Chapter 20 Restrictions on Leaving the Village "Huh? How can you hear that all by yourself..."

Just like Li Linshi's funeral, Li Changgui's funeral was held hastily after only three days. Most of the people from the Tonggan production team came this time. There was no other way. Logically speaking, this was not the funeral of an elderly person in the village, so there was no need for the whole village to come and make such a big fuss. However, they had all gone to pay their respects to Li Linshi at the beginning of last month, so it would not be right to show favoritism and not go to pay their respects to Li Changgui this month.

"Sigh, what a mess this is, how can parents outlive their children for two months in a row..." someone in the crowd sighed softly.

"Alas, such a fine young man is gone just like that..." Even the ghost above the crowd sighed.

Zhong Ying couldn't help but look up at her aunt in mid-air, feeling that Cao Fang was regretting that one of her potential son-in-law candidates had been "eliminated."

But everyone has their own little schemes, so Zhong Ying went up to her mother, made an excuse, and soon quietly slipped out of the crowd.

Seeing this, Cao Fang followed her away.

The man and the ghost left Li Yang's house, passed the village school, and arrived at the village entrance.

Li Changgui, the protagonist of the funeral who had gathered most of the production team, was standing with his cousin Li Linshi at the somewhat deserted village entrance.

“I thought you would want to attend your own funeral,” Zhong Ying said as she walked over.

Li Changgui looked listless. "Who would want to see that? To watch themselves being buried? Are you out of your mind?"

Zhong Ying didn't speak, but silently turned her head to look at Li Linshi beside her.

Li Changgui's eyes widened, and he stood up straight, looking at Li Linshi with shock and admiration. "Brother, you really went to see your own burial?"

Watching his own body being buried in the ground and facing the reality of his own death was something Li Changgui didn't want to experience, which is why he acted as an outsider and didn't care about his own funeral.

"I guess so." Li Linshi wasn't actually watching his own burial. At that moment, his gaze was entirely on Zhong Ying. He was filled with hatred and resentment. Apart from her, Li Linshi couldn't see anything else.

Zhong Ying walked to the stone tablet at the village entrance, which was buried in the ground and only reached her calves. Looking at the three characters "Tonggan Village" carved on it, she looked up at Cao Fang and said, "Auntie, are you destined to never leave this stone tablet?"

Cao Fang nodded.

Zhong Ying then turned to the other two male ghosts, "Have you two tried it?"

“Just like…” Li Changgui paused, unsure how to address the female ghost before him, “we also cannot cross this stone tablet to get out.” Li Changgui said.

Cao Fang smiled shyly at him, "You can just call me Auntie."

Don't call her Aunt Zhong or anything like that. Her surname is Cao.

Li Changgui found it hard to address Cao Fang, whose face looked about the same age as his third cousin from his uncle's family.

Li Linshi nodded and said, "I also cannot cross the boundary stone, but if I go through the Ganlin River, I can go as far as the end of the river, but I can't go any further than that."

He had thought about it; he was able to break through the limitations simply by taking advantage of the river's momentum.

But the Ganlin River doesn't reach the town, so it can't reach the commune.

Zhong Ying stroked her chin, pondering as she looked at the small stone tablet in front of her. Could this unassuming blue stone be some kind of boundary-suppressing stone?

That's right, Zhong Ying is into everything in her private life: games, novels, and TV dramas.

"How about we try moving this stone tablet a little further away?" Zhong Ying murmured. Once the idea took hold, she couldn't resist calling out to Cao Fang, "Auntie, can you touch this stone tablet?"

If that doesn't work, she'll have to dig it out with a stick.

Cao Fang lowered herself slightly, bent down and reached out. Her pale, translucent fingertips touched the rough, cold surface of the bluestone. She looked at Zhong Ying, puzzled, and said, "Sure."

Zhong Ying breathed a sigh of relief. "That's great, Auntie! Please help me pull it out! I want to move it to another place—"

She looked ahead and pointed to the ground three meters away, "Put it over there and see if you can go any further."

“You make it sound so easy,” Li Changgui said, recalling that the stone with the village's name on it was already deeply embedded in the ground. “How could it possibly be pulled out so easily—”

Before he could finish speaking, his mouth was already agape in shock.

Cao Fang had already pulled the stone tablet out while he was speaking, as easily as pulling a blade of grass from the ground.

Standing next to her, Zhong Ying couldn't help but raise her delicate chin, "My aunt is incredibly strong."

"Oh, right," Zhong Ying suddenly remembered, "your fourth cousin became quite fond of swimming after he died, what about you?"

Li Linshi stared at her with his lifeless, deep black eyes, his face expressionless.

Zhong Yingcai didn't care; she just looked at Li Changgui with great interest, curious about what kind of "superpower" he now possessed.

Li Changgui thought about it carefully, then said awkwardly, "Um... I... I have a particularly long tongue?"

Zhong Ying silently withdrew her gaze, walked to the stone tablet placed on the ground, and forcefully lifted it up with both hands—

“Let me do it. This stone doesn’t look particularly big, but it’s still quite heavy.” Cao Fang stepped forward, past Zhong Ying, and easily lifted the stone tablet with one hand.

However, as Cao Fang held the stone tablet, it was as if some invisible rope was pulling her body taut and unable to take another step forward.

Zhong Ying slapped her forehead. "If ghosts could carry boundary markers, wouldn't that be a bug? They could just carry a stone and go anywhere in the world."

The funeral procession headed towards Ying Mountain behind the village, with several strong laborers at the front carrying the coffin together; the three ghosts at the village entrance could only watch as Zhong Ying, huffing and puffing, pushed and pulled as she moved the stone tablet forward.

The stone tablet left a dark mark on the ground. Zhong Ying used all her strength and was covered in sweat, but after a long time, she could only drag it a little over a meter away.

“This method won’t work.” Zhong Ying stopped. “I can’t possibly push and carry the stone tablet from the village entrance all the way to the town.”

In her memory, it would take five or six hours to get from Tonggan Village to Liuzhang Town by foot alone. There was no way around it; Tonggan Village was located in such a remote and isolated place. Tonggan Production Team was the production team furthest from the commune.

Li Linshi tried to walk forward, but found that it was still the same. Even though there was only a pit left on the ground, he still couldn't get out of the pit. "This method won't work. I still can't get out."

Zhong Ying had no choice but to resign herself to her fate and drag the stone tablet back again.

What are you doing?

The sudden question made all three ghosts instinctively turn around to look.

The moment Zhong Ying turned around, she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. If the villagers had seen her strange behavior of dragging the stone tablet at the village entrance, they would have only asked, "What are you doing?" But the voice just now said, "What are you all doing?" It included the three ghosts beside her that ordinary people couldn't see, so the one speaking was not human!

But it was too late for her to stop; she had already instinctively turned around!

What caught Zhong Ying's eye was a Zhongshan suit with an ox-head design and a white coat with a horse-face design.

The one who just spoke was a ghost messenger with a bull's head. He and Horse-Face couldn't find Li Changgui's soul on Ying Mountain where they were holding a funeral, so they came down the mountain and searched all the way from the village. They saw three ghosts gathered at the village entrance, so he asked in confusion. Unexpectedly, the three ghosts turned around after hearing him, revealing a person who was also turning around.

"Huh? How can you hear me when I'm talking?" Bull Head was even more puzzled.

Zhong Ying's sweat turned into cold sweat as her brain raced, trying to find the right words. "I..."

Remembering her earlier mention of "reincarnation," Li Linshi subconsciously took a step forward in front of her.

Fortunately, the next moment, another underworld official's words eased the tense atmosphere.

Horse-faced has been a ghost messenger for much longer than Ox-headed Man. He only glanced at Zhong Ying indifferently and said, "What's the big deal? You've only seen 'earth spirits,' you don't know that there are also 'outstanding people' in the world. Although they are very few, there are always a few. What are you and me compared to them? There are also those who can see 'heaven and earth,' and those who can see 'the future.'"

"Oh, oh." The bull-headed man scratched his head憨厚ly.

Zhong Ying took a deep breath and came back to life. That's right, from this moment on she was a "hero," which was better than a fugitive soul from the 21st century.

Niu Tou stopped focusing on why only Zhong Ying could hear him and returned to his original question, "What were you guys doing just now?"

“It’s obvious,” Horse-faced said, his gaze falling on the relocated stone tablet, “that they are trying to find a way to leave Tonggan Village.”

Its bull-headed, bell-like eyes glared, making it look even more terrifying and intimidating. "You want to escape?!"

Cao Fang was so frightened that she quickly waved her hands, "No, no, we're just trying to see if we can get out of this area."

This was the first time Li Changgui had faced the legendary Ox-Head and Horse-Face demons directly. His legs were trembling, but he still bravely stood up. "It's all because I wanted to see Liuzhang Middle School with my own eyes. They were just helping me fulfill my last wish."

"I also want to know why we can't leave the Tonggan Production Team after we die?" Li Linshi stared directly at Ox-Head and Horse-Face.

Horse met his calm gaze and replied, "This is a limitation imposed by the 'Laws of Heaven and Earth'."

Compared to the concise Horse-Face, Ox-Head had much more to say: "The human world is so vast, with so many people. We underworld officials are also divided into jurisdictions. I and Ma Rakshasa are already extremely busy just dealing with your Cangning Province. If ghosts can still roam around after people die, wouldn't that make things difficult for us underworld officials?!"

Niu Tou became more and more excited as he spoke, "How do you catch them? I'm asking you, how do you catch them? Ghosts already run away when they see us, and those who died unjustly have some superhuman abilities, making them even more like slippery eels! Like you, yes, I'm talking about you, the ghost who died in the river. Back then, just to say a few words to you, Ma Luosha and I chased you for ten miles..."

While eavesdropping, Zhong Ying hid behind several ghosts. Sure enough, no one at work is without resentment, and the underworld officials are no exception.

Horse-faced interrupted Ox-headed, "Therefore, due to the limitations of the laws of heaven and earth, as long as we read the place of death in the Book of Fate, we can generally find the lingering ghosts."

"Is there really no way for ghosts to leave their place of death?" Seeing that the two underworld officials spoke no differently than ordinary people, Li Changgui's fear subsided a bit, and he couldn't help but look at them expectantly. "I just want to see the school I'll never have the chance to attend in this life, and after fulfilling this wish, I'll go with you to be reincarnated!"

Unable to withstand the hopeful and pleading gaze, Ox-Head stroked his horns with difficulty. "Well... although we are underworld messengers walking among humans, we are actually bound by the laws of heaven and earth. We can't do anything beyond our duties. We are only responsible for guiding the souls of the dead, advising them on what to pay attention to in the human world, and fulfilling their last wishes... This is the job of the local guardian deities."

Li Changgui asked with delight, "Is it the Mountain Goddess?"

Zhong Ying, who had been eavesdropping silently, was secretly surprised. It turned out that the mountain god temple was not just a place to make wishes, but that the mountain god was not a spiritual sustenance but a real existence.

Niu Tou was even more embarrassed. "Yes, but the mountain god of your area... she has gone into the mortal world."

"Enter the world?" Li Changgui was taken aback.

“All deities born from nature must enter the mortal world; this is the ‘law of heaven and earth.’” Horse-face spoke, pointing to a line of ants passing by on the ground. “To give an example, like these ants, do humans know what ants are thinking? Do they understand their emotions? To be a good guardian deity, it’s not enough to just sit high in a temple; one must experience the joys and sorrows of human life to understand the full spectrum of human emotions.”

"It's just like what you all say, 'From the masses, to the masses.'" Niu Tou couldn't help but raise his head proudly. "I've also carefully read and studied the Red Book of Humanity."

Zhong Ying couldn't help but glance at the two underworld officials. To her surprise, they were not only not as fierce and menacing as the legends suggested, but also quite down-to-earth.

Li Changgui asked anxiously, "When will the Mountain Goddess return?"

Ox-Head waved his hand, "How would we know? The time each god spends in the mortal world and the number of reincarnations they undergo depend on their own understanding. When 'Heaven and Earth' deem it appropriate, the god will naturally return to their place. I also hope that the mountain god of Yingshan here will return to his place soon. There's Tonggan Village, Panpokou without the Medicine God, and several other places without gods. All the burdens are on me and Ma Luosha..."

The light in Li Changgui's eyes dimmed little by little. It really was a school he could never go to in his life, and he couldn't go to it even after he died.

Horse-faced didn't miss the change in his expression and slowly said, "Actually, it's not that no ghost has ever left its place of death."

Upon hearing this, several pairs of eyes turned to the horse-headed, human-bodied man wearing a white, double-breasted cloth jacket. Even the bull-headed man looked over in surprise, as it was the first time he had ever heard of such a thing!

“I once saw a ghost who was moving south with his relative who was holding his memorial tablet because of the relocation of the capital…” Horse-faced looked meaningfully at the person behind the group of ghosts.

Niu Tou was much more direct. His eyes lit up, and he turned to Zhong Ying, "Isn't there someone here? Let her take you to see the school! Are you two related? I remember that people like you always have some kind of kinship!"

Zhong Ying and Li Changgui looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Do you and I... have anything going on?" Zhong Ying asked hesitantly.

Li Changgui thought and thought. His mother, Shan Shuhui, had married into the Zhoujiawowo production brigade from afar and didn't have any relatives in the Tonggan production team. His father, Li Yang, and the production team leader, Li Ming, were brothers, but the Li family and the Zhong family had never had any intermarriage or connection going back several generations...

After thinking it over, Li Changgui could only think of one thing. He first glanced at Li Linshi beside him, then looked at Zhong Ying, "Um... she almost became my fourth cousin's wife, does that count?"

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Author's Note: Li Changgui: (bows to reality) Fourth cousin-in-law! Fourth cousin-in-law, help me!