A chance to come clean!

"": 200,

"": "",

"": ""Aren't you two going to bed?" Zhong Zhicheng's gaze swept over Luo Feng and Gu Ya.

"Ya, go get some sleep. I'll stay here with the village chief," Luo Feng said gravely.

"No... I'll stay here too. I can't sleep anyway. I'll just keep thinking about Xiao Shan. This rain is making me so restless," Gu Ya answered softly.

"All right." Luo Feng did not press Gu Ya.

"You two have lived in the village for quite a few years now, haven't you?" Zhong Zhicheng changed the subject.

"Almost ten years." Luo Feng sighed faintly.

"Ten years. That makes you old hands here." Zhong Zhicheng nodded.

Luo Feng grunted in agreement.

"I'm giving you a chance to come clean." Zhong Zhicheng's expression remained calm, but his tone brooked no argument.

"A chance? I don't understand." Luo Feng's eyes filled with confusion.

Gu Ya looked equally bewildered. She was not as good at controlling her emotions as Luo Feng, and her fingers tightened slightly around the hem of her clothes, though the gesture did not look out of place.

"I arrived in the village later than you two, but I've experienced things you haven't. When I discovered that lamp oil could ward off evil spirits, countless spirits surrounded me day and night. They never made the oil burn any faster," Zhong Zhicheng said.

Luo Feng's eyelid twitched. "You mean I'm lying? Then why didn't you expose me on the first day? Why did you still send Xiao Shan to keep watch?"

"Because I wanted to find out whether the problem lay with you two or with Luo Shan. After all, the nail on his left little finger was missing, and all three of you happened to be in the Morgue." Zhong Zhicheng's expression did not change as he continued, "As it turns out, Luo Shan is fine. He's even a little more perceptive than the average villager. He may have a bad reputation around the village, but in the finer points of his personality, he takes after you."

"He's fine, yet the lamp oil is still disappearing. That means you're the problem, Luo Feng!"

"Why are you hiding lamp oil? You know how important it is. This is a resource we have to use with utmost care." Zhong Zhicheng's gaze grew deeper and sharper, like a knife poised to cut open Luo Feng's heart.

"I haven't hidden any lamp oil." Luo Feng shook his head and answered firmly, "The oil really is burning faster. Chief, you should consider whether something is wrong with the lamp itself instead of suspecting us."

"There is only one situation in which lamp oil burns faster, and that situation hasn't arisen in the Luo Family," Zhong Zhicheng answered decisively.

A creak rang out, like someone stepping on a floorboard, or a rat scurrying across it.

"There's a rat... It might be getting into the rice jar. I'll go check." Fighting down her panic, Gu Ya started toward the kitchen.

Zhong Zhicheng kept staring at Luo Feng's face. The two remained locked in a standoff.

The oil lamp sputtered and crackled. Its flame flickered, and both men's shadows began to shake violently.

"Hm?" Zhong Zhicheng abruptly raised his head and stared at the lamp overhead.

The lamp burned with a rushing hiss. Its flame grew intensely bright, even giving off bluish smoke, and the rim of the lamp looked as though it was about to glow red.

Luo Feng also noticed something was wrong. "Ya, come back!" he growled.

Gu Ya was halfway there, still in the middle of the courtyard.

Luo Feng strode over to Gu Ya, grabbed her shoulder, and hurried back to the main room!

By the time Gu Ya reacted, he had already dragged her through the doorway.

Zhong Zhicheng strode forward and slammed the main room's door shut.

Gu Ya's face went white with fear. She stood rooted to the spot, too dazed to do anything else.

The mingled sputtering and crackling gradually subsided.

The fiercely burning lamp settled down as well, its flame returning to normal.

"There are evil spirits in your house!" Zhong Zhicheng whipped his head around and fixed Luo Feng with a fierce stare. "You were told to keep the doors and windows shut. You must have overlooked something. You didn't do as you were told!"

"Impossible!" Luo Feng answered flatly. "I nailed every window shut. You couldn't even get a finger through. They all have locking handles or bolts, and I check them every three days."

"Three days? Why not every day?" Zhong Zhicheng demanded.

"Chief, could you be mistaken...? How could there be evil spirits in our house...? That's impossible. I didn't feel anything... Luo Feng suddenly dragged me inside, and then you suddenly shut the door. Was it that gust of wind blowing the lamp just now? Or the rat making the floorboards creak?"

"We can't let the rice jar get dirty, or the rice won't be fit to eat. The village is short on doctors and medicine. We can't waste resources. I have to go check."

Gu Ya felt Zhong Zhicheng was making rather too much of it.

She knew perfectly well how safe their home was.

It had been ten years. Apart from Xiao Shan's inexplicable incident outside the door four days ago, nothing had ever happened in all that time.

How could there possibly be evil spirits in their house?

Just then, squeaking rang out.

It came thick and fast, brazenly loud, accompanied by faint scurrying sounds. Then shrill squeals rose again, as though rats were fighting over something!

"I really have to go check." Gu Ya grew anxious at once.

Zhong Zhicheng stood in front of the door, making no move to step aside. He stared hard at the lamp. Covered in green patina, it burned more steadily now.

Then Zhong Zhicheng opened the door a tiny crack.

With a rushing hiss, the flame shot a foot into the air.

He slammed the door tightly shut again with a dull thud.

The squealing grew louder and even more piercing.

This time, even Gu Ya could tell something was wrong. She covered her mouth, her eyes full of horror.

There had been no wind at that instant, yet the lamp had flared fiercely!

"This is the only situation that makes lamp oil burn faster. Evil spirits have entered your house!"

"Thank goodness... this room has a door. Otherwise, the consequences would be unthinkable!" Zhong Zhicheng hooked a foot around the wooden table. Luo Feng's scalp was tingling too, and he pushed the table over. Together, they braced it firmly against the main room's door.

"The kitchen?" Beads of sweat formed on Luo Feng's forehead.

At that very moment, inside the kitchen.

A dense crowd of people huddled together, as though waiting for someone to open the door.

Several of them each held a rat by its tail. They gathered around a rice jar, letting the rats scramble across its lid. Every so often, someone jabbed a fingernail into a rat, piercing a bloody hole. As blood trickled out, the rats squealed even louder.

Every pair of eyes brimmed with anticipation.

As though a lavish feast were about to begin!

But as time ticked by...

No one came to open the kitchen door.

At last, one of them pushed the door open, and they all left the kitchen and headed toward the main room.

Inside the main room, despite having barricaded the door with the table, Zhong Zhicheng and Luo Feng remained close to it.

Both men saw the evil spirits pouring out of the kitchen.

"The problem started two nights ago, when the lamp oil began burning faster. Today is the third day." Zhong Zhicheng's eyelids twitched wildly. Rather than continuing his questioning, he went over to the lamp, took out a bottle, and filled it with oil.

Luo Feng said nothing. A chill rose from the soles of his feet.

In fact, two nights ago, after Luo Shan had pried open the wooden slats over the window, Luo Feng had carefully inspected the slats on every window in the house. There could not possibly have been a problem.

He did not know how the lamp oil had dwindled that night, and he had indeed suspected Luo Shan.

The village chief's test had also given him a convenient chance to test things himself.

Last night, he had deliberately reduced the amount of lamp oil.

There were two reasons. First, Luo Shan's situation was ultimately

a matter concerning his own family, and he still did not know whether there was anything wrong with Luo Shan. So, as long as he reduced the lamp oil too, the problem would return to the family as a whole, and the village chief would have to deal with both matters together.

If something really was wrong with Luo Shan, he was his son. Luo Feng would have to do it himself.

Second, if Luo Shan was fine, this was the best opportunity to keep some lamp oil. He would just have to find a way to keep the village chief from making trouble. The oil he saved could certainly save a life at a critical moment.

For precisely that reason, the village chief's conclusion that the windows had not been properly shut for the past two nights did not hold up.

The evil spirits came out of the kitchen... Does that mean someone opened the kitchen window?

"Zhang Yunling?!" Luo Feng's thoughts moved swiftly, and he looked straight at Gu Ya.

Only one person had entered their house during the day.

"No... That's impossible... I was cooking the whole time, but Ling was talking to me the whole time too. She never went near the kitchen window..." Gu Ya answered uneasily. "Ling would never hurt us."

"I remember now. Ling said someone sneaked past our front door. I think it was Zhang Jun?" Gu Ya spoke rapidly. "Zhang Jun is Shan's friend. They're very close..."

A trace of coldness passed through Luo Feng's eyes as he interrupted Gu Ya.

"Even drinking buddies count as friends? Someone like Zhang Jun is definitely no good."

Zhong Zhicheng remained silent, his eyes narrowed, his thoughts unreadable.