Chapter 172: Darkness Under the Lamp

The gunshot rang out, and the exhausted body fell to the ground.

Xiao Ke, hiding behind Ning Zhe, trembled slightly, her dazed eyes filled more with confusion than fear.

"You, you killed her..."

"Yeah, I killed her." Ning Zhe glanced at Xiao Ke, then turned and knelt on one knee, one hand gently stroking Xia Yubing's face, which was stained with blood and dust; a large patch of blood was blooming from the back of her head.

The charge of a small-caliber pistol is far inferior to a rifle. Even if fired at close range, it is difficult to appear like in the movies: a bullet drilling a round hole in a person's forehead. More often, it explodes like a flower. The human skull is indeed that hard.

So Ning Zhe just shot at Xia Yubing's mouth, taking advantage of the moment she opened her mouth to speak, feeding the bullet into her mouth, penetrating directly from the skull through the brainstem, dying on the spot. It was equivalent to helping her commit suicide by swallowing a gun.

"Why did you kill her?"

Xiao Ke's voice was thin and soft. She used her years of streaming experience to try hard to suppress the fear in her heart, trying her best to make her sweet and soft voice appear more delicate and pitiful.

"Why should I tell you?" Ning Zhe's response was very short, not even counting as an answer.

After killing Xia Yubing in front of the Four-Faced Buddha, Ning Zhe put away the gun, fetched a cement brick from the nearby ruins and placed it on the ground to act as a stool, gathered his skirt, and sat directly beside Xia Yubing's corpse.

Feng Yushu's upbringing was very good. Decades of orderly life had carved elegant manners and dignified demeanor into her muscle memory. Even sitting on a small stool, she was orderly, elegant, and gentle, and her gentle temperament didn't look like someone who had just killed someone with a gun at all.

Xiao Ke stood aside hesitantly, not knowing whether to leave or stay for a while.

If she left, where could she go? The entire Zanju Town was shrouded in strangeness, and she was blind; she estimated that she would run into a ghost before leaving the town. If she stayed... the person who just killed Xia Yubing might be more terrifying than a ghost.

She was indecisive by nature and was even more embarrassed in such a dilemma, but after hesitating again and again, Xiao Ke still couldn't make a choice.

The good news is that someone soon made a choice for her.

The bad news is that that person is not a human.

Ning Zhe, sitting on the cement brick, lowered his eyes and saw a blood-stained dead hand stretching out from the bottom of the pool.

That was Shen Qing's hand.

"Shen Qing has also started to turn into a corpse." Ning Zhe brought his legs together, supported his chin with one hand, tilted his head to look at Xia Yubing's corpse, which had long since lost its breath, and said softly: "How long will it take for you to start turning into a corpse?"

Half an hour? One hour? Or... will you not turn into a corpse at all?

Xiao Ke, who was standing not far away, had now been scared away. Her figure ran into the ruins, completely disappearing, leaving Ning Zhe sitting in place, quietly thinking about this question.

Ning Zhe, together with a female corpse that was gradually turning cold, looked up at the huge Buddha face with cracks overhead, time passing quietly, until the moonlight gradually faded.

A curved, scorching sun rose on the eastern horizon. It was dawn.

"Okay, looks like you won't turn into a corpse." Ning Zhe stood up from the cement brick, rubbing his thighs, which were somewhat numb due to poor blood circulation. This was an unexpected gain.

Let's re-examine the known deceased in Zanju Town.

1. A-Zhen, died in the air-raid shelter in the north of Zanju Town three years ago, has turned into a corpse.

Jiang Han, Shen Qing, and others have all encountered her Three Corpses wandering outside the body.

2. Xiao Ke, died at the entrance of a small courtyard in the north of Zanju Town last night, has turned into a corpse.

3. Jiang Han, died in the pool on the west side under the Four-Faced Buddha's lotus pedestal last night, has turned into a corpse.

4. Shen Qing, died in the pool on the west side under the Four-Faced Buddha's lotus pedestal last night, has turned into a corpse.

5. Xia Yubing, died in the open space on the west side of the Four-Faced Buddha in the center of the town last night, has not turned into a corpse. 6. Taxue, which is Xia Yubing's cat, died on a street on the west side of Zanju Town last night, has not turned into a corpse.

There are 4 people confirmed to have turned into corpses: A-Zhen, Xiao Ke, Shen Qing, Jiang Han. Among them, 2 died on the north side of the Four-Faced Buddha, and 2 died on the west side, under the pool.

Those who haven't turned into corpses are only Xia Yubing and her cat, both of whom died on the west side of the Four-Faced Buddha.

Ning Zhe previously guessed that only people who died on the north side of the Buddha statue would have the strange phenomenon of Three Corpses wandering outside the body, but now it seems that is not the case. Other directions' deceased will also turn into corpses.

But also dying on the west side of the Four-Faced Buddha, Shen Qing and Jiang Han turned into corpses, while Xia Yubing didn't. What reason caused the strange changes after their deaths? What is the difference between them?

There are many differences.

For example, the way of death: Shen Qing committed suicide, Jiang Han was suspected of being sacrificed by someone, Xia Yubing was murdered;

For example, gender: Jiang Han and Shen Qing are both men, Xia Yubing is a woman;

And the place of death: Jiang Han and Shen Qing both fell to their deaths at the bottom of the pool under the Four-Faced Buddha's lotus pedestal, while Xia Yubing was shot and killed on the spot by him in front of the Buddha statue.

Looking at Xia Yubing's pale face, a word suddenly flashed in Ning Zhe's mind:

—Darkness under the lamp.

"That's right, darkness under the lamp." In an instant, many things in Ning Zhe's brain could be explained.

So far, everyone who has turned into a corpse in Zanju Town has one common characteristic—their death was not observed by the Four-Faced Buddha.

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The deaths of A-Zhen and Xiao Ke both occurred on the north side of the small town, while the deaths of Jiang Han and Shen Qing occurred in the pool at the bottom of the lotus pedestal.

Assuming the Four-Faced Buddha is an independent observer, these deceased people all have one thing in common.

—Their death did not occur within the observation range of the Four-Faced Buddha.

Or to put it another way, they all died in the Four-Faced Buddha's blind spot.

This Buddha statue in the center of Zanju Town, named the Four-Faced Buddha, actually only has three faces. Its north side is not carved, and there are no features on the face, which means the Buddha's "line of sight" cannot observe its north side.

Similarly, the pitch-black pool under the lotus pedestal should also be the Four-Faced Buddha's blind spot, after all, there is no face under its butt, just like a candle cannot illuminate the bottom of the candlestick.

Following this line of thought, Ning Zhe reached a conclusion that still lacks some factual evidence:

【The reason why the strange phenomenon of Three Corpses wandering outside the body occurs after people die in Zanju Town is because the Four-Faced Buddha doesn't know they are dead.】

"It is known that the rules of Zanju Town are related to 'observation.' When I don't know that a person is already dead, the person I observe is alive.

Xia Yubing seeing the message sent by Jiang Han, hearing his voice, and Shen Qing being scared to collapse by Jiang Han climbing up from the pool can all corroborate this rule."

That is to say, in the eyes of the Four-Faced Buddha, those who died in its blind spot are also "alive."

Because it didn't witness the deaths of these people with its own eyes, in its view, they are all living people.

But how can the Three Corpses of a living person leave the body? That is something that happens to a dead person.

"If combined with the allusion of guarding Gengshen on the Gengshen day, the 'Three Corpses leaving the body' occurring in a living person only has one situation, and that is that their Three Corpses are trying to communicate with heaven and earth, reporting the person's crimes to heaven."

Looking at the gentle face of the Buddha statue, Ning Zhe's train of thought quickly became clear:

"The Three Corpses of a living person leaving the body and wandering is to report to heaven. Then what is the 'crime' that these wandering Three Corpses in Zanju Town want to report to 'heaven'?"

The answer is ready to come out.

—It is the truth that this person has already died.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 173 =====