"Don't stare into her eyes."

Jiang Cheng's voice suddenly rang out. Tang Qisheng was taken aback, then shook his head violently. He hadn't even noticed that he had been lost in thought for a moment.

Taking the painting down from the wall and placing it on the table, Tang Qisheng, having learned his lesson, picked up a piece of rag from the ground to cover Xiuling's eyes, just to be safe.

Sure enough, the feeling of being watched disappeared. Tang Qisheng felt both fear and excitement. It seemed that there was indeed something wrong with the painting, which proved that their investigation direction was correct.

As a fellow painter, Jiang Cheng was initially drawn to the composition and brushstrokes of the painting. The artist was extremely skilled, often using only a few strokes to create the desired image in the details. It was no exaggeration to say that in the dim environment, the entire painting looked like a photograph at first glance.

Unconsciously touching the painting with his hand, he frowned. The material of the paper was much rougher and thicker than he had imagined. Curious, he turned the painting over, and in the next second, he and Tang Qisheng were both stunned. There was actually another painting on the back of this one!

What surprised them even more was that this painting was exactly the same as the one on the front!

Both showed Grandpa sitting in the grand master's chair, with Xiuling standing beside him.

But why paint the same picture twice, or rather… on both sides of the same piece of paper?

However, as the two of them concentrated, they quickly noticed the clues. Jiang Cheng stared intently at Grandpa's face, while Tang Qisheng was so nervous that he even stopped breathing. The two paintings did have differences, and the differences were important, because the old man in the painting on the back was not Grandpa at all!

This was an old man dressed like Grandpa, with a figure that was 80% or 90% similar. The old man was also smiling, but his smile revealed a chilling coldness.

"This… this isn't Grandpa!" Tang Qisheng shuddered, and then quickly reacted, "No, wait, this is the real Grandpa!"

Looking at the unfamiliar old man in the painting, Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and said coldly, "It seems that he is the one extra person in the team."

"If I'm not mistaken, the real Grandpa, the stranger in the painting, died long ago. The villagers found an old man who looked 80% or 90% like him from somewhere, and then, through some strange means, sacrificed the fake Grandpa and finally welcomed back the real Grandpa."

Although it sounded bizarre, Tang Qisheng followed Jiang Cheng's line of thought and found that it all matched up. This also explained why everyone was not sad but happy after Grandpa died, and why the funeral was so simple, because the person who died was not important at all!

On the contrary, the real Grandpa would be resurrected after the fake Grandpa died!

Thinking of this, Jiang Cheng suddenly shivered. He suddenly realized something: Li Bai! Li Bai was also being targeted by those people!

The woman who came to knock on the door had unintentionally said something like this: I haven't seen the old woman so happy since A'ma's beloved granddaughter left.

Thinking of the villagers' unusual enthusiasm for Li Bai, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine. Now it seemed that those were not concerned eyes at all, but… they were clearly looking at a sacrifice!

It was likely that Li Bai's figure was also similar to the old man's granddaughter. As long as Li Bai was sacrificed, the old man's beloved granddaughter could be brought back to life!

Li Bai was the next sacrifice chosen by the villagers!

"Damn it, these ghosts..."

Tang Qisheng gritted his teeth, wishing he could kill all the villagers. No wonder these villagers had money to eat white rice. They were probably used to this kind of robbery and murder. He even suspected that the ghost fog outside was also related to these villagers, or the mysterious ritual that could bring people back to life.

Now it seemed that Fatty's encounter last night was also explained. He saw the wronged soul of the fake Grandpa. The wronged soul had no intention of harming him, but was reminding him not to be deceived by the villagers and follow in his footsteps.

As for the fake Grandpa's body pointing to this painting, the purpose was the same.

Now that he knew the truth, hearing the laughter outside, the villagers' warm laughter with Li Bai, Tang Qisheng only felt his hair stand on end. Sudu Novel Network

"What are you going to do next?" Tang Qisheng looked at Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng pondered for a moment, then got up and hung the painting back on the wall as it was. After confirming that he had not left any clues, he pulled Tang Qisheng away, "Let's leave first."

Climbing out of the window the way they came, and carefully closing the window, Jiang Cheng led Tang Qisheng back to the courtyard, exposing themselves to the villagers' view at a clever angle. Then, the two of them took their tools and slowly began to sweep the courtyard on one side.

After hearing the clues Jiang Cheng brought out, Fatty was completely stunned and didn't recover for a long time. Thinking of Li Bai's kindness to him, Fatty clenched his huge fist, his face fierce. If these people dared to take Li Bai away, he would punch them one by one. As long as they were human, he wouldn't be afraid at all.

"Don't be impulsive. It's not time to reveal our hand yet." Jiang Cheng continued to work, pretending to sweep, while whispering to comfort him, "Listen to me. We have something more important to do at the moment. The fake Grandpa died unjustly. He wouldn't take you to that place for no reason. I think there must be something special about the open space outside the village entrance."

"That piece of land is indeed strange. Do you remember, when we first arrived, those villagers would rather take us the long way around than pass through the village entrance," Zhu Jie recalled.

"Could that piece of land be the altar for the rebirth ritual?" Tang Qisheng thought again and again, then said his guess.

Jiang Cheng nodded, "That's possible. The funeral procession also went in that direction, carrying the body of the fake Grandpa. We wanted to go and help, but we were rejected."

"There's also one more thing, Wang Fugui's dream," Jiang Cheng continued, "In the dream, the fake Grandpa took him over and then snatched the wooden牌 (pai, tablet) from him."

"Yes, yes, it was so sudden at the time. I didn't even react. Then, that fake Grandpa grabbed the wooden牌 (pai, tablet) and jumped into the bushes and suddenly disappeared."

Thinking of that strange dream, Fatty still had lingering fears. He felt wronged to describe it as a dream, after all, it had already affected reality to some extent.

"The wooden牌 (pai, tablet) from the Marquis's residence… a martial arts master…"

Jiang Cheng felt that there seemed to be some connection between the two. Judging from the fake Grandpa's performance, he clearly recognized this牌 (pai, tablet). Could he also be related to the Zhennan Marquis's residence?

After listening to Jiang Cheng's analysis, everyone fell silent. Things became more and more confusing, but the most important thing now was to go to that place and see it with their own eyes.

But it definitely wouldn't work during the day. The villagers were keeping a close eye on them, these fat sheep. Jiang Cheng looked in the direction of the village entrance and took a deep breath, "Tonight, I'll keep the wooden牌 (pai, tablet) with me. I want to see if the fake Grandpa will come again."