Chapter 60 Wugu Village 3
Jing Yan suddenly fell silent.
Xia Bai glanced at him curiously. It was obvious that Jing Yan, who had been chattering just now, suddenly shut up. He must have seen someone's inner thoughts, and they were most likely You Yue's inner thoughts. He was very curious about what kind of inner thoughts they were.
However, that may be personal privacy, and now is not the time to talk nicely. They are almost there and have entered the residential area of the villagers of Wugu Village.
Most of the houses in Wugu Village are three-storey stilt houses. Some are single-stilted with an L-shaped layout, and some are double-stilted with a U-shaped layout. Among the lush trees, countless thin and straight legs support the old wooden buildings.
The villagers who were feeding chickens on the first floor, the villagers who were standing on the balcony on the second floor, and the villagers who were sifting grain on the third floor were all looking at them. From their expressions, it could be seen that they did not welcome their arrival.
The village chief's words "Take care of your mother and get out of here" should be a reflection of the whole village's psychology, but the village chief cannot show it. Maybe their identities are really useful, and they may be invited by the government above.
The atmosphere was a little tense, and the village chief laughed it off, "Don't mind it. Our village is hidden in this remote place, and we don't see outsiders for many years. They are not used to seeing strangers at first."
"Yeah." Ling Changye smiled in a friendly, casual and gentle manner, "I understand. It's inevitable that you will be on guard when your comfort zone is invaded by strangers."
The village chief nodded repeatedly. "I didn't expect the experts to be so reasonable. That's great."
Ling Changye suddenly asked again: "No outsiders have come in all these years?"
"Ah, ah!" said the village chief, "Right, at least I don't know. Maybe someone brought outsiders here. I don't know either. As you know, many villagers have been sick recently. Maybe some of them came back to visit their relatives, and some of them went to see a doctor."
He feels guilty.
It's a pity that they have just entered the game not long ago, far less than three hours. It would be great if Jing Yan could see what he was thinking at this time.
Xia Bai looked at Jing Yan, who was looking at the villagers one by one. He could only look at the inner thoughts of each person once every three hours, but there was no limit on the number of people he could look at, all the villagers could look, and of course no one could be missed, the more he looked, the more clues he would get.
Ling Changye then asked: "There should be a doctor in the village?"
"Well, let's not talk about it for now. We are home now. Let's eat first and then talk about work." The village chief said, "This is my home."
The village chief’s house is a three-story double-stilted building, a bit like a siheyuan, with wing rooms on both sides and the main room in the middle.
Along the way, they have come to realize that stilt houses can reflect a family's economic situation and status in the village.
The single-hanging type is definitely not as big as the double-hanging type. The village chief's double-hanging stilt house is larger than the double-hanging stilt houses of other families. There are two rooms on each floor of the wing on one side, so the whole family has at least ten houses.
It was neither hot nor cold in the evening. The village chief's family placed a large square table in the yard in front of the main hall. Several dishes were already placed on the table, and someone was busy in the kitchen.
The village chief introduced them briefly, "This is my wife, and that's my son and daughter-in-law, and my little grandson."
"Everyone, please take a seat. Don't be dissatisfied. These are all farm meals." The village chief greeted them warmly.
Xia Bai lowered his head and said something to Erwa, then sat at the table with him.
The village chief was too modest. There was a lot of food on the table, but no one dared to pick up their chopsticks.
There is a certain relationship between the game and the place where they landed. Before entering the game, they had learned about Wugu Village.
Wugu Village is a remote and secluded small village in Datang City. There are indeed no noteworthy news events, but the Datang City to which it belongs is very famous. Geographically speaking, it is known as a malaria town and is a relatively remote border area on the entire map of the Flower Kingdom.
This geographical location is unsafe first of all from the perspective of the natural environment. The miasma is naturally harmful to the human body, and there are many poisonous snakes, insects and ants.
Secondly, the population here is complex. Specifically, the complexity related to the game is that there are some strange people who are difficult to distinguish between true and false, including the grass ghost woman who originally existed here, as well as the sorcerers and wizards related to foreign countries. It is said that there are many evil spells that are difficult to guard against.
Wugu Village belongs to Datai City. Even if it is closed and not affected by the outside world, is there a local grass ghost woman, or some kind of belief of the village itself? These may come true when transferred to the game.
But, they can't go without food forever.
Seeing Ling Changye start eating, the others picked up their chopsticks and began to eat carefully.
"Village chief, why don't you tell us about the villagers' illnesses while you eat?" Lin Xiang poured a glass of water for the village chief and said, "We are here to treat the villagers. The sooner we can see them and cure them, the better it will be for both of us, right?"
The village chief had to speak up. He sighed, "About half a year ago, a villager in our village suddenly fell to the ground while walking. The other villagers took him home and asked around, but no one knew what happened. He is still lying there now."
"He was the beginning. Since then, several people have fallen ill in the village in a strange way, and three have died."
Lin Xiang asked: "Are they all unconscious?"
"No, some people feel pain all over their body and say they feel like needles are pricking their bodies. Some are crazy and some are blind," said the village chief.
The players were thoughtful. It was obvious that this disease was not a normal disease and was within their expectations.
Ling Changye asked: "What do the villagers have to say?"
"They say it's cursed." The village chief waved his hand. "Don't laugh at me. They are ignorant and superstitious. We should still use scientific methods to treat the disease."
“…”
No, they felt that what the villagers said made sense, and it was actually they, the doctors, who were unable to treat their illnesses scientifically.
Once they put on a scientific hat, it would be difficult for them to continue digging deeper into the supernatural direction.
"Did you get poisoned?" A short-haired female player named Gu Xuejun asked directly, "Did any strange people come to Wugu Village half a year ago?"
She asked what everyone was thinking.
After checking the information, as soon as they entered Wugu Village and heard the task of finding the cause of the disease, the first thing they thought of was curse and poison. After all, in this weird game, it was impossible to be a normal illness that required treatment from a real doctor.
Since the villagers said it was a curse, they were more inclined to believe it was a witchcraft.
Being poisoned by a Gu is very suitable for the environment in Wugu Village. This place, including the entire Datai City, is suitable for breeding Gu, and it is also very suitable for the disease that they cannot find the cause of.
However, some players were skeptical. Is it really that simple? They guessed the cause of the disease in the main storyline right after entering a normal map with a five-star difficulty?
The village chief shook his head. "There is an old lady in our village who knows a little about Gu worms. She said it's probably not the case. But she only knows a little bit about it and may not be able to tell. Do you doctors in big hospitals believe this? Do any of you know about Gu worms? If anyone knows, you can go and see if you are infected tomorrow."
Jing Yan asked again: "Village Chief, we are new here, is there anything we should be careful about here? Are there any taboos in Wugu Village?"
"There are many insects and ants here. Don't go to the forest at night because there are wolves." The village chief thought for a moment and said, "There are several stilt houses in the village where people have died. If you are afraid, don't go there. By the way, there is only one four-story stilt house in the middle of the village. It is a dark building."
Lin Xiang asked: "What is a dark building?"
"It's the place where we keep ashes and dead bodies in our village," said the village chief.
Lin Xiang: “…”
I immediately thought of the morgue of Peace Medical College, and some bad memories came to my mind.
He subconsciously turned his head to look at Xia Bai, and saw him holding a spoonful of pineapple rice and looking at the village chief with bright eyes.
“…”
The village chief had nothing more to say to them, so after dinner he asked them, "Do you want to live in my house, or somewhere else?"
The short-haired girl Gu Xuejun asked: "Where is the other place?"
Village chief: "There are two unused stilt houses in the village, but people have died there, the ones I mentioned who died of the strange disease."
Living in these two places has its own advantages. The village chief has a high status in the village and knows a lot. Living with him might help me get more information, especially for Jing Yan.
Living in a stilt house where someone has died can provide a more direct way to investigate the cause of illness and clues to death.
There is no doubt that they will go to both sides.
Ling Changye said: "Village Chief, I have a child, so it's more convenient for me to live with you. We also have a few young and lively doctors here..."
"You're talking about me." A player named Qi Yan, who had dyed white hair, said, "Village chief, I'm a serious night-sitter. I like to sing and dance at night. I see that the soundproofing of the stilt house is not very good, so I won't disturb you here."
The village chief said: "Okay, I have four vacant rooms in the west wing, you can divide them among yourselves."
Xia Bai's team lived with the village chief, while the other team of players lived in a stilt house not far away.
"Take a hundred steps after a meal and you will live to be ninety-nine. Why don't we go see the stilt house where they live and help digest the food at the same time?" Jing Yan suggested.
Seeing that the village chief didn't say anything, Lin Xiang immediately said: "Okay!"
All twelve players came out of the village chief's house and went to the stilt house he pointed to.
This is a single-stilted house, not as big as the village chief's house, but it also has five rooms. The twelve people entered the main room and did not immediately look for clues, but sat together to discuss the game first.
"When you first entered the game, did you also think that the villagers' strange diseases were caused by curses and poisoning?" Gu Xuejun asked.
"Indeed, there are many ghosts and gods in weird games, and this game takes place in a place like Wugu Village. I feel like I've been poisoned." Lin Xiang said.
Jing Yan pointed out another doubt that everyone was having. "But, we guessed it as soon as we entered the game. Could it be that simple? Don't forget that the first two groups of players who died in the game, more than half of them were villagers from Wugu Village. They would have thought of being poisoned and cursed, and would have immediately investigated in this direction. Obviously, they failed."
Lin Xiang proposed another possibility, "You have seen horror movies, right? A typical plot of horror movies is that people pretend to be ghosts, and the human heart is scarier than the ghost. There is a man in the village, who knows a little bit about medicine, pretending to be a ghost to take revenge on the villagers. He succeeded, and now the villagers are panicking and they really regard this as a curse."
"Oh, by the way, in horror movies like this, village chiefs are usually bad guys. I don't think this village chief is a good guy."
Xia Bai: “…”
He always has some ideas that seem unreliable but can always be justified.
Isn't it because real ghosts are not allowed in horror movies nowadays?
"Yeah! It matches." Jing Yan said, "It's unexpected but also very reasonable. This is the correct anti-routine. When we all thought it was poison and curse, we investigated in this direction, but the game had to reverse the routine to tell a human heart story."
Qi Yan said, "It is possible. We may have tied the game and the landing place too closely, and directly applied the real-life information we found to the game. We have this mindset and think that there is some kind of evil witchcraft here. Maybe this is just a regular village instance?"
They have a point.
A few people discussed for a while, and seeing that no one in the assault team spoke, they all looked at the three people, especially Ling Changye.
A woman with long wavy hair, Fu Yuqing, who had been silent the whole time, asked, "Captain Ling, what do you think?"
Ling Changye said, "Since both groups of players died in it, this village may not be that simple. Qi Yan's point about not thinking in a fixed way is very good. Then, is it another kind of fixed way of thinking to believe that the game is against the routine?"
Qi Yan was stunned. "Does Captain Ling really think that he might have been poisoned? This is a five-star difficulty instance. How could we have discovered it from the beginning?"
"What you found is just the direction. Can you guarantee that you can dig out the truth? This is not the first time for you to play the game. You all know that in ordinary maps, the direction is only the most superficial. The real difficulty is to dig out the truth buried deep inside." Ling Changye said without any aggression. He smiled and said, "Of course, I didn't mean to say that curses and poisoning are the correct directions."
Before Qi Yan frowned and spoke, he said first, "I want to say that we have just entered the game and don't have any solid clues yet. Don't limit yourself. Instead, we should think divergently and look for more possibilities."
Fu Yuqing said, "Okay, then let's put aside the information we looked up before and the settings for Wugu Village. Let's each talk about what often happens in a rural copy and what situations can cause strange diseases."
Xia Bai glanced at her and felt that she was also a very capable player who wanted to lead the players outside the assault team.
He had seen Fu Yuqing's information in the information Song Shi gave her. She was one of those old players who didn't fill out any details, and only filled in one skill type, which was physical skill.
The other players started talking at her suggestion.
"The village dungeons I've played are all Chinese horror games, which focus on feudal ethics. How can this be connected to the strange disease? Is it a ghost? The ghost is secretly taking revenge on them, and they don't know? Or is it corpse poison or something like that?"
"The patriarchal exploitation of women in rural areas is particularly serious. The oppression of women in this copy focuses on marriage, chastity, etc. For example, the most common ghost marriage does not seem to be directly related to the strange disease. Is it also corpse poison? Wait, there is also a strange disease caused by inbreeding and genetic abnormalities?"
"Feudal ignorance kills people, religion kills people, and other man-made tragedies can be linked to the strange disease. Could it be that they believe in something and ate something strange under the instigation of an unreliable witch to get sick? They don't want us to enter the village because they think their illness and death are a great sacrifice?"
"The source of pollution is an infectious disease. The villagers are actually good people. It is the bad guys who are conducting experiments in this village that have caused the strange diseases and deaths of the innocent and poor villagers."
…
Everyone talked a lot, and regardless of whether they guessed correctly or not, Xia Bai really learned a lot. From now on, his grandfather will no longer have to worry about him entering the village dungeon.
As he was thinking this, Fu Yuqing suddenly called out, "Xia Bai, you have been silent in this discussion, do you have any thoughts?"
"I don't know why you guys are discussing this so much. It sounds very impressive and complicated." Xia Bai said with a blank face, "Isn't the direction very clear?"
"Ah?" Lin Xiang said, "What direction?"
Xia Bai: "Why do the villagers think the strange disease is a curse?"
“…”
The stilt house fell eerily silent.
Yes, why do the villagers think this is a curse? There is no curse without reason. Do they think this way because they know something? Are they guilty? Have they done something wrong? It is worth digging into the background.
Why, when they heard the villagers say it was a curse, they thought it was reasonable for the villagers to think so and therefore tended to believe that they were poisoned, without thinking about why the villagers thought so.
"Oh no." Lin Xiang.
"Hi, hi." Jing Yan.
Fu Yuqing: "But our discussion is still meaningful. The reason why they think it is a curse may be inseparable from the possibilities we discussed."
Xia Bai nodded and did not refute her. These discussions did expand his thinking and he learned a lot.
Fu Yuqing: "In this case, how about we divide the work first? First we need to check the villagers' conditions. In the process of checking the conditions, we need to use various methods to try to find out why they think they are cursed. This is the main plot. We also need to send people to explore several key places in the village, such as the secret building that the village chief mentioned, and the old lady who he said knows a little about Gu worms."
Xia Bai raised his hand actively this time, "I can go to the dark building."
“…”
"We are here to see a doctor. I suggest that you just go to the doctor on the first day and don't rashly go to these places, especially sensitive places like dark buildings." Ling Changye said.
Xia Bai obediently withdrew his hand: "Oh."
Several players looked at Ling Changye, then at Fu Yuqing, without saying anything.
Lin Xiang actively came out to express his opinion, "Captain Ling is right. If we go to the hidden building as soon as we arrive and get discovered, the villagers will be more wary of us, and it will be more difficult for us to investigate later."
Jing Yan: "Yes, I also think that we should let them accept us first, rather than let them resist us more."
Fu Yuqing spread his hands and said indifferently, "Okay, let's see the doctor first."
Ling Changye: "If you want to go, you can go secretly at night."
Fu Yuqing: "Let's not do anything rash tonight. Let's look for clues in this stilt house. We'll go see a doctor tomorrow."
That’s settled.
After discussing for more than half an hour, it was time for the people living in the village chief's house to go back.
There are many tall trees in Wugu Village in the game. At night, the big trees separate the stilt houses, casting ferocious ghostly shadows on the dirt roads and on the rooftops. It may be less than nine o'clock when there is no sound in the village.
Xia Bai whispered to Jing Yan: "Have you seen any clues in the minds of other villagers?"
"I was just about to say that." Jing Yan's voice was low, just loud enough for the six of them to hear. "On the way into the village, I saw that most of the eight villagers had the same thoughts as the village chief, and wanted us to get out. Only two of them were different."
"What one person is thinking is: Can they really cure me?"
"Another person's inner thoughts were: Are they any good doctors?"
Another key figure appeared, Dr. He.
Ling Changye said: "Do you still remember what these two people look like and which stilt house they live in?"
Jing Yan nodded, "Remember."
Ling Changye: "When we go to see the doctor tomorrow, let's go to these two hospitals first."
Jing Yan: "Okay. It's almost three hours. I'll take a look at what the village chief and his family have to say. Maybe there will be some clues."
When they returned, the village chief and his family had already gone into their own rooms. They didn't know which room the village chief lived in, so they didn't knock on the door rashly. If it was Xia Bai, he would just let it go.
Unexpectedly, Jing Yan, the community leader, went straight to knock on the door of the main hall.
It was the village chief who opened the door wearing his coat. Before he could speak, Jing Yan asked, "Village chief, we want to go and see the villagers tomorrow morning. Will you take us?"
The village chief had a good attitude. "You can go with me or you can go by yourself. The villagers know you are here to treat them and will cooperate."
"Oh, okay." Jing Yan glanced into the main room again, and before the village chief could get suspicious, he said, "Sister-in-law, do we have hot water in our room?"
The village head's daughter-in-law, who was watching the children in the main room, said, "Oh, there is none in the room. You should go downstairs to wash."
"Okay, no problem." Jing Yan said, "Then I won't bother you anymore. Good night."
The others were waiting for him in the west wing. He knew what they wanted to hear, so he whispered, "The village chief's true feelings are: they are quite active, but it's useless."
"What the village chief's daughter-in-law really thought was: Go quickly."
“What the village chief’s grandson was thinking was: Will they die too?”
Lin Xiang made a reasonable guess, "Could it be that Doctor He was also from outside, and while treating the villagers, he discovered the secret of Wugu Village and was killed by them?"
Jing Yan: "It's possible. The village chief was vague about whether there were outsiders coming to the village."
Ling Changye said, "We will try this out tomorrow. You can take this opportunity to see what the villagers think."
Jing Yan nodded immediately, "Okay, I promise to complete the task!"
It feels safe to play with a group of reliable veteran players. They don't seem to be in a hurry or irritable, and they don't have any intention of staying up late to investigate.
Jing Yan asked: "Then let's sleep together? Separate rooms?"
The village chief reserved four rooms for them. You Yue, who had been silent the whole time, must have reserved one for herself, as she was the only girl.
There are three rooms left, and not counting the second child, there are still four of them, so two people must sleep in one room.
Lin Xiang: "It's easy to divide. Sister You Yue is a girl, so she will definitely have her own room. Xia Bai and I have been good friends for so many years, so of course we have to sleep together. Captain Ling and Erwa will have a room, and Jing Yan will have a room. Is there any problem at all?"
Jing Yan originally wanted to be with Lin Xiang, the useless brothers, so that they could take care of each other, but there was really no problem with his division.
Since no one else is talking, let's just leave it at that.
Wait, they didn’t say anything. Does that mean they agreed?
Jing Yan suddenly remembered that he could also read their inner thoughts. Originally, after becoming teammates, he didn't want to pry into other people's secrets, but he was very curious about everyone's thoughts on room allocation. This wasn't a secret, right?
He took a closer look and couldn't help but take another step back.
Xia Bai: I want to share a room with the captain.
Erwa: I want to share a room with Xia Bai.
You Yue: I can also be a boy.
Ling Changye: He didn’t object.
The author has something to say:
Jing Yan: An ordinary expert at eating melons.
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