When I returned to Zhang Qihong's house, he still hadn't come back.
While he was away, I searched all the bedrooms.
At last, I found an ID photo and saw what the real Zhang Qihong looked like.
The real Zhang Qihong was rather plump-a fat man.
The real Zhang Qihong had gone to Town for a meeting a few days earlier and had never returned.
So the Zhang Qihong I had seen wasn't the real Zhang Qihong at all.
The fake Zhang Qihong was a tall, thin young man.
But the problem wasn't just that someone had impersonated Zhang Qihong. The fake had only started impersonating him after we arrived in Happiness Village, while the real Zhang Qihong had lived in Happiness Village all along.
That being the case, the real Zhang Qihong couldn't possibly have been unaware that his old house held so many spirit tablets, with his own father's tablet at the very bottom.
So there was something wrong with the real Zhang Qihong, too.
After dark, Fake Zhang Qihong returned.
He looked exhausted, and his mood seemed rather gloomy.
I guessed he had waited for me in Tang Village all day and couldn't understand why we hadn't gone up there.
"Brother Chen, why are you alone?"
Not seeing An Ning or Yi Yang, Fake Zhang Qihong couldn't help asking.
I lied. "Something suddenly came up at my two friends' homes. They went back to Town this afternoon."
After sitting down, he asked me, "Did you go to Tang Village today?"
I nodded and said we had. "It's just an ordinary abandoned village up there. It's not as scary as people online say."
He smiled. "I told you there was nothing worth seeing up there."
Then he asked how much longer I would be staying in the village.