“So the outside and the inside… are the same…”

The world was desolate, the wind blew through the barren hills, leaving with a whimper. The man’s voice was sincere and weak, turning into the last glimmer of hope in the woman’s eyes, amidst profound despair. The scent of pine resin was spreading.

But the woman didn't come over.

Gao Qianyue hugged herself, surrounded by the hungry ghosts who had been left behind. Seeing the situation at a stalemate for a moment, someone reached out from behind. The woman struggled, screaming in tears, and Wang Shitong picked up half a bench and threw it over.

“If you dare touch her again, I’ll kill you before I die—”

Having led the hungry ghosts for nearly two years, he naturally had authority. Some people were only pretending to come forward, but for a moment they didn't dare to move. Amidst the clamor, the range Gao Qianyue could run was getting smaller and smaller. Wang Shitong watched this scene and said from inside the door, “Come here, I won’t hurt you. They aren't human, I told you…”

“Ah—” The woman's scream rang out, “You aren’t human!”

Wang Shitong froze.

“Wang Shitong, you aren’t human.” Gao Qianyue cried, “You killed my whole family, ruined my body. They aren’t human, so you are!? Wang Shitong, I hate all of you, I miss my parents, I'm afraid of you! I'm afraid of all of you, beasts, you beasts…”

The woman was timid to begin with. After howling and screaming for a while, her voice gradually faded. She sat down on the ground, hugging herself, and began to cry with her head down.

Wang Shitong just stared blankly at her. He swallowed, shaking his head, seemingly trying to dispel something, but ultimately failed. There were mocking sounds from the crowd.

The world was a nightmare.

There had been strenuous struggles.

But finally, that last, light-revealing place closed up.

Someone from the crowd approached and lifted the woman sitting on the ground. The woman's screams were carried far away. Just like the scenes that had happened countless times before him over the past year, those scenes accompanied the slaughterhouse like hell, accompanied by flames, accompanied by the crying of countless people and the unrestrained laughter of madness. Countless heart-rending screams and cries swirled in his mind, that was the appearance of hell.

“This can’t go on… do you still want to be human—” In the vague shouts, he killed his best brother, Yan Hong, who was already skin and bones from hunger.

“This world is full of evil people… but it’s okay, as long as I'm here, I will take you out… as long as I'm here…” Countless expectant eyes looked at him, and then those eyes turned blood red. Above and below, all around, everywhere, were people's voices, crying, pleading, the sounds people made before starving to death—there shouldn't be any sounds, but Wang Shitong looked at them, the corpses lying on the ground, skin and bones, and in those occasional movements of their eyes and lips, they seemed to be making eerie sounds.

Ke ke ke, ke ke ke, ke ke ke… ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke ke…

Directly watching people starve to death would drive everyone insane. Every night, countless people would reach out, grab him, and devour him until he was completely eaten. He would wake up from his dream, greedily, frantically sucking the soft breath of the living next to him. The woman always seemed docile, like the little cats and dogs he had raised as a child. They lived in paradise.

“I will protect you, don’t be afraid…”

……

“…Mm.”

……

………………………………………………………………………………………… Fake.

……

Wang Shitong hugged his head and cried.

In the crowd outside, someone tore open Gao Qianyue's clothes. More people looked at Wang Shitong and finally came over here. The woman screamed and struggled, trying to run, even begging for mercy, but until the end, she didn't run towards Wang Shitong. The woman's clothes were finally torn off. The hungry ghosts dragged her with her legs off the ground, tearing her pants. With a whoosh, several strips of cloth were torn off. There was a sound whistling over and hit the crowd, and pine resin splattered.

“Do it.” The voice came out. Many people didn't realize Wang Shitong was speaking, but Wu Ding, standing nearby, had already heard it and gripped the stick in his hand. Wang Shitong's second shout was already out.

“Xin Lao Er! Yao Xian! Do it for me—”

Next to Wu Ding, someone suddenly drew a knife and slashed at his neck.

Among the crowd, in an instant, many people shouted out, the light of the knives was raised, and blood splattered high into the air, and the figures next to them crashed to the ground.

Slaughter—or rather, massacre—expanded in an instant.

Xin Lao Er was Wu Ding's confidant, and Yao Xian had followed Wang Chaoyuan for a long time. Wang Chaoyuan withdrew half of his men, and most of the remaining half were under Yao Xian's command. Everyone never expected that Wang Shitong, who had shown no resistance at the beginning, could still mobilize people at this point. A large group of people were cut down in the blink of an eye. The bloody atmosphere spread out. Although Wu Ding was prepared when Wang Shitong shouted the first time, he was still forced to retreat by the swordsman he relied on as a confidant, and bloodstains kept splashing on his body. His calf was almost broken into two pieces, and he had no ability to resist in the screams.

Wang Shitong also chopped down two people. He walked towards Gao Qianyue with the bloody knife in his hand. The woman, with her clothes torn, retreated repeatedly. Wang Shitong squatted down and grabbed one of her hands.

“Shh, shh… it’s okay, it’s okay…” A man named Yao Xian brought over a tattered blanket. Wang Shitong took it and wrapped it around Gao Qianyue’s body, wanting to reach out and comfort her, but Gao Qianyue lowered her head and subconsciously retreated again. Wang Shitong stood up, a dazed and blank look flashing in his eyes.

“What are you doing! You fools! He’s not the Ghost King anymore! You’re following him to your deaths, don’t you understand…” On the other side of the pool of blood, Wu Ding was still shouting in the blood. The surrounding group of people standing also had some doubts. Xin Lao Er opened his mouth and said, “Ghost King, it's good that you're back.” He was naturally Wang Shitong's confidant, and at this time he was even more concerned about Wang Shitong's state, whether he had returned to his senses, whether he had figured it out.

Wang Shitong, bare-chested, walked to a wooden stake on the side and sat down dazedly. After a long time, he said in a low voice, “Are there… any Black Flag Army people here?”

In the sound of the wind blowing, everyone looked at each other, and there was a terrible silence. Wang Shitong waited for a moment, and then said, “Are there any China Army people? Come out, I want to talk to you.”

The Ghost King’s empty eyes swept over everyone. After another long time, Wu Ding in the pool of blood laughed mockingly, “Cough cough… you, you madman, you…”

Among the crowd, Yao Xian slowly took a step and stood in front of Wang Shitong.

Wang Shitong looked up at him. Yao Xian's cheeks were thin and his eyes were solemn. There was not much change in the eye contact.

“So it’s you…”

“Fang Chengye of the China Army, I’m responsible for following you… Congratulations, Ghost King, you’ve finally figured it out.”

“I haven’t figured it out…” Wang Shitong murmured, “I lost after all…”

“The teacher said, you just drowned.”

“…Drowned… Teacher?” Wang Shitong looked at Fang Chengye and, after a moment, understood who the teacher in the other person's mouth was. At this time, birdsong was streaking across the sky. He finally said:

“I have a request…”

*****************

The sky was gloomy. Outside Xuzhou City, the hungry ghosts gradually gathered in one direction.

On the temporarily erected high platform, people walked up one after another. Among this crowd was the figure of Li Zheng, a Han Chinese from Liaodong. Someone began to speak loudly. After a while, a group of people were escorted out by people holding weapons, about to be pushed in front of the high platform and killed.

Divide and eat them.

The words of the people on the platform were not finished when the commotion came from different directions again. Someone rushed onto the high platform, someone surrounded it from all directions, and someone was chopped down on the ground. In the great chaos, most of the hungry ghosts didn't know what was happening, but that dark red cloak soaked in blood finally appeared in everyone's sight. The Ghost King slowly came and walked towards the people on the high platform.

Someone roared, someone howled, and someone tried to incite the crowd below to do something. An old man named Chen Dayi, leaning on a crutch, did not make any reaction. Wang Shitong, who came up from below, passed by him. Before long, soldiers caught the people who were trying to escape, including that foreign Han Chinese from Liaodong, Li Zheng, and押押ed them to the edge of the high platform.

Li Zheng tried to speak, but the soldiers next to him put a knife in his mouth and crushed his tongue.

The Ghost King walked over and chopped off the heads of the troublemakers kneeling here one by one.

He threw the heads into the bonfire, and the bonfire burned fiercely.

……

Under the gloomy sky, the "hungry ghosts" army finally began to disperse. Half of them began to bypass Xuzhou City and head south, and some followed their only reliable "Ghost King" to the nearest place with food.

That was the Jurchen's military camp in the north.

Time passed again for several days. At some point, a long military formation appeared in front of the "hungry ghosts," like a long wall. Wang Shitong spoke in the crowd, hoarsely and loudly. Finally, they desperately charged towards the almost insurmountable long wall opposite them.

That dark red cloak soaked in blood ran at the forefront of the crowd. The surging footsteps were like spring thunder that startled the entire earth. The Jurchen figures in front began to become clear in their vision. Wang Shitong swallowed.

“I’m so hungry…”

Spring had arrived.

The entire earth was still a desolate, dead color.

A shell flew over with a "boom".

Wang Shitong ran in the crowd, and the shell pushed him high into the sky…

I’m so hungry…

……

In the distant distance, the woman's figure dissolved into the escorting team and embarked on the southward journey.

I wonder if she would look to the north even once on such a journey.

“…I have a request, I hope you can send her to the south…”

“…I hope you can guarantee her food and clothing, I hope you can find her a husband…”

“…I hope she can live in a place where there will never be war, I hope her husband can love her, I hope she has a houseful of children and grandchildren, I hope that when she is old, her children and grandchildren will be filial to her, I hope there will always be a smile on her face…”

“…I hope she forgets me, I hope she never… never remembers this nightmare…”

“…I hope she…”

……Goes towards happiness.

……

In some unknown place, tears and smiles were intertwined.

His body flew into the sky…

The fifth year of Tianyou, that was the spring thirty-three years ago. A child was born into a wealthy family west of Zhending. The child’s parents were devout Buddhists, praised by everyone for their kindness, but only had this one son in their old age. At the age of one in the sixth year of Tianyou, his parents took him to a temple to play. He sat at the feet of the Manjushri Bodhisattva and refused to leave. The host of the temple said that he had a connection with the Buddha, that he was the Green Lion under the Bodhisattva, and since the family name was Wang, he was named Wang Shitong.

The Buddha is merciful, and Manjushri Bodhisattva is a symbol of wisdom. Wang Shitong was intelligent since childhood. He became a Xiucai at the age of seventeen and a Juren at the age of twenty. Although his parents passed away early, his family was wealthy and his virtuous wife gave birth to an equally intelligent son.

In the thirteenth year of Jinghan, the Jurchens went south. Wang Shitong, at the age of twenty-one, led the villagers and common people in the vicinity to retreat into the mountains to avoid the disaster of war. After the Jurchens withdrew, although his home was destroyed, none of the people who were sheltered died. Wang Shitong took out his family savings and lent them to the nearby farmers to restore their livelihoods.

However, in the years that followed, natural disasters and man-made disasters finally followed one after another. The young and weak child died in the plague caused by the war, and his wife never recovered. Wang Shitong guarded his wife and took care of the villagers. When natural disasters came, he stopped collecting rent, and even scattered his family wealth for the refugees in the surrounding villages. The kind wife finally died of grief not long after. On her deathbed, she said: I have lived a happy life by your side, but it is a pity that you will be all alone next…

Wang Shitong buried his wife and took the refugees south.

As long as I’m here… I won’t leave any of you behind…

He made a promise to them…

……

In the tenth year of Wujianshuo, February.

Wang Shitong flew into the sky…

Before that, he had exhausted a lifetime of struggle…

……

The hungry ghosts were still running on the endless earth.