"How could this..." Feng Yushu's legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground. The terrifying scene unfolding before her shattered her will, just as it had when Gu Yunqing died.
Ordinary violent deaths or poisonings wouldn't have frightened her this much. Those things left clues and could be avoided through action. But in this village, the rules were invisible and silent. Unless you broke one yourself or saw someone else break one, they would forever go about their business in some unobservable corner, never revealing themselves.
When the laws are unknowable, their power is immeasurable. Traditional Chinese people have two deepest fears: the unknown, and guilt.
Feng Yushu felt like someone blindfolded, walking a tightrope high above the ground. Every step was hesitant, as if she were treading on thin ice. She couldn't tell what would happen when she put her foot down next. All she could do was rely on her instincts and slowly make her way in what she hoped was the right direction. Every step could mean death.
But at that moment, one person seemed entirely unfazed by the darkness and the unknown around him. His eyes weren't blindfolded. He walked as casually as if strolling through a garden, in complete control of everything.
Ning Zhe came to stand before Feng Yushu, who was still slumped on the ground, and held out his hand.
"Come with me." As he spoke, he raised his hand to block her trembling gaze. "Don't look behind you, or you'll die."
"Okay..." Feng Yushu grabbed Ning Zhe's wrist and struggled to her feet. Together, they left the Ancestral Hall under the watchful gaze of the Snake God behind them.
Feng Yushu noticed that the "Ye Miaozhu" who had appeared in the Ancestral Hall had vanished. The instant she reached out and turned the page of the Almanac again, "Ye Miaozhu's" body had dissipated, like smoke scattered by the wind or a sandcastle crushed by the waves. Not a trace remained.
"That was a ghost," Ning Zhe said. "It stole Ye Miaozhu's identity. What we just saw was it using someone else to kill."
In the Ancestral Hall behind them, a crisp breeze swept through, making the open Almanac rustle. Like a Withered Leaf Butterfly, its pages fluttered in the air, refusing to settle back into place, as if urging them to turn around and catch a glimpse of tomorrow's Heavenly Secrets. Ning Zhe didn't dare look back. He pulled Feng Yushu along and hurried outside.
Only after leaving the Ancestral Hall did Feng Yushu finally calm down. Fixing her eyes on Ning Zhe's profile, she asked in a trembling voice, "Why? What happened? Ye Miaozhu, how could she..."
"Calm down. You're barely making sense," Ning Zhe said. "Surviving in an environment like this takes a lot of pressure and strong nerves. If you can't manage your emotions, you'll just rush around blindly, like a headless fly, giving the ghosts an opportunity."
"So calm down, or you'll get killed, Auntie."
Feng Yushu shook her head repeatedly and tightened her grip on Ning Zhe's wrist. "Even if you say that... how am I supposed to know how to avoid being killed by a ghost? I don't even know how it steals someone's identity."
When you don't know which direction the bullet will come from, every move you make to dodge looks ridiculous to a sniper.
"How does a ghost steal someone's identity? That depends on how you define 'identity' and 'person.'"
Ning Zhe's tone suddenly relaxed. He continued walking as he spoke. "Auntie, what do you think your 'identity' is?"
"Me?" Feng Yushu thought for a moment. "I'm my husband's wife, my daughter's mother, my parents' daughter... Which one do you mean?"
"All of them," Ning Zhe said. "A person is the sum of all their social relationships. In the eyes of everyone who knows you, you're a different person."
"In your husband's eyes, you're a dignified wife. In your daughter's, you're a loving mother. In your parents', you're a daughter who's already married and moved away. In your teachers' eyes, you're the parent of one of their students. To a store clerk, you're a customer with money... and so on. Which of these identities is you? The answer is, all of them."
"Only when all the different versions of you, as perceived by everyone who knows you, overlap, do they form the whole you."
As Ning Zhe spoke, he changed tack. "I don't know if this explanation will make sense to you—but the person the ghost replaced wasn't the whole Xie Sining. It was the Xie Sining Zhang Yangxu knew."
"When the real Xie Sining died by the river, 'the Xie Sining Zhang Yangxu knew' was replaced. This version of Xie Sining was exactly like the legal advisor Zhang Yangxu knew. There were no flaws in her speech or behavior, but she couldn't answer the highly technical legal questions Zhang Yangxu asked her, because her identity was incomplete."
"She was only 'the Xie Sining in Zhang Yangxu's mind,' not the real, complete Xie Sining."
"How could the Xie Sining in Zhang Yangxu's mind know the answer to something Zhang Yangxu himself didn't know?"
"But logically, she should have known... So the moment Zhang Yangxu asked a reasonable question she couldn't answer, the rules governing 'Xie Sining' locked up."
As he spoke, Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu arrived at a house some distance from South Street, where the Ancestral Hall stood. The smoke rising from its roof had already died down, and the people inside were eating breakfast.
Feng Yushu carefully mulled over what Ning Zhe had just said, then heard him continue, "So, Auntie, what do you think the ghost impersonating Xie Sining called you for when you were on your way back to the Ancestral Hall?"
His words left Feng Yushu stunned. They ran through her mind like an electric current, connecting the crucial dots.
After a long hesitation, she ventured, "Was it... trying to steal the identity of 'the Xie Sining Feng Yushu knows'?"
"Correct." Ning Zhe gave his aunt a thumbs-up. "That's the answer to the riddle."
Two rules existed in He Family Village, corresponding to two riddles:
[Riddle 1: Why did the Snake God go mad?]
[Riddle 2: How can a ghost impersonate someone else?]
The answer to the second riddle was now right in front of Feng Yushu.
"Just as the Snake God can only punish you when you break a taboo, a ghost can only steal a particular identity when a specific condition is met. That condition is 'recognition.'"
Ning Zhe stepped forward and leaned his shoulder against the outside wall of the house. "When you see the caller ID on your phone and believe that the ghost calling you is Xie Sining, then that's what it becomes."
"When Zhang Yangxu is hiding beside a willow tree and hears footsteps on fallen leaves, if he believes the ghost walking toward him is Xie Sining, who's just come back from the bathroom, then that's what it becomes."
The more people who knew Xie Sining mistakenly believed that the ghost wearing a human face was Xie Sining, the more complete the Xie Sining it impersonated became.
Once it was complete enough, it could even fool the Snake God.
"That's this ghost's rule."
Before you continue