Chapter 28 Chapter 28 Resort
It takes three hours to drive from City H to City A. After arriving, you need to take a two-hour cruise to get to the resort, which is separated by an ocean bay.
The cruise ships depart every hour and stop at 7pm.
After boarding the cruise ship, the captain, who had a handsome dark skin but white teeth when he smiled, told An Zhi that it was near the end of summer and people who had spent their summer vacation in the resort had already gone back. It was the "off-season" during the peak season, so there were so few people on the cruise ship.
The captain was a little surprised. "Why didn't you come later? There's a triennial entertainment festival at the end of the year, and many big stars and wealthy people come to attend. Our Nuo opera here is really effective. It cures all diseases and brings prosperity to those who see it. It's really effective."
"Is there a Nuo opera performance here?"
An Zhi was confused. She asked Little Devil to check the resort, but there was no mention of it being the place where Nuo opera was passed down, nor was there any blog discussing this entertainment festival.
The captain thought An Zhi didn't understand Nuo opera, so he explained it in detail to An Zhi and his group.
Nuo opera is a Chinese intangible cultural heritage, not a Japanese one. Nuo opera has many schools, including those in Guizhou, Hunan, and Anhui. Nuo opera features exquisitely crafted masks, accompanied by exotic dances and unique music. It's a performance primarily used to pray for blessings and ward off evil spirits. However, this resort has its own original school, created by the village chief from an ancient book he discovered in the mountains behind the resort while building it.
It was also because of this Nuo opera that they got lucky after holding it once. They got invested in and transformed it into a resort. The whole village became rich, and now things are getting better and better.
"Dad, don't talk about superstitions," a big boy rushed over holding a big fish and wanted to give it to An Zhi, "Look, what a big fish!"
This boy is the captain's son, a college student who came to help during the summer vacation. He also has a bronzed skin and a handsome appearance. His smile looks even brighter than his father's. He was very enthusiastic when he saw An Zhi, showing off his eight-pack abs and performing a fishing show for An Zhi.
The boat had already traveled most of the way when it finally caught a big fish.
An Zhi held a sea fish as long as her arm and said bewilderedly, "Thank you, but we really don't want this fish anymore. We..."
"Oh, you are a newlywed couple, right? You are a perfect match. Consider this a gift from me to you. You are very pleasing to the eyes standing together. Are you some celebrity? You look a little familiar," the crew member's son said while thinking.
Yu Feixing, who had been standing in the shade and staring at the crew member's son with a cold face, suddenly laughed when he heard this.
He looks as sunny and cheerful as the crew member's son.
Yu Feixing found the rope and quickly tied up the fish. He even tied it into a net shape, leaving a hand-held part.
He shook the weight of the fish: "Thanks, brother."
On the other hand, Wei Pan, who had been basking in the sun, couldn't help but come over and explain, "Brother, you guessed wrong. They are the boss and his subordinates, and this is my sister! My dear sister! Sister!"
Yu Feixing turned a deaf ear to An Zhi and said, "Do you like fish?"
An Zhi was puzzled: "It's okay, but can you cook fish? I can't cook, how about we find a restaurant outside and pay some processing fees?"
In fact, Yu Feixing not only knows how to do it, but is also very good at it. When he arrived at the villa, Yu Feixing showed An Zhi his skills. He was very skilled in scraping the scales off the fish and dissecting the fish to dig out the internal organs.
His hands were very beautiful, so looking at his slender and bony hands handling the fish deftly, with his fair skin intertwined with the bright red blood, especially when his fingertips grasped the internal organs and the blood splashed on the back of his hands with blue veins, there was a strange beauty.
An Zhi was a little curious: "Have you ever worked in a fish shop?"
"After escaping from H City, I spent a year at the seaside following a fisherman and learned it," Yu Feixing replied.
He skillfully prepared the fish into two dishes: fish soup and braised fish.
The three of them found disposable bowls in the rented villa and started eating.
The courtyard of this villa is near the IP found by the little devil. From the dining table on the second floor, you can see the one-story bungalow behind the villa through the floor-to-ceiling glass. This bungalow is the IP found by the little devil.
Near the beach, the resort has a row of beautiful and distinctive villas that are rented out to tourists, while the small bungalows at the back are generally inhabited by locals. Apart from the exterior being painted with distinctive patterns, the interior looks a bit shabby, and like the village houses from twenty years ago, there are lines of corrosion from sea water everywhere.
"The bungalow has four bedrooms, but there should only be three people living in it. I guess it's a family of three. The couple are both in their fifties, and their child should be around twenty, a girl. There is no one whose age matches the one in the script," Yu Feixing said to An Zhi after taking a careful look.
When he said this, he still had his apron on, his face was tense, and he came to a conclusion after a quick glance, as if he could start taking action in the next second.
The contrast was so strong that An Zhi looked at him with a hint of smile.
When Yu Feixing withdrew his gaze, he happened to meet An Zhi's eyes.
He paused, the tips of his ears immediately reddened a little, and he lowered his eyes, trying to pretend to eat the fish as if nothing had happened. The next moment, he put down his chopsticks and raised his eyes with a confused expression: "What's wrong?"
Whenever Yu Feixing looked at people like this, An Zhi always felt like he was being bullied.
Just like when Yu Feixing saw the script of "Taming 2", when An Zhi knew everything about his past, he was also like this, and asked An Zhi: "Do you want to film me?"
There seemed to be some embarrassment in his eyes at that time.
An Zhi honestly told Yu Feixing, "I really want to film it, because I think your past is truly turbulent and full of ups and downs, and you were very brave in saving yourself. I don't think anyone could have done as well as you. But this is your suffering. If you don't want others to know, then I will find another material."
However, An Zhi had no material at all at that time, and Yu Feixing was a character throughout the entire plot in her script. If she wanted to change the material, An Zhi would have to rewrite it all.
An Zhi didn't know what sentence made Yu Feixing happy again. The embarrassment in his eyes disappeared, and he smiled and nodded, letting An Zhi take the picture.
But this also made An Zhi realize that when dealing with someone like Yu Feixing who doesn't like to express any emotions, he has to be sincere and tell the truth.
Now, An Zhi has honestly expressed his feelings: "It's the way you hold the spatula and talk as if you're planning to kill someone that makes me feel very interesting."
Yu Feixing's long, thick eyelashes quickly drooped, blocking his gaze. The tips of his ears were half red. He tried to shift focus: "Then our previous speculation is that the surviving victims must have met the murderer in this script, so they could write such a realistic scene from the murderer's perspective."
"But why does she use the murderer's perspective? I always feel that she wants to attract our attention, but she herself does not have the anger that the victims have to catch the murderer first," said An Zhi.
That script was so calm that if the victim had witnessed the murderer killing people like this, it would have been impossible to narrate it objectively. It also described the murderer's inner pleasure in killing people very well.
An Zhi speculated again, "I always feel that he doesn't seem like a survivor, but rather someone very close to the murderer, like a lover, so he would praise the murderer when describing it."
Wei Pan pointed at the gate and said, "That couple has gone out. Shall we go and take a look?"
-
If they were caught trespassing, they would go to jail, so Wei Pan threw a ball in, pretended to want to pick it up, and knocked on the door from outside.
About ten minutes passed and no one came to open the door, but Yu Feixing was very sure that there was still someone inside.
Wei Pan didn't understand: "Maybe you reasoned wrongly, there is only a couple living here, no one else."
"The clothes drying out include... young women's underwear, but the shoes for going out are placed by the door. They are all old cloth shoes and slippers. There is not a single pair that a girl in her 20s would wear. Either the homeowner's daughter doesn't like to go out, or the shoes have been put away, but at least they are at home," Yu Feixing explained.
So Yu Feixing led them towards the house he guessed, walked around the yard of the bungalow, and arrived near the backyard, which was the room of the daughter of the couple that Yu Feixing mentioned.
Looking back from this room, you can see an endless sea of flowers, with red and white flowers densely packed together, like fat and lean meat beaten into a paste, pressed into a piece of fat and lean beef, floating in the air.
Yu Feixing knocked on the window and asked, "Is anyone there?"
After a while, a crack appeared in the window, and a brown eye peered out through the slit. The voice was a little hoarse, but it was recognizable as a woman's: "You came and climbed in from the backyard. I can't get out of the room, and the window is nailed shut. I can't open it."
Following the woman's instructions, An Zhi and his group climbed into the house and entered the woman's bedroom. They felt that this place was even more terrifying than the scenery of their script-killing villa.
All kinds of strange masks were placed on the wall, covering an entire wall.
The pale masks were decorated with black and red patterns. Some were very lifelike human faces, while others were faces of men and women that looked like vengeful ghosts. With dim red lights and two red candles placed on the incense stand in front of the masks, they looked particularly creepy.
The woman's feet were still locked with iron chains, and her only range of movement was in this room. It seemed that she ate, drank, and did everything in there. There was also a strange smell in the room mixed with the smell of food, which made people feel uncomfortable.
"As I expected, you will come today," the woman also wore a pure white mask on her face, and her brown pupils stared at An Zhi through two small holes. She was wearing a white long skirt with a black leather apron on the outside, and there was dried paint on her arms.
She sat on a stained table with a Bagua formation on it, and a very dim light behind her illuminated her, making her look a bit like a psychic wizard.
An Zhi first asked the little devil: [Is there a life on her body? ]
The little devil said, "No, they're just ordinary people with low moral standards. They haven't taken any lives, and they don't have any karma. At most, they've done some minor immoral things, but they've also done a few good things. I entered the resort as you requested and started scanning. So far, most of the people here are like this."
This is a bit strange. This woman doesn't look like a victim at all. She's actually an ordinary person? And she's talking nonsense.
An Zhi asked: "Did you write this script?"
"It's me. You must be very interested in the script, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't have come all the way here to find me. You must be very curious about what the protagonist did in the second half and why he did it. This is a very good story. As long as you can afford the price, I am willing to tell you the second half," the woman stared at An Zhi.
An Zhi did not answer, but looked around the room, his eyes fell on the set of pictures on the wall, which looked very creepy.
The first picture shows a person being put into a huge box, then poured with liquid, leaving only a few small holes in the seal, and then transported to a room with a skylight, and then sent to a place similar to a banquet, where the person is skinned and made into dolls and various masks.
Looking at the masks covering the wall and the dolls placed underneath, An Zhi felt a chill down his spine.
"Heh...heh," the woman laughed hoarsely. "See these murals? It was a spirit who told me what happened back then. My story is absolutely true. Many directors want to buy my script, but the God I believe in favors you. You are my first choice. Otherwise, you wouldn't be seeing me today. So, what's your price?"
An Zhi then scanned the woman's exposed skin, the iron chain on her ankle, her nails, and so on.
Suddenly a cold wind blew by, lifting the heavy curtains and making everything seem particularly strange.
The woman's voice became ethereal. "The murder scenes here are absolutely real. There's no other movie like this on the market. The audience must be very curious about how the murderer killed people. With your ability, you will definitely be able to film the girl being skinned very well. An Zhi, this opportunity was given to you by God. You must be sincere..."
"Aren't you too impatient?"
An Zhi said this expressionlessly, then stretched out his left hand and slapped the wall.
“Pah.”
The incandescent light in the room lit up, illuminating the entire room. Everything was clearly visible, and it suddenly became less gloomy.
An Zhi could clearly see that the murals on the wall were very flawed. The paint on the human face mask had not yet dried, and the lines on the doll's clothes were still visible.
If the woman hadn't been wearing a mask, the embarrassed look on her face would have been visible to everyone.
Her voice was a little stiff and a little angry: "You...what are you doing?"
An Zhi slowly approached the woman. "First of all, your script is like many R-rated movies. I have no interest in making movies that show people with strange tastes, such as flying limbs and human anatomy. The same goes for your script. You want to use the murderer's brutal murder of a girl as a gimmick? Do you think this is a good story?"
Wei Pan snorted coldly: "Playing tricks."
Probably because he was really abused by Wei Qingrui, Wei Pan hates all movies, topics, etc. that abuse women, especially people who have ideas like this woman.
When filming "Taming 2", the flashbacks of Wei Pan being hurt by the trap designed by Wei Qingrui all used Wei Qingrui's distorted and complacent face as the main picture, so everyone hated Wei Qingrui even more.
"You misunderstood me. Look at me now. I'm being abused and tied up at home, unable to leave... I just want you to film this script and catch the real murderer. If my God hadn't guided me to find you, I wouldn't need you. The truth is that those girls were killed. Why are you blaming me?" The woman said slowly, lowering her head slightly, seeming very distressed.
An Zhi sneered, "Such a heavy chain would definitely cause wear and tear on your ankles if worn for a long time, but your ankles are intact, and your skin doesn't look pale as if it's never seen the light of day. You're just trying to get a good price. I don't want to buy the script. I just want to know how you know such details. What's your relationship with the protagonist in the script? The price is negotiable."
The woman opened her mouth, looked down at her ankles, and then looked at her skin. She realized that she had too many flaws. She wanted to attract An Zhi by pretending to be mysterious, but An Zhi didn't take the bait at all and even ruthlessly exposed her.
It was because she saw An Zhi's movies become a hit online and heard many people discussing how An Zhi made a lot of money. She also happened to be a suspense film director and had a suitable real murder story in her hands that she came up with the idea of selling a script for a high price.
But now all her preparations were exposed. The woman took off her mask, revealing a rather pretty face. She untied the chains on her feet and opened the window for ventilation.
"Two hundred thousand, and I have a videotape I can give you. The script I described is all from what I saw on this videotape. I found this among the old things in my house, and I'm sure everything in it is true," said the woman.
"Twenty thousand."
The woman's eyes widened: "You!"
An Zhi smiled slightly: "If you could find someone else to sell this videotape, you wouldn't have gone to so much trouble to attract me here."
The woman closed her eyes, very unwilling: "Okay, but I want cash."
-
The woman's name is Deng Jiangxue. She is a local resident of this resort. Compared with other villagers whose houses are very luxurious, her family looks really shabby.
After An Zhi gave the money, he learned some things about the Deng family from Deng Jiangxue's complaints. There are three or four islands near the sea in City A. The initial rumor said that the island next to this island would be developed.
Deng Jiangxue's parents sold their land and house and bought land on the neighboring island.
As a result, a month later, they found out that their own island was going to be developed, resulting in a direct loss of several million.
The local people on the island became rich thanks to this wave, but their family was the most unlucky. Deng Jiangxue was very unwilling to accept this, and she said that the videotape incident was absolutely true.
Because she heard from others that the neighboring island was indeed selected as a priority for development, and the village chief changed everything by performing the Nuo opera of blood sacrifice to the earth, and persuaded the higher-ups to change the development location.
The Nuo opera that the village chief mentioned was very bloody because it was very ancient. The mural in Deng Jiangxue's room was a ceremony of blood sacrifice to the earth.
First, you need to collect twelve virgin girls, put them into wine jars for purification while they are still alive, and let them not eat or drink for three days and three nights. Then, lock the purified girls in a cellar that can be illuminated by the sun and the moon, and absorb the purification of the sun and the moon for seven days and seven nights. At this time, these girls are pure people.
The last step was to skin the already extremely weak girl alive, remove her holy skin to make a human doll, and make her face into a mask for use in Nuo opera.
Then, the village chief carefully selects boys who have just reached adulthood and are still virgins to perform a blessing ceremony.
The local villagers knew about this, believing they had made fortunes from this ritual, and so they believed it without question and kept it a secret. Outsiders, however, would not have known about it. Deng Jiangxue was willing to tell An Zhi simply because she had no vested interests and wanted to profit from selling this information.
She also wants to rely on An Zhi to expose the truth so that all her friends will be unlucky and become as poor as her.
Talking about this, Deng Jiangxue complained, "My shortsighted parents kept me from studying abroad, while all my friends became beautiful, wealthy, and beautiful women. Haha... I'm so unlucky to have parents like that."
An Zhi looked at the 20,000 yuan and didn't even want to give it to Deng Jiangxue.
But Wei Pan couldn't help but say: "Your parents don't owe you anything."
Deng Jiangxue snorted coldly, "You have money, so of course you don't know the hardship of being broke. Grab the videotape and leave."
An Zhi grabbed Wei Pan, who wanted to speak, and left the bungalow with Yu Feixing.
Before leaving, I saw that there was still hot food in the pot, which seemed to be freshly cooked. Deng Jiangxue was the only one at home, so it was obvious who it was cooked for.
After leaving the bungalow, An Zhi simply took Yu Feixing and Wei Pan for a walk.
Wei Pan asked An Zhi, "Do you think those rituals are real? Killing twelve people at once is too much. Won't their parents call the police?"
An Zhi said, "I heard that in the past, when people built houses and palaces, they would make people into human pillars and bury them under the ground. But these are all weird legends. We need to wait and see about this matter. Right now, we know too little about the resort."
"If the parents of these girls knew that they could become rich if one of their daughters died, would they call the police?" Yu Feixing said lightly.
There were many parents who sold their sons and daughters for 100,000 yuan. In Yu Feixing's eyes, there were even fewer qualified parents.
The three of them chatted as they walked and soon arrived at the central square of the resort. In the center was a sculpture of a woman with a gentle face and two dragon horns on her head, with wavy sea water below. There were also tributes placed outside the sculpture. It was obvious that the villagers believed in the goddess of the sea dragon very much.
It says under the sculpture: Donated by Tingye Investment Company.
The name of this company...
The little devil said: [Isn’t this your father’s company, An An? ]
The little devil soon found out: [It turns out your father is the largest shareholder of this resort, and he's right behind you.]
An Zhi covered her face slightly and turned back.
A row of luxury cars formed the team and were transported down from the yacht. Another private boat brought down a group of men and women, and An Ruonan was in the middle.
An Ruonan pushed a wheelchair off the ship. Sitting in the wheelchair was An Zhi and An Ruonan's common father - An Tingye.
An Zhi frowned and felt physically disgusted when she saw her father.
“Sizzle…sizzle…”
An Zhi was startled by the sound of electricity and turned around subconsciously. He saw Yu Feixing taking out a walkie-talkie from somewhere and adjusting the channel.
"The motorcade is ready to depart. The young masters and young ladies are all on board, and the security team will escort them along the way."
Soon, Yu Feixing found the communication channel used by An Ruonan and his group.
Another hoarse voice was heard, and An Zhi knew it was An Tingye as soon as he heard it.
"This is my territory, it's very safe. No need for an escort. Let's go capture An Zhi first. We must capture him before tonight. We can't let him miss my important event."
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