The reason Wang An was staring blankly at the lake's surface was that he had suddenly realized something.
That something was that, within this entire pitted area, everyone seemed to have automatically forgotten about this small lake filled with crimson blood-water.
Connecting this to the explosion points of the landmines, Wang An subconsciously looked toward the areas where no mines had exploded.
After looking at those places, Wang An turned his head back to look at the explosion points, which were filled with corpses, shredded flesh, and blood-water.
Immediately after, Wang An looked at the blood-filled surface of the lake, and then he burst out laughing, "ga ga ga ga ga."
Wang An's laughter sounded like a drake quacking, only the frequency of the "ga ga" was slightly faster.
Finally, perhaps feeling that laughing this way wasn't satisfying enough, he upgraded it to a loud "ha ha ha ha..."
To be honest, in an environment that was originally quiet and oppressive, paired with corpses and shredded flesh scattered everywhere and crimson lake water, hearing Wang An's extremely eerie laughter was jarring.
As a result, the moment the crowd heard Wang An's laughter, the looks they gave him instantly turned blank!
Mainly, in a situation like this, it was hard not to think of something supernatural.
For example, "possession by an evil ghost," "attachment by a resentful soul," or "soul-snatching by the undead"... and so on and so forth.
In short, everyone believed that Wang An was no longer Wang An; the real Wang An had already gone to meet the Buddha!
Thus, when Wang An wanted to tell everyone about his latest discovery, he found that everyone was staring at him.
Crucially, their expressions were very strange, as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
Confused, Wang An touched his own face and looked left and right before subconsciously asking
"What are you guys doing? What's with those looks? What the hell are you looking at?"
It must be said that Wang An certainly knew how to ask; he actually uttered the words "What are you looking at."
This caused the eyes of the crowd looking at Wang An to widen even further.
The reason they reacted this way was that in the local area, phrases like "What can you do," "What are you looking at," "The immortal has descended," or "Calling a maid" were all linked to eerie events, or rather, paranormal incidents.
Simply put, it meant that some mysterious "god, ghost, demon, immortal, or monster" had arrived.
Therefore, after Wang An said this, Mu Xueli spoke somewhat stutteringly
"Brother-in-law, you... you just now, were you... *yan-zhe*?" Then she added, "Are you sleepy now?"
The term "*yan-zhe*" was a special local adjective, meaning to be possessed by a ghost, god, demon, immortal, monster, or some "unclean thing."
It was similar to being "bewitched," but not as severe as "being possessed."
In scientific terms, it was a general term for mental abnormalities caused by various reasons, where one could no longer control oneself; all of this could be called being "*yan-zhe*."
As for why Mu Xueli asked Wang An if he was "sleepy," it was because after a person is "*yan-zhe*," their spirit becomes very weak, and they naturally feel very sleepy.
Hearing this, combined with the eerie little glances from the crowd, Wang An was suddenly infuriated.
So, the reason everyone was looking at him like this was because they thought he was finished.
Unfortunately, many things in this world are like this: when one or two people think you're crazy, you can still argue, or you can make the people who think you're crazy go crazy themselves.
But when everyone thinks you're crazy, even if you are clearly not, then you are crazy.
Therefore, at a time like this, one must never try to argue or explain, because the more you speak, the more the crowd will believe your illness is severe.
The correct approach is to divert the crowd's attention—simply put, "change the subject"!
However, it should be noted that this "change of subject" cannot be random; it must have absolutely nothing to do with what the crowd is thinking.
Thus, Wang An merely glared at Mu Xueli, neither responding to her words nor acknowledging the crowd's eerie glances.
Instead, he continued laughing and said
"Damn it, I finally know where they hid the gold! Those grandsons, they're actually quite clever!"
After a pause, Wang An continued
"But we can't take it yet; we have to wait a bit. By the way, everyone take off the grenades you're carrying."
Sure enough, Wang An's approach was correct. As soon as he spoke, the looks the crowd gave him returned to normal.
Because Wang An's words directly told everyone why he had been laughing so happily, so joyfully, and so... idiotically.
Upon hearing Wang An's words, the crowd was stunned for a moment, and Zhang Shuya immediately asked with a look of surprise
"Xiao An, tell us quickly, where is it?"
Wang An smiled at the crowd and pointed to the small lake
"Right inside this puddle."
Hearing this, everyone subconsciously looked toward the small lake. After a moment of confused silence, their eyes began to brighten one by one.
Clearly, the crowd had also figured out what was going on.
Wang An's words had truly achieved the effect of "waking a dreamer with a single sentence."
Many problems are like this: when you search bitterly for an answer but cannot solve it, perhaps a single sentence, a single word, or even seeing a related object can trigger a sudden flash of inspiration, leading directly to the answer.
In this pitted area, the crowd had searched every place they could, yet they had uniquely overlooked this small lake.
Furthermore, the previous explosion points of the landmines were all along the shore. Therefore, it was obvious that the purpose of these mines was to protect this small lake.
Of course, saying "protect the lake" wasn't entirely accurate; more accurately, the existence of these mines was to prevent people from approaching.
So, why did this gold-stealing gang want to prevent people from approaching the lake?
Without a doubt, there were two answers.
The first was to prevent laborers from diving into the lake and escaping through it.
However, this answer wasn't very accurate, because this small lake wasn't deep; it wasn't realistic to swim away unnoticed through the water.
The second was that there was something important in this small lake, and they didn't want people entering for fear that the items inside would be taken.
Thinking back to the shabby appearance of the gang members—each guarding a gold mine yet having only a tiny bit of gold in their pockets—it was a very strange situation.
Based on this, it wasn't hard to guess that the gold harvested by the gold-stealing gang had been hidden in this small lake.
It had to be admitted that the person who came up with this method of hiding gold was definitely an expert.
Once this was understood, it also explained why so many detonators and explosives were piled there so blatantly.
(End of Chapter)