Before he even reached the building, Chen Shouyi heard Mother Chen speaking.
"Honestly, with something this sinister going on, everyone else is staying away, and you're still rushing over there. You're really letting money blind you."
"Mom!" Chen Xingyue clung to Mother Chen's arm and wheedled,
"I'm a Martial Apprentice. What do I have to be afraid of? The whole family's fine."
"What if that filthy thing still recognizes people?" Mother Chen said, still worried. "Even their own relatives didn't dare go. Why would you, an outsider, go?"
"If anything happens, can't I run? If I can't even run away, then I wouldn't be safe staying home either. Mom, don't worry!"
"You're going to be the death of me."
"Enough, enough. Since you're going, just be careful tonight, and look after your brother while you're at it," Chen Dawei said.
Chen Shouyi, who had been watching Chen Xingyue with amusement, couldn't help opening his mouth.
I'm already pretty strong, okay!
But in the end, he didn't say anything.
If he did, they'd just think he was bragging.
He decided that as soon as social order returned to normal, he'd go take the Martial Apprentice exam.
Don't underestimate the status of a Martial Apprentice. It was, in itself, a reflection of one's standing in society.
Put another way, it was like gaining political power ahead of time, along with the corresponding rights and responsibilities. It gave you the status of a militiaman.
Especially in a small place like Dongning, having the status of a Martial Apprentice often made people look at you differently. You were always met with awe and envy—the instinctive reaction of ordinary people toward their powerful fellow humans, who could easily take their lives.
If Chen Xingyue weren't a Martial Apprentice, their parents wouldn't have agreed so easily to let her go.
Of course, no one would have invited her, either!
The moonlight was cool and clear, carrying a faint chill.
Two figures, one tall and one short, walked along, one in front of the other.
The alley was quiet. Only their footsteps rang out, clear and distinct.
Chen Xingyue wore a cotton tracksuit and carried a sword case on her shoulder. She held up her phone to light the way.
Chen Shouyi glanced at her phone and finally couldn't resist asking,
"How come your phone still has power?"
"I charged it in the car. Didn't you know?"
Chen Shouyi: "..."
If Chen Xingyue hadn't reminded him, he'd have forgotten you could charge your phone in the car.
The homes in this neighborhood were all self-built, two-and-a-half-story European-style houses, each with its own yard. Since the neighborhood had been planned all at once, its streets and houses were laid out in neat rows, and the place didn't look the least bit disorderly.
His family's house, however, was right by the street, so they stepped straight onto it as soon as they went out.
Chen Shouyi rarely walked around the neighborhood. Now that he was here, it all felt somewhat unfamiliar.
It wasn't even seven yet, but the neighborhood streets were completely empty.
If not for the faint glimmers of light leaking from the houses on either side, you might have thought everyone had gone to bed early.
Old Man Wang's house was easy to find.
A black tarpaulin had been erected in the yard, making the place look eerily dark.
The iron gate was shut.
They walked up and knocked. They'd barely knocked twice when the gate quickly opened.
Wang Debiao's wife, Afeng, opened the door. She was a woman in her forties, wearing white mourning clothes with a black cloth flower pinned to her chest.
She looked haggard, with deep bags under her eyes.
Her eyes left a deep impression on Chen Shouyi. They were filled with fear and unease.
But who could remain calm after going through something like this?
"Oh, Chen Xingyue, you're here. Come on in."
"Hello, Auntie," Chen Xingyue said.
Chen Shouyi followed her in, greeting Afeng as well.
A faint smell of corpses hung in the yard.
The place was desolate, with hardly anyone around.
Aside from Old Man Wang's younger brother and two sons, only Wang Debiao's wife, Afeng, was there. None of the other relatives had come. They'd clearly been scared off.
When they saw Chen Xingyue, the few of them rushed over as if they'd spotted a lifeline.
Old Man Wang's younger brother, an elderly man in his seventies or eighties, rose from his seat and came toward them first, trembling as he walked.
"Xingyue, we're counting on you this time. Martial Apprentices have strong yang energy, and they're best at suppressing Killing Intent. I hope my younger brother can settle down a little tonight. We living folk can't take being put through this again and again."
Old people were often superstitious, and after something like this, who could blame them for believing?
This was Chen Xingyue's first time dealing with a situation like this, and she was at a loss. Her face flushed red. "Well... I don't know if I'll be any help."
"It's all right even if you can't help. Just having you here puts us at ease," Wang Debiao said, forcing a smile.
Whether she could suppress the Killing Intent was a minor matter. The important thing was that she gave them courage.
"Exactly, exactly!" Old Man Wang's second son chimed in, afraid Chen Xingyue might get scared off. "We've tied my dad's body up, so there's no danger."
"Xingyue, sit down!" Afeng hurried to greet them. "And you too, Dawei's son. Don't just stand there."
They called Chen Shouyi's younger sister by her name, but him by someone else's son.
The difference in how they addressed them reflected the difference in their standing in everyone's eyes.
Chen Shouyi didn't mind. He was used to it by now.
"You must have come with Xingyue. I barely recognize you," Afeng said with a strained smile as she made tea and brought out some snacks.
Chen Shouyi gave her a perfunctory reply.
Night gradually deepened.
The group sat to one side, drinking strong tea and chatting.
After everything that had happened over the past two days, the sorrowful atmosphere had long since vanished. All that remained was fear and unease.
As they talked, they started discussing what had happened the night before.
They sounded regretful, saying they shouldn't have brought the body back. They should have let the police handle it.
The group took turns speaking, one after another.
Chen Shouyi pieced together what had happened.
It turned out that after the police had shot Old Man Wang's body down that day, it had become like a real corpse, lying motionless on the ground.
The police hadn't known what to do with it. This wasn't their line of work, and they'd never encountered anything so bizarre before.
Chen Shouyi guessed that the police had probably been badly frightened at the time, too.
Fortunately, the dead man's family had arrived. After the police explained what had happened, they had the family take the body back.
The whole affair had been a real roller coaster.
Chen Shouyi listened for a while, then sat quietly, lost in thought.
He glanced at Chen Xingyue, who was engrossed in a game on her phone.
He couldn't help feeling that he'd made a mistake. If he'd known, he should've brought a book along. Even reviewing the Common Tongue dictionary would have been better than sitting around with nothing to do.
Bored, he stood up and took a few steps around the yard.
Then he looked toward the mourning hall. Curiosity got the better of him, and he walked over.
The others glanced at him but didn't stop him.
It was already midnight. Candlelight flickered inside, casting a dim yellow glow. Two white candles burned on the altar, their flames dancing. They had already burned down more than halfway.
The air was filled with a strange smell, a mixture of the stench of corpses and incense. A white cloth curtain hung behind the altar.
Old Man Wang's body lay behind it.
He instinctively lightened his steps. Slowly, he walked past the curtain and moved closer to look at Old Man Wang's body.
The body had been tightly bound to the bed with ropes. Its skin was waxen yellow, without a trace of color.
He wore a burial robe that was much too loose, clearly because the muscles in his body had already begun to shrink.
The body hadn't been cleaned since they brought it back the night before.
The dark gray burial robe was covered in dust, and now had several bullet holes in it. Dark, damp marks were visible around the wounds.
Since the burial robe was gray, he couldn't tell whether the stains were blood or the corpse's body fat.
Apart from the bullet holes in the body, the most conspicuous wound was on the head. A bullet had entered diagonally through the cheek and into the brain, leaving behind a horrifying black wound.
Then Chen Shouyi noticed a detail: Old Man Wang's fingernails were black, dark as ink.
And his fingers twitched faintly from time to time.
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