Chapter 2 The Next Morning

The next morning, the cries for help from the three male college students caught the attention of the neighbors.

The villagers found a way to break open the front door, grabbed sticks and scythes, and rushed to the second floor, only to find that Shi Derong had already stopped breathing.

His entire body was soaking wet, water dripping from his clothes even without wringing them.

His feet were spread apart, his hands supporting him on the ground, just sitting like that at the entrance of the side bedroom, his head drooping on his chest.

His face was flushed purple, his bulging eyes were full of blood vessels,

and the corners of his mouth, stretched to the earlobes, were upturned in a bizarre smile.

Villagers and passengers who heard the news gathered in the living room on the first floor of Shi Derong's house, discussing among themselves.

The village chief, Lu Gui, asked the villagers to take the three terrified college students to rest in other people's homes.

The village chief's youngest son, Lu Mao, told everyone that Shi Derong was usually a drunken sot. Last night, he probably just drank too much, got himself wet, sat outside the door, and just happened to compress his breathing, suffocating himself to death.

This explanation was barely passable. After all, the heavy rain was still falling, and communication and transportation were cut off, so it was impossible to report the case to the police even if they wanted to.

Village chief Lu Gui politely asked the passengers to return, on the pretext of "collecting Shi Derong's body".

After the outsiders zouguang, only a few older male villagers remained in the living room.

Lu Mao closed the door. An elderly villager named Lu He glanced at Shi Derong's miserable and terrifying death and said hesitantly, "How many is this now? Could it really be..."

"Don't talk nonsense!"

Village chief Lu Gui changed his kind and benevolent appearance, glaring and saying, "Even if it's really a ghost, we have a way!

Mao, take a few people now and go dig up the aqueduct."

The villagers were shocked and said, "Why? If we dig up the aqueduct, won't all the fields be flooded?"

"There is no why. Is your two *mu* of rotten fields more important, or is your life more important?"

Village chief Lu Gui sneered, "Only by listening to me, you, you, can survive. Otherwise, just wait to die."

The villagers lowered their heads obsequiously, not daring to look at Lu Gui.

Lu Mao took a few people, wearing raincoats and carrying hoes, to the farmland and dug up the aqueduct that had just been repaired yesterday, allowing the terraced fields to be flooded.

Just as they were standing on the road, watching the water flow flood the fields,

Li Ang, wearing a black raincoat and covering his face with cloth, was also watching their every move on the distant mountain ridge.

Chai Cuiqiao asked curiously, "Strange... why are they flooding their own fields?"

Li Ang rubbed his chin and said casually, "Maybe it's because the septic tank upstream of the stream exploded, and they're thinking of saving resources, keeping the fertilizer in their own fields."

The villagers watched for a while on the road before turning around and leaving with their hoes. Chai Cuiqiao couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you going to follow them and see?"

"I could, but there's no need."

Li Ang shook his head. "The 'weirdness' that can shield spiritual senses either comes from the unique terrain of Dusheng Village,

or from this bizarre heavy rain,

or from someone or something.

I don't think these villagers really know the real purpose of digging the canal to flood the fields. Instead of asking them, it's better to find the person who really knows the truth."

Chai Cuiqiao frowned slightly, "Are you saying, that village chief?"

Li Ang shook his head, not answering.

There were quite a few strange things in Dusheng Village. Before solving the mystery, Li Ang didn't plan to take any radical measures against the villagers, including the village chief.

He watched the villagers leave in the distance, pulled up his raincoat, and walked straight into the mountain gully.

The heavy rain was pouring, the mountain forest was dark, and the shadows of the trees on both sides of the narrow path swayed, as if welcoming Li Ang.

This mountain gully was filled with many graves, both new and old. Li Ang looked around and found the newest

grave and climbed up the hillside.

According to the markers on the tombstone, the owner of this grave died eleven days ago. It was his death that prompted Lu Maodian to find an information broker and hire Li Ang.

"Excuse me."

Li Ang said indifferently to the brand-new tombstone, took out a small shovel, attached Undulation Energy to it, and smashed the cement ground on the grave with a single blow.

A moment later, the grave was completely opened, split in two.

Li Ang didn't rush down. Instead, he put on a layer of plastic film clothing, covered his sleeves with latex gloves, wrapped his shoes with large condoms, and wrapped his forehead and chin with plastic wrap.

These protective measures were mainly to prevent the smell of highly decomposed corpses from lingering on his body and attracting the attention of others—

Once the decomposed liquid of a corpse sticks to the skin, the smell won't go away for days. Li Ang had considerable experience with this.

After preparing, Li Ang jumped into the grave, lifted the coffin lid, revealing the male corpse lying quietly inside.

In ten days, the corpse had rotted quite severely. Li Ang breathed naturally in the strong stench of the corpse without changing his expression, and even calmly said to Chai Cuiqiao,

"This corpse is rotting a bit badly. If it were fresher, its belly would be bulging high.

As long as you chajin a needle connected to a rubber tube, and put a match at the other end of the rubber tube, the decomposed gas in the corpse will spurt out along the tube and be ignited by the match, forming a blue jet of flame.

It's very beautiful. It's a pity you didn't see it."

Chai Cuiqiao was speechless, not knowing what to say, and could only laugh dryly a few times.

Li Ang didn't care about Chai Cuiqiao's silence. He bent down and, like taking off gloves, peeled off the skin of the corpse, carefully examining every corner of the corpse.

As an ordinary netizen who likes to surf the Internet, it's perfectly normal for Li Ang to be proficient in forensic anthropology.

Examining the corpse didn't take Li Ang too long. He climbed out of the grave, hurriedly buried the tomb, and headed to the burial site of the deceased in Dusheng Village.

Until the evening, Li Ang examined the remains of all the dead in Dusheng Village in the past seven months. Fortunately, this place was remote and the folk customs were "simple", and there was not much cremation.

Having gained some information, Li Ang didn't explain anything to Chai Cuiqiao.

It was getting late, and if they didn't return to the village, they would be suspected.

Li Ang removed all protective measures, tore up all the plastic wrap, latex gloves, etc., stuffed them into the torn disposable plastic film clothing,

and then compressed the pile of garbage into the size of a fist, wrapped it in layers of plastic wrap, put it in his raincoat pocket, and returned to Dusheng Village as if nothing had happened.

Not long after he left the mountain gully, another figure wrapped in a black cloak appeared in the mountains.

He looked at the graves that had been dug up and hastily buried, and remained silent for a long time.