None of them was truly a fool, otherwise, they would not have survived until now, growing up into youths with boundless prospects as future graduates of a prestigious university. They were also not really acquainted with the villagers to have a never-wavering impression of them. Their ident.i.ty was merely that of a pa.s.serby.
Therefore, when Zhan Rong finally voiced out the guess all of them actually had in mind, they stopped denying the truth to themselves and became cautious of the locals around them.
They became conscious mainly of the stares they were getting.
The eyes were not right. Especially the elderly and men.
Why did they look them as if they were prey?
The warmth and kindness the villagers showed... Was it because they were already a.s.suming the students would become part of their community?
Or that these people were already being generous of their warmth because tomorrow they would be their cows and horses?
Everyone in the room could not help but s.h.i.+ver.
Guo Hanying couldn"t help but share her experience yesterday. When she went out by herself in the morning, a middle-aged woman kept bringing up her teenage son and her wish to give him a virtuous and educated wife.
While Guo Hanying maintained a respectful listening att.i.tude, she was secretly feeling funny. Which cultured women would want to be in this rundown place? She thought the other really knew how to dream, and to dream big at that. But now that she recalled the conversation again, she found it hard to laugh.
An educated wife, huh… Was that referring to her and her friends who came from the city? She felt the colors draining from her face.
The others also got entered the sharing mode.
People always had a story in their hearts and most of the time, they would want their friends to hear it to earn sympathy or useful insights and advice.
Zhan Rong looked at Fan Zheng, "It"s past six already. You are close to the village head, see if you can buy food ingredients from him. Even noodles will do. We will cook our meal tonight by ourselves. We need to eat to replenish our energy for later."
The most educated lady spoke and since there was finality in her tone, everyone else did not argue about whether to leave or not.
Years of friends.h.i.+p exposed them to Zhan Rong"s temper so they knew she would only take charge if the matter was absolutely pressing. The previous one with the army of spirits was not counted since paranormal stuff was under Fan Zheng"s area of expertise... if he could even be called an expert at that.
"So it will be tonight?" Before going out, Fan Zheng asked in a barely audible voice.
Zhan Rong nodded.
The male lead then stood up and walked out of the wooden door. A second later, he popped his head in. "By the way, why food ingredients when he could directly buy cooked ones? The aunt next door already said they could make extra portions for us. That could save us a lot of trouble."
This time, he got an eye-roll from his friends. There was a couple of meter distance between the group and the guy on the doorway so the former only let their eyes do the talking.
"You dared ask? Tch. You, idiot. If some sort of self-made drug is added to the dish, then what? Just cry? And pray for a miracle?
Their look caused Fan Zheng to be embarra.s.sed whereas it made Jiang Li laugh. So green, he thought.
The group was still quite naive and was still trapped in the illusion that only soups and cooked dishes could be used to poison people. They must have gotten the ideas from TV dramas or films. This proved that if not for their incredible luck, if the villagers did not choose to poison them through incense on the third day, they would have been in a miserable situation by now.
After laughing for a full minute, the ghost went out of the necklace and blend into the darkness. He then stared at the wall to their right side. His eyes could seemingly see through it.
It was not visible to the others because a cabinet was placed in front of it, but there was actually a fairly large hole on the plyboard wall there.
Somebody was eavesdropping on their ongoing conversation.
Jiang Li could not see the person actually, Ghosts had a better vision at night than the living, but still had no ability to see through objects.
Jiang Li would have not noticed the person there if not for sensing the fear coming out from her. The fear of getting found out. The shock from what she found out.
The girl"s eyes were so wide as she covered her mouth using her two hands.
Zhao Ai was truly shocked. A yelp almost escaped from her lips. Thankfully, she managed to restrain herself on time, coming to her senses and knowing she could not make anyone alert. Still, her mind was a mess and her eyes began to swim around uncontrollably.
"These foreigners finally noticed something is off?" she couldn"t help but ask herself upon hearing the foreigners truly planned to leave tonight.
Zhao Ai did not dare move a muscle from her position and she held her breath as much as she could. When she felt numbness from her legs, she slowly turned around to plaster her back against the wall while noiselessly sliding down to sit on the ground.
After double-checking that she did not alert anybody, only then did she feel she had the leisure to wonder about things.
Was it because she angered them too much? Or because they learned about what happened last night?
The voices became less audible from her new spot. But she could still make out a few details.
Zhao Ai felt extremely happy because, for the first time, there were people not misled by her father and the others. Then extremely guilty and embarra.s.sed discovering they sobered up due to discerning there were beautiful kids and highly educated mothers who couldn"t have hailed from here.
After that, she thought, "Sure enough, they must be geniuses from college or people gifted with greatly deductive minds."
She then stood up and whispered to herself, "This is good... I must prepare too to help them."