Zombie Life Begins in Hongxi Village

"Renjia Town?"

Looking at the three large characters on the gate tower, the first thing that popped into Lin Yi's mind was not something else, but a unibrow, a yellow Taoist robe, and a peach wood sword.

Uncle Nine.

When he was editing short videos in the provincial capital, there was a period when his traffic was particularly low. His boss would curse people in the group every day, and he was under so much pressure that he couldn't sleep all night. He would just watch Douyin (TikTok) to relieve the pressure.

One late night, he came across a clip of Mr. Zombie, where Uncle Nine was wearing a Taoist robe and drawing talismans and chanting incantations. The comments section was full of phrases like "Master of all realms," "Childhood trauma," and "Uncle Nine is awesome." He found it quite interesting and watched the full movie several times.

From then on, he became a fan of Uncle Nine, and even watched most of Uncle Nine's other movies.

So he was very familiar with the name Renjia Town.

But here's the problem—isn't this the world of Mystery of the Zombie?

How did he end up in Renjia Town?

"Could this be more than just the world of 'My Date with a Vampire,' but a multi-genre world with other movie and TV show storylines?"

Lin Yi became more and more excited as she thought about it.

To personally participate in the plot of a movie you've seen—what could be more exhilarating than that?!

But we should double-check. It's almost 10 p.m., and most people in town are asleep. We won't be able to find anyone to ask.

"Let's find a place to stay first." Lin Yi walked into the town.

The inns in town are not hard to find. Walk about fifty meters along the stone-paved road into the town, and you'll find a two-story wooden building with a sign that reads "Yuelai Inn".

The door was still open, and two lanterns hung at the entrance, casting a dim yellow light on the stone pavement, giving it a distinctly Republican-era feel.

The shopkeeper was an old man in his fifties, thin and with a tuft of goatee on his chin. He was dozing off on the counter.

When Lin Yi entered, the door creaked, and the shopkeeper suddenly looked up, subconsciously wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth.

"Checking in at a hotel."

The shopkeeper looked him up and down.

He was tall, wearing a suit, and carrying a suitcase; his attire suggested he came from a big city.

As for why they came to Renjia Town, the innkeeper didn't ask any further questions since the inn was open for business and all they needed to do was pay.

He pulled out a worn-out register and asked in a heavily accented Cantonese-accented Mandarin, "How many nights will you be staying, sir?"

"Stay for one night, please. Upstairs."

"A superior room, five cents."

Lin Yi took out a silver dollar from his pocket and placed it on the counter.

"Keep the change, please."

The shopkeeper picked it up, examined it, and even bit it with his teeth to confirm it was genuine. His attitude immediately became much warmer.

He personally carried a kerosene lamp and led Lin Yi to a room on the second floor, which was located further inside. He also had hot water brought up to her.

The room wasn't big, but it was quite clean.

A wooden bed, a table, a chair, and a washbasin stand in the corner.

The window faces the back street, and when you open it, you can see the dark silhouettes of the mountains in the distance.

Lin Yi stuffed the suitcase under the bed, washed her face, and took off her suit jacket, draping it over the back of the chair.

He lay down on the bed, staring at the shadows cast on the ceiling by the kerosene lamp, his mind a jumble of thoughts.

So much happened today.

In the morning, I was soaking in the swimming pool at home, and in the afternoon I was transported to Hongxi Village. Then I was bitten by Jiang Chen, and then I lost control and teleported to the county military police station, where I drained more than forty people. Now I'm lying in an inn in Renjia Town.

The plot is more outrageous than any movie.

Just as I was thinking about it, I felt sleepy.

Zombies can sleep like humans, or at least second-generation zombies can choose whether or not to sleep.

He can alter his biological clock through the power of his bloodline, allowing him to sleep for hundreds or thousands of years at a time, or to never sleep again.

But he didn't do that, because sleeping would make him look like a human being.

Lin Yi's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and the light from the kerosene lamp slowly blurred into a hazy yellow in his vision, and then he fell asleep.

He had a dream.

In his dream, he stood in a void where there was nothing. It was black under his feet, black above his head, and black all around him.

There was no sound, no wind, no temperature, nothing at all, as if I had been thrown into some corner of the universe.

Then he saw the glass bead.

Blue, teardrop-shaped, suspended in the very center of the darkness, emitting a faint blue light.

The light was not dazzling, but soft, like a small blue star.

Something seems to be slowly flowing inside the glass bead, like a liquid or light; looking at it for too long makes you feel like your eyes are being sucked in.

Lin Yi subconsciously reached out to take it.

Before the finger even touched the bead, it vanished into thin air.

Then, as if watching a movie, he watched forty-five different films, each reflecting a person's life...

There were men like Kameda, Sakamoto, and Hatano, as well as puppet troops like Zhao Si, Jin Junmei, and Li Ming.

After watching the "movie," Lin Yi suddenly gained some new knowledge—

Japanese, Korean, Cantonese, English, as well as firearms handling skills, bayonet fighting skills, sidecar motorcycle skills, and more than a dozen other common skills.

"Ooh ooh ooh!"

A rooster's crow abruptly pulled him out of his dream.

Lin Yi suddenly opened her eyes. What came into view was the mottled tiled roof of the inn room. The morning light squeezed in through the cracks in the window, drawing a few golden stripes on the floor.

The rooster outside the window was still crowing tirelessly. In the distance, someone was cooking over a fire, and smoke rose from the rooftop, mingling with the aroma of breakfast and drifting into the window.

Its daybreak.

Lin Yi lay motionless on the bed, staring at the ceiling, her mind still replaying the dream.

He discovered that the skill information in his mind was still there, and he could now utter a fluent Japanese phrase, "Yamete, Iku..."

The pronunciation is practically indistinguishable from everyday life!

He also speaks Cantonese and English, which seem to be skills he already possesses.

"Could it be because he sucked the blood of those lowly soldiers and puppet troops?"

But I've never heard of the Pangu zombie being able to read memories or gain skills by sucking blood!

If you could, why didn't you feel anything at the time?

Lin Yi looked puzzled. Although he had benefited, he always felt that he, as a zombie, was different from Kuang Guohua and the others.

He tried hard to recall the plot of My Date with a Zombie, and after thinking for a long time, he realized that zombies indeed did not have the ability to absorb memories and skills.

"Maybe it's because I only watched the commentary on Douyin (TikTok), it might be in the full story."

Lin Yi thought to herself.

But he didn't know that other zombies didn't have this ability; his special ability was due to his own genes.

He is not a person of this world, nor was he created by Nuwa through prayer to Heaven for power.

Moreover, humans evolved from ancient apes on Earth over hundreds of millions of years, and evolution is a rule etched into their genes.

After becoming a second-generation zombie, his physique was elevated, and the rules of evolution were greatly strengthened.

The process of evolution, which might have taken hundreds of millions of years, has been shortened to just a few hours or even less.

After this evolutionary gene combined with the bloodline of Pangu, it mutated into a more extreme predatory and compensatory evolutionary rule.

He is no longer the normal Pangu zombie, and this difference will only grow larger over time through continuous plundering and evolution.

Although Mother Earth did not provide him with direct assistance, she secretly gave him the best gift.

Perhaps in the future he will become a new generation of zombie ancestor, different from the Pangu zombie!

Of course, that's a story for later. After putting aside the matter of the abnormal blood-sucking, Lin Yi recalled the scene at the beginning of the dream.

That blue glass bead was definitely not simple. He was ninety percent certain that his time travel was caused by this thing.

Moreover, he had a gut feeling that the bead hadn't been lost; it was still on him, or rather, somewhere in his body.

"What's going on? A cheat system? Why are you hiding it like that?"

Lin Yi sat up abruptly and began searching herself.

As a second-generation zombie, he has a much better understanding of his own body than ordinary people; he can sense the condition of every muscle, every blood vessel, and every bone.

But they found nothing.

The bead seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"Fine." He opened his eyes and gave up.

If you can't find it, it just means the time isn't right yet. These kinds of special abilities usually appear naturally when the time is right; you can't force them.

As he dressed, he thought that the bead might be able to help him get back someday.

Although he was laid off from his company back in his hometown, and no one responded to his resumes, and his mother complained all the time that he was lying at home doing nothing, it was still his home after all.

His father, Lin Jianguo, and mother, Chen Xiulan, may complain, but if he really went missing, the couple would definitely be frantic with worry.

Thinking of how his father had posted missing person notices everywhere in search of him, and how his mother had wiped away tears at home, Lin Yi suddenly felt a pang of sadness.

"Never mind, I'll think about it later." He shook his head, dismissing those thoughts.

He put on his suit and tidied himself up in front of the mirror.

The face reflected in the mirror made him pause for a moment—the changes from last night were still there: a sharp jawline, sculpted features, and a well-tailored suit, though made of mediocre material, making him look very energetic.

"He's really handsome." Lin Yi nodded at herself in the mirror, without any modesty.

After washing up, he went downstairs.

The shopkeeper had already gotten up and was sitting behind the counter drinking porridge.

Seeing Lin Yi come down, the innkeeper put down his bowl and greeted her with a smile, "You're up early, sir. Did you sleep well last night?"

"It's alright." Lin Yi walked to the counter and asked casually, "Shopkeeper, I want to ask you something."

"Please speak, sir."

"Is there a Ninth Uncle in your Renjia Town?"

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper's eyes lit up: "Yes! Of course! Uncle Jiu is the most famous Taoist priest in our town, incredibly skilled. Who in the surrounding area doesn't know him? Sir, what kind of unclean thing have you encountered?"

"No, not at all." Lin Yi smiled and continued, "What about Master Ren Fa?"

The innkeeper's smile widened even more: "Yes, yes! This inn belongs to Master Ren. Do you know Master Ren, sir?"

"I don't know him, I've only heard of him." Lin Yi was already completely certain in her heart, but she casually asked, "What about Uncle Jiu? Where does he live?"

Seeing that Lin Yi didn't recognize Ren Fa, the shopkeeper didn't mind and continued, "Uncle Jiu lives in the mortuary in the west of the town, not far from here. It's about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to walk there."

If you're looking for him, leave the inn and walk west along the stone path to the end, then turn left. You'll see a white lantern hanging at the entrance; that's it.

However, I advise you not to go to the mortuary unless it's absolutely necessary; that place is considered unlucky.

"The mortuary is a place to put the dead. If someone in the town dies and there's nowhere to bury them right away, they're put in the mortuary first. Uncle Jiu is very capable and has nothing to fear, but it's best for us ordinary people to stay away."

Lin Yi nodded, thinking to himself, "I'm a zombie now, what am I afraid of dead people for?"

He then asked, "Has anything major happened in town lately?"

The shopkeeper tilted his head and thought for a moment: "There's nothing really important... Oh, speaking of which, there is one thing. Master Ren is moving the old master's grave today, and he asked Uncle Jiu to handle it."

They set off before dawn, and I reckon they're almost done by now.

Lin Yi raised an eyebrow.

Goodness, we just arrived at the start of the story.

He first went to a clothing store and bought a pair of leather shoes and two sets of clothes to change into.

Then he bought some pastries from a roadside pastry shop called "Mingyuexuan," which cost him three and a half yuan.

When Lin Yi came out carrying the box of pastries, she thought to herself that these pastries were several times more expensive than the best room in the inn. It was so damn extravagant.

However, since we're going to visit Uncle Nine, it wouldn't look good to go empty-handed.

He carried the snack box and walked west along the stone path.

Renjia Town is not large, but its layout is quite clear.

The town gate is on the east side, and the buildings on the east side are noticeably better, with blue bricks and black tiles, neat facades, and the pedestrians on the road are dressed decently.

The further west you go, the more dilapidated the houses become, transforming from brick houses to adobe houses, and then from adobe houses to wooden plank houses and tarpaulin houses.

Some thin, sallow-faced idlers squatted by the roadside. When they saw Lin Yi walking by in a suit, their eyes showed both curiosity and awe.

Before long, he reached the westernmost part of the town.

The mortuary was located at the end of a wasteland.

It was an old-fashioned, gray courtyard house with low walls and two white lanterns hanging at the entrance, swaying slightly in the morning breeze.

The door was a black wooden door, most of the paint had peeled off, revealing the grayish-white wood underneath. A yellow paper talisman was pasted on the door, with runes that Lin Yi couldn't understand, which shimmered with a faint gold in the sunlight.

There was a faint smell of incense and paper money in the air, mixed with a barely perceptible stench of decay. An ordinary person's nose would be completely unable to detect this stench, but Lin Yi's zombie nose could.

He raised his hand and knocked on the door.

dong dong dong.

About half a minute later, the door creaked open.

The person who opened the door was a man who looked to be in his thirties.

He is of medium height and thin, with a mushroom haircut. His face is a bit long, and while his features are not ugly, they are definitely not considered good-looking.

He was wearing a gray cloth short jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his two thin arms.

Lin Yi recognized the face at a glance.