Guarding the Fire Tower

It was early morning, just as dawn was breaking.

Zhou Yang tidied up the house, put on his clothes Gate of Opening.

Once outside, all his emotions were hidden behind a cold face; he was once again the Zhou Yang that the Guan Village knew.

Zhou Yang bumped into Zhou Laogou as soon as he stepped out the door.

Zhou Laogou carried a basket on his back, containing several farm tools, as if he were about to go to work in the fields.

As Zhou Yang walked out the door to greet him, this time, without waiting for Zhou Yang to introduce himself, Zhou Laogou immediately revealed a simple and honest smile, "Zhou Yang, I'm going to the fields."

Your two older brothers are still waiting for me in the fields.

After speaking, he left the courtyard with his head down, ignoring Zhou Yang's response.

Zhou Yang was stunned for a moment. Hearing a noise coming from the woodshed, he looked up and saw Huang Shaozi emerge from the woodshed.

Huang Shaozi looked at him with a smile, "Yang'er, are you up?"

"Let's have breakfast, come and have breakfast."

As she spoke, she turned back into the woodshed.

In just one night, the Zhou Family's parents, who were like ghosts to Zhou Yang, suddenly became much kinder.

Zhou Laogou, who had never been "familiar" with Zhou Yang, recognized him without Zhou Yang even having to introduce himself.

That's quite a strange thing.

Zhou Yang wasn't particularly surprised.

He tightened the dark blue cloak he was wearing.

The Zhou Family ghosts suddenly changed their attitude towards him, probably because of the garment Ding Ling left him.

Zhou Yang echoed Huang Shaozi's words and followed him into the woodshed.

On the broken wooden table by the door of the woodshed, there were several earthenware pots and a large bowl.

The earthenware pot contained dishes such as fat, raw blood, and offal, while the large bowl was filled with half-cooked rice, half again as much as Zhou Yang usually ate.

"You can eat it all."

Huang Shaozi pulled over a small stool and let Zhou Yang sit down. She leaned against the wall and looked at Zhou Yang with a smile, "Heigou'er specially saved this food for you. This is your second brother's kindness, Yang'er."

He himself only ate half a bowl of rice and drank some soup when he went to work in the fields.

"I saved all the good food for you!"

What's delicious?

This table of food, made by the dead, would be impossible for a living person to digest.

If Zhou Yang hadn't learned "Breathing of the Ghost," he probably would have been lying in bed waiting to die the next day after eating so much food made from the dead!

The Heigou was clearly shifting his own burdens onto Zhou Yang.

Zhou Yang only sensed the Heigou's overwhelming malice.

Without showing any emotion, he took another bowl from the table, scooped some rice out of the large bowl, turned to look at Huang Shaozi, and said gently, "Mother, did you eat well this morning?"

"You've been running around inside and outside the house, keeping your father as still as a block of wood. You've suffered along with him, haven't you?"

"Let's eat some more with our son, and then we can talk."

Zhou Yang spoke these words without a trace of acting.

When Huang Shaozi heard this, his face trembled violently, and he said with a mixture of crying and laughing, "The Yang'er Da Le."

"My darling has become so sensible!"

She did not refuse Zhou Yang's invitation, and even for a moment ignored the principle of "monitoring and observing Zhou Yang after he finishes eating the dead man's food". She immediately sat down next to Zhou Yang and picked up the small half bowl of rice that Zhou Yang had given her.

The influence of paper clothing is present in this.

However, Zhou Yang's genuine emotions also contributed significantly to the outcome.

Since last night, Zhou Yang has been overwhelmed with a torrent of emotions that he has no way to release.

Unable to express these emotions to others, he treated the ghosts around him as Ding Ling and showed them his sincerity.

Zhou Yang could not possibly not finish this large bowl of food meant for the dead.

But he thought that if he could eat so much food from the dead every day without any problems, it would inevitably make the Heigou wary. He might as well take some precautions and find some cover-up.

Giving the food to Huang Shaozi was a way of covering up the truth.

In this family, he should simply remain weak.

By remaining weak, he will never be the first suspect if someone in his family dies in the future.

Huang Shaozi picked up the bowl and suddenly paused.

It seemed she had just realized that the food was prepared for Zhou Yang, and that she had to watch him finish it.

Why is she now sitting at the table herself, dividing up Zhou Yang's food?

"This is your food, your food..." Huang Shaozi held the bowl and looked at Zhou Yang, speechless.

"Eat, Mother." Zhou Yang didn't even look at Huang Shaozi. He picked up a piece of raw lung with his chopsticks, placed it on top of the undercooked rice, and said, "You don't eat enough every day. Eat more."

This is filial piety from the youngest son.

Huang Shaozi felt he should accept his child's filial piety.

But she instinctively felt that something was wrong.

She stood frozen beside Zhou Yang, holding her bowl, watching Zhou Yang eat slowly and deliberately. After a long while, she finally picked up her chopsticks.

"Mother, does Second Brother go to work in the fields with Father every day?"

"He's had a tough time too."

Zhou Yang and Huang Shaozi chatted casually.

"Yes, yes," Huang Shaozi nodded. "This child is even more diligent than your older brother."

"He goes to the fields every day to keep watch. Sometimes, while others are resting at home, he still goes up to the fields to check on things. But your father knows how to worry about him. If he stays in the fields alone for too long, your father will definitely go over and check on him."

These words sounded quite ordinary.

But Zhou Yang could vaguely glimpse something beneath the surface of the water.

The eldest brother of the Zhou Family, "Zhou Baigou," doesn't work in the fields every day; sometimes he stays at home.

Only Zhou Heigou went to the fields to guard them every day.

The Heigou then had the opportunity to be alone.

And... it's as if Zhou Laogou and he have some kind of tacit understanding; whenever he leaves home alone to work in the fields for a little while, Laogou will follow him to "take care" of him.

This created the possibility of the two parties colluding privately.

The Laogou wondered if the reason behind the Heigou's love for him, while the Yang'er's love for him, lay in this.

What unusual thing might be happening while the two of them are working together in the fields?

After Zhou Yang finished eating, the Ghost Mouth beneath his clothes opened silently, digesting this meal of dead meat.

The paper clothes on his body tightened slightly, covering the Ghost Mouth. Those small, black mouths twisted and returned all the blood and flesh essence that Zhou Yang had sucked from his body, along with some kind of "nutrient" from the ghost food, to Zhou Yang.

Wearing paper clothes, Zhou Yang could use the Breathing of the Ghost almost without any consumption.

Huang Shaozi escorted Zhou Yang out of the courtyard.

Standing at the door, Zhou Yang asked Huang Shaozi, "Mother, besides working as a blacksmith at A Fu's place right now, I'd like to find another job in the village."

"With A Fu's wages alone, I'm afraid we won't be able to raise enough fat for the Revelation Ceremony."

"Could you find me some more work?"

If Zhou Yang saved every penny of his wages, he would be able to save enough to buy thirty catties of grease before the Revelation Ceremony.

However, he now knows the wonderful uses of paper coins and has to consume some every day to practice Breathing of the Ghost.

This one expense alone made his savings very tight.

Not to mention that paper copper coins were the common currency in Guan Village, and might have other uses as well. In any case, Zhou Yang would have to save up a sum of money.

There's no way Zhou Family's parents would ever let a single penny slip through their fingers and give him any.

He would naturally need to take on another job to save money.

But jobs are really hard to find in Guan Village, and Huang Shaozi might not have any connections.

Zhou Yang was just taking advantage of Huang Shaozi's current intimacy with him to see if he could get some benefits from her.

He didn't have high hopes.

But when Huang Shaozi heard his words, her eyes, which were unusually small compared to the whites of her eyes, suddenly focused, making her plump, white face appear fierce and cold, her gaze like a sharp knife:

Yes! Yes!

She immediately nodded in agreement.

A sudden sense of foreboding arose in Zhou Yang's heart.

Then Huang Shaozi smiled kindly, grabbed his wrist and said, "Three days from now, it will be our turn to send young people to guard the fire tower!"

"You'll be assigned to guard the fire tower; you'll get a pound of paper money as a reward!"

Fire tower?!

Upon hearing the task Huang Shaozi had assigned him, Zhou Yang broke out in a cold sweat!

He had stayed in Guan Village for some time and had naturally heard of the job of "guarding the fire tower".

Among the last words of the dead collected in "The Knife Credit Ledger), about one-third of the deceased mentioned guarding the fire tower, and all died because of this job!

Simply put, this job involves a group of people gathering in front of the fire tower at the village entrance to keep it burning and provide a beacon for the Patrol Team on the outermost edge of the village.

The fire tower defense can be carried out at night.

The Guan Village was terrifying at night, and Zhou Yang dared not leave his house at all!