The next day, Jiang Lan brought the apples to the office for his colleagues. He saw Zhang Tianxing with a scratch on his grim face. 

Jiang Lan was surprised.” What happened to your face?”

Zhang Tianxing.” Fang Qiushui did it.”

While driving her to the Special Human Bureau, Fang Qiushui suddenly woke up from her stupor and wanted to jump out of the car.  He had to stop the car and tried to restrain her. In the process, she managed to scratch his face.

Jiang Lan examined his face, and luckily, the cut wasn’t deep, and wouldn’t leave a scar.

He asked.” What’s the Special Human Bureau going to do with her?”

Fang Qiushui was, after all, a human being. The monster bureau could help in capturing her but the one who had the final say in her case is the special human bureau.

Zhang Tianxing had attended an overnight meeting convened for this purpose. He rarely involved himself with the affairs of the Special Human Bureau. But he delivered her and had first-hand knowledge of her case, so his attendance was required.

The Special Human Bureau had run a series of tests on her, and their findings confirmed Ying Qiao’s theory. She was indeed highly talented. If you were to compare a human’s body to a barrel containing spiritual energy, then an ordinary human cultivator could only fill half a barrel of spiritual energy at most. But Fang Qiushui could fill the barrel to the brim.

Of course, it was just the full potential she could achieve. But she had already managed to absorb some spiritual energy without being initiated into the cultivator circle.

And it had been a long time since the cultivator circle had last seen a talented person like this.

A heated debate started after this finding.

One group of attendees really admired her talent, proposing to recruit her as a pupil and give her proper guidance, which might bring her back from the extreme. The opposing side claimed she was mentally stable. Her extreme personality would prove destructive if she was given access to cultivation education. The decision to recruit her shouldn’t be taken lightly.

When the debate reached a stalemate, the opposing side contacted Fang Qiushui’s parents, only to learn a shocking piece of news.

Her parents discovered dozens of diaries hiding under her bed.

In these diaries, the information Fang Qiushui had been collecting from various sources about the “Deities” were neatly written. She went as far as exploring multiple ways of summoning these deities. Some of them were pure fallacies, but some methods sent a chill down the spine.

Fang Qiushui recorded a feasibility study of various shocking methods, such as “blood sacrifices” and “human sacrifices.” She even put such ideas into practice by experimenting with animals.

But she stopped short of experimenting with humans because she thought she had found the “cave god,” which rendered her previous efforts unnecessary. 

In her diaries, she thought she was above ordinary people or even her family, believing she was different from other people. She lived in this ordinary village, abiding her time. When the time comes, someone will come to take her away to a more worthy destiny.

Her peculiar eyesight, which could catch something ordinary people couldn’t see, and her magic tricks that occasionally worked, all served as evidence of her extraordinary destiny.

And Fang Qiushui had total faith in it.

According to her parents, Fang Qiushui was an intelligent and pretty child. Her family had always been doting on her. The only thing that bothered them was her occasional claims she had seen a monster or deity.

The Fang family was superstitious. They believed children’s unique eyesight would enable them to see something they weren’t supposed to see, and she would soon grow out of it.

But they didn’t expect the older she got, the more she became obsessed with it. She somehow got to know the legends about the flowery cave girl and insisted she was favored by the cave god. From then on, she remained at home, never walking out of the doorway. Dressed in her prettiest clothing, she waited for the cave god to come to marry her.

Her family had tolerated her so far, thinking they could afford a spinster daughter.

But when Fang Qiushui turned sixteen, she again insisted that the cave god would marry her soon, asking her family to prepare the marriage.

Her family naturally opposed this idea. It was one thing to tolerate her obsession at home, it was another to indulge her daydreaming before the whole village, shaming her family.

To get her own way, Fang Qiushui made a scene, threatening to commit suicide. Finally, her family relented, agreeing to a marriage ceremony to calm her down. But a series of bizarre and mysterious events took place in the middle of the wedding ceremony up in the mountains, stopping the whole marriage ceremony. The attending villagers were so frightened that they piously went to the shrines in their home to seek divine blessing.

Fang Qiushui explained that because of her tender age, the cave god suspended the wedding.

But these events were so bizarre that her family reluctantly accepted her theory and chose to leave her alone.

This fragile peace lasted many years until one day, Fang Qiushui suddenly came down the mountain with a handsome young man, claiming he was the cave god and asking her parents to prepare for the wedding.

Her family just thought their daughter had finally come to her senses. But just when they started to prepare for the wedding, unexpected things happened. First, the groom suddenly vanished; this was followed by Fang Qiushui’s escape with the money she stole from the family.

Her family was both angry and worried. They called the police and went through her belongings, looking for clues about her whereabouts. Instead of the clues, they found the diaries Fang Qiushui had been keeping these years.

Her parents had long suspected that there was something wrong with their daughter. But those were just thoughts buried in their minds. Now, these diaries finally confirmed the worst fear in their minds.

In these diaries, Fang Qiushui never showed any feeling towards her parents, regarding them as mere servants. She even contemplated the possibility of sacrificing her siblings to the “deities.”

The vivid description of the human sacrifice procedures sent a chill down the spine. In anger and sadness, her parents decided to disavow this daughter.

Hearing she had committed an offense, they said they were no longer responsible for her, leaving her to the law. 

The whole conversation was conducted on speaker. After her parents hung up the call, the entire meeting fell into silence. The minority who had been in favor of recruiting her silently abandoned their idea. After all, they couldn’t expect a person who treated her family like this to know right from wrong.

In the end, they were unanimously in favor of treating her severely. First, they would drain her body of spiritual energy and then seal off the channel of spiritual energy in her body. At this moment, Fang Qiushui was already mad. The Special Human Bureau decided to send her to the convalescence house in the south of the city.

This convalescence house was run by the Special Human Bureau. Most of the patients here were like Fang Qiushui, who would pose a significant threat to society if they were left roaming in the street.  

Jiang Lan agreed with this.” It’s better to lock her up. A madman with her power would cause no end of troubles.

Zhang Tianxing nodded.

Then he said casually.” Do you enjoy the park yesterday? It’s a pity my pass was wasted.”

Jiang Lan felt awkward.” Yes, we had a good time there. But yesterday we troubled you too much for taking her away. I will bring you along the next time we come to the park.”

Zhang Tianxing appeared to regret missing some fun.” Ok, but it seems I can’t find any VIP pass for sale, so we have to wait in long lines.”

“The VIP passes we had yesterday were gifts from Ying Qiao’s boss.” Jiang Lan smiled.” These passes aren’t for sale. I have read many tips on the internet; no one seemed to have these passes.”

Zhang Tianxing.” Boss? I thought Ying Qiao was Boss himself.”

Jiang Lan didn’t detect Zhang Tianxing’s undertone. He sighed.” Oh, yes, I thought so at first. But he was actually an assistant. But his service was highly valued by his Boss, and he often accompanied his Boss on business trips.”

Zhang Tianxing let out an “Oh” full of meaning.

Judging by his air and his attire, he believed Ying Qiao was not an ordinary employee. 

Appearing thoughtful, he ended their conversation.

****

In the afternoon, Chief Cheng came to deliver a piece of depressing news: On June 7th, following Monday, they would come to the countryside to join the poverty alleviation campaign on a rotating basis.

Their destination had already been set earlier. It was Three Water Village. The duration of their stay was eight days.

The participants were just Xue Meng, Xiao Xiaoyu, Jiang Lan, and Zhang Tianxing. Chief Cheng and Uncle Zhou would appear at the beginning and the end of the campaign to join the group photoshoot, content to leave the hard work to young people in the name of giving the young people the precious opportunities to gain work experience.

With a teacup in hand, Chief Cheng gave them a pep talk in a good mood, then leaving them to form groups and prepare for the trip.

While Xue Meng and Xiao Xiaoyu were complaining, Zhang Tianxing was the first to speak.” I will join Jiang Lan as a team.”

Xue Meng howled his displeasure.” No way, Jiang Lan is my teammate.”

Xiao Xiaoyu immediately agreed.” I don’t want Xue Meng as my teammate, he will drag me down.”

Xue Meng rarely didn’t contradict her.” Yes, Only a strong teammate could support me.”

Zhang Tianxing……

Glancing at Suan Ni, he fell into silence with a grim look.

In the end, it was settled. Xue Meng and Jiang Lan were in the same team, while Zhang Tianxing and Xiao Xiaoyu formed another team.

Xue Meng was in high spirits, looking as if he would almost buy a string of firecrackers to celebrate. He even declared.” My mother would go to the temple to burn incense. I will ask her to order four protective talismans, one for each of us to carry on the trip.”

After his brief exposure to the monster world, he became very superstitious. He no longer opposed his mother making trips to the temple to seek blessing.

Xiao Xiaoyu appeared contemptuous.” Wake up. You are there on a poverty alleviation campaign, not to dispel evil spirits. If you again give these superstitious talks, I will report to the Boss.”

Xue Meng was not easily intimidated.” How come you accused me of being superstitious? You haven’t heard about the Three Water Village? I have found several posts on the internet talking about the strange things about that village.”

While talking, he took out his phone to repost the links to these posts to their group chat.

Jiang Lan opened one link and saw one of the posts titled: Live updates on an adventure to Three Water Village, exploring the truth behind the infant tower.

He closed it and clicked several other links, and those titles were even more sensational.

“The living people’s grave in Three Water Village is real, attached image will prove it,” “Anyone heard about the Three Water Village? A cursed village”,” A full list of extraordinary events happened in the Three Water Village, do any living people remain there?”…..

The most recent post was posted half a year ago in a Tie Ba^[1]A Chinese online Reddit-like discussion community operated by Baidu, posts are organized into different user-created groups much like Reddit. called” There is no ghost in the world.” The beginning of the post read: The Three Water Village is just an ordinary village. Today I will live-update my trip there to dispel the rumors concerning this village.

Jiang Lan skimped through the post, discovering that there were many strange tales surrounding this village. This OP first listed all the stories about this village he could find, then he claimed he had set out for this village.

At first all the updates he posted seemed normal but gradually his posts took a strange turn. Finally, his updates abruptly stopped with the last sentence declaring: I can’t get out.

This post seemed to attract many People’s attention. A lot of the daily replies mentioned about the OP’s sudden disappearance but despite the floods of replies, there wasn’t any update after that post. The OP just suddenly vanished.

After they finished reading, Xue Meng said.” I didn’t lie to you, this village is indeed very strange.”

Xiao Xiaoyu always had little trust in tales like this.” Have you heard about Feng Meng Village? The tales about that village are even more frightening than this. But Later on a TV program proved that Feng Meng Village was just an abandoned village and there was no ghost in there. You shouldn’t trust those baseless rumours”

Xue Meng thought to himself that there are ghosts in the world. You just haven’t seen it yet.

Trembling, he grabbed Jiang Lan and wailed.” Daddy, please help me survive this trip.” 

Jiang Lan freed himself from his grip and patted his head kindly.” Rest easy, son.”