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Thinking of this, Zhao Fusheng couldn't help but feel suspicious.
The characteristics of the vengeful ghost she had summarized at this time seemed different from the rules of the ghostly calamity that occurred during Liu Huacheng's birthday banquet forty years ago.
Liu Wu had clearly stated that at the Liu family's birthday banquet forty years ago, most survivors had not died because Su Long controlled the chaos, gathering everyone in one place and forbidding them from moving around, thus preventing the vengeful ghost from 'swapping heads' too frequently.
However, the characteristic of 'one person, one room, closed doors and not coming out' in Beggar's Alley coincided with Su Long's 'forbidding people from moving' back then. Zhao Fusheng couldn't be sure for a moment whether this vengeful ghost had evolved due to too many killings.
She always felt there was something suspicious, but since she hadn't truly encountered the ghost yet, she didn't want to jump to conclusions.
At the same time, what made her uneasy was the Confucius Temple.
Everywhere else was dark, yet only the Confucius Temple was still lit at this moment. She wondered what the situation was there.
Where did the young man, mentioned by Fan Bisi, go after being rejected by the Demon Suppression Division when he reported the case that day?
Paper Man Zhang's information was half-true, half-false, but he mentioned that the vengeful ghost was hidden in the Confucius Temple, and there was a temple keeper residing within. For forty years, could this temple keeper have been living with the vengeful ghost?
…
Outwardly, she appeared calm and composed, but this was her first time actively handling a vengeful ghost case, and she was alone, still feeling anxious and fearful. She could only desperately think, to prevent her thoughts from being affected by fear and losing her rationality.
Time passed by minute by minute, and the sky grew darker and darker.
The house she chose had no light at all, and Beggar's Alley was incredibly quiet.
Every survivor hiding there seemed to deliberately hold their breath. In the darkness, danger seemed to be brewing, impending.
Zhao Fusheng always felt that someone might have died in this room before; the scent of blood was very strong.
The endless waiting was excruciating.
As darkness descended and she lost her ability to see, Zhao Fusheng's other senses seemed to be amplified. After an unknown period, perhaps because she hadn't eaten all day, her nose suddenly caught the scent of rice porridge.
'Grumble—'
Her stomach churned frantically, making a protesting sound.
The sound was very loud, almost piercing in the quiet room.
Zhao Fusheng had been in an extremely quiet environment for so long that when she first heard the noise, her heart constricted, but quickly, she stopped worrying about it.
Because as the scent drifted, a 'clang' of a copper gong sounded from afar.
From the moment Zhao Fusheng entered the ghost domain and stepped into Beggar's Alley, her first impression was: silence.
The survivors here seemed to wish they could completely conceal their presence. Whether out of fear or hiding, they suppressed their breathing, even bending their waists and tiptoeing when running, deeply afraid of making any sound.
Therefore, the first moment she heard the gong, she was momentarily dazed, a ridiculous thought emerging in her mind: she might have misheard. Everyone on this ghost street was trembling with fear, how could someone intentionally strike a gong?
But this thought surged into her mind and was immediately and harshly dismissed.
She was not hallucinating; someone had indeed struck the gong just now—because two more loud 'clang, clang' sounds followed, echoing throughout Beggar's Alley.
Then a man shouted loudly:
"Come and eat!"
Perhaps she was too hungry, but as soon as Zhao Fusheng heard 'eat,' her mouth quickly produced a large amount of saliva.
The man said nothing else. His voice was clear and bright, and he didn't sound very old, like a youth who had passed puberty, probably around twenty.
The shouting, accompanied by the gong, quickly spread throughout the entire street. The extremely quiet environment of the place allowed his shouts to fully reach everyone's ears.
'Clang!'
Another heavy gong strike sounded, and then the youth shouted again:
"Come and eat!"
'Clang!'
"Come and eat!"
The gonging and shouting ritual was performed three times in total. Then Zhao Fusheng heard movement from 'next door.'
Only then did she realize that her neighboring residence actually had neighbors. At this moment, not only were the people next door moving, but others also seemed to realize something and got up one after another.
'Creak' sounds of opening doors continuously rang out, and many people who had been hiding actually came out after nightfall.
Zhao Fusheng was utterly confused and baffled.
At first, in Beggar's Alley, it was 'one person, one room.' Although this was diametrically opposed to Su Long's method of 'gathering everyone' back then, everyone keeping to themselves reduced the chances of encountering a ghost alone.
Now, with a 'mealtime' shout, the hiding survivors began to gather again. This clearly deviated from the principle of everyone previously hiding separately.
She vaguely realized that the ghost in Beggar's Alley might be unusual.
According to Paper Man Zhang, the ghost in Beggar's Alley was the same vengeful ghost from the Liu Clan Ancestral Temple forty years ago.
However, according to Liu Wu, the coachman, the vengeful ghost in the Liu Clan Ancestral Temple forty years ago primarily aimed to take heads. When people were in chaos, it would take their heads and put them on its own body.
In such a situation, the quieter everyone was, the safer they would naturally be.
Yet, after the gong sounded, the survivors chose to leave their homes. This was odd.
Those who could survive here and last until now must have a very clear understanding of the vengeful ghost's killing rules. They wouldn't knowingly choose a path to death.
Zhao Fusheng sensed that Paper Man Zhang and Liu Wu's statements contradicted each other, meaning one of them must be lying.
She didn't fully trust either of them. However, while Liu Wu was suspicious, he seemed genuinely afraid of her dragging him into the ghost domain, so he likely told her everything he knew without reservation, making it improbable that he was lying.
Paper Man Zhang, on the other hand, had a deep-seated grudge against the original Zhao Fusheng. Now that she had successfully controlled a ghost, commanded the Demon Suppression Division, and displayed her strength from their first meeting, he must inwardly view her as a source of trouble, eager to eliminate her.
The most convenient way for him to kill her would be to use a ghost.
Paper Man Zhang's words were likely eighty percent true and twenty percent false, making them seem more convincing. Paper Man Zhang only needed to conceal crucial information and slightly mislead her, which could very likely lead her into danger.
Zhao Fusheng analyzed that Paper Man Zhang's mention of Liu Huacheng causing a vengeful ghost's revival while serving in the Imperial Capital back then was true. And it was also true that Liu Huacheng later atoned for his sins by bringing the decomposed ghost's body back to Wan'an County and suppressing it with the Liu clan's destiny.
However, he vaguely glossed over the vengeful ghost's killing rules, making the ghost's origin suspicious.
Furthermore, he was eager to mislead Zhao Fusheng into connecting the forty-year-old ghostly incident with the current Beggar's Alley case, which made Zhao Fusheng wary of him.
Although he later actively tried to show goodwill, sending a ghost lamp and mentioning the Liu family's past, it did not dispel Zhao Fusheng's doubts.
In contrast, Liu Wu's appearance and identity, though perhaps too coincidental, made his words seem more credible.
Thinking of this, Zhao Fusheng's thought process became clearer: if Liu Wu's statement was true, then the ghostly calamity in Beggar's Alley was likely not caused by the same vengeful ghost as the one in the Liu Clan Ancestral Temple forty years ago.
As this thought surfaced in her mind, she immediately felt a massive headache.
Before entering Beggar's Alley, she had made ample preparations targeting the ghostly calamity from forty years ago. Now, if the two calamities were unrelated, she would know nothing about the vengeful ghost in this place and would be trapped in the ghost domain.
Zhao Fusheng's expression was grim and unpredictable.
But now that everyone else was moving, she naturally couldn't stay put.
"You can't catch a tiger cub without entering the tiger's den."
Sometimes, inaction might not be good; moving might lead to a turning point.
She desperately cheered herself on mentally, taking two or three deep breaths, before finally making up her mind. She then stood up and abruptly pulled open the tightly shut door.
By this time, the outside sky was already pitch black.
However, she had been hiding in the darkness for a long time, and her eyes had adapted, so she could still see the street scene.
Beggar's Alley at this moment was completely different from when she first entered it. All the people who had been hiding during the day had now emerged, moving in twos and threes like wandering ghosts, heading onto the street and into its depths.
And their direction was precisely towards the lit Confucius Temple.
The street, which had been desolate during the day, quickly became crowded.
Zhao Fusheng didn't understand why, but she quickly blended into the crowd, following them.
She noticed that although these people were moving forward, there was a certain distance between each person, as if everyone was consciously avoiding others.
Zhao Fusheng tried to get close to someone. That person's expression was startled and uneasy, biting their lips constantly, as if fearing something. But sensing her approach, they instinctively moved to the side.
She followed again, and that person avoided her again.
After several attempts, that person finally realized something and turned a gaunt, skeletal face in surprise, his eyes still filled with terror, looking at Zhao Fusheng with a warning gaze, signaling her to stay away.
"Fellow countryman." Zhao Fusheng smiled, leaned forward, and greeted him. The person turned to leave, but Zhao Fusheng reached out and grabbed him.
The moment she touched him, the person seemed to be greatly startled, frantically shaking his hand, making 'hoarse' sounds in his mouth, and his legs buckled, causing him to collapse to the ground.
His appearance startled Zhao Fusheng. She didn't let go; instead, she squatted down. The person desperately kicked his legs, crawling forward.
The survivors behind and on both sides also caught up, consciously bypassed the two, and continued towards the Confucius Temple.
Zhao Fusheng hesitated for a moment. Seeing the person so frightened that his eyes rolled wildly and he was already foaming at the mouth, she immediately released her hand. As soon as he gained freedom, the person quickly retracted his tongue, crawled forward rapidly, widened the distance between them, and blended into the crowd.
"..."
Her eyebrows twitched twice. She watched as the person weaved left and right through the crowd, quickly disappearing into the darkness, becoming indistinguishable.
Forget it!
Anyway, there were people all around. If she wanted to ask questions, she didn't necessarily have to pull that one person.
But the Confucius Temple must be strange. She decided to follow the crowd to the Confucius Temple to investigate.
After walking for a while, the smell of rice became even stronger. The aroma of food lingered in the air, making Zhao Fusheng so hungry her stomach ached.
But she observed those around her and found that the expressions of the people accompanying her were very complex, seemingly both afraid and uneasy, completely devoid of the joy of "eating soon."
Could there be something wrong with this meal?
When Fan Bisi and Liu Wu mentioned the ghostly calamity in Beggar's Alley, they both brought up one point: both the former Liu family and the later Confucius Temple had a tradition of giving alms of porridge to the poor.
Thinking of this, a bizarre thought emerged in Zhao Fusheng's mind: could the Confucius Temple still be giving alms at this very moment?
"That's impossible, right…"
The ghost domain had already enveloped the area, and vengeful ghosts were lurking in Beggar's Alley. Yet, the Liu family's benevolent act was still ongoing at this time?
But she turned to look around. The pedestrians heading towards the Confucius Temple looked as if they were facing a great enemy, as if a great disaster was imminent, not as if they were about to receive alms.
Zhao Fusheng suppressed the doubts in her heart and hurried forward. As she moved through the crowd, people saw her approaching and quickly moved away, their faces showing surprise.
After about fifteen minutes, she finally saw the Confucius Temple.
At this moment, the Confucius Temple was still brightly lit. Several layers of hanging lanterns emitted white light. A blue cloth sign hung from the upturned eaves, bearing a large character: Shi.
The large gates of the Confucius Temple were wide open.
Compared to the bright lights outside, there were no lights lit inside.
The main hall was deep and profound, at least a thousand feet long.
Several colossal pillars, requiring two people to embrace, supported the great hall, lifting the temple high.
Zhao Fusheng stood under the lights, looking in from afar. She saw that the light illuminated most of the hall, but the interior was deep and profound, like a bottomless abyss, appearing utterly black and empty, making it impossible to see clearly.
Directly in front of the temple gate was a large open space, paved with blue stone bricks. Outside one side of the large gate, a stone table resembling an altar was built. On the stone table, a large bronze cauldron was placed, with several tall stacks of bowls next to it.
A young man with an expressionless face stood behind the table, holding a ladle, coldly watching the approaching crowd.
It really was alms-giving!
After Beggar's Alley became haunted, the Confucius Temple surprisingly continued its act of giving alms.
Zhao Fusheng immediately realized something was amiss.
When something is abnormal, it's often a sign of something supernatural.
Beggar's Alley was shrouded by a ghost domain, and with vengeful ghosts roaming, everyone was too busy fending for themselves. Yet the Confucius Temple continued its operations as usual, seemingly ignoring the horrifying reality of ghosts killing people. There had to be a reason for this.
She initially wanted to stride forward and question the youth thoroughly.
But Zhao Fusheng hesitated for a moment, still restraining herself.
Having discovered that the Confucius Temple was unusual, and that the young man's actions might have an underlying reason, she didn't rush to reveal her identity and ask questions. Instead, she stood to the side, observing the scene.
To her surprise, the crowd who had earlier rushed here also did not rush forward.
Everyone was eager when leaving their homes, but upon arriving here, they seemed to show fear, as if they dared not be the first to eat.
"Could it be that the further one goes to eat, the more strange things will happen?" Zhao Fusheng mused inwardly.
Her gaze fell upon the youth holding the ladle, and she began to scrutinize him.
This person was not old, at most twenty.
Compared to the emaciated people around him, his build was quite tall. Zhao Fusheng estimated he was at least 1.8 meters or more, appearing rather burly.
His facial bones were distinct, and his face was handsome, but the gloominess in his expression made him look listless. He lacked the vibrant vitality of a young man and had a slightly dark complexion.
Behind him, a copper gong was placed, with two wooden hammers wrapped in red cloth beside it. Clearly, he was the one who had struck the gong and called for food earlier.
But Zhao Fusheng's gaze was not drawn by these items. She noticed a not-very-thick book placed to the left of the youth's hand.
The book was bound with cotton thread, with no writing on its exterior, making its contents unclear. However, the eyes of the surrounding people looking at this book were filled with horror and dread.
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