Harvesting Fantasies Chapter 1

It was already completely dark when Avery Lu got off the train. He wanted to take a taxi with his heavy luggage, but the taxi drivers refused as soon as they heard where he wanted to go.

"Shuifu is too remote, let's not go there." The taxi driver looked Avery up and down, with a hint of vigilance in his eyes.

Avery was confused by the stares, and he asked, "Master, you won't go even if I pay you more?"

The driver hesitated for a moment: "Are you coming back from another place?"

Avery nodded: "Yes, I came back from City A." He pointed to the suitcase next to him.

The driver saw Avery's suitcase and gritted his teeth and asked, "How much do you want to add?"

Avery calculated the distance and said, "Is two hundred okay?"

The driver finally said, "Okay, get on board."

Avery felt relieved, quickly put the luggage into the trunk, and sat in the passenger seat.

It was already early morning, and the streets were empty except for a few taxis driving by in a hurry. The weather was still a little chilly in the early spring, and Avery, who was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, rubbed his arms which were a little chilly.

This place is far away from City A and belongs to the remote suburbs of the province. The economic development is far worse than that of City A. Most of the buildings around here are relatively low, exuding a sense of oldness.

The driver drove forward, asking random questions. Avery answered them one by one, and then he knew the reason why the driver didn't want to go to the Water Palace.

Shuifu is a relatively remote village, quite a distance from their county town. Two taxi drivers died there some time ago, and the murderer has not been found yet. Later, there were rumors that the two drivers were not killed by humans, but because they hit something dirty, so taxi drivers in this area don't like to go there anymore, especially in the dark at night...

If it weren't for the two hundred yuan that Avery added, he would have to stay in the county town for one night today.

"What are you doing here after returning from City A?" The driver looked ahead and chatted with Avery, "Is your hometown here?"

Avery said: "Yes, things were not going well outside, so I just quit my job, thinking that there were still a few plots of land at home."

The driver said, "It's not that fun in this remote place, young man. I don't think you can stay here."

Avery just smiled when he heard this, and didn't respond. He had thought carefully about coming back this time, and it was not a momentary impulse.

The car drove forward, passing through narrow country roads, and the surrounding environment became more and more remote. In the end, there was no light at all, only endless night.

Avery had been sitting on the train for a whole day. After chatting with the driver for a while, he felt a little sleepy. When he was about to fall asleep with his eyes drooping, the driver suddenly slammed on the brakes.

Avery suddenly woke up and asked in confusion: "What's wrong?"

"You...can you see that thing in front..." The driver's face looked extremely ugly at this moment, his eyes were wide open, his whole body was still shaking slightly, and he looked like he might faint at any time.

"What?" Avery was stunned and looked forward. When he saw clearly what was in front of the vehicle, he showed the same expression as the driver.

I saw a white object floating on the narrow mountain road. It was a bit far away so I couldn't see it clearly, but I could vaguely see that it was probably a person...

"What the hell is this?" The driver's tone sounded as if he was about to cry. If the place wasn't too narrow to reverse, he would have turned around and ran away immediately.

Avery: "......"

"Ahhhh, that thing is floating over here!" The driver grabbed Avery's arm in fear.

Avery: "Calm down, there are no ghosts in the world!" As soon as he finished speaking, the driver beside him screamed again, saying: "That thing is approaching us!!"

Avery looked forward and found that the white figure was actually approaching them. The driver beside him screamed like a pig being slaughtered. This really felt like the atmosphere of a horror movie.

"That looks like a person!" However, as the white shadow got closer, Avery could see clearly that the person in white was indeed a person. Although his appearance was not very clear, it should not be something weird or supernatural.

"It's a person." Avery felt that his arm was about to be broken by the driver, and he hissed, "Master, please don't grab me, it's really a person."

"People?" The driver seemed calmer.

The figure slowly walked in front of them. With the help of the car lights, Avery finally saw the white figure clearly. It was a man in white clothes. He was very handsome, with no expression on his face. He stopped beside the passenger seat of the taxi.

"Sir?" After confirming that this was a person and not some strange dirty thing, Avery felt relieved. He rolled down the car window, revealing half of his face, and said, "It's so late and this place is so remote. What can I do for you?"

The man looked at Avery, then at the taxi driver who was shivering next to Avery, smiled slightly, and said, "It's okay, I couldn't sleep at night, so I came out to find something to eat."

Avery thought to himself, what can you find to eat in this wilderness at this late hour? However, there are weirdos everywhere, and he couldn't comment on other people's hobbies, so he smiled politely and said, "Really? Then be careful."

Hearing this, the man suddenly reached out and knocked on the taxi door. Then he turned and left, his figure gradually disappearing into the dark night.

Only after he disappeared did the driver on Avery's left start the car again and continue driving towards the destination. However, he was probably so scared that he hardly spoke for the rest of the journey.

Avery didn't take this episode to heart. After getting off the car, he thanked the driver and took out two hundred yuan from his wallet and handed it to the driver.

The driver took the money and drove away without saying a word. He looked like he was being chased by a ghost. It seemed that he would not receive any orders from Shuifu Village for a long time.

Seeing him running away, Avery couldn't help laughing.

It was the darkest time of the day. The surrounding buildings were hidden in the darkness. Only the quiet chirping of insects could be heard. Avery dragged his luggage and walked towards his old house based on his memory. He had not been back for three years. The last time he was back was to attend his grandmother's funeral. After that, the old house was abandoned and no one knew what it looked like now.

The surrounding buildings had changed slightly, but the general direction was still correct. After walking for more than twenty minutes, Avery finally found his target.

The old house was as desolate as he expected. There was a rusty lock on the red door. Avery took out the key, inserted it and twisted it several times before unlocking it. He pushed the door open and large pieces of dust fell, causing him to cough uncontrollably.

"I haven't been back for a long time." Avery muttered softly, then opened the door of the small building and saw the furnishings in the room.

Because he had asked his neighbors to pay the electricity bill in advance, there was still electricity available. Avery turned on the light and saw the furnishings in the house clearly.

There was not much change, it was almost the same as he remembered, except that all the furniture was covered with a thick layer of dust. Avery simply cleaned the bed and thought about staying here for the night. He lay on the hard wooden bed, looking at the ceiling covered with cobwebs above his head, thinking that he would have to spend more time cleaning the house tomorrow...

With the stale smell filling his nose, Avery fell asleep.

The next day, Avery slept until about nine o'clock before waking up naturally. The bright sunlight shone through the window onto him. He opened his eyes drowsily and saw countless tiny dust particles filling the light. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and shook off the hazy sleepiness.

Avery ate something casually and began to tidy up the house.

The house needed a thorough cleaning as it had not been lived in for a few years. In the early years, Shuifu Village did not even have running water and villagers had to fetch water from the mountains. Fortunately, the government invested in getting water here in the past two years, saving a lot of trouble.

Avery found a broom covered with spider webs in the corner of the room. He was about to roll up his sleeves to clean it up, but he felt a sharp pain in his arm. Confused, he rolled up his left sleeve. After seeing the painful part of his left hand, he couldn't help but take a breath.

He saw five purple-red circular marks on his left arm, which were particularly eye-catching against his wheat-colored skin. He touched it lightly with his hand and felt a burning pain.

"Where did it hit?" Avery muttered, "Or was it crawled by a bug?" He was a little confused. After thinking carefully, an incredible idea popped up in his mind.

It seemed that the only person who touched his arm last night was... the taxi driver. Could it be that the driver was too scared and scratched his arm, leaving such a mark?

Avery laughed dryly, feeling that his idea was a bit far-fetched.

However, these marks seemed to have no other effects except pain. Avery looked at them for a while, then put down his sleeves and continued to clean the room. He still had a lot of things to do today.

"Knock, knock, knock." At about ten o'clock, Avery, who was sweeping the floor with his head down, heard a knock on the door. He walked to the door, opened it and saw a familiar face behind the door.

"Xiao Jiu'er, you're back. Did you arrive last night?" The person who greeted Avery was a young man who was slightly shorter than Avery. He smiled, revealing a playful canine tooth, "Why didn't you call me?"

When Avery saw the young man, he also laughed: "Hunter, long time no see."

The man in front of him was named Hunter Yin, and he was Avery's childhood playmate. However, the two had not met for a long time since Avery left Shuifu Village.

"I arrived too late last night, so I didn't tell you." Avery raised the broom in his hand.

"Oh." Hunter nodded, "Are you cleaning? Let me help you!"

Avery asked, "Have you finished your farm work?"

Hunter said: "It's almost done. We just planted the seedlings yesterday and will start fertilizing next month."

Avery smiled and said, "Okay, thank you for your help."

Hunter rolled up his sleeves, picked up an old rag and started to help Avery clean the furniture, chatting with Avery while doing it.

Although the two were childhood playmates, they hadn't seen each other for a long time, but they had endless topics to talk about. Hunter was still a little curious why Avery resigned from the big city and returned here.

Avery said sincerely: "My boss told me that if I don't work hard, I might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes. I thought about it and felt that it would be good to go home and sell sweet potatoes, so I came back."

Hunter: "......Is this true?"

Avery stared at his big double-lidded eyes: "Really."

Hunter: "......" He pretended to believe it.

The two of them cleaned the house for the whole morning and it was basically clean. Hunter saw that it was almost time, so he invited Avery to go to a small restaurant in the village for lunch, and Avery readily agreed.

Shuifu Village is a very small village. Quarrels can be heard at both ends of the village. There is not much business in the village. There are only two small restaurants, one selling homemade dishes and the other selling rice noodles with various flavors.

"You just came back. What do you want to eat? I'll treat you!" Hunter said casually.

"Let's have some rice noodles." Avery had eaten the rice noodles from that restaurant when he was a child. They tasted very good. Thinking about it now, he felt a little nostalgic.

"Okay, let's go." Hunter took Avery and went to the rice noodle shop.

The rice noodle shop owner greeted Hunter when he saw him, and then saw Avery standing next to him. After looking him up and down, he asked uncertainly: "Is this the little grandson of the Lu family? He has grown so big!"

Avery smiled and nodded.

"Uncle She, I want two bowls of beef noodles, with more chili." Hunter said, "And give me a handful of leeks. Do you want some sake?"

"Okay." Avery also ate leeks.

The boss sighed and went into the house to cook rice noodles.

Avery observed the small shop. The shop was not big, and the tables were placed on the ground outside. Although the furnishings were old, they were kept very clean and did not look dirty. When Avery retracted his gaze, he saw something flash under the table. The speed of the thing was very fast, and Avery could only barely recognize that the skin was red, and it seemed to be some kind of insect.

"What are you looking at?" Hunter asked.

"It looks like there is a bug." Avery replied.

"Bugs?" Hunter said, "Yes, it's spring, and there are more and more bugs. I'll go home and get you some herbs later. You can take them home and light them... You slept there last night, and you didn't get bitten?"

Avery shook his head: "No."

Hunter blinked when he heard that, and rolled up his trouser legs. He saw three or five red lumps on his legs, which were very eye-catching. Hunter said, "Well, I was walking outside for a while last night, and I got bitten all over my legs."

Avery thought for a moment: "Maybe I'm lucky?"

Hunter grinned, and the playful canine teeth on his lips were particularly cute: "Maybe."

As the two were chatting, the boss brought up the cooked rice noodles, which exuded a rich aroma.

Avery picked up the chopsticks and took the first bite, and exclaimed: "It still tastes like my childhood." This rice noodle has no edible glue, and it tastes soft and chewy. It absorbs the taste of the bone broth, and the taste is rich and delicious. The seasoning inside is very simple, and a handful of fried spicy peppers and green chives are sprinkled on it. The chives are very fragrant after being boiled in the broth, which just offsets the greasy feeling of the bone broth.

The two were already a little hungry, so they stopped talking when the food came. Only the sound of eating rice noodles could be heard. After Avery finished the bowl of rice noodles and drank a few sips of soup, he sighed with satisfaction.

"I'm so full." Hunter burped and touched his stomach contentedly.

"Delicious." Avery was also quite satisfied. He wiped his mouth and said casually: "By the way, when I came here yesterday, I took a taxi. The taxi driver told me that two taxi drivers died here?"

"Oh, you mean this." Hunter said, "Yes, there are two, but they are not drivers but passengers."

Avery: "......"

Hunter didn't notice that Avery's expression was a little strange, and just said as if he was chatting about gossip: "But they may not be dead. The bodies have not been found yet, only their luggage has been found."

"Aren't you from Shuifu Village?" Avery asked.

"No." Hunter said, "I'm from another village. I just have to pass by Shuifu Village... Why are you asking this?"

Avery said: "Oh, I just heard a little bit from others."

Hunter didn't take it seriously: "The public security in our Shuifu Village is quite good. There isn't even a single petty theft. It's much better than other places."

The two of them returned to the house while talking. The cleaning was only half done and they had to continue.

At the end of the day, the old house finally looked habitable, but the yard still needed some more time to take care of.

The old house is actually quite large, and with the backyard it is almost a small villa. However, because it has not been lived in for many years, there are relatively few rooms that can be lived in, and many of the roofs and walls need to be reinforced.

There was a well in the backyard of the old house. In the evening, Avery went to the well and found that there was still water in the well. It seemed that it could still be used, but the rope used to draw water was old and had to be replaced.

"I still remember using this water to cool watermelons when I was a kid." Hunter sat by the well, leaning his head to look inside, "What are you going to do this time? Farming?"

"Let's raise some animals and plant some crops." Avery said, "I still have some savings, so I'll repair the livestock shed next door when the time comes..."

Almost every household in this village raises some animals. Chickens are a common sight, and those with better conditions will also raise a few pigs or cows.

"Okay." Hunter said, "I'll talk to the carpenter tomorrow and ask him to come to your house to fix the shed. What do you want to buy? There will be a market in the town in a few days, and we can go and have a look together."

"Okay, thank you." Avery said gratefully.

"You're welcome." Hunter waved his hand and said nonchalantly, "With our relationship, why are we still talking about this? It's getting late, so I'll go back first."

"Okay." Avery said, "Be careful."

Hunter turned and walked out of the yard. Avery returned to his old house only after seeing him walk away.

Although there was a TV in the old house, the signal was not turned on yet, so Avery had to take out his mobile phone, climb onto the bed, open the app and watch the news.

He looked at it for a while, but suddenly remembered something. He clicked on the search bar with his finger and typed a few words in the search bar: Shuifu Village Taxi Passengers Missing. After a while, the search results jumped out. Avery roughly browsed the news and found that the news was similar to what Hunter said, but the details were more detailed. It was basically that some people suddenly disappeared, their families called the police, and finally found their lost luggage near Shuifu Village. Then after the police investigation, they found that these people got on a taxi...

Seeing this, Avery put down his phone and rolled up the sleeve of his left arm. Five purple dots were clearly visible on the skin covered by the sleeve.

Avery reached out and touched it, and hissed softly. The red spot still hurt a lot. He had realized that there seemed to be something wrong with the taxi driver last night, but fortunately he left the taxi safely without any accidents.

As Avery thought about it, he began to feel sleepy. After a busy day, he was a little tired. He closed his eyes and fell asleep in an instant.

He couldn't even think about this kind of sleep quality when he was at work. After all, their company required employees to be on duty 24 hours a day, especially planners like him who would be called to the company at any time if there were any problems with the project. Although the salary was high enough, he was exhausted.

Avery thought he would sleep until dawn, but around midnight, he heard a very subtle sound.

The sound was like something was scratching the tiles above his head, causing Avery's head to make crackling sounds.

Avery was awakened from his sleep by the noise. He opened his sleepy eyes and saw a faint light above his head. The light stunned Avery and his mind was unable to process for a while. After a while, he suddenly realized something and his eyes widened instantly - the tiles on the roof of the house were actually lifted up by something, and the bright moonlight sprinkled from the top of his head onto the sheets, like a hot mark.

"Click, click." The sound above his head sounded again. Avery's first reaction was that a wild cat or something like that had run to the roof. But just when this thought popped into his mind, a round object appeared at the hole in the roof. Avery saw the shape of the round object clearly. It was a red eye with a dilated pupil. A white nictitating membrane slid across the eyeball, leaving a wet liquid on it. Avery recognized that this was the eye of a reptile.