Huang Shaozi

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A sudden barrage of violent pounding on a door rang out, as though it were striking Ding Ling's forehead.

The sound, coming from she knew not where, made her hair stand on end and raised goosebumps all over her body.

From the pounding, she could tell that whoever was at the door had a great deal of pent-up anger and resentment.

In an instant, the pounding grew faint and indistinct.

It faded in Ding Ling's awareness.

Her gaze wandered toward the front door, and she pricked up her ears, but heard no pounding from that direction.

The pounding had come from inside her head.

Even more alarmed and bewildered, she immediately called out to her benefactor in her heart, but received no response.

Ding Ling's mind went blank-

Not far away, Chang Dafeng watched Ding Ling, his face full of wariness.

Though he had questioned her, Ding Ling seemed completely unaware, her mind plainly elsewhere.

That was highly abnormal.

Could it be that she still hadn't completely shaken off the ghost's influence?

As Chang Dafeng pondered, he clenched the fist hidden in his sleeve, widened his eyes and raised his voice, shouting at Ding Ling, "Answer me, Ding Ling!

"What did you see in the mirror?"

When faced with a ghost, the last thing one could do was show fear or lose one's nerve.

If ghostly aura really still clung to Ding Ling, then his own fear would make it grow stronger, and it would turn around and cloud his mind.

Only by raising his voice and showing it he was fiercer did he stand a better chance of scaring away those few lingering strands of ghostly aura!

That was the experience Chang Dafeng had accumulated over years of traveling far and wide.

Besides, he had some ability of his own and believed he could suppress a few lingering strands of ghostly aura.

At the thunderous shout, Ding Ling's back instinctively stiffened.

Ding Ling felt somewhat disappointed, afraid that her benefactor had left and would never return.

But she also remembered what her benefactor had entrusted to her. Lowering her eyes and gathering her thoughts, she said to Chang Dafeng in a clear voice:

"I got a good look at the ghosts in the mirror!

"There were threads like zither strings in the mirror, lots of them, woven into a net.

"Lots of figures appeared in the holes in the net, men and women, old and young.

"Troupe leader, there were so many ghostly figures in the mirror. That means-"

At that moment, Chang Dafeng abruptly raised his voice and interrupted her. "Puppet Threads and Ghost Rhyme.

"Ghost Rhyme spreads outward in circles, like ripples in water.

"Puppet Threads come in strands. Ding Ling, those threads you saw in the mirror that looked like zither strings were most likely Puppet Threads.

"No-they were definitely Puppet Threads!

"The ghost wandering around outside our room, in Daliang Village, is actually a puppet!"

Ding Ling didn't know why the troupe leader had suddenly interrupted her. Listening to him, she instinctively murmured an acknowledgment before realizing that he was speaking loudly for the people in the side room to hear, to settle their nerves.

But she knew better than anyone that things weren't so simple.

She pressed her lips together, kept Zhou Yang's instructions firmly in mind, and immediately said, "Troupe leader, actually-"

Chang Dafeng raised an eyebrow, and a fearsome, menacing light suddenly flashed in his long, narrow eyes, stopping everything Ding Ling had yet to say!

He strode up to Ding Ling and said in a low voice, "Actually, there isn't just one puppet outside, but a whole group of them. That's what you wanted to say, isn't it?"

Ding Ling looked startled, then nodded.

Chang Dafeng gave a cold smile and narrowed his eyes. "One puppet would be enough to scare the guts out of this bunch of pretty boys!

"If you told them there was a whole group of puppets outside-

"Could we still put on this show?

"Do you still want to live?!"

Ding Ling lowered her eyes and said nothing.

She didn't know whether she should listen to the troupe leader, and was at a loss.

She softly called out to her benefactor a few more times in her heart, but still received no response.

Even though she had been careful, it seemed this beautiful dream had come to an end after all.

The earlier pounding in her head must have been a sign that her benefactor was leaving.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A barrage of violent pounding on the door jolted Zhou Yang awake.

Zhou Yang opened his eyes and saw cobwebs hanging from the roof beams.

A greasy, rank smell rushed into his nostrils.

The sight and smell pulled his mind, still immersed in Daliang Village, completely free.

He realized he had returned from Daliang Village to Guan Village. His pupils contracted, and he sprang upright in bed like a live fish, the coarse cloth quilt covering him slipping to the floor.

Cold sweat broke out all over his back in an instant, sticking his clothes to his skin.

The pounding continued, urgent as a summons to his death.

Between the blows came the shrill, frenzied shouts of Huang Shaozi, now nominally Zhou Yang's mother in Guan Village. "Zhou Yang, Zhou Yang-

"Are you getting out of bed or not? Are you getting up or not?!

"I'll flay you alive!"

Zhou Yang's face was full of terror!

The fear and psychological shock Guan Village brought him were far greater than anything he had experienced in Daliang Village.

Even seeing ghosts in the mirror while combing his hair in Daliang Village hadn't frightened him as much as he was now!

If Mindfulness determined a person's state of mind when facing ghosts-

He had still been able to retain some reason when facing the ghostly figures in the mirror in Daliang Village, but now, under Huang Shaozi's screams, he could barely keep hold of his senses!

Just what level did his Mindfulness need to reach for him to remain calm when facing Huang Shaozi's family?

With his Mindfulness at "5," he could still handle the images of so many "puppets" in the mirror in Daliang Village. Yet his Mindfulness was almost useless against Huang Shaozi. What level of ghost had she reached?

Zhou Yang rubbed his face hard.

Only when he had rubbed his skin red did his expression, stiff with terror, gradually loosen.

The most grueling part of living in Guan Village wasn't the fear brought on by sudden jump scares like those in a horror game. It was having to maintain a calm appearance while enduring that fear, without letting anyone in the village notice anything amiss.

Staying in character was especially important in Guan Village.

Once he broke character, death was the only outcome!

Before Huang Shaozi could shout again, Zhou Yang had settled his face into a wooden expression.

With his skin reddened from rubbing, he now looked just as if he had only just woken up.

He deliberately got out of bed slowly, slipped on the cloth shoes beside it, and folded his quilt.

Outside, Huang Shaozi shook the two wooden doors violently, and the bar across them gradually worked loose at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Clatter!

The door bar fell to the ground.

Huang Shaozi burst through the doors.

Zhou Laogou, Zhou Heigou, and Zhou Baigou filed in behind her.

"You damned thing!

"I told you to get up. Why didn't you answer?!" Huang Shaozi's lips quivered, occasionally revealing the black hollow of her mouth.

Her expression was grotesquely fierce, her small, round eyes surrounded by pale, greasy flesh. The light shooting from those little eyes was like two sharp knives ready to stab into Zhou Yang's heart. "If you want to die, then die right now!

"Better to let your own family have the benefit than outsiders!"

As Huang Shaozi spoke those last two sentences, her face suddenly broke into a smile.

She turned to look at the three "people surnamed Zhou" behind her, and her smile seemed exceptionally gentle and loving.

Compared with the fierce expression she had worn facing Zhou Yang, it was like a complete change of face!

The three people surnamed Zhou, who had all worn wooden expressions, now smiled in unison. On their taut, smooth, wrinkle-free faces, the corners of their mouths suddenly split wide, stretching almost to their ears.

They nodded together. "That's right. Better to let your own family have the benefit than outsiders!"