Linbiangui Village-Infinite Streaming Chapter 10

Alligator Snapper Turtle Suppressing the Soul 2

The two hadn’t had time for breakfast, rushing to make it to the Jitu Fen sacrifice in the morning, so heading to the street now was perfect.

Today was Mengle Village’s market day. Walking onto the main street, there were noticeably more people, and significantly more businesses had opened their doors on both sides. Most of these shops sold daily necessities and clothing, with goods piled high at the entrances. However, everything looked quite dated; items sold in deep mountain villages rarely kept up with the times.

Past the area with storefronts, further ahead were the street stalls.

The mountain villagers had spread blue plastic sheeting on the ground, displaying various colorful vegetables and fruits. The vendors occasionally sprayed water onto the produce with plastic bottles to keep them looking fresh and sparkling under the sun, making them look very appealing.

The two stopped in front of an open-air stall selling cold mung bean jelly.

The stall was supported by a single small wooden table covered with a thick plastic sheet. On the left side were many unknown seasonings—powders, pastes, oils, in red, green, and white. In front of the table was a long bench, just big enough for two people to sit side-by-side.

Mung bean jelly is one of the local specialties, made by grinding pea flour into a paste, boiling it, and letting it solidify. It is usually served cold, mixed with chili oil, sweet vinegar, shredded carrots, and coriander, making it sour and spicy.

“You want to eat this?” Seeing Chen Jin’s surveying gaze, Wu Zeng seemed very adept at reading Chen Jin’s micro-expressions.

“No.” Chen Jin dropped the two words and withdrew his gaze.

“Don’t go. I want to eat this.” Wu Zeng quickly reached out to stop Chen Jin. As he turned his head, Wu Zeng clearly saw happiness and anticipation in Chen Jin’s eyes.

Chen Jin sat down expressionlessly. “Then eat it.” This fleeting emotion passed quickly, but the hands eagerly unwrapping the chopsticks betrayed him.

Wu Zeng saw through him but didn’t say anything, sitting down with a smile. “Boss lady, two bowls of this…”

It was rare for Wu Zeng to stutter. He genuinely didn’t know the name of the dish.

“Mung bean jelly.” Chen Jin immediately supplied the name, his tone slightly elevated. The homework he had done finally came in handy.

“Coming right up.” The boss lady was quick. With a few swift cuts, the dish was ready. Before they had even warmed the bench, their order was served. She smiled and said, “The seasonings are in this stack, you can add them yourselves.”

Chen Jin added vinegar, soy sauce, crushed peanuts, and a lot of chili to his bowl. Chen Jin loved spicy and sour food, and he had been craving this dish ever since he researched the local cuisine. Now he was finally eating it.

“Boss lady, could we ask you something? Are there any restaurants in our village that serve alligator snapper turtle?” Wu Zeng picked up the mung bean jelly with his chopsticks, asking the boss lady in a seemingly casual manner. “We came all the way from Yue Dong! We heard that the alligator snappers in our area are all shipped from here.”

Chen Jin stirred the contents of his bowl without changing his expression, his peripheral vision subtly observing Wu Zeng.

Sure enough, if a person was bold enough, they could say anything. This man didn’t even have a Yue Dong accent, yet he spoke the lie with such composure it was astonishing.

“What is it?” Wu Zeng seemed to sense Chen Jin’s gaze, immediately turning to look at him with a smile, his voice trailing off with a slight tremor, feigning ignorance.

“Nothing.” Chen Jin paused for a second and shook his head.

Were his actions that obvious?

“You can’t eat alligator snapper turtle! You can’t! The alligator snapper turtle has spiritual power. Whoever harms it, it will come back for them! Its soul is extremely wicked, you absolutely cannot mess with it!” The boss lady said with a serious expression.

After speaking, perhaps worried that the two outsiders wouldn’t believe it, she tossed the small knife into the basin, waving her hands back and forth in the air, reminding them urgently, “Aiya, anyway, we locals don’t eat it, and it’s best if you don’t either.”

The two exchanged a look. Wasn’t this strange? If they held this belief, why were the fish in the Reservoir allowed to prey on the alligator snapper turtles with impunity?

“Is there a story behind this?” Wu Zeng clapped his hands together, indicating that he would heed her warning. Then he smiled and patted Chen Jin’s back. “My younger brother here is a university student specializing in ethnic minorities. If he could hear some unique folk customs of Mengle Village from you, his trip wouldn’t be wasted.”

Chen Jin nodded cooperatively, his gaze as devout as a believer, awaiting the boss lady’s enlightenment.

Chen Jin was naturally well-behaved, and when he looked at someone with such wide, bright eyes, full of anticipation, how could you refuse to tell the child a story?

“Aiya, there’s not much to it. It’s just that the alligator snapper turtle should be kept well in the temple here. Whoever harms it will suffer the consequences!” The boss lady wiped her hands on her apron, suddenly looking a bit flustered. “Many years ago, when food was scarce, a family was starving and killed an alligator snapper turtle to eat. Within a week, the whole family developed festering sores and died.”

“I see. My question was a bit insensitive.” Wu Zeng said “Oh” meaningfully, then smiled. “Boss lady, could I please have another bowl of that white stuff? It looks very much like our Yue Dong rice noodles.”

They had to keep up the act.

“That’s rice noodles.” The boss lady pointed to a large platter nearby and asked, “Can you still eat it? If you can, I’ll cut you some more.”

“Yes, please, thank you, Boss lady.” Wu Zeng’s smile was very pleasant.

The usefulness of a handsome face plus charm quickly became apparent. The rice noodles the boss lady brought over this time were noticeably more generous than the mung bean jelly had been.

Chen Jin couldn’t help but roll his eyes internally.

“Little brother, let’s share some.” Wu Zeng took a new pair of chopsticks and picked out a portion for Chen Jin.

Wu Zeng was already handsome, and as he spoke, he lowered his eyes, his tone gentle, his gaze focused, and even the way he held his chopsticks was tender. In the surrounding noisy and chaotic environment, he was like the first warming river water in spring, slowly flowing into Chen Jin’s heart.

Chen Jin felt a tickle in his heart.

Once they left this street, it wouldn’t be easy to find people willing to talk, so the two planned to walk the entire main road before dark.

“Chicken, duck, pig—what meat isn’t cheaper than alligator snapper turtle? It makes no sense!” Chen Jin looked at the various meat stalls, racking his brain but unable to guess the mystery. He only felt his temper rising. What made him even more frustrated was that he didn’t even understand what he was supposed to be investigating.

“Don’t rush, have a cup of ice jelly to cool down.” Wu Zeng timely handed over a cup of something, which he had bought from nearby without Chen Jin noticing.

“Aunt Jiu! Why isn’t your son coming out, ha ha ha ha ha!” Several troublesome village youths surrounded a stall. Their tight pants clung to their legs, and these energetic young men looked skinnier than the last. “Why don’t you call him to sell sausages, ha ha ha ha!”

Aunt Jiu, who had helped stuff sausages at the pig-slaughtering feast yesterday, was also setting up a stall on the street, still selling sausages, but few people were patronizing her. Her expression was highly displeased, her brows furrowed like pinched dumpling wrappers, but she remained silent.

“Auntie, how much are your sausages?” Wu Zeng squeezed between the group of young men, forcefully breaking up their formation.

“Let’s go!” The leading young man was indignant and was about to rush forward to argue, but then realized his calf was thinner than the other man’s arm.

Aunt Jiu muttered and chased after the energetic youths, quietly cursing them for a few sentences, before turning to the two men. “Tofu sausage is 10 yuan a catty, beef sausage is 20 yuan a catty!”

Her lingering anger was evident.

No pork?

Assuming Sister A Ping’s words were true, it made sense that Aunt Jiu wasn’t making pork sausages. After all, since the meat was linked to poison, whether it was clean or not, people would feel uneasy eating it.

“We’ll take some beef.” Wu Zeng pointed to the glossy beef sausages nearby. “We’ll take both raw and cooked.”

It had to be said that Aunt Jiu made excellent sausages. Regardless of the filling, they looked fragrant and oily.

Aunt Jiu packed the items, separating the raw and cooked. To prevent oil from leaking, she wrapped the cooked sausages in newspaper. She was very thoughtful and meticulous in her work.

A newspaper from 2008—that was truly ancient. Chen Jin looked at the text on the paper; the content was still focused on the report of Obama’s election as president.

The two sat down on a nearby stone step. Villagers were either rushing along or hawking their wares at stalls, a chaotic but orderly scene. In contrast, the two sitting down didn’t know what to do for a moment. This spot was right behind Aunt Jiu’s stall, next to a clothing store.

“I told you to tear the calendar, why didn’t you tear it!” The clothing store owner cursed her husband, reaching out to tear a page off the wall calendar. The new page clearly read, “February 18, 2010.”

Chen Jin turned his head and met Wu Zeng’s gaze. They were thinking the same thing.

Could it be that even time was fake in this world?

“Master, excuse me, what is the current zodiac year?” Wu Zeng asked the owner of the nearby general store, looking helpless. “My brother and I have been calculating for ages, but we just can’t figure out the zodiac sign.”

“It’s the Year of the Tiger. How can you young people not figure that out?” The owner took a puff of his cigarette, frowned, and began reciting the cycle for them. “Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit…”

“Thank you so much, we just couldn’t remember that phrase!”

The anomalies they had felt in the village over the past two days rapidly cycled through their minds—if it was currently 2010, it would explain why the entire village had poor signal, why the villagers only accepted cash, and why the Guesthouse only had records up to 2010…

Chen Jin quietly opened his phone. Apart from the persistently bad network, all other apps were functioning normally, and information from after 2010 could be searched. If this world was set in the past, would there be any clues about it online?

“Hey! Give it to me!” The energetic youths had run back at some point, circling behind Aunt Jiu to snatch a photo from her hand, loudly mocking her. “Looking at your son again! Why can’t you even walk properly now!”

Aunt Jiu angrily stood up, reaching out to grab the photo, but her agility was far inferior to the young men’s. She struggled for a long time but couldn’t snatch it back.

Chen Jin initially thought that given Wu Zeng’s nature, he would surely step in to help, but when he looked back, he found Wu Zeng just watching quietly from where he sat.

Wu Zeng seemed to have an eye specifically trained on Chen Jin; whenever Chen Jin looked at him, Wu Zeng would immediately react. It was no exception now. “Let the bullet fly for a while.”

Chen Jin nodded. With so many villagers present, everyone looked accustomed to the scene, and no one offered assistance. Either this person had done something universally condemned, or the village customs were extremely poor. Regardless of the situation, intervening now would be risky.