Chanting Scriptures, Burning Paper Offerings

Don't go!

"How can we go?!"

Zhou Yang cried out in his heart, hoping that the Baigou would change its mind and not have any further contact with the dead Xiao Fei.

But he really couldn't bring himself to say it.

Xiao Fei and the Baigou were good friends before his death, and the Xiao and Zhou families were also related.

Both morally and logically, it would be Zhou Baigou's duty to go and take a look, and lend a helping hand.

Just as Huang Shaozi said, it would be perfectly reasonable for the Zhou Family to send a gift and have a chat when Xiao Fei is buried.

But Zhou Yang clearly understood that Xiao Fei was a Human-Skin Ghost, and that in Guan Village, being nominally dead was far more dangerous than being alive!

Now, all we can hope for is that even if the Xiao Family finds Xiao Fei's body, they will at best only find his skin, and not bring home the River Floater Ghost beneath it.

Having lived in Guan Village for so long, this was the first time Zhou Yang had encountered a funeral being held by the Guan Village.

He didn't know whether the corpse lying inside the house at the funeral would be just a skin, or a ghost wrapped in the "skin of a dead person"?

But there was one thing he always understood—the skin of the dead Guan Village had absolutely no binding force on Gui Jiu!

Zhou Yang pondered for a moment, and while his mother and elder brother paused, he turned to his mother with a serious expression and interjected, "Mother, Brother Xiao is my elder brother's good friend, and our family and Brother Xiao's family are relatives. My elder brother really has to go!"

"The Yang'er are always reasonable," Huang Shaozi said, casting an approving glance.

She raised her hand and gently tidied Zhou Yang's disheveled hair, just like a real mother would do for her son.

The Baigou also looked at Zhou Yang, but remained silent.

Zhou Yang and the Baigou exchanged a glance, their expressions growing more sincere. "But brother, I also have to tell the truth."

"Brother Xiao... he didn't die peacefully..."

As Zhou Yang said this, he seemed somewhat hesitant.

Fortunately, the Baigou wasn't angry about it; it just stared at Zhou Yang and muttered, "Then I have to go too."

Its face showed no particular expression, but its eyes, fixed on Zhou Yang, made Zhou Yang feel as if behind its expressionless face lay another face, revealing a hysterical and insane expression.

The second face that Zhou Yang vaguely perceived was the face of a ghost!

If Zhou Yang were to insist on stopping Baigou from helping the deceased Xiao Fei, he would have to pay the price! However, Zhou Yang was also aware of his own limitations; he and Baigou were only slightly more familiar with each other, far less so than his relationship with Huang Shaozi.

He wasn't saying this to Zhou Baigou, but rather to remind Huang Shaozi.

Mom, aren't you always superstitious and easily drawn into those ghostly and supernatural things?

If your child really gets involved with ghosts at this point, you can't just sit idly by!

Zhou Yang naturally didn't spell everything out.

His words made Huang Shaozi realize something immediately.

Huang Shaozi nodded repeatedly. "We really need to be careful about this, Mother, think of a way—"

Before I could finish speaking, Zhou Baigou interrupted me with a shout:

What plan are you thinking of?!

"Xiao Fei is my good brother. Even if he dies, he won't harm me!"

"I have to go there right now. I'll try your method when I get back!"

"It's always you! Every time I ask you to come up with a solution, you start chanting scriptures and burning paper money. By the time you've finished, it's already dark!"

As he spoke, Zhou Baigou turned to leave.

Huang Shaozi's expression changed instantly. Her fat, white face twisted into layers of wrinkles, and her eyes, with their extremely large whites and small pupils, stared intently at Zhou Baigou. She reached out and grabbed Zhou Baigou, shouting in a shrill voice, "You're not allowed to go!"

You can't leave until I've finished fixing it!

You can't go anywhere right now!

The old woman looked so terrifying and ferocious that Zhou Yang felt his heart pounding.

Even with this appearance, she couldn't scare Zhou Baigou!

Zhou Baigou suddenly shrugged his shoulders and shook off Huang Shaozi's hand.

He turned around and said coldly to Huang Shaozi, "Think about what you've brought to the family by burning incense and chanting scriptures every day!"

"Haven't you hurt me enough?!"

I can leave whenever I want!

"Don't force me!" These words left Huang Shaozi stunned, watching Zhou Baigou walk away.

The ferocious expression on her face gradually faded away.

Zhou Yang glanced at Zhou Baigou, who had walked away, then turned back to observe Huang Shaozi, mentally rearranging the order of family members' status:

"Zhou Laogou holds a high position; he is the patriarch of the Zhou Family."

"Huang Shaozi was in line after her, but she seemed to have caused Zhou Baigou a lot of trouble in the past because of her superstitious practices of burning incense."

Therefore, he felt extremely indebted to Zhou Baigou.

"The Baigou's status is therefore such that he can be ranked alongside her."

"At times, the Baigou even holds a slightly higher position in the household than the Huang Shaozi."

"Secondly, there was the Heigou that Zhou Laogou liked."

I'm still at the very bottom.

Zhou Yang was quite curious: what bad thing had happened to the Baigou because Huang Shaozi was superstitious about gods and ghosts?

However, he also knew in his heart that now was not a good time to ask this.

So when she walked up to Huang Shaozi, who was still in a daze, she didn't ask any questions, but simply called out softly, "Mother."

Hearing his call, Huang Shaozi slowly raised his head, and his blank eyes regained focus. "Eh..."

She responded to Zhou Yang, paused, and slowly said, "A-Yang, be nicer to your older brother from now on."

"In this family, I feel I owe your eldest brother the most."

"Years ago, my mother believed in the wrong god, and she burned incense for a ghost."

"The ghost appeared to my mother in a dream, saying that something was following the Baigou, a malevolent spirit that would harm the family. It told me to set up a pot, burn firewood, put the Baigou in a wooden bucket, and put it in a pot of boiling water to steam it... After steaming for two hours, the thing following the Baigou was steamed away."

"After hearing what that ghost said, Mother actually put the Baigou on the fire and steamed it for two hours—"

"Luckily, the Baigou only fainted at the time, otherwise, Mother would have regretted it for the rest of her life!"

"Fortunately, the ' Grandpa High-Tiled House ' that Mother now believes in is a real god, so such things won't happen again..."

Will this really never happen again?

Zhou Yang looked at Huang Shaozi, completely disbelieving her words. He was even more shocked that the Zhou Family had such a past.

Putting a person in a wooden tub and steaming them for two hours would surely cook them completely.

But the Baigou was actually brought back to life; it had only been unconscious and seemed to have no physical injuries—which was abnormal in itself!

Zhou Yang didn't know whether the incident in Huang Shaozi and Zhou Baigou's memories occurred when the two of them were alive or when they were actually alive.

Or did this happen after they were tanned into two human skins?

The details are open to discussion.

In Guan Village, Zhou Yang had no idea where these villagers' skins, which carried their memories of their previous lives, came from.

He put that matter aside for the time being and turned to Huang Shaozi, saying, "Mother, I'll listen to you."

"From now on, I'll definitely have to treat my older brother well."

"But I still feel uneasy that he went to help the Xiao Family like that."

"While he's not far away yet, could you perhaps recite some scriptures for him? Burn some paper money for ' Grandpa High-Tiled House,' so that it can protect my elder brother and prevent him from getting tainted by anything unclean."

These days, Huang Shaozi's superstitious methods might not be useless. As long as he uses these methods on Zhou Baigou, Zhou Yang can finally feel a little more at ease.

He wasn't really concerned about the safety of the Baigou Human-Skin Ghost, but rather worried that the Baigou might have picked up something dirty from Xiao Fei and brought it home, thus affecting him as well.

Yes, yes!

Huang Shaozi nodded repeatedly and hurriedly turned and went home.

Zhou Yang followed behind her, but didn't see Zhou Laogou or Heigou at home, so he casually asked Huang Shaozi, "Where did Dad and Second Brother go?"

"He's gone to the fields!" Huang Shaozi replied with a sneer. Zhou Yang immediately pictured the Laogou gnawing on the Heigou's strange-looking stomach.

The Laogou ate yesterday, and it's eating again today.

Judging from the pattern of the two men going to the fields together before, Zhou Laogou was clearly getting hungrier the more he was fed.

I wonder if Heigou can hold on?

As Zhou Yang was pondering, Huang Shaozi had already climbed the steps and entered the main room.

He wanted to go in with his mother to see how the other party used those strange methods, but Huang Shaozi turned around and, without discussing anything with Zhou Yang, went to close the door to the main room.

"This is not something you can look at!" As the door gradually closed, Zhou Yang saw Huang Shaozi's stiff and cold expression.

Compared to other Guan Village ghosts, Huang Shaozi has accepted too many Zhou Yang.

Even so, there are still certain insurmountable boundaries between Zhou Yang and it.

Once this line is crossed, there will be serious consequences.

Zhou Yang stood outside the door for a while.

A wisp of smoke, carrying a strong scent of incense, was heard coming from the window of the side room connected to the main hall.

Immediately following, Huang Shaozi's various roars, some low and painful, others joyful and howling, also rang out in the room.

The sound was exceptionally eerie and terrifying.

These roars were the chants of the Huang Shaozi.

After listening for a while, Zhou Yang decided to move to another location.

He made an appointment with the Cui Family brothers to meet them at Old Zhang's dilapidated house at the third quarter of the first hour of dawn.

Cui He should know something about Guan Village. He was aware that Zhou Yang and Cui He had some past grievances in Guan Village.

From him, Zhou Yang might be able to learn more about the inside story of Guan Village.

It should take about an hour or two now.

Zhou Yang then called out towards the main room, "Mother, I'm going to work at the blacksmith's shop!"

You haven't even had breakfast yet!

The various whistling and howling sounds were still ringing out inside the house, but Huang Shaozi's response emerged from among them.

"I'm not eating now, I'll eat when I get back at dusk!"

Zhou Yang felt uneasy, but responded quickly.

"Okay, okay..."

The sound of the Huang Shaozi was gradually drowned out by the whistling and howling.

Zhou Yang then turned and walked out of the courtyard.

He stopped as he walked through the corridor and approached the courtyard gate—there stood a thin, dark figure.

Zhou Yang noticed the rusty chain around the man's neck.

A shadow puppet dog was attached to the chain.