Chu Tianshu leaned against the wall, observing the old man’s yard while stroking his chin. Seeing his thoughtful expression, Lin Huai recalled how Chu Tianshu had rummaged through the old man’s house earlier and stepped forward to ask, “Did you find any new notes in his house?”
Chu Tianshu shook his head, squinting as he looked deeper into the yard. “However, I did find something else important.”
“What?”
“It seems this family won’t be serving us lunch or dinner.” He stretched lazily. “Let’s go. We’ll head to the Ren family and take care of ourselves. Self-reliance is the way.”
Lin Huai: “…”
“Besides, compared to these people, I’m more curious about the later victims… especially that girl named Du Xiaoran.”
“Why?”
“The other victims all had specific crimes related to Ren Chun’s death,” Chu Tianshu explained. “Number 1, Feng Ailing, spread rumors. Number 2, Wang Wei, caused an explosion accident. Number 3, as Ren Qiu’s teacher, believed Ren Chun’s rumors and forced Ren Qiu to drop out. Number 4, the Wang family’s advisor, was the mastermind behind the flour mill incident.”
“Numbers 6 and 7 are members of the Wang family,” Chu Tianshu counted on his fingers. “Only numbers 5 are a bit odd.”
“Those two don’t seem to have done anything openly against the Ren family. Du Xiaoran’s family was the Ren family’s neighbor, and although they didn’t help the Rens either, compared to the others, they’re practically spotless.” Chu Tianshu said, “It’s quite unreasonable for Ren Chun to include her on the list…”
Lin Huai nodded, “Yeah, if it were me, with so many scumbags still needing to be dealt with, I wouldn’t waste a spot on her…”
Chu Tianshu narrowed his eyes, “I think our thought processes are a bit different.”
“Additionally, there’s another point of suspicion,” he continued. “Numbers 1 to 4 were all directly responsible for Ren Chun’s death, yet the Wang and Ren families had no direct connection. However, their deaths were scheduled for numbers 6 and 7—the two days when Qingxu Temple opens.”
“According to the village chief, the Taoist priest at Qingxu Temple is highly skilled. The barrier he set up for the Wang family alone could block the Fierce Ghost’s attacks multiple times. Qingxu Temple will open on the fifth day, so protecting the two members of the Wang family is almost pointless—regardless, they’ll enter the temple on the fifth day and receive the priest’s protection. So, what’s the point of the system requiring at least four people to be protected? And on the short fifth day, two people need to be killed in quick succession. It’s almost as if the system is hinting that the first four people don’t need protection at all, and as long as we escort these two into the temple on the sixth morning, we’ll achieve a happy ending. Meanwhile, the first four people, once their numbers are cleared, will be constantly attacked by the Fierce Ghost, making protecting them a rather low-value endeavor.” Chu Tianshu scratched his head.
“Maybe it’s a trap?” Lin Huai suggested. “The first four people are all set up by the system as killing mechanisms. They’ll receive notes instructing them to kill the players and will attack the players when they try to protect them. Like Feng Ailing and Wang Wei…”
“But that makes even less sense,” Chu Tianshu stopped walking. “Although sometimes the system is as unstable as Jinjiang App, with drop rates as low as Fate/Grand Order, and deletes posts as casually as Baidu Tieba, and download speeds like Baidu Cloud without a membership…”
“You mentioned Baidu twice. Just how much resentment do you have toward Baidu?”
“One thing is certain,” Chu Tianshu raised a finger. “The system, like Jigsaw, never lies. If the note was provided to the NPCs by the Fierce Ghost under the system’s arrangement, then according to the system’s rules, as long as the NPCs kill the players, the Fierce Ghost will no longer target the NPCs. However, the cases of Feng Ailing and Ruan Tian clearly show—this is a scam.”
“What if this is what the Fierce Ghost wanted all along? If she wanted to kill the players, then…”
“Then she could have just attacked the players herself instead of going through the trouble of passing notes and using such tricks to pit the players against the NPCs,” Chu Tianshu said. “Moreover, passing notes is completely inconsistent with the Fierce Ghost’s usual methods of killing—the handwriting on the note was too neat and delicate. Also, this behavior couldn’t have come from our teammates. Ruan Tian is dead, Zhang Mingge is stubborn, Cheng Xin is weak, Liao Guan goes with the flow, and Yan Chuchu and Ji Nanquan are completely uninterested in the mission… So I think the act of passing the note must have come from a third party, someone outside of both the players and the Fierce Ghost, someone who wants to kill the players and obtain something. But what I don’t understand is…” Chu Tianshu scratched his head, “What’s in it for them?”
Lin Huai paused, “Logically, it should be that some of our actions have infringed on their interests or blocked their path.”
“Exactly.”
“But whose interests could we have infringed upon?”
The two walked in silence for a while before Chu Tianshu suddenly slapped his head, “I get it.”
“The explanation is simple,” he said. “Thinking about it, as infinite flow players in this village, the only people we could possibly bother are the villagers. First, screaming late at night, which is extremely disruptive.”
“Second, freeloading, which drains resources.”
“Third, taking over their homes and intruding on their lives.”
“From this perspective…” Chu Tianshu said seriously, “The most likely person to target us would be a resident of the household we’re staying in, especially a young, solitary, and hot-headed male…”
“I feel like you’re hinting at something… But how do you explain the fact that the handwriting on the note is indeed Ren Chun’s?” Lin Huai asked.
“…Well,” Chu Tianshu thought for a while, “Maybe the system’s handwriting font library only has one font.”
Lin Huai: “…”
The two walked through the wheat fields. It was late summer, and the fields were a golden sea. The wind blew the wheat stalks, brushing against their faces, tickling them.
Lin Huai parted a plump wheat ear, admiring its full, vibrant color. “This oil-painting-like scenery always reminds me of someone…”
Chu Tianshu, walking behind him, asked, “François Millet?”
“No,” Lin Huai said. “Yuan Longping.”
Chu Tianshu: “…You really have no sense of romance.”
“Does ‘The Gleaners’ have a sense of romance? Is knowing art so impressive?” Lin Huai smiled.
“No, I also know poetry,” Chu Tianshu said. “In the fragrance of rice blossoms, we speak of a bountiful year, listening to the croaks of frogs. Life and death for the sake of the nation, not avoiding fortune or misfortune… Wait, there’s a frog here. Do you think we can catch it and cook it for dinner?”
“…I think it’s best not to,” Lin Huai said, watching the green frog struggle in Chu Tianshu’s hands.
“Because of parasites?”
“No, I have a feeling that eating it would cost us a lot of time…”
Chu Tianshu let go, and the frog jumped into the ditch, quickly hopping away.
“Let’s go,” Chu Tianshu stood up from the ground. “It’s almost lunchtime. Let’s go get something to eat.”
“Are we going to rob people again today?” Lin Huai asked.
“No, we’re going to buy,” Chu Tianshu said with a squint. “What do you think we are, Japanese invaders?”
Lin Huai thought about it. Yesterday, they had taken… no, borrowed many things from people’s homes to avenge Ren Qiu. Since Ren Qiu wasn’t with them today, they could only be more civilized and law-abiding. The two, with good intentions and pockets full of cash, arrived at the bustling village market, only to find that the moment they stepped in, the lively market suddenly fell silent.
The villagers, who had been chatting with each other, stopped moving and observed the two with either disgust or wariness. Lin Huai whispered to Chu Tianshu, “They’re so respectful of us. They all quieted down to welcome us. It’s making me a little embarrassed.”
“…I think they’ve heard about our exploits from the other day and are scared of us,” Chu Tianshu muttered.
“It’s them…”
“The ones who robbed yesterday?”
“I heard they kicked the iron door until it bent!”
“Associating with that family, they’re no good either…”
Chu Tianshu ignored the whispers. He walked up to a stall and patted a watermelon. “Uncle, how much for this one?”
“Get lost! This watermelon isn’t for sale to you!”
Amid the onlookers’ gazes, Chu Tianshu turned to Lin Huai and shouted, “Xiao Lin, come here! The melons here are free, they’re giving them to us!”
“When did I say that…”
“Didn’t you say this melon isn’t for sale?” Chu Tianshu looked confused as he scratched his ear. “Or did I mishear?”
Several men started gathering from all corners of the market, while another person brought the village chief, panting as he ran into the market. “Chief, it’s them! These two! These two robbed and…”
The village chief, following behind, was drenched in sweat. When he saw the two troublemakers standing by the melon stall, his face twisted into a bitter expression, and he said with a mix of laughter and tears, “Oh my, how… how is it you two again!”
“Ah, it’s all a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding,” the village chief wiped the sweat from his forehead and called out to the crowd. “These two are investigators sent to the village. They… they wouldn’t do such things…”
While speaking in a dignified manner, the village chief was inwardly groaning.
Over the past three years, he had hosted all sorts of taskers and thought he had gained enough experience. Those taskers were either polite or arrogant, but at least they all had a common goal—to complete the mission. Thus, even if they did something, it wouldn’t be too outrageous. As the system-appointed executor, the village chief could smooth over various situations.
But the behavior of these two was practically dancing on his bottom line. When the village chief woke up this morning and heard that a group had robbed nearby households, he nearly lost his eyes in shock.
My goodness, are you here to catch ghosts or to act like village tyrants and bully others?
If you’re short on food, you could’ve told me! If the tools aren’t good, we could’ve worked it out! As long as we catch Ren Chun, the mastermind, everything would be fine. But how… how could these two act like Japanese invaders, looting and plundering?
