Peach Haven Village (29)

Near Third Lady Temple, Ding Shi spotted the village chief who had fled. The old man was now moving as swiftly as if he had wings, no longer using his cane. He kept looking back as he darted through the bamboo grove, finally crouching down amid the densest thicket.

"Hey." Ding Shi greeted the village chief from two meters away.

The village chief sprang up at once, shining his flashlight at him. "Little Ding?"

Ding Shi stepped closer and asked, "What happened?"

The village chief warily looked outside. From here, they could see the village's main road. "White Cloud Daoist has disappeared. Third Lady appeared and killed several people."

"Several?"

"At least three."

"How did they die?"

"How did they die?" The village chief recalled. "One had his neck twisted around to his back, one had his heart dug out, and one..."

Ding Shi cut him off. "I'm asking what they did before they died."

The village chief countered, "Why are you asking that?"

"White Cloud Daoist told me that thing has rules for killing people. I know one of them. If you've discovered anything, Village Chief, we can exchange information."

The village chief was shocked. "Exchange? Little Ding, how could you be this kind of person? I'm so disappointed in you."

"Village Chief, at a time like this, don't waste time."

The village chief glanced at Ding Shi, then began recalling. "I know about Xiao Yang. She needed to use the toilet, and someone scared her. She said she wasn't even afraid of that. Blind Zhao once said, don't speak of people during the day, don't speak of... at night. I think she mentioned that word."

"Third Lady suddenly appeared in the room and flew at Xiao Yang at incredible speed, twisting her neck around to her back. There were more than ten people in the living room at the time. Everyone was scared stiff, and someone even wet himself."

Ding Shi frowned. "You're not saying the person who wet himself died too, are you?"

The village chief nodded. "Third Lady turned around and flew right in front of him. She thrust her hand into his chest and took out his heart."

"The third one kept shouting that, that. He had already escaped Haitang's house when Third Lady smashed through the glass and caught up to him in an instant. I'm done. What's your information?"

"Don't make eye contact with it."

The village chief said sternly, "Little Ding, lying is wrong."

"Hm?"

"When that thing appeared, lots of people saw her, but only three people had something happen to them."

"It already had a clear target when it appeared, so that doesn't count as making eye contact."

The village chief retorted, "You can't even see it, so how would you make eye contact?"

Ding Shi raised two fingers in assurance, then revealed another piece of information to the village chief. "There are zombies in the village. They can detect the breath of living people within fifteen meters. If you want to avoid them, you can only hold your breath."

The village chief was half-convinced. After thinking it over, he said, "Little Ding, let's go home right now. If we hide until daylight, there shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"It should be better during the day." Ding Shi had no confidence and merely brushed him off.

The village chief looked around. "Eh? Where's my daughter-in-law?"

Ding Shi answered honestly, "I don't know."

The village chief grabbed Ding Shi's hand. "Little Ding, please help me find my daughter-in-law."

Side Quest: Find the village chief's daughter-in-law and escort her to the village chief's home.

Ding Shi looked at him. "Village Chief, are you kidding me?"

"I won't make you work for nothing. I'll pay you 20 bucks."

"Two hundred bucks."

"Even if you sold my entire family, we wouldn't be worth that much."

"Then forget it."

The village chief's eyes shifted. "Did you know there are four abandoned graves on Peach Garden Mountain?"

Ding Shi nodded.

"Twenty years ago, a small landslide happened on Peach Garden Mountain and washed out a tomb. The whole village went to see the excitement. Everyone took a lot of gold, silver, and treasures for their children to play with. Those things were later confiscated by the authorities. I handed over most of it, but there was one item I especially liked, so I secretly kept it and buried it in my backyard."

"What was it?"

"A few years ago, White Cloud Daoist came down the mountain to purchase supplies. I knew he was widely knowledgeable, so I asked him to take a look at it."

Ding Shi suddenly felt like he had missed out on a hundred billion. On the first day of the instance, the three aunties had revealed an extremely important piece of information—perhaps the most important information in the entire instance. A large tomb had once been discovered on Peach Garden Mountain, and the villagers had all gone to watch. More or less, everyone had taken something. With so many people in the village, there were bound to be some with low moral standards who had secretly hidden things away.

"What is it?"

"The Demon-Revealing Mirror."

Ding Shi thought for a moment. "What does it do?"

"It lets you see things that the naked eye normally can't see through the mirror. Like that thing."

"I was just wondering how I could make eye contact with it. So it's with you." One shine from the Demon-Revealing Mirror, and Ding Shi would see Ghost Third Lady. Their eyes would meet, and then Ding Shi would become Ding Ri Cun.

The village chief hurriedly said, "No, no. White Cloud Daoist said this thing is a treasure because others don't know you're using it to look at them. The Demon-Revealing Mirror is only palm-sized. When you hold it in your palm, it becomes invisible and colorless. Other people can't see it."

Ding Shi thought for a moment and asked, "This thing doesn't happen to require an incantation too, does it?"

The village chief froze, thinking for a long while. "Perhaps, maybe, probably there is some kind of incantation." He turned his head to look at the sky. The moon had vanished.

Ding Shi looked at the village chief disdainfully. "You and White Cloud Daoist don't know the incantation either, do you?"

The village chief said sincerely, "Little Ding, White Cloud Daoist and I never went to school, so it's normal for us not to know. But you're a college student. You have to believe that you'll discover the incantation sooner or later. Besides, this is the only valuable thing my family has."

"Add another 50 bucks."

"Twenty bucks. I really don't have any more."

Ding Shi was not someone skilled at haggling. After thinking about it, he agreed and asked, "Where was your daughter-in-law the last time you saw her?"

"She was at Haitang's house."

Ding Shi made his way through the darkness to the area near Haitang's house, only to see a figure in red drifting above it. It was Ghost Third Lady. Why could he see Ghost Third Lady? There was only one answer: Ghost Third Lady had appeared to kill someone.

Ghost Third Lady floated down, blocking Haitang and Zhang San. She raised both hands to cup Haitang's cheeks and said, "Why are you so foolish? Why give yourself to someone who hurt you? Not only did you forgive and accept him, you protected him with all your heart. By doing this, are you worthy of the people who have treated you well?"

Ghost Third Lady lifted Haitang's head in her hands and continued speaking to Haitang's face. "You're too foolish. You really are too foolish." Ghost Third Lady and Haitang's head disappeared into the night, leaving behind only a headless body that remained standing.

Zhang San's legs trembled as he collapsed onto the ground. He could not stand at all and could only crawl away. After crawling more than ten meters and putting some distance between himself and Haitang's corpse, Zhang San finally leaned against a wall, gasping for breath.

After recovering some of his senses, Zhang San shakily unzipped his pants and began urinating against the wall. Clearly, the sight just now had scared the urine out of him. Fortunately, he had retained enough reason not to wet his pants.

After Zhang San relieved himself, Third Lady did not appear. This raised a problem. One possibility was that urinating was not Ghost Third Lady's killing rule. Another was that Ghost Third Lady had not seen him urinating.

Based on the usual setting for evil ghosts, unless it was dealing with someone else, it could monitor every movement of any living creature within its territory. So there was a third possibility: Third Lady was killing someone else.

Of the three possibilities, Ding Shi leaned more toward the first. After all, Third Lady was very beautiful. She should not have anything to do with piss, shit, and farts.