Siheyuan, integrating everything, cultivating the city

Li Xiangqian didn't care about it. He put the potatoes on the stone table in the yard and prepared to clean them up. Just as he turned around and walked into the house, he suddenly heard a slight rustling sound in the yard. Looking back, he saw nothing. The empty yard was still quiet. He shook his head, thinking that he might be too nervous, and continued to walk into the house.

Li Xiangqian placed the potato bag on the kitchen counter, opened the bag, and reached out to take out the potatoes. However, he was stunned. The potato bag was empty, except for a few pieces of paper, nothing else! He was a little confused, and a little uneasy rose in his heart. What happened? He clearly bought a bag of potatoes from the market, how could it disappear in the blink of an eye?

Li Xiangqian stood there for a moment, then suddenly thought of something, and hurried out of the house and into the yard. As expected, the potatoes on the stone table were gone. Those familiar potatoes disappeared without a trace in an instant.

With more and more doubts in his heart, he began to search around the yard, his eyes sweeping through every corner like a searchlight. However, there was nothing unusual in the yard. The only possible clue was the faint rustling sound, which seemed to tell him that a hidden secret was quietly unfolding.

Li Xiangqian stood there, suddenly feeling as if he was involved in an incomprehensible mystery. His fingers unconsciously clenched into fists, his brows furrowed, and his eyes were filled with an indescribable confusion and anger. He didn't know what to do for a moment, but his intuition told him that this matter was far from as simple as it seemed.

The light in the house gradually dimmed, and Li Xiangqian quickly recalled what had happened. He had clearly brought the bag of potatoes into the yard, and then watched it being placed on the stone table, and then went into the house to prepare to cook. It stands to reason that the potatoes could not have disappeared in just a few minutes. His heartbeat began to speed up, and an inexplicable sense of panic came over him like a tide.

Unwilling to give up, he returned to the house and carefully checked every possible place where the potatoes might be hidden. He searched every corner of the kitchen, but still found nothing. Under the table, in the cabinet, and even next to the stove, there was not even a trace of a potato. His fingers clenched the waistband of his pants. His inner anxiety made it impossible for him to think calmly. The question kept echoing in his mind - where did the potatoes go?

What is going on here?

Just as he turned his gaze towards the gate, he suddenly heard a gentle knock on the door. He was stunned for a moment, then quickly walked over and opened the gate. There was no one outside the door, only a few leaves floating in the wind, and then were blown away by the wind. Li Xiangqian frowned, did he hear it wrong?

Back in the house, his eyes unconsciously glanced out the window and stopped at a bush. There, he vaguely saw a few kittens playing around, and there seemed to be nothing unusual. However, Li Xiangqian's intuition told him that the problem seemed to be near the bush.

He walked out of the yard, walked to the bushes, and suddenly stopped. Not far away, a path stretched into the distance, and a few stone slabs were loose on the side of the road. Li Xiangqian's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly thought, could it be that someone took the opportunity to enter the yard and steal the potatoes?

He walked quickly towards the loose stone slab and looked down. There was a black gap under the stone slab, as if something was hidden in it. He hesitated for a moment, then reached out and moved the stone slab away, revealing a small underground space. Li Xiangqian's heart skipped a beat - potatoes!

He saw a potato covered in dirt, and there seemed to be more potatoes piled next to it. He was stunned, and everything in front of him made him unable to understand. Why did the potato appear here? What was going on?

At this moment, a low cough suddenly came from behind. Li Xiangqian turned around and saw that it was the old neighbor in the yard. The old neighbor's face was slightly gloomy, and there was a hint of complicated emotions in his eyes. He walked over, staring at Li Xiangqian, and suddenly whispered: "Did you find it too?"

Li Xiangqian was startled by these words, and subconsciously took a few steps back, clenched his fingers, and looked at his old neighbor coldly: "Do you know what this is?"

The old neighbor nodded slightly, with a hint of hesitation in his eyes. "You said the potatoes were lost?" He paused, as if considering how to start. "That's not surprising. There have been some things wrong in the village recently. Every corner of the courtyard seems to be undergoing some kind of change."

Li Xiangqian was stunned, his brows furrowed: "What do you mean?"

Li Xiangqian's heartbeat suddenly quickened. The old neighbor's words were like a sharp knife, silently cutting through his inner defenses. The underground space and the hidden potatoes just now seemed to imply that something unknown was quietly changing this once peaceful courtyard. Li Xiangqian suppressed his inner doubts and stared into the old neighbor's eyes, trying to read something from those cloudy eyes.

The old neighbor lowered his head slightly, as if he didn't intend to continue talking, his eyes flickering. He was always a man of few words, and this made Li Xiangqian feel more suspicious. He suddenly felt that the whole courtyard had become silent under some invisible pressure, as if it was shrouded in a thick fog, and he couldn't see anything clearly and couldn't grasp anything.

"You said, something is wrong here?" Li Xiangqian finally spoke, his voice low, but his eyes were still fixed on the old neighbor. The old neighbor was silent for a moment, as if he was caught up in some complicated thoughts, and then he slowly raised his head.

"Yes, I noticed these days that it's not just you, everyone seems to have started to notice something unusual." The old neighbor's tone was full of vigilance and repression, "I know you won't believe it, but..."

Li Xiangqian's heart moved, and he suddenly realized that the old neighbor was not just talking casually. Although the courtyard seemed peaceful, it was hiding some unknown power. It seemed that as time passed, everything began to change quietly. He couldn't help but feel uneasy, and vaguely felt that something was happening in this small courtyard, and things were far more complicated than he imagined.

"What do you mean by this?" Li Xiangqian's voice was filled with a hint of urgency. He had never been so eager to get an answer as he was at this moment.

The old neighbor sighed deeply, as if he had made up his mind, and whispered, "Have you noticed that the people in the yard have become strange recently?" He paused, "Especially you, haven't you noticed it?"

Li Xiangqian was stunned for a moment. He suddenly realized that he was indeed a little different. The anxiety and uneasiness that always came to his mind troubled him almost every day. Even cooking, eating, and even the most accustomed work,