Xiao Ran was gone.
Only after Qin Manjiang mentioned it did Liu Jingqing realize this.
"Miss... Xiao Ran might have gone to help prepare the Hundred-Meter Banquet?" Liu Jingqing said. "She's already shown us the main places in the village. Her job should be done, right?"
"Maybe."
Though Qin Manjiang said that, he clearly had something else in mind.
Still, he did not seem particularly concerned about Xiao Ran's whereabouts. Instead, he told Liu Jingqing, "We need to update our information."
"Huh?" Liu Jingqing's favorite response seemed to be drifting toward Li Xijiu's.
Leading the way, Qin Manjiang said as he walked, "The Sheep Immortal probably kills by possessing people and then making them kill themselves."
"There are two ways it can do that."
"When I saw it last night, it teleported through the darkness to get close to me quickly. That was to possess me-the first method."
Liu Jingqing was puzzled. "But... it was daytime... and we were in Village Central Square, where there were more people than anywhere else. Nobody saw it..."
"So there's a second method."
Qin Manjiang kept walking. From the way he headed straight toward his destination, he had clearly decided where to go long ago.
"Mirrors, or anything that reflects your face clearly enough for you to look yourself in the eyes."
Qin Manjiang explained.
"When I stood on that slab of marble, my face in the reflection beneath my feet turned into a black sheep."
His account was casual, but it gave Liu Jingqing a fright.
"Are... are you okay? Classmate Qin, will that Sheep Ghost come after you...?"
Qin Manjiang shook his head. After walking for about ten minutes, he finally stopped and said, "Even if it's already marked me, it won't be my turn yet, because... the first sheep's face to appear in a mirror was his."
Qin Manjiang raised his head and looked at the compound before him.
Liu Jingqing followed his gaze. This was... the Chen Family residence.
She had not forgotten what had happened just last night, and she finally understood what Qin Manjiang meant.
"You mean... Brother Chen, who took us to the inn last night?"
Qin Manjiang said nothing and simply knocked on the Chen Family's gate.
The Chen Family certainly lived up to its status as a wealthy household. Three-meter walls enclosed a large plot, and the house inside looked like a small villa.
Soon after he knocked, a woman came to open the gate.
She looked to be in her forties or fifties. Seeing the unfamiliar faces of Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing, she asked in confusion, "Who are you? Have you come to the wrong place?"
"We're visitors from out of town. We're looking for Brother Chen. He took us to the inn last night," Qin Manjiang answered simply.
Understanding dawned on the middle-aged woman. She stepped halfway aside and said, "Come in. Wait in the courtyard for a bit. He isn't up yet. I'll go get him."
"All right."
Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing entered the courtyard and watched the middle-aged woman go to find Brother Chen. Then Qin Manjiang said, "See?"
Liu Jingqing was completely lost. "See what?"
"Brother Chen hasn't gotten out of bed yet, but Xiao Ran said he sent her to be our guide."
"But Brother Chen could have arranged everything for today after taking us to the inn last night and going home..." Liu Jingqing said, then quickly waved her hands. "I... I'm not trying to argue with you. I just... don't want to assume the worst about people..."
Qin Manjiang glanced at her. "What kind of novels do you write?"
Liu Jingqing did not understand why he had suddenly asked, but she answered honestly, "Heartwarming stories, slice of life, sweet romances..."
Qin Manjiang nodded. That explained it.
Unlike mystery writers, who probably had eight hundred tricks up their sleeves.
"Cover your ears." As Qin Manjiang spoke, he covered his own.
"Huh?"
Liu Jingqing was a beat too slow.
In that brief moment of hesitation, she heard an ear-piercing scream:
"AAAAAH!!!!!"
Liu Jingqing shuddered in fright, only to see Qin Manjiang already heading toward the sound.
Before long, the members of the Chen Family who were still at home ran out as well, noisily crowding toward the source of the scream.
When Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing arrived, they saw the middle-aged woman collapsed on the ground, trembling all over.
The door stood open, and the smell of blood hit them full in the face.
The room looked like an execution ground. Blood had spattered everywhere-across the ceiling, walls, floor, bed, table, and chairs.
The congealed blood was black, and the stench was unbearable.
The source of that stench was the Brother Chen they had met last night.
A fruit knife was lodged in each of his temples, and the skin of his face had been scraped off with the knives.
If not for the room and the clothes he wore, they would barely have been able to identify the dead man as Brother Chen.
Liu Jingqing covered her nose and mouth and retched. Fortunately, she did not throw up.
Both were bizarre deaths, but this scene was far more eerie and horrifying than the one at Zhang Yang's.
The Chen Family stood by the door. Terror showed on one young man's face. "It's the sheep..."
"Shut up!" someone else immediately cut him off.
The head of the Chen Family soon hurried over as well.
"Who are you two?"
He looked at Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing as he asked.
"Travelers. Brother Chen helped us yesterday, so we came to see him today and thank him." Liu Jingqing was clearly in no state to answer questions while on the verge of vomiting, leaving Qin Manjiang to handle them.
"All right. This is a private matter for the Chen Family. I hope you won't spread gossip outside. Please leave." As he spoke, the family head signaled to one of the younger relatives, and someone approached to usher Qin Manjiang out.
"Please wait. I have just one question. I'll leave as soon as I've asked it." Qin Manjiang did not resist. He simply made his request in a calm voice. "What is that?"
He pointed to the bottle beside the corpse.
The Chen Family head's brow twitched. He asked the middle-aged woman, "Did you give Chen Shixing alcohol again?"
The middle-aged woman trembled all over, sobbing. "He had liver disease. The doctor said he had to quit drinking. I stopped letting him drink ages ago..."
"He's dead now. What's the point of talking about that...?"
"..."
The Chen Family began arguing again.
Several younger relatives watched Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing leave the residence, but their own faces were pale, their unease plain to see.
Standing outside the Chen Family's gate, Qin Manjiang suddenly turned and said, "If you keep hiding things, one of you might be the next to die."
"What do you know? Get out of here!"
"Didn't you notice that the wounds on the dead man's face form something like the character for Chen?" Qin Manjiang deliberately lowered his voice. "I know... something went wrong with that thing..."
The younger relatives grew even paler. Qin Manjiang did not keep trying to persuade them. He merely left them with a quiet remark. "Your god is coming for you. Good luck."
Those words made them shudder. At last, unable to hold back any longer, the slightly older one leading them called out:
"Wait! Do you... know something?"
Qin Manjiang stopped and gave Liu Jingqing an almost imperceptible signal with his eyes. She caught on and said, "Mr. Qin has special expertise. Surely you know why he's come to your village at a time like this?"
Exactly. That was how to bluff people: leave things unsaid and let them fill in the blanks themselves.
Sure enough, after hesitating for a while, the younger members of the Chen Family made their decision. The oldest stepped forward and looked at Qin Manjiang skeptically.
"I can tell you what you want to know, but you have to help us!"
Qin Manjiang smiled and raised three fingers. "I swear on my professional reputation that I'll help."
"So, can you tell me now?"
"This isn't the place to talk. Come with me."
Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing exchanged a glance, then followed him off to one side.
Liu Jingqing asked quietly, "The character for Chen has so many strokes... They actually believed that?"
Looking at the back of the person ahead of them, Qin Manjiang replied in a low voice:
"It means things are even worse than what we've seen so far."
"Only desperate people put blind faith in things and clutch at any possibility that appears before them."
A smile appeared on his face without his even noticing:
"They can't tell whether the straw they've grasped will save their lives or be the last one that breaks them."
(End of chapter)
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