Chapter 204
Chapter 204
Cheng Miao glanced at Fang Jing. There was nothing more to it. She was simply wondering how this woman had managed to survive until now.
Her teammate Ma Yang stood a short distance away and rolled her eyes, plainly looking down on Fang Jing’s behavior.
A tall, thin man named Kong Fan stood beside Ma Yang, his face equally disdainful.
Only Zhu Cong, the man who had carried Fang Jing’s bag, stood silently behind her.
Zhu Cong was tall and broad, with an honest-looking face. One look told you he wasn’t much of a talker. He was still holding Fang Jing’s bag.
This team didn’t seem to be of one mind.
Then Cheng Miao’s gaze caught the spiked knuckle weapon Zhu Cong wore on his hand.
Zhu Cong’s stance was solid, his knuckles thick and strong. Add in the cold gleam of those metal knuckles…
Cheng Miao understood. Fang Jing’s intelligence might be questionable, but Zhu Cong was definitely a formidable veteran player.
Qiudong ignored Fang Jing’s attempt to speak to him. He looked up at the sky. It was about three or four in the afternoon. If they wanted dinner, they needed to start preparing it.
Qin Musong considered for a moment, then turned to Lin Zhu. “Stay here and give me a hand. Miaomiao, take Jiajia and Qiudong out for a look around.”
Back at the Grand Hotel, Qin Musong had done the cooking too. He had been a soldier, and he was a good man who cared for his family, so his cooking was genuinely quite good.
Cheng Miao didn’t make a fuss. She nodded her thanks to Qin Musong and Lin Zhu and prepared to go out.
“Sister Miaomiao, can we stay with Brother Qin?” Cheng Miao turned to find Freckles standing a short distance away, looking a little shy. Yang Ke, beside her, had already moved over to Qin Musong.
The meaning was clear: if we help out, could you share some food with us?
Qin Musong patted Yang Ke’s shoulder. In the apartment instance, he’d lost an arm because of Su Yang.
Yang Ke had helped him out of there without a word of hesitation.
As for Freckles, she had carried him out of Tan Tao’s school on her back.
He liked both of them.
“You stay and give me a hand. No need for you to stay in the kitchen, young lady. It’ll be smoky. Go out with Miaomiao and the others and have a look around.” Qin Musong had already begun sorting through the woodpile.
He neatly separated the thin twigs needed to build up the fire from the logs that would need splitting to provide most of the fuel.
Freckles’ eyes lit up at his words. She scampered over to Cheng Miao and smiled with her lips pressed together.
Yang Ke might look like a pretty young leading man, but he wasn’t fussy about work at all. Rolling up his sleeves, he carried the branches into the kitchen.
“Brother Qin, I know a little about starting fires. I’ll get it going, and you can give me some pointers in a bit.”
Qin Musong nodded and asked Lin Zhu to hold the wood steady. He picked up an ax from the corner and hefted it to test its weight.
The prospect of chopping wood at such close quarters made the other players’ hearts clench. Fang Jing even hid behind Zhu Cong.
But Lin Zhu trusted Qin Musong completely. He didn’t even blink, just held the wood carefully in place.
Qin Musong twirled the ax twice in his hand, then split the log cleanly and precisely down the middle.
Cheng Miao led the other three out of the courtyard. From the corner of her eye, she saw the two pairs, the siblings Tan Ge and Tan Wu, and Miao Jie and Chang Qing, coming out as well.
Zu Gehan hadn’t spoken all this time, nor had he attacked Shi Biao immediately after entering the instance.
Instead, he stretched a little and left on his own.
Shi Biao watched his retreating back, his expression shifting for a while, then headed off in the opposite direction.
Cheng Miao first went to the home of Scabby, whom the Village Head had mentioned. It really was remote, set some distance apart from the surrounding houses.
Scabby’s home was an earthen house built from mud bricks. There was even a hole in one corner. Bowls he’d eaten from days ago sat unwashed on the ground, left scattered any which way.
Freckles poked her head inside, then ran back to report. “Sister Miaomiao, there’s nobody in the house.”
Cheng Miao wasn’t surprised. Since the Village Head had said Scabby wandered all over the place, their chances of finding him on their first visit had been slim.
An older woman passing nearby smiled and greeted them. “Looking for Scabby? Where’s that fellow run off to now? He wasn’t here when I brought him food yesterday, either.”
Cheng Miao stepped forward to greet her. “Do you bring him food every day, ma’am?”
The woman clapped her hands together. “Oh, no. The whole village takes turns. Scabby was sick, and he says the Lord Tree Deity appeared to him, so he survived. He’s that old and has never married, and there’s something wrong with his head too. We neighbors look after him a little.”
Cheng Miao’s brow twitched. She tried to keep her expression unchanged. “I heard from the Village Head that the Tree Deity is a lady. Why do you call the deity a lord?”
The older woman laughed heartily twice. “Oh, the Tree Deity has a thousand faces for a thousand people. Everyone holds a different image of the Tree Deity in their heart. You young people are here to do some kind of research, aren’t you?”
When Cheng Miao put on her well-behaved manner, elders found her particularly endearing. She nodded, her smile becoming warmer. “We’re here to study the culture surrounding the Tree Deity. We think it’s fascinating.”
Hearing that they were interested in the Tree Deity’s culture made the woman even more enthusiastic. She pulled Cheng Miao aside to stand at the edge of the path and began talking freely.
“Since you’re interested in the Tree Deity, you must know that we speak of the deity marrying people here?”
Cheng Miao nodded, letting some hesitation show. “I’ve heard that the people who get married die…”
“It isn’t death. It’s a release.” The fine lines at the corners of the woman’s eyes deepened with her smile. “You see, the people the Tree Deity marries are all beyond saving.”
“The Tree Deity marries them to release them from their suffering. Our little village doesn’t have much in the way of medical care. When someone falls seriously ill, everyone hopes the Tree Deity will choose them.”
“At least they can leave without pain.” She sighed, her eyes reddening.
Cheng Miao leaned forward a little. “Then do you know how these marriages take place, ma’am?”
The woman’s thoughts seemed to drift far away. It took her a while to come back to herself. “My eldest son was married to the Tree Deity. He had a terrible cough at the time. He was even coughing up blood.”
“My husband carried him along the mountain paths for several days to get to town. The doctor said he couldn’t be cured. All he could do was come home and wait to die.”
“Then, one morning a few days later, I found a ring of grass had grown around my eldest’s hand. His complexion was much better too, and there was a smile on his face.”
“He just wouldn’t speak. He sat blankly in the house. By the next evening, he was gone.”
The woman wiped her eyes with her hand. “I couldn’t bear to lose him, but I didn’t hear him cough once that day, and he seemed so much more comfortable. What mother can stand to watch her child suffer?”
Cheng Miao quietly offered her condolences. Once the woman had recovered her composure, she even invited Cheng Miao to her home for a meal.
Cheng Miao politely declined. After the woman left, they wandered around the village a little longer.
Shushan Village was very different from the village in the lantern instance. The harmony that radiated from within this place couldn’t be faked. The villagers truly were happy.
The village wasn’t large, perhaps a hundred people or so. Deciding it was about time, Cheng Miao and her companions headed back.
As soon as they entered, they heard Fang Jing’s voice, sharpened by dissatisfaction. “We’re all players in the same instance. Since you’re already cooking, why can’t you just make enough for a few more people?”