Bai Ci opened her suitcase. Inside, besides the usual clothes and toiletries, were a laptop, a neatly bound stack of printed documents, and a spiral notebook.
She picked up the spiral notebook and flipped it open to find a half-written draft of a wedding host's speech.
Xie Lai, who had just finished unpacking her personal luggage, caught sight of the documents in Bai Ci's suitcase out of the corner of her eye. Her eyes instantly lit up.
She had just searched through her own suitcase, but it was filled entirely with personal items—not a single page of work plans or procedural materials.
Yet she had clearly noticed that Qu Ling's suitcase also contained a stack of bound paper documents.
Xie Lai couldn't wrap her head around it. In terms of status, she was at least the group leader's assistant. Why did even the makeup artist have reference materials, while she had absolutely nothing?
Was it because of her intern status? Did the game assume others would tolerate her minor mistakes, and to balance things out, withheld her materials?
That felt like a bit of a stretch.
No matter how much she turned it over in her mind, Xie Lai couldn't figure it out.
But she did know one thing. Instead of asking Qu Ling, she didn't hesitate for a second to sidle up to Bai Ci and speak in a low voice.
“Sister Bai, is that the material for this job? Do you mind if I take a look? I forgot to bring mine.”
It was better to trust an NPC than to trust Qu Ling, a fellow player.
At least if an NPC set her up, it only proved that the NPC was inherently hostile—a threat directed at everyone, not specifically targeting her.
There was still some time before dinner at the village chief's house, which was perfect for organizing her work and familiarizing herself with the instance's information.
That was exactly what Bai Ci was thinking.
Hearing Xie Lai's request, she casually pulled out the thick stack of documents and spread them across the room's only solid wood square table.
There was no need to be stingy with clues that were easily obtainable in the early stages.
“Sure. But I need to use these to finish my draft, so let's just leave them here and read them together.”
With that, Bai Ci picked up the few pages of the half-written hosting speech, pulled a black pen from the side pocket of her suitcase, dragged over the room's only plastic stool, and sat down.
Xie Lai quickly nodded and thanked her. She was highly considerate, keeping a respectful distance so as not to disturb Bai Ci's writing.
She rolled her blue suitcase over to the table, sat sideways on it as a makeshift stool, and flipped through the pages by pinching their corners.
She turned the pages very gently. When she reached the pages closer to Bai Ci, she tilted her head to read them sideways, terrified that her movements might disrupt Bai Ci's flow.
On the other hand, Bai Ci skimmed the first half of the hosting speech and, as expected, hit a writer's block.
A DM's daily job was to understand and host murder mystery games, not write them—let alone a hosting speech, which belonged to an entirely different style of writing.
To deal with this, Bai Ci quietly summoned her Widow manual and pre-activated the [Literature Carries the Dao] skill.
The moment the skill took effect, Bai Ci felt the chaotic thoughts in her mind instantly settle.
After she finished reading, the original structure of the hosting speech and the direction for the rest of the draft clearly crystallized in her mind.
It was as if [Literature Carries the Dao] had cleared a perfectly straight path through a tangled forest of thoughts.
This was incredibly useful. So this was what it felt like to write as if possessed by a literary god.
Bai Ci couldn't help but marvel inwardly.
Watching Bai Ci write non-stop, only occasionally pausing to flip through the reference materials before immediately resuming her rapid writing, Xie Lai was filled with admiration.
This NPC's professional skills were seriously impressive.
As for Bai Ci, once her thoughts were clear, she even began multitasking without affecting the final quality of her work.
Each time she paused to flip through the materials, her eyes would rapidly scan the entire page, quietly absorbing all the recorded information.
Although the locals referred to this place as Shenjiacun—and had even put up that name at the entrance—the officially registered name of this village was Tianmi Village.
Nestled against mountains and beside rivers, the village enjoyed uniquely blessed forest vegetation, which nurtured a type of natural aromatic honey found nowhere else in the world.
This aromatic honey had a crisp, lingering fragrance and a pure sweetness. Its promotional materials even claimed it could delay aging, making it a specialty passed down through generations in the village.
In the honey industry, this village actually enjoyed quite a stellar reputation.
The village's name and the livelihood of its residents depended almost entirely on this unique aromatic honey.
Beside her, as Xie Lai quietly flipped through the documents, her brow furrowed deeper and deeper, and her expression grew increasingly solemn.
Based on her extensive experience reading web novels, a description like this absolutely screamed danger. Besides, this was an unlimited flow game's instance. There was no way things could be this peaceful.
She patiently flipped through a few more pages, casting several sidelong glances at Bai Ci.
Once she saw Bai Ci close the spiral notebook and confirmed she wouldn't be interrupting her thoughts, Xie Lai finally couldn't hold back any longer.
Seemingly bursting with doubts and eager to discuss them with someone, she said, “Sister Bai, I can't shake the feeling... that there's something really off about this village. Do you feel it too?”
“Off in what way?” Bai Ci slipped her pen into the spiral binding, securing it so it wouldn't roll away.
“It's just too remote,” Xie Lai said, leaning forward slightly as if sharing a secret.
“It's cut off by these deep mountains, and the transport is so terrible. Just getting in and out is a massive hassle, and life here is nowhere near as convenient as in the city.”
“But with the money they make from the honey industry, they should have had the means to relocate to a town or city long ago. Why have they stubbornly stayed here for generations? Why does no one want to leave?”
“Even if they didn't want to move and chose to stay to develop their business, there's barely any sign of modernization here.”
“Is this not modern enough?” Bai Ci chuckled, pointing at the light bulb overhead.
“They might stay simply because it's hard to leave their homeland. The older generation is naturally deeply attached to their roots, preferring to guard the land of their ancestors rather than move elsewhere and deal with all the upheaval.”
“On top of that, their aromatic honey relies on the local, unique geographic environment. If they overdevelop the area, would it damage the ecosystem? Would it lower the quality of the honey, or even cause production to stop entirely?”
“They've relied on this for generations, so there are bound to be people unwilling to take that risk, especially the elders. And in a traditional environment like this, the elders are usually the ones making the decisions.”
Naturally, Bai Ci wasn't going to share her actual thoughts with Xie Lai.
Since she was currently roleplaying as a normal NPC, she had to provide a logical, realistic explanation.
Xie Lai opened her mouth but couldn't find a single word to refute her.
She couldn't very well tell Bai Ci directly: I'm a player, you should listen to me, this is an unlimited flow instance, so there must be something sinister going on.
Swallowing her frustration, Xie Lai flipped further back through the documents and stopped at the section concerning the Honey Rite.
The Honey Rite was a traditional sacrificial ceremony of the village, held once a year in the summer after the bumper harvest of the aromatic honey.
For the ritual, an unmarried, pure adult female from the village was selected to hold a wedding ceremony with Namito. This was done to pray for the god's protection, stabilize the honey yield for the coming year, and ensure the peace and prosperity of the village.
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