Chapter 148

Liang Dage also didn't mind, he laughed happily.

"I'm 47 this year, beside me is... my wife! Zhou Fengling!"

"She's a few years older than me, but she's diligent, her cooking is delicious! She can also do carpentry!"

When Liang Dage said 'wife', he hesitated a moment, but the smile on his face didn't diminish.

He grabbed the little boy hiding behind Aunt Zhou and ruffled his head.

"This is my kid, how about it? Isn't he just like me?"

His words were proud; Aunt Zhou lowered her head to look at the child, her eyes full of affection.

"Big brother, we'll be living together for a while, you don't need to worry, we have plenty of food and drink here."

Lin An smiled and nodded, then continued chatting.

Twenty minutes later, the crowd dispersed and sat, while Liang Shaoguang took a toy to play with the child.

However, they looked like a group from the city; when they looked at Liang Shaoguang, their eyes held some dissatisfaction and worry.

"Lin Ge, do we really have to keep waiting? I've talked to everyone one by one. But it seems there's no useful information."

Gao Tian looked at Lin An with a worried face.

"This matter will be resolved before today."

"It's fine, go ahead and speak."

Lin An's gaze fell on Liang Shaoguang; their eyes met unintentionally, Liang Shaoguang waved his hand and gave a grin, then continued playing with the child.

It looks like he's enjoying it.

"Lin Ge, first of all, it's like this."

"Zhou Fengling and the remaining three people are from the same village, which includes that young couple and the dark-skinned man."

"The woman who died earlier knew Liang Shaoguang."

"The three kids are roughly the same age,"

"These people are all truck drivers, including the women. It's rare, but I heard their village is all about transportation."

"Zhou Fengling had been divorced before; her husband was a live-in son-in-law, and later died in a car accident."

"Her grandfather was a carpenter, but the furniture he made was too old-fashioned. This news came from the young couple."

"They had big disagreements when renovating the house."

Lin An nodded slightly, signaling Gao Tian to continue.

"As for Liang Shaoguang... they say he's an outsider, remained a bachelor for a long time, then saved some money and got together with Zhou Fengling."

"That's about all the information; I can't think of any connection to the doll."

"Are the clues all on the doll? Or is Liang Shaoguang lying?"

Lin An shook his head slightly, pondering for a moment.

He faintly felt that he had already found a clue.

"Liang Shaoguang probably didn't lie, and the clues couldn't possibly be on the doll."

"The system wouldn't issue a dead‑end mission; if the clues were on the doll we'd just be waiting to die."

"At this stage, nobody can resist the doll."

"The doll's meaning is most likely related to the mission."

Gao Tian frowned tightly; this mission feels harder than the last one.

Last time at least we could go look for clues, but now they don't even dare to approach the puppet.

Lin An paused for a moment, his eyes flickering.

"Do you still remember me saying that memes are related to cognition?"

"A meme only appears when people know about the doll."

Zhang Tie rested his chin on his hand, imitating Lin An's gesture as he thought.

"Captain Lin, everyone knows about the doll, right? It shows up all the time in cartoons."

Lin An shook his head.

"I mean an event plus fear generates a meme."

"For example, corpse transformation, red embroidered shoes."

"Rumors and supernatural tales often come from the parties involved seeing the actual object, feeling fear, spreading it, and after processing become various horror stories."

"The origin of corpse transformation is like people seeing a dead body's stiff corpse; sometimes the corpse still has a muscle twitch, mistaken for a fake death."

"Under fear, people embellish the story..."

Gao Tian thought for a moment, then looked up at Lin An:

"Lin Ge, you mean someone saw the doll and felt fear at that moment?"

"That's right."

Lin An looked at the relatively calm few people.

"And those who have seen it must be among these few people, and it's very likely the two couples."

"The mission is to investigate the doll's origin, so we can't be expected to search for a needle in the ocean; this reasoning is the same as last mission."

"But, there's too little information...."

Bang-bang-bang

The door knocked, everyone instinctively looked at the iron door.

Liang Shaoguang listened carefully for a moment, then gave a dry laugh twice:

"It's fine, that monster is banging its head against the door."

"It can't get in."

Liang Lao Da, what if that monster hits the glass!? The glass can't stop it!

The speakers were those people from the city, they stared fixedly at the violently shaking iron door; it was clear that the puppet outside was striking with great force.

Liang Shaoguang was completely unfazed:

"That monster can only slide along, it's a cripple, it can't jump that high!"

Upon hearing that, the crowd let out a big sigh of relief, and Lin An froze in place.

After a moment, he suddenly seemed to have figured something out, the corners of his mouth turning up.

Lin Dui!? What are you laughing at?

Zhang Tie looked at Lin An here with a face full of curiosity, holding a can of yellow peaches, not knowing where he got it from.

Lin An turned his head to look at him, his expression helpless, then he casually replied:

"I think we've made the problem too complicated."

"Actually, this mission is very simple."

"The information about the puppet has already been given out."

Gao Tian was stunned upon hearing that; he hasn't even touched a puppet yet, how can Lin An say the information has been given?

Does even a glance count?

To be precise, they haven't even seen the puppet's front.

Lin An was assured, smiling confidently.

Then his gaze dimmed as he looked at the experienced Liang Shaoguang couple feeding the child, and he let out a sigh.

"How did it come to this..."