The Village Chief Lived in the Biggest House in the Village

The setting sun cast golden light over the mountain village between the two peaks.

Yu Xing's painter character also looked like someone who pursued fashion. His white clothes were fluffy, with a wide round collar and sleeves nearly covering his fingers. He wore skinny jeans and white sneakers below, with an easel and other tools on his back. The whole outfit was very refined.

Though it was not exactly a serious outfit, it was the sort that many young girls liked these days. With the sunlight shining on him, Yu Xing only felt warm and cozy, as though he were a fluffy little ball of wool.

So warm~

Naturally, the commotion between him and the girl drew the attention of the other three. The three looked over, and several gazes collided in midair. They all read the same message—take this chance to exchange information and let their characters get acquainted.

The girl jogged over.

Yu Xing followed. He could tell that the curly-haired woman and the middle-aged man in his thirties were together, and the girl could tell as well. She asked curiously, "What was going on with those two just now? Why wouldn't they let you in?"

"Hmph, maybe there's something wrong with their heads. They insisted they were feng shui masters and that there was something wrong with the feng shui here. Yet they went in themselves." The curly-haired woman sneered. After expressing her displeasure with the two men, she still politely nodded to the girl and Yu Xing. "Hello. Let me introduce myself. I'm Xiao Xuechen, here on vacation. This is my colleague."

The man in his thirties smiled. "My name is Wei Fan. I'm an engineer, so you can call me Wei Gong."

They really were a team. That meant these two weren't playing this sort of game for the first time. The two men who went in first looked alike, so they were probably brothers and a team too... Yu Xing muttered to himself inwardly.

A faint look of worry appeared on the girl's round face. She was only seventeen or eighteen, but her acting was quite natural. "My name is Ju Lan. I'm here looking for someone. Two days ago, my boyfriend and his classmates said they were coming to Guan Family Village to have fun, but then... then they lost contact. I didn't dare tell his parents either. After all, we started dating early... Oh, right, this handsome guy and I met on the road. No, we didn't come together..."

Upon hearing that, Xiao Xuechen, Wei Fan, and the gray-blue-haired young man all looked at Yu Xing. The young man was playing with a palm-sized paper doll from who knew where. His eyes were either covered by colored contacts or naturally that way—they were a beautiful, clear jade green. The corners of his lips lifted. "Hello. May I ask who you are?"

"My name is San. I'm a painter, invited by a fan to come here and sketch from life." Yu Xing returned a somewhat nervous smile. His character setting said he was "cold and indifferent," but he did not like that. Being cold would hinder his performance. He intended to carve out another persona beneath that indifference.

The moment he finished speaking, the young man gave an interested, "Oh?"

"I was invited by a fan too. What a coincidence." The young man was alone. His gaudy jacket and ripped pants did not clash with his temperament; instead, they went together surprisingly well, giving him an unconventionally lively look.

His tone was lazy as well. While the others had been arguing earlier, he had merely stood aside with his hands in his pockets, watching the show.

Now, he drew out his words and swept his gaze around. He seemed to be in a good mood. "Guess what I do?"

"How could anyone guess that?" Xiao Xuechen brushed back her hair. She was actually quite young, only in her early twenties, but her style was mature, and her voice had the commanding air of an older woman. "Are you a celebrity?"

"Nope~" The young man raised an index finger and wagged it, then turned an expectant gaze toward Yu Xing.

"Your fingers are long and fair, but there are obvious calluses on your fingertips and the sides of your knuckles. You maintain a rhythm when speaking that attracts attention without making people uncomfortable, which means you have strong control over conversations." Yu Xing very cooperatively answered him. He took half a step back as he spoke, seeming not very confident. "Your job is related to that. Combined with your control over your expressions, I guess... I guess you're a Magician."

"Impressive!" The young man's eyes widened in surprise. "As expected of a painter. Your observation of people is terrifying..."

After praising Yu Xing until he was nearly blushing, the young man said to the others, "Carlos, Magician."

"Nice to meet you." Xiao Xuechen and Wei Fan politely nodded to him. At the same time, they gave Yu Xing, who had displayed a modest amount of deductive ability, another look.

He seemed like someone who was not very good at getting along with others, a little shy, but fairly capable at deduction...

Yu Xing was fully aware of their scrutiny. His expression remained unchanged, but inwardly, he thought, A Magician, a painter, an engineer, a woman with an uncertain profession, a student, and two guys claiming to be feng shui masters... This group has such a mixed bag of occupations. Don't tell me—am I the only newcomer?

Thinking of this, he did not forget the mission and spoke up. "Um, since we all know each other now, then... then shall we enter the village?"

It was getting late. What he needed to do now was find Zhou Yongsheng, the person who had invited him, and arrange to stay overnight at a villager's house through him.

As for the others, although they were deduction players and could be considered half-companions, they did not necessarily need to act together before confirming everyone's true intentions.

The group headed into the village. Once they got closer, they could see a wooden sign standing at the entrance.

The wooden sign had weathered with age, and the words on it were blurred. Still, two characters could vaguely be made out: Coffin Village.

"Coffin Village? Isn't this Guan Family Village?" Ju Lan's puzzled voice rang out in the silence. Before anyone could answer, a bout of coughing came from within the village.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

A large locust tree stood at the village entrance. A hunched figure emerged from its shadow, and Yu Xing looked up to see an old man.

The old man wore plain, shabby clothes and was bent at the waist. His sparse white hair and wrinkled face showed that he was quite advanced in age.

"Young people, cough cough... What brings you to our village?" His hoarse voice was gritty and lifeless, with more breath leaving than entering. Listening to him, Yu Xing felt as though the man might drop dead the next second.

Ju Lan hurried forward. "Grandpa, I'm here looking for someone!"

"Looking for someone?" Upon hearing that, the old man leaned on his cane and shuffled toward her step by step. Trembling, he came close and looked her over. Yet his gaze did not seem like a normal appraisal. It was more like he was looking at something else...

In any case, Ju Lan instantly broke out in goosebumps.

"Sir, we all have our own business here and would like to enter the village. Could you tell us where the village chief is?" Xiao Xuechen stepped forward and pulled Ju Lan back, putting some distance between her and the old man. Her politeness carried a hint of caution.

"Looking—looking for the village chief?" The old man's voice scraped like glass, painfully unpleasant to hear, as though he were forcibly squeezing air out of his throat. "Village chief... Village chief..."

He repeated "village" for so long that they began to think he could not remember, before he finally said in a ghostly tone, "The village chief lives in the biggest house in the village..."

As the old man spoke, a cold gust of wind blew from nowhere. Yu Xing's collar was wide open, and he shivered.

Perhaps by coincidence, the sun completely sank behind the mountains at that moment. The warm glow of sunset vanished without a trace, leaving only a darkening sky. The atmosphere abruptly became oppressive.

"Alright, thank you. We'll go look for him ourselves." Sensing that something was wrong with the old man, Wei Fan stepped forward and gave Xiao Xuechen a look. She understood immediately and said as if they were very familiar with one another, "Let's go find the village chief first and have him arrange somewhere for us to stay."

"Sure~ We're exhausted." Carlos smoothly chimed in, draping one arm over Yu Xing's shoulder. "Come on, let's go in!"

Yu Xing obediently nodded and entered the village with the others.

For now, Xiao Xuechen seemed willing to protect Ju Lan as a fellow woman, while Wei Fan and Carlos also looked out for the others. That was not bad.

It was Yu Xing's first time playing an Investigator type deduction game. He did not yet know what sort of interests tied the players together in this kind of deduction, so for the moment, it was best to go along with them.

The scenery in the village was somewhat desolate. The houses were old-fashioned single-story homes with tiled roofs. Their white walls had long since turned black and moldy from wind and rain. Flaked-off plaster had piled up on the ground, and large patches of the walls had even fallen away.

The ground was uneven and overgrown with weeds. It appeared that no one cleaned it.

They followed the narrow path into the village, yet did not see a single villager along the way.

It was too quiet.

Yu Xing seemed to sense something and looked back from afar. By the locust tree at the village entrance, the old man had already vanished, gone who knew where.

"Why isn't there anyone here?" Ju Lan murmured, looking increasingly uneasy.

"I don't know. Let's find the village chief first." Wei Fan reassured Ju Lan, then remembered something. "Hey, Carlos, San, you know a villager here, right? Didn't you say fans invited you? Contact your fans."

"Ugh, you think I don't want to, Wei Gong?" Carlos scratched his gray-blue hair. "There's no signal. I haven't even met this fan before. Looks like he doesn't like me that much, if he didn't even come greet me."

Yu Xing's thoughts stirred, and he asked as if casually, "Could your fan be named Zhou Yongsheng?"

"Oh! No way? We have the same fan?" Carlos's reaction had already confirmed Yu Xing's guess. They exchanged a look, but Ju Lan cried out in alarm.

"Zhou Yongsheng!?"

"What is it?" Realizing the first key point had appeared, Yu Xing looked toward her.

"Zhou Yongsheng is my boyfriend's classmate. The last time several of them came to Guan Family Village to have fun, it was that classmate's idea. I..." Ju Lan's face went pale. "He can't be a liar, can he?"

The five stopped in the middle of the road and looked at one another. Carlos narrowed his eyes and repeated with interest, "...A liar?"

"It seems there are some issues among you that need sorting out." Xiao Xuechen looked at them with concern. She guessed that the seven deduction players' initial missions had been divided into three groups. Wei Fan and she had come to find the village chief; these three were looking for a villager named Zhou Yongsheng; and the other two men probably had other plans.

She pointed at a house that looked somewhat more imposing amid the ruins and asked Wei Fan, "Wei Gong, could that be the village chief's house?"

"Probably. Let's knock." Wei Fan nodded, but as he headed toward the house, he discovered that everyone else had followed.

"You too?" Xiao Xuechen asked in surprise.

"Since Zhou Yongsheng hasn't shown up, I thought I'd ask the village chief where he lives while we're at it." Yu Xing's expression did not change. Ju Lan and Carlos meant the same thing.

Obviously, if they had the village chief, there was no need to search house by house for their target. Asking directly was much more convenient!

Very soon, Wei Fan knocked on the door.

The door opened, and a square-faced middle-aged man came out. The moment he saw them, he was stunned, then broke into a warm smile. "Are you folks from the city?"

"Yes. Are you the village chief of Guan Family Village?" Xiao Xuechen gave a proper yet friendly smile, greatly softening the sense of distance around her.

"Yes, yes. Like those two just now, are you here for tourism as well?" The middle-aged village chief was much more cheerful than expected. He quickly stepped aside. "Come in, come in. Those two are inside too. Hahaha, it's been a long time since we had so many guests. You can have dinner at my place tonight."

"Yes, sorry for coming without notice. Then we'll trouble you, Village Chief." Xiao Xuechen had no choice but to thank the village chief on behalf of everyone, and the five entered the village chief's home together.

The village chief's home was not small. A little courtyard lay just beyond the entrance, and the smell of food drifted from the kitchen on the left. The two men Yu Xing had seen at the village entrance were sitting by a large table in the courtyard, waiting to eat. When they saw the group enter, both nodded at them.

The argument had been arranged by the system. They had no intention of truly separating themselves from the group!

"Come, sit down. Just put your things beside you. I'll tell my wife to cook some more dishes. Hahaha... It's been a long time since the house was this lively!" The village chief invited them to sit, then turned into the kitchen.

There were clearly seven people sitting in the courtyard, yet an eerie atmosphere hung over the place.