Chapter 23

The sun was high, and the misty water vapor deposited over the basin, obscuring the scorching sun and turning it into a fine drizzle that drifted down.

People always feel that time passes quickly when they have things to do. Braving the drizzle as fine as ox hair, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe checked the time. It was already 11:49 at noon, close to lunch time.

He couldn't remember how many households' offerings to the Serpent God he had eaten. His stomach, which had been full of food, no longer felt bloated, as if everything he had eaten before had never existed.

"It's about time," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe put his phone back in his pocket, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

What he could do stopped here. Before long, the villagers of He Family Village would start preparing lunch. Whether his attempt to crack the rules of He Family Village could make progress would depend on the next decisive few dozen minutes.

"Let's go, back to the ancestral hall," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe led the silent Feng Yushu through the bustling streets and alleys and walked toward the ancestral hall together.

If He Family Village at night was empty and gave people a feeling of lonely dead silence, then He Family Village during the day was the complete opposite. Walking on the bluestone-paved streets, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe could see shops opening doors and lighting lamps to do business, from traditional Chinese medicine herbs to children's toys, from vendors pushing carts to sell vegetables to wine shops with constant shouting. The entire village was filled with bustling popularity.

But this lively scene couldn't dispel the worry and fear in Feng Yushu's heart at all, because no matter whether the people walking on the street were men or women, tall or short, fat or thin, everyone's face was covered by a square, withered yellow paper, and their expressions and facial features could not be seen.

The content written on the paper on everyone's face was different, but the commonality was that these were all people's names, and they all started with the character "He."

Everyone in the entire He Family Village had pasted their names on their faces with a piece of yellow paper, living as usual while covering their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses.

The movements of these people who couldn't see their facial features were very slow, and the turning of their joints was sluggish and stuttering, looking like old, poorly maintained cars, running on the street while looking back every three steps, imitating the bustling prosperity that had once flowed here. The more normal their life scenes looked, the more it gave people an indescribable, eerie feeling.

This feeling wasn't fatal, but it made people feel very uncomfortable and oppressed, as if something was about to arrive at any moment, yet it had never arrived.

The drizzle as fine as ox hair slanted down, and the two braved the rain and returned to the ancestral hall.

Feng Yushu stood at the door and looked inside. The ancestral hall was still that ancestral hall, and the Serpent God was still that Serpent God, but it seemed that something was different.

"Did you see it?" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe whispered.

"See what?" Feng Yushu was puzzled.

"The Serpent God," Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe gently brushed the raindrops off his shoulders, walked into the ancestral hall, and looked up at the Serpent God on the lotus platform: "The Serpent God looks different than before."

Feng Yushu looked carefully, and sure enough, the Serpent God in front of her was indeed different from before: the rot and decay on its body became more obvious, the mold spots stuck at the roots of the scales piled up in a thick layer, and milky-white fungal hyphae grew wantonly... like an old man who was terminally ill, with only the last breath as thin as a thread, which hadn't been swallowed for a long time.

"The Serpent God's illness is heavier," Feng Yushu looked at Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe and whispered: "Is it because of... you?"

"Who knows?" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe spread his hands, lazily leaning his shoulder against the pillar on the left side of the Serpent God, looking down at the time displayed on the phone screen.

He could feel that the decisive moment was about to arrive.

Waiting for results after completing a task is always the longest, just like the score calculation after a game ends is already very fast, but players always hope it can be faster and faster.

How long the silent time passed, until wisps of cooking smoke drifted from the buildings and houses of He Family Village.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe knew that "something" had happened.

He raised his head as if guided by a ghost, looking at the Serpent God statue on the lotus platform. Its posture was still soaring, seemingly no different from a few minutes ago, but Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe looked closely and discovered something unusual: —The Serpent God's right eye was also blind.

The right eye of the Serpent God wood carving was completely filled with milky-white fungal hyphae in just a few minutes. It was completely blind.

"Success...?"

Just as this thought occurred, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's eyes went black, and he lost all perception of the surrounding world without any warning.

He felt a darkness as thick as ink wrapping around his brain, without a trace of visible light. He had too many words to describe this darkness: vast, large, profound, boundless, magnificent... but each of these words was so inaccurate.

In the profound and silent darkness, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe heard a strange sound.

This fluttering sound was as soft as the sound of wind drifting from afar, and it was also like the rain that was drizzling outside the ancestral hall now. Every raindrop was a clear word.

If the villagers who gathered to worship the Serpent God earlier had chanted a bunch of strange-toned, meaningless, complex sacrificial words, then the sound that rang in Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's mind at this moment was more like a famous singer with a clear voice humming a tune for her lover with a suppressed voice. The tune was winding and melodious, entrusting a faint sorrow: 【Thinking of you for a long time, sighing, sighing, tears filling my eyes.】

【Thinking of you, waiting, waiting, fog filling the window.】

【Thinking of you for a long time, fate, fate, flowers filling the room.】

The shallow humming drifted into his ears, making his line of sight blurred.

In the misty clouds like water, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe saw an open window vaguely. It was drizzling outside the window, and a charming girl was sitting inside the window.

She was wearing a loose, bright red dress, but it couldn't hide her exquisite and convex figure. She leaned lazily against the window, looking at the drizzling rain outside. Her skin was as smooth as grease, and her hands were even more lustrous than the jade bracelet on her wrist. Her face, whose features could not be seen, was as pale as snow, with a touch of red plum blossoms on the snow. It was her charming lips, containing a trace of faint resentment.

Her bright red lips opened and closed slightly, humming a winding and resentful tune, like a wronged young wife curled up in her husband's arms acting like a spoiled child. The rosy little mouth told of nothing but resentment, but there was only gentle water in her eyebrows and eyes.

【Only ask for your arrival, not for your return.】

【Only for your sake, not hearing your sorrow...】

That gentle gaze fell on Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, making him shudder.

Clearly, it was a person without facial features. Why was there such a clear gaze falling on him?

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe woke up from the hallucination with a head full of cold sweat. In front of him was still the dilapidated ancestral hall, and the Serpent God who was terminally ill was worshipped on the lotus platform. Feng Yushu was squatting beside him with a worried expression, nervously supporting his shoulders.

"Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, what's wrong with you?"

"I..." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe closed his eyes and rubbed his temples: "I seemed to have seen something just now? Or was it someone? I'm very sure I saw it, but I forgot... I can't remember it no matter what."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's consciousness, just awakened, was still blurred. He felt that he had obtained very important information, but he couldn't remember the content of that information no matter what. Only a resentful tune still echoed in his mind, containing gentle water-like tenderness, gentle and fatal: 【Only ask for your arrival, not for your return.】

【Only for your sake, not hearing your sorrow...】

(End of chapter)