The van drove slowly along the mountain road, and Jiang Ting slowly recounted the memories she was reluctant to bring up.
"After Boss Zhou arrived at Chenjia Village, he immediately started recruiting people to dig the mountain. Many people from Chenjia Village went, but it wasn't enough, so they went to Shangxiang Village to recruit workers. My father was in poor health and couldn't go, but my uncle was young and strong, so he went to the mine. He said he would just take a look and be back the next day, but there was no news at all. Coincidentally, my aunt was very ill, so my father asked me to go into the mountain to check the situation. If I encountered my uncle, I should hurry and call him back."
"It was already dark, and it was drizzling, but because I had played in the nearby mountains since I was a child, I was very familiar with the mountain paths. I put on a straw cape, got on my motorcycle, and went into the mountain. Not long after entering the mountain, the car ran out of gas, so I had to stop the car by the roadside and walk. Halfway there, I passed a graveyard… just before the mountain where Uncle Yan was buried, all the outsiders from Chenjia Village were buried there. Since childhood, my parents never let us play there, so there were many scary ghost stories and legends."
"I didn't take it seriously at the time and planned to walk straight through, but then I heard movement in the graveyard. I thought it was small animals in the mountains, but when I looked closely, it was a living person!"
"That living person had dug a hole in the graveyard, cupped the bones dug out of the hole in his hands, and was gnawing on them!"
"I was so scared I almost screamed, but I held back and hid. I saw that man-eating creature gnaw on the bones and seemed still unsatisfied. He actually cast a spell in front of the grave. Before long, his head detached from his body, and with his intestines, it flew away! The head first bit onto a small bird on a tree, sucked its blood dry, and then flew further away."
"I was afraid that the head would come back at any moment, but thinking about the monster in the mountains and what if it entered the village to harm people, I mustered up my courage, picked up a stone, and smashed it hard onto the monster's body, breaking its arm. Unexpectedly, the headless body reacted. It stood up and chased me. I was so scared that I ran away quickly. After running for several hundred meters, I managed to shake off that monster..."
"When I got home, I told my father that I had encountered a monster in the mountains, but they all said it was a hallucination and that there was no monster at all. Later, a sister from the village said that what I encountered might be a Khon, so I asked my cousin to check online. The monster was exactly like a Khon, capable of casting the 'flying head' spell, making its head fly out to suck human blood to increase its power."
"But even though I explained it so clearly, no one believed me, and I even started to doubt myself, thinking if I had really hallucinated. That is, until a few days later, when Boss Zhou's men came to our village and said that the villagers who went to the mine were unwilling to come back and wanted to earn more money in the mine, and they were there to pay the miner's families for the past few days of work."
"Everyone was worried at first, but after getting paid, they all felt relieved. Only I… I saw a strange old man among Boss Zhou's men. He looked exactly like the monster I saw that day, and his arm was injured, clearly from where I had smashed it with a stone that day!"
Jiang Ting sighed heavily when she finished: "Up to now, my uncle has been in the mine for almost three months with no news at all. No one is willing to believe what I say. It's only because you, my brother and sister, have returned from out of town and won't laugh at me that I'm telling you all this."
Jiang Ting's experience would truly be hard for anyone else to believe.
But in Yan Shouyi and Lin Zitong's ears, this matter was not so simple.
According to Jiang Ting's description, the monster she saw that day was indeed a Khon!
But why would a Khon come to the mainland for no reason, and to a poor and remote place like Chenjia Village?
Most of the Khons Yan Shouyi knew were concentrated in Hong Kong, possessing considerable power and wealth. They had no reason to come to a place like Chenjia Village to suffer.
Yan Shouyi and Lin Zitong exchanged glances, both feeling that this matter was not simple.
Boss Zhou himself might even be a cover, and the real mastermind could be a Khon. Their so-called mining might not be real mining at all, but rather a cooperation with the Khon for some evil ritual.
There was one thing in Jiang Ting's story that caught Yan Shouyi's attention slightly: the Khon ate the corpses of outsiders in the mountains near Chenjia Village. Yan Shouyi also knew that graveyard; when he was a child, his grandfather had even asked him to spend a night alone in the graveyard to build courage.
Fortunately, because Yan Shouyi's grandfather was highly respected by the villagers in Chenjia Village, after his death, the villagers did not ask Yan Shouyi to bury his grandfather's ashes in the graveyard of outsiders. Instead, they let Yan Shouyi choose any place he liked.
This spared Yan Shouyi's grandfather's grave.
Yan Shouyi remained silent as he pondered. Jiang Ting, thinking they didn't believe her, said aggrievedly:
"Everything I saw that day was real. Now, there's no news from my uncle and the others. They might have already met with misfortune..."
"Don't worry, we believe you!" Lin Zitong quickly said.
"I don't believe you!!"
Long Feicheng, sitting in the back of the truck, hadn't heard anything at all but insisted on chiming in: "Can we stop so I can rest? I really can't hold it anymore!"
Jiang Ting stopped the car by the roadside helplessly. Long Feicheng immediately jumped out of the car and leaned on a bamboo by the roadside, vomiting violently.
Seeing Long Feicheng's pitiable state, Jiang Ting couldn't bear it. She got out of the car with a bottle of water, helped him pat his back, and calmed his breathing.
After Jiang Ting got out of the car, Lin Zitong immediately said to Yan Shouyi, "What do you think about this?"
Yan Shouyi shook his head: "It's hard to say. In any case, the purpose of Boss Zhou and his group is definitely not as simple as mining. This matter needs to be planned carefully. When we arrive at Chenjia Village and meet them, we will naturally know what's going on. But before that, there are probably some troubles to deal with."
"What trouble?"
Yan Shouyi pointed to the cliff ahead.
At that moment, several large rocks suddenly rolled down the mountain and landed heavily on the road!
Jiang Ting looked back, her face turning pale with fright.
If Long Feicheng hadn't insisted on stopping to rest, she would have driven past. Based on the time and distance, she might have been hit by the boulders!
Yan Shouyi said in a deep voice:
"Jiang Ting has been targeted by that Khon. He cast a spell on Jiang Ting. If we hadn't been in the car today, she would likely have died."
Lin Zitong's face also turned grim: "That Khon is so wicked, trying to kill witnesses, and he actually knew all along that Jiang Ting had discovered his true identity..."
Just thinking about it was terrifying.
Yan Shouyi looked out of the car. The dark aura on Jiang Ting's head was gradually dissipating.
Khon was similar to a curse, and it had been cast on Jiang Ting. Jiang Ting had been resisting the curse with her own luck.
But today, her luck had run out, and the curse had taken effect, causing her to die in an accident.
By chance, Jiang Ting met Yan Shouyi and the others, and Long Feicheng, considered to be blessed with good fortune, happened to save her.
Long Feicheng still didn't know what had happened. Seeing the boulders rolling down the road, he couldn't help but laugh:
"Little girl, brother here saved you from a disaster. Shouldn't you repay me?"
Jiang Ting, still shaken and unnerved, immediately said, "I'll move all the goods to the back of the truck, and you can sit in the front passenger seat!"
"Smart, sensible!" Long Feicheng nodded in satisfaction.
Lin Zitong in the car breathed a sigh of relief: "Did Jiang Ting escape disaster?"
Yan Shouyi shook his head: "I doubt it. Jiang Ting is the only one who knows the Khon's identity. If the Khon finds out that Jiang Ting didn't die today, he might come directly tonight!"
Lin Zitong covered her mouth and said, "Then we can't let Jiang Ting go back alone!"
"Of course, until we deal with the Khon, she'd better stay with us," Yan Shouyi said. "But we need a reason..."
"That's easy!" Lin Zitong smiled. "Leave it to me!"