Chapter 47: Deception
[White Witch: Urgent request for backup. New situation in Baiyan Village. Dangerous Grotesquery detected. Presumed entire village annihilated. We are trapped, no immediate danger, but please send help ASAP.]
Luo Ling checked the message she had sent, wondering if she should throw the phone again to see if she could receive a reply.
But the voices nearby interrupted her thoughts. Two pairs of eyes were on her and Elsa.
“Xiao Yu, it’s too sunny out, let’s go back inside,” Grandma said with concern, reaching out a trembling hand to take An Yu’s, as she always did.
An Yu, already on edge, instinctively flinched and pulled her hand back. Her pale face startled the two elders.
“What’s wrong, dear?” Grandpa asked with concern. “Are you feeling unwell?”
Tears welled up in An Yu’s eyes. She looked at her kind and familiar grandparents, her throat constricting with emotion.
Were they… really her grandparents?
Or were they monsters?
The image of the hollow husk of skin melting into the white, viscous threads, mimicking human speech, flashed through her mind. She remembered Old Man Huang’s lifeless eyes in the cellar, and the white reishi blooming among the corpses.
Were her grandparents… already dead?
But the two elders before her were so familiar, their every move, every word of concern… exactly the same.
She couldn’t tell.
She really couldn’t tell…
“Calm down, An Yu,” Luo Ling’s voice echoed in her mind. “They are your grandparents. They’re still alive.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Luo Ling closed her eyes, unable to bear the sight.
It was a lie.
She had already recognized the familiar aura on “Grandpa and Grandma.” It was the same as “Old Man Huang,” the aura of the Puppet Ballad.
An Yu’s real grandparents were most likely buried in the subterranean cavern beneath Baiyan Village, just like Old Man Huang, becoming part of the soil nourishing the white reishi.
What a terrifying and cruel truth…
But at this moment, Luo Ling could only lie. She couldn’t reveal the truth.
An Yu couldn’t control her emotions. If she knew the truth, she would shatter the fragile peace.
If they startled the Puppet Ballad… no, even just startling the Meat Puppets in Baiyan Village, they would likely be trapped here.
But…
If the truth brought pain, lies would only make it worse.
I’m sorry, An Yu.
Luo Ling apologized silently.
At the same time, she realized she had been telling more and more lies lately…
Elsa seemed to sense Luo Ling’s emotional fluctuation and tugged on her sleeve discreetly.
Although Elsa’s eyes were still closed, Luo Ling felt an unspoken comfort from her.
Elsa… also knew the truth.
And she had also chosen to hide it.
She knew that An Yu, who had grown up with her grandparents, surrounded by their love, couldn’t handle such a blow.
What should have been a heartwarming reunion would become a devastating tragedy.
This truth… was too much for anyone to bear.
“That’s great,” An Yu breathed a sigh of relief, hearing Luo Ling’s confirmation, a smile returning to her face. “That’s really great…”
Tears streamed down her face. She had been holding them back earlier, but now she couldn’t help but sob.
“Wuwuwu… Grandpa, Grandma… wuwuwu…”
Hearing their granddaughter’s cries, her grandparents rushed over, their faces filled with concern.
Grandma gently patted An Yu’s back, while Grandpa knelt down and wiped away her tears with his thumb.
“Don’t cry, Xiao Yu, don’t cry. Let’s go home, Grandma will make you something delicious.”
“There, there, my dear granddaughter, look, you’ve cried your pretty face into a mess. Grandpa will wipe it for you…”
“Mm, mm… okay… I’m fine now, Grandpa, Grandma, I’m fine…”
An Yu wiped away her tears, sniffled, and finally calmed down.
She looked at Luo Ling gratefully, then at her grandparents, a bright smile returning to her face.
It was alright. Her grandparents were still alive. As long as they were alive, even if it was just them… it was enough.
After composing herself, An Yu took her grandparents’ hands and returned to their house with them.
Grandma took out a bag of candy from a corner in the kitchen and shared it with them.
An Yu happily unwrapped a candy and popped it into her mouth. After a moment of hesitation, Luo Ling and Elsa also took one.
Luo Ling had checked earlier; these were just ordinary candies.
After recovering from the initial shock of the truth, Luo Ling began to analyze the situation.
Apart from the white reishi and the strange barrier, everything else in the village seemed normal, perfectly normal.
A normal village, normal villagers, normal life.
But beneath this facade lay a terrifying truth.
Firstly, there hadn’t been a barrier when Liu Songyi came to investigate before; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to leave.
This meant that the Puppet Ballad in Baiyan Village, or at least a part of it, was growing.
And its growth was likely related to the white reishi in the subterranean cavern.
Luo Ling had noticed the neglected fields, which had led her to inquire with the villagers.
“Old Man Huang,” following his programmed logic, had led them to the cellar, where they discovered the white reishi and the truth.
When Liu Songyi and his team had investigated, this tragedy had likely just begun, and the fields hadn’t been neglected yet.
Moreover… in the villagers’ programmed logic, white reishi was white reishi, and mushrooms were mushrooms, so they hadn’t been able to glean anything from their questions about mushrooms.
Their previous investigation had been fruitless for good reason.
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on past failures. They had to wait for rescue from the Patient Exchange Group without alerting the Puppet Ballad.
“Knowing the group, with the lives of several members at stake, they should temporarily abandon the hunt for Huang Xiuqin and come rescue us,” Luo Ling thought. “It takes about an hour and a half to get from the city to Baiyan Village, maybe an hour if they hurry.
“We don’t have to wait long. As long as we can hold out until then… we can at least escape this immediate danger.”
If even the main force couldn’t rescue them, they would have no chance on their own.
However, at least the Puppet Ballad wasn’t awake yet. They still had a chance.
This thought calmed Luo Ling’s nerves slightly.
Listening to An Yu chatting peacefully with her grandparents, Luo Ling felt a sense of peace.
Just one hour. It would pass quickly.
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