[{"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-30":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},2298999,4497,"Chapter 30: The Great Banquet of the Snake God","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-30",30,"\u003Cp>After the three strings of firecrackers finished popping, the banquet officially entered its main course phase; servants from the He household rushed back and forth across the courtyard, swiftly removing the pre-meal cold dishes from the tables to make room for the upcoming main courses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qinzhou, being a southern prefecture, traditionally divides banquet dishes into three parts: appetizer cold dishes, main course, and dessert snacks; the first main course is soup—a milky-white carp broth served in porcelain bowls as white as jade, seemingly made from crucian carp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The He household used standard Twelve Palaces tables, but none were fully occupied—several seats remained empty. Those seated with Ning Zhe, who had replaced “He Yulan,” were all women; some matrons had children, seemingly seven or eight years old, sitting on their laps. Yet whether married mothers or toddlers still babbling, every person in He Family Village wore a dried yellow paper mask, perfectly covering their entire face, each bearing a written name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the first dish arrived, Ning Zhe did not rush to serve himself soup; instead, he sat upright, took a slow, deep breath, and closed his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he entered the room and sat down, each person at the table accepted him as “He Yulan”; the rule of ghosts replacing others was triggered repeatedly, and the same identity refracted differently in each observer’s eyes—fragmented, varied silhouettes stitched together upon Ning Zhe’s form, flooding his mind with He Yulan’s memories.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without resistance, Ning Zhe effortlessly absorbed these memories: 1. He Yulan was no one special—just an ordinary peasant woman from He Family Village, mother to two sons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>2. As Ning Zhe had suspected, this banquet was indeed a wedding feast. Tomorrow was the day He Chang, Master He, would marry off his daughter; he was marrying off his youngest, He Nianjun, aged eighteen. According to Qinzhou tradition, the bride’s family must host a banquet the day before the groom’s party arrives to fetch her, and another banquet must follow once she arrives at her new home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>3. As Gu Yunqing had said, the Snake God’s madness began eighteen years ago; formerly, the Snake God clearly marked daily auspicious and inauspicious days on the almanac, but since falling ill, one eye went blind, and from then on, the almanac recorded only inauspicious days—He Family Village grew more fearful with each passing day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>4. …\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe swiftly organized the useful information from He Yulan’s memories; soon, the second dish arrived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The second course of the wedding banquet was stir-fried eel slices, their inner surfaces coated with black stains—dried blood—prepared with perfect authenticity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe casually picked up a slice and placed it in his mouth, chewing slowly; he now knew exactly what he must do next.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I hope Auntie can hold out until then without going mad…” Ning Zhe murmured softly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Time passed second by second; steaming dishes were placed one after another upon the table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Ning Zhe’s memory, whether for weddings or funerals, housewarmings or celebrations, festive banquets were always lively—guests chatted loudly at the table, kitchen helpers bustled in the back, all radiating a clamorous, bustling energy that only gradually faded after the feast ended.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet this banquet held within the He family mansion was utterly silent, unnervingly so.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aside from the three strings of firecrackers outside the gate, Ning Zhe had heard no other noise since entering the He mansion; the guest room was so quiet he could hear only the sound of chewing. The child seated on its mother’s lap ate quietly, neither crying nor fussing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The main course consisted of twelve dishes; soon, the final one—steamed pork with flour coating—arrived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this time, when the servant pushed open the guest room door, it would not budge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The servant knocked and called out: “Dish coming~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a creak, the door opened a crack; He Yulan’s head poked out: “Any more dishes? The table’s full.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s the last one—the Master said…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the servant finished speaking, Ning Zhe shoved the door fully open, seized the steaming dish with both hands, then kicked the servant squarely in the groin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sharp cry of agony escaped the man as he collapsed to his knees, his entire body curling in excruciating pain; Ning Zhe set the dish down on the threshold, picked up half a brick, and smashed it hard against the back of the servant’s skull.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The servant was dead. Ning Zhe’s expression remained unmoved; he rose calmly, placed the dish of steamed pork upon the table, and not a single person screamed or gasped at his murder—because they were all already dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had killed everyone in the room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Locking the guest room door, Ning Zhe slung the servant’s corpse over his shoulder and sprinted past the Huanhuan tree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He needed to dispose of the body—in a forbidden way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From He Yulan’s memories, Ning Zhe learned she had seen, on her way into the He mansion, a withered huanhuan tree in the corner of the courtyard; the servants had dug it up, intending to replant a new one, but had been too busy preparing for the Young Lady’s wedding to attend to it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe dragged the servant’s corpse straight to the unburied pit, dumped the body inside, then efficiently shoveled in the dead tree and its surrounding soil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qinzhou had traditions of tree burial and water burial; Ning Zhe was certain—what he had just done was unquestionably a violation of burial taboos.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for funeral rites—no time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Master He was about to host the Great Banquet of the Snake God.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After burying the servant he had killed, Ning Zhe did not pause; he hurried toward the southern side of the main building.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of He Family Village worshipped the Snake God; during weddings, funerals, or any major occasion, the most essential ritual was always the public worship of the Snake God—either to bid farewell to the dead or to beg blessings for the living. That morning, a large crowd had rushed to the ancestral hall, bowing three times and kowtowing nine times, to perform the ceremony summoning the Snake God out of the ancestral shrine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Without doubt, the He household servants are now blowing horns toward the ancestral hall; they will carry the Snake God’s statue from the shrine and escort it to the main building of the mansion, to be worshipped and petitioned.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe quickened his pace: “This is my best—and last—chance.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Due to repeated taboo violations, Ning Zhe’s luck was now abysmal; even this short path became treacherous—he stumbled, fell, and bruised his face and body on the stony path. But Ning Zhe did not care; the one who fell was He Yulan—what did that have to do with Ning Zhe?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe would do something far more extraordinary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let me see if I can kill both the Snake God and the ghosts…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe wiped the blood from his nose, staggered to his feet, and ran again toward the main building.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had not run two steps before he fell again—his chin struck the ground, and his jawbone cracked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But this time, he did not trip over a stone; instead, the koi in the pond had inexplicably leapt out, flopping and wriggling on the ground, landing squarely beneath his foot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this moment, Ning Zhe was grateful—he was using He Yulan’s body for this journey; otherwise, he would have been dead before reaching his destination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I hope Auntie’s situation is better than mine…” Ning Zhe thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he slammed headfirst into the artificial hill beside the pond, blood gushing from his forehead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1262,"2026-06-20T06:29:21.893Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","0ca8f0e3890a98ca83610a58dda31559899567b5cebdf0abf33312dc83783ba4","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-31","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-29",353,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurvival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-cover.jpg"]