Above the gray fog

Lin Shan did not speak.

Hu Xiong next to her said to the girl:

"This is the investigator sent by the higher-ups to investigate the 'Human Flower' incident. He will live in our village for a while, um... in your house."

"No... no." The girl trembled and said timidly. How could she let a stranger live in her house casually? Moreover, her parents had just been in trouble. If this ordinary-looking man in front of her had any bad intentions...

She couldn't understand why Uncle Hu, who usually had a good relationship with her family, would make such an arrangement.

"That... Brother Lin Hai, please step aside for a while. I will talk to Xiao Ru alone."

Lin Hai was the pseudonym they had agreed on in advance. Lin Shan nodded and turned to leave.

Lin Shan simply walked around the village. Everything here looked normal, but most of the people in this village were not normal.

Their blood was more or less mixed with the fibers that only 'Human Flowers' had.

He had not visited other villages, but he thought it would not be too good.

The clues that he had been looking around for several days but could not find were now everywhere. It was because his thinking was wrong. He did not expect that the abnormality would be hidden in the crowd everywhere.

So many people here have undergone abnormal changes. The source should not be too far away. Lin Shan plans to live here for a while to find the source. This is no longer a trivial matter and must be cleared as soon as possible.

After walking around the village, Lin Shan returned to the girl's home.

The two of them, one big and one small, sat on the steps and looked at the stars together, occasionally opening their mouths and whispering something.

Seeing Lin Shan coming back, Hu Xiong stood up to greet him and said:

"Xiao Ru accepted it. Tell the outside world that you are his distant relative from the city. Knowing that something happened to her family, you came to help for a few days. You can come the day after tomorrow night. This seems more reasonable."

"Okay, then I will come the day after tomorrow." Lin Shan responded, walked to the corner of the street where there was no one and teleported into the air.

Now the transmission of information depends entirely on writing letters. Letters from various villages are collected uniformly, and the postmen are sent to the city by horseback and then distributed to the corresponding people. There are only two stations along the way. Generally, letters written during the day will be delivered at night, including reports written by officials in various villages and towns.

The night passed quickly. During the day, Lin Shan kept observing the movements of the villagers. Everything was normal.

During the period, he also flew to the village next door. As he expected, some people in the next village were also affected.

Finally, he flew to the town called "Sanli Town" in the center of the grazing area. The population here is close to 10,000. The tribe now has one city and three towns, and "Sanli Town" is one of the three towns.

He flew over Sanli Town and found that although there are many people here, few people are infected with human flower fibers, which is not as common as in the village.

"It seems that the source is not in the town."

He kept wandering around until the next morning, and then returned to Xiaomu Village and officially became a villager of Xiaomu Village.

Lin Shan lived in Xiao Ru's father's room. He lived the same life as the villagers from 9 am to 5 pm every day. He herded for Xiao Ru during the day and fed the poultry in the backyard at night.

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed. His life trajectory had completely synchronized with the villagers here. He even knew some of the villagers. The villagers also knew that a distant relative had come to Xiao Ru's house to help her manage the family business left by her parents.

There were also rumors that Lin Shan came to help Xiao Ru because he coveted Xiao Ru's family business, and he would definitely show his fangs and ask for a share of the property later. Faced with these, Lin Shan was too lazy to pay attention and continued to live a normal life.

"Brother Lin, it's time to eat!" Xiao Ru shouted in the house.

"Okay, I'm here."

In the evening, in the yard.

Rural buildings are different from those in the city. The land here is not planned and can be used at will. Every household has two yards, one in front and one in the back. The small yard in the front is used for eating and cooling off or drying some food, and the wide backyard is used to raise poultry.

On a square wooden table, there were two side dishes. The staple food was steamed buns made of peanut wheat, which was also the only staple food of the human race at present.

Xiaoru bit the steamed buns while secretly looking at Lin Shan.

Lin Shan frowned.

No additional clues were found in the past few days. Not only that, the mutations in the human bodies of the villagers were gradually increasing, and there were more and more plant fibers in the blood, as if they were produced out of thin air.

There were several villagers with particularly serious cases, and they might not survive this month. He also found that the speed of this mutation was different for each person. Some people were slow, some were fast, and some were completely absent, but these people's daily lives were no different.

"Where is the source? What is it?" Lin Shan muttered to himself.

"Are you thinking about the human flower?" Xiaoru asked in a low voice. Lin Shan had told her in advance that he would keep his identity confidential, so Xiaoru usually did not dare to mention the word "human flower".

"Yeah." Looking at Xiaoru, Lin Shan just nodded slightly and didn't say much.

The reason why he concealed his identity was that he suspected that this incident might be man-made. If the murderer knew that someone was investigating, he might restrain himself.

He also asked about the parchment in the middle, and the answer he gave was: "It involves the fate of the human race, and it is impossible to know."

The meaning is probably that this matter is very serious and will affect the current fate of the human race. As long as it affects the fate of the race or involves race, the parchment will not work.

At this time, Xiaoru put down the bowl and chopsticks and whispered: "I'm full."

"I'll just eat a steamed bun, you go and clean it up." Lin Shan took out a steamed bun and said to Xiaoru.

"Okay." Xiaoru nodded and began to clean up the leftovers on the table. He was used to Lin Shan. There was no expression on his face, as if he didn't care about anything except the "Human Flower" incident.

After cleaning up, Xiaoru began to boil water to prepare for washing. Everything was the same as usual. When she passed the living room, she folded her hands and prayed to a portrait.

In the yard, Lin Shan suddenly opened his eyes.

"Found it!"

Lin Shan quickly walked into the living room, blocked Xiaoru's way, and said coldly: "What did you do just now?"

Although he couldn't see the situation in the living room, he had been staring at the plant fiber in Xiaoru's blood. Just now, it had obviously increased.

"I... I was just boiling water..." Xiaoru replied. She was a little afraid of Lin Shan's current appearance, and her voice was a little trembling.

Seeing Xiaoru's performance, Lin Shan knew that he was anxious. He tried to soften his tone and asked softly:

"What happened after boiling the water?"

"I was going to take a bath..."

"What did you do after boiling the water?"

"I...I didn't do anything." Xiaoru's voice was already a little tearful.

Lin Shan was speechless. He began to observe the living room. He had been here countless times. It was the same as usual, without any difference.

"Could it be that it was planted by itself?"

Lin Shan thought to himself. There was also such a possibility. Perhaps the source had left long ago, but only planted seeds in them, which would gradually erode the human body over time.

This situation was the most troublesome. He had no way to do it. He could extract blood and plant fibers together, or extract blood alone, but he could not extract plant fibers alone.

If there were such fibers in the blood, there must be other parts of the body, but he just couldn't sense them.

"I also made a wish..."

At this moment, Xiaoru suddenly spoke.