Chapter 274

Chapter 274

I sat on the sofa and stared blankly out the window until dawn.

I had somehow spent more than two hours on the toilet.

I admitted that I had dozed off, but my sleep had been so light. How could more than two hours have passed?

I could not understand whether something was wrong with my consciousness, or time had jumped again.

It was exactly like what had happened when Seventh Master and I entered the construction site.

If the previous time jump had been caused by the site, then why had it happened again when I was nowhere near it?

While I struggled fruitlessly with the question, Assistant He called. He was waiting outside the hotel.

I had arranged for him to pick me up that morning. We were unfamiliar with Lincheng and needed a local guide wherever we went.

I did not plan to tell Song Xiaotian or Meng Yifan what happened that morning. They were probably still asleep.

When I left the hotel, Assistant He was outside.

I asked him to drive to the airport first because I needed to pick up a friend.

On the way, I asked how far Xujia Village was.

“Xujia Village?”

Assistant He smiled. “It’s an ancient village and one of our local tourist attractions. It isn’t far. Without traffic, the drive takes a little over an hour. Are you planning to look around Xujia Village?”

I said I wanted to ask about Luo Mansion there.

Assistant He looked surprised. “What? Ask in Xujia Village? Shouldn’t we question the residents from the village that used to stand at the construction site?”

I said the story those residents told had been distorted through retelling. It had passed through several generations, and each one had probably invented a few details. None of it was reliable.

I asked whether Assistant He had gathered the records in the file.

He looked embarrassed. “Yes, I did. But I recorded everything faithfully. The things in the file were exactly what those people told me.”

I smiled. “After a hundred years of retelling, it’s perfectly normal for a story to drift far from the truth. Once we pick up my friend, we’ll go straight to Xujia Village.”

After reaching the airport, I waited for about half an hour before Anning arrived.

She wore fitted black casual clothes and carried a black backpack. Her tall figure stood out sharply in the crowd and drew plenty of looks.

Assistant He’s eyes nearly popped out. After Anning got into the car, he kept striking up conversations and deliberately searching for topics.

But Anning was always quiet and not skilled at conversation. For every three to five sentences he spoke, she answered with three to five words.

Combined with her naturally icy face, Assistant He probably realized he had no chance. After a while, he stopped trying.

During the drive, I told Anning what we had encountered.

When I finished, she asked, “Is Seventh Master all right?”

“He’s fine. He just looks a little older than before. He’ll recover after a couple days of rest.”

Traffic was heavy that day, and the drive to the ancient village of Xujia took two hours.

I had not expected to need tickets just to enter a village. They were not cheap either, fifty yuan each.

Assistant He bought the tickets and led us inside.

It was called a village, but it was nearly the size of a small town.

The place was enormous. Some of its grand ancient-style buildings were far beyond anything a village should have possessed.

“Don’t be fooled by how impressive these buildings look. Most were only built in the last few years.”

Assistant He explained, “The local authorities invested in a great deal of construction to develop tourism. They also invented many stories about the distant past. It’s all meant to attract visitors from elsewhere.”
“In reality, this is only a slightly larger village. Before the investment, it was no different from any other.”

I nodded in understanding.

Meng Yifan and I had visited many tourist attractions before. Almost every city had a place called an “Ancient Miao Village.” In truth, those “ancient” villages had all been built in recent years, and every one of them sold “silver.”

It was a standard trick of the tourism industry.

The tourist village was so large that I did not know who to question. I could not tell the original residents from the staff.

“Most people in the areas open to tourists are staff members. Many younger original residents also work here.”

Assistant He pointed in one direction. “That area is where the villagers actually live. Tourists aren’t allowed to go over and disturb them.”

I followed his finger and saw a district of brand-new single-story homes. One glance was enough to tell they had been built within the last few years.

Assistant He explained that developing the area as a tourist attraction inevitably disrupted the lives of the original residents. To compensate them, the authorities paid to renovate or rebuild every household’s home.

But the residential district was some distance away and required a twenty-minute ride on a sightseeing shuttle.

After a long wait, the shuttle finally arrived.

We got off at the final stop and walked for another ten minutes before reaching the actual entrance to Xujia Village.

No staff guarded it, but a sign stood there with two lines of text: “Residential Area. Outsiders, Please Do Not Enter or Disturb the Residents.”

An Old Man sat at the village entrance. The moment we approached, he called out.

“Young people, you can’t go inside.”

“That’s where we live. It isn’t part of the tourist site.”

The Old Man was smoking a dry pipe. I hurriedly offered him a pack of expensive cigarettes. “Sir, we aren’t tourists. We came to ask about two people.”

As the saying went, no one struck a smiling face. The Old Man accepted the cigarettes, looked at them, and said with a cheerful smile, “Who do you want to ask about? I’ve lived in this village my whole life. There isn’t anyone I don’t know.”

I quickly gave him two names. “Do you know Xu Xiu and Xu Changming?”

Then I added, “They may have passed away many years ago. They lived around the beginning of the last century.”

The Old Man froze and gave me a strange look. “Did you come to pay your respects to Immortal Maiden Xu?”

Immortal Maiden Xu?

Pay our respects?

For a moment, none of us understood.

“Sir, which person do you mean by Immortal Maiden Xu?”

“Xu Xiu, of course.”

The Old Man said, “The Xu Xiu you’re asking about is Immortal Maiden Xu. There’s only ever been one Xu Xiu in this village. Who else could you mean?”

My scalp began to prickle. I hurriedly asked, “You said Immortal Maiden Xu passed away? How old was she?”

The Old Man said, “Very old, over a hundred. Immortal Maiden Xu belonged to my grandfather’s generation. She was the village’s great symbol of longevity. I grew up under her watch.”

I touched the top of my head, feeling as though lightning had struck me.

The hundred-year-old Immortal Maiden Xu came from the same era as the Ninth Concubine, and both were named Xu Xiu.

Then Immortal Maiden Xu had to be the Ninth Concubine we were looking for!

The Ninth Concubine had not only survived. She had remained alive until the present day!