Chapter 9: The Earth God Does Not Accept

Gu Yunqing's lifeless body fell headfirst into the water, and cold water droplets splashed onto Ye Miaozhu's face, making her mind dazed.

"Yunqing... is dead?"

Ye Miaozhu muttered with lost eyes. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's reaction was quick; he stepped forward and grabbed Gu Yunqing's sleeve, preventing him from being washed away by the water flow.

Dragging Gu Yunqing's corpse, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe quickly glanced at Feng Yushu, who was trembling with fear and unable to move, and then looked at Ye Miaozhu, whose mental state was clearly not right. He realized that he could only rely on himself.

Unbuttoning Gu Yunqing's clothes, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe quickly checked his corpse.

Although he wasn't a professional medical student, he could draw some basic judgments through simple checks: "Like Xie Sining, there are no external or internal injuries or signs of poisoning on Gu Yunqing's body, it's not death by strangulation, etc..."

Except for the residual body temperature on Gu Yunqing, who had just died and hadn't cooled down yet, there was no difference in the death state of these two corpses; they were exactly the same.

"The death states of the two are exactly the same. Were they both killed by that thing that impersonates others? Or is the river water itself dangerous?"

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe didn't know the answer, but he didn't dare to take risks.

Putting down Gu Yunqing's corpse, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe retreated a few steps away from the riverbank. Feng Yushu, who was scared into a nervous breakdown, followed him, leaving only Ye Miaozhu sitting on the ground in a daze.

"Yunqing... how did he die like this?" Ye Miaozhu's eyes were scattered, a bit confused: "We didn't violate any taboos, didn't travel, didn't bury, didn't hold funeral rites... and didn't sacrifice, why did Yunqing die?"

Ye Miaozhu grabbed her head, pulling her originally smooth long hair into a mess: "Even if checking the corpse can be counted as funeral rites... why did Yunqing die, but I'm fine?"

"I don't know." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe shook his head: "How would I know..."

"Is that so? You don't know either." Ye Miaozhu lowered her body, buttoning the buttons Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had unbuttoned on Gu Yunqing one by one. Holding his corpse, she turned her head to look at the river water slowly moving downstream. The bright moon was reflected on it.

"Are you looking to die?" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe frowned. "I noticed Gu Yunqing's movements before he died. The few seconds before he lost his vital signs, he happened to be looking down at the river surface by the bank. I don't know if the danger lies in the corpse by the river or the river itself, but you are undoubtedly courting death by imitating what he did before he died."

"So what?" Ye Miaozhu looked up, her dead eyes staring straight at Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe: "I've had enough."

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe was silent for a moment, then said softly: "I can understand, but I don't agree."

Everyone is an ordinary person, studying, working, living ordinarily, abiding by the law, thinking that life is just countless such plain days piled up day after day.

However, with just the effort of pushing open a door, they arrived at this inexplicable place, forced to follow inexplicable rules, and forced to endure inexplicable fear.

The weight of death is so heavy that it makes everyone unable to breathe. The rules that change every day torture people's fragile nerves, making them trembling and walking on thin ice.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe didn't know what kind of relationship Ye Miaozhu and Gu Yunqing had, but in such an environment where they were in danger at any time, the two had already become accustomed to relying on each other.

Ye Miaozhu wasn't a very strong person. If it weren't for someone she was familiar with by her side, she would have been crushed by the death that could come at any time, and wouldn't have been able to persist in this strange village full of bizarre things until now.

And now Gu Yunqing was dead, and she, who had lost her spiritual support, also lost the courage and motivation to continue struggling to survive.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe didn't agree with her behavior of giving up her life so rashly, but he didn't oppose Ye Miaozhu seeking death at this moment, because that was actually a good thing for him.

"After Ye Miaozhu dies, there will be 3 ready-made death samples here." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe thought to himself: "One or two bizarre deaths, I can't see the logic behind them, but three? Four? There will always be clues... The puzzle can always be solved."

Others might collapse, give up, or break the jar, but he wouldn't.

Looking at Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's indifferent eyes without any waves, Ye Miaozhu suddenly smiled: "I actually wanted to get angry at you, because if it weren't for you asking us to check Xie Sining's corpse, Yunqing wouldn't have died. But feeling his body slowly cooling down, I found that I didn't even have the strength to be angry anymore." "It's good that you don't." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said indifferently: "If you throw a tantrum at me, I'll kill you."

"Pervert." Ye Miaozhu cursed venomously.

But then, she was relieved: "But perhaps only a pervert like you, who has no humanity, can live in this place that has no humanity, like a fish in water."

"Considering you're about to die, I won't pursue you scolding me." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe didn't care.

The riverbank became quiet. The fragmented sentences were drowned in the clear river water. Ye Miaozhu held Gu Yunqing's corpse in her arms, quietly looking at her and his reflection in the river, like a prisoner on the execution ground closing her eyes and waiting for death to arrive.

But time passed minute by minute. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe checked his phone again and again. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes... Ye Miaozhu had been sitting quietly by the riverbank, letting the cold night breeze take away her body temperature, and nothing else happened.

"It seems the Serpent God thinks your life shouldn't end." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe walked down the bluestone gentle slope and reached out to Ye Miaozhu, who was sitting on the ground: "Time to go. Since that thing that doesn't know what it is returned this life to you, cherish it well."

Ye Miaozhu lowered her head, silent for a long time, and finally grabbed Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's hand without any reaction.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe pulled her up from the riverbank, quickly organizing the known information in his heart: "First, the Serpent God is ill, ill regularly every month, cause unknown, symptoms unknown."

"Second, besides the almanac fortune that affects luck, there are other hidden rules in He Family Village that directly lead to death, such as flipping tomorrow's almanac."

"Third, Xie Sining and Gu Yunqing are suspected to have died from violating hidden rules, and their death states are exactly the same as Lin Zhiyuan's."

"Fourth, although Xie Sining and Gu Yunqing's corpses both appeared in the river, Ye Miaozhu has already proven that their deaths have nothing to do with this river."

"Fifth, there is a special existence in He Family Village that impersonates others, suspected to be related to the hidden rules that cause death."

As the information mastered increased, the train of thought in Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's mind gradually became clear. In the seemingly chaotic information fragments, he found the first breakthrough point:

"That ghost that impersonated Xie Sining followed Zhang Yangxu for a long time but didn't kill him, and didn't attack me after discovering me. Why doesn't it kill us? Is it because it doesn't want to? Or is it that it actually can't kill directly at all?"

"Or change a train of thought, that ghost doesn't need to get close to us to kill, but needs to satisfy some specific conditions, needs us to trigger some special—rules?"

The mist on the road ahead dissipated. From a knot of chaotic hemp, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe grabbed the thread that unraveled the truth.

At this moment, Feng Yushu's phone vibrated, and someone called.

The caller was Zhang Yangxu.

"Answer it, hang up if it feels wrong." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe said softly.

Feng Yushu didn't dare to answer, but still nodded, her fair and delicate fingers trembling as she pressed the answer button.

As soon as the call was connected, a loud warning that was almost shouted came from the speaker:

—"Be careful of Gu Yunqing!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 10 =====