The 15th day of the seventh lunar month is the day when the dead return home to visit their relatives. The ghost market opens before this. Passing ghosts will stay for a few days and exchange what they need from the living who are willing to step in.

Fu Yunshen has a strong yang energy, and his presence will disturb the ghosts. Shi Mu hurriedly took out a knife from Zhou Zhi's backpack, cut her finger, and smeared the blood on Fu Yunshen's face. She is a person of great yin, and even if she walks in front of the dead with dignity, the other party will not doubt her. Naturally, her blood can temporarily hide Fu Yunshen's breath.

Xia Hangyi led a few people to retreat to a corner, took out the talisman paper they carried with them and handed it to Shi Mu. He was afraid that his voice would be heard by the passing ghosts, so he suppressed his voice very low: "Shi Mu, draw a talisman with your blood."

Shi Mu nodded, smeared the blood on each piece, and distributed it to the three people in turn.

The red lanterns on both sides became brighter. Some cars drove away, while others stopped. Ghosts left the ground and scattered everywhere. Shi Mu stuck her head out and saw stalls set up on the roadside, selling offerings...

Even though she had eaten ghosts before, she was still horrified to see this scene.

After carefully retracting her head, Shi Mu asked in a trembling voice, "What should we do?"

Xia Hang looked at the others and said, "Zhou Zhi, are you acting good?"

"We're moving, but very slowly."

Xia Hang nodded. "One hour in the ghost world is one day in the human world, and the ghost market is only open for one day, so we have to find an exit before the ghost market closes, otherwise... we will become their sacrifice."

Zhou Zhi was shivering badly. "I, I, I, I... I don't dare, I don't dare to move."

Fu Yunshen slapped him back. "We have to move whether we want to or not. Let's follow the sedan chair in front. Since they are going to visit relatives in the human world, the direction they are going is the exit."

Xia Hang nodded in agreement. "Remember don't talk and don't look around. Zhou Zhi, do you understand?"

Zhou Zhi hung his face. "I understand the truth, but why did you have to call my name?"

Without further ado, several people got up and followed the sedan chairs in front.

When I got closer, I realized that the paper figures on the sedan chair were extremely scary, with crooked eyes and eyebrows, and round red cheeks. They smiled strangely, their steps were swaying, and they laughed from time to time.

Zhou Zhi was almost scared to death. He remembered that when he was a child, when someone died in his hometown, all the paper figures were burned and hung. He didn't think they were scary at the time, but rather cute. Now looking at them again, they are so cute!

Shi Mu was also scared to death. What's worse is that her legs were weak and her stomach was hungry. She didn't know whose ghost the red sedan chair in front of her was, but the sweet glutinous rice it exuded made her very greedy.

Shi Mu's mouth was full of saliva, and she kept swallowing. She pulled Fu Yunshen's sleeve and said, "Can I..."

"No." Fu Yunshen, who guessed what Shi Mu was thinking, refused without thinking. This is the ghost market, the business district of the dead. How dare she eat ghosts alive in other people's territory?

Shi Mu pursed her lips and said nothing.

After she was silent, Zhou Zhi couldn't help but start to compare, "By the way, do you still remember the story of the ghost market that I told you before?"

Shi Mu nodded.

Zhou Zhi whispered: "It is said that the scoundrel spent all his savings and wanted to go to the market to exchange money. Who would have thought that the peddler said, 'You don't have anything to sell.' After saying this, the scoundrel saw the sky change suddenly. The originally bustling market suddenly turned into a cemetery. The stalls turned into mahogany coffins. The peddler in front of him had maggots in his mouth. The scoundrel felt bad and turned around to run, but was pinned to the ground..."

Zhou Zhi's lips were purple: "That scoundrel... was eaten alive by ghosts, The peddler ate the two taels of meat he had pawned, the one who gave him the title deed ate his liver and lungs, the one who gave him the gold ate his eyes, and even the one tael of meat in his crotch was not spared. After the scoundrel died, all the silver he spent turned into gold ingots for the dead. "Zhou Zhi asked with a trembling voice, "Do you think we will be eaten?"

At this moment, singing came from the sedan in front. A little girl sang with an ethereal and distant voice. In such a dead place, the childish singing was undoubtedly a death warrant.

"Borrow a starlight and place it on the road.

Cut a bunch of moonlight and wear it as clothes.

The direction the wind blows is my sleeping hometown.

The direction I walk is far away from home.

The direction I walk is far away from home..."

"Damn it, can this naughty kid stop singing..."

A group of people were scared by the ghost story, and the ghost in front of them started singing. Zhou Zhi was so angry that he cursed. Just after he finished cursing, he saw the curtain of the sedan chair in front suddenly opened, revealing an extremely gentle and moving face. The woman's watery eyes looked at them. Suddenly, Zhou Zhi stopped, his eyes wide open with astonishment.

"Nephew?"

Shi Mu called softly, but he didn't respond, as if he was frozen and couldn't move at all.

The red sedan suddenly stopped along the road. Xia Hang cried out inwardly, holding his breath and pulling Fu Yunshen and Shi Mu into the dark. Zhou Zhi did not move, still staring blankly.

A woman came out from inside, followed by two children, a boy and a girl.

She was very beautiful, wearing a red floral cheongsam, with black hair tied up, skin as white as snow, and lips that were even more rosy. The two little guys following her were also beautiful. The girl had two black braids and big, round eyes. The boy was younger than her and held her hand obediently.

Shi Mu noticed that the two children's feet were on the ground. Are they... alive?

At this time, the female ghost had approached Zhou Zhi.

Fu Yunshen's face was gloomy, and he went over to grab them. As soon as he pulled Zhou Zhi's hand, he heard him murmur in a low voice: "Mom..."

Fu Yunshen froze instantly.

Mom...

Mom?

Xia Hangyi and Shi Mu were also confused.

Shi Mu remembered what Zhou Zhi said about the family situation. At that time, he praised his mother to the sky. He thought it was exaggerated at that time, but now he thinks his vocabulary is really poor.

His mother has the softness and elegance of a Jiangnan woman, and the literary air of a scholarly family. She is really beautiful.

"Xiao Zhi, why are you here?" Mother Zhou was a little surprised, "Your life is not over yet, aren't you looking for death here?"

Zhou Zhi had been crying for a long time, how could he speak.

When Mother Zhou died, Zhou Zhi was still young and didn't quite understand the grief. As time went by, he thought of his mother's goodness. Every time his father beat and scolded him, he missed his mother even more.

Zhou's mother was born into a scholarly family and always spoke softly to her children. Even when Zhou's sister was naughty, she never got angry. But such a good person was forgotten and abandoned by his father.

Zhou Zhi had always thought that his mother had been reincarnated. It was good that she would not see what his father did and would not be sad. But when he saw her today, he was so sad that he could not say a word.

The big boy cried miserably, and his eyes were aggrieved like a child of five or six years old.

Mother Zhou was amused and distressed. She wanted to go over and hug him, but the mother and son were separated by Yin and Yang. If they touched, one of them would be hurt.

"You are an adult, why are you still so crybaby?"

Zhou Zhi cried even louder.

Shi Mu was afraid that his crying would attract the attention of hundreds of ghosts, so he quickly reached out to stop her crying. Xia Hang, who was standing next to him, saw it and took out a handkerchief to wipe the snot and tears from his face.

Mother Zhou chuckled, "Is this your friend?"

Shi Mu introduced politely, "Hello, Auntie, I'm Shi Mu, and this is Fu Yunshen and Xia Hangyi."

"In half an hour, the gates of hell will close. If you don't leave, you will be trapped here and can't get out. I just happened to be sending these two siblings back. How about this, you come and join me."

Several people were just worrying about how to get out, and what Mother Zhou said solved a big problem for them.

The sedan was very small, and it was a bit crowded for so many people to sit in it, especially since they were the living and couldn't get too close to the dead, especially for a sunny person like Fu Yunshen. Once he encountered the undead, he would probably end up with his soul torn apart.

Fu Yunshen naturally thought so too. He looked at Shi Mu, his eyes flashing, "Shi Mu, how about..."

"Why don't you sit on Xia Hangyi's lap." Shi Mu looked at the boy with a smile.

Fu Yunshen's face darkened, and he sat on Xia Hang's thigh with a gloomy look.

In this way, there was more space.

Zhou Zhi sat next to Zhou's mother. After crying for a long time, his mood finally calmed down. He was looking at his mother with red eyes, and his eyes were full of words.

Zhou's mother smiled: "Are you asking me why I don't go back to see you?"

Zhou Zhi nodded.

Zhou's mother said: "The dead soul wants to visit relatives, and they return to their hometown, that is, the ancestral tomb. Do you remember where I am buried?"

Zhou Zhi was stunned.

Zhou's mother smiled: "I go back every year, but I don't see anyone..."

Her cemetery is in her hometown, and the Zhou family moved to the city a long time ago. Except for going back to visit the cemetery every year during the Qingming Festival and the anniversary of her death, no one usually goes there.

Thinking that his mother is always alone, Zhou Zhi felt even more uncomfortable.

"Oh yes, your sister came to see me during the Ghost Festival last year. She said that you never celebrated your birthday after I left, right?"

Zhou Zhi turned away and said, "There's nothing to celebrate."

Mother Zhou looked at him, "You only have one birthday a year, why not celebrate it?"

Zhou Zhi pursed his lips stubbornly and said nothing.

Mother Zhou's eyes were filled with sadness, "Because of my death, right?"

Zhou Zhi's birthday was the anniversary of his mother's death. It was because she wanted to rush back to celebrate his birthday that she got into a car accident. Even though this incident had nothing to do with Zhou Zhi, it was still a hurdle in his heart that he couldn't get over.

Mother Zhou took a deep breath and said, "In fact, I had a difficult labor when I gave birth to you. It took two days and two nights, and I almost died from heavy bleeding. I always felt that my life should stop on that day, but the Bodhisattva wanted me to bring you to the world, so I lived. So on your birthday, I took the path I should have taken."

Mother Zhou wanted to reach out and touch her son's face, but finally put it down embarrassedly, "Xiao Zhi, I am dead, but you are still alive. Your birthday is... "You're still growing up, you can't keep thinking about this."

Zhou Zhi shook his head, his eyes red: "I'm thinking about it. Even if Dad doesn't think about it, I will." He cried again, "I... I'm going to join the army after graduation, and I'll apply to our school. Don't you like being a soldier? Wait until I put on the uniform and show it to you with my own eyes, okay?"

He felt so uncomfortable, he only hated himself for not growing up a few years. He wanted to let his mother see that he had never let her down.

"The gate of hell is coming soon."

In the darkness, the white light was dazzling and scorching.

The sedan stopped, and Mother Zhou looked at Zhou Zhi with her eyes, "I originally thought that this would be the last time I went home this year, and then I would prepare to reincarnate, but... I still wanted to wait to see my son in military uniform."

She reached out and touched the head of the little girl beside her, "Finally, I have one thing to ask of you. Yueyue and Kangkang have mistakenly entered the ghost world. I hope you can take them home safely."

Yueyue blinked and looked at Shi Mu timidly.

"Okay, get off quickly."

Several people got off the sedan one by one. Mother Zhou lifted the curtain and looked at Zhou Zhi. Her lips moved, and finally she only said a few short words: "Wear more clothes, don't catch a cold."

After taking a last look at Zhou Zhi, the curtain was lowered.

The sedan left in the opposite direction, and Zhou Zhi looked at it in a daze. Finally, he knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and cried.

The tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop, the son wants to raise his parents but they are no longer there.

If there is an afterlife, how wonderful it would be...

Just when Zhou Zhi was immersed in grief, he suddenly heard Shi Mu and Fu Yunshen whispering: "Zhou Zhi's mother tastes like glutinous rice cake~" "

..."