Chapter 164 - A Bad Excuse (1/2)

“Uhm, excuse me, we understand that there hasn’t been any newborn baby girl in Yanyi Village for over ten years. We’re here to investigate into…”

“Are people gossiping again? This is a private matter of our village. Whether we are having baby girls or baby boys, I’m sure it has nothing to do with outsiders like yourself,” the middle-aged man retorted.

“Haha. Of course, it doesn’t. We mean no harm. It’s just that we’ve been researching this other area. They’re the complete opposite and only have baby boys in the village! This is why we’re here.”

Bai Wu was young and frank. Xu Lan smiled and gestured for Bai Wu to make space. With his left hand on his waist, he took a cigarette from Zhang Fei with his right.

“Ha! There’s such place? Where is it? I thought this is only happening to our village. Since all of you are here for research purposes, hmm… Let’s head back and meet the village head. We’ll see what he says!” The middle-aged man led them to the village head’s home eagerly after hearing Xu Lan’s explanation.

“Why did he accept your explanation without suspicion after being so hostile to the elder?” The businessman pinched his nose bridge and asked confusedly. His question was on everyone’s mind as the same thing happened at Darkwater Town. It was unbelievable how people always bought his bad excuses.

“Uhh, I’m quite surprised myself. You can call it a policeman’s instinct. Oh, I don’t think I’ve mentioned but I used to be a policeman,” Xu Lan shrugged and said helplessly.

They should be in a system, one which allowed them to gain experience points and gold coins upon completion of the mission; failing which, they would die. This time around, it would be an actual death, one which they would not be resurrected from. Since this was their main mission, any character who was not a player would be an NPC. With the correct selection, the NPC would acknowledge the player’s existence.

“Haha, I didn’t think that a policeman would play video games. This is kind of different from the image of a policeman I have in mind…” Fang Lingzi cocked her head and smiled at Xu Lan cheekily.

“Little girl, policemen are humans too. Please don’t judge us against God’s standard,” Xu Lan raised his brows and said bemusingly. The scar on the corner of his brows curled as he spoke.

Fang Lingzi chuckled and hid behind Sheng Ya while making funny faces at Xu Lan.

“Papa, the village head is here,” Bai Wu whispered guiltily.

Xu Lan smiled with his teeth and pushed Bai Wu toward the village head. Bai Wu took a few steps backward and looked at Xu Lan in shock.

“You’re a grown up now and it’s time for you to be independent,” Xu Lan patted Bai Wu’s shoulder and smiled in a friendly manner.

The village was surrounded by mountains and could be found amidst the secluded forests. The chirping of the birds and the insects made everyone thought that they were in a paradise. Bai Wu took a deep breath and returned Xu Lan’s determined gaze. He was calming down.

“I heard you all came here for scientific research?” Judging from his rolled-up pants leg, the village head seemed to be working in the rice fields earlier. There were mud stains on his legs. He walked forward as he dried his wet hands on his shirt.

“Yes, nice to meet you, village head. We found out by chance that Yanyi Village hasn’t had any newborn baby girls for many years. We came to visit as we’ve previously encountered a village where only baby boys were born,” Bai Wu was nervous after hearing Xu Lan’s affirmation, he replied the village head in a shivering voice.

“Uh, that’s right. It’s been fifteen years since we last had any newborn baby girls in the village. May I know what exactly is the research about?” the village head asked with a frown as he pondered on the possibility of marriage arrangements with the other village.

“This is a long story, is there a place for us to speak at length? We’re here to investigate the cause of this phenomenon,” Bai Wu smiled as he elaborated, his bright smile unarmed everyone.