Let's skip to the oracle!
At the village entrance, Li Xiaoqing decided to leave the exploration team.
"Wanwan, my stomach doesn't feel too good. I want to head back first," Li Xiaoqing apologized, "Do you want to come with me?"
"I'll continue looking for clues. Otherwise, when will we ever leave?" He Wanwan looked worriedly at the woman, about the same age as her aunt, and comforted her, "Go back and drink some hot water. I'll come to see you at noon."
"Alright."
Li Xiaoqing didn't try to convince her further.
That was all she could do. She reminded He Wanwan, but He Wanwan didn't seem to catch her drift. Just now, when she was talking to Meng Lan, Meng Lan, who never smiled, suddenly showed a creepy smile, revealing her frighteningly white teeth. Li Xiaoqing got goosebumps all over.
There's something wrong with Meng Lan, that was the only thought in her mind. She had to stay away from this woman!
She ran towards the small building she lived in. Even before she entered the courtyard, she saw the village chief and the neighbor auntie coming out.
"When will it end? Another death," the village chief said.
"It's been a month, a whole month, rebuilding the house didn't help! The entire village has been renovated inside and out, but the bad luck hasn't left," the neighbor auntie nodded.
Seeing Li Xiaoqing rushing over, the two stopped and greeted her, "Why are you back?"
"I'm not feeling well, getting old," Li Xiaoqing replied. She ran a hundred meters and her heart was pounding heavily. With her existing sinus arrhythmia, she felt a sharp pain in her chest, unable to catch her breath.
The village chief felt his pocket and handed her a small bottle of fast-acting heart pills, sighing, "Indeed, getting old. Go back and lie down. Let the young folks handle things. I also want to go back to my youthful days."
Li Xiaoqing nodded in thanks. She watched the two walk away and saw a young man playing with his phone bump into the village chief without looking up or apologizing, then walk away without a word.
The people in this village are really rude, not showing any respect for the elderly or the young.
Li Xiaoqing locked herself in the house, drew the curtains, and monitored the young people searching for clues that disappeared from her sight.
Qi Huan and Zhao Che, as a pair, didn't go anywhere else. They followed He Wanwan, Zhang Yizhi, and Meng Lan, but apart from seeing the three wandering aimlessly and running around, they didn't find any suspicious points.
After the recent scare, the three of them became even more cautious.
"The red house on the east side of the village entrance that was mentioned earlier should be this one," He Wanwan pointed at a bungalow. Although the house only had one floor, there was a small warehouse built in the yard, indicating a self-sufficient lifestyle.
Meng Lan knocked on the door.
A young man with a scruffy beard, about thirty years old, opened the door. He glanced at the three strangers impatiently and grunted, "Who are you?"
He Wanwan said, "Um, we're reporters from the newspaper and we'd like to interview you."
"What interview?" the man asked coldly.
"Um, we want to interview your brother, about your brother's... situation. We want to do a special report!" He Wanwan wasn't good at lying. She glanced at Meng Lan, dared not look at the man, and her voice became quieter and quieter. Finally, after saying it, she breathed a sigh of relief, blushing and feeling at a loss.
"What's wrong with you people! What's there to interview about my brother! He's dead, what kind of nonsense are you writing!" The man waved his hand, about to forcefully close the iron gate!
Bang!
Meng Lan, expressionless, placed a hand on the iron gate, stopping it from closing.
"What the hell are you doing!" The man was furious. He was still immersed in the grief of his brother's death and didn't want to deal with these annoying reporters! Can interviewing his brother bring him back to life? He just wanted to know why his brother committed suicide, or what killed his brother! He needed someone to take revenge on!
The man tried to close the door, but Meng Lan exerted force with her arm, her muscles toned from long-term workouts, creating a smooth arc.
The two were at a stalemate.
He never expected a little girl like her to have such great strength!
Before the man could start cursing, Meng Lan looked into his eyes and said seriously, "I was guided here by the Mountain Goddess."
He Wanwan:?
Zhang Yizhi:?
Meng Lan, do you have to spout nonsense as soon as you open your mouth?! Are you still not sober from the fake alcohol!
Meng Lan rubbed her temples and calmly said, "I really have a headache now. Last night, the Mountain Goddess appeared in my dream and told me that a family in the eastern red house of the village was cursed by an evil spirit, unable to pass on peacefully. She asked me to come and investigate. I'm really sorry, we're not reporters, these are my two assistants. We were originally going to a village eighty kilometers away to help souls pass on, but our car broke down and we got stranded here. It seems that everything is predestined. If it's inconvenient for you, then we'll take our leave. We're truly sorry."
He Wanwan:...
Meng Lan, do you have to change your character randomly within a minute? I'm not into spiritualism!
The Mountain Goddess oversees the Longevity Village surrounded by three mountains, and the lives and deaths of the villagers, their joys and sorrows, are all related to the Mountain Goddess. Almost every household has a shrine or temple dedicated to the white-robed deity.
The man looked at the three strangers, indeed they were from outside the village, not locals.
He stared at them suspiciously and asked, "Is it really the Mountain Goddess?"
Meng Lan didn't directly answer. She pretended to have difficulty breathing, tears welling up in her eyes from the strain, but still spoke like a shaman conjuring spirits, gasping for breath, "It hurts, I can't breathe. Let me in first, I... can't catch my breath!" Her face turned red from the strain, even He Wanwan didn't know what was wrong with her!
Meng Lan leaned back, her lips trembling slightly. "It seems... it's happening again..."
"What... what's happening again..." He Wanwan quickly helped Meng Lan, who was falling backwards. Her mind was quick to think. Just now, the old man at the village entrance said that this family's brother was suffocated to death by burying his head in the soil. Could it be that Meng Lan was pretending to be possessed by a ghost?
She immediately joined in, even more emotionally than Meng Lan, "Are you okay! Lan, Meng, Divine Meng! Don't let your body get harmed, quickly drive it away! If it possesses you again, you'll be suffocated!"
The man was also taken aback. The girl who was fine just now was now trembling all over, with a vacant look in her eyes, looking more and more like his brother who was suffocated to death. He hurriedly helped Meng Lan, "Quick, sit inside the house."
Meng Lan didn't expect herself to act so vigorously. She sat on the chair for a while before slowly regaining her senses. Indeed, she couldn't use such a brute force method of pretending to be a shaman next time!
Seeing Meng Lan recovering, the man asked anxiously, "G-Great Divine... are you really here to help me? Can you see my brother, is he doing well, does he need anything? I'll get it for him right away!" His parents died in a car accident a few years ago, and his brother was his only relative. Who would have known he would encounter such a thing! He was buying daily necessities in the county town that day, otherwise he would have been able to prevent his brother's death!
Meng Lan lowered her gaze slowly and said, "A person has three souls and seven spirits, and they have their own strength, but I can't see him clearly. I can only sense that he's been struggling. He seems to be entangled by a dark shadow, unable to escape from being controlled. Only when we know what happened can we solve the problem. Can you tell me what happened in the village?"
"What happened..." The man slumped back in his chair, stroking a deep blue shirt that his brother used to love wearing. He murmured to himself, "Do you believe in curses in this world? It must be because of the curse that my brother died! So many people have died in the village, will it continue?"
He Wanwan and Zhang Yizhi glanced at each other, not knowing how to respond to this.
"There are no curses in this world. The Mountain Goddess will bless you." Meng Lan said lightly.
"N-No, it must be because the people of Longevity Village have lived too long, threatening the gods, and the gods are angry and sent down curses!" The man shook his head, "But, my brother has always been a good person, even if it's a curse, it shouldn't be his turn!"
Meng Lan said, "The gods will bless you, they won't feel disgusted because of your happiness. If you were a teacher, would you tear up a test paper because the student got full marks? Something has caused all of this, can you recall what it is? Otherwise, I can't send your brother into reincarnation. He will be tortured forever in this world, enduring pain."
The man listened with a trembling heart.
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"I really don't know. I wasn't in the village a month ago!" he said in despair. "Can't you think of a way? I'm willing to pay, whatever it takes. Can you let me see my brother again?"
"Yes," Meng Lan said firmly. "But your brother's soul is bound by shackles. We must find the source and unlock the shackles. How about this, you give me some of your brother's frequently used items, find more if you can, and I'll see if I can perform a ritual."
"O-Okay." The man's demeanor had softened from the first encounter, and he hurriedly went to the adjacent room.
Seeing the man leave, He Wanwan leaned close to Meng Lan and whispered, "How should I act when you're possessed later?"
"I think Meng Lan knows a lot. She might not really be a spiritualist!" Zhang Yizhi laughed and asked.
Meng Lan glanced at Zhang Yizhi. "What are you two waiting for? Look around the room for any suspicious items. Whether it's a ghost or a murderer, they must have their own criteria for selection. But I think this man really doesn't know what happened, or he knows but doesn't care."
"Got it."
The room was neatly arranged, with a bright family photo on the table. However, from a genetic perspective, the man didn't resemble his parents at all. Although they acted affectionately, they didn't seem like a family at all.
The man brought out several pieces of clothing from his brother's room and said, "His favorite car repair tools are in the warehouse. I'll get them for you. It's not true that the more familiar the better!"
Without Meng Lan having to urge him, the man went to the warehouse in the backyard on his own.
"He's taking so long to get a tool?" Zhang Yizhi muttered.
Suddenly.
Faint knocking sounds came from outside.
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
Meng Lan stood up abruptly. "This isn't good!"
The warehouse door was half-open, and the man stood in the dim room, holding a stainless steel wrench and striking his head with it!
He felt no pain at all. His hair was already a mess of flesh and blood, and his skull had two large dents, with the smell of blood filling the warehouse.
"Ahhhh!" He Wanwan couldn't help but cover her eyes, afraid, and cowered behind Meng Lan. Zhang Yizhi hugged He Wanwan to comfort her, but he vomited first. The two of them turned to run, but Meng Lan stood still in front of the warehouse door, staring at the man's self-inflicted actions.
The wrench collided with the skull.
Emitting eerie muffled sounds.
"Run! What are you waiting for?" He Wanwan pulled Meng Lan.
Meng Lan didn't move. "He's committing suicide. He won't hurt anyone."
A normal person hit to the extent of seeing blurry muscles would have died long ago, yet the man still stood stiffly, with blood and flesh stuck to his teeth as he chuckled.
"He's a good person."
"No, he's not."
The man made incomprehensible sounds from his throat.
The next second.
"Bang!"
The wrench forcefully struck his forehead, and his skull exploded like a burst flower, blood and brain matter splattering in the warehouse.
The body collapsed with a crash.