This actor is full of tricks.

At eight o'clock, it was completely dark outside the window.

Looking out through the window grilles on the glass, the silent river runs across the dark night, as if after nightfall, the river dares not make any flowing sound.

You cannot go out from this time until 6 o'clock tomorrow morning, because there are god servants patrolling the village. Going out rashly will offend the god.

This is the rule that Dazhu repeatedly emphasized, or rather the custom in the village.

But where is the night watchman?

Lin Jue looked in both directions through the window and finally saw a few sparks of fire in the darkness in the distance on the other side of the river.

That was the light from the torch. In the reflection of the flame, a line of hazy figures could be seen.

"A servant of God?"

Lin Jue narrowed his eyes. The group of figures were slowly approaching. Only when they were within his clear sight could he see the figures clearly.

There were actually paper figures, arranged in two rows, with bright red makeup painted on their pale faces. Their paper clothes were blown by the wind, revealing their arms, which were even paler than the corpses frozen in the ice storage.

On both sides of the paper man, there are two paper horses, with two figures sitting on them. They are not paper men, but living people, wearing loose black robes, round hats, and hideous Nuo masks on their faces.

In their hands, each of them held a wooden sign.

【Yin Nuo Night Patrol】

【No entry for strangers】

In the center of the team, four paper figures were carrying a red sedan chair. The sedan chair was so heavy that the shoulders of the four paper figures were deformed.

The four paper figures made sounds, like the sound of paper rubbing against each other, but with a sharp tone, interweaving into a ballad.

"Paper money falls, and a smile appears on my face again..."

"The old mourning clothes have become beautiful red clothes..."

"The bridal sedan chair landed, but the groom who came was not the one I wanted..."

"She lifted her veil, laughed absurdly, and hung herself from the beam with a white silk rope..."

"Swaying on tiptoe, rolling up the paper dowry..."

The sad melody, coupled with the hoarse voice of the paper figurine, makes the ballad particularly creepy.

Paper figures, carrying a large sedan chair, walked farther and farther along the river bank, and the sharp and strange singing disappeared into the night sky.

Is this a night watch or a bride-giving?
"The lyrics are written from the perspective of a bride, but the whole song is filled with sadness instead of the joy of getting married."

Looking at the paper figure disappearing into the darkness, Lin Jue withdrew his gaze. This strange song described a story simply and clearly.

A woman who was still in mourning was forced to marry a man she didn't like. Her white mourning clothes turned into a bright red wedding gown. She wiped away her tears, forced a smile, and got into the bridal sedan.

And the sentence, "white silk is hung on the beam as a rope" seems to also tell the ending of the story.

The woman finally hung the white silk on the beam and committed suicide by hanging herself. The wind blew her body and brought up paper money all over the ground.

The shopkeeper couldn't help but shudder when he heard it: "What a terrible ballad."

"The point is not the song, but the story behind it. This story may correspond to all the truths of this village."

Lin Jue stepped away from the window, lay down on the bed, and stuffed the old man into his raincoat: "Uncle, I'm going to take a nap. If nothing unusual happens, call me in two hours."

"You can still sleep? This village is full of weirdness. If I were you, I would just run away."

I really couldn't understand Lin Jue's train of thought. He was brave, yet sometimes he was very cautious. He was timid, yet he often ran to such terrifying places and often courted death. The most appropriate word to describe him was madman.

"You just fell asleep, can't I sleep for a while?" Lin Jue closed his eyes and his voice gradually became softer: "Uncle, we are people who live in the sunshine. You see the situation in this village, paper people and paper horses, and the customs that deceive people. I feel that if we leave like this, more innocent people may be persecuted."

"Can you bear to see them get hurt?"

Although Lin Jue was lying on the bed, he did not sleep. Instead, he turned sideways, squinted his eyes, and stared at the mirror.

He wanted to see if the thing in the mirror would reappear later, and maybe he could get relevant information from the other party.

But after waiting for a long time, there was no response in the mirror.

"Is the guy inside asleep?"

Lin Jue got up from the bed, stared at the mirror for a while, and after making sure there was nothing unusual, he walked carefully to the door and opened it a crack.

The old man in the raincoat hurriedly whispered, "Where are you going? Don't leave me here alone. That guy might come out at any time."

"I'll go downstairs for a stroll and come back up shortly. Besides, you're about to break through to C-rank now. Could that girl be C-rank? What are you afraid of her doing? If she shows up later, you should control her."

Lin Jue tiptoed out of the door, first leaning on the door opposite and eavesdropping for a while. After hearing no sound, he went downstairs.

Standing on the last step of the first floor, he did not rush out of the stairs, but stretched his head out to look outside.

The main room was pitch black and all the rooms had their doors closed. Dazhu must have been asleep.

Only then did he walk out of the stairs and come to the altar.

Looking at the black water in the jar, he reached in without any hesitation and took out the thing at the bottom of the jar.

Just as he had guessed during the day, there was a talisman bag inside the jar.

And this talisman bag is not empty, there is something inside.

He took out the thing inside, which was a piece of talisman paper folded into a hexagon. This talisman paper should be made of some special waterproof material, and there would be no moisture stains even after being soaked in water.

Opening the talisman paper, Lin Jue saw a line of words written on it with the dim light of his mobile phone.

It's not a rune, but a birthday.

[Born in the year of Wuyin, the month of Xinyou, the day of Jiashen, at noon]

Translated into the Gregorian calendar, the date is October 1998, 10, around 4 noon.

There is another name below.

Wu Xiumei.

You can tell from the name that she is a woman, born in 98, and almost 26 years old today.

"Why would you place a woman's birthday in an altar to enjoy incense? What's the meaning of this action?"

"Could it be that this person named Wu Xiumei is the one controlling everything behind the scenes? She wrote her birthdate and name on a talisman and had every household offer incense and offerings, hoping to become a deity?"

Lin Jue recalled that in the Taoist legends of his previous life, there were stories of mortals becoming gods by enjoying incense and offerings. For example, the well-known Guan Erye was believed in and offered incense by people after his death, and gradually achieved the status of a god.

So this Wu Xiumei is planning to imitate the myth and become a god through incense?

(End of this chapter)