Category: Food Soul Chart (Page 3 of 6)

       In the pitch-black abandoned building, Xiang Wenxi walked slowly forward. There was a window ahead, and light was seeping in from outside. He ran a few steps in that direction, and suddenly, a massive black wolf appeared at the window, swiftly leaping inside.

       “Ling Xiao!” Xiang Wenxi quickly ran in the direction of the black wolf.

       The black wolf landed on the ground and took several steps forward.

       Xiang Wenxi found that he was injured. The fur on his front legs was split, and blood was dripping down.

       “Are you injured?” Xiang Wenxi asked.

       The black wolf transformed into a human, covered one of his arms, and said, “That old demon, I haven’t seen it for hundreds of years, yet he is getting more and more scary.”

       Xiang Wenxi stepped forward, stretched out his hand to support him, and asked anxiously, “Does that mean we can’t go back to the bar?”

       Ling Xiao did not answer him but asked, “Where is Chunjun?”

       “That idiot ran away by himself,” Xiang Wenxi said, “Anyway, there’s no way out of this building. I–” Before he could finish his words, he suddenly paused.

       Ling Xiao looked at him, “What?”

       Xiang Wenxi hesitated for a moment and said, “He broke away from my illusion. It shouldn’t be. This whole building is controlled by my illusion.”

       Ling Xiao said coldly, “Where is he now?”

       Xiang Wenxi shook his head, “I don’t know, but he probably didn’t leave this building.”

       “Go find him,” Ling Xiao said.

       Xiang Wenxi grabbed Ling Xiao’s arm, “How can you be sure that he must be Chunjun? What part of him looks like ChunJun?”

       Ling Xiao said, “If that wasn’t the case, why do you think I was injured like this by Demon Zhen? Chunjun has been with Demon Zhen for thousands of years. If he wasn’t it, I really can’t figure out who else he could be.”

       Xiang Wenxi let out a ‘hmph’ sound, “Then, let’s split up. One goes up; the other goes down. We’ll search floor by floor.”

       When they separated, Xiang Wenxi muttered again, “So what if we find him? Chunjun is not yours anyway.”

       Ling Xiao gave him a cold look and said nothing.

       At this time, Song Jun was running forward aimlessly. He still remembered the face of the middle-aged man he saw just now, with the corners of his mouth grinning upward in a strange arc and repeating those words, “It’s so dark. How did you find your way up? Aren’t you afraid?”

       He was really scared and couldn’t think carefully at all. He turned around and ran back. He wanted to find Xiang Wenxi. He didn’t want to stay in this haunted place alone.

       When he first started running, he heard footsteps chasing him from behind. The middle-aged man’s flashlight waved vigorously and shouted to him, “It’s so dark. Aren’t you afraid?”

       Song Jun’s scalp was tingling; he had no idea which direction he was running or what the surroundings around him were like. Gradually, both the beam of his flashlight and the sound of footsteps disappeared. All that remained was darkness and deadly silence.

       All he could hear was his own heavy breathing and messy footsteps.

       No matter how big this shopping mall was, he should have reached the wall after running such a long distance, but he never encountered any obstacles. Maybe he was not running straight at all but running in a weird arc, avoiding all walls.

       Song Jun stopped. He just felt scared and wanted to leave this place.

       After he stopped, his breathing slowly recovered, and the surroundings became dead silent again. At this time, he heard a sound, which sounded like something dragging on the ground.

       The sound was far away at first, then gradually got closer.

       Have you seen The Grudge¹Ju-On movie? When the female ghost inside was crawling on the ground, her clothes rubbed against the floor, making such a sound. Song Jun had pathetically seen it too, and in the darkness, he couldn’t stop himself from imagining things.

       He felt like he should hide, but he didn’t know where to go. He struggled to discern the direction of the sound in the darkness and then moved in the opposite direction. He didn’t even dare to run, as if the moment he did, that thing would swiftly catch up to him.

       He walked forward slowly, not too far away, when he suddenly felt that he had hit something.

       That looked like a person.

       At this moment, a light suddenly lit up in front of him. It was the light of a flashlight. The middle-aged man shined the flashlight in the sky and said, “I found you. Why are you running around? It’s so dark. Aren’t you afraid?”

       Song Jun screamed and pushed him away with all his strength. When he ran forward, he missed his footing, and he rolled forward and fell.

       It turned out that there was an elevator in the shopping mall in front of him. The middle-aged man blocked it, and he couldn’t see anything. He rushed over, stepped on the elevator, and fell down.

       Song Jun rolled all the way to the bottom of the elevator, landing in a dishevelled state. At that moment, he almost lost consciousness. He struggled to crawl a few steps forward and saw someone standing in front of him. He instantly trembled with fear.

       But he didn’t expect that man to squat down in front of him and call him, “Chunjun.”

       Who is Chunjun? Song Jun had no idea what he was talking about. His head was throbbing, and as he reached to touch it, he felt a sticky sensation on his hand. Soon after, he lost consciousness.

       When he woke up again, Song Jun found himself lying on a soft big bed, with a small lamp on the bedside, emitting soft light. The surroundings were warm and comfortable, which made him want to go back to sleep again.

       Until he heard two people talking.

       Xiang Wenxi said, “If Demon Zhen knew that Chunjun was injured like this, he would definitely not let me go.”

       Ling Xiao’s voice was still cold, “Don’t you know that the building is unclean?”

       Xiang Wenxi was a little unhappy, “How do I know? You asked me to take him to escape. Did you give me time to think about it carefully? How do I know where to escape?”

       Ling Xiao said nothing.

       Xiang Wenxi asked curiously, “I heard that when Ou Yezi²Ou Yezi was a legendary master of sword-making in the Spring and Autumn period. According to Yuejueshu, he forged five treasured swords for Gan Jiang and King Zhao of Chu, named, respectively, Zhanlu, Juque, Shengxie, Yuchang and Chunjun. cast Chunjun, he sacrificed the human soul of the most vicious person in the world as the sword’s spirit. Later, although Chunjun was sealed due to its overwhelming murderous intent, Chunjun’s spirit shouldn’t be like Song Jun, right?”

       After a moment of silence, Ling Xiao said to Xiang Wenxi, “I don’t know either.”

       Xiang Wenxi said, “Could it be that you are all mistaken?”

       Ling Xiao didn’t speak this time.

       But even if they made a mistake, Demon Zhen shouldn’t have made a mistake, right?

       Chunjun? Song Jun had listened to them talking about this name all night, and now he understood that they were probably talking about himself and Demon Zhen. He seemed to have heard this name somewhere, but he couldn’t recall it for a while.

       He tried to think hard, but his mind went blank, and he could not recall any memory of these two names.

       Song Jun sat up and realised that he had a severe headache at this time. He reached out and touched his forehead and found that there was a circle of gauze wrapped around his forehead. He remembered that he was in an abandoned shopping mall and rolled off the closed elevator. When he fell down, his head must have been injured at that time.

       He wanted to get out of bed, but the sound alerted Xiang Wenxi and Ling Xiao, who walked in from outside.

       Xiang Wenxi said, “Are you awake?”

       Song Jun raised his hands to cover his head and asked, “Where is this?”

       Ling Xiao said, “My home.”

       Song Jun looked around and then asked, “Can I go back to campus?”

       Ling Xiao did not answer him, but Xiang Wenxi said, “You’re here now, so don’t even think about leaving!”

       Song Jun was stunned by what he said.

       Xiang Wenxi said, “ChunJun is much more precious than Thousand Years Lamp.”

       Song Jun said, “I really don’t know what you are talking about. I am not Chunjun.”

       Ling Xiao looked at him and suddenly walked towards him, standing in front of him with his arms folded, “We have met before, do you still remember me?”

       Song Jun raised his head to look at Ling Xiao carefully and shook his head, “I’ve never seen you before.”

       Ling Xiao was silent for a moment and then asked, “Demon Zhen—”

       “Xia Hongshen,” Xiang Wenxi interrupted him and changed his name to something Song Jun could understand.

       “Senior Brother Xia? What about him?” Song Jun asked.

       “Do you remember him?” Xiang Wenxi asked.

       Song Jun looked at them strangely, “Of course I remember. He is my senior brother.”

       Xiang Wenxi stomped on the edge of the bed, “Cut the crap. I’m asking if you have any impression of him in the past?”

       Song Jun hesitated for a while but still shook his head, “I only met him after I came to school. I didn’t know him before.” He knew that Xiang Wenxi was a fox demon, so this Ling Xiao must not be an ordinary person, so he continued, “I know he seems to be a deity in the sky, looking for Thousand Years Lamp. If he finds it, he will go back.”

       The reason why Song Jun deliberately revealed Xia Hongshen’s identity was because he hoped to use Xia Hongshen’s identity to scare them.

       Xiang Wenxi heard what Song Jun said and saw that his expression didn’t seem to be deliberately faking, so he turned to look at Ling Xiao strangely.

       Ling Xiao also had a complicated expression and didn’t know what he was thinking.

       Gilded phoenix wings[/mfn]Fengliu, Feng Junyuan[/mfn], Dragon Tip Whip³Longshao, Long Xing, and Crescent Moon Bell⁴Yueya, Xi Anling, these were all treasures that Demon Zhen had around him. In the past, before Demon Zhen became immortal, he travelled around the mountains and rivers of the mainland, searching for divine artefacts and treasures.

       Different from Chunjun, these three weapons did not have weapon spirits when Demon Zhen first obtained them. Instead, he personally found human souls in the world that were compatible with the weapons, opened the refining furnace, and used the human souls to refine the weapons again.

       In the past, Demon Zhen was the most powerful demonic beast that threatened the three realms. Born with the creation of the world, it was immortal and resembled a black panther with fangs feeding on the souls of ghosts.

       The previous owner of the Chunjun was a general. He once held the Chunjun in his hand and killed countless enemies on the battlefield. Chunjun was stained red with blood and could not be washed away for a while. Before the general died, he sealed Chunjun with his own hands just because Chunjun’s murderous aura was too much, and he felt that he could not control it.

       After that, the person who lifted the seal for Chunjun and took out Chunjun was Demon Zhen in human form.

       Demon Zhen did not kill people. He just liked to collect divine weapons and artefacts. Chunjun was the first weapon that stayed with him. Later, when Demon Zhen obtained Gilded Phoenix Wings, Dragon Tip Whip and Crescent Moon Bell, he captured human beings for sacrifice, and Chunjun was also with them.

       How could such Chunjun have no memory of Demon Zhen?

       Ling Xiao couldn’t help but start to doubt.

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       The inhumane abuse on the stage continued, and Song Jun was horrified. He stood up again and tried to stop them but was knocked to the ground again by Ling Xiao.

       Ling Xiao stepped on Song Jun’s chest with the hard soles of his leather boots and asked the question again, “Are you really Chunjun?”

       Song Jun said, “What Chunjun?! I don’t know what you are talking about!”

       Ling Xiao stretched out a hand to raise Song Jun’s face, looked at it carefully for a moment, and said, “He is very similar to Chunjun.”

       At this time, the tall man who brought Song Jun in came over and said, “Ling Xiao, you can see clearly. This man is really Chunjun, and I have seen him with Demon Zhen with my own eyes, and now Fengliu¹Feng Junyuan and Longshao²Long Xing and Yueya[/mfn]Xi Anling[/mfn] have appeared, and the person next to that old demon can only be Chunjun.”

       Ling Xiao’s expression was icy cold, and no one knew what he was thinking. After a while, he said, “Do you understand any of what I just said?”

       The man was stunned when he heard this.

       Ling Xiao said, “I have never seen Chunjun show such pure and kind eyes. How could the former best killing sword in the world become like this?”

       Song Jun still didn’t understand what they were talking about. He turned his head with difficulty and looked at the stage. The young man had been whipped to the point of dying. Song Jun has heard of this kind of punishment in ancient times. People who have been flogged may or may not die, but he always believed that it was caused by wound infection due to a lack of medical conditions in ancient times. But today, he might have to see how a person was beaten to death with a whip.

       The boy was lying on the stage at this time, and the clothes on his back had become tattered, and the flesh and blood oozing out of it could be seen. Although his mouth was blocked, Song Jun could still hear his ragged gasps. There was a wheezing sound, and the rhythm of the breathing began to become slower and slower.

       The audience in the bar was very excited. At first, they were attracted by the commotion in Song Jun’s direction. Later, when they saw Ling Xiao catching the person, they all turned their attention back to the stage. At this time, some people were even whistling and cheering, and some shouted, “Kill him!”

       Song Jun looked back at Ling Xiao and said, “He is really going to die.”

       Ling Xiao said to him, “So what if he dies? You have been stained with the blood of so many people. Why are you so pretentious now? Is it possible that by ascending with Demon Zhen, you can really develop a bodhisattva heart?” Ling Xiao laughed out loud, “What a joke!”

       Song Jun looked confused. He had no idea what Ling Xiao was talking about, but he vaguely felt that it had something to do with him.

       At this time, the boy was grabbed by his legs and dragged towards the backstage.

       The stage lights were turned off and replaced with soft music, restoring the original atmosphere.

       Song Jun wondered if there was a way for him to escape after witnessing all this. Could he call the police? Would Xia Hongshen come to him if he found out that he was missing? Was there any way Long Xing could find out his whereabouts?

       While he was thinking anxiously, Ling Xiao grabbed him and threw him on the sofa next to him.

       Song Jun struggled to stand up when he suddenly saw the dying boy who had been whipped on the stage walking out from the backstage. He had changed into a set of clothes, and his whole body looked intact, without any trace of injury.

       Seeing his appearance, Song Jun was stunned.

       The young man also noticed Song Jun looking at him and walked towards this direction. Suddenly, he transformed into a golden fox and rushed towards Song Jun, wanting to bite him.

       As a result, Ling Xiao grabbed the back of its neck, threw it aside, and hit the drum kit next to the stage hard.

       The little fox turned over and stood up, baring his teeth.

       Ling Xiao shouted, “If you make trouble again, get out.”

       The little fox glanced at Ling Xiao, finally restrained his claws, and sat down to stare at Song Jun.

       Song Jun’s face turned pale with fright because he had seen Xiang Wenshi before, but now he finally reacted quickly and said, “A demon?”

       “Are you afraid of demons?” Ling Xiao sneered, “You have been with that old Demon Zhen for so long, and you are still afraid of demons?”

       Song Jun still shook his head, “I don’t understand what you are talking about?”

       Ling Xiao was about to speak when suddenly, the little fox sitting on the ground said, “He killed my brother!”

       Song Jun looked at the little fox. Although he knew he was a demon, he couldn’t help but ask in surprise, “He was clearly beaten up just now…”

       “It’s just an illusion,” Ling Xiao explained, “Xiang Wenxi doesn’t have any other abilities. He’s just good at illusion.”

       Song Jun looked at the little fox named Xiang Wenxi and asked, “Are you Teacher Xiang’s younger brother?”

       Ling Xiao snorted coldly, seeming to be very disdainful of Xiang Wenshi.

       Song Jun thought of another thing, “So you stole my mobile phone? You wanted to steal pieces of Thousand Years Lamp?”

       Before Ling Xiao could speak this time, he suddenly heard a fierce banging sound coming from the door of the bar.

       The originally noisy environment in the bar immediately became quiet. The guests all stood up and looked towards the door of the bar. Then they heard another noise, and it turned out that someone was banging on the door outside.

       Ling Xiao said, “Demon Zhen.”

       The whole bar suddenly became commotion because of these two words.

       Ling Xiao grabbed Song Jun and threw him at the little fox, saying, “Take him first!”

       The little fox grew taller and bigger than a person. It used its tail to wrap up Song Jun on its back like Xiang Wenshi had done before and ran towards the back of the stage.

       Song Jun only felt that the scenery in front of him was changing rapidly. He couldn’t see anything clearly at all. He only felt that the fur under his body was soft. He was being carried by this golden fox, and he didn’t know where he was running.

       After an unknown amount of time, the little fox stopped, slowly walked forward a few steps, loosened its tail, and let Song Jun roll to the ground.

       Song Jun’s stomach jolted, and he almost vomited.

       The little fox also turned into a human form. He reached out and grabbed a handful of shaggy golden hair on his head and pulled out the pendant around his neck from his collar. Song Jun saw that it was clearly a piece of Thousand Years Lamp, which had been used as a mobile phone chain before on his phone.

       “Where is this?” Song Jun asked, stroking his chest.

       Xiang Wenxi said, “This is an abandoned building in the north of the city, fenced off and waiting for demolition.”

       Song Jun stood up and found that the surrounding area was pitch black. It looked like an abandoned building, and the entire floor was very open. It might have been a large shopping mall or supermarket in the past.

       Until now, Song Jun didn’t know much about what happened except that the boy in front of him was a fox demon. He didn’t even know why he escaped with him.

       The surroundings were dark and terrifying.

       He asked Xiang Wenxi, “Why do we come here?”

       Xiang Wenxi stood quietly and said, “Waiting here for Ling Xiao to come over.”

       Song Jun was not willing to stay here and wait for Ling Xiao to come over. Because the surrounding was a completely closed environment, there was no light at all. He didn’t even know which direction to go.

       But he still tried to take a step and then heard Xiang Wenxi say, “Don’t move recklessly, or you might get trapped in my illusion.”

       “What illusion?” Despite asking, Song Jun still tried to take a step forward.

       At this time, he saw light coming from a distance.

       “Who is it?” Someone asked loudly from a distance while walking in the direction with a flashlight.

       Song Jun looked back at Xiang Wenxi and saw that Xiang Wenxi had not moved, so he took two steps in the direction of that person and asked, “Who are you?”

       The man walked closer and closer with a flashlight. Song Jun finally saw his appearance clearly. He was a simple middle-aged man. The man said, “I’m the gatekeeper. Who are you? This building is scheduled for demolition. Why did you come in? There’s nothing here!”

       Song Jun breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I’m sorry, I’m going out right now.”

       “Tsk!” the middle-aged man said, “I don’t know how you sneaked up here. Young people nowadays really think there is nothing here. What is there to do? Come on, follow me out!”

       Of course Song Jun would like someone to take him out.

       Looking back, Song Jun wanted to find Xiang Wenxi but found that he had disappeared.

       The middle-aged man urged him, “Let’s go quickly.”

       Song Jun hesitated, and asked the man, “Uncle, did you just see a young man with me?”

       When the middle-aged man heard this, he said, “Where is the young man? I only see you.”

       Song Jun said, “The one standing next to me.”

       The middle-aged man held up a flashlight and waved around, “There’s no one around. Don’t scare people by telling nonsense at night. I saw you were alone from the beginning to the end.”

       Xiang Wenxi was a demon, and Song Jun had not forgotten it. Compared with the demon, Song Jun felt that the uncle in front of him was more reliable. After hearing the middle-aged man’s urging again, Song Jun followed him forward.

       When they were far away, Xiang Wenxi appeared on the spot, looked at the direction Song Jun left and said, “I told you not to walk around casually.”

       Whether it was a supermarket or a shopping mall, it was surrounded by a completely closed environment. It was already night, and the lights from outside couldn’t penetrate at all.

       The road Song Jun could see was illuminated by the middle-aged people next to him holding flashlights.

       He didn’t know which direction they were walking in, but large shopping malls like this usually only had elevators, and the stairs were often in the corners of the shopping mall, making them not easy to find. The old shopping mall had a power outage, so of course, it was impossible to take the elevator downstairs. Maybe they could go down from the stopped elevator, but he didn’t know if it had been demolished, so the middle-aged man around him probably took him to the stairs to find the safe passage.

       “It’s so dark. How did you find your way up?” the middle-aged person asked. “Aren’t you afraid?”

       Song Jun didn’t know how to answer, so he had to say, “I originally had a flashlight, but it ran out of power just now.”

       The middle-aged man responded, “Oh… What’s so fun about this? You’re still a student, right? A middle school student?”

       “No, I’m a college student,” Song Jun was embarrassed to say that he was a graduate student.

       As the middle-aged man walked, the flashlight in his hand swayed up and down according to his walking posture. Song Jun could not see in the distance. He could only see the road ahead, which was full of dust and waste.

       The two people walked to a wooden door. If they expected correctly, there should be a safe passage behind this fire door.

       Song Jun was half a step behind the middle-aged man, and he waited for the middle-aged man to open the door.

       At this time, the middle-aged man said again, “It’s so dark. How did you find your way up? Aren’t you afraid?”

       Song Jun was about to answer him when he suddenly realised that this middle-aged man had only asked this question once before, and the content of the question was exactly the same as his previous question.

       After hesitating for a moment, Song Jun said, “My flashlight is out of power.”

       Then, he heard the middle-aged man say, “Oh… What’s so fun about this? You’re still a student, right? A middle school student?”

       After hearing these words, Song Jun’s arms were instantly covered with goosebumps. He slowly raised his head and looked at the middle-aged man’s face.

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The author has something to say:
Chunjun is the name of a famous ancient sword, but this story is purely fictional…

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       Xia Hongshen clearly didn’t seem too concerned about the fact that Song Jun had lost the fragment of the Thousand Years Lamp he had worked hard to collect.

       Song Jun, however, was quite bothered by this because the item was lost while in his possession. Moreover, he noticed that lately, Xia Hongshen’s interests had changed into dilly-dallying with him. Song Jun felt very puzzled by this behaviour, as their relationship wasn’t like that. The constant hugging and touching felt almost like a form of harassment.

       Since Xia Hongshen didn’t seem to care, Song Jun thought of someone—Long Xing.

       Long Xing was a policeman, so finding a thief who stole mobile phones would not be a big problem.

       Song Jun gave Long Xing a call for this purpose. Long Xing asked him in detail the brand and model of his mobile phone, where he lost it, and who might have stolen it.

       Hearing his careful question, Song Jun also recalled the incident carefully, and suddenly, he remembered the young man who passed by him.

       Song Jun said, “When I was going out, a boy bumped into me. I don’t know if it was to steal my mobile phone.”

       Long Xing then asked him to recall the boy’s appearance and clothing.

       Song Jun thought for a while and told Long Xing everything he could recall. Long Xing then told him that he would check it out and asked him to just wait for the news.

       Two days later, Long Xing came to the Forensic Medicine building and told Song Jun that he had discovered something strange.

       “What?” Song Jun asked.

       Long Xing said, “I’ve asked quite a few people, but it seems that no one at the campus saw anyone matching the description of the young person you mentioned that day. I even checked the surveillance camera at the intersection ahead during the time you specified, and there was no young person with the characteristics you described passing through there.”

       Song Jun was a little disappointed.

       Long Xing said to him, “Let me check again. Most of these thieves are habitual thieves, and I’m sure they’ll do it again.”

       Song Jun thanked him and then said, “My mobile phone is actually not important. The important thing is that it has Senior Brother Xia’s Thousand Years Lamp fragments on it.”

       “Oh?” Long Xing was also a little surprised when he heard this, “Have you ever thought that that person might not have come to steal your phone but came for the Thousand Years Lamp?”

       Song Jun looked at him and suddenly felt a little terrified for some reason. If they were there for Thousand Years Lamp, then that person probably was not an ordinary person, and he didn’t know what kind of weird stuff it was.

       The place where the two met was in Xia Hongshen’s office. While they were talking, Xia Hongshen suddenly came in from outside.

       Today, there was a case for autopsy on the first floor. He didn’t take off his white coat, and there was still a trace of blood. When he walked in and saw Song Jun, he came over and hugged him.

       Song Jun was startled and disliked the fact that he was dirty, so he quickly wanted to push him away.

       When Long Xing saw Xia Hongshen, he happily shouted, “Teacher Xia!”

       Xia Hongshen reached out and touched Long Xing’s head and then continued to hold Song Jun, rubbing his face against the top of his head.

       Song Jun pushed him away with great strength and said, “I’m leaving first!” Then he ran out of Xia Hongshen’s office with a red face.

       Upon returning to the dormitory, Song Jun had no choice but to take off all his clothes and change. He thought to himself since it was Xia Hongshen’s stuff anyway, so he wasn’t in a hurry. He couldn’t figure out why he was in such a hurry, so he decided not to bother about it and let things be.

       However, losing a mobile phone was always a troublesome thing. After changing clothes, Song Jun sat in front of the computer, searching for a new mobile phone.

       In the evening, Song Jun went to the supermarket near the campus alone.

       He stood in front of the pet supplies counter, and Song Jun was in a daze. The little black cat seemed to have not come to him for a long time, and he didn’t know what it was doing…

       Song Jun picked up a bag of cat food, but he put it back afterwards. When he turned around, he saw the boy with curly yellow hair and fair skin again.

       The boy was carrying a backpack and seemed to be visiting the supermarket.

       As soon as he saw him, Song Jun followed him subconsciously. When he got closer, he stopped again, thinking that even if he rushed over, that guy probably wouldn’t admit that he had stolen his mobile phone.

       Song Jun kept chasing him after paying the bill and walking out of the supermarket. He didn’t expect to be able to stop him but just wanted to follow the man to see if he went back to campus. As long as he knew which dormitory he lived in, he could stop, tell Long Xing the situation and let Long Xing investigate.

       The young man didn’t seem to notice anyone following him. He came out of the supermarket and walked in the direction of the campus.

       Song Jun followed him at a close distance. One after another, they walked to the street at the south gate of the campus. This street was very lively every night. In addition to many restaurants, there were also a lot of bars and pubs, and the milk tea shop where Song Jun works was also on this street.

       Seeing that he was getting closer and closer to the campus gate, Song Jun could confirm that the boy was a student of the campus, but he saw him standing at the door of the public toilet on the right side of the street and stopped.

       The boy looked up at the public toilet door for a while. Just when Song Jun thought he was going in, he walked into a small alley next to the public toilet.

       It was a dead end.

       Song Jun passes this street almost every day. He didn’t need to confirm it at all. He could definitely say that there was no road in that alley; it was just a dead end between the public toilet and a barber shop next to it.

       There were no lights in the alley, but it was not completely dark because there were tall street lights next to it.

       He cautiously leaned closer to take a look but found that there was no sign of the young man in the alley. The boy disappeared in this roadless alley.

       Unable to resist, Song Jun took a few steps towards the inside, wondering if the young man had noticed being followed and had jumped over the wall to enter the school directly from there. Suddenly, he noticed an iron gate at the end of the alley.”

       Was there ever a gate here? Song Jun found that he really couldn’t remember clearly.

       He stood there blankly for a while and made up his mind to turn around and leave immediately, but before he could leave, a tall man suddenly appeared behind him, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “What? Do you want to go in, classmate? Come with me.”

       Song Jun said, “I don’t…”

       The man’s hands were very strong, and he obviously didn’t listen to what Song Jun had to say. He only said two words, and the person already pulled him behind the iron gate.

       Inside the iron gate was a bar.

       It looked like a very ordinary bar, with people drinking and chatting. But it didn’t look like the bars that appeared around the campus because the people here didn’t look like students.

       There were a lot of people in the bar, and Song Jun felt less scared after he came in because, with so many people, there wouldn’t be any demons suddenly appearing.

       He turned to look at the man next to him and found that he was very tall, probably close to two meters tall, and very strong.

       The man smiled at him and patted his back, almost knocking him down.

       Many people in the bar looked in this direction and seemed a little surprised to see Song Jun. Some people asked, “Who is he? How did he get in?”

       The tall man said, “I brought him here.”

       Many gazes were directed in this direction. The man took Song Jun’s hand and walked forward, saying, “Where is Ling Xiao?”

       The bartender in front of the bar said, “There’s a show tonight. The boss is in the back explaining things.”

       The man smiled and said, “That’s great.” He grabbed Song Jun’s hand and walked to the table on the side to sit down. “Stay and watch the show.”

       Song Jun’s arm felt hurt from being pulled by him. At this time, he finally had the opportunity to ask, “Who are you? What on earth is this place?”

       The man crossed his legs, hugged his right knee with both hands and said to him, “The Bar.”

       Song Jun stood up, “I’m leaving.”

       But the man pulled him hard and said, “Sit down and watch the show.”

       Seeing the tension in the man’s muscular arms and the absence of a smile on his face, Song Jun felt a bit nervous. The man’s countenance appeared dark and serious. Suddenly, Song Jun turned his head and glanced at the bar once again.

       The bar still looked nothing special, with a small stage in the middle. At this time, all the guests’ attention fell on the stage in the middle, but at the same time, many people were paying attention to him.

       He felt like this was a small bar where the guests were all familiar with each other, but he was a stranger who had barged in for no reason, and everyone was wary of him.

       The performance was about to start. Song Jun didn’t know what kind of performance it would be, but he suddenly felt a little excited at this time.

       Before the performance officially started, a waiter came to Song Jun’s table. While looking at Song Jun, he whispered something in the man’s ear. The man waved his hand and said, “It’s okay, call Ling Xiao to come over later, he knows.”

       The waiter said nothing more, apologised and left.

       Song Jun asked softly at this time, “What kind of performance is it?”

       The man said to him, “Murder.”

       Song Jun was stunned when he heard this.

       At this time, the spotlight on the stage lit up, and the performance officially began. Song Jun saw a young man being pushed out of the stage with his eyes covered, his mouth gagged, and his hands and feet bound.

       The person was clearly the boy with yellow curly hair from before.

       Song Jun stood up in surprise and was pulled to sit down by the man next to him.

       Unable to calm down, he asked, “You want to kill him?”

       The man said, “I’m just watching the show, why are you so anxious!”

       Next, Song Jun saw another man go up to the stage. The man held a whip in his hand and slapped the boy hard on the face.

       Immediately, blood flowed from the young man’s face.

       Immediately afterwards, the whip in the man’s hand struck the young man’s body one after another. The young man groaned miserably, and soon, blood seeped out all over his body.

       Song Jun looked at this scene in disbelief, his hands trembling a little. He simply couldn’t believe that there was such a terrible and dehumanising performance just outside the campus separated by a wall. No. How could this called a performance? This was a massacre.

       He stood up again, and the man reached out to pull him. He grabbed the man’s arm and bit him hard.

       The man waved his hand, and Song Jun was pushed away by a strong force, and his body knocked over a table next door. Ignoring the pain and the commotion, he got up from the ground and rushed towards the stage. He wanted to stop the cruel performance from continuing.

       However, he still failed to go up. When he first stepped onto the stairs, he was stopped by a man. The man was wearing black clothes and pants, with strong features and a scar diagonally across one cheek.

       Song Jun was hugged directly by him, and he looked at each other face to face. He heard the man’s deep voice and asked doubtfully, “Chunjun?”

       The moment he heard these two words, Song Jun felt as if his head had been hit hard by something. Something surged up, but he couldn’t catch anything.

       However, the man immediately threw him away and said, “You are not Chunjun. How could Chunjun be like this?”

       Song Jun fell heavily to the ground.

       At this time, the man who brought Song Jun in came over and shouted, “Ling Xiao.”

       Ling Xiao, the man in black, looked towards him.

       The tall man leaned into his ear and said something unknown.

       Ling Xiao’s cold face showed a slightly surprised look, and then he looked at Song Jun and said, “Are you really Chunjun?”

---

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       For so many years, Wan Mingguang’s soul had possessed this oil lamp. It was unclear whether the lamp was driven by his resentment or if his resentment had been growing under the influence of the lamp.

       Did he hate it that much? He didn’t even know it himself. He actually didn’t want the whole village to be buried with him. He was satisfied watching these teenagers die one by one and watching the whole village suffer for this.

       If it weren’t for the sudden intrusion of people like Xia Hongshen, he wouldn’t be where he is now.

       He looked at the man standing in front of him. This man was his cousin. Since when had his cousin turned grey-haired and couldn’t even walk steadily? So much time had passed, but it was as if he was always trapped in that past and couldn’t get rid of it.

       Wan Mingguang looked at Song Jun. He had noticed him since these people entered the village. This young man had very abundant spiritual power, even more abundant than the oil lamp he possessed, which made him yearn for him. This young man also knew his past; he was very anxious now, and this young man was looking at him and trying to persuade him.

       The oil lamp had been extinguished, and Xia Hongshen’s finger touched the wick. He could take back this wick at any time, but at that time, he himself would lose his shelter, and even his soul would disappear from this world completely.

       Actually, he should have expected such a day. From the day he decided to take revenge, he had already seen his own ending.

       Wan Mingguang closed his eyes. His face was smooth and handsome, with soft lines. At the same time, the wailing villagers quieted down, the burning pain disappeared, and the blisters on their bodies also disappeared.

       The surrounding fog became thicker and thicker until the figures of the villagers were buried in the fog, and the figure of Wan Mingguang standing opposite Song Jun became indistinct.

       Wan Mingguang stopped, but Song Jun could still feel his resentment. He didn’t let go of his grudge; it was just a hopeless compromise.

       At this moment, the old man standing in front of Wan Mingguang suddenly knelt down and said to Xia Hongshen, “Please let my cousin go. He was killed and he is innocent.”

       It was a pity that Xia Hongshen didn’t feel compassion.

       The old man said, “He didn’t kill those people; they were all killed by me! In order to avenge him, I bribed the medium back then. I exploited the villagers’ fear of their ancestors, forcing them to kill and collect lamp oil. It wasn’t Mingguang’s doing; it was all my doing!”

       Song Jun looked at the old man in surprise, and Wan Mingguang’s eyes began to tremble.

       The old man said, “I will pay them with my life. Please let my cousin go!”

       When he finished speaking, he bumped his head against the pillar of the ancestral hall next to him. Blood immediately spread from his forehead. He closed his eyes, slid to the ground, and died immediately.

       Wan Mingguang watched all of this in a daze, just not saying a word.

       Xia Hongshen said, “Longshao.”

       The long whip was immediately retracted and transformed into Long Xing standing next to Xia Hongshen.

       Wan Mingguang’s body lost its restraints, but he still stood motionless.

       “Do you still resent?” Xia Hongshen asked him.

       Wan Mingguang didn’t answer. He just suddenly felt confused and overwhelmed and lost the purpose of continuing to survive.

       Xia Hongshen looked at his expression and nodded. He suddenly raised his hand, dispelling the fog that filled the sky and also dispersed the ghosts who wanted to swarm him.

       Song Jun grabbed Xia Hongshen’s arm nervously, and Xia Hongshen said, “Don’t worry, I won’t eat him.”

       Xia Hongshen raised the oil lamp in his hand and said to Wan Mingguang, “Come here.”

       Wan Mingguang’s body began to shake, and his soul was leaving the body, as if he felt the attraction from the direction of Xia Hongshen, and finally slowly floated over and possessed the oil lamp.

       The body of the young man possessed by Wan Mingguang also slipped to the ground and lost consciousness.

       Xia Hongshen placed a seal on the oil lamp, then threw it to Long Xing and asked him to put it away.

       Song Jun grabbed Xia Hongshen’s hand and didn’t let go, meaning to ask him what he planned.

       Xia Hongshen told Song Jun, “I will take him out of here.”

       Song Jun was relieved when he heard this.

       As for these villagers, although they did not die of fear and fire, they would pay for the lives of so many innocent teenagers they had killed.

       Because the roads were cleared overnight, when the sun climbed up the mountain, vehicles from the county public security bureau also drove into the mountain village.

       The elder of the village and his son supported the crazy wife and came to the police to surrender.

       The county public security bureau immediately reported the situation, and the city bureau promptly sent reinforcements. Guided by the elder of the village, they unearthed more than twenty sets of remains, all belonging to those who had lost their lives at a young age. Now, only bare bones remained.

       Song Jun and the others were sent down the mountain, mainly because Song Jun’s tongue was seriously injured and needed to go to the hospital for treatment.

       While Song Jun was undergoing treatment, Xia Hongshen called Yun Po and told him that there was big business on the mountain.

       Yun Po angrily exclaimed over the phone, “Screw your big deal! Have you paid up?”

       Xia Hongshen said, “Didn’t you accept Fengliu’s money last time?”

       Yun Po yelled, “Is that your money?”

       Xia Hongshen said expressionlessly, “Fengliu is mine. There’s no question about his money.” After saying that, Xia Hongshen hung up the phone.

       Long Xing went to the small supermarket outside the hospital and bought a few bottles of water. He then gave one bottle to each of them.

       Xi Anling took the milk tea she asked for. After twisting the lid for a long time without opening it, she stretched out her hand and handed it to Xia Hongshen.

       Xia Hongshen took it and unscrewed it for her, then gave it back to her.

       After waiting for a while, Song Jun came out of the treatment room. His tongue was anaesthetised and had stitches. Although it didn’t hurt so much now, it would be difficult to eat in the coming days.

       After leaving the hospital, they went to the Public Security Bureau to cooperate with the investigation.

       They all tacitly ignored Wan Mingguang’s incident and only said that they felt that the atmosphere in the village was not normal. Later, when they went to the ancestral hall on the mountain, they discovered lamp oil mixed with human fat and were besieged by the villagers.

       The matter was settled, and their car’s tires were changed, and they drove down the mountain. At that time, although it was late, Xia Hongshen decided to drive back, even if it was going to be midnight when they returned to the city.

       On the way back, Long Xing and Xia Hongshen took turns driving.

       Song Jun was sitting in the back seat. Because he couldn’t speak, he leaned on Xia Hongshen’s shoulder and fell asleep after getting in the car. Along the way, Xia Hongshen got out to switch seats with Long Xing and drove. Song Jun then leaned on Feng Junyuan’s shoulder, continuing to sleep. Fortunately, Feng Junyuan didn’t mind his presence.

       It was indeed midnight when they returned to the city. Long Xing showed his work ID to the security guard at the school gate and asked the security guard to open the door for him. He drove the car downstairs to Xia Hongshen’s dormitory.

       Song Jun was so sleepy that he didn’t even know the car had stopped. He woke up because Xia Hongshen directly picked him up and carried him out of the car.

       Song Jun woke up suddenly and struggled to get down.

       Xia Hongshen didn’t force him; he put him on the ground and said goodbye to Long Xing and the others.

       Song Jun also walked to the car and wanted to talk to Long Xing. Unfortunately, although the effect of the anaesthetic on his tongue was over, he still couldn’t speak very clearly.

       Long Xing said to him, “I know what you mean. Go back and rest early. I will see you again in a couple of days.”

       Song Jun nodded.

       He and Xia Hongshen returned to the dormitory together. In fact, they had been in the mountain for two days, and they hadn’t washed themselves properly. Now, they had time to take a comfortable bath, but Song Jun felt too tired. He thought about changing the sheets and comforter in the morning. Once back in the room, he lay down and fell asleep immediately. As for whether Xia Hongshen went straight to his own room or not, Song Jun had no recollection.

       The next day was already Tuesday, and he only had the second class in the morning.

       Song Jun woke up and saw that it was already past ten o’clock. Even if it was for the second class, he was still late. After some hesitation, he simply buried his head and fell asleep for a while.

       After getting up, Song Jun sat on the edge of the bed and was stunned for a moment. He thought of Wan Mingguang and wanted to know what Xia Hongshen was going to do with Wan Mingguang.

       Since he hadn’t had time to take a shower, Song Jun put on the dirty clothes from yesterday and went to Xia Hongshen’s room in his slippers to knock on the door. However, no one answered him after knocking for a while.

       Bu Hui suddenly opened the door of his room and poked his head out to see Song Jun, “You’re back, Junior Brother?”

       “Senior Brother Bu,” Song Jun called out. His tongue was still a little sore, and his words were slurred. “You didn’t go to the hospital?”

       Bu Hui nodded, “Senior Brother Xia went out early in the morning. Maybe he went to work in the teaching and research office.”

       After saying that, Bu Hui walked towards him, “What’s wrong, your mouth is hurt?”

       Song Jun opened his mouth and showed him her tongue.

       “Oh,” Bu Hui said, “this poor thing, don’t talk anymore. Rest well, and have some porridge for lunch.”

       Song Jun nodded.

       In the afternoon, Song Jun took off all the sheets and quilt covers, went to the school bathroom to shower, and threw all the dirty clothes and sheets and quilt covers into the laundry room.

       After tidying up, Song Jun planned to go to the lab and meet Xia Hongshen.

       He had just come out of the dormitory when a young man passed him by, and the two of them bumped into each other accidentally.

       “I’m sorry,” Song Jun apologised subconsciously. He turned to look at the boy and saw that his skin was very white, and his hair was curly and dyed yellow. At first glance, he looked like a mixed race.

       The young man also looked at him and left without saying anything.

       Song Jun continued to walk to the Forensic Medicine building. He found Xia Hongshen in the office upstairs, knocked on the door, walked in, and asked, “Senior Brother Xia, how are you going to deal with Wan Mingguang’s matter?”

       Xia Hongshen didn’t answer, turned the swivel chair to face him, and waved for him to come over.

       Song Jun walked over and stood in front of him.

       Xia Hongshen said, “Open your mouth.”

       Song Jun opened his mouth.

       Xia Hongshen looked at the wound on his tongue and wanted to lick it for him.

       Song Jun didn’t know what he was thinking, so he asked again, “Will Wan Mingguang be punished?”

       Xia Hongshen suddenly reached out and hugged him, let him sit on his lap, rubbed his face against Song Jun’s neck, and said, “He did something wrong. Shouldn’t he be punished?”

       Song Jun felt that this position was extremely inappropriate! But he was a little reluctant to part away from Xia Hongshen as he felt Xia Hongshen rubbing his neck. He hesitated and then asked, “What kind of punishment should he receive? Although he did something wrong, in that situation, if it were me, I would probably retaliate like crazy.”

       Xia Hongshen asked him, “Then what do you think is appropriate?”

       Song Jun said, “I don’t know, at least it shouldn’t be too harsh a punishment.”

       Xia Hongshen thought for a while and said, “I gave him to Yun Po and asked him to take him back to the temple. He was suppressed in the temple, chanted Buddha’s name, practised, and washed away his sins.”

       Song Jun was a little surprised when he heard this, “Is it possible?”

       Xia Hongshen said, “Yeah.”

       The spiritual power imbued in the wick of the Thousand Years Lamp over the years persisted even after removing the wick. The lamp itself now possessed spiritual energy. Wan Mingguang’s ghost was attached to the oil lamp. All that was needed was to hand it over to Yun Po to take back to the temple. After his cultivation and merits were complete, perhaps they could guide him to another reincarnation.

       Song Jun finally breathed a sigh of relief when he heard what Xia Hongshen said. He suddenly became concerned about their position. He was worried about what he would think if someone came in suddenly.

       He thought it was time to find an excuse to leave, so he reached for his phone to check the time, but when he reached into his pocket, he found that the phone was not there at all.

       Song Jun was taken aback and rummaged through several of his pockets, but he was pretty sure he had taken his cell phone with him when he went out because he stood in the corridor and checked the time when he closed the door.

       He lost his cell phone!

       Losing a phone wasn’t a huge deal; it wasn’t valuable, and the model was outdated. However, what concerned him was the phone charm Xia Hongshen had given him – it was a fragment of the Thousand Years Lamp!

       Song Jun simply didn’t dare to look at Xia Hongshen. He was afraid that Xia Hongshen would be angry if he found out about this. The piece of Thousand Years Lamp he worked so hard to find was now lost again due to his own carelessness.

       But it was impossible not to say anything. Song Jun finally made up his mind and said to Xia Hongshen, “It’s over. I lost my phone.”

       Unexpectedly, Xia Hongshen had no reaction.

       Song Jun then added, “The fragments of Thousand Years Lamp are still hanging on the mobile phone…”

       Xia Hongshen finally gave a ‘hmm’, “I know.”

---

The author has something to say:
I personally feel that these chapters are written quite smoothly. Later on, the horror element might not be so horrible, with a greater focus on advancing the main plot.

---

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and her original novel about a sly cute dragon here~
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       Song Jun suddenly reached out and grabbed Feng Junyuan’s neck. He opened his eyes wide, full of hatred; his face turned blue, and his nails gradually turned black.

       Feng Junyuan tried hard to pry off his fingers and shouted with difficulty, “Song Jun—”

       Long Xing came forward to help hold Song Jun but found that he was so strong that he couldn’t pull him away at all.

       The oil lamp that had been extinguished suddenly started burning again and the air was filled with a thick smell of burning human fat, making people gag.

       Xi Anling pressed her body against the door. She felt the people outside banging on the wooden door behind her as if they could push the door open at any time. She suddenly asked hurriedly, “What should I do?”

       The smell of burning grease was getting stronger and stronger. It was obviously just a small oil lamp, but for some reason, the temperature in the entire ancestral hall began to rise. Xi Anling had her back pressed against the wooden door, but suddenly, she couldn’t lean on it anymore. She stood up straight and said, “It’s strange. This wood is hot.”

       “Hahaha!” Song Jun suddenly laughed loudly.

       Feng Junyuan’s face turned a little pale. Long Xing reached out and grabbed Song Jun’s neck, twisting hard to make him let go. Unexpectedly, Song Jun seemed not to be affected at all and still strangled Feng Junyuan’s neck.

       Seeing this, Xia Hongshen stretched out a hand and grabbed it with five fingers. Song Jun’s expression changed, and his body couldn’t help but bump towards Xia Hongshen.

       Feng Junyuan covered his neck, bent over, and coughed violently.

       Long Xing stretched out his hand to support him, “Are you okay?”

       Feng Junyuan shook his head.

       At this time, Song Jun had fallen into Xia Hongshen’s hands. He wanted to struggle, but Xia Hongshen easily restrained his movements. He held him in front of his chest with one hand and pinched his chin with the other hand to force him to raise his head and say over Song Jun’s head, “What are you going to do?”

       Song Jun smiled wildly, “I want the entire village to be buried with me!”

       “What a strong hatred,” Xia Hongshen said in his calm tone.

       Song Jun said, “It’s useless for you to catch me. Do you feel it? This ancestral hall will burn down soon. Since you won’t leave, just stay and be buried with them.”

       Xi Anling heard this and said angrily, “We have nothing to do with you!”

       Song Jun sneered and said nothing.

       The villagers outside the ancestral hall also smelled the greasy smell. One person asked strangely, “What’s going on? I feel very uncomfortable.”

       Hearing this, the old man standing at the front opened his sleeves and touched his arms with his fingers. He felt an indescribable greasiness as if someone had applied a layer of grease on his body.

       “It’s so hot!” someone said.

       The old man also noticed it. He took a step forward and reached out to touch the door of the ancestral hall. He felt that the place he touched seemed to be burning. He suddenly became agitated and choked up while standing in front of the door. He stretched out his hand to push the door open, but then he calmed down and said, “Don’t be nervous, everyone. Wait here. The ancestors of the Wan family will definitely bless us.”

       In the ancestral hall, Xia Hongshen said to the person in his arms, “Leave his body.”

       Song Jun’s hands were controlled and unable to move, so he bit his tongue hard and soon blood overflowed from his mouth, but he maintained a weird smile on his face.

       Xia Hongshen finally frowned, raised Song Jun’s face, and kissed his lips.

       The ghost of Wan Mingguang, who possessed Song Jun, felt a terrible force attracting him. He did not dare to stay in Song Jun’s body; otherwise, he would become Xia Hongshen’s food, so he chose to leave Song Jun at that moment.

       The first thing Song Jun felt when he regained consciousness was pain. His tongue hurt so much that he couldn’t even speak. At the same time, he felt someone kissing him. After a trance, he discovered that the person kissing him was Xia Hongshen.

       He was licking his tongue gently. It seemed that it was not as painful as it was at the beginning, and the blood did not continue to flow. It was very warm and comfortable.

       Song Jun subconsciously wanted to close his eyes, but suddenly he heard Long Xing cough twice. He suddenly came back to his senses and realised where he was.

       What happened? Song Jun distanced himself from Xia Hongshen and opened his mouth to ask but found that his tongue hurt badly when he tried to speak. Even though the blood stopped flowing, there were still blood stains everywhere on the corners of his mouth.

       Although Xia Hongshen left Song Jun’s lips, his kiss immediately fell on the tip of Song Jun’s nose and forehead, like a gentle comfort.

       Song Jun realised that everyone was still looking at them, and even though he was still weak, he couldn’t help but want to blush.

       Xi Anling turned away angrily and pursed her lips.

       Feng Junyuan had caught his breath by this point and said, “Where did that evil ghost go?”

       However, Xia Hongshen was still holding Song Jun and touching his face with his lips. Song Jun couldn’t help but push him away and wanted to call out senior brother, but his tongue was so painful that he couldn’t speak.

       “Outside,” Xia Hongshen said suddenly.

       “Ah?” Xi Anling was a little surprised and looked out the door.

       Xia Hongshen said, “He wanted to burn all these villagers here.”

       Song Jun shuddered when he heard the words. He wanted to speak but couldn’t say anything. When Wan Mingguang possessed him, he saw Wan Mingguang’s past memories with his own eyes. He knew that he was innocent and pitiful. He was full of hatred for these people, but the village had already killed so many young people because of him, and it would be too cruel to drag an entire village to die with him.

       He couldn’t express his emotions, so he could only grab Xia Hongshen’s shirt and shake it, signalling Xia Hongshen to find a way to stop Wan Mingguang.

       Seeing his anxious expression, Xia Hongshen raised her hand and called out, “Yueya¹crescent moon.”

       No one else reacted. Xi Anling was startled, and then she felt that her body could not help but fly towards Xia Hongshen’s hand. When it landed in Xia Hongshen’s hand, Xi Anling had turned into a bell. It was a bell in the shape of a crescent moon, and the small round piece struck the curved metal crescent moon, emitting a clear and crisp sound.

       Xia Hongshen shook the crescent bell in his hand, and the sound spread far and echoed throughout the small mountain village.

       Song Jun looked at Xia Hongshen in surprise and wanted to ask what it was, but when he opened her mouth, he covered his mouth in pain.

       But Long Xing noticed Song Jun’s reaction, so he kindly asked for him, “What can this bell do?”

       Xia Hongshen simply said two words, “Calling Souls.”

       The crescent bell was used to summon spirits. Xia Hongshen rang the bell gently, and the sound of the bell spread throughout the mountain village. The lonely ghosts wandering around the mountain village all began to gather in this direction.

       These ghosts were living sacrifices that had been killed by the villagers over the years, and the grease that was extracted for burning in oil lamps.

       In fact, these dead teenagers were no longer the young people who persecuted Wan Mingguang back then. These people were innocent children, but they were deprived of their lives because of Wan Mingguang’s hatred that was stagnant in those years.

       Their ghosts lingered around this mountain village for many years until Xia Hongshen and the others appeared.

       It was the ghosts of these teenagers who caused the accident and made them be left behind when going down the mountain. They hoped that someone could stay and save the village so that no more people would be killed.

       No one knew when the thin fog would become thick again. The villagers surrounding the ancestral hall feel more and more hot. Suddenly, someone exclaimed, “My body is blistered!”

       The man stretched out his hand, and there were two blisters on his arm, which clearly looked like he had been burned by the high temperature. However, everyone only felt hot and did not feel the temperature of being burned at all.

       Next, another man also found that his skin was burned. He shouted loudly, saying that there was something strange here and that his ancestors were angry, and rushed down the mountain.

       The old man leading the crowd was still telling everyone to calm down, but someone found that his white beard had been burnt.

       The man who had just rushed down the mountain broke into a heavy fog, but soon he came back from the fog. There was no way down the mountain. He ran straight forward, and in the end, he could only return to a small area near this ancestral hall.

       At this time, everyone started to panic.

       Someone said, “Those people offended the gods, kill them!”

       Others also chanted, “Kill them!”

       A group of people rushed to break down the door of the ancestral hall, but as soon as their bodies touched the wooden door of the ancestral hall, their skin started to burn.

       In addition to the old man, a young man stood in the crowd, looking at these crazy people expressionlessly.

       Suddenly, the door of the ancestral hall was opened from the inside. As soon as they saw Xia Hongshen at the entrance, those people rushed forward, but Xia Hongshen held a silver whip in his hand. With a gentle flick, the whip struck the ground, producing a crisp sound and raising a cloud of dust.

       Others wanted to rush forward, but Xia Hongshen’s long whip struck their arm. They immediately felt bone-piercing pain and rolled on the ground holding their arms.

       For a moment, everyone stared at Xia Hongshen warily, and no one dared to approach.

       Except for the young man standing quietly in the corner, who made no move, Xia Hongshen wouldn’t let him off. Xia Hongshen gently extended his hand forward, and the silver whip in his hand suddenly elongated, tightly binding the young man’s body, rendering him unable to move.

       He saw the young man struggling, and suddenly, his appearance changed, turning into a handsome man, and his clothes changed into a long gown.

       No one in the village knew who he was except the old man. When he looked at the young man, he suddenly knelt down with tears in his eyes and shouted, “Cousin.”

       Wan Mingguang struggled but was still unable to break free from the shackles of the whip, so he looked up to the sky and laughed, saying, “No one can escape today anyway, so stay and die together!”

       “Cousin!” An old man knelt on the ground and rushed toward Wan Mingguang, hugging his legs.

       Wan Mingguang didn’t look at him, just maintained a cold smile on his face.

       Xia Hongshen suddenly said, “I’m afraid you won’t get what you want.”

       After he finished speaking, Song Jun came out of the ancestral hall with an oil lamp in his hand. Seeing Wan Mingguang, Song Jun suddenly felt heartache. Perhaps it was because when he was possessed by Wan Mingguang, the memory was so painful that it was still difficult to get rid of it. He wanted to open his mouth to dissuade him, but he couldn’t say a word. He could only shake his head at Wan Mingguang.

       Xia Hongshen said, “You are just using the wick spiritual power of the Thousand Years Lamp to do evil. Without this wick, you are just an evil ghost with a grudge. How much power do you have to cause trouble?”

       Wan Mingguang watched Song Jun hand the oil lamp to Xia Hongshen.

       Xia Hongshen waved his hand, and the oil lamp went out.

       “Without the wick of the Thousand Years Lamp, there are countless unjust souls in this village waiting to seek revenge on you. Do you have the ability to confront so many spirits? I think it would be more satisfying to let me devour you,” Xia Hongshen said.

       As soon as he finished speaking, cries and wails echoed around the hill, full of sorrow and lamentation. It wasn’t just the countless youths who had been victimized; it also included the endless resentment left by parents who had lost their sons.

       At this time, Song Jun pulled Xia Hongshen’s sleeve and shook his head vigorously.

       Xia Hongshen turned around and saw that the corner of Song Jun’s mouth was still stained with blood, so he leaned over and licked it gently.

       The old man held Wan Mingguang’s legs and stood up with difficulty. He stood in front of Wan Mingguang and said, “What are you going to do to my cousin?”

       The surrounding villagers became more and more anxious, but they did not dare to come near due to the power of the whip in Xia Hongshen’s hand. Someone was already screaming and tearing his hair because he thought it was about to catch fire.

       Song Jun also felt uncomfortably hot, and sweat dripped down his face. He had something to say but couldn’t say it out. He was so anxious that he almost vomited blood.

       Xia Hongshen suddenly said, “He told you to stop.”

       Song Jun was stunned and looked at Xia Hongshen.

       Xia Hongshen continued, “He said that so many people have died. The children and grandchildren of those who killed you have also died because of you. Your revenge has been avenged. There is no need to bring the entire village to be buried with you.”

       Song Jun nodded vigorously and looked at Wan Mingguang.

---

The author has something to say:
The weather is too hot. Be careful of heatstroke recently, especially girls who have to run outside. I wish everyone a happy weekend.

---

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       The oil lamps in the ancestral hall were still burning and dancing. There was only this little light in the huge space, and the corners around the ancestral hall were plunged into darkness.

       At times like that, such darkness inevitably instilled fear, as one never knew what might be lurking in the dark corners.

       The only thing that made Song Jun feel at ease was that Xia Hongshen was still holding his hand.

       The knocking on the window just now stopped, and the surroundings had become quiet again, and no sound could be heard. Before Song Jun could breathe a sigh of relief, he suddenly heard ‘knock-knock-knock’ sounds from windows in all directions at the same time.

       Song Jun suddenly held Xia Hongshen’s hand tightly. He was scared. It was difficult for him to imagine what was or how many things were outside, and they seemed to be trapped in this ancestral hall.

       However, Xia Hongshen still looked calm. Even if he heard many knocks on the window at the same time, he did not seem to be panicked at all. By this time, both Long Xing and Feng Junyuan’s expressions had both turned pale.

       There was still thick fog outside, and they couldn’t see anything clearly. They didn’t know what they would encounter if they stepped out of the ancestral hall.

       Xia Hongshen pondered for a moment, then walked back to the oil lamp and reached out to pick up the wick. Song Jun was startled and wanted to stop him. However, before the words came out, when Xia Hongshen’s finger was about to touch the oil lamp, the oil lamp suddenly went out.

       As the oil lamp went out, their vision fell into darkness, and the continuous knocking on the window suddenly stopped.

       Song Jun didn’t scream; maybe he was too scared, but he couldn’t remember how to react for a while.

       “Long Xing,” Song Jun heard Xia Hongshen beside him say in a deep voice, “flashlight.”

       Long Xing was not far away from them and responded, “Oh, okay.”

       There was a rummaging over there, and it seemed that Long Xing was looking for a flashlight. He soon found it, made a soft click, and pressed the flashlight switch, but it didn’t light up.

       Suddenly, there was someone beside Song Jun who took his left hand, and then he heard Feng Junyuan’s voice next to him, “Is it broken?”

       Song Jun breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that Feng Junyuan’s hand was cold, and he guessed that he was probably feeling scared, so he took the initiative to hold his hand.

       Long Xing responded, “Yeah, it seems to be broken. Wait a minute, I’ll look for the lighter in my backpack.”

       He continued to rummage through his backpack in the darkness.

       Xi Anling was still standing by the door, urging uneasily, “Hurry up.”

       Long Xing was a little anxious because of her urging and said, “Don’t worry, I remember it’s in this bag.” After a moment, he said happily, “I found it.”

       ‘Click’ Long Xing lit the lighter, and the light returned to the ancestral hall instantly. However, the flame lasted less than a second and then went out immediately.

       In that extremely brief moment of light, Song Jun discovered something that instantly froze the blood in his body. He saw Feng Junyuan standing next to a window, looking in the direction of Long Xing, not by his side at all.

       At the same time, Song Jun also heard Xi Anling scream. The girl’s voice was slightly shrill, especially scary in the silence. She said, “Song Jun, who is next to you?”

       Click, click, click. Long Xing continued to try the lighter in his hand, but it couldn’t light up.

       Who was next to Song Jun? He didn’t even know who it was. All he knew was that he was still holding that hand, as cold and stiff as a dead person.

       Who was holding his left hand? Who was holding his right hand? Who was Long Xing? Who was Feng Junyuan? What was this place? Which of what he saw and heard was true? Which one was fake?

       Song Jun couldn’t tell the difference anymore. He shook off the hand being held, not just his left hand, but also the hand holding Xia Hongshen on the right. He began to panic and tried to escape and stumbled a few steps. His body hit the altar table, and because of the heavy impact, the spiritual tablets placed on it fell to the ground with a crackle.

       “Song Jun,” someone grabbed his arm and called his name.

       Song Jun tried to break away in panic, “Who are you?”

       However, the man’s hand was very strong, and he could not break free. He heard the man say to him, “I am Xia Hongshen.”

       “Senior Brother Xia?” Song Jun murmured.

       Xia Hongshen said, “It’s me; don’t be afraid.”

       Next, Xia Hongshen put his arms around his shoulders and held him in his arms.

       Song Jun could feel the warmth of Xia Hongshen’s embrace. His head rested on his shoulder, and he opened his arms to hug him. His chest was pressed tightly together. He could feel Xia Hongshen’s heartbeat.

       He finally relaxed himself and slowly closed his eyes.

       …

       “Cousin.”

       Song Jun was stunned; who was talking?

       “Cousin?” The voice sounded above him again.

       Xia Hongshen? Song Jun opened his eyes and suddenly found that the surroundings became brighter. He raised his head and saw the person holding him in front of him. He was shocked to find that this person was not Xia Hongshen.

       “Cousin? What’s wrong with you?” The man was still calling him.

       Song Jun asked in confusion, “Who are you?”

       The man smiled, “What’s wrong with you? I’m your cousin. How come you don’t recognise me in the blink of an eye?”

       “Cousin?” Song Jun repeated and then asked, “Who am I?”

       The man’s laughter was endearing, “You are Wan Mingguang. What’s wrong? You don’t even recognise yourself after staying abroad?”

       Wan Mingguang? That’s right, he is not Song Jun. He is Wan Mingguang. He was the eldest son of the Wan family. His family was the richest landowner in these dozens of miles, and this entire mountain belonged to his Wan family.

       He lifted his head and found himself inside Wan’s ancestral hall. Right, he had brought an oil lamp from outside, rumoured to be a celadon lamp from Ru kiln¹is a famous and extremely rare type of Chinese pottery from the Song dynasty, produced for the imperial court for a brief period around 1100.. He personally placed the oil lamp on the ancestral altar in the hall, then knelt down, sincerely offering a stick of incense to their ancestors.

       However, after Wan Mingguang successfully returned to his hometown, less than five years later, the Japanese invaded. That year, the entire villager was driven to the Wanjia Ancestral Hall by the Japanese, who wanted to burn them all to death.

       The whole villager knelt inside the ancestral hall. When they saw the Japanese setting up firewood and pouring diesel on them outside, no one dared to stand up and resist.

       Wan Mingguang was kneeling in the crowd. His chest was heaving violently because of his anger. One of his hands was bleeding when he pinched it. He was so angry that he wanted to stand up, but his cousin held his hand.

       His cousin shook his head at him. Those Japanese had guns, and if he dared to stand up, the first one would be killed.

       It was not that they didn’t want to resist; it was that they were powerless in the face of the black hole of gunfire.

       A Japanese man picked up the oil lamp on the altar table and threw it towards the firewood. The lamp did not break and quickly ignited the firewood.

       The people in the ancestral hall started to riot. No one wanted to be burned alive. However, no one expected that the ignited firewood would not ignite the entire ancestral hall, but instead, as if there were evil spirits, the flames rushed toward the Japanese.

       The Japanese’s whole body was quickly ignited by fire. Even if they tried to run down the mountain and rolled on the ground, they could not extinguish the fire on their bodies. The people in this village watched as this group of Japanese were burned alive by the fire in front of them.

       “The ancestors are showing up!” someone shouted loudly.

       Everyone in the village knelt and kowtowed to the ancestral tablets.

       Wan Mingguang stood up and walked to the darkened firewood, picked up the oil lamp, wiped it carefully with the hem of his clothes, and then placed it back on the altar table with his hands high.

       Then he knelt down and kowtowed three times respectfully.

       From that day on, the whole village respected this oil lamp as a god and passed it down from generation to generation to keep the lamp burning forever.

       However, things changed, and more than twenty years later, Wan Mingguang was tied up in this ancestral hall. The young people surrounded him and condemned him because he was the son of a landlord and a remnant of feudalism. There was a sign around his neck and a hat on his head. Someone was chanting his accusations loudly, and another was pressing his head to the ground. His forehead was rubbed on the ground until it was stained with blood.

       He saw his cousin also standing in the crowd, who could not bear to look at him but did not dare to stand up and say a word.

       The charges were announced, and he was surrounded by those young people who punched and kicked him. This condemnation was his last experience, and in this instance, looked at the oil lamp on the altar table in front of him and breathed his last.

       He was not willing to give in. How could he be willing to do so? It was the oil lamp he brought back that saved the lives of the whole village, but these young people whipped and beat him mercilessly, causing him to die without dignity. He would never be able to rest in peace forever.

       Wan Mingguang died, and at the same time, the light of the oil lamp began to dim slowly and slowly. Until twenty years ago, the oil lamp was completely extinguished. The villagers tried many methods and added more lamp oil, but the lamps were not lit anymore.

       The day after the oil lamp went out, two young people in the village had an accident and drowned while playing in the river.

       People in Wanjia Village began to panic, thinking that the boy’s accident was related to the extinguishing of the oil lamp. To this end, the villagers invited a famous medium from a nearby village to ask the gods. After communicating with the ‘gods’ in the ancestral hall, the medium told them that they had to use young people as sacrifices and human oil as lamp oil to light the oil lamps again.

       The villagers were sceptical. Someone added the body oil of the dead boy to the lamp oil, and sure enough, the lamp was lit again.

       This oil lamp couldn’t be extinguished. Once the oil lamp was extinguished, the whole village would suffer. These were the words left by the medium before she left.

       The whole village sat around and discussed for several days and nights, and finally decided to select a young man from the whole village as a sacrifice every year and use their body fat as lamp oil to keep the lamp alive.

       In order to provide sacrifices and, at the same time to maintain the continuity of descendants, people in the village strive to have more sons. As long as they were not selected as sacrifices after their age, they could grow up safely…

       …

       “Song Jun?” Feng Junyuan squatted next to Song Jun and gently reached out to pat his face.

       Song Jun was still unconscious. He suddenly fainted after being held in Xia Hongshen’s arms. Xia Hongshen put him on the ground, but he never woke up.

       Before they knew it, the sky outside had begun to turn white, and the fog seemed to have dissipated.

       At this time, there were many footsteps outside the ancestral hall, and someone shouted loudly, “What the hell! How dare you run wild in the Wanjia Ancestral Hall! Get out of here!”

       Xi Anling looked out from the crack in the door and saw villagers holding flashlights in their hands and others carrying wooden sticks and hatchets, gathering outside the ancestral hall.

       Someone wanted to break in but was stopped by the old man at the front. He said that he would not desecrate the ancestral hall and told everyone inside to get out.

       “What should we do?” Xi Anling said, “We are surrounded.”

       At this time, Feng Junyuan shouted, “Song Jun is awake.”

       Song Jun slowly opened his eyes and looked at Feng Junyuan squatting in front of him.

       Xia Hongshen turned to look at him and said, “He is not Song Jun.”

       Feng Junyuan was stunned, and then he saw Song Jun’s eyes glowing red and grabbed his neck.

---

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       Thousand Years Lamp’s wick?

       All the legends about the Thousand Years Lamp Song Jun heard were from Xia Hongshen. He had no idea what the Thousand Years Lamp really was, and, in truth, he didn’t have much desire to find out either.

       What he was a little afraid of was whether Xia Hongshen would leave the mortal world and return to heaven after finding all the Thousand Years Lamp, and then he would be left alone.

       It was neither too early nor too late at this time, so Xia Hongshen said it would be better to take a nap first and wait until tomorrow.

       Song Jun lay back on the bed, feeling a little uneasy.

       Unexpectedly, Xia Hongshen lay beside him and suddenly put his arms around him.

       Long Xing returned to the bed beside the bed and had no intention of returning to the bed to sleep. Feng Junyuan’s body was pressed against the wall motionless, but he must not have fallen asleep that quickly.

       Xia Hongshen held his shoulders, let him rest his head on his chest, and stroked his hair.

       Song Jun wanted to push him away, but it was too quiet around him, and he didn’t have the nerve to make too much noise. Moreover, he was indeed frightened, but now, leaning on Xia Hongshen made him feel at ease.

       Just like that, Song Jun fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes. When he woke up again, it was already dawn.

       Xia Hongshen was still lying next to him, hugging his shoulders, and Feng Junyuan slept like a child, with his head on his back.

       Song Jun sat up, waking Feng Junyuan, who opened his eyes with a bewildered expression. Xia Hongshen, on the other hand, seemed to have been awake all along. After Song Jun sat up, he also got up.

       They brushed their teeth and washed their face. The water on the mountain was made from snow-melted streams, which was bone-chillingly cold.

       For breakfast, each person had one steamed bun, and they weren’t even provided with pickled vegetables. Song Jun squatted in the courtyard, nibbling on the steamed bun, and pondered that the village secretary probably couldn’t wait to send them away.

       After breakfast, Long Xing called Lü Hai and the others and said that a car had been sent up the mountain. Two cars and a trailer had arrived at about noon to take them down the mountain together.

       Since there was nothing else to do in the morning, Xia Hongshen told Secretary Wang that they would go out for a walk.

       Of course Secretary Wang agreed and even offered to let his eldest son accompany them for a walk in the village.

       Xia Hongshen didn’t refuse, so Secretary Wang called his eldest son out.

       His eldest son was 17 or 18 years old, and his name was Wang Dong. For mountain people, he was already considered an adult, and he said that he might get married next year. Even though he was not old enough to obtain a marriage certificate, they would first celebrate with a banquet.

       Wang Dong took them around the village. The villagers he met along the way looked at them warily, and their defensive posture was very obvious.

       Song Jun looked at the villagers and recalled the nightmare last night. Suddenly, he had an idea that made him shudder. He wondered if, including Wan Jingsheng, many young people had died in this village. And whether these deaths were somehow connected to the people in the village.

       Actually, Song Jun didn’t notice what the village looked like when rushing back and forth yesterday. However, after walking around today, he found that the village was no different from what he had seen in his dream. He even saw the two-story building he witnessed last night, where a young man was pushed from the second floor, resulting in a bloody and violent fall.

       Song Jun looked at the small building in a daze. However, the small building was very quiet then, and no one could be seen through the windows on the second floor.

       Noticing that he was distracted, Wang Dong asked, “What’s wrong?”

       Song Jun came to his senses, shook his head and said, “It’s nothing.”

       Until they reached the hillside to the north of the village, Song Jun stood still and looked around. He was now very sure that this hillside was the hillside he had visited in his dream. He saw many funeral processions walking up from the path below the hill and proceeding towards the top where the wooden house stood.

       The wooden house—Song Jun looked up and saw that building standing alone on the top of the hill.

       “What’s with that house?” Song Jun suddenly pointed in that direction and asked Wang Dongdao, “Does anyone live in such a remote place?”

       Wang Dong raised his head and looked, “Oh, there, huh? That’s the village’s ancestral hall, which has a history of hundreds of years.”

       “Ancestral hall?”

       “Well,” Wang Dong said, “a place where ancestors’ tablets are enshrined.”

       Xia Hongshen said, “Can I go and have a look?”

       Wang Dong laughed twice and said, “Probably not. The old rules in the village are that no one from outside is allowed in. They say it is blasphemy against the spirits of the ancestors.”

       Hearing this, Xia Hongshen said softly, “I understand.”

       Wang Dong ruffled his head and said, “I’m sorry, Teacher Xia.”

       Xia Hongshen said, “It’s alright, it’s me who was rude.”

       However, before noon, Long Xing received a call from Lü Hai, saying that they might not be able to go up today because they encountered a landslide on the way up the mountain, and the road was blocked.

       Although it had rained here two days ago, it was a bit strange that they would encounter a landslide in the middle of nowhere. Even after the emergency rescue cleared the mountain road, it would be at least tomorrow before the car could drive up.

       Upon hearing the news, Secretary Wang’s expression changed.

       Long Xing said to him, “If it’s inconvenient, let’s go to the village chief’s house and spend the night today.”

       Upon hearing this, Secretary Wang quickly said, “It doesn’t matter, there’s no need, just stay one more night.”

       In the afternoon, Xi Anling also came to Song Jun’s room and complained, “Why can’t we leave yet?”

       Song Jun didn’t know what to say; it was just like how they couldn’t get down the mountain the day before. It seemed just like what Xia Hongshen said; someone deliberately wanted to keep them here and was unwilling to let them leave until the purpose was achieved. Who was it? What’s the purpose?

       But Xia Hongshen said casually, “We’re not leaving. We have things to do tonight.”

       Xi Anling froze for a moment and asked somewhat nervously, “What is it?”

       Xia Hongshen did not answer him.

       Song Jun sat on the edge of the bed, observing the people inside the room. There was always a strange feeling as if they were forcibly brought together with no apparent connection, yet he didn’t find it too out of place.

       Long Xing was sitting on the doorstep, playing his game with his head down.

       Feng Junyuan was beside him, holding his face with his hands, his eyes falling on the screen of Long Xing’s mobile phone, saying nothing.

       Song Jun felt a little awkward listening to Xi Anling and Xia Hongshen talking here, so he walked to Feng Junyuan and wanted to sit beside him. Three people couldn’t fit on the doorstep. Long Xing, trying to sit down, lost balance and fell backwards, and Feng Junyuan quickly grabbed his wrist and pulled him back up.

       “Thank you,” Long Xing stood up, patted his butt and sat on the edge of the bed.

       Song Jun sat down next to Feng Junyuan and asked him, “Don’t you want to go back?”

       He was actually very curious about Feng Junyuan because he knew that Feng Junyuan didn’t like Xia Hongshen.

       Unexpectedly, Feng Junyuan said, “It doesn’t matter.”

       Song Jun was stunned for a moment, and then Feng Junyuan asked him, “Are you afraid?”

       Initially, he wanted to say he was afraid, but after a little hesitation, Song Jun still said, “No, it’s nothing.”

       After it got dark, Xia Hongshen stood in the small courtyard of Secretary Wang’s house and raised his hands, and then said to Song Jun and others, “You can come out now.”

       Song Jun followed Feng Junyuan and Long Xing out of the room. He saw Xi Anling opening the door and slipping out of the next room.

       The entire Wang family was asleep, and no one would notice their whereabouts.

       Song Jun felt a little cold, so he tightened his clothes and followed them out of the courtyard gate. In fact, he was very nervous. He knew where Xia Hongshen was going and had a premonition that he might see something terrible. He didn’t want to go but didn’t dare to stay alone.

       Obviously, everything had nothing to do with him, but Song Jun felt that maybe he was too unlucky.

       The place Xia Hongshen wanted to go was the ancestral hall of Wanjia Village on the top of the hillside. It was said to be an old ancestral hall with a history of more than 100 years. It was unknown how many ancestors of the villagers were enshrined in the ancestral hall.

       Song Jun was originally walking at the end. When he saw Xi Anling walking with difficulty wearing a pair of high heels, he subconsciously reached out to pull her.

       As a result, Xia Hongshen’s eyes immediately swept over and said, “Long Xing, go help Anling, and Song Jun, come here.”

       Long Xing walked over and helped hold Xi Anling’s hand. Xi Anling turned her head and curled her lips.

       Song Jun walked to Xia Hongshen, and Xia Hongshen took one of his hands and put it in his jacket pocket, feeling soft and warm.

       Wanjia Ancestral Hall—that was the words written on the plaque hanging outside the ancestral hall.

       The ancestral hall might have been renovated in recent years. The colour of the paint still looked very bright. It seemed to be cleaned frequently. There was not a lot of dust on the high beams.

       Long Xing held a flashlight in his hand, slowly shining it through the door of the ancestral hall, and then suddenly turned off the flashlight light.

       Even though a door separated them, they could still find light inside. Then, Long Xing reached out and pushed open the door of Wanjia Ancestral Hall.

       Inside the ancestral hall, there was a tall and wide offering table with many spiritual tablets densely placed on it, and there was indeed an oil lamp burning on the desk.

       Xia Hongshen stepped over the knee-high threshold and walked in. Song Jun’s hand was still held by him, so he had no choice but to follow him in. He raised his head and looked around inside the ancestral hall. The light of the oil lamp was not bright, and it flickered. The shadows left by the tablets on the wall seemed constantly jumping.

       Feng Junyuan, who was following closely behind them, paused and said, “Such a heavy Yin energy.”

       Song Jun shivered slightly. He couldn’t feel the so-called yin energy, but he could also feel the gloomy atmosphere here.

       Xia Hongshen walked towards the altar table in front. Song Jun pulled him hard to express that he did not want to go there.

       Unexpectedly, Xia Hongshen turned around and looked at him, a little confused, but walked to the altar table one step at a time, staring at the oil lamp.

       Song Jun avoided the spiritual tablets and followed Xia Hongshen to look at the oil lamp. He suddenly said, “Huh,” and asked curiously, “Why is the lamp oil yellow?”

       Xia Hongshen said, “Because human fat is yellow.”

       Song Jun was stunned for a moment, then realised the meaning of his words, and his eyes widened suddenly. He felt as if the air was filled with a greasy smell of burning human fat, and he couldn’t help but feel sick.

       “Wow,” Long Xing also came over and looked at the oil lamp, “Sucking people’s fat to make lamp oil? Isn’t this too crazy?”

       Xi Anling stopped when he heard this and was not willing to get close at all.

       He didn’t know when, but a layer of fog seemed to begin to fill the air outside. Xi Anling was the first to discover it. She was closest to the gate of the ancestral hall. She walked to the door and said, “It seems to be fogging up.”

       As soon as she spoke, the fog became thicker, and in an instant, all that was left in front of her eyes was a fog amidst the pitch blackness, and she couldn’t see anything clearly anymore.

       “It’s such a heavy fog,” Xi Anling also began to have a bad feeling.

       She wanted to step out of the ancestral hall door and see what was going on outside. Suddenly, she saw a hand reaching out from the thick fog as if it wanted to catch her.

       Xi Anling screamed in surprise, closed the door of the ancestral hall with her backhand, and then gasped for air and said, “There is someone outside!”

       Maybe it was not a human being; maybe it was a ghost.

       Xia Hongshen had reached out to take the wick from the oil lamp, but he retracted his hand after hearing Xi Anling’s scream.

       Song Jun stood close to Xia Hongshen and couldn’t help but look around.

       In the silence, he suddenly heard someone knocking on the window several times.

       It was a window on the left side of the ancestral hall. The sound of knocking on the window sounded leisurely, but it seemed particularly strange in the silent night.

       Song Jun immediately became alert when he saw Feng Junyuan, while Long Xing walked towards the window and even reached out to open the window.

       Song Jun immediately wanted to stop him, but before he spoke, Xia Hongshen said first, “Don’t open.”

       Long Xing withdrew his hand and turned to look at Xia Hongshen.

       Xia Hongshen said, “Don’t move, just calm down first.”

       Song Jun swallowed silently. He felt a layer of cold sweat on his palms, not knowing what he would encounter next.

---

The author has something to say:
Fat, lamp oil, etc., already guessed it…

---

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       Song Jun returned to the room where they stayed, and Feng Junyuan was already lying on the bed, ready to sleep.

       Long Xing, as he himself said, made a bunk on the ground and was leaning on the bed playing games on his mobile phone. When he saw Song Jun coming in, he asked, “Where is Teacher Xia?”

       Song Jun shook his head, said nothing, and sat down by the bed.

       It was quiet in the yard outside. Secretary Wang and his family seemed to have gone back to their room to rest after dinner. He originally wanted to simply wash up, but suddenly felt troublesome, so he simply took off his shoes and lay down on the bed to sleep directly.

       But it wasn’t like he could fall asleep immediately when he closed his eyes. Although he lay motionless, Song Jun had been paying attention to Xia Hongshen’s movements.

       After some time, Song Jun finally heard Xia Hongshen enter the room, but Xia Hongshen did not go to bed. Instead, he picked up Long Xing, who had fallen asleep on the ground, gently placed him beside the bed, and then opened the door to go out again.

       Song Jun turned over. He closed his eyes but became more and more awake. He didn’t feel sleepy, so he simply sat up again.

       He carefully rolled over Long Xing, got out of bed, put on his shoes, opened the door and walked outside.

       It was already quite late at this time, and all the rooms in the courtyard that had lights on before were darkened. Xia Hongshen was not in the courtyard, and Song Jun didn’t know where he had gone.

       The whole yard was very quiet, not only the whole yard, it should be said that the whole mountain village was very quiet.

       Song Jun originally wanted to call out for Xia Hongshen, but he felt that the brick wall was probably not soundproof. If he shouted, the whole courtyard would be woken up, so he gave up the idea and walked out of the courtyard gate.

       There was still the secluded path outside the yard, and a little further on, there was a small stream where not long ago, he had been sitting and talking with Xia Hongshen.

       The surroundings were dark, but not so dark that he couldn’t see his fingers. Everything could be vaguely outlined, but he didn’t see Xia Hongshen.

       Song Jun was a little scared. At this time, he should have quickly returned to a crowded place, but he didn’t know why. He seemed unable to control his legs and kept walking forward step by step.

       There didn’t seem to be many people living in this village, but because it was spread out, the entire mountain village was not too small. As Song Jun walked, he saw a two-story wooden building in front of him, faintly visible through the second-floor window. There seemed to be a person standing next to him.

       He stopped and suddenly saw a lot of people near the window, and there seemed to be a lot of quarrels. Then the person before was pushed down from the second floor, and his head hit a stone, and a large pool of blood suddenly flowed out.

       The chaotic figures on the second floor disappeared. Song Jun hesitated but still walked towards the man on the ground. He could somewhat tell it was a young man as he got closer.

       The teenager was probably in the same grade as the deceased Wan Jingsheng.

       Song Jun walked to him, lowered his head and wanted to take a closer look at him, but saw him suddenly reach out a hand and grab his ankle, his hand covered with blood.

       He almost screamed, but he held it back, turned around, and ran away in panic.

       After running for who knew how long, Song Jun stopped and found that he was lost. He was standing in front of a hillside and could not find the small courtyard where he stayed before.

       He was panting, confused and at a loss. He wanted to shout Xia Hongshen’s name loudly, but when he opened his mouth, he found that he couldn’t make a sound.

       Then, someone seemed to be moving in the distance.

       Song Jun stood there quietly and saw that a group of people were walking in this direction. They were all wearing white mourning clothes, which looked a bit dazzling in the dark night. In the middle of the group, a person was carrying a big dark coffin.

       The group of people walked towards him, but no one seemed to notice Song Jun’s presence.

       When he got closer, Song Jun saw that their faces were expressionless and their eyes were lifeless. The lid of the coffin was not closed, and Song Jun could see the people lying inside.

       That person was the boy Song Jun had seen falling from the second floor before. He was lying in the coffin fully clothed, but Song Jun felt that his whole body seemed to have lost weight.

       He was a little surprised at first, but then Song Jun suddenly remembered what Xia Hongshen told him that all the fat in Wan Jingsheng’s body had been drained.

       Song Jun didn’t see Wan Jingsheng’s body and didn’t know what Wan Jingsheng looked like. He was just wondering, could this boy be Wan Jingsheng?

       The funeral procession passed by Song Jun and headed straight up the mountain.

       Song Jun looked up the mountain along the road they were walking on and saw an old house like a temple at the end of the road, on the mountainside.

       He had been watching those people walking up the mountain, but then he heard footsteps coming from the direction down the mountain. He turned his head and saw the second funeral procession.

       Still wearing white mourning clothes, they were carrying a black coffin. Inside the coffin was a young man, but this time he looked completely unfamiliar.

       Song Jun felt horrified. He took a few steps back and found that there was not just a second funeral procession but a steady stream of funeral processions coming from the bottom of the mountain in this direction all the way up the mountain.

       He didn’t understand what was happening and was even beginning to be unsure whether the scene he saw before him was real.

       At this time, Song Jun heard a woman crying. The woman was following the end of the group. She was crying very loudly, and behind the woman stood a young man.

       At first, Song Jun thought the young man’s clothes were strange, but then he suddenly realised they were in mourning clothes.

       The young man followed the woman at first but then turned his head and looked at Song Jun.

       He was the only one among so many people passing by who noticed Song Jun’s presence.

       Next, Song Jun saw the pale young man wearing a shroud walking towards him.

       Song Jun wanted to avoid it, but he couldn’t control his legs until the young man walked up to him and stretched out a hand.

       The hand was wrinkled, with only a layer of skin covering the bones. Judging from his movements, it seemed that he wanted to hold Song Jun’s hand.

       Song Jun didn’t understand why he didn’t get out of the way. As if he couldn’t control it, he stretched out his hand to hold his hand.

       At this time, a black cat suddenly appeared out of thin air, rushed between the two people, and stopped the young man from holding Song Jun’s hand.

       Song Jun was so frightened that he suddenly opened his eyes and sat up from the bed, only then realising that he had actually had a dream.

       However, this dream was too real. He raised his hand and looked at the palm of his hand, and he could still feel the touch of the young man’s cold fingers.

       That person seemed to want to take him somewhere instead of hurting him. For some reason, Song Jun felt that way.

       He turned his head and saw that on his left and right sides, Feng Junyuan and Long Xing were still sleeping soundly.

       Long Xing turned over and even uttered a few words in his sleep, but unfortunately, they were too vague to be heard clearly.

       Song Jun’s whole body was wet with sweat. He stretched out his hand and wiped his forehead. He still felt uncomfortable. He didn’t know where Xia Hongshen went, and he still hadn’t returned.

       With this in mind, Song Jun gently rolled over from Long Xing’s feet and got out of bed. As soon as he put on his shoes and stood up, he suddenly noticed something standing outside the window.

       He slowly walked towards the window, and when he got closer, he suddenly realised that the thing seemed to be a woman’s long hair. Song Jun suddenly held his breath because he could see clearly this time. There was clearly a woman with long hair outside the window, tilting her head and looking into the window. One of her eyes was covered by her hair, and only one of her eyes was exposed. One eye was staring at Song Jun.

       Before Song Jun made a sound, the woman outside the window suddenly let out a piercing scream, and Long Xing and Feng Junyuan in the room were awakened by her voice at the same time.

       Long Xing suddenly got out of bed and said, “Who is it?”

       The woman outside the window started banging her head against the window while making pitiful cries.

       As a result, everyone in the courtyard was awakened.

       Secretary Wang’s family turned on the lights and came out of the room. His wife screamed in fright when she saw the woman lying outside the window of Song Jun’s room.

       Next, Secretary Wang personally ran forward and pulled the woman away, “How did you get here?”

       Long Xing opened the door and asked, “What’s going on?”

       Secretary Wang pulled the woman and said, “This is the village chief’s wife and she is crazy. Go to the village chief’s house and ask someone to pick her up!”

       The woman struggled fiercely and scratched Secretary Wang’s face with her sharp nails.

       Long Xing then walked over to help pull her.

       The woman looked to be in her thirties or forties, with long hair that reached her waist. She was actually wearing white mourning clothes.

       Secretary Wang’s wife asked her son to go out and call for help while cursing bad luck.

       When the woman saw Long Xing coming to pull her, her eyes suddenly widened, and she stared at Long Xing. She got the strength to break away from the pull of others, rushed over and hugged Long Xing, and shouted, “My son!”

       Long Xing was small in both stature and appearance. He had just woken up and looked like a teenager with his messy hair. He was startled when the woman hugged him and shouted for someone to pull her away.

       Song Jun was shocked and sat on the edge of the bed.

       Feng Junyuan sat next to him, patted his back and asked, “Are you okay?”

       Song Jun obviously didn’t look like he was fine, but he still shook his head.

       Feng Junyuan noticed that Song Jun was sweating coldly, so he got out of bed and said, “I’ll get you a glass of water.”

       At this time, someone from the village chief’s family finally came and took away the crazy woman in the yard.

       Long Xing scratched his head and returned to the house, saying, “What a mess.”

       Feng Junyuan returned to the room with a water glass and handed the water to Song Jun.

       Secretary Wang came over, greeted them first, and then asked, “Why is Teacher Xia missing?”

       Only then did Long Xing and Feng Junyuan realise that Xia Hongshen was not there.

       “I went to the bathroom,” suddenly, Xia Hongshen’s voice came from outside the house.

       Secretary Wang turned around and saw Xia Hongshen and nodded, “Be careful. I’m going to lock the courtyard door. It’s still early. Let’s continue to rest.”

       When Secretary Wang and his family went back to their room, Xia Hongshen walked in and closed the door.

       Long Xing said inexplicably, “People in this village are all weird.”

       Feng Junyuan returned to the bed and squatted next to Song Jun.

       Xia Hongshen came over and reached out to touch Song Jun’s head, noticing that the cold sweat on his head had not yet dissipated.

       Song Jun suddenly grabbed Xia Hongshen’s hand and said, “There must be something weird in this village. I guess the village chief’s wife went mad because her son died. Many young people seem to have died in this village.”

       Xia Hongshen’s palms were dry, so he held Song Jun’s clammy hand with his backhand, sat beside him, and said, “Why do you say that?”

       Song Jun told him about the dream he just had.

       Not only Xia Hongshen, but Feng Junyuan and Long Xing also frowned slightly when they heard what he said.

       After speaking, Song Jun asked Xia Hongshen, “Where did you go just now?”

       Xia Hongshen said, “I went to find out why there were so many ghosts in this village.”

       “What’s going on?” Song Jun asked.

       Xia Hongshen said, “I think I have found the whereabouts of the Thousand Years Lamp’s wick.”

________________________________________

The author has something to say:

Thank you all for your concern. It’s been over a week since the fall, and only the wound on my knee still hurts a bit. Not much else.
I know that my writing pace is a bit slow. I also want to update seven or eight thousand words daily to make it easier for everyone to read, but I can’t do it because of work.
And sometimes, when I’m under a lot of pressure to update, my mind goes blank. I can only follow the plot of the outline, but I can’t figure out how to make the outline fuller. I believe writing this way wouldn’t be enjoyable for readers, so please bear with me for the slow progress.

---

Support the author by buying the author’s other works and/or giving some jades here~
P.S: the price is cheaper if you buy from the app ><

We now finally have a discord server for those who want to receive an update ping and various announcements~
Join here

Check out bean’s new ABO novel here!
and her original novel about a sly cute dragon here~
Check out the other hoeni’s work here~
Check out the angst novel I co-tl with my friend here~

And please buy me some kofi if you like the translation~

Also leave some ratings if you like this series ~

       Because the car encountered heavy fog shortly after leaving the village, it didn’t go very far. However, it still took nearly half an hour to get back.

       Song Jun started dragging his luggage, and then Xia Hongshen reached out to pick it up for him.

       After riding in the car all morning, he couldn’t eat a bite of food in the village at noon, and he couldn’t even sit on a stool. Now he had walked uphill for a long time, and Song Jun was already panting from exhaustion.

       Xia Hongshen walked beside him, suddenly squatted down in front of him and said, “Come up.”

       Song Jun was stunned for a moment and then realised that Xia Hongshen wanted to carry him on his back. He turned and glanced at Xi Anling, who was lagging behind. The girl was panting from exhaustion but kept walking forward with her head lowered. He suddenly felt embarrassed and said, “No need.”

       When Xia Hongshen heard his refusal, he said nothing and continued walking forward, dragging Song Jun’s luggage.

       When they returned to the village, not only the village chief but also the village secretary came out to welcome them.

       Long Xing called Captain Liu and informed him that they had returned to the village. He asked them to go down the mountain as soon as possible. Later, they originally planned to stay at the village chief’s house for one night, but they did not expect the village secretary to stand up and object, insisting that they go back to his place with him.

       Song Jun suddenly felt that the old village chief of Wanjia Village was a little pitiful.

       Now that the village secretary insisted, the village chief did not continue to object and said to Xia Hongshen, “Teacher, you can go live at the secretary’s place. If you need anything, come to me and I’ll help you out if I can solve it.”

       Xia Hongshen nodded and said, “Thank you.”

       The village secretary’s home was actually not big, and he barely managed to clear out an empty room, allowing Xia Hongshen and the other four boys to make do with each other, while Xi Anling was arranged to share a bed with his daughter.

       As soon as Feng Junyuan entered the room, he frowned and looked unhappy.

       Because there was only one bed in the room, and although it was a large bed, it was very difficult to squeeze four boys into it.

       Song Jun also felt uncomfortable. He was just about to say that the two of them should sleep at the village chief’s place when he heard Long Xing take the initiative to say, “You three can sleep, I’ll just sleep on the floor.”

       Actually, Long Xing was the youngest among them, but he had the best personality.

       Hearing what he said, Song Jun and Feng Junyuan could no longer express their unspoken complaints.

       Song Jun sat down on the edge of the bed. At this time, he didn’t care whether he was dirty or not, and leaned back.

       Feng Junyuan also lay down not far from him, and Long Xing simply sat on the ground, leaning his back against the bed.

       Xia Hongshen stood at the door and looked outside, no one knew what he was looking at.

       They rested all afternoon, and it was almost seven o’clock in the evening before the secretary’s wife came to ask them to have dinner.

       Dinner was steamed wood-fired rice. Although the food was not very good, for these young people in their twenties, after starving for so long, even if they were given a bowl of white rice, they could still eat very well.

       Song Jun ate two large bowls of rice in one go and felt that his stomach was about to burst.

       He patted his chest and heard that the secretary was telling Long Xing about the village chief and his nephew, probably complaining about their family’s abuse of power for personal gain.

       This village secretary’s surname was Wang. Although his surname was not Wan, he lived in Wanjia Village many generations ago.

       After hearing his conversation with Long Xing, Song Jun felt that he was quite ordinary middle-aged man, not as cold and guarded as he felt when they first entered the village.

       Secretary Wang’s wife was also an ordinary woman. She had several children at home, more sons than daughters.

       Song Jun thought that no one would care about such a remote place, and maybe there was more than one child here in the family.

       After listening to them talking for a while, Song Jun felt that it was not interesting, so he stood up and said that he was leaving first.

       The dining area was right inside the kitchen. As Song Jun emerged from the kitchen, he stood in Secretary Wang’s yard, gazing towards the surrounding mountains. At this moment, the sky hadn’t completely darkened, but only the undulating outlines of the mountain ranges were visible. It truly felt like towering peaks and ridges, evoking an indescribable sense of awe for Song Jun, who had grown up in a flat city environment.

       While he was in a daze, something suddenly rushed past his feet.

       Song Jun was so frightened that he took two steps back. After taking a closer look, he realized that it was actually a cat.

       It was a common tabby cat in rural areas. It was quite big and must have been quite old. The cat stared at Song Jun and meowed twice.

       Perhaps because of the little black cat, Song Jun had some natural affection for cats. He remembered the Whiskas he had brought at some time, so he said to the cat, “Wait a minute, I’ll give you something to eat.”

       After saying that, Song Jun ran back to the room, rummaged through the packages of Whiskas bags, took them out and wanted to feed the cat.

       When he returned to the yard, he found that the tabby cat was missing, so he walked around in the yard and whispered, “Meow?”

       Suddenly, Xia Hongshen appeared next to him, grabbed his hand, and asked him, “What do you want to do?”

       Song Jun was startled by him and showed him the thing in his hand, “I want to feed the cat.”

       “You can’t,” Xia Hongshen said.

       Song Jun was stunned, why should this be a problem for him? Why should he be controlled by this?

       Next, Xia Hongshen said, “Would you like to go out for a walk?”

       Hearing his question, Song Jun quickly forgot his anger. He originally wanted to go out for a walk, but he felt scared and didn’t dare to go out alone. Now that Xia Hongshen said they wanted to be together, he had nothing to fear, so he nodded.

       The two people left Secretary Wang’s yard and walked outside.

       Song Jun looked at the quiet mountain village and asked Xia Hongshen beside him, “Are there any ghosts in this village?”

       Xia Hongshen’s eyes swept across the distance and told him in a calm tone, “There are ghosts, and there are many of them.”

       Song Jun became nervous instantly.

       Both of them stopped.

       Xia Hongshen said, “Many ghosts are surrounding this village and don’t want to disperse.”

       “Why?” Song Jun asked softly.

       Xia Hongshen shook his head, “I don’t know.”

       Song Jun stood next to Xia Hongshen and felt that it was not that scary. He asked, “Is it because they all died unjustly, so they can’t be reincarnated?”

       Xia Hongshen did not answer his question but said, “The young man named Wan Jingsheng was killed, and then all the fat was removed from his body. What do you think it was for?”

       Before that, Song Jun didn’t know that there was such a thing. He looked at Xia Hongshen in surprise, “Drained away the fat? Why?”

       Xia Hongshen said, “I’m thinking about it too, what do you think?”

       Song Jun frowned, thought for a long time, and said, “Is it used for cooking?”

       After saying that, he felt sick himself and couldn’t help but hold his chest.

       Xia Hongshen gave him a blank look.

       The two sat down next to a small mountain stream. Song Jun put his hand into the stream. Even though it was spring, the stream was still cold.

       Song Jun’s bags of Whiskas had already been snatched away by Xia Hongshen, and he was now playing with them in his hands. He didn’t bother to ask him for them back.

       Song Jun felt that the current relationship between the two was a bit indescribable. He had suffered a lot of grievances and got angry a lot because of Xia Hongshen, but he could feel that Xia Hongshen didn’t seem to take it to heart. It seemed that the attitude towards him had not changed from beginning to end. What did Xia Hongshen mean? Did it mean that it was enough for two people to maintain the relationship of friends and senior fellow apprentices? Song Jun felt unable and lacked the capacity to speculate on this matter; he felt tired

       In the past, he felt that Xia Hongshen’s almost ambiguous attitude towards him was because he liked him, but now his head was a mess and he didn’t know anything anymore.

       Xia Hongshen suddenly raised his hands and stretched, and said, “I’m so tired.”

       Song Jun asked him strangely, “Can deity get tired too?”

       However, this was obviously not what Xia Hongshen wanted to hear. He ignored what Song Jun said, turned his back to Song Jun, and then fell onto his lap.

       Song Jun’s body suddenly became stiff.

       Xia Hongshen found a comfortable position, pillowed on Song Jun’s legs, and stretched his arms.

       Song Jun didn’t dare to move.

       Xia Hongshen thrust the Whiskas into his hand and said, “I want to eat it.”

       Song Jun was a little stunned, “You want to eat? This is for cats.”

       Xia Hongshen raised his arm and bumped Song Jun’s chest, urging him.

       Song Jun still hesitated, and said again, “This is for cats. Although it smells delicious, I think humans still can’t eat it…”

       Xia Hongshen bumped into him again.

       Song Jun was helpless and said, “Okay, okay, I understand, you’re the one who wants to eat it.”

       He opened the Whiskas bag and carefully fed some into Xia Hongshen’s mouth, and then saw that he really swallowed it deliciously.

       “Is it really okay?” Song Jun asked.

       Xia Hongshen said “En”.

       Song Jun fed him a little more and asked him, “Is it delicious?” He just saw Xia Hongshen eating so deliciously, and suddenly became curious and wanted to try the taste.

       However, what he didn’t expect was that Xia Hongshen didn’t answer him. Instead, he stood up and fed him the half piece he had bitten into his mouth.

       Song Jun was dumbfounded. He chewed the meat mechanically and ate it without tasting the meat at all. After Xia Hongshen finished this action, he lay back on his lap as if nothing had happened.

       In a sense, this could be regarded as a kiss.

       But Song Jun was not so sure. He looked down at Xia Hongshen. The surrounding light was so dark that he could hardly see Xia Hongshen’s expression clearly. He suddenly felt that Xia Hongshen’s action just now was like a big domestic pet snatching food from its owner’s mouth.

       It was just that a moment ago, Xia Hongshen was feeding him.

       There was no symbolic meaning, and the touch of lips was nothing. It was just a process of passing food.

       Song Jun raised his hand to press his lips. He could still recall the soft touch just now. Of course, he needed to ignore that it was cat food. He thought about the kiss he gave Xia Hongshen on the night of New Year’s Eve. Was it meaningless to him?

       “Senior Brother Xia?” Song Jun reached out and grabbed Xia Hongshen’s shoulders and shook him.

       Xia Hongshen said, “Yeah?”

       Song Jun asked him, “Do you know what kissing means?” Maybe he was a deity and he didn’t understand what kissing means at all.

       Xia Hongshen said, “I know, humans like to bite their mouths when they are in heat, men and women bite.”

       Song Jun didn’t notice that he said the word ‘human’, but he just heard that he knew the meaning of kissing, and suddenly felt disappointed.

       Unexpectedly, Xia Hongshen next said, “I don’t agree with you kissing Xi Anling.”

       Song Jun was a little angry for a moment, pushed Xia Hongshen away, stood up and said, “It has nothing to do with you!” Then he turned around and walked straight into the yard.

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The author has something to say:
Recently, I’ve been posting updates and running off right away. It’s been a while since I’ve said something. Last week, while riding my bike home from work, I was thrown off directly from the bike. My knee is still hurting, and I can’t squat down when going to the toilet every day, feeling extremely foolish… Actually, what I want to say is, thank you to the girls who follow my story for patiently commenting despite me disappearing after updates. I truly appreciate it. Everyone, please take care and stay safe.

---

Support the author by buying the author’s other works and/or giving some jades here~
P.S: the price is cheaper if you buy from the app ><

We now finally have a discord server for those who want to receive an update ping and various announcements~
Join here

Check out bean’s new ABO novel here!
and her original novel about a sly cute dragon here~
Check out the other hoeni’s work here~
Check out the angst novel I co-tl with my friend here~

And please buy me some kofi if you like the translation~

Also leave some ratings if you like this series ~

       Wan Jingsheng’s body was placed in a specially built funeral hall in the yard of their home.

       Song Jun followed those people all the way into the village, feeling a little scared inexplicably. Not to mention that the village was a little too quiet now. The villagers who appeared in front of them all seemed to be extremely unwelcoming, and their faces were frighteningly cold.

       Unable to help but slow down, Song Jun glanced at Feng Junyuan, who was walking not far from him, and saw that Feng Junyuan’s attention was also on the villagers as if he felt their unfriendliness.

       Walking outside the yard where the body was placed, Song Jun stopped, and Feng Junyuan and Xi Anling, who was travelling with him, also stopped. Only Xia Hongshen, Long Xing and two Yuntong County police officers entered the yard.

       Xia Hongshen was carrying a small toolbox and handed it to Long Xing.

       Long Xing helped him open the toolbox. He took out a pair of plastic gloves and put them on. Under the vigilant gaze of the villagers, he walked to the funeral hall in the middle of the yard, squatted down and uncovered the white cloth covering the body.

       The corpse had begun to decay, and an unspeakable stench spread around it.

       Lü Hai and his colleagues both frowned and stood far away, unwilling to get closer.

       Only Xia Hongshen still had a calm expression, observing the body lying on the ground.

       This young man named Wan Jingsheng had swollen and bruised facial features, and it was difficult to see what he looked like during his lifetime. However, his clothes were still in good condition. Thinking this, Xia Hongshen turned back and glanced at the other villagers surrounding him.

       When he reached out to take off the boy’s clothes, the boy’s father stood up and stopped him, “What are you going to do?”

       Xia Hongshen said calmly, “Check if there are any wounds on his body surface.”

       At this time, Long Xing stood up from Xia Hongshen and walked towards the boy’s parents. He said to the boy’s father, “Hello, I am a police officer from the Chongfeng City Public Security Bureau.”

       Perhaps after hearing that he was a policeman from a big city, the boy’s father became obviously nervous.

       Long Xing continued, “We are here to help you, not to harm you. Do you know what happened to this child?”

       The boy’s father said, “I don’t know. By the time we found him, it was already too late.”

       Long Xing asked again, “Time? Place? Surely you must know something, right? You didn’t look for him when he didn’t come home?”

       The boy’s father suddenly became emotional, “What’s wrong with not knowing? Why are you asking these questions? Are you all in cahoots with the Public Security Bureau? Are you trying to protect the murderer?”

       Long Xing said, “Don’t get emotional. I’m not asking you these questions to protect anyone but to understand the truth of the matter. You are the child’s parents. Don’t you want to know what happened to him? Don’t you want to know the real truth? Don’t you want to bring the real culprit to justice?”

       Hearing Long Xing ask this question, the boy’s mother began to cry softly again, her whole body trembling.

       While Long Xing was communicating with the boy’s family, Xia Hongshen continued to look at the boy’s body.

       At this moment, Song Jun outside also felt very uneasy. He always felt like he was being watched by these people, which made him want to go in and stay with Xia Hongshen. However, the thought of the corpse inside made him feel frightened, so he resisted and chose not to go in.

       After a while, Xia Hongshen stood up and took off his gloves.

       Long Xing and the local police went over, stood next to Xia Hongshen, and asked, “How is it?”

       Xia Hongshen said, “If you just look at the surface of the corpse, it seems more like death caused by mechanical asphyxiation..”

       “Strangled to death?” Lü Hai asked.

       Xia Hongshen shook his head, “Judging from the marks on the neck, it’s more like strangulation with a rope or hanging. If he was strangled to death, from the fact that there were no visible signs of struggle on his fingers and there were no other signs of struggle on his body, I’m actually more inclined to think that he was strangled to death with a rope while unconscious..”

       None of the policemen spoke.

       Xia Hongshen glanced at them and said, “These are just my speculations. They may not be correct.”

       One of the deputy captains of the Criminal Investigation Squadron said, “Teacher Xia, please continue.”

       Xia Hongshen said, “If you have the opportunity, you can do some toxicological analysis, but it might be difficult to arrange the conditions now. There are traces of burial all over his body, but his clothes are neatly dressed as if someone had carefully put him in a pit and then buried him. Moreover, his clothes do not look like what people in this village usually wear. Instead, they look like they have been dressed up deliberately. If I were to guess, I would say the suspect likely knew him, and their relationship is not simple.”

       Several people looked surprised.

       Xia Hongshen finally said, “In fact, the most critical point is that the fat from the deceased’s body was extracted.”

       This time, even Long Xing was surprised, “What?”

       Xia Hongshen moved his shoulders and said, “I don’t know why, but there are obvious incisions and suture marks left after fat extraction on his body.”

       After packing up her things, Xia Hongshen washed his hands at the water pipe next to the yard and then said to Lü Hai and others, “It is recommended to send him to a place where conditions permit for an autopsy to determine the specific cause of death.”

       Lü Hai and the others looked troubled.

       After that, the communication with the villagers had nothing to do with Xia Hongshen. He came out of the yard and saw Song Jun sitting on a stone next to him. He walked over and touched his forehead with a mineral water bottle.

       Song Jun looked up at him.

       He handed the mineral water to Song Jun.

       Song Jun asked curiously, “Where did the water come from?”

       “The police officer gave it to me,” Xia Hongshen said, sitting down next to Song Jun.

       “How’s it going?” Song Jun asked him.

       Xia Hongshen shook his head and said, “There is something weird in the village.”

       Song Jun was already feeling nervous. When Xia Hongshen said this, he became even more nervous and asked, “Why is it weird?”

       Xia Hongshen still shook his head and had no intention of saying more.

       Although the autopsy examination was over, they were still unable to leave, and the negotiations over there didn’t look like they would end for a while.

       It was almost noon, and the villagers were obviously not so kind as to invite them to lunch. They wanted to go around the neighbourhood, but they were stared at as if they were thieves, and they immediately lost interest.

       By the time the negotiations there ended, it was already past two o’clock in the afternoon. Several police officers still failed to persuade the villagers to let them take away the body. However, it was not without progress. Xia Hongshen provided them with a lead in their investigation. Next, they needed to go back and seek the opinion of the person in charge. If it didn’t work, they would report it to the city bureau and send someone to communicate with the villagers.

       At least now, Xia Hongshen’s mission was completed.

       The criminal investigation captain from the Yuntong County Bureau thanked Xia Hongshen and apologised for taking up his time. They would go down the mountain immediately and go to have lunch as soon as they returned to the county seat.

       It didn’t matter to Xia Hongshen; he wouldn’t feel hungry.

       But Song Jun was so hungry that he almost had no energy to speak.

       The three cars headed back down the mountain. Long Xing drove in the middle, followed by two local police cars.

       The road down the mountain was supposed to be familiar, and so their travelling speed should be faster. However, not far from the village entrance, fog started to fall in the mountains. Almost instantly, a thin layer of mist turned into a thick fog covering the mountains, making it impossible to see the road clearly.

       The police car in front stopped on the side of the road with its lights flashing. Seeing this, Long Xing also slowed down and slowly pulled over and stopped the car.

       The group of people looked at the environment in front of them and felt a little worried. It was getting late now. If it were any later, they would be afraid that it would get dark and they would not be able to go down the mountain. No one could tell when the fog on this mountain would clear. It was certainly unrealistic to stop and wait. They wanted to continue to drive forward, but since they couldn’t see the road conditions in front of them clearly, they were afraid that something would happen.

       In fact, the best thing was to return to the village. However, judging from the attitude of the whole village towards them, they might not be welcomed if they go back.

       After discussion, everyone decided to drive slowly down the mountain. Fortunately, there were almost no people or cars on this road. They hoped that by going around the top of the mountain, the fog would dissipate.

       Even though he was sitting in the back seat, Song Jun couldn’t help but become nervous. He looked out the car window, and everywhere he looked was covered with white fog, and he couldn’t see anything clearly.

       Several cars had their headlights turned on, so they could probably only see a very short area in front of them.

       After driving for a few minutes, probably not even a few meters away, Song Jun suddenly heard a scream from Xi Anling, who was sitting in the front seat, and then Long Xing stepped on the emergency brake.

       “What?” Song Jun asked.

       Xi Anling seemed to be still in shock. She said, “I thought I saw a car hit someone just now.”

       After she finished speaking, she turned to look at Long Xing.

       Long Xing stared ahead, opened the door and got out of the car.

       Song Jun immediately opened the door and got out of the car. They walked around to the front of the car and saw that the front was empty and clean. Not to mention people, not even a bug was seen.

       Xi Anling also came over at this time. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she said, “I obviously saw someone there.”

       Long Xing’s expression did not look very good, and he asked Xi Anling, “Who did you see?”

       Xi Anling recalled it and said, “It seemed to be a young man. I couldn’t see his face, and his back was to the front of the car.”

       They were driving on a mountain road, and a car had just passed by in front of them. How could someone be standing in the middle of the road, completely unaware and with their back turned to the approaching vehicle?

       Song Jun felt a little creeped out as he thought this.

       Long Xing obviously saw that person just now as well. He walked forward for a while, looked left and right, and even stopped when he reached the edge of the cliff.

       It was impossible to knock someone away. His speed was very slow. At that speed, he might not be able to knock someone down if he was standing in the middle of the road, let alone knock him away.

       Xia Hongshen got out of the car, stood by the door, and asked them, “What?”

       Song Jun said, “A person is missing.”

       No one knew what Xia Hongshen was thinking. After being quiet for a while, he said, “It’s okay, just keep driving.”

       At this time, a car behind them had also caught up, stopped next to them, and asked them what happened.

       Long Xing said it was nothing and set off immediately.

       They got in the car, and Long Xing drove forward.

       Song Jun felt extremely uneasy. He looked at the thick fog outside and asked Xia Hongshen, “Did we hit a ghost just now?”

       Xia Hongshen said, “Maybe.”

       No one else in the car spoke. Xi Anling grabbed her clothes nervously.

       Suddenly, Long Xing’s cell phone rang. He did not dare to answer the phone while driving in this situation, so he could only stop the car and take out his cell phone.

       “Hello?” Long Xing saw that the call was from Lü Hai.

       Lü Hai was in the car behind them now.

       “Long Xing!” Lü Hai’s voice was a little urgent, “I saw a person lying on your trunk!”

       His voice was so loud that everyone in the car heard what he said.

       Song Jun turned around subconsciously and saw a pale face on the rear window, looking at them. His eyes widened, and before he could scream, he heard a noise from behind, and Long Xing’s phone was immediately disconnected.

       The car behind them had overturned.

       Not knowing what they hit, the front of the car tilted up, collided with the cliff, and overturned. Fortunately, the speed wasn’t high, and the car slid to the side of the road, stopping without falling off the cliff.

       Long Xing stopped the car, got out of the car and ran towards the back.

       While Song Jun was still in shock, Xia Hongshen stretched out a hand to hold his head. He couldn’t resist and buried his head on Xia Hongshen’s chest.

       The car in front also stopped, and several people ran over to check on the last car.

       Although the car overturned, fortunately, the three people in the car seemed to be unharmed. Everyone worked together to open the deformed door and rescue the people inside.

       The group of people stood on the mountain road, looking at the overturned police car, not knowing what to do.

       Feng Junyuan came over to help a police officer whose arm was scratched by the car window glass, and Song Jun got out of the car and found that there was no one or anything else in the trunk.

       Lü Hai was breathing heavily and was a little confused. It took him a long time to come back to his senses, and said, “It’s a bit eerie.”

       The deputy captain of the Criminal Investigation Squadron was also an old policeman. He had more experience, and at this time, he said, “Let’s go first, leave the car alone, and then find someone to tow it. The three of you get in our car, squeeze together and go down the mountain.”

       Lü Hai nodded.

       They had just stood up from the ground and were about to move forward when suddenly Xia Hongshen said, “We can’t go anymore.”

       These words sounded so ominous that Lü Hai got a little agitated and said, “What did you say?”

       Xia Hongshen said, “Our tire is broken.”

       Hearing what he said, the group’s eyes fell on the car Long Xing drove, and sure enough, they found that the two front tires had blown out.

       There was only one car left, and there was no way to get everyone down the mountain.

       Song Jun was confused. He didn’t understand how they ended up in this situation, and he didn’t know what they should do next.

       But Xia Hongshen was very calm. He said to the criminal investigation captain, “The six of you go down the mountain in a car first, and we will go back to the village.”

       “How can that be?” Lü Hai said quickly, “What do you think of the attitude of the people in the village? You are not afraid of anything happening when you go back at this time?”

       The squadron leader also said, “That’s not good. If someone needs to stay, it’s better for our people to stay. Let’s send you down the mountain first.”

       Xia Hongshen said nothing and looked at Long Xing.

       Long Xing thought for a while and said: “Captain Liu, it might be more convenient for us to stay behind. The villagers are just wary of us, but for your team, there’s too much hostility. On the other hand, if we go, we might still be somewhat welcomed. It could be tough if you guys were the ones to go back tonight. Besides, once you’re down the mountain, it’s easier to contact the rescue and take us down sooner.”

       Lü Hai suggested, “What about calling for a car immediately now?”

       The squadron leader hesitated, “The fog is too heavy. Even if the car sets off now, we will definitely not be able to go down the mountain tonight.”

       Xia Hongshen said, “It’s better for us to go back before we go too far.”

       The squadron leader was silent for a moment, knowing that he had to make a decision quickly. He said, “I’ll contact the village chief first to settle you. You go back to the village now. When you see the village chief, let us know. We’ll go back down the mountain.”

       Long Xing nodded, “Alright, sorry for the trouble, Captain Liu.”

       So, Song Jun and Feng Junyuan took out their luggage from the trunk and headed back towards the village.

       Song Jun asked Xia Hongshen, “Why do you want to go back? I feel like there’s something very frightening.”

       Xia Hongshen said, “Didn’t you notice that someone seems to want to keep us here? Since we can’t leave, there’s no point in wasting time.”

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Notes:
Gib me back the fluffy chapter about being heartbroken… (T⌓T)

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