Chapter 44.3

Editor: Kat

Proofreader: Junyans

Yu Hean sucked in a breath of cold air. Luckily, he managed to cover his mouth in time and didn’t scream. Xu Chen shot a sharp look at Yu Hean and Lin Xi and warned them to not expose themselves. However, Ah Cheng was immersed in sadness and didn’t seem to notice the commotion Yu Hean caused, still mumbling to himself.

“Pingping is such a good girl, but for the sake of tradition, she has to get married. How can the village head be willing? Pingping is his only child now.”

“Pingping is a good girl, and a good girl should be cherished.”

Wang Pengpai said, “I don’t think Pingping wants to, but there’s nothing she can do. I want to say, Ah Cheng, you and Pingping are a natural couple.”

“Pingping, Pingping.”

When Ah Cheng heard his words, his whole body trembled. Lips trembling, he said repeatedly, “If only Pingping, and I, can be together, if only, but, tradition…”

“If a tradition requires others to sacrifice their lives, there is no need for it to exist.”

Xu Chen said this to test the waters, but Ah Cheng looked at him strangely and shook his head. “Grandma Xu, we can’t say that. Our Cordoned-off Village exists to protect the traditions of our many generations of ancestors.”

“But, Pingping is getting married.”

As soon as these words came out, Ah Cheng trembled again. He seemed to be struggling with his indecisiveness, and his expression changed constantly. Finally, he collapsed back against the chair. His voice was hoarse as he repeated, “Yes, Pingping, Pingping is getting married.”

“Grandma Xu, may I ask you one thing.”

Ah Cheng’s eyes fell on the chicken cage on the table and he murmured, “If, if Pingping is still willing to accept my ‘leaving mother chicken,’ if she is still interested in me, I…”

Ah Cheng stopped talking, but his eyes were firm. Xu Chen saw the change in his gaze, and there was no need to continue the conversation. He gave his teammates a look and took the chicken cage on the table, then left with Yu Hean and the others.

“Pingping is going to marry a ghost!”

After leaving Ah Cheng’s house, when there were no villagers around, Lin Xi spoke in horror.

“And she’s marrying her dead brother Ah Long!”

“The technique of driving corpses is passed on to men rather than women, but the village head of Cordoned-off Village taught it to Pingping, his only daughter.”

Xu Chen read out the travel information for the tour that Wei Xun had shared previously, and spoke with a frown, “The village head of Cordoned-off Village had another child, but he died.”

“Many secret techniques are lost in the stream of history in this way.”

Wang Pengpai said, “It seems that the secret technique of driving corpses can only be shared by the village head of each generation.”

If Pingping’s brother was still alive, it was possible that in the end, in order to ensure the purity of their bloodline, Pingping and her brother would have had to commit incest.

“But Pingping’s brother is dead?”

Yu Hean said doubtfully, “Even if they get married, they probably can’t continue their bloodline through pregnancy?”

“Don’t forget, Pingping was pregnant with a child.”

Lin Xi said, “Maybe this was how the ghost baby was born.”

“No, Pingping had given birth to a normal child.”

Xu Chen corrected, “When we were experiencing the second scenic spot, it was said that Pingping had given birth to a normal baby, but her father had pretended that it was fetal flesh and hosted a grand banquet of fetal flesh.”

“One can only eat something with a corporeal form, so it must not have been a ghost baby.”

Yu Hean was confused. “But how could Pingping give birth to a normal child?”

“Ah Cheng wants to elope with Pingping.”

Xu Chen didn’t answer the question, but narrowed his eyes slightly as he asked, “Say, during the actual incident, did Pingping really elope with Ah Cheng?”

“After Pingping got pregnant, she fled behind the mountain and gave birth in the cave. If no one had helped her, it would have been difficult for a pregnant woman like Pingping to support herself.”

Xu Chen whispered, “Ah Cheng’s house is at the edge of Cordoned-off Village. He’s the one who’s closest to the cave.”

“You mean that Pingping actually eloped with Ah Cheng on the wedding night, Ah Cheng was the groom, and the child in her belly was also Ah Cheng’s?”

Lin Xi still felt something was wrong. “How could they go back to the village to have children after they eloped?”

“Perhaps they were caught and brought back to the village after they eloped.”

Yu Hean said, “I heard that such a thing happened in the village next to ours in the past. The bride eloped with someone, and when she got back, she had a big stomach and had to be locked up at home. I heard that she was locked up all her life. Those villagers were crazy, and the girl was miserable.”

The more old-fashioned and shut-off from the world these places were, the more oppressed women were. Their reputation would be ruined once it was found out that they had eloped with a wild man and were pregnant with his child. Once these women were recovered by their villages, the tragic things that would happen to them could only be imagined.

Yu Hean spoke politely, but Xu Chen still felt that something was wrong. It seemed that Pingping was also willing to get married and continue the tradition. In that case, it was unnecessary to be cautious enough to use poisoned pig liver. Pingping seemed to be a very sensible and responsible girl.

“Brother Wang, what do you think?”

Xu Chen really couldn’t figure out why there was a need to put poison in the pig liver. He felt that they had missed a vital clue.

“Wait for Leader Miao to come back, and let her have a look,” Wang Pengpai said.

Xu Chen thought he was right. Miao Fangfei and Shi Tao could definitely bring back first-hand information. After all, they couldn’t get close to Pingping now. They could only meet up with Miao Fangfei and Shi Tao to obtain more information.

I wonder how things are going at Miao Fangfei and Shi Tao’s side.

“Did Brother Wang think of something?” While worrying about Miao Fangfei and Shi Tao, Xu Chen also keenly noticed that Wang Pengpai seemed to be very silent and was deep in thought as they walked to their current location after leaving Ah Cheng’s house. Xu Chen thought, “Did Wang Pengpai notice something else from Ah Cheng’s words?”

“Let me think some more.”

Sure enough, Wang Pengpai replied affirmatively. Xu Chen understood that he needed time to think, so he no longer bothered Wang Pengpai. After returning to the house where they lived, Xu Chen could no longer be bothered to wonder about what Wang Pengpai was thinking about.

This was because Miao Fangfei and Shi Tao were covered with blood and lay on the beds in a faint.

Xu Chen and the others hurried into the room and saw Hou Feihu holding a basin while Zhao Hongtu was treating Miao Fangfei’s wounds. After seeing that Hou Feihu and Zhao Hongtu also had a lot of bloodstains on them, Xu Chen and Yu Hean took over their work. In a rare bout of generosity, Lin Xi took the initiative to pour water for them.

“The first cry is over.”

Hou Feihu downed the cup of water with a stern expression. “Leader Miao and the others brought back important information.”

He pointed to the white paper stained with blood on the table. It seemed to be a paper knife that had lost its shape, with some barely discernible words written on it. Xu Chen didn’t reach for it. Like Zhao Hongtu and others, he waited for Wang Pengpai to take it. Now, Wang Pengpai seemed to be a bit of an authoritative figure in the team, like Leader Miao. He had a careful way of thinking and keen observation skills. Therefore, they showed things that may contain clues to him first.

However, Wang Pengpai didn’t go to pick the item up. It seemed that he was still immersed in his thoughts. Zhao Hongtu was puzzled and reminded him, but Wang Pengpai frowned and said, “Wait. I’m thinking of something vital.”

“We just went to Ah Cheng’s place and also got some important clues.”

Xu Chen explained, picking up the bloodstained paper knife on the table. Inwardly, he was curious.

What key information did Wang Pengpai think of that he didn’t even want to look at the bloody paper knife?

As he was wondering about this, Xu Chen unfolded the bloodstained paper knife, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

“This——”

.

On the other side of the village, Ah Cheng didn’t rush to make a move after Xu Chen and the others left. As though he was grieving the passing of spring, he walked around the house again, appearing anxious. He looked towards the door from time to time, as if he was waiting for Xu Chen and the others to come back with their reply.

After making two laps around the house, Ah Cheng let out a heavy sigh, as if he had made a tough decision. He went back to his room and changed his clothes slowly, as if he were still struggling.

“Yes, how can Pingping get married?”

He spoke to himself with a firm expression, “I really love Pingping. I can’t watch her get married this way. Village head, I’ll have to go to the village head and make it clear!”

After that, Ah Cheng resolutely left his home and hurried to the village head’s house.

These actions were observed by Wang Pengpai.

Wang Pengpai hadn’t actually left Ah Cheng’s house. The one that had left with Xu Chen and the others was fake, while the real Wang Pengpai made himself invisible with his title and observed Ah Cheng’s behavior.

“There seems to be no problems.”

Wang Pengpai scrutinized all of Ah Cheng’s actions. He even followed Ah Cheng when he was changing his clothes, but from beginning to end, Ah Cheng did not act strangely.

“But I still think that there’s an issue.”

After the many tours Wang Pengpai had experienced, he found that he trusted his intuition more than anything else. He hadn’t found III-9 yet. That was to say, III-9 had either left or the real III-9 had a different personality than what had been recorded in the information he had received.

Wang Pengpai set aside all his previous impressions of III-9 and observed Ah Cheng. He found that this man was much cleaner than the others in Cordoned-off Village.

Perhaps this was why Wang Pengpai instinctively felt that Ah Cheng was peculiar.

After seeing that Ah Cheng was going to find the village head, Wang Pengpai was in no hurry to keep up and didn’t stop him from acting. He couldn’t completely determine Ah Cheng’s identity. Maybe Ah Cheng had gone to find the village head for this matter during the actual course of events.

If Pingping hadn’t eloped, she shouldn’t have gotten pregnant with a normal baby.

If Pingping and Ah Cheng had eloped, the people of Cordoned-off Village shouldn’t have kept her baby after they found her, even treating her baby as special fetal flesh.

Wang Pengpai suspected that Pingping had eloped with Ah Cheng, but her brother Ah Long had possessed Ah Cheng. Pingping’s pregnancy had been planned by the village head of Cordoned-off Village, and the child was not only Ah Cheng’s child, but also Ah Long’s child. It was eaten as fetal flesh. Wang Pengpai wondered whether the child had been eaten by the village head of Cordoned-off Village, or……

Eaten by Ah Long?

After Ah Long ate the fetal flesh, could he have complete reign over Ah Cheng’s body?

Or, to take it a step further, he knew that the village head of Cordoned-off Village had a special method of driving corpses. What if Ah Long hadn’t been buried after his death, but had been turned into a jiangshi by the village head of Cordoned-off Village? Maybe eating this special fetal flesh could revive Ah Long?

Experienced and excellent tourists would usually be able to think out of the box and could gain insight into the truth from clues. The only thing Wang Pengpai lacked now was concrete evidence.

As for this matter, Ah Cheng going to find the head of Cordoned-off Village could be the key to learning how he had been possessed by Ah Long.

Therefore, Wang Pengpai followed Ah Cheng without hesitation.

When Wei Xun had changed his clothes, he had deliberately delayed it in order to increase his Porno Value, so his livestream was blocked again. Since he had entered the attraction, Wei Xun had begun calculating the time to ensure his livestream was blocked all the time.

Using this method, when Xu Chen and the others had talked to him in secret, their livestreams might have also been blocked. He estimated that the outside audience would guess that he was Ah Cheng, but it would take a while. Generally speaking, blocking the livestream had more advantages than disadvantages for Wei Xun.

Now, Wei Xun was hurrying to the village head’s house while carrying a “small tail” behind him.

Wang Pengpai had obviously left with Xu Chen, but the young fox had reminded Wei Xun that someone was watching him.

Even when Wei Xun changed his clothes, the man still followed him like a pervert. Of course, this tail shouldn’t be Pingping. When Pingping looked at someone, they would always feel a cold breeze, but Wei Xun currently didn’t feel one.

Wei Xun was almost positive that the real Wang Pengpai had not left, but had been following and observing him.

However, Wei Xun had expected this. He had specially made his clothes clean and tidy, subtly making himself different from the people of Cordoned-off Village.

Wang Pengpai suspected him, but he couldn’t immediately confirm that it was him or act against him immediately. After all, Wei Xun’s current identity was Ah Cheng and he played an important role in this scenic spot.

Based on Wang Pengpai’s personality, it was most likely that he would follow and observe Wei Xun. From Wang Pengpai’s actions, Wei Xun speculated that he probably didn’t want to kill III-9 immediately, but planned to take III-9 away.

Of course, this guess might not be accurate, and maybe Wang Pengpai was waiting for an opportunity to secretly kill him. However, Wei Xun didn’t care. The thrill of walking on a tightrope was much more exciting to him.

One thing that had to be noted was that when Wang Pengpai had hidden himself, he didn’t immediately act against Wei Xun. Through this, Wei Xun could confirm his guess.

If Wang Pengpai wanted to take III-9 away, he wouldn’t let III-9 die here.

Wang Pengpai, who was following behind, was a bodyguard that he had picked up for no cost at all!

Wei Xun immediately thought of a hundred ways he could use Wang Pengpai, and then happily took him to the village head’s house.

With such a useful bodyguard, it would be a waste not to do something dangerous!

The author has something to say:

I’ll update an extra chapter before eleven in the evening, mua, mua!

This novel has always been written at my own pace. It is not considered a traditional Unlimited Flow story. It is more similar to the feeling of going on an adventure around the world like the novel, << Ghost Blows Out the Light>>. I have checked a lot of materials, so one arc of the story is relatively long. Next, for the arc on Tibet, Iceland, and Sahara, they may be even longer. This is why I write 10k+ of words everyday. I hope that Little Angels will be happy when I write more. Mua, mua (づ￣ 3￣)づ