Chapter 102: Indifferent?

Qi Yan had no idea how long he had been staring at the two figures before him. His face was flushed bright red, his heart pounding wildly, his mind completely blank...

Just watching them kiss and intertwine like that, caressing each other's smooth skin, was enough to leave him frozen for a long moment.

"Qi Yan... Qi Yan? ...Tsk, Qi Yan!" Xuanxuan called out to him repeatedly from afar, her sharp voice finally jolting him back to reality.

Qi Yan exhaled the breath he had been holding in all at once. The scene he had witnessed was so overwhelming... he had unconsciously stopped breathing, and now that he finally exhaled, a slight dizziness washed over him.

He stepped back two paces away from the curtain, tightly closed his eyes, and swallowed hard, finally pulling himself out of the trance caused by that vision.

When he adjusted his composure and stepped forward to draw the curtain aside again... there was nothing left. No flesh, no entwining maidens—only a heap of scattered, discarded items.

"Qi Yan, what are you doing? We called you so many times and you didn’t answer," Xuanxuan shouted over again, prompting him to respond, "Coming..."

He walked back to the greenhouse’s entrance. Xuanxuan crushed a cigarette butt underfoot, noticing his unusual demeanor—a clearly shocked expression with uneven breathing. She frowned, uncertain of what had happened. "Did you find something?"

"I..." Qi Yan was about to describe what he had just seen, but when he raised his hand to point toward that spot, he suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

At that moment, even the faint, fragrant scent had vanished, replaced by a musty, unpleasant odor.

"Ah, let's just go, there’s no use..." Just as he hesitated, Elder Yan returned, shaking his head repeatedly and interrupting their conversation. "I’m guessing the county police have already checked here since Old He went missing. There isn't much left of his belongings. Sigh... helpless!"

Because of Elder Yan's interjection, Qi Yan ultimately did not speak up right then.

Da Long Hao, seeing Elder Yan about to give up, stepped closer and asked, "So what now? Is there any point in staying?"

"Let’s go back to the inn and discuss it slowly..." Elder Yan had no better idea.

After they all exited the shed, Qi Yan paused but couldn’t hold back and asked, "Elder Yan, Sister Xuanxuan, and Ding Lingzi... you three were inside just now, did you feel anything unusual?"

Elder Yan and Xuanxuan exchanged a glance, their expressions puzzled. "Unusual? What do you mean?"

"I mean... in this greenhouse, did you sense any... dirty things? You all know more than I do, with more experience. So if there were any ‘things’ here, you should have noticed easily, right?"

Elder Yan was even more stunned by his question. After some thought, he frowned and asked, "Why do you ask? Did you find something?"

Xuanxuan added, "I didn’t sense anything strange. What about you, Little Ding?"

Ding Lingzi silently pondered for a moment, then shook her head slightly. "Nothing. No human aura, neither living nor dead. Not even any animal presence."

Qi Yan grew even more unsettled. Nothing? How could that be...

Everyone present, including Da Long Hao, had more experience than him. Did they really sense nothing at all besides himself?

Could it be... he had been too isolated for too long, plus the fatigue from travel, and had just imagined it all?

Looking back now, it didn’t seem so real. When he first met his "mother’s" true spirit, he had also doubted it might be a hallucination, but those moments were different—no matter how incredible, they felt undeniably real.

This time was unlike that. The vision had been vivid at first, but only a short while had passed before it faded, and he could no longer recall the faces of those two naked girls.

Everyone looked at Qi Yan curiously, waiting for his explanation.

"It’s... nothing. I must have imagined it," he muttered, hesitating and unable to say more.

Da Long Hao grew impatient. "Don’t hide it... what did you see just now?"

If it had been a ghostly face or some terrifying entity, Qi Yan would have said it outright.

But this was different... how could he describe it? What he saw was two women... well, doing something... and two girls standing there. He couldn’t bring himself to say it, so he left out most of the details. "I just saw two women in the greenhouse for a few seconds, and then they disappeared when Sister Xuanxuan called me."

Elder Yan saw that Qi Yan didn’t seem to be lying. Besides, Qi Yan’s constitution was no longer ordinary; his heightened perception was normal. Even if vague, his observations deserved attention—especially since this was the place where the person they were searching for had once lived.

"You should have said something sooner. I told you to tell me if you noticed anything... Come on, let’s go back and take a look," Elder Yan said, pulling Qi Yan and the others along.

When they all returned to the greasy curtain, they sensed nothing—not even a trace of the scent.

"Little Ding, try to sense it carefully," Elder Yan said.

Ding Lingzi nodded, took a couple of steps forward, raised her hands as if to feel for something, and slowly turned around in place.

"I still don’t sense anything," she said.

Qi Yan pressed on, "Then... on the way here, you mentioned smelling a faint fragrance, right? Can you smell it here now?"

Ding Lingzi shook her head again. "It’s gone. I only caught a faint whiff of that strange scent earlier."

Xuanxuan stroked her chin. "Old man, do you think... Qi Yan just imagined it?"

Elder Yan adjusted his glasses, avoiding a definite answer. "Maybe he’s just overly sensitive, but it’s also possible... Tsk, rural places like this are different from the city, especially remote villages like this one. The chances of such things existing here are higher."

That was essentially a non-committal answer.

It wasn’t surprising, though, because among them, only Qi Yan had perceived or seen anything for a time. If he were the only one with a spiritual constitution, it would be easier to explain. But the fact that people like Ding Lingzi and Elder Yan, who were even more perceptive, had found nothing...

Qi Yan wanted to believe he had simply misread things or daydreamed in broad daylight—that would be best.

But... if he hadn’t been mistaken, then it was strange and frightening. What kind of entity could so easily evade the senses of Elder Yan and the others? Ordinary spirits or ghosts would hardly manage that.

For now, they returned to the village inn along the same path, carrying a faint unease in their hearts. The sun had already dipped below the mountain ridge. The night in the mountains was far more dangerous than the illuminated cities...