Settled on the ninth day
Wang Fei took the initiative to organize Wang Ge's funeral. In two days, she contacted more professional funeral staff, determined the procedures, purchased the best coffin, and actively contacted villagers door-to-door to attend.
Lin Chaoying knew that Wang Fei was trying to make up for the harm her parents had caused Wang Ge. Even though the deceased was gone, she wanted to do what she could for the injured party. For this reason, she refused to accept a single penny from Jiang Chuangu.
Wang Fei used all the money her parents left her to rebuild the Taoyuan Village cemetery, verify the identity of each corpse with the police, and relocate coffins and tombstones for them.
The old house was covered with white cotton cloth, and a simple mourning hall was set up. Inside the hall were black and white photos of Wang Ge and Xiao Mei, and two coffins were placed below the hall.
Seeing this, Lin Chaoying almost burst into tears, murmuring, "They're such a perfect match."
She asked Wang Fei, "Did you find Xiao Mei's body?"
Wang Fei choked up slightly and said, "We couldn't find it; it was an empty coffin. But I thought Sister Xiao Mei couldn't just float around forever, so we discussed burying her in an empty coffin with Wang Ge in the cemetery behind the mountain."
Lin Chaoying nodded without saying anything.
After offering incense and paying their respects, the group returned to the courtyard to wait. Lin Chaoying and Jiang Chuangu helped Granny Zhao in.
Grandma Zhao cried quietly, secretly wiping away her tears while constantly stroking the photos of the two people and the two coffins. After a long sigh, she said in a trembling voice, "Remember to come and chat with Grandma..."
During the funeral procession, the long procession wound its way through the village alleys and headed towards the back mountain. Wang Fei led Granny Zhao at the very end of the procession.
Since the five of them were from another village, they did not follow. They returned to the wonton stall at the village entrance and saw the old man and woman still cooking wontons peacefully in front of the steaming fire.
Qian Fei asked a very "profound" question, which seemed to have a deeper meaning: "Do you think people really meet again after they die?"
Qin Ming hadn't eaten properly for several days, and was so busy that he wolfed down his third bowl of wontons.
Kong Yue had a good appetite and had just finished eating when she saw that the girl hadn't touched her food and looked worried. She laughed and said, "You can think about such far-reaching issues?"
Lin Chaoying felt it was too hot and didn't want to eat hot soupy food. Jiang Chuan Gu was discussing with the old man whether they could make dry-mixed wontons.
"Why can't I think?" Qian Fei muttered, then suddenly became angry and raised his voice, "I hate the Ghost Gate even more now! Before, the training teachers always told us how wicked the Ghost Gate was! Now, seeing families being ruined like this, and so many children losing their parents, I really think the Ghost Gate is unscrupulous! They use their superpowers to do evil!"
Lin Chaoying asked curiously, "You also have training?"
Qian Fei: "Yes, one of our assessments revolves around the history of Ghost Gate and Twelve Streets."
Qin Ming seized the opportunity to say, "If you want to join Twelfth Street, I can pull some strings for you and you won't have to take the exam!"
Lin Chaoying curled her lips and sneered, "Big brother, don't take advantage of your status as a second-generation outsider to cause trouble!"
"How did you know!" Qin Ming was a little embarrassed and angry that his backdoor background had been exposed. "So what if I'm a second-generation outsider! It just means I've been influenced by my family since I was a child!"
Jiang Chuan Gu placed the spicy dry-mixed wontons in front of Lin Chao Ying and overheard this conversation. He asked, "What is a second-generation outsider? Is it the same as a second-generation rich kid, a second-generation official, or a second-generation celebrity?"
Lin Chaoying nodded, pointed at Kong Yue, and said, "Kong Yue told me this last night!"
After drinking the wonton soup, Kong Yue felt much better. A smile appeared on her lips as she explained, "The eldest son's family is very powerful. Due to the instability of genes, people with superpowers often lose their abilities across generations or suddenly through a break in the lineage. However, every generation in the eldest son's family has been a very powerful superpower manager. His father and brother are currently in high positions at the Twelfth Central Control Center in Chongqing."
Qian Fei said carelessly, "That's right, what's the big deal? In the end, the boss still came to Jiazhou with us. What does that mean? It means the boss didn't rely too much on his family. Otherwise, they would have at least arranged a position in Changjing or Haicheng, where he could better utilize his abilities!"
"Hey!" Qin Ming said with dissatisfaction, "I think Jiazhou is great! If it weren't for Jiazhou, where would I have met Lin Chaoying and Jiang Chuan Gu?"
Kong Yue and Qian Fei were disgusted and rolled their eyes at the same time.
Lin Chaoying asked, "Where's Chu Tang? How are we bringing her back this time?"
Qin Ming grinned and took out his phone, opened the internal system and said, "You have no idea how smart I am. Luo Shu and I set up a 24-hour monitoring system to monitor the situation in real time. Five higher-level detainees will be coming tomorrow, making a total of seven including Luo Shu and Mi Fu. We have arranged for a doctor to give her continuous injections of sedatives with inhibitors every 12 hours until we enter Chongqing!"
Kong Yue breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good."
Lin Chao-ying: "I hope I will never see her again."
"Alright!" Qin Ming suddenly said, "Now we have an even more important task to do!"
They looked at him with puzzled expressions.
Qin Ming raised an eyebrow confidently, stood up, and said mysteriously, "The finishing touches here will be handed over to Officer Zhang and Luo Shu. We're going to Yanmen Village in Fengcheng!"
Lin Chaoying asked in surprise, "Fengcheng?"
Qin Ming: "That's right. Actually, we've already arranged for three colleagues to infiltrate Fengcheng Twelfth Street these past few days. But Ghost General Huang Sheng is in Yanmen Village. We only had three ability users to subdue Chu Tang. Moreover, we discovered the source of the Creation God Project, so we need to go and help. Everyone, pack up today, and we should be setting off this afternoon."
Lin Chaoying: "Can I go back to my hometown to see my parents while I'm at it?"
Qin Ming gave an 'OK' sign and said, "Can we go eat here?" He then gave Jiang Chuan Gu a meaningful look.
Lin Chaoying: "Okay, I'll tell my parents."
Kong Yue: "But we've never met Huang Sheng before, and we don't know what his special ability is."
Unlike the others who were worried, Qian Fei was exceptionally excited, "Then we'll slay any god we encounter!"
Qin Ming: "I think our group can't be called Jiaozhou Twelfth Street anymore!"
Qian Fei put his foot on the stool: "I've wanted to change this for a long time! I think we should call this the right path in the world!"
The old man saw this and quickly called out, "Little girl! The stool is for sitting on! Don't fall!"
Lin Chaoying and Kong Yue pulled her down and apologized to the old man with smiles.
Jiangchuan Valley: "I'd like to meet with Officer Zhang before I leave."
Taoyuan Village lacks educational resources, so Jiang Chuan Gu decided to fund the construction of Taoyuan Primary School to facilitate the education of the village's children. In his view, with proper guidance, even if supernatural abilities were to erupt in the future, it wouldn't cause too much chaos. He also contacted a bank in the county town to open several savings accounts for Wang Yu, Wang Gao, and Qiu Chen's children, voluntarily sponsoring their education up to university.
Before leaving, the group specifically sought out Wang Qi, who looked to be in very poor condition, with red and swollen eyes and a sallow complexion.
Qin Ming bought a bunch of things, but he didn't smile. Qin Ming thought it was because Wang Qi was also deeply affected by his friend's death.
Just as Jiang Chuan Gu was about to leave the store, Wang Qi called Jiang Chuan Gu back, hesitated, and took out a book from under the counter, saying, "Wang Ge gave this to me on the first day he came back, and told me that this can only be given to Jiang Chuan Gu, on the condition that it is after he dies."
Jiangchuan Valley took the old, yellowed book, the cover of which clearly read: The Book of Immortality.
Upon seeing this, Qin Ming immediately covered the book with the title, exclaiming in alarm, "This is no good! It's practically property of your village! You're giving it to us? You're trying to harm us!"
Wang Qi said bitterly, "This book was left to Wang Ge by the old village chief. Wang Ge said he would give it to you, so I will definitely give it to you!"
Lin Chaoying realized, "So when we entered the village, you already knew, and deliberately leaked information to us?"
Wang Qi nodded, "Wang Ge had told me all of this beforehand. Even when I told you about Granny Zhao's house later, it was because he couldn't take it anymore and came to me in the middle of the night, asking me to tell you."
Kong Yue carefully examined his eyes and whispered, "Has he not been brainwashed?"
Lin Chaoying said, "Yes, how did he stay sober?"
Kong Yue: "It's possible that, compared to Wang Shao or the River God, he trusted his friends more."
Jiangchuan Valley: "Have you even opened this book?"
Wang Qi shook his head. "If immortality truly existed, Wang Ge and his wife wouldn't have died."
After Jiangchuan Valley opened the door, several curious heads peered over.
This "secret manual of immortality" that everyone was fighting over was actually a wordless book, just a blank piece of paper, like the fake golden statue in the river god temple.
As Jiangchuan Valley left Taoyuan Village, it was carelessly tossed into a roadside trash can.
Finally boarding the plane, Lin Chaoying recalled the legend again. After everything was over and the truth behind it came to light, the legend seemed to have taken on a different flavor.
"The River God has only one request: no one in the village may do anything treacherous..." — This was merely Chu Tang's forced brainwashing, which caused the villagers to follow the Ghost Gate's plan completely.
"The villagers spontaneously built a statue of the river god and a temple for longevity, offering incense and prayers in gratitude..."—This seems to be a facade constructed by the villagers in order to obtain the book of longevity. Are they truly grateful to the river god, or are they seeking the book of longevity that can bring the dead back to life?
"Eight years ago, after a young couple in the village got married, the woman was caught by the villagers committing adultery with a man from another village..." — This sentence should be reversed; it should be that the woman discovered the secret between the village and the Ghost Gate on the spot.
"The village chief and the villagers, fearing divine punishment from the river god, tied up the woman and threw her into a human-shaped wooden cage, then submerged her in the river, hoping for the river god's forgiveness." — Were they truly begging for the river god's forgiveness, or were they covering up the sins of the villagers and the underworld?
"The man carried his wife on his back, kneeling and bowing every three steps to the river god's statue, begging for forgiveness... The man's head rolled to the ground..." — In the end, the husband lost his mind, his past, which became a headless blade at the gates of hell.
Lin Chaoying gazed out the window. After a series of continuous roars from the plane, the ground gradually shrank, and finally, the approximate location of Peach Blossom Village slowly disappeared from view...
Has this matter really been resolved? A sense of unease crept into her heart.
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