in order to escape an evil god?
Wen Jiajia, seeing her expression, knew the other had guessed as well. So she didn't hide it anymore.
"You guessed right. This morning, the stationery store owner opened the store and found an envelope stuck to the door. That's why he rushed to the temple. I heard this from the restaurant owner."
Wen Jiajia paused for a moment before continuing, "The family of three who owns the stationery store orders all their meals from a restaurant. This morning, when Sun Jue and the owner were delivering the food, they happened to see the whole family hurriedly running away. That's how they found out about this."
“Okay, let’s cooperate.” Yan Qing agreed readily.
Wen Jiajia felt a little uneasy. She had prepared a whole speech to persuade Yan Qing, but she never expected her to suddenly become so agreeable.
“But let’s get this straight up—” Yan Qing added, “Since we’re going to cooperate, I hope we can be honest with each other and not be stingy. By the way, this is a token of our sincerity in this cooperation.”
She pulled two tattered pieces of parchment from her bosom. "These are the rules for passing the game that we discovered. You can take a look."
Wen Jiajia was truly amazed today; this Yan Qing was really good at hiding her true intentions! She took the parchment and began to examine it carefully.
"I didn't expect you two to be so capable, actually finding two rules for passing the level!" Wen Jiajia's praise this time was absolutely genuine.
Yan Qing gave a forced smile, "You flatter me! We've already shown our sincerity quite a bit, so I hope you won't hide anything from us."
Having said all that, Wen Jiajia stopped hiding her thoughts. She exchanged a glance with Sun Jue before speaking:
“We do have an exclusive lead, which we obtained after wiping the table for two consecutive days. The reason we didn’t tell you before was to protect ourselves.”
Yan Qing naturally didn't believe her explanation; she only cared about the clues. As for Yue Qi, Wen Jiajia was already labeled as "unreliable" by him.
“Sun Jue and I once secretly explored the backyards of seven shops here and unexpectedly discovered a big secret of the residents.”
"What secret?" Yan Qing asked calmly.
“Every house here has a huge coffin in its backyard. And no one can live in the backyard at all; everyone rests in the front yard.”
Yan Qing thought of the owner of the Worry-Free Inn where they were staying, who also stayed in a room on the first floor. She felt a little curious.
"Could the coffin in the backyard be related to an evil god?"
Wen Jiajia gave her an approving look. "That's what I think."
"Do you know who worships the evil god?" Yue Qi suddenly interjected.
Wen Jiajia shook her head, but she was full of confidence, "So we have to go to the bonfire party tonight, and then we'll naturally find out."
Yan Qing and Yue Qi exchanged a glance. It seemed they had no choice but to attend the bonfire party that evening.
Article 5 of the "Yongning Lane Rules"
On the night of the full moon, Yongning Lane hosts its monthly bonfire party. As an outsider, remember to prepare your gift in advance.
This rule states that outsiders must prepare a gift. But what exactly should this gift be?
She didn't think that preparing just anything would be useful. Since the rules mentioned it, the gift should specifically refer to the same thing.
Yue Qi seemed to have the same idea as her, and he asked Wen Jiajia and the other woman, "What do you think would be a good gift for us?"
Sun Jue opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Wen Jiajia interrupted him. She smiled and said,
“Of course, you can prepare whatever you want.”
There was no point in continuing the conversation beyond this point. Wen Jiajia made an excuse to prepare some things in advance, arranged to meet them at the small square in front of the temple at 8 pm, and then went straight back.
Yue Qi looked at her. "Do you believe what she said?"
"Of course I don't believe it." Yan Qing wasn't stupid, but she hadn't come away empty-handed. "Just now, what that Sun Jue said was clearly the word 'flower.' Luckily, I can read lips, otherwise we would have been wandering around aimlessly in the streets!"
"Flowers?" Yue Qi fell into deep thought.
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