The Vast Sea and the Open Sky

"Forgive me for this life of unbridled indulgence and love for freedom..."

"And also for the fear that one day I might fall, oh--no--"

The melodious Cantonese song drifted from Ning Zhe, causing his expression to darken instantly. Under Feng Yushu's curious gaze, he pulled out his phone. On the screen, which had been lit up the entire time, the caller ID displayed: Gu Yunqing.

"Not even pretending anymore, are you?" Ning Zhe whispered to himself, "Calling directly using a dead man's phone."

Ning Zhe hung up without hesitation, but it was too late, because Feng Yushu, standing right beside him, had already become "suspicious."

Since Ning Zhe's phone was always on silent mode, incoming calls only vibrated without ringing. The ringtone that had just played did not come from his phone at all, but from someone else's.

Lin Zhiyuan's.

"Ning Zhe, you... have you always had two phones?" Feng Yushu asked, puzzled. Aside from iPhones, modern smartphones rarely supported dual SIMs, and it was very rare for someone to carry two phones at once.

Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't have caught her attention, but in a place like He Family Village, everyone who had survived until now had become exceptionally sensitive.

Just as Ning Zhe was about to say something, the phone in his hand rang again. This time, the caller was: Ye Miaozhu.

He hung up the call without hesitation, but no sooner had he done so than another call came in. This time, it was: Zhang Yangxu.

The empty street felt deathly silent, with only the song by Huang Jiaju playing repeatedly, turning Feng Yushu's face deathly pale: "Ghost... a ghost, why...?"

Why was the ghost constantly changing identities and calling Ning Zhe's phone?

Amidst her fear, Feng Yushu suddenly realized something: "Wait a minute, Ning Zhe... how does the ghost know your phone number?"

The ghost had stolen the identities of the four people—Xie Sining, Zhang Yangxu, Gu Yunqing, and Ye Miaozhu—so it wasn't strange for it to know Ning Zhe's number. However, the phone receiving these calls wasn't the one Ning Zhe had used to exchange numbers with the others, but the other one.

Feng Yushu had never seen Ning Zhe take this phone out. In other words, Ning Zhe had never revealed the number of this second phone to anyone.

So how did the ghost know it?

Or rather... was the phone in Ning Zhe's hand really his own?

Looking at the caller ID trembling on the screen, Ning Zhe's expression turned grim. He silently looked up at Feng Yushu, who stood before him full of confusion.

"The ghost is forcing me to kill you," Ning Zhe said flatly.

"Huh?!" Feng Yushu's already pale face turned even whiter: "What's going on? Wh, why?!"

"Don't ask, don't dig for the truth. I need you to blindly trust me from now on. Maintain this state of knowing nothing, and don't try to figure out what's really happening—otherwise, you will die." Ning Zhe's voice remained calm, showing no signs of panic: "And so will I."

Feng Yushu nodded tremblingly. Ning Zhe looked at her as if he were looking at a dead person.

Ning Zhe grabbed her wrist, set the phone to silent, and pulled Feng Yushu along as he strode forward.

"The ghost is trying to expose me." Ning Zhe's pace was fast, but his thoughts moved even faster.

In less than two minutes, he had figured out what had just happened.

--The ghost was constantly changing identities and calling Lin Zhiyuan's phone to expose Ning Zhe's lies and tear apart his disguise.

Ning Zhe knew clearly that while he appeared to have a slight advantage by stealing part of the Snake God's identity, he was actually in an extremely dangerous situation. It was no exaggeration to say he was dancing on the edge of a blade.

Stealing the Snake God's Offerings and usurping the Snake God's identity sounded simple, but the process was incredibly complex and fragile.

This involved the rules of the ghost wandering through He Family Village.

Its rule is: [When someone mistakes the ghost for someone they know, using that "false perception" as a medium, the ghost can steal that person's identity and all information associated with it.]

When Zhang Yangxu mistook the ghost for Xie Sining, the ghost gained the identity of "the Xie Sining known by Zhang Yangxu," along with all the memories Zhang Yangxu had associated with that identity.

Ning Zhe had used this very rule to steal the Snake God's identity, letting the villagers who saw the Offerings being eaten mistake him for the Snake God. Using the villagers' false perception as a medium, he stole the identity of "the Snake God known by Villager Jia."

But was it really that simple? Could just anyone steal some Offerings and impersonate the Snake God?

Of course not.

"Identity theft using perception as a medium" is the ghost's rule; only the ghost can trigger it.

Just as only the Snake God is qualified to punish those who violate the taboos of the Almanac.

The reason Ning Zhe was able to use this rule to steal the Snake God's identity was that before he impersonated the Snake God, he had first impersonated the ghost.

--When they were on the roof of the Ancestral Hall, Feng Yushu had received a call from: Lin Zhiyuan.

"Knowing that Lin Zhiyuan was already dead, the call from the deceased terrified Feng Yushu. I took the opportunity to use my words to induce the thought that 'the ghost is using Lin Zhiyuan's phone to call me.'"

Ning Zhe strode across the empty street, the phone in his hand still vibrating: "But in reality, Lin Zhiyuan's phone was in my hand, and it was me calling her."

[Feng Yushu mistook Ning Zhe for the ghost.]

By leveraging this false perception, Ning Zhe triggered the ghost's rule and stole a portion of the ghost's identity.

Only after successfully possessing the identity of "the ghost in Feng Yushu's perception" did he begin to eat the Offerings, impersonate the Snake God, and actively trigger the rule to steal the Snake God's identity.

[Since only the ghost can trigger the ghost's rules, why not just impersonate the ghost?]

Ning Zhe's plan was meticulous and ingenious, like a domino array calculated with precision, where one move affected everything.

But while this plan was extremely clever, it was also extremely fragile. Ning Zhe knew that he was only able to trigger the rule to steal the Snake God's identity because he possessed the ghost's identity, and he only possessed the ghost's identity because of Feng Yushu's false perception of the call she received that morning.

Because Feng Yushu mistook Ning Zhe for the ghost, Ning Zhe was able to impersonate the Snake God under the guise of the ghost.

And once Feng Yushu learned the truth, realizing that the "Lin Zhiyuan" who called her that morning wasn't a ghost, but Ning Zhe, then...

"It would be like a skyscraper collapsing the moment its foundation is pulled out. Everything would be over." Ning Zhe gritted his teeth slightly, his grip on Feng Yushu's wrist tightening involuntarily.