A few people walked a few steps into the village. It was empty, yet all the doors were open and the lights were on. The floors were neatly swept, the tables polished to a shine, and many dishes were already set—unexpectedly abundant: braised shank of pork, old chicken soup, lion's head dumplings, scallion-braised lamb. The steam rose gently, and the aroma was overpowering. Fei Tang found himself unable to hold back, swallowing several times. Since entering the pass, he had felt like a Buddhist monk on a strict vegetarian diet—meat was always served in thin slices. Now, the scene before him was so vivid and generous that it seemed to move the very heart of China. Chang Dong soon noticed some oddities in the village. Some houses were half-submerged in the ground; others had only their roofs visible, with wooden staircases suddenly rising into the air like sentinels. There were no chickens in the chicken coops, no pigs in the pig pens, and although dog feed bowls remained, dogs could not be found anywhere. It was as if the village were a ghost ship at sea—everything was running, yet no living beings were present. Chang Dong paused, then slowly stepped back: "Reboarded the carriage, turned around, Fei Tang felt a bit nostalgic: 'That dish—truly, it was delicious.' Chang Dong replied, 'Just go eat whenever you feel like it; we'll be waiting here for you.' Fei Tang shrunk his neck, silent—looking at him like he was foolish, when in fact he wasn't hungry at all. Gao Shen said, 'When I was a child, my grandfather used to tell me many such stories. When travelers are on the road and come across a house with wine, food, and wealth, yet no one inside, they should never be greedy—anytime they take even a bite or a single item, they’ll find themselves tied down.' Ding Liu snorted, 'I know this story well, but this village feels strange—so out of the ordinary. If it's a trap, who would fall for it? To deceive someone, they’d have to pull off a truly well-orchestrated performance.' Chang Dong said, 'That’s not certain.' 'What do you mean?' Chang Dong pointed toward the setting sun, now barely a thin red line at the horizon, still not fully dark. 'The sky hasn’t fully darkened yet. Even makeup Perhaps it was merely a matter of timing—arriving a little earlier, one would find a wild, overgrown village; arriving a little later, one would find it bright with lights. But when they arrived, the painting was still half-finished. Ding Liu listened intently, growing chilled, and kept glancing back at the telescope. Fei Tang also felt uneasy, kneeling on the back seat, stretching his arms as far as he could, peering into the rear of the carriage, until finally he managed to pull out the Zhun Shan He. He handed it over to Gao Shen and said, "You have experience—please take a look. How can we wake it up quickly? Should we press the Human Central Vessel? Or perhaps the Chicken's Central Vessel?" Last time, it had been startled into unconsciousness; this time, it had been fumigated. Was a grand, spirit-protecting rooster, so delicate and frail, really suitable? Gao Shen was genuinely at a loss—what experience did he have? Only a rather fanciful grandfather, that was all. Yet it was rare for colleagues to ask him to do something, and he truly valued this opportunity, quietly accepting it. After holding on for a while and seeing no response from Zhunshanhe, he straightened up and went to the back compartment to fetch tools. A while later, Ding Liu suddenly shouted, "Whoa! The roof's getting higher—the roof is rising! Dong-gong!" Chang Dong said, "I need to drive; describe it to me." Ding Liu couldn't quite put it into words, so she simply handed the telescope to Ye Liuxi. Ye Liuxi grasped the collision bar, leaned out of the window, and Chang Dong carefully navigated around the ground bumps to avoid her colliding. Ye Liuxi said, "Earlier, we saw everything was flat—now everything's uneven. The tallest buildings are three stories high, growing straight out of the ground. That staircase—it connects two buildings, going from the second floor of one to the third floor of the other. On the staircase…" She paused, then, after sitting back down, finished, "On the staircase, someone just walked past." Fei Tang's hair stood on end—he couldn't believe it. There had been not a single sound from that village just a moment ago. As he was about to speak, the car suddenly emitted a loud "clunk." The sound was so sharp that even Chang Dong was startled and instinctively pressed down on the brakes. Everyone turned to look at Gao Shen. Gao Shen was holding a stainless-steel spoon, visibly at a loss, his face flushed red, even to the roots of his ears. A padded board was placed across his knees, with a rice pot inverted on top. He had been vigorously tapping the pot's bottom with the spoon just moments before. Fei Tang asked, "What are you doing?" Curious, he grasped the pot's handles and lifted it slightly. Beneath it lay the Zhen Shan He. Ding Liu couldn't help but let out a soft, startled laugh. Chang Dong imagined himself trapped in the pot, with a steel spoon relentlessly tapping and banging outside—those sounds, that pressure wave, truly… Fei Tang sincerely admired, “Old Gao, you’ve got this! Such a desperate, outlandish method—you’re either silent or you make a grand entrance. Tap!” With that, he snatched the pot spoon from Gao’s hands and began banging it wildly against the bottom of the pot. The sound was like a hammer shattering a drum. Chang Dong felt that Zhun Shanhe had been destined for this very moment ever since encountering this group. Ding Liu clutched her ears, shouting, “My head! Oh, my head!” The head couldn’t take it anymore—Fei Tang quickly stopped. Everyone remained silent, as though something significant was about to unfold. Indeed, soon after, a sound of wings flapping emerged from within the pot. Cheers erupted throughout the back seat. Chang Dong kept driving, yet couldn’t help glancing at Ye Liuxi. She still looked subdued. What exactly were the things she referred to as "not clear yet"? —— Another meeting had been convened, and by now the sky was completely dark. Chang Dong no longer expected anything like a red-flowered tree night club; for tonight, as long as there was a roof to shelter him, even camping wasn't necessary. A row of wooden pavilions appeared not far ahead. They looked like construction sheds—at least a dozen, all dark, with locked doors illuminated by the headlights. Chang Dong slowly pulled over. Fei Tang, now experienced, said, "Wait a moment, don't get out yet—let Zhun Shan He go ahead." He opened the door and sent Zhun Shan He off first. Zhun Shan He seemed a bit puzzled, standing there for a while before wobbling off toward the pavilions. The broken car window, Fat Tang and Ding Liu both propped their heads against it, staring intently at the Zhenshan River, exchanging comments with each other— "What's going on? The Zhenshan River's making this S-shaped curve—this is strange." "I think it's more like a runway stride. That's why models walk so gracefully—look at its two legs, they're perfectly aligned in a straight line." Changdong couldn't take it anymore: "It's been shaken by your pots and pans—it's still dizzy." As the Zhenshan River reached the entrance of the shed, it settled itself against the doorframe, neck resting against the door—just right. Quite good at finding comfort for itself. Fat Tang concluded: "I think this one can stay." —Looking over the dozen wooden sheds, he checked each lock and found them all solid and secure, except for one where the hinge screws had loosened. After a few strong pulls, the screws came completely loose, and the door opened right when pushed. Chang Dong shone his flashlight inside. The wooden shed was quite interesting—it turned out to be a small two-story structure. The upper level was spacious, with a staircase leading up, and six mattress beds arranged there. The ground floor was lower, likely used for living and dining, featuring short-legged tables and a wide wooden platform built against the wall, resembling a tatami mat. Chang Dong wiped the table with his hand; there was some dust, but the wood itself hadn’t rotted—should it have been abandoned, it wouldn’t have been for very long. It seemed more like a dormitory, housing six people per room, and likely once accommodating at least a hundred or so residents. There were no practical items left behind, suggesting the people who lived here had cleared out and moved away. Chang Dong thought this was satisfactory: “We’ll settle here.” On the map, the next stop was labeled “Welcome Gate,” with an arch-shaped icon. Judging by the distance, the journey from Welcome Gate to Black Stone City would take at least one full day—Black Stone City was quite grand, clearly welcoming guests from afar. As the night fell, the wind grew strong. Fei Tang and Gao Shen gathered some stones and built a simple fire pit inside the house, while Ye Liuxi handled the firewood—her knife was truly effective, effortlessly splitting half a table into fragments. Chang Dong kindled the fire in the pit, boiled a pot of soup using the seasoning packages, added some dried beef slices, and since the flatbread was too hard, he tore it into pieces and dropped them into the soup. Surprisingly, the soup tasted quite good; Fei Tang thought it tasted like lamb noodle soup, though he admitted it was pure nonsense. Fei Tang, upon hearing that they needed to stay overnight, immediately summoned the Zhun Shan He: "Dongge, just give it a little courtesy—have it handle the night watch. Last time when we encountered Qi Niang Cao, how brave it was!" After saying this, he tied the Zhun Shan He outside with a rope, closed the door, and felt quite satisfied. Outside, the wind howled continuously, and the door creaked with each gust—surely Zhun Shan He was using its chicken claws to tap and scratch at the door. Chang Dong glanced at Fei Tang and said, "If I were Zhun Shan He, with treatment like this, I'd have long since joined the forces of darkness—can't you just be a little kinder to small creatures?" He opened the door, let Zhun Shan He in, fed it water with a spoon, and then sprinkled a bit of millet on top. Fei Tang thought chickens couldn't really be considered small animals, and he was feeling rather discontented. Suddenly, from upstairs came Ding Liu's voice: "Hey, Dongge, there's a drawing here!" As she spoke, she had already descended the stairs, holding a few sheets of Chang Dong took it and stepped close to the fire to examine it. At first, he thought it was a preliminary sketch for a shadow play. Architecture wasn’t usually drawn this way—this looked more like a shadow play sketch. In shadow play, when figures are sketched, the heads, bodies, and limbs are drawn separately and then joined with lines after carving. This drawing followed the same principle: each building was drawn separately, the first floor and second floor were drawn apart, and even the stairs were drawn individually. Stairs? Chang Dong suddenly remembered the staircase he had seen in that village just now. He quickly flipped through a few more pages. On the second-to-last sheet, the full layout revealed a well-organized group of buildings, arranged in a harmonious, staggered pattern. A few words at the bottom were faintly legible—something about "renovation" and "engineering." The final sheet, however, looked more like a procurement list: live pigs, x heads; live sheep, x heads; live cattle, xx heads. Ding Liu couldn’t make sense of it: “What does this mean?” Chang Dong paused thoughtfully: "If I'm not mistaken, this is indeed a workers' shed—not abandoned, but actively used, with a large number of workers coming regularly..." Given the dust accumulation on the table and the condition of the wood, the "regularly" might mean several years apart. "These workers come regularly to repair and maintain the village. What we saw at sunset was essentially a two-dimensional layout of the village. But after dark, the houses, staircases, and courtyards come together—some roofs rise higher, some staircases connect—forming a complete, cohesive complex." Ding Liu asked, "And then what? My sister-in-west said she saw someone walking up the stairs—was that person real or just an illusion?" Chang Dong replied, "Would you like to find out? Then go back and check yourself?" Ding Liu was taken aback, suddenly irritated, and looked up at the stairs, shouting loudly, "Sister-in-west, look at my brother—how bad he is! Oh, my head! My head is pounding!"