Peach Haven Village (6)

Ding Shi left Auntie Li's home in a very good mood. It was already four in the afternoon. He was planning to visit the village chief when a half-grown child ran over. "Uncle Ding, the village chief wants to see you."

Mission: Meet the village chief.

With nearly twenty dollars on him, Ding Shi did not particularly want to see the village chief anymore. He could even leave the instance directly. Unfortunately, the mission had a countdown, and he had no idea what would happen if he failed it. In the end, Ding Shi went to see the village chief.

The village chief's home was nearby. Four sturdy men stood in the courtyard, each with a red armband on his left arm bearing the words Night Patrol Team.

After asking around, Ding Shi learned that Li Si had not reported to the village office at noon, nor had he eaten there. Since Ding Shi had still been playing mahjong, the village chief had sent the Night Patrol Team to look for him. Yet after several hours, they had found no trace of him. The only lead was that someone had seen Li Si heading southwest of the village.

The southwest side of the village lay at the foot of the mountains. There were twelve households there, forming a natural hamlet under Peach Haven Village.

Mission: Find Li Si.

Clearly, this was not a mission the system had set in advance. It could be understood this way: Ita World was a world affected by player actions.

The village chief equipped Ding Shi with a bicycle and a flashlight. He told him to return home for dinner at seven in the evening and said a room had been prepared for him as well.

To find a missing player, he first had to find the other players.

Ding Shi's first stop was Haitang's home near the Third Lady Temple directly south of the village. There, he found Zhang San teaching Haitang how to write a letter. Zhang San was astonished and concerned to hear that Li Si had gone missing, but he refused to search for Li Si with Ding Shi. His reason was that Haitang needed to cook dinner, and as a man, he had to help out.

His second stop was Granny Wang's home, where he looked for Zhao Liu. Zhao Liu had abandoned Granny Wang, who was fertilizing the vegetable plot, and was chopping firewood for the young widow Cuihua next door. His movements were clumsy and awkward, but Cuihua's coquettish laughter was enough to keep him going. It was obvious that Zhao Liu was having a great time.

Ding Shi pulled Zhao Liu aside and explained the situation. Zhao Liu said, "Li Si came to find me at ten this morning. He said players should take the initiative. I asked what that meant, and he said gathering materials and collecting information. He said it would be best to get a couple of weapons too, since some villagers lived in very isolated places."

Ding Shi asked in surprise, "Was he planning to break into homes, rob people, and kill them?"

Zhao Liu spread his hands. "He didn't say that, but he seemed to be in a pretty bad mood. Of course I refused. He talked a lot about how important the first instance was as a growth period. He also said he'd stolen money earlier and the villagers hadn't noticed. When he realized he couldn't persuade me, he left by himself."

Zhao Liu changed the subject. "Are you very busy?"

"My missions haven't stopped," Ding Shi said.

Zhao Liu asked curiously, "What's the mission reward?"

Ding Shi replied, "Twenty cents per mission. What about you?"

Zhao Liu smiled. "I'm paid by the day. One dollar a day. Keep it up, brother." He patted Ding Shi on the shoulder and returned to Cuihua's courtyard.

Before Ding Shi left, he heard Cuihua say, "Brother Zhao, bar the door. We don't want any stray dogs running in."

Was she cursing at me?

Ding Shi had originally intended to find Sun Qi, but when he saw her trudging along a ridge path, exhausted and looking utterly dead inside, he immediately turned around and left. Sun Qi's job definitely was not easy. Problems like children dropping out of school mostly originated with adults, and it was hard to persuade an adult with nothing but words.

Ding Shi thought he could help Sun Qi when he had time—if she came to him and was willing to pay. He was not normally someone who cared much about money, but after his experience that morning of using leaves to wipe himself, he now cherished money more than ever.

Ding Shi rode southwest along the road toward the natural hamlet. This area was relatively isolated. If Li Si wanted to burglarize homes or rob people, this was the ideal place. The forest not only blocked the view between the hamlet and Peach Haven Village, but the households in the hamlet were also spread far apart.

More than a dozen households were scattered irregularly along the gentle slope at the foot of the southwestern mountain. The source of Peach Haven Creek lay in the southwestern mountains. Spring water flowed down from the mountains, forming a narrow ditch that wound toward Peach Haven Village. Several streams joined it along the way, and by the time it reached Peach Haven Village, it became Peach Haven Creek.

Ding Shi parked his bicycle at the entrance and looked toward the southwestern hamlet. He could see four of the households. A main road a little over a meter wide branched like a tree, splitting into dirt paths of varying widths that extended to each house. There were many terraced fields on both sides of the ditch, with people working among them.

Ding Shi first went to the household closest to the entrance. A woman in her seventies and another around forty were at home. The younger woman was tending the vegetable plot, while the older woman was doing needlework inside. The family kept chickens, and chicken droppings were everywhere. Ding Shi did not want to go inside, so he went around to the side of the house and spoke to the younger woman over the wall in the capacity of the village chief's assistant.

He obtained several pieces of information. First, this family had three able-bodied male workers and was relatively well-off. All three were working in the fields. They returned home for lunch at ten thirty at noon, then went back to the fields at three in the afternoon. Based on Ding Shi's timeline, Li Si had been surrounded by villagers over theft accusations shortly after nine that morning, then found Zhao Liu at ten. No one had seen Li Si after that. If Li Si had immediately headed for the southwestern hamlet, it would have taken him at least forty minutes on foot. He would have arrived just as this family's male workers returned home to avoid the blazing sun and eat lunch.

That explained why Li Si had not targeted this household.

Second, most of the villagers in the southwestern hamlet worked terraced fields on small hills. The work was demanding, making the land unsuitable for growing tobacco leaves.

Third, there was a villager named Zhao Bighead in the southwestern hamlet. He did not farm and often drove a Jialing motorcycle around collecting tobacco leaves.

When growers delivered tobacco leaves to the work station, staff would confiscate some of the poorer-looking leaves on the grounds that their quality was inadequate. The growers had thus become smarter, keeping the less attractive leaves at home.

People like Zhao Bighead would go to growers' homes and purchase the better-looking tobacco leaves. Their prices were similar to what the work station offered, and sometimes they even paid twice as much to buy the leaves outright. Those leaves would then be sent to counterfeit cigarette workshops and made into fake cigarettes. For a time, the authorities only cracked down on counterfeit cigarettes without paying attention to the source. Only later, when tobacco leaves were strictly regulated from the moment of planting, was counterfeit tobacco prevented from entering the market.

People like Zhao Bighead were shrewd, but the villagers considered them idle troublemakers. So when Ding Shi asked whether there were any villagers who did not fit in, the woman immediately thought of Zhao Bighead.

Zhao Bighead's mother had died last year, and he now lived alone. He frequently spent nights away from home and often brought fashionably dressed women back with him.

Ding Shi pushed his bicycle straight toward Zhao Bighead's house. It was already five thirty in the afternoon. He needed to get this damn mission over with quickly, or he might have to go out looking for someone in the middle of the night.

Leaning against the wall, Ding Shi peered into Zhao Bighead's courtyard. There were no chickens or ducks, no vegetables growing, and the yard was fairly clean. Quite a bit of firewood was stacked neatly nearby. According to the woman, all of Zhao Bighead's firewood was bought, something the villagers particularly despised.

The Jialing was still parked in the courtyard, so Zhao Bighead was probably home. Ding Shi knocked on the wooden gate. "Bighead, are you home?"

There was no response. Ding Shi knocked again, harder this time. At last, a young, burly man with messy hair came out of the house and shuffled toward the gate in slippers. He looked like he had just been sleeping.