No matter if the thing on the roof was human or ghost, Hu Jia was filled with anger. No one felt good watching someone being forced to fall from a building.
Perhaps it was because the courtyard was too noisy, or perhaps it was because the people inside were being chased by zombies, but despite knocking for a long time, no one opened the door.
Finally, with no other option, Hu Jia picked up a stone, took off his clothes, and wrapped his hand: "Here, I'll climb the wall." He stepped on Luo Wenwu's back, and just as he smashed the embedded broken glass at the top of the wall twice with the stone, he heard the main gate creak open.
Two middle-aged men ran out, their faces panicked, as if escaping for their lives, shouting loudly: "Help! He fell into the water!"
Ouyang immediately stopped them: "Where are the zombies? Where is the injured person?"
Perhaps seeing people outside the courtyard, the two middle-aged men stabilized themselves, pointing inside the courtyard: "Someone's dead, Steward Zhong fell into the pond."
...
Sleepless night.
Everyone looked exhausted.
Because no one had expected that things would end with a human life.
It turned out that the building was located right by a pond. When the zombies attacked Steward Zhong, he jumped into the water in a desperate attempt to escape. However, he never resurfaced after that dive.
By the time the villagers found his body, the sun was already high in the sky.
Luo Wenwu had gone to examine it. The recovered body was indeed the man they had seen jumping into the water last night. Although he didn't recognize the face, the body was wearing a long robe, which matched what they had seen.
Luo Wenwu concluded that Steward Zhong had died from drowning, as he found mud in his mouth, clearly indicating that the man had struggled after falling into the water.
He had also asked the two middle-aged men who had escaped, but they didn't know the specifics, as they were also terrified at the time.
Why was there a pond here? And who was Steward Zhong?
Everyone gathered at Grandpa Lu's house.
Grandpa Lu had returned at dawn. Hu Jia had asked him about his whereabouts that night, and Grandpa Lu explained that he had a habit of practicing sword dancing every night. Yesterday, while he was practicing, he saw a group of zombies appearing and immediately hid in fear.
"Our area is quite high, so we can't dig wells. We've always relied on the mountain spring for water. It's okay in winter, but in summer, the spring water is not enough. Later, the town built this pond to store all the spring water, and that's how we've had enough water."
Grandpa Lu sighed repeatedly. To prevent people from falling into the water and causing accidents, the town also built a surrounding wall and a watchtower, with the aim of preventing accidental entry into the pond.
And Steward Zhong was the person in charge of guarding this pond.
"Where are the zombies? What's the deal with the zombies?" Hu Jia asked.
"Alas, the construction of this pond occupied many ancestral graves. Those zombies are the deceased ancestors of our village!" Grandpa Lu said. These zombies had appeared several times before, and the villagers all knew about it. They would avoid them as much as possible and never provoke them.
Grandpa Lu's words stunned everyone.
There were really zombies?
How could that be?
Luo Wenwu, unwilling to believe it, specifically asked other families in the village, but the answers were all the same, leaving everyone bewildered for a while.
Standing on the open ground, the entire village appeared bustling. Everyone was carrying water, smiling and laughing, as if last night's tragedy had left no shadow on their hearts.
"There's something strange about this village!" Hu Jia exclaimed.
"Yes, let alone the village, even in the city, people would talk about a death for a long time, but they act as if nothing happened," Ouyang expressed his bewilderment.
"Let's go find Xiao Tao and ask her." Hu Jia had been thinking about Xiao Tao, the one who had led them to the village.
"Hey, boss, let's eat something before we go. We only ate one vegetable cake last night, and we're starving," Luo Wenwu complained.
"Vegetable cake? Wasn't it a meat pie?" Lu Qingqing blinked.
"What meat pie? It was clearly..." Luo Wenwu seemed to realize something. "Boss, you didn't buy a meat pie for Qingqing girl and a vegetable cake for us, did you?"
Huh?
Lu Qingqing also turned to look at Hu Jia.
The man's face stiffened: "There was only one meat pie left at the stall at the time."
"Hmph!" Ouyang Wen snorted disdainfully: "Prioritizing love over friendship!"
Hu Jia's eyelids drooped, as if to conceal his embarrassment: "Are you my friend? Besides, what's wrong with me buying a meat pie for my fiancée?"
What does it mean to get involved in something you're just watching?
This was it.
Lu Qingqing was initially laughing at the three men for being childish and just bickering, but in a few words, she was drawn in.
Haha, buying a pie for his fiancée.
Wait!
What did Hu Jia just say?
Fiancée?
"You said I was your what?" Lu Qingqing's eyes widened, staring at Hu Jia in shock.
"Fiancée?" Luo Wenwu also reacted.
"What fiancée, who is your fiancée?" Ouyang's expression was also exaggerated. "Lu Qingqing? Lu Qingqing is your fiancée?"
Looking at the expressions of the three, Hu Jia was also stunned: "Yes, Lu Qingqing is my fiancée, don't you guys know?"
For a moment, everyone was dumbfounded.
Ouyang Wen truly didn't know, so he was surprised.
But Lu Qingqing and Luo Wenwu were completely different. Hadn't Hu Jia lost his memory? How could he still remember his fiancée?
Three shocked mouths aimed at a pair of confused eyes. After a long time, Lu Qingqing stammered, "Who, who told you I was your fiancée? Li Yang? Yu Yue?"
Let's see if I don't beat him to death when I get back! kuAiδugg
"It's written here. And your photo!" Hu Jia rummaged through his backpack and opened the first page. Lu Qingqing's photo was the most prominent.
Hu Jia had taken it for her last week, saying that all new employees would be photographed. He didn't expect it to be posted here.
On this page, after two sentences, the first one was "Stay away from Ouyang."
The second sentence read, "My fiancée, Lu Qingqing, I cannot forget her." Then an arrow pointed directly to Lu Qingqing's photo.
Damn it!
Lu Qingqing almost swore.
She had planned for everything, but she never expected this.
"It's like adding salt to boiling oil – I'm fried," Luo Wenwu slapped his forehead and then gave Hu Jia a thumbs up.
"So you've always considered me your fiancée?" Lu Qingqing felt like she was about to explode.
She recalled the scene when she saw Hu Jia in the office yesterday. She had twisted her body and said the leader was good. What had Hu Jia said then? He said he didn't know her well, and how had she replied? Let's get to know each other slowly?
And when she yelled in the car, Hu Jia asked: "Are you usually this fierce?"
And using a shirt to cushion her, asking if she was in pain when she fell, the only meat pie...
This "Golden Retriever" was really calculating!
"You are my fiancée, look, it's written here, I cannot forget you," Hu Jia said earnestly.
For a moment, Lu Qingqing didn't know what to say. With last week's experience, she knew that anything she said now would be useless.
"Give me the memo!" The only way to truly resolve this misunderstanding was to take away this memo! Tear it up!
Without those records and photos, the next time Hu Jia lost his memory and returned, he would truly forget her!
"What for?" Hu Jia naturally handed the memo to Lu Qingqing.
But the moment she received the memo, Lu Qingqing calmed down: No, she couldn't tear it up in front of him, otherwise, he would write about his fiancée in a new memo.
She could only steal it, take this notebook when he lost his memory and hadn't looked at the memo yet, and then the problem would be solved permanently.
Lu Qingqing took a deep breath and looked for an opportunity to implement this memory erasure plan!
While Lu Qingqing was busy planning how to destroy Hu Jia's memo, Ouyang Wen exploded. "You scoundrel, why didn't you tell me you had a fiancée? When was it decided?"
Ouyang Wen's eyes were wide with anger. "Hu Ergou! You're quite something. You're getting married and you didn't tell me. You've grown wings, haven't you?"
"Brother Dog..." Luo Wenwu interjected.
"And you, how long have we been together? Huh? Tell me, how long? Two days. You haven't told me about Lu Qingqing and Hu Ergou's relationship. And you still call me brother?" Ouyang Wen shifted his target, causing Luo Wenwu to retreat repeatedly.
Seeing Luo Wenwu step back a few paces, Hu Jia also instinctively retreated a couple of steps, fearing he would be caught in Ouyang Wen's rage.
Meanwhile, Lu Qingqing was stunned: What was going on?