There were only seven Deductionists left in the courtyard.

They sat around the large table, starting from the empty seat, the order was Wei Fan, Xiao Xuechen, Ju Lan, Yu Xing, Carlos, and the two men.

These two similar-looking men looked at them and took the initiative to say, "Hello, we were rude at the entrance of the village, we just didn't want innocent people to get hurt."

"You guys are quite full of yourselves." Xiao Xuechen propped her chin, her gaze at the two men had softened a lot, "So, geomancy masters, is this place really unlucky?"

"It's true." Among the two men, the one in black clothes looked around, "We are cousins, my name is Xu Hong, my younger brother is Xu Yuan, we were commissioned by someone to investigate the ghost haunting his old home."

Commissioned?

Yu Xing's mouth curled up, he felt that there was no need to ask, this client must also be named Zhou Yongsheng...

Xu Hong continued, "Before we came, we looked at the feng shui layout of this place. The entrance of the village faces south, and the mountains block the sun. There are only a few hours of sunlight in a day. If it were a burial ground, this place would be good, but if it's for living people..."

He suddenly closed his mouth because the village chief had come out of the kitchen.

The village chief sat down in the empty seat with a smile and finally remembered to introduce himself, "My name is Zhou Facai, you can just call me the village chief. Everyone in our village has the surname Zhou, so calling me Zhou Ge would be confusing."

Everyone responded accordingly.

They chatted with the village chief about how difficult it was to enter the mountains and how good the air was in the mountains. Through their mutual introductions, Xu Hong and Xu Yuan figured out the names of the other five people.

After about twenty minutes of chatting, Yu Xing saw that the timing was almost right and decided to ask something useful.

"Village Chief, I want to ask you a few things." Yu Xing looked at the enthusiastic village chief with sincere eyes, and the trust in his eyes made the village chief's heart warm, he said boldly, "Young man, just ask! What's the problem?"

The others perked up their ears.

Yu Xing: "This village... doesn't have internet access, does it? The signal is not very good either. I haven't been able to make a phone call since I arrived."

The village chief was taken aback and then answered, "Yes, our village is in the mountains, so the signal is not good. Well, it also allows people from the city to spend a few days looking up at nature!"

In other words, the signal has always been like this.

So...

Where did the private messages from Zhou Yongsheng to Yu Xing and Carlos come from?

You know, in the implanted memory, Yu Xing was still in contact with Zhou Yongsheng on his phone until he got off the plane and headed towards Guan's Village.

Yu Xing threw out another question, "Then, why don't the villagers come out and do activities? It's just past dusk, and the villagers are resting so early."

"You've hit the nail on the head with that question." The village chief slapped his thigh and lowered his voice mysteriously, "As the saying goes, each mountain has its own customs. In our village, we don't go out in the evening."

What kind of custom is this? Xiao Xuechen's expression changed, and she exchanged a glance with Wei Fan.

To read the uncut version, go to [p𝘢wread.com].

"When do they go out?" Carlos, holding a small paper doll in his hand, asked innocently and studiously.

"In a little while." The village chief looked up at the sky and chuckled twice. The shadows cast on his face made the square-faced middle-aged man look a bit eerie, "When the candles are lit at night, everyone will go out and do activities."

...Candles lit?

Yu Xing casually looked around, the sky was already dark, but there were no lights in the village chief's house. Did this village not even have kerosene lamps? This was too backward...

"Village Chief, I want to ask you about someone else." He suppressed his various speculations about the village, "Do you know where Zhou Yongsheng lives?"

"Oh? So you know Xiaosheng!" The village chief asked curiously.

"Yes, yes, I am... I am his classmate!" Ju Lan, the young girl who seemed to have lost her boyfriend, was very enthusiastic, "Where is he? I want to find him to play."

"Hahaha, Xiaosheng is a promising child! He has studied in a big city and has a different way of speaking when he comes back. He often talks about things like the mysterious painters and such, hahaha, I don't understand, I'm old, I'm old." The village chief didn't directly tell everyone where Zhou Yongsheng lived, but instead rambled on.

Just then, a woman's voice came from the kitchen, "Dinner is ready, Zhou Facai, come and help!"

"Coming!" The village chief responded loudly and was about to stand up when Xiao Xuechen immediately followed suit. She saw that the slightly shy painter, the cheerful magician, and the quieter brother of the geomancer duo all stood up without any agreement.

She smiled inwardly: It seemed that they all had the same idea... to see if the kitchen was normal. It was good news that there were quite a few smart people in this Deduction!

"Village Chief, it's not appropriate for us to eat here for free. Let us help with the dishes." She said to the village chief, and at the same time, she walked towards the kitchen, not giving the village chief a chance to refuse.

"Alright, alright, thank you for your help." The village chief didn't avoid it and went into the kitchen with several people.

Yu Xing mixed in at the back, in a position that was most convenient for him to run back.

As the sky grew darker, he followed the others to the kitchen door. The kitchen wall was bathed in red light, casting a woman's shadow. The shadow swayed from side to side, as if dancing with the firelight.

The kitchen used a wood-burning stove.

A few sparks floated in the air, and the woman with her hair tied up and wearing a cloth dress had her back to everyone, tidying up the bowls and chopsticks.

Underneath the wood-burning stove, more than half of the firewood had been burned, and the heat rushed towards them. The red light illuminated the entire kitchen.

Strangely, on the stove, there was also a white candle lit.

The candle stood in an exquisite plate of unknown material, its light barely noticeable, and it was unclear why it was lit.

Yu Xing glanced at the plate, and a chill swept over him.

He was taken aback, his face unchanged, but his heart was filled with surprise: It had been so long... his body's condition was difficult to be affected by external forces, but in the short time since becoming a Deductionist, he had experienced two abnormalities!?

Fortunately, this chill came and went quickly, and it wasn't as intense as the first time the personality mask appeared. He just shivered slightly for a moment and suppressed the discomfort.

Yu Xing's face turned pale, and he quietly covered his heart. Fortunately, he was standing at the back, and no one noticed him.

But there was definitely something wrong with this plate!

Well, his body was sensitive to certain supernatural things, although it would bring pain, but... from another perspective, it could be considered a cheat, right?

Self-mockery aside, in order to see more clearly, Yu Xing skillfully squeezed to the front from the back.

There were seven dishes on the table, all of which were home-cooked dishes, but they smelled delicious and looked appetizing from a distance.

The plate with the candle was placed to one side, looking too exquisite to belong in this small village. The corners were hollowed out, and it was octagonal in shape. The melted candle tears dripped onto the plate, but instead of cooling and solidifying, they remained in the plate like water droplets.

"This is quite interesting, I wonder if there's a chance to take it away..." Such an idea floated through his mind.

"Auntie, let us help you." While Yu Xing was thinking about this, Xiao Xuechen enthusiastically stepped forward to help with the dishes, and the woman chuckled and counted the chopsticks.

However, Yu Xing, who was paying attention to the woman's movements, narrowed his eyes, and a dangerous curve appeared at the corner of his eyes.

Something was wrong... He caught a glimpse of the woman's wrist movement, and his eyes flashed.

The woman's movements were too stiff, and why didn't she turn her head?

Don't go there yet!

Seeing Xiao Xuechen's figure passing by him, he instinctively raised his hand, but hesitated for a moment.

This hesitation caused him to miss the best time to grab her, and he only vaguely touched the corner of Xiao Xuechen's clothes.

"Auntie, come on, give it to me." Xiao Xuechen walked to the woman's side and reached out to take the bowl from the woman's hand. The next moment, the woman turned her head with a smile.

With a greenish-black face and dry skin, the woman looked like a corpse that had been dug up. The stiff smile on her face was probably meant to be friendly, but unfortunately, it only added to the horror. Xiao Xuechen, who was closest to this ghostly thing, suddenly saw such a face and felt a tightness in her chest.

"Ah!" She couldn't help but let out a short scream and retreated. Her back hit Yu Xing with a "bang," and the impact was quite heavy.

"Huh?"

"Are you okay?"

Carlos and Xu Yuan came forward one after another.

"No, I'm fine..." Xiao Xuechen quickly calmed down. She had seen ghosts before, so she shouldn't have reacted so strongly. The key was that she had been too close to this ghostly thing just now!

She muttered a few words in her heart: Is this a dead person? The village chief's wife is a corpse!? Wait, it's so hard...

As the shock faded, she suddenly felt that the person she had bumped into had a very hard chest. With the remaining fear and a moment of surprise, she turned her head back.

She never expected that it would be the seemingly weak and beautiful young man - ah, no, it was the painter who refused to reveal his real name.

Yu Xing silently lowered his head, looking at the little dominatrix whose height was just at his chest, her face changing from fear to doubt, and then a suspicious blush rose...

He raised his hand.

His face was pale.

He took a step back.

He covered his chest and let out a slightly painful muffled groan.

It was just bad luck that she bumped into him when his body had just had a problem. He had just recovered and was injured again. Ouch!

What was the logic in that!

His body was now as fragile as glass shards, and he really shouldn't have avoided it to prevent others from falling. To be honest, Xiao Xuechen's weight was heavier than he had imagined...

"Sorry, I didn't mean to." Xiao Xuechen saw his face turn a shade paler and couldn't help but doubt her life.

Was her strength that great?

Should she lose weight?

No, she shook her head, shaking the messy thoughts out of her mind - the most important thing now was to figure out what was going on with the village chief's wife...

"What's wrong, young lady? Weren't you going to help me with the bowls?" The cloth-dressed woman had completely turned her head at this point, holding a dish in one hand and a plate with a vertical candle in the other.

Looking at her like this, she was just an ordinary woman in her thirties. Although her appearance was not very good-looking, it was quite normal.

Was it just an illusion earlier?

"Yes, let's quickly take the dishes out." Xu Yuan observed the situation and immediately took the plate, giving the other Deductionists a look that said to go out first and talk later.

Yu Xing wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and glanced at the woman's hand holding the candle plate without a trace.

He didn't know if Carlos and Xu Yuan had seen the woman's face just now, but he had.

That face definitely did not belong to a living person!

The village chief seemed to have no idea what the guests were thinking, and he happily took the plate and went out with the woman.

Yu Xing casually picked up a plate of scrambled eggs, took a breath to calm himself, and then walked out as well.

Wei Fan, Ju Lan, and Xu Hong, who were left in the courtyard, didn't know what had happened, but seeing the different expressions of the few people, they couldn't help but become alert.

After setting up the dishes and bowls and sitting down according to their previous positions, Ju Lan, who knew nothing, picked up the bowl full of white rice and continued to ask, "Village Chief, you didn't finish just now, where does Zhou Yongsheng live?"

"Oh, right, Xiaosheng..." The village chief looked like he understood and exchanged a glance with the seemingly kind woman, laughing, "He's in a coffin."