Chapter 32:
Xu Siya’s book

With Little Lu who could do needlework, Grandma Fang immediately left and went to the village chief’s house to borrow a sewing kit and asked if she could buy some leftover cotton and fabric that had not been used up for making winter clothes.

Old Xiao was squatting in front of the fire pit, starting a fire and boiling water using his early experience in rural life.

Jin Guijuan took Xu Siya to the back room that had just been tidied up. After patiently explaining to the little girl, she shed her coat off and wrapped it around Xu Siya. Then she took the tattered cotton-padded coat out.

There was a simple reason for them not to throw the cotton-padded coat away. Although Little Lu claimed to have learned needlework, it was much easier to repair a worn-out cotton-padded coat than to let him directly cut the cloth and sew a new cotton-padded coat from scratch.

Jing Qizhen called Yan Hong and discussed returning to the house they lived in before to get their hiking bags and other things.

Manman also reminded them, “By the way, the woman in that family said that her husband went to the next village to buy food. Remember to take the food and vegetables from him.”

Jing Qizhen made an ‘OK’ gesture.

The view during the day was clear enough for them to examine. When Jing Qizhen and Yan Hong walked to the intersection, without the surrounding houses blocking their view, they could clearly see that except for the direction of the road they took to go down the mountain, the other directions leading out of the village were in fact shrouded in a familiar thick fog.

Yan Hong whispered, “The direction closer to the thick fog should be the boundary of the erosion area.”

Because there were only two of them at the moment, Yan Hong who had always been taciturn took the initiative to speak.

Jing Qizhen nodded.

After thinking for a moment, Jing Qizhen said softly, “The terrain in this erosion area is a bit strange. An entire village is connected to the mountain. I suspect that there are clues on the mountain that we haven’t noticed.”

Yan Hong nodded slightly. “Let’s go and have a look in the afternoon or tomorrow!”

Jing Qizhen said, “Okay, I’ll prioritize talking with the little girl Xu Siya later.”

It just so happened that when Jing Qizhen and Yan Hong walked up to the front of the couple’s house, they looked up and noticed the husband who left to go to the neighboring village early in the morning. His figure suddenly appeared from the thick fog, and then got closer and closer.

Jing Qizhen’s pupils dilated for a moment.

They had tested the boundary of the thick fog with air-dried pork in the previous erosion area, Yunhai Wancheng Department Store.

As the Earth stated before, the boundaries of the erosion area were made of countless space cracks. If they were not careful, they would be torn into myriad pieces and fall into unknown dimensions.

Seeing the man’s figure gradually approaching, Jing Qizhen suddenly recalled the tall figure he vaguely saw outside of the supermarket.

At that time, he thought that what he saw might be some kind of high-dimensional creature that could move in the space cracks, although the possibility of seeing such things seemed quite strange.

But now it seemed that the space cracks that were extremely dangerous to ‘intruders’ who had entered the erosion area would not cause harm to the creatures inside the erosion area?

Thinking of this, Jing Qizhen couldn’t help but frown.

It seemed like his conjecture was not accurate. After all, the pork they threw out and was later cut into pieces by the space crack also came from the erosion area, as well as the monsters they encountered. To avoid the female ghost, Ms. Li, the monsters had been using the ventilation inside the supermarket and had always stayed there. They did not dare to casually leave the building.

Was it the difference between the two erosion areas themselves, or was it the man who just appeared, or everyone in the village? Jing Qizhen couldn’t help but think that the village chief and other villagers seemed to be unable to see the oil pan hell projection before. Could it be that something was wrong with the people in the village?

The man who had just walked out of the thick fog was carrying a bag of grain on his back. When he saw Jing Qizhen and Yan Hong, he suddenly broke into a bright smile thinking of the money exchanged for the two links of gold necklace.

The man stopped in front of Jing Qizhen and Yan Hong, and said warmly, “The food I brought back from the neighboring village should be enough for you. If it’s not enough, I’ll exchange for more!”

Jing Qizhen smiled. Then he thanked him and explained their plan to move house.

The man was stunned for a moment, but seeing that Jing Qizhen and Yan Hong had no intention of taking the money back, he quickly calmed down and offered proactively, “Then I will help deliver the food directly there!”

Jing Qizhen smiled and nodded. “Okay.”

They entered the yard of the house. The man used the poles and basket at home and helped the group stack up the grain and food he had just bought. Some pickles from home were brought out, as well as the hiking bags and other gifts Jing Qizhen and the others carried.

After everything was delivered, the man helped Jing Qizhen and the others unpack them into the vacant old house. Before they had time to start the fire, the man went home again, and returned with some of the lunch that his wife had made.

After sending the man away, Jing Qizhen entered the house and saw many rags and two large balls of clean cotton piled around Little Lu. He was seriously mending Xu Siya’s cotton-padded coat.

As for Manman, she was soaking some soybeans in two slightly deformed aluminum basins.

Jing Qizhen was startled. “Are you going to grow bean sprouts?”

Manman nodded. “Yeah.”

Jing Qizhen: “I was disrespectful, really disrespectful.”

Manman raised her eyebrows, and a sweet smile formed on her lips. “Before this, Jiayang sent a bunch of tutorials on my phone on how to grow sprouts in hydroponics in a day. I also brought multivitamin tablets. I didn’t expect that…”

Jing Qizhen said with emotion, “Your boyfriend is ready for a protracted war!”

Manman stood up and left the aluminum basins with the bean sprouts at a suitable place. “Yes, so we can eat bean sprouts tomorrow. Based on what Jiayang sent me, if we stay a few more days, we can even eat fresh cabbage and radish leaves.”

Jing Qizhen: “…That’s good, I admire you.”

The living standards in rural areas in the 1990s were limited, so lunch seemed extremely humble and simple to most of the people present. However, since everyone was already trapped in the erosion area with work to do, naturally, they would not worry too much about trivial matters.

Of course, the most important thing was that Si Jiayang, a chef with extraordinary skills, was not there with them.

For Xu Siya however, it was a rare experience to sit at the table to enjoy a steaming lunch with a lively and friendly group of people.

For obvious reasons, the person the little girl trusted most at the moment was Jin Guijuan, who always stayed close to her.

While eating, Xu Siya was cautious, but when she saw that everyone else was behaving like normal, the little girl finally felt relieved and she ate and filled her belly one bite after another.

Jin Guijuan rubbed Xu Siya’s belly and smiled affectionately. “Don’t be shy, little girl!”

Xu Siya’s cheeks suddenly turned red.

In less than half a day, the little girl’s face became lively and full of vigor.

After the meal, Jing Qizhen did not ask Xu Siya about her mother, but directly asked the matter regarding the oil pans.

Jing Qizhen was still a little uneasy about Xu Siya’s words, ‘It smells so good.’

After listening to Jing Qizhen’s question, Xu Siya leaned next to Jin Guijuan, thought for a while, and then said hesitantly, “I saw pictures of those frying pans in a book.”

Jing Qizhen’s heart thumped at the affirmation, but then he realized that at Xu Siya’s age, she might not have a clear understanding of things like ‘oil pan hell’.

Given Xu Siya’s family environment, the education given to the little girl was naturally very limited. When she got a book, she couldn’t understand the writing inside and only remembered the pictures in the book. In fact, it was very normal.

Jing Qizhen asked in a gentle voice, “What’s the name of that book, and what does the book look like? Can you help big brother find that book?”

Xu Siya shrank into herself for a moment. She subconsciously moved closer to Jin Guijuan before she nodded quickly and replied softly, “Okay.”

Jin Guijuan also noticed Xu Siya’s timidity and asked quickly, “Is there anything inappropriate about it?”

Xu Siya whispered, “That book is in the shed of my house. I— I don’t dare to go home…”

Jing Qizhen raised his head and looked at Little Lu.

When Little Lu who was stuffing cotton into the old cotton coat heard their conversation, he took out a notebook directly from his pocket, flipped to one of the pages, and clearly drew a simple diagram of the entire layout of the Xu family’s courtyard.

Little Lu stood up while holding the notebook. He walked to Xu Siya and confirmed with the little girl. “Is your shed the one here in the yard?”

Xu Siya looked at the clear sketches in the notebook, becoming completely fascinated. She was surprised only for a moment before she softly said, “Yeah.” She nodded and whispered, “I picked up that book somewhere else, and I stuffed it in between the farm tools in the shed.”

Jing Qizhen asked, “What exactly does the book look like?”

Xu Siya stretched out her little hands and gestured with her palms. “It’s only this big. The cover is yellow and red, and there are big blue characters on it.”

Jing Qizhen simply nodded. “Okay, I’ll go find the book. You can stay here safely!”

Xu Siya leaned into Jin Guijuan and nodded obediently.

Jing Qizhen was a man of action. After getting the clue, he got up immediately.

But at that moment, Jin Guijuan stopped and reminded him, “It’s best to have Manman-jie with you.”

Manman was a little surprised. “Huh?”

Jing Qizhen also asked in curiosity, “Why Manman?”

Jin Guijuan was well aware of the logic some villagers had and explained, “To prevent that woman from accusing you of molesting her if she sees a man like you in her yard.”

With Manman standing next to her, the comparison with that woman’s appearance was too obvious and naturally could eliminate the possibility completely.

Jing Qizhen: …???

Manman couldn’t hold it back and laughed out loud. “Ah, that’s it! But then, can’t I just go by myself?”

Jing Qizhen smiled and shook his head. “Let’s go together. It’s safer with both of us.”

Manman was still happy. “That’s right, let’s go!”

After walking out of the house, Jing Qizhen and Manman gradually calmed down. The smile on their faces disappeared as they became serious.

The two of them glanced at each other in accord, and Jing Qizhen said, “I suspect that the image of the oil pan hell in front of the Xu family’s house is related to the book Xu Siya has read.”

Manman pondered, “What is the oil pan hell exactly? I don’t remember its level, but, the general description of the eighteen levels of hell should be written in that book.”

Jing Qizhen explained what happened when he saw the man walking out of the thick fog at the edge of the erosion area at noon. Then he asked, “What do you think?”

Manman frowned slightly. “We have guessed before that the erosion area may be a memory. However, the villagers here are too vivid for it to be a simple memory.”

Jing Qizhen: “I am also struggling to understand this issue. If it is a ‘memory’, many things should have already been established and cannot be changed easily. But our current approach has completely changed the direction of the story in this ‘memory’…”

Manman: “Go get the book Xu Siya mentioned first, and then see if the weird little girl will show up at night!”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “That’s it.”

Next, Jing Qizhen and Manman’s plan went very smoothly.

Xu Siya’s mother was probably beaten severely by Jin Guijuan, so she hid in the house with the door closed and did not come out.

Who knew if it was because Xu Siya was not there, but the image of the oil pan hell in front of the Xu family’s house had disappeared. Jing Qizhen and Manman both breathed a sigh of relief at that.

The two of them looked around, scouted the surroundings until no one was around, and slipped directly into the Xu family’s yard, heading straight for the shed.

Although the things inside the shed were piled messily, most of them looked nothing like a book. It didn’t take long for Jing Qizhen and Manman to find the gap that Xu Siya had mentioned.

Jing Qizhen bent down and fished the book out. As a result, the moment his fingers touched the worn orange book, the expression on his face changed in shock.

Manman asked softly, “What?”

Jing Qizhen: “This is a special prop…?”

The book was made with rough papers and very poor printing techniques. On the plastic film cover with many marks, there was a large invisible pattern similar to orange flames and cloud patterns. The title of the book was written in pure blue with white edges—‘Journey to Hell’.