Starting from the folklore forum, making up town objects

Chapter 403 One person, one village ghost
The pages turn, revealing Ya Ya, Tie Zhu, Gou Sheng, Ya Ya's grandmother, Tie Zhu's parents, and Gou Sheng's dog...

Each page records a person's general information.

After flipping through more than a dozen pages, a blank page appeared.

Xu Zhiheng used a long, narrow pebble to hold down one side of the notebook, then took out a bottle of ink, a fountain pen, and a needle for measuring blood sugar from the drawer.

Unscrew the ink bottle, and the smell of ink mixed with some strange odors drifted into the air.

Xu Zhiheng was used to it and didn't show any reaction to the smell.

After the ink bottle was opened, Xu Zhiheng did not pick up the pen, but instead picked up the blood sugar test needle and pressed it against his ring finger.

Snapped!
After the blood glucose injection was pulled up and released, the needle pierced the finger.

After removing the blood glucose injection, Xu Zhiheng pressed his thumb against his ring finger and placed his ring finger on the ink bottle.

Ding Dong! Ding Dong! Ding Dong!

Round drops of blood fell from his middle finger and into the ink bottle. When no more blood could be squeezed from his finger, Xu Zhiheng picked up the blood glucose injection again.

Snapped!
Snapped!
Snapped!
The sound of blood glucose injections echoed continuously in the room. Except for the three fingers on Xu Zhiheng's right hand that were holding the pen, which were not pricked, each of the other seven fingers had two or three needle marks.

After the smell of blood mingled with the smell of ink, Xu Zhiheng wiped the blood off his fingers, picked up his pen, and dipped it into the ink bottle, saturating it with ink.

Xu Zhiheng picked up his pen and waited for the ink to drip completely from the nib before putting pen to paper on the page.

"Yaya's parents returned to Zhouzhuang like normal people. They brought the money they had earned from working away from home over the years, intending to build a big house for Yaya and her grandmother..."

As Xu Zhiheng's words were written on the paper, two wisps of smoke appeared from two unnamed graves not far from Grandpa Yaya's grave outside Zhouzhuang.

Under the clear blue sky, two illusory figures were formed by two wisps of green smoke.

When Xu Zhiheng finished writing, all the flowing, bright red characters dried up, and the writing was imprinted on the yellowed paper.

Just then, blood vessels suddenly appeared in Xu Zhiheng's eyes, gradually moving from various parts of his eyeball toward his pupil.

Because of the bloodshot veins, Xu Zhiheng's gentle demeanor turned cold and stern.

Meanwhile, the two figures outside Zhouzhuang finally materialized.

After a moment of disorientation, the young man and woman who appeared at the grave looked at each other and smiled happily.

"Finally back. I wonder how Yaya has grown up these past few years, and how Mom's legs are still okay."

"I miss her so much. Have we been away for too long?"

"There's no other way. We can't make money in the village. Now that we have money, we'll see if we can send Yaya to study in the city after we finish building the house."

"Maybe we should just forget about it. We earn a lot in the village, but outside... I'm afraid Yaya will be ostracized."

"...Okay, let's go."

Ten minutes later, Ya Ya's excited shouts echoed through Zhouzhuang.

The sound started from one location and gradually spread to the doorway of every inhabited house in Zhouzhuang. Finally, the sound stopped at the playground of Zhouzhuang's only school.

"Teacher Xu, my mom and dad are back!"

Hearing Ya Ya's voice outside the door, Xu Zhiheng's bloodshot eyes suddenly froze, and his pupils trembled as his gaze shifted.

In the blink of an eye, the bloodshot streaks faded, and Xu Zhiheng regained his clarity.

After letting out a long breath, Xu Zhiheng slowly got up and walked out.

"Teacher Xu, my mom and dad are back!"

Ya Ya, who was running laps with her arms outstretched on the playground, immediately ran over when she saw Xu Zhiheng come out.

Xu Zhiheng patted Ya Ya's topknot and laughed, "They're back. Why aren't you with them? What are you doing running laps at school?"

"Teacher Xu, I'm so happy! I've already told everyone in the village, and now I'm telling you too."

"Teacher Xu, I'm leaving!"

After saying that, Ya Ya ran off into the yard in a flurry of activity.

Watching Ya Ya walk away, Xu Zhiheng's somewhat pale face seemed to regain a touch of color.

"does it worth?"

Suddenly a voice rang out, freezing Xu Zhiheng in place.

He turned his head and looked at the figure standing next to him, wearing a crow's beak mask, dressed in a black feather robe, with black mist swirling around the hem.

Xu Zhiheng was stunned for a while before he returned to normal.

Why isn't it worth it?

Xu Zhiheng's words made Chen Xin turn his head to look at him.

Looking at this big man again, Chen Xin couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion.

I thought the person controlling that piece of paper would be an inhuman, heinous, or murderous madman.

But when he appeared beside Xu Zhiheng and read the contents of Xu Zhiheng's hand-bound notebook, he fell silent.

He didn't sense any vigorous blood and energy from Xu Zhiheng, nor did he sense any yin energy swirling around him.

Xu Zhiheng was just an ordinary person.

An ordinary person who possesses a Blood Calamity-level demon, yet can resist its temptation solely through willpower.

And it was this very person who, with his abilities, transformed this desolate village into a place filled with laughter and...human warmth!

It's funny to say that.

In that bustling city, Chen Xin rarely saw any human warmth.

But in this deserted village made up of a dozen or so ghosts, one could see a touch of humanity.

Could it be that the line between humans and ghosts has become so blurred?
Shaking his head, Chen Xin looked at Xu Zhiheng.

"Don't you have any questions now that you see me?"

Xu Zhiheng shook his head.

"When I first received that piece of paper, I already had my doubts. Now that so much time has passed and I see you here, I think it's only natural."

"There are indeed many things in this world that I don't know."

Looking at Xu Zhiheng, Chen Xin asked again, "Are you aware of the recent suicides?"

Xu Zhiheng shook his head.

"Apart from Zhouzhuang, I have had very little contact with the outside world."

Chen Xin raised an eyebrow slightly. He didn't know?

Looking into Xu Zhiheng's eyes, Chen Xin couldn't tell whether what the other person was saying was true or false.

"So, you think there's no price to pay for coming back from the dead?"

"There should be."

Xu Zhiheng recalled the decadent music that had controlled him for so long today.

From the moment he resurrected Ya Ya, every time he wrote down a person on that piece of paper, he would experience that situation once.

Just now, after reviving Ya Ya's parents in one go, the temptation almost made him unable to continue.

If it weren't for Ya Ya's voice, he might have already succumbed to that idea.

This may be the price to resurrect everyone, even if it means taking his life.

But he didn't regret it.

Chen Xin was not satisfied with Xu Zhiheng's answer. If Xu Zhiheng were a madman or a fanatical believer, he would not hesitate to throw Xu Zhiheng into the Copper Pillar Hell.

But now, he can't make that choice.

Since that's the case... Chen Xin raised his hand, and a mirror appeared in front of Xu Zhiheng.

"come on."

Chen Xin said to Xu Zhiheng.

Seemingly sensing the implication in Chen Xin's tone, Xu Zhiheng did not resist and walked to the mirror.

When his gaze fell on the mirror, he felt a similar power to that on the paper, a kind of spiritual bewilderment.

He instinctively resisted, and soon his gaze was taken away from the mirror.

Watching Xu Zhiheng break free from the "inquiry" of the Mirror of Inquiry, he finally understood why the piece of paper hadn't been able to control Xu Zhiheng in the same way it had controlled Wang Baolin.

This person's will is incredibly strong.

But the Mirror of Inquiry is not a piece of paper after all. Immediately, the heart hidden beneath the ghostly skin behind the Mirror of Inquiry began to beat.

Bang!
Bang bang!

Bang bang bang!
The heartbeat gradually approached Xu Zhiheng's heartbeat, and Xu Zhiheng's will involuntarily began to resist the heartbeat.

But then, the power in the two eyes in the mirror reappeared.

Caught between two attacks, Xu Zhiheng couldn't hold out for long before his eyes lost focus.

Chen Xin, on the other hand, had already looked at the Mirror of Inquiry.

……

Xu Zhiheng is a student at a normal university. During the summer vacation, he participated in a practical activity and went to teach in a village called Zhouzhuang in the mountains.

There were four people when they arrived, two men and two women.

But after only one month, only one man and one woman remained.

The man is Xu Zhiheng, and the woman is Xu Zhiheng's classmate.

The reason that female classmate stayed in this village, which had electricity but no internet and where roads had to be paved by hand, was simply because she liked Xu Zhiheng.

Xu Zhiheng also realized this, so that night he told his female classmate that he already had someone he liked.

The next day, he was the only volunteer teacher left in Zhouzhuang.

That noon, his three students, Ya Ya, Tie Zhu, and Gou Sheng, came to his office and each gave him a gift, saying it was a parting present.

Xu Zhiheng smiled, accepted the gifts, and told Ya Ya and the others that he would be leaving in another month.

After the three children learned that Xu Zhiheng was not leaving, their smiles widened considerably.

They didn't know what would happen 'a month from now'; all they knew was that they were happy 'in the moment'.

In the days that followed, Xu Zhiheng got along very well with the three children and the people of Zhouzhuang.

Perhaps it was because Xu Zhiheng was the longest-staying volunteer teacher in the village, or perhaps it was because Xu Zhiheng was the youngest person in the village between ten and sixty years old, that he gained the 'love' of the entire village.

People delivered crops to him every day, and by the day he left, he still had food left in his room.

When he left, everyone in the village who could walk came to the village entrance to see him off, and he promised to come back after graduation.

But just three months later, when he returned to Zhouzhuang, he saw no one except for dozens of graves.

He didn't know what had happened. After inquiring, he learned from a distant town that Zhouzhuang seemed to have been hit by a plague, and that the entire village had been wiped out overnight, including chickens, ducks, pigs, and dogs.

Some people say that it's not a plague, but a ghost!
But what's the difference?

They're all gone: Ya Ya, Tie Zhu, Gou Sheng, and Gou Sheng's dog.

It's all gone.

Just as Xu Zhiheng finished paying respects to the people of Zhouzhuang and returned to his office, he saw that piece of paper.

The piece of paper that had captured his entire attention, and then he fainted.

When he regained consciousness, he had some memories of that piece of paper.

It can bring people back to life!
Wasn't this his strongest desire at that time?

Knowing that it might be wrong, Xu Zhiheng still picked up the paper, folded and cut it, and bound it into a notebook.

Then, Xu Zhiheng put pen to paper and wrote down the words from the depths of his heart in that notebook.

Perhaps this piece of paper came from an unknown source, or perhaps it might be hiding some conspiracy, but for Xu Zhiheng, it was simply something that could help him fulfill his wish.

After he revised and finished writing the article, he seemed to have a premonition that somewhere, someone had an extra piece of paper that looked exactly like the paper in the booklet he was holding.

But before he could think about it, Ya Ya's crying reached his ears.

When he ran out and saw Ya Ya crying because she couldn't find any familiar faces, he forgot everything else.

Ya Ya is back, that's enough.

Then, it was just a matter of writing things down in that notebook time and time again.

Under his leadership, Zhouzhuang gradually became bustling with activity.

Perhaps that piece of paper holds some secret, or perhaps it's not a good thing at all.

But at least in his eyes, that piece of paper was everything to him, and everything to Zhouzhuang!

He wants to restore Zhouzhuang to its original state step by step.

Even better!

……

Chen Xin remained silent for a while.

After seeing Xu Zhiheng's actions during this period through the Mirror of Inquiry, Chen Xin realized that Xu Zhiheng seemed to genuinely not know about the suicide attempt.

And those papers were probably not distributed under Xu Zhiheng's control.

Or rather, it wasn't something he actively spread.

But every time he 'resurrects' the people of Zhouzhuang, a piece of paper will appear in some corner of Daxia that needs it.

The others did not have Xu Zhiheng's willpower, so they lost control of the situation.

However, this also made Chen Xin realize something.

If someone with strong willpower consciously uses that piece of paper, then its existence might not be a bad thing.

But how many people in this world have Xu Zhiheng's willpower?

What are the chances that the piece of paper will fall into the hands of someone like Xu Zhiheng?

Chen Xin shook his head and put the Mirror of Inquiry away.

Xu Zhiheng regained his senses and looked at Chen Xin beside him. He felt that something had just happened, but he couldn't remember anything about it.

Just then, Chen Xin spoke up.

He then told Xu Zhiheng what Wang Baolin had done with that piece of paper.

While Xu Zhiheng was still in a daze, Chen Xin told him that besides that piece of paper, there might be more than a dozen other pieces of paper scattered around, doing things that he didn't know about.

Perhaps, if Xu Zhiheng uses that piece of paper to 'revive' someone, dozens or even hundreds of people outside will die.

When this question was posed to Xu Zhiheng, he fell silent.

Now, he faces a choice.

Choosing to continue 'saving people' is choosing to continue 'harming people'.

What will Xu Zhiheng choose this time?

……

(End of this chapter)