[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world":3,"chapter-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-18":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Survival Guide in a Mysterious World",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2298987,4497,"Chapter 18: The Blinding Snake God","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-18",18,"\u003Cp>“I heard from Ning Zhe and the others that you’re dead.” Zhang Yangxu’s eyes still held traces of caution: “Ye Miaozhu was crying her heart out—your girlfriend?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Yunqing shook his head: “My sister. We’re a blended family. Her biological father once had some assets, but lost them all in gambling dens in Yizhou, then abandoned her and her mother to flee overseas—no word since.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then my stepmother brought the two sisters and merged our families. Oh, I never mentioned this before—Ye Miaozhu has a younger sister, just a little girl, still in middle school.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Yunqing gave Zhang Yangxu a brief overview of his family situation. Perhaps because of his unfortunate family background, or perhaps because Gu Yunqing’s own gentle, accommodating nature—he was like a central air conditioner—the two sisters took to him as their sudden brother, and over the years their bond grew stronger. The elder sister, Ye Miaozhu, even deliberately applied to the same medical university as him; nearing graduation, they came together to intern at the clinic in Gubei Town.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then came He Family Village. Fuck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Gu Yunqing brought up these family matters not out of a desire to share, but to gain Zhang Yangxu’s trust and make him lower his guard further.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, ghosts rarely fabricate stories on their own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Indeed, after hearing about Gu Yunqing’s complicated family ties, Zhang Yangxu’s wariness gradually eased. He no longer tensed up as before, but instead gave a knowing, teasing grin: “You’re lucky, kid.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I have a girlfriend in university,” Gu Yunqing said wearily. “Please mind your boundaries. We’re not close enough to joke about things like this.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine.” Zhang Yangxu fell silent immediately and changed the subject.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yangxu fired off several questions at Gu Yunqing: “Everyone else—including Ye Miaozhu—said you were dead. But you’re alive. How?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why are you completely soaked?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You said the Snake God is going mad, and time is running out. What’s going on?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Yunqing shut the door and gestured for Zhang Yangxu to follow him inside the He family mansion: “Let’s walk and talk.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where to?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“To find my sister.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two walked in single file through the dense flowerbeds of the He family courtyard. Faint, muffled voices drifted from the front gate, and several hurried footsteps rushed from the gate toward the side yard—the kitchen. It seemed the servants were preparing breakfast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The He family mansion faced south, with a rectangular “ Hui ”-shaped layout. The three-story main building stood at the center, built on stone foundations, with wooden frames and bamboo walls, crowned with deep blue glazed tiles—luxurious by local standards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Directly south of the main building lay the mansion’s main gate; directly north, a lush garden Jian vegetable patch. The kitchen, storage rooms, woodshed, and servants’ quarters were arranged neatly along the east and west sides of the main building, filling every gap of the “ Hui ” shape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlike the traditional Beijing-style sihe courtyards of Yongzhou, the He family mansion reflected southern Qinzhou characteristics—a specialized variant of Hakka tulou, but with greater emphasis on grandeur and diminished defensive functions against bandits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even to Zhang Yangxu, a seasoned expert in real estate and architecture, this was an enduringly excellent design. Its cultural aura would surely appeal to wealthy landowners fond of pretentious elegance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Gu Yunqing pushed aside the thick foliage, he unlocked his phone screen and showed Zhang Yangxu a photo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The photo showed a long, pale, elegant hand holding a phone with its screen lit. Zhang Yangxu instantly recognized it as Ning Zhe’s hand—this kid was pretty enough to pass for a girl. On Ning Zhe’s screen was another photo: a page from the almanac, displaying today’s auspicious and inauspicious omens:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Auspicious:】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Inauspicious: Travel, Burial, Mourning, Sacrifice】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When you checked the almanac for today’s omens,” Gu Yunqing asked, water dripping from his sleeve, “did you ever wonder: why does the almanac list only ‘Inauspicious,’ never ‘Auspicious’?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ve thought about it,” Zhang Yangxu replied, “but had no answer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because the Snake God is sick,” Gu Yunqing said, zooming in on the photo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the image, the almanac page was nailed to the Snake God’s tongue. When Ning Zhe took the photo, he also captured half the Snake God’s head. Upon closer inspection, the statue’s dynamic, lifelike posture remained visible, along with its lifeless, rigid eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though the statue appeared solemn, it didn’t bear close scrutiny. The He family ancestral hall had long been neglected, its roof leaking, beams and pillars damp and moldy. The Snake God, carved from camphor root, was no exception.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The carving technique was superb, the craftsmanship highly refined. The scales on the Snake God’s body overlapped in precise, orderly rows, creating an unmistakable sense of layered beauty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet beneath this gleaming surface, thick black mold accumulated at the base of each scale, white fungal threads protruding from the gaps between scales, emitting the stench of rotting wood—the very impression Zhang Yangxu had formed when he and Xie Sining entered the hall to examine the almanac.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Gu Yunqing’s photo, the mold was even more apparent: fungal threads crawled across the Snake God’s head, the left eye socket completely filled with black mold, the right eye partially overrun by fungal patches.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Snake God’s left eye is blind,” Gu Yunqing said rapidly. “The left eye sees auspiciousness, the right sees inauspiciousness. But since it fell ill eighteen years ago, its body has decayed, one eye gone blind. Since then, the almanac can only list ‘Inauspicious’—it can no longer tell you what to do today, because the Snake God itself cannot see. It has nothing to advise.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So that’s how it is…” Zhang Yangxu felt a chill, yet remained skeptical. He still didn’t lower his guard, keeping a distance from Gu Yunqing, who led the way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yangxu asked: “If this is the truth, how do you know it? And earlier, I saw a ghost impersonating you in the hall, flipping through tomorrow’s almanac. Why are you still alive? How did you survive?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Regarding whether Gu Yunqing was dead or alive, Ning Zhe might have lied—but Zhang Yangxu believed the rule itself—“flipping tomorrow’s almanac is a death taboo”—was unquestionably true.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s a long story,” Gu Yunqing sighed, as if weary, leading Zhang Yangxu through the He family garden.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They avoided the cooks and servants preparing food and arrived at a row of small buildings on the west side of the main mansion. Gu Yunqing gestured to Zhang Yangxu, then slipped into a storage room whose door wasn’t fully latched.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【My sister texted me. She’s hiding inside.】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yangxu stared at the message from Gu Yunqing, waited a long while, then tiptoed forward and carefully pushed open the storage room door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next instant, Zhang Yangxu’s body collapsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1130,"2026-06-20T06:29:21.893Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","67a028f75c57664579942685327b146cabaf9528850ae3f39ffb42ed518efa62","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-19","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-17",353,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurvival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-cover.jpg"]