Chapter 37

The hotel where Bai Fugui and Feng Yushu's family of three stayed was located outside Gubei Town, a leisure manor built in the clear water bay downstream of Xuanhu Waterfall, covering an area of about one hectare, about the same as a proper primary school.

The design concept of the Bishuiwan Manor was very novel, and the layout and decoration were also European styles popular in recent years. The painting style was very out of tune with the ancient and elegant Jiangnan water town like Gubei Town, as if it had been cut and pasted from somewhere else.

In fact, this was indeed the case. Bishuiwan Manor was not an old building with a long history, but a new industry that had just been built and completed a few months ago. It is said that the capital of the manor obtained internal news from certain channels that Gubei Town would be engaged in large-scale construction, so they spent a lot of money downstream of Xuanhu Waterfall and bought this piece of land in advance.

Bai Fugui's family were the first batch of guests to check into this manor. Zhang Yangxu didn't book a room here, which was purely because he didn't want to run into bad luck.

Following the bright moonlight, a magpie spread its wings, rode the cool night wind, and landed on the hair of a human statue in the side courtyard of the manor. The statue was shaped like a pure white girl, holding a clay pot in both hands, with clear water pouring out from it. It was an artificial fountain.

Under the murmuring fountain, a gorgeously dressed young woman in a purple dress sat on a rattan chair, her eyes frequently looking toward a winding path leading outside the manor. Between her glances, she seemed to be waiting anxiously for something.

Seeing that there was no one around, the magpie standing on the statue landed lightly beside her, transformed into a handsome young man with a tall and straight figure. His fair, slender palms, like a woman's, gently patted Feng Yushu's shoulder.

"Who! —"

Feng Yushu subconsciously cried out, until Ning Zhe's palm covered her mouth again, and her tense body relaxed: "Ning Zhe?!... When did you come over?"

"I flew over." Ning Zhe said half-jokingly, and transformed back into a black and white magpie, standing on Feng Yushu's shoulder: "Although He Family Village shattered, the rules of that ghost seem not to have been extinguished, but transferred to me."

That is to say, Ning Zhe now possesses the ability to 'steal others' identities using erroneous perception as a medium'.

"Actually..." Feng Yushu turned her head, looking in surprise at this small bird standing on her shoulder: "I thought the object whose identity was stolen could only be a person."

"I once thought so too." Ning Zhe transformed back into a human, stood in front of Feng Yushu, and raised his hand: "Let's find a hidden place to talk."

"Okay."

Feng Yushu took Ning Zhe to a small pavilion surrounded by flower beds and ornamental trees. This place was remote enough and hidden enough. Before the Gubei Town scenic area was truly built and Bishuiwan Manor began to officially open for business, this place was ignored by no one, and only gardeners and other maintenance personnel would come during the day.

The two sat face to face in the pavilion. Feng Yushu first asked her most urgent question: "What exactly happened in He Family Village? In the last few seconds before returning to the real world, I heard two screams and cries with different tones, and then everything ended. You... how did you do it?"

"As I told you, I killed both the Serpent God and the ghost." Ning Zhe spread his hands: "As for how I killed them, don't worry about it. You only need to know that I have fulfilled my promise."

Regarding matters concerning himself, he didn't want to reveal too many details to Feng Yushu, but instead asked back: "What about you? During the time you were separated from me, what did you experience in He Family Village?"

Feng Yushu nodded and told her experience truthfully one by one.

—After 'Zhang Yangxu' was unlucky enough to be smashed to death by a tile, the ghost did not disappear, but appeared in front of her again in the image of Ye Miaozhu, and tried to persuade Feng Yushu to listen to its explanation.

But Feng Yushu's mental state at that time was on the verge of collapse. In her madness, she first poked out her own eyes, and then used two chopsticks to pierce her own eardrums. After becoming completely blind and deaf, Feng Yushu completely lost the ability to obtain information from the outside world, and the ghost finally had no choice.

"I just said your mental state was not very good." Ning Zhe said somewhat unexpectedly: "But if you don't get professional treatment in time after your ear canal is seriously damaged, you won't live long. You were committing suicide."

"I... I don't know." Feng Yushu shook her head in a trance: "I really had no choice at that time. After Zhang Yangxu died, it was Ye Miaozhu. After Ye Miaozhu also died, it was Xie Sining... The ghost kept turning into different people to induce me, I... I really had no choice..." "It's over, it's okay, Auntie." Seeing that she was about to go crazy again as she spoke, Ning Zhe had to call a stop, took a napkin from his pocket and handed it to her to wipe her tears: "Your makeup is ruined. If you go back like this, your husband will find out."

"Hmm..." Feng Yushu took the napkin and said while wiping her tears: "He won't find out. We have slept in separate rooms for many years."

"I'm not interested in your married life, saying this to me is meaningless." Ning Zhe shook his head: "What about your daughter, Bai Zhi? I want to understand something about her."

It would be even better if I could get her computer and look directly at the original diary inside.

"Ah! Yes, yes... A-Zhi." Mentioning her daughter, Feng Yushu's subjective initiative immediately increased. She took out an iPad Mini from her handbag, unlocked it, and handed it to Ning Zhe: "I couldn't bring her computer, but I have a backup of her diary. Please take a look... I really want to know, what exactly happened to A-Zhi?"

Why did Bai Zhi dream of the scene in He Family Village time and time again? She had clearly never been to Gubei Town...

"Okay, let me see, the private diary of a problematic girl... How is it like a galgame."

Ning Zhe opened the text, and the first sentence that caught his eyes was 'This world is beyond saving'. Ning Zhe couldn't help but support his forehead and close his eyes: "Damn, so chuunibyou."

Bai Zhi's diary brought a quite strong impact. The first diary entry was written 5 years ago. At that time, she was just 14 years old, the age of a first-year junior high student. The middle school Bai Zhi attended was a famous aristocratic school in Yongzhou. The relationship between new classmates could be said to be friendly or alienated.

There were boys who were friendly because of her beautiful appearance, and girls who were actively sticking to her because of her wealthy family background, but Bai Zhi shut everyone out and didn't have even the most basic interaction with anyone.

Her evaluation of her classmates in her diary was: childish.

"My God..." Ning Zhe quickly finished reading Bai Zhi's diary for the three years of junior high, having a sense of déjà vu of watching 'Bai Zhi (Blackened)': "Auntie, do you know that your daughter has severe chuunibyou?"

"What kind of disease is chuunibyou?" Feng Yushu's expression was anxious.

"Okay, people of the auntie generation indeed don't know much about the two-dimensional world." Ning Zhe was not surprised by her reaction.

He swiped the tablet screen, preparing to start speed-reading Bai Zhi's diary from her high school era, when suddenly, the sky above his head darkened.

"What's going on?" Ning Zhe turned to look, only to see that the bright moon that was originally hanging in the sky had disappeared at some point, just like a light bulb that had been cut off from electricity suddenly extinguished, and the whole world fell into pitch darkness, and not even a single star could be seen.

In the darkness where one couldn't see one's fingers, only the rice-white light emitted from the iPad in Ning Zhe's hand remained. The manor in the distance was still dark and quiet, with the sound of flowing water.

But the next second, the pitch-black manor suddenly lit up. Every light in every room was lit up at this very moment. The bright light penetrated the spire-style castle building, as if a huge light bulb had lit up in the dark night, which was very dazzling.

Subsequently, ear-piercing screams came out from the manor.

"People are dead!"

Ning Zhe lowered his head, only to see the first sentence of Bai Zhi's high school diary was: "There are ghosts everywhere."

(End of chapter)