Chapter 7: Yun E

Song Cheng remembered that in the *Infinite Hell* player forum, the arrival of a Taboo was divided into three steps: programming, loading, and execution.

Among these, the most indeterminate was "execution," which is to say, under what circumstances a Taboo would kill.

And the most certain was "programming."

Although he did not know the specific "programming details," the forum had listed two necessary conditions for "programming."

The first: intense mental changes such as resentment and pain.

Whenever a Taboo is produced, there must have been a massive or overly sharp injustice or curse-resentment.

The second: a place with few people.

The worldview of *Infinite Hell* had always been mysterious and vast; the game company's plan was to decrypt the worldview of *Infinite Hell* step by step through version updates.

As it turned out, after the first version update, *Infinite Hell* was banned, and that game company also vanished; the official explanation was that the people at the game company had made a huge profit and all flown abroad.

But before this, there were quite a few people on the forum with wild imaginations who had discussed what kind of world *Infinite Hell* actually was.

And the one with the highest approval rate was: *Infinite Hell* is naturally hell itself; it is a world filled with the yin energy of the dead. If there are many living people in a certain place, that sufficient human energy can support a patch of vitality within the world of yin energy; this is called "filling the yin."

And if there are no people, then it is a world of pure yin energy.

The yin energy world is the programming system, and intense mental changes are the program code. When the program code is finished, when quantitative change transforms into qualitative change, then a small program will be born.

"Programming" is then complete.

And in *Infinite Hell*, all information regarding Taboos was described in "blood red."

Even when browsing that information through a screen, one would see the fonts baring fangs and brandishing claws, with fresh blood flowing.

Before transmigrating, Song Cheng naturally thought, "These characters were edited by someone, and their purpose is just to set the atmosphere," but just now, he had seen that familiar blood red in the blind man's dark world.

He hurriedly scanned the "【Taboo: Unlocked】" at the very bottom of the panel.

His breathing was a bit fast; he opened his mouth to speak but found his mouth dry and parched, so he coughed twice to clear his throat and then said, "Wife, can we move?"

Tong Jia said, "Business is indeed not good in this place, and these villagers are always haggling.

But moving is not easy.

When Father was still here, he had once looked into it.

Nowadays, the Great Shang Dynasty implements the neighborhood registration system; from the village level and up, starting from the county seat, it is all implemented this way.

Ten households make one jia, with a jia leader; ten jia make one bao, with a bao leader.

If something happens to the households within the neighborhood registration system, the other residents all have to suffer along with them.

Let alone joining a better jia, even joining an ordinary jia is not easy, and this also involves the transfer of our household registration and involves the village head letting us go.

Before, Father had once thought about giving the village head some silver, but now, where would our family still have silver?"

Song Cheng thought for a moment and said, "If there were a natural disaster or man-made calamity, the county seat would automatically accept the villagers, right?"

Tong Jia said, "That would be settling refugees. How they are settled and where they are settled is all up to the masters to decide. Besides, where would a natural disaster or man-made calamity come from?"

Song Cheng suddenly grabbed her shoulders tightly.

"What are you doing?" Tong Jia was startled.

Song Cheng said solemnly, "Wife, do you believe that I can see dirty things?"

The air suddenly fell silent.

Just as Tong Jia was about to speak, a voice suddenly came from outside: "Tong Dafu, seeking medical treatment..."

Song Cheng turned his head.

The cold wind of the countryside outlined a woman in white lines outside.

【Strength: 0~0】

【Favorability: 80】

And Song Cheng knew from the memories of the original body that this voice belonged to a woman in the village named Yun E, who was no more than twenty-three or twenty-four years old and was a woman who had come from the Prefecture City. Her marriage back then had been quite a sensation; every household had rushed to see what the wife from the Prefecture City looked like, and it turned out she was indeed fair-skinned and tender-fleshed, with a flower-like face and moon-like beauty.

The reason the wife from the Prefecture City was willing to leave her maiden home and marry into the village was also because of her husband.

Her husband practiced martial arts; he was burly and handsome, and anyone in the village who saw him would have to praise him, saying, "He really is the face of our Tanghe Village." And just at the beginning of this year, when the army was conscripting, her husband naturally went too; later, there were letters home, and it was said he was doing well in the army and had already become a personal guard to a general. Yun E was happy and became even more filial to her mother-in-law at home.

However, not long ago, news came back that the army had been defeated and her husband had died in battle.

Clearly, this was also a pitiful person.

"Miss Yun, come, sit."

Tong Jia quite liked Yun E.

Yun E walked in with a face full of sorrow and then said, "Doctor Tong, my mother-in-law is ill, very ill. She was fine a few days ago and could still eat. But today, she suddenly couldn't even get out of bed and just kept muttering Yonglang's name."

Yonglang was her husband. And when she mentioned "Yonglang," she shed tears that flowed down her fair, tender face, making her appear even more delicate and charming like pear blossoms in the rain.

Tong Jia hurriedly stood up and said, "Alright, I'll pack up and go with you right now."

She found a small bag, put in a few small items commonly used for house calls, and then instructed, "Cheng-ge, watch the house."

Song Cheng nodded.

Tong Jia and Yun E hurried away.

It was near dusk when she returned once, weighed out five packets of medicine, filled a gourd with medicinal wine, and helped deliver them.

By the time she returned again, it was almost dark.

Song Cheng closed the main gate.

In the village, once it turned dark, the medical clinic would naturally close.

The dark, blood-colored afterglow fell in through the oil-paper windows, casting a hazy light into the room filled with the smell of medicine.

Tong Jia pinched out a piece of silver and shook it in the sunset, then grabbed it tightly, carefully put it into the money box, and said, "Yun E's family still has money."

"How much money?"

"No haggling, she gave two qian of silver!" Tong Jia smiled until she bloomed.

Two qian is two hundred wen.

Song Cheng frowned.

Tong Jia said, "What's wrong?"

Song Cheng said, "Tell me, is Yun E always this bad at haggling?"

Tong Jia said, "What's wrong with that? Since when is not haggling a flaw in your eyes?

Everyone has it tough, the prices I quote are honest, and my Pill is fair to young and old alike, so why would anyone need to haggle?"

Song Cheng shook his head and said nothing; this sort of thing was purely him worrying for nothing.

Night fell.

Perhaps because they had rested and conserved their energy yesterday, or perhaps because they had earned some copper coins today, both were exceptionally intense; the bed legs were not resting on floorboards, but on relatively flat yet somewhat uneven dirt ground, the smell of mud mixing with the cold wind creeping through the window cracks, and that "creak-creak" sound, as if fanning a "furnace," as if the fire in the furnace were burning.

The fire burned increasingly hot.

After a long while, the intensity suddenly subsided.

Song Cheng was exhausted.

Tong Jia, perhaps feeling the cold wind leaking through the window gap, went barefoot, putting on her embroidered slippers in the dark, took a bamboo basket to block the window, then quickly ran back, "whoosh," and shrank into the bedding; her two legs were ice-cold as they pressed against Song Cheng.

Tong Jia rested her chin in her hands and smiled, "Let's not think about moving for now; wait until your wife earns more silver, and I'll buy some meat to nourish you."

Song Cheng was speechless.

Tong Jia said again, "What you said during the Daytime about being able to see dirty things, is it true?"

Song Cheng nodded.

Tong Jia asked, "What do they look like? Where are they?"

Song Cheng said, "I can't see their appearance, but I can feel that cold, gloomy aura; it hasn't taken shape yet, it's just by that old tree to the west outside the door, which is why I suggested moving."

Tong Jia knew her man was thin, weak, and timid, and it was normal for him to be suspicious and paranoid, so she comforted him, "Don't worry, your wife here has been running in and out of the mountains; if I were going to encounter a Ghost, I would have encountered one long ago.

I've heard people say that these dirty things specifically target those with weak bodies.

With your wife here, this home is full of vitality, it'll be fine."

As she spoke, she giggled and squeezed her fist.

Song Cheng did not say anything more.

In truth, if someone else had told him there was a dirty thing outside the door, he wouldn't have believed it either.

The fact that Tong Jia was willing to listen to him, and even considered the idea of moving, meant she already took him very seriously.

In this day and age, everyone seeks stability; as long as there are no bloody incidents or matters of life and death happening right before their eyes, most people would not want to leave their homes, let alone have their lives change.

In troubled times, every change carries immense risk.

Many people will not even step out of their own village in their entire lives.

Song Cheng checked the progress of his "Pagoda Meditation Method."

He could only hope to improve quickly, so that he could jump out of this shell to see what the situation in this village really was, and whether the surroundings were truly safe.

(End of chapter)