Zhaoyou

Inside the He Family Mansion.

A dull thud echoed as a ceramic jar perched on the windowsill fell and shattered into pieces.

"Who's there?!"

The cook carrying a food tray spun around abruptly, ready to scold the intruder, but found no one there. Only a pair of black and white wings fluttered out from the window, soared over the eaves, and landed on the plum tree planted by the courtyard wall.

"It was just a magpie..." The cook shook her head helplessly. Since it wasn't a person who knocked the jar over, there was no one to blame; she could only consider herself unlucky.

She set down the square wooden tray and bent over to clean up the scattered ceramic shards. There were many jars of this style in the mansion, usually used to store pickled goods like bitter bamboo shoots, green beans, and pickled vegetables.

One of the dishes at today's wedding banquet was the traditional Hakka stir-fry of pickled vegetables, bitter bamboo shoots, and cured meat. With dozens of tables to serve, empty jars of all sizes were lined up row after row in the back kitchen, so it was no surprise that a wild cat or bird might knock one over.

Besides, the cook wasn't actually that angry. Having a magpie fly into the courtyard on the day of a wedding banquet was, by all accounts, a good omen.

She swept the shards into a dustpan, straightened her back, and looked at the magpie perched on the plum tree branch. A smile appeared on her face, which was partially obscured by yellow paper: "Joy on the Plum Blossom Twig. Miss Nian Jun is truly blessed. Why didn't I have such a good omen when I got married?"

It was no wonder her own married life was always full of arguments that ended in reconciliation by dawn.

The cook shook her head, turned to dump the shards from the dustpan by the stove, and heard the melodious chirping of a bird and the flapping of wings behind her. She figured the magpie must have flown away by now...

"I don't know where that kid Shun Sheng went. It's been absolute chaos in the back, and he hasn't even come to help..." After clearing the broken pottery, the cook picked up the tray and went off to serve the food, grumbling as she went.

Not long after she left, a staggering figure slowly rose from the dense flower bushes. His body was covered in wounds of all sizes—some were bleeding flesh wounds, others were bruises from impacts. His left shoulder was dislocated, one leg limped as if fractured, and his jawbone had split down the middle, held together only by skin and muscle.

It was the incredibly unlucky Ning Zhe.

Ning Zhe wiped the fresh blood from his face, looked up at the magpie on the plum tree branch, and suddenly smiled.

He curled his lips slightly, and a melodious bird call drifted out from a mouth that had lost several teeth.

Modern city kids rarely knew how to whistle like birds, but fortunately, Ning Zhe wasn't a city boy. He was born and raised in the countryside, a genuine rural resident who had even helped his grandfather herd cattle when he was young.

The bird call lingered, and in the next moment, the battered youngster vanished, replaced by another magpie that flew up to the branch.

When the cook had mistaken the bird-calling, wing-flapping Ning Zhe for a magpie, he truly became one.

Ning Zhe flapped his black and white wings and soared into the sky, looking toward the south. On the deserted street, a group of blood-stained servants in white clothes were beating drums and gongs, playing cheerful suona music as they approached.

Carried in the center of the procession was the Lotus Platform that had once enshrined the Snake God.

"Glad I made it..." Ning Zhe breathed a sigh of relief. He refused to believe he could still be unlucky while flying in the sky.

The next moment, a small, swift black shadow darted from the tip of the plum tree and lunged at him aggressively.

"Snake God, go fuck yourself."

Ning Zhe raised his middle finger. If he had a middle finger right now, that is.

If there were such things as gifted individuals in this world, Ning Zhe was one of them. Even after turning into a bird, he was far more fierce and combative than an ordinary magpie. After briefly familiarizing himself with the bird's vision and physical structure, he didn't hesitate to tilt his body, flap his wings, and engage in a brawl with the attacking magpie.

At the cost of having one eye pecked blind, Ning Zhe successfully killed the crazed magpie. Dripping blood, he landed on the courtyard wall of the He Family Mansion, tilting his head to watch the approaching god-inviting procession with his one good eye.

He wasn't worried about the safety of Feng Yushu. Before she truly understood the truth—that "Ning Zhe had impersonated a ghost to call her using Lin Zhiyuan's phone"—and before her false perception was corrected, the ghost would never kill her. Otherwise, the part of its identity that Ning Zhe had stolen would be lost forever.

Feng Yushu would absolutely not die, unless she learned the truth.

Ning Zhe stood on the wall, silently watching the blood-spattered procession carry the Lotus Platform toward the main gate of the He Manor. Every one of them was injured to some degree; some had ruptured abdomens, others limped, and the leader playing the suona had no head at all.

It seemed this group had been plagued by bad luck on their way here, and the Snake God was no exception. Its decaying wooden body was shattered into pieces, and the two long horns on its head had broken off, but fortunately, the head remained intact, and the almanac was still hanging from its tongue.

On the almanac, the fortune for the day was faintly visible:

[Suitable: Killing]

[Avoid: Traveling, Burial, Funeral, Sacrifices]

With one eye blinded, Ning Zhe's impaired vision couldn't accurately discern the extra characters on the almanac from this distance and angle. His chest cavity thumped, his heart pounding inside:

"It's reached the most critical moment. Whether I can successfully destroy this world depends on right now..."

Ning Zhe flapped his black and white wings and flew under the eaves of the main gate.

As the workers carried the heavy wooden Lotus Platform through the gate, the magpie nimbly hugged the edge, avoiding everyone's line of sight, and landed silently among the shattered corpse chunks of the Snake God.

Ning Zhe tucked his wings and stealthily crawled into the Snake God's wide-open mouth, curling his sleek, small body deep within Its throat. He remained motionless, allowing the procession to carry the dismembered Snake God to the front of the main building of the He Manor.

"The Snake—God—Grandma—has arrived—"

The loud shouts and shrill suona music echoed over the tables of sumptuous banquet dishes. The music of gongs, drums, and strings followed, playing a rhythmic beat as the blood-covered servants in white carried the Snake God's remains into the main hall of the He Manor.

Hiding in the Snake God's throat, Ning Zhe didn't know the specific situation outside, but from the workers' shouts, he gleaned some information that might or might not be useful:

"They call the Snake God 'Grandma'?"

"Is the Snake God a female deity?"

Before Ning Zhe could ponder this information, as the heavy Lotus Platform was gently set down in the center of the main hall, loud shouts erupted from all around the main building. The guests at the tables seemed not to notice that the Snake God before them was shattered to pieces. With glowing faces, they raised their wine glasses toward the main hall, and auspicious blessings poured out like a barrage of gunfire.

"The first cup to the Heavens!"

"The second cup to the Earth!"

"The third cup to our Snake God Grandma, may you live forever!"

As the rice wine went down their throats and the blessings reached his ears, Ning Zhe, curled up in the Snake God's mouth, saw everything go black.

He did not know how many people were offering prayers to the Snake God at this very moment; he only felt a massive, chaotic influx of information, like a dump truck loaded with sand and gravel, slamming its foot on the accelerator and crashing headlong into his skull.

"What the..."

From the torrent of information that was making his head feel like it was splitting apart, Ning Zhe struggled to extract the first piece of useful information:

"Today is the Wedding Banquet of the third young lady of the He family, He Nianjun, and she is to marry... [Zhaoyou]."

Ning Zhe now knew that [Zhaoyou] was the true name of the Snake God.

But wasn't Snake God Grandma female?