Chapter 489: The Village Well
Leng Pan and her group walked to the house closest to the village entrance.
As they walked in, they found that it was devoid of any furniture. There wasn’t even a broken stool inside.
And just as the old man had mentioned, the house indeed lacked a door and had no windows.
A closer inspection confirmed what they had suspected. The doors and windows were deliberately removed.
But what was the end game for this village chief?
Why would he go to such lengths just to get people into the village and the house next to his?
What was he hiding?.
The group first took black curtains from what appeared to be Lu Zhen’s space but in fact, it was Leng Pan.
They hung them on the door and windows to act as a barrier.
Even though it wasn’t solid, it could at least protect them from prying eyes.
"If only we had a way to investigate that chief, or at least his house or the house next to his." ZaiZai spoke despondently.
"Too bad we don’t have miniscule cameras. If we had such technology like the high-defination cameras usually appearing in movies that could disguise as flies, then investigating would be easy." Janna spoke in excitement.
One would think she had found the camera already.
"Maybe we don’t need something so complicated." Leng Pan spoke and everyone turned to look at her.
Without another word, she tapped the green bangle on her wrist.
"Go and investigate that chief. Find out what is happening in this village." She instructed.
Except for Lu Zhen, the others looked at her as if she had gone bonkers.
After all, who talks to a bracelet?
To everyone’s surprise, the bracelet moved and stretched. Turning into a thin and short vine that slid from Leng Pan’s wrist to the floor before climbing out the window unnoticed by those outside.
"That was?" Blaze suddenly asked, looking intrigued.
"Oh, that? It’s the mutated vine Ah Zhen tamed for me before. It had blocked a building and tried to devour people but ended up subdued by him." Leng Pan explained casually.
Yet, no one would take a mutated plant that seemed to be able to understand human language lightly.
But Leng Pan didn’t think much of it. She had had the vine for a long time but hadn’t brought out in battle many times.
However, whenever there was a battle, the vine was usually in the chaos harvesting crystal cores or killing the enemy.
It was through absorbing crystal cores and sometimes staying in Leng Pan’s space near the catalyst core that it had advanced so fast to the point of developing high intelligence.
It could now communicate with Leng Pan though through her consciousness.
"Can it speak?" Lu Tao suddenly asked.
He hadn’t seen the vine in a long time and had nearly forgotten about it.
But the last time he saw it, it was just an aggressive plant that blocked their way.
"I am not sure about speaking, but I can understand it." Leng Pan explained.
Sounds of envy were heard in the room but no one was jealousy.
Finding a companion like that mutated vine was simply a stroke of luck. You couldn’t envy that.
The vine was gone for thirty minutes before it slid back into the house the same way it left.
It slid back to Leng Pan and wrapped itself around her wrist again. Turning into an unremarkable bracelet.
But it still communicated with her and told her what it had found.
The village chief’s house had nothing suspicious except it was clean and there were some supplies inside.
The house next to his was a normal house and nothing suspicious was found inside. There wasn’t even a person inside.
However, it was kept very clean as if it was cleaned often.
The vine had checked the other houses and they appeared to be normal. A little too normal for the apocalypse.
They had water in vats, rice in pots, and the scent of meat.
Leng Pan wondered when a plant had developed a sense of smell but refrained from asking.
That was not her problem. She just needed information.
"So, you mean nothing is wrong with this village?" Leng Pan asked out loud, causing the others to look intently at her. The room was quiet for a while before Leng Pan nodded and thanked the vine. Then, she turned to her companions. The vine found no suspicious points in the chief’s house or any other house, but that in itself is suspicious. Especially since it said that they have food such as rice, flour, a lot of water, and even meat."
"So much food? What about that old man who brought us in" Sonny felt that things weren’t as simple as they seemed and asked.
"It said that the old man’s house was different. It was too shabby and had no food. Just a very thin porridge without even a grain of rice. All had been mashed to make the porridge less watery. There is also no vats with water there and even the porridge was cooked using the bottled water we gave him. There is also a very thin young girl on the bed in the house. The porridge was given to her." Leng Pan explained, confusing everyone.
Even she was confused.
"Why is there such a difference between that old man’s house and the others? Are we truly hallucinating and that dilapidated house is the only real thing in this village?" Su Yan asked in confusion.
"I don’t think so. Even if we hallucinate, little vine would not. It also mentioned that there is a well at the back of the chief’s house. It is from that well that people fetch water. It saw one of the women who had been washing clothes coming from the direction of the well with a huge bucket filled with water." Leng Pan added.
"So, it’s not that there is no water here, but only some people can use it? Why?" Ouyang Jin also felt confused.
"The real question is, how is there an uncontaminated well water in this village?" Lu Zhen asked somberly.