Antswamp Village (5)

He held up one finger. "At night, light the lamps."

Suo Qisi repeated it twice, his tone solemn. "No lamps, ants will come."

Ants?

Suo Qisi held up a second finger. "When it rains, do not go out."

Chen Bin, who was following beside He Jiang, poked his head forward. "What if we need to use the bathroom or something?"

Suo Qisi fell silent for a moment, then turned to Luo Liu and spoke a few words in the local dialect. Luo Liu explained to the group, "Suo Da said he'll bring a raincoat to each room in a bit. If you absolutely must go out, wear the raincoat."

He added, "The conditions here aren't great. If you get caught in the rain, it's easy to catch a cold. There's no doctor in the village, only the spirit medium. It will be very troublesome if you get sick."

The group nodded, though they were somewhat indifferent. Their physical constitutions were excellent; they weren't going to get sick just because of a little rain.

Suo Qisi finally held up a third finger. "No fires."

Luo Liu nodded. "This is what I mentioned to you before. These special mountain villages have a reverence for fire. Except when absolutely necessary, they are very averse to it, believing it brings disaster."

Everyone agreed, acting exactly like students who had come for a club's research trip.

Suo Qisi nodded and turned to leave. Seeing this, the others dispersed, walking in groups of twos and threes.

Nan Yue walked silently toward her stone room, while Zhu Xi Ning stared at the lantern by the door.

Wen Xiang Yuan had the best social skills and quickly hit it off with the other scavengers.

Dong Sheng and the others followed behind He Jiang. A short man named Jiang Mingfu offered He Jiang a suggestion.

"That one named Nan Yue looks very strong, but she's too cold. The one named Zhu beside her seems easier to talk to. Should I go and fish for some information?"

He Jiang thought back to the twenty minutes in Multi-fortune Town where Zhu Xi Ning had pointed at his nose and cursed him out. His face twitched violently. "Are you blind? Where does that woman look easy to talk to?!"

The others didn't know why He Jiang had suddenly lost his temper, so none of them dared to speak.

Wen Xiang Yuan made a loop around before returning to the room, her face falling. "There's not much information. Aside from that Huo Fuyu, there shouldn't be any other high-level players."

Gu Xiang Kai was currently making the beds. The weather here was humid and muggy; otherwise, sleeping in this stone house would be quite cold.

"You don't need to go scouting in the future. Those men don't have good intentions."

Wen Xiang Yuan was startled, gaining a deeper understanding of what Nan Yue and the others had said before—that she didn't need to do anything specific, and since she wouldn't have any problems even if she didn't complete the mission, she should just treat it as a vacation.

Wen Xiang Yuan knew her own uniqueness and was well aware of how others would exploit her if she were with anyone else.

"How are we sleeping tonight?"

Gu Xiang Kai frowned, considering the same question. He had originally planned to sleep right in the middle, facing the door so he could react to anything that happened.

But since he was the only male in the room, that would still be somewhat inconvenient.

"I'll sleep in the middle,"

Nan Yue spoke first. "Xi Ning and Wenwen will sleep on either side of me."

She looked at Shang Xi. "Is that alright?"

Zhu Xi Ning and Wen Xiang Yuan had average combat abilities, so sleeping between them was safer.

Shang Xi clearly wasn't weak, and since everyone else was part of the same team, she had no objections.

Wen Xiang Yuan nodded and scurried to Nan Yue's right side. "Then Brother Gu, you sleep next to me."

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Gu Xiang Kai erupted into a fit of earth-shattering coughs. His eyes widened slightly, and he turned his head away to hide his discomfort.

Zhu Xi Ning nudged him. "If you're not comfortable, you can sleep next to me."

Since Wen Xiang Yuan had just joined, it was understandable if Gu Xiang Kai wasn't used to it.

Gu Xiang Kai's face turned red from coughing. Wen Xiang Yuan poured him some water and helped pat his back. "Brother Gu, if you're awkward about it, I can sleep next to Shang Xi instead."

Gu Xiang Kai gripped the enamel cup. "No, I... I don't mind."

In a scavenger mission, life and death were uncertain; there was no room for other thoughts. Gu Xiang Kai forced himself to agree.

Nan Yue sat on the bed, for once not feeling the urge to go to sleep immediately.

"Do you all feel that the villagers' attitude toward ants is very strange?"

Zhu Xi Ning nodded. "They seem to both love and fear them."

The giant ant stone statue and the village's name both indicated the villagers' worship of ants. Although rare, it wasn't strange for remote mountain areas to believe in certain animals.

She had heard that in mission worlds, there were even beliefs in the Five Immortals, where the fox, weasel, hedgehog, snake, and rat referred to specific animals.

But generally, those who worshiped animal gods would not eat the meat of their deity.

Ant meat...

Nan Yue had never eaten ants and didn't know what ant meat actually was, but why would they eat the meat of the god they worshiped?

And then there were Suo Qisi's words: they had to light the lamps at night, or the ants would come.

Setting aside the logic of that, given the village's primitive living conditions, it was normal to have insects and ants.

Didn't they worship ants?

Gu Xiang Kai sat stiffly beside Wen Xiang Yuan. "Worshiping an ant god should be a belief in the culture derived from ants, like fertility or unity. But it's impossible for them to treat the actual insects like they treat the god."

Ants appeared in swarms, and many places even suffered from ant infestations. Gu Xiang Kai's explanation made some sense.

"Let's observe further."

"If anyone needs to use the bathroom at night, call someone to go with you."

Nan Yue glanced at Gu Xiang Kai. "Don't try to be a hero."

Gu Xiang Kai glanced at Wen Xiang Yuan, who wasn't paying attention at all, and quietly agreed.

Nan Yue took her enamel basin out to do some basic washing. Some villagers had brought them water earlier in the evening.

The village likely had some contact with the outside world, as they at least had thermoses.

However, the thermoses didn't contain hot water, only cold water.

The villager who delivered the water didn't speak the common tongue. Only through gestures did Gu Xiang Kai understand that their water was all drawn from the river out back.

Because they couldn't light fires, everyone usually just used cold water.

None of them were delicate people. After washing up and taking care of their physiological needs, they prepared to head back.

The bathroom here was a dry latrine with very primitive conditions; the group's expressions were rather unsightly when they came out.

Wen Xiang Yuan had run out shortly after entering, looking as if she wanted to bash her head against a wall and quit the mission right then and there.

"How about you... handle it in the bushes nearby? I'll keep watch for you."

Gu Xiang Kai also knew the conditions were a bit crude. For some reason, even though Wen Xiang Yuan was also a scavenger, every movement of hers carried a sort of aristocratic elegance.

Looking at her, one felt that making her use a dry latrine was simply too much to ask.

Wen Xiang Yuan's face was ashen as she shook her head. "Never mind. What if I violate some rule again..."

She went back in with a look of someone marching to her death. When she came out, it felt as if her life force had been depleted.

On the way back, they ran into Huo Fuyu, who proactively walked toward Nan Yue.

"Miss Nan, shall we cooperate for this mission?"

Nan Yue was somewhat surprised, but she still stood cautiously an arm's length away from Huo Fuyu. "No thanks. We're used to completing missions on our own."

Huo Fuyu sighed, his gaze somewhat sorrowful. "You seem very wary of me."