"Arrived at stop 28, passengers alighting..."
The bus's announcement jolted Fang Ming awake from his drowsy state.
"Finally here?"
Fang Ming rubbed his eyes, feeling weary, and tightened his grip on the cloth bag he held. The bag was somewhat worn, a camouflage pattern favored by the older generation.
After alighting, he looked around. Aside from a brand-new bus stop sign, the area appeared desolate.
Fang Ming took out his phone to check for signal. Though weak, there was some. He opened the navigation app and entered his destination.
"Where was it again?" Fang Ming's hand paused on the phone screen. Still groggy from waking up, he was a bit disoriented. "Right, Bai Mu Village."
"Reliable Maps is navigating for you..."
An hour later.
"You have reached your destination. We wish you a pleasant journey." The navigation voice sounded again. Fang Ming looked around, bewildered.
"This is Bai Mu Village?" All he saw were ruins, broken walls, and nothing else. No, there were also a few very dilapidated graves, almost leveled by wind and sand.
"This navigation is truly unreliable."
Fang Ming cursed silently in his heart. His gaze inadvertently swept over the graves, and a chill ran down his spine. In this desolate place, it was truly eerie.
"I should leave quickly." The more Fang Ming looked around, the more he felt a creeping sense of unease. In the middle of the day, he felt a chill.
As he turned to leave, he seemed to recall something. He reached into his cloth bag and fumbled around, quickly pulling out a book.
He opened it.
"September 1st, clear... Following the diary left by my parents, I found the Bai Mu Village described within, but it's now a ruin... I stand between the three graves on the east, waiting for the sun to set... I entered Bai Mu Village."
Fang Ming took a deep breath, closed the diary, and walked directly to the east of the ruins. Indeed, there were three small graves there.
As a hardworking youth of the 21st century, he had always believed in science, until he accidentally stumbled upon this diary hidden away by his mother!
He had read this diary before. It used to contain nothing but his mother's mundane daily trifles. But when he picked it up again, the contents of the diary had completely changed!
It now recorded his daily future experiences!
This diary recorded his future experiences for the day, and upon testing, its effective period was about six hours.
In other words, this diary could predict his experiences for the next six hours, and once he deliberately did something different from what was written, the diary's content would update after he closed it!
This had made him quite fearful of it, worrying if he had encountered something unclean.
But this diary was his mother's memento, and he couldn't bear to discard it. He could only keep it sealed away until two days ago when, on a whim, he opened it again and found a new entry—I found clues to my parents' disappearance in Bai Mu Village. My parents are not dead, they are still alive!
This news was like a bolt from the blue for Fang Ming. Ever since his parents suddenly disappeared ten years ago, he had always assumed they met with an accident. He never expected they were still alive!
Dazed by this news, Fang Ming immediately bought a ticket and, following the detailed address in the diary's entry, traveled all the way here by changing buses.
"Should I wait here? What will happen when it gets dark?" Fang Ming stood between the three small graves, feeling a bit panicked, his palms starting to sweat.
"Could this diary be trying to harm me? Should I wait somewhere else?"
Fang Ming muttered to himself and took out the diary again.
"I plan to change where I wait, but if I miss something, I'll still be in these ruins by midnight."
The diary's content had changed. Fang Ming gave up on the idea, closed the diary, and after three minutes, opened it again. As expected, the diary had returned to its previous content.
"Alright, I'll just wait here. The diary didn't say anything bad would happen to me anyway." Fang Ming resigned himself, threw the cloth bag under him to sit on the ground, and opened his phone to pass the time.
Time ticked by, and the sky gradually darkened. In the blink of an eye, several hours had passed.
"My head feels a bit dizzy from the bus ride." Fang Ming yawned. His head had been feeling groggy since he got off the bus. He looked at the sun in the distance, estimating it would set in an hour or two.
"So sleepy..."
...
Rustle, rustle...
Fang Ming shook his groggy head, woken by the rustling sounds around him. He opened his eyes, and the scene before him made him gasp in horror.
"Holy cow! Where is this?!"
He saw a mouse gnawing on straw in a pile of straw not far away. Fang Ming was in a room filled with wood and straw.
Creepy.
Fang Ming's heart sank. Although he had prepared himself a little, facing it directly made him very flustered.
"Who tied me up?" As he tried to get up, Fang Ming found his hands and feet bound tightly with coarse hemp ropes, forcing him to struggle on the pile of straw.
"Damn it, which scoundrel tied me up? I'm not rich or powerful." Fang Ming couldn't help but curse twice, then froze.
"Abba abba?" Fang Ming tried to make a sound, and only heard two delicate voices emerge from his mouth.
It was a woman's voice?!
Fang Ming incredulously struggled to touch a certain place. It was gone, truly gone...
"How did I become a woman just by sleeping?" Fang Ming couldn't understand this at all.
He could understand encountering something supernatural – but not accept it. He could understand being kidnapped – but couldn't comprehend the reason. But this sudden sex change plus being tied up, what was going on?
He felt that diary was not right.
Right, the diary!
Fang Ming quickly turned his head to look around. The cloth bag was gone!
It was over, Fang Ming's heart sank completely. His current situation was utterly dire. The only thing he could rely on, the diary, was also gone.
He struggled for a while longer, but his strength in this body was quickly depleted. He was too sleepy from the late night and drifted into a deep sleep.
...
"Clang!"
The door was suddenly pushed open. Fang Ming, still a bit groggy, blinked his eyes and slowly opened them.
"Awake?" An old man looked down at Fang Ming, his tone very cold.
Fang Ming's heart skipped a beat, and he finally remembered his current predicament.
"Who are you? What you're doing is illegal! Be careful, I'll call the police!" Fang Ming threatened, feigning calmness.
"Tch." The old man sneered dismissively. "In our Bai Mu Village, even the King of Heaven has to bow down."
Bai Mu Village?!
Fang Ming's pupils suddenly widened: "This is Bai Mu Village?"
"Oh? You actually know this place?" The old man seemed slightly surprised. "Since you know Bai Mu Village, you should also know its rules. Come with me."
I don't know any damn rules, Fang Ming cursed silently. But to placate the old man, a thought struck him: he might as well go with this guy and see what he was up to.
"I know the rules, but look..." Fang Ming gestured with his eyes towards the ropes on his body.
The old man hesitated for a moment, then, thinking of something, decided to untie Fang Ming.
"Since you know the rules, I won't say much more. Stay in Bai Mu Village obediently and don't think about running away, otherwise I'll have to find another woman." The old man muttered as he untied the ropes.
Death if I leave the village?
Fang Ming secretly took note of the old man's words. Furthermore, judging by his tone, it seemed he had been brought here through some means, and at no small cost.
The ropes were loosened. Fang Ming rubbed his bruised arms and ankles, stood up unsteadily, his body still sore and weak.
"Let's go." The old man led the way out. Fang Ming followed, his steps faltering, while his mind raced.
This guy dared to untie him so brazenly, exposing his back to him. It felt like a trap no matter how he thought about it.
Out of caution, Fang Ming didn't attempt any sneak attacks or escapes, deciding to first understand the situation of the village.
Exiting the woodshed, Fang Ming followed the old man to the front hall. Along the way, Fang Ming continued to observe his surroundings.
"Strange, why are there so many runes drawn on the walls?" Fang Ming looked around, noticing that twisted runes were drawn on every wall, as if warding off something.
"I've brought the person," the old man announced to the others as he led Fang Ming into the hall, then stepped aside to watch indifferently.
Hearing this, Fang Ming turned his gaze from the runes on the walls to the people sitting in the hall.
Four men with gloomy expressions were seated in the hall. One was older, likely in his sixties, while the other three were around the same age as the old man.
"What is this girl's birth time?" the eldest man asked.
"Reporting to the Village Chief, this girl's birth time is the hour of Four Yin. Except for that woman a hundred years ago, she is the second Four Yin maiden." replied a man beside him.
The old man, the one referred to as the Village Chief, brightened upon hearing this. He stood up and walked over to Fang Ming, examining him from head to toe, which made Fang Ming's skin crawl.
"Good, good, good. I never expected to find another Four Yin maiden." The Village Chief's gloomy face broke into a stiff smile, and he sighed with emotion.
"Jian Shou, go back immediately and prepare for Shou's wedding. They must be married within three days!" the Village Chief turned and said to the old man.
Chen Jian Shou acknowledged and turned to leave.
Seeing Chen Jian Shou depart, the Village Chief returned to his seat, tapped the armrest of his chair, and spoke to Fang Ming: "Since you, young girl, have come to our Bai Mu Village, do not think of leaving, or you will lose your life. Besides this, there are a few rules in the village that I hope you will remember, otherwise... perhaps we will be collecting your body tomorrow."
"What rules?" Fang Ming asked directly.
The Village Chief gave a look to the man beside him, who then spoke: "First, you absolutely must not linger outside after sunset. Second, you absolutely cannot leave the house before the rooster crows. Third, absolutely do not draw water from the old well to the east of the village. Fourth, do not enter the white mist area outside the village. Fifth, women are absolutely forbidden from stepping into the ancestral hall."
The Village Chief saw Fang Ming's eyes darting around and knew that Fang Ming was thinking. Every outsider would not heed their warnings; they would not be sensible until they experienced it themselves.
"Do you have any other questions?" the Village Chief tapped the armrest again, bringing Fang Ming's thoughts back.
"What appears here at night?" Fang Ming seized the opportunity, wanting to understand the situation.
"Nothing much, just some small things," the Village Chief said dismissively, unwilling to elaborate.
"I have one more question." Seeing the old fellow unwilling to speak, Fang Ming changed his query.
"Go ahead."
"Do you know a person named Fang Daolong?" Fang Daolong was Fang Ming's missing father.
Upon hearing the name, the Village Chief's pupils contracted sharply. Although his expression did not change, Fang Ming knew he had come to the right place!
"I don't know," the Village Chief said indifferently, then stood up and left. "Lock this woman back in the woodshed and await the wedding in three days."
Immediately, the three men in the hall approached Fang Ming. Fang Ming wisely led the way back to the woodshed, muttering to himself, "Will I really get married to some man in three days? It seems I still need to find a way to escape first."