Chapter 14: Jump Down With Me

Qin Qing suddenly became anxious. "Didn't you say my parents died of an infectious disease? You cremated them without even letting my sister and me see their bodies."

The village head shook his head. "That was all just to fool you! When your parents died, their skin was terrifyingly pale; there wasn't a drop of blood in them."

"Other corpses are heavy when you lift them, but those two felt like they had lost dozens of pounds. They were light as feathers!"

"According to the old folks, that happens when a ghost sucks away a person's life force."

"You were too young back then, and we didn't dare let you know, so we kept it all hidden."

The village head hesitated before continuing, "Ever since then, your sister has grown more and more beautiful. Haven't you noticed? Your sister doesn't look like your parents at all."

Qin Qing was stunned, at a loss for words.

I, however, pressed on, "When did that old bachelor in this house arrive here?"

The village head replied, "Right after the old Qin couple died. Once he arrived, he paid special attention to the two siblings. In the whole village, he was the one who helped them the most."

"However, people in the village also said he didn't have good intentions. He would stare at Qin Yun whenever he had the chance, never even blinking."

No wonder Qin Qing didn't like that old bachelor; so that was why.

I put my knife away. "Alright, you can go now."

The village head scurried off without looking back. Qin Qing looked at me with imploring eyes and asked, "Young Master San, do you think what the village head said is true?"

"Don't listen to his nonsense. Even if it were true, it doesn't necessarily mean it's your sister's problem." I was just brushing Qin Qing off; in my view, the village head's words were ninety percent credible.

I quickly changed the subject. "The wild immortal from the mountain set its sights on that old bachelor; there might be something hidden in his house. Wait here while I look."

Rats are good at finding treasure; I figured he was likely searching for something.

I circled the room until my gaze landed on the shrine to the Kitchen God. It was the only thing in the entire room that hadn't been disturbed.

Furthermore, in the Northeast, people rarely use shrines for the Kitchen God; they usually paste the image directly onto the wall behind the stove. The location of this shrine seemed to hide some secret.

I felt around the shrine for a good while until I touched a protrusion underneath it. I gave it a slight twist, and the shrine slid down the wall by a foot, revealing a hidden compartment behind it.

I looked at the keyhole in the compartment and knew it required the old bachelor's sickle to open. I reached out to Qin Qing, "Where is the sickle?"

"Master San didn't give it to me!" Qin Qing's answer left me speechless. Old Thief Yuan must have seen that the sickle was a good piece of gear and silently pocketed it.

You really can't just snatch things regardless of the situation. Now I had to find a way to trigger the mechanism myself.

Although mechanisms were part of the essential training for a scout, it was best not to experiment if you didn't have to; the consequences of a mistake were unimaginable.

The rat that died in the room hadn't necessarily failed to notice the mystery behind the Kitchen God; he just hadn't dared to test it.

I pulled a piece of wire from my pocket and slowly probed it into the keyhole. The moment I pressed the wire downward, I felt something hook onto it from inside.

The next instant, two iron shackles suddenly shot out from beneath the stove and clamped onto my ankles.

"Get out, quickly!" I pushed Qin Qing toward the door.

Instead of running, Qin Qing rushed back. "Young Master San, I'll help you!"

"Get out!" I was almost furious. If I were alone, I might have a chance to escape, but with him, I just had an extra burden.

While Qin Qing stood there stunned, the front door slammed shut. Flames erupted from beneath the three stoves in the room.

In the blink of an eye, the fire from the stove pits surged out like a flowing tide, spreading toward my feet.

"Fire!" Qin Qing panicked, rushing to the water vat and grabbing a short-handled axe, intending to smash it.

"Don't!" My shout and the sound of the axe hitting the vat rang out almost simultaneously.

Watching the water vat burst open, I hurriedly bent down and swept my knife at the iron shackles on my feet. Fortunately, the blade of *Piaoxue* was sharp enough to cut through metal, allowing me to break free and jump onto the stove platform.

At the same time, the flames on the ground were carried by the spilled water, rushing back toward where I had just been standing.

Had I been a second later, the fire would have caught my pant legs.

I didn't forget to warn Qin Qing to flee for his life: "The floor is covered in oil! Jump up here!"

But Qin Qing was already trapped in the flames and couldn't escape.

I hooked the rim of the iron pot with my toes and heaved it upward, forcing it into mid-air. I grabbed the rim with both hands, whirled around, and hurled the pot toward the door. "Duck!"

Qin Qing, who had already reached the door, ducked instinctively, and the pot crashed into the wooden door right over his back. The door instantly shattered into pieces.

I put all my strength into a leap, lunging at Qin Qing and pushing him out the door.

Before we could even steady ourselves, the raging fire had sealed the entrance. After a few more explosions from within, the fire became uncontrollable and engulfed the roof.

As I watched the tiled house turn into a sea of flames, the village head arrived with the villagers. Someone pointed at us and shouted, "It's those two! They were acting suspiciously in the village!"

The village head waved a hand from behind the crowd: "Grab them! They're arsonists!"

"I'm not..." Qin Qing tried to explain, but I grabbed him and ran toward the mountain. The villagers were chasing us like madmen, wielding hoes and shovels.

It wasn't that I couldn't handle the villagers, but if I fought back, the wild immortals would seize the chance to kill. The police wouldn't listen to explanations about immortals and ghosts; the blame would surely fall on me. By then, I wouldn't be able to clear my name.

As I was fleeing with Qin Qing, my peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a figure crouching in the bushes nearby. When they saw me, they ducked low and scrambled into the thicket on all fours.

"This way!" I pulled Qin Qing in a sharp turn, bypassing the chasing villagers and heading toward the bushes.

After jumping over the thicket, I saw a person crouching by a snowdrift as if waiting for me.

Seeing me approach, the person turned and grabbed the edge of the snowdrift, lifting it like a quilt to reveal a gap, and slipped inside.

Before I could even blink, the villagers were catching up.

I pulled Qin Qing toward the snowdrift: "Jump!"

"We can't jump!" Qin Qing tried to pull me back, but he didn't have my strength, and I dragged him along as we jumped onto the snowdrift.

"No—" Amidst Qin Qing's scream, the snowdrift beneath us collapsed with a roar, and we both plummeted down the cliff along with the falling snow.

Just as we slammed into the deep snow at the bottom of the mountain, the snow blocks from above fell one after another, burying us completely.