Caller ID

"Writing red characters on white paper, how peculiar." Ning Zhe rested his chin on one hand, watching with keen interest as the bald old man finished writing the couplets with the fluid strokes of a master.

Several villagers who had been waiting nearby stepped forward—four men and one woman. The men worked in pairs to carry the upper and lower couplets forward, while the woman carried the horizontal inscription alone. The five of them walked toward the entrance of the Ancestral Hall, seemingly intending to post the newly written couplets on the door.

Ning Zhe had grown up in the countryside. During major festivals like the Dragon Boat Festival or the Mid-Autumn Festival, respected elders in the village would always take up their brushes to write a few couplets, either to gift them to village households or to post them at the Dragon King Temple by the river. He was no stranger to such scenes.

However, traditional couplets or Spring Festival Couplets were almost universally written with black ink on red paper. This was the first time Ning Zhe had ever seen white paper with red characters like those in He Family Village; it looked rather eerie.

Especially the content of the couplets:

Upper Couplet: [Ba Snake on the altar, pearls and jade testify to the ancestors]

Lower Couplet: [Before the Lotus Hall, descendants offer incense together]

Horizontal Inscription: [Source Flows Long]

"These couplets don't look like anything meant for a festive occasion, and there isn't a single word of praise for the Snake God between the lines. The content of the couplets and the inscription are merely stating a fact." Ning Zhe looked down as the bald old man who had finished writing washed his hands in a copper basin, and he whispered to himself, "The descendants of the He family are offering incense before the Lotus Hall and offering pearls and jade before the Ba Snake altar to testify to their ancestors?"

The Lotus Hall, unsurprisingly, referred to this Ancestral Hall, and the Ba Snake altar... likely referred to that round table where the wooden carving of the Snake God was enshrined.

An inexplicable couplet, ambiguous wording, and no way to tell what they were trying to express. Could it be that this entire village gathered here at the crack of dawn, skipping breakfast, just to curry favor and get close to the Snake God?

Come to think of it, that was actually quite possible.

Beyond that, the anomalies in He Family Village went far beyond this.

Generally speaking, the more backward and isolated a region, the more traditional and conservative its customs, and the stronger its clan consciousness, leading to a greater emphasis on this symbolic construction of "face."

Yet, the Ancestral Hall of He Family Village was quite dilapidated. It looked wretched, long overdue for repairs, with spiderwebs in the corners of the walls and two or three roof tiles missing. It was unclear how long it had been since anyone came to fix it. When it rained hard outside, it rained inside. Ning Zhe felt that if the ancestral tablets of the He family were kept in such an environment alongside the Snake God statue, they would probably grow mold.

However, despite this, the Ancestral Hall was still the most imposing building in this neighborhood. At the very least, it was taller and had two more pillars than the others. It was evident that when the Ancestral Hall was first built, it had been highly valued. The surrounding houses were all a head shorter than the Ancestral Hall, making it the most spacious of them all.

After posting the couplets, the crowd in front of the Ancestral Hall knelt down once more, repeating the sacrificial prayer from earlier in low, somber tones. This large-scale collective ritual continued until the sun climbed into the sky. When the time reached 06:28 in the morning, the gathered crowd finally showed signs of dispersing.

Watching the flow of people gradually scatter, Ning Zhe said nothing, falling into deep thought.

Feng Yushu wisely chose not to disturb him. The calm, devout, and orderly collective ritual from moments ago had dealt her a significant shock and psychological pressure; it was indescribably bizarre.

"Tell me, Aunt, did you notice something wrong?" Ning Zhe suddenly asked.

"Hmm... what do you think is wrong?" Feng Yushu was a bit uncertain. In truth, she felt that there hadn't been a single thing "right" about this ritual from the very beginning.

Ning Zhe raised his hand and pointed at the street, at the backs of the villagers leaving in an orderly fashion: "From the gathering to the dispersal, these people displayed an extraordinary level of coordination. Despite such a large-scale gathering of people, there was no bumping or crowding among the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. Every single person strictly followed a certain order I don't know about. Honestly, even my classmates and I didn't have such strong discipline during high school military training."

And this group of villagers not only had discipline, but their level of personnel coordination and consistency of action was comparable to an army.

"It's almost as if everyone is the same person." Ning Zhe suddenly dropped this abrupt, aimless remark.

"The same person?" Feng Yushu couldn't quite grasp what he was talking about.

Just as she was feeling puzzled, a buzzing vibration suddenly came from her thigh—her phone was ringing.

Feng Yushu hurriedly fished her phone out from her skirt. She looked down, and her already vigilant expression instantly froze on her face.

The caller was: [Lin Zhiyuan]

"How is this possible..." Feng Yushu's lips trembled slightly, and her shoulders hunched up. Her hands shook as if she weren't holding a phone, but the head of an Evil Ghost come to claim her life. She wanted nothing more than to throw this hot potato away immediately.

But Ning Zhe stopped her.

"Calm down." Ning Zhe grabbed Feng Yushu's ice-cold wrist, his fingers swiping across the buzzing, vibrating phone screen in her hand to hang up the call.

"Ning Zhe..." Feng Yushu's panicked emotions dissipated by more than half, as if she had suddenly found a backbone to rely on. She let him take the phone from her hands and asked nervously, "What's going on? Ning Zhe, isn't Lin Zhiyuan already dead? Why would he call me?"

And how would a dead man know her phone number?

"You also know that dead people don't move, so why would you think the person calling you is Lin Zhiyuan himself?" Ning Zhe countered: "Perhaps someone else is using his phone to call you."

Just like Xie Sining, who had already died in the river.

Feng Yushu bit her lip. After a brief moment of panic, she regained her composure. In truth, she understood what Ning Zhe meant to some extent, but the possibility he was implying might be even more terrifying and harder to accept than Lin Zhiyuan coming back to life.

"Is that ghost calling me?" Feng Yushu asked with a trembling voice.

Ning Zhe was noncommittal: "Perhaps. Who knows?"

After the crowd dispersed, Ning Zhe took Feng Yushu down from the roof of the Ancestral Hall and returned to the ground.

Meanwhile, between 6:00 and 7:00 in the morning, in the central area of He Family Village, inside the quaint, grand mansion with the "He Manor" plaque hanging high, a Middle-aged Man in a suit and leather shoes was walking through the deserted flower beds.

A strand of half-wet, half-dry hair fell onto his forehead, making him feel a bit itchy. Zhang Yangxu casually raked the hair—which refused to behave without hair gel—back. He focused his attention, listening to the footsteps outside the perimeter wall; it was the sound of the villagers who had left the He Manor to "worship the god" returning.

The sound of footsteps meant he didn't have much time left.

"Ye Miaozhu is too emotional. Is there really any point in me going to such lengths to find her?" Zhang Yangxu couldn't help but ask himself.

Just as he hesitated, suddenly, the pocket of Zhang Yangxu's coat also began to vibrate.

He pulled out his phone and looked down. The caller ID displayed:

[Gu Yunqing]