In the woods, eyeing the silhouette of the young man wearing a navy-style hat at the entrance, Yin Bo whispered, “Another one’s back. “

-｛Distributor March·Duli is watching my moves.｝

Ma Shuo cracked a smile; the distributor was signaling to him.

Outside the courtyard, Anda was sniffing the ground and walking toward the side of the house. The little black dog suddenly seemed to have found something, wagging its tail as it trotted briskly into the woods.

“Didn’t think this dump had so many people staying here… Hey, shoo, shoo—where the hell did this one come from? “

The little black dog pounced onto Ma Shuo’s arm, staring at him with wide eyes, its tail wagging so fast it made a whirring sound.

“Get back inside, now. ” Amidst a wave of doggy odor, Ma Shuo whispered a harsh scolding and pushed Anda away. But the dog thought it was playing and pounced back even more excitedly.

The two men’s arms quickly became a tangled mess wrestling with the dog.

Yang Zicang, who had already been hiding near the back of the house, relaxed. These two weren’t playing for keeps; maybe they were just petty thieves after all.

A beam of torchlight, accompanied by voices speaking the Wutao language, came from behind the winding path.

Yin Bo and the other man were in the midst of chaos with Anda. Upon hearing the sound, Anda immediately abandoned the two men and bolted out toward the woods.

“That damned thing’s finally gone. “

“Shh. “

“Woof! “

Seeing Anda run out of the woods, Edgar Jin Christie immediately crouched down with a smile, “Wow, it’s Anda! “

Beside the young man in a red robe stood a middle-aged man of average build, carrying a case, wearing a cashmere suit jacket and round-rimmed glasses.

“So this is your little dog. “

“Haha, he’s the only family a young man from Iron Flower Town has. “

“Woof! ” The little dog barked at them twice, then ran a few steps back into the woods, suddenly stopping sideways to look back at them.

Jin Christie’s smile had yet to fade. The medium-built man beside him, seemingly in his forties or fifties, chuckled, “You see, canines, especially domesticated ones. When they do that, it’s usually an invitation to follow them. “

Edgar Jin Christie solemnly raised his torch, “Who’s there! “

Crunch, crunch, crunch!

Immediately, the sound of two rapid footsteps echoed from the woods.

“Thieves! ” The red-robed, ponytailed youth gave chase for a few steps, shouting loudly.

Two figures holding broomsticks and wooden sticks immediately rushed out from the storage room’s main door. “Where! Ah, I see them! “

“Quick, catch the thieves! “

Thump, thump, thump, thump! Milena came running out, wielding a spatula and banging a washbasin.

“Woof, woof, woof! ” The little black dog had never seen such a commotion. It jumped up joyfully, joining the crowd in chasing the two thieves into utter chaos.

……

Midnight.

After giving Anda a grand commendation and bestowing upon him the special honor of “Special Investigator, ” the group gathered around a wooden table for a brief meeting, discussing who those two people might be.

The final conclusion of the discussion was to list those who vandalized the bulletin board in the afternoon as the prime suspects. They would go teach them a lesson tomorrow—even if it wasn’t them, it would serve as a warning and a show of force against the two thieves.

After the meeting, Kim Crest sat down beside Yang Zicang and introduced him:

“Next to me is a professor of biology from Holtzburg University, Ulysses Morel. He’s a specialist in studying anomalous ecology of birds and fish, and he’s also my guest. Before the siege, he was unfortunately here on a fish research trip. “

“Pleased to meet you. You can also call me Jean Ussy. ” The bespectacled middle-aged man shook hands with Yang Zicang.

That kid finally managed to sell one of his bizarre bone ornaments.

Yang Zicang had already seen this self-proclaimed “fossilologist’s ” collection earlier, and they were indeed visually pleasing, polished and eye-catching… at the very least, the odor had been dealt with.

None of these items were fossils, nor did they contain any special bloodline power. They were really just some relatively ordinary, good-looking animal skeletons. It was a mercy that he actually sold one.

This might be Edgar’s excuse for bringing people back for free lodging.

“Are you also a noble? It seems everyone here has changed their names to ‘Lorne.’ “

Jean Ussy said, “There is a hero in the north of the continent who once rebelled against the rule of the nobility. His name was ‘Ryan.’ So we, the middle class who have never held noble status since ancient times, use his name to replace our true surnames. “

“Why did you all adopt the same surname? Is it to prevent something bad from happening? “

Over these past few days, Yang Zicang’s proficiency in the Mutao Language had skyrocketed, just as Aqiang had said it would, and it was even faster than what Aqiang had claimed.

This topic excited Jean Ussy greatly: “This has actually been one of my research projects. Besides my interest in biological anomalies, I am also interested in human anomalies. “

“Uh… What do you mean by ‘anomalies’…? “

Edgar Jin Christie fixed his gaze on Yang Zicang, whose face had gradually filled with suspicion, a smile playing on his lips.

The biologist, Jean Ussy, continued, “You might not know this, but some species of fish will collectively jump ashore even outside of the spawning season. For instance, in July of the year 422, near the city of Anchester on the shores of the Raging Sea, a massive group of fish leaped onto the land and died. For an entire month, well over a hundred thousand fish of various species perished there! “

“That certainly isn’t normal, ” Yang Zicang responded.

However, he had also heard of similar incidents back on Earth. Perhaps in any world, such coincidences are a result of inevitable necessity.

“Exactly, ” Jean Ussy said, his words tumbling out. “The panic caused by the incident led everyone living near Anchester to change their names. “

“……“

“They believed it was a curse, ” chimed in Edgar Jin Christie from the side, speaking in an authentic accent.

“Well, this… okay, it really does seem like a curse. ” Yang Zicang was a bit amused and exasperated.

……

Ma Shuo and Yin Bo fled the village in embarrassment, not returning until dawn.

“We actually lost to a dog. This isn’t good, old Yin. “

“A dog brings fortune; I think this is a good sign instead. “

Ma Shuo clenched his fists. The two began working through the night on their so-called board newspaper. They racked their brains and found they could think of a few jokes, but none were suitable for this place. And besides jokes, what else could they write about?

“What should we do? ” Holding a pen and staring helplessly at the wooden board, Yin Bo turned his bewildered face towards the bitter and resentful Ma Shuo.

Because they had suddenly realized that neither of them was very good at writing in the Mutao language.

“Sigh. It’s time to go find those bastards to help. “

Ma Shuo got up and went out again. After searching for a while, he finally found them in a cleaned-out cow shed.

Through a mix of threats and lures, two of them who could write went back to the house with Ma Shuo.

In the end, after revising two ancient jokes and writing them on the front of the board newspaper, they wrote a critique of that afternoon’s fight on the “B ” side. They called on those with ability to help the weak, women, and children.

Most of the content was a reprint of the “01 issue ” ofQingying Gazette**.

By six or seven, the group was yawning, sprawled out in exhaustion before the large wooden board. Only Ma Shuo was still seriously reviewing the content on it.

“This won’t do. “

Ma Shuo thought for a moment, then forced the two to write an insincere apology statement.

Finally, amid various arguments, they wrote a name at the very top of the bulletin board that no one was entirely satisfied with, yet everyone felt matched their own identity:Fire Dance Gazette.