After careful consideration, Nan Xian decided to tell Situ Ting the truth about the great fire that occurred in Buxian Village three years ago, and how the weasel spirits used the bodies of the dead to "revive" and steal human essence through shady means.
The former is a murder case in the human world, and the latter is a metaphysical case in the non-human world. Nan Xian is neither a judge nor the will of Heaven. She can neither forgive the murderer for the innocent villagers who died three years ago, nor can she protect those weasel spirits. The best solution is to tell these things to someone who can solve both problems at the same time.
As the deputy director of the Special Affairs Office, Situ Ting is the most qualified and capable of giving these two cases a fair and just outcome.
As for her promise to the weasel spirit clan chief to spare the lives of his innocent clansmen, Nan Xian will not go back on her word. She will do her best to mitigate their punishment to the greatest extent possible.
Apart from that, everything will be left to the law to decide.
However, accidents always happen unexpectedly.
The next day, Nan Xian landed in the capital and immediately turned on her phone to find it had been bombarded with dozens of missed calls, several of which were from Nan Yi.
Worried that something had happened at home, she quickly called back.
After a few beeps, the call was connected.
"Brother, what's wrong? I just landed and saw your missed call. Did something happen at home?"
"Everything's fine at home, but your parents were almost scared to death by you."
Nan Xian was initially relieved, but then she was confused: "Me? I'm perfectly fine."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then Nan Yi lowered his voice and said, "The place where you were filming the show suddenly caught fire, and the whole village—everyone died."
Nan Xian's head exploded with a "buzz".
Dead?
They're all dead...
She stood frozen in place, mouth agape, and it took her a long time to find her voice, which came out hoarse: "Brother, I'm hanging up now."
She ended the call and opened Weibo.
There's no need to search at all; just click into the trending topics section, and the top few entries are all related to the Immortal Village.
#Major Fire Breaks Out in Buxianxian Village, Qingcheng#
#No one in Buxian Village was spared#
#China's longest-living village no longer exists#
#Beware of fire hazards during dry winter weather#......
In the video, a reporter stands before the burned-down ruins of Buxianxian Village and reports: "...Around 9:00 AM this morning, the Taohu County Fire Brigade in Qingcheng City received a report from a hiker who said he noticed thick smoke rising from the foot of the mountain and lingering for a long time, suspecting a fire. The fire brigade rushed to the scene and found that the fire had occurred in the popular tourist destination of Buxianxian Village. Unfortunately, the fire broke out suddenly and spread extremely quickly; the villagers were unable to escape in time and all perished. The specific cause of the fire is still under investigation..."
Nan Xian felt a wave of dizziness. She covered her head in disbelief and squeezed her eyes shut.
How could this be? How could this be!
Fire! Another fire!
Three years ago, the entire village was burned to death. Three years later, the exact same thing happened again in the same place...
Remembering something, she suddenly raised her head, opened her phone again, and carefully looked at the photos of the fire scene one by one.
The fire was so large that it almost burned the entire village to the ground, and no plant within a few meters was spared.
The strangest thing, however, is that in all the existing photos, the doors of all the villagers' houses are tightly closed.
This is illogical, because regardless of whether the fire starts inside or outside the house, it would take some time for it to spread to the entire village. During that time, it is impossible for no one to not hear the fire, let alone not open the door to check after hearing the noise.
There are only two possibilities for this to happen: either all the villagers lost consciousness and could only watch themselves burn to death, or every household in every village caught fire at the same time, and the doors and windows were instantly deformed and could not be opened.
The probability of the second possibility is even lower than winning the lottery.
The one who could simultaneously render the villagers unconscious was the puppeteer who "taught" them to live inside the bodies of the dead.
Nan Xian suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
A hand gently rested on her shoulder, and she cried out in surprise, turning her head sharply.
“My lord, it’s me,” Diao Yu said in a deep voice. “I saw the news.”
Nan Xian breathed a sigh of relief. "Was it done by that puppeteer?"
He nodded, paused, and said, "I'm afraid that the fire three years ago was also orchestrated by him."
Her eyes widened in astonishment. "What? Why would he do that?"
Diao Yu slightly tightened his fingers hanging at his sides. He wanted to tell Nan Xian the truth, to tell her that he already knew who the puppeteer was, and that it was all Wu Rao's scheme, but—
"Because I have a fragment of the master's soul in my possession, I bet you still don't dare to remind the master of that incident from a thousand years ago—Diao Yu, being banished doesn't feel good, does it?"
He clenched his fist tightly, then let it fall limply.
"I have no idea."
**
The news of the massive fire in Buxian Village continues to draw attention, and the crew of the "Unveiling Strange Tales" program, which had just finished filming in the village, has also received unprecedented attention.
After all, they had just left when such a horrific accident occurred in the village, which is truly heartbreaking.
There are various discussions about this matter online.
Some conspiracy theorists say that the "Unveiling Ghost Stories" program team was too popular and was targeted by someone. They claim that the fire was deliberately set, but it didn't burn the program team, instead killing dozens of people in Buxianxian Village.
Some people who love exploring the occult, based on what happened to the crew in the previous episodes, boldly speculated that they were haunted by something bad, which is why something bad happened wherever they filmed.
Even more bizarre netizens with questionable minds made up claims that the show's popularity was actually deliberately created by the production team for publicity, but they lost control and caused this disaster.
While the debate raged online, some rumors began to circulate.
According to staff members of "Unveiling Strange Tales", they originally planned to film in Buxian Village for five and a half days. However, Yu Lin's unexpected actions allowed him to obtain all the clues from other teams ahead of schedule, revealing the mystery ahead of time. As a result, the production team also ended filming and returned home a day early.
If things had gone according to plan, they would have finished filming exactly on the day the fire broke out...
This "revelation" caused another uproar on the internet. The scandal involving the Qin family's illegitimate child hadn't completely subsided when this bombshell news broke, sparking a flurry of speculation and putting Yu Lin in the spotlight once again.
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