Chang Dafeng claimed that anyone with a “god” in their soul could light this “ghost candle” with their gaze.
Zhou Yang did not know what Chang Dafeng meant by “god,” nor what outward sign having a “god” in one’s soul would produce.
But combining Chang Dafeng’s earlier use of his gaze—almost making Zhou Yang himself hallucinate, and even making Little Stone piss his pants—he guessed that this so-called “god” in the soul might have a lot to do with “Right Thought.”
Or perhaps—the “god” in the soul was simply Right Thought.
Holding this thought, Zhou Yang, using Ding Ling’s body, lowered his eyes to look at the ghost candle.
He stared at the wax wick and asked Chang Dafeng, “Just stare at it with my eyes? I don’t need to do anything else?”
For some reason, Chang Dafeng was also a bit nervous at this moment.
He first nodded, then shook his head: “You think—think about this candle whooshing into flame!
“Imagine that situation!
“If this candle could really burn just as you imagine—”
The second half of the troupe master’s sentence was still stuck in his throat when he suddenly widened his eyes, staring at the ghost candle he was holding—
That yellow wax wick, with a whoosh, burst into flame!
Burning with an eerie green ghost fire!
The flame flickered for several breaths before Chang Dafeng suddenly came back to himself; he opened his mouth and sucked away the intangible qi produced by the burning ghost candle, extinguishing it.
He then turned his face back, looking at Ding Ling in the darkness, only a silhouette; his throat produced some indistinct syllables, looking as if someone was choking him and he couldn’t speak!
Zhou Yang smiled faintly.
Since being trapped in Guancun, he had rarely seen living people who looked full of vitality at first glance. Even though he was now in the opera troupe environment and still in danger, these people around him were living people full of life at first glance—dealing with people was much easier than dealing with ghosts!
Therefore, when he did things, he could handle them with ease and composure.
“How could you light this candle?!”
Chang Dafeng spoke with sharp words and a fierce expression!
His tone was full of resentment at being unable to accept the present reality.
Zhou Yang lowered his eyelids and quietly said a few words to Ding Ling in his heart: “This person just said that if you could light this candle, he would adopt you as a godson, not only teach you the ‘Draft on Making Up Gods and Painting Ghosts,’ but also pass on the opera troupe to you.
“Judging by the present, everything he said was a lie.
“Don’t believe a single word of it.”
“Mm!” Ding Ling responded solemnly.
“I followed your requirements and lit this candle.
“In any case, you’ve taught me your signature skill, right?” Zhou Yang then asked Chang Dafeng.
Chang Dafeng panted for a few breaths; in the darkness he rose with a rustle, holding a taper to light the oil lamp not far away.
When the lamp flame brightened, it illuminated his especially eerie and hideous face.
He glared viciously at “Ding Ling,” as if he wanted to eat the other person alive.
But he did keep his word; from the bottom of the box holding the ghost candles, he fumbled out a shrine, took out the god paintings inside, folded them, and handed them to Ding Ling: “The back of the god painting is the ‘Draft on Making Up Gods and Painting Ghosts’!
“Hurry up and memorize it; return the god painting to me after one day!”
The instant Zhou Yang touched that stack of god paintings, he suddenly felt a strangely familiar sense of creepiness.
The touch of that stack of god paintings made him feel as if a poisonous snake had slipped into his sleeve, its cold, smooth scales pressing against his skin, making his whole body break out in goosebumps.
This feeling was very similar to what the villagers in Guancun gave him.
Based on this, Zhou Yang was certain in his heart that Chang Dafeng was not deceiving him this time.
What he gave to “Ding Ling” was the real thing.
Zhou Yang’s consciousness quietly drew back, handing control of her body back to Ding Ling.
All that could be heard was Chang Dafeng still speaking: “It’s still more than two double-hours until zi hour; you have some time to study this ‘Draft on Making Up Gods and Painting Ghosts.’
“But let me remind you of a few things: don’t think about using the techniques on this god painting for ghost-seeing methods.
“Otherwise, by then you might summon something else… that would truly be you ruining your own life.
“Alright, I won’t say anything else—before zi hour, no one else will appear in this room.”
The echo was still lingering, but Chang Dafeng had already left this room.
Not long after.
In the room, only Ding Ling’s slightly heavy breathing remained.
The oil lamp flame flickered, and Ding Ling’s heartbeat thumped along with it.
Her eyes stared at the stack of god paintings in her hands, but her mind was clearly not on the god painting.
Suddenly, she straightened her back, and her chest under the coarse cloth clothes also looked somewhat puffed up; beside her, that flame reflected on her cheeks like peach blossoms, bright red. She made no sound, but her thought echoed on Zhou Yang’s side: “You, you…
“You can actually control my body?”
This female voice, previously crisp and clear, was now like a mosquito’s buzz, shy and hesitant.
Ding Ling then remembered some things.
Before waking, her hands had groped all over her body.
Originally she thought it was her own unconscious movement, but now looking at it…
“…”
Hearing Ding Ling’s halting inquiry, Zhou Yang was also a bit embarrassed.
Ding Ling being his retribution body, him being able to control her was also very normal.
But even though this was true, how could he explain it to Ding Ling?
And if he didn’t explain now, Ding Ling clearly had a tendency to imagine other things—she was thinking too deeply, creating suspicion between them, and the next things would be difficult to handle.
Zhou Yang’s thoughts turned like lightning.
Fortunately, he was quick-witted and soon gave a righteous-sounding reply: “You and I are originally one body; we share honor and disgrace, gain and loss.
“My being able to control this body is naturally a very normal thing.”
“Does this mean… you and I are also grasshoppers on the same rope?” Ding Ling blinked her eyes.
In the darkness, her phoenix eyes appeared charming and amorous; the flickering light in her eyes added a bit of slyness to her.
“The saying is somewhat unpleasant to hear.” Zhou Yang only replied, “But the principle is indeed this principle.”
Ding Ling’s eyes shone even brighter: “So you will help me next, right?”
“Haven’t I already helped you?”
“Mm!” Ding Ling nodded even harder, as if pressing a handprint and stamping a seal on some important contract agreement. “You will always be with me, right?
“My mother said that in this world, people all have bitter fates; women have even more bitter fates than men.
“So Heaven will, at specific times, give a woman someone to help her.
“When this person appears, the woman should stay alert and grab hold as soon as possible.
“If she can’t grab hold, she will regret it for a lifetime.”
“Your mother sounds like a woman with love-brain after reading too many novels about scholars and female ghosts, young lords and beauties…” Zhou Yang silently retorted in his heart, then turned to ask Ding Ling, “Where is your mother now?”
“Dead.” Ding Ling said, without much emotion on her face, “Dead together with my father.”
“That’s alright then.” Zhou Yang said, “It’s just hard on you.”
Ding Ling smiled gently.
Zhou Yang then said: “Next there will inevitably be several difficult trials.
“You don’t need to worry; we’ll get through them together.
“I will definitely accompany you until the moment before your death.”
This was him first giving the retribution body a few reassurance pills.
For now he only had this one retribution body; the next one, who knows when he could gather death last words, forge the sword and blade, and have it appear.
For now, he must cherish it.
Ding Ling laughed again upon hearing this.
After laughing, she frowned, then shyly asked Zhou Yang: “Then, then what do I do when I go to the toilet to relieve myself?”
“…”
Zhou Yang was speechless for a moment.
After a long while, he said word by word: “I won’t soil anyone’s purity.
“I’m not some lecher who specializes in peeping at others using the toilet!”
Chapter 8