Chapter 162 Feeding the Corpse with One's Body
Chapter 162 Feeding the Corpse with One's Body
Shadows appeared and disappeared, like whales floating to the surface for breath, appearing briefly and then diving back into the deep sea.
This reminded Ning Zhe of an urban legend about Zanju Town on the Internet:
——It is said that the statues in Zanju Town are all spiritual. They will move around secretly when it is quiet and no one is around, visiting each other, just like the residents who once lived in the town. But if someone walks into the town and wants to see how they move, these stone statues will turn back into motionless dead objects.
Simply put, the stone statues in Zanju Town can be alive, but they are alive only when no one is looking at them.
From the perspective of this legend, Ning Zhe's current situation can be explained to a certain extent, but the "seeing" in this story should not refer specifically to vision, but to "observation."
Seeing with eyes, hearing with ears, tasting with tongue, smelling with nose, touching with body...even including the extra perception brought by special rules, these six senses all belong to "observation" behavior.
However, there are many urban legends in Zanju Town, and this is just one of them. To some extent, this thing is as ridiculous as the red dragon in the garage.
If the hypothesis that the stone statues have life cannot be observed by any means, how do you prove that this hypothesis is false and prove that the stone statues in the town are actually lifeless?
Xia Yubing, who was following Ning Zhe, secretly looked back at the gap in the wall behind him. The immortal and the ballet dancer who were pointing the way were still standing there.
Obviously she and Ning Zhe had the same idea.
"Well, do you know? I heard online that the statue in Zanju Town is actually..."
"Actually, he's alive, right?" Ning Zhe said calmly.
"Ah, you've heard this story." Xia Yubing then said, "Then you should also know about Azhen and Aqiang, right? They were the female anchors who died here three years ago.
When Aqiang and his team were live streaming, they once encountered a stone Buddha standing in the middle of the road. The audience in the live streaming room at that time thought that Aqiang had asked someone to move it to the road in advance to create a program effect..."
"But later the police confirmed that no one had been near Zanju Town in the two weeks before the incident. Azhen and Aqiang also entered Zanju Town for the first time on the day of the live broadcast, which ruled out the suspicion of advance preparation."
Ning Zhe took up the topic smoothly and looked back at the two stone statues standing by the gap in the wall: "I guess you mean that the two statues walked there by themselves?"
Xia Yubing nodded: "But I can't prove it, nor can I disprove it."
Because in that legend, the life state of the stone statue cannot be observed. Once observed by people, the stone statue will lose its life.
"Not necessarily." Ning Zhe pondered for a moment, shook his head and said, "Assuming that the legend that the stone statues have spirits is true, when no one is observing them, they will move around the town like living people, then we can easily come to a conclusion:
——Stone statues do not regard each other as observers. "
Otherwise, as long as the two stone statues are placed face to face, they will never return to their 'alive' state.
Ning Zhe wanted to get to the bottom of the strange events in Zanju Town, because he needed to understand whether the strange rules operating in this town had some connection with the 'God Who Cannot Be Looked At Directly', and whether his failure to use the Thought Seal on Xia Yubing was due to the interference of the rules of Zanju Town.
If so, he couldn't leave easily. Ning Zhe was unwilling to put such a strange rule that seemed to be a restraining stamp of thought here.
First, we need to figure out what the rules for judging an "observer" are...
Just as Ning Zhe was thinking, he suddenly stopped and raised his head.
Xia Yubing looked in the direction of his gaze and saw a three-story red brick building. The iron door on the first floor was open and covered in rust.
This place is very close to the town center. Looking up, you can see the huge face of the Four-Faced Buddha with cracks all over it - this is the west side.
"Is there something in the building?" Xia Yubing already had a bad feeling in her heart.
"There are two people." Ning Zhe said: "A man and a woman, firing cannons in the stairwell." They walked along with torches in their hands. These were the only two shadows that had not disappeared after entering Terang's field of vision.
The spirituality of the stone statue cannot be observed, and the fact that it can be observed means it is a living person.
"Ah?" Xia Yubing was stunned.
"Let's go and take a look." Ning Zhe frowned and brought Xia Yubing to him: "You go in first."
"Ah?" Xia Yubing wanted to say something else, but then she saw the gun in Ning Zhe's hand, and the words on her lips turned into: "Let's go..."
The two of them walked in one after the other. The living room inside was empty. All the furniture had been moved away. With a flashlight, they could see the walls where the putty had fallen off, and a damp and moldy smell was spreading at the base of the walls.
Xia Yubing was startled just after she walked a few steps into the door. The flashlight illuminated the corner of the wall, where a white human-shaped stone statue stood.
She carefully moved the light source and looked around. She saw a stone statue placed in each corner of the living room. There were two men and two women, all dressed like servants in mandarin jackets and long pants, like the paper maids burned for their deceased relatives during the Qingming Festival.
"It's just a rock. There's nothing to be afraid of." Ning Zhe poked Xia Yubing's lower back with the barrel of his gun: "Go upstairs."
It feels so uncomfortable to have a gun pointed at your butt... Xia Yubing muttered to herself and continued to walk forward reluctantly. She walked through the living room under the stiff gaze of the four servants and went up the stairs.
As soon as they reached the top of the stairs, a suppressed gasp floated from above and reached their ears.
"They're really having sex up there." Xia Yubing clicked his tongue. How hungry and thirsty must one be to have sex right there in this damn place.
Besides, there should be only a few anchors like them in the town, and Jiang Han had just called him. That means the person upstairs is most likely the 'Most Affectionate One in Shenzhen'. If I remember correctly, he is a married man, and his wife is pregnant with their second child.
Cheating during pregnancy?
"Scumbag..." Xia Yubing, who had never been in a relationship, had beautiful fantasies about relationships between men and women and hated such people.
Driven by anger, she unconsciously quickened her pace and went up to the second floor. On the silver-white staircase bathed in moonlight, Xia Yubing saw a scene that she would never forget in her life.
A dark blue suit was hanging on the handrail of the stairs. A disheveled middle-aged man was lying on the floor of the stairwell, unconscious like a dead dog. It was obvious that he had lost consciousness for a long time.
A slender girl in a pink bubble skirt sat on him, motionless with her head tilted back, her delicate neck bent behind her at an incredible angle, like a watermelon hanging on the back seat of a motorcycle with a rope.
"Xiao Ke?" Xia Yubing was suddenly speechless.
"Know him?" Ning Zhe asked casually.
"Yes, I know her." Xia Yubing said in a trembling voice: "She is the anchor who came to this town with me. I don't know her real name, I only know her online name is 'Xiao Ke Can't Sleep Enough'."
"Oh." Ning Zhe nodded thoughtfully: "I should have had enough sleep now."
She is dead.
(End of this chapter)