Chapter 24 Accompanying the king is like accompanying a tiger

"Can you give me some time?" Ning Zhe raised his head and smiled at Feng Yushu. "I need some time alone to think about what happened just now. What are we going to do next?"

"I'll listen to you..." Feng Yusu walked out of the ancestral hall half-believingly, gathered her skirt and sat on the threshold of the gate. From time to time, she looked back worriedly at Ning Zhe who was leaning against the pillar, wondering what he was thinking.

Not long after, a buzzing vibration suddenly came from my thigh. It was my cell phone ringing, but it was not a call, but a text message.

Feng Yuxu unlocked the screen and saw that the sender was: Zhang Yangxu.

"Hey?"

At the same time, in the ancestral hall, Ning Zhe sat in front of the Snake God and reviewed his actions this morning:
The logic behind Ning Zhe's stealing of the snake god's offerings is actually very simple and can be summarized in one sentence:
【When someone mistakes me for a snake god, I really am one. 】

These are the rules, rules that even God must follow.

When the traces Ning Zhe left behind when he stole the offerings to the Snake God were discovered, as long as even one villager had the idea that "this was what the Snake God ate", this rule would be triggered, and he would use the Snake God believers' erroneous cognition as a medium to steal part of the Snake God's "identity" through this rule.

Judging from the reaction of the snake god, Ning Zhe knew that he had succeeded.

"At least one person mistook me for a snake god. As time goes by, more signs of offerings being eaten are discovered, and there is a possibility that more and more people will be like this."

Ning Zhe quickly determined his current state: "Now, I have at least stolen the identity of the Snake God from the perspective of one believer. Considering this, the sudden blackness in front of my eyes and the hallucinations I saw just now may be the additional effects of obtaining the identity of the Snake God."

So the hallucination just now, the woman without facial features, and the song she hummed... were all the memories of the snake god?

Is that so?
Ning Zhe couldn't be sure, and everything could only be proved by time: "Next we'll see if more people will mistake me for a snake god, allowing me to steal the identities of more snake gods."

The success of the attempt did not bring much surprise to Ning Zhe, because figuring out this rule and successfully stealing the identity of the Snake God was not the end of this strange incident.

On the contrary, this is just Ning Zhe's first step in trying to crack the rules that govern this world.

"With the identity of the Snake God, I can let go a little and do some things."

After clarifying the current situation, Ning Zhe stood up and walked out of the ancestral hall. He still didn't understand what the hallucination meant, nor did he know what the sad song meant, but this didn't prevent him from knowing clearly what he was going to do.

As soon as he walked out of the ancestral hall, Ning Zhe saw Feng Yusu sitting on the doorstep, staring blankly at his cell phone.

"What are you looking at?"

"Ah! Ning Zhe...No, nothing." Feng Yushu shook his head repeatedly, put the phone in his pocket, stood up and said: "I was just thinking, can we really solve the mystery and leave Hejia Village like this?"

"I'm not sure, but do you have any better way besides trusting me?" Ning Zhe asked back.

"That's true." Feng Yuxu shook her head and put aside her messy thoughts. After hesitating for a while, she took out the phone she had just put in her pocket, unlocked the screen and handed it to Ning Zhe: "Here you go."

Ning Zhe took the phone and saw a chat interface on it. The other party was: Zhang Yangxu.

"Zhang Yangxu just sent me a text message." Feng Yushu said, "You can read it yourself."

Ning Zhe nodded calmly, and sat on the threshold of the ancestral hall with Feng Yushu. The two of them read the conversation between Zhang Yangxu and Feng Yushu together:

Zhang Yangxu:
【Ye Miaozhu is dead.】

[She ran to the He Mansion alone and was killed by a ghost.]

[If Ning Zhe hadn't deliberately provoked her emotions, Ye Miaozhu wouldn't have been left alone, and wouldn't have died.]

[Ning Zhe did it on purpose.]

[He may have figured out some special rules in Hejia Village. He deliberately provoked Ye Miaozhu in order to make her alone and be targeted by the ghost.]

【This person is a madman. He doesn't care about other people's life or death. 】

[Are you sure you want to stay with him?] [Ning Zhe used Ye Miaozhu's life to test his own guesses before, and he can use your life to achieve his other goals in the future.]

[He doesn't care about other people's life or death at all. You are not special in his eyes.]

Feng Yushu:
I know what you mean, but I don't know who you are.

[Are you Zhang Yangxu? Or a ghost? ]

Zhang Yangxu:
[You can ask me some questions to test whether I am the real Zhang Yangxu. ]

【Or we can meet. 】

Feng Yushu:
[I don't know you, so I don't know what questions to ask to distinguish you from a ghost.]

[Also, why did you text me? ]

Zhang Yangxu:
【what do you mean? 】

Feng Yushu:
【I said, why did you choose to text me instead of calling me? 】

[It would be better to talk about this over the phone]

[You knew Ning Zhe was next to me, so you didn't dare to call, right? ]

Zhang Yangxu:
[Isn't this natural? You've always been with him.]

Feng Yushu:
[No, if that were the case, you wouldn’t even send a text message]

The conversation between the two ended here, and 'Zhang Yangxu' did not send any more text messages.

After reading the chat history, Ning Zhe returned the phone to Feng Yushu: "How did you know he was a ghost?"

Feng Yushu took the phone and said, "Because you are a very sharp and sensitive person, Zhang Yangxu knows you very well and he knows what kind of person you are."

"During the time I stayed with you, he never dared to act rashly, because you were lurking by my side like a tiger guarding its prey. Any movement would be discovered. In this situation, even sending a text message would be detected, let alone a phone call."

"But that short period of time just now was different."

Feng Yushu continued, "You were not in a good state just now. Although we were still together, I was sitting outside the door, and you were thinking alone in the ancestral hall. In this situation, you would hear my phone call, but not my text message."

Ning Zhe thought about it and smiled: "Auntie has become smarter."

"I learned it from you." Feng Yusu said softly.

"But why do you compare yourself to prey and why do you distrust me so much?" Ning Zhe asked.

Feng Yushu nodded: "In fact, the ghost is right. You don't care about anyone's life or death. You are cold and ruthless, even scarier than a ghost."

"Then why are you still following me?" Ning Zhe laughed.

"Because this is my only way to survive." Feng Yushu raised her head and looked into Ning Zhe's eyes with a slightly distracted look: "If you are a dangerous tiger, then that ghost is a deadly poisonous snake hiding in the darkness, choosing its prey. It is eager to devour you and me."

A wonderful metaphor...

"But you won't hand over your prey to it, right?" Feng Yusu asked.

"Who knows?" Ning Zhe did not answer her question.

The only thing that can be confirmed now is that Zhang Yangxu is most likely dead.

(End of this chapter)

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