Chapter 29 The Living Dead Take Advantage of the Favorable Wind
Following the darkness, Jiang Yuzhi instructed Sizhi to keep an eye on the courtyard, and then, with Diting in tow, they went through the back door to find the house where the Zhou family mother and son were currently living.
They're very close, door to door.
The moon hangs high in the sky.
Bai Yan gave Jiang Yuzhi a spare key, which was indeed much more convenient.
The small courtyard was quiet and still. There were no lights on in the house; Madam Zhou must have already gone to sleep.
"Shh, Zhizhi, there are still people awake."
Listening intently to the whispers, he glanced warily around the courtyard.
A crack appeared in the door of the side room.
The wooden door blocked out most of the moonlight, leaving only darkness in the gaps. In the quiet night, the faint, almost imperceptible sound of breathing reached Jiang Yuzhi's ears.
As they drew closer, their breathing became erratic, and a palpable tension rose within the room.
"Bang!"
A figure burst through the door and attacked Jiang Yuzhi.
The Di Ting lowered its forelimbs, bared its teeth in a threatening manner, and remained alert, ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble.
She reacted quickly, dodging to the side, and upon closer inspection, saw it was Zhou Yong.
...
Both sides looked somewhat awkward.
"Good night, Miss. Is there a problem at the shop?" The implication was clear: otherwise, what were you doing here so late?
During the day, one wouldn't notice, but under the pale moonlight, the child, not yet ten years old, had a faint bluish complexion.
Ordinary people would probably feel a chill down their spine if they saw this.
"Nothing, but why aren't you asleep yet?" Jiang Yuzhi asked casually, her gaze sweeping over the small section of Zhou Yong's wrist that was showing.
Children this age grow quickly, so it's normal for their sleeves to be too short. It's just that the areas not covered by the sleeves are either shadows or the edges of purplish-red marks.
Zhou Yong sensitively noticed the gaze of the person opposite him and subconsciously tugged at his sleeve.
It would have been better if they hadn't made any fuss, but once they started, it looked like they were trying to cover something up.
Jiang Yuzhi subtly tugged at the fur of Di Ting near the back of her hand, and an invisible barrier spread out from the dog's center.
The barrier that was set up before going to Zuo Huai is now even more secure.
Once ready, Jiang Yuzhi took a step back, letting Di Ting block her way. "You are not Zhou Yong."
The boy was silent for a moment, then said, "Miss, didn't you already know that?"
"You wanted to take my mother and me to the city, so you found a strange cat to watch over us, and this talking dog too."
Jiang Yuzhi couldn't help but secretly curse Di Ting in her heart. It was always so unruly, and she didn't know when Zhou Yong had seen it talking.
The Book of Life and Death records that Zhou Yong starved to death at the age of eight, and his soul was taken away by the ghost messengers. The unknown ghost in front of him did not have any black aura on him and had no evil debts.
"If that's the case, then who are you?"
The Book of Life and Death has a flaw: it is very troublesome to find souls that have not been taken away by the ghost messengers but have separated from their physical bodies.
The ghost messengers must come to collect a person's soul within a fixed period after death; otherwise, the person will be recorded as a dead person but not a real person.
The underworld has many such messes, and with insufficient manpower and no candidates for civil judges, there is simply no one available to make improvements.
It's been at least a year since Zhou Yong died, and this ghost died even earlier than Zhou Yong, so it must be an unregistered person in the underworld.
“...My name is Zhao Pingfeng, and I had no intention of taking over this body.”
As soon as Zhao spoke, Jiang Yuzhi felt a sharp pain in her brain, and she could barely stay awake as she listened to his wet tongue licking the back of her hand.
Searching through my memory, I couldn't find anyone in the Zhao royal family with that name; perhaps they just shared the same surname.
Zhao Pingfeng didn't notice Jiang Yuzhi's unusual behavior and continued speaking.
His memory was actually a bit hazy; he only remembered that he had sworn to be loyal to someone for life.
The young master said, "Wait for me to come find you."
Clearly, Zhao Pingfeng did not wait.
But the young master never lied to him.
Until a child collapsed under the locust tree where he was hiding, the ghost messengers arrived quickly, and Zhao Pingfeng dared not go out.
The child's soul was taken away before he came out. As soon as he approached the corpse, by the time he realized what was happening, he was already able to control his body.
At this moment, the body's mother came looking for Zhao Pingfeng, and he was forcibly taken back.
The wind is picking up.
As the clouds dispersed, the crescent moon in the sky grew even brighter.
Jiang Yuzhi saw it clearly: there was a small, mostly covered scar on Zhao Pingfeng's collarbone.
"There's something wrong with this body." Zhao Pingfeng's words ended there.
Before coming to the funeral clothing shop, Zhou Yong's body was strangely able to grow taller and feel hunger and pain.
After arriving here, these senses gradually disappeared.
Until one day, he suddenly couldn't even stand the sun, and large and small bruises slowly appeared on his body.
Then, Jiang Yuzhi returned to Kyoto.
Di Ting couldn't sense any malice from Zhao Pingfeng, so he suggested taking him back to the shop first and waiting for the Black and White Impermanence to arrive.
"I see that you are no ordinary person, young lady. Are you trying to summon a ghost messenger to take me away?"
"The ghost messengers cannot force a ghost to leave a body that is already without a master."
Jiang Yuzhi didn't seem to be lying to him, and Zhao Pingfeng breathed a sigh of relief. He was only an eight or nine-year-old child, and if they really wanted to take him away, he wouldn't have any room to resist.
There were no empty rooms in the backyard. Jiang Yuzhi and Diting lived in the main house, four weavers lived in the storage room, and there was a small couch empty on the second floor of the shop. After thinking it over, they could only settle Zhao Pingfeng there.
It was really worrying to let him continue living with Madam Zhou. Zhao Pingfeng was not in a stable state like when they first met; he had developed lividity, and it seemed he was about to lose control of his body.
Take him away first, and we'll find another excuse to deal with Madam Zhou tomorrow.
It's more important to call Xie Bi'an to come and burn paper money.
For some reason, Xie Bi'an arrived late today, well past midnight.
When they went upstairs, Zhao Pingfeng sat blankly on a small couch, surrounded by fabric for making funeral clothes, the colors of which were dark and somber. Several finished garments hung beside the couch.
This made his pale, bluish complexion appear even more striking.
Jiang Yuzhi had already given Xie Bi'an a general overview.
"Judging from the symptoms, he should be a living dead. Logically speaking, he was fine the day you left, so it's impossible for him to have become like this in just a few months."
Jiang Yuzhi also remembered that she had seen the living dead in a book belonging to the Emperor of Fengdu.
A person who dies without realizing it and can move freely is called a living dead.
The soul has not yet left the body, but its connection with the body is gradually weakening, slowly turning into the form a corpse should take.
Once the soul realizes it is dead, or someone tells it that it has already died, the ghost messengers can take away the soul that has completely departed.
But Zhao Pingfeng is different in some ways.
The physical body and soul were not originally a match, yet he was still able to grow normally. Only recently have he shown symptoms of being a corpse, which means that something may have affected him.
Jiang Yuzhi couldn't think of anything for a moment.
After questioning Zhao Pingfeng, they also asked Xiao Jin to listen to his inner thoughts.
However, Zhao Pingfeng was law-abiding and filial to his mother. He usually either helped Zhou Niangzi with chores or looked after the shop, learning to read and do accounts from A Zhao. Occasionally, he would force Xiao Jin to take a bath.
Indeed, as he himself said, his memory was hazy, so he naturally couldn't hear anything superfluous when listening carefully.
Just as Jiang Yuzhi was worrying, Fan Wujiu arrived, appearing directly in front of Zhao Pingfeng, the only outsider present.
"Xiao Zhi, there's an urgent matter in the underworld. I'll go down to Xiao Bai first."
Before Zhao Pingfeng's matter was resolved, another problem arose in the underworld. Jiang Yuzhi grabbed Fan Wujiu's wrist, "Brother Fan, there's a living dead here, look at this..."
Fan Wujiu stopped in his tracks, his brows furrowing even more. After a couple of seconds of thought, a round hook appeared in his hand.
The hook seemed to have eyes, flying to Zhao Pingfeng's wrist and fastening tightly, resembling a silver bracelet.
"The hook of the Soul-Hooking Lock will certainly not cause any further trouble before I arrive." With that, the Black and White Impermanence disappeared from the spot.
The Soul-Hooking Lock has now been split in two; the chain is suppressing Zhao Qingyun in the Stone Mill Hell, while the hook is ensnaring Zhao Pingfeng here.
"It's late at night, and if we don't rest soon it will be dawn," Jiang Yuzhi said to the only child in the house who could still be considered human.
"I haven't been able to sleep for several days, Miss." Zhao Pingfeng sat there like a puppet, truthfully explaining her situation.
"So what do you usually do?"
"Sit and wait."
Jiang Yuzhi suddenly felt a little sorry for this person, and she had a sudden idea, "How about you learn to make clothes with me?"
"Does Miss need me to learn?"
"No need. Do you want to? Or do something else to pass the time."
Zhao Pingfeng recalled that the young master had asked him before, "Do you want to?" What was his answer at the time?
"I think."
The underworld, the Stone Mill Hell.
Ox-Head and Horse-Face paced back and forth in a hurry, compacting the muddy ground of the underworld.
The Emperor of Fengdu rarely takes action; the only officials in charge of the underworld are the two who are frequently on the move, along with the Black and White Impermanence and the Central Ghost King.
"Stop stomping, you two! Can't you see that guy inside is still going crazy? He's probably being disturbed by your noise." The Central Ghost King, his head throbbing with pain from the loud footsteps, impatiently stopped them.
Just then, the Ox-Head and Horse-Face stopped, and the angry, mad howls inside ceased. The barrier that had been specially placed on Zhao Qingyun also stopped feeling the impact.
Could it really be that the two of them were arguing?
For some reason, starting a few days ago, Zhao Qingyun suddenly changed his gloomy and silent demeanor and began to continuously release ghostly power, attempting to break free from his restraints.
The initial impact was on the ghost messengers, but the influence spread outwards, and other ghosts in hell, stimulated by the incident, began to stir again.
The Ox-Head and Horse-Face were in a terrible state. They sought help from the Black and White Impermanence, but it was no use. They then went to the Ghost King. All they could do was set up a barrier to contain Zhao Pingfeng and prevent him from spreading further.
Right after Xie Bi'an left, Zhao Qingyun made an even bigger scene.
Ox-Head and Horse-Face thought that one ghost was missing and that their intimidation was not enough, so they urged Fan Wujiu to quickly call the ghost back.
It's only been a short time since they left, why has it become so quiet?
Has the problem they couldn't figure out for days been solved?
When the Black and White Impermanence arrived, the other ghost messengers from hell had mostly returned to their regular positions.
"What's going on? Didn't you say it was urgent? Why is it even quieter than before I left?"
Fan Wujiu was stunned.
"Oh dear, Master Xie and Master Fan, how would we know? Master Fan had just left when that evil spirit suddenly went quiet." Niu Tou said with a bitter face, his expression a mix of amusement and exasperation.
Just to be on the safe side, the ghosts didn't remove the barrier and went in together to take a look.
Zhao Qingyun lay motionless on the ground.
"Could it be that he's tired?" the bull-headed man guessed cautiously, earning him eye rolls from the other ghosts.
Fan Wujiu looked up and saw that the chains of the Soul-Hooking Lock were still firmly pressed against it. Although the evil spirit could not escape, its ghostly power could not be stopped. The barrier could only block it for a while, not forever.
Zhao Qingyun had been an emperor, possessing the aura of an emperor, and also had the help of the remnants of the Sheji Tu (a powerful map for governing the country).
The only known method to extract residual power is for a mortal to die and for a ghost to dissipate.
However, as a ghost messenger, even the Emperor of Fengdu has no right to deal with ghosts still serving their sentences in hell, and Zhao Qingyun's sentence is still a thousand years away.
Helpless, Black and White Impermanence and the Central Ghost King reinforced the barrier layer by layer, and then, ignoring Ox-Head and Horse-Face's attempts to persuade them to stay, hurried off to attend to their official duties.
Fearing being accidentally injured, the Ox-Head and Horse-Face quickly retreated to the outside of the barrier to guard it.
After a long while, the red-clad demon, lying in a disheveled state, moved his thin lips slightly, "Pingfeng... Zhao Pingfeng... wait... for me."
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Author's Note: [Shut up][Shut up][Shut up] Today's post is also earlier than usual.
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