After graduating from high school, Ding Shi became an apprentice at an auto repair shop where Wang Meng held a stake. At the time, Wang Meng was still an underling whose boss was on his deathbed. This was no ordinary garage—it offered a specialized service dubbed "car cleaning," which was dedicated to helping clients destroy evidence left inside their vehicles.
For example, if Person A murdered Person B inside a car and called for a car cleaning, Wang Meng would take a crew over. They handled the job according to the client's specifications—whether that meant wiping away fingerprints and hairs left by the client, disposing of the body and the car, or staging the scene as a suicide.
Ding Shi worked as an apprentice for two and a half months until his superior deliberately staged a minor accident, bringing Ding Shi to Wang Meng's attention. Once he earned Wang Meng's trust, took over management of the repair shop, and acquired a measure of power and money, Ding Shi bought a luxury car.
The car's owner had hit a pedestrian while drunk driving and immediately delivered the vehicle to the shop, where Ding Shi and his crew repaired the damage. The next day, when the authorities came knocking, they gave the vehicle a cursory inspection and found no flaws, concluding that the hit-and-run car had used cloned license plates.
Money was no object to the owner, who was also superstitious, so Ding Shi acquired the vehicle for next to nothing. Aside from having a manual transmission, the car featured a rare gear shifter positioned to the right of the steering wheel—commonly known as a column shifter. Ding Shi was unused to it at first, but with practice, he got the hang of it. For that reason, building on his existing C2 driver's license, Ding Shi went out of his way to test for a C1 manual license.
Brother Kai was very talkative. Sorting through trash alongside him gave Ding Shi a more well-rounded impression of the team. In short: none of them were bad people.
At noon, they sat down together to eat their boxed meals. Group morale was fairly high, and their conversation revolved around Yita World.
Brother Kai asked, "Chu Yu, how did you get so much money?" After recruiting Ding Shi into the group, Chu Yu had exchanged another 100 dao for 450 instance coins.
Chu Yu replied, "I caught a wanted criminal, and the yamen rewarded me three hundred dao."
"Three hundred dao?" The others stared in utter disbelief.
Ritian asked, "Where was the wanted criminal?"
Chu Yu explained, "There were three roles in Taoyuan Village that could cross paths with the fugitive. The first was the night patrol officer, who was the first person to discover him. The second was the volunteer. The third was the village chief's assistant. The night patrol officer would discover that a house that had stood empty for days had someone move in during the middle of the night; upon questioning, he would learn the man was a villager returning from migrant work elsewhere.
"On the sixth day, the volunteer would learn about Yaya's living situation and decide to seek help from Yaya's uncle—and Yaya's uncle was the wanted criminal.
"Before the sacrifice began, the village chief's assistant would conduct a census of villagers returning from outside work, and the fugitive was among them."
Ding Shi asked, "Yu'yu, the key question is, how did you know he was a wanted criminal?"
Chu Yu answered, "A newspaper."
"Where was the newspaper?" Ding Shi asked.
"It was on the minibus we took to Taoyuan Village, sitting right on the back row. It had the fugitive's portrait printed on it."
Everyone clapped a hand to their forehead. The minibus had had plenty of seats—who would deliberately choose to sit in the most uncomfortable back row?
Next, Ritian shared his story of Taoyuan Village.
He had been a member of the night patrol. Honest and dutiful by nature, he carried out his patrol rounds strictly by the book. On the third night, he spotted a weasel making off with a villager's chicken and chased it all the way to a dilapidated house on the east side of the village, where he found the slaughtered bird. The chicken was lying beneath a three-legged table. Following the standard procedure, he planned to bring the chicken back to the village to return it to the villager. But as he bent down to pick it up, he noticed a playing card stuck to the north side of the table: the Three of Hearts.
Mumu chimed in, "I know that quest! The night patrol player in my village couldn't find the chicken. The next day, the village chief's assistant posted a quest to find the thief. If you tracked down the weasel's den, you'd find a stash of treasure worth between fifty and a hundred dao."
Everyone felt as if they had missed out on a fortune, regretting that they hadn't dug deeper.
Brother Kai asked, "Ritian, do you know what the playing card is used for?"
Ritian shook his head. "No idea. I asked other players, and they didn't have a clue either."
Chu Yu asked, "Brother Kai, did you find a playing card too?"
Brother Kai said, "A player in our village, Player A, somehow heard that there was an ancient tomb on Mount Taoyuan. He vanished for a full day and night before returning with a Ten of Diamonds. We laughed and called him a braggart, but he described it so vividly, claiming the card was an invaluable treasure. Player B goaded him into proving it. To show he was telling the truth, Player A traded the card to Player B so he could check its item description—and Player B simply pocketed it."
Ritian asked in surprise, "He took that lying down?"
Brother Kai said, "He couldn't stand it, so they fought. Player B had martial arts training and beat Player A half to death. I demanded that Player B return the card to Player A, but he asked why I was helping a fool. Player B and I had gotten along well enough before, whereas Player A was an eccentric loner, so the matter was dropped in the end. Still, fortune favors fools. Player A was taken to Dr. Qian, and whatever he did there, he ended up with two bottles of Summer Insect Red Medicine. Supposedly, that red medicine can bring back the dead and make flesh grow on white bones. As long as you still have a single breath left, taking it will restore you to full health, whether you're suffering from trauma or severe illness."
Realization dawned on Ding Shi. He remembered the incident where Dr. Qian saved Sun Qi; he himself had never looked deeper into Dr. Qian.
Now that all four of them had shared, Chu Yu didn't want to leave Ding Shi out. "Ding Shi, tell us about your Taoyuan Village."
"Mine?" Ding Shi looked up, thinking for a moment. "It was quite different from yours."
Curious, they all asked, "How was it different?"
Ding Shi said, "In my Taoyuan Village, only the village chief and I survived."
The four asked in shock, "Why?"
Ding Shi replied, "First came Ghost Grandma, then a flying zombie, plus a malevolent ghost, and Daoist Baiyun was murdered by a traitor. The entire sacrifice turned into a bloodbath—not a chicken or dog was left alive."
The four stared at one another. After a long pause, Brother Kai asked, "Ding Shi, did you play the same instance as us?"
"I think so," Ding Shi said. "I was the village chief's assistant."
Brother Kai glanced around at the others. "Did any of you see a ghost? Or a zombie?"
The other three shook their heads in unison.
Mumu asked, "Who is Daoist Baiyun?"
Ding Shi said, "An old Daoist who lived at Baiyun Temple on Mount Taoyuan. The zombie was kept at Baiyun Temple—it was San Niang's physical body."
Chu Yu said, "Wait a second, Ding Shi, it was just a sacrificial ceremony. How did you end up triggering ghosts?"
Ding Shi said, "I didn't trigger them; the bridegroom did. I was only responsible for the zombie."
Ritian shook his head. "I don't understand."
Ding Shi explained, "The bridegroom violated the bride, sending San Niang into a rampage."
Mumu asked, "The San Niang from Baiyun Temple?"
Ding Shi said, "No, the San Niang from San Niang Temple."
Mumu pressed, "You just said San Niang was at Baiyun Temple."
Ding Shi said, "San Niang's soul was at San Niang Temple. To fulfill his own ends, Blind Zhao lured me to Baiyun Temple to release Zombie San Niang, all to avenge his grandfather."
Everyone was shocked. "There was a Blind Zhao revenge plotline too?"
"Yes. His grandfather was once a servant disciple under Daoist Baiyun's master... In the end, he stabbed Daoist Baiyun to death while the Daoist was suppressing Ghost San Niang. Ghost San Niang blew up the temple and burst out, sending the situation spiraling completely out of control. Rivers of blood flowed through the bridal chamber. Corpses and zombies were everywhere across the village."
The four were utterly dumbfounded. They suspected Ding Shi was talking nonsense, but they had no proof.
Chapter 41