I shook my head. "You're wrong about that. During the day, you rarely see anyone walking around in the residential areas where we usually live. That's because most people are at work during the day, especially in places with a lot of young people!"

"If this is really the renovated Shanglin Village, then there should be a lot of elderly people. Don't they go out during the day?"

Lin Zhao suddenly exclaimed, "You're right, this neighborhood is too quiet. It's like there's no one here."

As Lin Zhao spoke, she moved closer to the first floor, wanting to see if anyone actually lived inside.

As Lin Zhao peered into the room, I saw a man in a security guard uniform walking over. "What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for the property management office!" I pointed to a sign in the distance. "Doesn't that sign point over there?"

The security guard smiled and said, "That sign is wrong! The management office is on the first floor of Unit 1. What do you need?"

I casually said, "I'm looking to rent a place here. I'm asking the management office if there are any available."

The security guard said, "You'll have to come after six in the evening. The property manager is on the night shift today."

I pretended to ask casually, "The property manager has a night shift? What about the manager on duty during the day?"

The security guard said, "There's only one manager, and he works shifts. If you want to find him, come back tonight!"

As the security guard was about to walk away, I glanced down at his feet, and he suddenly stopped. "Don't wander around the neighborhood, and don't look at everything."

"There are some places that you can't get out of once you enter."

"And there are some things that, once you see them, will follow you for the rest of your life."

Knowing what he meant, I still pretended to be ignorant. "Are you saying this is a cursed place?"

The man turned around, looking at me askance from under his hat. "Young man, do you know what a cursed place is?"

"Cursed places can be either congenital or acquired."

"Some places are inherently cursed, and you can't get out once you enter."

"Some places, because the wrong people came and encountered the wrong things, can turn a blessed place into a cursed place."

"Congenital and acquired curses aren't scary!"

"What's scary is when the two collide."

The security guard smiled. "Some places, you think nothing will happen, but the things inside haven't woken up yet. Or rather, they haven't found you yet! When they do, you'll be crying before you know it!"

The security guard walked away with his hands behind his back, but I stood there, unmoving.

Lin Zhao walked over and said, "What does he mean? Is he saying that Shanglin Village was originally a cursed place, and then someone who shouldn't have died died, turning it into a major cursed place?"

"How could a security guard know so much? Is that person a Daoist?"

I shook my head. "All I know is that he's not alive!"

Lin Zhao exclaimed, "Doesn't he have a shadow?"

"Did you look closely at his shadow just now?" I lowered my voice and said, "His shadow was out of sync."

Under normal circumstances, a person's shadow can lengthen, shorten, or distort under the light. But it will never be disjointed.

Just now, the security guard's shadow had its head shifted to the side.

If you only looked at the shadow and not the person, it would look like a person's head had been chopped off and landed on the corpse's shoulder.

Isn't that just like a body being beheaded on the execution ground?

In ancient times, no matter how far the executioner chopped off the head, he had to pick it up and place it next to the corpse, waiting for the family to come and collect the body.

Just now, the person standing there talking to me was a person.

But the shadow was a beheaded corpse.

The saying goes that dead people don't have shadows, but truly powerful ghosts and monsters can still allow people to see shadows. However, there will definitely be a difference between the shadow of a living person and the shadow of a dead person.

Don't think that just because you see someone has a shadow, you can stand next to them.

When you realize that something is wrong with the shadow, you might see a face sneering at you.

Lin Zhao then reacted. "Should I go after him?"

"No need!" I said in a deep voice. "That person asked Xia Mengying to come to Shanglin Village to find him, and there must be a reason. If we take action like this, I'm afraid there will be unforeseen changes later."

"Besides, the events of Xia Mengying's childhood, when she was seven or eight years old, should have been nearly twenty years ago, right? It's hard to say what might have happened in the meantime."

"Whether that person is still in Shanglin Village is unknown."

"Let's wait and see what happens tonight!"

As I turned to leave, Lin Zhao suddenly said, "Do you think that person's appearance might be related to Uncle Li and the others settling in Banxian Village?"

I was slightly stunned and said, "How old is Xia Mengying? I think she should be about the same age as me, right?"

Lin Zhao said, "We'll know later when we ask Xia Mengying. If that person really appeared in Banxian Village when Uncle Li settled down, then perhaps the closing of Banxian Village this time is also related to Uncle Li and the others!"

I muttered to myself, "Does the Confucian school have a grand formation? Do they also play with formations?"

What I didn't know was that while I was still wondering, Ye Yang and the others were also encountering strange things.