CH 7.2

In a short while, the small bowl was half filled with dark green juice.

Li Cancan had already fainted from the fever, and she couldn’t drink anything. Liang Xi could only use his hands to pry her mouth open and carefully point the herbs down her throat bit by bit with chopsticks.

There wasn’t much of the concoction, and Liang Xi was afraid of wasting it, so his action of dispensing the herbs was slow and careful.

It took half an hour to finish feeding her half a small bowl of herbs.

Bai Lixin watched carefully from the side.

Not long after the concoction was fed, the redness on Li Cancan’s face began to fade away at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Liang Xi hurriedly felt the temperature on her forehead. He made sure the fever had subsided before he let out a long sigh of relief and slumped to the floor, “Great, we caught up and she’s finally saved.”

Zhou Guang said to Liang Xi, “Go to sleep. You’ve been taking care of them without rest since last night, and you have mandatory work in the morning. You won’t last.”

Liang Xi’s eyelids were already fighting. He rolled around the floor and dozed off without taking off his clothes.

Seeing this, Zhou Guang sat cross-legged on the floor, “Bai Lixin, what did you say to Grandma Sang earlier?”

He had already sobered up from the shock the little old lady gave him. He was taking care of Li Cancan when Grandma Sang suddenly rushed in like a bolt of lightning and, without saying a word, ran away with the two corpses.

Although he was not in that room with the others, he had a general idea of what had happened through the group chat history.

Liang Xi tried to open his eyes, but he had no strength left in him. He could only lie down and speak weakly, “I want to know too.”

Bai Lixin, “It’s nothing really. I told her that I had found out where “Bao’er” was and asked her to come and see us tomorrow afternoon.”

“Let’s exchange information. There are two solutions to this task. The first is to complete the River God’s sacrifice, and the second is to lift the River God’s curse.”

His voice didn’t have its usual languidness and it had a bit of a chill, “Sacrificing a bride is obviously the easiest way. But you should know what that means. I’ll say it upfront; I’m going with the second method, lifting the curse of the River God. There is no particular reason; I’m just unhappy with the game and I don’t want to be led by it.”

“If any of you want to take the sacrificial shortcut and choose to sacrifice one to save the others, then you can leave this room now.”

The deep black pupils swept over the group one by one, and all of them looked awe-struck. Even Liang Xi, who had just been invaded by sleep, was awakened by three points.

Liang Xi, “I chose the second method. We saved Li Cancan with great difficulty. How can we let her be a sacrifice? I can’t even bear to kill furry animals, okay?”

Zhou Guang, “Me too. I am a lawyer, and in my perception, human life is not just important, but it’s equally important. One life and countless lives are equal at both ends of the scale.”

Xia Chi, “You don’t need to ask, of course I’ll choose after you, brother. If it wasn’t for brother, I don’t know if I would have survived to get to this point. And since Brother is so smart, he can definitely undo the River God’s curse.”

Having received everyone’s answers, Bai Lixin continued, “To lift the River God’s curse, we must first know the truth about the River God’s curse. The additional task is the most important, so how much of it have all of you completed?”

Zhou Guang looked around, “I’ll speak first. I’ve completed 10%. It was obtained during the daytime work through a conversation with one of the NPCs supervising our work. Although it is mandatory work, this work will provide us information.”

“From their conversation, I learned that the River God was attracted to Bao’er thirty years ago, so she was sacrificed to the river god as a bride. This made her the first River God bride. Later, it was said that the River God was dissatisfied with this bride, and he left a curse that required a pure maiden to be sacrificed every three years.”

Xia Chi nodded, “Yes, I was also working in the fields at the time and got the same information as you.”

Liang Xi, “I also completed 10%. My mandatory task was to be a doctor. Several villager NPCs came over to see a doctor during the day, and one of them seemed to be a former neighbor of Grandma Sang. From what he said, Bao’er was a famous beauty in the village, but she was not prudent. It seems that she had a lover, but who the lover was is unknown.”

Bai Lixin looked at Liang Xi and said, “Wait a minute, do you have a pen and paper? I’ll take notes.”

Liang Xi’s eyelids seemed to be heavy, but he still managed to point to a box, “Yes, there are brushes and rice paper for prescribing medicine in there.”

Bai Lixin quickly took out the paper and brush from where Liang Xi pointed. He spread the paper out flat, cupped the brush in his right hand, and began to record.

Several people looked over curiously as Bai Lixin’s jade-white slender fingers squeezed the brush made of wolf hair and wrote down a line of characters.

The strokes were elegant, and the handwriting was as spirited and free as a wandering dragon playing with a phoenix.

Xia Chi, who had studied calligraphy before, could not help but admire it. “Brother, your calligraphy is great! It’s like a master’s… no, it is even better than a master’s. It can’t become like this without decades of practice. Brother, you are better than me, but aren’t you only a few years older? What other surprises do you have in you?!”

Bai Lixin let out a laugh, “I’m much older than you.”

I’m much older than you can imagine, cub.

For statistical purposes, instead of writing vertically, as is customary in brush writing, he chose to write horizontally.

Bai Lixin paused.

Another line was added.

5. Bao’er was very beautiful.

Everyone: “…”

It’s okay to leave it blank even if you didn’t know what to write.

Zhou Guang pointed to the second entry, “Did you guys see this on the mountain?”

Xia Chi seemed to remember something. He took his phone from his pocket and opened the photo he had taken earlier that night.

“It’s a good thing I brought my phone,” Xia Chi tapped his finger on the touch screen twice and opened the album, “This is what I took then.”

Liang Xi was now completely awake. He and Zhou Guang came over to take a look, and they saw a small earth mound and a gravestone.

Xia Chi’s phone only had one grid left and it was glowing red with frantic suggestions to charge it quickly.

But this small, remote village didn’t even have a universal charger, let alone a matching data cable or charger. The only communication device was the landline with the village head, which had been out of service for years because of unpaid bills.

“My phone is running out of power. Whose phone still has some battery life? We can take the picture and save it. It can be used as evidence in case we see Grandma Sang, lest she thinks we’re cheating her.”

Liang Xi and Zhou Guang took out their mobile phones.

Liang Xi looked at Xia Chi somewhat apologetically, “Sorry, I was in a hurry to go down the mountain that I jumped into water and swam over. So my phone got soaked.”

Zhou Guang unlocked his phone, “I still have 50% battery and it can last a while.”

The two still had an “X” on their mobile phone signals, but they no longer had the naive idea of finding a signal to call the police.

The smartphone was fully functional, and although it had lost the ability to make calls, the other functions were sufficient.

Because there was no signal, Zhou Guang gave up on Bluetooth and went straight for the simplest and most brutal option.

Taking pictures of the screen.

He placed the camera on top of Xia Chi’s phone and took three shots. Because the picture on Xia Chi’s phone was a bit dark, Zhou Guang’s phone automatically turned on the flash function as the shots were taken.

“Click”, “Click”, “Click”; three shots were taken and the flash lit up three times.

After taking the photos, Zhou Guang brought the phone over and examined them.

A system beep suddenly rang out in Bai Lixin’s mind.

[Ding! Congratulations to the players for completing the information exchange. The truth about the River God’s curse completion: 30%/100%.]

He glanced at the rest and noticed that their expressions had paused for a second. It seemed like they had each received the system prompt.

Xia Chi, “I’m at 30%.”

Liang Xi, “Me too.”

Zhou Guang said casually while looking at the photos on his phone, “It seems like everyone is at the same level. The NPCs should still provide clues during the mandatory daytime work tomorrow, so we should all listen carefully. Bai Lixin, your profession as a Saint is different from all of ours. From what we have discovered, different professions provide different clues, so you should pay more attention tomorrow.”

Bai Lixin nodded, “Okay.”

Liang Xi got up and went to check on Li Cancan. “Li Cancan’s face is sweating a lot.”

Bai Lixin looked over and saw Liang Xi pick up a towel and wipe the sweat off Li Cancan’s face.

When he was done, he put both hands back on the floor and hesitantly said, “If different professions receive different clues, do we need to exchange clues with the players next door? I remember there was a blacksmith among them.”

Xia Chi looked at Bai Lixin with a tangled expression, “Brother, what do you think?”

Zhou Guang took the lead in saying, “Forget it. It’s good enough that those people didn’t drag our feet, and you still want to get useful information from them?”

“I agree with Zhou Guang.”

Bai Lixin went over to check on Li Cancan. Her breathing had calmed down and her expression was peaceful, “I don’t trust those people. I can take them through, but I refuse to let them become comrades in arms. I will not give my back to those I do not trust.”

“I’m going to get Li Cancan some food. She should be waking up soon.” Zhou Guang stood up and walked to the door, “There are many ways to get information. We should be able to get the clues through dialogue once we know who his supervising NPC is. Otherwise, if the blacksmith had died up there on the mountain, wouldn’t that be a whole trail of clues gone? It wouldn’t make sense.”

Liang Xi came to the realization, “That’s right.”

Bai Lixin watched Zhou Guang open the door and walk out. Suddenly, he seemed to remember something and turned his head to Liang Xi, “Doctor Liang, I remember you are a veterinarian.”

Liang Xi didn’t know why, but still nodded, “Yes.”

Bai Lixin, “Then you must really like furry animals very much.”

Liang Xi’s gaze grew soft, “Of course, my favorite thing is rua furry.”

Bai Lixin patted Xia Chi’s shoulder.

Xia Chi turned his head in confusion, “What??”

Bai Lixin pointed to the courtyard, “Get that furry little guy in here.”

Xia Chi, “?!”

Liang Xi froze for three seconds before rising haughtily from the ground.

Bai Lixin smiled at Liang Xi and said, “Furry, you can rua.”

Liang Xi: “?!!!”

Fuck, I don’t like this kind of furry animal!

And are you demons?! How can you just catch something so scary?!

Bai Lixin, “I caught one yesterday as well. I wanted to let it go and see where their lair was, but it turned into a puddle of blood when the sun hit it. This one should be protected; we can’t let it get spoiled.”

Liang Xi gulped.

Caught one? Turned into a puddle? Protected? Spoiled?

Listen, what kind of dangerous speech was that?!

Was this what a fucking human would say?

Just when Liang Xi was almost completely stunned, Zhou Guang, who had gone out not long ago, came running back in a panic.

As soon as he came back, he slammed the door hard and brought the phone directly to the three people, “Look guys, there’s a figure here!”

Zhou Guang used the flash, and it was taken across an LCD screen, so the photo taken was not only reflective but also carried a lot of red and green pixel strips.

Once the flash and pixel stripes were on, it gave an alternative clarity to the otherwise generally black picture.

Zhou Guang had zoomed in on the photo, and when the three took a look, they saw a blurred human face hiding behind a tree.

Liang Xi stared at the face carefully for a while, “I’ve seen him before; he’s the village head of the River God Village!”