Minyue Province, Jiaheyu City.
Li Banfeng had originally planned to look into the taxi driver, but unexpectedly, the driver had dropped out of contact.
He had no family to begin with; tossing his phone inside his apartment, no one could track him down.
With their most vital lead broken, Li Banfeng had no choice but to take his team to Jiaheyu City to investigate another survivor: a delivery courier named Wu Nianping, who had gone to Gourd Village late the year before last and managed to return alive early last year.
"Let me tell you, this whole thing is completely ridiculous," Wu Nianping said. "When I went missing, nobody gave a damn. Once I escaped on my own, here you all come, poking and prying! I already told you, it was just a village. There was nothing there. I just wandered around for a few days, then sneaked out! I'm telling the god's honest truth, but you refuse to believe me, thinking I'm talking nonsense. Why would I lie to you? Aren't you people completely out of your minds?"
Tangyuan was very patient. "Mr. Wu, could you clarify what you mean by 'nothing there'?"
"Nothing means nothing! What else is there to say?"
"You stayed in Gourd Village for nearly a month. You must have had food to eat and a place to sleep."
"I can't remember any of that! Didn't you take me to see a doctor? Didn't they say I had psychological trauma or something?"
As they were speaking, Wu Nianping's son suddenly burst into tears.
His son had autism, and his wife's mental state was not well either.
"Ah-Ping," his wife clung to Wu Nianping's arm, "who are all these people? I'm so scared!"
Wu Nianping comforted his wife with a few gentle words, then glared at the group. "What else do you want to ask? You've scared my wife and son half to death!"
Li Banfeng took in Wu Nianping's living conditions. The flat was tiny—just one bedroom and a living room, very cramped.
Property in Jiaheyu City was expensive, at its peak comparable to Yuezhou's prices. Wu Nianping used to deliver takeout and now drove for a ride-hailing platform; providing for his wife and son was truly not easy.
Stepping out into the hallway, they could still clearly hear the child's wails, mingled with the woman's sobbing, growing louder and louder.
Both mother and son suffered from severe mental conditions. Li Banfeng had researched such disorders before; given the current state of medicine, their conditions were unlikely to improve and would almost certainly deteriorate.
Lightbulb shook his head. "I really don't know how this guy holds it together. If it were me, I'd have broken down long ago!"
Tangyuan looked over her files. "During the period Wu Nianping went missing, the mother and son never left the apartment. They ate whatever food was left and almost starved to death at home. Thank goodness he managed to escape Gourd Village."
Li Banfeng led the group to the home of the second survivor, a woman named Deng Yunmei.
Everyone was curious as to why a woman would have strayed into Gourd Village.
Deng Yunmei felt there was nothing strange about it. "What's wrong with being a woman? Those ladies were gorgeous—am I not allowed to take a couple extra looks?"
The young woman was not a local; she worked in Jiaheyu City. She had entered Gourd Village late the year before last as well, returning only on New Year's Eve.
Lightbulb asked bluntly, "Ms. Deng, is your sexual orientation... somewhat atypical?"
Deng Yunmei bristled. "What do you mean, atypical? What's wrong with just looking? They were pretty, and their clothes were so stylish! I just walked over to ask where they bought them, and they offered to take me to have a look. Who would've thought they'd bring me straight to that village! I asked what I was doing there, but no one paid me any mind. So I stayed in the village for a few days and then came back. Didn't I explain all this several times last year? What else do you want to ask? What are you after?"
"How did you manage food and lodging in the village?"
"Did odd jobs, I think. A lot of things I can't remember clearly. Anyway, you do some work, you get a bite to eat, and once you're full, you just find a spot to sleep! What's there to interrogate me about?"
A coughing fit sounded from the bedroom. Deng Yunmei stood up. "All right, it's time to change my sister's sheets. Stop questioning me. That's all I know!"
Tangyuan had gathered background information on Deng Yunmei. Ten years ago, over relationship disputes, Deng Yunmei's sister had been severely beaten by her boyfriend and left permanently unable to care for herself. For all these years, Deng Yunmei had looked after her alone.
Back at the hotel, Tangyuan sighed. "Seventh Master, I told you these survivors wouldn't be able to provide any valuable information, but you wouldn't believe me."
Li Banfeng shook his head. "They were useful. The information we obtained this time is very useful."
Tangyuan and Lightbulb exchanged glances, while Zhong'er nodded vigorously beside them.
Mingxing asked curiously, "Did you actually understand what Bureau Chief Li meant?"
Zhong'er smiled at Mingxing. "I did, but I'm not telling you!"
Li Banfeng called Shen Jingye. "Xiao Shen, have you found that taxi driver?"
Shen Jingye stated that he had searched with all his might, but there was still no trace of him.
Li Banfeng wanted to continue tracking down survivors, but Shen Jingye couldn't wait any longer: "Bureau Chief Li, it's about time you came back. Signs have appeared over in Liyun District again. Gourd Village looks ready to set up shop there."
"This thing even shows signs beforehand?"
"Yes, quite distinct ones. Come back and see for yourself!"
Li Banfeng brought his people back to Yuezhou. Shen Jingye sent a car directly to pick him up and take him to Liyun District.
In front of a beauty salon, Shen Jingye and Li Banfeng stood together by the entrance, peering inside.
Li Banfeng rubbed his chin and murmured, "Standing here gawking like this... isn't it a bit embarrassing?"
"Not at all. When working a case, how can it be embarrassing...?" Shen Jingye felt a bit sheepish himself. "Just keep your eyes on the entrance. There'll be a change in a moment."
After waiting over ten minutes, the beauty salon's doorway suddenly flashed, like a camera flash going off.
Amidst the radiance, Li Banfeng saw two exquisitely curved, pretty women quietly gazing at him from the doorway.
"You saw that, right?" Shen Jingye said to Li Banfeng. "Street cameras can only capture the flash, but the hallucinatory vision following it can only be seen by someone directly experiencing it. According to our current hypothesis, this is electromagnetic interference preceding an eruption of dark energy. That means this is very likely the emergence point for Gourd Village's next entrance. Once the entrance officially manifests, these two women will linger much longer—tens of seconds at least, several minutes at most. They will try every way they can to lure victims into Gourd Village. I've already notified the relevant departments to shut down the beauty salon and assigned Zhuizi to keep guard here. The moment an anomaly occurs, we'll seal off this street. We absolutely won't let any passing pedestrians wander into Gourd Village."
Back in the companion dwelling, Li Banfeng asked the Old Master, "Did you see that beauty salon just now? That's the entrance to Gourd Village."
"I saw it. I haven't heard of Gourd Village before, but whoever made this entrance really knows their stuff. If you want to go inside and have a look around, it suits me fine—I can go in with you to study it. Once I've figured it out, I should be able to get you out."
"All right. When the entrance officially appears in a couple days, I'll find an opportunity to head inside."
Three days later, the "flash phenomenon" outside the beauty salon vanished.
No passersby entered Gourd Village.
However, Zhuizi went missing.
Shen Jingye sat in Li the Seventh's office, smoking a cigarette and sipping tea, trying hard to calm his emotions.
His voice was hoarse, speaking with great difficulty: "Bureau Chief Li, you know how much I trusted Zhuizi! I just promoted him to squad leader, and he pulls this kind of stunt on me! One of the Dark Star Bureau's own men has gone into Gourd Village—how am I supposed to explain this to higher-ups?"
Li Banfeng said, "Did Zhuizi run into any troubles lately?"
"He has no wife, no kids, his parents are deceased, a lone bachelor. During his last physical exam, he was strong as an ox—what trouble could he possibly have?"
Shen Jingye could barely keep his emotions in check; thinking of Zhuizi made his blood boil. Halfway through his sentence, his phone rang: an unidentified flash had appeared in Yuzhu District.
Shen Jingye was anxious. "Who should we assign to watch over it this time?"
Li Banfeng said, "I'll go."
"You're joking," Shen Jingye waved his hand. "How could we have you do grunt work like that?"
"Sending someone else isn't appropriate either. Who else has my level of resolve? Make the arrangements first, and once things are ready, I'll go over and keep watch."
With Li the Seventh willing to help, Shen Jingye was naturally delighted.
This flash had occurred outside a cinema. Li Banfeng stationed himself outside the entrance on duty alongside Tangyuan, Mijian, Zhong'er, Lightbulb, and Mingxing.
It was exhausting work. To ensure efficiency, Li Banfeng divided up shifts:
In the morning, Mingxing was in charge of surveillance, with Tangyuan and Zhong'er assisting.
In the afternoon, Mingxing was in charge of surveillance, with Mijian and Lightbulb assisting.
At night, Mingxing was in charge of surveillance, with Li Banfeng personally assisting.
Come nightfall, Mingxing forced himself to stay alert and kept watch before the cinema. He knew Bureau Chief Li had it out for him a bit; in the previous missions, his performance had indeed been poor.
Yet he was fundamentally different from the other team members. He did not need Bureau Chief Li's approval—above the Dark Star Bureau, he had high-ranking figures looking out for him.
Except the situation had changed now: that high-ranking figure had become a wanted fugitive, and certain issues of his own could come to light at any moment.
His current predicament was exceedingly unfavorable. Under these circumstances, he had no choice but to endure.
At seven-thirty in the morning, having stayed up the entire night, Mingxing could barely keep his eyes open, on the verge of nodding off.
Suddenly, a flash of light shone before him. A small path paved with dirt and pebbles extended inward from the cinema entrance.
Along both sides of the path seemed to be farmland, and in the distance, what looked like houses. The curves of those houses, wonderfully proportioned—neither too plump nor too thin—how splendid they were...
Wait, those weren't the curves of houses—those were the figures of women!
Two women strolled along the path, smiling as they looked toward Mingxing.
Mingxing was slowly shaking off his half-dreaming state. Hadn't this cinema been shut down? Even the street had been cordoned off! Where had these two beauties come from?
The hourglass figures of these two beauties seemed to be... from Gourd Village!
Mingxing snapped fully awake and hurriedly cried out, "Bureau Chief Li! Bureau Chief Li—!"
He had only called out twice when a cold gust brushed across his face, and the path, farmland, and beautiful women he had just seen vanished completely.
A hallucination?
A dream?
Probably because he had been far too exhausted these past couple of days.
Mingxing rubbed his eyes, sat back down in his chair, and resumed monitoring the cinema.
Should he report what just happened to Bureau Chief Li?
The scene had felt so vivid; it didn't feel like a dream.
Mingxing keyed his walkie-talkie: "Bureau Chief Li, I think I just spotted an anomaly... Bureau Chief Li, do you copy?"
"My surname is Li, my given name is Ju. That person just now is a friend of mine," Li Banfeng was explaining his background to the two women on a village road.
Of the two women, one was named A'yun, and the other A'yi.
Both shared the defining characteristic of Gourd Village beauties: full on top, even fuller below, with only their waists exceedingly slender.
A'yun had plump, fair cheeks. Resting her hands on her hips, she asked, "Who are you? Why did you barge into our village?"
Li Banfeng said, "Weren't you standing at the entrance to invite people in?"
A'yi's cheeks were somewhat leaner. She put her hands on her hips as well. "We're looking for someone who genuinely needs to enter the village, not someone like you."
Li Banfeng replied with utmost sincerity, "I genuinely need to enter the village!"
A'yun huffed, "Nonsense! The village chief never said anything about looking for you!"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "That's because the village chief didn't say it outright. He hinted that you should come find me. I am the person who needs to enter the village the most."
A'yi didn't buy it. "Do you have any proof?"
Li Banfeng nodded. "I do. You didn't even have to invite me—I walked in entirely on my own. Doesn't that prove how badly I needed to come?"
A'yun and A'yi shot Li Banfeng a hostile glare, then huddled together to deliberate earnestly for several minutes.
Using his Thread-Hook Earring, Li Banfeng listened intently to their discussion. The two girls weighed the matter across three angles—the overall picture of the village, the village chief's vision, and future development—and ultimately reached a conclusion:
"Anyway, we have to bring someone back. Might as well be him."
The three walked together deeper into the village. It was already winter, yet the paddy fields were lush and green, the crops thriving. This place definitely had the workings of a Farm Cultivator.
A young man popped out of a cornfield. His skin was dark, his frame tall and slender, and his muscular contours were like a sculpture—taut, solid, and finely defined.
The youth tossed two ears of corn toward the girls. "Have a taste! They ripened half a month early—so sweet, hahaha!"
The two women tore off the husks with their teeth and took a hearty bite straight into the raw cobs.
Having chewed, they laughed at the young man, "Sweet! Truly sweet, hahaha!"
In the blink of an eye, the two had devoured both raw ears of corn and asked him for two more.
Watching the three of them, Li Banfeng frowned and asked, "Why are you all acting so unhinged?"
A'yun looked at Li Banfeng. "You think we're crazy? Didn't you want to come here yourself?"
"I didn't come here because I'm crazy!"
"Nobody said you're crazy. We're just offering you an ear of corn." A'yi husked an ear and thrust it before Li Banfeng.
Raw corn?
If he were genuinely starving, he could stomach it.
"But I'm not hungry right now!"
A'yun laughed, "Who asked if you're hungry? We're asking if it's sweet!"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "I don't like corn."
A'yi asked, "Then do you eat wheat?"
"Don't eat wheat either."
"Then what do you usually eat?"
Li Banfeng's expression darkened. "At any rate, I'm not a vegetarian."
A'yi shouted toward a man by the roadside, "A'mu, catch any fish? Give us one! We've got a newcomer here, and he's not a vegetarian!"
A flopping, lively fish was set before him. Li Banfeng blinked. "I don't eat fish either."
"Such a picky eater!" A'yun called out, "Brother A'long, how many river snails did you catch?"
"About a basketful!"
Li Banfeng shook his head. "You can't eat river snails raw. They have parasites—"
"Uncle A'gen, how many earthworms did you catch today?"
"About a basin full!"
Li Banfeng grabbed the cob of corn and took a bite. "It is pretty sweet."
Walking another hundred meters forward, A'yun asked A'yi, "Did you bring the covenant deed?"
A'yi shook her head. "No. We agreed today that you were bringing it."
A'yun pursed her lips. "I forgot too."
A'yi grumbled, "How can we manage without the covenant deed? The village chief doesn't have any at home either."
A'yun thought for a moment. "My house is close by. Let's go to my place to grab one."
The three walked deeper into the village and entered a farmhouse courtyard, inside which stood a mushroom-shaped house.
To call this house mushroom-shaped didn't mean it simply had a large roof; rather, its ground floor was literally a mushroom stalk. Opening the door revealed only a staircase and nothing else.
The second floor was the mushroom cap, containing a living room, a kitchen, and two bedrooms.
Setting aside whether such a structure was structurally stable, the very existence of this second floor baffled Li Banfeng:
"Why did you design a second floor here in the first place?"
A'yun said, "Without a second floor, where would I sleep?"
"Couldn't you just make a ground floor?"
"The ground floor is that tiny—how could anyone sleep there?"
"So you know it's tiny! Why even keep a ground floor at all?"
A'yun replied, "If I don't keep the ground floor, where would the stairs go? Without stairs, how would I get up to the second floor?"
Li Banfeng pondered this for a long while, nearly getting persuaded by A'yun's logic.
Yet in the end, he sorted it out: "You didn't need to build a multi-story building at all. A single-story bungalow would have done fine."
A'yun shook her head. "That won't do! When you live high up, you see far. Living glued to the ground-crust proves at a glance that you have no vision."
Li Banfeng frowned. "What does that have to do with vision? What if someone lives in a basement—how would you explain that?"
A'yun answered very solemnly, "Our village chief's wife lives underground! She dug out twenty-six entire floors beneath the surface. She says living underground feels the most secure. We all mock her for having no vision—she's just a frog at the bottom of a well, completely ignorant of how vast the world is."
Li Banfeng gave a scoff. "If you had the guts to live twenty floors above ground, that would actually show vision."
A'yun pointed into the distance. "Our village chief lives twenty-six floors above ground! The village chief has the greatest vision in our entire village!"
Li Banfeng calculated the distance between them. "How often do they see each other?"
A'yun knew the situation well: "Usually twice a month. On the first of every month, the village chief goes down. Every time he goes down, he says the foundation of his cultivation has become more solid."
A'yi chimed in eagerly, "On the fifteenth of each month, the village chief's wife goes up. Every time she goes up, she's thrilled, chattering non-stop about how her eyes have been opened!"
Li Banfeng tucked his hands into his sleeves and squatted on the ground. "I want to go home. I'm leaving right now."
A'yi looked surprised. "Didn't you say you wanted to come? Why go back on your word so fast?"
Li Banfeng sighed, "Who hasn't been impulsive in their youth?"
A'yun shook her head. "You can't leave now. You haven't met the village chief yet!"
Li Banfeng looked up and asked, "Once I meet the village chief, I can leave?"
A'yi shook her head. "Not then either."
"Then why should I meet him?"
"You meet the village chief, stay in the village for a month, and then you can leave."
To be honest, if Li Banfeng truly wanted to leave, A'yi and A'yun certainly couldn't stop him. Whether anyone in this village could stop him was also debatable.
He knew these two women exaggerated when they spoke; there couldn't possibly be such a bizarre village chief, let alone such a bizarre chief's wife.
Still, he wanted to see what kind of entity this village chief really was.
A'yun and A'yi took the covenant deed and led Li Banfeng toward the village center. Along the way, Li Banfeng saw a man hauling a cart of dirt toward the river.
The cart was huge, holding several tons of soil by estimate, yet the man pulled it with steady ease, demonstrating no ordinary cultivation.
Li Banfeng asked, "What is he hauling so much dirt for?"
A'yi said, "The village chief's wife is digging tunnels underground. With all that excess dirt, it has to be cleared out."
So he was a helper for the village chief's wife.
To have someone of such high cultivation doing this sort of menial labor suggested this village chief was extraordinarily unusual. Could he really be living inside a twenty-six-story building?
In the village center stood a bizarre building indeed, erected like an umbrella amidst the compound. Li Banfeng looked up; judging by sight, it really seemed to be twenty-six stories tall.
A'yun wiped her sweat. "The building is too high. I'm not climbing up."
A'yi led Li Banfeng up the stairs. The lower twenty-five stories of this structure were entirely stairs, running straight through from top to bottom like a chimney.
Arriving at the twenty-sixth floor, they finally saw a door. A'yi said to Li Banfeng, "I'm not going in. Take the covenant deed and go in yourself."
Li Banfeng took the covenant deed and glanced over it:
"Outsider [Name], has voluntarily come to Gourd Village to reside for half a month, after which they may decide their own destination."
Just two lines of text—and they needed to prepare this in advance?
With a look of disdain, Li Banfeng pushed open the door and stepped into the village chief's home.
Behind the door was a living room furnished with a sofa and a coffee table. A man sat on the couch, reading a newspaper.
This guy was the village chief?
He didn't look very old.
Holding the covenant deed, Li Banfeng asked, "You had me brought here just to sign this?"
"Yes." The man nodded.
"Can we negotiate? Half a month is too long. Can we make it shorter?" Li Banfeng laid the covenant deed before the man.
The man shook his head. "That's definitely out of the question. The duration cannot be altered."
Li Banfeng chuckled. "Then I won't sign."
The man looked up at Li Banfeng. "If you don't sign the deed, don't even dream of getting out of here."
Li Banfeng asked very seriously, "You sound quite intimidating, but can you really stop me?"
The man nodded. "They can. Just because I refused to sign the deed, they haven't let me leave."
Li Banfeng was taken aback. "Aren't you the village chief?"
The man shook his head. "I'm not the village chief."
"Then who are you?"
"My name is Zhang Peiwen. You probably don't know me. I only got here a few days ago." A trace of dread lingered in the man's eyes.
Zhang Peiwen? Why was that name so familiar?
The Zhang Peiwen who had just gone missing?
The very Zhang Peiwen they had spent the past few days searching for?
Li Banfeng scrutinized the man, comparing him against photographs and surveillance footage. He found that Zhang Peiwen had grown a bit plumper than before.
Li Banfeng asked, "How did you end up here?"
Zhang Peiwen rubbed his eyes, tears brimming. "Didn't I just say? They won't let you leave without signing the covenant deed. I've already lived here for several days."
"You live here? Then where is the village chief?"
Zhang Peiwen thought for a moment and asked, "When you entered the village, didn't you see the village chief?"
"No! I should... not have, right?" Li Banfeng pushed open the window and looked down.
A'yi craned her neck and looked right back at Li Banfeng.
No way...
Li Banfeng tentatively called out, "Are you the village chief?"
A'yi burst into boisterous laughter. "I am the village chief! Surprised, aren't you?! Hahaha!"
Li Banfeng considered this for a beat, looked at A'yun, and asked, "Are you the village chief's wife?"
A'yun shook her head. "I'm not the village chief's wife. That man you saw pulling the dirt cart earlier—he's the village chief's wife."
Li Banfeng was thoroughly confused. "He's a man. Why would he be the wife?"
A'yi snapped angrily, "What do you think? Am I supposed to marry a woman?"
Li Banfeng thought for a moment and asked again, "Then what about what you said earlier about having eyes opened?"
A'yi snorted. "What business is that of yours? We just happen to like it! Have you signed the covenant deed yet?"
"I'm not signing!" Li Banfeng slammed the window shut and immediately headed for the door. "Can't stay here another second. The people here are completely insane! I've never been to a mental asylum, but even a hospital's psychiatric ward isn't this nuts!"
Zhang Peiwen cautioned, "You can't go down that way. The stairs are gone."
"How could stairs just be gone—" Li Banfeng opened the door and looked. The stairs were truly gone.
From the first floor up to the twenty-fifth, nothing remained but an empty vertical shaft; the staircase had vanished.
Li Banfeng shut the door. Down below, A'yi's laughter drifted up: "Without stairs, can you fly down? Hahahaha!"
Behind him, Zhang Peiwen chimed in, "You definitely can't fly. Give it up."
Can't fly?
Was flying such a difficult thing?
With such limited vision, she had the nerve to act as village chief?
Li Banfeng threw open the window and looked down at A'yi. Today he would teach her a proper lesson.
Li Banfeng stepped onto the windowsill, preparing to fly down.
A'yi had the villagers line up a row of Gatling guns and ordered, "The second he comes down, blast him to pieces!"
Li Banfeng hesitated for a brief moment, then stepped back into the living room.
Hiding behind the sofa, Zhang Peiwen said, "She really will shoot! Several people tried to jump down from here, and all of them were turned into sieves."
Li Banfeng gave a faint smile and shook his head. "I'm not afraid of her bullets. I have plenty of ways to dodge bullets. I just don't want to drag anyone else into it."
Zhang Peiwen looked around. "Who don't you want to drag into it? Is there anyone else here?"
"I don't want to drag you into it. I want to take you with me," Li Banfeng reopened the door. "I'll carry you and fly down through the stairwell."
Zhang Peiwen shook his head, terror all over his face. "Flying down won't do any good either. They won't let me leave."
"I have a way. Don't worry, just stick close to me." Li Banfeng looked at Zhang Peiwen, a calm, dependable smile on his face.
Zhang Peiwen nodded firmly. "I trust you!"
The two stood at the doorway. As Li Banfeng prepared to jump down, Zhang Peiwen cautioned, "There might be explosives in this shaft."
The village chief rigged explosives inside her own house?
Li Banfeng truly hadn't considered that.
"Where are the explosives usually placed?"
Zhang Peiwen thought for a moment. "Between twenty and thirty meters up from the ground."
Li Banfeng flew down some distance, inspecting carefully along the walls. Since he didn't know how much explosive they had planted, he wanted to avoid the rigged sections as much as possible.
Checking from thirty meters down to twenty meters, Li Banfeng looked up at Zhang Peiwen. "I don't see any explosives."
"Take a closer look." Zhang Peiwen lit an explosive satchel, tossed it down the stairwell, and slammed the door shut.
Boom!
The stairwell exploded.
Zhang Peiwen pushed open the window and yelled excitedly, "Chief, I blew him up!"
Chapter 596