Storytelling

"Begin?"

"Begin what?"

Just as Zhu Zhongwen was beginning to feel puzzled.

One of the three people sitting beside him, all wearing white masks, slowly rose to his feet.

The man was wearing an overcoat, his neck hunched down.

He seemed very cold.

"I'll go first." His voice was somewhat gloomy.

Then.

He began telling a story.

"My name is Wang Lei. I was born with a serious illness.

"Because I was born in a remote mountain village, and the village didn't build its first concrete road until a few years ago, poverty and backwardness made it impossible for me to receive effective treatment. I could only recuperate slowly at home, living one day at a time.

"Perhaps because I had been told since childhood that I wouldn't live long, I wasn't afraid of death. Instead, I was curious about the world after death.

"I heard my grandfather say that in the Old era, after a person died, they first had to go to the Land God to have their name crossed off the register of the living.

"Then they followed an Underworld Emissary along Yellow Springs Road, crossed the Gate of Ghosts, passed over Wangxiang Terrace, traversed Golden Rooster Mountain, climbed over Evil Dog Ridge, and went through Wild Ghost Village... Only after passing through countless barriers could they reach the underworld.

"However, that applied to people who had used up their allotted lifespans and died natural deaths.

"Yet in that War-torn Era, order had collapsed, and human lives were as cheap as grass. People who died violent deaths before their lifespans were up could be found everywhere.

"After death, these people carried such heavy resentment that they were completely unable to reincarnate.

"Some lingered around the places where they had died, constantly searching for substitutes. Others wandered