The spiteful ghost Pingpingâs memories were tinged with a foreboding and depressing gray color, like a pile of old paper filled with dust. When one unfolded the old pages, dust would scatter all over. In an airtight space, dust would fly into oneâs face, rendering one breathless.
Until the crisp sound of music broke the dead silence.
In the memories, a man appeared. He looked very young, and was playing a bamboo flute under the maple tree. The sound of the bamboo flute was as sweet as the singing of birds. In the memory, the manâs figure got closer and closer, as if Miao Fangfei and the others were viewing the memories through someoneâs perspective, and they were approaching him.
They got increasingly closer, until the man noticed someone approaching, turned his head, and said with a smile, âPingping, here you are.â
âI practiced a new tune, let me play it to youâŚâ
The memory broke apart at this moment and ended. Miao Fangfei gasped, short of breath, and shivered all over. Strong feelings of love and sadness irresistibly exploded in her heart like an emotional bomb. The strong emotions made her physically sick, and her heart beat as fast as a drum.
The others either had a large or a small reaction to these emotions, but they all felt the same emotions. Before their emotions subsided, they felt the familiar sense of quaking and something separating from them, and they descended into another one of Pingpingâs memories. Anger and grief swept in like a raging fire, like a violent flood that swallowed everyone.
In this memory, Pingping was dressed in Dong tribe wedding clothes and was anxiously waiting behind the maple tree where she and Ah Cheng had confirmed their feelings for each other. The lover who had agreed to elope with her arrived on time, but another woman followed behind him.
That woman was Fangfang! Pingping saw the silver bracelet on her wrist, and saw her and Ah Cheng talking to each other. She felt ridiculed and played by Ah Cheng, and she was immersed in the pain of disbelief and betrayal. She rushed up, wanting to hear Ah Chengâs explanation, but Ah Cheng trapped her hands and feet with one of his hands and bound her to the maple tree, asking her to calm down.
Pingping wanted to break away and resist, but her body was unexpectedly weak and without strength. When the voices of Ah Cheng and Fangfang had gradually faded away, Pingping, who was tied up and blindfolded, only felt that the surroundings had gotten terrifyingly quiet. She was helpless and upset, and started weeping. She tried to call the flying fox she had raised since childhood, but there was no response.
On the contrary, her call attracted a group of people inferior to animals.
Pingpingâs clothes were torn open, and her extreme fear and pain were like thousands of blades splitting through the memory. The monochrome memory was stained with scarlet blood, similar to the blood she had shed, as well as the bloody tears of a spiteful ghost, which covered up the tragic and evil deeds that had happened that night.
Zhao Hongtu couldnât help vomiting. Feeling disgusted, he wanted to vomit out his entire stomach. They were sharing Pingpingâs emotions in the memories. The memory was too real, and too shocking. Only Hou Feihu, who had served in the army, and Wang Pengpai, whose will was firm, could hold on, but the crazy ghost wouldnât take their situations into account. In just a few seconds, they were submerged into yet another frenzy of memories.
Pingping, who had tried to elope, was caught and returned home. Her father, the village head, did not lynch her in the village, but took good care of his daughter. Pingping lost her will to live. She wanted to die, but had been rescued by the village head. Her father took good care of her and planned to make her the next village head, which made Pingping feel guilty. When she took advantage of her fatherâs absence to commit suicide, she was saved by Ah Cheng.
It turned out that Ah Cheng had been guarding outside the village headâs house these days, worried about Pingpingâs situation. He looked tired, and his eyes only brightened up when he looked at Pingping. After meeting Ah Chengâs guilty and distressed eyes, Pingping knew that he had never fallen in love with Fangfang. Everything had happened because Fangfang had placed a Gu on him. Now, Fangfang had been executed according to the village rules. The village head was so busy these days because he was checking the people who had defiled Pingping that day.
Her old father was a loyal lover and one of the last descendants of the tomb keepers of the Tusi king. He made Pingping, who was determined to die, hesitate. Finally, she decided to emerge from her trauma and carry on living.
From then on, she truly walked into a nightmare.
The following memories passed by quickly, without giving the tourists any time to even take a breath. From the discovery of Pingpingâs pregnancy, to her finally deciding to accept the child, and secretly moving to the cave to give birthâall of this had been taken care of by Ah Cheng. The emotions in this memory, like tea leaves soaked a hundred times, had long since grown insipid.
It had been a hundred years since the events of that night. What was supporting the spiteful ghost Pingping to take revenge was her terrifying resentment and hatred. Soon, the memories were stained with blood again. Pingping suffered when she gave birth to the child in the cave, and she learned the news of her sonâs death before she was able to look at the child. She had carried the child for ten months. The pain of losing her son rampaged Pingpingâs body. She didnât want to leave the cave, and decided to recuperate here while she was muddled. She didnât realize that Ah Cheng made fewer and fewer trips to visit her, and his attitude became increasingly perfunctory.
Later, Ah Cheng didnât even come once every few days. The food he had brought before had rotted, and no one came to change it.
If it werenât for that unexpected incident, one was afraid Pingping would faint quietly in the cave and have no future. It was not until the unexpected occurrence that she weakly woke up from her coma and saw Fangfang.
Ah Cheng had clearly said that Fangfang, who had been lynched in the village, was dead.
She appeared in front of Pingping again!
âAh Cheng is hosting a fetal flesh banquet, and I came out to pick some wild vegetables.â
In the memory, Fangfangâs figure was blurred, and only her complex eyes were particularly clear. Her tone was still sarcastic and disdainful, but she handled the mess in the cave for Pingping, bringing her fresh water and even a finger-long ginseng.
âYou canât be stupid enought to think that what happened that night was an accident?! Scram. The farther you go, the better. Youâre not welcome in the village!â
Why was Fangfang still alive?
Why was there a fetal flesh banquet? Where did they get the fetal flesh?
Why was Ah Cheng hosting it? Where was her father?
Who was lying?
What had happened that night?
What was the truth?
Who did Pingping hate the most?
Time seemed to stand still at this moment, and the depressing questions echoed in everyoneâs mind. Yu Heanâs face was wet with tears. He didnât know why he cried, but it was as if his body had malfunctioned. Tears wouldnât stop flowing down, and he was about to faint from crying too much.
The others were also in a similar state. Lin Xi had even fainted because he had cried too much because of the grief seeping into his body. They had been infected by the emotions of a hundred year old spiteful ghost. Even Hou Feihu was immersed in grief and couldnât extricate himself from the feelings.
Only Wang Pengpai could still keep his calm in such a situation.
They couldnât go on like this.
Wang Pengpai was worried, but he could only stand up and quickly answer the spiteful ghostâs question.
âFangfang hadnât died. She had just been locked up in her house, and they wouldnât let you see her.â
The questions that rang in everyoneâs mind, along with the memories moments ago, were really questions that had been asked by the spiteful ghost. They had to answer her!
This assessment was extremely tricky. Even Wang Pengpai was surprised. It was worthy of being a dangerous level Intoxicating Xiangxi tour. After going through an emotional baptism, few people could keep calm. Moreover, influenced by what had just happened, he was afraid most tourists would naturally think that this was just a foreshadowing question asked before looking at Pingpingâs memory fragments again. They wouldnât know that this was actually a question asked by the spiteful ghost.
The most insidious thing was that the Travel Services didnât prompt the tourists when the spiteful ghost asked them these questions!
Of course, if you didnât answer, you would continue to immerse yourself in the memory fragments of the spiteful ghost. However, the tourists were in such a sorry state after they had witnessed the memory fragments once. If they continued descending into the memory fragments, the tourists would eventually be unable to bear such suffering and want to die.
If one could answer the spiteful ghost Pingpingâs question correctly based on the clues obtained earlier in the tour and the information they learnt from the memory fragments they saw previously, one could skip the memory fragments corresponding to that question. The more detailed the answer one gave, the more memory fragments one could skip.
There were seven questions this time! Even Wang Pengpai, who had basically figured out what occurred, felt his tooth ache. As one had to know, answering such questions was not his job in his tour party, but now he could only brace himself to do it.
âYour child was killed and made into fetal flesh. The purpose of holding the fetal flesh banquet was to suppress the resentment of the killed baby. If Ah Cheng ate the fetal flesh alone, he would attract the attention of too many people. Holding the fetal flesh banquet on the pretext of the village headâs serious illness would not be a shocking issue. This is because many people would attend the banquet and a lot of fetal flesh would be cooked into soup and eaten by everyone.â
âYour father was seriously ill and bedridden. Ah Longâs remnant soul had possessed him for too long, so his body, which was unable to contain two consciousnesses, began to weaken rapidly. Ah Cheng had been selected by your father to be the final host of Ah Longâs revival. Therefore, Ah Cheng would preside over the banquet.â
âEveryone was lying. Fangfang was not dead. Ah Cheng did not have a Gu from Fangfang. The village head of Cordoned-off Village knew who had gang raped you, but he didnât investigate it.â
Wang Pengpaiâs forehead was exuding cold sweat. Under the spiteful ghostâs pressure, it was not easy to remember the seven questions and answer them in as much detail as possible. This was like a student answering reading comprehension passages. A smart student could use the simplest words and answer the question in the most concise manner. A stupid student might write a pile of words, but none of the points that they mentioned may be correct.
Therefore, he racked his brains and said, âWhat happened that night⌠The pig liver Pingping ate that night was drugged, so Pingping became weak and powerless. Ah Long, who had possessed Ah Cheng, used the excuse of wanting to elope with her and tied her under the maple tree when he met her. He raped Pingping in order to make her pregnant. But after all, Ah Long was a ghost. Even if he took possession of a human body again, his body would be filled with slightly more Yin Energy. Under normal circumstances, a child couldnât be born. So in order to increase the Yang Energy, they had the men in Cordoned-off Village gang rape herâŚcough.â
Wang Pengpai didnât go on, because he felt the murderous intent of the spiteful ghost scraping him like a sharp blade. A hair-raising sense of crisis made him understand that he should shut up. Anyway, this question was mostly answered, so Wang Pengpai chose to answer the next question.
What was the truth?
Wang Pengpai organized his thoughts, trying his best to not leave out any details.
âThe truth is that Ah Long died of a serious illness. The village head of Cordoned-off Village used the taboo soul transfer technique to place Ah Longâs soul into the flying fox and himself. Then he selected Ah Cheng, who was born on the same day in the same year, as the final host for Ah Long to possess. The village head set up a scheme to trap Pingping during the crying marriage and make Pingping successfully conceive a child. It was Ah Long who ate the baby, in order to make his remnant soul more stable in Ah Chengâs body.â
Sweat flowed down from Wang Pengpai but he didnât wipe it. He was cautious and only said what could be determined from the memories and evidence. He didnât try to answer questions and doubts like âWas the son Ah Longâs or Ah Chengâs? When did the village head become a zombie?â
He was not the best at analyzing what had happened, and he didnât get full marks when completing practice questions in his tour party. However, this was only a dangerous level tour. Therefore, he felt that he should have approximately answered it correctly.
Wang Pengpai was relieved when he finally got to the last question. However, he found it was hardest to answer the simplest question.
Who did Pingping hate the most?
Did she hate the beasts who had raped her, Ah Long who had planned everything, or the village head who had lied to her? Pingping hated these people very much, but it was difficult to choose who she hated the most.
Moreover, Wang Pengpai had to deliberate about how to solve the questions under such a predicament. Was Pingping asking who the Pingping who was in the cave hated the most based on the memories the tourists saw, or who Pingping hated most after she had finally succeeded in taking revenge and had turned into a spiteful ghost?
The spiteful ghostâs anger and resentment intensified. She was impatient, so Wang Pengpai made up his mind and decided to take a risk.
âPingping hates Ah Cheng most.â
If it was the Pingping in the cave who had just learned that Fangfang was still alive and knew that the gang rape had not been an accident that night, the person she hated most should be Ah Cheng, who had lied to her.
The more she loved Ah Cheng, the more she would grow to hate him.
This aspect of loveâŚWang Pengpai could understand it very well!