After a whole day of exertion had drained so much of his energy, Yue Renchun soon grew drowsy.
In a place where the situation was unclear and danger seemed to lurk everywhere, acting alone would have been unwise. Crowding into one room to rest was the reasonable, sensible, legal and logical thing to do.
"Creak, creak..."
He sensed a sound beside his ear.
So fucking noisy...
When Yue Renchun opened his eyes again, he was somewhat dazed. He had no idea how long he had slept.
Hu Jiu was sitting nearby, chewing on beef jerky. He was the one making the noise.
"You're awake?"
Yue Renchun jolted all over, and his mind gradually began working again. His expression abruptly changed, turning uglier than Hu Jiu's had been the previous night when he heard him say, "Sleep together."
He had actually slept soundly without any guard up?
Something was wrong!
"I brought this snack myself. Want to try some?" Hu Jiu offered him a handful of beef jerky.
Yue Renchun shook his head and asked tentatively, "When did you rest last night? Don't tell me you kept watch all night?"
"I'm used to staying up late." Hu Jiu quickly changed the subject. "Right, there's some bad news I need to tell you."
"What news?" Yue Renchun blurted out.
Hu Jiu spoke gravely. "When I went out just now, I ran into that old man again. He said Old Master Peng's birthday banquet is tonight and insisted that we attend."
Yue Renchun was utterly baffled. "Then what about the birthday banquet last night?"
Hu Jiu narrowed his eyes. "I asked him. He said Old Master Peng celebrated his birthday yesterday, and he's celebrating it again today!"
Yue Renchun raised an eyebrow. This village was getting more and more interesting!
The layout of the Longevity Village guesthouse was no different from usual.
A kettle of water was heating behind the small L-shaped counter. The old man leaned back in a rocking chair with his eyes closed, motionless.
Neatly dressed, Yue Renchun walked up to the counter and knocked twice. "Boss, two bottles of liquor and a dish of fennel beans."
The old man heard him and opened his cloudy eyes. "I have liquor and peanuts, but none of those beans."
"All right." Yue Renchun nodded and took the opportunity to ask about the birthday banquet, confirming that Hu Jiu had not lied.
When Hu Jiu came out, he saw a little mutt rubbing against Yue Renchun's trouser leg. Yue Renchun held a peanut between his fingers and waved it in front of the dog's nose.
The dog wagged its tail excitedly, then watched as Yue Renchun crushed the peanut and flicked it into the trash can.
How wicked!
The puppy stared in canine disbelief, its eyes seemingly glistening with tears, then ran off dejectedly.
"How childish!" Hu Jiu remarked. He turned to the old man. "Can you tell us about Old Master Peng? Is there anything we should know about his birthday banquet?"
The old man ignored him completely.
"Let me ask." Yue Renchun leaned close to Hu Jiu and whispered, "I'm afraid that old man isn't an ordinary person. We'll have to use some special means."
Hu Jiu smoothed the wrinkles in his clothes. "Do you need me to leave?"
"No." Yue Renchun's gaze was profound. "After all... we're partners now."
With that, he undid the buttons at his shirt collar, revealing a gold chain with a jeweled pendant that had been hidden beneath his clothes all along.
The gem, made of some unknown material, caught the light and refracted it into brilliant blue fire, casting a bewitching hue over the surrounding walls and floor.
The old man sitting at the counter suddenly raised his head. A flicker of animation crossed his numb face, followed by a jumble of faint, overlapping murmurs, as though countless invisible people were whispering at their ears.
In an ethereal voice, Yue Renchun asked about Longevity Village's secrets.
The old man spoke in a distant voice, slowly recounting the buried past—
"When I was a child, this place wasn't called Longevity Village yet. Ordinary people were all poor in those days and often didn't have enough to eat. One year, a famine struck and quite a few people starved to death. That was the year Mr. Peng came."
"Mr. Peng was only in his thirties then, and a fine-looking man. The village was wary of outsiders, so at first he wasn't welcome. But Mr. Peng was a good man, charitable and always helping those in need. His personal conduct was beyond reproach, too. He was starving and reduced to skin and bones himself, yet he emptied what little savings he had to help the poor."
"Mr. Peng was generous and kind, and the villagers gradually accepted him. Later, he settled down here."
"Mr. Peng was educated and knew medicine. He often treated villagers for free, cared for the elderly, and taught children to read and write."
"His patients would recover quickly, no matter how ill they were; the elderly people he cared for would become kind and gentle, no matter how difficult or mean they had been; and the children he taught would become well-behaved and sensible, no matter how naughty or rebellious they had been."
"Mr. Peng was also skilled at preserving health. The elderly villagers lived longer and longer, and he grew increasingly respected. Later still, he was chosen as village head and renamed the place Longevity Village."
The old man spoke on and on, seemingly concealing nothing.
Yue Renchun pressed him. "Over all these years, has nothing strange happened in the village? Why has Longevity Village become so eerie now?"
The old man's expression suddenly twisted. He stared fixedly at Yue Renchun, seemingly unable to speak, yet compelled to do so for some reason.
Two forces struggled against each other within him. After a moment of silence, the old man opened his mouth and uttered a hoarse, low, unintelligible sound in an inhuman tone, like a bloated corpse bursting underwater, chaotic and suffocating.
Hu Jiu, who had watched the whole time, summoned the Bloodstained White Silk, ready to act at any moment.
"Wait!" Yue Renchun asked a different question. "Is the village's abnormality connected to Mr. Peng?"
"Yes..." As if someone had him by the throat, the old man forced the word from deep in his throat with immense difficulty.
After that, his eyes widened and bulged, and the blood vessels near his temples swelled and spread. His entire appearance became extremely grotesque.
Yue Renchun raised a hand and tried to calm him, and the gem's radiance grew even more sinister. The old man recovered somewhat, and before long he was entirely back to normal, though he looked exhausted, his expression vacant and his gaze unfocused. No matter what else they asked him, he would only say, "I don't know."
"He's like the ordinary villagers outside now." Yue Renchun's face was pale, and his breathing was slightly uneven. "The Mr. Peng of the past should be the present-day Old Master Peng. Could he be the source of the supernatural incidents in Longevity Village?"
Hu Jiu nodded in agreement. "You're stating the obvious."
Yue Renchun composed himself and glanced sideways at Hu Jiu. "I don't believe there's a good person like 'Mr. Peng' in this world, someone who devotes himself to others so selflessly. Playing saint in a poor, remote place like this, he probably had some ulterior motive."
Hu Jiu gave Yue Renchun a meaningful look, his words carrying a double meaning. "Those who offer favors for no reason are either after sex or money!"
Yue Renchun froze for a moment, then leaned close to Hu Jiu, his eyes bright and the corners of his mouth lifting. "I'm after neither sex nor money. I just... want to stay alive."
Hu Jiu chuckled. "Let's hope so."