After witnessing the deaths of Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu, Ning Zhe left the clinic and flew out along the town's main road.
According to Zhang Yangxu, he had first entered He Family Village while stopping at a gas station. There was only one official gas station within five kilometers of Ancient Tablet Town, called Sunshine Gas Station.
Ning Zhe soon arrived above Sunshine Gas Station, but he didn't immediately spot the car Zhang Yangxu was likely traveling in. Only a few ordinary family cars and cargo vans were parked there. None seemed fitting for a real estate tycoon like Zhang Yangxu.
"Looks like it'll be a while before Zhang Yangxu gets here." Ning Zhe lowered himself onto a tall loquat tree beside the gas station, hiding among its thick foliage as he waited patiently.
While he waited, Ning Zhe sorted through his thoughts and tried to piece together what had happened in He Family Village:
1. Snake God "Zhaoyou" was He Family Village's native deity, while "Taiyi" was an outside Wandering Ghost;
2. Taiyi roamed He Family Village, stealing the Snake God's identity by leading the villagers to believe the wrong things, which drove the Snake God mad;
3. The symptoms of the Snake God's madness were unknown. Since Ning Zhe had cleared He Family Village before the Snake God went mad, they had never seen what it was like;
4. When Ning Zhe violated the Death Taboo by looking through the Almanac, he had three identities at once: Ning Zhe, Taiyi, and Zhaoyou.
It wasn't hard to guess what would happen next...
"Suppose the Snake God identity I possess is complete enough to fool the rules. Then the Death Taboo I violated by looking through the Almanac would be counted as the Snake God's violation. According to the rules, the Snake God would have to kill itself—that is, Zhaoyou."
"But besides the Snake God Zhaoyou, I also have the identity of the Wandering Ghost Taiyi. And since both of the Snake God's eyes are blind, it could easily mistake the person who violated the Death Taboo for a ghost. So if the Snake God killed Taiyi, that would also be within the rules."
"Or there's another explanation..."
Ning Zhe turned his head and peered through a gap in the loquat leaves at the gas station below.
"The Snake God might have mistaken me for a ghost, too."
Ning Zhe could use the Snake God Zhaoyou's identity to violate the Death Taboo, but whether the Snake God had actually looked through the Almanac was something Zhaoyou knew better than anyone.
Perhaps, to a Snake God driven mad after a ghost stole its identity, it looked as if the Wandering Ghost Taiyi had used its identity to look through the Almanac. Taiyi might have been trying to exploit the Death Taboo and kill the Snake God for good. The Snake God had every reason to believe that... But in truth, the one who had made that reckless move was just a boy named Ning Zhe, accidentally caught up in He Family Village.
So when He Family Village fell apart, who had the rules killed? The Snake God? Or the ghost?
"Maybe the answer is... both."
After all, Ning Zhe wasn't the only one who had stolen the Snake God's identity. Plenty of villagers hadn't been fooled by him, so the Wandering Ghost Taiyi could easily have redirected its own Death Taboo punishment onto the Snake God Zhaoyou.
But that would only reinforce the Snake God's mistaken belief that Taiyi had opened the Almanac.
Ning Zhe lowered his head and studied the black-and-white feathers tinged with blue-green on his body, as well as the two feet gripping the branch.
"The Snake God mistook me, the one who violated the Death Taboo, for a ghost. Then the ghost redirected its Death Taboo punishment onto the Snake God, making the Snake God even more certain that I'm a ghost..."
"If things really happened as I think they did, and the Snake God and the ghost were both killed by the rules being triggered in error, then I'm the only one left in the world with the identity of 'Taiyi.'"
The Snake God and the ghost had both been killed, while whoever cleared He Family Village had gained Taiyi's powers. It did fit the logic of a game where you leveled up by defeating monsters.
No wonder he'd wondered earlier whether the He Family Village Baizhi had dreamed of might have been a plot dungeon from some game.
"Speaking of Baizhi, why did she dream about He Family Village?" Ning Zhe wondered. "I'll go talk to her once Auntie gets back at seven tonight."
That is, if Feng Yushu was still alive by then.
As Ning Zhe sorted through his thoughts, he waited quietly in the loquat tree. About four hours later, at 11:31 a.m., a sleek black luxury Business Car came into view.
Ning Zhe didn't know much about cars, and he didn't recognize the make or model of the luxury Business Car. He just had a feeling it must be expensive. He left the loquat tree's canopy, landed in a landscaped strip closer to the black car, and watched in silence.
Not long after the car pulled up to a pump, the rear door opened. A tall woman in a women's suit and black pencil skirt stepped out and headed straight for the general store.
"Xie Sining." Ning Zhe recognized her at once.
Xie Sining had said that she entered He Family Village after buying cigarettes for Zhang Yangxu at the gas station and pushing open the general store's door to leave. Zhang Yangxu, meanwhile, had waited in the car for her to return. When she didn't, he got out to check on her—and was pulled into He Family Village the instant he opened the car door.
It turned out that at least on this point, neither Zhang Yangxu nor Xie Sining had lied. What happened next unfolded just as they'd described.
From a distance, Ning Zhe saw Xie Sining return with the cigarettes and push open the general store door. Then her body went limp, and she died on the spot at the entrance, terrifying the shop's owner.
"So Xie Sining really died, too. Does that mean Zhang Yangxu is next?"
With that thought, Ning Zhe left the landscaped strip. Rather than take flight, he hopped along the ground on his bird's feet and made his way beneath the luxury Business Car.
A few minutes later, Zhang Yangxu, puzzled that Xie Sining still hadn't returned, opened the rear door on the other side of the car. At that moment, the light in his eyes abruptly went out, and his limp body slumped against the rear seat.
Zhang Yangxu was dead, too.
Ning Zhe seized the chance to jump into the car. He changed back from a magpie into his usual self, sat beside Zhang Yangxu's corpse, and slammed the door shut.
Bang—
"Director Zhang, what's wrong?" Ning Zhe had shut the door so hard and loudly that the driver in the front seat asked in confusion.
The driver looked up at the rearview mirror. "Zhang Yangxu" had somehow moved to the seat Xie Sining had occupied earlier. Now the driver was even more puzzled.
"Sining's taking a while." Zhang Yangxu's slightly raspy voice came from Ning Zhe's throat. "Go out and see what's keeping her."
"Of course, Director Zhang. I'll go right away." The driver got out and headed toward the general store.
Ning Zhe took a deep breath, fished Zhang Yangxu's phone out of his pocket, then moved his body into the trunk from inside the car.
From Zhang Yangxu's memories, Ning Zhe already knew that the Business Car had no interior cameras or recording equipment, and that its windows were one-way glass that couldn't be seen through from outside.
After hiding the body, Ning Zhe casually tucked Zhang Yangxu's phone into the lining of his suit. Then he sat calmly on the leather-wrapped rear seat, waiting for the driver to bring him news of Xie Sining's death.
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