"Alright, let"s go in shall we?" Tang Qinghong spoke, before walking into the house, curious at who the mysterious owner of the house was.
When he first came to this village, he was welcomed by the villagers, but they started disliking him and refusing him and just based on that, it was clear to see that the owner of this house was quite well respected in the area. Who was it, and why did they garner such respect?
The first thing he saw upon entering the house was a pile of money on the floor, then a beautiful girl in a white T-s.h.i.+rt and a pair of jeans.
The girl looked over at him when she heard him come in, and he blinked in surprise for a moment…It was her?
He was amused by this girl when he saw her on the train a few hours ago, thinking that she was probably a student on their way back home for the holidays, but before they could have a conversation, she vanished.
Now, she appeared in front of him again, and was the house owner that he had been curious about? What were the odds?
"You…"
"Ah, the last one is back I see. Go pack your bags and get out of my house." Gu Xiqiao glanced at him, speaking with a cold and demanding tone.
Tang Qinghong realized that she was angry, and with a glance at the money on the floor and another at Bao Xinyi that was still s.h.i.+vering slightly behind him, he pieced together what was going on pretty quickly. He was still curious, however. How did this girl manage to scare Bao Xinyi so badly?
"Wait." As Gu Xiqiao was about to walk upstairs, Tang Qinghong stopped her with an amiable tone, as if he wanted to look for a compromise. "I"m sorry on behalf of my friend for getting mad at you, but we really need to stay here. Can we reach an agreement?"
Hearing his words, both Bao Xinyi and Su Wen made an expression of equal surprise.
To them, Tang Qinghong was like the moon in the sky, far and unreachable, and even if they lived under the same roof, they still treated him with respect and even fear. Not only did they differ largely in social status, but also in other factors too, and they already felt lucky beyond belief to be able to live here together with him this time.
Upon hearing his tone, it was hard for them to process what was going on for a few moments. Who was Tang Qinghong? He was someone that even the mayor of the Imperial Capital had to give respect to, and now he was being so polite and humble to this girl? This was too surprising, and Su Wen"s expression was one of someone that had seen a ghost.
Meanwhile, Bao Xinyi understood Tang Qinghong"s reaction. This girl probably wasn"t as simple and harmless as she looked.
"Sorry, but that"s impossible." Gu Xiqiao didn"t even turn her head as she refused, nary a pause in her steps.
This girl really was too brash, and Su Wen couldn"t help but look towards Tang Qinghong. Judging from the looks of it, was he about to get angry? There weren"t that many people that could refuse Young Master Tang so directly, after all.
Tang Qinghong sighed softly as he heard the refusal. So he had to go about this in another way? He looked at the jade bracelet on her wrist and smiled. "Say, do you know the people from the Yin family?"
This time, Gu Xiqiao stopped walking up the stairs and looked back down at him, raising her chin slightly in a silent order for him to explain.
"Tang Yanling is my aunt."
His aunt? Gu Xiqiao looked down, her fingers touching the jade bracelet for a moment as she pondered for a bit. "You can stay here, but you can"t disturb me, nor the other villagers."
"Of course." Tang Qinghong nodded with a smile. "My friend wasn"t polite just now, so I"ll lecture them on your behalf."
Bao Xinyi was still outside the door, looking at Gu Xiqiao with a scared expression. Every time she stepped into the yard, she felt as if there was a hand around her neck, and it was hard to even breathe properly. If this went on, she might probably go mad!
But as she looked at Tang Qinghong and Gu Xiqiao, Bao Xinyi didn"t dare to speak any further, just deciding to move out as soon as she had the chance to.
The only reason why she wanted to stay here was to get closer to Tang Qinghong, but what good could he do if she died?
Hearing Tang Qinghong oblige, Gu Xiqiao was about to walk upstairs again before she heard a voice shout from outside in the yard.
"Little Gu, we heard Daniu say that you"re home, so we"re here to see you!"
Tang Qinghong didn"t close the gates behind him as he came in, so there were a bunch of villagers outside the gates that had come to see Gu Xiqiao with gifts in tow as soon as they heard that she had returned.
Gu Xiqiao walked out to see the villagers that had tanned skin from working in the sun all day, holding eggs, or grains, or some fresh fruits and vegetables in their hands.
"We heard you came back and were worried that you had nothing to eat, so here we are!" The village chief spoke as everyone worked together to put everything on the wooden table in the yard. None of them dared to go into the house, so they only talked with her outside.
The village chief sighed. "Little Gu, I"m sorry for being so useless that I can"t even keep an eye on your house for you…"
"Village chief, please don"t say that." Gu Xiqiao smiled as she rea.s.sured the village chief, "I"ve known you ever since I was a child, so could I not know that you must have tried your best? It wasn"t something that you could control, and I"m thankful that my house is still intact and that you managed to leave my room untouched, too."
These villagers all had unsophisticated and warm hearts.
"Alright, I won"t talk about it anymore, then." The village chief sighed again. "Your aunt went back to her mother"s place today so she"ll only come back tomorrow. Come to our place tomorrow and I"ll have her cook up something delicious for you, hm? Look at you, you"re all skin and bones after getting out of the village!"
"Alright." Gu Xiqiao nodded. "Go back, hm? I"m sure s.h.i.+ Tou misses you."
"Nah, he even begged me to come here to see you together!" Speaking of s.h.i.+ Tou, the village chief chuckled. s.h.i.+ Tou was his only son, and Yu Man had saved him when the boy got smallpox in the past, so their families were quite close to each other.
But then again, which family in the village wasn"t close with Yu Man and Gu Xiqiao?
Gu Xiqiao escorted the village chief for some ways before he shooed her back, and so she could only stand there and watch as he disappeared from her sight before turning back.
Tang Qinghong"s eyes glimmered in surprise upon seeing how practically everyone in the village had come to give Gu Xiqiao food. They had stayed here for quite a while now and had never been treated like this, not even by the girls that had crushes on Tang Qinghong.
Was she really that popular and respected?
Gu Xiqiao didn"t have the mood nor the patience to care, so she only walked up to her room. Before this, she had actually bought a bunch of gifts for the villagers, and upon thinking of this, she made a large plastic container appear in her room with a single intent.
All the gifts she brought with her were stuffed in this container so that it would only take one s.p.a.ce in the system inventory.
She had bought too many gifts, so she sat there on the floor as she arranged them all. She hadn"t even done her daily missions yet, and upon thinking about the ha.s.sle of having to clean the room up then go to take a bath before she could to that, she felt a headache coming on again.
Gu Xiqiao could only hasten her movements, only going downstairs to take a bath.
As she walked out the door, she stopped as she stared at the potted plant on the windowsill. It was a beefsteak plant, which was a sort of plant that was resilient and could survive easily in any sort of soil. Normally, its leaves were green or purple with toothed margins and fine hairs, but this particular plant had a black mist around it that made it seem quite eerie.
[Beauty Qiao, something"s wrong!] The system that was playing video games in the void raised its head suddenly as it looked at the pot with a serious expression.
Gu Xiqiao reached over and the potted plant floated into her palm, and at the moment it touched her palm, a cold, mechanical voice rang out in her head again, while a screen popped up in front of her with the message written in red font.
[Chain Mission—Stage Two: There is an unknown source of evil aura within ten miles of your position, you must find its source and purify it immediately!]
[Mission accomplishment reward: 5000 points]
[Penalty for mission failure: Obliteration]
Upon seeing these words, Gu Xiqiao was quite calm. This was the reason why she was reborn, after all, and it was a responsibility that she couldn"t just shrug off.
Even if it weren"t, this was still the place she grew up in, and where the ancestors of the villagers set down their roots, and she wasn"t about to let them lose their home any time soon.
The main reason she came back in the first place was to find the reason that made all the villagers go missing, and upon seeing this mission being issued, she had an inkling as to what that might be.
Her fingers twitched slightly as a mist emerged from her palm, counteracting the black mist on the plant and purifying it like snow in the sun before she let the pot float back to the windowsill.
In actuality, back when this house was built, everything was quite simple and crude, and they didn"t have all the conveniences that were commonplace in the city. This was a village, after all, and the most they had was a bathroom.
But upon the arrival of the trio from the city, Su Wen renovated the house so that Tang Qinghong could stay there comfortably, spending a lot of money on their first day here to make a shower room, a toilet, as well as install solar panels, internet connection, and all sorts of commodities.
The water from the bath was flown in from the spring in the mountain behind them, and everything was extremely convenient.
It was already quite late, and she guessed that the trio was already resting so she went downstairs to take a bath.
Before she could walk in, the door opened from the inside.
"You"re going to take a bath too?" Tang Qinghong was only wearing a loose bathrobe, translucent water droplets dripping down his muscular chest as he smiled lazily, exuding male hormones with his handsome face.
If it were someone else, they would probably be attracted to him beyond repair, but Gu Xiqiao didn"t appreciate it in the slightest. "Is it strange for me to take a bath?"
He was a tad bit nervous in actuality when he met her clear gaze, but the next moment his emotions turned into ones of defeat upon seeing that she wasn"t affected by his charms in the least, but he quickly masked it with a smile. "I wanted to ask about your relations with my aunt... Are you…Shaoyuan"s girlfriend?"
"No." Gu Xiqiao bypa.s.sed him and pushed open the bathroom door. "Aren"t you supposed to be leaving? What, do you want to watch?"
"Cough…" Tang Qinghong had always had the image of being a gentleman, and few people talked to him like this straight to his face. "Alright, I"ll leave. Goodnight."
Gu Xiqiao nodded and closed the door behind her.
Outside the door, Tang Qinghong"s gaze became darker and somewhat calculating as he looked towards the second floor. Was that surge of chi that he had felt, or was he mistaken?