He Was Cut from the Same Cloth!

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"": "Luo Bin polished off the noodles in his bowl, even drinking every last drop of broth. His stomach was full, and he felt thoroughly satisfied.

"Listen to me. When we go into the mountains this time, we'll just stay quietly for one night. Things have finally started looking up for our family. Let other people take the risks. If the sky falls, someone taller can hold it up." Gu Ya set down her chopsticks. She had eaten less than a third of her noodles, and the rest had gone soggy.

Luo Feng said nothing, carefully finishing his broth.

Luo Bin remained silent too. The atmosphere in the room was a little strained.

Then Luo Feng set down his bowl.

"When the time comes, I'll go exploring and leave Xiao Shan to protect you. I'll be back before dark."

"No!" Gu Ya's tone was firm. "What if something happens to you? What are the two of us supposed to do then?"

"Nothing will happen to me. And Xiao Shan is a man now," Luo Feng said with certainty.

"No!" Gu Ya shook her head again.

"Xiao Shan, go back to your room. Your mother and I have something to discuss." Luo Feng glanced at Luo Bin.

Only then did Luo Bin get up and hurry into his room.

After shutting the door, Luo Bin walked over to the bed and sat down.

He still didn't have all the information about Drawing Lots or exploring.

But one thing was very clear.

The danger.

There was a saying that curiosity killed the cat, but people were often like that. The more forbidden something was, the more it drew them in, even when they were afraid. Luo Bin certainly felt some fear right now.

Yet he couldn't suppress his curiosity, his desire to know.

And Luo Bin thought of someone else: Gu Yiren...

She had helped him find lamp oil. Could she know something about this exploration too?

Luo Bin's heart was practically in his throat.

He kept taking deep breaths to calm himself down and was about to lie down to sleep.

His sixth sense sent a jolt through him. He abruptly sat up, staring fixedly at the window.

Someone stood silently outside the boarded-up window, only a small part of his face visible.

Luo Bin sprang out of bed and hurried over to the window.

A white coat, a round face, a low, flat nose, and heavy dark circles under his eyes. It was none other than Xu Kaiguo!

"Doctor Xu!"

Luo Bin's voice grew a little louder. His heart nearly leaped out of his throat.

Actually, was this only the sixth day since he had first met Xu Kaiguo?

To Luo Bin, it felt as long as a month.

At first, he had been deeply suspicious of Xu Kaiguo.

But Gu Yiren had genuinely helped him, and that made it clear that Xu Kaiguo was far from ordinary!

As for knowing this place...

Could he know even more about it than Gu Yiren did?!

"Shh! Keep your voice down. Don't let them hear you."

Xu Kaiguo raised a finger to his lips, glancing cautiously at something.

"The people in this house aren't normal. That couple are actually two evil spirits. They're extremely dangerous."

"This village is even stranger. You've just arrived, so there's a lot you don't know yet..."

"Hurry up and open the window. I'll get you out of here."

Xu Kaiguo spoke quietly, sounding exceptionally wary.

But Luo Bin froze.

What the hell was going on?

What Xu Kaiguo was saying was exactly the same as what he had said six nights ago, on Luo Bin's first night here!

"Hurry up and open the window. I'll get you out of here." Xu Kaiguo tapped lightly on the window with his fingers.

Goose bumps kept rising.

Cold sweat kept breaking out.

Every hair on his body stood on end...

For a moment, Luo Bin didn't dare move.

Open the window?

This wasn't his first day anymore. How could he dare open it?

He stared at Xu Kaiguo's face while scanning farther away out of the corner of his eye. Everything seemed concealed and quiet, but Luo Bin still noticed figures standing at distant corners and along the road.

Some things were the same as on the first day, while others were completely different!

Luo Bin was certain that if he opened the window this time, evil spirits would immediately rush over and crawl into his home!

"The people in this house... aren't normal. That couple are actually two evil spirits... extremely... dangerous..."

"This village... is even... stranger... You've just arrived... so there's a lot... you don't know yet..."

"Hurry up and open the window... I'll... get you out of here..."

Xu Kaiguo kept murmuring, and his tapping left Luo Bin agitated.

What chilled Luo Bin even more was the smile curling at the corners of Xu Kaiguo's mouth. How was it any different from those evil spirits' smiles?!

"Xiao Shan?"

Gu Ya's voice reached his ears, calling to him.

Luo Bin jolted and answered, "Mom..."

"Are you talking to someone? Don't speak to anyone, whatever you do. They're all evil spirits..."

"Your father and I are going to bed. Close your curtains and get some sleep." Gu Ya's voice carried a reminder, along with a trace of caution.

Xu Kaiguo gradually walked away from the window.

"I know, Mom. I wasn't talking to anyone. An evil spirit was knocking on the window," Luo Bin answered before drawing the curtains.

The footsteps receded as Gu Ya walked away.

With his thoughts in turmoil, Luo Bin opened the curtains again. There were people outside, but none of them were Xu Kaiguo. Instead, several evil spirits with completely unfamiliar faces stood there, all smiling at him.

With a swish, he drew the curtains shut again.

Luo Bin returned to bed and lay down, wrapping himself in his blanket, but chills kept running through him. The cold was intense.

He couldn't stop replaying it, replaying what had just happened, going back to that first meeting with Xu Kaiguo six days ago...

Xu Kaiguo's words really had been identical. Not a single thing had changed.

The only difference was that he hadn't opened the window.

Why...

Was Xu Kaiguo so strange?

And...

Was something seriously wrong with Xu Kaiguo?

Gu Yiren had helped him. There had been lamp oil in the wardrobe, and she had even mentioned that he hadn't shut the window.

Nothing in that series of conversations had suggested anything seriously wrong with Gu Yiren either.

Could it be...

That something was wrong with Luo Feng and Gu Ya?

No... There couldn't be anything wrong with them either!

Gu Ya's care for him, Luo Feng's fierce protectiveness, everything about this family had been so real. How could the two of them possibly be evil spirits?!

Too many memories, too much confusion. Luo Bin felt as though his head were being torn apart by the pain.

Eventually, Luo Bin drifted into a muddled sleep.

He slept so deeply that he lost all sense of time.

When he woke the next day, sunlight was spilling into the room through the edges of the curtains.

"Whew..."

Luo Bin let out a heavy breath and sat up. His head still throbbed faintly. It felt as if he hadn't slept at all, and his whole body felt awful.

He got out of bed and opened the curtains. The dazzling sunlight fell on his face, carrying a little warmth.

When he left his room, only Gu Ya was busy working in the courtyard.

"There's food on the table, Xiao Shan. Hurry up and eat before it gets cold," Gu Ya called.

Luo Bin couldn't help staring at Gu Ya.

"What's wrong, Xiao Shan?" Gu Ya looked a little puzzled.

"N-nothing... Where's Dad?" Luo Bin changed the subject.

No matter how he looked at her, Gu Ya wasn't an evil spirit! That made it even less likely that Luo Feng was one!

If they were evil spirits, they would never have tried to summon the original owner's soul!

Luo Feng wouldn't have suspected him of being an evil spirit and done all those things either.

"Old Kong came by just now and called your father away to help keep order. Someone else died in the village. It was the Outsider woman from a few days ago." Gu Ya shook her head and added, "It's still very hard for Outsiders to make it through. The first three days are only the beginning. Go eat. Don't dwell on it."

But Luo Bin was deeply shocked.

The Outsider woman was dead?!

"Where did she die?" Luo Bin immediately asked.

"Right at the village entrance." Gu Ya had barely finished speaking.

Luo Bin hurried toward the front gate.

"Xiao Shan, aren't you going to eat?" Gu Ya set down her broom and called after him.

"I'll eat when I get back!" Luo Bin was already outside, sprinting down the village road.

He soon reached the Paifang at the village entrance.

Quite a few villagers were gathered there. A corpse lay in the middle of the road, with a Corpse Cart and Zhong Zhicheng beside it.

Luo Feng, Old Kong, and several other men were blocking someone.

That person was Zhang Li.

Zhang Li looked distraught, constantly cursing.

Zhong Zhicheng was gathering up the corpse.

It was a gruesome sight. The limbs were scattered about, and the face in particular had been gnawed beyond recognition.

Luo Bin just barely managed a deep sigh of relief...

Was it that short-haired woman, Zhu Qianqian?

The hair at the back of the corpse's head was still relatively intact, and it was short.

But then Luo Bin's heart grew heavy again.

Zhu Qianqian had actually been relatively easy to talk to.

Right now, he wanted to speak with Gu Yiren again, which meant he would have to see her.

Zhang Li was bound to interfere. He could have approached her through Zhu Qianqian, but Zhu Qianqian... had died just like that?

Did being easy to talk to also make someone easy for evil spirits to deceive?

"Qianqian went missing yesterday! I came looking for you, but I couldn't find you! Then you showed up for Drawing Lots. Fine, once that was over, surely you could help me look for Qianqian! But you said it was almost dark!"

"What kind of Village Chief are you?! What village rules are you upholding?!"

"You're no good!"

"And there's nothing good in this village either!"

"Qianqian couldn't have been tricked by evil spirits! Someone killed her! Someone definitely killed her!"

Zhang Li's loud roar made Luo Bin raise his head again.

With a sharp scrape, Zhong Zhicheng shoveled Zhu Qianqian's head into the Corpse Cart, then covered her mangled remains with a cloth.

"If a villager harms someone, the punishment is a Village Tour."

"Zhang Jun was a warning to everyone."

"When you came looking for me, I was busy. After Drawing Lots, night was almost upon us, yet you insisted that I find Zhu Qianqian. Who would dare wander around the village after dark?"

"If you have evidence proving who killed your companion, produce it and identify the culprit. Otherwise, I find it very difficult to believe you," Zhong Zhicheng added, looking at Zhang Li.

"I say he could be the thief crying thief!" Just then, a villager suddenly stepped out from beside the road and shouted.

"He keeps saying there isn't a single good person in our village. So he's the good one, is he?! Yesterday morning, I saw him dragging another Outsider woman back toward his house from outside, from the direction of the Mountain God Temple, I think. That Outsider woman seemed to have run away from the house. Then yesterday, this woman ran out too, and now she's dead?" The villager pointed at Zhang Li, looking deeply indignant.

"Who knows what he did to those two women! He made it impossible for them to stay in the house, so they could only run away! They aren't even actually a family, are they?"

"And why hasn't the other Outsider woman come out?"

"Village Chief, I say you need to question this brat properly!"

"He might have taken advantage of their vulnerability. He's cut from the same cloth as Zhang Jun!"

"That's right!" another villager shouted.

"The day he tried to drive away, Luo Shan even went to tell him to come inside, but he refused to enter the house even after daybreak. I noticed an Outsider woman who seemed to be tied up by him. There's something wrong with this man! Something seriously wrong!"

The crowd immediately erupted into an uproar.

"You're talking bullshit!" Zhang Li snapped, his face turning pale.

"The other woman seems to be called Gu Yiren. Why didn't she come?" Zhong Zhicheng asked Zhang Li, his expression grim.