"Hey, wake up, Chen Yan."
Luo Tianhe's voice.
"What's wrong? Have we arrived?"
I rubbed my eyes and sat up straight, only to find that Luo Tianhe looked rather unwell.
"Not there yet, there are still three or four kilometers to go, but the road ahead is impassable for cars."
I looked up and saw that Luo Tianhe was right; a thick, broken tree was blocking the already narrow country path.
"Three or four kilometers? It's not too far, we'll just have to walk there."
I felt a little helpless and took out my phone to check the time.
It's only a little past nine o'clock now. If we get to the village in an hour, find the master, and return before dark, we should be able to do so.
Let's hope nothing else goes wrong.
After getting off the bus, I realized that Luo Tianhe and Li Huai were both completely single, with their hands in their pockets, as if they hadn't prepared anything.
Bai Linfeng was carrying a bulging backpack, which suggested he had made quite a few preparations.
"Damn, you two are so carefree, you didn't bring anything?"
I couldn't help but feel a little puzzled.
Luo Tianhe laughed and lifted a corner of his clothes towards me, revealing a red rope and copper coins underneath.
“Li Huai also has it! This master is quite capable. I spent a lot of money this time and even had the master specially consecrate it.”
It seems he got a taste of success in Building 14 last time.
"Let's go, let's finish this quickly. I don't want to see villagers jumping off cliffs tonight."
I rolled my eyes at him and walked forward.
The rest of us were in pretty good shape. Luo Tianhe was a gang leader who was always wielding knives and guns.
Li Huai used to carry corpses frequently.
But Bai Linfeng, despite being so thin and carrying a large bag, was able to walk with incredible speed.
Soon, we gradually saw the outline of the village.
"We've finally arrived."
A look of joy appeared on Luo Tianhe's face. Some villagers noticed us and started whispering and pointing at us.
Soon, an elderly man, around sixty or seventy years old, approached.
"Gentlemen, are you here for tourism?"
We didn't respond, but exchanged glances. There really wasn't anything unusual about Ma Ya Village. If we hadn't known it was a ghost village, we probably wouldn't have been on guard at all.
I activated my third eye, but still couldn't find any clues.
Bai Linfeng shook his head and said with a smile:
"No, we're here to find someone. Is Master Ma here?"
"Oh, so you're looking for Master Ma. Unfortunately, Master Ma went to the back mountain to pay respects to his ancestors. Why don't you come to my house and wait for him? He should be back soon."
The old man looked enlightened, and then warmly welcomed him.
Upon hearing this, we were immediately in a dilemma, fearing that we might have to wait until evening.
But it's still early, what if he comes back at noon?
Bai Linfeng took out a few red bills and handed them to the old man.
"Thank you for your help. May I ask your name?"
The village chief took the red bill, stuffed it into his clothes, and smiled like a blooming chrysanthemum.
"Just call me Uncle Ma."
I carefully observed the villagers around me. When they saw Uncle Ma receiving money, their faces flashed with annoyance and envy.
Could the rumors be false?
Is this actually not a ghost village?
I looked at Li Huai,
"When you accessed the website through the link, were you sure it was official?"
Li Huai scratched his head and said somewhat uncertainly:
"Probably, since I clicked on the pop-up window from the official website. However, that website does seem a bit off; it has all sorts of pornographic ads on it."
"Damn it, why didn't you say so earlier?"
I was speechless. There was absolutely nothing unusual about Ma Ya Village!
Is Bai Linfeng lying to us? There's no reason for that.
I had no idea what to do, so I simply followed Bai Linfeng to Uncle Ma's house.
Uncle Ma rolled a pipe, lit it leisurely, and seeing that I was still warily looking around, he tapped the table with his pipe.
"Stop looking at the young man. You've seen those rumors online, haven't you? Saying that our Ma Ya Village is a ghost village. Bah! Their village is the ghost village!"
Uncle Ma looked somewhat indignant.
I smiled awkwardly, but found that Bai Linfeng, who had been talking the whole time and had even shared his personal experience, remained completely calm.
Uncle Ma stood up, pointed with his pipe at the statue of the Jade Emperor enshrined in the room.
Would ghosts worship the Jade Emperor?
"No, no, what ghost village? It's obviously a rumor."
I shook my head repeatedly.
Luo Tianhe and Li Huai were also dumbfounded. They had never heard of ghosts worshipping the Jade Emperor. It seemed that the rumors about this village were true.
At this moment, Bai Linfeng glanced at us with an ambiguous expression.
"Wait here, I'm going out for a stroll. I'll kill a chicken to treat you at noon; it's rare to have guests like this."
Uncle Ma walked out, puffing on his pipe.
Watching his figure slowly disappear, Bai Linfeng snorted coldly:
"You actually believe their nonsense!"
I frowned, speechless for a moment.
"Whether we believe it or not is none of your business. We just won't be staying here tonight. But that master you're looking for... I feel something's fishy about him. What a coincidence! It's not Qingming Festival, why would he be off worshipping his ancestors for no reason!"
Seeing that I was at a loss, Luo Tianhe jumped out and said a lot of things.
"I hope so!"
Bai Linfeng said stiffly.
We just waited there, and soon it was noon. I sighed.
"Let's go, let's come back tomorrow."
Noon was my designated safe timeframe, and if I still couldn't see the master by then, I felt a growing unease.
Just then, I heard a commotion outside the courtyard, as if a lot of people had surrounded the courtyard.
"What happened?"
Luo Tianhe immediately realized something was wrong. Sure enough, the next moment, the wooden door of Uncle Ma's house was kicked open, and the angry voices of the villagers rang out:
"You bastards, come out here!"
"Where has Master Ma failed to provide adequate hospitality? How dare you kill someone?!"
"Poor Master Ma said he would kill a chicken at noon to treat you properly!"
My face immediately turned extremely pale. The worst-case scenario had occurred: these villagers were actually trying to force us to stay!
"Now you believe it, right? These guys aren't living people!"
Bai Linfeng opened his backpack and tossed a pistol to each of us.
"They're just like ordinary people during the day. Kill them all and break out!"
Luo Tianhe and Li Huai took the pistols, their expressions immediately turning murderous.
I stroked the cold pistol, frozen in place for a moment.
"They have guns!"
"So what if they have guns? Can they kill us all?"
When they saw us pull out our pistols, the villagers panicked, but they still blocked the doorway, preventing us from leaving.
"Wait, let's talk this out. We have no motive to kill Uncle Ma!"
I realized something was wrong, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"Chen Yan, why waste words with them? If you ask me, just kill them all. They can revive the next day anyway!"
Luo Tianhe was filled with murderous intent.
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