Chapter 216: Inhuman (24) (1st update + 2nd update + 3,000 Thunders 3rd update) [VIP]
The invited Mr. Huang walked in the front, surrounded by a group of villagers in the middle.
It is not noticeable when he is sitting, but only after he stands up can you see that Mr. Huang's entire upper body is almost hunched.
The waist was folded in an exaggerated way, and it looked like it was not the normal wear and tear of the body's functions after aging, but rather some special disease.
No wonder Bai Jinshu felt that he was always looking at the teacup in his hand when they were sitting.
It turned out that he was not looking at the teacup, but that he simply couldn't straighten his back.
The villagers were talking to each other, and the village chief also hurried over with a cane. From their few words, Bai Jinshu finally understood what had happened before arriving at the ancestral hall.
After the crowd welcomed Mr. Huang at the door, everyone was eager for him to start the ritual immediately. However, this uninvited gentleman looked at the sun in the sky, calculated with his fingers, and told everyone that now was not the most appropriate time to perform the ritual.
The process can only begin at noon when the sun is at its highest and hottest. Before that, everyone must take out the corn grits prepared in advance, divide them into eight equal portions, and then put them into bags that are easy to take.
So while the villagers were busy inside and outside the ancestral hall, some people were packing the corn grits in the warehouse outside the hall.
This is a food made from corn, a kind of coarse grain. When a group of people went to the town to purchase it, they went to several grain and oil stores before they found it for sale.
The corn is ground into small particles the size of sand, with yellow and white mixed together, and it feels rough when touched.
Mr. Huang stood in front of the eight large bags of corn grits, twisted them with his hand, picked them up and smelled them, and finally nodded and said, "Okay."
The villagers standing nearby breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mr. Huang..." The village chief stepped forward and bowed respectfully, "What should we do next?"
"You guys..." Mr. Huang looked around, "Find a few strong young men, carry the bag, and follow me."
"Others..." He thought for a moment, "Follow as well. It's best if they all follow the boy with the bag."
"Okay, okay." After a brief commotion, someone soon shouted, "Where's that kid Dahai? He's the strongest, why not just call him over?"
"The sea... I don't know where it has gone," someone in the crowd said after a few shouts, "Let's change someone, a river or a stream will do."
"Not enough," Mr. Huang shook his head, "You young man carrying the bag, you need to prepare at least ten."
"Ten?" The village chief was stunned. "Does this... have to be male?"
"That's not necessary," Mr. Huang clapped his hands to shake off the corn grits on his hands. "It doesn't matter if you're male or female, as long as you're strong."
"Then what about me?" A middle-aged man volunteered, "We work in the fields all year round, so we are all very strong."
"We'll consider it if there aren't enough people in the village," Mr. Huang waved his hand. "How about it, do you have enough people? Once I start chanting, I can't stop. The people carrying the bags have to take turns repeatedly. Get ready quickly, because the time will be up soon."
The sun was indeed almost overhead.
The air was getting hotter and hotter, and everyone's exposed skin felt hot and painful under the sun. Many people in the crowd were carrying palm-leaf fans and wide-brimmed straw hats to protect themselves from the sun, but Mr. Huang warned them all that these things must not appear or be used when the sun starts.
The sun at noon was indeed scorching hot. After removing the sun protection products, everyone was sweating soon.
But the strange thing was that Mr. Huang didn't have any sweat on his body, as if he was in a different dimension from everyone else.
After some arrangements, the village chief quickly found the young and strong man he needed.
"Xiaobo's family, Xiaohe's family, and..." The village chief called out their names one by one, and finally asked Mr. Huang to confirm, "Do you think these people are okay?"
"Okay." Mr. Huang nodded.
After some arrangements, most of the triggerers are in this category.
Except Bai Jinshu and the three brothers, all other triggerers were assigned this task.
People originally wanted to let "Xiaochuan" rest in the ancestral hall, but Bai Jinshu insisted on staying with everyone, so he followed the crowd.
Also behind the crowd were the three brothers whose identities were revealed and Huai Jiamu.
Huai Jiamu, like Mr. Huang, didn't sweat at all in such hot weather.
What's even more strange is that he didn't feel it in the air-conditioned room just now, but now standing outside, Bai Jinshu realized that he was still cold.
It seems a bit strange to say "cool", but compared to everyone else, the temperature of his skin is indeed much lower than that of the villagers who have been exposed to the sun for more than ten minutes.
Bai Jinshu was very unlucky and had a very weak body. As he walked, he couldn't help but lean towards the only person with a lower temperature present.
He said no wonder Huai Jiamu wore black clothes...it turned out he was not afraid of the heat at all.
Bai Jinshu twitched his lips, raised his head to look at the man's profile, and began to doubt what identity he had obtained this time.
Huai Jiamu's current identity seems to be on the same side as Mr. Huang. Mr. Huang seems to be the next key task. As for Huai Jiamu who appeared with him, Bai Jinshu intuitively felt that he should also be one of the key figures in this copy.
He is not a key figure among the residents of Zhoufu Village, he has a cold body, and he is also very smart. Adding these key points together, the ages of the young people from Fuzhou Village who went to the town to escape the fire and the young people's offspring do not match. Could he be holding the identity of the deceased from Touzhou Village?
After all, the name of this ghost story was originally called "Revenge".
Now it seems that it was the revenge of the people of Zhoufu Village that triggered unimaginable consequences and led to the death of the entire Touzhou Village, but who says that this "revenge" cannot refer to the revenge of the people of Touzhou Village against the entire Zhoufu Village?
After all, it now seems that the entire Zhoufu Village seems to be suppressing something.
I'm afraid it's the souls of the villagers in Touzhou Village...
When Bai Jinshu thought of this, he inexplicably felt a little hairy on his back, and then he decisively moved closer.
He was not afraid of these things! Wouldn't it be better if it was a corpse? In such a hot summer, with such a walking human-shaped air conditioner, what else would he need a bicycle for? What else could he be dissatisfied with!
The sun was shining brightly, but Huai Jiamu still felt cold. If he hadn't kept his dignity, he would have been so hot that he would have wanted Huai Jiamu to pick him up and take him away.
If they had not walked out of this small mountain village before, Bai Jinshu would really suspect that this place was not actually a village, but a big oven running at highest power, and they were all small breads inside the big oven.
The bakers quickly assigned who would carry the bags and who would lead the way. After Mr. Huang confirmed that everything was ready, he looked at the sun in the sky and began to wait for the best time to come.
Bai Jinshu wanted to ask Huai Jiamu about the information he got, but there were people around him now and he was worried about others hearing their conversation, so he had to put the idea aside for the time being.
Anyway, if you want to ask, you can ask at any time, there is no need to rush.
The time is coming soon.
The ancestral hall is located in the center of the entire village. The crowd followed Mr. Huang's direction and walked forward in a mighty procession. Through the gaps in the crowd, one could barely see Xiao He carrying a bag of corn grits. Mr. Huang was leaning on a crutch with one hand and holding a handful of corn grits in the other, scattering them as he walked.
In order to avoid the yellow line made of corn grits, the crowd tacitly separated themselves into a line in the middle.
It is through this line that Bai Jinshu can see the situation in front.
"Um... Er, Ersi," one of the three brothers stepped forward bravely, patted Huai Jiamu's shoulder under his gaze, and handed him a notebook, "Xiao Tang asked us to give this to you."
The three of them still looked a little timid of Jiamu. Even though Bai Jinshu assured him that he would not reveal their identities now and that what happened before was just an accident, the three of them showed no signs of relaxing.
This is understandable.
After all, if the villager had come later, the three of them would most likely have died by now.
"Notebook?" Bai Jinshu opened the notebook they handed over curiously, only to find that there was a list on it.
The list is arranged in a line with serial numbers and the positions at both ends marked on the line.
Bai Jinshu took a few seconds to react before he realized that this thing was the list of residents on every street that Xiao Tang and his team had investigated in the morning according to his instructions.
Being in this huge formation, they did not realize that the pattern formed between each road had a special meaning, and the method of distinguishing roads on the notebook was only the direction of the roads.
Bai Jinshu took out the compass and compared it, and found that the road they were taking now corresponded to the number 3 recorded in the notebook.
If the roads in the village were divided according to a dial, then this road would be at three o'clock.
This was exactly the direction where the fire started.
If we go further, we should reach the Ogawa family's house...
Just as Bai Jinshu thought of this, he found that the team in front of him suddenly stopped.
He subconsciously raised his head and looked forward.
The crowd just stopped at the door of the ruins of Xiaochuan's house. Following the gaps deliberately left by the crowd, everyone could see Xiao He, who was full of energy before and walking in the front carrying a bag of corn grits, now had sweat all over his face, gasping for breath, his throat was like a broken bellows, and his calves were trembling.
The crowd in front suddenly became agitated.
Mr. Huang also stopped, but he was still muttering something. Someone anxiously asked him what was going on. He pointed to his mouth and made a gesture to indicate that he could not speak, indicating to everyone that once he started reciting the scriptures, he could not stop.
"What happened to my Xiao He?" A middle-aged woman touched Xiao He's forehead worriedly, "Is he feeling uncomfortable somewhere? Why are you sweating so much all of a sudden?"
"No..." Xiao He lay on the middle-aged woman, his voice was extremely weak, every word seemed to be squeezed out from his throat, "It's so heavy... This bag is so heavy..."
He seemed to be talking about the bag he was holding.
Everyone's eyes were involuntarily focused on the past.
What Xiao He was carrying was only one eighth of corn grits, which was a little over a pound at most. Even if it was placed on an ordinary child, it would not be considered heavy after walking such a short distance.
"It's so heavy... It's really heavy..." Xiao He's voice was full of pain, "It's getting heavier and heavier. With every step I take, the bag gets a little heavier..."
His sweat and constant panting didn't sound fake. Although everyone thought it was a bit outrageous, they still directed the people behind to come up: "Xiaobo, Xiaobo, you carry it!"
Xiaofei was called out.
He stepped forward and solemnly took the bag of corn grits.
Then, a trace of confusion appeared on his face. "No... it's not sinking?"
Before he could finish his words, Mr. Huang, who had been chanting, reached out a hand, grabbed a handful of corn grits from the bag, and began to walk forward while chanting something.
When everyone saw that he had left first, they didn't dare to stay where they were and hurried to follow him.
Xiao Fei, carrying the bag, ran forward a few steps quickly and followed Mr. Huang, while Xiao He, who had been replaced, walked slower and slower and finally fell to the back of the team.
"Xiao He!" The three brothers hurried over to hold him up and asked hurriedly, "What happened just now?"
"That bag..." Xiao He panted, "The things in the bag got heavier as we walked. At first I could still bear it, but as I walked further, it became harder and harder for me to lift it. In the end, I felt like I was carrying a weight."
"Could it be that this thing gets heavier the more we lift it?" The three brothers looked at each other and began to analyze the situation. "So Mr. Huang knew that this thing would get heavier and heavier, so he found ten people to take turns so that he could lift it the entire way."
Bai Jinshu was also listening to their conversation. At this moment, Huai Jiamu suddenly said, "No."
The three people who were still talking stopped instantly.
The four of them were all in Shi Pang's team, so they naturally had no idea what this strange story was all about. It was Xiao Tang who told them all the information about him.
What good words could Xiao Tang say with her broken mouth? A whole story that could be clearly explained by "Er Si's ghost story in the teahouse seemed to have caused misunderstanding among some big monster, causing the ghost story to leave the effective area and follow him" was almost distorted into another weird situation in her mouth.
In her mouth, this big monster is a living devil who doesn't care about the life and death of others at all. He unilaterally believes that Ersi is his bride, and he ignores the area where ghost stories are effective. He can kill people anywhere and doesn't listen to anyone.
It is impossible to say that everyone is not afraid of him.
Moreover, the triggerers in Shi Pang's team have the deepest understanding of this. They don't know where the nameless fog came from, and they were inexplicably involved in that strange story. The nameless fog is still a lifeless thing, but this living strange story, who knows what he is thinking!
The best way is not to provoke.
They didn't expect that it would suddenly interrupt at this time.
The four of them looked at Ersi, who was very close to him, with trembling eyes, and then asked tremblingly: "What is that...what is it for?"
Isn’t it because the bag will become heavier the more you carry it?
The big monster that Xiao Tang mentioned who ignored the rules glanced at them and said, "For positioning."
After saying this, he stopped talking and returned to his silent state, leaving them all to guess.
"Positioning..." Xiao He wiped his sweat as he walked, "What positioning?"
"The burning of houses is in order," Bai Jinshu suddenly took out two maps in his hand and said, "I asked you to go door to door this morning to confirm the residents in order to find out this order and then locate the next house."
He took out the stick drawing and said, "Xiao Fei and I went to the hillside this morning. This is a map of the roads in the entire village from top to bottom."
"This is the first house that burned down, which is my home," he said softly, "and this is the house that burned down last night, which is the home of the two sisters, Shi Xiuzhu and Shi Xiulan."
"This one is your home, Xiao He's home, who moved out overnight last night."
Three lines are marked.
It was very obvious when marked on the simplified map, and everyone could see at a glance that the next one should be the remaining one of the four main roads.
"According to this list..." one of the three brothers quickly flipped through it, "The next family to catch fire is... Little Sister Tang's family?"
It is a family of Xiao Tang and Huang Mao.
While everyone was discussing, the crowd had already reached the end of the road. Mr. Huang, muttering to himself, turned back into the ancestral hall.
Although Xiaofei, who was temporarily replaced, looked sweaty, he could at least hold on. He carried the cornmeal and followed for about half a street before he was too tired to walk anymore and was replaced by Huangmao.
The place where the two men changed positions was another burnt ruin.
"The home of the two sisters Shi Xiuzhu..." Bai Jinshu said in a low voice.
I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but the last time Xiao He couldn’t hold on was at Xiaochuan’s house, and this time Xiao Fei couldn’t hold on was at the house of the Shi Xiuzhu sisters which was on fire.
Soon, the remaining problems were also noticed by everyone.
The fourth time, when Shi Xiuzhu couldn't hold on any longer and replaced another female member of Shi Pang's team, it was next to Xiao He's house.
Xiaofei, Xiaohe and Huangmao, who were walking at the back and retreating, finally confirmed after a conversation that the bags of corn grits in their hands were not getting heavier at the same speed.
It seemed to vary the rate at which it gained weight depending on the distance to the next house.
"According to this process," Xiao Fei panted, "nine people would be enough. Why would ten be needed?"
If a person changes every time he reaches a house, then after walking eight streets, there will still be one person left, right?
"There is another place you forgot." Bai Jinshu frowned slightly and whispered a place name, "Guchang."
The crowd moved slowly downwards in this order. Every time a person carrying the bag came in front, the houses on both sides would be noted down by the triggerers. After a while, everyone discovered that next to each stop, there would be a house where the triggerers would obtain their identities.
The locations of these houses were marked on the simple map drawn by Bai Jinshu. Xiao Fei connected all the locations with lines, but could not see any mystery. It was estimated that he would have to wait until all the houses were found.
"But... I don't know if you noticed," Bai Jinshu touched his chin, "the line drawn by that old man is not based on the road."
"Not based on the road?" Shi Xiulan asked, panting.
"Look back," he motioned for everyone to look back, "on the road we came from, looking from this way now, the line he drew is actually slanted."
This line is not drawn parallel to the edge of the road. Instead, when viewed from the other end of the road, it points straightly from the left side of the road to the right side.
This is a slash.
The corn grits scattered on the ground seemed to be fixed in place, drawing an extremely obvious bright yellow line on the black land.
"Normally, even if you walk on this road without any sense of direction, it wouldn't be crooked like this, right?" Bai Jinshu turned his head. "I think he probably drew it like this on purpose."
"But... not every road is the same," the three brothers remembered the road they had taken before. "The degree of crookedness of these corn grits lines varies, some are more crooked and some are less crooked. There seems to be no regularity."
"So is there a possibility..." Bai Jinshu looked at everyone, "It's not the line that's crooked, but the road that's crooked."
"When I was drawing the map on the mountain, I felt that the main road and the secondary road in Zhoufu Village were not actually connected to form a standard octagon. These roads were actually built a little crooked because they were dirt roads in the countryside. In addition, over the years, villagers recommended their own houses and reduced the width of the roads for other needs. Looking from top to bottom, all the roads have potholes on the edges and deviate in direction."
He just used a line to represent the road in order to simplify the structure of the village.
"So is there a possibility that the line is actually straight, and the crooked part is the road?"
"That makes sense," Huang Mao suddenly became excited. "Then let's send someone up the mountain to take a look. Can't we tell whether it's the road or the line that's crooked?"
The three brothers looked at each other and said, "Shall we go?"
The three of them were not named, which must have been "exposed" in the village chief's mind. Now in the eyes of most people, the identities of the three of them are no longer the identities they had obtained.
This task was surprisingly easy for them.
The three brothers quickly went up the mountain with paper and pen. In front, the crowd had already reached the sixth road. One of the boys in Shi Pang's team ran out of strength and handed the bag to Xiao Tang.
The moment Xiao Tang took the bag, Bai Jinshu felt that something was wrong.
"Who of you should replace her first?" he said quickly, "Don't let her get the bag in the middle!"
"Ah?" Huang Mao didn't react, "why... why?"
Xiao Fei let out a breath: "Brother Er, we don't have the strength to go up and lift the bag now. Sister Xiao Tang is very strong, isn't it just right for her to go?"
Bai Jin said: "...It's because she is too strong."
Xiao Tang seemed to have infinite strength. Even after entering this strange story, he was not affected by his identity. He was afraid that the girl's mind was full of fighting and she didn't realize that the place where everyone was exhausted was in front of the house that would catch fire next.
In this case, they would not be able to obtain information about the burning houses in the next seven or eight streets.
wrong……
"No," Bai Jinshu suddenly pulled the yellow-haired man who was about to move forward, "You don't have to go."
"Ah?" Huang Mao was even more confused, "Why?"
Bai Jin said: "Let Xiao Tang go. She can send a message."
He formed a fixed mindset for a while and forgot that Mr. Huang might not be a good person.
They could confirm the location of the burning house by using the process of elimination, and just find the two people who had not been recorded among the triggerers. But if Mr. Huang wanted to locate it in this way, then as long as Xiao Tang was not tired, he would not be able to obtain the remaining two pieces of information.
This can create an extremely favorable information gap between them and Mr. Huang, thereby hiding the two triggerers. If something happens later, these two people will be the surprise troops.
From Mr. Huang's perspective, if Bai Jinshu really made a mistake in judgment and he had no bad intentions and just wanted to save everyone in Zhoufu Village, and if there were no problems with his subsequent actions, they could give this information out and complete his search for loopholes.
But if he has bad intentions and intends to cause disaster, he will make wrong judgments due to the lack of key information, thus affecting the effectiveness of the ritual.
There is a saying that goes, "A slight mistake can lead to a huge error." In this matter, the eight key nodes are reduced to six, and the variables that will be generated are simply enormous.
Huangmao stopped in his tracks, seeming to understand something.
As it turned out, his judgment of Xiao Tang was correct.
After taking it, Xiao Tang weighed the bag in his hand, pouted and muttered, "So light? Are the people in front of me weak?"
"How can you talk like that!" Her mother patted her on the back of the head and said, "Stop trying to be brave and follow the master."
Xiao Tang rolled his eyes and said in a low voice, "Shu——" "Show off, I want you to see what it means to show off."
She threw the bag over her shoulder and walked with big strides. Soon, she was on Seventh Street.
In the crowd, the villagers were ready for the next Xige to take over from her, but Xiao Tang was just as she said, and did not show any signs of fatigue along the way.
She carried the corn grits from one end of the street to the other with ease, showing no sign of exhaustion.
The villagers following behind him began to talk.
Some people said that the boy was stronger than any other man, some were worried that something might go wrong if no one was replaced on this street, and some were observing the expression on Mr. Huang's face.
There was no expression on Mr. Huang's face, showing no joy, anger or worry, so the crowd had no choice but to follow him.
They walked along three streets until they reached the gap in the grain field. Xiao Tang was still relaxed, swinging the bag of cornmeal with one hand, and said in a relaxed tone, "Is it over?"
Now, even Mr. Huang showed a hint of surprise on his face.
He made a gesture of "no", took Xiao Tang into the grain field, and signaled others not to come in.
The crowd stood outside the valley, watching the two men draw a huge formation, or a spell, on the open ground.
"This thing..." Bai Jinshu lowered his voice.
The villagers around him had different expressions, but he was sure that all the villagers, including the one who had just seen his hand-drawn drawing, recognized that the circle drawn on the gap in the village was actually a simple diagram of the road construction in the village.
What’s special is that he also filled in the missing corner of this picture.
A completely complete graphic.
"This gentleman is something..." The villagers' discussions could be heard nearby.
If they initially just held a desperate hope towards the gentleman whom Xige met on the road, but did not have any hope, then after this experience, with Huai Jiamu's foresight and Mr. Huang who could directly complete the formation, everyone's trust in them has reached its peak.
There were discussions going on in the crowd, and it was obvious that they no longer cared about being heard by the younger generations.
Bai Jin said they heard a lot of things like: "The gentleman also painted here like this."
"Should we let Xiaochuan in for a while?"
"Don't move until the gentleman speaks."
Something like that.
Xiao Fei lowered his voice and moved closer to Bai Jinshu: "Brother Er, the big brother in my live studio said that there is something wrong with your identity."
Bai Jinshu had already discovered it without him saying anything.
"The big brothers said that they remembered that there seemed to be a very unlucky identity in [Revenge]. It was difficult for him to protect himself after the fight started in the later stages, and he would easily become the target of special attention and concentrated fire..."
"They also said that this ghost story ended in a bloody way..." Xiaochuan shuddered, "Brother Er, you...be careful."
Bai Jinshu looked up at Mr. Huang in the field and said, "Got it. Go and see if the three brothers are back."
He had long suspected that there was something wrong with Xiaochuan's identity. His unusual weakness, his name that was different from that of his peers, and his strange treatment as a favorite in the village all seemed to hint at the trigger, who was an important character and might very well become the key to breaking the deadlock in this village in the end.
Mr. Huang’s arrival will inevitably cause an incident in the mountain village. Now, the audience in Xiaofei’s live broadcast room has learned that this incident will be extremely bloody.
So most likely, in the end, it won't just be Ogawa who will be targeted by everyone with their swords.
Mr. Huang's approach may put all the triggerers on the opposite side of the villagers.
But now... His gaze shifted to Xiao Tang, and the corners of his mouth twitched.
Now, it is uncertain whether Mr. Huang’s approach will be successful.
Huai Jiamu said that he was trying to locate the houses, and the locations of the previous shift changes also proved that Mr. Huang was looking for the houses that would burn. In other words, he was locating the locations of the houses that would burn. At each shift change location, the houses that were about to burn were on the left and right.
But Xiao Tang's sudden appearance caused the space on the seventh and eighth streets to be missing. Mr. Huang didn't know that she had a special physique, so he just thought that there were no special houses that could burn on these two streets.
Xiao Tang gave him the wrong message.
Bai Jinshu began to doubt for the 10086th time, is this girl... really reckless, or is she as cunning as a sieve.
Just as he was staring at Xiao Tang thoughtfully, Xiao Fei, who had just left, came back in a hurry, but this time, his face showed a panic that was completely different from before.
"Brother Er, the three brothers are back!"
"What happened?" Bai Jinshu turned and looked at him.
"They..." Xiao Fei swallowed hard, "They said that when they were going down the mountain, they also saw Xiao He."
"They chatted quite a bit. Xiao He said he came up to call them and told them to go back early, and then he left."
"But...but Xiao He," Xiao Fei's voice was already a little trembling, "Hasn't Xiao He been with us all the time?"
It seems like there are two Xiao Hes.
The author has something to say:
Speaking of which, I seem to often see people asking why the protagonist is metal, because the homophony of Bai Jinshu's "Jinshu" is "metal" (scratching my head)
The first 20 + random 20... Hantang really needs to consider changing the update time to 9:30! (shrieking with head in hand)
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