Chapter 134 Out of the Cage

The development of events seemed to be slowly veering in an uncontrollable direction, or at least, Zhou Ze wasn't initially prepared for this.

The state the little girl displayed upon entering his bookstore was something Zhou Ze hadn't anticipated. The people of this village…

No,

the ghosts of this village, would actually turn out like this.

He clearly came to save them, to deliver them.

But they were now clearly treating him like food.

The old grandpa was hale and hearty, walking with the speed of wind. When he swung his hoe, it even had a hint of Chen Yaojin's Three Axe Moves.

And the little girl's braids flew wildly as her face contorted into a hideous expression. She moved with swiftness, letting out shrill cries.

This was the performance of a vengeful ghost; ordinary wandering souls couldn't reach this level.

At present,

the old man was lunging towards Zhou Ze,

while the young one was lunging towards the monkey.

The monkey first brandished its plastic toy hammer, but seeing the fierce ghost charging forward, it immediately stood behind Zhou Ze.

Following one's heart

is a belief,

and has almost become a prevailing trend in the bookstore.

Even the animals had been infected.

One must know that the monkey had previously treated Zhou Ze with a dismissive attitude, but at this moment, it quickly decided that the past wouldn't be held against him.

Although things had changed, and the script seemed to be wrong,

Zhou Ze wasn't so frightened by the two vengeful ghosts that he was at a loss for what to do.

Immediately, he took a step forward, his fingernails growing longer, accompanied by wisps of black mist.

Now, with those two times he'd entered that heavily injured zombie state, Zhou Ze was increasingly adept at using his fingernails and the power they possessed.

Compared to the beginning, when he fought like a shrew tearing at someone with her fingernails, it looked much better now.

"Pa!"

"Pa!"

When the black mist collided with the old man and the little girl, their movements seemed to slow down as if someone had pressed the slow-motion button. Zhou Ze lightly and gracefully walked between the two of them.

His clothes fluttered,

he strolled leisurely,

his two hands

slowly descending towards the tops of their heads,

like an immortal bestowing a blessing,

everything under his control.

At this time, the only regret was that the old Daoist wasn't here. Otherwise, the considerate old Daoist would definitely help him film this scene for future enjoyment.

Then he would silently smoke a cigarette, expressing his disdain,

the unspoken meaning being, "Basic operation, sit down."

However, just as Zhou Ze's fingernails were about to pierce the heads of this grandfather and granddaughter, signaling the end of it all,

the bodies of the old man and the little girl suddenly twisted, then completely dissipated.

Their speed

was even faster than the little loli's "biu!"

Zhou Ze's hands were still suspended in the air.

He had already struck his pose,

but the people who were supposed to be acting with him had taken a break,

which was a little embarrassing.

Lowering his hands and turning around, Zhou Ze was stunned to find the figures of the grandfather and granddaughter reappearing on a small path in the distance.

The grandfather carried a hoe and held his granddaughter's hand,

the old and the young seemed to have just returned from the fields,

bringing with them a sense of happiness and contentment,

just like the description in *The Peach Blossom Spring*: "The old with their white hair and the children with their hair in tufts, all were content and joyful."

The little monkey was also a bit bewildered. Clearly, even with its brain being supplemented, it couldn't understand what was happening.

The old and the young walked over again. The old man looked at Zhou Ze and asked with some curiosity,

"Young man, where did you come from?"

"I don't know either," Zhou Ze shrugged.

Damn it,

this time he really didn't know.

"Lost your way?" the old man asked kindly.

"I guess so," Zhou Ze sighed.

"This is Sanxiang Village. It's not far from the city. If you follow this road south, you can get into the city," the old man helpfully pointed the way.

The little girl was playing with the sugar figurine in her hand. Her figure was a little thin, but she was still innocent and lovely.

The image of this grandfather and granddaughter was completely different from the image of them wanting to eat people just now.

"Okay, I understand," Zhou Ze nodded.

The grandfather and granddaughter walked into the village, chatting and laughing.

Zhou Ze looked up at the sky. He hadn't noticed it before, but now he did. The moon in the sky seemed to have a slight bloody glow around its edges.

Nine years ago, the first scene that the original poster experienced when he first came here should have been the same as the second time he experienced it; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to get out the first time he came in, and he wouldn't have been able to post.

But he said in his post that when he walked around the village at night, every household was saying things like "I'm so hungry, I really want to eat something." This meant that, in fact, nine years ago, the "hunger" of this village had already begun to have problems.

And now, when he arrived nine years later, the problem had been further fermented and worsened.

From now on, if another "fisherman" accidentally came in, he would not be able to see the simple and unsophisticated Peach Blossom Spring; he could only become food for the many wandering souls in this village.

This place

had gradually become a cursed land.

Zhou Ze stepped forward and walked into the village. He needed to walk around the village to see and investigate what had happened to this village back then, against the backdrop of the Japanese devils massacring it.

When the country was in trouble back then, countless innocent souls died. Why was this village the only one that had been preserved in such a strange way?

If something is abnormal, there must be a demon.

The houses in the village were all made of mud and straw. A few families with better conditions would put some tiles on the roof. This was the general housing level of rural areas eighty years ago.

Zhou Ze remembered seeing similar houses in his hometown in the countryside of Tongcheng when he was a child, but those were people's ancestral houses, and no one actually lived in them anymore.

Every household had its own fenced yard, and they were all very neat and tidy, even excessively so. Generally speaking, some scallions, ginger, garlic, or other small vegetables could be planted in the yard, but here, the yards were barren and level, without even a single blade of grass.

An old woman was sitting on a small stool at the entrance, making cloth shoes with a needle and thread in her hand. She was doing it very seriously and attentively, but Zhou Ze could see from a distance that the old woman was actually drooling while she was doing her needlework.

On the ground,

a large puddle had already accumulated.

This scene was quite strange.

The old woman was completely unaware, and even though her saliva had already soaked the shoes in her hand, she still went her own way, immersed in her own world.

Fortunately, when Zhou Ze and the little monkey walked past, she didn't look up. However, Zhou Ze didn't dare to completely treat her as a passerby. With the previous experience of the old man and the little girl, Zhou Ze knew that the people in this village could turn into vengeful ghosts at any time when they were overwhelmed by hunger.

There was a well in front. A woman in her thirties or forties was drawing water. The woman had a good figure. Although she was a little rustic, she could be considered a standard beauty in the countryside in that era.

A tall figure.

But when the woman turned around with a bucket of water, Zhou Ze saw that her mouth was full of a black mass, which she was vigorously chewing on.

It was her hair.

She was tearing, chewing, and swallowing her own hair while carrying water. She was very hungry, extremely hungry.

The old woman making cloth shoes raised her head and looked at the woman drawing water, and shouted:

"Dead widow, you're still dressed so flamboyantly even after your man died..."

The woman, called a widow, was not to be outdone and shouted directly, "Old woman Cui, people aren't like you."

"Bah, you're nothing but trouble, always thinking about men!"

"I think about it, I think about it every day, I wish all the men in the village would come to my bed tonight...

Fried,

steamed,

cold salad,

tsk tsk,

…………”

As the widow spoke, she chewed her hair more vigorously,

and the old woman seemed to be moved as well, drooling even more, with a look of longing on her face.

Zhou Ze walked past them. For some reason, these two women didn't seem to see him at all. But after Zhou Ze and the little monkey walked away,

the old woman and the widow slowly raised their heads and looked together in the direction Zhou Ze had walked.

A burst of crimson red appeared in the eyes of the two people.

The houses in front looked a little more grand, with tiles on top and stone piers at the door, which meant that the family was wealthy.

Zhou Ze walked into the courtyard. There was no one in the courtyard, but the smell of meat came from the kitchen. Zhou Ze walked over and reached out to lift the window pane.

Inside was a rural earthen stove.

A young man was putting firewood behind the stove, and the fire was burning very brightly.

But there was nothing in the pot, just a large pot of boiling water.

"Wife, the water is boiling, come quickly!"

The man shouted to the other side. He was a little impatient.

Just like a newlywed husband urging his wife to take a bath every night.

"Coming, coming, look at your eagerness!

I haven't seen you work so hard on anything else, but you're especially attentive to this."

The man ran out of the stove and hugged the woman, shouting:

"Quick, quick, quick."

"You wait."

The woman took off her clothes,

seemingly not seeing that there was still someone standing by the window watching.

After the woman took off her clothes, she revealed her white and smooth back, but the woman's right arm had already turned red, like the braised pork heads sold at street food stalls.