When Feng Yi awoke, the previously opened “genealogy record” was already closed. The upper slab of the stone platform was restored to its original state, and the “genealogy record” was sealed inside. The stone pillar slowly sank until it fused with the ground.

Feng Yi crouched down and took a closer look, even worried that he might not be able to see clearly, he took out his phone and used the high-definition camera to zoom in to clearly see every detail of the ground clearly. However, whether it was the naked eye or the phone’s high-definition camera, what he saw and captured was a whole piece of ground without any fine lines, let alone cracks. It was as if everything he experienced before was his hallucination. After searching the room carefully several times, he still couldn’t find any suspicious traces.

Feng Yi looked at the time on the phone; it was 7 a.m. He actually stayed here all night, possibly standing the whole time! But there was no stiffness or discomfort in his body!

Unable to find any more clues, Feng Yi could only give up and walk towards the door on the wall. The door opened automatically. As he approached the door, the lights in the room turned off one by one. When he stepped out of the door, the door automatically closed behind him, and the secret room was already dark.

Walking out of the house, he heard movement from the small courtyard outside.

“Good morning, Uncle Mute. There’s fog?” Feng Yi said.

“It will be gone soon.” Uncle Mute’s text-to-speech sounded from his phone.

The fog blocked the sunlight, but the morning glow had already appeared.  Through the gradually thinning layer of fog, the orange-red and golden rays of the sun could be seen.

All kinds of flowers, plants, and trees in the small courtyard of the old house had drops of water, large and small, on their leaves. The soil that was dry and hard yesterday had either turned into muddy water or changed its shape due to the humidity.

“It rained last night?” Feng Yi was surprised. He had checked the weather forecast, and it clearly said that these two days would be sunny!

However, some people also mentioned to him that the weather on the mountain was unpredictable and could change at any time. The local weather forecast often changed several times a day. Therefore, Feng Yi just casually asked.

Uncle Mute took out his phone and quickly typed text-to-speech: “Breakfast is bread and noodles. You can eat it in the kitchen. It’s all for you. Don’t starve yourself, eat it all! I’m going to the tea garden to pick some tea leaves.”

“There is even a tea garden here? Do you need help? I’m not hungry yet,” Feng Yi offered.

“No, you’re starving!” Uncle Mute replied.

Feng Yi wanted to say something more, but Uncle Mute waved his hand and walked out with the bamboo basket on his back. Seeing this, Feng Yi had no choice but to give up. He had wanted to get some information while helping out.

The kitchen was easy to find, but the things on the kitchen table were beyond his recognition.

There was a large porcelain bowl. Perhaps calling it a large porcelain basin was more accurate. Feng Yi wondered where it was bought from, as it was almost as big as an adult washbasin. It was filled with hand-made noodles. There was also a large food steamer. It had ten steamed buns with thin skin and lots of stuffing, each about the size of his palm in diameter, all filled with meat.

Feng Yi’s eyes straightened. Did Uncle Mute misunderstand something? Why did he think he could eat so much?

When he used to work part-time at school shooting commercials, he had certain dietary requirements because he had to watch his figure, and his food intake hadn’t changed much since then. Based on his appetite, a normal bowl of noodle soup plus a steamed stuffed bun… two at most would be enough.

Don’t waste food!

Thus, Feng Yi, who was very self-aware, dug out a normal-sized soup bowl from the cupboard, filled it with noodles from the large porcelain basin, put a steamed stuffed bun in it, and began to eat.

As he ate, he realized he had finished eating. Yet he was still a little hungry. He filled another bowl, took a bun, and continued eating. The feeling of hunger became more apparent.

Fifteen minutes later.

Feng Yi looked at the large porcelain bowl with not even a spoonful of soup left in it and the empty steamer and fell silent.

On the other side.

Uncle Mute came to the tea garden with a bamboo basket on his back. Overnight many new buds had appeared on the tea tree. The large leaves were full of water droplets. The drops slid down the edge of the leaves, gathered at the tip of the leaves, and bobbed up and down. The morning light pierced the mist, creating streaks of colored light on the clear crystals.

As the fog gradually lifted, Uncle Mute looked at the tea garden with his old eyes and grinned. He took out a special basket from the bamboo basket, carried it on his front, and walked among the tea trees. He picked the tea leaves with both hands at the same time, selecting only the new buds from the tea branches. Every time Uncle Mute waved his hand, many newly sprouted green buds jumped into the basket. His arms were dancing so fast that only vague fan-like shapes could be seen, and dense, light clicking sounds could be heard. It was faster than the brush of a cleaning robot.

His clothes were quickly soaked with dew, and the basket was filled with leaf buds at a rate visible to the naked eye. After they were poured into the big bamboo basket, the next round continued.

When Uncle Mute returned from picking tea leaves, Feng Yi was sitting on the stone steps in front of the door in a daze, as if pondering some profound philosophy of life.

Seeing Uncle Mute, Feng Yi came back to his senses and looked at the time on the phone. “You finished plucking the tea leaves so soon?”

The fog had dissipated, and the sun was beginning to warm the earth, but there was still a trace of humidity in the air.

Uncle Mute put down the bamboo basket and used his phone to reply. “Wait for two hours before going down the mountain. I will roast the tea leaves and give you two cans.”

Feng Yi: “…Okay, thank you, Uncle Mute.”

Inwardly, he thought, I have no intention of going down the mountain so soon! I still want to find out more information!

But Uncle Mute very quickly started the tea-making process and was extremely devoted to it, even putting down his phone that had never left his side. He also didn’t let Feng Yi intervene.

Feng Yi could only wait.

Two hours later, Uncle Mute was done. He put some tea leaves into two special jars and handed them to Feng Yi: “Leave it for two days before drinking it.”

Feng Yi felt a little bad for not giving money after eating and taking things, and was about to say something, but Uncle Mute casually waved his hand to stop him. Then he typed a few words into the phone: “I’m not short of money! Go home, someone will tell you the rest.”

Feng Yi wanted to ask Uncle Mute about the ancestral home, the genealogy record, the old butler, and his great-aunt, but when he heard what the other party said, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to get any useful information. It was obvious that he was being chased away.

After packing the tea cans and tidying up briefly, Feng Yi looked at Uncle Mute. Uncle Mute made a gesture for him to hurry up and be on his way!

Feng Yi sighed inwardly and walked out with his bag on his back. Not far behind him, he heard a voice message that must have been sent by Uncle Mute’s friend——

[Get online! We need three people and just need one more!!!]

Feng Yi sighed inwardly and walked out with his bag on his back. Not far behind him, he heard a voice message that must have been sent by Uncle Mute’s friend…

[Get online! We need three people and am missing one!!!]

Feng Yi turned his head to see Uncle Mute walking toward the house while typing quickly. The old man was really busy.

Sighing, Feng Yi walked down the mountain. This time he didn’t wear a helmet, and his gloves were still in his bag. He somehow knew that he would be fine even without the equipment.

The flying insects gradually increased. However, on the way down the mountain, they took the initiative to avoid Feng Yi when he passed by, as if smelling something nasty. When approaching the mountainside, Feng Yi saw the two people who had driven him up the mountain yesterday. They were unloading large crates from the car and walking to the isolated zone to place the crates on a machine that would transfer them to the other side of the exclusion net and dump the contents out.

The boxes were full of mice. Looking at their fat bodies and shiny fur, the mice had a good life.

Feng Yi went over to greet the two people, but this time he didn’t ask them to drive him down the mountain. He had just completed a great task. Although the suspicion in his heart had increased instead of decreasing, he was much more at ease than when he came yesterday, and his body wasn’t tired at all.

“You’re on your way back?” the two asked.

“Yes. What are you doing?” Feng Yi walked over.

“Feeding them mice. We have to do this every few days. Resource utilization, you know? The mice were brought in from the city. They’re so fat, I wonder how much they’ve secretly eaten.”

Another box was dumped, and the two people looked at the cauliflower snakes on the other side of the exclusion net.

“Why do I feel like there are fewer snakes today?”

“They really don’t look as active as they did the last few times. They look like they’re cowering,” the other person said.

“But judging by the way they swallowed the mice, they’re still pretty fierce, and they don’t look sick.”

“It’s probably because of the rain last night. It’s still a bit cold on the mountain. They’ll be more active when the temperature rises.”

Hearing what they said, Feng Yi also went over to take a closer look.

“You’re no longer afraid of snakes?” one person asked.

Feng Yi paused, then nodded, “I don’t feel so scared anymore.”

Indeed, he wasn’t as afraid as he was yesterday. Just as he somehow knew that those mosquitoes would actively avoid him, he also seemed to know:

[Those gluttons can’t hurt me!]

To verify, Feng Yi took a step closer to the exclusion net.

On the other side of the exclusion net, a king ratsnake with a body length of more than two meters and a torso thicker than an adult’s forearm was swallowing a mouse. After Feng Yi approached, it suddenly stopped and turned slowly, twisting with some difficulty to move further away before continuing to eat. It wasn’t just this one, but the other snakes nearby also left quickly, whether they were eating or preparing to eat.

Seeing this, the two people in charge of the feeding were extremely surprised. “Why are they suddenly afraid of human? Aren’t they usually pretty arrogant?”

Normally, even the presence of people watching them wouldn’t stop these king rat snakes from devouring mice. This was the first time seeing them suddenly become so “shy”. But the two people weren’t too concerned and guessed that Feng Yi had sprayed some snake repellant or something.

Feng Yi left and continued down the mountain. He sent another message to the driver from yesterday. If the driver was driving and it was inconvenient for him to answer the phone, he could read the message when he was free. If he didn’t respond before Feng Yi reached the bottom of the mountain, he would find another ride. Fortunately, the driver was quick to respond and called him directly.

The driver had a good impression of him. “It’s good that you’re safe… Okay, I’m not too far away and will head there right now. I’ll probably be… fifty minutes at the most.”

Feng Yi was in no hurry. After making an appointment with the driver, he was in the mood to enjoy the mountain scenery on the way down. He even saw a frog hiding.

He had heard that there were frogs and toads in the reserve, but not many. The king ratsnakes had been fed too many mice, reducing their predation on frogs and toads. This left a small number of survivors on the mountain.

When Feng Yi arrived at the parking lot from yesterday, the driver happened to arrive.

The driver looked at him. “You seem to be in good spirits.”

“Somewhat, yeah.” Feng Yi put the bag in the trunk and got into the car.

When the car left Mount Xiaofeng, it happened that the people patrolling the reserve were chasing a “jailbreak” snake. The snake had its mouth opened wide to swallow a frog.

The driver tutted. “Seeing a snake swallow its food is pretty scary up close, don’t you think?”

Turning his head, he found Feng Yi staring out of the window with saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Driver: ???

Feng Yi quickly wiped the corners of his mouth and saw that the driver was staring at him inquisitively. “My classmate just sent me a message, inviting me to a big meal upon my return,” he explained.

The driver took the words at face value and nodded vigorously to express his understanding. “Hey, I’m the same. If anyone invites me to a big meal, I would be worse than you!”

After speaking, the driver gave an additional warning. “But remember, if one breaks the law, ten will be a punishable sentence! If you want to eat, eat the bred bullfrogs, and don’t touch the frogs. Bullfrogs are very common now and they’re big and meaty. Oh, I love eating shiso bullfrog!”

Feng Yi responded with a smile, and then slapped himself lightly when the driver turned away. What was wrong with him! How could he get hungry just by looking at the snake!