"You're asking for death!!"
Watching the head roll into the basin, the old master let out a low growl. When he looked up, his face had turned foul and rotten, covered in pustules and decaying flesh.
But Xu Tong didn't care. He raised his knife and swung.
To his surprise, before he could bring it down, two thick arms clamped around his waist from behind, one on either side.
He glanced back. It was the body of the bald man whose head had been chopped off. Somehow, it could still move without its head.
Seeing this, the old master snatched the pig-killing knife off the table and thrust it at Xu Tong.
Fortunately, Xu Tong dodged to the side, then kicked the old man to the ground.
Before the old man could get up, Li Bo finally realized what was happening. He charged over from the side, his massive body slamming into the old man and sending him flying several meters away.
The old man was unlucky enough to crash straight into the huge iron pot on the stove. The pot was full of boiling water, and with a loud splash, it spilled over his head and face.
"Ah~~"
Strangely enough, after being doused with a pot of boiling water, the old man stopped moving on the spot. When Li Bo took a closer look, the old man's face had melted away like a candle, along with the flesh on his limbs. In its place were bundles of straw bound together with twine.
After seeing what had become of the old man, Xu Tong turned and looked at the bald head in the iron basin. Their eyes met, and Xu Tong's gaze took on a playful glint.
The bald man immediately had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, Xu Tong stamped hard on the rim of the iron basin. The bald man's vision spun wildly, and only then did he realize his head had been sent flying into the air. Through his blurry vision, he saw a black cloth shoe with a white sole kick him squarely in the nose.
"Bang!"
The round head traced an arc through the air, then landed squarely in another huge pot on the stove with a splash.
Unfortunately, this pot wasn't filled with boiling water, but hot oil. A sizzling sound rang out.
Xu Tong felt the weight lift from behind him. The headless corpse that had been clinging tightly to him had fallen straight to the ground and, like the old man, turned into straw.
"Oh, my god!"
Li Bo dropped onto his rear. He'd only just escaped the zombies' jaws, and now he was sharing a meal with ghosts. It was all far too much for him.
"Brother Xu, how did you know they weren't human?"
Hearing Li Bo's question, Xu Tong didn't answer directly. Instead, he asked, "Have you ever seen a village surrounded by barren hills, with not a single field nearby? It's such a tiny place, with no river in front and no spring behind, and there isn't even a well in the village. Do you think that's normal?"
Li Bo scratched his head and thought it over. Before they entered the village, they'd circled it once, and sure enough, they hadn't seen a single field. There wasn't a well, either—or even any livestock.
The details he'd overlooked earlier seemed more and more bizarre the longer he thought about them.
After all, this wasn't a modern world like the one they'd come from. There were no wide roads or convenient transportation, let alone delivery services or takeout.
With no fields and no water, how had these villagers survived until now?
"Then how did you figure out this wasn't a bandit hideout?" Li Bo pressed.
But Xu Tong didn't feel like explaining. He patted the little piglet's belly on the table. The little thing was cute, and now it had stopped squealing. Instead, it kept nuzzling him, snorting softly through its nose.
"Consider yourself lucky. Let's go!"
He untied the piglet and prepared to let it go.
"Brother Xu, what do we do now?"
Li Bo had lost his appetite. This village was too damn creepy. The area beyond the fence was brightly lit; there was no doubt the villagers were suspicious, and they might not even be human. The thought that they'd wandered into a nest of ghosts made him shudder.
In the distance, candlelight blazed, and laughter and singing filled the air.
At their feet lay two "corpses" that had turned into straw figures.
Amid such a bizarre scene, Xu Tong found himself thinking of something else. "Who do you think the bride is?"
"Huh???"
Li Bo scratched his head, wondering if that was what he'd asked.
"You don't know?" Li Bo couldn't figure out what Xu Tong was thinking, so he could only shake his head blankly.
Unexpectedly, Xu Tong turned around and looked at him with deep disappointment. "You've got no soul."
"Me?"
Seeing the disappointment on his face, Li Bo panicked and hurriedly tried to work out what he'd done wrong or said that had upset him.
Seeing Li Bo's bewildered expression only made Xu Tong more disappointed.
In truth, he still preferred the Li Bo who'd been trapped beside the coffin. Back then, Li Bo had had a pair of eyes that seemed ready to devour anyone he laid them on, like a ferocious Tibetan mastiff.
But now, Li Bo was no more than a Chihuahua.
Along with his disappointment came a deep sense of loneliness.
"Get ready. We're setting it on fire!" He walked over to the stove, pulled out two torches, and handed one to Li Bo.
"Setting it on fire??"
Li Bo took the torch, but Xu Tong offered no explanation. When he saw Xu Tong already lighting his own torch, he could only follow suit, like a fool.
The house was made of wood, and even the roof was covered in straw. One toss of a torch was enough to set it ablaze.
"Fire!!!"
Someone at the banquet suddenly shouted. Everyone looked up, and their faces filled with terror.
The villagers who'd been singing and laughing moments ago scattered like headless chickens, scrambling around in search of water to put out the fire.
But no matter how thoroughly they searched the village, they couldn't find a source of water.
Left with no choice but to watch the fire grow, they tried everything they could to put it out—throwing dirt at it, even pushing down the houses. Chaos erupted at once.
While the village was in turmoil, two sneaky figures slipped past the villagers' eyes and made their way to the innermost house.
It was the only earthen house in the village, and even its roof was covered with tiles. Compared to the other wooden huts with their thatched roofs, it was incomparably better.
Two large red double-happiness characters were pasted on the double doors, and a pair of bright red lanterns hung from the lintel.
It looked festive no matter how you looked at it.
Li Bo reached out to push the gate, only to find it locked.
The two of them looked around. The villagers had all rushed off to fight the fire, leaving the area deserted. Li Bo lifted his leg and kicked the gate.
The fat guy might not have had much else going for him, but he was strong. His kick landed with a bang, snapping the gate's lock and sending it flying.
The courtyard was small. There was a main house, side rooms on either side, and a woodshed stocked with neatly chopped firewood.
"Hm?"
Xu Tong's gaze swept over the chicken coop nearby, and he raised an eyebrow, as if he'd spotted something interesting.
"Oink, oink, oink..."
Before the two of them could go inside, a shadow suddenly darted past their feet and into the courtyard. It was the little pig that had nearly been slaughtered earlier.
As soon as the little pig entered the courtyard, it charged straight into the main house, knocking open the door.
"Let's follow it and take a look."
He patted Li Bo on the shoulder and let him go in first. Then he closed the courtyard gate again, but didn't follow Li Bo into the main room. Instead, he searched the two side rooms and kitchen first.
After glancing at the dishes on the kitchen shelves and running his fingers around the stove, Xu Tong found himself even more puzzled.
"Brother Xu!!"
Li Bo called out from the main room. Xu Tong turned and hurried over. As soon as he entered, he saw that the room was covered with double-happiness characters.
The table was set with a fruit platter, sunflower seeds, walnuts, peanuts, red dates, and more.
The room looked just like a newlywed room, exactly as people imagined one should.
The strange thing was that a man and a woman sat on the chairs—two paper dolls, crafted so lifelike that their clothes had been sewn from cotton thread.
They wore matching bright red wedding outfits. A large red flower was pinned to the man's chest, while a red veil covered the woman's head.
At first glance, they looked like two living people sitting there.
"Wang Shaohui?"
The paper dolls were so realistic that Xu Tong recognized one immediately as Wang Shaohui, who'd left earlier. Then the other one...
He pinched one corner of the veil and lifted it slightly. He peered through the gap and, sure enough, it was Zhou Yu.
"Brother Xu, look at this!"
Li Bo pulled him over to the bed and lifted the bed curtains. Zhou Yu and Wang Shaohui were lying there, dressed in outfits identical to those worn by the paper dolls.
He held a finger beneath their noses and found that both were breathing.
But no matter how much Li Bo pinched or hit them, they wouldn't wake up.
"Oink, oink, oink..."
The piglet kept pushing its head against the wardrobe door beside the bed, as if trying to tell them there was something inside. Li Bo went over and opened the wardrobe, and a person immediately fell onto him. Startled, Li Bo hurriedly threw him to the ground.
He took a closer look by the candlelight. Wasn't it Zhang Hao?
"Oink, oink, oink..."
The piglet kept nudging Zhang Hao's forehead. Then it stood on top of him and let out a low, sobbing sound. Tears actually rolled from its eyes, one after another.
"Zhang Hao?" Xu Tong asked tentatively.
The piglet nodded repeatedly.
"Wait—are you Zhang Hao?"
Li Bo sucked in a sharp breath and asked again in disbelief. When he saw Zhang Hao nod once more, Li Bo stiffened, and a cold sweat broke out on his back.
"Whoosh~~~"
Just then, Xu Tong's ears twitched. He heard the courtyard gate being pushed open and frowned. "Hide!"
"Huh?? Hide??"
Li Bo looked around. It wasn't that there was nowhere to hide; most places simply couldn't fit his bulky body. He glanced at Zhang Hao on the floor, cursed under his breath, then picked him up and hid inside the wardrobe with the piglet.
Xu Tong didn't have Li Bo's problem. He'd spent years locked up in a mental hospital and was malnourished, so he was rather thin. He slipped into the gap behind the bed, and with the bed curtains blocking the view, no one would notice him.
They'd barely hidden when the door creaked open.
A cold draft swept into the room, blowing out the candles. Then two crooked shadows stretched in from outside...
Before you continue