The Stench of a Corpse

Rustle!

A slender figure darted through the woods, occasionally crashing through bushes with a tumultuous rustle.

Suddenly, the figure stopped atop a large rock.

Eerie, mournful ghostly wails rose from her arms without cease, drowning out every other sound around her.

Both her sleeves were puffed up as though filled with wind, yet the hands extending from them were exceptionally slender.

Pitch-black holes covered her palms.

Streams of "ghostly breath" issued from the holes, bringing waves of ghostly wails.

"Has that corpse stench gotten farther away or closer?"

Controlling Ding Ling's body, Zhou Yang tipped her pale little face upward and repeatedly scanned his surroundings as he asked.

"Farther away, much farther..."

Ding Ling's voice sounded in his mind.

"Good."

Zhou Yang answered, rose onto his toes, and jumped down from the rock.

The Ghost Mouths on Ding Ling's arms all closed.

Only one remained in her left palm, maintaining the most basic form of Breathing of the Ghost while reducing the strain on Ding Ling's body.

"Then keep going in this direction. Once you can't smell that corpse stench anymore, you should be free of the ghost's influence."

When the uncanny entity appeared in the stone house, people nearby could smell that cloyingly sweet, rotten corpse stench under the ghost's influence.

Gao Hongbo had been the first to smell it.

After that, his mind had fallen into confusion, and he had rushed straight toward the stone house.

Ding Ling had been the second.

Fortunately, Zhou Yang had reacted quickly, immediately taking control of Ding Ling's body, activating Breathing of the Ghost, and fleeing at full speed.

As a result, Ding Ling had escaped the ghost's influence and regained her senses.

Afterward, she had concluded that the farther they fled from the corpse stench, the more they could escape the influence the uncanny entity in the stone house had on people.

Although Zhou Yang and Ding Ling were currently sharing a body, Zhou Yang had not been affected by the ghost.

Now, Ding Ling was the only one who could still smell the corpse stench.

Zhou Yang leaped and ran through the mountains.

Jagged rocks and rough mountain paths did nothing to hinder him.

Activating Breathing of the Ghost markedly improved every aspect of the body, not just its strength.

Zhou Yang swiftly left that stretch of mountain forest behind.

It was not until he turned onto a main road and followed it toward the hillside where the opera troupe was staying that Ding Ling finally stopped smelling the corpse stench.

By the time the two returned to the troupe, dusk had fallen all around.

In the large, dilapidated courtyard, Chang Dafeng sat below the steps leading to the main room, puffing away at his pipe.

The twilight lay across his face, making him look solemn and grave.

The troupe leader stared fixedly at the tall, strongly built man standing in the middle of the courtyard. Paying no attention to Ding Ling's return from gathering firewood, he asked the man directly:

"You're saying Shitouzi was chasing a roe deer and didn't notice the steep slope ahead. He charged right over, couldn't stop himself, and fell down the slope. And that was how he died?"

The tall man had his back to Ding Ling, and his shoulders trembled slightly.

Hearing the troupe leader's question, he answered dejectedly, "I climbed down that slope and carried the roe deer back...

"Little Stone... I checked him... His neck hit a tree stump and broke..."

As he spoke, he pressed the tips of his hands together at a right angle.

That right angle was enough to show what shape the neck of Shitouzi, the youngest and most timid member of the troupe, had been bent into.

Shitou's dead too.

Ding Ling spoke to Zhou Yang in her heart, her thoughts full of worry.

She went on, That tall man is called Qian Heng. He plays martial roles in the troupe.

He took Shitou out to dig for wild vegetables this morning, to find food for the troupe.

I never thought Shitou would fall and break his neck chasing a roe deer, and die like that...

Maybe this Qian Heng is lying? Zhou Yang suddenly said.

That's possible, but why? Ding Ling did not dismiss Zhou Yang's guess. Shitouzi and Qian Heng are very close.

Shitou was apprenticed to Troupe Leader Chang in name, but Qian Heng taught him the most and held almost nothing back... Why would he kill Shitou at a time like this?

It wouldn't do him any good either. It doesn't make sense...

Zhou Yang said no more.

Through Ding Ling's eyes, he looked at Chang Dafeng.

Chang Dafeng's face had grown much darker. He set down his pipe, suddenly gave a derisive laugh, and said sinisterly, "It'll be dark soon, and the ritual of Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera is about to begin. At a time like this, I can't go out!

"No one else can find out what really happened to Shitouzi. Only you-"

At that moment, Troupe Leader Chang pointed the pipe in his hand at Qian Heng and said sharply, "Only you know best in your own heart!"

"It's all my fault. I didn't look after the boy!

"I'll go find him right now. Even if I die, I have to bring his body back!"

Tears instantly streamed down Qian Heng's face.

He turned and started toward the gate.

"Wait!"

Chang Dafeng shouted to stop him, still speaking in a strange, insinuating tone. "Who knows whether you took the chance to let Shitouzi run away while you were out?

"If you let him go, wouldn't you be leaving the rest of the troupe here to bear the disaster and misfortune for you two?"

Qian Heng's lips trembled, and his eyes were bloodshot.

Zhou Yang and Ding Ling watched his expression and movements.

If Qian Heng really was acting out such sorrow, his acting could only be described as masterful.

He slowly turned back to face Chang Dafeng and said in a trembling voice, "Shitouzi really is gone..."

"Let's hope so.

"Let's hope you didn't find some way to send Shitouzi away-that would truly be harming him!

"If a living person rashly flees a deadland, they'll only wake the ghost in it early.

"He won't escape, and everyone else will suffer too!"

Chang Dafeng gave Qian Heng a look of uncertain meaning.

Watching from the side, Zhou Yang read a great deal in his expression.

Zhou Yang had a hunch that Chang Dafeng meant far more than a simple warning to Qian Heng not to help Little Stone escape and violate a taboo.

There was another, deeper meaning.

Find some way to send Shitouzi away... Zhou Yang turned Chang Dafeng's words over and over in his mind.

He seemed to have grasped something.

Yet he also seemed to have grasped nothing.

At that moment, Chang Dafeng turned his gaze on Ding Ling.

Her heart tightened under his emotionless gaze.

"What happened on your end?

"Three of you went out to gather firewood, but you're the only one who came back?" Chang Dafeng asked, his face impassive.

"We ran into a ghost..." Ding Ling said, pressing her lips tightly together.

She had already discussed it with Zhou Yang on the way back. Apart from Zhou Yang's existence and the Breathing of the Ghost he had brought her, she could tell the truth about everything that had happened at the stone house.

Ding Ling was telling the truth now and had no guilty conscience.

Nor did she need Zhou Yang to face Chang Dafeng's questioning for her.

"Ran into a ghost..."

The moment Ding Ling said it, the atmosphere in the courtyard grew heavy.

A chilling light shone in Chang Dafeng's eyes as he stared fixedly at Ding Ling, trying to tell from her expression whether she was speaking the truth.

Even the grief-stricken Qian Heng forgot his sorrow for the moment and turned to look at Ding Ling, his face anxious and fearful.

"What happened?

"Tell me everything, from beginning to end." Chang Dafeng lowered his head, seeming to concentrate on fiddling with his pipe. His voice softened as he questioned Ding Ling.

Ding Ling told him everything about seeing a stone house in the forest and then encountering a ghost with Gao Hongbo and Li Yichun.

She mentioned only nothing about being bewitched by the ghost and running toward the stone house.

After she finished, Zhou Yang observed Chang Dafeng's expression and knew he believed her.

"You three went to gather firewood, and in those uninhabited mountains, you happened to come across a stone house built by villagers;

"Those two went to dig for wild vegetables, yet they ran into a roe deer in those desolate mountains...

"Two of your three were lost, and one of their two died. In the blink of an eye... the troupe has only three people left altogether. Could this be fate?"

Chang Dafeng shook his head dispiritedly and slowly rose from the steps.

With his hands behind his back, he turned and walked toward the main room.

While the three had been talking, darkness had mostly fallen.

A hazy dimness spread across the land, concealing all the houses and courtyards of Daliang Village beneath the distant mountain ridge.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

Suddenly, a rapid patter of footsteps came from down the hillside, drawing steadily nearer.

Qian Heng's heart clenched. He shot Ding Ling a frightened glance, then hurried to the courtyard gate and pulled its two leaves together, intending to shut it completely-

"Don't shut the gate!

"Let me in first!"

As the gate closed, a man's voice, thick with tears, came through the crack.

Qian Heng acted as though he had not heard the somewhat shrill voice, concentrating entirely on fastening the bar.

"Brother Qian, that sounds like Li Yichun outside!"

Ding Ling called out to warn him.

"It's already dark. How could there still be anyone outside?!" Qian Heng whipped his head around, his square face covered in sweat. He rounded his eyes and scolded Ding Ling, "It's a ghost in disguise!

"If he can disguise himself as Li Yichun, he can disguise himself as Shitouzi-and Gao Hongbo too!

"Wouldn't opening the gate for a ghost bring trouble?!"

Qian Heng's fierce reaction struck the watching Zhou Yang as deeply strange.

He had mentioned "Shitou," then quickly glossed over it.

Shitouzi seemed to have become a subject Qian Heng dared not touch on at night.

"I'm not a ghost, I'm a person!

"I'm Li Yichun. Brother Qian, please let me in!" The one outside, whether human or ghost, heard Qian Heng's scolding and immediately began pounding on the wooden gate, pleading again and again.

Qian Heng kept his mouth shut and shook his head repeatedly, refusing to answer or open the gate.

"Open the gate and let Master Li in!"

At that moment, Chang Dafeng came out of the main room with a cloth bag tucked at his waist.

Once he gave the order, Qian Heng dared not disobey and had no choice but to open the courtyard gate.

Li Yichun stumbled into the courtyard and fell sprawling on the ground. His clothes were torn all over and smeared with plant juices, and the embroidered shoes on his feet had split open-

He plainly looked as though he had fled in a panic through the mountain forest for a long time!

As Ding Ling watched Li Yichun actually come through the gate, surprise flashed in her eyes.

She had not expected Li Yichun to have escaped the influence of the uncanny entity at the stone house too!

Does he have that corpse stench on him?

Zhou Yang suddenly asked.