CHAPTER 591: CHAPTER 109

Seeing Li Zhiyuan and Run Sheng in conversation, Mr. Xue stood up and said, "Xiao Yuan, Run Sheng, you guys go on with your chat."

"Uncle Xue, sorry, I have something to deal with here."

"Ah, no problem, no problem, I’ve got things to do as well."

Mr. Xue cheerfully picked up his tools and started arranging the potted plants that were set up in the yard.

When he arrived yesterday, Li Zhiyuan had noticed that there were quite a few potted plants at home, as well as several small stone tables arranged to create a landscape.

Brother Liangliang had rented out the family’s responsible farmland a long time ago, freeing his parents from traditional rural labor early, allowing them to enjoy retired life.

On ordinary days, Mr. Xue’s hobby was to tend to these potted plants and to go to the corridor for tea and storytelling.

Mrs. Xue would go out to play Chang Pai after lunch, her playing group composed of elderly ladies, among whom she was considerably young.

"Brother Runsheng, let’s go upstairs."

"Alright."

Li Zhiyuan went upstairs and sat down at the desk Brother Liangliang used to use.

He took out a notebook and pen from his backpack and drew three circles on a blank page.

Three groups of people had arrived at Min’an Town, each encountering a different Min’an Town.

This was a development Li Zhiyuan had not anticipated before setting off.

Was it the miasma of an evil spirit?

A formation from the Xuanmen?

Or the interstitial space layers he had experienced before? Or some other rare mystery of nature?

Not long ago, at the club recruitment on the playground, the president who liked to talk about UFOs also mentioned many unresolved mysteries from around the world.

Li Zhiyuan closed his eyes, letting the warm sunshine flood over his face through the window.

Unable to contact Binbin and Meng Meng and lacking much information, he really couldn’t start to theorize now.

Moreover, he suspected that something abnormal must’ve already happened at Yin Meng and Tan Wenbin’s end.

Because the normality here... was actually highly abnormal.

Could it be because of Brother Liangliang’s status as the Bai family’s son-in-law, causing this line of development to be hindered?

He did not rule out the influence of this factor, but Li Zhiyuan did not believe it would be the main reason.

When Jingjing from his master’s wife’s family was possessed, she showed aversion to the Bai family’s aura on Xue Liangliang, but that was only to the extent of aversion; if she really planned to do something to him, she would have done so, and that’s the same for Xue Liangliang himself, let alone just his family members.

Therefore, Li Zhiyuan suspected that this line of his was meant to be the slowest to unfold.

Fatty Wu’s prospective in-laws were already ill, and the friend of Fan Shulin was already divorced; both these lines had already taken deviant turns.

Mr. Xue’s fiftieth birthday was next month, and Xue Liangliang, who could be involved in this line, was still in Dujiangyan, and he could only come back to celebrate his father’s birthday after finishing his tasks or taking leave... and most likely, before returning home, he would need to make a trip to Nantong first.

He had come too early.

But this was not a mistake, because this was an advantage he had fought hard to gain.

The current situation was like the whole team being covered by a huge black cloth, unable to see each other, but that’s not a problem. Even blind fighting has its methods, and he wasn’t inexperienced playing the blind man.

"Brother Runsheng."

"Yeah."

Seeing Li Zhiyuan deep in thought, Run Sheng consciously stood at the door of the room, holding a "cigar" and puffing away.

He came over to the desk and asked, "Xiao Yuan, have you thought of a way to find Binbin and Meng Meng?"

Li Zhiyuan shook his head: "No."

"Then..."

"Brother Runsheng, I need your help to think together."

"Me?" Run Sheng pointed to his face with the "cigar" in his hand, "I’ll do my best."

Li Zhiyuan asked, "Brother Runsheng, if you were replaced by Yin Meng or Tan Wenbin, what would be the first thing you’d think of after settling down in Min’an Town?"

"I would come find you, Xiao Yuan."

"What if you couldn’t find me, or even couldn’t inquire about the Xue family?"

"I..."

"Brother Runsheng, would you leave Min’an Town? After all, there’s been a problem here, and we’ve lost contact with the outside world."

"No, we came here for the problem, I wouldn’t leave Min’an Town. I would continue doing what I could as per your prior instructions, moving the investigation forward, in the hope of later meeting up with you to report."

"So, Yin Meng and Tan Wenbin, they should be doing the same thing."

Run Sheng scratched his head and asked, "Xiao Yuan, do you need to ask me this?"

"Yes, I need to, because my empathy can be misleading."

He was the one who set out the task plan, so the constraints of the plan were less strict for him, after all, there wasn’t a "Brother Xiao Yuan" above him.

Thus, in such situations, his countermeasures would be somewhat more extreme.

For example, to prove that since there are three Min’an Towns, whether the townspeople he sees in this Min’an Town are real living people?

He could find a criminal who had escaped legal punishment or a local bully, administer justice while observing their death.

He could also inquire about families with a dying elderly or sick person, and watch their final moments.

Even if the residents of Min’an Town were simple and all currently healthy, he could still go find out whose family has a new grave, dig up a fresh corpse, and conduct an experiment.

It is recorded in Righteous Demon Extermination Records by Wei Zhengdao:

"Human beings are the easiest reference to spot discrepancies, we can find out the characteristics of this place’s complex environment through the ’people’ here."

But clearly, Yin Meng and Tan Wenbin, would not likely do this.

Therefore, to ensure the uniformity of the team’s actions across the three lines, he would need to adapt and follow their behavior, so as to form a concerted effort.