Chapter 70: Humans, Ghosts, and Gods

Lou Sanbai was stunned for a moment, feeling like he was still dreaming. But as he listened, something felt off; why did the voice sound so familiar?

Like that girl from yesterday.

Lou Sanbai sat up abruptly, even straining his already extremely fragile back, which made a cracking sound, and he was wide awake.

What was she doing? Cold sweat dripped down Lou Sanbai's forehead. She heard the shouting and banging on the door, followed by cursing, crying, and the sound of something hitting the ground, as dense as rain.

They used very offensive language, calling the person banging on the door a madman, a bastard, a devil, and telling her to get lost.

The voice seemed completely unconcerned, continuing to shout, growing louder and more excited, even asking questions.

"Then why would there be ghost diseases?"

"Does the gods only care about the adults in Yongfo Temple and not you?"

"Alright then, I misspoke. The gods are not dead."

"You were the ones who were thrown away! Abandoned by the gods!"

That was so satisfying, so incredibly satisfying. Lou Sanbai heard the last sentence and chuckled, but as she laughed, tears began to stream down her face. With trembling hands, Lou Sanbai put on her clothes, quickly pushed open the door, and went out. Her peach wood cane tapped on the ground, scattering snow everywhere, as she walked and shouted.

"Girl! Girl!"

Lou Sanbai then realized that she hadn't asked the girl's name from yesterday, and she regretted it deeply because she thought she was about to die and there was no need to, and she couldn't remember, so much.

She said this as she walked toward the direction of the girl's voice.

"Stop shouting! Stop shouting!"

When she arrived, she saw Lin Chengye being chased and hacked by a family with hoes and machetes. The women and men of the family had ferocious faces and seemed to really want to beat her to death, while the daughter of the family followed her mother and father with her head down without saying a word. She carried a hoe on her shoulder but did not use it to fight. She just chased after Lin Chengye.

In fact, there were many more people chasing after Lin Chengye, throwing rotten vegetable leaves at her, pelting her with stones, and cursing her as a ghost who had come to kill them.

"Is it because I hit the nail on the head that you're so angry?" Lin Chengye continued jokingly.

By then, Lin Chengye's body was covered in scars, and drops of blood trickled down her black clothes into the snow, making her look quite disheveled. Every step she took seemed like she was treading on blooming plum blossoms. She turned back to look at those people and smiled, her gaze burning with fear. Suddenly, she saw Lou Sanbai and waved at him.

Upon seeing this scene, Lou Sanbai thought to himself, "How could this girl be a ghost? This is someone sent down by the gods. This is someone the gods couldn't bear to see and decided to send to save them."

Moreover, Lou Sanbai didn't understand that this girl was incredibly fast when she carried him, so she must be skilled in martial arts. Why didn't she use it?

But she was in a hurry and didn't have time to think about it. Lou Sanbai started running, but she was slower than people walk, so she could only tap the peach wood cane harder.

"It's...it's that sorceress!"

Finally, someone in the long "ghost-hunting" team spotted her. The person turned around in terror, as if seeing something horrifying, pinched their nose, and ran away, leaving their phone and machete lying in the snow.

"Hey! Don't go near her! Don't go near her!"

"Why is she here? What bad luck, what bad luck..."

Upon hearing the words "shaman," the people suddenly became restless. They were more afraid of this shaman than of a mad little girl; wherever she went, people would die, and she spent all her time with people suffering from ghostly illnesses—she must have been a ghost long ago.

So the group of people didn't care anymore and quickly scattered in all directions, fleeing back to their homes, locking the doors tightly, and starting to chant some incomprehensible mantras.

The world fell silent again. In the alley between the two rows of houses, an old man and a young man, two "ghosts," looked at each other and suddenly burst into laughter.

This time, Lou Sanbai's smile wasn't as exaggerated or eccentric as before. Instead, tears streamed from her wrinkled eyes. She was genuinely happy; her heart, dormant for many years, suddenly throbbed once more, then beat violently and powerfully.

She finally met a real "person" again, a free spirit.

"Lou Sanbai, can I call you that from now on?"

When Lou Sanbai approached, Lin Chengye said very seriously.

“You’re not a fortune teller, and I’m not any of the gods you’re talking about. My name is A-Ye, and you can call me that from now on.”

Lou Sanbai then realized that in Lin Chengye's heart, she only remembered one name, Lou Sanbai, which she had mentioned casually, and not the two words "witch doctor".

...

After finally finishing applying the medicine and bandaging Lin Chengye, Lou Sanbai was so exhausted that he sat down on the bed, not wanting to move at all.

“I will come again tomorrow. Since you said you have only three days left to die, I want to hear your story, your life, and everything about the Kingdom of a Thousand Buddhas before that. A person must have a lot to say before they die.”

Lin Chengye yawned. In truth, these injuries were nothing more than a matter of one night for her. She possessed two kinds of internal energy, and Bian Yi's gentle, nurturing influence would slowly heal these wounds.

"And you don't need to feel guilty that I was beaten because of you. It was my own fault for getting involved. Although the Thousand Buddha Kingdom is already deeply afflicted and the people's thoughts cannot be changed in a short time, if we find out the source of the ghost disease, perhaps I can."

Lin Chengye glanced at Lou Sanbai with a smug look, as if these wounds were just something to show off, and that she had only managed to touch the heart of an old man who was about to die with all of this at such a great cost.

He's really stupid.

"you……"

Lou Sanbai was stunned. Instinctively, she felt sorry for the child. But then she suddenly wondered why. This child seemed to understand death itself. Had someone close to her said a lot to her before they died?

But I really have a lot to say, and I do have it right now. Lou Sanbai asked curiously.

How did you figure out I was faking it?

“It’s obvious,” Lin Chengye explained.

"For example, when you saw the first dead girl, your expression was one of genuine pain and sorrow, so you probably knew that girl. Although you spoke incoherently, you acted very clearly, wanting to burn the body, and the names hanging on the roof beams were those of the deceased, and the candles in the room were lit for those who died, right?"

Not a single word was different. Lou Sanbai felt as if she had been seen through. She choked for a moment, then quickly blamed her.

"Then why didn't you use martial arts? Why did you just get beaten up like that?"

"...At that time, I really didn't intend to use martial arts. Besides, those were ordinary people, and I would never lay a hand on them."

This was taught to Lin Chengye by the Lin family.

"Why did you go out and shout it? If you wanted to expose me, you could have told me in private."

"First, I felt really stifled the past two days. This place felt very oppressive and strange, but today I've come to understand some things better."

Lin Chengye held up one finger, then another, and continued speaking.

"Secondly, I received a letter from a friend today, and I think I have a better understanding of the matter. I feel relieved. That's when I had an idea and decided to give it a try."

"What……"

Before Lou Sanbai could finish speaking, her door, which had never been opened by anyone for years, suddenly creaked open. Startled, she stood up abruptly.

Lin Chengye, on the other hand, gave a slight smile with an expression that said, "I knew it."

A timid-looking girl peeked through the crack in the door. She looked at the two people nervously, not daring to get closer. She squeezed through the door and quickly pressed her entire back against it, like a thin sheet of wall paint, far away from the two of them.

She was clearly there to see Lin Chengye. Although she kept her head down, her gaze was fixed on Lin Chengye. The girl spoke first.

“I…I saw it. You left with the sorceress. I thought I might be able to find you here. I have something to tell you.”

Lou Sanbai didn't know what had happened, but the girl looked familiar. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly pointed at the girl and said...

"You are... a daughter of the Meng family, right? Your name is... Meng Lingyun? Weren't you just chasing after her and hacking at her?"

"No! I was just doing it for my parents, otherwise they would think I'm weird and that something's wrong with me."

Meng Lingyun immediately retorted, timidly raising her eyes to look at Lin Chengye and speaking.

"You, what you said...is what you said true? Is it really true that there are no gods? Then, can I say whatever I want?"

Do you want to have it, or don't you want to have it?

Lin Chengye countered with a question.

Meng Lingyun suddenly fell silent. She took a deep breath, her small body trembling. After a while, she seemed to finally make up her mind, and shouted with her eyes tightly closed.

"No...I don't want to!"

"Because... I, my sister and brother are all dead, they were all taken away by ghosts. Mother said it was the gods, it was heaven's punishment, but... they were all very, very good people."

"Come and sit down."

See, even a child understands this. How can you not trust the people you spend every day with, and instead believe in some god? Lin Chengye sighed and called Meng Lingyun over.

Meng Lingyun still seemed quite afraid, especially the way she looked at Lin Chengye; her eyes held a mixture of fear and inquiry, as if she wasn't really looking at a person. Lin Chengye shook his head helplessly and said...

"Since there are no gods, then of course there are no ghosts. I am not a ghost."

Hearing this, Meng Lingyun moved forward a little, but still refused to get too close to the two of them. Lin Chengye did not insist and suddenly asked.

"Why did you say your sister and brother were taken away by ghosts? Did your parents tell you that, or are you just guessing?"

Since she arrived here, all she had heard about was that she had contracted a ghost disease and been punished by the gods, but this was the first time she had heard of someone being taken away by a ghost.

"No, it wasn't my guess, nor did my parents tell me."

Meng Lingyun swallowed hard, looked up at the sky, seemingly still afraid that the gods were watching her, and lowered her voice to speak.

"I have seen it. There really are ghosts. I was there when my sister and brother died."

It happened last year; her older sister was the first to die.

Meng Lingyun remembered clearly that her sister had been complaining of stomach pain for several days, so she accompanied her to the street to see a doctor. But halfway there, her sister suddenly screamed, and then warm blood smeared into her eyes.

Meng Lingyun heard people around her shouting and yelling. Someone was dragging her away, saying something like, "She's got a ghost disease! She's got a ghost disease!" She turned her head and saw her sister lying on her back with a bloody hole in her stomach.

Her brother was the second to die, just three days after her sister's death.

At that time, her whole family was terrified and stayed indoors. Her mother and father burned incense day and night, begging for forgiveness from heaven, saying that their family had never done anything bad in their lives.

Her brother asked her if she was scared. Meng Lingyun was about to shake her head when she saw her brother's expression suddenly twist. She felt as if she had been grabbed and couldn't move.

In just a few breaths, she watched her brother scream in agony, then bloody holes appeared in his body, and finally he collapsed. But this time, it was just the two of them. Meng Lingyun didn't scream; she was afraid her mother and father would drag her away, preventing her from seeing her brother one last time.

"...But this time I saw it. It looked like a dark shadow, a shadow so fast it was almost invisible, left his body. And I saw a long trail of blood leading to the roof. I remembered that when my sister got up, there was a similar trail of blood, very long and thin, as if a ghost had come out, but it was quickly buried by the snow."

Meng Lingyun finished speaking in one breath, then leaned against the door, panting, as if she had used up all her strength.

"Thank you for telling me."

Lin Chengye looked into Meng Lingyun's eyes and said with utmost seriousness.

"I will do my best to find the ghost."

"No...no, I should thank you. I finally have someone to say it."

Meng Lingyun seemed to finally breathe a sigh of relief. Her tense face relaxed, and her brows and eyes became much more relaxed. She had never dared to say it before, nor did she dare to mention it in front of her parents. She could only keep it to herself, and she felt like she was about to get sick from holding it in.

Fortunately, Lin Chengye suddenly appeared and said that the god was dead, and she could finally speak.

Suddenly, she looked at Lin Chengye with pleading eyes and asked.

"My sister and brother are really dead, aren't they? Even if you find that ghost, they won't come back."

Lin Chengye didn't speak, but Meng Lingyun seemed to already know the answer. She didn't ask any further questions, went out, closed the door, and left.

But the moment the door closed, a faint sob drifted from the whistling wind outside, growing softer with each sob, until it was gone forever. Meng Lingyun must have already gone far away.

"See, it works, doesn't it?"

Lin Chengye looked at the door and shook his head.

“In a place like this, even those who sense something is wrong dare not speak out. But if they keep it bottled up inside for too long, they don’t know when they will become like their parents, only able to rely on stubborn belief to alleviate their inner pain, and then generation after generation, it will all be like this.”

Lou Sanbai still wanted to scold her for being stupid. She had become a completely different person after being injured all over. He didn't know what good a few words would do.

Lin Chengye glanced at the darkening sky outside the window and suddenly remembered what Bian Yi had said in her letter: after 9 PM. She thought that it would be just right for her to arrive at that time.

"I'm leaving now."

Lin Chengye walked to the door, then suddenly turned back to look at Lou Sanbai and repeated himself.

"Remember, I'll be back tomorrow."

Lou Sanbai suddenly felt that this girl must have a very, very good mother. She had seen this kind of gentle yet strong nature in the previous fortune teller, who had told her that she had a gentle yet strong mother.

...

Lin Chengye struggled to reach the place Bian Yi had drawn for her, arriving after 9 PM.

"So those ink dots were referring to the mountains."

Lin Chengye helplessly wiped the sweat from his forehead, thinking that he must teach Bian Yi how to draw next time. It took her an hour to climb the mountain to get a few ink dots.

"Is this the Hundred Knowledge Inn?"

The inn in front of us has no name. From the outside, it has a roof covered with green tiles and upturned eaves, but the wind and rain have already eroded the gray wood underneath.

A pair of faded lanterns hung in front of the door, with a banner waving below. The ink characters were fading, and only the character for "wine" was faintly discernible. But aside from these, the entire inn was clearly well-managed and bore the marks of life. The outer door was spotless, and the carved wooden windows on the second floor were also clean, with flickering candlelight visible inside.

"I won!"

Lin Chengye had barely stepped in with his left foot, and before he could even process the situation, he heard a woman's cheer.

Then, some people started to sigh. Lin Chengye noticed that the inn was brightly lit, and there was a huge square table in front of her. Some people were smiling and stuffing the silver on the table into their pockets, saying...

"Oh dear, when has the young master ever lost a bet? You guys are still not giving up."

Is she being used as a wager? Lin Chengye raised an eyebrow. She was right; this place was indeed interesting.

"We've been waiting for you."

Suddenly, the boisterous crowd discreetly parted to make way. The woman who had just been cheering limped out, leaning on a cane. She held a folding fan in her right hand and fanned herself for a moment, then swiftly closed it five steps away from Lin Chengye.

The man grinned slyly and said...

"Spring God, Lin Chengye."

Author's Note: Just wanted to celebrate having my work featured today! [Heart emoji] And please, everyone, add this to your favorites!