The old man pondered for a moment.
He said to Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, "Since you insist, if you want to stay at an inn or hotel, you'll at least have to go to town. This is considered the village's area. It's sparsely populated and desolate, and because of that house, not many people are willing to stay here."
"People like us either have been rooted here for many years and are reluctant to leave, or they have no means to leave."
"How about this, I can't explain the way just by talking. I'm too old to make the trip myself, so I can't accompany you to find a place. However, there's a young man in our village who lives in town. His elderly parents are still here and don't want to move, so he has to come back every now and then to take care of them."
The old man took a sip of tea, put down his cup, and stood up.
"Coincidentally, he's just come into the village today. If it were any later, he would definitely be going back to his home in town, as he has a wife and children there. I'll take you to find him, and then you can go to town with him and stay there."
"It's getting late, so if you go with him soon, you won't be delayed too much when you settle in. Let's go now."
Nie Chongyang immediately thanked the old man, saying, "Thank you for your trouble."
Liang Ping also stood up with Nie Chongyang.
The old man led Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, familiar with the way, to find the young man. The young man's home was not close to the old man's, and they even had to pass through the area of the ruined house.
However, they didn't expect that as soon as they reached the ruined house, they heard quite a commotion.
Someone shouted loudly.
"This place is very dangerous! You're not supposed to be here, don't you know? Hurry up and leave!"
Then there was a clamor.
Nie Chongyang and the others heard things like, "None of your business," "Young people don't know the value of life," and "It's just feudal superstition." It seemed that someone else had come to take risks here and had been caught.
The old man heard the noise and shook his head in annoyance.
He muttered, "They truly don't know what's good for them!"
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping exchanged glances, pondering the probability of this being a coincidence.
After a moment's thought, Nie Chongyang spoke, "From the sound of it, the argument is quite intense, and there are many people. Let's go take a look. We don't want them to get too heated and cause trouble."
The old man said, "Alright. And from the sound of it, that young man I told you about, the one who stopped them, that's his voice. If we go up there directly and you meet him, I can tell him about your situation, and it will save me a long trip."
After experiencing so much, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping's senses had been honed.
While other things could be attributed to coincidence, the old man had just mentioned someone, and then that person appeared, becoming one of the central figures in a particular event. Therefore, the possibility of this being a coincidence was very low.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping naturally wanted to see what was going on.
They followed the old man into the ruined house. Unlike Nie Chongyang and his companions who were on the upper floor, the people who seemed to be taking risks were stopped on the first floor by a single person.
Because their positions were clear, Nie Chongyang and the others could tell at a glance which one was the young man the old man was leading them to meet.
The young man looked quite young, no wonder the old man called him a young man. He appeared to be in his early twenties. Although the old man said he had a wife and children, judging by his appearance, his children wouldn't be very old.
After entering, the old man called out to the young man.
"A Qing, what's going on here?"
The young man called "A Qing" immediately turned his gaze towards the old man, his expression showing some surprise, but he quickly replied, "A few young people from out of town, they're being ignorant and want to take risks here. What's so risky about this ghostly place?"
"Old Mr. Cui, why are you here too?"
The old man said, "I was just looking for you. I heard the commotion and came over."
However, in the midst of this brief exchange, one of the young people who had been stopped, a young man with a rather unconventional style, spoke impatiently, "Excuse me, there are people here!"
"Since you have your own business, can you step aside? Do you care about our lives or deaths?"
"This isn't your house, it's ownerless land. You don't need to buy a ticket, so what right do you have to control our comings and goings?"
Old Mr. Cui, being elderly, was so angered that he almost had a heart attack.
Before he could scold anyone, or before A Qing could say anything, Liang Ping, who had been observing the unconventional young man, suddenly spoke, "Ding Yijie? Are you that... Ding Yijie? From the Ding family, your father is Ding Hua, right?"
The unconventional young man, with his explosion of yellow hair, adorned with clanking accessories, and wearing ripped jeans, looked at Liang Ping as if he had seen a ghost.
Ding Yijie exclaimed, "You know me? How do you know me? You even know my dad?!"
"...I don't seem to have met anyone like you."
Liang Ping thought to himself, Of course you haven't met me. By the time I knew about someone like you, you were already dead, lying in an urn, weighing only a few pounds with the urn, your smiles and laughter captured in a photograph.
He also hadn't expected to meet someone who had actually existed in reality in this place, but who was already dead.
However, upon further thought, meeting a dead person here was probably the normal thing.
But since it was someone he knew, things were much easier.
However, considering the timeline, although there should be a Nie Chongyang and a Liang Ping existing in this timeline, judging by their age, they would definitely still be two little brats. It would be difficult to mention them directly, and explaining would be troublesome.
Moreover, they weren't even clear about the specific situation yet.
Liang Ping didn't explain too clearly, just vaguely said, "My surname is Liang."
Ding Yijie pondered for a moment, then asked with some uncertainty, "Are you a relative from my paternal aunt's husband's side? You look a bit like my uncle, no wonder I felt you looked familiar, but I don't think I've actually met you."
Liang Ping nodded slightly.
It was indeed a coincidence. Liang Ping and Ding Yijie actually had some familial relationship, not very close, but not too distant either.
Ding Yijie's father, Ding Hua, had an elder brother and two younger brothers, and three younger sisters, making him the second of seven siblings. The age gap between the eldest and youngest was significant.
Moreover, at that time, some people didn't pay much attention to marriage laws. They might have found someone before they were legally old enough to marry, and then held a wedding banquet, considering it a marriage. They might get a marriage certificate later, or not at all.
However, they lived together like ordinary couples.
Ding Yijie's paternal aunt was like that. Judging by the years, Ding Yijie's paternal aunt had only recently married and was still very young.
But in contrast, her elder brother, Ding Hua, already had a son who was about the same age as his youngest sister.
Liang Ping was from his paternal aunt's husband's side, and specifically the son of his paternal aunt's husband's elder brother. By calculation, he could be considered a distant cousin of Ding Yijie.
It was indeed not a close relationship, but not so distant that they wouldn't have any interaction.
Liang Ping didn't know much about Ding Yijie. He had only gone to visit relatives with his parents and was led by his aunt and uncle to the Ding family, where he learned about Ding Yijie.
However, the Ding family was vague about Ding Yijie's cause of death.
They were reluctant to explain clearly, only saying that Ding Yijie was mischievous and died young, leaving his parents to mourn their child for a long time.
On that occasion, Liang Ping saw Ding Yijie's portrait.
Later, when visiting relatives, he went to the Ding family a few more times, making it easier to see, and thus he had an impression of this face.
It was just that Ding Yijie's current appearance was too distinctive. Liang Ping, relying on his years of work experience and personal judgment, took some effort to identify that this was indeed his distant relative Ding Yijie, who had died young.
As expected, as soon as he mentioned the other person's name and his family's names, Ding Yijie recognized him.
Seeing Liang Ping confirm the relationship, Ding Yijie became curious and asked Liang Ping, "I've never seen you before. Logically, you shouldn't have met me either. How did you recognize me?"
Liang Ping said, "Originally, I shouldn't have recognized you, but I saw your photo at your paternal aunt's place, and since your family members look alike, I recognized you."
Ding Yijie found this explanation quite reasonable and accepted it.
The old man Cui, who was standing nearby, saw Liang Ping and the socially unconventional Ding Yijie acknowledge their kinship and immediately interjected, "Since you know each other, Xiao Liang, please try to persuade him to go back. This is really not a good place. We're just trying to be kind and can't bear to see people get hurt, so we're just giving a few words of advice."
"Since you're relatives, how can you be so accomplished? You're working for the government. This person looks so improper, so idle and aimless, and doesn't do anything serious!"
Normally, when meeting relatives in a foreign place, even if they weren't very familiar, people would feel a bit more cordial towards them if they had no ill intentions. However, after hearing Old Mr. Cui's condescending comparison, Ding Yijie couldn't help but feel a bit displeased.
Moreover, his personality was indeed a bit defiant, otherwise, he wouldn't have dressed himself up like this.
Ding Yijie's expression immediately became somewhat unhappy.
Liang Ping, however, replied calmly to Old Mr. Cui's words, "It's not like that, old man. You can't judge people solely by their appearance. Besides, they don't know the dangers involved. Young people have energy and curiosity, so they have a spirit of adventure. This isn't necessarily a bad thing."
"If they knew the risks involved, I believe they would also know how to weigh the pros and cons."
Liang Ping's words made Ding Yijie's expression soften slightly.
Ding Yijie asked Liang Ping, "This old man said you work for the government. What do you do? Coming to this place... why aren't they advising you, but instead forbidding us from staying here?"
Liang Ping simply said, "I'm here on official business."
As for the details, he certainly couldn't say, at least not at this moment.
Beside Ding Yijie, a young woman with a ponytail, who looked quite pretty, saw that Liang Ping was also good-looking and young. The old man had said Liang Ping worked for the government, which meant Liang Ping was capable, so she was inclined to strike up a conversation.