Setting aside the fear and panic caused by a dead body, on the night the heavy mist descended, the local emergency dispatch center received no fewer than twenty reports related to supernatural incidents.
As for Mulian Village itself, things were in an absolute uproar.
The reason was simple: the old orange tree in the backyard of the Shi family home had unexpectedly borne fruit overnight. Golden oranges, looking like small lanterns, hung in clusters from the branches.
Most peculiar of all was that the dry, withered branches were continuously sprouting tender leaves and flower buds, which then blossomed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Swarm after swarm of bees danced and buzzed among the white orange blossoms, carrying with them a dense, rich fragrance.
A moment later, the branches were once again laden with thumb-sized green oranges.
This cycle repeated over and over until the branches were bent to the ground by the weight of the fruit. Only then did the speed of the orange tree’s blossoming finally begin to slow down.
However, it was already terrifying enough.
People had seen many things, but they had never seen a tree fruit with such explosive, rapid-fire intensity.
Mulian Village was only so large. If someone lost a chicken, a child wet the bed, or a dog barked, even the smallest matter couldn't be hidden from the neighbors.
Such a miraculous sight startled the hundred-year-old ancestor of the Shi family. The old man, trembling as he leaned on his cane, called the able-bodied young men of the clan to stand guard in front of the tree, allowing no one to approach.
The ancestor was over a hundred years old. He had outlived the Qing Dynasty, fought the Japanese, and even delivered grain to the Red Army. He had seen all kinds of storms in his life, but seeing this orange tree now made him gasp with excitement, nearly losing his breath:
“This is a propitious omen! Our village is about to produce a great person, a truly powerful person! Don't touch it, nobody touch it! This tree is touched by spiritual energy; eating just one bite will prolong your life..."
“This is Shi Ping’s tree. Call him here! Call the child from Shi Ping’s house! It’s your family’s tree, you decide what to do with it!”
Shi Ping was Grandpa Shi’s formal name. Aside from this old ancestor, no one in the village dared to call him that.
“My grandpa said that half the fruit on this tree will be shared with the people in the village. The rest will be kept for now; whether we sell it or not will be decided later.”
Shi Hongjiang walked over obediently, bowing and nodding as he supported the ancestor, though the look in his eyes as he watched the orange tree was somewhat conflicted.
He didn't dare say anything.
Last night, he had been curious about what the health supplement Nan Zhi gave him actually tasted like, so he ate his portion. As a result, he had diarrhea in the middle of the night. Before he could even make it to the outhouse, he had to relieve himself right under the tree...
He didn't know if it had anything to do with that.
At the time, he didn't know a single pile of poop could have such immense power.
Where on earth did Sister Zhi buy those health supplements?
Did she actually manage to buy immortal medicine?
Shi Hongjiang looked at the glowing, healthy faces of his uncles and cousins around him. Fearing he would get a beating if he spoke up, he could only keep his mouth shut.
The Shi family ancestor nodded, then looked at the villagers and tourists surrounding the house before offering some guidance:
“So many eyes watching... we won't be able to keep much. It’s good of Shi Ping to still think of the villagers. Go call your uncles and cousins back home. This tree needs to be guarded; otherwise, once it gets dark, people will come to break off the branches.”
Shi Hongjiang’s heart was pounding. He knew that eighty percent of the truly good stuff had likely already been eaten by his own family.
No wonder Grandpa’s hair had turned a bit blacker lately. He had thought Grandpa was just being trendy and had found someone to dye it for him.
Does Sister Zhi actually know the effects of those pills?
When no one is around, I need to call her and ask.
Thinking of the remaining pill in the bottle, Shi Hongjiang’s heart skipped a beat.
...
How could such a miraculous event as an old tree blossoming and fruiting in an instant be hidden from the tourists in the village?
Tourists who heard the news rushed into the Shi family’s backyard, crowding together and desperately standing on their tiptoes to get a look, their faces full of amazement.
“Look! They’re blooming! They’re blooming again!!”
“Holy crap, these oranges are bending the branches! Look, they’re still growing!!”
“Did this orange tree eat magical fertilizer or get watered with life potions? Isn't this a bit too exaggerated?!”
“At this rate, the soil fertility shouldn't be able to support it at all! How can it grow so many fruits?!”
“Forget soil fertility, just looking at this speed, you can tell it’s not normal!!”
“Can I pick one to try? I’ll buy it no matter the price! I’ll give you five hundred, will you sell me one?!”
“These oranges aren't fake, are they? Can they even taste good?”
“I don't know if they taste good, but I know this stuff must be incredibly nourishing!!”
If it weren't for the young men of the Shi family standing guard, some of the more impatient people would have already reached out to pick them.
Naturally, more people chose to record the scene with their cameras, sharing this common-sense-defying moment.
Once the videos and photos were posted, they immediately caused a massive stir online.
In recent years, supernatural incidents had been occurring frequently. Legends that had vanished from the internet years ago were being dug up again—stories like the “Shennongjia Bigfoot,” the “Loch Ness Monster,” and the “Shibuya Ghost Stories” were being discussed with high intensity.
But those urban legends and ghost stories were mostly just rumors passed by word of mouth, supplemented by photos and videos with the quality of a landline camera. Even if someone swore to heaven that they had seen a ghost or a dragon, netizens mostly treated it as a joke; no one took it seriously.
However, this old orange tree in Mulian Village was as real as it could be.
It was growing right there. Sprouting, budding, blossoming, and fruiting—it all happened right under people’s noses.
Not to mention those oranges turning yellow at a speed visible to the eye.
When people were doubted, some even started live-streaming on the spot, broadcasting the old tree’s blossoming and fruiting live.
As the photos and videos spread, within just a few short hours, tags like “#Mulian Village#,” “#Mulian Village Orange Tree#,” “#Old Orange Tree#,” and “#Spiritual Resurgence Orange Tree#” climbed directly to the top of the trending searches on Weibo.
Some people even traveled thousands of miles to Mulian Village just to see this miraculous orange tree with their own eyes.
**
**
While everyone’s attention was drawn to that miraculous old orange tree, the leadership team of Xixiang was worried sick over another major case of disappearances related to Mulian Village.
Overnight, five people had gone missing within the vicinity of Mulian Village.
The missing persons included men and women, local villagers and out-of-town tourists. There was no connection between them; the only commonality was that they were all linked to some supernatural incident before they disappeared.
Some had called the police before vanishing, saying they had seen a girlfriend who had been dead for years; others had run onto the road shouting and screaming before disappearing, claiming a ghost was following them.
There was even an old man who had been paralyzed for years after a drunk driving accident. Forget walking on his own, even getting out of bed was a struggle for him.
Other witnesses also insisted that the missing persons were still in their rooms the night before, only to be gone when everyone woke up.
Cash, phones, and wallets were all left behind, and surveillance cameras failed to capture any footage of them leaving.
It was as if they had simply evaporated from the face of the earth.
The family of the paralyzed old man did provide one detail, though it couldn't exactly be called a lead:
“Last night, nothing felt particularly different. If I had to say... the moon last night was yellow.”
The investigator was somewhat puzzled. “Isn't the moon always yellow?”
The family member shook their head and argued seriously:
“That’s different. Usually, the moon is that pale, pretty yellow that makes the road bright. Last night’s moon was a terrifying yellow. When I looked out the window, it was a thick, murky yellow, like... like the sandstorms you see on TV.”
Where would a sandstorm come from in Xixiang?
The investigator could only manage a helpless, bitter smile.
It seemed as if, overnight, the monsters and demons in this area had suddenly emerged.
A male corpse had been pulled from Mulian Lake, and his appearance and clothing matched the description given by a local innkeeper.
Someone reported that one of the missing persons, Zhang Awu, had seen his mother who had been dead for five years on the night he vanished, and had even spoken to the ghost.
In Mulian Village, an old tree blossomed and its fruit ripened at an unscientific speed, drawing a large crowd of tourists. It wasn't until this afternoon that the miraculous sight finally began to fade.
An old man paralyzed from a drunk driving accident had mysteriously vanished, and his family swore they had seen a sandstorm in the night that shouldn't have appeared in Xixiang.
Rate on N.U.
