Lin Jue turned around with a blank expression and returned to the house, walking over to the wooden table against the wall.
An ink landscape painting hung above the wooden table. The painting depicted Rong Mountain shrouded in mist, with lush banyan trees at the top and banyan flowers peeking out between the leaves. It was serene and elegant without being ostentatious.
Lin Jue stood in front of the ink landscape painting, staring at it without blinking, as if lost in thought.
Bai Lixin stood beside Lin Jue, following his gaze to observe the painting.
At first glance, it was a meticulously crafted work of art.
The artist had clearly taken great care, using countless strokes to create such a vivid picture. Even the most minute details of the banyan flowers and the texture of the stones were portrayed in great detail.
Bai Lixin glanced at the inscription.
In the upper left corner, a poem was written vertically in small script.
[The mountain rain is faint in the clouds and mist,
Banyan flowers gently bloom with natural grace.
Though I am insignificant in this world,
The heavens and earth are vast and extraordinary.
The torrential rain pours like a death omen,
The tree longs for stillness, but the wind won’t cease.
When the night demons kill without mercy,
The land is drenched in blood and cries of despair.]
Signed: Lin Xiao
————————
In the live broadcast room
[The lines “The mountain rain is faint in the clouds and mist, Banyan flowers gently bloom with natural grace” refer to the banyan trees and banyan flowers of Rong Mountain.]
[“The torrential rain pours like a death omen” refers to that acid rain from earlier.]
[“When the night demons kill without mercy”—could this be referring to those strange figures wearing bird masks that appeared in the rain? And the line after, “The land is drenched in blood and cries of despair,” perfectly matches the scene of them taking people away during the storm.]
[What a depressing poem. It starts off so calmly, then suddenly becomes so bloody.]
[Don’t you guys think Lin Jue’s been acting strange since earlier? Why has he been staring at that painting, and why does his expression look so odd? It’s kind of scary.]
[This isn’t Lin Jue, is it? Didn’t he say he was playing the role of “Lin Xiao”? Maybe he’s now performing Lin Xiao’s actions.]
[This painting and the poem were also done by Lin Xiao, and the wedding is Lin Xiao’s wedding. The fire started with Lin Xiao’s wedding. It seems like many things in Chenjia Village revolve around this “Lin Xiao.”]
[But now, such an important NPC character is being played by a player. Won’t that interfere with the deduction of clues?]
[Who exactly is Lin Xiao? What does he look like? Damn, I’m getting more and more curious. What does this demon who burned down the entire village look like? Damn! If Lin Jue is playing Lin Xiao, what if he ends up being burned to death in the end too?]
[Hey, did anyone see what Lin Jue said when he turned towards Rong Mountain earlier? Who here can read lips?]
[It seemed like he said, “I’m sorry, Rong Mountain.”]
[This killer can actually say “sorry”? Is this some kind of crocodile tears?]
[We don’t know the truth yet. The reason Chenjia Village caught fire might not have anything to do with Lin Xiao, and the villagers might not have been burned to death by him.]
[But he did say “sorry”, how could he not be involved?]
While the comments were heating up, Lin Jue, who had been motionless on screen, suddenly moved.
He lifted the scroll at a fifty-degree angle, revealing a square secret compartment hidden behind the landscape painting on the wall.
With stiff movements, Lin Jue opened the drawer of the secret compartment, reached inside with his right hand, and then pulled it back out.
Afterward, his hand appeared empty, but his five fingers were positioned in a peculiar way, with four fingers slightly spread below and his thumb to the side, as if he were holding something.
Lin Jue let the scroll fall back into place and walked over to the table with the invisible “item” in his hand.
The players could clearly see him perform a placing motion, followed by The act of opening a lid.
Judging by Lin Jue’s movements, the unseen item seemed to be a box with a lid. After lifting the lid, Lin Jue reached in with his right hand again, and when he pulled it out, his hand was cupped, as if cradling a fragile, precious object.
Lin Jue gently caressed the invisible “item” in his hand for a few moments before carefully placing it back into the box. He then returned the box to the secret compartment behind the painting.
Lin Jue then walked to the table and made a gesture as if blowing out a candle. Without paying any attention to Bai Lixin, who was still in the room, he went straight to the bed, took off his shoes, and lay down to sleep.
[What was he holding just now?]
[Do you guys remember the first night God Xin entered Chenjia Village? It was also at night when they hid in the cellar and some people broke in and started searching for something. At that time, they were shouting about looking for a treasure in Chenjia Village. The next day, God Xin asked Mother Chen what the treasure was, but she vehemently denied that there was any treasure in Chenjia Village.]
[Yeah, there was such a group of people. Are you saying that what Lin Jue was holding just now was the treasure of Chenjia Village?]
[But in reality, there was nothing in his hand!]
[Just because Lin Jue didn’t have anything, doesn’t mean Lin Xiao didn’t. Could it be that Lin Xiao hid it away?]
[So there really is a treasure in Chenjia Village? Then why did Mother Chen deny it?]
[You just mentioned the group of people who searched houses at night. Suddenly, I’m wondering, could they be the “night demons” mentioned in Lin Xiao’s poem? These people seem more fitting for the word “night”.]
[But those lines say, “When the night demons kill without mercy, the land is drenched in blood and cries of despair.” The group that came at night only searched for things; they didn’t kill anyone or leave the ground covered in blood.]
[No, that’s not right! Just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean it never did! The only reason they didn’t kill anyone is that everyone hid in advance, so they couldn’t find anyone. The way the villagers hid shows that this wasn’t the first time this had happened.]
[That explanation makes sense.]
[There’s also another possibility: those bird-faced monsters we saw in the rain might be the same group that appeared at night.]
[Let me go over this; see if it makes sense. The villagers of Chenjia Village are strange—they wear human skin, but underneath, they’re charred black. But maybe they’re just odd-looking, and the truly vicious ones are these night demons. Although the night demons are ruthless, they can only act in the dark, which is their limitation. The heavy rain blocks the sunlight, allowing the night demons to appear. The night demons come to Chenjia Village for two reasons— one is to hunt the villagers, and the other is to search for the legendary treasure.]
[I agree with your analysis, but this seems to be a side plot. It doesn’t have much significance to the main storyline. The main task in [Chenjia Village] is still to find out the cause of the fire, which doesn’t seem related to these night demons.]
[No, maybe it is related. Think carefully, everyone. Recall the miserable state of the player who was caught by the bird-faced monster in the rain. Doesn’t the way he was injured seem somewhat familiar?]
[Isn’t it normal for someone to look awful after being tortured by a monster?]
[I get what he’s saying! Wow, you’re amazing, you could even notice that! Brother, you’re like a modern-day detective! He’s saying that each type of monster has a slightly different way of killing, and that unlucky guy’s condition is exactly the same as the deaths of players in the first stage!]
[?!]
[What?!]
[What do you mean? Are you saying that the monsters from the first stage came along too?]
[Even though [Goose Feather Mountain] was the first stage and [Chenjia Village] is the second stage, on the timeline, the events in Chenjia Village happen first. Maybe it’s not that the monsters from the first stage followed, but that the night demons from the second stage didn’t all die out and were still around in the time of the first stage at Goose Feather Mountain.]
[!!!]
—————————–
There was no light in the room.
Bai Lixin stood by the bed, his dark eyes sparkling in the darkness.
He stared at Lin Jue, who was sleeping on the bed, his gaze deep and contemplative.
After waiting for a long time and seeing that Lin Jue made no further movements, Bai Lixin did not linger any longer and returned to Chen Erniu’s house.
After the heavy rain, the sky cleared. The full moon in the sky filled the night with a gentle white light, and the stars twinkled in the sky.
Bai Lixin walked leisurely through the village, his gaze shifting from the stars down to the distant Rong Mountain.
At the top of Rong Mountain, the banyan tree was wrapped in the Milky Way and the stars. It was hard to tell whether it was moonlight shining on the banyan tree or if the tree itself was glowing. He could only see that the banyan tree emitted a faint phosphorescence, hazy and beautiful under the night sky, with an indescribable sense of sanctity.
Bai Lixin couldn’t help but recall Lin Xiao’s ink painting and the line from the poem on it.
[The mountain rain is faint in the clouds and mist,
Banyan flowers gently bloom with natural grace.]
The banyan tree on Rong Mountain was truly beautiful.
When Bai Lixin returned to Chen Erniu’s house, there was still a set of bowls, chopsticks, and food on the dining table.
Father Chen was chopping wood in the courtyard, Mother Chen was hanging clothes to dry, and Chen Dazhuang and Chen Xiaoshi were nowhere to be found.
Father Chen placed a piece of wood, as thick as a wrist, on the chopping block, then stretched his bear-like body and raised the axe high.
The axe came down, but it got stuck in the dry wood.
Father Chen then pounded on the log a few more times, as if driving in a stake, and the dry wood finally split in two.
Each time he flexed his joints and swung the axe, Bai Lixin could hear the rough friction sound of wood.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
In the corner of the yard, there was a pile of firewood they had gathered from the mountain during the day. Originally, there were two large bundles, but now only half remained.
Seeing Bai Lixin return, Father Chen put down the axe, panting, “Erniu, you’re back. Go eat.”
Bai Lixin looked at the pair of chopsticks on the table. “You’ve all finished eating?”
Mother Chen spread out a piece of blue cloth printed with white flowers and hung it on the line. “You child, don’t you know to come home when it’s so late? We finished eating a long time ago, and you still weren’t back. Dazhuang and Xiaoshi went out to look for you. Did you see them?”
Bai Lixin: “No, where did they go to look for me?”
Mother Chen: “How would I know? You three brothers always like to run around the village. I have no idea where you go to fool around. The food’s gone cold. You go eat first. If you know where they went, bring them back right away. The village isn’t safe at night, so hurry back as soon as you find them.”
Bai Lixin spoke as he walked toward the door, “I’ll go look for them now.”
“Eat first, and eat everything. Don’t waste a single bite!” Father Chen suddenly roared, startling Bai Lixin. “Otherwise, don’t even think about stepping out that door.”
Seeing Father Chen’s suddenly fierce expression, Bai Lixin obediently walked over to the dining table and sat down.
On the table, there was a rough steamed bun about the size of a palm and a small plate of wild vegetables.
The food had already gone cold. Under Father Chen’s menacing gaze, Bai Lixin ate the steamed bun along with the wild vegetables, not leaving a single bite, and not even a crumb fell.
Seeing that Bai Lixin had eaten so seriously, Father Chen finally turned back to chopping wood, which was considered his consent that he could go out.
Bai Lixin put away the dishes in the kitchen. As he was leaving, he deliberately glanced at the stove. The bottom of the stove was covered with clean straw.
There was no trace of burnt firewood…
If no firewood was lit, then what did Mother Chen use to cook the food?
