Run Sheng: "Yes, you’ve dealt with a ghost."
Xue Liangliang suddenly took a deep breath and said, "She’s not dead, nor a ghost. She... doesn’t even seem alive."
Li Zhiyuan: "Neither human nor ghost—it quite fits our current state."
Xue Liangliang raised his hand, indicating he was thinking: "I often reminisce about that trip to the Bai family town from long ago..."
"Brother Liangliang, no need to reminisce; you’ve been going frequently these past days."
"Oh, right, yes. So now I feel, our current environment is similar to the Bai family town; it exists beneath the Yangtze River but not truly in existence.
Look, the Yangtze River isn’t like the ocean; it’s not that deep, nor that vast. That place would need a bridge built across the river later. If there really was a town down there to be discovered, it would definitely have been found by now.
After returning to school, I checked the library..."
"Nothing. Then I went to ask a club in our school for advice."
"A supernatural phenomena enthusiasts’ club. The female president did provide a reasonable explanation of my story, suggesting it might be a spatial interlayer."
"Did she tell you, Brother Liang, how to get out of this spatial interlayer?"
"No, she even doubted the real existence of that town, asking me to take her to see it."
Tan Wenbin, seemingly trying to prove he wasn’t possessed by the little girl again, asked a very sensible question: "But Brother Liang, haven’t you been to the spatial interlayer many times? How did you come out?"
Xue Liangliang waved his hand dismissively: "I always came out in a daze."
Tan Wenbin didn’t hear it clearly: "What did you say?"
Run Sheng: "Every time, he came out comfortably."
Xue Liangliang raised his voice: "The layout is different in each place. Over there at the Bai family town, it’s controlled by her; I just jump into the river in that area and then find myself lying unconscious on the shore.
Here, I think it’s not controlled, it’s naturally formed, otherwise the villagers wouldn’t be so scared as to require rituals.
Xiao Yuan, let’s go check it out, like the ancestral hall or the well in the village center, as exits are generally located in such spots."
As the four walked toward the village, where they stood, the sound of instruments rang out again, and the fireball appeared once more.
Everyone looked back, knowing that the second ritual had started, and didn’t think much of it.
Entering the village, most of the doors were shut tight, but a few were open, with those houses looking quite dilapidated.
And none of these houses had Spring Festival couplets or door gods posted.
Tan Wenbin noticed this too, muttering: "Back during New Year’s, my mom had me post the ’Fu’ character and couplets, which I found annoying, I was really foolish."
Xue Liangliang responded: "From now on, I’ll also post them on the dorm doors at the construction site."
Everyone reached the old well in the center of the village, possibly a landmark for the exit. Run Sheng, without hesitation, tied himself with a rope and dove into the well with a steel pipe in his mouth.
The others waited patiently by the well.
Xue Liangliang asked: "Xiao Yuan, Run Sheng didn’t enter the well water, did he? Is he out?"
Tan Wenbin: "Don’t worry, if there really is an exit below, Run Sheng would come up and tell us."
Li Zhiyuan retorted: "If he got out, would he even know where the entrance is to get back in?"
"Ah, right, so what do we do if he really got out, we..."
"Brother Binbin, pull up the rope a bit, see if it tautens."
"Okay." Tan Wenbin began to pull the rope at the wellside, and as he did, it tensed up and he felt a tug, "Run Sheng is still below; he just tugged on the rope twice, I felt it."
Xue Liangliang worriedly said: "He’s been down there for a long time, isn’t it dangerous?"
Li Zhiyuan shook his head: "No, Brother Run Sheng is very good in the water."
He was very certain about this, after all, Brother Run Sheng was capable of fighting with corpses underwater.
"Xiao Yuan, I still have a question, what about the corpse water in those two houses we entered earlier?"
"Maybe an old person once lay sick in bed there, passing away later."
"And the corpse water in the second house, that was inside a cabinet, surely they couldn’t have laid sick in there?"
"Maybe they stored something there; you know some places have the custom of eating the placenta?"
Xue Liangliang: "Xiao Yuan, how do you manage to remain so calm and quickly give me such logical explanations?"
Li Zhiyuan sternly said: "Because I don’t want to think about the worst possibility."
Xue Liangliang was puzzled at first, then understood and replied: "Right, that would be too terrifying, especially for Zhu Yang."
"Hey!" Tan Wenbin shouted, looking troubled, "Can you two consider my feelings? I’m still listening; don’t skip over anything!"
Just then, there was movement from below the well; Run Sheng was coming up.
He climbed out of the well and said: "The well is very deep; I dove to the bottom, there’s no exit."
"Brother Run Sheng, do you want to rest a bit?"
"Can’t rest." Run Sheng patted his stomach, "I’m getting hungry."
Li Zhiyuan pointed to a house door hung with corn cobs: "There’s some food there."
Run Sheng excitedly said: "Can we eat them?"
"Go ahead, they just think it’s another ghostly disturbance."
Run Sheng immediately took down a string of corn, not bothering to cook or roast it, biting directly into it.
Li Zhiyuan and Xue Liangliang also each took one, took a bite. The taste wasn’t great, but at that moment, they were grateful for whatever they could eat.