After a night of pleasant dreams, Shen Yao descended the stairs feeling refreshed.
The entire Shen family was seated in the living room, looking as if they hadn't slept well.
Recalling those people and the screams from the middle of the night, Shen Yao had a general understanding.
"Did you all stay up all night?" Shen Yao asked as she sat down on the sofa.
"Little sister, you weren't affected at all?" Ning Min looked at Shen Yao's expression and knew without a doubt that she had slept soundly.
Yesterday, when Yuan Zi was woken up, after coaxing her back to sleep, Ning Min had also stayed up all night in the living room.
Especially after hearing the account of what happened from Mo Xuan, they couldn't sleep at all.
"When those people were loitering in front of our house last night, Mo Xuan and I already knew. And with Mo Xuan following, there wouldn't be any trouble."
Although Mo Xuan was not very reliable, he was still somewhat useful in serious matters.
The Shen family listened and thought it made sense, but they couldn't help but worry.
"What happened to those people?" Shen Yao asked.
Mo Xuan was not in the living room at the moment; he was said to have wandered off somewhere to play. The Shen family knew he was hiding because he was afraid Shen Yao would hold him accountable.
Shen Yao had only told him to follow, not to scare people, so he had gone into hiding.
"Mo Xuan saw them heading towards the back mountain last night, so he followed. He saw them shamelessly eating the fruits in the orchard and then jumping into the pond to retrieve something, so he transformed into a snake to scare them.
He didn't expect that those tall and strong men would be so terrified by a snake. According to Huai Jin, they were quite frightened.
Yao Yao, you shouldn't blame Mo Xuan. He was just protecting the orchard," Shen Mama explained the events, not forgetting to intercede for Mo Xuan.
Shen Yao: ...
It's not that those big men were useless; if they knew Mo Xuan had transformed into such a large python to scare them, they would probably all die of fright.
"I know, I won't blame him," Shen Yao replied, then asked, "Have those people left?"
Shen Papa immediately felt indignant. "They haven't left. They've left a few people at the guesthouse."
Shen Papa's tone was very unpleasant as he said this. Their companions were in such a state, and yet they hadn't even gone to check on them.
It was likely that they still had their property in mind.
However, thinking about it, it was fortunate that Shen Yao's spiritual spring water was taken from her spatial realm; otherwise, if it were discovered, the situation would have been dire.
Now that so many large men had come to their guesthouse, it was unclear if they all had the same intentions. It seemed they had to let Yao Yao be careful and not use her spatial realm carelessly.
Meanwhile, in a hospital ward in Puhe County.
Three burly men lay in hospital beds, all wrapped in bandages. The most severely injured was the tattooed man, with one leg broken.
His leg was currently suspended in the air.
"What happened to you three? You went to gather information and ended up like this."
The speaker was a tall man with a large black mole on his face, which looked quite comical.
"Didn't we tell you? We encountered a giant python. If we hadn't run fast enough, we might have been swallowed," the short man said, still trembling, not daring to recall the terrifying events of last night.
"Was there really such a big snake? Are you sure you weren't seeing things?" a man with a scar on his neck asked.
They were unwilling to believe the story of the three of them. If they didn't know them, they would have suggested to the hospital doctors that they be checked for mental health issues.
"Nonsense, the three of us saw it. Look at my ankle, such a big wound. Do you think we did this to ourselves!" the tattooed man said angrily.
If it weren't for his current leg injury, he would have stood up and pulled up his pants leg to show them.
The scarred man and the others had clearly seen the bruises on his leg, so they could only shut their mouths.
"Boss, are we still going to take action tonight?"
The tall man looked at the leader lying in the hospital bed and asked the question that concerned him most.
The boss had offered substantial rewards for this trip, and they were unwilling to miss such a good opportunity.
"I suggest we don't go," the leader said.
Although he liked money, these were his subordinates, and he didn't want them to rashly go up the mountain and get stuck in the back mountain.
However, he wouldn't force them not to go; if they insisted on going, he wouldn't stop them.
As expected, the scarred man said, "Boss, you're too timid. It's just a snake. It must have been that you were seeing things in the dark, which made you think the snake was big. Otherwise, if there really were such a large snake, the villagers would have fled long ago."
The scarred man was only half-skeptical of their story. They might have encountered a snake, but it was definitely not as big as they described.
The leader didn't stop them, but simply said, "Don't say I didn't warn you. That back mountain is very strange!"
At this time, at the Shen family's guesthouse, the bodyguards sent by Mo Xuan heard some guests discussing the events of the previous night and realized that the Shen family had encountered trouble.
The few of them exchanged glances and then dispersed in a tacit understanding.
Only one person returned to the room.
Upon returning to the room, A Wei took out his phone and dialed the employer's number.
Xue Zhu answered the call.
After hearing A Wei's words, Xue Zhu became serious. "From now on, no matter what, you must keep a close eye on the Shen family. Do not allow any mistakes to happen."
Xue Zhu's stern words reached A Wei's ears through the phone. A Wei quickly replied, "We will. Last night, we were indeed negligent."
They hadn't expected those people to make a move as soon as they arrived. They must have been a bunch of brainless individuals to act without understanding the situation.
It wasn't his fault for thinking so. After all, they had learned their lesson last night. It was said that many people were frightened and claimed there was a snake in the mountains or that they had offended the mountain god.
A Wei scoffed at the idea of a mountain god, but the news about a large snake seemed more plausible.
This place was surrounded by mountains on all sides, and it was in the south, so it was normal to have snakes. However, the specific size of the snake was still debatable.
After hanging up the phone, A Wei went up to the second floor of the guesthouse, where he could see the Shen family's residence. He would guard them from here.
The others were scattered around the vicinity. Some went to the greenhouses, some went to the mountains, and some moved around the village, giving the impression of tourists experiencing the local customs.
All of this, except for Shen Yao and the perceptive Mo Xuan, was unknown to any of the Shen family. Besides those people, another group was also keeping an eye on them.