I write obituaries for the gods

When they first met, that guy complained that Lin Chen was giving him the silent treatment.

Now the tables have turned, and Lin Chen is being subjected to passive-aggressive behavior by the residents of Yuzhen.

It really is a cycle of karma...

Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi wandered aimlessly through the streets, occasionally asking people a question.

Throughout the entire journey, zero people answered their questions.

Lin Chen could see the hostility in those people's eyes, and most of the passersby kept a certain distance from the two of them.

They really resent outsiders.

In the blink of an eye, more than an hour had passed, and the two's investigation progress bar was still at 0.

Lin Chen never dreamed that the investigation would be stalled for such a strange reason. After all, he had already obtained the household registration information, but it turned out that there were no road signs in the town at all.

The main problem is that the residents here really don't pay any attention to people...

As they walked, Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi arrived at a large lake.

The lake was shrouded in mist, and the moist air flowed in the air like countless waterfalls tumbling and colliding.

"Phew, let's take a break."

Li Zhanyi stretched by the lake, his face full of fatigue.

"Ugh... This is terrible, how did things turn out like this..."

"Did you get a blow?" Lin Chen smiled.

"Come on, I rarely get rejected when I strike up a conversation," Li Zhanyi said, feeling hurt. "Although I rarely talk to people, almost every time I do, they respond very enthusiastically. I thought that even though I'm a bit of a homebody, I actually have great social skills!"

"Actually, it's most likely just because you're pretty that people are too embarrassed to refuse you," Lin Chen said, revealing the truth.

"..."

For a moment, Li Zhanyi's expression kept changing; she didn't know whether she should be happy or angry.

This tug-of-war eventually turned into a faint sigh.

"Sigh, in short, my confidence has been shattered," Li Zhanyi patted his cheeks. "Let's go, let's keep asking around, I refuse to believe we can't find someone!"

"Okay, let's go!"

The two walked along the lakeside, searching for the way back to the village.

At this moment, the outline of a dock gradually appeared on the misty lakeside.

At the end of the pier, an old man wearing a straw hat was fishing. His white clothes fluttered in the mist, making him appear and disappear, giving him the air of a hermit.

Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi exchanged a glance.

"At times like this, it's usually the part where 'the protagonist encounters a miraculous adventure when they're at their wit's end,' right?" Li Zhanyi murmured.

"Why do I feel like he's even less likely to talk to us?" Lin Chen looked at the old man. "I even feel like he'll start a boss fight as soon as we step onto the dock."

"I'll fight any boss battles that come my way, since I need to keep challenging the social arena!"

Li Zhanyi resolutely stepped onto the dock and walked towards the old man, and Lin Chen naturally had no choice but to follow.

The two walked behind the old man, and after they stopped, Li Zhanyi mustered up her courage once again and spoke:

"Hey, sir, we'd like to ask where number 28 Shuihua Street is?"

The old man glanced back at Li Zhanyi, then at Lin Chen.

When he saw Lin Chen, his eyes flickered slightly, and he said:

"What do you want with No. 28 Shuihua Street?"

"I'm here to see a friend," Lin Chen noticed the unusual look in the old man's eyes, "with no ill intent."

“Walk south from the fountain in the town center until you reach a small pond. The house with willow trees planted in front of it is the one.”

The old man answered Lin Chen's question directly, which left Lin Chen somewhat bewildered.

Is this really a serendipitous encounter?

"You...know me?" Lin Chen asked instinctively, looking into the old man's eyes.

"You don't recognize me?" the old man asked Lin Chen. "Ah...yes, you really shouldn't recognize me anymore, it's been so long."

After he finished speaking, he turned his head and stared blankly at the buoy bobbing on the cold lake water.

What's going on here?

Could this be my brother or something from a past life? Did I have a past life?

Or perhaps... the person he knows isn't me...

Or is it "the ghost of history"?

A barrage of monologues floated through Lin Chen's mind, like lines of bullet comments.

"Thank you," he said to the old man, and then left the dock with Li Zhanyi.

"That's so strange. Do you think he might be teasing you?" Li Zhanyi analyzed for Lin Chen. "You know what, the way he's acting does give off a bit of a hermit-like vibe..."

"Let's see if the address he gave us is real or fake." Lin Chen exhaled a breath of cold air.

As the old man said, the two turned a corner in the town center and walked all the way to a small pond.

Beside the pond, a willow tree stands tall, its drooping branches swaying on the lake's surface, leaving trails of water.

A two-story house sits not far from the willow trees.

This must be No. 28 Shuihua Street.

Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi walked together toward the house by the lake.

As they approached the house, a figure suddenly emerged from among the swaying willow branches: an old woman dressed in colorful fabrics, sitting in the shade of the willow tree, weaving clothes in the cool air drifting from the pond.

It's clear that she is the owner of No. 28 Shuihua Street.

There's no way we'd find it! There's no street here! The address must have been filled in randomly!

Hearing Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi's footsteps, the old woman looked up and glanced at them.

"Are you two here to see Xiao Hei?" she asked.

.......

Chapter 44 The Old Priest (10,000-word update, please vote!) (Four chapters + Five chapters)

After the old woman finished speaking, Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi couldn't help but exchange a glance.

"Little Black" clearly refers to the genius girl "Black Widow".

Hmm... are our intentions written all over our faces? So obvious?

"She came back once not long ago," the old woman murmured. "What a pity, she said she might not have the chance to come back again, and told us to move away as soon as possible and not stay in Bengyu Town..."

“We are investigators from the Rapid Response Division 1 of the Anomaly Investigation Bureau,” Lin Chen showed his identification. “Your daughter appears to be being controlled by people from the Foundation, so we’re here to find out more.”

“I know,” the old woman chuckled. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

She placed the fabric in her hand on the small table beside her, got up with her cane, and walked step by step toward the small house not far away.

Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi followed her into the small house. As soon as they entered, they were greeted by colorful ribbons hanging from the ceiling.

Ancient bronze artifacts were displayed on the platforms on both sides of the porch. Through the faintly visible colored stripes, Lin Chen could see some bronze masks that resembled those from Sanxingdui.

“Those are ritual implements,” the old woman murmured. “Don’t touch them. It’s a small matter if the implements break, but if you get karmic entanglements from them, that would be a grave sin…”

"Are you a... priest?" Li Zhanyi asked with some awe.

"Ah."

The old woman nodded kindly to Li Zhanyi, then led the two of them forward.

"But the young people in Rain Town don't believe in that stuff anymore. My two kids have been rebellious since they were little. Their favorite thing to say is, 'The Rain God didn't save us.' Then one by one they went to Rain City, either to go to university or to join the army, and they rarely come back..."

"That's quite normal. After all, in a small puddle, the rain god can only guide us, not perform miracles."

The old woman parted the colorful curtain for the two, gesturing for them to enter:

"Go, go to the table and have a cup of hot tea."

Lin Chen looked behind the curtain: what came into view was a small living room, with a small wooden table in the center of the living room.

Two cups of hot tea were placed on the wooden table.

Exactly two cups.

Wow, do we have to be so mysterious?

Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi sat down at the table. After they were seated, Lin Chen stopped Li Zhanyi, who was about to drink tea, and picked up two cups of tea himself, taking a sip first.

If it's poisonous, he won't die from it, but if it gets on his clothes, that's another story.

Seeing Lin Chen's wariness, the old priest smiled faintly and sat down at the table.

“Don’t be afraid, child,” she said with a smile. “I’m worried about Blackie too. She’s a stubborn, foolish girl who’s gotten too caught up in the game of power and will drown sooner or later.”

"Now that you're here, I will find out her whereabouts."

"Are you going to use... divination or something similar?" Li Zhanyi looked at the old woman expectantly.

It has to be said that the atmosphere from the moment she entered has indeed intimidated Li Zhanyi; she feels that the natives of Rain Town are quite mysterious...

It's perfectly normal to know a little bit about divination or the like!

Facing Li Zhanyi's expectant gaze, the old woman smiled, stared at her for a while, and then shook her head:

"Do not."

She pulled a phone out of her pocket and awkwardly started swiping on it:

"I'll ask on WeChat."

Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi: ......

Her phone is a pretty new model, a Pineapple Bun 17 Pro Max.

“I’ve found out, the person in the know will be back soon,” the old woman put down her phone. “You can wait a little while, no rush, no rush.”

For some reason, when Lin Chen saw the old woman take out her phone, he felt that her reliability level suddenly skyrocketed.

If she were to tell any more riddles or something, Lin Chen's brain really wouldn't be able to take it.

That wretched riddle-maker.

So Lin Chen and Li Zhanyi drank hot tea and waited silently.

With nothing to do, Lin Chen's gaze wandered around the room, examining the things pasted on the walls.

Soon, his gaze was drawn to an oil painting.

In the scene, a figure holding a sharp axe stands in front of a high mountain, on which sit figures dressed in ancient Greek attire, and at the summit stands the chief god wielding lightning.

"The ancient Greek gods rose and fell," the old woman noticed Lin Chen's gaze and explained to him with a smile, "Zeus died, the age of the gods came to an end, and the city-states of men began to flourish."

"Those gods, and the demigods of today, are the same thing, right?" Lin Chen asked subconsciously.

The old woman nodded gently:

"And the people who killed demigods back then are the same people who kill demigods now."

She stared at Lin Chen, her dark eyes as deep as a well of ink.

"Ragnarok is not the future that Odin fears, but the future that the gods fear, and it is also their destiny."

The old woman pointed to another oil painting, which depicted the giant ship Nagirfa pieced together from the fingernails of the dead, with a figure holding an axe standing at the bow.

"The age of the gods comes and goes again and again; their spirits linger, and the things that kill them are born from the crowds of people time and time again."

"The gods have tried time and again to control the course of history. They have always been able to maintain their dynasties for a long time, but they will eventually fall, without exception, time and time again."

The old woman pointed to the third oil painting.

This time, the oil painting depicts a deep blue comet!

"You know that demigods are not extraterrestrials?" Lin Chen frowned.

“When have they ever not had their own excuse?” the old woman laughed. “Some claim to be appointed heavenly soldiers and generals, some claim to be descendants of the creator god, and some even claim to be the holy sons of God. To solidify their identities, they have believers crucify them and then stage a resurrection…”

"They have many tricks up their sleeves, but in the end, the truth will always come out, and history will return to the hands of humankind."