Manual for Survival in a Strange World

While moving the body, Ning Zhe casually took the phone from the pocket of the man wearing the vest. Inside the black phone case was a 100-yuan bill, but there were no identification cards or driver’s licenses that could confirm the man’s identity.

Ning Zhe didn’t know the lock screen password, so he unlocked the phone using the dead man’s fingerprint. After unlocking it, the first thing Ning Zhe did was go into the system settings and change the automatic lock setting to “Never.” Then he began to browse through the various information on the man’s phone.

——Three hours after a person dies, the faint bioelectricity in their cells completely disappears. At that point, electronic devices like phones can no longer recognize their fingerprints.

The vest-wearing man’s WeChat nickname was ‘AAA Qiaogao Li Fitness Club – Coach Zhi Yuan,’ and his real name verification was Lin Zhiyuan.

Lin Zhiyuan had many WeChat friends, most of them female users marked as ‘client’ or ‘student.’ In his recent chat with a female client named Cai, Lin Zhiyuan mentioned that he was planning to visit his family to see his elderly relatives and would be having a colleague cover for him for a few days.

The other person replied with a “miss you” emoji.

Looking through his Moments, the last post from Lin Zhiyuan was yesterday morning. It read: “The food at the service station is too expensive, greasy, and oily. One meal there would take a month of dieting to recover from.” The attached image was of an N1 sports car parked next to a charging station.

“Lin Zhiyuan was still complaining about the greasy food at the highway service station yesterday morning, which means he entered the village at least after that time.” Ning Zhe recalled how he entered Hejia Village himself—he was pulled in at 7 AM, a few hours earlier than Lin Zhiyuan.

After confirming the data connection was on, Ning Zhe sent a message saying, “Are you there?” to the female client, Cai.

The message had a red exclamation mark on the left, indicating it had failed to send.

“Just as I expected, it failed again.” Ning Zhe wasn’t surprised.

Looking at the call logs and chat interface, it was clear that Lin Zhiyuan had called several contacts, including his parents and girlfriend, multiple times. He had even used the operator’s emergency SOS function, but all attempts to contact the outside world had failed.

Ning Zhe wasn’t surprised by this either. Ever since entering Hejia Village, he too had lost all contact with the outside world. The 4G signal showed full bars, yet he couldn’t send or receive any messages.

Most people would find this situation frustrating, but Ning Zhe was not a normal person. For reasons he couldn’t explain, he exited WeChat and used Lin Zhiyuan’s phone to call his own number.

Buzz—Buzz—

A vibrating sound came from his pocket.

Just then, footsteps were heard outside the ancestral hall.

Ning Zhe ended the call and slipped Lin Zhiyuan’s phone into his jacket pocket while keeping the screen lit. He focused on listening to the footsteps outside.

When Lin Zhiyuan had entered earlier, the sound of his air-cushion sneakers hitting the yellow earth and stone roads had been dull. But this time, the footsteps were crisp and loud, the sound of hard heels tapping against the ground, not one, but two sets of footsteps.

Ning Zhe’s gaze was fixed on the door as two people walked in: a middle-aged man in a suit and a long-haired woman in an office lady uniform. Their well-made leather shoes and high heels were splattered with a few drops of yellow mud.

“How could it be him?” Ning Zhe was slightly surprised.

He recognized the middle-aged man, though the man likely didn’t know him.

Ning Zhe had seen this man on the news. His name was Zhang Yangxu, the head of ‘New World’ Group, the largest real estate development company in Qinzhou. Ning Zhe had returned to his rural hometown because Zhang Yangxu’s company intended to acquire land in the area and develop a new district in his hometown, Gubei Town. Ning Zhe’s family home was on the list for potential demolition.

However, his grandparents were illiterate, so he, a still-enrolled high school student, had to take a few days off to return home and help with the demolition contract.

“Zhang Yangxu is also caught up in this place… I remember seeing in the local news that executives from ‘New World Group’ were scheduled to visit Gubei Town for an on-site inspection to finalize a land acquisition contract. I didn’t expect the president himself to come. That woman next to him must be his secretary or assistant.”

Piecing together fragments of information, Ning Zhe speculated the sequence of events: “Lin Zhiyuan was caught up in this while visiting his family. I was pulled in on my way home to help my grandparents with the demolition contract. As for Zhang Yangxu and the woman, they must have been pulled in while they were here inspecting Gubei Town.”

Was there any connection between this strange village, Hejia Village, and his hometown, Gubei Town?

Pondering this, Ning Zhe watched as Zhang Yangxu and the woman in office attire approached the lotus platform, which held a statue of a serpent god.

Zhang Yangxu took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and with one hand, pressed down on the yellowed paper of the almanac fluttering in the wind, carefully inspecting the contents. Soon, he had the same doubt as Lin Zhiyuan earlier: the almanac’s details didn’t match the taboos he had violated yesterday.

He glanced at his phone screen and frowned deeply. “Lunar April 23rd. The date shown is today, but the almanac has been flipped over.”

Zhang Yangxu’s voice was deep, with a hint of a smoker’s rasp, his tone serious and calm. “Someone has been here.”

The woman beside him asked in a low voice, “Was it a villager?”

Zhang Yangxu shook his head. “We noticed when we arrived that all the doors on the street were locked from the inside. No villager has left their house tonight.”

“Not a villager? Then who…?” The woman’s voice was uncertain, confused. “Could there be others who were pulled in here, apart from us?”

“It’s possible.” Zhang Yangxu didn’t deny it.

“…He just mentioned they walked down the street checking if the doors were locked from the inside. If that’s the case?” Ning Zhe quickly did the math in his head, and a weight lifted from his chest. “Looks like simply leaving the house and walking around the village street doesn’t violate the taboo of ‘going out.’”

The taboo of ‘going out’ referred to something else.

Having confirmed the auspiciousness of the day, Ning Zhe had no intention of further interacting with Zhang Yangxu and the woman. In this environment, there was no one worth trusting. The side door of the ancestral hall was only a few steps away from where he was hiding behind a pillar. It was time to leave.

Ning Zhe carefully watched Zhang Yangxu and the woman discussing in front of the serpent god statue, keeping his distance from the side door. He stepped back slowly, the cold night wind blowing through the door and sending a chill down his spine.

Before he could retreat outside, suddenly, a scream full of sobs came from behind him.

“Who are you…”