Chapter “This......” Li Lu's face lit up with joy. Although the ghosts in the mission were unlikely to kill people consecutively, it would be wonderful if someone were willing to accompany her.

She didn't rashly agree but pursed her lips, looking at Chen Xiaomeng with expectant eyes.

Chen Xiaomeng slowly stood up.

Her attitude had already explained everything.

"Then thank you, Miss Xiaolongnv," Li Lu said, leaning forward, her eyes shining.

Chen Xiaomeng said faintly, "You don't need to thank me. If you want to thank someone, thank Mr. Yin." Then she looked at Jiang Cheng with a very natural gaze, smiled slightly, and said, "After all, a gentleman like Mr. Yin wouldn't watch the two of us women take risks. He will also accompany us to ensure our safety."

"Am I right, Mr. Yin?" Chen Xiaomeng blinked.

"Of course," Jiang Cheng puffed out his chest, pretending to be strong and forceful.

Afterwards, Jiang Cheng pulled out the wooden stick propping up the door and opened it. Gusts of night wind "whooshed" in, blowing on people's faces like knives.

He didn't expect the temperature difference between day and night here to be so great.

Jiang Cheng shielded his face with one hand and held the door with the other to prevent it from slamming shut. He turned his head and quickly said to Chen Xiaomeng and Li Lu, "You two hurry up and don't go too far. I'll keep an eye on the surroundings for you."

"You're just standing here helping us?" Chen Xiaomeng's voice suddenly rose.

"Otherwise?" Jiang Cheng's expression was very innocent. After speaking, he seemed to feel it wasn't safe enough, so he took a small step back.

Li Lu was in urgent need and didn't have time to argue about these things. She tightened her clothes and walked out quickly.

Next was Chen Xiaomeng, who glanced at Jiang Cheng and also left with Li Lu.

The two of them didn't go far but came to a place with grass covering it. This courtyard had been abandoned for quite some time, and the weeds were almost half a person tall.

Jiang Cheng strained his eyes in the direction of the two people. Finally, he saw Li Lu, who had turned into a shadow in the night, tremble a few times and then squat down, with only her head remaining above the weeds.

Chen Xiaomeng stood about 3 meters away from Li Lu.

In between Li Lu and Jiang Cheng.

It seemed she had already made a plan. If anything happened, she could turn around and return to the room. Li Lu, who was inconvenienced by her current predicament, was the ghost's best target.

"Hmm?"

After about half a minute, Chen Xiaomeng suddenly made a sound. She stared intently at one spot, as if she had discovered something.

Li Lu, already highly nervous because of her inability to move, froze completely after hearing Chen Xiaomeng's voice. Her body trembled violently.

"What... what happened?" Li Lu asked in horror.

After hearing Chen Xiaomeng's voice, Jiang Cheng didn't immediately look at the spot the latter was staring at. He continued to watch Chen Xiaomeng, narrowing his eyes slightly.

Until... he heard Li Lu's exclamation.

"Fire!!"

She didn't suppress her voice, causing it to be very shrill in the silent night. Immediately afterwards, there was a hurried commotion from the room behind them.

After a burst of footsteps, Yu Man, Zhou Rong, and Pei Qian ran out one after another. Everyone tacitly huddled behind the wooden door, trying to look out.

They had no intention of leaving the room.

Through a corner of the broken window frame, the group discovered that a fire had lit up in the distance. Zhou Rong's pupils suddenly contracted. "It's the Qian family ancestral hall," he said with certainty.

"How did the ancestral hall catch fire?" Pei Qian stared at the direction of the fire, discovering that the fire was intensifying. Then large pieces of the fire began to collapse.

He thought that the load-bearing structure of the ancestral hall might have been burned, causing it to collapse entirely.

"It should be abandoned there. Where did the fire come from?" he muttered to himself.

This morning, they had passed not far from the ancestral hall and discovered that the houses nearby were empty and also long abandoned. For a fire to suddenly break out at this time...

Chen Xiaomeng and Li Lu ran back. Li Lu's leg injury hadn't healed yet, and she limped as she ran, but the fear on her face was very real.

Zhou Rong turned around, his gaze slowly sweeping across the village. Such a large fire, yet there wasn't a single sound from the village.

This couldn't help but make him wonder if there were actually people living in the village, or rather, what kind of people were living here.

......

The next day, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, the group arrived at the burnt-down Qian family ancestral hall.

The huge building had been completely changed overnight.

The ground was covered with ashes and wreckage, with only the most basic brick structure remaining. However, at this time, the bricks were burned no differently from black charcoal.

Scattered flames were still burning around, occasionally emitting crackling sounds.

A gust of wind blew, raising a cloud of ash.

There wasn't anyone to be seen nearby. It wasn't clear whether the villagers were too busy to take care of this place, or whether they simply didn't intend to have any connection with the Qian family, who had been targeted by ghosts and almost exterminated.

Zhou Rong chose a relatively clean path, avoiding the brick walls that could collapse at any time, and the group walked inside.

Standing inside, the ancestral hall wasn't as large as they had imagined.

The main hall was probably less than 200 square meters.

Everyone consciously dispersed to look for clues. Li Lu, because of her leg injury, which made movement difficult, stayed in place for the time being.

It was said that water and fire were merciless. A trace of pain appeared in Yu Man's eyes. Standing here now, she felt as if she were in a sea of fire, with heat waves surging around her, and several distorted figures flickering in the sea of fire.

Echoing in her ears were their heart-wrenching voices.

In the fire a year ago, she had lost her best friends, as well as the man she loved the most, and who loved her the most.

For a girl from a broken family, it seemed very easy to become an oddity in the eyes of her classmates. She smoked, drank, tattooed... and dared to carry a beer bottle to fight with guys from other schools.

The teachers, and even the principal, had given up on contacting her parents.

They all knew that she had an alcoholic father and a meek, mentally ill mother.

She didn't like going home and hated the dark, cramped stairwell plastered with advertisements.

And her mother's turbid and helpless eyes.

She hated all of this.

But all of this didn't prevent her from being an excellent student.

Not very excellent, but in the top ten of her class.

When she was doing well, she could rank around 4th or 5th.

But for the "thugs" who fought with her, it was definitely considered excellent.

They couldn't understand how this girl, who skipped classes, went online, played video games, and fought with them, could still study so well?

Where did she have time to study?

They clearly skipped classes and got into fights together, and they were caught by the dean and made to stand in front of the principal's office together.

They would never imagine what this girl, who was chewing gum indifferently while listening to the old principal's nagging, was thinking.