***
Bonus chapter! Thank you to JustSomeOne for the donation! ^^
***
Ruan Qing’s strength was too weak. Even when he pushed with all his might, the man didn’t budge an inch—instead, the force nearly made him lose his balance.
Luckily, the coffin behind him steadied his body, sparing him the embarrassment of stumbling.
After cursing, Ruan Qing’s face was still flushed with anger. He had no desire to argue further with the man, so he simply grabbed his phone—still charging—and stormed off.
The man didn’t respond to Ruan Qing’s words. The idea that people in the village couldn't marry outsiders was one thing, but forbidding them from marrying in? That was downright absurd.
Miao Village did allow outsiders to enter.
The man watched the slender figure of the young man disappear into the distance, his gaze dark and unreadable.
“Isn’t he beautiful?”
A voice suddenly spoke up. Another man leapt down from the rafters, a white mourning banner still in his hand.
Clearly, he had been setting up the mourning hall earlier but had instinctively hidden in the rafters when the young man entered.
The man who jumped down was named Miao Linyuan. Landing steadily, he grabbed a handful of spirit money and tossed it into the burning offering basin.
The flames, which had nearly died down, suddenly flared up again, smoke twisting into the air.
Miao Linyuan didn’t seem bothered that his question went unanswered. Instead, he glanced at the black coffin, his eyes glinting faintly.
“Who would’ve thought that ugly old village chief could produce such a pretty son?”
“Quite the surprise.”
The other man didn’t so much as look at Miao Linyuan, as if he hadn’t heard him at all, and simply turned and walked away.
“Fake prude.” Miao Linyuan scoffed, tossing another handful of spirit money into the basin.
The firelight reflected in his bottomless eyes, lending them an indescribable sense of danger.
***
After leaving, Ruan Qing returned to his room. With his mother’s recent death, going anywhere else would have been inappropriate.
His phone had charged a bit by now—enough to last an hour or two in standby mode.
Just as he was about to set it down, it rang. It was a call from Blind Date (4).
Ruan Qing wanted to answer, but he was afraid someone might be eavesdropping again.
The villagers of Miao Village moved silently, as if they had no footsteps at all—their presence impossible to detect.
It was like... a ghost.
In this situation, his hearing and perception were practically useless.
Ruan Qing hung up the phone and sent the other person a text.
[What? Still can’t find your way? You’re the only one making a fuss over a blind date. Can’t even navigate properly—how useless.]
The original owner had never been keen on blind dates, so his attitude couldn’t have been good. But due to his mother’s dying wish, he couldn’t just ignore the blind date.
After sending the first message, Ruan Qing quickly typed a second one.
[What’s around you?]
Fang Qingyuan, who received the text, paused slightly and showed the message to everyone.
The other players ignored the first text entirely, immediately scanning their surroundings. But the woods were just that—woods. Nothing but trees, with no distinguishing features.
Fang Qingyuan had no choice but to reply truthfully.
[It’s all woods. We can’t find our way out.]
Woods?
Ruan Qing frowned slightly. The original owner had gotten lost in the woods as a child—could it be the same forest?
Roaming around after his mother’s death wasn’t ideal, but following her final wish to fetch a lost blind date was justifiable.
He set his phone down, grabbed a jacket from nearby, and left the room.
Miao Village wasn’t particularly small, with most of its land dedicated to crops, stretching far from the village outskirts.
"Outskirts" wasn’t entirely accurate—it was more like the woods at the edge.
Miao Village was surrounded by mountains. No matter which direction you took, you’d eventually enter the forest.
Relying on the original owner’s memories, Ruan Qing picked up a wooden stick from the roadside as a makeshift weapon and headed toward the woods where the original owner had once gotten lost.
The path to that forest led past a field of crops. With no recent rain, the water in the field was clear enough to see straight to the bottom.
So clear that he could make out countless tiny holes in the mud—and things wriggling inside them.
Ruan Qing’s gaze froze on the water. He stopped, using the stick to poke at the mud, revealing a squirming mass of insects.
His eyes widened, pupils contracting as he instinctively stumbled back.
But he was standing on the narrow ridge between fields, surrounded by the same murky water. One misstep sent his foot sliding, and his body tilted uncontrollably backward.
Luckily, Ruan Qing moved quickly, thrusting a wooden stick into the field to steady himself.
Though Ruan Qing had always been confined and deprived of freedom, he had grown up in luxury and had never worked in farmland before. He didn’t even know fields could be teeming with insects.
Or maybe he had known—but he had never seen them with his own eyes.
Watching the wriggling bugs burrow into the mud, Ruan Qing pressed his pale pink lips into a tight line.
He didn’t linger on the ridge for long, instead making his way slowly toward the edge of the woods.
Villagers rarely ventured near the forest’s edge. Thick, overgrown grass blanketed the area, completely obscuring the path—and whatever might be hiding within.
Ruan Qing was grateful he had brought the stick. Using it to part the grass, he moved cautiously forward.
His slender frame was tense with wariness, every step careful and measured, as if he feared insects or snakes might dart out at any moment.
He didn’t notice the villagers working in the fields—nor the man following him.
Miao Linyuan had been trailing the boy since he left the house.
Watching him head toward the woods, Miao Linyuan turned to a villager toiling in the field. "What’s he doing?"
The villager seemed afraid of him, shrinking back before mumbling, "H-he’s going to meet his blind date, I think."
Miao Linyuan frowned. "Blind date?"
The villager nodded. "That’s what I heard. He got a call earlier—maybe they’re arriving soon."
However reluctant, the villager spilled everything he knew: the village chief’s dying words, even the boy’s… unusual requirements for the match.
Miao Linyuan’s expression darkened. With a click of his tongue, he muttered, "Who forces someone into an arranged marriage these days?"
"Besides, with that frail body of his, how’s he gonna father a son? More like bearing one for someone else."
The villager wanted to argue that men couldn’t bear children, but fear sealed his lips.
Agitated, Miao Linyuan crouched on the ridge, grabbing a handful of mud and worms from the field.
The worms squirmed frantically in his grip, as if terrified of him. A few at the edges fell back into the mud—the rest kept writhing helplessly.
The scene looked downright eerie.
Miao Linyuan stared at the squirming insects, a trace of disgust flashing in his eyes. His fingers tightened slightly, as if he were about to crush them to death.
But in the end, he loosened his grip.
The moment Miao Linyuan released his hand, the insects instantly slithered back into the field, their frantic movements making it seem as though they had encountered something terrifying.
Expressionless, Miao Linyuan washed his hands in the water from the field, then left, his entire body radiating a chilling aura.
Ruan Qing was unaware of what had happened behind him. By now, he had already reached the edge of the woods.
Afraid he might get lost inside, Ruan Qing had grabbed a ball of yarn before leaving home—leftover from the original owner’s mother’s knitting.
He tied one end of the yarn to a tree at the edge and then cautiously stepped into the forest.
The trees in the woods grew in irregular patterns, yet no matter how far he walked, there was no end in sight.
And even though Ruan Qing was sure he was walking in a straight line, the yarn in his hand had gone slack.
The moment he noticed, his hair stood on end, his entire body tensing in alarm.
He had kept the yarn taut, unraveling it bit by bit as he moved. If he had truly been walking straight, the yarn should have remained tight the entire time.
Unless… he hadn’t been walking straight at all.
Gripping the stick in his hand tighter, Ruan Qing nervously scanned his surroundings, afraid something terrifying might leap out at any moment.
The woods were dead silent. Aside from himself, there was no one else—no other presence at all.
His racing heart settled slightly, though his delicate brows furrowed in thought. Was this forest somehow deceiving his eyes?
But closing his eyes in the woods would be far too dangerous. If any threat appeared, he wouldn’t be able to react in time.
Ruan Qing had no choice but to retreat. Thanks to the yarn, his exit went smoothly.
Standing at the edge of the woods, he pondered for a moment before dialing the number of his Blind Date (4), his voice laced with impatience.
“Miao Village is surrounded by woods. Who the hell knows which one you’re in?”
Though his words sounded irritated, they also conveyed a message: they were already within Miao Village’s boundaries.
The call had come too suddenly. Fang Qingyuan answered reflexively, pressing the phone to his ear.
The young man’s distinctively cool voice came through without warning, making Fang Qingyuan’s heart skip a beat.
The young man's voice was simply too pleasant to listen to. Before, when the speaker was on, it was somewhat bearable, but now, with the phone pressed directly to his ear, it felt as if the youth was whispering right beside him.
Even that impatient tone seemed like a coquettish complaint to a lover.
Fang Qingyuan instinctively opened his mouth, but just as he was about to speak, the call disconnected, leaving him listening to the monotonous beep—beep—beep in a daze.
***
Ruan Qing had originally wanted to subtly warn the other man, but suddenly, a villager appeared in front of him, forcing him to hang up.
The villager had come specifically to notify Ruan Qing about working in the fields.
Ruan Qing stared at the villager, his beautiful eyes filled with disbelief. "Work in the fields?"
"Yeah." The villager nodded, his gaze fixed on Ruan Qing as he explained, "Every household has to send one person to do farmwork. Before, it was the village chief from your family, but now..."
The villager didn’t finish his sentence, but the implication was clear.
Now that the village chief was dead, Ruan Qing was the only one left in the household.
Although the original owner had never done farmwork, he did know that Miao Village had a shared plot of land. Whenever farming season came around, every family had to contribute one person.
Even the village chief’s household was no exception.
But Ruan Qing had never worked in the fields before, nor did he have time to waste on farm labor.
After a few seconds of silence, he asked, "Can’t we wait until my mother—"
"No." The villager cut him off without hesitation, leaving no room for negotiation.
"Gather at the south end of the village by ten o’clock."
