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Chapter 182: What Happened in the Village in the Last Era
All the villagers focused their attention on one spot.

Lu Yue also perked up and was ready for battle, because according to the strange curse of this village, since Wang Laosan's father was rescued by them, the newborn was destined to have a bad fate and would have difficulty surviving.

If the source appears at this time, we can catch the turtle in the jar.

Solve this problem completely.

Lu Yue caught a glimpse of Examiner Zhong from the corner of his eye, and it was obvious that the other party had the same plan.

The delivery room was bustling with people, and the midwife was directing people to prepare hot water, buckets, basins, towels, scissors and other necessary items...

Finally, a loud cry broke the silence.

A figure rushed out in a hurry.

"Mother and child are safe, the baby weighs 6.7 jin, a big fat boy!"

All the villagers were not surprised by this result, because the river god had already predicted it, and the next step was to send blessings as usual. Since most of the villagers were not well educated and these blessings were not from the heart, they sounded like a perfunctory routine.

The owner of the house also agreed one by one and thanked everyone for their blessings. Since the newborn was just born and it was not suitable for him to be seen by others, all the villagers took the free eggs and left the scene one after another.

However, at this time, Lu Yue felt confused.

According to the curse described by Wang Laosan, this village maintains a fixed population of 177 people all year round. When one person is born, one person will die. If no one dies, the newborn will die in the womb.

But now, the newborn is fine.

what on earth is it?

Could it be that the curse has been broken?
The undead knight he killed last night was the mastermind behind this?

In fact, they are overthinking things. Has this matter been settled?
But what about the source that several people felt in the river?

Examiner Zhong also came over at this time, his brows knitted, his face full of doubts, and then said: "It's impossible for this matter to end so simply. There must be something else going on."

Lu Yue also thought so, but if the curse was not broken, it would mean that when a newborn baby was born, the number of villagers would still be 177.

This means... a villager passed away without anyone noticing.

Lu Yue suddenly figured this out.

But this raises a new question: who is this dead villager?

Why did he die?
Of course, it is impossible that Wang Laosan and his sister killed the person.
Is there a murderer hiding in this village?
Lu Yue frowned, his head felt a little dizzy from thinking about it. His only guess was that the dead villager might be related to the ghost painter.

But why did the ghost painter do this?

He strung the clues together and thought carefully, but still felt that the information he obtained was too little. It was like looking at flowers in the fog. He could not peel off the fog that lingered before his eyes for a while.

Next, Lu Yue exchanged information with Examiner Zhong and learned that as the oldest person in the village and the only one who had experienced the last era, Mr. Chen might know some inside information.

The ghost painter has made no progress, but the secret breakthrough of the river lies in the old man.

Just at this moment, they saw Mr. Chen who had just come out of the house.

Without further ado, Lu Yue and the other two quickly followed.

Until we arrived at the old man's residence.

This is a simple bungalow, but it is filled with various Buddhist statues and items. Just as the old man stepped into the house and recited some scriptures devoutly to the Buddha statue, there was a knock on the door.

The old man stopped chanting, picked up his walking stick and shakily went to open the door.

It was discovered that the people who came were actually "Wang Laosan's brother and sister".

"Wang Laosan, what's the matter?"

"Mr. Chen, just now, I figured it out. This is the fate of our village. No one can escape it. We cannot get rid of the will of the river god. For the safety of the village, we must do this."

The old man smiled kindly and patted Lu Yue on the shoulder.

"Kid, I hope you can figure it out. For the safety of the village, we have no choice but to do this. Maybe next time it will be my turn as an old man without children to crawl in there by myself. Then I will need you young people to see me off for the last time."

Lu Yue nodded solemnly: "Don't worry, Mr. Chen, when that day comes, I will personally prepare your funeral, applying cement mortar and laying bricks."

When the old man heard this, he was speechless for a moment.

Seeing that the old man remained silent, Lu Yue continued to ask: "Mr. Chen, actually we came here today to ask a question, why was our village called Guhe Village before, but was renamed Kuhai Village almost fifty years ago?"

Old Chen looked at the "Wang Laosan brother and sister" and his thoughts seemed to drift to the distant past. He slowly said, "There is a river beside the village. It was indeed called Guhe Village in the past, but it was renamed Kuhai Village a long time ago."

Lu Yue had a black question mark on his face: "????"

This is not nonsense!

Mr. Chen, have you secretly watched the part where Tang Monk asked for directions in the country of monks?
"Then Mr. Chen, can you tell me what happened in the village about fifty years ago, especially what happened in relation to the river?"

At this moment, the usually calm old man showed a slight change on his face, but then returned to normal, shook his head and said: "Why are you asking this? It's been too long, I'm old, I can't remember it clearly."

What can't you remember?
It was obvious that he didn't want to say it. There must be something fishy going on. Because of the official people around him, he was a little hesitant to do some things. Just when Lu Yue was thinking about whether there was a gentler way, the examiner Zhong behind him suddenly grabbed Lu Yue's arm, timidly hid behind him, and pointed at the old man: "Brother... there is a woman over there! She has long hair and is wet all over. She looks like she crawled out of the river. So scary..."

Lu Yue frowned.

Examiner Zhong's acting was so lifelike, his movements, expressions and tone were all just right. Could it be that he had secretly read "An Actor's Self-cultivation" behind his back?
When Lu Yue looked in the direction of Examiner Zhong's finger, he indeed saw a vague figure in the distance. The figure was wearing clothes from the previous era, with long hair, and his back was facing away from everyone. He was wet all over, and water was dripping onto the ground.

Are there really ghosts appearing?

Lu Yue was about to take action, but soon realized something was wrong.

There is no yin energy unique to ghosts. Is this... an illusion?
The old man suddenly turned around, squinting his eyes, staring at the hazy back with tears dripping from his eyes. The next second, his pupils suddenly dilated, his body froze in place, his lips moved slightly, and he whispered in a trembling voice: "Hong'er... is that you, Hong'er..."

Lu Yue's ears moved slightly as he clearly caught the name.

Only then did he understand what Examiner Zhong meant. He used magic to simulate a woman's back in order to provoke the old man who was not telling the truth.

As for being discovered, that is simply impossible.

Even he could only see the outline of a figure, let alone an ordinary old man in his seventies, who would definitely not be able to be seen clearly at this distance.

Sure enough, it was revealed in an instant.

Moreover, Lu Yue keenly noticed that Examiner Zhong quietly took out a small bottle.

The words "Quick-acting heart-saving pills produced by the Demon-Suppressing Bureau" were clearly printed on the bottle.

While threatening the 70-year-old man, he also prepared quick-acting heart-saving pills.
Mr. Zhong, you are so considerate!!

In an instant, the figure disappeared. Seeing this, Lu Yue realized that the time had come and stepped forward again to ask, "Mr. Chen, I don't know why my sister has been seeing that figure these days. I see that she is wearing clothes that seem to be from the last era, and she is soaked. What happened in the village in the past?"

"My father is gone, and I only have this one sister. I can't let anyone hurt my sister, and I have to get to the bottom of this!" Lu Yue acted like an honest man whose desire to protect his sister was surging and he was suppressed to the extreme and about to explode.

The old man seemed to be still immersed in his previous emotions, holding the crutches tightly in both hands. Seeing this, Lu Yue, who was worried about the old man's sudden death, hurried forward to support him, but the old man's body trembled, and he held the crutches tightly, indicating that he didn't need help.

"I didn't expect that she would show up after all. This is God punishing our Kuhai Village..."

"Wang Laosan, our village was not called Kuhai Village before, it was called Guhe Village. The people in our village owed her."

The old man raised his head, tears glistening in his eyes.

"Do you know what a child bride is?"

Lu Yue was shocked.

The old man began to tell what happened in this village fifty years ago.

That was also something he experienced personally.

A child bride, also known as a "child bride" or "adopted daughter-in-law", refers to a form of marriage in which the husband's family adopts a baby girl at a young age and then marries her to their own son when she reaches adulthood. This is illegal in modern times, but it was still common in some remote areas in the last era.

Xiaohong is like this, she is a child bride.

In the last era, in the old and ignorant Guhe Village, there was a wealthy family who adopted Xiaohong since she was a child, just to continue the family line for their mentally retarded son. Until she was eighteen years old, the simple, ignorant, and kind-hearted Xiaohong grew up into a graceful young lady.

At this time, a teacher came to the village.

This teacher was the old man when he was young. He taught the children in the village to read and write for free, and was therefore deeply respected by the villagers.

Until one day he found out what happened to Xiaohong.

Unable to bear seeing Xiaohong's tragic ending, he decided to break this old habit and give Xiaohong freedom, so he helped Xiaohong escape from here.

However, he failed, and was mistakenly believed by the angry villagers to be having an affair with Xiaohong. According to village tradition, they were both to be thrown into a pig cage.

Although the villagers eventually spared his life because of his identity as a teacher, the rich man drowned Xiaohong in a pig cage in that river.

"I saw with my own eyes that the villagers threw Xiaohong into the river. The fish in the river were biting Xiaohong's body. The whole river was dyed red. Xiaohong died tragically..."

"I will never forget the look in Xiaohong's eyes at that time."

"Later, human bones often floated in the river, and people in the village began to die mysteriously. When they died, their bodies were covered with white bones, and all the flesh and blood had been eaten away."

“These are all retribution.”

"This generation will have to bear the consequences of the evil sown by the previous generation."

"I didn't believe in ghosts and gods at first, but what happened in this village forced me to believe. Later, I found a master and wanted to pray for Xiaohong. The master told me that Xiaohong had too much resentment and that in order to pray for her, I had to pray day and night for decades."

"Later, I stayed in this village to pray for Xiaohong's soul to be reborn."

"I hope to resolve Xiaohong's grievances in my lifetime. This village has received the punishment it deserves. Those who have hurt her are dead, and they were buried alive in such a cruel way."

After the old man finished recounting his past events, tears rolled down his cloudy eyes.

(End of this chapter)