"Give me a little time, okay?" Ning Zhe looked up and smiled at Feng Yushu. "I need to be alone for a moment to think through what just happened and decide our next steps."
"I'll do as you say…" Feng Yushu rose uncertainly from the temple and smoothed her skirt before sitting on the threshold. She kept glancing back worriedly at Ning Zhe, who leaned against a pillar, lost in thought.
Soon, a faint vibration came from her thigh—it was her phone, but not a call; a text message.
Feng Yushu unlocked the screen and saw the sender: Zhang Yangxu.
"Huh?"
Inside the temple, Ning Zhe sat before the Serpent God, replaying his morning's actions: his logic in sampling offerings boiled down to one rule:
[If someone mistakes me for the Serpent God, then I truly become it.]
This was the rule—even a deity must obey it. Whenever he left traces by eating offerings, if even one villager thought "the Serpent God ate it," that belief would trigger the rule, allowing him to borrow part of the Serpent God's identity. The recent blindness of the statue's right eye proved he had succeeded.
"At least one person misrecognized me as the Serpent God," Ning Zhe murmured. "As more eaten offerings are discovered, that number could grow."
He realized his current state: "I've stolen at least one believer's perception of the Serpent God. Perhaps those visions I experienced when I went black were the Serpent God's memories flooding in."
Was that so? He could not be sure. He could only wait: "Now we'll see if more people mistake me for the Serpent God, letting me steal more of its identity."
This initial success brought little joy—discovering the rule and stealing identity was only the first step in unraveling this world's mechanics.
"With the Serpent God's identity, I can move more freely to accomplish other tasks."
Having clarified his status, Ning Zhe stood and left the temple. He still did not know what those hallucinations meant, but he knew what must come next.
Outside, he found Feng Yushu staring at her phone on the threshold.
"What are you looking at?"
"Ah! Ning Zhe… nothing." She shook her head, pocketed the phone, and stood. "I was wondering—can this really solve the puzzles and get us out of Hejia Village?"
"I'm not sure," he replied. "But is there any better choice than trusting me?"
"True." She dismissed her doubts, then hesitated before retrieving her phone and handing it to him. "Here."
Ning Zhe glanced—her chat with Zhang Yangxu was displayed:
Zhang Yangxu:
[Ye Miaozhu is dead.]
[She ran into the He mansion alone and was killed by the ghost.]
[If Ning Zhe hadn't provoked her, she wouldn't have been isolated—and wouldn't have died.]
[Ning Zhe did it on purpose.]
[He must have discovered some of this village's special rules. He provoked Ye Miaozhu so the ghost would target her.]
[He's a madman who doesn't care about others' lives.]
[Are you sure you want to stay by his side?]
[He used Ye Miaozhu's life for his experiments; next he could use yours for his own ends.]
[He doesn't care if people die; you're no exception in his eyes.]
Feng Yushu:
[I know what you imply, but I don't know who you are]
[Are you Zhang Yangxu? Or a ghost?]
Zhang Yangxu:
[You can ask me questions to test if I'm really Zhang Yangxu.]
[Or we can meet in person.]
Feng Yushu:
[I don't know you well enough to know what questions would distinguish you from a ghost.]
[And why did you text me instead of calling?]
Zhang Yangxu:
[What do you mean?]
Feng Yushu:
[Wouldn't phone be better?]
[You know Ning Zhe is beside me, so you dared not call, right?]
Zhang Yangxu:
[Isn't that obvious? You're always with him.]
Feng Yushu:
[No—if that were true, you wouldn't even text me.]
The conversation ended there—Zhang Yangxu sent no further messages.
Ning Zhe handed the phone back. "How did you know he was a ghost?"
Feng Yushu replied, "You're sharp and perceptive. Zhang Yangxu knows you well—he knows how you think. He dared not act while you were by my side, like a tiger guarding its prey. Any slight movement would tip you off. There was no chance to call or text unnoticed—except just now."
"Because my state was off. Though we were together, I was inside thinking alone and couldn't hear texts."
Ning Zhe smiled. "You've gotten clever."
"I learned from you," she murmured.
"Why liken yourself to prey—why not trust me?" he asked.
Feng Yushu nodded. "The ghost was right—you don't care if others live or die. You are cold and ruthless, more terrifying than a ghost."
"Then why stay with me?" Ning Zhe laughed.
"Because it's my only lifeline." She lifted her gaze to his. "If you're the dangerous tiger, then that ghost is a venomous snake hidden in darkness, preying on the unwary. It wants to devour you and me."
A fitting analogy…
"But you wouldn't hand your prey to it, right?" she asked.
"Who knows?" he offered no answer.
The only certainty now was that Zhang Yangxu was likely dead.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild
Reference Glossary:
"Like a tiger guarding its prey" – Chinese simile denoting vigilant protection, implying that even a slight disturbance risks alarming the guardian.