Despite the dire situation at the moment, as the keys descended from the sky, a thought crossed the minds of the few who had been in the entertainment industry for years, some even moderately successful—
What poor acting.
However, they had no time to dwell on why the NPCs in the game were going easy on them. In the night, a line of torches was rapidly approaching. Li Zhi swiftly picked up the car keys from the ground. “Let’s go!”
Lian Qinglin, with a hint of excitement in his voice, exclaimed, “Let me drive! I’m the drift king of Mount Akina!”
Li Zhi was worried that something strange might happen along the way, and if she were driving, she wouldn’t be able to multitask and handle it. So, without hesitation, she threw the keys to the overly confident Lian Qinglin.
Chi Yi asked nervously, “Doesn’t this car require a B1 license? Do you even have one?”
Lian Qinglin, already pulling the car door, turned and gave her a bewildered look. “We’re in a game world, and you still care about traffic rules?”
Well, fair enough.
Outside the game, Lian Qinglin’s fans wasted no time exposing their idol’s secrets:
[He failed the driving test three times! He doesn’t even have a license!]
[B1? He hasn’t even passed the C2!]
[Oh boy, just because there are no traffic rules in the game, you’re this reckless, huh?]
[Little Lian, you’re going to lose Li Zhi’s trust in you!]
…
The players were unaware that they had just boarded a teenager’s reckless ride. They hurriedly squeezed into the car, barely seated, when the hearse roared to life and took off with a sudden jolt.
Chi Yi was thrown into the aisle, screaming, “Lian Qinglin!”
From the front came a panicked apology, “Sorry, sorry! It’s been a while since I drove manual. I’ll be smoother!”
In the empty hearse, the metal seats glistened coldly. Through the rear window, they could see the torches getting farther and farther away. At that moment, the thrill of the chase outweighed the fear.
The car bumped along the mountain road. No, more accurately, it was bouncing and rattling over the rugged path. Chi Yi felt like she was about to be shaken sick. “Lian Qinglin, do you really have a driver’s license?”
Her question was answered with a wild drift.
Chi Yi: “Ugh—”
Fortunately, despite the scares, they arrived safely at their destination—Guanping Village Bridge. Under the eerie pale moonlight, the bridge was shrouded in a thin mist. The hearse came to a stop at the bridgehead, returning them to their teleportation point. The mood among them grew heavy.
They hadn’t had time to ask Li Zhi why they needed to come here during the frantic escape, but now that they saw her approaching the stone monument at the bridge, they quickly followed.
On the first day they were pulled into this game world, they had examined this stone monument but found nothing.
It wasn’t until now that Li Zhi pulled out a memorial tablet from the burial tomb and pointed to the birth and death dates on it, matching them to the bridge’s completion date engraved on the monument, that everyone suddenly realized—the death dates of those dozen people coincided with the year the bridge was completed.
Gao Shijun’s eyes widened. “What does this mean?”
“Do you remember the news in the newspaper?” Li Zhi asked.
“The county government plans to build a new rural area to develop a tourism village. For a remote, poor area, it’s the best way to escape poverty. Since the founding of the country, Guanping Village’s population has been decreasing because it’s too poor. To restore its former prosperity, the only way is to make the village wealthy again.”
Everyone recalled the article excitedly circled in black ink. “So, when the village chief saw this news, he must have hoped that Guanping Village would be included in the development plans. By relying on the new policies, they could break free from poverty. But what does this have to do with the bridge?”
“Look.” Li Zhi pointed to the towering mountains surrounding them. “To develop tourism, the most important thing is convenient transportation. Guanping Village is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Without this bridge, getting to the village would mean taking a long detour through the mountain roads. If you were in charge, would you choose a village like this?”
The villagers who helped carry the coffin mentioned that, back in the day, the village had emptied the savings of every household just to gather enough money to build the bridge. Clearly, they realized the importance of the bridge—it directly connected the national road on this side to the mountain road on the other, greatly shortening the route to the village.
Xu Shu pondered, “So they had to rush to complete this bridge before the policy came down. That was their only chance to get Guanping Village included in the development plan. The second newspaper, published a year later, reported on the selected villages. Building this bridge was urgent and essential for Guanping Village.”
Li Zhi retrieved two shovels from the car, her voice steady, “Sometimes, people will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Let’s dig up the monument. If this bridge is really connected to the burial tomb, there should be sealing talismans under the monument as well.”
Xu Shu and Lian Qinglin took on the task.
The air was dead silent, save for the sound of shovels hitting the earth.
Suddenly, Gao Shijun, who had been trembling the entire time, panicked and shouted, “Look! They’re catching up!”
Everyone looked up. Along the mountain road, a long line of torches was rapidly approaching, and the sound of tricycles chugging through the wind drew nearer as they chased toward the bridge.
Zhu Zhibo gritted his teeth. “They’re just a bunch of old, weak, and sick villagers. What are we afraid of? Let’s fight them!”
Xu Shu and Lian Qinglin sped up, their shovels almost a blur. The monument was long and deeply buried, making it harder to dig the deeper they went. The torches were closing in fast, accompanied by the sound of angry curses.
Leading the way was Uncle Jiu, crouched on a tricycle, holding a brightly burning torch in one hand and a rusty axe in the other. The firelight illuminated his face, which was twisted in anger, as if he wanted to devour them alive.
Li Zhi raised an eyebrow. “They’re coming this fast, looks like we’re digging in the right spot.”
Gao Shijun, trembling violently, urged, “Then dig faster! Hurry!”
Xu Shu glared at him. “Scared of ghosts, fine, but are you scared of people too?! Go and stop them!”
Gao Shijun’s body jolted, snapping out of his panic. That’s right! These villagers were just people, so what was there to fear? Realizing this, his posture straightened, and he boldly took a few steps forward.
Lian Qinglin handed the shovel to the non-combatant Chi Yi, telling her to continue digging, then joined Li Zhi at the front.
The villagers stormed the bridge, their expressions fierce and savage despite their age. Each carried a farming tool, their faces twisted in malice—this clearly wasn’t a fight they could win with bare hands.
Li Zhi leaned her head slightly and whispered to her companions, “Take down the leader first. Once we capture Uncle Jiu, the rest will scatter.”
Gao Shijun clenched his fists. Whether from nerves or excitement, his face twitched uncontrollably.
The tricycles barreled across the bridge, and the villagers, brandishing their axes and hoes, jumped down and advanced step by step. Uncle Jiu sneered viciously, “You brought this upon yourselves!”
Lian Qinglin provocatively raised a middle finger at him. “Come at me! Face me! Fight me one-on-one!”
Uncle Jiu chuckled coldly and waved his hand forward. “Everyone, attack!”
Lian Qinglin: “…”
He didn’t take the bait.
The fight was on the verge of breaking out when, from behind, Chi Yi’s voice suddenly rang out in excitement, “We dug it up!”
Uncle Jiu’s expression changed. As soon as the words left her mouth, the ground beneath their feet trembled violently. The once-murderous expressions of the villagers quickly turned to fear.
Someone’s trembling voice shouted, “They’ve broken the seal!”
The burial tomb and the monument were both sealing points. Now that both had been dug up, Li Zhi turned and glanced at the fallen base of the monument on the ground. Sure enough, there was a glaring red talisman beneath it.
Xu Shu leaned in to inspect it and called out loudly, “The base of the monument is engraved with names too! They match the names on the tombstone!”
Li Zhi’s face showed no surprise. In this moment, all the clues finally came together.
In that fleeting moment, the trembling of the ground intensified. Suddenly, the earth shook violently, causing rocks to tumble down the mountains. The entire Guanping Village Bridge began to sway wildly, like a long rope being flung about, bouncing up and down.
Near the bridgehead, a large section started to bulge upward, as if something beneath the surface was twisting and struggling, about to break through the ground.