Chapter 255 This Village Has a Big Problem
"Come with me, I'll take you to Rhett's place!"
The old man led Emily and York across a pond, then through winding paths before finally reaching Rhett's home.
When Violette married Rhett, he was running his own business and doing pretty well, so they didn't have the wedding back in the village.
The Johnson family was doing fine back then, and Rhett probably worried that Violette would look down on him and refuse to marry him.
Later, after Rhett's situation got worse, plus Violette had kids, her figure changed, and she got worn out from housework, looking more and more haggard.
That's when Rhett seemed to start coming back to his hometown more often.
As soon as Emily and York were led into the courtyard, an old woman came up to greet them.
Emily frowned.
She had seen Fallon before, and this wasn't her.
Emily frowned and looked at the old man with deliberate displeasure. "Who is this? Don't tell me this is Rhett's mother."
Her eyes clearly said, "Don't try to fool me."
The old man had originally planned to have his wife pretend to be Rhett's mother to get through this first, then after they had eaten...
He didn't expect Emily, who seemed so naive, to see through it.
The old man was actually the village chief. He immediately laughed it off. "Of course not! Rhett looks like his mom; you'd recognize her right away. It's just that Rhett went to visit relatives, so I was worried you'd come and find no one. I thought I'd bring you to my place first, then have someone notify them to come back."
The village chief explained with a smile.
But Emily frowned, looking somewhat disappointed. "What bad timing. But don't people have phones? Why don't you give me the number, and I'll just call Rhett directly? Actually, I get along pretty well with Rhett's son and daughter - maybe when they hear I'm here, they'll come right back."
"Ah, phones! You see, we're so remote here, there's barely any signal. Even if there is, you might not get through right now. Better to just go notify them in person."
Hearing this, York became even more convinced there was something seriously wrong with this village.
He suddenly got angry. "I told you not to come here, but you wouldn't listen. No signal, boring as hell, can't even watch videos or play games online. No way, we're leaving right now."
York looked impatient and grabbed Emily to leave.
Emily had also noticed something was off about this village.
But this time it wasn't just intuition.
It was her professional expertise.
As a doctor, while the place looked scenic on the surface, once she entered the village chief's house, she detected certain substances that shouldn't be there.
Emily realized the problems in this village might be even bigger than she'd imagined, so she also planned to leave first.
Of course, that was assuming they could leave!
Emily went along with York's act. "York, don't be so rude. If you want to leave, we'll leave."
As York pulled her away, she apologetically said to the elderly couple, "Sorry, my husband has a bit of a temper. He's always been into entertainment - without internet, he definitely can't stand it, and it'll probably ruin my mood for gathering inspiration too. Since Rhett's family isn't home, no need to notify them. We'll just go."
By normal logic, since they were leaving anyway, there was no reason to stop them.
But the village chief suddenly blocked their path, moving so fast they could even see a flash of viciousness cross his face.
"You can't leave!"
Both York and Emily's hearts sank when they were blocked.
York immediately turned hostile, deliberately saying, "What's that supposed to mean? Why can't we leave? What are you trying to do?"
He made a show of being on guard, positioning Emily behind him.
The village chief realized his sudden movement had scared them. His wrinkled face immediately broke into a smile.
"Misunderstanding, misunderstanding! Young folks, don't be nervous. I don't mean anything by it. It's just that on your way back, we ran into some villagers and already sent someone to notify Rhett. If you leave now and they rush back to find no one, they'll think I was messing with them!"
The woman beside him quickly chimed in, "You really can't leave. Rhett's famously difficult - if he thinks we tricked them, our household won't have peace for weeks."
"What are you talking about? Don't badmouth Rhett in front of outsiders!"
The village chief pretended to scold his wife.
But she responded coyly, "I'm not lying, it's the truth. You'd really let me get bullied later?"
The two were clearly working together.
Emily knew that she and York definitely weren't leaving today.
After that, wherever Emily and York went, the village chief followed.
Seemingly worried they'd get lost, he showed them around and introduced the scenery, but really, he was probably just making sure they didn't run off.
The village chief's wife busied herself in the kitchen, saying that, since Emily was Rhett's sister and this was her first visit, they couldn't be anything but poor hosts.
Seeing they couldn't leave, Emily made an excuse, wanting the village chief to show them around the village so they could enjoy the rural scenery.
The village chief couldn't very well refuse.
Then Emily noticed that as the village chief led them around, he deliberately avoided a house at the end of the village near the mountain.
Though from the front, the house didn't look big.
Emily could tell that the partially hidden area behind the house was probably quite spacious.
Emily took the chance to exchange words privately with York.
"Ms. Johnson, the atmosphere here is too weird. Those people we passed in the village - their smiles all seemed fake to me."
He had seen blood during his overseas training before.
What he didn't say out loud was that he felt these people had taken lives.
Their eyes lacked the gentleness of ordinary people.
Emily nodded, silently mouthing, "Trafficking, drugs!"
If it was really as she suspected, this village might be even more dangerous than imagined.
She suddenly understood why Rhett had started coming back to the village so frequently.
She just didn't know whether Rhett might be involved in these illegal dealings.
Though York knew these people had blood on their hands, what Emily said still shocked him deeply.
These people could no longer be called human - they were animals, doing inhuman things.
"This time, we'll probably need Daniel's help!"
Emily felt incredibly grateful that she'd accepted Daniel's necklace, which would let her contact Daniel at a critical moment.
She needed backup.
And they needed to call the police.
Actually, even if Emily hadn't contacted Daniel, York was staying in touch with Daniel the whole time.