SWNOVELXO 021 People Are the Sum of All Social Relationships
“How could this be…” Feng Yushu’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground. The horrifying scene unfolding before her shattered her will, just like when Gu Yunqing had died.
Simple violence leading to death or poisoning would not have frightened her to such an extent, because those were traceable and avoidable through action. However, in this village, the rules were intangible and silent. Unless one violated them or witnessed someone else doing so, the rules would remain an unseen presence, quietly operating in an unobservable corner, never revealing themselves.
When punishment is unknowable, fear becomes immeasurable. The two greatest fears ingrained in traditional Chinese culture are the fear of the unknown and the fear of guilt.
Feng Yushu felt like a blindfolded person walking a tightrope at a great height, each step taken with trepidation, as if treading on thin ice. She couldn’t predict what would happen with her next step. She could only move slowly toward a vaguely remembered direction, each step potentially leading to death.
Yet at this moment, there was someone who seemed entirely unbothered by the surrounding darkness and uncertainty. His eyes were not blindfolded, and his steps were as leisurely as if he were strolling in a garden, fully in control of everything around him.
Ning Zhe approached Feng Yushu, who was slumped on the ground, and extended a hand to her.
“Come with me,” he said, covering her trembling gaze with his palm. “Don’t look back, or you’ll die.”
“Okay…” Feng Yushu grabbed Ning Zhe’s wrist and struggled to stand. Together, they left the ancestral hall under the watchful gaze of the Serpent God behind them.
Feng Yushu noticed that the “Ye Miaozhu” who had appeared in the ancestral hall earlier had vanished. The moment she reached out to flip through the almanac again, Ye Miaozhu’s body had dissipated, like a wisp of smoke scattered by the wind, or like a sandcastle on the shore crushed by waves, leaving no trace behind.
“That was a ghost,” Ning Zhe said. “Ye Miaozhu’s identity was stolen by a ghost. What we saw just now was the ghost using her to kill.”
Behind them, a clear, chilly wind swept through the ancestral hall, rustling the open page of the almanac. It fluttered like a dry-leaf butterfly, refusing to settle back into place, as if urging the two to turn back and glimpse the future written for tomorrow. Ning Zhe dared not look back, dragging Feng Yushu quickly toward the outside.
Once outside, Feng Yushu’s emotions finally began to calm. She stared intently at Ning Zhe’s profile and asked in a trembling voice, “Why? What exactly happened? Ye Miaozhu… how could she…”
“Calm down. You’re not thinking clearly,” Ning Zhe replied. “Surviving in an environment like this requires immense psychological resilience. If you let your emotions spiral out of control, flailing around like a headless chicken, you’ll only give the ghost an opening.”
“So calm down, or you’ll be killed, Auntie.”
Feng Yushu shook her head repeatedly, gripping Ning Zhe’s wrist even tighter. “Even if you say that… how am I supposed to know how to avoid being killed by a ghost? I don’t even know how it’s stealing people’s identities!”
When you don’t know where the bullet will come from, every evasive maneuver seems laughable in the sniper’s eyes.
“How does a ghost steal someone’s identity? That depends on how you define ‘identity’ and ‘personality.'”
Ning Zhe’s tone suddenly relaxed as he continued walking. “Auntie, what do you think your ‘identity’ is?”
“Me?” Feng Yushu thought for a moment and said, “I’m my husband’s wife, my daughter’s mother, my parents’ child… which one do you mean?”
“All of them,” Ning Zhe said. “A person is the sum of all social relationships. In the eyes of everyone who knows you, your image is different.”
“In your husband’s eyes, you’re a dignified wife. In your daughter’s eyes, you’re a gentle mother. In your parents’ eyes, you’re a married daughter. To your child’s teacher, you’re a parent. To a salesperson, you’re a wealthy customer. And so on. Which of these identities is the real you? The answer is: all of them.”
“The overlapping perceptions of everyone who knows you together form the complete you.”
Ning Zhe shifted gears in his explanation. “I wonder if you can understand it this way: the ghost didn’t replace the complete Xie Sining back then, but rather the Xie Sining known to Zhang Yangxu.”
“When the real Xie Sining died by the river, the version of Xie Sining known to Zhang Yangxu was replaced. This version matched Zhang Yangxu’s perception of the legal advisor perfectly—speech, behavior, everything flawless. But it couldn’t answer Zhang Yangxu’s high-level legal questions because its identity wasn’t complete.”
“It was merely ‘Zhang Yangxu’s understanding of Xie Sining,’ not the complete Xie Sining.”
“Questions Zhang Yangxu himself couldn’t answer couldn’t possibly be answered by his understanding of Xie Sining. So when he posed a logical yet unanswerable question, the ghost masquerading as Xie Sining was trapped by its own rules.”
As Ning Zhe spoke, he and Feng Yushu reached a residential house some distance away from the ancestral hall. Smoke from the chimney had already ceased, and the people inside were eating breakfast.
Feng Yushu mulled over Ning Zhe’s explanation carefully, then heard him continue: “So, Auntie, why do you think the ghost pretending to be Xie Sining called you on your way back to the ancestral hall?”
Feng Yushu froze. Ning Zhe’s words sent an electric jolt through her mind, connecting the critical dots.
After a long hesitation, she tentatively said, “It was… to steal the ‘Xie Sining’ known to Feng Yushu?”
“Correct.” Ning Zhe gave her a thumbs-up. “That’s the answer to the puzzle.”
Two mysteries existed in Hejia Village, corresponding to two riddles:
[Riddle 1: Why did the Serpent God go mad?]
[Riddle 2: How does the ghost impersonate others?]
The answer to Riddle 2 was now laid out before Feng Yushu.
“Just as the Serpent God can only punish you if you break its taboos, a ghost can only steal a specific identity under certain conditions. That condition is recognition.”
Ning Zhe leaned against the outer wall of the house and said:
“When you see the name on your phone’s screen and believe the caller to be Xie Sining, then it is Xie Sining.”
“When Zhang Yangxu, standing by the willow tree, hears footsteps on the fallen leaves and assumes it’s Xie Sining returning from the restroom, then it is Xie Sining.”
The more people who recognize the ghost as Xie Sining, the more complete its impersonation of Xie Sining becomes.
Complete enough to even deceive the Serpent God.
“That’s the rule of this ghost.”