Chapter 281
Chapter 281
“What’s wrong?” Qin Nan asked at once when he saw Jian Fan stop.
Xia Zeqin and Fang Kang were at the head of the group, followed by Lu Jing and Qin Weiyi, while Jian Fan and Qin Nan walked behind Lu Jing. The moment Qin Nan spoke, Qin Weiyi and Lu Jing stopped as well.
“There’s no need to keep going,” Jian Fan said.
Qin Nan looked at him in confusion.
“It’ll probably be more of the same farther down,” Jian Fan explained.
“Then what do we do?” Qin Nan frowned.
Jian Fan turned toward the houses lining both sides of the main road. “Let’s see what’s inside these houses.”
No one objected.
Since they had no idea what might be waiting inside, Lu Jing took point again. As for Xia Zeqin and Fang Kang, Jian Fan and the others had not factored them into their plans at all. Even so, the two of them stopped and followed behind the group.
Jian Fan glanced at Xia Zeqin out of the corner of his eye.
Xia Zeqin had always been a loner, yet this time…
Another layer of concern settled over Jian Fan’s thoughts.
By then, Lu Jing had reached the door.
He knocked first. “Is anyone there?”
There was no movement inside. Lu Jing knocked several more times, and only after confirming that no one would answer did he gesture to Qin Weiyi beside him, signaling for everyone to take cover off to the side.
Qin Nan and the others immediately complied.
Although Fang Kang was not part of their group, he saw everyone move and cooperatively took cover as well. Xia Zeqin, meanwhile, swept them with a lazy glance before slowly shuffling aside with the rest.
Once Lu Jing was sure everyone was out of the way, he pressed himself against the wall beside the entrance. With one hand, he uncoiled the whip from his waist, while the other gently pushed the door open.
The door was unlocked and swung open at his touch.
Even then, Lu Jing did not move immediately.
He remained concealed beside the doorway and waited. Only after making certain there was no movement inside did he spin through the entrance, cautious but lightning-fast. The instant he was inside, he flattened himself against the wall by the door and swiftly scanned his surroundings, his whip poised to strike at any moment.
This time, however, there was nothing for Lu Jing to do.
The house stood completely empty. There was no one inside, nor any other living creature.
Lu Jing straightened and called to the others outside, “No one’s here. Come in.”
Only then did the group file into the house.
Like its exterior, the inside of the house bore the marks of age. Naturally, there was no television, air conditioner, or anything of the sort in sight.
They appeared to be standing in something like a living room.
A wooden table stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by four long wooden benches. A roughly made teapot and cups sat on top. The room was not large. Other than the table and benches in the center, there were walls to either side, with a cabinet set against each one. Various household items rested on the cabinets, though they were naturally nothing like the things the group used in their everyday lives. Instead, there were bamboo baskets, bamboo hampers, and farming tools such as hoes.
Of the other two sides, one held the door through which they had entered. Opposite it stood a partition wall, much like a folding screen used to divide an interior space. After walking around the wall, they found another door.
Lu Jing stepped forward and cautiously pushed it open.
Beyond the door lay a small courtyard.
A well stood in its center, with a tree growing beside it and several buckets placed beneath the tree. Connected rows of single-story rooms enclosed the courtyard on three sides.
It looked like a miniature quadrangle courtyard.
Judging by the house’s style and the way its interior was furnished…
“Don’t tell me we’ve transmigrated into some ancient setting again,” Qin Nan said.
No one answered, though the same suspicion had occurred to all of them.
“Let’s search the place,” Jian Fan said.
To be on the safe side, they split into pairs. Fortunately, the courtyard wasn’t large, so if anything happened, the others would be close enough to help.
The group quickly dispersed.
There were five rooms around the courtyard.
The room in the center was clearly a dining area, with a kitchen connected to it. The other three rooms were bedrooms: one larger and two smaller. Their layouts were nearly identical. An earthen bed occupied most of each room, with a large cabinet and a table and chairs taking up the remaining space. The largest bedroom also contained a table beneath the window that appeared to be a vanity.
A bronze mirror sat on top of it.
The bronze had been polished so poorly that it could barely reflect a person’s face. At most, it showed a vague outline.
It took them about twenty minutes to search the small courtyard from top to bottom.
Before long, everyone regrouped in the courtyard.
“Didn’t find anything,” Yellow Hair reported first.
Qin Weiyi shook his head as well.
“What do you think?” Qin Weiyi asked Jian Fan.
Instead of answering, Jian Fan posed a question to the group. “Does this place look abandoned to you?”
“No,” Qin Nan replied immediately. “More than that, it looks like the family who lives here has gone out to work and left the house empty for the time being.”
“They went out without locking the door?” Yellow Hair promptly asked.
Qin Nan shrugged. “That’s not all. Even if this entire family went out to work, surely everyone in town wouldn’t have gone out at the same time, right?”
No one could answer that.
Naturally, all eyes turned back to Jian Fan.
“We wait,” Jian Fan said without hesitation.
Qin Weiyi raised an eyebrow.
“If people live here, they’ll come back eventually,” Jian Fan said.
He had a point, though sitting around and waiting wasn’t exactly how they usually operated. Still, since Jian Fan had made the call, no one objected.
“I’ll follow your lead,” Qin Weiyi was the first to say.
The others had no objections either.
“So we’re staying here to wait?” Qin Nan asked.
Jian Fan nodded.
Fang Kang was speechless.
He had never encountered anything so absurd. These people had barely searched for clues, and they hadn’t even finished exploring the town, yet they were already stopping to rest?
Wait?
They had to be out of their minds.
Did they expect the Realm of Death to deliver clues right to their doorstep?
That wasn’t waiting for clues. It was waiting to die.
When Fang Kang saw Jian Fan and the others actually sit down right there in the courtyard as if waiting for their quarry to walk into a trap, he rolled his eyes.
“Bunch of lunatics,” Fang Kang cursed. Ignoring them, he strode straight out of the courtyard.
He must have been crazy to follow this group of madmen in the first place. If he wanted to find clues, he would have to rely on himself.
No one tried to stop Fang Kang from leaving.
Not only did they let him go, but a few of them even turned to look at Xia Zeqin.
Xia Zeqin had always preferred to work alone. Why wasn’t he going off on his own today?
Naturally, Xia Zeqin noticed their stares.
His lips curved into a smile, but he made no attempt to satisfy their curiosity. His attitude was clear, though: he intended to stick with them to the end.
“Ridiculous,” Qin Nan muttered under his breath.
Jian Fan glanced at Xia Zeqin, then quickly looked away without paying him any further attention.