Xia Qingtian changed into casual clothes from a popular brand, slung a light pink backpack over her shoulder, put on a pair of black-rimmed glasses, and let her hair down. She took a bus for a full three and a half hours before arriving at the fringes of City Z.
If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, Xia Qingtian would have had a hard time imagining that there were still such desolate and dilapidated places on the outskirts of a city as glamorous as City Z.
The half-finished projects were completely abandoned, with mud and disarray everywhere. Three children peeked out from a corner, their eyes fixed on something.
"Little ones~" Xia Qingtian waved at the children and took out some candies from her backpack, intending to give them to the three children. "Hello there~"
"Who are you?" The older child seemed somewhat wary, sizing Xia Qingtian up while preventing the other two children from taking the candies from Xia Qingtian's palm.
"I'm a student from City Z University, from the Fine Arts department. I want to come to a remote place to paint the scenery," Xia Qingtian said, looking around. "Do you know if there's any beautiful scenery here?"
"There's no good scenery here. You should go back," the child said, waving her hand.
"How can that be? I saw online before that they were going to build a resort here. If there wasn't good scenery, why would they build a resort?" Xia Qingtian asked, feigning surprise. She unwrapped a candy, popped it into her mouth, and then, with exaggerated half-closed eyes, acted as if it were incredibly delicious. "Don't you want any?"
This time, even the older child swallowed hard. The three children immediately snatched the candies from Xia Qingtian's palm.
After eating the candy, the three children became more talkative.
"My dad said they're not building a resort here anymore," the older child said.
"Yeah, my dad said this place can be sold for a lot of money, so they're not building it," said the little girl with pigtails, her cheeks puffed out by the candy. "Sister, you should go paint somewhere else."
"Sold for a lot of money?" Xia Qingtian began to ponder. Didn't the Xia Corporation already buy the land here? What opportunity would there be to sell it for a high price?
In her previous life, she hadn't heard anything about the government ordering the demolition of this area. Even if it were demolished, it wouldn't concern the residents here. Could it be that there was gold buried underground?
"Xiao Ni! Why are you saying too much!" The older child slapped the little girl's head, scolding her for being too talkative.
The candy in the little girl's mouth fell to the ground when she was hit. She was stunned for a moment, then burst into tears.
"Don't cry, don't cry, I have more here!" Xia Qingtian immediately took out a few more candies. "You guys share them."
With the new candies, Xiao Ni stopped crying. Only the plump little boy shyly said thank you.
With the little boy leading the way, the other two children also said thank you.
Xia Qingtian just smiled faintly, asked a few more small questions, and then returned to the topic of painting. "Is there really nowhere beautiful here?"
"Sacred Mountain, Sacred Mountain is very beautiful!" Xiao Ni pointed to a place not far away. "But you have to go through a small forest to find the path up the mountain, and it's not easy to walk."
"I know the way!" The plump little boy patted his chest. "I can lead the way."
"Xiao Pang! Have you forgotten your task today?" The older boy immediately pushed him and said, "No one can leave their post!"
"You have a task?" Xia Qingtian's thoughts stirred, and she said with a smile, "That's great. I loved playing these games with my friends when I was little."
"We're not playing games, we really have a mission!" Xiao Ni felt offended by Xia Qingtian's words and said anxiously, "We have to guard against bad guys coming from the city. If any bad guys come, we have to go back and notify the adults!"
"Bad guys?" Xia Qingtian blinked. "Is someone going to hurt you? Do you need me to call the police?"
"No, it's about building the resort. This place is protected by Sacred Mountain, and people can't build resorts here. People will die," Xiao Ni said mysteriously.
"Xiao Ni! You big mouth!" The older child, exasperated, reached out to hit Xiao Ni again.
Xia Qingtian quickly pulled Xiao Ni behind her and said, "No fighting. You are all good friends, don't fight. You are the older brother, you can't hit your sister!"
"What sister? I'm her uncle!" The boy corrected Xia Qingtian.
"Then your generation is really senior," Xia Qingtian laughed. "Why don't you tell me about Sacred Mountain? I still have to hand in homework, and if I can't paint it, I'll definitely be scolded by the teacher."
"Hiss..." The three children clearly had a lingering fear of being scolded by the teacher. They gasped and looked at each other.
"People who are not from here cannot find the way to Sacred Mountain... Why don't you just go and paint somewhere else?" The older boy hesitated. "We don't have time to take you up there."
"Since that's the case, there's nothing we can do," Xia Qingtian said, raising her hand to look at her watch. "The fastest bus back will take at least an hour and a half. Why don't I stay and keep watch with you? If any bad guys really come, I'm an adult and can help hold them off so you can run away first."
Hearing Xia Qingtian say this, the three children looked at each other.
Seeing this, Xia Qingtian took out two more packs of snacks, and the three children readily agreed.
With snacks in hand and plenty of time, Xia Qingtian managed to learn quite a bit from the three children.
It turned out that this area was indeed where the Xia Corporation planned to build a resort. With a large amount of capital investment, the cooperation between the two sides was initially smooth.
Until one day, someone died, and several bizarre incidents occurred. The residents then remembered the curse of Sacred Mountain.
As for what those bizarre incidents were, the three children gave several versions, each more outlandish than the last. In the end, they were all very strange.
However, they clearly remembered the curse of Sacred Mountain: the Dream Eater God lived under Sacred Mountain, and those who disturbed the god's dreams would pay with their lives.
So, the residents were not happy and began to obstruct the construction. Later, people from the construction team also died mysteriously, and the project was completely halted.
"It was like falling asleep, I saw it with my own eyes!" Xiao Ni raised her hand. "My dad said it was the punishment of the Dream Eater God! People fall asleep and then they die!"
"Something like this actually happened..." Xia Qingtian instinctively didn't want to believe in any Dream Eater God, but she herself had the [Chosen One] system. Could there really be something supernatural going on here?
*Beep...*
*The Chosen One System has been activated.*
*Choose A: Dispel superstition and solve the mystery of Sacred Mountain to promote the resumption of the project. Reward: A universal antidote.*
*Choose B: Confess to Xia Honglang and abandon the current project. Reward: Five million in cash.*