NOVEL NEXT 026 The Vast Sky
“Forgive me for this unruly life, indulging in freedom…”
“And fearing one day I will fall—oh—no—”
[tl: it’s from a well-known Cantonese song “原谅我这一生不羁放纵爱自由” (“Forgive me for this unruly life, indulging in freedom”). It is a famous line from the song “海阔天空” (“Vast Sky”) by the Hong Kong rock band Beyond]
The melodious Cantonese song echoed from Ning Zhe’s body, and his expression immediately darkened. Under the curious gaze of Feng Yushu, he took out his phone. The screen, which had been continuously lit, showed an incoming call from—Gu Yunqing.
“Not even pretending anymore?” Ning Zhe muttered softly, “Calling from a dead person’s phone directly.”
Without hesitation, Ning Zhe hung up the call, but it was too late, because Feng Yushu, standing beside him, had already begun to feel ‘suspicion.’
Ning Zhe’s phone had always been on silent mode, so incoming calls only vibrated without sound. The ringtone that had just played wasn’t from his phone—it was from another phone.
Lin Zhiyuan’s.
“Ning Zhe, do you… always have two phones?” Feng Yushu asked, confused. In modern smartphones, besides Apple, dual SIM cards and dual standby are commonly supported, but very few people carry two phones nowadays.
Under normal circumstances, she wouldn’t have paid much attention to this, but in Hejia Village, everyone who had survived this long had become unusually sensitive.
Just as Ning Zhe was about to say something, his phone rang again. This time, the caller was: Ye Miaozhu.
He hung up the phone without hesitation again, but just after hanging up, a new call came in. This time it was: Zhang Yangxu.
The empty street seemed especially silent, with only Huang Jiaju’s song playing. Feng Yushu’s face turned as pale as death. “Ghost… ghost, why…?”
Why was the ghost constantly changing identities, calling Ning Zhe’s phone under different names?
Fear surged in Feng Yushu’s mind, and she suddenly realized something. “Wait a minute, Ning Zhe… how does the ghost know your phone number?”
The ghost had stolen the identities of Xie Sining, Zhang Yangxu, Gu Yunqing, and Ye Miaozhu, so it wasn’t strange that it would know Ning Zhe’s phone number. However, the phone that had just received the call wasn’t the one he had exchanged numbers with those people, but another one.
Feng Yushu had never seen Ning Zhe take out this phone. In other words, Ning Zhe had never revealed the number of his second phone to anyone.
So how did the ghost know?
Or rather… is the phone in Ning Zhe’s hand really his?
Looking at the trembling incoming call display on the screen, Ning Zhe’s face darkened to the extreme. He silently looked up and met Feng Yushu’s eyes, which were full of confusion.
“The ghost is forcing me to kill you,” Ning Zhe said calmly.
“Huh?!” Feng Yushu’s already pale face turned even whiter. “What’s going on? Why? Why?”
“Don’t ask. Don’t dig into things. I need you to blindly trust me from now on. Stay in this state of knowing nothing and don’t try to figure out the truth—otherwise, you will die.” Ning Zhe’s voice remained calm, without a hint of panic. “And so will I.”
Feng Yushu nodded tremblingly, and Ning Zhe looked at her as if she were already dead.
Ning Zhe grabbed her wrist, set the phone to silent, and quickly pulled her forward.
“The ghost is trying to expose me,” Ning Zhe said, his steps quick and his mind even quicker.
In less than two minutes, he had figured out what had just happened.
— The ghost kept changing identities and repeatedly called Lin Zhiyuan’s phone to expose Ning Zhe’s lie and tear apart his disguise.
Ning Zhe clearly understood that even though he had stolen part of the Serpent God’s identity, his situation was far from secure. In fact, it was extremely dangerous. His current position could be described as dancing on the edge of a blade.
Stealing the Serpent God’s offerings and taking his identity might seem simple at first, but in reality, the process was extraordinarily complicated and fragile.
This involved the ghost’s rule in Hejia Village.
Its rule was: [When someone mistakenly identifies the ghost as someone they know, using that “incorrect recognition” as a medium, the ghost can steal the identity of the corresponding person and all the information related to that identity.]
When Zhang Yangxu mistook the ghost for Xie Sining, the ghost acquired the identity of “Xie Sining, as known by Zhang Yangxu,” along with all the memories related to this identity in Zhang Yangxu’s mind.
Ning Zhe had stolen the Serpent God’s identity using this rule, making the villagers who saw the offerings being consumed mistake him for the Serpent God. Using their mistaken perception as a medium, he stole the identity of “the Serpent God as recognized by Villager A.”
But was it really that simple? Could anyone just steal a bit of offering and impersonate the Serpent God?
Of course not.
“Identity theft through mistaken recognition” was the ghost’s rule, and only the ghost could trigger this rule.
Just like how only the Serpent God can punish someone who violates the taboo in the Almanac.
The reason Ning Zhe could use this rule to steal the Serpent God’s identity was that before impersonating the Serpent God, he had first impersonated the ghost.
— When they were on the ancestral hall roof, Feng Yushu had received a call. The caller was: Lin Zhiyuan.
“Given that Lin Zhiyuan had already died, Feng Yushu was terrified by the call from a deceased person. I took advantage of the situation and used conversation tactics to make her believe ‘the ghost is calling me from Lin Zhiyuan’s phone.'”
Ning Zhe swiftly crossed the empty street, his phone still vibrating incessantly. “But in reality, Lin Zhiyuan’s phone is in my hands, and it was me calling her.”
[Feng Yushu mistakenly identified Ning Zhe as the ghost.]
It was through this mistaken perception that Ning Zhe triggered the ghost’s rule and stole part of the ghost’s identity.
After successfully acquiring the identity of “the ghost as recognized by Feng Yushu,” he began eating the offerings, impersonating the Serpent God, and actively triggering the rule to steal the Serpent God’s identity.
[Since only the ghost can trigger the ghost’s rule, why not just impersonate the ghost?]
Ning Zhe’s plan was meticulous and intricate, a carefully calculated series of events, like a domino effect where one action triggered the next.
But while this plan was brilliantly designed, it was also incredibly fragile. Ning Zhe knew that the reason he was able to steal the Serpent God’s identity was that he had the ghost’s identity, and the reason he had the ghost’s identity was because Feng Yushu had misinterpreted the morning call.
Because Feng Yushu had mistaken Ning Zhe for the ghost, he was able to use the ghost’s identity to impersonate the Serpent God.
And once Feng Yushu realized the truth and understood that the “Lin Zhiyuan” who had called her earlier was not a ghost, but Ning Zhe, then…
“It would be like a skyscraper collapsing after its foundation is pulled out. Everything would be over.” Ning Zhe gritted his teeth slightly, unconsciously tightening his grip on Feng Yushu’s wrist.