121: Chapter 121 Yun Zhuo's bounty wasn't even worth as much as his beat-up secondhand car.
Big Teacher Su saw Yun Zhuo enter the room with her younger sister, but she didn't follow because neither of them had called for her.
It seemed like it must be something very important.
Sigh, who told me to only establish a normal contract with him? Being guarded against is to be expected.
But, why? Why did she have to meet him first?
If I had met him first, I would definitely have made my sister stand outside, green with envy.
In the bedroom, Teacher Su thought Yun Zhuo wanted to experience the new environment, but she ended up seeing him pull a dirty towel out of his wristband.
She picked up the towel and looked at it. "Isn't this the one I bought for you last time? How did it get so dirty?"
"Oh, I used it to wipe the incense burner earlier."
"You actually used the towel I gave you to wipe an incense burner? Wait, which incense burner did you wipe?"
She remembered the incense burner Yun Zhuo used to pay respects to his parents had already been washed clean by her last time; it couldn't have gotten this dirty.
Yun Zhuo smiled mysteriously. "That is exactly what I am about to tell you."
As he spoke, he projected a hologram of the incense burner from his wristband.
"This incense burner looks familiar, right?"
Teacher Su nodded. "The number is wrong."
"The number?"
"Yes." Teacher Su pointed to the ring of small dots on the base of the incense burner. "Last time I felt these dots were Braille, and after I checked, they actually were."
"The incense burner at home is number nine, but this one is number six."
As she spoke, she took out a smooth metal cup from her wristband and placed it into the incense burner, just like last time.
The patterns on the inner wall were reflected through the cup, turning into a map and a set of matrix numbers.
"The map is different, and the numbers are different too."
"Now do you know why I had to stay in Nun Village?"
"This incense burner was found in the village?"
"It was sitting right on the offering table in Guanyin Temple."
"You suspect your mother also comes from Nun Village?"
"I don't know, let's wait and see, but my family definitely has a connection to this Nun Village."
Teacher Su thought for a moment and said, "Right, there's another piece of news. I checked online and found that the headquarters of the Fifth Legion back then was in Tianqi City."
"The Fifth Legion?"
"Yes." Teacher Su nodded. "Didn't you say last time that your father was in the Fifth Legion? He was ordered to defend against the beast tide at Dawn City, which is why he left you and your mother in Dawn City."
"But do you know? You can't find any information online about the Fifth Legion defending against the beast tide."
"But what's strange is that your father's pension is still being issued normally, which means this matter exists in the federal archives."
Yun Zhuo pondered for a moment. "Forget it, I don't even know where Tianqi City is right now. Thinking about this is superfluous; it's better to think about the Nun Village right in front of us."
"I meant to say that Tianqi City is very far from Nun Village. If your mother came from Nun Village, it's almost impossible for them to have known each other."
"If there is also a place in Tianqi City similar to Nun Village, then the business with the incense burner would make sense."
"Then we need to ask the village chief if there are many villages like this in the Federation."
"I'll ask my sister to help you ask; she seems to get along very well with the village chief."
"What's wrong? Afraid I'll go to her place to fix the plumbing?"
"Hmph, as long as you know. Also, our time is limited, so we must split up. My sister will go find the village chief, and we will go check out Guanyin Temple; there might be other clues."
The two chatted in the bedroom for a while, and when they came out, they smelled the aroma of hot coffee.
Teacher Su asked suspiciously, "Who is here?"
The two went downstairs and saw Big Teacher Su sitting there alone, holding a cup of coffee, slowly stirring it with a small spoon, her eyes staring blankly at the tabletop.
"Sister, who brought the coffee?"
"It's already in the house. Do you want some? I'll go make you a cup."
Little Teacher Su took her coffee, took a small sip, and nodded. "The taste isn't bad. I didn't know you could make coffee."
Big Teacher Su rolled her eyes at her. "It's instant. Isn't this something anyone with hands can do? You just love to tease me. Do you want some?"
"Yes."
After saying that, Little Teacher Su followed her to the kitchen.
Big Teacher Su opened the cupboard and took out a jar of instant coffee.
As she opened the jar, she said, "Right, there is flour and eggs in the house. Could I trouble your skilled hands to bake a cake for us to try?"
"Sure, where did you put the stuff?"
"There, in the cupboard by the oven. Make it low-sugar."
"Don't you like to eat super sweet things? When did you change your taste?"
Big Teacher Su paused for a moment. "I'm on a diet; I can't eat things that are too sweet."
In the afternoon, Di Zhenzhen brought over some more ingredients, and they chatted for a while.
Yun Zhuo asked her for advice on whether there were many Nun Villages like this in the Federation.
Di Zhenzhen thought for a moment and said, probably not.
The appearance of Nun Village began with an accident; it was a shelter established by predecessors during the process of excavating old world civilization in an Abandoned Well.
It was specifically used to take in homeless people like her.
She couldn't explain the specific process, and while there might be similar shelters in other places, there was definitely only one Nun Village.
"Sister Zhenzhen, are you saying there are ruins of old world civilization under the Abandoned Well?"
"Yes, the Abandoned Well was originally a mine from the old world. The space below is very large. When the Great Cataclysm came, the people of the old world used the materials at hand to build a large-scale shelter."
"That is what people often call an Underground City. How do you not even know about this?"
"Is this strange?"
"Isn't it? As an adventurer, not even collecting information about your destination doesn't make for a qualified adventurer."
They chatted for a while longer, mostly Yun Zhuo, Big Teacher Su, and Di Zhenzhen talking, while Little Teacher Su answered only when asked and never took the initiative to join in.
At night, not long after falling asleep, a few explosions and the sound of buildings collapsing came from outside the village, rumbling loudly, keeping everyone from sleeping well all night.
The next morning, the three of them split up to scout the situation in Nun Village.
This village wasn't very big, but it wasn't small either; the population was only over a thousand, but there were quite a few houses.
Most importantly, even though there was clearly a disturbance outside the village last night, those lawless adventurers seemed to have become law-abiding citizens; not a single one entered the village to rob it.
Yun Zhuo's first stop was the convenience store at the village entrance, which was closest to the outside of the village. If he wanted to know what happened outside last night, that convenience store, which served the public, was undoubtedly a hub for news.
Upon arriving there, he indeed saw a few groups of adventurers buying things, their bodies bearing more or less traces of last night's battle.
Yun Zhuo also went over and pretended to buy something.
The adventurer beside him glanced at him but ignored him, taking three bottles of wine from the counter.
"Boss lady, how much for three bottles of wine?"
"Sixty corrosion crystal."
"The money has been transferred to you."
That person took the wine and sat down at a small table outside, drinking gloomily early in the morning with his two companions over peanuts.
Just as Yun Zhuo picked up a pack of yellow bird tower to look at it, Jiang Jingjing's voice came from beside him.
"You brat, you still dare to come out? People are looking for you everywhere outside."
"Looking for me?"
"They say you killed the younger brother of the Rattlesnake Adventure Group leader. There's already a bounty out: thirty thousand corrosion crystal, dead or alive."
"No way, only thirty thousand? That car of mine that got stolen is worth more than thirty thousand. My life isn't even worth a broken second-hand car?"
Jiang Jingjing giggled. "Then how much do you want, you brat?"
"Are they all here to ambush me?"
Yun Zhuo looked at the nine adventurers outside; they were divided into two groups, one group drinking, and the other group also drinking.
"You'd better go back to the village first. As long as you are in the village, they won't dare to act recklessly."
"How much?" Yun Zhuo shook the cigarettes in his hand.
Jiang Jingjing replied subconsciously, "Fifty."
The price was double that of the city, but in this place, far from any village or shop, it was normal for it to be a bit expensive.
Yun Zhuo paid the money and walked straight toward one of the tables.