Chapter 301
Chapter 301
“Have you noticed that the houses here are the same as the ones near the entrance?” While Jian Fan was still thinking, Qin Weiyi noticed it too and spoke up first.
At Qin Weiyi’s words, Qin Nan and the others began looking around as well.
Without anything to compare them against, they could not be entirely sure, but now that he mentioned it… they did look somewhat alike.
Although the buildings on both sides of the main street shared the same general style, there should still have been minor differences between them.
There might be something hanging by one doorway, or something placed outside another. Some doors and windows would be newer, others older. Most of the houses were roughly the same size, but there were larger ones mixed among them as well.
There should have been differences, however slight.
Yet just as Qin Weiyi had said, the houses before them seemed identical to those they had seen at the entrance.
“Symmetry,” Jian Fan suddenly said.
“Hm?” Qin Weiyi looked at him.
Jian Fan’s gaze traveled down the main road, stretching far into the distance. “With the Xie Residence at the center, the streets on either side are perfectly symmetrical. Or rather, this is the exact same road.”
“What the hell?” Yellow Hair blurted out.
Qin Weiyi frowned.
“That’s…” Yellow Hair found it hard to believe.
Jian Fan continued, “There’s a very simple way to verify it.”
“What way?” Qin Nan asked.
Jian Fan turned to him. “Follow this road and find Brother Zhao’s courtyard, where we stayed yesterday. Once night falls, we’ll see whether the NPC who appears is Brother Zhao or someone else. Then we’ll know.”
If the two streets were merely symmetrical, the houses might look the same, but the families living inside them should be different. The NPCs they encountered would therefore be new ones. But if this truly was the same road, then the household they found after following it would still be Brother Zhao’s family.
“That works,” Qin Weiyi agreed.
There was still some time before dark, though.
They had gained very little today. They could not waste the remaining hours sitting in Brother Zhao’s home and waiting for the NPCs to return, as they had yesterday.
But if they could not waste that time–
“What do we do next?” Yellow Hair asked.
They had reached the end of the town’s main road without finding anything for the moment. There were two peculiarities at the Xie Residence, but they had no way to investigate either of them, and trying might even get them killed. So what else could they do?
Head into the alleys and continue exploring the rest of Leqing Town?
Yellow Hair suspected the outcome would be much the same.
“Let’s take a look around first,” Jian Fan said.
Qin Weiyi gazed down the main street, his eyes gradually darkening as a theory took shape in his mind.
For them, that theory meant very bad news.
He suspected Jian Fan had realized it as well.
He turned to look at Jian Fan.
Sensing his gaze, Jian Fan looked back.
Jian Fan’s expression was calm.
But from that look alone, Qin Weiyi understood what he intended to do.
If their suspicion was correct, then spending some time exploring these alleys would not make much difference.
It might even help them learn the streets, making it easier to flee once night came.
At the thought of what they would soon face after dark, Qin Weiyi’s expression turned grim.
Jian Fan had already looked away and called to Qin Nan and the others. “Let’s go.”
Numerous side paths branched off the main street.
Jian Fan did not bother searching for any particular one. He simply chose an alley at random and led Qin Nan and the others into it.
The alley ran between two rows of houses and was considerably narrower, with room for no more than two people to walk abreast. The group paired off accordingly.
It did not take long for them to reach the end of the alley, where it forked left and right. Jian Fan glanced around, chose the path on the right, and the group continued onward.
The place looked much like any other old town.
Houses crowded together along narrow alleys. Some lanes eventually led back to the main road, while others wound deeper and deeper until they reached waterside paths and bridges.
There truly was nothing especially strange about it.
After making a circuit, they stopped and randomly selected a house by the roadside to investigate.
Like Brother Zhao’s house, none of the homes here were locked. They could enter simply by pushing open the door. Their layouts were also much the same as Brother Zhao’s, apart from differences in size.
The group searched the house but once again came away empty-handed.
There were no clues to be found, yet time continued to slip away.
When darkness was about to fall, Jian Fan made an immediate decision. “Head back.”
The others could only sigh and reluctantly accept it.
Jian Fan remembered the way.
The group retraced its route.
They soon found the house they had been looking for.
Although they had a fair idea that there would be no danger, everyone remained cautious, and Lu Jing took the lead as usual.
Only after Lu Jing opened the door and entered did the others follow him inside.
The moment they saw the interior, they knew Jian Fan was right, even before Brother Zhao and his family appeared.
The furnishings were exactly the same!
The houses themselves might share the same structure, but surely each family would arrange its belongings differently. The house they had searched earlier, for instance, had not been furnished like Brother Zhao’s. Yet everything they saw now was identical to his home.
“So the main road really does repeat? It’s the exact same street?” Qin Nan found the whole thing surreal.
Jian Fan gave a quiet hum and continued, “The Xie Residence should be the end of the road. When we keep walking past it, we’re actually returning the way we came.”
Qin Nan frowned. “Then whatever is causing this should have something to do with the Xie Residence, right?”
“Probably,” Jian Fan replied.
The problem likely lay within the Xie Residence, but they had already searched the entire place and found no other clues.
Could it be that stone statue?
No. There was clearly more to the stone statue than what they had seen. It could not be that simple. Then what was causing the road to loop?
Qin Nan could only look at Jian Fan, hoping to hear an answer from him.
Jian Fan pressed his fingers to his brow in exasperation. “I don’t know.”
He was only human. He could not know the answer to everything.
Qin Nan sighed.
“Let’s go inside,” Qin Weiyi said.
The house they were in had doors at both the front and back, making it difficult to defend.
Qin Nan acknowledged him.
The group returned to the room that appeared to be a dining hall, which was also the largest room in the courtyard.
Lu Jing quickly found the flint and candles, already familiar with where they were kept. The instant he lit a candle, the final trace of light outside was swallowed completely by darkness.
Another night had arrived.