Borrowed Gift!

A hunched old fisherman, wearing a patterned straw raincoat, drank two buckets of water, only wanting raw water and not boiled water. Along with the abandoned fish basket and straw sandals, the old turtle swam away.

The answer was already quite clear.

James was a person who was good at observing details. He found the strange straw raincoat with faint patterns on the old fisherman quite peculiar from the start.

After seeing the patterns on the back of the swimming old turtle, James immediately understood what was going on.

Those dozens of characters were probably left behind by the old turtle using those two buckets of water, right?

Others offer borrowed flowers as a gift.

Did this old turtle offer words with borrowed water?

However—

When the old turtle transformed and spoke human language, was this still the same normal world they knew? Even if today was Renewal Festival, it was still too sensational.

Upon returning to their old house, nothing seemed to be missing or taken. The originally heavily imprinted water characters in the corridor had mysteriously disappeared.

It was as if someone had instantly dried them with a dryer; there was no trace left.

Knowing how these characters came about, James naturally didn't dwell on how they disappeared.

After all this back and forth, their meal had turned cold. Fortunately, the two brothers had eaten enough to be 70-80% full.

Little Dog, trying to please James, diligently cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks.

In no time at all, Little Dog tidied up both inside and out. It seems that even when staying with others' families, Little Dog must have done his fair share of chores. With such an observant nature, he wouldn't suffer any losses wherever he went.

James enjoyed sitting back and letting others do the work while leaning on his rattan chair, contemplating everything that had happened today.

Ever since he returned to King's yesterday, James felt something was off.

If he had to pinpoint exactly what was wrong, he couldn't say it at the moment.

All the events that happened today, if examined closely, could make up a book of supernatural stories.

His biological mother appearing in his dream, the photo frame falling to the ground, a woman's shadow in a floral skirt, burning paper money easily catching fire, searching for a head, dragons and tigers fighting, and the broken spine of the Pheonix Bird...

Now there was an old turtle offering advice.

White Tiger fighting Green Dragon, causing a hole in the sky. Vermilion Bird's spine breaking, bringing turmoil to the human world...

These sisty-six-character prophecies were easy to understand on the surface but difficult to grasp when it came to details. James felt that his lack of knowledge limited his imagination.

He really couldn't understand how a hole could be poked in the vast universe and cause so much trouble?

A war?

An earthquake?

Or plagues, diseases, or other natural disasters?

This exceeded James' imaginative limits. After all, he hadn't written novels online, so his thinking wasn't big enough to come up with any logical reasoning.

However—

Avoid places of right and wrong; don't stay too long.

This sentence was clear and straightforward. It reminded the two brothers to leave this place and King's Ridge.

But what was the reason?

That was what James found unsettling!

There must be something wrong that hasn't been noticed yet. And this wrong place might be the reason the old turtle reminded him to leave?

James felt his mentality was close to exploding.

Several times he took advantage of Little Dog's inattention and pinched himself hard. The burning pain reminded him that this was not a dream.

"Jamie, have you noticed that our village is a bit strange?" As James was troubled, Little Dog moved closer with a mysterious look on his face.

With his body facing the chair's back, he sat down, his hands resting on the backrest, supporting his chin.

"What do you mean?" James was intrigued.

Although Little Dog might seem careless, his thought process was quite unusual. His observation skills were far stronger than those of his peers. Perhaps from his perspective, they could gain some clues?

"This year there are very few people in the village. Isn't it strange? When I came back this morning, I didn't see a single person on my way into the village. In previous years during Renewal Festival, even if it rained,

On the way to Silvermist Mountain to sweep the tombs, wouldn't we meet several groups of people? Today, we only met that old fisherman who was an outsider."

King's Ridge was originally a small mountain village with a remote location and only 27 or 33 households over decades. In recent 25 years, the original residents had indeed dwindled, with almost all those who could relocate moving away.

Strictly speaking, even James wasn't a local resident but someone from the city returning to their hometown.

However, there should still be some elderly people staying behind.

If there were elderly people left behind, their children and descendants wouldn't miss coming back to visit during Renewal Festival, right?

The tradition of tomb-sweeping during Renewal Festival was highly valued in King's Ridge. There was no reason for them not to see anyone at all.

As James thought more deeply about it, he felt increasingly uneasy.

Upon careful consideration, since returning to King's Ridge last night until now, he hadn't seen a single person or even heard a dog barking.

The descendants of King's Ridge had spread out in all directions. Even if they were scattered everywhere, there shouldn't be not a single person returning for tomb-sweeping during Renewal Festival, right?

As for the old fisherman, it was debatable whether he was even human.

So...

Where were the people?

When thinking about the details, it was truly terrifying.

The road at the entrance of their yard, although not the main road in the village, was still a frequently used path. Over half a day had passed, and there were no fresh footprints other than Little Dog's and his own!

And on the mountain road to Silvermist Mountain in Thornbridge Pavilion, thorny bushes grew all around, with no traces of being cleared. This meant that before they went there, no one from the village had gone up to Silvermist Mountain for tomb-sweeping!

This was clearly abnormal!

It should be noted that all generations of King's Ridge ancestors who had passed away, except for those who died away from home or couldn't enter ancestral tombs due to misdeeds, were basically buried on Silvermist Mountain.

It's not an exaggeration to say that there were several times more ancestors from King's Ridge sleeping on Silvermist Mountain than there are current residents in King's Ridge.

On Renewal Festival, not a single person went up to Silvermist Mountain for tomb-sweeping?

Wasn't that strange?

Unusual or not?

When thinking about it more deeply, James shuddered.

"Little Dog, let's go back to Nova City."

They didn't care about the leftover food and quickly packed a few pieces of clothing into their backpacks.

The family portrait was also carefully placed in James' backpack.

An iron general guarded the door; it could prevent gentlemen but not thieves.

Of course, apart from some bulky old furniture and some pots and bowls in their old house, there were only a few hundred honeycomb briquettes left. There wasn't much worth stealing.

To return to Nova City from King's Ridge, they obviously couldn't take a direct bus. They had to walk six or seven miles to the west side of Silvermist Mountain, where there was a two-lane mountain road with a roadside platform.

Though it was called a platform, there was actually only one bus per day. It departed from the town 20 kilometers away at 2 p.m. every day, passing by the so-called bus platform on the west side of Silvermist Mountain around 2:30 p.m. Normally, it didn't pick up passengers halfway, but occasionally there were a few scattered passengers.

James and little dog were such passengers.

The bus was scheduled to arrive at the west side platform of Silvermist Mountain around 2:30 p.m., and they still had plenty of time to catch it.

The two brothers rushed to the platform, and it was still 15 minutes before 2:30 p.m.

The platform was simple; there was a road sign next to it, and a long stone slab for sitting. It provided no shelter from the wind or rain. On rainy days like this, it wasn't usable.

Although it was an urban-rural bus, it arrived on time.

Seeing someone waving their hand, the bus driver stepped on the brake and stopped.

"Going to Nova City is 13 pounds per person."

The driver didn't even turn his head, maintaining a standard bus driver's face.

James didn't expect any luxurious VIP experience on an urban-rural bus. The driver's expression wouldn't affect him riding the bus. Moreover, after experiencing such a nightmarish day, seeing a bus full of living people felt comforting to him.

James didn't give it much thought and raised his foot to get on the bus.

As he stepped on with one foot, Little Dog tightly grabbed James from behind.

"Jamie, how about we wait for another bus?"

Little Dog, who was usually carefree, had a somewhat pale face, and there was a hint of fear in his eyes.

The bus driver didn't even glance at them directly but had sharp ears. Hearing Little Dog mention waiting for another bus, he thought they were complaining about the price and became impatient.

With a snap, he closed the bus door and drove off.

"Idiot! There's only one bus per day. Wait for another? It'll still be my bus tomorrow. Let's see how many days you can wait."

James didn't expect the bus driver to be so arrogant, leaving without any discussion.

"Little Dog, don't you know there's only one bus per day?"

Little Dog hesitated and looked somewhat dazed.

"Are you feeling unwell?"

Little Dog shook his head: "Jamie, we can't take that bus!"