Rushing off to work this morning, Zhou Yang once again skipped eating at the communal table. After greeting the Zhou family, he ate some food at random and hurried out the door.
Walking along the road, he quietly opened the Ghost's Mouth in his palm.
The Ghost's Mouth inhaled and exhaled. The dead person's food he had eaten for breakfast was swiftly digested by the Ghost's Mouth, sending wisps of chilling aura feeding back into his skin.
He pinched the flesh of his arm hard; the pain felt just as it always had.
Absorbing the aura fed back by the Ghost's Mouth, his skin showed no noticeable difference either.
Yet the villagers he ran into along the road today were exceptionally warm toward him.
Far warmer than before.
Most of the time in the past, Zhou Yang had to greet the villagers of Guancun first just to get a slight response.
Today, the villagers greeted him first.
Whenever he walked past a household, the sinister feeling and sense of being watched that usually crawled up his spine felt somewhat diminished today—almost as if previously, even though he had been a member of Guancun, the villagers had still treated him mostly as an outsider.
Now, they were gradually starting to accept him, truly viewing him as one of their own neighbors and fellow villagers.
This shift only occurred when he activated the Ghost Breath.
The moment he shut the Ghost's Mouth, the feeling of being watched and monitored immediately returned, sharp as thorns in his back.
Only after testing it repeatedly along the road did Zhou Yang finally confirm this.
*Ghost Breath works on the ghosts in Guancun too.*
*Its effects here are just far weaker than in the outside world.*
*When the dead tainted with ghost rhythm in Daliang Village encountered Ding Ling with her Ghost Breath activated, they directly regarded her as one of their own—even when the opera ghost arrived in person, it couldn't immediately catch Ding Ling hiding among the crowd of ghosts.*
*Yet in Guancun, the Ghost Breath I opened with seven strands of Right Thought only earns me slightly better treatment from the villagers.*
*Their surveillance and testing of me haven't decreased by much at all.*
*Seen this way... could the villagers in Guancun be even more terrifying than the opera ghost?*
*And yet, I feel I can endure longer here than in Daliang Village where the opera ghost prowls... This is the convenience granted to me by my status as a 'Guancun villager'...*
Remaining vigilant in his heart, Zhou Yang turned and slipped into an alley.
Not far off at the end of the alley, Afu's home and courtyard were faintly visible beneath the great locust tree.
The yellow mud walls on either side of the alley were half-dry. As Zhou Yang neared the alley's exit, he crouched down by a yellow mud wall.
"The Wei hour, the northwest position of the Qian Sixth Palace.
"Smear one's own blood onto a slip of paper inscribed with another's name and surname, affix their hair and close-fitting clothing, and conceal it in this position."
Quickly running through the Opening Door ritual from the Draft on Making Up Gods and Painting Ghosts in his mind, Zhou Yang reached down and scooped up a handful of dirt from the base of this yellow mud wall.
This was where Cao Qing had died.
Afu had killed Cao Qing here, and Zhou Yang had collected Cao Qing's death last words and afterimage right here.
Cao Qing's death afterimage had claimed that Afu had bricked him into this very wall.
This place was naturally steeped in Cao Qing's dead-person energy, making soil dug from here ideal for performing the Opening Door ritual to create a warding spirit.
In Guancun, it would be far easier for Zhou Yang to obtain hair and close-fitting clothing from the Zhou family members to perform the Opening Door ritual.
However, he dared not provoke any of the ghosts in the Zhou household. Using their hair and clothes to create a warding spirit was far more likely to invite disaster upon himself.
Only Zhou Heigou was an exception—Zhou Yang suspected his second elder brother was actually a living person like him.
Suspicion was merely suspicion, though. Without verifying the other party's true identity, he could not act rashly.
After thinking it over, only Cao Qing, who was already dead, was suitable for Zhou Yang to use in creating a warding spirit.
With his heart pounding wildly, Zhou Yang quickly rubbed the yellow dirt onto his cuffs and trouser legs. He immediately rose and glanced around. Seeing no one nearby, he stepped out of the alleyway with a relieved heart.
By now the morning light had brightened, casting Zhou Yang's shadow on the ground.
The shadow bobbed along with his steps, and as it bounced, it split in two in a flash.
The shadow on the left appeared tall, slender, and emaciated, while the shadow on the right was tall and burly.
Zhou Yang lowered his gaze to look at these two vastly different silhouettes. His expression remained calm, without the slightest ripple.
The Knife-Credit Ledger had collected the death last words and afterimages of Li Yichun and Qian Heng in Daliang Village, and he had now brought them back to Guancun as well.
He approached the gatehouse of Afu's home. The left half of the gate stood slightly ajar, as though waiting for him to enter for work. Zhou Yang pushed the door wider, stepped through the passage, and saw Afu standing stiff and erect on the steps of the main hall.
Afu's eyes stared straight ahead from his sallow face.
Even when Zhou Yang walked into his courtyard, he seemed not to notice, standing there motionless with his neck stiffened, like someone whose soul had been lost.
His skin was pocked with sunken, withered hollows. His whole body resembled a sheet of stretched hide with the flesh and blood stripped away from within.
Almost every time Zhou Yang came to work at Afu's, various bizarre sights would appear on Afu's body.
Zhou Yang was by no means immune to it either. His throat still tightened and his heart fluttered with panic—
He truly did not want to do this damn job anymore!
Yet he had no choice...
Standing at the entrance of the passage, he looked at Afu standing on the steps like a sheet of dried skin, kept his expression composed, and said, "I've come to work."
Afu's brownish-yellow eyeballs did not budge in the slightest, offering no response to Zhou Yang's words.
*Son of a bitch...* Seeing this, Zhou Yang cursed Afu viciously several times in his head, yet his face showed nothing. He stood by the base of the wall, looking left and right, appearing utterly bored.
After a little while longer, a sudden rustling, liquid sloshing sound came from Afu's mouth.
It was as though something had just burrowed inside that sheet of hide!
Right after, his hands, which hung limp at his sides like empty gloves, abruptly swelled along with his arms. Tiny beads of greasy sheen oozed across his sallow skin, followed by his feet puffing up as well. His collapsed chest and abdomen snapped upright, and his shriveled, wrinkled face suddenly stretched taut, just like someone who had undergone a facelift!
In an instant, Afu turned into a middle-aged man with an oily sheen on his face.
His eyes swept sinisterly over Zhou Yang, who was crouching by the base of the wall, and said, "Whenever you see me resting in the future, just go into the room and get to work on your own.
"Smelt iron in the morning, forge iron in the afternoon. That's always the routine."
"Understood."
Zhou Yang kept his words few and precious.
Although Afu had taught him the Ghost Breath, the man harbored no good intentions to begin with; when imparting the method, he had done so with the intention of using it to manipulate him down the line. Furthermore, Zhou Yang had yet to grasp Afu's full background, so speaking less in front of him was naturally best.
He must never assume that just because Afu had taught him the Ghost Breath, the two of them were in the same boat.
Zhou Yang said little, and Afu spoke no more either.
It was as if Afu's teaching him the method of Ghost Breath yesterday had never happened.
This also reassured Zhou Yang that Afu's reach wasn't so long after all.
Afu had no idea that Zhou Yang had taught the Ghost Breath to Ding Ling in Daliang Village.
Or perhaps, it was because when Zhou Yang practiced the Ghost Breath, he had completely cut off any chance for Afu's influence to reach in from the very start...
Throughout the entire day, Afu said nothing beyond the usual idle chatter with Zhou Yang.
He truly made no mention of yesterday's events.
Even when Zhou Yang utilized the Ghost Breath right under his nose to forge iron, Afu didn't even bother lifting an eyelid.
Only at dusk, when Zhou Yang finished work, did Afu hand him a few extra paper copper cash just like yesterday. With an unsettling glint in his eyes, he said, "Now that you've officially started forging iron, I'll pay you more according to this rate going forward.
"Prepare more paper money so you can buy enough jin of grease.
"Only then can a person maintain themselves properly..."
Did grease maintain a person, or did it maintain human skin?
A few alarming thoughts flashed through Zhou Yang's mind.
He took the paper money, voiced his thanks, and walked out the courtyard gate.
Behind him, Afu's gaze trailed him along the path in front of the courtyard, only vanishing completely once he rounded a corner.
He then pulled the Knife-Credit Ledger from the back of his waistband—
Over the course of the afternoon, as he hammered the iron blocks again and again, the death afterimages of Li Yichun and Qian Heng had been completely absorbed by the Knife-Credit Ledger.
New writing slowly appeared on the third page of the Knife-Credit Ledger:
"Title: Woman Riding the Golden Pagoda.
"On the circumambulation path of Lincang... Temple of Victorious Liberation... Golden Pagoda..."
The ink pooled and diffused. Aside from leaving behind a title and a few characters across the paper, nothing else remained.
And these mere dozen characters were nowhere near enough to let Zhou Yang catch even a fleeting glimpse of the story.
Chapter 46