Mysterious Revival

The fish pond to the south of the village, the small temple behind the village, a stretch of woods to the west of the village.

These were the three specific locations Yang Jian had inherited, also the properties left by his late father. If there was anything strange, it certainly lay within one of these three places.

However, by the afternoon, it was already getting late.

Yang Jian decided to check them out tomorrow morning because relatives had invited them for a meal, so it was difficult to refuse. He had to accompany his mother.

He wasn't interested in such feasts, not because he was deliberately putting on airs, but because he seldom attended banquets to begin with, and even more so with these unfamiliar relatives—it was truly an obligatory social discomfort.

Village feasts always ended very late.

After leaving, Jiang Yan was once again drunkenly stumbling, though she fared much better than last time, clinging to Yang Jian's arm, giggling all the way, incredibly happy.

She felt that after showing up this time, her chances of being with Yang Jian were very high.

So this time, she absolutely couldn't embarrass Yang Jian.

"I'll take you back to sleep, you rest first, I'll go out for a walk later," Yang Jian said as he accompanied her back to the old house's second floor, to the room next to the one holding his father's portrait.

"No, I don't want to sleep, I want you to stay with me."

Jiang Yan, holding onto Yang Jian's neck, cooed; her cheeks were flush, perhaps because she had been drinking, and her bright eyes were slightly narrowed, shrouded in a hazy mist.

"I deliberately got drunk today, you know."

Then, she whispered into Yang Jian's ear: "You're not planning to sneak away again, are you? I remember everything between you and Elder Sister Qin. I'm going to make sure you stay with me tonight, no matter what. If you lie to me like last time, I'll tell your mom."

"Tell my mom what? She doesn't mind me being with her," Yang Jian replied calmly, unmoved by Jiang Yan's slightly reddened face.

"No, what I want to tell Auntie isn't that. It's about us," Jiang Yan said softly, biting her lip, a look both serious and pitying.

Yang Jian said: "Nothing has happened between us, the only thing that might have is when you once spat in my face. If you're going to bring that up, I don't mind."

"Pah, that's not it at all. What I mean is, I'm pregnant," said Jiang Yan.

Yang Jian replied, his expression unchanged: "Really? Whose child is it? Definitely not mine, I've never touched you. What we have is very pure, as clean as a blank sheet of paper."

"You're just deliberately irritating me. You know I'm yours, yet you still say such things."

Jiang Yan buried her head in his chest and said, "I was thinking of making up a lie to tell Auntie so that you couldn't get rid of me."

"That's not very fair, is it? Then what will you do when you have to explain yourself?" Yang Jian said.

"Simple," Jiang Yan replied, her face and her nervous smile tinged with a shade of bashfulness. "Just work a little harder, and turn a lie into truth. As long as the timing is about right, I am fully prepared."

Yang Jian stared at her as if in surprise and seemed to be assessing her.

While he maintained a cold demeanor, Jiang Yan was different. At that moment, she seemed anxious, her eyebrows trembling, her breathing quickened, as if she was very much looking forward to what might happen next.

"No," Yang Jian bluntly refused after a moment's pause.

"Ah, why?" Jiang Yan's face immediately fell, and she felt an overwhelming sense of disappointment.

She had dressed with so much care today.

"This village is not quite right," Yang Jian said. "I always feel something might happen in this village at night. You must've seen my cousin today—Xiao Yuan was clearly not normal. Do you remember what she said to me just before she entered the village?"

"I think the cousin mentioned she would come to see you tonight," Jiang Yan said softly, her tension rising.

Yang Jian nodded: "Yes, she said it casually, but I took it to heart. I feel like she will definitely come to find me tonight."

"So you're going to wait for her?" Jiang Yan looked at him and said.

"It's not really waiting, more like observing, paying attention to some of the things happening here. I've always been worried that some of the people or things here are involved with supernatural events, but on the surface everything seems too calm, and I can't find any evidence," Yang Jian said, casually lying down on the bed, frowning in thought.

Jiang Yan propped her head up and leaned against him, "That's fine. Then I'll wait with you. Anyway, you can ask me to do anything, just don't leave me behind."

Yang Jian looked down at her and stayed silent.

At that moment, Jiang Yan wasn't causing any trouble either. She seemed to have settled down because Yang Jian hadn't rejected her presence. So, she was happy, even feeling a bit of sweetness.

With that thought, the intoxicated her soon fell asleep, sleeping very soundly.

Yang Jian also closed his eyes, but he didn't sleep because he had slept the day before, and with his physical condition, he wouldn't feel tired.

However, as time slowly passed.

The night in the village deepened... At this time, the darkness was pervasive, and the dim streetlights newly installed in the countryside still tried hard to spread their light, making the darkness seem less oppressive. It was just that the surroundings were eerily quiet, as if winter had come and even the insects were silent.

The guard dogs of the households also hid away, curling up in their little nests to doze off.

Some of the villagers had gone to bed early.

Early to bed and early to rise had always been the lifestyle of the rural people.

In such a quiet and peaceful village, Yang Jian gradually relaxed as well. He seemed to doze off for a bit during the late night, or perhaps he just took a short rest. It was a blur for a while, but his consciousness was clear and he could maintain his thoughts.

This state seemed very brief, but in reality, a long time might have passed.

Until a voice woke him up.

"Cousin, are you there? Come down quickly," the voice of his cousin Xiao Yuan suddenly came from the yard outside the building.

The voice echoed in the quiet black night, exceptionally clear, snapping the somewhat groggy Yang Jian to full alertness. His body jolted and all sleepiness vanished, leaving him inexplicably alert.

Is she here?

He immediately got up and walked out to the balcony.

Looking down.

A cute girl wearing a raincoat and looking up at him with a sweet smile was there. Indeed, it was raining in the village that night. Raindrops fell, sparse and not dense, but they seemed somewhat cold and chilling, making it feel quite uncomfortable.

"Cousin, do you see Xiao Yuan? I'm here, come down quickly," Xiao Yuan waved her hand, shouting loudly.

Yang Jian's expression shifted slightly, and he immediately went downstairs, "Why are you running out so late? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Cousin, I do this every day. And it's not the first time, come on, let's go," Xiao Yuan said, waving at another side, "Come out."

The previously timid girl came out. She was also wearing a raincoat, but absurdly, she was holding a knife in her hand.

A fruit knife bought during the day in town.

"What are you doing in the dead of night with a knife? Where are you going?" Yang Jian immediately furrowed his brow, finding Xiao Yuan very strange tonight.

But Xiao Yuan just said cheerfully, "Of course, we're going to play hide-and-seek."

Hide-and-seek?

The more Yang Jian heard, the more confused he became. He was starting to lose track of his cousin's train of thought.

"Right, what's your friend's name? I forgot to ask during the day," Yang Jian suddenly turned to look at the other, timid girl.

"My name is Lin Xiaoxi." The girl greeted him.

Liang Yuan grabbed Yang Jian's arm and urged, "Let's hurry, if we wait a bit longer, that thing will find its way to the village. When that happens, many people will be in danger. I don't want to be targeted by that thing, so we must quickly head out of the village."

Before Yang Jian could even respond, Liang Yuan was already pulling him along.

The three of them walked along the road that led into the village during daylight, and despite it being night, the streetlights along the path kept them from total darkness. After all, society has developed quickly. If it were back when Yang Jian was a child, without moonlight or starlight, one would be practically walking in pitch-black darkness.

"Something's off." As they gradually moved toward the outskirts of the village, Yang Jian felt his unease magnifying.

A vague sense of danger was closing in.

This danger, unknown in origin, seemed to be everywhere.

Just as Yang Jian stepped out of the village, in the old residence he had been in, on the second floor—

The door of the room next door creaked open.

That room, where Yang Jian's father's portrait was placed, was usually uninhabited and always kept shut. However, at night, the door opened as if someone inside had opened it.

Indeed, that was the case.

A young man wearing an old-fashioned jacket emerged from the room and stepped out onto the balcony.

He looked downstairs, seemingly at Liang Yuan who had been shouting earlier, then toward the direction of the village entrance.

The moment he slightly lifted his head, a clean, sunny yet somewhat eerie face became visible—resembling Yang Jian, but more akin to... the portrait placed on the table in the room.

But at that moment—

There was no longer a portrait in the room, nor a wooden table.

Just a very simple single bed.

As if this person had been sleeping there all along, only to be woken up by someone just now.

Meanwhile—

Yang Jian, pulled along by his cousin and the girl named Lin Xiaoxi, had already left the village and were following the road out, continuing to walk forward.

The road was lengthy and had no visible end, winding and twisting, with a faint light ahead that seemed bright yet also deep and dark.

"This is not the road outside the village during the day," Yang Jian's face changed dramatically as he suddenly came to a realization.

Had he entered the Ghost Domain without realizing it?

When had his alertness become so poor that he was unknowingly wandering in the ghosts' realm?

However, when Yang Jian almost subconsciously tried to open his Ghost Eye, he was shocked to discover that he could no longer feel it... Not only that, he found that his Ghost Shadow was gone, and even his Ghost Hand—no, it was not just the Ghost Hand, he discovered that he didn't have hands at all.

The palm of his left hand had vanished, as if he was now an amputee.

And what terrified him the most was that he felt eerily accustomed to not having the hand, not finding it odd at all.

As if it was normal for this hand to be missing.

At that moment, there was still light rain falling from the sky, the surroundings were gloomy, damp, and chilly.

Yang Jian continued following his cousin and the girl named Lin Xiaoxi, walking on as if he was an ordinary person whose soul had been snatched away by a Ghost Envoy, somewhat dazed and even lacking the will to resist. Everything seemed so natural.

The scenery around him was different from the familiar daylight hours.

There were some inexplicable and bizarre things.

"What on earth is happening... Are the cousin in front of me and that girl named Lin Xiaoxi really alive?"

For some reason, Yang Jian felt a chill in his heart.

He seemed unable to control what was happening around him, merely drifting with the current. Not only had the ghost within him disappeared, but his condition had also severely deteriorated. He felt like an ordinary student who hadn't experienced any supernatural events, still attending school, as if all his accumulated experience and growth had been erased.

Before he could resolve his confusion—

A strange person appeared by the side of the road ahead.

The person, dressed in white and standing beside the road, was shockingly wearing a black hood and stood motionless, like a cold, lifeless corpse.

But who would leave a corpse in such a place?

"Xiao Yuan, should we detour?" Lin Xiaoxi asked nervously.

Xiao Yuan didn't respond to her, just giggled, and somehow now had a fruit knife in her hand. Then she ran straight toward the roadside body, gripping the knife handle with both hands, and stabbed viciously and swiftly towards the heart of that body.

Instantly—

The blade of the knife sunk in entirely into the heart of the body, leaving only the hilt visible.

This action was repeated three times.

The heart, the neck, and the chest.

After stabbing, Xiao Yuan quickly retreated, holding the knife in front of her as if bracing for retaliation.

No fresh blood spurted from the wounds on the person in the black hood; instead, a foul-smelling, thick liquid leaked out, akin to that of a dead body.

"Thump!"

The body immediately fell to the side of the road, motionless, as if it had died once again.

"All right, cousin, let's go," Xiao Yuan giggled as if nothing had happened and continued to walk forward.

Yang Jian was slightly dazed.

Had Xiao Yuan practiced her knife stabbing skills so proficiently throughout the day?

The body was obviously extremely strange.

Possibly even a ghost.

Would there be no problems with simply killing it like that?

Doubt.

Doubts still lingered in his heart.

But Yang Jian was gradually forming a guess about his current situation.

He must not be in the real world... This place was like a dream.

An incredibly realistic dream.