The sun shone overhead

The laughter sounded somewhat out of place at that moment, and everyone's eyes landed on his face.

Yin Chao paid them no mind. Only after he had finished laughing did he say, "Sorry, I couldn't help it."

He was strikingly beautiful, and Zhong Mingnan, an unabashed sucker for good looks, blurted out, "You look really good when you smile."

Compared to Yin Chao's laughter, that remark was even more out of place.

Everyone shifted their gaze to Zhong Mingnan.

He waved his hands, his face flushed scarlet, at a loss for how to explain himself.

Yin Chao stood up, breaking the strange atmosphere. "My name is Yin Chao."

Luo Lingyue went next, keeping her introduction brief. "Luo Lingyue."

Once the introductions were over, they headed into the village together to look for clues.

The village was small but peaceful. Smoke rose from cooking fires, roosters crowed, and dogs barked-a classic picture of rural life.

"Hello, are you the students from the city who came here to sketch?"

Just as they stepped out of the meeting room, a woman in her early twenties called out to them.

[Ding. Story identity triggered.]

Everyone heard the system notification, so Mo Nan, the quickest to react, answered politely first. "Yes. May we move freely around the village?"

The woman nodded. "Of course. You can come to me if you have any questions, too. My name is Li Meihe. I go to university out of town and only came back recently."

Suddenly, a stark-naked old man rushed out of a house with an enclosed courtyard.

He charged straight at Lin Xue. "Liangzi, Liangzi! My Liangzi! You're back! You're back!"

Lin Xue screamed and tried to dodge, but the old man clung to her so tightly that she couldn't break free. Even Zhong Mingnan, who was closest, couldn't pry away the old man's skin-and-bone arms.

Who would have thought an old man with a face full of wrinkles could be so strong?

The sudden turn of events left Li Meihe frozen with fear.

In the end, Mo Nan stepped in, broke both of the old man's arms, and kicked him away.

"Are you all right?" An Nian supported Lin Xue, whose face was covered in tears and who was on the verge of collapse.

She shook her head and opened her mouth to answer An Nian, only to start vomiting uncontrollably.

The old man had been kicked into a corner by the wall. His arms bent at grotesque angles, but he seemed unable to feel pain and continued inching toward Lin Xue.

"Who are you calling for?" Yin Chao crouched down and looked into the old man's bloodshot eyes.

"My Liangzi! She's my Liangzi!" the old man repeated, seemingly delirious.

"Cheng Liangzi?" Yin Chao asked.

Before the old man could answer, dark clouds instantly blanketed the previously clear sky, as though day had turned to night in a single moment.

Li Meihe was frightened too. Coming to her senses, she shouted to the group, "Come home with me first! Terrible things happen if you go out after dark!"

At that moment, a man and a woman emerged from the courtyard the old man had run out of.

They hauled him up and dragged him toward the house without even checking whether his arms were broken.

Li Meihe hurried along, urging everyone to follow as she explained, "That's Old Man Luo from the village. He has dementia and acts crazy all day, so his son and daughter-in-law keep him locked up at home."

Someone seized the opportunity to ask, "Then what's the story with this Cheng Liangzi he keeps talking about? Is she his wife?"

Li Meihe stopped short. Beneath the dark clouds, the wind howled, as though someone were letting out eerie cries within it.

With her back to the group, her tone suddenly turned strange. "How could that be? Liangzi was my elementary school classmate. How could she be that crazy old man's wife? How could she..."

She spoke faster and faster, as though chanting a sutra or muttering to herself.

Everyone braced themselves, expecting Li Meihe to turn into a monster and go on a killing spree at any moment.

Only Yin Chao frowned, as though pondering something.

He turned to glance at Lin Xue, who was hiding behind Zhong Mingnan. Tear tracks still marked her face, and she looked weak.

"Let's get moving. It'll be dark soon," Yin Chao said.

His voice was quiet and scattered in the wind, yet it reached Li Meihe's ears clearly.

She twitched, then started walking again.

After two steps, she realized no one was following and turned around. "What's wrong? Hurry up and follow me. You can all stay at my house tonight."

She acted as though she hadn't been behaving strangely just moments before.

Yin Chao calmly followed. Seeing no danger, the others went after him too.

On the way, Fang Tang slipped quietly up beside Yin Chao and asked in a voice only the two of them could hear, "What did you just say?"

Yin Chao smiled and answered truthfully, "I said it would be dark soon."

Fang Tang looked at his harmless smile, unconvinced, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Word had already spread throughout the Ares Guild: of their members who had entered the S-Rank Instance, only one had received an S-rank item.

The others who had been killed inside the instance had ultimately survived, but received no item rewards.

Those who had successfully completed the instance were Morika of the Ares Guild, Moqi Xinzhi of the Wanqi Guild, Luo Lingyue, who had no guild affiliation, and Yin Chao of the Bai Guild.

His abilities were not to be underestimated.

The group reached the small courtyard of Li Meihe's home before the sky went completely dark. Though the courtyard wasn't particularly elegant, it was clean.

"My dad is the Party secretary of Fortune-Blessed Village. When he heard university students were coming here to sketch, he set aside rooms especially for you to rest in."

That was what Li Meihe told them.

She showed everyone around the rooms. When they reached her own room, someone sharp-eyed spotted a photo frame on her desk.

It held a picture of two little girls with radiant smiles, wearing similar red dresses.

"Is this your younger sister?" Zhong Mingnan asked.

The instant he finished speaking, Li Meihe's expression turned frightening. She twisted her stiff neck, her lifeless eyes glaring at Zhong Mingnan.

Even the warm yellow light bulb in the room began to hiss as the current fluctuated.

"No. She isn't."

Li Meihe spoke, then quickly laid the photo frame facedown on the desk.

Zhong Mingnan was frightened, his face deathly pale.

Yet Li Meihe seemed to return to normal immediately after each bout of strange behavior, apparently unaware of the changes in herself.

Watching her was enough to make anyone feel like they were losing their mind.

After those two abrupt changes, no one dared speak carelessly again. They obediently settled into the rooms Li Meihe had assigned them and went to bed.

The wind still howled that night, as though they had arrived in the far northwest, or as though it were the gale that heralded a demon's appearance in Journey to the West.

Suddenly, singing drifted through the wind.

"The sun shone overhead~"

"The flowers smiled at me~"

"The little bird said, morning, morning, morning~"

"Why does a fool have to go to school~"

Yin Chao had heard this song when he was very young, but that was clearly not how the last line went.