Peach Haven Village (14)

Sun Qi had been unconscious, but the jostling woke her. She found herself slung over Ding Shi's shoulder. Every step Ding Shi took drove his shoulder into her stomach, making her feel unbearably sick. "Wang Wu, just let me die."

Ding Shi's gaze was resolute. "No abandoning, no giving up."

Sun Qi asked weakly, "Can you change positions? I'm not asking for a princess carry. Carrying me on your back would do."

"We're almost there." During the day, the village chief barked orders and had him running errands; at night, he had to outwit Ghost Granny, all while moonlighting as a rescuer. Thinking about the yin virtue still waiting for him from Ghost Granny, Ding Shi gave a perfunctory reply. Though he did not know what yin virtue was for or how to obtain it, anything that could be claimed should naturally be claimed.

With that thought, Ding Shi walked even faster, making Sun Qi feel worse. She kept dry-heaving as she said, "Wang Wu, you're a good person."

Ding Shi was briefly bewildered. Was he? Probably! After all, he was saving someone, even if it was the village chief's assignment.

Sun Qi asked, "How much time do I have left?"

Ding Shi glanced at the system countdown. Seven minutes remained. "Two minutes." If he told her the truth, Sun Qi would know there was plenty of time, and she might make other requests.

Sun Qi took a deep breath. "I can hold on."

So Ding Shi started running.

As an urban beauty, Sun Qi kept strict control over her weight. Her roughly hundred-jin weight was nothing to Ding Shi, especially since he was using her lower abdomen as a buffer. In less than five minutes, Ding Shi arrived at Doctor Qian's home.

After knocking for thirty seconds, he laid Sun Qi on the bed as Doctor Qian instructed. Doctor Qian said, "Little Ding, help me boil a pot of hot water."

Ding Shi checked the system interface. There was no new mission. Sure enough, he was only the village chief's assistant, not the village's assistant. So he said, "Doctor Qian, as long as evil still exists in this village, I cannot stop to boil water." With that, he abandoned Doctor Qian, who was working on reading comprehension, and ran off.

He hurried to Ghost Granny's house and fell once on the way. By the time Ding Shi finally arrived, he happened to see Ghost Granny turn into specks of starlight and disappear, several of which flew into Blind Zhao's body.

Is this merit? Ding Shi strode up to Blind Zhao and stared at him. Explain this. Why didn't you wait for me?

Blind Zhao caught on quickly and took out a Brass Bell. "This is a family heirloom given to my grandfather by my master. There are only two of them. I'm giving you one now."

Since the outcome could no longer be changed, Ding Shi could only accept the bell calmly. He asked, "Uncle Zhao, can you tell me what yin virtue is for? How do you obtain it?"

Blind Zhao studied Ding Shi for a moment, signaling for them to talk as they walked. "Helping Grandma Wang fulfill the obsession she held in life and sending her soul back to the underworld—that is yin virtue. For ordinary people, yin virtue has only one use: it determines whether you can be reborn into a good life after death."

Ding Shi tried to understand. Did yin virtue function to lessen the punishment of death?

As he walked Blind Zhao home, Blind Zhao, feeling guilty, told him much ghost lore that was not in the Treatise on Ghosts. Folklore about the three fires of the human body, how to fight ghosts and monsters, and more. As they neared Blind Zhao's home, the topic shifted from Third Lady to zombies. Blind Zhao made it very clear that zombies had almost nothing to do with that thing.

Put simply, zombies were powerful corpses. But because they lacked souls, or had incomplete souls, they basically could not think. Their attacks on livestock and people, their tearing and biting of living things, were animalistic instincts. To the living, zombies were even more terrifying than ghosts. Zombies also had ranks, but Blind Zhao did not elaborate, because even if Ding Shi encountered the weakest, first-rank ordinary zombie, he would have no chance of winning.

Zombies had one characteristic, or rather, one weakness. Like female mosquitoes, they found their prey through the prey's breathing.

Why did Ding Shi ask about Third Lady? He believed the claim that Third Lady's coffin contained a great treasure was fairly credible. In addition, Blind Zhao had sworn that taking the treasure would have no consequences. Thus, Ding Shi decided to scout out Third Lady Temple tomorrow during the day. If everything went smoothly, he would make his move tomorrow night.

The only thing Ding Shi worried about was that Zhang San, who lived next door to Third Lady Temple, might already have obtained the treasure.

After seeing Blind Zhao home, Ding Shi turned the talisman paper into a card on his way back to the village chief's home. The system classified the talisman paper card as miscellaneous junk, just like the stone card. Presumably, that was because the paper only contained the method for drawing a talisman and did not possess a talisman's power.

Then there was the Brass Bell card. The system classified it as a tool. Its only function was attracting ghosts. As long as the bell was shaken, ghosts within the area would come toward the sound. The bell's maximum audible radius was fifteen meters, though it would be affected by noise, terrain, and other factors. In other words, this damn thing still obeyed the laws of physics.

On the fourth day, at eight in the morning, the village chief shook awake the still-sleeping Ding Shi. Ding Shi looked at him with dark circles under his eyes. Are you trying to work me to death?

The village chief said kindly, "Little Ding, represent the village committee at Grandma Wang's house, read the eulogy, and see Grandma Wang off."

Ding Shi did not answer right away. He sat up. "Village chief, did something happen at the elementary school?"

The village chief replied, "Blind Zhao already told me. Pitiful, truly pitiful. That child was so young, yet she went with her grandmother. The authorities took the body away this morning."

Ding Shi asked, "What about the volunteer?"

The village chief replied, "She's still receiving an IV at Doctor Qian's. She looks fine. Here's the eulogy." He placed a speech draft on the bedside table.

Ding Shi asked again, "Aren't we supposed to keep the body for three days?"

The village chief answered patiently, "Blind Zhao said Grandma Wang's situation is special and cannot be handled according to the old rules. He's still performing rites now. The coffin will be lifted at nine sharp."

Ding Shi yawned and nodded. "Got it."

Half an hour later, Ding Shi dragged his exhausted body to Grandma Wang's home. Seeing Blind Zhao, dressed in a cassock and Daoist cap, bouncing energetically before the coffin, he was briefly bewildered. Is this guy really that full of energy?

Half-asleep, Ding Shi read the eulogy according to procedure. Blind Zhao announced that the coffin was to be nailed shut and lifted. A junior member of the Wang Clan carried the portrait at the front. Members of the Wang Clan scattered spirit money along the way, and the coffin, borne by four men, set off. Yawning, Ding Shi followed the Wang Clan on foot for one kilometer to Cemetery Mountain.

Though the mountain was tall, the Wang Clan cemetery was not far up. They lowered the coffin, burned spirit money, set off firecrackers, covered it with earth, and that was that.

It was already eleven-thirty in the morning when he returned to the village with the procession. The mountain pass lay to the south, only two hundred meters from Third Lady Temple. Ding Shi slipped away from the group, went to a patch of reeds, and unzipped his pants to relieve himself. Someone in the group glanced back but did not think much of it, continuing onward while chatting.

Ding Shi used the excuse of taking a leak to observe the surrounding area. After all, if he was going to steal something, he had to avoid people. He followed the small path uphill, safely passing Haitang and Zhang San's temporary residence, then saw many villagers outside Third Lady Temple.

For a moment, Ding Shi felt like a clown. He could have come to scout the place openly and honestly, so why had he been sneaking around like a thief?

There were matters to deal with over the next five days, so only two updates a day could be maintained.