Chapter 173 Dark under the lamp

A gunshot rang out and the exhausted body fell to the ground.

Xiao Ke, who was hiding behind Ning Zhe, had his hands trembling slightly, and his blank eyes showed more confusion than fear.

"You, you killed her..."

"Well, I killed her." Ning Zhe glanced at Xiao Ke, turned around and knelt on one knee, gently stroking Xia Yubing's face stained with blood and dust with one hand, and a large amount of blood spread out from the back of her head.

The amount of powder in a small-caliber pistol is far less than that of a rifle. Even if you shoot at close range, it is difficult to see the situation in the movies where the bullet drills a round hole in the forehead like a drill bit. In more cases, it explodes. The human skull is indeed that hard.

So Ning Zhe shot Xia Yubing in the mouth just now. When she opened her mouth to speak, he put the bullet into her mouth, which went straight through her brain stem and killed her on the spot. It was like helping her swallow the gun and commit suicide.

"Why did you kill her?"

Xiao Ke's voice is thin and soft. She uses her years of experience in live streaming to suppress her inner fear, and tries her best to make her sweet and soft voice sound more delicate and pitiful.

"Why should I tell you?" Ning Zhe's response was very brief, and it couldn't even be considered an answer.

After killing Xia Yubing in front of the Four-Faced Buddha, Ning Zhe put away her gun, picked up a cement brick from the ruins not far away and placed it on the ground as a bench, then gathered her skirt and sat directly next to Xia Yubing's body.

Feng Yusu had a good upbringing. Decades of well-behaved life had engraved her elegant manners and dignified demeanor into her muscle memory. Even when sitting on a small stool, she behaved properly, gracefully, and quietly. Her gentle temperament did not look like someone who had just killed someone with a gun.

Xiao Ke stood there hesitantly, not knowing whether to leave or stay.

If I leave, where can I go? The whole Zanju Town is shrouded in weirdness. I am in the dark and I will probably run into a ghost before I leave the town. If I stay... the man who just killed Xia Yubing may be more terrifying than a ghost.

She was an indecisive person to begin with, and being caught in such a dilemma was even more embarrassing. After hesitating again and again, Xiao Ke still couldn't make a choice.

The good news is that someone quickly made a choice for her.

The bad news is that person is not human.

Ning Zhe, who was sitting on the cement bricks, lowered his eyes and saw a bloodstained dead hand sticking out from the bottom of the pool.

That was Shen Qing's hand.

"Shen Qing has also started to transform into a corpse." Ning Zhe put his legs together, propped up his chin with one hand, tilted his head and looked at Xia Yubing who had already died beside him, and whispered: "How long will it take for you to start to transform into a corpse?"

Half an hour? An hour? Or... no zombies at all?
Xiao Ke, who was standing not far away just now, has now been scared away. Her figure quickly ran into the ruins and disappeared completely, leaving Ning Zhe alone sitting there, quietly thinking about this problem.

Ning Zhe, together with a gradually cooling female corpse, looked up at the large, cracked Buddha face above. Time passed quietly until the moonlight gradually faded.

A blazing sun rose above the eastern horizon and day broke.

"Well, it seems that you won't turn into a zombie." Ning Zhe stood up from the cement brick and rubbed his thigh which was a little numb due to poor blood circulation. This was an unexpected gain.

Let’s review the currently known deaths in Zanju Town.

1. Ah Zhen, who died in the air raid shelter in the north of Zanju Town three years ago, has turned into a corpse.
Jiang Han, Shen Qing and others encountered her three corpses wandering outside her body.

2. Xiao Ke died at the gate of a small courtyard in the northern part of Zanju Town last night.

3. Jiang Han died last night in the west pool below the Four-Faced Buddha Lotus Platform. His corpse has turned into

4. Shen Qing died last night in the west pool below the Four-Faced Buddha Lotus Platform. His corpse has turned into

5. Xia Yubing died last night in the open space west of the four-faced Buddha in the center of the town. He did not turn into a corpse. 6. Taxue, Xia Yubing's cat, died last night on a street west of Zanju Town. He did not turn into a corpse.

Four people were confirmed dead: Ah Zhen, Xiao Ke, Shen Qing, and Jiang Han. Two of them died on the north side of the Four-Faced Buddha, and two died on the west side of the Four-Faced Buddha, under the pool.

The only ones who did not turn into zombies were Xia Yubing and her cat, both of whom died on the west side of the Four-Faced Buddha.

Ning Zhe had previously speculated that only those who died on the north side of the Buddha statue would experience the strange phenomenon of three wandering corpses, but now it seems that this is not the case. Those who died in other directions would also experience the strange phenomenon of three wandering corpses.

But although they both died on the west side of the Four-Faced Buddha, Shen Qing and Jiang Han turned into corpses, while Xia Yubing did not. What caused the abnormal changes after their deaths? What is the difference between them?
There are many differences.

For example, the manner of death: Shen Qing committed suicide, Jiang Han was suspected to be sacrificed by someone, and Xia Yubing was murdered;

For example, the gender of the characters, Jiang Han and Shen Qing are both men, Xia Yubing is a woman;

There are also the places of death. Jiang Han and Shen Qing both fell to their deaths at the bottom of the pool below the four-faced Buddha lotus platform, while Xia Yubing was shot to death on the spot by himself in front of the Buddha statue.

Looking at Xia Yubing's pale face, a word suddenly flashed through Ning Zhe's mind:
——It’s dark under the lamp.

"That's right, the darkest place is under the lamp." In an instant, many things in Ning Zhe's mind could be explained.

So far, all the people who have turned into zombies in Zanju Town have one thing in common - their deaths were not observed by the Four-Faced Buddha.

The deaths of Azhen and Xiaoke both occurred in the north of the town, while the deaths of Jiang Han and Shen Qing occurred in the pool under the lotus platform.

Assuming that the Erawan Buddha is regarded as an independent observer, these dead people have one thing in common.

——Their deaths did not occur within the observation range of the Four-Faced Buddha.

Or to put it another way, they all died in the blind spot of the Four-Faced Buddha.

The Buddha statue in the center of Zanju Town, called the Four-Faced Buddha, actually has only three faces. The north side of the Buddha is not carved completely and has no facial features, which means that the Buddha's "sight" cannot observe the north side of the Buddha.

Similarly, the dark pool of water below the lotus platform should also be a blind spot in the Four-Faced Buddha's vision. After all, he does not have a face under his butt, just like a candle cannot illuminate the bottom of a candlestick.

Following this line of thought, Ning Zhe came to a conclusion that still lacked factual evidence:
[The reason why the strange phenomenon of three corpses wandering around occurs after the death of people in Zanju Town is because the Four-Faced Buddha does not know that they are dead. ]

"It is known that the rules of Zanju Town are related to 'observation'. When I don't know that a person is dead, the person I observe is alive.

Xia Yubing saw the message from Jiang Han and heard his voice, and Shen Qing collapsed in fear after Jiang Han climbed out of the pool, which can all prove this rule. "

That is to say, in the eyes of the Four-Faced Buddha, those who died in his blind spot are also "alive".

Because He did not witness the deaths of these people, they were all alive in His eyes.

But how can the three corpses of a living person leave the body? That happens to a dead person.

"If we consider the story of observing Gengshen on the day of Gengshen, there is only one possibility that the three corpses will leave the body of a living person, and that is that his three corpses are trying to communicate with heaven and earth and report the person's sins to heaven."

Looking at the gentle face of the Buddha statue, Ning Zhe's train of thought quickly became clear:
"When the three corpses of a living person leave their body and wander around, they are complaining to the heavens. So what are the 'crimes' that these wandering three corpses in Zanju Town want to report to the 'heaven'?"

The answer is ready to come out.

——The truth is that this person is dead.

(End of this chapter)

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