Chapter 002 Chapter 2

Bai Manman is a white-collar worker in the city, but today she returned to the countryside after a long absence because her grandmother passed away and she wanted to see the old lady off for the last time.

The old man lived to be eighty-eight and died without any illness or misfortune. It was a happy death, but Bai Manman was still very sad.

The rural areas in the countryside retain the ancient funeral customs. Every relative must wear mourning clothes at the funeral, and Bai Manman is no exception. During the funeral, wreaths, mourning sticks, paper figurines, and paper money must be prepared. Of course, before that series of procedures, the body must be cremated at the funeral home.

After the old man's body is handed over to the funeral home staff, a group of relatives in mourning will move to the waiting area. It will be a very long process.

Not only Bai Manman's family was waiting in the waiting area, but there were also two other groups of relatives waiting. Like Bai Manman, they all wore white mourning clothes over their clothes. From a distance, it looked like a vast expanse of white.

Bai Manman just took a glance and then lowered her head. In such a heavy atmosphere, staring at others was very impolite.

But after she lowered her head, Bai Manman suddenly frowned. She seemed to see someone in a group of people in white clothes whose clothes were a little different from the others?

Bai Manman looked up again, and this time she saw clearly that the man was wearing white clothes but not mourning clothes. The style of the clothes looked like a modified Hanfu. He was standing under a tree with a smile on his face.

The man's face and skin were very white, a pale white that looked bloodless. His eyebrows were black and his lips were red. Could someone be born with such thin, black eyebrows and bright red lips? It looked like they were painted on.

Apart from that, the smile was also very strange, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised, as if it was fixed in that position without any change.

Perhaps he noticed Bai Manman's gaze, the smiling man turned his head and looked over. Bai Manman immediately lowered her head and cold sweat began to seep out of her forehead.

That man is so scary, Bai Manman thought to herself.

Who is he? He doesn't look like a family member. He's not even wearing mourning clothes. Is he a staff member here?

Everyone who works here wears uniforms, so why would he dress like that? Especially the man was still smiling. Aren’t you afraid of angering your family if you smile in a place like this?

Bai Manman didn't understand, but she didn't dare to look at him anymore. If he was a psychopath, she must not provoke him.

But Bai Manman had a feeling that the guy... was not human.

"Manman, what's wrong with you?" My cousin came over and asked.

Bai Manman seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw. She immediately stepped forward and grabbed her arm, whispering, "Do you see the man under the tree over there?"

"Under the tree?" My cousin turned her head and looked over. "Under the tree... there's no one there?"

Bai Manman was stunned and immediately turned her head to look over. The man she had seen under the tree had disappeared. Did he leave?

No matter what, Bai Manman would feel much more at ease now that that person was gone, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, Qingtong did not leave, he just cleverly blended in with one of the groups of family members.

Just when Qingtong was standing under the tree as a paper doll and was noticed by Bai Manman, Qingtong heard the system prompt sound.

"Ding! You have attracted the attention of others, your role performance is qualified, and you have gained integration."

"Unlock the first ability - Assimilation!"

"Assimilation - since paper dolls can be called people, why can't people become paper dolls? You can turn those who fear you into paper dolls and use them for your own purposes."

As the ability was unlocked, this skill was immediately injected into Qingtong's mind and he memorized it by heart.

It is a very useful skill. No matter how strong or weak the target is, as long as you cause fear in the target, you can manipulate the target to become your tool. The strange smile of the paper man is enough to make people feel uneasy.

Qingtong was only puzzled by one thing: "System, I have been standing here with a silly smile on my face for a long time, how come only one person noticed me?"

Although they are both dressed in white, there is a big difference between white clothes and mourning clothes. Add on that weird smile and he will stand out no matter how you look at him.

The system replied: "This is due to the characteristics of paper figures."

"characteristic?"

"Hmm~ Stone is hard, water is flowing, ice is cold, these are all characteristics. But when describing things, people usually only say 'there are stones here' and rarely clearly state 'there are hard stones here'. The character paper doll drawn by the host is a weird one made of funeral paper dolls, floating and with a low sense of presence. It is difficult to notice his existence if he doesn't speak."

Qingtong: "I see. Then... could it be that he has another characteristic of being afraid of fire?"

"Don't be afraid, it's weird, how can I be afraid of burning? Please feel free to dance in the fire scene, you won't get hurt at all!"

Qingtong curled his lips: "No matter what, I will never go to a fire scene to dance..."

And who was he jumping with in this funeral home? A corpse?

A little scary.

But this characteristic of not being easily noticed is also very useful. Qingtong used this to blend in with one of the waves of waiting relatives.

The group of people are quarreling.

"Before the old man passed away, we were the ones who took the best care of him. Now that he's gone and we've paid for his funeral, let alone anything else, the house should at least be left to us."

"Third sister-in-law, you're talking as if our family didn't pay. Haven't we handed over all the monthly support money to you? Why are you taking the money and then ignoring it?"

"What can we do with the little money you give us every month? Okay, we are not unreasonable people, but we must take the lion's share."

"You are being unreasonable."

"I said, the old man's body is still warm..."

"What do you mean it's not cold yet? It's being cremated!"

"Okay, stop pretending to be a filial son here. I know what each of you is thinking. You all think the old man is a hassle and hope he will leave soon."

"No, I just want to say... stop making noise here, it's embarrassing."

During the quarrel, the door was pushed open and the staff came out. The quarreling crowd immediately shut up. The old man's eldest son walked up and whispered a few words to the staff, then turned around and waved to everyone.

A group of people followed the staff and left with the urn.

No one noticed that at the end of the team, there was a man in white with a strange smile on his face. He was as light as paper and walked silently.

"Host, do you want to start a live broadcast? The backend app is ready."

"No need. I came out today just to brush up on my fusion level. There's no need to live stream for now." Qingtong replied in his heart.

He just came here to show his face today and by the way... try out his new skills.

The group of people took the urn and started arguing again when they walked to the parking lot and prepared to get on the bus. Qingtong listened to their argument with a smile, then walked to a young man at the back of the crowd and reached out to hold the man's shoulder.

This is a young man in his early twenties, who seems to be still in college. He is very annoyed by such occasions and kept looking down at his mobile phone the whole time, occasionally chuckling when he saw a few videos.

When Qingtong saw him falling to the back of the crowd and laughing from time to time, he had only one thought in his mind: It's you.

The young man was disturbed and turned around angrily to curse, but he saw a weird smiling face up close. He was so scared that he gasped. Before he could say anything, the young man silently turned into a palm-sized paper man with the young man's appearance on it.

The paper man smiled and held the small paper man in his hand, then looked up at the others. The interesting thing was that they were still arguing with each other, and no one noticed what was happening behind them.

"It's a really interesting scene." The paper man finally spoke, his voice full of sarcasm.

The noisy people finally noticed the existence of the paper man, and one of them shouted, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I'm very interested in you." The paper man tilted his head slightly. He seemed to be in a good mood, and the corners of his mouth stiffly raised a little. "But compared to the quarrel, I want to hear your sad voices. Everyone who came here is crying, but you are the only ones who are not crying. I feel very sorry."

"What does this have to do with you?!" someone shouted angrily, "Get out!"

The smile on the paper man's face faded, and he pinched the small paper man between two fingers and showed it to them.

"Po?" a middle-aged woman exclaimed, "That's what Po looks like. Wait, where's Po?"

She looked everywhere but couldn't find A-bao. She took out her cell phone to call her son. Then she heard a phone ringing on the ground behind the car.

The paper man laughed, and he threw the paper man out. Something strange happened. The originally palm-sized paper man began to stretch and grow, becoming a three-dimensional paper man as tall as a person. The mouth of the paper man painted with paint began to make a hoarse sound: "Mom... Dad..."

"Abao!" The middle-aged woman immediately recognized the voice as her son's and rushed over crying.

Unlike her, the others took a few steps back with shock on their faces.

Some of them even showed obvious fear.

"I said, I want to hear the sound of crying." The paper man spoke again, and he raised his finger slightly.

Those frightened people stopped moving, and then their bodies gradually began to change. Their originally soft clothes and skin began to become stiff, and gradually took on the texture of paper. In just a few breaths, they all turned into paper men standing in the same place.

"Ah——" Some people collapsed to the ground, some turned around and tried to run, and some took out their cell phones to call the police. Although it was unscientific, there seemed to be no other way except to ask for help in this situation.

Whether they wanted to make a phone call or run away, they all became paper men without exception, and only a few others survived.

"I want to hear crying." The paper man asked again.

The parking lot of the funeral home was completely empty, unless the next wave of family members came back after completing their formalities. However, with the efficiency here, it would take at least half an hour for the next wave to arrive.

Half an hour was enough for these people to cool off seven or eight times.

"I understand..." The survivor began to cry, shaking.

Once one person started, the others naturally followed. A group of people knelt on the ground and began to howl. The sound was so loud that it could be heard by Bai Manman in the waiting area. They couldn't see the parking lot, but could faintly hear some sounds.

No one found it strange because this was a funeral home.

Several living people followed the paper-cutters and knelt on the ground, crying sadly in front of the urn in the car.

Behind them, the paper figures in white were very happy, clapping their hands and singing loudly with laughter:

"My son has grown up, but my parents are no longer with me. I can only cry in vain.

We want to meet, but we are separated by the netherworld, and the love I owe to my parents is as deep as the ocean."

"Alas, your father has passed away. It is truly painful to say goodbye to him forever.

In the underworld, the road is confusing, how can one find the Chuntang? "①

Although the lyrics are sad, they are sung with a cheerful tune, which makes people feel cold.

The singing became increasingly distant, and then gradually disappeared, leaving only the wailing family members standing there. After crying for an unknown amount of time, the young man's hoarse voice rang out: "Mom, it seems like he's... gone."

The middle-aged woman who was kneeling on the ground, wailing and kowtowing suddenly turned her head and looked at the young man who had recovered from his paper-made appearance with surprise: "Oh my Abao!"

The other people who were crying also stopped and looked at their family members who had recovered with shock and fear.

"Let's go! Let's go! I don't know if that guy will come back..."

"Yes, let's go!!"

The group of people no longer cared about arguing about inheritance, as they got into their cars and left the funeral home as quickly as possible.