Chapter 809 - 805: Stay Away

Anxious, Lu Yuanbin repeatedly warned the couple that once they found the man, they had to keep their distance. Otherwise, they’d suffer the exact same fate he did.

Lu Yuanbin had trailed after Leng Yuan since they were kids and had never once gotten into an accident on the mountain. Yet this time, he merely caught a single glimpse of the man before tumbling all the way down the rocky slope. Though initially skeptical of the man’s bizarre jinx, he now had no choice but to believe it. Some things were simply inexplicable—they were just too damn cursed.

Leng Yuan and Gu Jiaojiao left the county town and headed straight for Liu Jiagou. A dirt road ran past the village, and just beyond it stood a towering mountain. Because it was a fair distance from the village itself, the residents of Liu Jiagou would have absolutely no contact with anyone living on its slopes unless someone specifically hiked up there.

The couple bypassed Liu Jiagou entirely and headed straight into the mountains. Since Lu Yuanbin had spent years trailing Leng Yuan through the wilderness, Leng Yuan could easily pinpoint the spot he had described. Thanks to this, they made almost no wrong turns before stumbling upon a small wooden cabin.

The cabin consisted of only a single room. Its yard, a hand-cleared patch of land spanning roughly a dozen square meters, was quite small. Inside sat a woven backpack basket and a heavily chipped hoe. A smaller basket nearby held a few handfuls of wild vegetables. A makeshift cooking stove built from stacked stones stood in the yard, looking incredibly crude.

Leng Yuan stepped up and knocked, but found no one inside. The owner was likely out hunting.

The pair took a stroll around the vicinity. Soon, they spotted a long-haired wild man approaching in the distance.

Calling him a "wild man" was an understatement. His hair nearly reached his waist, and his beard drooped over his chest. He was a mass of grime and matted fur. Only his eyes were vaguely visible, making it absolutely impossible to guess his age. It seemed he hadn’t gone down the mountain in years and had no idea how to groom himself, simply letting his hair grow wild. He wore tattered pants, and his upper half was clad in a short jacket woven from straw.

The man was visibly surprised to see Gu Jiaojiao and Leng Yuan. He furrowed his brows. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Leng Yuan took two steps forward. Seeing this, the man immediately took two steps back, on high alert. Leng Yuan stopped in his tracks.

"We came looking for you."

"Looking for me?" The man’s voice was terribly hoarse, and his speech was slightly clumsy, likely because he hadn’t spoken in a very long time. "What do you want with me?"

Leng Yuan was straightforward. "We need your help with something. Once it’s done, I’ll make you a normal person again."

The man’s head snapped up before his expression hardened into a cold glare. "I don’t know what you’re doing here, but I advise you to leave immediately. There have been many who didn’t believe in the curse, just like you. But in the end, none of them met a good end."

Leng Yuan didn’t leave; instead, he took another two steps forward. The man hastily shouted, "Don’t come any closer! If you don’t want to die, stay back!"

Leng Yuan didn’t stop, walking straight up to him. "I know everything about you, and I truly have a way to make you normal again. There is no need for me to lie to you. After all, deceiving you brings me no benefit."

The man stopped speaking, simply staring back at Leng Yuan with a mocking gaze. He planned to let reality do the talking. Since Leng Yuan refused to believe his warnings, he would let him learn the hard way.

Watching Leng Yuan step closer, he suddenly remembered the strange person he had encountered yesterday. "Yesterday, someone else came to talk to me. He only managed a single sentence before tumbling straight down the mountain. That must have been your friend!

"Since you know about that, you should believe these things are real. Anyone who gets close to me comes to a bad end."

Leng Yuan didn’t say a word. He walked right up to the man and even patted him on the shoulder. Time ticked by as the two stood deadlocked in a tense standoff at the doorway.

Finally, Gu Jiaojiao couldn’t take the staring contest anymore. "I’m a little tired. Can we go inside to talk?" She had spotted a wooden stool in the yard, and she was exhausted.

Leng Yuan looked steadily at the man. "Believe me now?"