The other villagers quickly heard the commotion and hurried over.
By the time the village chief was alerted and ran over with others, the thatched cottage had already been burnt down to its frame.
"How, how could this happen?!" the village chief stood in place, nearly fainting from shock, "Quick, go put out the fire!"
Everyone scurried about in a hectic effort to extinguish the flames.
The cottage was situated a good distance from the water source, and it was quite difficult to fetch and carry the water.
It took a dozen people a fair amount of effort to finally put out the fire.
The village chief was also exhausted, but he still didn't forget to grab a young man who had just run out of the fire scene and asked, "Where are the people? Did you see anyone?"
The young man shook his head, "No, I didn't see a single soul."
"How could this be?"
But before long, shouts from others came from the nearby woods.
"Village chief, we've found someone! Jiang Yan is here!"
