Death Taboo

"Are you saying you saw Yunqing in the Ancestral Hall?" Ye Miaozhu immediately grew excited. "When did this happen?!"

Zhang Yangxu thought for a moment. "As soon as I saw it, I hid. I stayed tucked away in the alley across from the Ancestral Hall, keeping watch for a long time. I must have hidden there for about fifteen minutes. Once I was sure the 'Gu Yunqing' inside had disappeared, I called Lady Bai and warned you all to be careful around Gu Yunqing."

Ning Zhe looked up at Feng Yushu. "Auntie, check your call history."

Feng Yushu immediately took out her phone and unlocked it. The call had ended a little after two in the morning.

"That was about fifteen minutes after Gu Yunqing died." Ning Zhe quickly drew a conclusion. "So, while Zhang Yangxu was watching 'Gu Yunqing' leaf through the Almanac in the Ancestral Hall, the real Gu Yunqing died right in front of us."

It was hard not to wonder whether such a coincidence meant there was some connection between the two events.

Ning Zhe thought for a moment. "Let me lay out a timeline first."

1:30–1:45 a.m.: Zhang Yangxu spoke with Fake Xie Sining. By piling on questions, he exposed her, and the "Ghost" disappeared.

1:55–2:00 a.m.: Zhang Yangxu returned to the South Street Ancestral Hall and saw "Gu Yunqing" leafing through the Almanac alone.

1:55–2:00 a.m.: Ning Zhe and the others examined the body by the river and saw Gu Yunqing suddenly die there.

2:00–2:13 a.m.: Zhang Yangxu called and warned Ning Zhe and the others to be careful around Gu Yunqing.

"We know the Gu Yunqing who died in front of us was the real one, so the person in the Ancestral Hall was an impostor." Ning Zhe summed up, "The Ghost who had been impersonating Xie Sining kept going after Director Zhang saw through her and pretended to be Gu Yunqing. She went into the Ancestral Hall to look through the Almanac, and at the same time, the real Gu Yunqing died."

Ning Zhe looked suspiciously at the others. Was there a connection between the two?

Ye Miaozhu pressed her lips together, her jaw clenched. She desperately wanted to know what had caused Gu Yunqing's death. "The Almanac had already been turned to today's date, and today's fortune had already been revealed. Why did the Ghost use Yunqing's identity to look through it again? Was she checking Tomorrow's Fortune?"

"Who knows?" Ning Zhe shrugged, noncommittal.

Just then, Zhang Yangxu spoke up. "Stop pretending, Ning Zhe. You know better than any of us what this means."

At that, the other two turned to look at him.

Ning Zhe smiled. "I'm not sure what you mean, Director Zhang."

What the hell was with his nerves? Zhang Yangxu felt that Ning Zhe was nothing like a high school senior who was a few months shy of turning eighteen. He seemed more like a crafty old hand who had spent over five years getting knocked around in the real world.

Zhang Yangxu looked at Feng Yushu, who was standing behind Ning Zhe without saying a word. "Lady Bai, do you remember when we first arrived at the Ancestral Hall? Xie Sining and I were looking through the Almanac inside. You were planning to sneak in through the side door. And Ning Zhe?"

"When I stood in front of the Snake God statue, the date on the Almanac was the twenty-third day of the fourth lunar month. That meant someone had entered the Ancestral Hall before me and turned it to today's date. Who was it?"

Feng Yushu's eyes widened, surprise spreading across her round, oval face.

Zhang Yangxu pressed on. "Ning Zhe was the first of us to enter the Ancestral Hall, so only you can explain what I'm about to show you."

Ning Zhe showed no sign of panic. He simply smiled as Zhang Yangxu opened the Ancestral Hall's doors and, under everyone's watchful eyes, walked up to the large altar table in front of the Snake God statue and lifted the deep-red cloth covering it.

Beneath the cloth lay the body of a muscular man dressed in a tank top, shorts, and sneakers.

"Lin Zhiyuan?!" Ye Miaozhu cried out.

Zhang Yangxu looked surprised. "You know him?"

Ye Miaozhu nodded. "Lin Zhiyuan is from Ancient Tablet Town, but he works elsewhere. I heard he was a fitness trainer. He came back home for the holidays every year, and often came to the Village Clinic where Yunqing and I were interning to buy medicine, health supplements, and personal care products."

Ye Miaozhu remembered Lin Zhiyuan well. Every time he came to the clinic, he'd try to flirt with her and repeatedly ask to add her on WeChat. He was a frivolous man, nothing like Gu Yunqing, who was gentle, considerate, dependable, and made her feel warm and safe.

But Gu Yunqing was dead.

"I never thought he would get caught up in this too." Ye Miaozhu lowered her head and looked at Lin Zhiyuan's body, her heart heavy with mixed feelings.

Zhang Yangxu then asked, "Could you examine his body?"

"Okay." Ye Miaozhu gave Ning Zhe, who stood not far away, a long look, then crouched down and began her examination.

"Just like Yunqing and Xie Sining, Lin Zhiyuan has no external or internal injuries, and no signs of poisoning. He didn't die from being strangled, either. All three of them died in exactly the same way." She soon reached a conclusion.

Unlike Xie Sining, however, Lin Zhiyuan's body hadn't spent a long time soaking in the cold river. His body had cooled naturally in the air after death, so an experienced doctor could easily estimate when he had died.

"Lin Zhiyuan died fairly recently, about two hours ago—around midnight." Ye Miaozhu finished speaking and looked around. "Does that line up?"

Zhang Yangxu nodded. "It does. Xie Sining and I entered the Ancestral Hall a few minutes after midnight, and Ning Zhe was already here before we arrived."

Feng Yushu, standing behind Ning Zhe, clapped both hands over her mouth in disbelief, her eyes full of terror. She instinctively tried to back away from Ning Zhe, but her legs were too weak with fear to move. She nearly collapsed to the ground.

"Are you saying you suspect I killed Lin Zhiyuan?" Ning Zhe was still smiling, showing no sign of emotion.

Zhang Yangxu shook his head. "I didn't say that."

"Then what are you saying?"

"I just want to ask you one thing—did Lin Zhiyuan die because of the Almanac?" Zhang Yangxu lowered his voice. "You were the first to arrive at the Ancestral Hall and turn the Almanac to today's date. Then came Lin Zhiyuan."

"Maybe Lin Zhiyuan came after you. Maybe he came with you. Maybe he was simply curious, or maybe you even egged him on. Either way, Lin Zhiyuan eventually tried to turn the Almanac to tomorrow, just like the Gu Yunqing who was being impersonated by the Ghost."

And then he died.

"Tell me, is that what happened?" Ye Miaozhu asked.

Ning Zhe began to clap softly, looking impressed. "That's right. Just as you said."

His straightforward confirmation left Zhang Yangxu and Ye Miaozhu speechless. Only Feng Yushu let out a long breath of relief.

Once they knew that "looking at tomorrow's Almanac = death," the Ghost's method of killing made sense.

There were two rules in He Family Village: the Almanac's fortunes affected one's luck, and the Snake God's Death Taboo brought instant death if violated.

The mysterious entity wandering the village and taking on the identities of the dead couldn't kill anyone directly. It was the Snake God who did the killing.