The more you believe me, the more real it becomes.

Chapter 129 Strange Well
Du Yuan had no idea what happened in Zhangjia Village after she left.

After getting up in the morning, he quickly washed up, tidied up the house, and left the village.

After walking for a long time, he planned to find a well or stream to drink some water and moisten his throat.

After looking around, my eyes lit up.

Right next to the path at the foot of the mountain, there was a well!

With a single step, his body swayed slightly, and he was already standing a dozen steps away from the well.

The shade of the trees overhead also came to block out the scorching sun for him.

They leisurely approached.

Du Yuan discovered that the well was actually dry!
"That's not pretty!"

With a soft sigh, Du Yuan had no choice but to follow the path leading to the well.

In places where wells are dug, there are usually people living there.

Although it's a dry well, it doesn't necessarily mean there's no one around.

Sure enough, after walking forward for a short while, a town came into view.

It's not a big town, but it's still quite bustling with people.

Looking around, Du Yuan knocked on the gate of a house. Inside the fence, two children were playing in the open space.

Du Yuan couldn't understand what they were playing; she only saw them constantly picking up a few perfectly round pebbles and immediately throwing them back down.

It's quite childlike and fun.

Hearing the sound, the two children looked up and saw Du Yuan smiling at them, so they called out into the house:
"Mother, we have guests!"

The woman inside hurriedly came out upon hearing the noise, quickly wiped her hands on her apron, then stood in front of the child and asked:
"What can I do for you, sir?"

"Greetings, Madam. I am passing by this esteemed place and am quite thirsty, so I would like to ask for a drink of water."

"What do you mean by 'nothing'? Please wait here, I'll get you some tea right away!"

The woman readily agreed and immediately went back into the house to pour water for Du Yuan.

Before long, he came carrying a teacup and a pot of cold tea.

It wasn't filled to the brim to avoid overflowing and wetting the guests' clothes.

"Please go ahead, I've brought a pot, you can always get more if it's not enough!"

Du Yuan thanked him and then tilted her head back to drink.

"Good tea, please have another bowl."

Having received Du Yuan's praise, the woman smiled and continued to pour tea for Du Yuan.

This time, Du Yuan didn't rush to drink it all at once, but instead started talking to the woman.

"May I ask where this place is, madam?"

"This is Luzhen, within the territory of Huishui County. Once you leave the town, follow the main road, and you'll reach the county seat in about half a day's walk."

"Oh, how far is it from the southwest?"

This question stumped the woman:
"I don't know about that. I'm just a woman and I've never been that far before. But I've heard from merchants that it's several counties away."

Then the woman asked again:

"Why are you asking this? The southwest is in a very dangerous place, there are bandits everywhere!"

Du Yuan chuckled:
"I need to go to the southwest to take care of some things."

The woman said with a worried expression:
"Oh dear, you must be very careful! Although we haven't seen any here, we've heard that several waves of refugees have already fled from there to the county town. The county magistrate is so worried that his hair has turned quite white."

However, she glanced in the direction Du Yuan had come from, her expression suddenly changed, and she pressed for an answer:
"Guest, where are you from?"

Du Yuan was slightly puzzled, but still pointed behind her: "I came from over there."

Upon hearing this, the woman's face turned deathly pale. The two children behind her were also startled and stopped what they were doing, looking at Du Yuan.

Du Yuan asked, puzzled:
"But what's the problem?"

"Guest!" the woman's voice trembled. "That area is sealed off! Didn't you see the notice?"

Is it sealed off? Is there a notice?
Du Yuan hadn't noticed at all. It seems he simply passed by when Du Yuan used his teleportation technique.
No wonder this road is deserted. It turns out the road has been closed.

He could only shake his head and laugh:
"I really didn't notice that."

Upon hearing this, the woman became even more frightened and hurriedly pressed for answers:

"Then did you see a well?"

A well? What's so strange about that well?
Du Yuan couldn't help but look back at the way she came.

He had indeed seen that well before, but he didn't notice anything unusual about it.

"I did see a dry well, but I didn't see anything wrong with it."

"A dry well?!" the woman exclaimed in shock, her pupils shrinking sharply. The two children were so frightened that they ran forward and grabbed her legs tightly, one on each side.

"How could it be a dry well?!"

Is there really a problem?
And surprisingly, even I didn't notice the problem?

Du Yuan immediately became interested.

"Could you please elaborate, Madam?"

The woman didn't answer immediately. Instead, she cautiously glanced at Du Yuan's feet—seeing a shadow indeed trailing on the ground; then she looked at the houses next door—seeing several neighbors were there—before calming herself down and lowering her voice to say:
"Looks like something's happened again in that awful place. Oh dear, I really don't know if we can still live here if this keeps up. It's terrifying!"

Hearing the commotion, a man in the neighboring yard peered over the fence and asked:

"Sister-in-law, what happened?"

The woman's voice was strained:

"Third son of the Li family, this guest came from that old well. He said that well has dried up!"

The other person was immediately startled: "Ah?! Is that so? I have to go and inform everyone right away!" After saying that, the man hurriedly ran away.

The woman withdrew her gaze and turned to Du Yuan, her face showing even greater worry and fear:

"You wouldn't believe it! That well used to be perfectly fine; everyone in the east end of our town relied on it for water. But about two weeks ago, somehow it just..."

"It just started to get weird!"

Du Yuan raised an eyebrow: "How is it strange?"

Mentioning this, the woman seemed still shaken. Even with people in front of her and the sun shining brightly overhead, she instinctively glanced quickly towards the old well at the bottom of the slope, making sure nothing was amiss before daring to speak in an even lower voice:
"It was Zhang's older sister-in-law who first discovered it."
-
I remember that day, the sky was clear and the sun was high in the sky.

Carrying her bucket, Old Zhang walked familiarly to the old well. The cold stone rim of the well was rough to the touch, but those who came to draw water were already used to it.

She put down the bucket and, as usual, peered into the well—

The water rippled slightly, reflecting a small patch of sunlight, about the size of a palm, above the well opening, and a face.

At first, Zhang's wife, who was completely absorbed in the water bucket, did not notice anything amiss.

She simply threw down the bucket, fetching water while calculating the family's accounts for the month.

"Old Zhang, that glutton, got greedy for those two ounces of liquor, and ten or so coins just vanished like that. We'll have to tighten our belts this month, saving every penny, otherwise how will we have any money left to buy winter clothes for our grandson at the end of the year?"

The well pulley creaked in her hands as she lifted a bucket of water.

After pouring it into her own bucket, she was about to continue when she finally noticed something was wrong.

The shadows in the water look a bit strange.

(End of this chapter)