Ita Era

Chapter 16 Peach Blossom Village (XIV)

Sun Qi was already unconscious, but she woke up again with the jolts, finding herself being carried on Ding Shi's shoulder. With each step Ding Shi took, his shoulder pressed against her stomach, making her extremely uncomfortable: "Wang Wu, just let me die."

Ding Shi's gaze was firm as he said, "Never abandon, never give up."

Sun Qi asked weakly, "Can you change positions? I don't need you to carry me in a princess carry, you can carry me on your back."

"Almost there." During the day, he was bossed around by the village chief; at night, he battled wits with the Ghost Grandmother and also had to rescue people. Thinking about the good karma he could gain from the Ghost Grandmother, Ding Shi gave a perfunctory reply. Although Ding Shi didn't know what good karma was or how to obtain it, he naturally wanted to take what he could get.

Thinking of this, Ding Shi walked even faster, while Sun Qi felt even worse, retching incessantly. Between retching, he said, "Wang Wu, you are a good person."

Ding Shi was a little confused for a moment. Is that so? Yes! After all, he was saving people, even though it was the village chief's task.

Sun Qi asked, "How much time do I have left?"

Ding Shi glanced at the system countdown, which showed 7 minutes remaining, and said, "Two minutes." If he told Sun Qi the truth, he knew there was plenty of time, and he might make other demands.

Sun Qi took a deep breath and said, "I can handle it."

So Ding Shi started running.

As a sophisticated urban woman, Sun Qi had strict requirements regarding her weight. A weight of around 100 pounds was nothing to Ding Shi, especially since he used Sun Qi's lower abdomen as a cushion. In less than five minutes, Ding Shi arrived at Dr. Qian's house.

After knocking on the door for 30 seconds, as instructed by Dr. Qian, Sun Qi was placed on the bed. Dr. Qian then said, "Xiao Ding, please boil a pot of water for me."

Ding Shi glanced at the system interface; there were no new tasks. Sure enough, he was just the village chief's assistant, not the village's assistant. So he said, "Dr. Qian, as long as evil exists in the village, I can't stop boiling water." With that, he abandoned Dr. Qian, who was doing reading comprehension, and ran away.

He rushed to the Ghost Grandmother's house, but tripped and fell along the way. When he finally arrived at the Ghost Grandmother's house at the hour of Ding, he happened to see the Ghost Grandmother turn into specks of starlight and disappear, with a few specks of starlight flying into Zhao the Blind Man's body.

Is this what you call merit? Ding Shi strode up to Zhao the Blind and stared at him: Explain why you didn't wait for me.

Zhao the Blind was quick to respond, and he took out a brass bell: "This is a family heirloom that my master gave to my grandfather. There are only two of them, and I'm giving you one now."

Since the outcome couldn't be changed, Ding Shi could only accept the bell and ask, "Uncle Zhao, could you tell me what the use of Yin virtue is? How can one obtain Yin virtue?"

Zhao the Blind looked at Ding Shi for a while, then gestured to walk and talk, saying, "Helping Grandma Wang fulfill her lifelong wish and let her soul return to the underworld, that is 'yin virtue'. For ordinary people, the only function of 'yin virtue' is related to whether a person can be reincarnated into a good family after death."

Ding Shi tried to understand: Does yin virtue have the function of mitigating the punishment of death?

All the way home, feeling guilty, Blind Zhao shared a lot of ghost knowledge not found in traditional ghost stories. For example, he talked about the three fires of the human body and folk customs about how to fight ghosts. As they approached Blind Zhao's house, the conversation shifted from San Niang to zombies. Blind Zhao clearly told Ding Shi that zombies and that thing had almost no connection whatsoever.

Zombies are essentially powerful corpses, but due to the lack of a soul or an incomplete soul, they possess virtually no capacity for thought. Their attacks on livestock and humans, and their tearing apart of living creatures, are driven by a bestial instinct. To the living, zombies are far more terrifying than ghosts. Furthermore, zombies are graded, though Zhao the Blind didn't elaborate, because even against the weakest level one ordinary zombie, Ding Shi had no chance of victory.

Zombies have a characteristic, which can also be considered a weakness: like female mosquitoes, they find their prey by listening to its breathing.

Why did Ding Shi ask about San Niang? He believed the claim that there was a treasure inside San Niang's coffin was quite reliable. Furthermore, Zhao the Blind Man confidently assured him that taking the treasure would have no consequences. Therefore, Ding Shi decided to scout out San Niang's temple the next day, and if everything went smoothly, he would act that night. His only worry was that Zhang San, who lived next door to San Niang's temple, might have already obtained the treasure.

After taking Blind Zhao home, Ding Shi returned to the village chief's house. On the way, he first turned the talisman paper into a card. The system categorized the talisman paper cards and stone cards as miscellaneous items. This was probably because the paper only contained the drawing method for talisman paper and did not possess the abilities of talisman paper.

Next is the brass bell card, which the system categorizes as an item. Its sole function is to attract ghosts; simply ringing the bell will draw ghosts from the area. The bell's maximum sound radius is 15 meters, but this is affected by factors such as noise and terrain. In other words, this thing adheres to the principles of physics.

……

On the fourth day, at eight o'clock in the morning, the village chief woke up Ding Shi, who was still sleeping. Ding Shi looked at the village chief with dark circles under his eyes and thought, "Are you trying to kill me?"

The village chief said kindly, "Xiao Ding, go to Grandma Wang's house on behalf of the village committee to read the eulogy and send her off on her final journey."

Ding Shi didn't answer immediately, but sat up straight and asked, "Village Chief, is there something going on at the primary school?"

The village chief replied, "Blind Zhao told me everything. It's so pitiful, that poor kid went to be with his grandmother at such a young age. The yamen took the body away this morning."

Ding Shi asked, "Where are the volunteers?"

The village chief replied, "She's still receiving IV fluids from Dr. Qian; she seems fine. This is the eulogy." The village chief placed a prepared speech on the bedside table.

Ding asked again, "Isn't it supposed to be a three-day mourning period?"

The village chief patiently replied, "What Blind Zhao means is that Grandma Wang's situation is rather special and cannot be handled according to the old rules. He is still performing the rituals, and the coffin will be lifted at nine o'clock sharp."

Ding Shi yawned and nodded: "I understand."

Half an hour later, Ding Shi dragged his tired body to Grandma Wang's house. Seeing Zhao the Blind Man, who was wearing a cassock and a Taoist hat, jumping around in front of the coffin, he was a little confused. Was this man in such good spirits?

Half-asleep, Ding Shi followed the procedure and read the eulogy. Blind Zhao announced the nailing down and the lifting of the coffin. A younger member of the Wang family carried the portrait and walked ahead, while members of the Wang family scattered paper money along the way, and the coffin was carried on four shoulders. Ding Shi, yawning, followed the Wang family for a kilometer to the cemetery.

Although the mountain is high, the Wang family cemetery is not high. After placing the coffin, burning paper money, setting off firecrackers, and burying the coffin, it's done.

It was 11:30 AM when we returned to the village with the group. The mountain pass was to the south, only about 200 meters from the San Niang Temple. Ding Shi left the army and went to a patch of reeds to relieve himself. Someone in the group glanced back, but didn't pay any attention and continued chatting as if nothing had happened.

Ding Shi used the urination to observe the surroundings; after all, if he was going to steal something, he had to avoid people. He walked up the path, safely passing Haitang and Zhang San's temporary residence, and then Ding Shi saw many villagers outside the San Niang Temple.

For a moment, Ding Shi felt like a clown. Why did he have to sneak around like this when he could have just come openly to scout the place?

I have some things to take care of for the next five days, so I can only manage two updates a day.

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(End of this chapter)