Once Upon a Time, There Was a Mountain, and a Village Within

Suibian traveled to who knows how many places over the course of several months, searching for his uncle. He nearly had to pawn the pants off his back, but finally scraped together two hundred taels of silver to buy some information, only to discover that the address was deep in a remote mountain forest. He dodged wolves and tigers in the mountains, searched for a waterfall, and crawled through tunnels. At last, he reached the village and found his uncle. They were reunited in tears, but his uncle, once the youngest third-place palace graduate in the dynasty, calmly said, “One tael of silver a month for lodging. I'll waive the cost of food.” Suibian: ??? Uncle, are you really my uncle? Didn't my mother say you were a high-ranking official? Didn't my mother say you'd definitely take me in? Why does my uncle live in a village hidden deep in the mountains? And why is he charging me for lodging? Suibian couldn't bring himself to complain. But rather than be separated from his only remaining family, he reluctantly paid up and decided to put up with it. That was what he told himself, but something was very wrong with this village! For example, the village was hidden deep in the mountains, and its entrance was so well concealed that it was practically impossible to find. For example, the first thing a little girl in the village asked him was what crime he'd committed, as if everyone here were a criminal. For example, one day he saw a wanted criminal passing by, proving that there really were criminals in the village! Still, the village chief insisted that everyone here was a good person, and that they'd all ended up here out of desperation. Fine, Suibian grudgingly believed him. After all, his uncle had lived here a long time, and the villagers did seem like good people... But just as he was starting to relax and had become good buddies with the villagers, people began dying one after another. Didn't you say everyone here was a good person? Then why are people dying? What kind of village is this, anyway? And yet, after the village chief's investigation and the villagers' testimonies, every piece of evidence pointed to Suibian. He was the prime suspect. So that's how you're going to play it? Fine, I'll come clean... I DIDN'T DO IT!!!!!! You can tell from all those exclamation marks that I really didn't do it!!!!! The truth from decades ago, and the truth from just a few years ago, gradually came to light over this time. Hidden identities and secrets no one wanted to share were slowly revealed, too. Theme: Family is priceless