Corpse Recovery Diver

"What do you want to do?"

Li Zhiyuan reminded, "Let's get to business. Tell us about your experiences staying behind with Li Ren. Give him something to eat so he can talk while eating."

Yin Meng handed half a pack of preserved plums to Cui Hao.

Tan Wenbin blocked Yin Meng's hand with his arm, "Giving her this will only make her hungrier."

Then, Tan Wenbin threw a pack of compressed biscuits to Cui Hao and poured him a bowl of brown sugar tea.

Seeing the food, Cui Hao began to devour it ravenously. After stuffing himself with some food, he finally took a breath and started to recount the experiences he and Li Ren had during this period.

Their leader demonstrated a democratic style by letting everyone use anonymous voting to elect two candidates to undertake the duty of staying behind.

This was almost no different from voting for "who you dislike the most."

Cui Hao was elected with a high vote, followed by Li Ren, and their votes overwhelmingly surpassed the third from last.

Everyone else went home for the New Year, leaving the two of them to stay behind. To say there was no resentment in their hearts would be impossible.

However, soon the resentment in their hearts was completely swept away because they had to make room for fear.

On the night Cui Hao recorded "they" came back, it was actually just the beginning.

Because afterward, the people in the courtyard downstairs all came upstairs, and their consciousness began to blur at that time.

It was like having a dream, dazedly joining them and starting a meeting.

In the meeting, the leader and colleagues repeatedly asked questions, which Cui Hao and Li Ren began to answer.

The meeting lasted a long time, and by the time it ended, it was already dawn.

When Cui Hao and Li Ren woke up, they found themselves lying in the courtyard.

They believed they had encountered mountain spirits, and immediately ran out for help, but everyone they met in the village, after hearing their story, let out a sinister laugh.

The whole village was full of damn ghosts!

Terrified, they ran out of the village and directly hid in the mountain forest.

From before the New Year to afterward, they mostly lived in a Zhaojun Temple in the mountain.

But their outdoor survival skills were very poor, and they hadn't had time to bring supplies when escaping from the village, so they had to sneaky under the cover of night to steal a little from the village, then hide in the mountain's Zhaojun Temple before dawn.

Originally, when stealing from the village, they dared not approach this earth building, as it was the starting point of their nightmare.

However, Li Ren accidentally stepped on a trap set by hunters in the mountain, and although it was pried open to free him, the wound became infected due to improper treatment.

Cui Hao found some herbs, crushed them, and applied them to Li Ren, which was very effective; the wound swelled and began to fester.

Out of desperation, when Cui Hao snuck into the village tonight, he felt his way to the earth building because he knew there were medicines here.

Then he got caught.

Li Zhiyuan rubbed his temples while analyzing what Cui Hao said.

Cui Hao wasn't lying, but what he said might not be the truth.

The village couldn't possibly be full of ghosts; they were simply under intense attention.

Li Zhiyuan suspected that the scene that night might have been Old Transgender trying to figure out the construction team's true intentions, whether they would abandon the hydropower station project.

The villagers with sinister smiles they met in the village later were probably fake.

There's just one thing that doesn't make sense: either you question them and forget it, or you question them and silence them. What is the purpose of playing with them after questioning? Is it really so boring?

Li Zhiyuan: "What is Zhaojun Temple?"

Cui Hao: "It's just an old temple on the mountain, been there for years. We went there during a survey. Someone from the team said it's a Merit Temple and led a few of us to worship it. Each of us took a tile amulet."

"Do you still have that tile?"

"I've always carried it with me."

"Show it to me."

Cui Hao reluctantly took a tile from his pocket and handed it to Li Zhiyuan.

The tile was small, with three engraved lines above and three verticals below, implying compliance with heavenly will and winning the people's hearts, meritoriously boundless.

It's indeed a merit tile, but it doesn't have an actual protective effect.

There's indeed a tradition of collecting merit tiles or merit bricks among the folks, not for collecting as antiques, but because they believe bringing it home and integrating it into their house can protect and ward off evil.

It's said the actual Leifeng Tower collapsed because too many bricks were taken by nearby residents.

Li Zhiyuan suspects that if the tile has no effect, then what might be effective is the temple behind the tile.

Zhaojun Temple... Li Zhiyuan hasn't heard of such a temple, but he knows Zaojun Temple.

But this Zhao Jun could make even Old Transgender apprehensive. Even if there's only a tile, they wouldn't dare truly harm the two of them.

Li Zhiyuan clapped his hands, stood up, and said to Cui Hao:

"Let's go, we're going to save your colleague."

...

Zhaojun Temple was already in a semi-abandoned state, or rather, the original purpose of its construction wasn't for passing on incense, because its location was too remote and difficult to access.

The surroundings of the temple had already collapsed, with wild grasses and vines growing everywhere, leaving only the main temple building with a broken roof barely providing shelter from the wind and rain.

In the past few days, Cui Hao and Li Ren had been hiding here, surviving in the wilderness.

Li Ren's condition wasn't good, his wound was infected, and he was running a fever, his consciousness in a haywire state.

Li Zhiyuan pointed at him, and Yin Meng immediately squatted down to start treating his wound.

The others began inspecting this Zhaojun Temple.