Chapter 24:
Without money, you can’t do anything!

As someone who had raised children, Old Xiao was obviously more experienced in this regard than young people like Jing Qizhen. He wiped his cold sweat and reminded him, “The song ‘Jingle Bells’ is so popular. Even though the song is vague, you can also hear that the lyrics are in Chinese!”

Jing Qizhen was startled and suddenly understood.

Manman touched her forehead, “Yes, this is just the Chinese version. It is a nursery rhyme that is very popular at home and abroad.”

Jin Guijuan said, “I remember when I was in elementary school, there was a teacher from the city who celebrated Christmas and had the kids exchange folded cards with songs playing in it, like this one.”

Jing Qizhen said, “This is a good idea. Let’s pay more attention to the source of the nursery rhyme! Especially the holiday cards, radio and TV programs, mobile phones, and MP3s.”

Everyone nodded.

Manman took out the infrared telescope directly from her backpack.

She first looked in the direction of the village carefully and then turned around. Taking advantage of the fact that they were on the mountain and had a relatively wide field of vision, she scanned the surrounding view.

Then, Manman handed the infrared telescope to the next person, shook her head and said, “I didn’t see anything similar to the thick fog outside the store last time. The village at the foot of the mountain was also clearly visible. The scope of this erosion area seems to be much bigger than last time at Yunhai Wancheng Department Store.”

Little brother Bambi also said, “I have seen the video data you took at Yunhai Wancheng Department Store, and I didn’t see similar thick fog here today. But we still don’t know if it has something to do with the fact that this erosion area is currently at night.”

Jing Qizhen casually agreed, “That’s true, the visual conditions will be much better during the day.”

After saying that, Jing Qizhen called the Earth again.

Jing Qizhen: “Babyball?”

The Earth was minding its own business, “Without Manman, Si Jiayang is still holding onto Tang Song and crying. Tang Song has calmed down and is trying to get away from him. A member of the elite group is studying why only one Bambi enters among so many of them?!

“Hey, dear, what did you call me for?” After a long babble, it came back to its senses.

Jing Qizhen asked patiently, “I want to ask you, is this erosion area much larger than the erosion area in Yunhai Wancheng Department Store?”

Last time in the supermarket, Jing Qizhen and the others quickly discovered the space crack outside the store, and their movement was basically limited to the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store.

Of course, Yun Shuanghua aggroed the female ghost Ms. Li in advance because of the dried pork theft, and even took Ms. Li around for countless laps, directly causing Jing Qizhen and the others to not even be able to explore the sceneries on the third floor and above.

The Earth was stunned for a moment, “Ah, it is not that big, um…”

Jing Qizhen asked sharply, “What’s wrong?”

The Earth was ‘emmmmm’-ing for a while, and muttered in a low voice with some difficulty, “How do you usually evaluate this? How big is the area occupied by one microorganism and another microorganism attached to your clothes?”

Jing Qizhen: …I am speechless.

Although Jing Qizhen didn’t speak, the Earth still took the initiative to answer after asking such a question, “I generally estimate that both of these microorganisms are very small.”

Jing Qizhen twitched his lips, “Yes, they are all very small.”

For the Earth, was there any significant difference between the area size of a building or a village?

Apparently not.

The Earth muttered, “But the erosion area will spread, and it will spread in a circle with the initial erosion area as the center! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! But why the stupid balls form erosion areas here?! Why won’t they just go away and give me some peace?!”

As it complained, it thought of the erosion areas that were still forming on its body, and the Earth felt like a beauty lover who was watching acne growing on its face. Just like that, it became irritable again in an instant.

Jing Qizhen: “Babyball, please calm down–”

His attempt at persuasion only got him endless noise from the Earth in his mind; Jing Qizhen could only feel a headache. He rubbed his forehead and changed his words, “Hey, forget it. I’m sorry to bother you. You can do whatever you want.”

Yan Hong had another cigarette in his mouth, unlit. It was probably his habit of calming down.

With the cigarette in his mouth, Yan Hong looked at Jing Qizhen and said vaguely, “Your face suddenly doesn’t look so good.”

Jing Qizhen smiled helplessly and said simply, “When it comes to the issue of erosion areas, the Earth has a meltdown.”

Little brother Bambi blinked and whispered, “It sounds really cute…”

Jing Qizhen nodded, feeling a little emotional, “Oh!”

If the ball wasn’t angrily screaming in his head, he could also call it cute.

Jing Qizhen suddenly remembered and said with a smile, “By the way, I haven’t asked you yet, what your name is?”

“Lu Lingxi, a sniper, but my close combat is not bad!” Little brother Bambi not only gave his name but also mentioned his main career direction.

After saying that, Lu Lingxi specially added, “It’s not the Lingxi (靈犀) you think of, it’s Ling (凌) with two points of water and Xi (熙) with four points of water.”

They looked at his innocent Bambi eyes and said in unison, “Your surname is really Lu (鹿 deer)!”

Cadet Lu: …

Grandma Fang sighed, “As a sniper, you must have very good eyesight.”

Even as a biology expert, Grandma Fang was getting older. Even if she wore reading glasses, her eyesight was not as good as those of young people like them.

Therefore, instead of looking around with a telescope, she chose to bend down and examine the surrounding trees and plants more carefully. After making a rough judgment, she told the young people around her, “There is a problem with the plants here at present. The variety types are similar to those outside in the mountains, but the growth is far inferior.”

Shennongjia is a famous mountain forest area with lush vegetation and very good growth.

However, the trees and plants on the mountain in the erosion area obviously looked small, fragile, and lacking in vitality. It seemed if there was any wind, rain or cold winter sun, these plants would wilt…

In the end, Grandma Fang concluded, “It should be due to lack of light and insufficient fertility of the land.”

Jing Qizhen thought for a while, “Is it similar to the kind of mountain village shrouded in fog all year round?”

Little brother Bambi Lu Lingxi who experienced the terrifying horror games for two days in a row suddenly became excited, “I know! The world in the horror game has a gray background color!”

Manman, who was obviously experienced in games, reminded him calmly, “Actually, we also have dark night, dark and red blood, lightning and thunderstorms, or color blocks with strong contrast. Oh, yes, there are also relatively rare candy paintings as backgrounds.”

Lu Lingxi whose world view was once again changed: …

As they spoke, the group of seven had already walked slowly and cautiously toward the village at the foot of the mountain.

However, as they got closer to the village, the sound of the nursery rhymes remained vague, making it difficult to hear clearly.

Lu Lingxi suddenly stopped and carefully identified the source of the nursery rhyme. After a while, he could only shake his head helplessly and said, “I can’t find the direction the sound came from. This nursery rhyme does not have a clear source. I suspect even if we circled the entire village, we would still hear the same tune in every corner.”

Jing Qizhen pondered for a moment and said, “Isn’t it like a BGM that is consistent throughout a game?”

Manman added for him, “You mean, this erosion area has its own background music?”

Jing Qizhen: “Maybe?”

Lu Lingxi adjusted the position of the pinhole camera on his body, purposely recorded the piece of vague music, and planned to take it out.

About an hour later, Jing Qizhen and his party finally arrived at the village.

As they got closer, the sounds of insects and dog barking in the village became clearer.

When Jing Qizhen and his party walked to the entrance of the village, they could even vaguely hear the sound of a couple busy arguing loudly at night.

The vague nursery rhymes never stopped. However, under the brisk and vague background sound, the various movements in the village that were full of life at night gave them a creepy sense of dissonance.

Lu Lingxi, who had the best eyesight, took the infrared telescope, scouted the dirt road at the entrance of the village, and carefully observed the villagers’ houses on both sides, “There were haystacks and farmyard manure piled at the entrance… The houses were very neat, and they didn’t look like they were abandoned. It seems that many people are living in this village.”

Jing Qizhen also said simply, “The main road in the village is the same as the outside world, but the surrounding houses are different.”

Wiping off cold sweat, Old Xiao added with a wry smile, “Most of you grew up in the city, right? Now we have engaged in new rural construction, so straw, haystacks, and farmyard manure are not allowed to be piled up on the entrance roadside anymore, because they will affect the sanitation of the village. The sight in this village now is almost the same as what I saw when I was a child.”

Grandma Fang, who is older than Old Xiao, also nodded, “It’s a common sight in the village in the past.”

Manman, who came from a wealthy family, really didn’t understand this matter, so she didn’t say much and just listened quietly.

Jin Guijuan, on the other hand, felt deeply emotional when she saw the sight here.

“No, there seems to be something missing,” she said suddenly.

Everyone looked over and asked, “What is it?”

Jin Guijuan hesitated and thought for a while, and finally had an idea and said, “A dog barking!”

Manman was a little curious, “A dog was barking just now.”

Jin Guijuan said, “In this kind of village, especially in the mountains, almost every household has a dog. However, only one dog was barking as we just heard. Moreover, dogs in rural areas usually don’t bark, unless there are people at night. These kinds of guard dogs are very smart. If any dog barks in the middle of the night, the whole village’s dogs will bark!”

Jing Qizhen hissed. He took a breath and said, “Currently, it seems that there should be a lot of NPCs in this village. The village does not look dilapidated at present, but is full of life.”

But at the same time, the lingering girl voice singing Jingle Bells BGM had always been lingering in the village, and while the houses and dirt roads were somewhat similar to the real world outside, they were not completely the same.

After Jing Qizhen finished speaking, he concluded, “I think this erosion area is a reappearance of this village more than 20 years ago, or even 30 years ago.”

Old Xiao had always been sensitive to numbers. Listening to Jing Qizhen’s words, he carefully recalled his experiences in his youth, nodded and said, “Twenty or thirty years ago, probably in the 1990s. In my impression, some of the rural areas at that time were mostly like this. ”

Yan Hong: “Let’s find a calendar from the village to confirm.”

Jing Qizhen nodded.

Manman: “I’m thinking about another thing.”

As she spoke, she had already taken out the black card given by the female ghost Ms. Li in the previous erosion area.

Jing Qizhen was stunned for a moment and vaguely realized what Manman was concerned about.

Sure enough, the next second, Manman took out a stack of brand-new pink RMB banknotes with serial numbers from her bag.

At that moment, Manman’s expression was indescribably subtle, “In the 1990s, the RMB was still the old version, right? The new versions of RMB we carry with us are all fake to the villagers here, and they are even low-end products with the wrong date printed on them!”

Everyone: …………

Old Xiao hesitated and said, “Based on the Black Card’s description, we can ‘swipe in any world’. It seems to be usable…”

Manman emphasized every word, “Yes, we can swipe.”

She pursed her lips slightly, “So now the question is, in the mountain villages in the 1990s, would there be ATMs that let us swipe our cards? I think it’s impossible.”

Jing Qizhen: “…I didn’t think this before. It should be impossible.”

Everyone immediately realized that they were now lacking money, and they looked at each other in shock.

Lu Lingxi, who had received special training from Tang Song and was committed to obtaining various first-hand information in the erosion area, took a notebook and began to write a memo seriously, “Before entering the erosion area, consider preparing the RMB used in different eras, food stamps, or general equivalents!”