My experience of grinding in another world

Chapter 53 Fog

Inside an ordinary small house in Ping'anfang, east of Qingshan County.

Although the house was small, it had everything one needed. It had a well, a stove, a vegetable garden, and a pigsty.

Early in the morning, Old Liu lay down in his rocking chair, lazily staring at the sun in the sky, which was obscured by fog and looked like a fluorescent light.

"I'm getting old, I really am. Just working for half a month has been exhausting. I'm getting less and less energetic." He couldn't help but squint his eyes.

"Finally settled in."

"Once the fog clears, we'll go find matchmaker Zhang."

The terrible foggy weather couldn't dampen his good mood.

"I'll find a concubine to warm my bed. That'll be enough for me in this life."

"We also need to find out if any families have children they can't afford to raise. They can't be too old, otherwise the children will end up belonging to someone else after they grow up."

Old Liu smiled with anticipation.

"Let's go when the fog clears, let's go when the fog clears..."

He murmured softly, filled with hope, as he slowly drifted into sleep and slowly died.

……

The backyard of the Qingshan County Government Office.

Since the county magistrate disappeared, Li Qing, the county assistant magistrate, has taken actual control of Qingshan County.

He then brazenly moved into the county magistrate's residence.

With the world in chaos, no one cares about a small county town like Qingshan.

As dawn broke, Li Qing slowly got up. He felt a headache, throbbing eyes, and weak limbs, as if he hadn't slept all night.

"Someone come here," he called weakly in a hoarse voice.

He called for a long time, but no one came to help him get out of bed.

Despite feeling extremely uncomfortable, Li Qing angrily struggled to leave the bedroom.

"I need to see a doctor." He clearly felt that something was wrong with his body.

He rushed into the small cubicle next to the bedroom, which was the temporary residence of the personal maid.

The maid, who should have gotten up early, remained curled up in bed.

A maid gets up later than her master?!

Damn!

He stormed to the bedside and raised his hand to beat the maid.

But what greeted them was a deathly pale face.

If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of her chest, he would have thought the maid was dead!

"Something's not right!" Li Qing staggered backward.

Could someone have poisoned me?
He rushed out of the room in a panic.

They saw the servants and guards standing outside the room, all of them staggering around like they were drunk.

Pale complexion, deficient in both qi and blood!

"Something's wrong! Something's very wrong!"

"Somebody come!"

"Someone is coming!"

……

The official road south of Qingshan County.

The long convoy suddenly stopped, and a commotion came from the front of the convoy.

"Something happened?" Chen Mu strained to look ahead.

However, the thick fog obscured everything, making it impossible to see anything.

"Zhen Fan, go check ahead!" Zhang Ye stuck his head out of the window and shouted to the carriage behind him.

"okay!"

A thin man jumped off the carriage at the back and quickly disappeared into the fog.

Half an hour later, the skinny man returned.

"Boss, someone's dead up ahead."

"They say he is a son of a concubine from the Zuo family."

"Silent and sudden death."

"That young master's mother is making a scene up ahead."

Chen Mu frowned slightly. How could someone suddenly die?

"Someone's already dying right after we set off, that's not a good omen," Zhang Ye sighed, then complained, "This young master couldn't have chosen the right time to die, of all times! Isn't this just making things worse?!"

"Something's not right." Chen Mu frowned deeply.

"Brother, don't be afraid. It's just someone dying. Your brother is here..." Zhang Ye patted Chen Mu on the shoulder and laughed heartily.

Chen Mu glanced at the other person indifferently.

Zhang Ye felt a sudden clench in his chest. A familiar, trembling sensation, his limbs went weak, and he froze, unable to move. His mouth was open, but he couldn't utter a word, like a duck being strangled.

Coming to her senses, she was immediately filled with shame and anger. She had actually been intimidated by a pale-faced scholar!
He glared at her, about to give her a fierce look, but found that Chen Mu had already turned her head away and was ignoring him.

"What's wrong?" Jie Jia turned to look at Chen Mu.

"It's too quiet."

He lived in Xiaodongshan for three months. Every day, he was surrounded by the constant chirping of insects and birds.

He felt something was off as soon as he arrived, and now he finally realized what was happening.

A cold glint flashed in the armored man's eyes, and his figure vanished abruptly.

Three breaths later, he appeared holding a gray spider the size of a thumb.

The spider lay limp and motionless in his palm.

The armored creature disappeared again, but returned with three more grasshoppers.

It was also limp and motionless.

Jie Jia's face immediately turned ugly.

"Let's go!" Chen Mu slapped the horse's rump in front of him.

The carriage immediately began to roll forward.

……

"What are you doing!" A black horse blocked the carriage, and a bald, burly man on horseback shouted, "Didn't I tell you, stay where you are? Nobody is allowed to move!"

"What's your name, sir? We're really bored staying here, so let's go ahead and scout the way for everyone," Chen Mu said with a smile.

"Don't you understand what I'm saying? Stay put!" the bald, burly man said coldly, glancing at the armored man.

"It's just a small token, brother, take it and have some tea. Let's go get some fresh air." Chen Mu took out a piece of silver from his pocket and tossed it to the bald, burly man.

The burly man caught it, smiling as he tucked it into his arms, but his face instantly turned cold: "Go back!"

Chen Mu chuckled and looked at Jie Jia: "This guy takes money but doesn't do anything; his professional ethics are far worse than yours."

As he spoke, his smile faded, and he calmly looked at the burly man, lightly kicking the horse's rump with his toe.

The carriage rammed into the burly man in black!
The bald, burly man's expression changed; he knew he couldn't possibly outrun two horses on his own.

Immediately pull the reins and get away from the carriage.

Standing by the roadside, seeing that Jie Jia remained silent and completely ignored him, the burly man was so angry he laughed.

How dare a pale-faced boy disregard my words?
He dismounted, a sinister grin on his face, and reached out to grab Chen Mu's neck.

With the team in trouble and morale low, they were just looking for someone to set an example of.

Isn’t it coming?

laugh!
A soft sound.

He felt a chill on his fingers and a flash of silver light before his eyes.

The sharp tip of the sword pierced through the gap between the index and middle fingers and appeared out of thin air in front of the eyeball.

At this moment, the tip of the sword was only a grain of rice away from the eyeball.

The bald, burly man seemed to have been frozen in place, standing motionless.

He didn't even dare to blink, for fear of being cut by the sword blade.

Chen Mu remained expressionless, his voice cold as he said, "Dare to stop the carriage? I'll kill you."

laugh!
It's like not seeing where the sword came from.

No one saw where the sword went.

The sword tip disappeared from the bald, muscular man's eyes, and he was completely exhausted, his back covered in sweat.

Just now, he really felt like he was going to die.

"What's going on?!" a hoarse voice asked coldly.

An elderly man in his fifties with half-gray hair walked over.

The bald, burly man perked up and took two steps to stand in front of the old man, respectfully clasping his hands in greeting.

"Master Zuo, I'm sorry to have troubled you." The bald, burly man said apologetically, "The convoy has run into trouble. In order to find out what happened, I have ordered everyone to stay put."

“One of the guards in silver boots disobeyed orders. I have already expelled them,” the bald, burly man said respectfully.

He then looked at Chen Mujie coldly and said, "Get lost. The Xue family's warehouse doesn't need a disobedient silver boot with a family to drag along!"

Jie Jia rolled his eyes, glanced at Master Zuo, and gently shook the reins in his hand, causing the carriage to rumble forward.

Chen Mu remained expressionless, not even glancing at the two of them, and leaned against the carriage, lost in thought.

Ignored by the two men, the burly man's face immediately turned red.

“Master Zuo, the disobedient people have been driven away. You can go and rest. We will handle it as soon as possible…” But before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Master Zuo.

"Notify the team to depart immediately!"

"Master Zuo, the young master is in trouble; we can't act so hastily. We must eliminate any potential threats first..."

"I said, let's set off immediately!" Master Zuo stared intently at the bald, burly man.

That look in his eyes was clear: if you don't obey, I'll replace you!

The bald, burly man, with a bellyful of words stuck in his chest, said with a frustrated expression, "Yes!"

Master Zuo glanced again at the departing black carriage.

He glared coldly at the bald, muscular man: "Speed ​​up and keep up with them!"

……

On the black lacquered carriage.

Chengming held a fasting pill in each hand, taking a bite from the left and a nibble from the right, thoroughly enjoying himself.

The chubby county lieutenant, Du Huai, remained quietly huddled in the carriage, his eyes darting around as if he were deep in thought.

Zhang Ye leaned against the interior wall of the carriage. He felt his back was soaked with sweat, sticky and uncomfortable, but he dared not scratch it.

He kept glancing at Chen Mu outside the carriage out of the corner of his eye.

Is he really a thin, frail scholar?
He had been staring at Chen Mu the whole time, yet he hadn't noticed how the other man drew and sheathed his sword!
Out of habit as a martial artist, he subconsciously positioned himself as a bald, muscular man.

It's unstoppable! Absolutely unstoppable!
Master!

A master who could take his own life!

Thinking about how he had just casually patted someone on the shoulder and secretly laughed at them for being afraid of dying, Zhang Ye felt a chill run down his spine.

This scholar, he doesn't hold grudges, does he...?

……

The carriage moved slowly. But Chen Mu felt a chill run down his spine, sensing something was increasingly wrong.

So he snatched the whip and drove the carriage into the air.

Ignoring the passengers' complaints about the bumpy ride, the carriage traveled for more than 20 miles, out of the dense fog, before stopping to let the horses rest.

He jumped off the carriage and looked back the way he came.

The white fog, like a ball of cotton, firmly enveloped the area within a ten-mile radius of Qingshan County, unmoved by the wind.

From the outside, all you could see was a vast expanse of white.

Not long after, a rumbling sound came from behind.

The Zuo family's convoy also made a hasty exit from the thick fog.

Upon seeing Chen Mu and the others resting by the roadside, they slowed down and waited until the convoy had completely left the white fog before stopping and resting on the spot.

The drive just now must have taken a toll on this huge convoy.

The staff is disorganized and needs to be re-inspected and reorganized; the goods have been jostled and scattered and need to be re-tied.

Not long after, the convoy suddenly became noisy again.

"Boss, I heard that four more people have died. Some were old, some were young, and all were frail and sickly," Zhen Fan reported to the dark carriage.

As soon as the Zuo family's convoy stopped, he secretly went over to gather intelligence.

"Damn! This is weird! Luckily we ran fast!" Zhang Ye's back was immediately soaked with sweat again.

The inexplicable deaths made him think of evil spirits causing trouble.

Qingshan County has been quite unsettled lately.

There might be some unclean things in that fog.

Zhang Ye looked at Chen Mu with surprise.

This scholar Chen is quite something! He sensed something was wrong beforehand.

Seeing Chen Mu staring blankly at the white mist, he felt even more mysterious and unpredictable.

……

"Is it the work of a wandering spirit?" Chen Mu asked Jie Jia.

“No.” Jie Jia stood beside Chen Mu with his hands behind his back.

His eyes were reduced to slits, and his bright yellow pupils stared thoughtfully into the mist.

"There must be something wrong with that fog."

"Fog?" Chen Mu couldn't help but think of the London smog incident he had occasionally heard about in his previous life.

In 1952, due to air currents, smoke from factory production and residential heating coal burning was difficult to disperse, and London was shrouded in smog for five days. During this period, the incidence and mortality rates of the city's residents rose sharply.

Subsequent statistics showed that as many as 4000 people died as a result of the massive smoke.

But Qingshan County is just an ancient city in another world. How much waste gas could it possibly have?
The vast town of Qingshan was shrouded in white fog.

It was eerily quiet, like a dead city, without a sound.

Looking at it from afar, Chen Mu couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.

"A place of trouble..."

(End of this chapter)