Of course, this kind of forgetting can be accidental. In fact, I don’t know how many legends have been lost to history, but such obliteration is usually on a large scale; it’s not just one legend that disappears. A break in legends inevitably accompanies a complete blank in a certain historical period, with no information whatsoever.

I feel there’s something fishy about this. There are plenty of legends and old stories in the village, and there isn’t an obvious break in the timeline, yet there is no related legend about “there used to be an identical ancient village, but it was submerged by water.” Is it possible that someone doesn’t want this legend to be passed down?

Regarding this kind of COPY, I have a very strong intuition that it is a “mirror conspiracy.” The “mirror conspiracy” is a common trick in Japanese detective novels. The core of the trick is concealment, meaning that A Gui’s village is fake, created to prevent others from discovering that the real village has disappeared.

The fundamental reason for my strong intuition is the story of the magic lake that Pan Ma mentioned. My initial speculation was also a kind of mirror trick: the old archaeological team was erased, and a new, unknown team quietly took their place, which is the “mirror.”

This can also explain why there is a legend about a great fire burning the old village. At that time, the village was certainly not entirely on the slopes of the canyon; there would have been many scattered buildings in the mountains, distributed in locations far from existence. These villages couldn’t be submerged, but they had to be destroyed, which might have involved using mountain fires. To cover up the traces of the fire, this explanation was ultimately used.

Behind this trick lies a grand conspiracy, which could be extremely bloody. The original villagers would have inevitably been slaughtered, and the killers might have disguised themselves as villagers, residing in the fake village to execute their plan. This trick occurred a long time ago, and several years later, the jade mine incident happened, after which the village was submerged.

With so many events happening in one place, it’s clear that something is hidden within the mountains, rivers, and villages here.

Everything sounds incredibly mysterious and seems unlikely. I am very resistant to thinking in this direction, as it cannot be verified. For now, I can only suppress my questions and wait for further investigation results.

My brain is completely overwhelmed. Just as I was thinking of grabbing a drink to clear my head, the fat guy made a sound of annoyance and pointed at the drawing, asking me, “Tian Zhen, what do you see in your drawing?”

I leaned in and found that he had shaded some areas with his pen. Soon, my flat map became mottled. When he held it up to the sunlight, I was stunned.

With just a little alteration, the entire village map had transformed into the shape of an animal, complete with eyes and claws. Upon closer inspection, I immediately recognized it; it was a Qilin.

“This is getting more and more interesting,” the fat guy murmured.

All the hairs on my body stood up. What I could see was that the Qilin looked very much like the one on the oil bottle. Oh my! Could it be that I really came to the right place? I thought, as several concepts flashed through my mind: Qilin, tattoo, flat map. Suddenly, a groundbreaking idea struck me.

I took the map and walked towards the oil bottle, who was in a daze.

I approached him and said, “Hurry, take off your clothes!”

He was taken aback for a moment, looking confused. I showed him the map I had in my hand and explained this and that repeatedly, but he still didn’t understand. Nevertheless, he took off his clothes as I instructed. Watching his clumsy movements made me anxious; I really wanted to kick him over and get closer to see. It was only after he had taken off his clothes that I remembered the tattoos on his body, which were usually invisible.

I asked the silent oil bottle what was going on, and he told me that this kind of tattoo is made from the juice of a thorny plant. Normally, it is transparent, but it turns black when the body temperature exceeds a certain level. In ancient times, the Miao people often suffered from damp heat diseases, and such tattoos could be used to detect children’s body temperature.

Of course, a high body temperature could also result from intense exercise, so when the silent oil bottle was engaged in fierce fighting or got excited, the tattoos would appear. Due to varying concentrations, the sensitivity to temperature differs; only extreme and vigorous fights could make all the tattoo patterns emerge.

The fat guy brought a hot water bag, and we forced the silent oil bottle to apply it to his chest. Sure enough, the black tattoos gradually became visible. The fat guy exclaimed, “Wow! This is a great trick! How come I never knew about this when I was cheating before?” I began to examine his tattoos and the map I had drawn more closely.

“Look at the position of this ancient building,” the fat guy said, pointing to the direction of the path next to the tower. “If Ba Nai and this village are the same, then the position of the ancient building at the bottom of the lake just happens to be where the tall wooden building of the little brother is located. If it’s on the little brother, it’s the eye of the Qilin.”

“Oh?” I was intrigued and took a closer look. Indeed, it was as he said. I thought to myself that the fat guy was quite observant.

Is there any deeper meaning to this?

The fat guy continued, “From this, we can be sure of one thing: Little brother, you definitely have a connection to this.”

I scoffed and said, “Isn’t that obvious?”

The fat guy insisted it was not just nonsense, that this was of great significance for us. Previously, we could only estimate that there might be some clues here; now we could confirm it. Estimation and confirmation are two completely different concepts, and our approach moving forward would change as a result.

I nodded; that was true. Moreover, the situation in this village was just beginning, and we had some leads.

The fat guy then discussed some guiding directions with us, saying, “It seems we have some clues now, and there’s no need to rush. After all, the village can’t just suddenly disappear. We definitely need to stay and conduct a systematic investigation. Additionally, we need to inquire about the surrounding villages one by one to see what we can find out. This is a long process. I think we’ll have to stay here for quite a while. Let’s organize things, go back, and bring some supplies. We might need to establish a permanent presence here.” He then smiled at Yun Cai, “Girl, we’ll be spending a lot of time together!”

Yun Cai smiled back, but her gaze unconsciously flickered towards the silent oil bottle.