Chapter 71 Wugu Village Follow-up
After coming out of the game, Xia Bai returned to the stilt house.
This time, except for the aging Tao Baobao, no one suffered obvious injuries.
Fu Yuqing was staring at Tao Baobao coldly. Tao Baobao leaned towards Xia Bai, avoiding her gaze.
The others pretended not to notice the expressions and actions of the two. Since Tao Baobao knew about Fu Yuqing, they should know each other. Maybe they even made an appointment to enter the game together. They can just handle it themselves. It has nothing to do with them.
However, gossip is human nature, and Jing Yan couldn't help but read their true thoughts.
Tao Baobao: "I just want to survive."
Fu Yuqing: "You're dead."
Jing Yan: “…”
Ling Changye glanced at the few people and said, "Let's go."
This time, only Tao Baobao was affected by the game, but people who didn't know her would not find her strange. They just thought she was an old lady and they could go out without waiting for the staff.
Seeing them come out, the Tourism Management Bureau staff member guarding the cordon breathed a sigh of relief, as did the logistics staff waiting behind him.
The game, which had lost two waves of players, was completed, and with so many players coming out, the result was much better than they expected.
"Thank you for your hard work, everyone. Thank you for solving the map of Wugu Village. Now I will take you back to rest."
The bus was still parked not far away. Seeing that Tao Baobao was not aging any further and had no injuries other than aging, the staff asked her to take the bus with them back to the Datai City Tourism Administration Branch for treatment.
You Yue didn't come with them. The staff looked at her and said uncertainly, "Do you want to..."
"I was going to come here anyway, not go with you guys."
The staff member immediately said, “Okay.”
Xia Bai got on the bus. When he heard that You Yue would not leave with them, he didn't say much, but just waved to him outside the window.
"He is a strange person, but very lucky. He played a game for free. The points he accumulated should be enough for him to live a life of luxury." Qiao Youlin said as he looked at You Yue who was walking into the mountains alone outside.
"She didn't completely take advantage of it. He figured out the method to break the curse." Tao Baobao said that it was because of this method that she saved her life in the end. When she heard Qiao Youlin say this about You Yue, she immediately spoke up for her, "If she took advantage of it, then didn't you and I take advantage of it? What contribution did you make?"
Qiao Youlin's face flushed when she said that. "Yes, she saved your life. You saved your life by talking about other people's bad deeds."
“…”
The car suddenly became quiet.
Jing Yan went to the last row, which was in front of Xia Bai and the others, and ate melons with them. Lin Xiang gave him a bag of melon seeds, but he didn't expect that this idiot would eat them right away.
“Crack!”
“…”
The car started in silence and drove on the dirt road of Wugu Village.
They looked out the window and saw the village getting farther and farther away. Although it was not the same as in the game, they still felt a sense of sadness.
The story of Wugu Village in the game has ended, and Wugu Village in reality is also complete and no longer troubled by the game.
The road back was still bumpy, but this time no player complained. In this absolutely safe bus of the Tourism Administration, several people closed their eyes and fell asleep. For outsiders, the game may only last a short time, but for them, it is exhausting and sleepless for several days. At this time, they are all sleepy and tired.
Xia Bai looked at the scenery outside the car for a while, and slowly closed his eyes in the shaking car.
When he opened his eyes, he was almost at the Datai City Tourism Administration Branch.
The branch of the Tourism Administration Bureau in Datai City is much larger than that in Jiangqi City. After all, the population in Datai City is complex, and many players also like to come here, just like the Half Moon Group, which requires more staff from the Tourism Administration Bureau to manage it.
The Tourism Management Bureau of Datai City is not only larger than that of Jiangqi City, but also very unique. It looks like a travel agency. There are many buses outside, and their buses do not look out of place when they drive by.
As soon as they got off the car, they saw several people waiting for them at the door.
Ling Changye said to Xia Bai: "The middle-aged man in the front is the director of the Datai City Tourism Administration, Yan Jingye."
The tourism management bureaus in each city do not have the four departments, two institutes and one station of the General Administration. Instead, they are managed uniformly by the directors of the branches and are vertically managed by the headquarters, cooperating with the headquarters.
Yan Jingye greeted them warmly as soon as he saw them, "Captain Ling, thank you for coming. This is our little star Yi Wa, oh, this is Xia Bai."
Xia Bai simply called out, "Director Yan."
"What kind of name is that? I can't bear that. Only Director Wang from the headquarters is worthy of you calling him Director." Yan Jingye said, "If you don't mind, just call me Brother Yan."
Lin Xiang, the social expert, immediately stepped forward and called him "brother" affectionately.
Ling Changye: "Don't stand outside, go in first."
"Hey! Okay, let's go in quickly, there are other things to do." Yan Jingye hurriedly led them in.
Xia Bai has completed four games and entered the Games Management Bureau after completing the game twice. He is already familiar with the process, but this time the game is a mission, which is slightly different from the previous ones.
First of all, you have to claim the mission reward, which is not the game reward given by the system, but the reward promised by the Game Management Bureau when it issues the bounty mission. Everyone has points and money, there is nothing to say about it. The key is the prop reward.
The reward given by the Game Management Bureau for this mission is a space prop, and there is only one of it. It is given to the player with the best performance among the players who accept the bounty mission other than the Game Management Bureau players.
At that time, Xia Bai was curious about how the best performance was evaluated.
Song Shi said: "It was first evaluated by the members of the attack team who entered the game together."
If this happens, people will definitely accuse them of operating behind closed doors. Even the fact that the Tourism Administration selects the people themselves for the bounty missions will be criticized, let alone issuing item rewards.
Song Shi continued, "If others have any objections, they can show their points earned in this game. Points will not reveal any privacy, and they are the most intuitive data for the game to evaluate player performance. If his points exceed those of the person selected by the assault team, the props will be given to him."
In this game, Xia Bai and Ling Changye discussed it and of course let Yiwa participate, just in a formal way. In the end, they chose Jing Yan.
Lin Xiang contributed a lot, but Jing Yan's skills really helped them a lot in completing the game.
No one else had any objection to their decision, even Fu Yuqing didn't say anything.
Therefore, Jing Yan received the space prop reward given by the Tourism Administration.
Jing Yan was surprised and happy. He really didn't think about this prop reward at first. He thanked them repeatedly, especially thanking Ling Changye several times.
In the game, he misunderstood Ling Changye and thought that he did not trust him. Facts proved that he was too sensitive and overthinking. Not only did Ling Changye not guard against him, he also pointed out a mistake he made in the game that could be fatal.
Don't rely too much on what's in your heart; what's in your heart is not necessarily the truth.
Ling Changye said: "I have some other ideas, we can talk about it."
Jing Yan immediately said, "Okay, Captain Ling!"
Tao Baobao was taken to the second floor to find a healing player, and Lin Xiang followed him up as well. His purification skill was somewhat effective against the strange disease caused by the cat ghost in the game, so he wanted to give it a try and see how other healing players treated it.
They had to wait for Tao Baobao to finish his medical examination before repeating the game to the research institute together.
Ling Changye and Jing Yan added each other as friends and started chatting.
Xia Bai was a little curious about what they were talking about, mainly because he was curious about what else was worth noting or exploring about Jing Yan's skills.
He glanced in the direction of Ling Changye's phone. Ling Changye seemed to have noticed it. He sat a little closer to Xia Bai, lowered his phone and chatted with Jing Yan, as if he didn't care what Xia Bai was looking at.
In that case, Xia Bai took a look and was a little surprised to see the content of their chat.
Xia Bai: "You want Jing Yan to join the assault team?"
"Yeah." Ling Changye said, "His skills will be very useful as long as he is paired with a suitable partner."
"Besides, haven't you discovered that this skill of his has another wonderful use?" Ling Changye asked.
Xia Bai thought about it and inexplicably thought of the skills of Yang Yi, the vice president of the research institute. His skill is that whatever he thinks can come true to a certain extent and probability, which can be summarized as [As I think], while Jing Yan's skill is [Think what you think], which seems to be a bit of a special skill to counter Yang Yi.
This idea came out of nowhere, Xia Bai was not sure, "Yang Yi?"
Then he saw Ling Changye looking at him and smiling, his eyes showing a hint of blue.
It’s actually true.
They also need a team member who can specifically restrain Yang Yi. It seems that the relationship between the assault team and the research institute is worse than he thought.
Ling Changye glanced at him and said, "Yang Yi is a researcher who has made outstanding achievements in studying games. We will certainly not take the initiative to target him. We are just protecting our team members."
Xia Bai nodded, "Yeah!"
He said a little dully: "I was almost studied by him."
There was a subtle hint of grievance in his words.
Ling Changye looked at him again and said "hmm".
Jing Yan naturally agreed happily. It's not that he doesn't like to team up with others, but he has been shunned and guarded before, and he doesn't want to make himself unhappy. But if someone knows his skills and is willing to be his teammate, especially such an excellent teammate, he would certainly be willing.
Jing Yan: [yes! Ido! [very loud]]
Jing Yan: [From now on, I can call him Captain Ling! ]
As soon as he finished shouting, the captain brought a fatal question.
Ling Changye: [Have you ever seen any interesting thoughts in my heart?]
Jing Yan: [……]
Ling Changye: [Don't be nervous, I don't mind being seen, as long as you don't say anything to others. I'm just curious, sometimes people don't even know what they are thinking deep down.]
Jing Yan: [I really didn’t see anything, I just know that Xia Bai used his corpse to threaten you before.]
He felt that the sentence about the room allocation was insignificant. This was the only important information he learned from Ling Changye.
Ling Changye: [Yes, indeed. I didn’t expect that I would hold a grudge, and still hold it until now.]
Jing Yan: [……]
Jing Yan didn't know what to say.
Just then, someone called them at the door of their respective rooms.
Tao Baobao came down from the second floor. Her treatment was effective, but not completely. She was not as old as she was when she first came out of the game. She looked about 40 years old.
She should be less than 20 years old, but now she looks more than 10 years older.
Fu Yuqing said sarcastically and cheerfully: "Ha!"
“…”
The others didn't dare to speak and were led into a meeting room by the staff.
As soon as they sat down, the screen lit up.
Not surprisingly, Yang Yi is still there this time.
The female assistant beside Yang Yi said, "Thank you for your hard work in conquering the Wugu Village map. We are all old players and I believe you are very familiar with this process. Then, please take the trouble to repeat the Wugu Village map for us."
The keynote speaker this time was again Lin Xiang, who was also very familiar with the topic and spoke fluently.
"Wugu Village is a small, feudal and backward village with about a hundred stilt houses, but in reality there are probably less than 70 households. Many young people have gone to big cities. Without young and educated people, Wugu Village has become even more backward and poor."
"The main task of the game is to find the cause of the strange disease of the villagers in Wugu Village. Many villagers in Wugu Village have inexplicably contracted a disease that seems not strange, but is very scary when it occurs. They call it a strange disease and say it is cursed by someone."
"We stayed at the village chief's house. On the first night, we noticed that there seemed to be a black cat in the village. Then in the morning, we heard that some villagers had a strange disease. One of our players also got a strange disease that was very similar to the villagers. We compared the two people and have not found the cause yet. On the first day, the first player got the same strange disease as the villagers. From the symptoms of his strange disease, his own narration and the clues from the villagers, we learned that he had framed others and was cursed."
"The bad things he did to others were retaliated against him in the form of a strange disease. Specifically, he slandered others for having lice, which led to them being bullied in school. It felt like countless lice were biting him, and his skin was scratched all over his body."
"At the same time, we found two key figures, Dr. He and Xue Ligu."
At this point, the female assistant interrupted Lin Xiang and asked, "How did you find out?"
Yang Yi looked at Xia Bai: "Xia Bai, tell me how you found out. Will you tell me the truth?"
Jing Yan felt that this was inexplicably strange, and looking at Yang Yi's inner thoughts, he was stunned.
"Xia Bai will answer my questions truthfully."
This was the strangest thing he had ever seen, it was too certain.
If someone asked him, would Xia Bai answer his question truthfully? It was normal for him to have this thought in his mind.
When he asked others questions, he thought with such certainty in his mind that it was more like guidance or command.
Jing Yan hurriedly said, "Fraud! Fraud! We used fraud to find out from the villagers. We pretended to be charlatans and said we could break the curse, and tricked them into revealing Xue Ligu and Doctor He."
You are not wrong.
Yang Yi glanced at him and said to Lin Xiang, "Please continue."
"Oh, okay." Lin Xiang continued, "The villagers believed that Xue Ligu was the grass witch who killed Liu Bo and cast a spell on them, causing their misfortune. They sunbathed her to death and beat her cat to death. Xue Ligu was a taboo in Wugu Village. When we asked about it, we were driven away by the villagers. We fled to where Xue Ligu lived and found a love letter written by Doctor He to Xue Ligu."
"Then we split up and found a row of dolls in Xueligu's stilt house, where she buried the dead black cat daughter. Each doll had a different hair in its belly. At the same time, we caught the cat ghost possessed by the black cat in the dark building in Wugu Village, as well as the basement where many girls died."
"At this point, the truth was found through Dr. He's questioning and the village chief's narration."
"Xue Ligu was bought by Liu Bo, the village chief's father, Liu Wenfeng. He bought her to use her and several other girls to raise human Gu. The other girls died, leaving only her. She was found and brought out by the village chief. The village chief was foolish and filial, so he did not expose his father and only moved her out."
"Later, Doctor He came to the village and fell in love with Xue Ligu. When he was treating Liu Wenfeng, he found poisonous insects in his body. The villagers suspected Xue Ligu was a grass ghost and framed her, excluded her, tortured her, and finally sun-dried her to death. After her death, she attached herself to a black cat and turned into a cat ghost, fulfilling all the things the villagers had framed her for, which led to this strange disease. As long as the villagers denied the false accusations at the time, the strange disease would stop."
Lin Xiang said, "That's it. I've explained the whole story clearly. Any other questions?"
Yang Yi asked: "How many of you got the strange disease? Did you all die?"
Lin Xiang said: "Two, two died in the game, and the other one came out alive."
Yang Yi glanced at them again and asked, "Who is it?"
Just as Ling Changye was about to speak, Fu Yuqing spoke before him. She raised her chin towards Tao Baobao and said, "This is the one. I don't know what immoral things he did to shorten his life by ten years."
“…”
When Yang Yi saw that it was Tao Baobao, he stopped asking questions and just said, "Thank you for your hard work and cooperation."
The game retelling was over, the rewards were collected, and they could each go about their own business.
It was already dark, and the Datai City Tourism Administration arranged a hotel for them. If they were not in a hurry to leave, they could stay here for one night.
Xia Bai and his friends stayed here, planning to have a good sleep and leave tomorrow.
In the evening, Yan Jingye invited Ling Changye, Xia Bai and Yiwa to dinner, but Ling Changye refused.
Yan Jingye thought about it and decided to go to the hotel to state his request.
He said that if possible, he would like to let them stay in Datai City for two more days.
"As you know, Datai City has a complex population, and there are often players with special skills." He sighed, "We just received news that the president and his wife of the Half Moon Group are here with a few players. At the same time, a few players from the Shengyou Guild are here too."
"We have more staff at the Datai City Tourism Management Bureau than in other cities, but there aren't many skilled and powerful players. If they suddenly come to Datai City, I'm afraid something will happen and we won't be able to control them."
Since Datai City is located on the border, it has never been as peaceful as the inland areas since ancient times, and it has become even more chaotic after the advent of the game.
This was originally the birthplace of the Half Moon Group. It was already a headache to have a Half Moon Group and many mysterious players. Now even the people from the Holy Tour Guild had come. He was really worried and wanted to ask them to stay for two more days. With them around, other players might have to think twice before causing trouble.
Ling Changye thought for a moment and said, "Xia Bai still has to go to class, so he has to go back. Yiwa and I can stay here for two more days."
This time, Yiwa actually spoke up: "I want to go too."
“…”
Yan Jingye thought, is going to class more important than the safety of a city? He also thought, where is Yiwa going? Does he know the way?
However, he was the one who asked them to do this, so he should be grateful that Ling Changye wanted to keep him, and he had no right to tell others what to do.
He quickly expressed his gratitude to Ling Changye, "Thank you! Thank you, Captain Ling! I can sleep peacefully with you around."
While they were chatting, Yan Jingye received a call. It looked like it was from a staff member of the Datai City Tourism Administration. He wanted to hang up, but Ling Changye raised his hand and said, "Director Yan, please answer it. Don't worry about us. It might be some important work."
He was a very humble person who was easy to get along with, so Yan Jingye immediately accepted the offer with confidence.
He originally answered the phone with a smile on his face, but the more he listened, the more serious his expression became. "Have you found out the reason?"
After a few more words, the call was hung up.
They didn't know if this was the right question to ask, and were just hesitating whether to ask it when Yan Jingye said, "Wugu Village was burned down."
Both of them were stunned for a moment. They had just completed the Wugu Village map in the afternoon and left Wugu Village, and Wugu Village was burned down in the evening. Isn't this a bit of a coincidence?
Ling Changye asked: "Have you found out the reason?"
"We found out that a villager set the fire. He seemed to be crazy, shouting things like 'They all deserve to die'. He first set the woods around the village on fire, and then ran around to set fires in various parts of the village." Yan Jingye frowned, "Wugu Village is surrounded by woods, and there are many trees in the village. The fire quickly spread throughout the village. Many villagers have been found dead, and rescue efforts are still underway."
Xia Bai immediately sent a message to You Yue: [You Yue, where are you now? ]
With a new phone, You Yue quickly replied to his message, "In Datai City, looking for my parents."
Xia Bai breathed a sigh of relief, [When did you leave Wugu Village?]
You Yue stood in the shadow of a banyan tree on the roadside in the brightly lit city. She looked up at the wide, empty road. After her hollow eyes absorbed a lot of light, she held her phone in both hands and replied to Xia Bai's message: [I left in a car with the Tourism Administration staff about an hour after you left.]
After the other players left, he walked towards the back mountain alone. The staff asked him what he was doing, and he said he was going to visit his deceased relatives.
As he walked up the rugged mountain road, he kept thinking about the voice that appeared in his mind when he left the game.
[After the operation, do I need to take medicine all the time? Now that you are back, do you have any medicine? ]
[Are these substantial evidences? Does a girl who raises cats and silkworms make her a harming witch? ]
[You Yue, it’s time for us to leave. ]
After the mechanical system reward broadcast ended, a very human voice appeared. Compared with the emotionless broadcast before, these two sentences were spoken with emotion.
His eyelashes trembled and he held his own hand weakly.
[These are the two sentences that remain in your heart most deeply in the map of Wugu Village, all from Xia Bai.]
[The system detected that the time you spent looking at Xia Bai on the Wugu Village map was ten times longer than the total time spent on the others.]
[Xia Bai has a special meaning to you. You want to stay with Xia Bai forever, right? ]
His hands suddenly clenched, not sure if it was due to nervousness or some other emotion. He waited tensely for the next voice from the system, but the voice disappeared.
Until he walked to an uninhabited grave, lowered his head and stared quietly at the earthen grave that was overgrown with weeds and no one cared about it.
[You are Xue Ligu's son.]
[Back then, human traffickers kidnapped two children and hid them in Wugu Village, one was a boy and the other was a girl. Normally, the villagers would buy the boy, but because girls are easier to practice Gu, the one who was left behind was Xue Ligu. It was the first time that she was pushed into hell because of her gender.]
[She was treated as a human poison and her consciousness was wiped out. Her only companion was a black cat. The black cat was pregnant and gave birth to puppies that died one by one. She once again experienced the suffering of being a female.]
[Because she is a woman, she was slandered as a grass ghost, and once again was pushed into hell for being born a woman. ]
[Because she was a woman, she was bullied and abused by the villagers. She became pregnant after being raped by the villagers. This was another case of a woman suffering from despair.]
[She had suffered enough from being a woman all her life, and her only consolation in this life was that her child was a son. She tried her best to send her son out of this hell that belonged to her, but she didn't expect that many years later, her son would also become a woman when he returned.]
There was no sadness or joy on You Yue's face, and her eyes were empty and lifeless.
[People say that games are scary, but reality is scarier than games. In reality, there is no He Chunhui, no vengeful cat ghosts, only scarier, rotten humans.]
[Your skills and your soul are made for each other. Go do what you want to do, Judgment Wizard You Yue.]
Perhaps because it passed through those sharp and dense stilts, the wind in Wugu Village seemed to be torn apart, passed through the bottomless forest, passed through this abandoned earth grave, and was trapped between two mountains, sobbing and hoarse, like the weeping of history.
You Yue looked back at the village, her dull eyes revealing no emotion.
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