Chapter 6: First Blood

"One person turning on the light is enough. We don't know when we'll be able to get out, so we have to save the phone's battery. Remember to turn on power-saving mode." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said, turning on his own flashlight: "I'll do it, I have a power bank with me."

"Okay." Feng Yushu nodded.

The two walked through the alley with the illumination of the flashlight. There was the sound of water flowing in the stone-paved road under their feet; it was the drainage channel built under the stone slabs.

Just as Zhang Yangxu said, the doors of every household in He Family Village were closed and windows were shut tonight. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe tried to push open several doors in succession, but they were all locked from the inside and couldn't be pushed open at all, so he had to stop.

"Um... Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe?" Feng Yushu asked in a low voice.

"Nothing, I want to ask you something." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe thought and said: "Lady, you said earlier that you arrived here after pushing open the hotel room door, and the stainless steel door handle you were holding turned into a brass door latch in an instant, and the door you pushed open changed from a hotel security door to an old wooden door..."

Feng Yushu nodded repeatedly: "That's right, what do you want to ask?"

"I want to know where that door you pushed open when you arrived at He Family Village is." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said directly: "Let's go take a look there."

"Ah? Okay." Feng Yushu agreed to his request and walked in front to lead the way.

The ancestral hall worshipping the Serpent God was located in the south of He Family Village, while the door Feng Yushu pushed open when she arrived at He Family Village was close to the center of the village. Starting from the ancestral hall, she led Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe all the way north, walking deeper and deeper among the houses built of stone and tile.

Along the way, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe often tried to push and test the doors of the houses tightly closed on the street, but after trying time and time again, he never found anything suspicious. In the quiet atmosphere, the two walked through the crisscrossing bluestone streets and alleys together by the moonlight, and a stone arched bridge appeared in front of them.

He Family Village was built by the water, and the entire village was divided into east and west parts by a river flowing from north to south. There were three arched bridges on the river, and the one in front of Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe was the southernmost one.

Crossing the arched bridge to the other side of the river, not far away was the house Feng Yushu walked out of when she first arrived at He Family Village.

"It's here." Feng Yushu led Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe to the house. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe noticed that the door of this house was open outward. Walking all the way from the ancestral hall, this was the first open door he had seen.

"The house only has one floor, it's empty inside, and there's only some scattered straw on the ground. It should be a woodshed or an abandoned cattle shed." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe closed the door and then opened it again, but nothing happened: "Sure enough..."

Wanting to find the exit to leave the village so easily was indeed impossible.

Feng Yushu lowered her head to check the time: 01:10 AM.

40 minutes had already passed, and there was less than 1 hour left until their agreed gathering time of 1 and a half hours.

"Let's go back, and take a look at other places on the way?" Feng Yushu asked.

"That's the only way." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe didn't have a better direction either.

The two left the empty house with the open door and returned along the arched bridge. At this time, the dark clouds in the sky had dispersed, and the bright moonlight fell down. The river water flowing under the bridge made a "hua-hua" sound, crisp and clear.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe held the railing by the bridge with one hand and walked forward quickly. Suddenly, his feet felt empty.

"Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe!" Feng Yushu was shocked.

With a crisp sound of stone cracking, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe instantly lost his balance, and one leg sank into the collapsed bridge deck. Fortunately, his reaction was quick enough, and he used both hands to support the bridge deck in time, preventing himself from sinking further. The long stone brick he had just stepped on had already cracked from the middle and fell into the river under the bridge, splashing a huge spray of water.

"... Are you kidding me..." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe frowned tightly, climbed up from the collapsed pit, and quickly got off the bridge in two or three steps, still feeling lingering fear in his heart.

Feng Yushu followed quickly, holding the flashlight and shining it on him constantly: "How are you? Are you hurt? It's good that you're okay... How could this happen? The stone bridge suddenly collapsed..."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe stood at the bridgehead, holding a stone pillar with one hand, his heart also full of confusion.

"What's going on... Why did I have bad luck? And it's this kind of stiff bad luck?" Recalling the thrilling scene just now, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe was horrified in his heart: "I clearly didn't violate any taboos, so why did I still have bad luck?" No... did I really not violate any taboos?

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe recalled today's fortune: 【Suitable:】

【Taboo: Travel, Burial, Funeral Rites, Sacrifices】

"The travel taboo can be confirmed as not violated, and hiding Lin Zhiyuan's corpse under the offering table doesn't count as 'burial' or 'funeral rites,' and sacrifice is even more nonsense. Where did I sacrifice anyone?"

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's thoughts drifted, quickly backtracking through everything he had done since midnight, but he didn't find any conflict with today's almanac fortune.

"I didn't violate any taboos, yet I still had bad luck for no reason. This makes no sense. Is it possible that the Serpent God started killing randomly after going crazy, no longer needing a violation as a reason?" He could only give this explanation.

But reason told Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe that this explanation wasn't necessarily correct.

"No, think again. Did I really not violate any taboos at all?"

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe kept repeating and recalling his experiences over the past hour: "Travel... No. Burial, the possibility is very, very small... Funeral rites are not it either. Could it be sacrifice? But did I really do anything that could be seen as 'sacrifice'? Who exactly did I sacrifice?!"

Feng Yushu looked at Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, who had a gloomy expression, with full worry, feeling extremely panicked in her heart. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's inexplicable bad luck made her very afraid.

"Wait, sacrifice? Right... That's it, it must be this." Suddenly, a flash of inspiration flashed through Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's mind, and he figured it out: "It's sacrifice. I sacrificed the Serpent God... I used Lin Zhiyuan's corpse as an offering and sacrificed it to the Serpent God."

This way, everything made sense, and even the fact that their group entered the ancestral hall while the Serpent God was ill without encountering danger had an explanation.

"Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe? Are you okay?" Feng Yushu asked cautiously.

"I'm fine." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe sighed and shook his head lightly: "I inadvertently violated today's taboo, which led to the bad luck just now. Fortunately, I've already figured out the reason."

Although the bridge collapse just now was dangerous, for Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, it wasn't a death-defying bad luck. After all, he had only violated the taboo once. The Serpent God was magnanimous; this wasn't a situation that must lead to death.

"Be extra careful next time, absolutely cannot violate the taboo again." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe thought to himself.

Then he looked up at Feng Yushu: "Let's go, let's hurry back to the ancestral hall."

"Okay." Feng Yushu nodded repeatedly, but just as she was about to leave, her phone rang.

Looking at the screen after unlocking it, the caller was—Xie Sining.

"Why did Xie Sining call?" Feng Yushu answered the phone with confusion.

Before she could even say hello, Feng Yushu's face suddenly turned incredibly pale, and she pointed at the river in front and screamed loudly: "Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe! There's something in the river!"

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe immediately turned around and looked to the side. In the river Feng Yushu was pointing at, a human-shaped object was floating, slowly sinking and floating in the gentle water flow, slowly drifting downstream.

With the bright moonlight, the two could identify the female suit jacket wrapped around this floating human body, as well as the tight-fitting hip-hugging skirt and black silk stockings on the lower body. One high heel had been washed away by the water, leaving only two silk ribbons hanging on the ankles, fluttering.

"This corpse is... Xie Sining?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 7 =====