“Huh? What’s going on?”

Tang Qisheng stood up and looked into the distance. He saw a mist rising in the village, which was now spreading and enveloping them.

Yao Shunyu stood on a stone pier, looking out. He confirmed, "It's coming from the woods outside the village."

It didn't come sooner, it didn't come later, but it happened to be foggy at this time, which was obviously wrong. Everyone gathered together unconsciously. At this time, the fog had already floated outside the courtyard, but strangely, this fog seemed to have life, staying only outside the courtyard, without any sign of infiltrating into the courtyard.

The visibility was very poor at the moment. Everyone stared at the mist, seemingly wanting to see through the mist to see what was hidden behind it. Although nothing had been discovered yet, everyone believed there must be something.

After a while, Fatty's eyes paused, and he suddenly became nervous. He heard it, and everyone heard it. There was a sound of footsteps gradually approaching outside the courtyard.

There were quite a few of them, at least a dozen, and they were moving very fast.

The footsteps stopped in front of the courtyard gate, and then a knock on the door rang out, "Brother Jiang! Brother Jiang, are you there?!"

Jiang Cheng recognized the voice of Fuqing, a villager, the leader who brought them into the village. However, everyone tacitly held their breath and no one spoke.

The fog came strangely, and they had already determined that these villagers were all Daotou Gui (rice-head ghosts). Those guys hidden in the fog in the woods earlier were also them.

Now, these guys had come again with the fog.

The knocking on the door continued for a while, and the force became greater and greater. Fatty gritted his teeth, worried that the door would be smashed to pieces. But the result was good. This seemingly decayed wooden door actually held up until the villagers outside left, and the sound of footsteps faded away.

Zhu Jie wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and finally breathed a sigh of relief. The current situation was more complex and unpredictable than what she had experienced before. If it weren't for the concerted efforts of her teammates, this time she might have… Zhu Jie's eyes inadvertently swept to the wall, and in the next second, she couldn't take her eyes off it. "Ah!"

Along with a short scream, a terrifying scene appeared before everyone's eyes. They saw five heads lined up on the wall not far away.

"Brother Jiang, so you're here."

The middle head of the five opened its mouth, revealing a terrifying smile. It was Fuqing!

The five people didn't know what they were stepping on, or their bodies were completely out of proportion. They were all lying on the wall, side by side, only showing their heads looking into the courtyard.

"Brother Fuqing, so it's really you. I thought I heard wrong." Jiang Cheng's expression didn't change, and there was even a hint of happiness between his eyebrows.

Fuqing didn't move, still lying on the wall, maintaining a strange posture, and asked, "Since you heard it, why didn't you answer?"

"How dare we? We're not familiar with this place. Besides, we got lost because of the thick fog. The ghosts in the fog are so scary." Shao Tong stepped forward to defend Jiang Cheng, and finally shrank his neck, looking very cowardly.

Fatty stared at the malicious faces, wondering if there were bodies supporting them below, or just heads.

Jiang Cheng and the others had made up their minds that no matter what these guys outside said, they would never open the door. But then Fuqing and the others didn't say much, but directly climbed over the wall. This scared Fatty, after all, he had just scolded these ghosts for not being ethical, and he didn't expect it to come true!

Good things don't come true, but bad things do!

Fuqing and the others seemed to have forgotten their unhappiness just now and immediately said, "Brother Jiang, we have some trouble in our village. Now we don't have enough manpower and need your help."

Zhang Qizheng smiled and replied, "We're not familiar with this place, what can we help with? It would be good if we didn't cause trouble."

"No, you must help with this. Someone in the village is missing. You've seen the fog outside. The person disappeared not long after the fog spread over!" Fuqing spoke quickly, looking like the situation was urgent.

"Who is missing?" Zhu Jie couldn't help but ask.

"It's Xiuling."

"Her?" Jiang Cheng frowned, "Her Aye (grandfather) just passed away. You should be by her side to take care of her. How could you let her get lost alone?"

Fuqing shook his head with self-reproach, "Indeed, we are partly responsible, but Brother Jiang, it's useless to say these things now. Finding her is the most important thing. Xiuling is very close to her Aye. She was in a bad mood after her Aye passed away. We're worried that she might be thinking of committing suicide. That would be terrible!"

"The most important thing is time, soon... soon it will be night!" Fuqing urged anxiously, "Considering that Xiuling gave up her room for you to live in, you should help with this, right?"

"As human beings, we should be kind." A villager behind him chimed in righteously.

Fatty glanced at him, thinking, shut up, or you'll get struck by lightning. People get struck by lightning for lying, and ghosts are no better.

Since it had been said to this point, Jiang Cheng and the others couldn't refuse to help. So he asked Fuqing how they could help. Fuqing's face lit up, and he arranged for Jiang Cheng and the others to be divided into several groups, then teamed up with the villagers, and everyone searched separately along different routes, making sure to find Xiuling before nightfall.

But Jiang Cheng quickly realized the problem, "Li Bai is still sick, we can't all go out to help, we have to leave someone to take care of her."

"Then you can leave one person behind, one person is enough." Fuqing made a concession, pacing back and forth, looking very anxious.

Jiang Cheng looked around, feeling troubled. Fatty was definitely out of the question, otherwise he wouldn't be able to handle it himself if something happened. Shao Tong was even more out of the question. Originally, Yao Shunyu was the best choice, but now the situation had become complicated. Zhu Jie and Tang Qisheng insisted that the two of them would never separate, which left only Zhang Qizheng.

"Hehe, my body is old, not as good as you young people, so I'll stay behind." Zhang Qisheng smiled, with a kind expression on his face.

Looking at this face, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but feel a little touched. Xiuling's disappearance was likely a trap. Jiang Cheng suspected it was a diversion, and their real target was Li Bai. So the person who stayed behind would face a more dangerous situation. Zhang Qizheng couldn't have not thought of this, but he was still willing to stay.

"Don't worry, I will take good care of Miss Li Bai." Zhang Qizheng's attitude was serious, "When you go out to find someone, you must be very careful. There might be something strange happening in the fog. Also, don't separate unless absolutely necessary."

After speaking, Jiang Cheng and the others simply prepared and were urged away by Brother Fuqing. Watching the backs of the group disappear into the fog, Zhang Qizheng immediately closed the courtyard door.