When asked about this matter, Wang Jianjun’s expression became extremely strange.

Wang Jianjun said, “I am the only one who is a villager of Dragon Girl Village. Why would the women come back?”

“They are outside?”

“Of course. If they all come back, what will happen to the children?” Wang Jianjun rubbed his stomach and smacked his lips; the child inside his belly smacked its lips right along with him.

He had gotten married only after leaving the village.

Wang Jianjun did not provide any more useful information.

When coming out of the Wang family home, Lu Yan couldn’t resist and went to take another look at the Locking Dragon Well.

He leaned his head over. There was no telling how deep this well was; one could only see a dark, bottomless well mouth.

Lu Yan vaguely heard the crying of children and women coming from within.

“Were the women in the village used for sacrifices?” Lu Yan asked.

[Part of them were, because back then, that master said that only by sacrificing living people to the gods could wealth and prosperity be traded for.]

Lu Yan couldn’t help but curse under his breath: “Where did such a master come from, so utterly devoid of conscience.”

[He didn’t actually want the people in the village to make big money; he was merely raising Gu.]

[A small village that favors boys over girls has had barely any human vitality for hundreds of years, but it possesses the only massive lake within a hundred miles.]

[Very convenient for destroying corpses and eliminating traces, right? Guess how many female infants are sunk at the bottom of this lake?]

[However, if it’s just infants, their spiritual intelligence hasn’t opened yet, so they wouldn’t have a way to form such a powerful curse and resentment. Not until 20 years ago, when these female infants gained a ‘mother’.]

[A female university student who was kidnapped here.]

[She was locked in a basement with chains for three years and gave birth to two children. The male master thought that a woman who gave birth to children would settle down, but she was different. She was educated, had seen the outside world, understood good and bad, right and wrong, knew the dignity of being human, and also knew that sometimes living is worse than dying. But she was from a single-parent family; her mother passed away when she was very young, leaving only her father alive. She had been her father’s pride since childhood and was also his pillar; she wanted to live to see her father.]

[That girl almost got saved; her father looked for her for a very long time. He resigned from his job at a state-owned enterprise and walked through every large and small village in Fuling Province. He found Dragon Girl Village. She was right there in the basement dungeon, and through a tiny skylight, she saw her dad. The people in the village clearly all knew there was such a person, but no one was willing to speak the truth.]

[This woman finally went mad. But she was saved. After going mad, the male master’s surveillance was no longer as strict. She took advantage of the night to kill the man and then ran away. But she was pursued by her father-in-law leading dogs and was caught back again. The father-in-law intended to arrange a ghost marriage for his son—]

[And then, that Feng Shui master arrived.]

The female university student was drowned in the pond. It served as a sacrifice and also fulfilled a ghost marriage. Killing two birds with one stone.

Lu Yan’s mood became very heavy. He felt a bit like not caring about the people of Dragon Girl Village and turning right around to leave.

He did not approve of limitless retribution. Being harmed yourself isn’t a reason to harm society. But the Dragon Girl was clearly a person with a sense of boundaries; every injustice has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. At least many innocent women in the village were fine.

In his eyes, besides the deceased male master, the other villagers were also accomplices. From the Dragon Girl’s perspective, perhaps such a punishment was a bit heavy, but it wasn’t completely unacceptable.

Lu Yan’s purpose in coming here wasn’t to resolve the pollution disease of these people in the village anyway, but because he himself had also been targeted by the Dragon Girl.

Facing the well mouth, he said in a low voice: “I don’t know if you can hear me. I sympathize greatly with your encounter, and I am also very sorry that I am very late. One of my professions is a doctor. Killing your child was because it was hurting my friend; I believe my friend didn’t do anything to you.”

No response came from inside the well.

Zhou Qiming asked, “Doctor Lu, what are you doing?”

Lu Yan withdrew his gaze: “Nothing. Let’s go back first.”

“Alright, you go back first. I’ll find a boat and go to Dragon Girl Lake to measure the pollution value.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Zhou Qiming thought about it: “No need. In case the boat capsizes, I can still run on my own, but you might not be able to. Hurry back. In case something happens to you, my game company will definitely go bankrupt.”

Making games is a dead end. On the surface, Zhou Qiming was the boss of a listed game company, but behind the scenes, he lost sleep every day worrying about sources of funding.

He hadn’t joined the Special Operations Department, but a certain director from the Pollution Disease Prevention and Control Center who wished to remain anonymous was a major shareholder in his company—his financial backer, his sugar daddy.

Lu Yan originally wanted to say that his physical condition was very good, and his body in the water might be even better than on land.

But remembering his delicate and precious setting as a “Healing System Apocalypse Envoy,” he could only let it drop.

When he returned to the RV by himself, Chen Shi’er and the detective were playing poker.

The moment he saw Lu Yan, the detective couldn’t resist pushing up the frame of his glasses: “Where’s the boss?”

“Gone to the center of Dragon Girl Lake to measure the pollution level.”

“Doctor Lu,” the detective said, “can I ask you a question? How old are you this year?”

Lu Yan had things on his mind and didn’t take it to heart. He opened the refrigerator preparing to make dinner and replied casually: “26.”

“Do you have an older or younger brother?”

“No.”

Chen Shi’er and the detective exchanged looks. Ultimately, Chen Shi’er still took out a student ID card from his pocket: “Then that’s too strange. We also went out for a walk this afternoon and saw an uninhabited house. The detective said his talent reminded him that there were clues inside. Then we snuck in and discovered this.”

Lu Yan took it, opened it to look, and his pupils constricted in an instant.

This was a student ID card from Donglan University.

The person in the ID photo looked seventy percent similar to him, only with a more gloomy expression. The name written on it was Lu Cheng.

It was his father.

[Congratulations, you have discovered one of the most important clues of this trip. Your father came here when he was young.]

Lu Yan’s father graduated in 2091. In other words, this was a matter from at least thirty years ago.

“This is my father, he’s already dead,” Lu Yan paused for a moment, then said.

In Lu Yan’s memory of Lu Cheng, his brows and eyes were always very sinister, his emotions extremely unstable, and a pathological cold sneer was frequently hung on his face.

Children who grow up in unfortunate families always remember things very early.

Lu Yan still remembered that poor woman; her figure was very petite. He heard she was Lu Cheng’s junior high classmate and had always secretly loved him. She was a housewife who wasn’t beautiful, had an ordinary education, had no job, and looked to be good for nothing except hard work.

But Lu Yan remembered that the cakes she made were very delicious, and her hand holding his when picking him up from kindergarten was also very warm.

Even when this poor woman was beaten black and blue, she would still hold him and sob softly, saying that Dad wasn’t this kind of person before, just that his project failed recently and he was in a bad mood.

She could always find many excuses for Lu Cheng.

Later, that woman jumped off a building. Compared to physical pain, what was even more unbearable for her was Lu Cheng’s day-in, day-out cold indifference.

Lu Yan wanted to kill Lu Cheng. The other party didn’t seem to mind and even quite enjoyed the process; it was just that the one who failed was always the still-young Lu Yan.

Every time he failed, Lu Yan would accept punishment from his father.

Sometimes it was cutting open his belly and sewing it back up, sometimes sticking needles into his back, sometimes watching live insects crawl into his nasal cavity with open eyes—he was tied to the operating table, unable to move a muscle.

Lu Yan didn’t think this was domestic violence; it was just the penalty for failure. After all, what he wanted was Lu Cheng’s life. At least, Lu Cheng wouldn’t let him die.

The only thing Lu Yan felt regretful about was that he had originally thought of a flawless plan and was about to kill Lu Cheng—but as a result, the other party mutated.

Later on, news of Lu Cheng’s death came, and because of this, the higher-ups allocated an apartment to him as a life guarantee.

To think he died just as simply as that; this made Lu Yan feel quite regretful.

The detective asked: “Why did your father come here? Donglan isn’t close to Fuling Province either.”

Lu Yan: “I don’t know. Maybe he liked traveling when he was young.”

The system corrected him: [You know.]

Lu Yan paused for an instant: “That… Feng Shui master?”

[Yes, I’ve already told you, this place is a Gu-raising ground. Now, the Gu has already been raised successfully, perhaps? Also, to correct a mistake. Lu Cheng isn’t dead; at least he still retains his body, intelligence, and memories.]

Lu Yan’s hand was still resting on the photograph, his expression becoming exceptionally grim and cold.

His killing intent was too distinct and sudden, so much so that Chen Shi’er stood up, looking at Lu Yan with a bit of alarm and uncertainty.

As a result, in the next second, Lu Yan started smiling: “Apologies, I just remembered some things and spaced out.”

The detective rubbed his own arm: “Wh-what things?”

Lu Yan smiled gently: “The pigs raised back in my hometown haven’t been slaughtered yet.”

The two of them had been getting along with Lu Yan for two days now, and this was the first time they saw Lu Yan smile. It was like a spring breeze brushing across the face, making one’s heart skip a beat.

After Lu Yan finished saying this sentence, he started cooking in the small kitchen. The RV’s space was small; while the two of them played cards in the living room, the sound of Lu Yan chopping ingredients could be heard with absolute clarity, feeling like some murder scene dismemberment.

By the time Lu Yan had pretty much finished cooking, Zhou Qiming finally returned, completely soaked from head to toe.

He had lost a shoe, and many long strands of hair were draped over his body, making him look exceptionally wretched.

“Boss? How did you end up like this?” Chen Shi’er was dumbfounded.

“Hurry up and drive, let’s leave right now.” Zhou Qiming’s expression was even uglier than when he was leaking milk onto Lu Yan’s hand a few days ago, “I saw the pollutant at the bottom of the lake… pollution level 6300. It’s completely not something we can resolve. I added a setting that ‘I am its father’ just to come back alive, and the setting should be about to expire now. While it hasn’t come ashore yet, let’s go fast!”