Chapter 21

"How could this be..." Feng Yushu's legs went soft, and she collapsed to the ground. The terrifying scene that happened before her eyes crushed her will, just like when Gu Yunqing died.

In fact, simple violent death or drug poisoning wouldn't have made her this afraid, because those had traces to follow and could be avoided through action. However, in this village, the rules were invisible and silent. Unless you violated them yourself or saw others violate them, the rules would always just operate silently in some unobservable corner, never showing themselves.

If the punishment is unknowable, the power is immeasurable. There are two deepest fears for traditional Chinese people: one is the unknown, and the other is guilt.

Feng Yushu felt as if she were a blindfolded person walking a tightrope at a great height, every step taken with trepidation, as if walking on thin ice. She couldn't judge what the result of the next step would be, only able to walk slowly toward that approximate direction in her memory based on feeling. Every step could be death.

But at this moment, there was one person who seemed to completely ignore the surrounding darkness and unknown. His eyes were not blindfolded, his steps were as leisurely as a stroll, and he had everything under control.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe came to Feng Yushu, who was collapsed on the ground, and reached out his hand to her.

"Follow me," he said, covering her trembling line of sight with his palm: "Don't look back, otherwise you will die."

"Okay..." Feng Yushu grabbed Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's wrist, struggled to climb up, and left the ancestral hall with him under the gaze of the Serpent God behind them.

Feng Yushu noticed that the "Ye Miaozhu" who had just appeared in the ancestral hall had already disappeared. The moment she reached out to flip open the almanac again, the body of "Ye Miaozhu" dissipated, like a wisp of smoke blown away by the wind, and like a sand pile crushed by waves at the beach, leaving not even a trace.

"That was a ghost," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said: "Ye Miaozhu's identity was stolen by the ghost. What we just saw was it borrowing a knife to kill."

In the ancestral hall behind them, a clear wind blew through the hall, making the flipped-open almanac rustle. It fluttered like a dead-leaf butterfly, reluctant to fall back into place, as if urging the two to turn back and catch a glimpse of tomorrow's heavenly secrets. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe didn't dare to look back, pulling Feng Yushu and walking quickly outward.

After leaving the ancestral hall, Feng Yushu's mood finally calmed down. She stared at Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's side profile and asked with a trembling voice: "Why, what on earth happened? Ye Miaozhu, how could she..."

"Calm down, you're a bit incoherent," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said: "Surviving in this kind of environment requires bearing great pressure and possessing strong psychological quality. Once you fail to manage your own emotions, seeking medical advice blindly, and bumping around like a headless fly will only give the ghost an opportunity."

"So calm down, you'll be killed, Auntie."

Feng Yushu shook her head repeatedly, grabbing Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's wrist even tighter: "Even if you say so... how do I know how to avoid being killed by the ghost? I don't even know what method it uses to steal a person's identity."

When you don't know which direction the bullet will fly from, all your dodging actions are so ridiculous in the eyes of the sniper.

"What method does the ghost use to steal a person's identity? That depends on your definition of 'identity' and 'person'."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's tone suddenly relaxed, and he said as he walked: "Auntie, what do you think your 'identity' is?"

"Me?" Feng Yushu thought for a moment and said: "I am my husband's wife, my daughter's mother, my parents' daughter... which one are you specifically referring to?"

"All of them," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said: "A person is the sum of all social relationships. In the eyes of everyone who knows you, your image is different."

"In your husband's eyes, you are a dignified wife; in your daughter's eyes, you are a gentle mother; in your parents' eyes, you are a daughter who has already married out; in the eyes of school teachers, you are the parent of a certain classmate; in the eyes of shopping mall guides, you are a wealthy customer... and so on and so forth. Which of all these identities is you? The answer is, all of them."

"The different images of you in the cognition of everyone who knows you overlap to constitute the complete you."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said, his tone changing: "I don't know if you can understand this explanation—what was replaced by the ghost at the beginning was not the complete Xie Sining, but the Xie Sining that Zhang Yangxu knew." "When the real Xie Sining died by the river, the 'Xie Sining that Zhang Yangxu knew' was replaced. The image of this Xie Sining was completely consistent with the legal consultant that Zhang Yangxu knew, with no flaws in speech or behavior, but it couldn't answer the highly professional legal questions Zhang Yangxu raised because its identity was incomplete."

"It was just 'the Xie Sining in Zhang Yangxu's cognition,' not the complete Xie Sining herself."

"How could the Xie Sining in his cognition know the answers to questions that Zhang Yangxu himself didn't know?"

"But logically, it should know... so the moment Zhang Yangxu threw out a reasonable question that couldn't be answered, the rules of 'Xie Sining' crashed."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said, and together with Feng Yushu, came to a residential house quite a distance from the South Street where the ancestral hall was located. The cooking smoke on the roof of this house had already gone out, and the people inside were eating breakfast.

Feng Yushu chewed on Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's words just now, and heard him continue: "So Auntie, why do you think the ghost disguised as Xie Sining called you on the way back to the ancestral hall?"

As soon as these words came out, Feng Yushu was stunned. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's words passed through her brain like a string of electric currents, connecting that key node.

She hesitated for a long time before tentatively saying: "Is it... to steal the identity of 'the Xie Sining that Feng Yushu knows'?"

"Correct answer," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe gave the aunt a thumbs up: "This is the answer to the puzzle."

There are two rules in He Family Village, corresponding to two puzzles:

【Puzzle 1: Why did the Serpent God go mad?】

【Puzzle 2: How does a ghost impersonate someone else's identity?】

The answer to Puzzle 2 has already been placed in front of Feng Yushu.

"Just like the Serpent God only will and can punish you when you violate taboos, a ghost can only steal a specific identity under the condition of triggering a specific condition, and this condition is 'cognition'."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe took a step forward, leaned his shoulder against the outer wall of the residential house, and said: "When you saw the caller ID on the phone screen and thought the ghost calling you was Xie Sining, it really was."

"When Zhang Yangxu, who was avoiding by the willow tree, heard the footsteps stepping on fallen leaves and thought the ghost walking toward him was Xie Sining returning from the toilet, it really was."

The more people who know Xie Sining have cognitive errors, thinking that the ghost in human skin is Xie Sining, the more complete the Xie Sining it plays becomes.

Complete to a certain extent, it can even deceive the Serpent God.

"This is the rule of this ghost."

(End of chapter)