“Five successful escapes mean 5 billion in prize money—one episode nets 1 billion. You think it’s easy money?”
“See ya, No. 3 bro. Time to test your luck.”
They were all regretting that No. 3 had failed to complete the task. The arson criminal was howling like ghosts and wolves in the group chat. “Is this my fault? Who knew a town had two mayors? I got the task location wrong, and by the time I went to carry it out, it was already too late. Such a simple task, aaaaaah. You guys have to learn from this. When questioning them, these locals are all like uneducated idiots—it’s so damn hard to get any words out of them.”
The latter part was directly censored with mosaics in the live stream chat, as it involved personal attacks and discrimination against the locals.
Many people in the group immediately shared the secret spots they had scouted beforehand, telling No. 3 to go hide first.
As long as he endured the remaining thirteen days, victory was still possible.
The criminal results were announced, followed closely by the tasks for the third day.
Xiao Fen checked his phone. There was still no task for him today.
Two minutes later, he posted the two criminals’ tasks in the group.
Perhaps sensing how tough the Pursuit Team was, the criminals in the group lost their inclination to suspect and guard against each other or spout sarcastic remarks. They all started offering ideas and strategies, even saying they would help with lookouts and extractions offline if necessary.
If others successfully escaped, they earned 1 point—and that meant one more chance for themselves to escape via the highway, one step closer to victory.
Helping others was really just helping themselves.
Xiao Fen watched the shift in the group’s attitude and felt a bit gratified inwardly.
A united Criminal Team was definitely better than a disunited rabble.
But when it came to them suggesting he become the leader of the Criminal Team and lead them to defeat the Pursuit Team… just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.
He was used to a free and easy life; he really couldn’t get into the idea of being a leader.
“Brother Fen, do you have any good ideas?” People in the group started asking him.
Xiao Fen integrated and optimized the group’s suggestions, then sent them out.
Sleep.
The next day.
Xiao Fen had no plans to make a move.
For one thing, the two tasks today were fairly simple—just theft. With the Temple Fair approaching, the streets were full of people coming and going; it would be easy to pull off.
For another, the Pursuit Team had adjusted their patrol methods yesterday, which concerned him a bit. He decided to hold his position for the time being and called a few criminals he was somewhat familiar with from the group to provide backup.
After breakfast, a new friend request popped up on his phone.
It was Tang Qin Xin. She had gotten his number from Guest No. 4, the trafficking criminal, last night.
Xiao Fen thought it over and accepted the request.
Soon, Tang Qin Xin sent an invitation.
“Can we find a place to chat?”
Xiao Fen agreed.
Half an hour later.
The two met behind the twenty-third willow tree counting back from the village entrance in Lakeside Village near the town.
Xiao Fen glanced around, then led the person into the small grove inside the village.
“What is this setup? It’s like underground agents making contact.” Tang Qin Xin gave a wry smile.
“Don’t worry about it. Just do me this favor.”
“I’m really just an ordinary townsperson. No—I’m not from this town. I followed my husband here when he was transferred.”
Xiao Fen looked around. No one was nearby. He squatted under the orange tree and said, “You said the townspeople killed your husband. What’s the story there?”
A thick wave of sorrow and helplessness surged across Tang Qin Xin’s clear and beautiful face.
“They say my husband was harmed by the Substitute Life Well.”
“What Substitute Life Well?”
“It’s all feudal superstition anyway!” Tang Qin Xin said bitterly. “One life for one life—they just couldn’t accept him, so they killed him. The whole town is guilty. They’re all accomplices!”
She was completely venting the resentment bottled up in her heart right now.
Xiao Fen handed her the water bottle he carried with him and waited for her to gradually calm down.
“Sorry. I got a little too worked up just now.”
“It’s fine.” Xiao Fen quietly plucked an orange from the tree behind him, broke it in half, and gave half to her. He took a segment for himself, which was so sour it twisted his face into a grimace. He gritted his teeth and forced it down.
He had more important business.
“Can you talk about it in detail now? Why wouldn’t the townspeople accept him?”
To pick up a quest from a game NPC and claim the rewards, he had to know the other’s backstory.
“My husband was transferred here as the town mayor five years ago,” Tang Qin Xin said. “I came along with him. The place was very poor and backward back then. Kids from five or six surrounding villages all had to attend just one elementary and middle school in town, and even with all the teachers combined, there were fewer than ten. After my husband arrived, through endless legwork and hustling, we finally got more than thirty teachers now.
“The highway connecting to the national road was also something my husband applied for and got approved. That’s how the villagers could go out to work and earn some money. He also wanted to develop tourism, saying the environment here was so beautiful that the best way to boost the economy was to bring in tourists. So he shot those videos that blew up online. But he never expected that his filming would provoke such huge dissatisfaction from the townspeople.”
“So you think his actions pissed off certain people in town, and that’s why someone killed him?”
“That’s only part of it. The real trigger was the Substitute Life Well.” Tang Qin Xin said wearily. “If you go to the deepest part of town, on the open ground behind that row of abandoned houses by Five Directions Stream, there’s an octagonal well. It’s normally sealed up. A year ago, my husband wanted to stamp out feudal superstitions, so he started with that well. Despite everyone’s strong dissuasion, he ripped off all the sealing wooden boards and talismans. He wanted to prove he wouldn’t lose his mind to the wronged souls down there. But the next day… he vanished.”
“Vanished?” Xiao Fen said. “People can still be alive and kicking. As long as no body’s found, anything’s possible. Don’t lose heart.”
“No, I’m certain because of the Substitute Life Well legend.” She said.
“They say back in the Republic of China era, an actress from out of town came to perform. Someone deceived her and took her chastity. In despair, she threw herself into the well. A bunch of people went down to fish out the body, but strangely, they couldn’t find it.
“The next day, an old man passed innocently by the well and inexplicably fell in. Everyone organized again to retrieve the body, but after fishing half the day, still no sign.
“Just as they were about to give up, a black shadow appeared under the water. At first, they thought someone had stocked the well with fish and wanted to scoop them out to relocate. But as the shadow slowly rose, the retrievers realized it was clothing—colorful and vibrant, exactly what the actress had worn when she jumped. The guy was spooked but hauled it up anyway, and sure enough, out came the body. Her face and whole body were bloated and pallid from soaking, hair loose and tangled. When he yanked it, his hand brushed her face too hard, scaring him so bad he nearly dropped it.
“Later, the town’s shaman said the actress was searching for a next-life fate. The old man was a local squire with a lifetime of good fortune and longevity, grandchildren gathered around his knees, and excellent connections—a truly blessed fate. If she went to report to the Yama King with her own fate, her next life would still be one of suffering. The resentful ghost wasn’t willing, so she killed the old man and swapped fates with him. That way, she could reincarnate into a good life. Only after the swap did she allow her own body to surface for a proper burial, then head underground to report.”
“And then what?”
“Later incidents all verified what the shaman said.” Tang Qin Xin continued. “One year after the old man’s death, a young girl fell into the well, and the next day, the old man’s body floated up. A few years after that, someone tossed a female infant into the well, and the next day, the young girl’s body surfaced.”
For an instant, Tang Qin Xin’s face twisted in ferocity. “Up to that point, the legend was just a bedtime story warning old folks and kids not to get too close to the well in case they slipped in. But get this—they say a body that’s supposed to have soaked in there for years or even decades, bloated and rotted to hell… guess what? They claim those bodies were all perfectly preserved, just like living people—as if they were only asleep. What does that sound like to you?”
Xiao Fen coldly spat out two words: “Murder.”
And not just any murder—serial murder.
There was no way bodies could stay fresh in a well. The only possibility was killing them recently, then tossing them in, and using the legend to whip up public opinion that a malevolent ghost was responsible, scaring people off from digging deeper.
And to pull that off, the prerequisite was abducting people ahead of time, holding them somewhere for a while to create the illusion that the well’s malevolent ghost had taken them.
Xiao Fen shared this deduction with Tang Qin Xin. She said she already knew.
“But the annual Temple Fair is about to begin.” She sighed. “Something bizarre always happens during the Temple Fair. I just hope it’s not the Substitute Life Well this time.”
If they planned to use the Substitute Life Well for something, her husband was as good as dead.
“For someone that big to go missing—if the townsfolk are all superstitious about the Substitute Life Well legend and won’t help search, aren’t there other channels?” Xiao Fen wondered aloud.
After asking, he found it a bit funny. It was just a Program Crew task—why was he taking it so seriously?
“After my husband vanished, I went all the way to the city level. But every time a special task force came down to investigate, not one townsfolk provided a useful clue. They all spouted that mystical nonsense, leaving the teams with no choice but to withdraw empty-handed.” Tang Qin Xin gazed at him, weariness laced with hope. “I watched the First Episode. You can reconstruct crime scenes, stage murder scenes, and then erase traces of the necessary clues. Can you help me find leads from the killer’s perspective?”
Xiao Fen’s mouth twitched. The Program Crew sure didn’t play fair.
He was supposed to help the Criminal Team commit crimes, and now he had to play detective too?
Wasn’t that Fang Si Ting’s job?
“I’ll find someone to help you first.” Xiao Fen could only say that much. “If you don’t mind, can you take me to your home?”
Tang Qin Xin’s eyes lit up at once.
“Shall we…”
“No, I’ll come tonight.”
“At night?” Tang Qin Xin blinked in surprise.
Only then did Xiao Fen remember: her husband had been missing for a year. In the townspeople’s eyes, that made her a widow.
As the saying went, trouble always brewed at a widow’s door.
Especially in a closed-off little place like this—gossip ran rampant.
But he was a guy who liked guys, after all.
Xiao Fen smacked his fist into his palm as an idea struck. “I’ll have a teammate dress up as a woman. That way, no one will talk.”
【Teammate? Which one?】
【Besides Ouyou, who else but Boss Lu?】
【Boss Lu’s build in drag…】
【The image of a flower has already bloomed in my mind. Don’t say more.】
【Actually, I wanna see Brother Fen in drag.】
【Brother Fen calls himself a real man—he’d rather die first.】
【Better a dead friend than this poor Daoist. Looks like Brother Fen plans to sacrifice his good bro.】
Far away in the town hotel, bored out of his mind, Ou Yu suddenly sneezed hard. A faint sense of foreboding stirred in his heart.
