Chapter 174

The scene recorded in Cui Hao's diary was now replaying before Li Li Zhuiyuan.

Not in the earth building, not at night, but in the wild during the day.

This proved once again that Old Bian Po was by no means a minor character who only knew how to create a little commotion to scare people in specific, narrow, and gloomy environments; her domain was extremely vast.

The tractor made a loud noise as it headed toward the village.

On the hillside, Lu Runsheng was waiting for an order from Xiao Yuan.

Li Li Zhuiyuan remained silent for a long time.

The youth's mind was not currently worried about the safety of Xue Liangliang and Lin Lin Shu You; at least, that was not the top priority.

He was focused on thinking: if the "himself" and "Lu Runsheng" on the tractor were evil spirits, why could Lin Lin Shu You sit face-to-face with them without noticing?

The White Crane Master Master Tongzi is also called the Guiding Master Master Tongzi in the Guan Jiang Shou system, and is good at insight.

According to past experience, when encountering evil spirits in reality, Lin Lin Shu You's vertical pupils would naturally open.

But now, they hadn't; they were even chatting and laughing.

Even setting aside the detection function of the vertical pupils, Xue Liangliang was also sitting on the tractor at this time.

Last night, he had clearly told Xue Liangliang that the situation for this mission was complex and that strange situations would arise; logically, Xue Liangliang should have been on high alert.

Lin Lin Shu You might occasionally be careless, but Xue Liangliang would not be.

The evil spirit was imitating him while also communicating—how could Xue Liangliang have no suspicions at all?

At this moment, Li Li Zhuiyuan himself was somewhat suspicious: were the four people sitting on the tractor all fake, and was what he was witnessing just an illusion?

But when the youth looked around, he found that the surrounding Feng Shui and atmosphere were all normal, which meant he hadn't stepped into an illusion, nor was he in any formation.

"Brother Lu Runsheng."

"Yes."

"Follow them."

"Okay!"

Lu Runsheng began to run.

Fortunately, the tractor couldn't drive very fast, and the road was bumpy and difficult, so the speed was just so-so, allowing Lu Runsheng to easily follow the tractor along the side of the hillside.

However, after following a little closer, Lin Lin Shu You, who was sitting on the tractor, seemed to sense something and actually began to turn his head to look behind.

This made Li Li Zhuiyuan, on Lu Runsheng's back, feel somewhat helpless: if you have the energy to perceive things at a distance, can't you spare a moment to look at what's in front of you?

"Brother Lu Runsheng, increase the distance; don't be so close."

"Okay."

Lu Runsheng pulled back a distance, ensuring the tractor remained within their line of sight.

Just like that, one relied on four wheels to drive in front, and the other relied on two legs to follow behind.

The four people on the tractor would only chat from time to time, but no abnormalities occurred.

Finally, Ran Dacheng drove the tractor into the village and stopped.

All four people got off the vehicle, and after a brief exchange, Xue Liangliang and Lin Lin Shu You continued walking toward the earth building, while "Li Li Zhuiyuan," carried by "Lu Runsheng," headed in another direction, soon disappearing behind the houses ahead, losing sight of them.

"Brother Lu Runsheng, go!"

"Okay."

Even after walking such a long mountain path on foot, Lu Runsheng's strength hadn't been exhausted; he didn't hesitate this time and began to run quickly.

Ran Dacheng, who was turning the tractor around, saw this scene and scratched his head in surprise.

He had just seen these two walk that way with his own eyes; how did he meet them here again?

Behind that house was a woodpile, and no one was in sight.

Lu Runsheng stepped onto the pile, and Li Li Zhuiyuan, on his back, looked around from a high vantage point, but also found nothing.

That pair of "himself" and "Lu Runsheng" seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Li Li Zhuiyuan patted Lu Runsheng's shoulder, and Lu Runsheng straightened his body, letting the youth slide off his back.

"Clatter!"

The youth noticed the sound coming from the soles of his shoes, looked down, and found a puddle of glass powder.

Squatting down to look carefully, he found that there was a lot of such powder under the woodpile.

Reaching out to grab a little and letting it slide down, Li Li Zhuiyuan noticed that many of the nearby firewood and the side of the earthen wall also had quite a bit of crystal residue, which could be clearly captured in the sunlight.

Just now, a large piece of glass must have shattered here, exploding into powder.

However...

Li Li Zhuiyuan again grabbed a handful of fine debris and placed it in front of him to observe carefully:

Is this really glass?

Unfortunately, transportation here is inconvenient, and there are no material analysis institutions in the nearby county; to confirm the specific composition, it would have to be sent to a big city, and by the time it was sent and the results returned, it would be too late.

Even so, Li Li Zhuiyuan still took a plastic bag from his bag, took some debris, and put it inside.

He had a premonition that this thing was likely a key point.

After taking the sample, Li Li Zhuiyuan and Lu Runsheng returned to the earth building together, and at the entrance, they met Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng, who had returned at the same time.

Lin Lin Shu You happened to be carrying a bucket, intending to go to the well outside to fetch water.

"Brother Xiao Yuan, you guys found Brother Bin and the others back so quickly."

Li Li Zhuiyuan: "Did I say I went to find them?"

Lin Lin Shu You said in surprise: "Yeah, you told me and Brother Liang to come back and cook first, and you and Lu Runsheng went to find Brother Bin and the others..."

Facing Li Li Zhuiyuan's serious questioning gaze, Lin Lin Shu You became less confident as he spoke.

Li Li Zhuiyuan: "Go back inside for a meeting."

Everyone sat around in the courtyard, and Li Li Zhuiyuan described the scene he had witnessed earlier.

Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng were simply amazed.

Xue Liangliang and Lin Lin Shu You stood up immediately.

Lin Lin Shu You: "Brother Xiao Yuan, do you mean that we came back on the tractor accompanied by two evil spirits that turned into your likenesses?"

Xue Liangliang: "Do you have any way to prove that you are the real Xiao Yuan?"

"Oh, right!" Lin Lin Shu You immediately blocked Xue Liangliang, lowered his center of gravity, and prepared to strike at any moment.

In his perception, the one thing he could be sure of was that Xue Liangliang, who had been with him all day, was definitely real.

Xue Liangliang's counter-question and Lin Lin Shu You's actions didn't make Li Li Zhuiyuan angry; on the contrary, he was quite gratified by it.

Li Li Zhuiyuan took out the plastic bag sample and threw it in front of everyone.

"I suspect that the evil spirit finally disintegrated into this."

Lin Lin Shu You picked up the sample bag, touched it himself, and then handed it to Xue Liangliang. Xue Liangliang poured some out, observed it carefully, and said:

"Glass?"

"I don't know if it's glass, but it's necessary to find a testing institution to confirm the specific composition."

Li Li Zhuiyuan pulled a delicate dagger from his boot, burned it over the campfire, and then slashed his left palm; a cut appeared, and blood flowed out.

The youth picked up a bowl from the ground, let his blood drip into the bowl, and only then began to treat the wound.

"Let's use the most primitive method to verify our identities, and then exchange blood bowls for others to confirm."

Lu Runsheng immediately followed suit, first slashing his finger against the edge of the Yellow River shovel, then dripping blood into the bowl.

Xue Liangliang nodded, also took out a small knife, cut his finger, and dripped blood.

Lin Lin Shu You raised his foot, swung his arm downward, took the opportunity to pull out the dagger from his boot, and then very consistently made a cut on his hand:

"Hiss..."

He cut too deep, and blood immediately overflowed.

Li Li Zhuiyuan subconsciously felt that Lin Lin Shu You's blood didn't need to be tested again; it should be real.

But he immediately discarded this thought; it still had to be checked, because the fake one seemed to have the ability to act exactly like the real one.

After all four people here had dripped blood, Li Li Zhuiyuan looked at Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng and asked:

"You two, what are you hesitating for?"

Tan Tan Wenbin shrugged and said: "Ah, do we have to do it too? I thought since we didn't leave the village today, our identities wouldn't need to be doubted."

Seeing Yin Meng: "That's what I thought too."

Li Li Zhuiyuan smiled.

Lu Runsheng raised the Yellow River shovel, and Lin Lin Shu You grabbed the trident.

Two people, one on the left and one on the right, sandwiched Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng in the middle.

Lu Runsheng and Lin Lin Shu You both sensed that something was wrong, because Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng had rarely failed to actively respond to Xiao Yuan's orders.

Even if Seeing Yin Meng didn't need to do it, she would have done so, even if she received a criticism afterward: you actually didn't need to do it.

Tan Tan Wenbin would have cooperated with this behavior even more actively.

Regardless, at this moment, resisting and not doing it meant there was a problem with their identities.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? You wouldn't still be doubting us, would you? Alright then, Mengmeng, let's also verify our true identities."

"Okay."

Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng both pulled out the daggers from their boots.

Li Li Zhuiyuan: "Do it."

Lu Runsheng didn't hesitate and slapped them with the shovel!

Lin Lin Shu You hesitated for a second, then thrust the trident.

Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng let out a sharp shriek and rushed toward Li Li Zhuiyuan together.

But their sneak attack was already too late.

Tan Tan Wenbin's head was smashed by Lu Runsheng's shovel, and Seeing Yin Meng's neck was pierced by Lin Lin Shu You's trident.

The two let out screams, then their bodies quickly shriveled and flattened, gradually becoming transparent, and at an extremely fast speed, turned into something similar to glass, and then... exploded.

"Bang!" "Bang!"

Glass shards splattered everywhere. Lu Runsheng blocked in front of Li Li Zhuiyuan, opened his Qi gate, and swept away these glass shards with a wave of Qi.

Lin Lin Shu You retreated, pulled Xue Liangliang, and the two fell to the ground together, avoiding the affected area.

This kind of glass debris didn't have much lethality, but if you weren't careful, it could cause many cuts on your body, and if it embedded in the skin, it would be quite troublesome to deal with.

Crystals were everywhere, and under the positions where Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng had originally stood, there were even two piles of debris and powder.

Li Li Zhuiyuan unscrewed his water bottle and took two sips of water.

He finally understood why Xue Liangliang and Lin Lin Shu You hadn't been able to recognize that the ones who had sat on the tractor with them earlier were fakes.

Because from the moment they met at the entrance until the other party didn't immediately respond to cutting their fingers and dripping blood, Li Li Zhuiyuan himself hadn't discovered that Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng were fake.

The two of them had no flaws in terms of image, expression, movement, language, and so on.

But this was impossible.

Appearance is easy to imitate, but how was the content of the reaction during conversation imitated?

Li Li Zhuiyuan didn't believe that this Old Bian Po could be omniscient.

The youth lowered his head and began to recall all the conversations after meeting Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng at the entrance.

That is, it was only under his own compulsion that their language became distorted; before that, they were very... no, that's not it.

Li Li Zhuiyuan suddenly discovered a point: although he had conversations with Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng during this period, there was no information content in these conversations.

The two of them had been arranged by him to visit the village today and should have obtained a lot of information; moreover, in past meetings, when he spoke, Tan Tan Wenbin would also cooperate and try to draw inferences about other cases.

In the contact during this period just now, none of these things were expressed.

Was it because he was the main speaker just now and didn't give them a chance to speak?

Li Li Zhuiyuan went over what he had said earlier in his mind again.

No, when he was narrating, he was actually following his past habits and giving Tan Tan Wenbin a chance to speak.

Because of Tan Tan Wenbin's presence, he could speak less, and after Tan Tan Wenbin understood some things, he could help him state them to others.

And this time, the opening he gave was responded to by Tan Tan Wenbin, but it was all brushed off in a very normal "joking" way.

But he hadn't felt the slightest abnormality; was it because the other party's acting was too good?

Or was it that the other party wasn't actually acting?

Li Li Zhuiyuan looked at Xue Liangliang and asked: "Brother Liangliang, recall, when you came back on the tractor, what did you and that 'me' talk about?"

Xue Liangliang: "I said a lot to you—no, to that fake you—about my findings at the construction site, and then that fake you also said a lot to me."

Li Li Zhuiyuan: "Did that 'me' tell you about the things in the Miao village?"

Xue Liangliang tapped his forehead gently, lost in thought.

Lin Lin Shu You said: "It seemed to say a little... then said, let's talk about it in detail after we get back."

Li Li Zhuiyuan looked at Lin Lin Shu You: "What did it say?"

Lin Lin Shu You frowned: "It said a little, then said, let's talk about it in detail after we get back."

Xue Liangliang stopped tapping his forehead, opened his eyes wide, and said with a heavier tone: "That you said a lot to me, but not much of it was useful!"

Li Li Zhuiyuan nodded upon hearing this; it was indeed so.

Xue Liangliang wondered: "That shouldn't be. Thinking back now, it feels very strange, but at the time, I really didn't feel any dissonance at all. I didn't suspect at all that you were fake then; how on earth did he trick me?"

Li Li Zhuiyuan pointed to the glass debris on the ground and said: "It didn't trick you; you tricked yourself."

The youth stood up, picked up the fire tongs, and poked at the glass debris on the ground:

"I don't know how they were made.

But they really are like a mirror; it's just that a normal mirror reflects yourself, while this mirror reflects the person you think of in your mind.

For example, take me as an example.

The best imitation effect isn't to become an identical me.

It's just to imitate the image of me in your eyes, and then it is the real me, even truer than I am myself."

Xue Liangliang: "No wonder."

Lin Lin Shu You echoed somewhat guiltily: "Oh, so that's it~"

Lu Runsheng took out compressed biscuits and started eating; he didn't like participating in brain-using segments, and besides, he was indeed hungry.

Xue Liangliang: "So in my view, how the real you would respond to me, that fake you would react accordingly; actually, it was me deceiving myself.

There is actually such a bizarre existence in this world?"

"There are many bizarre things in this world, for example..."

"Alright, no need for examples." Xue Liangliang hurriedly raised his hand, "Then what is her purpose in doing this?"

Lin Lin Shu You followed up: "Yeah, Brother Xiao Yuan, this thing doesn't seem to have any attack power; just now when I poked it with the trident, it shattered."

Li Li Zhuiyuan said:

"I suspect that while we are investigating her, she is also investigating us."

At this moment, footsteps came from outside the house, and the figures of Tan Tan Wenbin and Seeing Yin Meng appeared at the entrance.

Tan Tan Wenbin's face was flushed and he smelled of alcohol; he must have drunk quite a bit, but he wasn't drunk, and his brain was still clear.

"Yo, everyone's back, huh? Brother Xiao Yuan, I have a major discovery to report!"

Lin Lin Shu You threw his dagger over and said: "Bleed first."

"What?" Tan Tan Wenbin caught the dagger, looked at everyone with some confusion, and finally landed his gaze on Li Li Zhuiyuan.

The youth nodded and pointed to the blood bowl placed beside him.

"Okay." Tan Tan Wenbin used the dagger to cut his fingertip, found a bowl, and while dripping blood into it, asked, "Did that dirty thing impersonate us, just like what was said in Cui Hao's diary?"

After dripping the blood, Tan Tan Wenbin handed the bowl up and then sucked on the wound on his fingertip.

Seeing Yin Meng was also very quick about dripping hers.

After confirming their identities, everyone sat down again, and Lin Lin Shu You began to recount what had happened earlier.

But A-You spoke haltingly, and his logic wasn't clear; for every three sentences he spoke, Tan Tan Wenbin had to ask two, so finally, Xue Liangliang took over the job and began to recount.

After listening, Tan Tan Wenbin smacked his lips: "This trick is really evil enough. Is that thing trying to figure out our bottom line? And what after it figures it out?"

Lin Lin Shu You said as a matter of course: "After knowing ourselves and the enemy, it will take action against us."

Tan Tan Wenbin spread his hands: "Then we all split up today; why didn't she take this opportunity today to take action directly?"

Lin Lin Shu You was stunned for a moment and said: "Maybe, she is more cautious?"

Tan Tan Wenbin lit a cigarette: "But if it were me, I would choose to take the opportunity to find a pair that was alone and try to make a move to see if I could kill two first."

Lin Lin Shu You was convinced and nodded: "Oh, right, I would also try to make a move first to see the effect."

Tan Tan Wenbin took out the Li Zhuiyuan talisman paper and stuck it on the glass debris on the ground; the talisman paper didn't change color: "The talisman paper can't detect it?"

Lin Lin Shu You: "The formation set up by Brother Xiao Yuan didn't react to them either. Fortunately, they don't have any attack power, and their threat level is even very low."

Tan Tan Wenbin: "Then what is her purpose in going to such great lengths to do this? Killing is just killing; is she showing off her technique to us?"

Li Li Zhuiyuan: "Let's first summarize the information collected by each group today; perhaps her true purpose is hidden in this."

Next, the three groups began to report their investigation results.

Xue Liangliang went to check the construction site; the site was generally normal, of course, because the site was still in a state of suspension, so it was difficult to see anything.

However, Xue Liangliang and Lin Lin Shu You discovered some details: in many corners of the construction site, offering tables and incense burners were placed, and talisman papers were stuck in some positions.

This meant that the construction unit was not without suspicion regarding the frequent accidents at the site, and they should have tried to hire some nearby master to perform rituals and drive away evil, but clearly, it hadn't had any effect.

Tan Tan Wenbin obtained a lot of useful information through visits to the village.

On New Year's Eve, some villagers suspected they saw Cui Hao and Li Ren in the nearby mountains, because they were wearing work uniforms, and the only people in the whole village wearing that kind of clothing were the technicians in the construction team.

However, after calling out to them, the two ran away like frightened animals, which made the villager suspect that his eyes had deceived him.

Other villagers said that on the second day of the new year, when they brought their wives back to their maternal homes and returned the next day, they found that much of the New Year's goods left at home had been stolen, but money had been left on the table.

Tan Tan Wenbin suspected that Cui Hao and Li Ren might still be alive, but they were hiding in the mountains and didn't dare to show their faces in the village.

The ones who stole things and left money should also be them; after all, as technicians from out of town, their survival skills in the wild must be worrying, even inferior to those of the young children in the village.

Besides this, villagers generally reported that in recent years, not only in this village but also in nearby villages and even in town, stories about a "child-selling old woman" had often circulated.

It was that children would encounter an old woman in tattered clothes while playing, who would hold their hands and ask questions.

The bolder children would break free and run away, while the timid ones would burst into tears, attracting adults.

But no adult had ever seen this old woman, and in recent years, they hadn't heard of any child actually being abducted.

Children have short memories; after sleeping and a few days passing, they would forget about it, or the more they talked, the more outrageous it became.

Adults just thought the children were naughty and making up lies, or perhaps it was because someone had told the story of "Old Bian Po" too vividly and deeply, causing the story to spread wildly among the children, so that whenever they saw an old woman, they felt they had run into Old Bian Po.

Such things wouldn't have been brought up by the villagers, but it just so happened that there was a family in the village who firmly believed their child wasn't lying and had truly seen Old Bian Po.

It was also after the new year that their daughter, who had married into a city in another province, returned to the village with her husband and grandson to visit them.

Their grandson couldn't even speak the local dialect and couldn't play with the children in the village, and they arrived at night; the next morning, he said that last night he had been pulled out of the door by an old woman, who touched him all over on the threshing floor, and the old woman even said to him, "No, not satisfied."

The grandson was so scared he developed a fever, and the daughter and son-in-law left the village early with the grandson.

The person drinking at the same table said it was because his daughter and son-in-law weren't used to living in the mountains, but he retorted unconvinced that his daughter was very good, and his son-in-law also helped the family chop wood and do chores, without a bit of city-dweller's delicacy; it was just that his grandson was simply unlucky and ran into Old Bian Po as soon as he returned home.

Li Li Zhuiyuan also recounted his experience in the Miao village.

Tan Tan Wenbin shook off the cigarette ash and couldn't help but laugh:

"So this story of Old Bian Po is a Grimm's fairy tale exclusive to the children of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan."

Lu Runsheng, who had been eating compressed biscuits, let out a long sigh of relief after drinking a large jar of water; having served as a tractor during the day, he had finally "refilled the oil."

When he was eating earlier, he had actually been listening with his ears pricked up; although most of what went in the left ear went out the right, he had at least kept a little in his brain.

Lu Runsheng burped and said:

"Why does it seem like she's picking children?"

In the damp and humid underground cave, thick liquid seeped out from the surrounding rock walls from time to time, finally extending downward, fading in color, and forming crystal-clear inverted cones.

Below, there was a small sacrificial temple.

The runes that should have been clearly flashing around the sacrificial temple were now mottled and falling off.

On the central circular platform, the originally thick and heavy iron chains were also broken and decayed.

A disheveled woman sat there; her skin was rough and cracked, and in many places, it had cracked too deeply, so that even white bones could be seen.

She lowered her head and patted her belly with her hand.

"Slap! Slap! Slap!"

Amidst the slapping sounds, her belly became larger and larger, and the skin of her belly became more and more transparent, finally becoming almost like a piece of glass, through which the inside of her belly could be clearly seen.

Inside lay an infant; the infant had its eyes closed, its whole body pitch black, dead and silent.

The woman's hands kept stroking her transparent belly; her left eye revealed sharpness and ferocity, while her right eye was kind and loving.

"Master Tongzi, it's been so many years, Mother has finally found a satisfactory you.

Mother will continue to use the mirror to reflect him, reflecting him clearly, thoroughly, and carefully, so that you can become him.

You will like his appearance and everything about him, because he is both good-looking and smart, hee hee..."

Accompanied by the woman's narration and stroking, the color of the child's pitch-black skin in her belly slowly faded, gradually presenting the texture of a normal child; at the same time, the child was constantly growing, from an infant to a child, finally forming a feeling of extreme disharmony.

Because its size should be similar to a five-year-old child in reality, but it was still in the woman's belly and hadn't been born.

And,

the child's appearance had already become five parts similar to Li Li Zhuiyuan.

———

This chapter has a low word count, don't panic, there will be another chapter during the day to make up for today's word count.

(End of chapter)