Chapter Thirty No Zombies No Ghosts

  After warning them again about closing doors and windows, Xu Qi let the villagers disperse, leaving only the village chief and two other cadres who could speak.

  That young man spoke out about Xu Ji and the village chief's conspiracy in front of everyone. After the villagers left, the village chief pulled Kang Jiu Xiang aside and said something to her. She blushed and kept glancing at me, finally nodding and saying she would wait for me at the reception office before walking away with a bashful expression.

  I don't know why Xu Ji attaches so much importance to me, but I'm guessing in my heart that if I really have some secret that even I don't know about, then Liu Wei Min bringing me here might be related to the secret.

  If it's really like this, perhaps Wenjing's soul is in Liu Weimin's hands, and all of this is a scam?

  Temporarily no answer, I kept thinking about my own life experience, trying to find out the clues that can prove how awesome I am.

  Xu Qi said a couple of words to the village head, then turned to me with a smile and asked: "Wang Zhen's... uh, apprentice?"

  I nodded in agreement with the title, and Xu Ji let out a sigh of relief, smiling at me: "Xiao Jiu is already dead, so the grudge between you two can be written off. You child, being bullied but not telling your master, don't do this again in the future!"

  Don't even mention covering your mouth and sneaking a smile, I feel uncomfortable all over, a young man in his twenties being treated like a child by someone in their thirties is unbearable for anyone.

  I didn't pick up where he left off, but instead asked him, how did Ninth Brother really die, and who was the one who sent us the steamed meat?

  Speaking of the matter at hand, Xu Qi's smile disappeared, and he said seriously: "If Master didn't guess wrong, it should be Lao Zu Gong who bit Xiaojiao to death, and then a ghost cut off the corpse's flesh, made it into steamed meat and sent it for us to eat."

  It's both zombies and ghosts, which has left me bewildered, but I'm still secretly delighted. Evil will be repaid with evil, and Ninth Brother had just bullied Kang Jiuxiang when he was found by the zombies and ghosts. It's truly a delightful thing to hear.

  You Mou was a bit afraid and asked Xu Qi if eating zombie meat had any consequences. Although he didn't swallow it, he chewed on it fiercely for several times.

  Xu Qi waved his hand to tell him it was nothing, narrowed his eyes, and sneered: "Don't say you just chewed on it, even if you swallowed it, it's just diarrhea. That ghost is coming for me, I may not be able to avoid grains, but I'm a Taoist who eats wind and drinks dew. Once I eat zombie meat, within three to five days, my mouth will be unable to speak, my body will be unable to move, and only hot dog blood can be used to rinse my body. However, once rinsed, this Taoist practice will be abandoned. That ghost's plan was to do just that, but it didn't expect to be a case of 'the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind', Master Tao is still alive and kicking, and I'll deal with it sooner or later."

  My belly is full of evil spirits, a ghost appears in front of him and leaves, chasing it out but can't catch it, and still has the face to claim himself as a Taoist!

  Don't ask him how a ghost suddenly popped out of nowhere.

  Xu Qi didn't know either, but he said it should be related to Zuo Ci's coffin.

  It is still unclear what kind of monster is lying in that golden nanmu coffin, it may be Yuan Jitian who ascended to immortality, or Yuan Jitian who failed to become immortal and became a ghost instead, or maybe some other messy stuff.

  Don't even mention it, just open the coffin and take a look.

  "Can't open it, can't open it! What if he's really the Yuanji Tian Shi? If we pry open his coffin, the Dragon and Tiger Mountain will turn against us and tear us to pieces. And I still don't understand the purpose of that seated Tian Shi in the coffin. If it's used to suppress some hard-to-deal-with characters, once we open the coffin, we'll all be doomed!"

  The village head suggested that he go to Mount Longhu to report and invite a few venerable Taoist priests to preside over the matter.

  As soon as the words came out, Xu Qi's face was unhappy, and he didn't say a word. He stared at the village chief with an expression that seemed to ask if he was looking down on him, until the village chief was at a loss for what to do, indicating that everything would be left to Xu Qi. Only then did he turn his head, sip some tea, and remain silent.

  This won't work, that won't work either. I don't have time to waste with them, so I told Xu Qi, this evening was too frustrating, got beaten twice, must go back and rest.

  Xu Qi glared at the village chief, then smiled and said to me: "Alright, young apprentice, you can do as you please. Master will be waiting for the zombie in the ancestral hall tonight. If you can't sleep, you can come find Master to chat."

  His fervent smile on his face made me feel a chill, I hastily laughed and dragged Yu Mo to escape, but not back to the hotel, but wanted to take a look at the village south.

  The old man's ancestral home is in the south of the village, and he has been to Guan Cun for two days. He was beaten and scolded by others, but he didn't even touch the shadow of the main event. My top priority now is not to figure out the secret between myself and Guan Cun, but to save Wen Jing.

  Point at the high-hanging moon and don't even ask me how I'm not afraid of zombies.

  I'm afraid I still have to go take a look.

  "You'd better go back to the reception office, old man is waiting for you."

  I was taken aback for a moment, then asked You Wu how he knew. After a quick turn of my brain, I questioned him: "Are you two secretly in contact? Whose side are you on? Have you betrayed me?"

  Don't point at your own tattered clothes and say: "I have to betray you, following you only gets me beaten up."

  I was about to scold him, but Yu Wen Zheng said calmly: "Stop it, Wang Zhen. I'm standing with you, but this camp isn't just the two of us, there are three people. Let me tell you, I now unconditionally trust Liu Laoyezi and am ready to acknowledge him as my godfather. Don't be impatient, don't you want to know why you ended up in a coffin?"

  It wasn't until he mentioned it that I remembered this matter, and I hadn't had a chance to ask about it until now, so I let him confess honestly.

  "You walked in yourself, didn't you think that I was sleeping soundly and wouldn't have noticed you weren't in the room? It was you who knocked on the glass and woke me up."

  Not to mention, last night I heard the sound of knocking on glass, and in a daze, I got out of bed and opened the window. I saw him with his back to me, already tens of meters away under the streetlight. He was about to call out to me when he suddenly remembered the shadow outside the window and thought it might be a ghost, so he called me first to confirm, but I didn't answer the phone, so he came to my room and knocked on the door.

  The door was slightly ajar and opened with a push. My phone was on the bed, the window of the room was open, and by this time my figure had disappeared. Yu Wei immediately called Liu Weimin.

  The old man came back and furrowed his brow to tell my fortune. The divination signified promotion and wealth, with no danger.

  Don't think I'm joking, Liu Weimin told him, but I've been had.

  The whole thing started from Liu Weimin letting me wander alone in Guanxi Village. Liu Weimin told You Wu that the reason for this decision was that he had received a message, and the identity of the old man who ran the paper mache shop had been confirmed as an old man who had been picking up trash on Wenmiao Street for many years.

  We've been puzzled all along, wondering who killed the old freak. Shifu Xiao Bai was driven out of his home by the old freak and didn't dare to return, Liu Wei Min didn't take action either, and Huang Jinbai wouldn't kill his own people. But now that Liu Wei Min has confirmed it, that old man was actually Huang Jinbai himself.

  According to his estimate, it should be that he followed us to Wenmiao Street and was seen by Huang Jinbai, so he used a fake death escape method.

  The reason why Liu Wei didn't connect the strange old man with Huang Jinbai was that, firstly, the paper mache shop had a dead person, while Old Man Huang was alive. Secondly, Liu Wei thought that if Huang Jinbai had taken action, Shi Po would not have dared to return home and would have gone back to her hometown directly.

  It is now confirmed that the strange old man is Huang Jinbai, but the reason why he did not directly kill Shifu's wife is still unknown. Perhaps it was to lure her in or perhaps it was a cat playing with a mouse.

  But one thing is certain, our method of being open with Liu and covert with Huang didn't work at all, as Huang Jinbai had already seen me and You Wu.

  When I met the middle-aged man on the bridge that day, he had expressed his feelings about our purpose of going to Wenmiao Street. If the person who let him pass the message was the strange old man, it would be reasonable.

  What puzzles me is that if Huang Lao knew we came to Guan Cun, why would he put me in a coffin? Wouldn't it be more straightforward to let me jump into the river?

  You smiled and said, "There's one thing that the old master pointed out, and I also found out through actual investigation. Last night you were possessed by an evil spirit. Today when we saw the ghost in the ancestral hall, your awesome master, Daoist priest Xu from Mount Dragon Tiger was also present. The ghost came in and went out right in front of him with great fanfare. Don't you think he's a bit too stupid?"

  I'm also quite skeptical about this matter, zombies and evil spirits have all appeared, but Xu Qi is still alone in the temple, being foolishly happy.

  "You think, last night you were possessed, today a ghost appeared, both of these things have one person present, that is your widow sister. Are you really stupid or just pretending to be? Even the old master said that Huang Lao's daughter-in-law is a widow, and you still don't understand? If I were you, wherever I go, there would be beauties throwing themselves at me!"

  I stared at him with my mouth agape, utterly shocked. He nodded matter-of-factly and continued to stab me in the back: "I just found out last night that you were flirting with Widow Sister, and when Old Master came back at night, he only mentioned that Huang's daughter-in-law was living on the second floor. I reckon he discovered us and sent her to keep an eye on us. Now it makes sense, right? Old Master sent you out to see if there really are zombies in the village; he's been protecting you all along, and yet you're secretly scolding him."

  My legs went weak and my chest felt tight. I squatted on the ground, panting heavily, fortunately not fainting from Yu Wu's words.

  He patted me on the back to help me catch my breath, and said with some sympathy: "Why not just stay with Little Wen? Do you still want to play the widow? You're making a fool of yourself!"

  I muttered in a low voice: "Damn it, I just feel sorry for Kang Jiuyang. From start to finish, I didn't have any other thoughts. Do you know what she looked like when she was almost raped? Just thinking about it is heartbreaking."

  "Who knows if it's just an act? If it's true, haha," Yu Mo said with a cold laugh. "Ninth Brother was violent one moment and then killed by zombies the next, but Old Master wandered around the village for a whole day and night without even seeing a single zombie."

  I said if there were no zombies, why would Xu Qi discover zombie flesh.

  "You guys are so blind, you've blinded yourselves with your own poisonous gaze. As for why Old Huang put you in the coffin, heh heh." Yu Wu paused for dramatic effect and said: "When you were sleeping during the day, I went to the ancestral hall to take a look at our ancestor's coffin. Guess what I saw?"