The funeral parlour was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. Even Yu Xiao, who was used to shocking people, was stunned. Everyone gawked, mouths open, blank looks on their faces, at Luo Jin.

    Lu Xun, after a long pause, finally got what was going on. He pushed down the pieces of his broken worldview, and asked in disbelief, “Are you nuts?”

    “No,” Luo Jin said calmly, his eyes locked on Gu Jing Rong. “Do you agree or not?”

    Gu Jing Rong wavered.

    …

    The five of them left the village chief’s house together when Gu Jing Rong almost passed out in the funeral parlour. When his mom and the villagers came back, they found him crying. Learning of what happened, they all praised his loyalty, calling him a model son.

    Back at their place, Lu Xun had also figured out what Luo Jin meant. But knowing didn’t mean agreeing. He felt something was wrong everywhere, a weird discomfort lingering.

    The mood was awkward; the five sat in silence when they got back.

    Of course, they had different reasons and feelings for their silence. Lu Xun and Zhao Lan sat in shame-filled silence, Yu Xiao thought about the next steps, Zhao Lan spaced out, and Zhou Xiao Zhen stayed quiet because everyone else did.

    They sat like that, silent and still, until Zhang Feng and the others showed up.

    Zhang Feng walked in front and, turning a corner, saw Zhao Lan sitting by the door. He remembered her breaking a kitchen knife with her bare hands yesterday, and he slowed down instinctively.

    Wang Yang followed him, seeing the five sitting gloomily by the door. He figured they were hungry, and said, “Sorry, sorry, we got held up. Are you all hungry? I’ll make something.”

    Zuo Qing and Sun Yun walked hand in hand, careful but not too scared because they had nothing to hide.

    As they got to the door, Sun Yun said, “Today, we followed the list, and we checked out the first person who died of sickness in the village. His name was Gu Ban (古板: old-fashioned). His whole family died of sickness, and nobody in the village knows what sickness it was. Later, we went to the graveyard, but it was too open and easily seen. We’re going to dig up the body and take a look tonight.”

    She gave the five of them a hopeful look, but the five didn’t say a word.

    Sun Yun nibbled her lip and asked carefully, “Did you guys… discover anything today?”

    “Nothing to discover,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said. “Our main mission today was to deal with something.”

    “Something?” Zuo Qing asked with curiosity. “What kind of something? Can you tell us?”

    “Not that we can’t…” Zhou Xiao Zhen paused for a moment. Explaining this thing wasn’t simple. Even with the rich and deep Chinese language, it still felt lacking. “Anyway, you’ll find out soon enough.”

    After that, the others didn’t dare to pry any more. After all, they might be big shots, and being from the Fourth Institute, their experience was better than theirs. So, they kept their mouths shut.

    The village was a mess that day, because the village chief had died. Yu Xiao planned to grill Gu Jing Rong about the plague tomorrow and tag along with them to the graveyard tonight.

    In this eerie mood, the group ate their meal. Zhao Lan suggested that everyone take a nap and head out later when it was darker.

    But even those with guts of steel couldn’t sleep at this time, except for Yu Xiao.

    In the middle of the night, Yu Xiao was woken up. She rubbed her eyes and followed the others, sneaking along the wall towards the edge of the village where the graveyard was. Zuo Qing and the others had been there during the day; after crossing a river, they would get to the graveyard.

    The moon in the sky was huge and round, covered in a thin layer of blood-red, making it look sinister.

    Nine people stood by the river, and Yu Xiao asked, “Where’s the bridge?”

    “No… no bridge,” Zhang Feng said. “We looked for it during the day, but there’s no bridge.”

    “That’s weird.” Lu Xun rubbed his fingers absentmindedly. “This is the village graveyard; how did they cross without a bridge?”

    “Don’t… don’t know.”

    “Tsk.” Lu Xun scowled in frustration. “How do we cross?”

    Yu Xiao asked, “When you came during the day, was the water in this river clear?”

    “Crystal clear,” Zhou Qing said. “Looked totally natural, untouched.”

    “Alright, let’s wade across,” Yu Xiao suggested.

    “What?!” Everyone was shocked, and chubby Wang Yang, with fear in his voice and his double chin shaking, said, “It’s the middle of the night, so creepy. What if there’s something nasty in the river…”

    “If you’re scared, stay here,” Lu Xun said, agreeing with Yu Xiao’s idea and taking off his shoes.

    Seeing them taking off their shoes, Wang Yang got nervous. He turned to see Zhang Feng doing the same, and he blurted out, “Old Zhang, are you going too? Aren’t you afraid there might be ghosts in the water?”

    As he pulled off his socks, Zhang Feng said, “Even if there are ghosts, it’s better for everyone to stick together than for one person to stay on the shore.”

    “…”

    That made sense, and Wang Yang took off his shoes too.

    In the dark of night, the river water felt cold. The nine people held hands and crossed the river together. In the quiet night, there was no sound of insects, only the splashing sound of legs moving through the water.

    “Actually… this feeling is quite special,” Sun Yun, holding Zhou Qing with one hand and Zhao Lan with the other, said. “I’ve lived in the city since I was a kid, never played in the countryside. After coming to Horror Hospital, I’ve always been nervously focused on clearing dungeons. I don’t know why, but being with you guys this time, I feel surprisingly relaxed.”

    Zhou Xiao Zhen said, “Because being with us makes you feel safe.”

    Thinking about it, Sun Yun agreed. Among them, there was someone who could break a kitchen knife with her bare hands and another who chased a ghost by herself in the middle of the night. Nothing made her feel safer.

    She smiled softly, “You’re right.”

    Zhou Qing also smiled, “With awesome folks like you around, ghosts probably wouldn’t dare to come near.”

    “That’s not for sure,” Zhou Xiao Zhen said, looking at Yu Xiao. “Smiley, I feel like something grabbed my left ankle. I don’t know if it’s a ghost or not.”

    The crowd stopped dead in their tracks.

    Yu Xiao let go of the hands on either side and bent down, reaching into the water to check Zhou Xiao Zhen’s ankle. Before she got there, she felt something round, like a watermelon.

    She didn’t think twice, she just grabbed and yanked it out.

    “Splash!”

    Moonlight hit the water, making circles of ripples. Everyone gaped as Yu Xiao bent down, feeling something in the water. She then straightened up, holding onto something black, like rotten mud.

    The muddy shape looked like a person. After Yu Xiao yanked it, it made a creepy sound.

    “Hehehehe…”

    Shocked, the group backed away, but they slipped on the wet ground and quickly held onto each other.

    The black thing giggled for a bit, then suddenly noticed something was wrong.

    It looked closer, and saw that the one holding it was staring at it coldly, not moving a muscle. The others around her were calm, watching it with interest.

    The black thing shut up, feeling a bit of shame from deep inside.

    Zhou Xiao Zhen gawked at the black, muddy thing and asked curiously, “Is this what water ghosts look like?”

    Lu Xun said, “Not sure if it’s a water ghost, but it’s definitely a ghost.”

    What?! How dare these puny humans mock me like this?! The black, muddy thing got pissed, opening its mouth wide enough to swallow a basketball. It tried to bite off the head of the person holding it.

    The mouth was wide open, but it couldn’t close. It saw the girl holding a yellow talisman in her other hand. The yellow paper fluttered in the wind, like a butterfly ready to fly.

    “…”

    Come on, it was just a poor water ghost…

    On the dry grass on the other side of the river, nine people made a circle, and in the middle was a blob of black, rotten mud-like ghost.

    Yu Xiao snickered, “Who wants to ask?”

    “I’ll do it.” Lu Xun stepped up, pointing at the ghost, saying, “You, tell us where the plague in this village came from.”

    The ghost was terrified. It knew nothing. It was just bored and hungry. Weren’t people supposed to be food for the ghosts?

    “Are you going to talk?” Lu Xun showed a different side from usual. “Playing hard to get, huh?”

    He searched in his pocket and took out a pair of clear, thin-as-cicada-wing gloves, putting them on. Then he grabbed the ghost, and started to punch it with his fists.

    “Are you going to talk? Are you going to talk? Are you going to talk…”

    “Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo…”

    The sad cries filled the night sky, making anyone who heard it feel sorry, even making some cry.

    This ghost either couldn’t speak or was just dumb. Even though Lu Xun beat it until it was twisted, it didn’t say a word. A truly proud ghost.

    “Never mind, don’t waste time on it.” Yu Xiao said, “Let’s go to the graveyard.”

    “Okay.” Lu Xun nodded and asked, “What about it?”

    Yu Xiao looked at the ghost with a worried face. “Is there anything we can use to lock it up and take it with us?”

    The crowd felt a chill in their bones. Ghosts were dangerous, and nothing normal could hold them back.

    That’s when Luo Jin, who had barely said a word all night, piped up. “There’s a pressure cooker in the house. Trap it inside and slap on some talismans.”

    Brilliant!

    Yu Xiao looked at him with admiration, impressed by his quick-wit.

    They hauled the ghost to the graveyard, where graves of all shapes and sizes dotted the landscape. The nine of them split up, scouring the area, until Zhang Feng shouted. “Gu Ba! I found Gu Ba!” sea??h thё novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    They all rushed to Gu Ba’s grave marker. He was the first one in the village to succumb to the plague, according to the list.

    Lu Xun said, “Time to dig.”

    Zhao Lan didn’t hesitate to roll up her sleeves. Wang Yang said, “Hey, this is a job for us men. You girls don’t have the muscle…”

    He stopped mid-sentence, recalling how Zhao Lan had snapped a knife in half with her bare hands, and swallowed the rest of his words.

    Lu Xun stepped in, “You caught the ghost; we’ll do the digging.”

    Zhao Lan didn’t mind letting them do the dirty work, so she and Yu Xiao moved aside to watch them sweat.

    They soon dug up a grave mound. Yu Xiao pinched her nose and walked over to the hole, while Luo Jin yanked the coffin out by himself.

    The coffin lid creaked open, releasing a foul odour.

    Yu Xiao felt sick, rolling her eyes back. The smell lingered for a while before fading away. When they all regrouped, they saw a rotten corpse lying still in the coffin. Everything looked normal, except for the head, which was smashed to bits, as if by a giant hammer.

    Zhao Lan wondered, “What kind of disease does that to someone’s head?”