"Get the names of the kids in the village and pair up every beautiful fair-skinned one with a coa.r.s.e-skinned one." In this mission no one failed, not even Guo Hanying who had "mistakenly" paired up four boys.
"Find fifteen mothers who can speak other dialects or have the accent of another province."
Fan Zheng completed it late and ended up being paralyzed for minutes. The bad thing was he ran into Zhao Ai and received harsh and unreasonable scoldings from her. The girl did not stop there. Since she was very determined to disgust him, she kicked his… leaving him wanting to roll in the ground in pain, but couldn"t. The sensation he felt back then would be one of his most hated experiences in his life.
"Make your phones useful by secretly taking pictures of all the mothers and children here. Learn the art of the paparazzi."
At this part, the phones they surrendered to Zhao Guo were stolen back by them. The phones were left to the man for safeguarding after he explained that the villagers would not want themselves or their way of lives to be photographed so they agreed. It was the condition to be allowed to stay after all. Yesterday, they were truly afraid they would be kicked out of the village then chased by incorporeal monsters once again so they didn"t hesitate to give up their phones in exchange for permission to stay.
"Secretly trip ten able-bodied men. Every male local can only be targeted once."
"..." The test on their moral sense seemed to have begun, the targets the people they considered their savior.
"Secretly kill ten livestock and throw the remains at the doorstep of the neighbor of the owner. The one with the most refres.h.i.+ng performance will be exempted from the next game."
"Doodle for five minutes on the statue in the temple. Bring out your inner child while making sure to not get caught in the act by the locals."
"Throw stuff at Zhao Guo. The most creative one will be exempted from the next game. Hint: the more disgusting, the better."
"..."
"Eavesdrop secretly on ten houses and observe how the men treated the womenfolk of this village. If you see something x-rated, I won"t mind if you record it too."
"...""The d.a.m.n ghost is so wicked and bored!" They all thought.
Anyway, the last one was a quest that gave all of them a breather. At this point though, they no longer had no sense of shame, trained to complete every mission as fast and accurate as they could to avoid getting punished by the ghost that was toying with them.
However, while Fan Zheng and the rest had become numbed and were completing tasks instinctively, they had not truly gone senile.
Yesterday, they were with the village head all day so they failed to see the little clues. But now that they were moving around by themselves, without being tailed or led by anybody, they finally noticed something odd about the place.
Compared to the female lead"s horrible att.i.tude towards them, their new findings were a greater mystery. The funny thing was they only noticed it all due to the missions.
When they a.s.sembled again in the house, Zhan Rong brought up a scary possibility, "Is it possible that the ghost is making us do those strange stupid quests to show us those odd things?"
Of course, this was ignored by the rest who were inwardly holding grudges against the d.a.m.n being that gave them countless suffering. A malicious spirit did evil for a good cause? They told Zhan Rong, "Sister, stop dreaming."
The bunch had probably been too tense so they bickered for a while.
After this though, they recognized that there was a particular issue that needed to be discussed. Something quite bothersome...
"It"s been plaguing my mind since then. But amongst the group of children that I approached earlier, I saw two who did not seem to be that close to the others. Their eyes, although quite concealed, showed anxiousness and lack of security," in a quiet voice, Fan Zheng started, bringing up the issue that was plaguing his mind.
His sister nodded. Her face was pale from all the running that they did. Her heart was as alarmed though and she couldn"t help but say, "I ran into the same issue too actually. Or maybe from the start, I ran into the same group of kids. They laughed and played well with their peers, yet true happiness could not be seen from their eyes and bodies. One more thing... that one thing that bothered me the most... their skin and features did not look like what normal villagers" offspring should…"
Fan Lan saw that her brother squeezed her hand softly. She looked up and asked anxiously, "Brother… do you think I"m thinking too much?"
Fan Zheng only lowered his head, lost in his thoughts.
The others were silent at first. Only, the boys were very alert, frequently peeping through the window to check whether there were extra ears nearby.
Not long after, when they couldn"t take the quietness anymore, they began to share their observations, mostly those that greatly troubled their minds, spoken in whispers.
"To be honest, I"m thinking several children in this place seem to be so beautiful to be the children of those people who introduced themselves as their parents," An Ming began. His face was the sourest amongst them for he could not forget what he went through after failing twice. There was also the disgust he was feeling at the conclusion he had arrived at.
"I saw many ladies with traces of beatings on their bodies… Most of the wounds and scars appeared to be old… They… Even though I initially thought the missions were like a joke, but… Those women. They spoke different dialects or have different accents. Some of those who seemed to be having hard times at home, I tried to speak with them in English, and they could understand me… I swore they could really understand me! Do you get what I mean?"
The one who spoke was Fan Lan"s best friend, Liu Lingxin, a shorty with a lovely face. Unfortunately, like the rest, she was also sporting a downcast expression, not liking the thoughts dancing in her mind.
They were not looking down at the locals here. But since they were poor and isolated, was it logical to produce many educated members? Even if it was possible, why only females? They were very sure the village was one of those backward places still stuck in a patriarchal system, a community that favored boys over girls!
"Just where the heck are we?" another boy asked, feeling uneasy and insecure.
Fan Lan"s voice softly echoed again, not to answer him, but to express another guess in her heart, "I think... They must not be from here… And for some reason, I don"t feel like they became part of this village willingly."
The other people in the group maintained their silence after hearing that.
Their bodies were tired. But so were their minds. None of the others questioned the male lead"s sister whether she was referring to the kids or the women. Or perhaps, they only didn"t because they already had an answer in their hearts.
"I"m really tired," Guo Hanying weakly said.
Everyone sprawled on the floor, looking blankly at nowhere until a set of words slowly appeared on the wall next to Zhan Rong.
It was another seemingly no-brainer task. A census of the total population.
When they finished, Zhan Rong told the others, "I just confirmed it. There are many new faces in the village today."
"Is that true? But we"ve just arrived yesterday and we"re not familiar with everyone so there"s a chance the ones you saw are simply locals who didn"t show up yesterday."
"I don"t think so, Fan Zheng. I don"t believe it"s all a coincidence." Zhan Rong shook her head. "Maybe they are as you said. But honestly, I don"t think we should stay any longer in this place."
The girl looked around cautiously for a while before whispering in a low voice. "If I sound paranoid here, sorry. But seriously, we escape tonight, and we must not alert anyone."
Everyone drew a cold breath. It had almost become a bit to check whether there were locals nearby.
"But the forest…" The girls looked at Zhan Rong with worry and unwillingness.
The latter once again shook her head, her brows knitted. But although her voice was as soothing and stable as ever, she didn"t sound calm at all.
"I know you"re all hesitant because of the ghosts. But be honest, do you think the ghosts are scarier than the living? We have known each other for years, and I don"t remember befriending r.e.t.a.r.ded individuals. Knowing this is a mountain village should be enough to make some guesses."
Fan Zheng and the other quietly looked at her. She was a bit annoyed by the stares so she asked, "Haven"t heard from the news of city people being trafficked to places like this?"