The next day, at the appointed time, Qin Manjiang, Mei Sijun, and Qiao Ziruo indeed failed to show up.
Xia Nan had received a call from Qin Manjiang early that morning. Although he knew Qin Manjiang might not be able to come, only when the three of them actually failed to appear did everyone begin to sense that what he had encountered in Qiao Family Village was probably far from simple.
So, with Xia Nan organizing the trip, the eight of them-Xia Nan, Xu Yi, Yan Xiao, Shen Hai, Chen Zhiyuan, Liu Jingqing, Yu Ruoli, and Zhong Xueran-set out for Huai'an Residential Complex in the south of the city.
They had been driving for about an hour since leaving the central district when the architectural style around them began to change.
This was not the intermingling of old and new buildings typical of urban development. Instead, beyond a certain dividing line, the architecture became distinctly different!
Even the sky seemed to have suddenly grown much gloomier.
Without anyone needing to point it out, they all knew they had entered the old town in the south of the city.
There were cool-toned road signs and a lone directional sign-old town.
There were not even any of the usual billboards along either side of the road.
If that old locust tree had not recently gone viral online, there would probably have been pitifully few vehicles on this road to the old town.
At least now, they could still see a few private cars heading toward it.
The eight of them drove along the silent road in two cars. Chen Zhiyuan gazed out the window, the antiquated, somewhat dilapidated buildings leaving him a little restless.
He was not the only one. Everyone felt some degree of discomfort.
This place was simply too quiet.