Manual for Survival in a Strange World

After some discussion, the four of them unanimously agreed that they should wait a bit longer in the ancestral hall. If there were still any living people in Hejia Village who knew about the existence of “taboos,” they would surely come to the ancestral hall to check the almanac and determine the day’s auspiciousness or inauspiciousness.

But tonight, something strange happened. Every household in Hejia Village had their doors closed and windows shut tight. No one came to the ancestral hall to check the almanac for the day’s fortune.

This was highly unusual, and unusual things often meant something ominous.

“Do you have any ideas?” Zhang Yangxu asked while they waited.

“No,” Ning Zhe shook his head. “The Hejia villagers come to the ancestral hall every night at the hour of the rat (midnight) to check the almanac. But today, they didn’t show up. Either they no longer care about seeking good luck and avoiding bad fortune, or they have other means of knowing today’s fortune. Or, perhaps… there’s some kind of danger in the ancestral hall today that is preventing them from coming.”

“Oh?” Zhang Yangxu looked curious. “Is that so?”

“I don’t know; it’s just a guess,” Ning Zhe shrugged.

“Danger…?” The mention of danger in the ancestral hall made Feng Yushu’s face turn pale. She was already a devout Buddhist, and after witnessing the strange occurrences with the Serpent God in Hejia Village, she became even more cautious, always walking on eggshells(walking on thin ice).

Feng Yushu anxiously looked at the memorial tablets and the Serpent God statue on the Lotus Platform, then turned toward Ning Zhe with a pleading look, suggesting, “How about we go outside and wait? Staying here in front of the Serpent God might be a bit disrespectful.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Ning Zhe agreed, turning his gaze to Zhang Yangxu and Xie Sining. “What do you think?”

“That makes sense. The ancestral hall is not a place outsiders should stay in for too long,” Xie Sining nodded. “Zhang, shall we go outside?”

Zhang Yangxu silently glanced at Ning Zhe before nodding. “Let’s go.”

The four of them left the front of the Lotus Platform, which was dedicated to the Serpent God, and stood under the eaves outside the ancestral hall, waiting.

With strangers among them, there wasn’t much to talk about, so Xie Sining suggested they share how they got involved with Hejia Village. Maybe they could find something in common or a clue to help them leave.

Feng Yushu spoke first, “It was yesterday… or was it the day before? My husband, daughter, and I were staying at a hotel in Gubi Town. Since my husband has a habit of working alone at night, we booked three rooms, one for him, one for me, and one for our daughter.”

“Around 7 PM, I made some coffee and planned to bring it to my husband’s room… but when I opened his door and stepped across the threshold, what appeared before me wasn’t the hotel room but a narrow alley with flagstone pavement.”

Feng Yushu shuddered as she spoke, “The stainless steel doorknob I was holding turned into an old brass latch, and behind me was a low stone house with a tiled roof, empty inside… It felt as if I had just walked out from that door.”

Zhang Yangxu nodded slightly. “My experience was similar. I had parked my car at a gas station outside Gubi Town. The driver went to the restroom, so I asked Sining to buy me a pack of cigarettes. But she didn’t come back and didn’t respond to my messages. I had no choice but to open the car door and get out to look for her. The moment I opened the car door and stepped out, I was here.”

Xie Sining continued, “I bought the cigarettes for Mr. Zhang at the small shop at the gas station, but when I pushed open the door and stepped outside, the ground beneath my feet was no longer the concrete of the gas station, but the flagstones of Hejia Village.”

“I had an even more direct experience,” Ning Zhe said, nodding. “I returned to my hometown, opened the door of the old house, and then suddenly found myself here.”

Zhang Yangxu’s gaze tightened, as if pondering something.

Was it a coincidence? Or was it inevitable? Whether it was the door of the old house, the hotel room door, the shop door, or even the car door, the way they all ended up in Hejia Village was related to a “door.”

Ning Zhe’s expression remained calm as he thought, ‘Too bad Lin Zhiyuan is already dead; otherwise, we could have asked him how he ended up here. Did he also come through a door?’

Suddenly, a shadow appeared at the edge of Ning Zhe’s vision, vanishing quickly.

“There’s someone in the alley across the street, and he’s running,” Ning Zhe immediately pulled out his phone, switched on the flashlight, and aimed it at the alley across the street.

The phone’s flashlight wasn’t very powerful, but Ning Zhe did this to quickly and directly transmit the shadow’s location to the others. Describing it with words was too slow and prone to distortion.

But strangely, the figure that had been attempting to run stopped in its tracks when it saw the flashlight in Ning Zhe’s hand.

The person took two steps toward them, and then a white light flickered from his hand—a flashlight.

“Great, it’s a living person,” Feng Yushu breathed a sigh of relief, her heart nearly leaping out of her chest just moments ago.

When they got closer, they realized there wasn’t just one person in the alley across the street, but two—one man and one woman, both young, probably university students.

“Hello, my name is Gu Yunqing,” the young man introduced himself, then added, “This is my senior, Ye Miaozhu. We’re both students from Qinzhou Medical University.”

“I’m Ye Miaozhu,” the young woman introduced herself, “Are you all here by accident too?”

Ning Zhe nodded.

After a brief exchange, they traded information and identification. Both Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu showed their internship certificates.

Both of them were intern doctors. Qinzhou Medical University had a tradition of sending students to rural areas to intern at small clinics, much like teaching assistance, and their internship location was the designated medical station in Gubi Town.

Just like Ning Zhe and the others, Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu had arrived in Hejia Village after pushing open the clinic and pharmacy doors.

“It really is related to doors,” Ning Zhe’s guess became even more certain. “If we all came to Hejia Village through a ‘door,’ does that mean there’s a door somewhere in this village that could let us leave this strange world and return to reality?”

“Uncertain, but it’s possible,” Zhang Yangxu agreed with his speculation.

Zhang Yangxu then turned to Ye Miaozhu and asked, “You must be aware of the existence of the almanac and taboos, but why didn’t you enter the ancestral hall to check the almanac? Why are you hiding in the alley across the street?”

Ye Miaozhu shook her head. “We didn’t dare to go in.”

Gu Yunqing added, “The Hejia villagers usually come to the ancestral hall on time every day to check the almanac, but today, none of them showed up. Do you know why?”

“Why?” Feng Yushu quickly asked.

Gu Yunqing took a deep breath and said, “I overheard two elderly villagers talking… They said the Serpent God is ill, and today is the day it falls sick.”