Equality

The sharp sound of the suona pierced through the eardrums like a dagger, slicing into the quiet air of the alleyway. Feng Yushu hid in the corner between two buildings, peeking her head out slightly.

In the empty street, two rows of attendants dressed in white clothes walked with disjointed steps, parading through the town. The two leading the group blew their horns, while the two at the rear were adorned with white paper flowers, scattering fine red paper petals onto both sides of the road as they walked.

In the middle of the procession, four attendants each carried one corner of a pedestal. The figure standing in a flamboyant pose upon the Lotus Platform was, unmistakably, the Snake God.

Lord He's servants had invited the Snake God out from the Ancestral Hall.

This bizarre scene made the already tense Feng Yushu nearly cry out in alarm, but remembering Ning Zhe's instructions when they parted, she forced herself to calm down. She covered her ears with both hands, buried her face against her chest, and curled her body into a ball, remaining motionless.

"Do not listen to, do not believe, and do not accept anything anyone says or does..."

"Do not listen to, do not believe, and do not accept anything anyone says or does..."

"Do not listen to, do not believe, and do not accept anything anyone says or does..."

Feng Yushu muttered to herself in her heart, not daring to move a muscle.

The shrill sound of the suona grew closer. The procession inviting the god had traveled all the way from the direction of the Ancestral Hall and was now nearing the place where Feng Yushu was hiding. The feeling of it being right at her doorstep, combined with the unease of being alone, made her increasingly terrified.

But suddenly, for some reason, the suona music stopped.

"Eh... eh?" Feng Yushu lifted her head, her tear-stained eyes quietly peeking toward the street. The procession carrying the Snake God statue had stopped for some unknown reason.

A pool of bright red blood smeared the uneven Stone Slab. It turned out that one of the attendants at the front of the line holding a suona had tripped and fallen, his head bloodied.

"So... so that's how it is..." The doubt in Feng Yushu's heart was instantly resolved. "They have also broken the taboos. Offering sacrifices to the Snake God is still a sacrifice, and now that they don't know where they are taking the Snake God, their luck is terrible, causing them to fall even while walking on the road..."

Before this thought could last long, Feng Yushu shook her head violently to drive away the unnecessary thinking. She forced herself to stop thinking about what was happening on the street and, following Ning Zhe's instructions, lowered her head again, acting like an ostrich that heard nothing, cared for nothing, and interfered with nothing.

A moment later, the sound of the suona started up again.

The lead servant, whose head was covered in blood, seemed not to care at all about the blood still dripping from his forehead. He and his companions happily blew their suonas once more, parading the Snake God through the streets.

The sound of the suona gradually faded into the distance, and everything seemed to return to peace. That familiar fear made Feng Yushu feel a sense of relief.

But suddenly, a loud crash shattered this hard-won peace.

Boom—the sound of something shattering startled Feng Yushu so much that she shuddered violently and fell to the ground. She struggled to prop herself up and lifted her head, only to see that the procession carrying the Snake God had stopped again for some reason.

Were they having bad luck again? Feng Yushu thought subconsciously.

This time, before she could even dismiss the thought, the thought itself was negated, because this time, it wasn't just the attendants carrying the god who were having bad luck.

On the street, bright red blood splattered everywhere. A tall statue had toppled to the ground, crushing the four attendants who had been carrying the corners of the pedestal beneath it. The immense weight directly ruptured their abdominal cavities, causing pale intestines and organs to burst out and form a sticky mess on the ground.

Looking at the side, the fallen Snake God statue had also shattered into pieces.

Looking at the broken wooden carving of the Snake God, an uncontrollable shock surged into Feng Yushu's heart.

"The Snake God is also having bad luck..."

Had the Snake God also broken a taboo?

Thinking of this, Feng Yushu hurriedly lowered her head and bit her own fair wrist. The sharp pain drove away the excess thoughts, and she quickly curled her body up again, trying her best to follow Ning Zhe's instructions to not care about or think about anything.

Perhaps due to luck, her timing as an ostrich burying her head in the sand was perfect. Feng Yushu, squatting on the ground with her arms wrapped around her knees, did not see the attendants whose intestines had been crushed by the statue's pedestal stand up as if nothing had happened. The procession picked up the shattered pieces of the Snake God statue, placed them back onto the Lotus Platform on the pedestal, and the out-of-tune suona music began to play once more.

Carrying the corpse chunks of the Snake God, they continued toward the He Family Mansion.

With a trail of red flowers and blood, the procession stumbled along. They still fell frequently, and the flesh on their bodies was rubbed thinner and thinner by the sharp edges of the stone slabs. Sometimes, unable to dodge in time, an attendant would be struck squarely by a plaque falling from the street side.

The heavy plaque severed his neck right in the middle, and his round head, dragging blood vessels and lymphatic tissue, rolled to the Corner of the Wall. Yet, the owner of this head continued to shake it while blowing the suona as he walked forward, though he could no longer produce any sound.

When the death-knell sound of the suona finally faded away, Feng Yushu tremblingly hunched her shoulders and lifted her head, her round Oval Face covered in dried tear tracks.

"Is it over..." she thought cautiously.

After confirming that the eerie procession had truly gone far away, Feng Yushu dared to relax her body slightly and lean against the wall. With a blank mind, she thought of nothing, quietly waiting for Ning Zhe to end all of this.

Feng Yushu lifted her head, gazing up at the clear, azure sky.

But suddenly, a man's figure blocked her view of the sky: "Madam, why didn't you answer the phone?"

Feng Yushu screamed and fell to the ground, her limp body unable to muster any strength. She knew that figure, which had appeared beside her without a sound, all too well.

"Zhang Yangxu..." An unspeakable terror climbed onto Feng Yushu's cheeks, soaking her heart in a pool of viscous swamp—resentment, struggle, and an inability to break free.

Zhang Yangxu took a step forward, his expression earnest: "Madam, I know you suspect me, so I don't expect you to believe me immediately. What I want to say is, Ning Zhe may have warned you about some things, but what he said isn't necessarily entirely correct."

"No, no, no... I won't listen to you, I won't listen to you, I absolutely won't believe you... I..." Feng Yushu's lips trembled. She shook her head while struggling to crawl away. Behind her, Zhang Yangxu was stepping closer with every move.

He seemed very patient, not in a hurry at all. Afraid of scaring her, Zhang Yangxu kept speaking with a gentle expression and sincere words: "I don't ask you to believe me, Madam. I just want you to listen to what I have to say. You don't need to believe it, just listen, okay?"

"No... no... don't come over..." Feng Yushu's mind was on the verge of collapse. Her eyes were unfocused, and her shoulders trembled uncontrollably: "I will never believe you, I absolutely will not believe you..."

"You don't need to believe me, Madam. You just need to finish listening to what I have to say." Zhang Yangxu slowed his voice: "This morning, when you and Ning Zhe were at the Ancestral Hall, you—"

Before he could finish, a clattering sound interrupted Zhang Yangxu's narrative. It was several roof tiles that had slipped and fallen, landing squarely on Zhang Yangxu's head.

Even more coincidentally, when the tiles fell on his head, they landed with their sharp corners pointing downward, just like a spinning playing card inserting itself into a foam board. The sharp tile pierced directly into Zhang Yangxu's undefended back of the head, puncturing his Brainstem.

He was dead.

Zhang Yangxu, killed by the falling tile, collapsed right in front of the near-collapsed Feng Yushu. But the dead man left no corpse behind; the blurry human shape turned into wisps of illusory smoke, allowing Feng Yushu to recognize with absolute clarity what it was.

"Ghost..." Feng Yushu's shoulders were still trembling, but the fear in her heart had subsided by more than half. "It's Ning Zhe, it must be him. Ning Zhe used some method to make even a ghost have bad luck..."

Although Ning Zhe was not by her side, he was still interfering with the ghost's actions through some inexplicable means. He was still protecting her. This long-lost feeling of peace allowed Feng Yushu's mind to gradually stabilize, like a drowning person who had finally grasped a life-saving straw.

The rules punished all existences that violated them equally, whether they were human, ghost, or god.