Chapter 26 Official Explanation

  "There are also some snakes that like to drill into old toilets. Do toilets have spiritual energy?" Kakashi really asked a stupid question.

  I really didn't know how to answer him, so I just stared at him and said irritably: "I don't know! I only know a little bit."

  "I thought you were amazing. Can I be a hero who saves the earth just once?"

  As we walked through this valley, we stood in front of the village that was burned by fire nine years ago.

  Nine years have passed, and this village still looks the same as it did nine years ago. The charred wood that was burned has not rotted, but instead, a lot of grass has grown in these ruins, and even big trees. These ruins seem to have merged with the plants here.

  A Tian walked forward and said in a low voice: "Split up and take a look, is there anything special."

  Kakashi also drew his knife: "Beware of snakes!"

  "Right," I said, "This kind of ruin is where eyeglasses snakes like to live."

  The boss also walked away, but Su Haicheng followed behind me. Seeing that they had all gone a little further, I turned around and hugged Su Haicheng, my sudden action making him stiffen up completely.

  He slightly moved: "What are you doing?" But he didn't push me away, nor did he even stretch out his hand to touch me, just letting me hold him like that.

  I pressed my face against his chest, with my ear right over his heart: "Don't move, just hold me, holding is enough."

  He felt a bit uneasy, but he didn't say anything and didn't move, just letting me hold him like this. The corners of my lips curled up, how nice it is to bully him, in this pose I can listen carefully to his heartbeat, maybe I'll even get to hear one beat.

  Unfortunately, I stuck my ear to his chest for a long time but didn't hear any heartbeat. It wasn't until I got off him in disappointment and patted his chest that I said, "It's okay, nothing happened. Sigh..."

  "I'm a dead man, no heartbeat, do you regret being with me?"

  My little trick was seen through by him in an instant, and for a moment I was so angry that I said, "When did I ever say we were together? Don't be so ambiguous, okay? You are you, I am me. We're just partners, comrades. What's this 'together' nonsense? Stop following me, let's go our separate ways!"

  A few minutes later, we heard Ah Tian's cry: "Oh, there are so many snakes here." I guess he must have encountered a snake to shout like that. However, the snake did not attack him.

  "This is indeed a treasure land of Feng Shui! I see that the thing being suppressed in that formation is absolutely not simple."

  Kaka Xi held a stick and hit the grass around, saying: "Is it White Snake Bai Suzhen who is being detained? These snakes all came to pay homage to Bai Suzhen?"

  "Can you not be so exaggerated?"

  While we were talking, Su Haicheng had been crouching on the ground for a while. I saw his appearance and hurriedly asked: "Su Haicheng, what's wrong with you? Were you bitten?"

  "He's fine even if he gets bitten, anyway he's a dead man." Kakashi's mouth is really asking for it.

  I was close to him anyway, so I just walked over and squatted down beside him and asked, "What's wrong?"

  He held a book in his hand with a cover that was no longer visible, a very small book. Moreover, the book had been burned and one-third of it was gone.

  He flipped through the book, which had already faded ink that was difficult to recognize.

  Seeing both of us squatting on the ground, they also gathered around. Ah Tian asked first: "What did you find?"

  Su Haicheng stood up, patted the small notebook in his hand, and shook off the dirt on it. "Nine years ago, this village was also burned down by human hands, it was a planned act."

  Kakaxi couldn't believe it and snatched the book away: "No way. How ruthless! What is the mastermind behind this after all? What good things could be in a place like this?"

  "That legend is worth pursuing. It's possible that we're not the first people to discover these things and start investigating."

  Kakaxi flipped through the notebook, reading the barely legible text. Su Haicheng also casually pulled me to his side, a relatively empty space of about one or two square meters, where we could stand comfortably.

  Kakashi struggled to decipher the writing, reading: "May 13th, we arrived here, don't know what our mission is, and yet no one has told us. Today I took advantage of going to pee to ask our team leader, he said he didn't know either."

  "On May 14th, this village is really poor and lacks water and roads. Today I don't know who started it, but someone said that if there's a fire here, how would we rescue each other? I think the only thing to do is to break off branches to put out the fire. The person who wrote this must be a jinx, because a fire really did break out here."

  "You go ahead. Maybe there's some important clue."

  "The bottom was burned, and the pages were turned. May 29th, just twenty-ninth? I reckon a few more were torn off too. Today we found seventeen corpses, and the whole team didn't say a word. Xiao Zhong whispered, 'Could it be an infectious disease? Will we also die here?' He was severely scolded by the captain."

  "A Tian took a deep breath: "What kind of place is this after all? Chen Siyi was right, one village in nine years!""

  Su Haicheng remained calm: "Continue."

  "June 2nd, tomorrow we will set fire to burn this place down. I can't believe our final mission is this. Today some scientists came and said it was carbon dioxide poisoning that caused the entire village to die overnight. They also said it had something to do with the lake over there. The villagers told us that the lake is haunted. That's all, the rest has been burned."

  Su Haicheng continued: "This kind of person who can write a diary while on a mission must have very good organizational skills. This personal notebook couldn't have been dropped accidentally. The part below was intentionally thrown into the fire to be burned. He is hiding the truth. Maybe it was his captain's request. If my brother under my command had recorded something during a secret mission, I would also ask him to burn it. Unfortunately, he didn't finish burning it, and we saw a few pages."

  "A Tian furrowed his brow and said: 'You mean they are an army?'"

  "Hey, be careful, there might be snakes crawling around," Su Haicheng said to Kakashi, who was picking wild fruits on the side and preparing to wipe them clean before eating.

  Kakaxi heard this and quickly threw it away, wiping his hands on his clothes.

  "Help me find some information and look at the news from nine years ago. The more comprehensive the better." Su Haicheng said.

  "Now you know how important I am. Without me, this hacker, you'd have come here for nothing. Don't mention those words that looked down on me again, I'm petty and will remember the grudge."

  "Get back to work!" I glared at him.

  We didn't stay there but walked back along the small path to where our car was. After all, the car still had a lot of supplies in it.

  Kakaxi just walked and worked all the way. Ah Tian was similar, he held a camera and organized the photos taken in the past two days. On the way back, we also saw two large snakes, both very big, as thick as an arm.

  Back at the camp, I didn't have any special feeling at all, and then Su Haicheng pushed me onto the car, quickly started the car and sped off on that small road.

  When I came to, I was already in the back seat of the car, lying next to Kakashi. Kakashi's tablet had also fallen under the seat, and he was shouting: "Who! Who just threw me into the car?" I was pushed up here, but he was thrown up here. It's even more serious than mine.

  Su Haicheng drove the car directly into a thorny bush, the kind that grows in the wild with thorns, very tall and big, over two meters high. The car crashed head-on into the thorny bush.

  I have no idea what's going on, how did I end up being pushed onto the car and driven to this place? Su Haicheng, who was driving, said in a low voice, "The helicopter is coming, it's flying very low, it should be here for reconnaissance. We can't be discovered."

  A Tian sat beside Kakashi: "As you said, people like you, in the wild, openly pitching a tent and cooking noodles by the fire, it's strange if we're not discovered. Haicheng, there are still sounds of cars over there. It seems that the other party is very cautious, both air power and ground power have been dispatched. If we are discovered, trouble will be big."