Chapter 213
Chapter 213
Truthfully, given how determined Fang Jing seemed to get herself killed, none of the players present would have thought much of it if Cheng Miao actually killed her.
But if Cheng Miao had somehow obtained a grass bracelet and slipped it silently into Fang Jing’s throat, while pretending not to pursue the matter…
Then she was a very dangerous person.
Cheng Miao’s expression didn’t change at all. Folding her arms, she watched the contorted Fang Jing. “Oh? What makes you so sure it was me?”
“It was you! Who else could it be?”
“Then where did I get a grass bracelet?”
“There was one in your room. Why are you pretending?”
“There wasn’t one in my room.”
“How is that possible? I put it in your room myself last night!”
Cheng Miao had deliberately baited her, but Fang Jing’s stupidity still exceeded her expectations.
She didn’t look again at Zhu Cong and his companions, whose expressions had changed in various ways at Fang Jing’s words. She didn’t even tell him to keep Fang Jing under control again.
She left with her team. She still had somewhere to go.
Freckles and Yang Ke looked coldly at Fang Jing, slumped dejectedly on the ground, then at Zhu Cong’s grim face.
“At first, I thought Brother Zhu was a smart man. But a smart man wouldn’t keep protecting an idiot.”
After delivering those words with a cold expression, Freckles hurried after Cheng Miao, leaving Zhu Cong and his companions staring at Fang Jing with narrowed eyes.
Cheng Miao’s group retrieved Mini Lin at the ancient tree. After they communicated with him, he assured them that nothing had come to or left the place last night.
Lin Zhu patted Mini Lin’s head in praise. The group looked around, but there really were no clues to be found.
“Achoo.”
Lin Zhu sneezed twice and rubbed his nose. “Spring is so annoying. My rhinitis flares up so easily.”
As a fellow rhinitis sufferer, Cheng Miao wholeheartedly agreed. Fortunately, hers hadn’t flared up yet. They hurried straight to Scabby’s home again.
“Ah… ah!”
Passing the entrance to a house, they heard painful groans from inside. They exchanged looks and went in.
“Hello? Is anyone there? Do you need help?”
Cheng Miao leaned in. There was an elderly couple, along with their son and daughter.
The Old Woman lay on the bed, unable to move. Pain showed on her face, and groans escaped her mouth.
Her son greeted Cheng Miao. Clearly, they knew that several students had come to the village.
“It’s my mother. An old condition. Nothing too serious.”
The daughter came over, put water on to boil, and invited them to sit. People here were simple and sincere. Anyone who entered their home was a guest.
Cheng Miao sat down and looked at the elderly woman nearby. “What illness does your mother have? It looks quite serious.”
“Ah, we went to town to have it checked. They said it was some kind of overgrowth. Nothing they could do, just apply medicated patches. When it gets bad, even those don’t help much.”
Cheng Miao accepted a mug of tea and warmed her hands around it. “Was it this bad in previous years too?”
The daughter sighed and sat beside the Old Woman. “It wasn’t this bad before.”
“Do you think she might marry the Tree Deity this year?” The son looked haggard and unshaven.
The daughter turned toward her mother and wiped her eyes. “Who knows? I hope so.”
Seeing their visitors’ expressions, the son forced a smile. “You can’t understand it, can you? Why we’d hope for an old person to die.”
Cheng Miao shook her head, looking at the woman still crying out in pain. “She’s suffering like this. I understand.”
After watching for a while, Qin Musong went to help the son lift a door panel. As he did, he asked, “I hear not many people in the village marry the Tree Deity these days?”
The man’s face was full of worry. “That’s right. It seems only seriously ill young people can marry the deity now. A lot of older people were terribly sick last winter but couldn’t marry the Tree Deity.”
Helping the man carry the other end of the panel toward the door, Qin Musong asked, “Then how do you know the Tree Deity is still marrying people?”
The man scratched his head. “You know Scabby, right? He got married just last year.”
Qin Musong understood. “We haven’t met him. We haven’t been able to find him these past couple of days.”
The man sighed. “There’s something wrong with his head. Ever since he married the Tree Deity and failed to die, he hasn’t been quite right.”
Lin Zhu leaned closer and asked, “What illness does Scabby actually have?”
The man laughed. “A skin disease, of course. Why else would we call him Scabby?”
Qin Musong frowned. Could a skin disease be so serious that death was the only release? But he didn’t understand it, so he didn’t make any careless comments.
“Scabby used to be really good-looking before he got sick. Of all the young men in our village, he was the handsomest. Such a shame.”
After gathering that information, they sat a little longer, then left.
Along the way, Cheng Miao put the information together. There were several things they now knew.
Long ago, villagers had received protective grass bracelets similar to those given to the players. But they went only to children who didn’t yet believe in the Tree Deity or people newly arrived in the village.
Once no outsiders came to the village and everyone worshipped the Tree Deity generation after generation, nobody received them anymore.
In recent years, only young people could marry the Tree Deity and be released from illness and pain. Many older people, even terminally ill ones, weren’t granted that treatment.
Now, everyone in their group who hadn’t entered the Tree Deity’s shrine right away had received a protective grass bracelet.
Cheng Miao discussed it with the others as they walked. “At this point, we can be fairly sure the Tree Deity isn’t the benevolent savior the villagers imagine. When people don’t believe in the deity immediately, they receive the Tree Deity’s Blessing Bracelet to make them worship.”
“But we still don’t believe, even after getting them.” Lin Zhu felt the grass bracelet in his bag and quietly complained.
“We’re not ignorant villagers. Besides, we’re here to clear an instance, so naturally we don’t believe. But what proper deity uses a method like this to win followers?”
Cheng Miao narrowed her eyes at Scabby’s home nearby. It still looked empty, but she noticed that the winnowing basket originally by the door had been kicked to the other side.
“Someone’s there.” With that conclusion, she and Qin Musong approached Scabby’s house quietly.
Qi Jiajia and Lin Zhu stayed where they were. Qi Jiajia looked up at Qiudong. “You’re actually not following her?”
He glanced at her. “I can make sure nothing happens from here too.”
Qi Jiajia rolled her eyes and picked up Mini Lin to play with him.
Cheng Miao and Qin Musong looked inside from beside the door. Scabby’s house let the wind through on all sides. There was no need to peer through a door crack or window paper.
Scabby was a man in his twenties, with regular features and clothes in tatters.
But his head and body were densely covered in thick, yellowish scaly patches of skin. Some were still weeping fluid. It was a revolting, frightening sight.
He sat on the bed, rocking back and forth and humming something they couldn’t make out.
Cheng Miao and Qin Musong exchanged a glance and entered. Scabby tilted his head to look at them, then turned away again.
“Hello?”
Cheng Miao greeted him several times, but he ignored her. He barely reacted at all to two strangers entering his home.
She gave Qin Musong a look, and he held the grass bracelet in front of Scabby.
A moment earlier, Scabby had been lost in a daze. At the sight of the bracelet, he sprang up as though he’d seen a venomous snake, retreating in terror and shouting like a madman.
“Monster! Monster!”