After AFK for five years, I returned to be number one in the entire server.

Chapter 15 Stone Bridge Village

Recently, something happened: Qin Wei was transferred from the External Liaison Section to the Command and Dispatch Section.

Lin received a call from Qin Wei while she was eating.

"What is it?"

Qin Wei said, "Yesterday afternoon, something happened in Shiqiao Village on the outskirts of Ningchuan. The local police station received a report that someone had gone missing in the village, but the police lost contact with them after arriving. The case was then transferred to Tianshu, and Director Zhou sent Pei Xiao there."

"Pei Xiao entered the village yesterday afternoon and walked out of the village entrance early this morning. He is fine, but his condition is not right. He can't explain what happened. He only remembers entering the village, walking for a while, and then it was morning. The rest of his memory is blank. The technical department examined him and found no abnormalities in his magnetic field. He is conscious."

"The command center determined that the opponent was a mental-type player, and you were the one who dealt with Bone Erosion, so I recommended you to the command center. The command center wants you to give it a try."

Lin thought about it and figured there would definitely be other scheduling later. For a new player who had just joined the team, the two scheduling sessions wouldn't be too close together. If he accepted the task in advance, he wouldn't be disturbed later.

"When are we leaving?"

"Now, I will be your dedicated line commander, and the connection will be maintained throughout. The channel will remain open. If the signal is interrupted for three minutes, I will determine that you are out of contact and activate the emergency plan."

Lin also left the school and got into a black minivan parked at the door. Qin Wei met with him to discuss the situation in Shiqiao Village.

Shiqiao Village is located in western Ningchuan County and is administratively under the jurisdiction of Ningchuan, but it is nearly three hours' drive from the city center.

The village is nestled against the mountains. The registered population is 120 households, but less than half of them are actually permanent residents. Most of the residents are elderly, while the young people go out to work and only return during holidays.

The village is surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only one road in and out.

"Besides the police, who were the first people to go missing?"

"An elderly man named Liu De, 67 years old, was not from Shiqiao Village, but was a native of the neighboring Niuhua Village. He went to Shiqiao Village to visit a friend for dinner and did not return for several days. His wife was very worried and also disappeared after going to Shiqiao Village. The people of Niuhua Village noticed something was wrong and began to call the police."

The van slowly drove out of Ningchuan city, and the scenery outside the window changed from factories and residential buildings on the outskirts of the city to vast farmlands.

As they approached the village, Qin Wei reminded them, "The driver will only take you to the village entrance. Once inside, there are a few things to be aware of. First, don't trust any sense of 'familiarity.' Pei Xiao mentioned this word in his report; he said that after entering the village, everything felt familiar, as if he had been there before. Second, if you find yourself starting to forget things, immediately back out without hesitation. Third, when you encounter villagers, just have normal conversations; don't actively reveal your identity or purpose."

Lin also got out of the car, and the van turned around and left. Its taillights bounced twice on the dirt road before disappearing around the bend.

"They run pretty fast," Lin Ye remarked.

He looked at the village. It was very quiet. The wind blew from the other side of the mountain, the leaves rustled, the gates swayed in the wind, and the hinges creaked, but there were no dogs barking, no chickens, and no human voices.

Lin walked into the village, where there were typical rural self-built houses on both sides, one or two stories high, with mud walls and broken glass stuck in the top.

Several electric bikes were parked in front of houses, their seats covered in dust, indicating they hadn't been driven in a long time.

He walked past a corner and saw an old woman sitting on the doorstep picking vegetables.

Below was a red plastic basin. Her fingers were thin and dry. She looked up at Lin Ye when she heard footsteps.

"Young man, who are you looking for?"

Lin looked at her quietly.

"Come in and have some water."

Her tone was casual, like a polite remark to a stranger passing by.

She stood up, moved the plastic basin aside, and turned to go inside.

He moved slowly, his back was slightly hunched, and a section of the hem of his floral short-sleeved shirt was sticking out from his waistband.

The main room was dimly lit, with an eight-immortal table placed against the wall, on which bowls and chopsticks were laid out.

She brought a bowl of water from the kitchen and handed it to Lin Ye.

Lin turned and left, while the other person, still holding the bowl, followed behind, saying, "Have a sip, young man... just have a sip..."

Lin continued walking deeper into the village. After walking about a hundred meters, a person suddenly appeared at the entrance of the alley ahead.

The man, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, looked anxious, but upon seeing Lin Ye, he was quite surprised and delighted: "You're from above?"

Seeing Lin Ye nod, Liu Degui said, "Tian Shu, right? Then you've come to the right place. Something's not right here. My name is Liu Gui, and I'm here to find my second uncle, Liu De. He came to Shiqiao Village to visit a friend a few days ago, and then he disappeared. My aunt and the police came looking for him, but they were all gone too."

"When did you arrive?" Lin asked curiously.

"Yesterday morning, I figured the police had already come in, so I came in to check, just in case I found something." Liu Gui took out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth.

"You're pretty brave. Did you find anything?"

"Find my ass. This village looks normal during the day, but it's a different story at night. You can hear a lot of strange noises, like something is crawling on the roof, in the corner, or even next to your bed."

"You still dare to live here?"

"Yeah, I stayed in that empty house in the middle of the village. The door wasn't locked, so I went in and made do for the night."

"It's so dangerous here, why don't you go out?"

"I want to, but I can't get out. I tried yesterday, and no matter where I went, I always ended up back in the village. You can try it yourself if you don't believe me. Head towards the village entrance now and see if you can get out."

"What else did you discover?"

"There are a few people in this village who are really strange: an old woman, two old men, and a child. Don't mess with them. This place is very eerie. But my second uncle has always been good to me since I was a child. I can't ignore what happened to him. I need to find him alive or dead."

As the two were talking, Liu Gui's clothes shifted slightly, and a transparent tentacle emerged from behind him, bypassing Lin Ye's line of sight.

The tip of the tentacle opened up and split into five finer tendrils. It crossed the distance between the two people and quietly reached towards Lin Ye's neck.

The tentacles snapped off in mid-air, as if they had been cut by something sharp.

Lin was still listening to him, showing no unusual behavior.

He refused to believe it and stretched out the broken, transparent tentacle, trying to touch Lin Ye's neck again.

Then the tentacle broke off again.

The break was clean, and you couldn't even feel any pain.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing, I think I just saw something behind you."

"What is it?"

"I must be seeing things. This village is too eerie."

Liu Gui threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it with his toe, quite forcefully.

His gaze never left Lin Ye, as if he was trying to discern something from the other person.

"Brother, I'll take you somewhere."