Chapter 11 Investigating Shahe Village
Chapter 11: Investigating Shahe Village
To write a good report, Zhou Ming began investigating the strange incidents the next day.
The incident Zhou Ming was responsible for initially surfaced from Shahe Village, which is ten kilometers away from Qipan Village. Therefore, Shahe Village was also Zhou Ming's primary investigation location.
Unlike Qipan Village, Shahe Village, while also a remote and underdeveloped rural area far from towns, offered a much better living environment for its villagers compared to the neighboring Qipan Village.
Most of the villagers in Shahe Village lived in red-brick and tile houses, but the streets were filled with children and the elderly, with very few young people in their twenties.
The appearance of Shahe Village's residents was a reflection of most remote villages: mostly elderly and children without labor capacity remained in the village. The vast majority of young men and women had gone to the nearest towns to work and earn money. This was quite similar to the rural situation before Zhou Ming's transmigration, with only the elderly and children left behind.
"Hello, do you know anything about what happened in the air-raid shelter near Qipan Village?" Zhou Ming asked, grabbing a random person on the street.
The dark-skinned middle-aged man put down the hoe on his shoulder, squinted at Zhou Ming, then took the cigarette from his mouth and exhaled a puff of smoke.
"Are you a Public Security Officer?" The man stared at Zhou Ming, his eyes full of wariness.
"I'm a student from the University of Anomaly Management, investigating this matter," Zhou Ming said.
Due to this world's unique "Human Rights Law" and "Life Safety Law," every major city was divided into independent residential areas by three walls. Residents of the four residential areas enjoyed vastly different safety protections.
Because the national government had very limited personnel available, residents outside the walls found it difficult to enjoy even the most basic safety protection. Consequently, these residents outside the walls had extremely weak trust in the government, and many resisted cooperating with government work.
Knowing this in advance, Zhou Ming chose to interview local residents under the guise of a student when he began his investigation.
People outside the walls were generally very tolerant of students like him because they believed students had a desire to dedicate themselves to the people, which was why they wanted to work for the government.
As for those who had already become Public Security Officers, they were already government lackeys.
So, compared to Public Security Officers with official credentials, they were more willing to cooperate with an interview from a student like him.
"Oh! You're a student! What were you asking me about just now?" The man suddenly perked up, much of the wariness on his face fading.
"Do you know anything about the air-raid shelter in the woods near Qipan Village?" Zhou Ming asked.
"Oh! That!"
The man pondered for a moment, then leaned in mysteriously and said, "Let me tell you a secret! The experiments in that air-raid shelter were done by the government!"
As soon as Zhou Ming heard this, he knew the other party was spouting nonsense. This was a typical case of being brainwashed by rumors, which most easily gives rise to anomalies.
But for the sake of the investigation, Zhou Ming still played along and asked, "Why would they do such a thing?"
"For research, of course! They don't care if we live or die when they're researching anomalies! Those scoundrels set up a laboratory in that cave and captured all the villagers to use for experiments. They don't treat us people living outside the walls as human beings; they treat us like animals!" The man was agitated, but his voice was kept very low.
Zhou Ming frowned: "They came here to capture people?"
The man was startled, then shook his head: "Not here, but everyone in Qipan Village has already been captured by them."
"Didn't Qipan Village become a deserted village a long time ago? There's been no one there for ages."
"Fake! It's all made up to deceive people! I met someone who escaped from Qipan Village not long ago, and many people from their village went missing!" The man shouted loudly.
His shouting attracted the elderly men and women chatting nearby, and some of the older people who knew more about the situation began to talk to Zhou Ming.
"I heard that in Qipan Village, people would go to sleep at night and wake up the next day to find someone missing! Sometimes an entire family would mysteriously vanish!" An old woman said, her teeth whistling through the gaps.
"Oh, isn't that the truth? How could anyone live in a village like that! No wonder they had to flee from there."
"A relative of mine said that Qipan Village was actually sealed off a long time ago! Doesn't the higher-up conduct a population census every year? Qipan Village's population has never been counted, even though people still live there, and outsiders all say there's no one! If I hadn't met people who fled from there, I would have thought it was deserted too!"
"It must be those officials deliberately arranging it, so we think there's no one there, and they can capture all those people for experiments!"
An old man looked agitated, as if what he was saying was an undeniable truth.
Zhou Ming silently listened to these people recount their so-called great secrets and began to get a general idea of the incident.
He had passed through Qipan Village while on a mission before, and the houses there didn't look like anyone lived in them.
However, the honest uncle and the others in front of him didn't seem to be lying, nor did they have any reason or motive to lie.
Therefore, there was only one truth... they were deceived.
"Hey! I say, kid, do you want to become one of the Hidden Ones?" The uncle suddenly asked.
Zhou Ming was startled, then nodded: "Yes, that's right."
"Then I'll show you a path."
"Hey! What are you saying!"
The old man next to him tugged hard at the man, staring at him as if warning him not to continue.
The man glanced at the old man, then flicked his sleeve and said, "What's wrong? Are you going to just stand by and watch this kid become a lackey for the Relevant Department!"
"Kid, listen to me, if you want to become one of the Hidden Ones, don't go to that university anymore!
A high monk came to our village! He's very capable!
He specializes in training the Hidden Ones. The Hidden Ones he trains don't work for those officials; they specifically protect ordinary people like us! Many children from our village have followed him, and with good luck, they might even become Curse Practitioners!"
High monk?
Zhou Ming frowned, realizing that this matter was not as simple as it seemed.
Under normal circumstances, there were only two legitimate ways to become one of the Hidden Ones: one was to have the aptitude and potential like Zhou Ming, enter a specialized university for further study, and then join the Relevant Department.
The other was to possess unusual Curse Power, have its level pass the national assessment, and then be recruited into the Relevant Department.
The act of privately taking disciples to train the Hidden Ones, as described by the other party, was an extremely serious illegal act.
Zhou Ming originally wanted to inquire further, but after several attempts, he found that these people only knew this much; they didn't actually know much about the so-called high monk.
And it was under such circumstances, completely unaware of the other party, that they had entrusted their children to him, which was simply baffling.
...
Although this interview failed to yield more detailed information, Zhou Ming learned some secret intelligence that the Relevant Department had not investigated. They certainly wouldn't have told those things to the Relevant Department.
Undoubtedly, most of what these old men and women said was false; they had been deceived.
Those rumors had no supporting evidence whatsoever; they were purely flawed conspiracy theories.
For example, regarding Qipan Village's sealing policy, if the government truly intended to use a village for experiments, it would never employ such gentle methods. They wouldn't allow the villagers of Qipan Village to escape, much less let them run to Shahe Village to reveal the truth.
Clearly, this incident was not a simple, sudden rumor, but rather someone spreading rumors, and it was a premeditated and organized effort.
Ordinary rumor-mongers would not specifically disguise themselves as villagers fleeing from Qipan Village.
This was enough to prove that this strange incident had a mastermind, and the mastermind had a very clear purpose in planning this event.
But why would they spread rumors in Shahe Village about the government forcibly capturing people for human experiments?
And that inexplicable high monk also felt very strange; the villagers here seemed to trust him implicitly.