Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping could not verify which specific situation it was, so they could only make a simple guess.
"It would be great if Ye Tiancheng and the others were here. We've been separated, and I just hope everything is going smoothly on their end and that they send back news soon. It would be even better if they could receive our message. Even if we can't see each other, being able to communicate would bring us a lot of peace of mind."
Liang Ping said after thinking for a moment, "We just arrived here and found the information they left behind. They also said there's no danger at the moment, so there shouldn't be any major problems."
Ding Yijie overheard a few words and asked, "You have other companions... team members who got separated?"
Liang Ping gave a vague explanation.
"Not members of the criminal investigation team, but... special consultants, you could say."
Ding Yijie asked with confusion, "What kind of work would cause you to get separated like that? Can't you even find them?"
Nie Chongyang said from the side, "It's a bit complicated to explain, but we really can't see each other. Due to certain restrictions, we can only pass messages, and they might not even receive ours."
Ding Yijie gasped.
"Is your line of work this dangerous?"
A companion of Ding Yijie's chimed in, "Nonsense, that's the criminal investigation team!"
Liang Ping said, "There's definitely danger, and it's the norm."
The entire carload was taken to the town. Ah Qing asked Nie Chongyang and the others what kind of hotel or inn they wanted to stay in. Nie Chongyang thought for a moment and said to ask the younger people for their opinions, as they could choose freely.
The young people, accustomed to good conditions at home and having not endured much hardship, chose to stay at the best hotel in town.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping followed along.
When checking into the rooms, they were fortunate that the regulations at this time were not very strict, and they didn't check identification upon check-in. If they had been asked for their IDs, it would have been truly problematic.
Also, fortunately, they hadn't given all their money to Ye Tiancheng. Each of them had some on hand, and the cash included both new and old bills, so they could find some that were usable at this time.
It was money they had withdrawn in Xiao Jing City, and they were glad it was usable here.
Perhaps it was because this was not a real world.
However, the money they withdrew looked quite real, as if there was no difference from real-world currency.
If they hadn't withdrawn a large amount of cash together in Xiao Jing City and carried it with them, it would have been difficult for Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping to find any cash.
In their era, technology was already very advanced, and people rarely paid with cash when going anywhere. A quick scan with a mobile phone would complete the payment, which was very convenient. Therefore, at that time, most people basically had no cash on them.
It was also for this reason that Nie Chongyang and the others dared not use their mobile phones.
Because at this time, let alone touch-screen phones, anyone who had a brick-like mobile phone at home was considered a family with good financial standing.
Buying such a brick phone was not cheap, and maintaining a phone card was also not inexpensive.
Most ordinary people would choose to buy a landline phone at home.
Those who bought such brick phones were either genuinely wealthy, nouveau riche showing off, or people who needed them for work, buying such a luxury item out of necessity.
However, Nie Chongyang and the others also knew.
It wouldn't be many years before there would be a huge boom in this area, with frequent model updates, and soon touch-screen phones would appear, followed by the popularization of smartphones. However, given the current situation, Nie Chongyang and the others still couldn't use their phones.
Even if they took them out, they would be useless, as there would certainly be no signal in this place.
Ah Qing escorted Nie Chongyang and the others, along with the five young people, to the hotel. Seeing that they had checked in, he considered his mission accomplished and went home.
He had already been delayed for some time due to the sudden incident, and he would be late getting home today. If he were delayed any longer, his wife might worry about him, so Ah Qing wanted to get home earlier.
After expressing their gratitude, Nie Chongyang and the others did not insist on him staying.
They knew he must have his own matters to attend to.
After seeing Ah Qing off, Nie Chongyang said to the five young people, "Regarding the haunted house, come with us. Let's have a meeting together, and we can explain things to you properly, then you can consider what to do."
The young people had actually been persuaded, and now that Nie Chongyang wanted to have a meeting, they had no objections and dared not have any.
The five of them followed Nie Chongyang and the others dejectedly to Nie Chongyang's room.
It was then that Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping had the opportunity to begin their plan. Although they had not discussed this plan with each other or coordinated their words, they were old partners with considerable tacit understanding. They didn't need to say much; a few glances and gestures were enough to reach a consensus and know what to do.
While they were planning to teach the unruly youngsters a lesson, Ye Tiancheng and the others sent their message. Two days later, they returned to the inn that had been burned down by the fire under the cover of night.
The two of them, familiar with the way, found the ruins where they had hidden the letter. The place had hardly changed. Perhaps it was because the rumors of haunting were intensifying, but in any case, no one dared to approach it. Moreover, Ye Tiancheng and the others had hidden it quite discreetly, which was probably why it hadn't been discovered by anyone.
Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox dug open the ruins, and immediately, Little Fox sighed in disappointment.
"The letter is still here. Did we fail?"
As soon as Little Fox said this, Ye Tiancheng's heart stirred.
After carefully observing the situation, he said to Little Fox, "No, this letter seems to have been tampered with? And the envelope seems to have undergone some changes..."
Their envelope looked much older, as if it had endured the ravages of time.
However, they had only put the letter in two days ago. At most, it would have gotten a bit dirty, but it shouldn't have been ravaged to this extent.
It was only because it was night, and the light was too dim, that they hadn't noticed this at first.
Little Fox's eyes immediately lit up, "Then quickly open it and see if they received our letter!"
Ye Tiancheng picked up the envelope from the ruins and opened it.
Indeed, the contents of the envelope had changed. When Ye Tiancheng picked it up, he felt that the envelope was much lighter. Because there were quite a few things to say at the time, Ye Tiancheng had written on several sheets of paper, and after stuffing them into the envelope, the envelope inevitably had some thickness and weight.
But now, when the envelope was moved into his hand, it felt much lighter.
Upon opening it, Ye Tiancheng discovered that the content he had written, filling multiple pages, was no longer in the envelope. Instead, a brand-new sheet of paper had appeared inside.
Ye Tiancheng took out the new letter and unfolded it.
He immediately breathed a sigh of relief and said to Little Fox, "It's a letter written by Nie Chongyang and the others. They received our letter."
Little Fox was extremely excited.
"That's great! How are they? What does the letter say? Let me see too."
Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox both focused the light of their small flashlight onto the letter in their hands. The two of them huddled together, reading the letter left by Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping.
It was only after reading the letter left by Nie Chongyang and the others that Ye Tiancheng and the others learned that when they went to rescue Lin Yanqin, Nie Chongyang and the others had heard the commotion of him and Little Fox going to the rescue.
According to the contents of the letter, Ye Tiancheng and the others could infer that after he and Little Fox had rescued Lin Yanqin and completed the rescue, and as they noticed the fire and ran out of Lin Yanqin's room with her, the environment where Nie Chongyang and the others were located underwent a change.
However, it was different from their situation.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping did not leave their room; within the room itself, the entire room transformed, becoming an unfamiliar room, even a ruin of a raging fire.
Seeing that the two of them were not harmed by this, Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox felt much more relieved and happy.
Then, Nie Chongyang and the others informed Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox.
They said that they were likely in a future timeline, the specific time of which was currently unknown and would be supplemented after they understood it more clearly. The main reason was that as soon as the space changed, they immediately went upstairs and found the letter left by Ye Tiancheng and the others.
So, in reality, there was not only a gap in their timelines, but also a difference in the flow of time.
Because it had been several days for Ye Tiancheng and the others before they left the letter, but as soon as Nie Chongyang's timeline and space changed, they immediately received the letter. However, this alone could not lead to any logically related deductions.
After all, according to conventional logic, if Ye Tiancheng and the others left letters in the past, Nie Chongyang and the others in the future could receive them. Then, theoretically, as soon as Nie Chongyang and the others arrived, they should have received a flood of letters left by Ye Tiancheng and the others.
After all, even if they couldn't determine whether Nie Chongyang and the others had received those letters, as long as no one discovered those letters later, Ye Tiancheng would likely continue the practice of leaving a letter every so often.
If it were just a difference in timelines, then as soon as Nie Chongyang and the others appeared in the future timeline, they should theoretically be able to immediately obtain all the clues that Ye Tiancheng had already received.
The cause and effect would probably be very clear.
Moreover, there was another issue. This was not a normal world, and to return to a past timeline would be to reverse time, which was not an easy task. If it were that simple, the world would have long been in chaos.
In addition, Ye Tiancheng and the others could also receive reply letters from Nie Chongyang and the others.
This further explained the problem.
But at the very least, as long as they could maintain contact, it was a good thing. Other things could be dealt with slowly.
The worst thing was not knowing the other party's situation at all. In such a case, both sides would inevitably worry about each other, and it would be difficult to predict what might happen in their unsettled state.
Little Fox thought for a moment and asked Ye Tiancheng, "Should we write back something?"
Ye Tiancheng looked at the letter in his hand and, confirming that there were no other new clues, put the letter away and tucked it into his pocket.
Then, he replied to Little Fox, "There's no need to rush to reply. We still haven't discovered anything. Lin Yanqin refuses to go home, and we can't abandon her. After all, the clues are tied to Lin Yanqin, so there's no good solution."
"At this point, even if we wanted to leave a letter, we wouldn't know what to write."
Little Fox also felt a bit troubled.
It was indeed difficult to reply without any discoveries, and they were not entirely sure what the reply would be like. They couldn't just send a letter with no important news and exchange a few words to waste time, as that would be too boring.