Ye Tiancheng could see that the homeowner's attitude was indeed good, and for a moment he doubted if he was overthinking.
Some people just looked fierce and unfriendly, but that didn't mean they were bad. The homeowner carrying a hunting knife and a shotgun was probably because he had just returned from hunting.
Although the homeowner was a living dead person, there was no need to immediately think the worst of him.
A living dead person was, at least, a person before, and not necessarily a bad person.
Perhaps the key point was how the homeowner had become like this, a living dead person.
Ye Tiancheng wasn't blindly trying to think the best of the homeowner, but rather, beings like him, more or less, had premonitions about what was happening around them. He also didn't feel any malice from the homeowner.
Despite this, Ye Tiancheng did not intend to lower his guard.
As the saying goes, you can know a person's face but not their heart. Regardless, facts were the ultimate proof. Once he figured things out, he would know how to treat the homeowner.
Ye Tiancheng thanked the homeowner. The homeowner seemed to have no intention of saying anything more to them and turned to leave, heading back to his room.
However, before the homeowner had taken a few steps, Ye Tiancheng unexpectedly saw him turn back.
Ye Tiancheng looked at the homeowner with confusion and asked, "Do you have something else to say?"
"You, you..." The homeowner himself seemed very hesitant, as if unable to decide whether to speak, but after several hesitations, he finally asked Ye Tiancheng, "Do you have any communication devices on you? Could you lend me one to contact my family?"
Ye Tiancheng was stunned for a moment, not expecting such a request.
However, he told the truth, "Although we have communication devices, it's too cold on this snowy mountain, and the outside signal doesn't reach here well. Our communication devices are frozen and barely usable. Even if they were勉强 usable, there's no signal."
"But if you want to contact your family, I think you could go down the mountain. You don't need to go far. There are many people at the foot of the mountain, and any one of them might be able to help you contact your family. And the signal is at least better down the mountain."
The homeowner stared intently at Ye Tiancheng. After Ye Tiancheng finished speaking, he remained silent.
Ye Tiancheng didn't know what he was thinking. After speaking, he also fell silent, not moving, wanting to see the homeowner's reaction before speaking or acting, to respond to any change.
The homeowner looked at Ye Tiancheng for a long time, but in the end, he slowly shook his head.
He didn't say anything more, but turned around and slowly walked towards his room, without looking back at Ye Tiancheng and the others again.
Ye Tiancheng blinked his eyes, feeling quite bewildered.
He didn't know what kind of reaction this was.
After the homeowner left and returned to his room, Long Miaomiao said to Ye Tiancheng, "You really dare to tell him to go down the mountain."
Ye Tiancheng was stunned when he heard Long Miaomiao say this.
"Is there something wrong with that? Can't I advise him to go down the mountain? Is that taboo?" he asked.
Long Miaomiao shook her head helplessly and explained to Ye Tiancheng, "He is a living dead person. Living dead people are divided into two types: those who know they are living dead, and those who don't know at all and think they are living normally, still ordinary humans."
"At first, when I realized this and found out the homeowner was a living dead person, I couldn't be sure if the homeowner was the former or the latter."
"But after hearing what the homeowner said just now, I had a feeling."
"He should know that he has become a living dead person."
Ye Tiancheng didn't understand these things. Most people's understanding of living dead people was basically literal. They wouldn't know more.
He asked Long Miaomiao, "How did you determine that? What's the basis? What does it have to do with my suggestion for him to go down the mountain?"
Long Miaomiao asked Ye Tiancheng, "In your understanding, what is a living dead person?"
Ye Tiancheng thought for a moment and replied to Long Miaomiao, "For me... I guess it's someone who is already dead, but can move freely like a living person?"
"You've got part of it right, you're close," Long Miaomiao nodded, then turned to Little Fox and asked, "What about you? What do you think?"
Little Fox hadn't expected Long Miaomiao to suddenly ask him.
However, he still answered Long Miaomiao's question based on his understanding.
"In my understanding, it's similar to my elder brother, a living dead person... um, a corpse that can move and still has its own consciousness?"
Long Miaomiao nodded again. "You're right."
Ye Tiancheng misheard the distinction in Long Miaomiao's words after her two nods and asked with some confusion, "What's the difference between what I said and what Little Fox said? Why did you say I was partially right, but Little Fox was completely right?"
Long Miaomiao then explained to Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox, "Because Little Fox got the second half right. A living dead person is a corpse that can move and still has its own consciousness."
Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox could understand this concept, but what was the connection to what Long Miaomiao had said earlier?
Long Miaomiao continued, "Don't you understand yet? I said he is a corpse that can move and still has its own consciousness. In essence, whether he can move or not, he is still a corpse. And a corpse will gradually decay over time."
"If a living dead person doesn't know they've become a living dead person, and they think they're still alive and move around freely in the outside world, they'll probably start to rot and smell within a few days. The normal decomposition changes of a corpse will also appear on them, and their body won't be preserved just because they've become a living dead person."
"Let me give you another example. Back in that small mountain village, the B&B owner Mei Mei's husband was actually a typical living dead person, and one who knowingly and willingly became a living dead person."
Long Miaomiao brought up another example, talking about something Ye Tiancheng and the others knew.
"In the later stages, what troubled him was no longer his original illness. After he changed bodies, he actually had no past ailments, because ailments act on the body, not the soul."
"When he started to change bodies to escape the torment of his illness, he had already become a living dead person. And the reason he needed to constantly change bodies was precisely because corpses decay."
As everyone knows, even if corpses can be preserved, a corpse moving around normally in the outside world decays at an incredibly fast rate. For it to last a while before needing to be replaced, like Mei Mei's husband, already involved other methods.
Long Miaomiao said, "Therefore, the reason this homeowner has always stayed on the snowy mountain, living in such a simple house, and unwilling to go down the mountain despite the advanced development of society outside, might be because he knows he cannot go down the mountain."
"Only by staying on the snowy mountain will his body not decay. Once he goes down the mountain, his body will gradually rot."
"Otherwise, if he wanted to contact his family with communication devices, would it really be so difficult? It's simply because he cannot leave here. And this place is deserted. Although we don't yet understand why this is the case, the fact is that there are very few people here, and even a considerable area around here is almost uninhabited."
"So he has no way to contact his family anymore, and he doesn't dare to go down the mountain."
Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox both understood.
"So that's how it is. Now I understand," Ye Tiancheng nodded thoughtfully. "Then how did he become a living dead person?"
Long Miaomiao shrugged and said, "That's probably something only he knows, or maybe he doesn't even know himself. It could be purely by chance. By the time he discovered this, it was already a foregone conclusion. And since he was reluctant to leave the human world, he hid in the snowy mountains."
Little Fox, hearing the implication in Long Miaomiao's words, suddenly asked, "If it's possible that even he doesn't know how he became a living dead person, and it could be purely by chance, does that mean he's not necessarily a bad person, not deliberately extending his life like Mei Mei's husband, and becoming a living dead person that way?"
Long Miaomiao replied, "Yes, that's right. In fact, when most humans don't understand so many dark arts, most living dead people appear by chance, rather than intentionally."
Hearing Long Miaomiao say this, Little Fox actually felt a little relieved.
It was rare to encounter such a special being who didn't seem to intentionally harm others.
Long Miaomiao then said, "If you're interested, you can investigate this matter. If he's not a bad person, perhaps you can help him. Lingering in the human world is not a good thing."
"Moreover, doesn't Little Fox need remnant souls to repair his soul? This is a very good opportunity."
"If the other party is suitable, you can completely trade for a usable portion. And for a complete soul like his, losing a small fragment of remnant soul won't cause much impact. Even if you send him to reincarnation, his remnant soul can be replenished before reincarnation, unlike how difficult it is for Little Fox to obtain a complete soul."
Hearing Long Miaomiao mention this, Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox both perked up.
Little Fox's soul repair situation was undoubtedly the most important matter at hand.
Both Ye Tiancheng and Little Fox attached great importance to this matter.
However, Ye Tiancheng couldn't help but frown, "I didn't expect to have an opportunity so soon, but I wonder if this isn't too coincidental? We just wanted to do these things, and the opportunity was immediately delivered into our hands?"
Little Fox's excited emotions were suppressed by Ye Tiancheng's words.
He also suddenly realized.
That's right, why would such a good thing happen so coincidentally and so quickly? Could there be a conspiracy behind this?
In comparison, Long Miaomiao was not as cautious as Ye Tiancheng.
"I understand that you are all on edge, and it's because your current situation is indeed not very optimistic. Being vigilant is a good thing, but there's no need to be so vigilant. If the opportunity comes to you so quickly, there is naturally a reason. It may not be because of a conspiracy behind it, but because of other matters, which is why this has happened."