"I heard from Ning Zhe and the others that you're dead." Zhang Yangxu's gaze remained wary. "That girl Ye Miaozhu cried her eyes out—your girlfriend?"
Gu Yunqing shook his head. "She's my sister. We're a blended family. Her biological father once had some assets, but he lost everything at the casinos in Yizhou and then skipped out on debts, leaving her and our mother abroad. We haven't heard from him since."
"And then my stepmother remarried my father, bringing my two stepsisters into our family. Oh—I never mentioned this before—Ye Miaozhu has a younger sister, still in middle school."
Gu Yunqing gave Zhang Yangxu a concise overview of his complicated family background. Perhaps because of these hardships—or simply because of Gu Yunqing's gentle, easygoing nature—both stepsisters had grown fond of their unexpected brother. Over several years they became very close. The elder sister, Ye Miaozhu, even applied to the same medical university as him. Nearing graduation, the two had come together to the clinic in Gubei Town for their internship.
And then they came to Hejia Village. Damn.
Gu Yunqing's sharing of personal details wasn't mere oversharing; it was a deliberate attempt to gain Zhang Yangxu's trust and lower his guard. After all, ghosts don't usually invent elaborate backstories.
Sure enough, after hearing about Gu Yunqing's tangled family history, Zhang Yangxu's wariness softened. He stopped being so tense and teased him with a knowing look, "You've got a lucky life, kid."
"I actually have another girlfriend at university." Gu Yunqing replied wearily. "Please mind your manners, Mr. Zhang—our relationship isn't at the point where joking about death is acceptable."
"Alright." Zhang Yangxu shut up immediately and changed the subject.
He proceeded to fire several questions at Gu Yunqing:
"What's this about everyone, including Ye Miaozhu, saying you're dead, yet here you are alive?"
"Why are you soaking wet?"
"You said the Serpent God is going mad and time is running out—what's going on there?"
Gu Yunqing closed the gate behind them and gestured for Zhang Yangxu to follow him into the He family's mansion. "Let's talk as we walk."
"Where to?"
"To see my sister."
They threaded their way through flowerbeds in the courtyard. From the front gate came the distant murmur of voices and the sound of hurried footsteps rushing past to the side wing—where the kitchen lay—indicating the He family's cooks were beginning breakfast.
The He mansion faced south, built in a '回'-shaped layout. A three-story main hall stood at its center, built on a stone foundation with bamboo-and-timber upper floors, topped by deep-blue glazed tiles—quite luxurious for this remote locale. To the south of the main hall was the grand entrance; to the north lay a lush garden and vegetable plot. Kitchens, storerooms, firewood sheds, servants' quarters, and the like lined the east and west wings, filling the '回' shape completely.
Unlike the old-style siheyuan of the Yongzhou capital, the He mansion's design bore the hallmarks of southern Qinzhou, resembling a variant of the Hakka tulou—only far more ostentatious, its defensive functions against bandits minimized in favor of display. Even to Zhang Yangxu, a veteran in real estate and architecture, this was an outstanding design that would surely appeal to landowning sophisticates.
As they pushed past the thick blossoms, Gu Yunqing unlocked his screen and showed Zhang Yangxu a photo. It displayed a slender, fair hand holding a lit-up smartphone. Zhang immediately recognized it as Ning Zhe's hand—thanks to his delicate, almost effeminate appearance—and the screen showed another image:
A page from a traditional almanac listing today's auspicious and inauspicious activities:
[Suitable:]
[Avoid: Travel, Funerals, Mourning, Sacrifices]
"When you flipped open the almanac to see today's omens, did you ever wonder why it only lists 'avoid' and no 'suitable'?" Gu Yunqing asked, as cold droplets fell from his hem.
"I did, but I couldn't figure it out," Zhang Yangxu answered.
"Because the Serpent God is sick." Gu Yunqing replied, enlarging the photo.
In the image, the almanac was nailed to the Serpent God's tongue. Ning Zhe's snapshot included half of the Serpent God's head, revealing its once-majestic pose now marred by lifeless eyes.
Though the Serpent God statue looked solemn at first glance, close inspection betrayed its decrepitude. The village temple had fallen into disrepair: leaking roof tiles, moldy beams and pillars. The camphor-root carving was likewise afflicted. Despite masterful craftsmanship—the scales intricately layered and aligned, embodying an innate beauty—black mold formed thick clusters at the scale bases, and pale fungal strands crept through cracks, emitting the stench of rotting wood. This was Zhang Yangxu's impression when he and Xie Sining had inspected the temple earlier.
In Gu Yunqing's photo, the Serpent God's head was overrun with decay—its left eye socket packed with black mold, the right eye rim similarly besmirched.
"The Serpent God's left eye is blind," Gu Yunqing said rapidly. "The left eye foretells good fortune, the right eye ill omens. But eighteen years ago, it went mad and fell into disrepair. One eye went blind, so the almanac can only list 'avoid'. The God itself can no longer see to indicate 'suitable', so it has nothing to tell you."
"I see…" Zhang Yangxu shivered inwardly but remained skeptical, keeping his distance as Gu Yunqing led the way.
"How did you learn the truth?" Zhang asked. "Also, I saw a ghost disguise itself as you in the temple, flipping tomorrow's almanac—why are you still alive? How did you survive?"
On the matter of Gu Yunqing's supposed death, Ning Zhe may have lied, but Zhang Yangxu believed that the claim "consulting tomorrow's almanac is a death omen" was accurate.
"That's a long story." Gu Yunqing sighed and guided Zhang Yangxu through the garden.
They skirted the busy cooks and servants and reached a row of small buildings west of the main hall. Gu Yunqing signaled and slipped into an unlocked storeroom.
[My sister texted me—she's hiding inside.]
Zhang Yangxu glanced down at the message, waited, then tiptoed forward and carefully pushed open the storeroom door.
In the next instant, Zhang Yangxu's body crumpled to the floor.
He was dead.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild
Reference Glossary:
Hakka tulou – Traditional earthen communal residences of the Hakka people in southern China, characterized by large, enclosed circular or square layouts designed for both communal living and defense.