Avoiding Misfortune

Thud—

The figure, standing ramrod straight, took another step toward him. A ghost was closing in behind Ning Zhe, while a hazy crimson figure stood before him. It was He Nianjun, the same woman who had appeared in the main hall of He Manor.

Ning Zhe instinctively turned around, trying to leave in another direction. But as he turned, the girl in the Wedding Dress, with red cloth wrapped around her waist, "slid" into the corresponding direction too, standing squarely in front of him.

"What's going on..." Ning Zhe furrowed his brow slightly and turned again, but He Nianjun was still standing in front of him.

After several tries, Ning Zhe realized that no matter where he turned his gaze, He Nianjun remained right in front of him. It was like a smudge on a camera lens: wherever the camera pointed, a patch of shadow would blur the picture.

He Nianjun was that persistent, fiery-red shadow.

She doesn't exist in this world. She exists in my eyes? Ning Zhe quickly understood what was happening.

Thud—

The ghost behind him took another step closer. Now that he understood the situation, Ning Zhe didn't hesitate. He ran forward with his Parasol in hand. He had already switched off the streetlights along that path when he came through.

But he hadn't gone far when something terrifying happened.

As he moved forward, the Red-clothed figure in his field of vision began to grow larger, as if he were walking toward her.

His approach seemed to trigger some kind of special mechanism. The Red-clothed figure, which had been standing still, began to move too, walking toward him.

The girl's figure was slender and graceful, her robe swaying with its Gold-threaded Edging. There was no wind inside the sealed Bishuiwan Manor, yet the strands of hair beside her ears fluttered as if caught in a breeze. Ning Zhe didn't dare take another step. He stared at He Nianjun as she drew closer, while the ghost behind him closed in as well.

Suddenly, he noticed something.

Standing with his back to the streetlight, Ning Zhe saw a huge shadow cast across the lawn. It was him, holding the Parasol, like a black mushroom. The canopy was the Parasol in his hand, and two legs extended beneath it—his own.

Could it be?

A flash of insight crossed Ning Zhe's mind. He understood. Without hesitation, he crouched down, still holding the Parasol.

The streetlight cast its gentle glow, projecting a round shadow onto the lawn. It looked much the same, but one thing had changed: the ghost's footsteps stopped.

Thud—

Once again, the sound of both feet landing. But this time, after they came down, the sound never came again.

On the first floor of the Castle, in the Monitoring Room, Feng Yushu covered her mouth with both hands, staring in disbelief at the scene before her.

The surveillance camera showed a silent image. Beneath the streetlight outside the Castle stood two motionless figures. Ning Zhe crouched on the ground, his body completely hidden beneath the broad Parasol. On the other side of the frame, a figure stood ramrod straight, so still it seemed lifeless. A terrified scream from before death remained on its face, its twisted features fixed on the lace-trimmed canopy of the Parasol.

Seconds ticked by. The ghost stood there, motionless.

"It's lost its target." Ning Zhe's voice came through the earpiece. "Tell me where the breaker is. Quickly."

Feng Yushu snapped out of her daze and hurriedly answered, "From where you are, follow the wall. Stop when you reach the second or third Pixiu statue. Find the Triangular Area between two sections of the outer wall. The Indoor Power Grid's breaker is inside."

"Okay." Ning Zhe hissed as he moved carefully, still crouching with his body completely hidden beneath the canopy. He reached the lamppost and switched off the streetlight.

In an instant, darkness fell all around them.

They were safe. Ning Zhe slowly lowered the Parasol a little and looked back at the ghost standing not far away. It was still standing straight in the same spot and hadn't followed him. A few minutes later, the corpse possessed by the ghost finally collapsed to the ground as if its support had vanished.

"The ghost's gone," Ning Zhe said softly. "Auntie, be careful too. It might be coming for you."

At once, Feng Yushu looked down at her feet and carefully adjusted her stance and the angle of her Parasol, making sure its canopy covered her entire shadow.

"This ghost can't see normally. It can't see living people; it can only see the shadows they cast in the light. So once we hide our bodies completely in the dark, it's as good as blind." As he spoke, Ning Zhe recalled what had happened at the beginning.

When the ghost appeared at the Manor, every light in the entire estate had turned on at the same time.

"That wasn't a coincidence..." Ning Zhe had figured it out. "Someone is deliberately creating an environment where it can kill. The ghost itself might even have been brought in on purpose."

Who had brought a ghost into the Manor? And why?

Ning Zhe looked up at the graceful crimson figure standing before him, and found his answer.

He Nianjun, dressed in her Wedding Dress, stood quietly before Ning Zhe. Without a word, she opened the front of her robe and drew a timeworn, simple but completely undamaged Almanac from her breast with slender, pale fingers.

On the old Almanac, elegant handwriting seemed to have been penned by her own hand:

[The twenty-second day of the fourth lunar month]

[Suitable: marriage, travel, moving, groundbreaking, burial, worship]

[Unsuitable: taking office, exterminating insects, meeting the living]

Ning Zhe opened his phone to check the time:

June 6, 2018, the twenty-third day of the fourth lunar month, 12:09 a.m.

A new day had begun. It was time to turn the page of the Almanac.

Looking at He Nianjun's small, paper-pale face and her delicate wrists, so slender they seemed they might snap, Ning Zhe finally remembered something he had kept deliberately ignoring:

After the Wandering Ghost "Taiyi" had been killed, he had become the only person in the world with the identity of "Taiyi."

By the same logic, who was the only person in the world with the identity of "Zhaoyou" after the Snake God "Zhaoyou" had been killed?

The answer was still himself.

In the Monitoring Room, Feng Yushu looked at the image on the screen in confusion. In the darkness, she could just make out a standing figure. Ning Zhe stood there quietly, reaching out as if to touch something, but there was nothing in front of him.

"Ning Zhe, what are you doing?" Feng Yushu asked cautiously.

"Nothing," Ning Zhe replied casually. "I'm going to switch off the breaker now. Be careful, too. Try not to use lighters or matches, don't drink alcohol, and don't break any trees or flowers in the Manor."

"Uh... but why?" Feng Yushu asked, puzzled and curious.

"Just do as I say." Ning Zhe's tone remained calm. "Trust me, okay?"

Feng Yushu fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "All right. I trust you."

She decided to believe everything Ning Zhe said without question, just as she had in He Family Village.

After warning Feng Yushu, Ning Zhe let out a sigh of relief. He gathered his thoughts and looked once more at He Nianjun.

Her tender, pale hands, like fresh spring onions, held the old, yellowed Almanac. One slender finger rested on the page she had just turned. The page below listed the day's auspicious and inauspicious activities:

[The twenty-third day of the fourth lunar month]

[Suitable: marriage, construction, planting, buying clothes, receiving wealth]

[Unsuitable: drinking, lighting fires, felling trees, building dikes, building houses]