Chapter 310

The "ink fountain" is a grid-granting prop of the Lou family in Qinzhou. Its function is simple and crude: two words to draw a line, three words to draw a straight line. The two sides of the straight line will be "divided" into two worlds that do not interfere with each other like well water and river water.

When Fursoles borrowed the ink fountain and drew a circle on the ground around the outer wall of the opera house, the inside and outside of the theater were "divided" by the ink fountain, never to interact again. The ghost in the theater couldn't get out, and the people outside the theater couldn't get in.

"But the God of Wealth seemed to ignore the 'division' rule of the ink fountain. As soon as the copper coin rang, He came in."

Thoughts flowed in Ning Zhe's mind, and he had two guesses: "Is this because Wealth Wu Tong, as a true ghost, has rules whose absoluteness overrides the grid-granting prop ink fountain? Or is it that Wealth Wu Tong was in this theater from the beginning and didn't need to 'come in' at all?"

If it's the former, it's easier to explain.

If it's the latter, it means that at this very moment, Lan Shiwen might be hiding in this theater.

"Just now, I saw a person walking toward me from the other end of the corridor..."

A voice came from the sofa, interrupting this fruitless thinking. Ning Zhe collected his thoughts and, together with Xia Yubing, focused on listening to Bayer recount what he experienced in the ten-plus seconds he disappeared:

"When that Mr. Dai Ke and Mr. Milicato entered viewing box No. 6 together to check the master's corpse, I also wanted to go in to check the situation, but was stopped by the waiter at the door, who told me not to disturb them."

Ning Zhe glanced at Xia Yubing and saw her nod at him, so he nodded to signal Bayer to continue.

"After being stopped by the waiter, I felt very uneasy. I actually only started driving for the master recently. The master's previous driver was my father. I had only taken over for less than half a month when the master had this kind of incident... I really don't know how to explain it to my family..."

"Get to the point." Ning Zhe interrupted his narrative.

"Right, right." Bayer nodded hurriedly and said: "I felt depressed, so I leaned against the wall and fished out a cigarette, intending to smoke one. But when I was looking for a lighter, I suddenly remembered that smoking is prohibited in the theater, and there were ladies present, so I hurriedly took the cigarette out, intending to apologize to Ms. Xia. But when I looked up, people were gone."

"Gone?"

"Gone." Bayer nodded and continued: "The two waiters standing at the door, Mr. Dai Ke and Mr. Milicato in the room, and... and Ms. Xia, they all disappeared. The viewing box was empty, and there wasn't a single person in the corridor. At this time, I heard a burst of faint footsteps coming from afar."

"I looked in the direction the sound came from and saw a tall, thin man in rags walking toward me from the other end of the corridor, bringing with him a stench of rot. His skin was gray-white, without a trace of blood, only wearing one shoe on his left foot, and an old, dirty, and broken sack over his head. The whole person looked like a moving corpse."

"I was frightened, hurriedly took out my gun, and shouted at him not to come over, but he didn't listen, just walked toward me step by step. I wanted to shoot, but there were no bullets in the gun—the master pays great attention to safety, and servants' guns cannot have bullets. I wanted to escape, but as soon as I thought of the master's state of death, my legs were already too soft to walk..."

"That person soon walked in front of me, and the stench of rotting meat was so thick that I couldn't breathe. I was extremely scared, and I desperately swung my fist at him, but the fist I threw was easily grasped by him..."

Bayer's lips were pale, and his eyes were full of panic.

Ning Zhe frowned slightly and asked: "He grabbed your hand, then what?"

"Then...?" Bayer was stunned by his question. After a few seconds, he shook his head and said: "Then everything went black in front of my eyes, and I didn't know anything. When I opened my eyes again, I was already lying here..."

The dead Bayer woke up on the sofa. As soon as he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was that headless Confucian-robed old corpse.

"Is that so?" Xia Yubing looked across the table at the terrified expression of driver Bayer who still had lingering fears, and thought in her heart: "According to his description, the moment Bayer's fist was grasped by that corpse... he was already dead."

Is the ghost's way of killing to grasp the other party's hand? Or is it physical contact?

Or is it something else?

"It shouldn't be that simple." Ning Zhe stood up, shifted his gaze away from the sofa, and said softly: "It should be that some action of Bayer's inadvertently triggered some rule of the ghost, but he himself doesn't know."

Summarize the known information at the current stage:

【1. The ghost only chooses one person to kill at a time】

【2. From the perspective of the person chosen by the ghost as the target, others will suddenly disappear, and the ghost will appear accordingly】 【3. In the eyes of others, the person chosen by the ghost as the target who meets the ghost is also "disappeared," and until after death, they will reappear in the form of a corpse】

【4. The person who encounters the ghost will not die immediately, but needs to have some form of contact with the ghost, and only after reaching some specific condition will they be killed by the ghost】

【5. The ghost will actively choose a target and make contact with it】

But the conditions and reasons for the ghost choosing a "target" are temporarily unknown.

Driver Bayer's description is relatively credible. He said all true words, at least for himself, they were 100% true words.

Because 【I must tell the truth to this person.】

If it were before, Ning Zhe would often need to steal identities through Taiyi, inherit memories, and perform various complicated operations in a roundabout way to get this level of credible information. More often, he was limited by the objective environment and limited conditions, being restricted everywhere. For example, when he encountered "Fen Wu" in the Chengyu Valley prison before, Taiyi's rules couldn't be triggered at all.

And now, it only takes a small psychological suggestion, just prying a brick at a corner of the Great Wall, and a completely undefended heart door will automatically open to him, telling everything he knows without reservation.

A burst of noisy human voices came from outside. Ning Zhe left the sofa and arrived at the edge of the viewing box.

Looking down from the viewing box, he saw gentlemen and ladies in glamorous clothes, surrounded by theater waiters, passing through the aisle and gathering in the audience seats around the dance floor to take their seats. There was much displeasure on their faces, obviously wanting to ask Fursoles for an explanation regarding the sudden closure of the opera house and this forced gathering without any privacy.

Not a single mistake in the content, read it all!

Beside the dance floor, Fursoles, wearing a dark brown hunting suit, waved at the viewing box, signaling that his work had been completed.

Everyone in the opera house is now gathered in the audience seats. The theater lights have been turned to the maximum. Looking down from Ning Zhe's current height, the entire dance floor is in full view. More than 12 cameras are monitoring the audience seats from various angles, and any sudden vacancy in any position will be captured at the first moment.

Next, no matter who the ghost chooses as the target, it won't be able to escape his eyes.

"Alright, come on, who will be the next one?" Ning Zhe supported the railing with both hands and looked down. The seemingly controlled situation gave him some confidence.

However, time passed minute by minute, and the audience seats were silent. Nothing happened.

Tick, tick, the second hand fell slowly.

The uneasy atmosphere wore down people's patience, and noisy human voices rang out from the seats, teasing Ning Zhe's thoughts. Did the ghost not choose a target? No, that's not right, it shouldn't be like this.

Just as he was thinking, suddenly, Ning Zhe's expression froze, and his face turned pale instantly.

"What's wrong?" Seeing that the situation was wrong, Xia Yubing asked hurriedly.

Ning Zhe shook his head and muttered: "How could this be..."

In the noisy and boring atmosphere, he was shocked to find that the crimson figure that had always existed in the corner of his vision had disappeared at some point. No matter how he called, there was no response, and it had completely vanished without a trace.

The one chosen by the ghost this time is... He Nianjun.

(End of this chapter)