After reincarnation, attack as a female imp!

But Qin Zhixin was used to it. She was used to ignoring it. It wasn't just the adoring glances that she ignored, it was also the slander behind her back. It was more like a kind of numbness. She was too lazy to get angry about it. After all, she had her own favorite things to play, a family that loved her, and a system that was foul-mouthed.

She already has a lot, she owns too much, and she knows that as long as she doesn't deliberately take wrong steps at every step, she won't be able to live a miserable life.

Qin Zhixin is the most beautiful flower and is naturally the focus of the spotlight.

Qin Zhixin sniffed, and the aroma of roasted corn made her feel itchy inside.

"I'm currently in a key class at Nanshi High School, and I'll be taking the most difficult subjects, physics and chemistry. Who dares to treat me like a pretty face?"

Qin Zhifeng was concentrating on roasting corn. He pretended not to hear anything and spoke to himself.

"By the way, Aunt Tang was watching the Nanling TV station's recording of the school sports meet held by No. 1 Middle School today. I heard Aunt Tang say that you were in the footage."

Qin Zhifeng suddenly seemed to remember something and casually brought it up, changing the subject. This brought back unpleasant memories for Qin Zhixin. Being forced to wear a dinosaur suit, getting caught picking a lock, and having to review in advance even though she knew she had an exam... Qin Zhixin felt that this school sports meet had no positive memories at all, and she glared at Qin Zhifeng admiringly.

"I'm not on TV, don't listen to my mom's nonsense."

"What are you in a hurry for?"

"I'm not in a hurry."

"I said, why are you in such a hurry?"

"I said I'm not in a hurry!"

"I'm all too familiar with you. When you get angry, you become stubborn and your brain gets stuck."

Before Qin Zhifeng could finish his words, Qin Zhixin angrily kicked the stool he was sitting on, but Qin Zhifeng's lower body was very stable and did not move at all.

"Go roast your corn! Eat it all day long, you'll eat it to death, you pig!"

Qin Zhixin raised her eyebrows slightly and said angrily, then turned back to the house, leaving Qin Zhifeng outside. Qin Zhifeng was not annoyed at all, and took out the corn stuck by the fire and blew away the ashes.

"The little yellow-haired girl is quite stubborn."

Qin Zhifeng smiled and talked to himself, then put the corn in his hand back and continued to roast it.

Qin Zhixin went back to the room to get her cell phone and saw the message Tang Manwen sent her at a glance.

"Tang Manwen: By the way, let me tell you something interesting."

"Tang Manwen: Do you remember the time we went hiking together last week? The photos of us having dinner at the farmhouse were secretly taken, and the son of the man who knew my aunt showed them to me."

"Tang Manwen: What a coincidence!"

"Tang Manwen: Do you think this is fate? Although it sounds a bit strange."

Qin Zhixin was instantly awakened after seeing this. She suddenly realized that the group member she had previously persuaded to change careers to make tea bags seemed to be a Fuliang native, and he also sent his products to many group members.

Chapter 143: Having evil intentions

In Fuliang, Gan Province, the hot spring hotel where Tang Manwen and Liu Tingjin stayed was also built into the mountains. Compared to the sparsely populated area of ​​Huanzigang in Nanling, Fuliang seemed to be relatively empty during the day, but it actually became bustling at night.

It was a holiday, and the streets of Fuliang Ancient Town were bustling with tourists. Antique lantern-like streetlights flashed white. The old street across from the hotel was now fully open for business. It was filled with mobile shops selling snacks and small commodities. The entire town was brightly lit, and there were even fireworks on the street corner not far from the hot spring hotel.

Magnesium, iron, aluminum, and antimony powders reacted with flames to create a multicolored glow. Though sparse, it still shone brilliantly against the cloudy night sky, nearly illuminating the distant mountains. The multicolored light, emanating from an infinite distance, cast a ghostly shadow over the tea plantations and trees on the distant hills.

The Zhu Jiang family's trial run hotel was also seeing some business, with 20 or 30 tourists checking in, but the hotel hadn't yet hired a full staff. After dinner, Zhu Jiang was dragged by his brother to clean the bathhouse, which would be used that evening. Liu Yujin, a man of impatience who couldn't sit still, also rushed over to watch the fun, and Tang Manwen had no choice but to follow him.

Zhu Jiang didn't care about working. He took a long-handled stiff brush and walked towards the public bathhouse. The fat boy Liu Tingjin followed behind Zhu Jiang with a bucket in one hand and two long-handled stiff brushes in the other.

The hotel's public bathroom was built in a special room with a charcoal boiler room attached, where Zhu Hai and Huang Mengsong were busy.

The bathhouse's renovations were a significant expense. The beige, non-slip mosaic tiles on the floor cost over a thousand yuan per square meter, while the public baths were covered in lake-blue waterproof tiles. The overall look was rather old-fashioned, reminiscent of a 19th-century public bathhouse in northern China. Adding in the renovations, ventilation, and other equipment, along with the various compartments, the entire package would have cost around a million yuan.

The public bath in the middle wasn't much different from a small swimming pool; it still hadn't filled with water, but had been briefly cleaned, leaving a dusty layer of dust from renovations. Zhu Jiang donned waterproof boots and jumped in, turning on the water pump and starting to scrub the floor with a brush.

Liu Tingjin was so busy watching the novelty that he ran around in the bathroom, looking so excited and silly that he looked like a fat monkey in a new cage.

Liu Yujin had rented a military overcoat that afternoon, and now that he was back at the hotel, the room temperature was much higher than it was outside in the mountains, so he stripped down to his short-sleeved shirt. Tang Manwen also took off his coat and cashmere sweater, leaving him in a long-sleeved T-shirt with a mock collar.

The T-shirt was tight fitting, showing off the girl's graceful figure to the fullest. The "S"-shaped curve of her waist and hips was as sharp as a saw, cutting the boy's sanity into pieces bit by bit.

Zhu Jiang took a deep breath. He felt that he was about to make a move, but he was more mature than Liu Yujin. He knew what to look at and what not to look at, and naturally he also knew what to do and what not to do. Although he was jealous, he did not stare at Tang Manwen blatantly.

Tang Manwen was brought here by Liu Yujin. After spending an afternoon with her, Zhu Jiang could sense that she was a well-educated, respectable, and decent girl. No matter how beautiful or alluring she was, she was definitely a respectable, gentle lady at heart. So no matter how much Zhu Jiang lusted after her, he still had to at least show some restraint towards Tang Manwen for the sake of appearances.

Liu Tingjin was running around in the bathroom. He ran into the sauna room and touched things here and there, while the bucket and brush he brought were placed casually aside.

Tang Manwen removed her shoes and socks, rolled up her trouser legs, and put on a pair of unopened women's plastic slippers. She went over to pick up a long brush and sat down on the edge of the tub, her legs about thirty centimeters from the bottom. She simply jumped in. There was already some water at the bottom, and stepping in with her slippers created a small splash.

Zhu Jiang glanced sideways at the beautiful woman who looked like a fairy from a painting. She came closer, stood beside him, and began to brush the floor. Zhu Jiang could even smell the quiet fragrance of Tang Manwen, like a quiet orchid in a valley.

Zhu Jiang took a deep breath, greedily inhaling as much of the sweet scent brought by the girl as she walked in. He turned his head to look at Tang Manwen, stunned, but soon revealed a simple smile, as if he was a rustic young man from the country who had never seen the world.

"Excuse me, Sister Tang."

Tang Manwen was also stunned when she heard this name, and then responded with a faint smile.

"You say that as if I'm taking advantage of you."

Zhu Jiang's eyes were dim and even his breathing stopped.

"I treat you as my sister, just as I treat Liu Yujin as my brother."

Liu Yujin happened to be in the sauna room, yelling and asking Zhu Jiang how to heat it. This interrupted the conversation between Zhu Jiang and Tang Manwen. Zhu Jiang saw that even Tang Manwen, a fairy sister, was helping to clean up, while this fat guy only knew how to make trouble. Zhu Jiang suddenly felt a strange feeling in his heart.

It was a negative emotion directed at Liu Tingjin, like jealousy, like anger, but more like confusion. He stood up and looked in the direction of Liu Tingjin's voice. The fat man was still in the sauna room, studying the switch inside.

Zhu Jiang was speechless and shouted at Liu Tingjin who was sticking his butt out.

"Jing Jie'er! Can you be a bit more reliable, you damn sissy? The sweet girl Tang Manwen has come to help, and you're still touching shit in your room. You damned thing, I should stick my handle in your back door!"

"I'm fucking here! What the hell are you doing chewing maggots behind my back, you bastard!"

Liu Yujin was also full of curse words. He didn't bother to act civilized in front of his childhood friend. He walked to the edge of the bathing pool, threw on his shoes, and didn't even bother to take off his socks. He grabbed the only long-handled brush he had left and jumped in, but he still looked around after entering the pool.

"Zhu Jiang, it costs a lot of money to change the water in such a big pond, and you have to keep the water temperature constant. Your family has worked hard to earn some money from tea production, don't spend it all here."

"Can you please say something you like? Trial run, do you know what a trial run is? If it works, keep running it, if it doesn't, just let it go occasionally. You're a bastard, you can't spit out ivory, if you keep on whining and whining, I'll pour footwash water into your mouth."

Liu Yujin was scolded but still had a silly smile on his face. Qin Zhixin had trained him to be thick-skinned enough, but he still refused to give in and muttered something.

"I'll fuck you!"

Zhu Jiang heard it, smacked his lips as if he was savoring Liu Tingjin's curse, and immediately turned around and spoke to Tang Manwen who was sweeping the floor.

"Don't fucking yell, Tang Manwen is still here. Sister Tang, look at what kind of people your classmates are? You can tell this kind of person from the beginning. When he was a kid at a party, you knew he wasn't a good person. Now he's just a dead scoundrel with such poor character."

Tang Manwen had long been desensitized to these foul language. She was amused by the unique way these childhood friends communicated. Seeing them reminded her of the last time she'd been out with Qin Zhixin and Liu Tingjin, only Qin Zhixin's behavior was far more extreme than Zhu Jiang's. Tang Manwen covered her mouth with her hand and smiled, her bright, charming eyes narrowing slightly, their watery glow making Zhu Jiang's legs tingle.

"Stop messing around, you two. You're not being calm at all. Clean the bathtub quickly. We still need to fill it with water."

Zhu Jiang was smiling, and that smile looked like it was painted on his dark face, like a mask.

"That's right, Sister Jing, you're not steady at all. After sweeping, you have to add water and disinfect. If you finish quickly, we can wash our hair and take a bath tonight."

"What are you looking forward to just taking a bath? Isn't it boring? Besides, how long will it take to brush your face? Just watch me!"

Liu Tingjin placed the pole against his stomach and began running around the tub. The tub was filled with dust, and the water had now become stained white. Liu Tingjin, in high spirits, swam around the tub three or four times with the brush on his head, splashing water as he went, even getting Tang Manwen's pants wet. In the end, Tang Manwen caught up with him.

The little fat boy was not annoyed at all. He sat alone by the bathtub. His pants were half wet, so he simply took them off, revealing a pair of fat hairy legs.

Without Liu Tingjin's troublemaker, Tang Manwen and Zhu Jiang were quick and efficient, finishing the tub in no time. Zhu Jiang drained the dirty water, rinsed it twice, and then began to drain the water. The tub was so large that it took a while for it to fill up. The three of them sat at the edge of the tub, with Tang Manwen in the middle. Liu Tingjin started to find conversation again.

"Zhu Jiang, have you read Tianxia Bachang's book? I read his River God before, and it was full of all kinds of things like drifting on the river and drowned corpses."

"Is it appropriate for you to say this to a bathhouse? My family runs a hot spring hotel, which is a very festive occasion. I shouldn't bring an unlucky person like you here."

Zhu Jiang replied, but his hand was not honest. It touched Tang Manwen's plump buttocks, which made Tang Manwen's delicate body tremble subconsciously. She tilted her head slightly and looked at Zhu Jiang, thinking that Zhu Jiang had touched her accidentally. But Zhu Jiang's hand was still on her buttocks, and he even squeezed it hard.

Tang Manwen's heart instantly became excited, but she still pretended to be surprised. She noticed that Xiao Zhujiang was already erect. She liked this feeling, the bold harassment from the opposite sex, the feeling of making men obsessed with her pure and beautiful body.

Anyway, Liu Yujin was right next to her, chattering away ghost stories, so she was not afraid at all that the situation would get out of control.

Tang Manwen only has to play a timid girl.

"No, isn't this boring? How about we each tell a ghost story about water? Look, there are only three of us in the bathroom right now, and the decor is so ugly, and the lights aren't on. What a perfect atmosphere for telling a ghost story."

The more Liu Tingjin spoke, the weirder Zhu Jiang's expression became, and the bolder his hands became. His rough hands reached directly into the back of Tang Manwen's T-shirt and touched her delicate snow-white skin.

"Zhu Jiang, Zhu Jin is a bit childish. Don't take his words too seriously."

Chapter 144: Bathtub Talk

Zhu Jiang's rough fingers scraped Tang Manwen's waist, moved down along Tang Manwen's cleavage, and touched the edge of her underwear.

Tang Manwen's face flushed with shame, her beautiful eyes widened as she glared at Zhu Jiang. However, her shy look of trying to suppress the humiliation only made Zhu Jiang's anger surge even more.

She used minimal force to "try" to quietly shake Zhu Jiang's hand off, but this attempt to "get rid of" him was futile from the very beginning. Tang Manwen had practiced this kind of flirtatious Easter egg many times, in many different ways, but it was a shame she hadn't used it on Liu Yujin. Instead, she used it on a stranger she hadn't even met for half a day.

Zhu Jiang's hand was on Tang Manwen's waist, steady and even kneading her delicate spots. Tang Manwen straightened her back and tried her best to suppress her trembling.

She couldn't indulge Zhu Jiang any more; she had already given him enough sweet treats. Tang Manwen calmly pushed Zhu Jiang's hand away and shoved her body as close to Liu Tingjin as possible. But Liu Tingjin was stupid; he didn't notice anything and resumed his ghost story.

"How about this, let me start with a ghost story involving water. To be frank, the three of us all grew up in Nanling. Although Zhu Jiang moved away after entering junior high school, he must still remember some things from his childhood. The characteristics of Nanling are its abundant water, many mountains, and many corners. You all know this."

Zhu Jiang sneered. "So, Gan Province has fewer mountains and less water?"

"Don't interrupt. Places with lots of water must have had a lot of beggars before liberation, especially before the Great Leap Forward. And there weren't as many good roads back then. Lots of water meant better transportation. A small boat carrying dozens of people was no different than a bus today. River dredging in Nanling happens several times a year. There were heavy rainstorms in 98. Although Jiangsu Province wasn't affected, the interconnected rivers still caused the water level in Nanling to rise significantly. Our Yuhua District hydrological station discovered seven bodies floating upstream. We thought they'd been carried there by the rising water."

"No, Fatty Liu, do you know what it means to find seven bodies at once? You're talking nonsense here. Seven bodies at once is definitely a major accident."

"Listen to me, you're talking nonsense. You know Nanling has a lot of rivers, and there are always a few bodies floating in the river every week. They're so swollen that you can't tell if they're human or pig corpses. But suddenly there were seven more, and they all looked human. This scared the people above, and they thought there was a flood near Nanling. But here's the problem. When the hydrological station sent people to pull these bodies out, they found that their ankles were tied with rusty iron chains, and they were wearing tattered linen clothes."

Liu Tingjin paused for a moment, and seeing that Zhu Jiang didn't interrupt him, he continued.

"Even if they weren't particularly wealthy in the 1990s, at least they had enough Dacron clothing. Who would still wear sackcloth back then? And the strangest thing is that they all had tattoos on their chests. One of the common phrases was "Stealing and stabbing Yangzhou Hu Dou Zhou Si" and the characters on the tattoos were all in traditional Chinese. The people who were rescued knew about Yangzhou, but not what Hu Dou Zhou was."

Zhu Jiang looked quite honest and didn't continue to reach out to touch Tang Manwen. Tang Manwen listened nonchalantly. She had heard this story from Liu Yujin before. At that time, their relationship was just friends, although they were still friends now, ambiguous friends.

Liu Yujin continued speaking.

"Computers were rare back then, and if you encountered something you didn't understand, you wouldn't know how to look it up. But Nanling, after all, is a place with rich history, and places with rich history are steeped in history. The place they were exiled to was called Hu Dou Zhou during the mid-Tang Dynasty. It's now called Tongzhou, and during the Tang Dynasty, the area now known as Tongzhou was a mudflat. At that time, only a small portion of the land would be exposed above the water at high tide, like an island in the middle of a lake, hence the name "island." It was also a resting place for fishermen and salt workers. These seven people were exiled there for theft, and at the time, they were sent there to suffer. There are documents that say most of those exiled from coastal areas were salt slaves."

"Fuck, Liu Yujin, are you talking about the flood in 98 when seven Tang Dynasty corpses were fished out? Shouldn't those bodies have rotted away in the water long ago? Let alone over a thousand years, even in a month they would have been reduced to skeletons."

Liu Tingjin was instantly excited. He knew that Zhu Jiang would definitely ask him something. Liu Tingjin seemed to be showing off his knowledge and spoke with great joy.

"The remarkable thing is that the bodies haven't decayed. Take the ancient battlefields of the Battle of Changping and the Battle of Red Cliff. You can still find the burial sites there, but they're just human bones. No matter how high they were piled, there's nothing much to see. At most, you'd sigh at the suffering of the people. But when these seven bodies were fished out, they looked like they weren't freshly dead, but at least their facial features were intact, and their skin and muscles had texture. There are two types of river corpses: those that have swelled up. These are the most common river drifters, and they float to the surface once they swell up."

"Another, relatively rare, possibility involves getting stuck in the mud. With no oxygen, it's like a swamp. It's not uncommon for parts of the bodies in the mud to remain well-preserved, while those outside the mud have rotted away. The old saying, 'Dry for a thousand years, wet for ten thousand,' refers to this type of situation. Later, some speculated that these people were caught in a mudslide or something after sailing, and were swept into the mud. Even more coincidentally, the mud that enveloped them was washed to the bottom of the river, trapping the seven bodies in the mud for a thousand years without decaying, until the 98 flood happened to wash them out."

"Your story is so incoherent. I thought it was going to be really scary, but after all this nonsense, it turns out to be just a few thousand-year-old corpses."

"It's the lack of a beginning and an end that makes it seem real. If something is both bizarre and can explain its entire process, from cause to process to outcome, then there's a high probability that it's fabricated. I've heard the story that Yu Jin is talking about before, and the content is pretty much the same."

Tang Manwen answered Zhu Jiang's questions with a smile.

Zhu Jiang smiled at Tang Manwen. He placed the hand he had just touched under his nose in front of her and took a deep breath. Tang Manwen simply watched with a smile, a faint smile tattooed on her face, as if she saw nothing. Her fiery and delicate body remained pressed against Liu Tingjin.

Zhu Jiang was a little confused by Tang Manwen's attitude, but the delicate jade-like touch he had just felt when he put his hand in was no illusion. He smiled awkwardly and pretended to listen.

"Indeed. But it's also true that Sister Jing'er's story isn't scary at all. No matter how true it is, if it's not scary, it's a failed ghost story."

Liu Yujin was somewhat dissatisfied with Zhu Jiang's attitude. He felt that this guy's constant sabotage was targeting him. "I'm done. Now it's your turn to tell a story. If you have the guts, tell a story that's both true and scary."

Zhu Jiang sneered.

"What can a young man like you, who grew up eating honey in Nanling, say that's so scary? Look at your foolish behavior, you're just parroting what others have said. Since you said a feeling is true, I'll also tell you a true story. The story I want to tell is about a well that can see the future."

"What the hell are you talking about? You're talking about children's stories. Don't bring up Zheng Yuanjie's writings then."

"I'm not you. Look at what you're saying—all those ancient place names and geography. I'm here to listen to your stories, not your lectures. Before I even finished junior high, I followed my family to Jieyang City in Guangdong Province. My family didn't care much about me there, and they just threw me into boarding school. I hung out with a few roommates named Lin every day. They were all from the same clan, and their families were even from the same township. Although we were from the same clan, we were beyond the fifth generation of mourning, so we weren't considered blood relatives. One night, we couldn't sleep and started telling stories, and this well that could see the future was one of the stories they told me—a true story."

"First of all, I want to make it clear that there is no such thing as supernatural powers in this world."

Zhu Jiang spoke seriously. Tang Manwen leaned on Liu Tingjin. She turned her head to look at him, as if her interest was piqued.

"These members of the Lin family have been friends since they were little. The village they live in is huge, with at least 10,000 people living there. All the children are sent to a few designated childcare facilities. They say they are childcare facilities, but in reality, they are just retired elderly people who look after them. Children are hard to control. As soon as they learn to talk, they naturally start to spread stories. Whether they are made up lies, heard from others, or exaggerated, as long as it is fun, the children will chime in. And for a while, they started to spread the rumor that there is an unused well in the village, and if you look into it, you can see your future self.

"I'll tell this story from his perspective. Let's call him Lin A, since their names are all Lin or something. Lin A knew about the well. It was on the edge of the village, nestled against the woods. Normally, no sunlight could get in, and the well was tiny, too small even for a child. Although it wasn't used, there was still some water in it. A few of the kids who were close friends back then would stick their heads down to look, and then they'd shout, 'Wow! I can see something!' Lin A was curious too, so he looked inside, but the well was pitch black and he couldn't see a thing. He thought the kids were playing another "I saw a ghost" trick, but he soon realized there was something in the well."

Liu Tingjin squeezed against Tang Manwen, with his chin resting on her shoulder. The heaviness made Tang Manwen couldn't help but sigh.

"Holy crap, Zhu Jiang, have you really seen the future? We're talking about ghost stories related to water, not science fiction movies."

"Of course it's not science fiction. Lin A vaguely saw the reflection of a pale face in the well. It was a blurry reflection, like Lin A yet not like Lin A. This made him uneasy, but he was more concerned about whether he would look like this in the future. Lin A never thought that this well where he could see the future was real. The legend of this well spread among the children. For a week, every day, many children lined up at the well to look in, wanting to see what they would look like in the future. Gradually, even the adults knew about it.

"The adults treated this as a child's game. Even if they knew, they would just tell them to stay away from the well because it was dangerous. But soon a foul odor emanated from the well, so foul that even the children playing there couldn't stand it. The odor was so strong that even the families living nearby couldn't stand it. So, the adults finally checked the well and pulled out the rotten body of a child. The body had been submerged in water for so long that its skin had turned translucent and was covered in ulcers."

Tang Manwen only reacted after hearing this.

"So, the future they saw was actually the child's corpse?"

"It wasn't a corpse at first. Guangdong Province is very hot, and people start to stink quickly after they die. When they first looked, the child in the well was still alive. He looked up from inside the well, staring longingly at the children outside, one after another, looking in. The dead child was mute and stupid. He couldn't scream or make a sound. His parents were working away from home, a typical left-behind child, and the child was left in the care of the elderly in his hometown."

Liu Tingjin reacted and spoke quickly.