Chapter 60.4: The Hungry Ghost's Toll

Xue Liangliang raised his voice. “Each place has a different layout. In Baijia Town, she controls that region. All I had to do was jump into the river there, and I'd black out for a bit and wake up on the shore.”

“But this place—it doesn’t feel controlled. Not built by people, but naturally formed. Otherwise, why would the villagers be so terrified they’d hire someone to perform a ritual?”

“Little Yuan, let’s check it out—maybe the shrine or the well at the center of the village. That’s usually where the exit is.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

As the four of them headed into the village, music played again behind them, and the fireball reappeared.

They glanced back, realizing another ritual was beginning, but didn’t pay it much mind.

Once inside, most of the house doors were shut tight, though a few stood open—those were the more dilapidated homes.

And none of the open houses had Spring Festival couplets or door gods pasted on the sides.

Tan Wenbin noticed too, mumbling, “Back during New Year, my mom made me paste ‘Fu’ characters and couplets. I used to think it was a hassle. I was such an idiot.”

Xue Liangliang replied, “I’m gonna start pasting them on the dorm doors at the construction site.”

They reached the village’s central old well—likely the landmark for getting out. Runsheng, without hesitation, tied the rope to himself, bit down on a metal pipe, and descended into the well.

The others waited patiently by the wellhead.

Xue Liangliang asked, “Little Yuan, Runsheng’s no longer in the water. Did he make it out?”

Tan Wenbin said, “Don’t worry. If the exit’s down there, he’ll come back up to tell us.”

Li Zhuiyuan countered, “But if he did get out, would he still be able to come back in?”

“Uh… Right. What then? If he’s really out, we…”

“Binbin-ge, try pulling the rope up. See if it tightens.”

“Okay.” Tan Wenbin started reeling in the rope. Eventually, it went taut, and he felt a tug. “Runsheng’s still down there. He just pulled the rope himself. I felt it.”

Xue Liangliang grew concerned. “He’s been down there a long time. You think he’s okay?”

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. “He’ll be fine. Runsheng-ge is excellent in the water.”

He was sure of it. Runsheng was the kind of person who could fight a Dead Sinker underwater.

“Little Yuan, I’ve got another question. How do we explain the corpse water in those two houses we entered?”

“Maybe an elderly person once lay sick there, bedridden until the end.”

“But the second house had corpse water in the cabinet. No one lies sick inside a cabinet.”

“Maybe it once held something else. Some places have customs of eating placentas, you know?”

Xue Liangliang: “Little Yuan, how are you so calm and quick with explanations that sound so plausible to me?”

Li Zhuiyuan said gravely, “Because I don’t want to assume the worst.”

Xue Liangliang was puzzled at first, then understood. “Right. That would be too terrifying, especially for Zhu Yang.”

“Hey!” Tan Wenbin shouted, distressed. “Could you guys mind my feelings? I’m still here, listening! Don’t skip ahead!”

Just then, a sound came from the well—Runsheng was coming back up.

He climbed out and said, “The well’s deep. I reached the bottom. No exit.”

“Runsheng-ge, need to rest a bit?”

“No time.” He rubbed his belly. “Already getting hungry.”

Li Zhuiyuan pointed at some corn hanging by a house entrance. “There’s food.”

Runsheng’s eyes lit up. “Can we eat that?”

“Eat. To them, it’s just another haunting.”

Runsheng grabbed a bunch of corn and started gnawing on it raw.

Li Zhuiyuan and Xue Liangliang each took one too. It tasted awful, but at this point, anything edible was welcome.

Tan Wenbin ran out from a house. “Eat this instead! There’s cured meat inside! I brought some out.”

Xue Liangliang: “There’s still stuff like that in there?”

“Everything else was moldy, even the food on the table. But this meat’s fine, I took a bite. It’s greasy, but we need the energy. Who cares now?

“Here, Runsheng.”

Runsheng took it and bit in big. But then, his chewing slowed. He didn’t spit it out—just swallowed it slowly.

Tan Wenbin asked, “So? Taste okay, Runsheng?”

Runsheng: “It’s unclean meat.”

Li Zhuiyuan and Xue Liangliang were both startled.

Tan Wenbin: “Of course it’s dirty, everything in there is. But I dusted this off.”

Li Zhuiyuan warned, “Binbin-ge, when Runsheng says unclean meat, he doesn’t mean from livestock.”

“If it’s not livestock… then what is it? Wait—ugh, ugh!”

Runsheng patted Tan Wenbin’s back. “Don’t puke. It’s still energy.”

“Ugh!”

Li Zhuiyuan, calm as ever, said, “Let’s go to the shrine.”

They headed toward the largest building, flanked by stone lions. An old plaque hung above the door, but the writing was obscured.

Not from decay—but from the sheer volume of water dripping from the eaves, like a mini waterfall, perfectly hiding the sign.

“What kind of décor is this?” Xue Liangliang asked. “Or is this something we can’t see in the real world?”

“Yeah. No source for the water. No drain for the land. You wouldn’t see it in the real world.”

Tan Wenbin grew excited. “Then the exit must be here!”

This building was the most unusual—its “phenomenon” unlike anything in reality. The exit was likely here.

Xue Liangliang asked, “Little Yuan, how does feng shui explain this?”

“In ancient times, emperors feared water leakage in tombs—it was a terrible omen. Any such incident would mean grave punishment for the craftsmen and officials involved.

A shrine is the spiritual anchor of a village and its lineage. If water flows like a waterfall here, it can only mean:

‘Debts like water, virtue in ruin, the plaque’s words erased, ancestors ashamed to show their faces.’

Runsheng-ge, break the shrine door.”

“Got it!”

Runsheng stepped up and kicked hard. The shrine’s doors were sturdier than the homes’, but Runsheng was Runsheng—several heavy kicks later, the door burst open.

The four entered. As soon as they descended the steps, they all froze.

The waterfall outside meant the inside was bound to have pooled water—each drop formed from a karmic debt.

But it wasn’t the water alone that shocked them.

It was the people.

The pond was crammed with them—countless figures standing shoulder-to-shoulder.

It was the first time they had seen “people” since entering the village. And so many of them.

Each person’s eyes were closed, faces ghostly pale, gently swaying with the current. They were all dead.

Standing at the front, closest to the four, was the newest addition: the truck driver, Zhu Yang.

Tan Wenbin couldn’t believe it. “Zhu Yang? He’s dead? He didn’t even come into this… in-between space with us. Shouldn’t he still be in the real world?”

Li Zhuiyuan: “That’s why he’s dead.”

Tan Wenbin gulped. “But… why?”

Li Zhuiyuan pointed beneath their feet, then toward the shrine door.

“Because this place… is a bandit ambush village!”

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