Chapter 1 The Paper Figures

Fatty stared at the paper figures floating above his head, feeling that they weren't paper figures at all, but rather hanged ghosts disguised as paper figures.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and touched Fatty's arm, startling him so much that he almost jumped. He turned his head and saw it was Jiang Cheng.

Following Jiang Cheng's gaze, he saw a paper figure hanging in mid-air, gently swaying.

This paper figure was shorter than most, painted with festive red. Fatty had heard of the saying "red for boys, green for girls," so this paper figure was likely a paper boy meant for burial.

Due to the angle, the boy's face was hidden in shadow, and he couldn't see it. But as his gaze fell on the boy's feet, Fatty shuddered after a few seconds, his breathing suddenly rapid.

The soles of the paper boy's feet were dirty, with grass and dirt clinging to them.

An uncontrollable image appeared in Fatty's mind: the paper boy, with a smiling face, leaving the house in the pitch-black night, lining up with other paper figures, walking with eerie steps, arriving at the Wu family mansion, carrying away the several large coffins from the mourning hall, then placing the coffins by the Dushui River, and returning to the house under the cover of night, waiting for them to come.

"Waiting for them to come!!"

Thinking of this, Fatty's pupils suddenly contracted. These guys were deliberately leaving loopholes, waiting for them to find them!

As soon as this thought appeared, it quickly occupied Fatty's brain and wouldn't go away.

What was even more terrifying was that there was more than one problematic paper figure in this room. Judging from the footprints, there had to be at least a dozen, and... Fatty turned his gaze to the man leading the way, increasingly finding him strange as well.

Everyone was on edge. They not only had to guard against the surrounding paper figures, but also constantly watch their teammates, lest they be replaced by a ghost.

"Oh dear, it's not here either." The man leading the way shook his head in frustration. "I really don't know where this woman ran off to. Oh well, let's go back and report."

Leaving the room where the paper figures were stored and breathing the fresh air outside, Du Moyu couldn't help but let out a long sigh. He actually felt like he had been resurrected. Being stared at by those paper figures that he knew were problematic was really too difficult.

"That's right, it seems the woman didn't come back here. Let's... let's go back first." Jia Jinliang wiped his forehead, which was covered in sweat. It didn't seem like he was faking it; he was really scared.

They hadn't taken more than a few steps away from the paper craftsman's house when they were met head-on by several people, including the old man they had seen earlier and a few villagers. The old man looked anxious and hurried forward. "Masters, you're here!"

"What's the matter?" Lei Mingyu didn't give the old man a pleasant look.

"Yes, of course there's something." The old man quickly said, "The paper craftsman's wife is missing. We've searched the entire village, but we can't find her. So, I was thinking of going to the paper craftsman's house to take a look."

"No need to go. We just came out of the paper craftsman's house. The woman wasn't there," Zhou Qing said quickly.

The old man frowned. "Not there? That's impossible. Where else could a woman go? We have people watching by the river, and she didn't go there either."

"Village Chief, let's put the search for the woman aside for now. Have you forgotten what the night watchman told us?" A middle-aged man beside the old man urged.

Hearing the words "night watchman," everyone's expressions varied. They knew there was a new task.

Sure enough, the old man, whose identity was the village chief, slapped his forehead, revealing an expression of annoyance and apology. "I'm sorry, I forgot the most important thing. The night watchman told us to have the masters see Shopkeeper Zhou off on his final journey."

"That's the paper craftsman. Our villagers all call him Shopkeeper Zhou," the village chief explained, afraid that Jiang Cheng and the others wouldn't understand. "Don't ask what to do specifically, masters, because I don't know either. The night watchman will tell you later."

After speaking, the village chief conjured a small wooden box from his person. Opening it, there were some wooden sticks inside, flat ones, which Fatty thought looked like popsicle sticks.

"Come, masters, draw lots first. This isn't difficult, and we don't need all the masters to go." The village chief handed over the wooden sticks with a smile, but the smile looked unnatural no matter how you looked at it.

Everyone had to draw. This time, without Fatty's help, Jiang Cheng, unsurprisingly, won the prize.

Turning the wooden stick over, there was a section on the back that was red, as if it had been painted with blood.

Seeing this, the village chief nodded at Jiang Cheng. "That's it. The masters whose wooden sticks have red on the back, please follow me. The remaining masters can go back and rest. Thank you for your hard work last night."

Besides Jiang Cheng, there were four other people who drew red sticks: Abiao, Zhou Qing, Zhang Junyu, and Du Moyu.

"Why... why me?" Abiao's voice was hoarse, making people uncomfortable. He clenched the wooden stick, and the fierceness he displayed in that instant was chilling.

Lei Mingyu, however, seemed to be watching a joke, arms crossed over his chest, squinting and mocking, "Perhaps you escaped your destined calamity last night. We're making up for it today."

Abiao quickly looked at him, their eyes meeting, neither giving way, the air becoming tense.

Finally, Jia Jinliang jumped out to smooth things over, and Chen Hao also pulled Lei Mingyu, saying something with a smile, and the latter's expression eased a little.

Zhou Qing and Zhang Junyu gathered around Yu Chengmu. They had barely said a few words when the village chief interrupted. "Masters," the village chief said, "Let's get going."

The word "get going" instinctively made everyone recoil. "Leave now? What's the rush?" Zhang Junyu frowned. He had many things to ask Yu Chengmu and needed time.

But the village chief said that the night watchman had instructed them, so everyone had nothing to say. Thus, the two groups separated. Those who hadn't been chosen went back, while Jiang Cheng and Zhang Junyu followed the village chief.

To Jiang Cheng's surprise, the village chief stopped after only a few minutes, pointing to a courtyard with an open door and saying, "Masters, rest here for a while. There are four rooms inside, enough for you to stay. Once you go in, don't leave. The night watchman will come later to tell you what to do."

Without waiting for Jiang Cheng and the others to ask any questions, the village chief and his group scurried away, their backs looking hurried.

"Heh, that old thing sure runs fast!" Zhou Qing said, staring at their backs with resentment.

Everyone steeled themselves and walked into the courtyard. The courtyard wasn't big or small, with several simple houses on the east and west sides, separated by a wall, with various clothes hanging on it, giving it a very lived-in atmosphere.

Zhang Junyu looked around and pointed to a room on the east side. "Zhou Qing and I will stay here."

"What is it?" Du Moyu asked in a low voice, "Although it doesn't seem strange here yet, it would be safer for us to stay together, right? The night watchman will probably only come at night."

Due to Lei Mingyu's attitude, Abiao also had a particularly bad impression of Du Moyu. "Didn't you hear what the village chief said? He specifically mentioned that there are four rooms in the courtyard. Staying together will only bring danger."

Abiao's Mandarin wasn't standard, and his cold tone paired with his poor Mandarin didn't make Jiang Cheng feel scared; instead, he wanted to laugh, but he held back.

In the end, unsurprisingly, Abiao chose to stay on the east side with Zhang Junyu and Zhou Qing, while Jiang Cheng and Du Moyu had no choice but to stay in the rooms on the west side.

The four groups, in name, chose four rooms each, and lived separately.

The facilities in the room were simple. Jiang Cheng found a clean chair and sat down. What was rare was that he found a dark pot. Lifting the lid, there was already cooked porridge inside.

The porridge was still warm.

After drinking the porridge, Jiang Cheng's complexion improved a lot, and he had the energy to think about the situation he would face next.

Currently, it seemed that the events happening in this village were related to the so-called Great River Goddess, who was the eldest daughter of the Wu family. Ten years ago, she was sacrificed to the river god. Ten years later, the village was plagued by misfortune, and the deaths were secretly rumored to be caused by the Great River Goddess taking a bride.

These people had all disappeared unknowingly at night, and when they were found again, they were floating in the river.

But the village chief said that the Wu family's eldest daughter had volunteered.

Jiang Cheng had also talked to Fatty about this, and Fatty insisted that the village chief was lying. He was sure that they had kidnapped her and thrown her into the river, but Jiang Cheng felt that things weren't that simple.

From the mansion, it could be seen that the Wu family was one of the wealthiest families in the village. Even if the village really needed to choose a woman to sacrifice to the river god, it shouldn't have been the Wu family's eldest daughter.

With the limited information currently available, Jiang Cheng could only come up with two vague guesses.

First, the most direct guess, like Fatty said, was that the village chief wasn't telling the truth, and the Wu family's eldest daughter was forced. The whole thing was a conspiracy against the Wu family, whether it was for money or something else, still needed to be investigated.

Second, the village chief was telling the truth, and the Wu family's eldest daughter had volunteered to be sacrificed. But if that were the case, then things were complicated, and Jiang Cheng had no clue for the time being.

Feeling tired from thinking, Jiang Cheng lay down on the table to rest for a while, but unexpectedly, he fell asleep. When he opened his eyes again, it was almost dark outside.

He patted his face to wake himself up a bit, and then took out his phone, wanting to send a message to Fatty. He tried several times, but it kept showing that the message failed to send.

After thinking for a moment, he dialed Fatty's number, but he couldn't get through either.

It was like he was being blocked here.

A bad feeling rose in his heart.

Just as Jiang Cheng was thinking about what news the night watchman would bring tonight, a sneaky "rustling" sound came over, and it was getting closer to the door. Jiang Cheng immediately became vigilant.

Then there was a very, very soft knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"It's me," a voice outside replied. "Du Moyu." Although the voice was small, it was very clear, and didn't sound like there was a problem.

"What are you doing here?"

"I have something to discuss with you." Du Moyu said understandingly, "Don't worry, I'm human. It's not completely dark yet. If I were a ghost, I wouldn't come now."

"That's not necessarily true. That's what ghosts think too," Jiang Cheng retorted.

After a long back and forth, Jiang Cheng finally confirmed the other party's identity, but he didn't open the door for Du Moyu. Instead, he had him jump in through the back window.

Du Moyu, who came in, was shivering from the cold, his body trembling non-stop. Seeing Jiang Cheng pouring a cup of hot tea, Du Moyu immediately reached out to take it. "Thank you, thank you, thank..."

"Slurp—" Jiang Cheng picked it up, smacked his lips, and then put it back down.

Du Moyu: "..."

"Why aren't you staying in your room? What are you doing coming to me?" Jiang Cheng asked rudely.

"I discovered that Zhou Qing and Zhang Junyu have also left their room and gone to Abiao's place." Du Moyu said cautiously, "I'm worried that they have a conspiracy and wanted to notify you, but there's no signal on my phone, so I had to run over."

"How did you see them?" Jiang Cheng asked with a suspicious tone.

"It was just getting dark, and I was worried that something would happen, so I kept an eye on the movements outside, looking through the crack in the door. I happened to see Zhou Qing and Zhang Junyu open the door and sneak into Abiao's room."

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but sigh, looking at his nominal ally with a concerned gaze. "That was done on purpose for you to see. Think about it, if you were them, would you open the door in this situation?"

"If they were going to leave, they would go through the window. The doors on the east and west sides face each other directly, and you can see clearly through the hollow part of the wall in the middle. But if you climb out of the window at the back of the house, you can't see it from the other side at all. That's why I had you come through the window."

Du Moyu took a deep breath. "So that's how it is..." A moment later, his expression changed slightly. "It seems that they're already suspicious, suspecting that our two groups are cooperating behind their backs."

"Before, it was suspicion. Now, it's certain." Jiang Cheng poured another cup of tea and handed it to Du Moyu. "And it seems that they've also realized that we already know that they're a pair of teams, one in the open and one in the dark."

"Now, it's a tacit understanding." Jiang Cheng added, taking a sip of tea.

"This... this is my negligence." Du Moyu looked at Jiang Cheng. "Mr. Jiang, but I think that the communication being cut off is a good thing for us. That old fox, Yu Chengmu, knows too much. Last time, he was the one who did the trickery that killed Pang Xiaofeng. But this time, he won't have the chance to give advice to the remaining three."

"Indeed," Jiang Cheng nodded.

"I suspect that tonight's mission is related to those paper figures. Otherwise, what happened during the day would be too strange. We followed the footprints all the way to the paper craftsman's house, and then we were inexplicably led inside to look for someone." Du Moyu revealed a thoughtful expression. "I even suspect that those paper figures deliberately lured us to their door."

Jiang Cheng felt the teacup with his hand. "I have that feeling too. And the missing woman... still hasn't been found."

"I mainly came for this matter. Mr. Jiang, you should also be able to see that this mission is deeply connected to folk taboos, especially those related to funerals. Do you know much about the paper figures we might encounter tonight?" After a pause, Du Moyu continued, "Paper craftsmen also belong to the unconventional trades, and there are several very strange taboos."

"The first is that you can't dot the eyes of the paper figures." He suddenly lowered his voice.