The man with the DSLR camera was secretly observing the beautiful school beauty, while the school beauty was chatting happily with the illustrator.
Xiangxue said she is also studying painting and has been admitted to an art college. She hopes the illustrator can give her some advice.
Ren Yifei, with his sharp ears, heard it. The image of the rusty utility knife flashed through his mind, with traces of pencil sharpening still visible on it.
With a straw in his mouth, milk slid down his throat, but he couldn't taste it.
He seemed to know what the gift was for the 'artist'. He just didn't know which one was the 'artist'.
Ren Yifei casually took out his phone and swiped to open the latest weather forecast. His location had changed; he was now here, so the weather was naturally here as well.
There will be thunderstorms tonight.
When Teacher Wang arrived, she said to the students, "To ensure safety, I suggest that everyone travel in groups. After all, this is an unfamiliar place, and there are many hidden dangers in ancient villages that are difficult to notice."
The students naturally agreed, but their voices were weak and listless, suggesting a perfunctory attitude.
"Let's confirm who will team up with whom. If I can't reach one, I'll contact the other," Teacher Wang said.
The students suddenly became impatient. On the one hand, they felt that they were adults and had the freedom to decide their own path, but on the other hand, they were still students and used to obeying the teacher's orders.
Even though they were reluctant, they still gave their names and teammate information.
The school beauty and Xiaomin were a team, and Heipi and Chibo also registered their names, but Chibo was always a little absent-minded. He had a craving for cigarettes, but couldn't find any.
"How about I go shopping with you later?"
Chi Bo scratched his head: "I went to check this morning, but they weren't selling them."
cigarette.
Ren Yifei was thinking about the cigarettes in the black pocket, but he still didn't understand why.
"Jiang Shaobo, what about you?" Teacher Wang suddenly asked Saman.
They all thought he would choose to become the protector of the class beauty and her group, but Saman simply pointed to Ren Yifei, who was engrossed in drinking milk, and said, "Him."
One of the top ten mountains and rivers, a task trigger.
"Xia Chuan, what about you?" Teacher Wang asked Ren Yifei.
Ren Yifei looked up at Saman, nodded, and remained silent: Compared to NPCs, the chances of being exposed together are even lower.
"Wait, count me in." The one who spoke was Liu Jinjie, who had been targeting him before. He grinned, showing his big teeth, and his eyes darted around, not looking like he was plotting anything good.
"Ah, Liu Jinjie." Teacher Wang wrote down the name. "Then you three will form a group."
"Three people are too crowded," Saman said lazily.
Teacher Wang then looked at Ren Yifei, who remained silent for a while before saying, "That's what I meant too."
After saying that, he turned his gaze back to the plate, noting that this added a new variable that would complicate matters further.
Liu Jinjie eventually went to Hei Pi's side, glaring fiercely at Ren Yifei. Ren Yifei took off his glasses and slowly wiped the lenses with a cloth.
Samantha watched him obsessively wipe his glasses, a gesture that looked like he was daydreaming, but was actually a habit of thinking. Liu Jinjie's reckless and self-destructive behavior might very well make him a target.
A remote electronic key, a rusty utility knife, cigarettes, what the artist calls a 'gift'...
Ren Yifei vaguely grasped the original owner's train of thought, but he didn't like being confused and always wanted to understand what had happened and how many people were involved.
The breakfast was fraught with tension, and they gradually left around eight o'clock. It was a cloudy day, perfect weather for sightseeing.
Ren Yifei and the others left the earliest because they finished eating the fastest.
The front desk provided a map of Wutong Village, which showed all the attractions. They took a map, walked around the screen wall, and left the guesthouse.
Because the attractions are spread out, the map provides tourists with three routes. If you want to see all the attractions, you have to choose the longest route.
"Which route should we take?" Ren Yifei asked Saman.
"You decide," Saman said nonchalantly. The plot hadn't even started yet, so it didn't matter where they went.
The Saman in the game is nothing like the 'cute' Saman in the Wasteland; he always has an arrogant 'stay away from me' look on his face.
Judging from the contents of the booklet, the school bully's arrogance is childish and immature, and he doesn't have the problem of ignoring people. If this were a performance competition, he would have been eliminated out of character.
"Shall we go to Bagua Well first? It's nearby." Ren Yifei said as they walked, opening a map in one hand and his phone in the other, as if researching the story and features of the attraction.
He had actually read about these tourist attractions yesterday and memorized them after just one reading. However, when he opened his phone, he found a message from the mysterious contact.
"Beautiful things attract bees and butterflies, but sometimes they also attract bedbugs. I'm fed up with these idiots. Looks like I need to clean up the environment and put the filthy things back in their filthy places." — From the artist.
"I must admit, praise makes me happy. It's even better if there's no annoying person around." - Oleander
As for the gardener, there is no news yet.
Ren Yifei did not reply. He put away his phone and continued walking towards the Bagua Well.
The two of them were quiet people, and even as they walked one after the other, the atmosphere was like thin ice in the dead of winter. The others, on the other hand, were lively and energetic; they blew past them like the wind, discussing where to go first and where to go last.
The two of them watched quietly as the people ran past, while they walked silently to the Bagua Well, following the established procedure.
They were all very composed. Even though there were many things they wanted to do immediately, they were able to maintain a calm expression and observe the Bagua Well like ordinary tourists.
This isn't one of those small wells that's only big enough for one person to crawl into; it's a large well where the sun shines into the water, and you can almost see turtles swimming slowly inside.
"That's the Dragon King of the Well," said the old woman who was drawing water to wash clothes by the well. The old woman had her hair tied up in a bun with a green sandalwood hairpin, and she was wearing a gray-blue dress with Chinese knot buttons, her style matching that of the village.
Wutong Village is different from other tourist destinations in that it is a living, breathing village. The attractions that tourists want to see are actually the daily necessities of the local residents.
They went to Widow's Castle to dry their grain, drew water from the Bagua Well to wash their clothes, and played chess under the century-old peach tree. Tourists brought unexpected income, but the residents did not rely on them for their entire year's living expenses.
"You must be guests here. So many people have come these past few days, it's quite lively." The old woman said happily, "The young people in the village have all gone out to work, it's been a long time since I've seen so many young men."
The old woman didn't mind that the two of them only replied after a long time. She talked for a long time until the clothes were clean.
She carried the small wooden bucket and walked slowly, her two pointed nipples peeking out from under her wide trouser legs.
Ren Yifei then noticed that the old woman's walking posture was a bit strange: This old woman looked to be in her seventies or eighties, born around the time of liberation, so why did she still have bound feet?
He watched as the old woman walked into a nearby courtyard. The gate opened, revealing a little girl's face. However, she only glanced at it curiously a couple more times before closing the gate.
Ren Yifei didn't realize that the local people were still feudal in their thinking and that women still bound their feet.
If something like this happened, a simple photo taken with a phone would be enough to cause a huge uproar online. And since girls also go to school, if this were discovered, the parents would be accused of abuse.
However, it is true that the atmosphere here is rather conservative.
In economically underdeveloped regions, the elderly control the means of production, while young people, especially women, have fewer opportunities to earn money, and their thinking tends to be more traditional and conservative.
Did the original owner have any special purpose in choosing this place?
The two left the ancient well, heading to their second destination: a local family that raised silkworms, a family said to have been silkworm farmers for generations. There, they could observe how ancient people raised silkworms and wove silk.
You can also buy some silk products there, which are one of the local specialties.
The two walked silently toward the silkworm room. Ren Yifei looked down at his phone, pulling up the messages from the school forum before and after his sister's suicide.
Such big news is bound to be discussed by students. There's a chance that one out of ten rumors might be the truth.
The news that they would leave at four o'clock was like a tight rein, forcing Ren Yifei to frantically search for clues. But he also had to appear calm and collected, just a casual tourist.
He felt for the electronic car key in his pocket; he would try it as a last resort.
"You don't seem interested in traveling," Saman said, breaking the awkward silence between them.
"This is not the place I chose. Places that are too conservative are always filled with a stale atmosphere," Ren Yifei said softly.
Saman fell silent, a kind of intuition reminding him to pay more attention to his roommate. Or perhaps it was because this person was a player's past that he had this preconceived notion?
The silkworm rearing room is not far away, and it is now run by a father and daughter. They have also hired two employees and are still using traditional methods to grow mulberry trees and raise silkworms.
Ren Yifei glanced at it; it was all records about silkworm farming and introductions to tools. But he also knew this skill, so he wasn't very interested and continued scrolling through his phone.
Traditional silkworm rearing methods offer nothing particularly noteworthy, aside from their traditional nature. They neither increase yield nor improve quality; from any perspective, modern scientific methods are far superior.
Generally speaking, aside from modern technologies that are impossible to crack, you should be wary when a merchant starts telling you about "traditional methods" for ordinary goods. They're about to get you to willingly pay for their "story."
When Saman asked his employees about the village, he said he was a folk culture enthusiast and loved those strange rumors. At first, the employees were indifferent, until he bought three silk quilts, each costing three thousand yuan.
Because of the money, the employees became much more enthusiastic.
"You've come to the right person by asking me this," the employee said mysteriously. "People in our village don't go out after eight o'clock. If someone calls out to you on the street, you can't turn around or answer."
Ren Yifei and Saman listened quietly to the employee's storytelling.
Ancient villages often have mysterious legends due to the large number of people who died violently, and Wutong Village, with its four chastity arches and widow's castle, has even more rumors and gossip.
The most mysterious of them all is, of course, Widow's Castle.
The staff said that at night, you can see many figures in Widow's Castle; they are the widows who died inside and refused to leave. Back when this place was popular, many explorers came here and stayed in Widow's Castle late at night.
Occasionally, people do see these shadows, but most of the time they come up empty-handed.
"We locals have all seen them. My grandfather said it's because there are many strangers, especially young people, who have strong yang energy, that they dare not come out," the employee said.
"Don't you believe me? Before this place was developed, women often went in and hanged themselves. They were perfectly fine, with young and old, and the couples had a good relationship, and they would just go in there on their own."
Neither of them uttered a word. Having checked the skills and items, they were certain that there were no supernatural elements in this world; the so-called horror legends were probably just a manifestation of a group of people's psychological fears.
The three silk quilts were quickly packed up, and Saman paid them to be delivered to the guesthouse. She and Ren Yifei then set off on
ce again.
"If you're not interested, why don't you go back?" Saman suddenly probed, "You seem to have something else on your mind."
Ren Yifei, holding his phone, said, "I don't have anything else to do. Besides, since I'm here, I should at least walk around a bit. Do you have anything else to do?"
"No."
"oh."
The two continued onward, this time heading to the most famous place in the area: Widow's Castle.