Anxi did not wander around the village anymore, but returned to the yard assigned to them by the village.
It was already noon, and it was impossible for others to still be chatting with the children at school. They must have come back for dinner.
Sure enough, before An Qian could reach the door, she ran into Li Na.
The strange thing is that only Li Na came back. When she saw An Qian at the door of the yard, she couldn't help but tremble, and she seemed to be frightened.
"Why are you the only one back?" Anxi asked casually, pushing open the courtyard door.
Li Na had adjusted her mood and followed An Qian silently with her head lowered. Her voice was as low as a whisper, "...They still have something to do. Zhang Rende gave me these and asked me to come back first to heat up the pot and steam them. Wait. They can eat it directly when they come back.”
An Qian noticed that Li Na was holding a small bundle of corn in her hand, "Okay, let's do it together."
Li Na didn't reply.
The two walked to the kitchen together. Anxi looked around the kitchen first. It was clean and tidy, and there was no smell.
She walked to the water tank next to the stove and opened the wooden lid. There was only clear cold water in the water tank.
I don’t know what Xu Ming saw in the kitchen.
An Qian thought to herself, squatted in front of the stove, opened the small iron door of the stove, and a stream of ashes rushed towards her face. An Qian was caught off guard and choked again. Behind the small iron door was the stove for burning firewood and grass. .
"Ahem, where's the firewood?" An Qian covered her mouth and nose and turned to ask Li Na.
When Li Na saw the ashes floating out of the stove, she took a step back in disgust and replied, "Zhang Rende said you don't have to use firewood. You can also use corn stalks hanging on the platform to burn."
"Oh, then I'll get some, and you wash the corn first." Anxi assigned tasks to the two of them, and then walked out of the kitchen.
The house on one side of the yard has no roof and is replaced by a spacious platform. The platform is used by every household in the village and is often used to dry food and the like.
Opposite the kitchen is the stairs to the platform. The stairs are narrow and steep, and Anxi walks up slowly and carefully.
As soon as you step onto the platform, you can see that it is covered with corn stalks. When the wind blows, there is a smell of hay.
Anxi bent down and picked up a handful of corn stalks. These corn stalks were not broken, and some were taller than Anxi. They were blocked in front of her eyes and affected her vision. She had to be more careful when going down the stairs.
After a lot of effort, I finally got the corn stalk off the platform, but it couldn't be placed in the kitchen. The second half of the corn stalk could only be placed outside the kitchen.
Anxi patted the dead leaves on her body and found matches from the kitchen cupboard.
"How to make a fire?" An Qian looked at Li Na who was washing corn. Li Na shook her head and said she didn't know, and the two looked at each other.
Anxi sighed, pulled off all the dead leaves on the corn stalks, and tore some toilet paper to use as a starter for the fire.
Then I found some shriveled corn cobs. Corn cobs are flammable, but they burn quickly. If the quantity is large, you can use corn cobs to make the fire. But now that we don’t have this condition, we still use corn stalks.
Anxi first threw the starter into the stove, lit a match and threw it in.
When the flames started, Anxi quickly blew air into the stove with her mouth. Seeing the flames getting bigger, she then threw corn cobs in. During the process, she didn't dare to stop blowing air into the stove.
The fire finally started. Anxi broke the corn stalks into several pieces and stuffed them into the stove, watching the corn stalks burn smoothly.
An Qian felt relieved and straightened up. Her face was blackened by the smoke and was covered with ashes.
"Come and steam the corn, be careful not to burn the water dry." An Qian looked at her hands full of ashes and left the work of cooking corn to Li Na. She scooped some water from the tank with a ladle and prepared to go to the yard. Wash your face.
But as soon as she walked into the yard, the rest of the people came back from school and were shocked to see Anxi's dark face.
"Baby." Wu walked quickly to An Qian, wiped her face with his hand, and wiped off the dust on his hand, "How did it happen like this?"
"It's burning." An Qian slapped Wu Xiang's hand away as he continued to wipe her face, "Stop wiping it. I'll just wash it with water myself."
"I'll accompany you." Wu took the water ladle from An Qian's hand.
Xu Ming behind him saw the water ladle, his pupils trembled, he stepped forward to stop An Qian and asked: "Did you get this water from the water tank in the kitchen?"
Anxi had no idea and replied directly: "Yes, what's wrong?"
Xu Ming didn't answer immediately. He stared at An Qian and asked, "You walked around the village for a long time this morning, right?"
An Qian understood. Xu Ming wanted to exchange information with her. He had information about the kitchen, and she had some other information from wandering around all morning.
But it wouldn't be good for them to stand in the yard and talk openly.
An Qian took the water ladle back from Wu's hand, pushed Wu away, and walked to the drainage outlet of the yard with Xu Ming, pretending to wash her face and started chatting.
"I found a small temple in the village. The villagers said that there are gods in the temple, and they can bless them just by praying." An Qian was the first to share her information.
After hearing this, Xu Ming frowned and asked, "Why do the villagers pray for blessings?"
"What else could it be? It's just that when something strange happens, the village is superstitious and worships the gods." Anxi did not explicitly say that there might be information about the White Walkers in the village. After all, this matter is still uncertain.
But when Xu Ming heard this, he looked thoughtful. He thought for a while and said, "Actually, I also encountered something strange in the kitchen today."
Anxi asked: "What's weird?"
"When I first entered the kitchen, there was no peculiar smell in the kitchen." Xu Ming began to describe his experience this morning. "But after a while, the water tank began to smell like something rotting in the water. .”
"Besides, there was a sound of churning in the water tank."
"You mean..." Anxi raised her eyebrows and lowered her voice, "There is something in the water tank?"
Xu Ming nodded without hesitation: "Yes, there is something. When I got closer to the water tank, I looked at the thing in the water tank. But when I tried to open the lid of the water tank, the thing disappeared, and the fishy smell of the water disappeared. Gone."
"Hmm..." Anxi responded, thinking to herself, is there really a White Walker in this village? But that immortal statue has no power, how can it protect the villagers from being harmed by the White Walkers?
This is profoundly inconsistent.
Whether it is the personal experience described by Yuanyuan or the experiences of other volunteers narrated by Jiang Wenwei, the stories they presented all follow the same structure: first they are harassed by strange ghosts, but they are helpless and can only pray for blessings by dripping blood on the statues of gods. In the end, he was blessed by the gods.
Through Xu Ming's words, it can be temporarily confirmed that there are ghosts in the village.
But An Qian's examination of the statue of gods using correction fluid in the small temple showed that there were no gods there.
Weird, really weird.
Anxi felt like her mind was in a mess and she didn't know what went wrong. She frowned in thought.
"Wait, do you still want to wash your face with this water?" Xu Ming suddenly spoke.
After hearing Xu Ming's reminder, An Qian came back to her senses.
She turned her eyes to her hands. It turned out that when she was thinking about the problem, she inadvertently almost put her hands into the ladle of water.
"No need." After hearing Xu Ming's experience in the kitchen, I don't know what has been soaked in the water. Even if it looks clear and transparent now, it still can't pass the test in my heart.
Anxi poured all the water in the ladle into the drain outlet, and prepared to wash herself with the mineral water she brought back to the house.
Before she returned to the house, she turned around and reminded Xu Ming: "I think the statue of the gods in the temple seems to have no effect. If you are not about to die, try not to pray for blessings."
Xu Ming showed a friendly smile to An Qian: "Okay, I understand, thank you. If I have new information in the future, I will tell you."
An Qian could have hidden this information, but she told it so that the two could trust each other for the time being. As Xu Ming said, information could be exchanged in the future.
After the two talked, they dispersed.
An Qian entered the house, and Xu Ming walked to the kitchen to help.
But just a moment after Anxi got into the house, she suddenly jumped out and ran towards the kitchen, shouting as she ran: "Li Na! Wait a minute! Don't steam the corn with the water in the water tank!"
Xu Ming, who was halfway there, heard An Qian shouting and rushed into the kitchen quickly, but it was too late. Li Na had already closed the lid of the pot, and the smell of corn also floated over.
