Chapter 202
Chapter 202
“No need, Aunt Song. We can carry them ourselves. They’re just everyday supplies, nothing heavy.” Miao Jie answered in a clear, lively voice. Aunt Song reminded her of her mother, and she stepped forward a few paces, smiling.
Fang Jing, who hadn’t wanted to carry her own bag, pouted and rolled her eyes at Miao Jie.
Miao Jie had no idea why she’d earned that look. She was about to protest when Chang Qing, who had remained silent all along, gave her a tug. She swallowed her irritation.
Most of them weren’t pampered heiresses on vacation, so naturally they had no objection. They followed Aunt Song, pushing aside the overgrown grass as they headed deeper into the mountains.
Qin Musong was carrying Qi Jiajia’s luggage. Qiudong reached out to take Cheng Miao’s bag, but she looked puzzled. “What are you holding your hand out for?”
It wasn’t that Cheng Miao was slow on the uptake. The bag simply wasn’t heavy. Its weight was almost negligible, so it hadn’t occurred to her that Qiudong wanted to carry it for her.
Qiudong looked at his outstretched hand, pressed his lips together, and said nothing.
Cheng Miao got it. She caught his hand, muttering, “All right, all right. The path’s rough, so we’ll hold hands. Brother Qin, you two take it easy too.”
Qiudong looked down at the hand she was holding. He said nothing, merely curving his lips a little and closing his hand around hers.
Aunt Song hadn’t lied. After no more than thirteen or fourteen minutes of walking, they reached the place called Shushan Village.
Shushan Village was built along the mountainside, its buildings constructed mostly of wood.
According to Aunt Song, houses like these were warm in winter, cool in summer, and well ventilated, which was why their people had lived this way for generations.
After her experience in the lantern instance, Cheng Miao had some lingering unease about little mountain villages.
But after walking around, she found that this really did seem like an idyllic village tucked away from the world. People rose with the sun to work and rested when it set.
“I heard you came to do field… field what was it again?” Aunt Song led them into the village, chatting as they walked.
“Fieldwork.” Ma Yang had been following right behind her and hurried to supply the word. It had been part of the instance announcement, and they all remembered it.
“Oh, and what is this fieldwork for?” Aunt Song was curious. Their village wasn’t badly off, but these young people all looked as though they came from wealthy families. Why would they come to a remote mountain hollow to investigate anything?
“Uh… it’s…” Ma Yang knew the word, but she really couldn’t explain what it meant.
“Fieldwork is an academic method where we take part in local people’s lives and record different aspects of their daily routines to study how different cultures develop.” Cheng Miao picked up the conversation at just the right moment.
She had studied the humanities in college and knew something about the subject.
Ma Yang nodded at her gratefully, but Fang Jing, walking behind them, gave a sniff just loud enough to be heard.
Cheng Miao looked back. The girl seemed delicate and pampered, and the man named Zhu Cong on her team was carrying her bag too.
Cheng Miao had encountered plenty of inexplicable hostility like this. It no longer surprised her.
“Aunt Song, we’ll be relying on your help during our stay in the village.” Cheng Miao had her own tried-and-true approach to drawing out information.
Sure enough, Aunt Song smiled at the pretty young woman. “Don’t worry. Since you think enough of our little mountain village to visit, we’ll certainly take good care of you. During your ten days here, you can go to the Village Head if you need anything.”
Cheng Miao had the answer she wanted. Unexpectedly, this would be the longest instance they had experienced so far.
They could end the instance early by completing the task ahead of time, but these were all high-level instances now. Getting out early was easier said than done.
Aunt Song took them to meet the Village Head. He was a spry old man, lean and upright, with eyes that were still remarkably bright.
The Village Head served everyone tea. They sat down to listen as he chatted.
“You’re here. I hear you learned about our village from a book. That’s no surprise. We have little contact with the outside world. We don’t understand this internet age people talk about, but I don’t suppose it has much to do with us anyway.”
He took a sip of tea and gave a faint smile. “Perhaps a few travelers who visited many years ago wrote accounts of their journeys. Other than that, I doubt anyone knows there’s a village here deep in the mountains.”
None of the players responded. Zu Gehan kept watching Shi Biao with a smile. Ma Yang’s team had already lost their enthusiasm. They didn’t really understand this fieldwork business and were afraid of making mistakes.
Fang Jing, however, kept staring at Qiudong. Unfortunately for her, he hadn’t spared her a single glance. All the flirtatious looks she’d sent him along the way had gone to waste.
The siblings Tan Ge and Tan Wu said little. Tan Wu looked as though she might struggle for breath at any moment, making it seem quite an achievement that she had even walked to the village.
Miao Jie and Chang Qing were familiar with ethnic minority villages like this, but since the conversation wasn’t about village life at the moment, they had nothing to add either.
Of the remaining team of three, Song Guoqiang and Zhao Jiangong were both rough, uneducated men. Wang Yang, the only one who looked somewhat educated, seemed determined to sit back and reap the benefits of everyone else’s efforts. He said nothing, looking perfectly at ease.
Cheng Miao and her companions had experienced more instances now and met more people.
The cooperation that had been fairly common in low-level instances was rare these days.
Everyone was a competitor, and anyone who had made it this far had something to rely on. They all looked down on one another.
But Cheng Miao wasn’t interested in guessing what the others were thinking right now. Seated closest to the Village Head, she picked up the conversation naturally. “Then the fact that we found this village, and that you agreed to let us do our research here, must mean we were meant to meet.”
The Village Head stroked his goatee and nodded with a smile.
The others watched as Cheng Miao and the Village Head talked back and forth. In less than half an hour, she had drawn out the broad outline of the background.
Shushan Village lay in humid, subtropical mountains. Its people lived off the mountains, and everything they had came from nature.
For a hundred years, the villagers of Shushan Village had worshipped the Tree Deity. To them, the Tree Deity was the greatest spirit in nature.
The Tree Deity gave them the oxygen they needed to survive and provided an abundance of natural resources, so the villagers held the deity in great reverence.
Every household worshipped the Tree Deity, and the village had a shrine dedicated to them as well. Tomorrow, the Village Head would arrange for villagers to show them around. They could visit the shrine too, if they were interested.
Cheng Miao remembered the name of the instance. She didn’t yet know what Divine Bride meant, but it surely had something to do with the Tree Deity.
“Village Head, we’ve come specifically to study the village’s religious culture. We’re very interested in the Tree Deity you mentioned, so we’d like to hear anything connected with them.”
Cheng Miao even made a show of opening her backpack. Sure enough, besides a few toiletries, it held an electronic device and a notebook.
She took out the notebook, set it on the table, and began questioning the Village Head with all the earnestness of a model student.
The other players, still pondering the meaning of the instance or pursuing their own agendas, stared at the sight. This woman…
Really did look like she’d come here to do some damn academic research.