Chapter 197: Have a new plan?

Feng Baobao kept Zhang Chulan's words in mind and walked blankly over to the older woman who was harvesting peanuts. She squatted down and, amidst the older woman's slight look of surprise, began clumsily helping to pick up the scattered peanuts.

"Oh my, this girl is truly sensible." Seeing this, the older woman's face revealed a kind smile, clearly quite appreciative of this young person who had taken the initiative to help.

However, the good times did not last long; Feng Baobao's movements were unpracticed, and with one careless step, she crushed several peanuts. The crisp *crack! * sound caused the older woman's smile to freeze instantly.

"Little girl, why don't you just..." The older woman looked at the crushed peanuts on the ground and said somewhat awkwardly, "Let me do it myself."

Feng Baobao looked blankly at the peanuts on the ground that she had crushed, then looked at the older woman, unsure for a moment whether it was good or not.

Standing to the side, Zhang Chulan saw this scene and couldn't help but cover his forehead and sigh. He had intended for Feng Baobao to help bridge the relationship with the villagers, but had inadvertently achieved the opposite. This kind of work requiring coordinated operation did not seem suitable for Feng Baobao.

Unreconciled, Feng Baobao shifted her target and came to the side of the middle-aged man weeding in the field. She squatted down and began to imitate the man's movements to pull weeds. However, her complete ignorance of farm work was soon revealed in full.

"Little girl, that's a rice seedling!" The man looked at the seedling that had been pulled up by the roots by Feng Baobao and shouted in heartache, "Stop right now!"

Feng Baobao stopped her movements and looked blankly at the seedling in her hand. The man shook his head and muttered helplessly, "How are you, little child, even more of an amateur than me?"

Yet at this very moment, Feng Baobao's attention was drawn to a situation elsewhere in the field. She saw some people walking through the field just as clumsily, clearly not looking like they were accustomed to farm work.

"You aren't people from here, why did you all come to travel?" Feng Baobao opened her eyes, her gaze fixed directly on those few strangers, "Could it be that you also came to travel?"

This sudden question of hers made those few people freeze for a moment, and their footsteps also became hurried. Hearing this sentence from the side, Zhang Chulan inwardly cried out that it was bad; inadvertently, Feng Baobao's thick-headedness had actually discovered some clues.

As Feng Baobao's voice fell, the surrounding villagers stopped their farm work and came before Feng Baobao, among whom one young man stated:

"Girl, you're right, we indeed aren't people from here," the remaining villagers looked at Feng Baobao with guarded expressions one by one, "but we can't tell you our purpose for coming here."

While the young man was speaking, more villagers began to gather toward this side, surrounding Baobao in the middle. A tense atmosphere permeated the air. Seeing the situation was not good, Zhang Chulan immediately walked forward quickly.

"Apologies, everyone." Zhang Chulan used an apologetic tone, grabbed Feng Baobao's arm, and apologized to all sides, "My younger sister here isn't very bright in the head and doesn't really know how to consider others' feelings when she speaks. We'll leave right now, sorry for the disturbance."

Zhang Chulan pulled Feng Baobao and quickly left the crowd, while secretly feeling fortunate that his reaction had been fast enough. He hadn't expected that a simple question from Feng Baobao would actually cause such a big reaction. It seemed that this Biyou Village was not as simple as it appeared on the surface...

On the other side, Wang Zhenqiu sat inside a civilian house and opened the Temporary Worker group chat on his phone. The light from the screen reflected on his focused face.

"@All members, who can collect the personal information of the Biyou Village villagers? It would be convenient for us to understand the general situation." Wang Zhenqiu flicked his finger to post the message in the group.

Not long after the message was posted, Zhang Chulan's reply appeared in the group chat: "Currently, the number of villagers in Biyou Village is too high; wanting to investigate in detail would take a very long time, and it will be a bit difficult to implement."

"I'm not good at this." Xiao Zizai followed up by replying, "I'm more suited to just killing..."

Wang Zhenqiu looked at these replies, his brows slightly furrowed. Collecting intelligence was an important stage of executing a mission; if even basic information could not be grasped, subsequent actions would inevitably be affected. The light of the screen flickered on his face, showing that others in the group were typing information.

Before long, a new message suddenly popped up in the group chat interface; Er Zhuang shared a document. Wang Zhenqiu tapped it open and a flash of reaction crossed his eyes—this was a statistical report of information under Biyou Village, basically containing the basic information of every household.

"Er Zhuang, how did you do it?" Wang Zhenqiu quickly asked in the group.

Zhang Chulan also followed up with a message: "This information is too detailed; where did you obtain it from?"

"Sorry, it's not convenient to say." Er Zhuang replied briefly.

Wang Zhenqiu looked at this reply and nodded silently.

As Temporary Workers, everyone had their own special methods and privacy; excessively prying would instead seem impolite. Thus, he exited this topic, flicked his finger to open the file in the group, and carefully began to examine the personal information of the Biyou Village villagers.

In fact, although the method of obtaining the data had become a mystery, it was undoubtedly an important breakthrough for the advancement of the mission.

"Creak~"

The room door was opened at this time; Zhang Chulan led Feng Baobao into the civilian house, sat casually on a stool, and opened his phone to check the data sent by Er Zhuang.

Inside the room, the other Temporary Workers were also focusing on studying this data.

"Suspicious, very suspicious." Zhang Chulan carefully flipped through the data, muttering continuously: "The backgrounds of these people are very complex. There are bosses running coal mines, entrepreneurs doing e-commerce, and even those running bars. This is completely not the composition of an ordinary village."

Wang Zhenqiu nodded, "Indeed different."

"The strangest thing is," Zhang Chulan suddenly raised his head, a glimmer of contemplation flashing in his eyes, "why would these unrelated people gather in such a remote, out-of-the-way village? People from all walks of life, I don't know what kind of life they lived, choosing to vacation here; this completely doesn't conform to common sense."

"I can't explain this clearly either." Wang Zhenqiu admitted.

Zhang Chulan pondered for a moment, "Could it have to do with Ma Xianhong's Cultivation Furnace? These people might just be attracted by the ability of the Cultivation Furnace."

The speculation caused the atmosphere in the room to suddenly become heavy. If this were truly the case, then the situation in Biyou Village was even more complex than they had imagined. This was no longer just an experiment to transform ordinary people, but a planned gathering place.

"After walking around just now, were there any new discoveries?" Wang Zhenqiu put down his phone and turned to look at Zhang Chulan.

Zhang Chulan glanced at the blank-faced Feng Baobao beside him and shook his head gently, "None for the moment." He did not mention the series of accidental actions Feng Baobao had made in the field.

"How about we go see the so-called Village Chief Ma?" Wang Zhenqiu proposed, "Talk to him directly, perhaps we can have a breakthrough."

"No need to rush," Zhang Chulan's tone was steady, "now is not the time to see him."

Wang Zhenqiu's eyes lit up, with an interested expression: "Oh? Could it be that Little Zhang already has a new plan?"