Chapter 29 Paper Man City 26
The person opposite slowly raised his head and kept calling out.
"Pingting... Pingting..."
Her face was exposed in the pale moonlight, and she kept repeating her own name.
She took the cup from the cabinet and poured herself a cup of tea. She took the broom from behind the door and swept the floor again. She took out the folded coat and put it on the bedside table again.
If Xu Pingting wakes up tomorrow, she will definitely see the teacup, broom, and coat in a different position. But she will not remember that she was the one who did these things.
Because now "she" is not Xu Pingting.
The door creaked open. The late night visitor was Qin Xue, who had been there during the day.
He was not surprised to see "Xu Pingting" wake up, but was slightly startled when he heard her speak, revealing a look of joy. Jiang Yuelu stood aside, staring at his face. Compared with Qin Xue during the day, this person's temperament had changed a little.
"Pingting, Pingting..."
Qin Xue looked at the dull eyes and stiff limbs of "Grandma Xu" as if she were looking at a newly completed artifact, and nodded in praise: "It's more finished than Zhang Hu's. This one can even speak."
While he was observing others, Jiang Yuelu was also observing him. He soon realized what had changed about Qin Xue.
Confidence. He is very confident now.
The Qin Xue who whispered about the "Symbiosis Method" and the Qin Xue who stood among the corpses and promised the townspeople that she would revive the dead, all hung their heads, spoke in low voices, were listless, and had no enthusiasm. But now this Qin Xue, observing people with her chin turned, spoke with a smile, with a rising tone at the end, and had a sense of complacency.
"If everyone was as hardworking as you, why would I have to put in so much effort? Seventy-seven forty-nine days, seventy-seven forty-nine days, I've waited too long!"
"You will be able to be reborn from this body tomorrow."
"Please fulfill my little wish. You are the only one who can do this."
"After it's done, you can still stay together forever, but that moment will probably be more than ten years later."
As Qin Xue spoke, he slowly stroked Xu Pingting's face with his fingers. This action was made to look strangely seductive by him, and it looked indescribably inappropriate on the fair face of such a young man.
"See you tomorrow~" He waved his hand and disappeared into the darkness.
"Xu Pingting" stood there for a while before going back to sleep.
She could only pronounce her own name, and not very fluently. Would the human being created by Nuwa also have a physical body like her, then learned to speak by babbling, and then gradually developed spiritual consciousness?
Jiang Yuelu suddenly thought of the paintings in Zuixianlou.
From skeletons to reborn, one "person" after another comes back to life. But can the dead really be resurrected without a care in the world? If I knew that I could live again after death, why would I be afraid of death? If people lose their reverence for life, the world will be in chaos.
So Qin Xue deceived Xu Pingting and others, in order to use their bodies as willing "living base graves", providing nutrition day and night, and when the 49th day was up, he would peel out these dead souls...
But some people are unaware of this.
A thin ray of light shone through the window, and he heard some small noises behind him, as if Xu Pingting was getting dressed and going to bed. The teacup, coat, and broom were still in a place she was not familiar with. The "evil ghost" had come again at night.
A scream pierced the boundary between day and night.
The scorching sun rises from the horizon.
It will be daybreak soon.
- [Fourth Tip]
The person who appeared in the prompt this time was Lord Zhu.
In the previous tips, Jiang Yuelu had also seen him, but he was always standing in a relatively marginal position. When something big happened in a town, it was reasonable for the local officials to take responsibility, but Zhu Xiuyuan was timid and afraid of trouble. On the night of the attack, he pretended to be a corpse lying on the ground and escaped.
He also heard Qin Xue's words about "resurrecting the dead." But his wife did not die in the massacre, and he was not willing to bring her back to life.
However, Qin Xue said that those people would obey him in the future, which made him very interested.
Now the townspeople were terrified by the evil ghosts that appeared in the middle of the night. As the second person to know, he knew the whole story. After the massacre, the wizard Qin Xue really called back the souls of most of the dead as he said, but most of those souls were broken, and people and ghosts were different. People would definitely not survive, but they could still maintain their ghost form and continue to live in the dark city.
When Wizard Qin Xue told him this, he was almost scared to death.
"So you lied to them?"
The townspeople were already crazy about the resurrection of the dead. If they knew that Wizard Qin was lying to them, they would definitely rush in and tear him apart, right? And why did he tell me alone? Was he trying to drag others down with him before he died?
Wizard Qin said disdainfully: "Well, you are too cowardly. Didn't I tell you that they can't come back to life? Not only does it take time to repair their souls, but I have to create another body for them, right?"
Lord Zhu understood, "So it takes time?"
Wizard Qin was a little appreciative. "You are quite smart. Not bad. I will need ten years or more. Of course, I will not stay here forever, so I need to find a helper to watch over these people for me and prevent them from causing any trouble."
“…Is that me?”
"You alone are not enough." Qin Xue clapped her hands proudly, "I have found another helper for you. Come out and meet your old friend."
A graceful woman with a high bun walked out from behind the pearl curtain.
Seeing her face, Lord Zhu shouted: "Ningning! How could it be, haven't you been dead for a long time..."
Madam Zhu smiled at him with her eyes bent, her beautiful eyes full of charm. She said, "Long time no see," and returned to Qin Xue's side again, respectfully calling her "Master." Master Zhu stared blankly at the longing and enthusiasm in her eyes. Now they were all given to another man.
"You two are old acquaintances, so I won't introduce you any further." Qin Xue changed the subject, "In short, they must not know that the spirit of the dead has returned and is right beside them."
Lord Zhu asked: "Why don't you let them know? Even if they are dead souls, they will be very grateful to you..."
Why not let them know?
Wouldn’t you be more grateful if you knew that?
How much easier it would be to manage, without the need for two puppets, one inside and one outside, to keep watch all the time.
It's unnecessary to make them forget, to make them have no impression of the symbiotic ritual, and just think that their loved ones have been slaughtered to death, while the evil ghosts of the executed bandits are still lurking around them... Experiencing such despair, pain and hatred, can make you - Qin Xue feel better, right?
He lowered his head and heard Qin Xue laughing above him, with a hint of weak charm, "I don't want to be grateful."
"Happiness is rubbish, only pain lasts forever. One year, two years, three years, I dare say they will not remember these dead people!" Qin Xue said indignantly: "And then they will live their own carefree lives, as if the dead people had never been here. I don't understand why they cried so hard in the first place. Time can heal all pains, hahahaha, bullshit, bullshit!"
Laughing nervously, Qin Xue opened her hands slamming open, making a gesture of wholehearted embrace.
"Time won't heal anything - that's hatred!"
"Keep hating, keep hating!"
Is this something a wizard would say? It doesn't even sound like something a human would say... The fragment slowly rolled away Lord Zhu's surprised expression.
- [Fifth Tip]
Mr. Zhu's thoughts shifted away from his memories and his gaze fell on Granny Xu again.
Such a stubborn and strong woman has now become much thinner and as weak as a rabbit.
The strange thing was that he didn't feel guilty at all when he saw the people struggling in confusion. These people had always disrespected him as an adult sent from outside. Now he said one was one, two was two, and they dared to act only when he said to take a step... A strange sense of pleasure slipped through his heart.
Madam...his wife.
Should I be watching from somewhere in the dark now?
To put it nicely, it's a partnership between husband and wife, but in reality it's just surveillance. He is not trusted by Qin Xue, so he has a wife - after all, she who calls him "master" is much more obedient than himself.
How obedient! He thought to himself.
Was she ever so obedient when she was alive? After she lost her child, she was like a crazy person out of control.
Lord Zhu waved his hand and said, "Wizard Qin is almost here, bring it up first."
Zhang Hu and others had been waiting outside the door, and only came in with their things after hearing what Lord Zhu said. They held a thin, ink-colored iron chain in their hands, which was hanging down and locked on one side with a lock. A small paper figure was hanging on it - the paper figures that Jiang Yuelu had seen in the ancestral hall, and it turned out that this was their first appearance.
They are now just ordinary paper figures, floating in the wind, without any human movements or expressions, and are far less vivid than they were later.
Zhang Hu and others placed the iron chains on the altar in the ancestral hall and stepped aside.
As if the time was calculated, Qin Xue also pushed the door open and walked in. Seeing him, Granny Xu, who had been tortured to the point of madness, perked up.
After this time, the evil ghost will be locked in the paper man and will never be able to harm them again.
Qin Xue said: "Let's start."
…
Xu Pingting was the first to wake up.
She got up and found herself sleeping in the ancestral hall. She didn't know how much time had passed, and the sun was no longer outside. She remembered that it was still afternoon when she arrived at the ancestral hall. Wizard Qin Xue said the ceremony had begun, lit the incense, and then they fell asleep while chanting...
Is it evening now?
Xu Pingting broke out in a cold sweat. Evil ghosts would appear at night!
"It doesn't matter."
The voice of the wizard Qin Xue came from above. Xu Pingting looked at him. He pointed at the huge altar and said, "I have suppressed those evil spirits into the bodies of paper figures. They will no longer wander around the town."
Seeing the surprise on her face, Wizard Qin Xue explained calmly: "I won't disturb you again. You can live a normal life."
"real?"
"You go and see."
Xu Pingting squatted down and looked at the paper figure.
The person lying on the table before was clearly a little man cut out of a piece of paper, but now he stood up suddenly, raising his flexible arms and hands. He had no mouth, but she felt that he was shouting something.
When the paper man saw her face, his silent screams became louder, and he kept trying to drag the chain towards her, scaring her so much that she took several steps back.
"Wizard Qin, Wizard Qin!"
"Don't worry, it won't go far."
The words sounded like a curse. A hissing and sliding sound of snakes could be heard in the air. The iron chain that was coiled around the table quickly straightened with the movement of the paper man. In less than a moment, it pressed the desperate brake button on this all-out run.
The force of the rebound caused the paper man to fall heavily. It rolled several times on the spot, still desperately stretching its arms and shoulders to reach Xu Pingting.
"What is it doing?" The strange movement made Xu Pingting feel very puzzled.
"What else can the evil ghost do? I guess he is still determined to harm you."
Qin Xue lied nonchalantly: "You were almost scared to death. You were running rampant in the town without any scruples, but now you have failed and are trapped in a small iron chain and unable to move. Guess how much it hates you?"
Xu Pingting pouted, "It deserves it!"
Still not satisfied, he turned around and stared at the little paper figurine, his hatred gushing out: "You deserve it! This is retribution!"
Seeing her like this, the paper figurine withdrew its hands in fear and touched its face, as if something was constantly flowing out of its eyes. This strange action made Xu Pingting briefly recall her lover. On the day she agreed to marry him, he cried with joy, and while crying he also touched his face like this childishly.
The evil ghost who killed him showed the same expression as him. What an insult it was.
Xu Pingting was so angry that she was shaking. She picked up an iron whip and hit the paper figure. The paper figure stared at her face, not trying to avoid it, and let the whip rain down on it.
The sound of whipping woke up the other sleeping people. Xu Pingting told them what Qin Xue said. Some didn't dare to believe it, so she pointed at the trembling paper man who was trying to reach out to her and said, "Look, he still wants to hurt me!" and whipped him hard again.
After the revenge, people kept expressing their gratitude and unanimously decided to make today an annual "ritual night". They would never forget the pain of their enemies killing their loved ones and would fight back the pain year after year.
After everyone left, crying sounds slowly began to be heard from the altar.
Huang Yusheng said with his dying breath: "You will be punished. Evil will be punished."
Qin Xue smiled and said, "I am a ghost, I couldn't ask for more."
He looked coldly at the crying of the paper figures, "Besides, who will take revenge on you? You are not even zombies. You can only rot here day after day. You will be whipped on the day you meet your loved ones. How pitiful! You will not remember hatred or love. You will only think that everything is due to my grace. You will listen to the advice of my servants and live forever in this dark city... Who will come to save you!"
Huang Yusheng closed his eyes in despair.
Jiang Yuelu watched from the side. He seemed to understand their pain in the past ten years.
Every time I woke up, I could see the wizards in the academy. I was probably filled with hope at that moment, right? But so many wizards had died in the past ten years, and they were still trapped in an endless cycle of suffering. Hope turned into despair again and again.
What was the paper man thinking when he reached out to Xu Pingting that night?
"Someone will."
Maybe he couldn't hear her, but Jiang Yuelu still said, "Ten years later, someone will come to save you."
"What do you want to save?!"
A roar tore the small dark room apart, and the space that the system tried its best to maintain turned into pieces. He returned to the ancestral hall again and saw Madam Zhu's angry face. Jiang Yuelu ignored it and searched for Mr. Huang who was standing on the ground, tears streaming down his face.
"Look, someone will come to rescue you." He said gently.
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