Brothers

Goosebumps rose all over Zhou Yang's body!

Meeting Huang Shaozi's gaze, he wanted nothing more than to spring away and flee!

An indescribable sense of danger pressed in on him, leaving him no less terrified than when he had faced the Opera Ghost!

Fortunately, he still had seven strands of Mindfulness to sustain him. He forcibly suppressed his instinct to jump away and run, then gave a strained laugh. "I'm just curious what it's like outside. I don't want to leave.

"Life's so good in the village. Why would I go out? I've never thought about it..."

"You came from my belly. Don't be a stranger to your own mother-" Huang Shaozi suddenly seized Zhou Yang's hand. She turned and glanced quickly outside the door, then looked back at him, her pale, bloated face full of anxiety.

That look of intense anxiety made her seem very human at that moment.

She said urgently, "I'm not like those outside... not like your father and your brothers.

"I know you're not like them either.

"There are only the two of us. You have to trust me-"

Her words struck Zhou Yang like a stun grenade, leaving his mind blank, his ears ringing, and his pupils abruptly constricted!

Only after several breaths did he come to his senses!

What does Huang Shaozi mean by that?!

She's not like those outside? There are only the two of us... Could she be a living person too?

She... is actually a living person?!

One thought after another exploded in Zhou Yang's mind!

Looking at Huang Shaozi's earnest face, he genuinely wanted to respond to her words for a moment.

But he quickly came to his senses.

He pressed down those thoughts, which had surged like a boiling tide, one by one. Looking at Huang Shaozi's face, he put on an increasingly sincere expression. "Of course you're different from Father and my two brothers to me...

"You're the one who gave birth to me and raised me. I'm your flesh and blood. No matter when, I'll always trust you and depend on you.

"The same goes for you, Mother. If you feel Father and my two brothers can't be relied on, you can depend on me too."

"Good child, good child..." Huang Shaozi gripped Zhou Yang's arm even tighter, seemingly deeply moved. "I didn't care much for you before because you talked so little. Every day, you were as silent as a gourd.

"I'll be sure to dote on you from now on."

The hints in her words and expression just now seemed never to have existed.

Zhou Yang's response seemed to have been exactly what she wanted.

Watching the seamless changes in her expression, Zhou Yang felt a chill in his heart.

He had not misunderstood her earlier.

Huang Shaozi's words had been a hint, meant to lead him to think that she was a living person in hiding.

But he was no greenhorn fresh out in the world. There was no way he would reveal that he was alive on the strength of a few words from her-that would be tantamount to suicide in Guan Village.

So Zhou Yang had shifted the subject without leaving a trace.

And Huang Shaozi had responded smoothly.

Their conversation had been like comparing answers.

Yet it was precisely Huang Shaozi's smooth response that made Zhou Yang suddenly realize that his "birth mother" in Guan Village could not possibly be alive!

It had deliberately laid a trap for him with its words, luring him to jump into the pit!

Its response had been too smooth. It was like a wolf circling its prey, waiting for a chance to pounce and tear into it. Even if it failed to get its teeth into the prey, it had a plan ready: retreat at once, conserve its strength, and wait for the next hunt!

"Son, from now on, eat at the big table with everyone else."

Huang Shaozi held Zhou Yang's hand, her gaze so loving that it made his skin crawl. "Look at you. That little bit you eat every day isn't enough, and I still have to go to the butcher's to get these things for your snacks.

"From now on, eat at the big table. Whatever there is, you can have your fill."

Naturally, Zhou Yang did not want to eat with the other members of his "family."

Even though he could now digest the ghosts' food thanks to the Breathing of the Ghost, the "family dinner table" was still a test for him. One careless move could expose him and put him out of the game.

But looking at Huang Shaozi's expression, he knew that even if he refused now, she had more to say and would surely corner him until he had no choice but to agree.

He could only nod. "All right. I'll eat at the big table this evening, then. You don't need to make anything special for me anymore, Mother."

"All right!" Huang Shaozi agreed with a smile. She turned and surveyed Zhou Yang's room, then added, "This room of yours looks so run-down, and there's only such a thin quilt on the bed. It pains me to see it.

"Son, go live in the west wing with your two brothers."

Zhou Yang's heart tightened at those words!

Night was the only time each day when he could be alone.

It was also when he could relax a little each day.

Huang Shaozi wanted to take even that time away from him-if he went to live in the same room as those two dogs, black and white, wouldn't they watch him every night?

How would he be able to read the Knife Credit Ledger then?

But if he refused outright, Huang Shaozi would surely have an answer ready.

So Zhou Yang lowered his eyes to Huang Shaozi, a clear look of displeasure appearing on his face. "Heigou and Baigou get along, but Heigou and I don't, and Baigou listens to his second brother. Are you putting the three of us in one room so we can fight at night?

"Those two sons of yours will gang up on me, so naturally they won't have to worry about getting hurt in a fight.

"Can't you spare a little concern for me? Can't you let me take a few less punches and kicks at night and get a peaceful sleep?

"You were just saying how you felt sorry for me, and now you're in such a hurry to send me off to get beaten by those two 'real sons' of yours!"

As he spoke, he deliberately put heavy emphasis on the words "real sons."

His face was filled with resentment, almost to the point of overflowing.

"How could that be? How could that be... You're all my real sons..." Huang Shaozi murmured, her gaze somewhat vacant. Once again, she did not know how to respond to Zhou Yang's words.

In the end, it only looked like a person, could speak like one, and knew much of the common sense needed to act as one.

Once Zhou Yang's words went beyond that set of common sense it understood, it lapsed into a daze again, like a puppet.

Looking at its expression, Zhou Yang had an idea.

He continued, "Unless-"

A light gradually returned to Huang Shaozi's eyes. "Son, what are you thinking?"

"Unless you get Eldest Brother to protect me, listen to me, and not listen to Heigou. I'll watch him over time, and if he does well, I'll be willing to live with the two of them," Zhou Yang said.

"Baigou likes playing with Heigou. How could a few words from me make him change his ways, stop paying attention to Heigou, and come play with you and listen to you instead?" Huang Shaozi shook her head repeatedly as she spoke in a low voice.

Zhou Yang said nothing.

Huang Shaozi lowered her head and fell silent for a while, then suddenly said, "I can only talk to him and ask him to take your side more from now on.

"We'll see if it does any good."

"Thank you, Mother!" Zhou Yang smiled from the bottom of his heart. "If Eldest Brother takes my side, I'll take his too.

"Our family will live in harmony, with a loving father and dutiful sons, and brothers who treat one another with friendship and respect. Our lives will surely get better and better!"

"Yes..." Huang Shaozi smiled too. "We're a family that loves one another..."

When Huang Shaozi finished speaking, her gaze fell on the bucket of bloody pig offal.

It gave no clear indication, and Zhou Yang did not know what it was thinking. He spoke up. "Aren't you going to make breakfast, Mother?

"I'll have to go to work in a little while."

"I'll go make it now, right now..." Huang Shaozi replied again and again, her gaze still fixed on the bucket of pig offal. After a long while, she finally said, "This bucketful must have cost quite a few paper copper coins, son..."

As soon as she said that, Zhou Yang understood what it meant.

It was asking Zhou Yang to pay for the bucket of pig offal!

They charged a meal fee even for giving the youngest son an extra helping. How could they talk about being a family that loved one another?

"Sorry to put you to the expense, Mother. How many paper copper coins was it? I'll get them for you..." Zhou Yang grumbled inwardly, but his hands moved quickly. He fetched some paper copper coins and, going by Huang Shaozi's price, counted out several and paid it back.

Only then did it leave, satisfied, thoughtfully closing the door behind it for Zhou Yang.

A ghost like Huang Shaozi gains the common sense of a person when it puts on a layer of human skin.

But the common sense it possesses can't be applied flexibly and combined in different ways like a real person's understanding.

Common sense teaches it that a happy family lives in harmony, with a strict father, a loving mother, and brothers who love one another. But what should it do if the brothers don't love one another? Its common sense doesn't cover that.

Doing things that go beyond its common sense, without crossing the forbidden lines in Guan Village, leaves it at a loss.

When it's at a loss, I can guide it, influence it a little, and get it to help bring about things that benefit me... Zhou Yang stood before the window, thoughts surging through his mind.

Guan Village held too many secrets for him.

Both Ding Ling and Chang Dafeng, who were outside, had said that most ghosts lacked emotional intelligence.

And the ghosts in Guan Village expressed emotions only on a very superficial level.

Those emotions were in fact performances based on the various roles they each played in Guan Village.

For example, Huang Shaozi showed Zhou Yang motherly affection.

And Zhou Laogou often swung a hoe outside the house and went out pretending to do farmwork.

At their core, they still had no emotions at all. Every emotion they showed outwardly was an act.

Even the "common sense" they possessed as people existed to maintain their respective roles.

But this counterfeit "emotional intelligence" could not have come from nowhere-where had it come from?

Who had taught the "Huang Shaozis" such "emotional intelligence"?

A moment later, Zhou Yang gathered his thoughts and opened the Knife Credit Ledger for he knew not how many times.

He looked at the page containing Ding Ling's personal history.

He read down the entries in Ding Ling's personal history one by one. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened and stopped on her Mindfulness entry:

Mindfulness: 5.

Ding Ling's Mindfulness had increased by another strand!

Rather than being reduced to zero by the Opera Ghost's ghost rhyme, her Mindfulness had risen by another strand.

This was a good sign!

It most likely meant she had already escaped the Opera Ghost's assault!

Otherwise, if she had died in the Opera Ghost's assault, her Mindfulness should have fallen to zero by now, or even into the negatives...

Zhou Yang stared at Ding Ling's Mindfulness entry for a while longer. Once he had confirmed that it showed no further changes, he felt even more reassured and breathed a sigh of relief. He rolled up the old ledger and tucked it back into his belt at the small of his back.