Chapter 14 Trapped

Zhou Ze stood up, preparing to call out to the girl.

But at that moment, he was stunned to find that the mall was covered in black footprints. Not only the girl from before, but all the other customers and sales staff had soles that looked like they were smeared with a layer of black grease. Each step left a clear mark.

This was something Zhou Ze hadn't anticipated. Could it be that everyone in this mall was a ghost?

Even a ghost market couldn't be this exaggerated.

The last time Zhou Ze and Xu Qinglang witnessed Madam Bai's banquet, it was just a few tables of people making a ruckus. It wasn't nearly as high-class as this. And Madam Bai had cultivated for two hundred years, and even had her own temple body.

A feeling of dizziness suddenly washed over him.

Zhou Ze felt as if he were on a carousel in an amusement park.

Everything around him was so unreal, so bizarre and colorful.

You couldn't tell what was fake, and you couldn't understand what was real.

He could only look around in a daze.

He remembered that Xu Qinglang had seemed to experience the same thing not long ago, and then he suddenly rushed into the road. If he hadn't kicked him, he might have been hit by a car.

And now, that feeling was coming for him.

That guy,

was he planning to attack him?

As a ghost messenger, being turned on by the ghost he was chasing seemed a bit unreasonable. The worst part was that Zhou Ze didn't know how to resist.

His understanding of catching ghosts had always been limited to the habit of using his nails, which had always been effective. But this time, it seemed like his nails couldn't help him.

Staggering, Zhou Ze sat down on the ground. He seemed to see someone handing him some change,

and he vaguely heard someone say to him, "Here's your change, eight yuan."

Then,

the girl's face began to blur. Everything in his vision seemed to be wrapped in a layer of paste, making him nauseous and dizzy.

He seemed to have returned to the Yellow Springs Road again, numbly tiptoeing forward with the crowd.

The Buddha said, the myriad forms of sentient beings,

but on the Yellow Springs Road, there was only one form.

Zhou Ze felt that he couldn't even breathe. He subconsciously reached out and grabbed his neck, coughing hard, wanting to shout, but he couldn't.

It was a feeling that made every day feel like a year, and a kind of torture inflicted on the spirit. Xu Qinglang had easily broken down in it before, and Zhou Ze was now trapped in it as well.

Zhou Ze felt that he should do something, but at this moment, he seemed to be able to do nothing but passively endure it all.

Pain,

oppression,

suffocation,

a torrent of torment, constantly lashing at your soul.

…………

"Sir, sir, what's wrong?"

The girl handed Zhou Ze the change, but suddenly noticed that the man in front of her was starting to look dazed, as if he were in great pain.

The girl's first reaction was that this man was trying to scam her. He drank the water sold by her supermarket and immediately felt unwell.

But after watching for a while, she didn't think so. The man seemed to be in real pain.

"Sir, do you want me to call 120?" the girl asked. (120 is the emergency services number in China, similar to 911)

Who knew that the man in front of her would reach out, push her to the ground, and then stagger to his feet, running all the way outside.

The girl wanted to call the police or 120, because she felt that the man's condition was very unstable, but in the end, she decided that it was better to mind her own business and didn't take out her phone.

…………

Everything around him was like a mirror made of water, reflecting all kinds of colors. Some of the light shone in, but instead of giving people warmth, it added to the restlessness in their hearts.

Zhou Ze didn't know where he was going, or what he was doing. He had even prepared himself mentally that he might have walked onto the road like Xu Qinglang before, waiting for a car to hit him.

He could only passively resist. He didn't know where he was, or where he was going, but he kept resisting the impulse to give up.

"Clang..."

A loud noise came.

Zhou Ze knocked over the trash can in front of him, and then fell into the trash. The pungent, sour smell didn't wake him up. In his vision, everything was lush and green, like a paradise.

Clearly, the surrounding scenery was beautiful, and the colors were bright,

but it didn't give people any sense of comfort.

It was more like a cage, making people instinctively reject it and want to escape it.

Laughter and chatter came from around him. It seemed that there was a group of women dancing gracefully. In the distance, incense smoke swirled, as if countless people were worshiping at a shrine.

Various images kept flashing in Zhou Ze's mind, squeezing his nerves bit by bit. Any one of them could be the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Finally, the image froze.

Zhou Ze found himself standing at the familiar gate of the orphanage.

Above it hung the sign of the orphanage.

And in front of him, a couple was leaving a stroller there. They seemed to be preparing to leave.

When Zhou Ze grew up, he asked the head of the orphanage about his birth. In fact, the head of the orphanage wouldn't hide it from the children after they grew up. He told Zhou Ze that he had been actively abandoned by his parents.

Since then, Zhou Ze had never thought about looking for his biological parents. He simply thought of them as dead. He wouldn't need them in his life.

But at this moment,

Zhou Ze suddenly had a premonition.

The couple in front of him must be his parents,

and the child in the stroller

must be him.

He subconsciously raised his foot,

wanting to run over,

to see what his parents looked like, and maybe even ask them why they abandoned him.

But he only raised his foot.

He didn't put it down.

A look of struggle appeared on Zhou Ze's face.

He instinctively sensed something. Putting this foot down would be hell!

All the beautiful things ultimately solidified into the scene before him. This was a poisoned pie, a trap set by a hunter, waiting for its prey to take that step.

…………

On the edge of the rooftop of a tall building,

Zhou Ze, who was standing on the parapet, swayed precariously, leaning forward subconsciously as if he were about to fall, but repeatedly adjusting his center of gravity.

He was struggling,

he was resisting,

and his life hung by a thread.

On one side of the rooftop stood a headless woman.

The woman was no longer wearing a yellow sweater, but a cyan robe, a bit old-fashioned, with multiple tears and damages. But the woman just stood there coldly, facing Zhou Ze, who seemed likely to fall at any moment.

And on the rooftop, there was a third person, a priest.

Unfortunately, Zhou Ze couldn't open his eyes to see, otherwise he would have recognized that he had just met this priest not long ago.

At Miss Liu's funeral, this priest, from beginning to end, did nothing but hand him a cigarette.

Even in the face of the bizarre and cold dinner of the two families, the priest just stood on the side, watching quietly, as if admiring a ukiyo-e painting.

The priest looked at Zhou Ze for a while, then at the headless woman in front of him.

He shook his head,

and said to the headless woman,

"Qingyi Niangniang, he is a ghost messenger."

This was a reminder,

reminding the headless woman in front of him of this man's identity.

But this reminder undoubtedly poured oil on the fire.

The priest was unaware that he was pouring oil on the fire, and continued, "If he is killed by you, it will cause a reaction from hell."

The headless woman suddenly turned around, facing the priest.

The priest smiled casually and immediately changed his words:

"But he is just a temporary ghost messenger, a minor rank, even if he's gone, he's gone.

At this time, anyone who dares to disturb Niangniang's mood shouldn't have a good end.

And Niangniang herself has done nothing wrong."

The headless woman turned around and continued to face Zhou Ze, seeming to let go of this somewhat annoying priest.

The priest stood there, continuing to play the role of spectator. This seemed to be his favorite role.

He knew the headless woman's identity, and was even a little strange that this ghost messenger, whom he had only met once before, hadn't been able to detect the woman's identity at first sight.

Just how unskilled was this ghost messenger in his business?

She's not a ghost,

she's not even someone you can manage,

but you stared at her, chased her,

and in the end,

angered her.

Women, you know, are very vengeful.

Especially this one in front of you,

a woman with not much time left.

The priest looked behind him. The building was tall, and the view was good, allowing him to see a construction site in the distance, undergoing demolition. There, dust flew in the air.

The most direct memory that an era can leave for people is actually architecture. And the current urban renovation and upgrading is undoubtedly a process of slowly erasing many of the marks of the past.

Turning back,

looking at Zhou Ze, who was still standing on the edge, swaying back and forth,

the priest was also a little surprised.

This temporary ghost messenger could really hold on.

Even if it were him, he might not be able to hold on for so long.

But at this moment,

the priest suddenly saw Zhou Ze's fingernails slowly melting, but the melted juice didn't drip down, but flowed back into his body.

Zhou Ze's skin was now gradually showing a bronze luster. This wasn't the bronze color created by sunshine and fitness, but a color mixed with

darkness,

curses,

coldness,

and many other negative things.

At the same time, the priest noticed that green light was slowly being released from the area where Zhou Ze's eyes were tightly closed, like a ferocious beast that was originally dormant,

and now,

was gradually being stimulated to awaken.

At the corners of Zhou Ze's mouth, two fangs gradually penetrated his lips.

Bai Yingying had always been curious about one thing: she was, after all, a zombie who had been sleeping for two hundred years, but why was she beaten so badly by Zhou Ze's fingernails!

Now,

the priest, with a look of disbelief, gave her the answer.

The corners of his mouth twitched,

and he spat out two words:

"Jiangshi!" (Chinese term for zombie/undead)