Shattered Red Petals Covered the Road

"Be careful of Gu Yunqing?" Feng Yushu cautiously glanced down at the two bodies lying by the river, then looked up and met Ye Miaozhu's eyes. The two stared at each other in bewilderment.

An unnamed fury flared in Ye Miaozhu's chest. "Yunqing died right in front of me. How am I supposed to be careful?"

"Xie Sining died too, and she even called Auntie. You tell me how to be careful." Ning Zhe took Feng Yushu's phone from her and said, "Two minutes. Prove you're Zhang Yangxu and not some other thing. Time's up, and I hang up."

Silence fell on the other end of the line.

Gu Yunqing's body still lay on the sloped riverbank where people did their washing. The Mechanical Watch on his wrist hadn't stopped working after getting wet; it still ticked away, its second hand moving in jerks around the dial as the transparent seconds trickled by.

"One minute," Ning Zhe said.

The other end remained silent. Only the evening breeze rustled their clothes. Ning Zhe glanced at the time. "One minute and twenty seconds."

"Ning Zhe, there are three versions of the relocation contract for the residents on the land where your family's old home stands."

When the time reached one minute and forty-seven seconds, Zhang Yangxu's voice finally came through the speaker.

"Under version A, after moving out, residents can get a home in a designated development with roughly three times the floor area of their original residence. Any leftover area can be made up at a discount."

"Version B offers a large lump-sum cash payment."

"Under version C, residents can choose a home close in size to their original residence from a selection provided by the developer, plus a certain amount of cash compensation."

Ning Zhe hummed. "That's right. I came home to look at the compensation contracts. My grandparents can't read, and I was worried they'd get cheated."

But then he changed tack and said again, "That still doesn't prove you're Zhang Yangxu. How about telling me something I don't know?"

In fact, what Zhang Yangxu had just said was already enough to prove who he was. But Ning Zhe didn't think that was enough. He wanted to test a hunch he had about Zhang Yangxu.

"You won't get a version B contract," Zhang Yangxu said evenly. "The large cash payouts are the hardest of the three options to approve, so we prepared the fewest version B contracts. Before bidding even began, all of those contracts had already been earmarked through various channels. You were never going to get one."

"Wow. You bank robbers haven't even bought your masks and stockings, but you've already divided up the loot." Ning Zhe applauded him. "All right, Director Zhang. Why should I be careful of Gu Yunqing?"

"Let's talk in person."

"Okay."

Zhang Yangxu had chosen the same street by the Ancestral Hall as their meeting place. After witnessing two strange, sudden deaths in a row, both Feng Yushu and Ning Zhe were on edge about the place. Ye Miaozhu, on the other hand, seemed rather unconcerned.

"We'll have to go sooner or later, even if we don't go now," she said. "After today, tomorrow's taboos will change. Are you two going to avoid the Ancestral Hall instead of checking the Almanac?"

She had a point, but Ning Zhe was still surprised by how unconcerned she seemed. Then again, if someone wasn't even afraid of dying, there wasn't much left to fear.

The twenty-third day of the fourth lunar month, 2:33 a.m.

Ning Zhe arrived on South Street in He Family Village. The clan Ancestral Hall, where the Snake God was worshipped, stood there, and Zhang Yangxu was already waiting outside.

Feng Yushu followed Ning Zhe and Ye Miaozhu reluctantly. She had always been timid, and learning that Xie Sining, who had been with Zhang Yangxu, was dead had made her even more frightened. She refused to return to the Ancestral Hall at a time like this.

Ning Zhe didn't force her to come along. He just told her, "Good luck fending for yourself," then set off to meet Zhang Yangxu with Ye Miaozhu.

In the end, her fear of being left alone overcame everything else. Feng Yushu had no choice but to trail after them, keeping a few steps back.

When the three of them reached the Ancestral Hall, Feng Yushu, who had been wound up with nerves, finally let out a sigh of relief. Zhang Yangxu was the only one outside the entrance. No one else was there.

"Hey, where's Xie Sining?" Ning Zhe called, waving.

Zhang Yangxu gave a bitter smile. "You already know."

"I see. Well, congratulations on surviving," Ning Zhe said, catching on at once. "Tell us, how did you survive that thing?"

Zhang Yangxu didn't explain right away. First, they confirmed one another's identities. Then he asked, "First, I need to confirm something. Lady Bai called me earlier and said you saw something by the river... Was it Sining?"

"That's right." Ning Zhe didn't deny it. "We found Xie Sining's body in the river."

Zhang Yangxu let out a breath of relief and closed his eyes. "Just as I thought... All right, let's exchange information. I'll go first."

There by the entrance to the Ancestral Hall, Zhang Yangxu recounted everything that had happened to him and Xie Sining from the moment they left the hall up until now:

After Feng Yushu's warning call to him was cut off midway, Zhang Yangxu had been filled with questions.

At 12:30 a.m., Zhang Yangxu and Xie Sining left the Ancestral Hall and followed the river upstream. The quiet road seemed perfectly normal. They saw only a few handfuls of red paper scraps scattered outside some houses. They were from firecrackers, which had been set off all over He Family Village the day before.

After walking for a while, Xie Sining suddenly looked uncomfortable and told Zhang Yangxu she needed to relieve herself.

Women's bodies were different from men's; once the urge to pee came, it was hard to hold in. Zhang Yangxu didn't press her. He waited by a willow tree beside the river while Xie Sining went to relieve herself. Once she was done, the two continued upstream.

Zhang Yangxu and Xie Sining then headed north, reaching the central part of He Family Village.

Along the way, they noticed that the farther north they went, the more densely the firecracker paper scraps were scattered along both sides of the street. Shattered red petals covered the road, as if someone were being sent off—or perhaps a celebration was taking place.

In the distance, Zhang Yangxu looked across the broad street and saw a grand mansion with an old-fashioned air. Its main gate alone stood more than three meters tall, and its walls were over five meters high. Zhang Yangxu had always been good at estimating buildings' heights, angles, areas, and orientations.

A plaque hung above the mansion's gate, displaying large formal characters in yellow paint on a black background: "He Manor."

With the agreed meeting time—an hour and a half after they had set out—already more than halfway gone, Zhang Yangxu didn't try to enter He Manor and explore further. Instead, he chose to return to the Ancestral Hall first and gather Ning Zhe and the others before deciding what to do.

The two walked back along the street, its sides strewn with bright red paper scraps, chatting now and then.

Then, on the way, Zhang Yangxu received a call from Feng Yushu. In a voice full of terror, she told him to be careful of Xie Sining, saying she and Ning Zhe had seen something by the river... But before she could finish, the call was forcibly cut off.

"After the call ended, I immediately thought of how Sining and I had stopped by the river on our way to He Manor. If Feng Yushu hadn't been joking, then something must have happened to Sining while I was waiting by the river for her to pee."

"Whatever happened by the river caused her death, and something else took over her identity."

Zhang Yangxu finished, "Ning Zhe, there's definitely something strange about that river."

"No, there isn't. Xie Sining may have died by the river for some other reason, but it probably wasn't directly connected to the river itself." Ning Zhe spread his hands. "Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu have already tested that with their lives."