Translator: Cinder Translations
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The shop owner seemed to have reached a highly emotional point in his conversation. His head slightly swayed, and during this brief moment, Zhou Rong saw the person standing in front of the shop owner. He froze for a moment, and then, as if greatly frightened, quickly recoiled.
He lost control of his arm and accidentally knocked over the candle on the candlestick.
Just as the candle was about to hit the floor, a hand swiftly caught it and quickly returned it to its place on the candlestick.
Jiang Cheng grabbed Zhou Rong, signaling with his eyes, and the two quietly retreated, pushing open a door and slipping into a room.
Almost immediately after the door closed, there was a faint "creak—" sound, like a heavy door being pushed open.
Moments later, hurried and forceful footsteps came from outside. The person seemed to pause for a moment before heading straight for the door of the room where the two were hiding.
The clear sound of keys clashing rang out. Zhou Rong's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't expected that the shop owner still had a spare key.
With the click of the lock opening, the door was pushed open. Footsteps entered, followed by sounds of rummaging. But he was destined to find nothing. Jiang Cheng and Zhou Rong were hiding in Room 308, across from their current location, Room 307.
The shop owner searched for a while, seemingly finding no signs of anyone's presence, and then left. He returned to the wall in front of the hidden room, and after some rustling sounds, the area fell silent.
However, Jiang Cheng and Zhou Rong didn't move. They kept their breathing as low as possible.
One minute passed, then two, and just as the third minute was about to end, clear footsteps were heard once again, this time much closer. Afterward, there was a scraping sound, and the area returned to silence.
Still, neither Jiang Cheng nor Zhou Rong moved.
Five minutes later, the process repeated once more before the two of them quietly left the room.
But instead of going downstairs to meet their teammates, they headed to a corner on the second floor.
"Mr. Zhou," Jiang Cheng said, pretending to be extremely frightened, lowering his voice, "What did you just see?"
Zhou Rong looked even more terrified than Jiang Cheng. But this wasn't an act; his breathing hadn't settled yet.
Earlier, when he had hidden behind the door of Room 308, peering through the crack, he saw the shop owner, no longer the friendly figure from yesterday, but now with a twisted, hideous face.
What was even more frightening was that he was holding a gleaming sharp knife.
If they had been discovered, the outcome would have been predictable.
"The hidden room... there's a woman in the hidden room besides the shop owner," Zhou Rong said, his face growing darker as he recalled the scene. "She's not his wife. She's an old woman, sitting on a wooden chair, half of her face appears to have melted away, leaving only one eye. Her nose and lips are gone!"
Jiang Cheng's pupils narrowed slightly.
"Mr. Yin," Zhou Rong suddenly grabbed Jiang Cheng's wrist, speaking quickly. "I know you're not an ordinary person. You should have noticed that this task is different from anything we've done before. This time, we didn't even have a rookie to pair with us."
Jiang Cheng didn't respond, but gave him a look that seemed to say, "I'm scared too, but I'll keep listening."
Zhou Rong, however, didn't pay attention to that, speaking rapidly: "I've successfully completed five tasks, this is the sixth. But I think this mission is harder than all the previous ones combined. And something already happened before we even entered the domain... I have a really bad feeling about this."
Ignoring Zhou Rong's ramblings about how dangerous the task was and how amazing he was, Jiang Cheng raised his head, cutting to the chase: "What do you mean by 'domain'?"
Zhou Rong froze for a moment, looking at Jiang Cheng with a mix of confusion and suspicion. But it lasted only a second before he returned to his normal demeanor.
"It's the range in which spirits can act or interfere," he explained.
"So, you mean Anping Town isn't within the range where spirits can reach or interfere?" Jiang Cheng countered.
Zhou Rong nodded. "Based on my judgment, it should be like that."
Jiang Cheng didn't dig further into how Zhou Rong made this judgment. There were two reasons: first, time was pressing, and if they delayed much longer, the people downstairs might notice something was off; second, there was no need to, since this was a blind spot for him, so no matter how Zhou Rong explained it, Jiang Cheng couldn't verify it.
Rather than ask more questions, it was better to maintain an air of mystery.
He gave Zhou Rong a strange look, one that seemed to say, "I'm not saying anything, but you better think carefully," and then neither agreed nor rejected Zhou Rong's offer to collaborate.
"Let's go downstairs," he said naturally.
Once they were downstairs, neither of them mentioned what had happened earlier. They only said they hadn't found the shop owner.
"Then what were you two doing up there for so long?" Chen Xiaomeng asked, glaring at Jiang Cheng with venom. She looked like she wanted to rush up and tear him apart.
"Could it be that you two..."
Chen Xiaomeng's expression changed to something strange. In her desperation to smear Jiang Cheng, she would go to any lengths, even involving the innocent Zhou Rong.
Ben Fu's gaze on Jiang Cheng grew more heated as he heard this.
"Long'er," Jiang Cheng said, looking at Chen Xiaomeng with a playful, somewhat flirty tone, "What are you talking about? How hard I tried last night... you know, don't you?"
Chen Xiaomeng felt dizzy and almost choked on a mouthful of blood.
"Dear experts!"
The village chief stood outside the guesthouse, looking at the few so-called saviors. He had finally managed to bring them here, but now they were all gathered together, flirting and joking, with no intention of going to the village. This was driving him crazy.
When the others looked at him, he tried to smile as kindly as possible, despite his few remaining teeth. "It's getting late, the mountain path is difficult, how about we..."
"Okay," Jiang Cheng nodded. "We'll leave now."
Upon hearing this, the village chief and the villagers smiled brightly.
As they walked along the road, Pei Qian and the village chief walked side by side, chatting about local customs, while Jiang Cheng followed them, squinting his eyes and listening.
Chen Xiaomeng started planning to find a chance to strangle Jiang Cheng when they were alone, but Jiang Cheng seemed to read her thoughts. Even when he went to the bathroom, he always dragged someone along.
However, he didn't seem picky about who accompanied him. The most recent time, he even grabbed Yu Man.
The two of them returned about fifteen minutes later.
"So, the village is nestled between two mountains," Pei Qian seemed to realize something, glancing at the village chief to confirm.
"Yes, expert, that's correct," the village chief said respectfully, calling Pei Qian "expert" repeatedly and even having someone hold an umbrella to shield him from the sun.
Jiang Cheng shot him a sideways glance and suddenly shouted, "I'm hot too! I want a strong man to hold an umbrella for me!"
The village chief was stunned for a moment, then looked at Jiang Cheng and tried to explain, "This little brother..."
But unexpectedly—
"Who are you calling little brother?!" Jiang Cheng snapped, putting his hands on his hips and dramatically stretching his voice. "Who's your brother? I'm an expert!"
(End of the Chapter)
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