Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 5 Simple folk customs
Looking at the task prompt that appeared in front of him, Xiao Ran was stunned for just a second. He felt very surprised, but it seemed reasonable.

If I am not asked to deal with this evil ghost, what is the point of my being here?
But he couldn't help but swear in his heart, obviously he was extremely unhappy with this way of forcing things.

"Okay, I agree!"

Even though he cursed in his heart, Xiao Ran quickly agreed. But then he changed his tone and said helplessly, "But... to be honest, grandma, with my body, let alone subduing a female ghost, I'm afraid I can't even withstand three punches from a village peasant woman."

Seeing Xiao Ran nod in agreement, the old lady smiled like a flower and quickly patted Xiao Ran's hand and said:
"Good boy, don't worry. I'm not really asking you to fight this evil ghost. After so many years, we have figured out a way to deal with her. We just lack a helper with strong yang energy. There is no time to lose. Let's take action tonight while the evil ghost hasn't discovered you."

"Oh well!"

Seeing Xiao Ran nodded in agreement, the old lady smiled and gestured to Xiao Ran to rest here first, and she went back to call for people to get ready.

"That's right!" As she was about to reach the door, the old lady suddenly remembered something, "What's missing? Just tell Aunt Zhang what you say."

The old lady pointed to the lame middle-aged woman hiding at the kitchen door.

When Aunt Zhang heard the old lady calling her, she hurried out of the kitchen without saying a word, but nodded repeatedly at the old lady and Xiao Ran.

Seeing this, the old lady nodded with satisfaction, and then slowly left with the support of the two women.

After the old lady left, Aunt Zhang came out of the kitchen.

Xiao Ran hurriedly asked Aunt Zhang to sit down and eat together, but Aunt Zhang shook her head, pointed to the room next door, opened the door, and pointed at Xiao Ran again, as if to indicate that this room was prepared for him.

Seeing that Aunt Zhang remained silent, Xiao Ran thought, "Could it be that Aunt Zhang is also mute?"

Now his original wish to get some information out of Aunt Zhang was dashed.

After quickly eating a few bites of food, Xiao Ran decided to go out for a walk.

As soon as he reached the door, Aunt Zhang limped out, clutching Xiao Ran's backpack tightly with both hands, looking at Xiao Ran with horror.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran quickly waved his hand and explained: "I'm not leaving. I'm just going out for a walk and some food. Um... leave your backpack here. I'll be back soon."

As he spoke, Xiao Ran put down his backpack and handed it to Aunt Zhang.

Aunt Zhang took the backpack and then let Xiao Ran go. However, she did not go back to the house. Instead, she stood at the door and looked at Xiao Ran's back, as if she was afraid that if she missed a glance at him, Xiao Ran would lose him.

Xiao Ran strolled in the village along the bluestone path. Occasionally, when he saw some villagers, they would come up to him and surround him, asking about his well-being without waiting for him to say hello.

What they asked most was what the exterior looked like.

It can be seen that they have been trapped in this village for a long time and have been completely disconnected from the outside world for an era.

Xiao Ran casually said a few things, such as street lights, roads, and cars. He didn't say too much, but everyone was already fascinated by it.

An old man, fearing that Xiao Ran might say he was tired, brought over a bowl of water.

"It's so nice outside. We want to go out and take a look too."

"I have never left the village since I was a child. Let's go see what the iron horses that can run a thousand miles a day on the road look like."

Even the boy who was about seven or eight years old and wearing a bellyband next to him looked up and said with a happy look on his face: "Then I want to go to school, meet more good friends, and play with them."

Hearing the child's tender voice, everyone laughed together, "Niuwa, you only know how to play!"

Xiao Ran's arrival seemed to bring back some life to their lifeless world.

The villagers' simple smiles were very bright. Xiao Ran sat there smiling, but his eyes were looking at the faces of these villagers. He always felt that these villagers' smiles were very sincere, but the expressions on their faces... well... it was hard to describe. He always felt that something was wrong.

Everyone chatted and laughed, and the morning passed. Xiao Ran got up and left, and took a walk around the village.

Standing on the earthen slope east of the village, Xiao Ran looked down at the village, his brows furrowed more and more as he looked.

It is noon now. Although the whole village is still covered with a layer of white fog, the visibility is much better than in the morning. At a glance, you can roughly see the outline of the village.

There are only a few houses made of broken bricks and tiles in front and behind the village. Most of the houses may have collapsed and were rebuilt with stones.

What puzzled Xiao Ran was that the village was filled with a very heavy aura of death. It was just such a heavy aura of death.

With such a strong aura of death, even if the village was cursed by evil spirits, there should be some wandering souls who are reluctant to leave.

But apart from Li Ji, whom he met when he entered the village, Xiao Ran didn't see a single soul after walking around so long.

When Xiao Ran walked back slowly, he saw Aunt Zhang still standing at the door waiting for him. When she saw Xiao Ran, her tense face suddenly relaxed. She forced a smile at Xiao Ran and waved to him to come back soon.

"Sorry, this village is quite big, I wandered around for a while longer."

When Xiao Ran walked in, he saw the cooked food on the table and said to Aunt Zhang with a slightly apologetic tone.

Aunt Zhang nodded and waved her hand to urge Xiao Ran to go to the table and eat.

After Xiao Ran sat down, Aunt Zhang seemed to notice that the food had gotten cold, and quickly signaled Xiao Ran to wait, and then took the food to the kitchen to reheat it. Seeing Aunt Zhang limping, Xiao Ran wanted to stand up to help, but at this moment, he suddenly felt a pain in the back of his head, as if a stone had hit him on the head.

Xiao Ran was startled, and saw a woman with disheveled hair popping out of the door, smiling at him foolishly.

"is her!"

Xiao Ran recognized her immediately. This was the woman in white from last night.

Without waiting for Xiao Ran to speak, the woman turned and ran. Seeing this, Xiao Ran hesitated for a second, then stood up and chased after her.

The woman ran very fast, hiding in inconspicuous corners. Xiao Ran followed behind her, and was confused after seeing so many twists and turns. After turning a corner, he could no longer see the woman.

Looking around, a broken wall appeared and attracted Xiao Ran's attention.

Most of the wall had collapsed and was covered with moss and weeds, but traces of the fire could still be seen on the wall.

"Could this be the wealthy family the old lady was talking about?"

Xiao Ran walked around the wall and saw the collapsed house behind him.

If this is the wealthy family the old lady mentioned, then her own old house can be considered the richest in the village, not to mention the six-story Western-style building of the village chief.

Xiao Ran walked around in the ruins and didn't find anything wrong. But just as he was about to go back, he heard a slight movement in his ear and a subtle sound.

Xiao Ran followed the sound and saw the woman in white squatting on the ground behind the collapsed house. She seemed to have noticed Xiao Ran coming, so she made a gesture to keep quiet, indicating Xiao Ran not to speak, and then pointed to the ground below her feet.

Xiao Ran took a closer look and saw that it was a very narrow and small floor-to-ceiling window.

Below the window, it looked like a cellar, no, to be more precise, it was more like a dungeon.

The dungeon was very deep, and you could smell a foul odor even when you were lying down.

Xiao Ran looked at the dungeon carefully. It was filled with iron chains, shackles, sticks, whips, and even some tools that Xiao Ran could not recognize.

"Where is this?"

Xiao Ran looked at the woman beside him, and through the gaps between her falling hair, he saw that the woman's face was covered with centipede-like scars.

The woman seemed to notice Xiao Ran's gaze and immediately turned her face away.

"Swish..."

The sound of brisk footsteps interrupted Xiao Ran's thoughts, and he saw a figure walking down the stairs to the dungeon step by step.

"It's him!"

After Xiao Ran saw who was coming, he became even more confused.

I saw that the person coming was not tall and was wearing a red bellyband. I took a closer look and found that it was the Niu Wazi who was just at the entrance of the village saying that he was going out to school.

What is he doing here?

"Today, a man came outside. My parents were very happy and said that they could get out of here, even if it was just to take a look."

Niu Wazi walked to a box, talking to himself.

The box was opened and he began to take things out one by one. Because of the angle, Xiao Ran couldn't see clearly what he took out.

"That big brother from outside is really good-looking and speaks sweetly. He said that the roads outside are now big and wide, and there will be no water accumulation even when it rains. There are also iron horses that can run a thousand miles a day, called... Oh, cars."

After a while, when Niu Wazi stood up, Xiao Ran could see clearly that it was a human-shaped puppet.

Niu Wazi began to tell the puppet about what happened today.

Xiao Ran was hiding upstairs and felt a little embarrassed when he heard it.

"So these are other people's children's private whispers." He thought about it and agreed. When he was a child, he would also whisper to his toys.

We have all been through this, and everyone has had a childish past.

Just as Xiao Ran was about to leave, Niu Wazi slowly stood up and said, "I will have new friends in the future, and I can also go to school. There are many, many children there, and they will definitely be more fun. You..."

“It’s not new anymore!”

As he spoke, an axe appeared in Niu Wazi's hand and he swung it and hit the puppet's head.

"puff!"

The puppet's wooden head was instantly split in two, with one half falling to the ground and blood gushing out from the other half...

(End of this chapter)