The four people inside the room followed Li Zhi’s gaze and looked up to see a pair of feet dangling from the door.
The three, with the pink, white, and blond hair, were huddled together trembling when they heard Li Zhi casually say in a friendly tone, as if chatting with friends, “Fang Lin, aren’t you tired of hanging up there? How about you come down, and we can sit and talk.”
Pink/White/Blond Hair: “…?”
The knocking on the door paused for a moment, but then the feet started swaying even more violently. The thumping sounds grew faster and louder, like the beating of a drum summoning death, echoing from outside the door.
Li Zhi noticed a white cloth hanging down from above, seemingly trying to break through the door. She took two steps back and sped up her speech, “You know, Chinese people value courtesy before action. How about you listen to what I have to say first, and then decide if you want to fight?”
But Fang Lin clearly had no interest in being civil. With a bang, the tightly closed door was forcefully smashed open, and the white cloth, as if it had eyes, darted toward Li Zhi’s neck.
Behind her, the panicked scream of Pink Hair echoed, “Zhi—!”
In the next second, everything suddenly came to a halt.
The wind outside, the swaying branches, the feet dangling from the doorframe, and even the white cloth that had already touched Li Zhi’s neck—everything froze in mid-air.
Time stopped. The world paused.
The moment Li Zhi pressed the time-stopping device in her hand, without wasting 0.1 seconds, she strode over the threshold and grabbed hold of the feet hanging above. Without hesitation, she yanked Fang Lin down, her expression unchanged.
With a loud thud, Fang Lin’s stiff corpse hit the ground, and it even bounced a little.
The viewers in the live stream were stunned:
【………?】
【……???】
【Wait, what…? Huh???】
【666666666666666】
【What are you waiting for?! Start spamming “awesome” in the chat!!!】
【It’s just a vote! Take it!!! From now on, all my votes are yours!】
【Fang Lin, does it hurt when you fall… ouch—】
【I would have never guessed you could use a time-stopping device like that. Is Li Zhi’s brain wired differently from ours or something?】
【Look! What’s she doing now?!】
…
On the screen, Li Zhi didn’t waste a single second. She swiftly grabbed the white cloth and began wrapping Fang Lin up tightly. Her movements were incredibly fast, without the slightest bit of panic, as if she had rehearsed it a hundred times. In no time, Fang Lin was wrapped up like a mummy, leaving only her face, smeared with theatrical makeup but unable to hide the corpse’s decay.
Ten seconds flew by, and just as the final second ticked away, Li Zhi tied a neat bow with the white cloth around Fang Lin’s neck.
The wind blew, and the trees swayed as everything returned to normal. Behind her, Pink Hair finally finished the name they had started to shout ten seconds ago: “Sis…??!”
Their eyes nearly popped out of their head as they leaped out of bed in shock. “What the hell?! What just happened?!”
On the ground at the doorway, Fang Lin, wrapped up like a mummy, glared furiously at the smiling woman in front of her.
Li Zhi squatted down, speaking earnestly, “I told you we could sit down and have a nice chat. But you insisted on fighting, so this is how we’ll chat instead.”
Pink Hair, along with his two brothers, scrambled over, almost kneeling in awe of the scene. Even Chi Yi approached cautiously, heart pounding. Although she knew about Li Zhi’s plan beforehand, seeing it succeed in action was still shocking.
That was a vengeful spirit who had died by hanging!
And you just wrapped her up like that? Is this really going to be okay?
Outside the door, Fang Lin, now tightly bound in the white cloth, let out a piercing, sharp scream as she began to struggle.
Pink Hair shrank in fear, stammering, “Sister Z-Z-Zhi! She won’t break free, will she?!”
Li Zhi calmly replied, “The white silk is both her weapon and the instrument of her death. It killed her when she was alive, and now it’s her shackle in death as well.”
Pink Hair looked at her in awe, “Sister Zhie, how do you know so much? Where did you learn all of this?”
Li Zhi responded, “Isn’t this how they always show it in dramas? Vengeful spirits are usually afraid of the weapon that killed them.”
Pink Hair: “???”
“Just kidding.” Li Zhi gave him a slight smile, then reassured him, “Yesterday morning, I grabbed this white silk and noticed that Fang Lin had a strange reaction when I cut it with scissors. So I guessed that she must have some fear or hatred toward it.”
Pink Hair grimaced, “So it’s still just a guess?”
Li Zhi smiled, “Bold hypotheses require careful testing.”
From the back, Blond Hair mumbled softly, “More like bold hypotheses and even bolder testing…”
On the ground, Fang Lin, tightly bound by the white silk, struggled in vain. Her dead, lifeless eyes stared at them with hatred. Li Zhi, undeterred, spoke in a calm, negotiating tone, “Fang Lin, we’re not enemies. In fact, we can cooperate.”
Pink Hair: “…”
Negotiating with a vengeful spirit… incredible.
Li Zhi blinked and continued, “I’m guessing you didn’t hang yourself willingly, right? You were murdered, which is why your vengeful spirit is wandering here. And the person who killed you is in this village, isn’t that right?”
A chilling aura spread from Fang Lin’s body, even more terrifying than before.
Li Zhi pressed on, “I also guess you don’t want to be placed in the Shrine of Virtuous Women or buried in that so-called Virtuous Women’s Grave, right? If I’m right, blink once.”
Fang Lin: “…”
The viewers: “…”
On the livestream, the chat lit up:
【Wait, can ghosts even blink?】
【This isn’t just any ghost! This is a ghost straight out of a Wang Wei poem!】
【In this instance, the ghosts aren’t just mindless. They have their own consciousness. In Li Zhi’s last instance, there was even a female ghost trying to help the players!】
【The instance has both malevolent and benevolent ghosts. Fang Lin seems to fall somewhere in between. She’ll kill within the rules, but players can also use those same rules to strike a deal with her.】
…
After a long pause, Fang Lin blinked her dead eyes, stiffly.
Li Zhi pondered, “There are two possible reasons: First, the person who killed you is in the Shrine of Virtuous Women, so you’re afraid to go in. Second, if you enter the shrine, your soul will disappear—either devoured or suppressed. Of course, it could be both. Either way, you don’t want to go in, and we can help you.”
Fang Lin finally stopped struggling altogether, her gaze cold and fixed on Li Zhi.
Li Zhi continued, “At daybreak, they plan to bury you. If you agree to cooperate with us, I’ll find a way to stop them from moving you into the Shrine of Virtuous Women—at least for two days. But during those two days, you can’t harm any players. And when the festival arrives, you have to help us deal with the person who killed you.”
Fang Lin opened her lipstick-smeared mouth, emitting a raspy, guttural sound from her throat, something between an angry growl and a sorrowful wail.
Li Zhi extended her hand and gave a light slap to Fang Lin’s bound hand, as if sealing the deal. “You’ve agreed. So, it’s settled.”
Pink Hair: “…?”
Wait, how does that count as her agreeing?!
Li Zhi began untying the bow tied around Fang Lin’s neck. “Okay, I’ll untie this, but no more scaring people, alright? Once I untie you, you can leave, but don’t go too far. When I call you, make sure you come.”
Pink/White/Blond Hair: “…”
The three quickly clutched their props and stealthily backed away.
Li Zhi deftly untied the white silk from Fang Lin. The moment the binding disappeared, Fang Lin shot up from the ground, hovering in midair on her tiptoes, staring at the group with a vengeful gaze.
Li Zhi remained unfazed, waving her hand dismissively. “Go on, bye-bye.”
Fang Lin floated eerily, bowed slightly toward Li Zhi, then turned and glided away. As she drifted off, Li Zhi called out, “Wait, leave me a token, will you? I might need it.”
Fang Lin paused in midair, and then with a soft clink, something dropped from her.
Li Zhi walked over, picked it up, and found it was a soda bottle cap with a small hole in the middle, strung on a red thread. She looked it over and tucked it away.
Chi Yi, standing behind, clenched her fist excitedly. “It worked!”
When Li Zhi had secretly told her about this plan the night before, she thought it was a wild idea, but she never expected it to actually work!
The pink-haired trio rushed over, equally thrilled, and asked, “Sister Zhi, how did you know Fang Lin didn’t want to go to the Shrine of Virtuous Women?”
The sky was beginning to lighten, and faint sounds of people warming up their voices came from the backyard. The opera troupe had always been disciplined, rising early every day.
Li Zhi reflected on the previous day’s events, “Fang Lin wouldn’t want to be seen as weak or submissive by someone like Tao Yu, who’s prideful and unwilling to lose. Fang Lin had been outperforming her for years. She wasn’t the type of woman to be submissive to her husband or easily bullied.”
She recalled Tao Yu’s angry words from yesterday: Tao Yu said she would rather have her body rot in the wild than be buried in the Shrine of Virtuous Women. Although they appeared to be fierce rivals, it seemed they respected each other deeply. They were likely more similar than they appeared.
Moreover, Li Zhi had always suspected that Fang Lin’s death wasn’t as simple as it seemed. Zhen Zhen’s Grandma’s words had confirmed it.
Fang Lin wasn’t a suicide. She was murdered.
And there was still a hidden force lurking in this village. It appeared briefly the night Fang Lin took the stage but had since gone back into hiding.
Zhen Zhen’s Grandma had mentioned before that, whether they liked it or not, everyone would eventually die. Back then, Li Zhi had only been suspicious, but after seeing Fang Lin’s reaction, she was now certain that the lurking force came from the Shrine of Virtuous Women.
When would it appear again? Had it been secretly watching the players all this time?
Li Zhi had a vague idea, but the immediate priority was to prevent the villagers from burying Fang Lin.
After a brief pause in thought, Li Zhi headed toward the backyard, with Chi Yi and Pink Hair trio quickly following behind. The early morning breeze was still cool, and the sky had a faint bluish tint. In the backyard, Tao Yu was just finishing braiding her long hair and pinning it up.
When she saw them approach, her brow furrowed immediately. “It’s barely morning, and I already know this isn’t going to be good.”
Chi Yi grinned nervously. “Sister Tao Yu.”
Tao Yu looked at her with disdain. “What is it this time? And let me tell you upfront, don’t even think about making me open another opera for you.”
Chi Yi quickly said, “No, no, this is about something else.”
Tao Yu’s voice rose in frustration, “I knew it! You people just can’t go a day without causing me trouble, can you?”
Li Zhi stepped in at the right moment, her tone slightly hesitant, “Sister Tao Yu, Fang Lin is supposed to be buried today…”
Tao Yu was most annoyed by people who spoke hesitantly, so she furrowed her brows and barked, “What about her? Spit it out!”
“I dreamed of her last night,” Li Zhi said without a change in her expression. “She told me she doesn’t want to be buried in the Shrine of Virtuous Women and asked us to help her.”
Tao Yu froze for a moment. “Really?”
People of this era still believed in messages from dreams, and Li Zhi had a trump card up her sleeve. She pulled out the soda bottle cap that Fang Lin had left her. “When I woke up, this was in my hand. Have you seen it before?”
Tao Yu had been somewhat skeptical, but upon seeing the bottle cap, her face instantly changed. “That’s Fang Lin’s soda bottle cap!”
Her hands trembled as she reached out to take the bottle cap strung on a red thread. Her voice quivered as she said, “We used to wander with the opera troupe as kids, just having enough food and clothes was hard. We never got any treats. Whenever she saw people selling soda, she couldn’t move her feet, always wanting to know what it tasted like. After her first successful performance, she ran straight out to buy a bottle of soda with the reward money. That was her first-ever soda, and this cap is from that bottle. She wore it for years.”
Tao Yu suddenly looked up, her voice more serious. “What else did she say?”
Li Zhi, still keeping her composure, replied, “She said she believes you’ll help her.”
“That damned woman!” Tao Yu cursed through clenched teeth, but her eyes started to redden. “Alright, tell me what you need me to do.”
Li Zhi leaned in close and whispered a few instructions. Tao Yu listened and nodded, then went back to her room to grab a bottle of paint and some makeup brushes. She handed them to Li Zhi. “Use this. It’s my special makeup kit. It works wonders!”
Li Zhi thanked her, and before dawn broke, she hurried over to the courtyard where Fang Lin’s body was kept.
In the countryside, people rose early. As Li Zhi walked along the village path, oil lamps flickered in every house, and chimney smoke drifted up, dispelling the morning chill.
When they arrived at the courtyard, it was empty, just as expected.
Fang Lin was an outsider, and though the village was willing to give her a grand burial, it was harvest season, and everyone was busy. The village chief wouldn’t have assigned anyone to keep vigil over her body.
The coffin lay in the mourning hall. They quickly approached it. Inside, Fang Lin’s body had already been dressed in proper clothes, her stage makeup wiped clean, revealing a delicate face beneath. Her eyes were closed, but spots of livor mortis had begun to appear on her skin, and the bruised marks from the noose were disturbingly clear around her neck.
Li Zhi wasted no time. She swiftly took out the paint and makeup brushes that Tao Yu had given her and began applying them to Fang Lin’s face. Soon, a horrifying face with blood dripping from its features emerged.
Even though Pink Hair had watched Li Zhi paint it, they still shivered involuntarily at the sight.
Li Zhi wasn’t satisfied with just the face. She also painted several bloody handprints on the inner walls of the coffin, making the scene even more terrifying. With Fang Lin’s bloodied face and the eerie handprints, the atmosphere was downright horrifying.
Pink Hair shuddered and whispered, “That’s enough, Sister Zhi. Any more and it’s going to scare people to death!”
Li Zhi stepped back, admiring her work for a couple of seconds before nodding in satisfaction. “Alright, let’s go.”
The group sneaked back out just as quietly as they had arrived and casually had breakfast as if nothing had happened. When daylight fully broke, panicked shouts could be heard from outside. “Boss! Is the boss here?!”
Li Zhi and Tao Yu exchanged knowing glances. Uncle Kuang, who was unaware, stood up in confusion. “What’s going on?”
The person at the door, wide-eyed with fear, stammered, “You’d better come see for yourself!”
Not knowing what to expect, Uncle Kuang followed, and Tao Yu, Li Zhi, and the others quickly followed as well. When they reached the courtyard, a few middle-aged men with grim expressions were already standing outside the mourning hall. The village chief was among them, and when he saw the opera troupe approach, he called out sternly, “Boss, come here and take a look.”
Uncle Kuang, now a bit nervous, walked over. “Village chief, what… MOTHER OF—!”
As he stepped closer to the coffin, he was suddenly confronted with the sight of Fang Lin’s bloodied, ghostly face, and his legs nearly gave out from under him. He would have fallen if Tao Yu hadn’t rushed forward to steady him. She glanced at the coffin, and even though she had been prepared for it, she still flinched in surprise.
Cursing Li Zhi under her breath, Tao Yu outwardly adopted a shocked expression and cried out, “This…! How could Fang Lin…? Could it be that the dream I had last night was real?”
At her words, everyone turned to look at her. The village chief’s face darkened as he demanded, “What are you talking about?”
Tao Yu patted her chest, still a bit shaken, and hesitantly said, “I dreamed of Fang Lin last night! In my dream, she looked just like this, with blood streaming from her eyes. She was crying and telling me how she was filled with regret because she never got to finish her final performance. She said that unless I helped her finish the opera, she wouldn’t rest in peace, even in death!”
Being the star of the opera troupe, her acting was impeccable. Her face was pale, adding to the drama: “I thought she was just trying to scare me! I even cursed her out when I woke up! Who knew it was real?”
“Fang Lin! Oh, Fang Lin—!” Uncle Kuang broke into loud sobs. “You were obsessed with opera when you were alive, and now even in death, you can’t let it go!”
Tao Yu’s expression became sorrowful, and with a choked voice, she said, “Village Chief, how about we delay her burial by two days? Let me finish the opera for her before we lay her to rest. Otherwise, I fear that if she’s buried now, her spirit won’t find peace.”
“The Lie Nu’s Grave is the resting place of the Virtuous Women,” Chi Yi chimed in quietly. “If we bury Sister Fang Lin there so hastily, won’t it disturb the spirits of the other Virtuous Women?”
The village chief’s expression immediately shifted. After thinking for a moment, he leaned on his cane and made the decision. “Alright, then. Let’s delay the burial for two more days. We can bury her after the festival.”
Tao Yu put on a grateful expression and said, “Thank you, Village Chief.”
Leaning over the coffin, she spoke with sorrow, “Fang Lin, rest assured. I will fulfill your last wish.”
As Uncle Kuang continued to wail, he couldn’t help but cast a puzzled glance at Tao Yu, wondering when their relationship had become so close.
Li Zhi stepped forward with a sigh. “With Sister Tao Yu’s promise, Sister Fang Lin should be able to rest in peace now. Chi Yi, go fetch some water, and let’s help clean up her remains.”
The painted blood on Fang Lin’s face looked quite terrifying, but no one in the village argued with Li Zhi’s suggestion. After a few more words, the villagers left in a hurry.
Tao Yu shot Li Zhi a triumphant look, to which Li Zhi responded with a smile of approval.
When Chi Yi brought the water, they quickly wiped the makeup off Fang Lin’s face, erasing all the evidence.