Chapter 37 Those Who Abandoned Me (10) (1st + 2nd + 3rd) [VIP]
The pickles the uncle was talking about grow in the mountains.
Everyone began to involuntarily recall what plants they had seen in the mountains.
"Zhang Lu," Bai Jinshu said, making full use of his knowledge without any reservation, "Do you have [Basic Botany Mastery]?"
Zhang Lu showed the look of a social animal: "...Yes."
Bai Jinshu showed an expression that said, "I knew you had that kind of look."
Sure enough, Zhang Lu had a lot of the Foundation's primary mastery miracles.
"Fuck, Sister Xiaolu," Lu Changfeng said what Bai Jinshu was thinking, "Do you have all the elementary proficiency in the Foundation Mall?"
It has only been less than a few days since she came here, but Zhang Lu has already used [Basic Geography Mastery], [Basic Archaeology Mastery], [Basic Biology Mastery], and this time [Basic Botany Mastery]. If the exploration here had not limited her display, Lu Changfeng believed that she would have more basic masters that she could use.
Under Lu Changfeng's astonished gaze, Zhang Lu explained: "I just have a collecting habit."
No matter whether it can be used or not, just go all in first.
"Also, there has never been any exploration project that allowed me to use elementary mastery miracles so intensively." She couldn't help but complain.
"This is Cthulhu's worldview," She Mochu said casually under her numb gaze, "I won't blame you if you make a big failure one day."
"Then it's very likely that this will be a big failure..." Zhang Lu was a little embarrassed. "[Basic Botany Mastery] can only recognize a few plants, and they are wild vegetables that have been processed and pickled. I don't think I can recognize what they are."
"You don't need to recognize what kind of plant it is," She Mochu said casually, "and if this wild vegetable really has an effect of repelling 'coriander', then it is very likely that it is not a normal plant on Earth, and you can't recognize it."
No one can make such a simple sentence so sarcastic.
But he had already said that Zhang Lu should use Cthulhu Creature Mastery, but unfortunately there were no such miracles for sale in the mall.
"It doesn't matter whether we know what the plant is, as long as we can recognize it on the mountain." Yun Guang echoed from the side.
"Right," She Mochu patted her shoulder unceremoniously and said casually, "Then I'll rely on you later. Come on."
Zhang Lu: “…I’ll try my best.”
As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly felt a chill on her back.
Zhang Lu was startled and turned his head suddenly, and saw their team leader standing at the door with a bad look on his face.
The memory of the afternoon came to his mind. Zhang Lu subconsciously shrank his neck and his voice became several degrees lower: "Teacher Ma is here."
She was the first team member to come down the mountain along the rope today. As soon as she reached the platform at the bottom of the mountain, she saw the team leader sitting on the highest point of the box with a sullen face. His eyes looked down at her from above, full of scrutiny and dissatisfaction.
At that moment, Zhang Lu almost felt that the person sitting on the box was not a team leader, but a boss at the bottom of some unknown space.
That kind of natural sense of oppression has pushed the teacher's blood pressure on the student to the maximum...
Teacher Ma's face turned black because they ran up the mountain without permission and encountered a mudslide. Zhang Lu thought it was better to mind his own business and did not dare to say anything. He just huddled quietly on the side like a quail and only breathed a sigh of relief after Guan Hongyan came down.
Guan Hongyan did not notice the strange atmosphere between the two of them. Teacher Ma looked at Guan Hongyan with that critical gaze for a few more times, and finally frowned unexpectedly at her red hair.
Then Li Ren, Jiang Jinming, and Yun Guang who came down from the mountain later all suffered the same strange treatment without exception.
Teacher Ma watched them from beginning to end, with an attitude of "I will remain silent and wait for who will speak first". Yun Guang told him the excuse that everyone had agreed upon: they were going up there to do a survey of the natural geography. Teacher Ma did not respond to this, but just raised his eyelids slightly, meaning that he heard it.
Yun Guang had no choice but to step back and shrug.
No matter what, he had explained it anyway, but as for the attitude of the teacher in charge, he had no choice.
After all, the students ran out of the investigation area without permission and almost got into an accident in a landslide. If someone really got injured, the teacher in charge would definitely have to bear a heavy responsibility.
It was already very good of Teacher Ma to just not say anything and use cold violence against them. If it were someone with a bad temper, he would probably have started swearing by now.
The last two people on the mountain came down very slowly. By the time She Mochu, who was behind Lu Changfeng, reached the platform and all the members of the investigation team were present, Teacher Ma, who was sitting on the top of the box, looked a little better.
Zhang Lu was a little scared of him to begin with, and after seeing the look in his eyes in the afternoon, he felt that this teacher was even more scary. When he saw him suddenly appear behind him, he subconsciously lost some momentum.
Teacher Ma, the leader of the team, walked towards her, and then said to She Mochu under Zhang Lu's unconscious fearful eyes: "Come here."
"Me?" She Mochu stood up in surprise. He could still maintain his lazy and spineless appearance under such high pressure. "Teacher, do you want to talk to me about something?"
He followed Teacher Ma while yawning.
As Teacher Ma left, Zhang Lu felt a little relieved. She frowned and looked at her teammates who seemed to be normal. "...Do you think there's something wrong with Teacher Ma?"
After all, she is an old team member who has experienced a lot of explorations. Apart from anything else, she has the ability to withstand pressure. But this time, facing the teacher in charge, she unconsciously felt fear and was even a little scared. Isn't this too weird?
After all, could a teacher who gets angry because his students run around do this?
"Ah? I don't feel anything," Guan Hongyan was as thick-skinned as Lu Changfeng, "He is just angry. If it were me, I would be angry too. We almost died on the mountain."
"There is something wrong." Li Ren was the only one present who confirmed her words. He sighed with emotion, "He didn't curse at us but just used the cold violence on us. This is really good manners."
If it were him, he wouldn't be able to do it anyway.
"If a normal teacher takes students out and something happens, his career will be over," Jiang Jinming also confirmed, "When he asked She Mochu to go out, he must have called everyone out and scolded them one by one, and he will scold us later."
"Is that so?" Zhang Lu was confused. "Don't you think he's a bit oppressive?"
"No," Li Ren confirmed. He believed in his perception of the aura. "Teacher Ma's sense of oppression was still strong on the mountain, but he probably lost a lot of his energy now. When he came in just now, his face looked bad."
Zhang Lu was still a little confused: "Well... okay then."
Could it be that the strange feeling of oppression just now was only directed at her?
Lu Changfeng on the other side did not join in their conversation. He had already opened the task panel and started to calculate: "Sister Xiaolu, how many points do you need to go all in on all the elementary proficiency?"
There are all kinds of miracles in the Foundation Mall, and the prices of primary and secondary masters are different. There is no other answer except collecting addiction to collect them all.
"I don't remember clearly... It seems to be quite expensive," Zhang Lu put aside the doubts in his mind and answered Lu Changfeng, "Can you add more? I remember it took me several years to go all in."
Outside the courtyard gate, separated by a red wall, Bai Jinshu, who was being criticized individually by Teacher Ma in everyone's imagination, was doing his best to appease the evil god.
"Did you call me out because you have something to convey?" He blinked, and forced his terrifying vertical pupils to look devout and submissive.
Huai Jiamu: “No.”
It was just because in his concept, this believer had clearly sacrificed everything to him from the very beginning, so why wasn't he like the believers in the past, but after summoning him out, he immediately threw him aside as if nothing had happened and went to stay with those so-called teammates?
This made him feel incomprehensible anger.
"Are you angry?" The young man with vertical pupils who caused his anger asked innocently, "Is it related to me?"
Could it be that She Mochu's descent of spirits attracted some strange creature, and then it fought with him?
Otherwise, why is this evil god so angry?
Huai Jiamu leaned back imperceptibly, and then under the gaze of those eyes, he answered again: "No."
The evil god was originally filled with incomprehensible anger.
But after meeting his eyes, that emotion suddenly disappeared.
This is a strange believer who is completely different from the previous ones.
He sacrificed a strange emotion, and then said that the world outside the mountain was just one of the false worlds, and he wanted to save himself.
The strange believer blinked his eyes and asked in a puzzled tone: "If there is nothing, then why did you call me out?"
The evil god paused for a moment.
Yeah, for what?
In this awkward silence, Bai Jinshu even tried to give the evil god a way out: "I understand. Don't worry, I will go through fire and water to spread your faith."
"...You won't die." After such an impassioned speech, Huai Jiamu actually frowned, and his tone revealed a hint of dissatisfaction. "If you die, you can enter my eternal time, or you can change into a new skin. You can choose whatever you want."
He searched for a long time today, but there was no one among the teammates that satisfied him.
Previous believers had chosen their targets before coming to him to pray. He never knew that choosing a body that suits one's taste is so difficult.
Bai Jinshu was secretly shocked by these short sentences. Huai Jiamu meant that even if he died, he could still be resurrected in a different body?
What is in eternal time, a time stop in the previous space?
"But I didn't become your believer just to change my skin," the strange believer in front of him lowered his eyes. It was obviously not the same face as the one he saw in the previous space, but they were both equally beautiful and pitiful. "I can do all this by myself. Of course, I did it for you."
And in order to leave the previous copy.
And in order to use your synchronization rate to reduce your tool.
Of course, there is no need to say the last two sentences.
Bai Jinshu considerately stopped at the most confusing part.
"And isn't this face pretty?" Bombarded with sweet words, Huai Jiamu lowered his head and met a pair of hopeful eyes, "I thought you would like it."
It took a long time.
Outside the red wall of the courtyard, a reserved and awkward voice came, trying to pretend to be indifferent: "...I like it."
Now there is bad news and good news.
Bai Jinshu blinked and said silently in his heart:
The bad news is that in order to leave the previous copy, I seemed to have released something incredible from the previous space.
He possesses an eternal time, and the manipulation of time is one of the most famous rules in the high-end space of the Foundation, which is definitely not something that an ordinary person like him can get involved in.
In order to leave the copy, I became his believer, allowing him to unilaterally classify me as his property.
He is in big trouble.
The good news is that this is a pure love story.
He is very gullible.
——————————————————————————————
Everyone in the courtyard was quickly assigned to a room according to the previous order. The boxes that were moved down from the mountain with the help of enthusiastic fellow villagers contained many personal belongings of the team members, as well as some samples collected by the investigation team on the mountain.
The small generator on the mountain was also moved down. Of course, there was no plug in the yard, so in the end everyone had to rely on this small generator for electricity.
When everything was almost cleaned up, the uncle came in again with the familiar plate.
Seeing Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu at the door, he greeted them enthusiastically: "Teacher Ma, have you finished counting the samples? Let's have dinner together."
Probably because of lunch, the uncle brought something other than the white porridge and pickles from the previous few days.
A pot of steaming white rice was placed in the middle, with some simple stir-fried vegetables and pickles that were unlikely to be of similar plant origin.
Bai Jinshu dragged Huai Jiamu to sit down. He didn't know whether the evil god needed to eat, but he did.
"Try it, try it," the uncle enthusiastically put a piece of pickled vegetables into everyone's bowl, "This is pickled at home, my wife's craftsmanship."
"There's another jar of mine, but it's not ready yet," the uncle calculated as he picked up some food enthusiastically, "It'll probably be ready the day after tomorrow. I'll bring some to you then, and if you like, you can take some away."
Li Ren picked up a pickle painfully and carefully took a bite with his teeth.
If he had a choice, he definitely wouldn't want to eat it. But She Mochu and Yun Guangdu analyzed that this pickle might emit pheromones to repel the "coriander", so he had to eat it.
After eating a mouthful of pickles and half a bowl of rice, Li Ren poked Zhang Lu lightly as if he couldn't stand it: "Can you tell what it is?"
Zhang Lu shook his head slightly: "No."
All the roots and stems of the wild vegetables that were made into pickles had been removed, leaving only the edible leaves. During the pickling process, these leaves were washed and squeezed a lot, and over time, they had already lost their original appearance. Her knowledge of plants was only elementary, so she couldn't recognize what they were.
"Then are you sure you can go up the mountain tomorrow?" Li Ren whispered again.
If they could identify what this was, they wouldn't have to eat the pickles for the next few days. They could just carry the wild vegetables with them.
“I don’t know,” Zhang Lu replied in a low voice, flipping the pickles in the bowl with chopsticks. “It’s very likely that I won’t be able to recognize it.”
It's too hard to recognize.
In order to observe what kind of plant this pickle was, she could only pretend to like it very much and put a lot of it in her bowl. Now all the pickles were piled together, making her look extremely painful.
Among all the people present, except She Mochu, is there anyone who can really eat this kind of pickles?
As she thought about it, she couldn't help but look in the direction of She Mochu.
The young man with vertical pupils behaved as usual, as if he couldn't taste the pickles at all. He ate them one by one with a calm expression, which was really disgusting.
It's not surprising, Zhang Lu thought silently in his heart, She Mochu has vertical pupils, is a cold-blooded animal, and can't see still objects, so it's very reasonable that he has no sense of taste like a snake.
That makes so much sense.
Next to him sat Teacher Ma, who was called in by the uncle to eat. The uncle was enthusiastically picking up food for him, but Teacher Ma just sat there with a cold face, eating one pickle at a time just like She Mochu.
Wait...same as She Mochu?
Zhang Lu's pupils trembled.
She Mochu has no sense of taste, and neither does the team leader?
Perhaps she had been thinking in this posture for too long. The uncle turned his head and saw the pickles in her bowl were untouched. He said, "Hey, I know you people in the city are not used to eating these wild vegetables like us. My son took these pickles out, but his roommates wouldn't eat them."
"Roommate?" She Mochu raised his head from the bowl.
"My son said roommate means something like that... classmates who live together in the dormitory," the uncle thought he didn't understand what the word meant, and explained, "The dormitory is where students live together in school. Hey, aren't you from a big city too? Don't you know that?"
"Uncle, you misunderstood," Yun Guang continued with a smile, "We are just curious. We have lived here for several days and have not seen your son yet."
"Of course I have," the uncle touched the back of his head in surprise, "You saw it on the first day you came here."
I saw him on the first day... He was still a student...
Isn’t this the person the driver mentioned on the first day, the only person in their mountain village who was admitted to university?
Several team members looked at each other and said, "Uncle, is your son studying medicine?"
"Yes," the uncle said proudly, "You guys are from big cities so you must know that he is now in a big hospital in Beijing and is very busy with work."
"I said I was on vacation a few days ago, but for some reason, I left in a hurry again not long after I got home." When talking about his child, the uncle couldn't help but start nagging, "I don't think this job is good. When the hospital asks you to go back quickly, you have to go back, no matter if you just got home or not. The boss doesn't even make an exception. The three-day vacation was promised..."
"Uncle," seeing that he had strayed off topic when he mentioned this, Lu Changfeng quickly turned the topic back to the subject, "We forgot to ask you just now, what is the cave you mentioned earlier?"
"Are there any of your ancestors' graves in the cave?"
"Don't worry, there is absolutely no such thing." The uncle straightened up immediately when he heard about the topic of developing the scenic spot. He looked as if he was afraid that the scenic spot would not be opened. He patted his chest and assured, "The location of our ancestral graves is in a small cave on the mountain. It has absolutely nothing to do with the karst cave."
"If the development of the scenic area requires the relocation of graves, we will absolutely obey the arrangements," the uncle was very cooperative. "Everyone in our village has done their work. When the scenic area is developed, we will do whatever is asked of us."
"That's it... Teacher Ma," he saw that the atmosphere was just right and looked at the teacher leading the team cautiously, "This landslide will not affect the scenic area, right? This kind of situation is not common in our mountains. This time it was an accident."
Of course he knew that the landslide encountered by the investigation team on the mountain was no small matter. The development of the scenic area was a major event for the entire village. If this delayed subsequent development, they would not know where to cry.
Not only he wanted to ask this question, but other people in the village also wanted to ask it.
"No." The team leader "Teacher Ma" raised his eyelids and glanced at him indifferently.
"That's fine, that's fine," the uncle seemed to be relieved, and his voice was confident again, "Then you can have a good rest here this afternoon, and we will go to clear the road on the mountain. I guarantee that it won't delay your work tomorrow!"
"Teacher Ma, we have discussed it and decided that you can live in the village chief's house. The village chief has a small two-story house. The one who drove there to deliver supplies a few days ago was the village chief's son."
It turns out that the driver's father is the village chief.
After lunch, the uncle took the bowls on the table and left the yard, and the team members in the yard were ready to start the afternoon investigation.
A mudslide occurred in the morning, so the investigation team members definitely could not go up the mountain into the cave. So everyone simply divided into different areas and went to get information from the locals one by one to see if they could get any information about the reversal of time or bizarre deaths such as skulls being opened.
"Let's split up. Yun Guang and I will go ask about the time," Guan Hongyan said first. "There are jars of pickled vegetables everywhere in the village. If I'm not here, there won't be any 'coriander'."
"Then Li Ren and I will go ask the ancestral tomb," Jiang Jinming pointed to his head, "After all, I was killed by it once, maybe I can hear some new clues."
"I won't ask about this," Zhang Lu opened his task panel. "I'll go ask the villagers what wild vegetables they pickle and see if I can find complete plants. Don't worry about me for the evening summary."
Then the remaining Bai Jinshu and Lu Changfeng are naturally a group.
Zhang Lu originally wanted to act with She Mochu. After all, she had to ask about pickles under the pretext of being very interested in the local folk specialties. But just when she was about to open her mouth, she was met with a cold gaze from the teacher in charge.
She smoothly swallowed back the words that were about to come out.
I don't know why the teacher in charge dislikes her so much today, but her biggest advantage is that she doesn't ask too many questions and doesn't seek trouble. If you can't afford to provoke her, then can you just avoid her?
She Mochu dragged his chin lazily, looking like he was too lazy to move: "Then I'll go with the rice noodle rolls."
"Didn't the uncle just now say that Teacher Ma is at the village chief's house?" He half closed his eyes, "I'll go see if the village chief has any village history or anything."
The group finished their division of labor and everyone had their own tasks.
In the afternoon, the sun came out and the rain stopped, and more villagers gathered in the yard to chat.
Unlike normal remote mountain villages in the past, there are still many young and middle-aged laborers left in this village, but most of them have gone to repair the bridge that was crushed by the mudslide, and many of the remaining laborers are clearing the road up the mountain because of the sudden landslide today.
Fortunately, it was not the busy farming season, and the villagers were enthusiastic about the preparations for developing the scenic area. As a survey team sent by the government, they walked around the village, and the villagers answered every question with a very enthusiastic attitude.
Unfortunately, nothing could be learned from most of the villagers. All they knew was that their ancestors lived here and that the village was moved out of the mountains hundreds of years ago. Everyone’s ancestral graves for several generations were in caves in the mountains.
When asked about pickles, the answer was similar to the uncle's. This is a local eating habit. They are used to such salty pickles. The saying about this wild vegetable is that it can clear the lungs in spring. Later, it gradually evolved into a permanent food on the table all year round.
After asking around for an afternoon, everyone finally gathered in the courtyard to summarize the information.
Guan Hongyan half leaned against the tree and said, "We asked around, but no one in this village knows anything about the time reverse flow. There isn't even a decent legend."
She spent a long time outside today patiently asking the old people in the village, but she got nothing out of them.
Fortunately, Yun Guang had a good temper. The old man was old and his Mandarin was not very good. She guessed three sentences after listening to one sentence. She felt that her brain cells were consumed more than during the exploration mission.
"The elderly in the village have a low level of education," Yun Guang explained. "We wanted to start with folk traditions and myths, but we couldn't get anything. They don't have any special legends, special beliefs, or unique culture."
It looks like a very ordinary mountain village.
"We don't have any either." Li Ren and Jiang Jinming also found nothing.
"The villagers only know that there is an old ancestral grave in the cave, but they have no idea who is buried in it or how they died."
Li Ren scratched his head in pain. "This old grave is too old. It's not just one or two generations. We went around and found that the graves outside the village have been there for many generations. The pit in the cave has to be traced back more than ten generations. If you ask me how my ancestors died several generations ago, I'm at a loss. Let alone more than ten generations. I'm sure I won't be able to find out anything."
"But we cannot rule out the possibility that the villagers concealed the news intentionally," Jiang Jinming added, "If something really happened before, it is normal for them to hide it from us in order to ensure the smooth construction of the scenic spot."
Moreover, building a scenic spot is now the village’s top priority. After the scenic spot is built, this poor and remote place will become rich. If there is really anything, the whole village will definitely hide it from outsiders like them.
"I know what that wild vegetable is." Zhang Lu was the only one who made a breakthrough discovery. She held a wilted-looking grass in her hand and said, "It's this kind of wild grass. I went door to door asking, saying that I was collecting plant specimens. Finally, a family member found one that fell into the crack in the wall when they were making pickled vegetables last time."
The last speaker was Lu Changfeng.
This afternoon, when he went to the village chief's house with him, Lu Changfeng witnessed a method of getting information that was in stark contrast to his elder brother's.
He would call it the method of intimidation and inducement by using the power of the tiger to bully others.
As soon as he entered the village chief's house, She Mochu said straight to the point: "Village Chief He, let's check the village history."
The village chief was puzzled: "Why are you checking this?"
"Assess the safety," Lu Changfeng originally wanted to imitate his brother Ao's way of getting close to him, but was suppressed by She Mochu in front of him. He stood in front with half-closed eyes, and his tone made people want to hit him. "In just a few days, there were mudslides and landslides. Village Chief He, when you asked our investigation team to come, you didn't tell us that this was a high-risk area for accidents?"
The village chief got anxious when he heard this, and he didn't care about the man's rude attitude. He swore, "I grew up in this village. Not to mention mudslides, even landslides, this is the first time I've seen such a thing in my life. If there were frequent landslides in our area, how could we live there? Wouldn't we have moved away long ago?"
"Oh?" She Mochu said indifferently, "But I heard that your village was moved out of the mountains, right?"
"Who told you that!" The village chief's neck turned red.
She Mochu ignored his anger and continued to maintain that expression, saying, "We dare not take on a project like yours. We cannot afford this huge Buddha. If something goes wrong after the scenic spot is built, you will be held legally responsible for not telling the government that this is a geological disaster-prone area. Your entire village will go to jail."
[Fuck, the camera just scanned everyone, and everyone was peacefully asking for information. Yun Guang was even fetching water for an elderly grandmother. Why is it that when it comes to you, She Mochu, the picture is different?]
[I also can’t imagine the scene of She Mochu giving a gentle back massage to an old lady. ]
[Fuck, Xiao Chu is really good at using the power of others to bully others.]
[If I didn't know you were from the exploration team, I would have thought what you said was true.]
【Look how scared the village chief is. 】
The village chief's face turned pale.
For those whose ancestors have been farming honestly in the mountains for generations, they have never heard of going to jail.
"We are really not a geological disaster-prone area," he tapped his pipe, stumbling over his words, and unconsciously became respectful to the student in front of him who was several decades younger than him. "Leader, we really dare not lie to you. Our village has been extremely safe for more than ten years! You can go to the mountains and take a look. I don't lie."
"Just tell me why you moved." Bai Jinshu crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.
"I really don't know," the village chief seemed to be really confused, and kept turning around anxiously, "It was more than ten generations ago that they moved out of the mountains. We have never heard of why. They have been here as long as I can remember. Leader, aren't you making things difficult for us?"
Bai Jinshu gave Lu Changfeng a look, and Lu Changfeng immediately understood and stepped forward.
"Uncle He, don't mind it," the fat man said with a smile on his face. The scar that looked scary at first seemed much more amiable than She Mochu at this moment. "Brother Chu, he has such a personality. If our project goes wrong, no one will be well."
"Just tell us why you moved out. There's no record of it in the village history. There must be some rumors about this sudden move."
[One is a red face and the other is a white face, how wonderful. ]
【There are many tricks in the city. 】
[Lu Changfeng probably never thought that his face could be so friendly.]
"Well..." The village chief stuttered, "We have an explanation for this, but no one has ever verified it, and we have never taken it seriously."
"What do you mean?" Bai Jinshu pressed, "Just tell me first. If you lie, you will be held accountable by the law."
"No lie, no lie, there was an infectious disease here before, and the village moved out because of it," the village chief stuttered, "all those who were sick were left in the village, and those who were not sick came out!"
"Infectious disease?" Bai Jinshu really didn't expect this development.
"SARS?" Lu Changfeng asked subconsciously.
"It's not SARS, no," the village chief shook his head vigorously, "it happened a long time ago, hundreds of years ago, I wasn't even born then."
"It is said that many people died. Our place is remote and even quack doctors were unwilling to come in. Finally, the village chief at the time moved the village out of the mountains for safety reasons."
The village chief looked at Bai Jin for a long time and said, "It's really not because of the mudslide, really, leader."
The author has something to say:
Bad news, this is an evil god.
Good news, he loves it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
