Tail Alley was a straight, short alley, only five or six hundred meters long, with the end visible at a glance.

Lao Liu and I weren't walking slowly. The others ahead probably hadn't been to Tail Alley before, and with all the picture-taking, they couldn't have been faster than us. But we lost sight of them as soon as we entered the alley. Had they gotten lost, or gone into someone's house?

Lao Liu squinted and said, "Master, should we retreat and reassess?"

"No! Keep going!" I pointed at Chen Xiaobei: "Have her go home first. We're going to find that Yu fellow."

Chen Xiaobei said, "Grandpa Yu lives diagonally across from my house. I'll take you there."

Chen Xiaobei led us to a house and said, "Grandpa Yu's house is here, mine is over there. Grandpa Liu, I'm going home first, you guys..."

Lao Liu crouched down slightly and whispered, "We'll come back for you. If you're really scared, or something really happens at your house, crawl under the table. There's a little lion head on the wall under the table. Touch it, and a door will open. Go in, and you'll be safe, got it?"

"Okay!" Chen Xiaobei nodded and pushed open the courtyard door.

I was about to knock on Lao Yu's door when I heard Chen Xiaobei's voice from behind us: "What if I can't survive even after going through that door?"

Lao Liu's body shuddered, and I turned around. Chen Xiaobei had closed the door halfway, revealing only half of her face through the crack.

The innocence in her eyes was gone, replaced by an eerie, cold look. If I hadn't followed her all the way here, I might have even thought I was seeing a ghost.

Before I could speak, Chen Xiaobei chuckled coldly and slammed the door shut.

I looked up at the courtyard wall of the Chen house: "Is that the jujube tree you were talking about?"

There was indeed a jujube tree planted inside the Chen house's courtyard, with most of its canopy visible from the outside. The branches and leaves of the jujube tree looked like they had been cut off flush with the courtyard wall, with no branches extending outside. The remaining part looked like a "T" lying in the air, with a straight branch as thick as a human leg extending outwards.

According to old sayings: If a tree grows a "T" shape, it must be cut down if it crosses into the yard.

This saying means that no matter what kind of tree it is, as long as it grows into a "T" shape, it means that the tree has gained power and is trying to hook people to hang themselves. If you encounter such a tree, never walk under the tree fork, or you will easily be fascinated by the tree and untie your belt to hang yourself.

If this kind of tree grows in the yard, it must be cut down. Otherwise, after it hooks away one person, its appetite will grow bigger and bigger, and it will not stop until it has devoured the whole family.

If the family is sealed in the house by the tree, they can only wait to die, and they won't be able to move.

Lao Liu shook his head, his face pale: "That tree wasn't like this before, it wasn't like this yesterday."

As Lao Liu spoke, he gritted his teeth, turned around, and knocked on the Yu family's door.

Lao Liu's cultivation isn't as high as mine, but he is a natural strategist, and he will not lose his composure at any time. He knows that now is not the time to rush in and save Chen Xiaobei.

It might be easy for us to break into the Chen family, but getting out might not be so simple.

Lao Liu knocked on the door for a long time before someone shouted from inside the courtyard, "Who is it?"

"It's Lao Liu! Yu Xuelin sent us here." At this moment, Lao Liu's speech had returned to its original steady state, which is the quality a strategist should have.

"Come in! The door's not locked, I have something to do." The person's voice seemed to be coming from five steps away from the door. What could be so urgent that he couldn't even open the door?

Lao Liu used his fan to push the door open a crack, and the door swung open automatically. An old man with a cane was standing in the courtyard, hoarsely saying, "Come inside and sit!"

I looked him up and down and saw a white line painted on the ground in front of his toes. His toes didn't move forward at all, but remained stuck to the white line in the courtyard.

I gave Lao Liu a discreet look, and Lao Liu cupped his fist in greeting: "Are you Yu Haida? Brother Xuelin asked us to come and help you with some things in your house."

"You're too kind!" The old man Yu said as he walked back: "Actually, Xuelin is overthinking things! A few years ago, I was worried about my son and grandson and wanted Xuelin to help me clean up the house. But now, I'm the only one left here, so what's the point?"

"Didn't Xuelin draw a line for me! When the day comes, I'll walk on the line, and that thing won't be able to take my old life."

When the old man Yu spoke, I noticed that there was more than one white line on the ground. There were white lines everywhere in the old Yu's house, both inside and outside.

Some were a few feet away from the door, some were a few inches away from the window, and some were along the wall. In short, the white lines were meant to keep people walking along the lines at a certain distance from things around them.

The old man Yu had to look at the ground from time to time as he walked, for fear of stepping on the line: "Be careful when you walk! Stay inside the lines, and don't step out! If you step out, you might not be able to come back."