In the dim room, the furniture was terribly old-fashioned, the simple arrangement of a country household from the Republican era: a bed, a table, and a few stools.
“Leg Bro, I kind of need to pee.”
“Do it at the doorway. Don’t leave the range of this house.”
Yang Jian glanced at Ye Zhen, who was wandering around by the door with a sword in hand, then took out the human-skin parchment and sat down in a corner of the room.
“Tell me how to save A-Wei.”
Strange, twisted handwriting quickly surfaced.
“My name is Yang Jian. When you see these words, I am already dead.”
“In order to save A-Wei, I came to an unfamiliar village. During the day, I tried to search the village for every useful clue, but I failed. Before night fell, I died...”
“My patience is limited. If you keep spouting nonsense, I don’t mind imprisoning you forever.”
The scarlet ghost eye on Yang Jian’s forehead stared fixedly at the human-skin parchment. Ever since he had been tricked by it at the tattoo parlor, his patience for it had already dropped to its lowest point.
Soon, the writing on the parchment rapidly vanished, and another passage quickly emerged.
“My name is Yang Jian. When you see these words, I am already dead.”
“In order to save A-Wei, I came to an unfamiliar village. During the day, I searched the entire village, trying to find useful clues, but I discovered that certain places in the village had certain-death killing patterns during the day. Thus, I chose to act at night, attempting to avoid those certain-death patterns. At night, I discovered something. I tried to use that thing to exchange for the groom’s identity. I failed—no... I half-succeeded. I died... but A-Wei survived...”
The writing swiftly disappeared, and the human-skin parchment once again returned to its shriveled, silent state.
Putting the human-skin parchment away, Yang Jian looked out the window at Zhang Wei, who was currently competing with Ye Zhen to see who could pee farther.
Yang Jian analyzed the information revealed by the human-skin parchment, trying to find the danger hidden within it.
The village chief told us to stay inside the house today and go fetch the bride tomorrow. In other words, only inside the room is safe. But the human-skin parchment warned me that there is danger during the day, and that only at night can I move. There is an obvious contradiction between the two pieces of information...
But if the moment midnight passes counts as “the next day”... then these two pieces of information do not actually conflict.
The deep night after twelve belongs both to the night and to “tomorrow” in terms of the date. It perfectly matches the village chief’s “set out tomorrow,” while also not violating the human-skin parchment’s claim that “night is safe.”
The key lies in the wordplay concealed within the human-skin parchment’s information. If I choose to go out before midnight, although it is also night then, it is not the “tomorrow” the village chief spoke of. That would trigger the killing pattern, and the village would directly kill me.
At this moment, Zhang Wei and Ye Zhen walked back in.
“I never expected Big Brother Ye’s cultivation to be so profound that you could pee three zhang against the wind. But only after you defeat Leg Bro can I call you the strongest. Back at our school, Leg Bro peed the farthest.”
“Haha! You’re not bad either. This is the first time I, Ye, have met an opponent evenly matched with me. But since someone has raised doubts, I shall accept your challenge!”
Yang Jian spoke up, cutting off their mutual flattery.
“A-Wei, tonight you stay here. Wait until tomorrow morning according to the arranged lodging. If you act in accordance with the ongoing killing pattern, you won’t be in trouble for now.”
Yang Jian took out a glass bottle filled with water.
“Take this. If you encounter danger, pour out the water inside.”
Zhang Wei’s face stiffened. Only then did he remember that he was supposed to marry a ghost tomorrow. He turned to look at Ye Zhen.
“Big Brother Ye, didn’t you say that fierce ghosts are forbidden from entering Dahai City? Hurry up and unleash your divine powers to subdue this female ghost.”
Ye Zhen waved his hand.
“Heh, what do you know of the Third Power?” As he spoke, Ye Zhen stood up and was about to leave.
“Wait...” Yang Jian directly stopped Ye Zhen. Ye Zhen raised an eyebrow.
“Little Yang, do you think I can’t suppress that female ghost?”
“No. Since you were able to bring A-Wei here, I should say thank you. I have my own method. We’ll go out at night.”
Yang Jian stared expressionlessly at Ye Zhen, silently pondering.
“After the loss-of-control incident in Dajing City, all the captains who participated were close to revival. Only his state is no different from an ordinary person’s. A substitute ghost, is it...”
“Little Yang, don’t look at me like that. We’ll go after night falls, that’s all. By the way, I like women.”
After saying that, Ye Zhen walked back and sat down, though his seat seemed to have deliberately moved a little farther away from Yang Jian.
Night.
The village was deathly silent. The cold, rotten stench of corpses in the air had grown even stronger.
Yang Jian looked at the time on the satellite phone. As soon as it reached twelve, he immediately said,
“About time. Let’s go.”
With that, Yang Jian picked up an old hatchet and turned to leave. Ye Zhen followed behind him, leaving only Zhang Wei standing where he was.
Zhang Wei wanted to call the two of them back, but the silent village was empty of people, and he did not dare shout loudly. In only a moment, their figures disappeared into the pitch-black night.
The village sank completely into silence beneath the night curtain. A stifling, oppressive atmosphere enveloped the surroundings. The bright red “double happiness” characters around them appeared even more glaring under the dim moonlight. Occasionally, one or two gusts of wind passed by with a rustling sound, as if countless corpses were moaning in the darkness.
Yang Jian and Ye Zhen were walking through a narrow alley. Beneath their feet was a muddy dirt road, as though they were stepping on a pile of rotting chunks of flesh.
“This village is too quiet. Little Yang, what can your ghost eye see?” Ye Zhen said in a low voice. Although his tone was relaxed, his gaze had already turned sharp. It was clear that even Ye Zhen found the current situation troublesome.
“Nothing unusual...” Yang Jian said coldly, but the ghost eye on his forehead was turning uneasily. In an environment like this, the absence of any anomaly was the greatest anomaly of all.
The two passed through the gloomy alley and arrived at the entrance of a large courtyard. Two huge “double happiness” characters were pasted on the wooden gate, which was more than two meters tall, their red color vivid and piercing.
On either side of the entrance hung a pair of red lanterns that had long since weathered away. The lantern cloth was tattered beyond recognition, like two pieces of human skin that had long dried up.
This was already the most intact building the two had found. It was probably a place within the village used to hold certain events.
“Should we knock first?”
Yang Jian glanced at Ye Zhen, then kicked the door open and walked straight in. A dense corpse stench, carrying a cold aura, surged toward them.
By the dim moonlight, what entered their sight was a large courtyard filled with round tables. A dozen or so redwood round tables were neatly arranged in the courtyard, all set with bowls, chopsticks, and empty plates. Around every round table sat people, as though they were waiting for the wedding banquet to begin.
What was strange was that all of these people sat with their heads lowered, their hands hanging stiffly at the edge of the tables, giving off a pungent corpse stench.
The instant Ye Zhen and Yang Jian stepped into the courtyard, everyone raised their heads in unison and looked at them. Their movements were perfectly uniform, stiff like marionettes pulled by strings, pairs of hollow, lifeless eyes staring fixedly at the two of them.
“So that’s why there was no one in the village. They were all here.” Ye Zhen’s hand was already resting on the hilt of his sword.
“Don’t act recklessly. Go in and take a look.”
Those “guests” made no other movements. Yang Jian and Ye Zhen walked straight toward the house within the courtyard.
Suddenly, all the “guests” turned their heads in unison, following the two fixedly. Their necks let out a series of scalp-numbing cracks.
As the two moved, the heads of some “guests” even rotated a full circle, their joints making sharp, grating creaks, as though their heads were about to be twisted off completely. Yet their dead, silent eyes still stared straight at the two of them.
When the two drew closer and closer to the door that emitted a dim red glow, a neat, uniform turning sound came from behind them, as if all the “guests” had turned their heads around to look at them together.
The two paid them no mind and stepped into a room whose door stood wide open. A dim red light seeped from within.
There was only one worn wooden table in the room. On the table sat an oil lamp flickering with a dark red glow. Its light was faint and cold, illuminating a thick notebook and a bottle of dark red ink on the table. The notebook’s cover was yellowed and cracked, like something corroded after being soaked in blood for a long time.
“A marriage contract?”
Ye Zhen picked up the notebook. On the cover, the words “Marriage Contract” were written crookedly.
By the dim red light, they could vaguely see the contents recorded within the marriage contract.
On the night of March 22, Zhang Wei picked up a red cloth pouch at his front door... That night, he called the number written on the red cloth pouch...
At noon on March 23, Zhang Wei got up and ate two wife cakes...
In the afternoon of March 23, Zhang Wei went out and was chased by a dog...
The contents recorded in the marriage contract were so detailed it made one’s scalp tingle. It even recorded when Zhang Wei went to the bathroom and what he ate, one by one. And whenever it mentioned an incident involving Zhang Wei and a certain woman, the handwriting would turn bright red, soaking into the paper.
Yang Jian stared at the strange marriage contract. Could this be the thing the human-skin parchment was referring to?
“This marriage contract is manipulating Brother Wei’s actions and ultimately bringing him here?”
“Ghost blood.”
Yang Jian recognized the red pigment at a glance.
“What?”
“Ghost blood that can suppress fierce ghosts. I once had a friend who controlled a portion of ghost blood. Ghost blood possesses a very high-level suppressive effect. Unfortunately, he died in the end.”
“So it’s because of this ghost blood?”
“No. Ghost blood can only suppress fierce ghosts. Judging from the records in the marriage contract, this book can not only record events that have occurred, it can also interfere with the course of action of living people, and even fierce ghosts.”
Yang Jian stared at the eerie marriage contract, thinking rapidly, as though he had been born with this keen insight into fierce ghosts.
“Content written in ghost blood might be able to temporarily suppress a ghost. Then, with the help of this marriage contract, perhaps it can make the suppressed fierce ghost carry out certain actions according to the revised content.”
Ye Zhen’s eyes lit up after hearing this.
“Wouldn’t that make it invincible? I’ll just write in it that Ye Zhen resolves all the fierce ghosts in the world.”
Yang Jian swept a cold glance at Ye Zhen, his tone icy.
“That can’t be done. Every ghost has a pattern. Your substitute ghost is the same. This book is more like a form of guidance, making a fierce ghost or a living person carry out an action that fits the development of events at the time, toward an event that has a high probability of occurring.”
Yang Jian pointed at the red handwriting in the notebook.
“For example, A-Wei could never possibly have an online romance with a fifty-year-old auntie, and you could never possibly resolve every ghost in the world.”
Yang Jian paused, then continued,
“If I’m not wrong, the parts being modified must conform to the course of events happening at the time, and can only be changed slightly. For example, if I now write that the Ghost Painting will crash in one hour, the Ghost Painting might immediately go out of control, and this book would kill me, because without human interference, the Ghost Painting cannot crash for no reason.”