Manual for Survival in a Strange World

On the 23rd day of the 4th month in the lunar calendar, at 01:22 AM, Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu arrived at the arch bridge located downstream of the river and quietly waited for Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu.

Ye Miaozhu leaned against the stone railing of the bridge, one hand resting on Gu Yunqing’s shoulder as she looked down at the call log displayed on his phone screen. The call log was short, lasting only two minutes, and had been made by Feng Yushu, but the voice on the line was Ning Zhe’s.

Ning Zhe had used concise language to convey the following three pieces of information:

1. Xie Sining is dead, and her body is floating in this river. The cause of death is unknown.

2. Something, whether human or not, has taken Xie Sining’s identity and is now following Zhang Yangxu. The motive is unknown.

3. This thing used Xie Sining’s phone to call Feng Yushu.

Ning Zhe believed that the “thing” had used Xie Sining’s phone to call Feng Yushu for some unknown and secretive purpose, and that their chance discovery of Xie Sining’s actual body by the river had disrupted the intended outcome of the imposter’s actions.

Had the “thing” succeeded in its goal, some terrible event might have occurred.

“Some things are just too coincidental,” Ye Miaozhu whispered, pressing her lips against Gu Yunqing’s ear.

Gu Yunqing’s ears twitched. He lowered his voice, asking, “What do you mean?”

“According to Ning Zhe, just after the imposter called Feng Yushu using Xie Sining’s phone, they discovered Xie Sining’s real body floating in the river,” Ye Miaozhu said softly. “Don’t you think that’s too much of a coincidence?”

“It certainly is,” Gu Yunqing replied, raising his chin and pointing to a collapsed section of the bridge surface. “This pit just happened to collapse when Ning Zhe was walking over it, and he almost fell through and died.”

Ye Miaozhu nodded. “That’s right. Feng Yushu said it was because Ning Zhe accidentally violated a taboo, which caused his bad luck.”

“But I don’t think it’s bad luck,” Gu Yunqing said. “Think about it. If the bridge hadn’t collapsed, and Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu had crossed it normally, and Feng Yushu had received the imposter’s call while returning to the ancestral hall, would they have… discovered the body in the river?”

“…Hard to say, but most likely not.”

“Exactly.” Gu Yunqing let out a low hiss. “If the bridge hadn’t collapsed, Ning Zhe probably wouldn’t have discovered Xie Sining’s body and wouldn’t have known the truth about her death. He wouldn’t have uncovered the fact that she had been impersonated by something else…”

Gu Yunqing’s voice grew darker. “Ning Zhe’s near-miss was not just bad luck due to a taboo. It was as if the heavens were warning him of danger ahead.”

“But Hejia Village doesn’t have any heavens,” Ye Miaozhu said, her expression serious. “Only the Serpent God here.”

“Yes, only the Serpent God. So, maybe the Serpent God helped him. But why would the Serpent God help him?” Gu Yunqing put his phone away and whispered, “Feng Yushu said Ning Zhe’s bad luck was caused by violating a taboo, but did she tell you which taboo it was?”

Traveling? Burial? Mourning? Or sacrifices? We don’t know.

“This village is strange, and the people here are strange too,” Ye Miaozhu said softly.

“That’s why we need to be on our guard at all times if we want to get out alive,” Gu Yunqing said seriously.

They waited a bit longer by the bridge. Soon, two figures appeared on the road in the distance. Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu had finally arrived.

“You’re really late,” Gu Yunqing greeted Ning Zhe with a smile.

“No choice, I violated a taboo today, so I couldn’t rush,” Ning Zhe said with a frustrated expression. “I really don’t know what taboo I violated to be this unlucky. I almost died just crossing a bridge.”

“You don’t know which taboo you violated?” Ye Miaozhu’s concern grew. “In that case, we need to be careful. And… are you sure retrieving Xie Sining’s body won’t violate any taboos?”

Burial, mourning… all related to death.

“It’s possible, but we have to retrieve the body,” Ning Zhe replied indifferently.

Ye Miaozhu had no further argument.

Indeed, if they wanted to uncover the mystery shrouding Hejia Village, Xie Sining’s death was an undeniable key clue. Even though it carried some danger, it was better than blindly wandering around like headless flies.

“Let’s go. The river here flows slowly, but it’s been a while, so her body should have drifted far by now.”

Ning Zhe finished speaking and took the lead down the bridge, walking quickly along the riverbank downstream. The other three followed.

As Ning Zhe had said, the river passing through Hejia Village flowed rather slowly, almost too slowly. The rows of willow trees lining both sides of the river dropped their green leaves, which drifted slowly on the surface like paper stickers moving downstream, slowly, slowly.

The four of them ran along the river, keeping their eyes on the water. They could see the bright white moon reflecting on the water’s surface and the round pebbles lining the riverbed.

“Found it.”

After walking for a long time, Ning Zhe finally spotted Xie Sining’s body washed up on a patch of blue stone slope downstream. This was where the village women washed clothes, and Xie Sining’s pale, waterlogged body lay sprawled out like a discarded rag.

The group quickly approached. Without needing to speak, Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu each lifted the body, and one of them began to unbutton Xie Sining’s clothes for inspection.

“The body’s been in the water for a long time; its temperature has already cooled, so we can’t estimate the time of death.”

“There are no open wounds, no signs of blunt force trauma, or bruising, so we can rule out the possibility of death from external injuries.”

“There’s no internal bleeding, so it’s unlikely she died from internal injuries.”

“There’s no significant water in the lungs, so she wasn’t drowned. She was likely thrown into the river after death.”

“At this point, we haven’t found any signs of poisoning. We can initially rule out poisoning, but without professional testing equipment, we can’t be completely sure.”

The more they examined, the deeper the confusion in Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu’s minds grew.

“There are no external injuries, no drowning or suffocation, and no signs of poisoning. From both inside and outside, we can’t figure out how Xie Sining died,” Ye Miaozhu’s expression grew more serious as she bit her lip. “It’s almost like… a sudden, unexplained death, or outright brain death.”

Gu Yunqing placed his hands on Xie Sining’s shoulders and looked up at Ning Zhe, who appeared lost in thought, then turned to gaze at the shimmering river surface. The pale moon floated above, and the calm water reflected his own troubled face.

“What’s going on? How did Xie Sining really die…?”

Gu Yunqing gritted his teeth slightly. The ambiguous situation sent a chill down his spine. Though he tried his best to resist thinking about strange, supernatural events, it was clear that Hejia Village was a place that couldn’t be understood with conventional logic.

“How did Xie Sining really die?” Ning Zhe crossed his arms, understanding that the answer to this question might hold a crucial secret that determined whether they would survive here.

Just as everyone was lost in their thoughts, suddenly, a splash broke the silence by the river under the moonlight.

A fresh, warm body slid off the washing stone slope and fell headfirst into the rushing river, splashing pale water everywhere.

Gu Yunqing was dead.

“…What’s going on?” Ning Zhe froze.

Had the ghost who replaced Xie Sining killed Gu Yunqing? If so, how did it do it?