Chapter 11: The Second Deadly Night

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After He Qiong left, Wen Chao let out a sigh. Fang Zhi frowned in silence, while Shi Ji and Yue Mei seemed to want to say something, but neither spoke. Everyone had lost the desire to continue discussing the matter and dispersed.

Qi Zhiyong’s behavior that day had put everyone on guard against him. On the surface, they still treated him as their leader, but inwardly, every one of them had begun to harbor different intentions.

If Qi Zhiyong could treat Wu Xian that way today, would he do the same to them after Wu Xian died?

Qi Zhiyong sat alone downstairs. After a while, he sighed.

“Looks like ‘Jing Ke’ was right. I really am not suited to leading others. I’ll have a better future as a lone wolf.”

“So be it.”

Qi Zhiyong had never cared about authority.

The only thing he cared about was value.

Most people who entered a blessed land were doomed to die. No matter how outstanding they were, they possessed only the ability to save themselves.

But Qi Zhiyong thought that if people were going to die anyway, why not let those of greater value live, and let those of lesser value die?

A person like Wu Xian would be nothing more than one additional survivor even if he managed to live.

But if Wen Chao survived and had the chance to spread the knowledge in his mind, he might make the world a better place.

…

One by one, everyone returned to their rooms.

Once night fell, everyone would lock their doors and windows tightly. No matter what happened outside, no one would risk going out.

Fang Zhi stopped before his own door, his palm trembling slightly.

It was only when he was about to return to his room that he discovered the unmistakable muddy handprint on his door.

He did not believe in ghosts or gods.

But what if everything they had said earlier was true? Wouldn’t that make him the next victim?

Wen Chao noticed something was wrong with him, and his expression changed.

“Stay with me tonight. Don’t go back.”

Fang Zhi’s face twisted for a moment before he stubbornly shook his head. “Mentor, you know I’ve never believed in that kind of superstition. I believe in science!”

Wen Chao stamped his foot in exasperation and slapped him across the face.

“Science is used to explain reality. If you have to distort the facts in order to believe something, that isn’t science.”

Seeing his teacher grow angry, Fang Zhi hesitated.

Just then, Qi Zhiyong, who had only just come upstairs, walked over and said lightly, “You’d better think this through. No one knows whether that mark is aimed at a person or at a room. If the two of you stay in the same room, you might die together.”

“You…”

Wen Chao wanted to argue, but Qi Zhiyong had already slipped into his room and shut the door.

After hearing Qi Zhiyong’s words, Fang Zhi made up his mind. He stepped backward, closed the door, and shut Wen Chao outside. No matter how Wen Chao called to him, he refused to open it.

Wen Chao stood outside for a long while. In the end, he could only shake his head helplessly and return to his own room.

That young man, Fang Zhi, had never truly believed in science. What he believed in was a religion called science, constructed from his own understanding of himself. He rejected everything beyond its boundaries.

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Even when the facts were laid out before him.

In essence, he was no different from those religious fanatics.

Wen Chao had taken him along precisely because he wanted to change his mistaken views. He had never expected that before he could teach him by word and example, they would already find themselves trapped in a blessed land.

…

Wu Xian carried his lunchbox back to his room and stood at the window, gazing into the distance.

The corpse of the man opposite was still hanging there, staring fixedly at Wu Xian. It was horrifying, but Wu Xian did not care. The corpse could not move anyway.

When Wu Xian had first returned to his room, the sun had still been some distance above the horizon. Now it had already sunk halfway below it, while the numbers on his phone’s clock leaped wildly.

“As expected, time in this blessed land is disordered. I hope it stabilizes at night.”

Fortunately, the time displayed on his phone was also changing in an orderly sort of disorder. Otherwise, there would truly have been no way to tell the time.

While darkness had only just fallen and the evil spirits had yet to emerge, Wu Xian took the remaining piece of pork intestine coated in grease from his lunchbox and carefully smeared it over the hinges of his door.

After that, he washed himself thoroughly, shaved his stubble, trimmed his own hair, and washed his head, face, feet, socks, and underwear. He tidied himself until he was perfectly clean and neat.

Since he had not died in that instant, he would have to live with a little more refinement from now on.

A man ought to treat himself well.

“This is the second night. I wonder what will happen tonight?”

Wu Xian was looking forward to it.

…

Warm sunlight spilled down upon the residential building. A family of three stood outside, having come to buy a home.

Their son had been admitted to a prestigious university, so they had decided to purchase a house in the city and settle there in the future.

But when they reached the entrance, they hesitated.

The gentle-faced, slightly plump woman clutched her son’s arm.

“Fang Zhi, perhaps we shouldn’t buy this house after all. I heard from the neighbors that it’s haunted.”

Fang Zhi waved impatiently.

“What ghosts? It’s all people frightening themselves. So what if the cabinet doors keep opening on their own? The cabinets must have been poorly designed. Besides, this house is being bought for me. Listen to me and you won’t go wrong. You have to believe in science.”

“The location is excellent, it’s close to the university, and transportation is convenient. Getting a house like this for that price is practically stealing.”

“But…”

The woman still looked hesitant.

“But what? If you don’t believe me, why did you send me to school in the first place?”

The middle-aged man with graying hair laughed.

“We believe you. If we don’t believe our family’s top scholar, then who can we believe?”

The couple had little education. Their son was one of the few highly educated people in the family, and they were counting on him for the rest of their lives. From then on, he would make all the major decisions at home.

Thus, father and son entered the building to sign the purchase agreement with the agent.

The woman stood at the entrance for a while, then smiled.

“All right. We’ll trust our son.”

…

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“Don’t believe him!”

Fang Zhi jolted awake from a nightmare. He held a liquor bottle in his hand, his face deathly pale, cold sweat pouring down his body. He was utterly different from the unyielding man he had appeared to be outside.

He sat there in a daze for a moment, then gulped down several mouthfuls of liquor and slapped himself twice before growling viciously.

“You can be afraid of anyone, but not of him!”

“You can believe anyone, but not him. There are no ghosts or evil spirits in this world!”

He found several plastic bags and wrapped them around his face, leaving only small holes for his eyes and nose. Then he stood at the door with a bottle of alcohol disinfectant, waiting.

Time passed little by little.

At last, Fang Zhi heard a knock.

“Hello? Is anyone there? Could you let me in for a moment? I’m Yu Yinghua, the owner of the hostel. My husband has gone mad. He’s trying to kill me!”

Creak!

The door opened, and Fang Zhi stared fixedly at Yu Yinghua.

A middle-aged woman stood outside. Her body was covered in mud, some of it dry and some of it wet. Her face was smeared with blood-colored grime, and her mouth was stuffed with gray dirt that had stained her teeth black.

The woman tilted her head, looking rather bewildered.

This was not right!

Who would open the door so readily without worrying that it might be a trap? And why had this person not been frightened by her at all? Why was his gaze so unnerving instead?

With that plastic bag over his head, could he be an evil spirit who had suffocated to death?

Hiss, hiss!

Before Yu Yinghua could figure it out, Fang Zhi began spraying disinfectant all over her. When he finished, he grabbed her by the arm, dragged her into the room, and pressed her down into a seat.

“You must have been infected with some kind of virus, right?”

“Don’t be afraid. I’m not a doctor, but I’ll help you.”

“Let me examine you first. There isn’t much equipment here, but I can at least give you a preliminary…”

Watching Fang Zhi bustle about without pause, the evil spirit Yu Yinghua found him even more inexplicable.

“Ah!”

When Fang Zhi took a stethoscope made from a cup and thrust it toward her chest, Yu Yinghua finally let out a shriek. Using both hands and feet, she fled at astonishing speed in a grotesquely twisted manner.

“Don’t go!”

Fang Zhi hurried after her, but Yu Yinghua had already vanished.

The chandelier in the corridor swayed, its dim yellow light shifting restlessly. The atmosphere was deeply unsettling, and merely standing there was enough to make one’s heart turn cold.

Fang Zhi leaned against the wall and looked up at the lamp. A strange smile spread across his face.

“Ha… hahaha…”

The laughter looked even more terrible than crying.

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