I become a god in another world

Chapter 632 Similarities
Chapter 632

"As for Sister-in-law Dou, it's hard to say—"

As soon as Wu Jiabing finished speaking, someone muttered something in the darkness not far away:
"He was an unlucky person; may he rest in peace after his death."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Fusheng's heart stirred:
"Who is speaking?"

Wu Jiabing's face showed a look of annoyance:
"My lord, these barbarians are utterly foolish—"

He seemed very reluctant for Zhao Fusheng to shift his attention to the person who hadn't appeared in the darkness. After saying this, he hurriedly turned around and scolded him:

"You stupid country bumpkin, we asked you to help with the work, but you're so disrespectful and always interrupting. You get drunk before you've even had a sip of horse piss. One day you'll offend someone and we'll cut your mouth off."

The man was frightened by his insults and fell silent.

Zhao Fusheng watched him with great interest.

After finishing his tirade, Wu Jiabing turned around anxiously, bowing his head and waiting for Zhao Fusheng's response.

After a long silence, a thought struck him, and he mustered his courage to look up into the carriage, where he met Zhao Fusheng's gaze.

"My lord—" Wu Jiabing was startled, and before he could speak, he heard Zhao Fusheng say:
“I didn’t ask you to speak, so I don’t need you to take charge and scold me.”

After saying that, he said in a deep voice:
"Who was talking about Sister-in-law Dou just now? Come forward and answer them. The rest of you, go and help push the carriage that's stuck in the mud out of the back. Once we're out, we'll go to Baili Temple to rest for the night."

As soon as she finished giving her instructions, Miao Yougong turned to look at Yu Lingzhu's face—among this group, Yu Lingzhu held the deepest prestige in the eyes of everyone in the Imperial Capital Demon Suppression Division.

Yu Lingzhu is highly experienced and powerful, and has long been a general-level figure.

Moreover, she was righteous and discerning, and she loved to protect her own. The Chang family of Wuqing County was also very famous and highly respected.

Zhao Fusheng's face was unfamiliar. Although there were rumors that she would be granted the title of King General, it was still uncertain. Miao Yougong only knew that Fengdu valued her highly and had designated her to participate in the Wuqing County trip.

Seeing her take the initiative to give the order, he was slightly surprised. He looked at Yu Lingzhu, who then frowned and scolded:
"You clueless idiot, didn't you hear Lord Zhao's orders? Go now!"

Her scolding was also a way of implying that Miao Yougong should follow orders, while at the same time she was afraid that Zhao Fusheng would take his anger out on him because of such details.

After Yu Lingzhu finished scolding him, Miao Yougong was quite surprised, but he also understood the situation and quickly replied:

"I'll get on it right away."

After he finished speaking, seeing that Zhao Fusheng did not stop him, he jogged away.

Wu Jiabing was initially uneasy, then helpless, his eyes flashing with hesitation, and finally resigned to his fate.

"Zhuang Laosi, you son of a bitch, why aren't you coming up here? The master has something to ask you."

The people of Wan'an County were terrified when they heard the name "Zhuang Laosi".

Then a man responded and quickly stepped forward through the mud.

Wu Shaochun's heart pounded wildly, and his palms were sweating. He thought of the guides in the Kuailiang Village ghost case, "Zhuang Laoqi and Gou Laosi".

Perhaps it was because of too many coincidences at Baili Temple, but the moment Wu Jiabing uttered the familiar name "Zhuang Laosi," he felt a genuine fear of encountering a "familiar face" who had seemingly come back to life.

Fortunately, what he feared did not happen.

A thin, short, slightly hunched young man strode forward. He had a narrow, long face, but he was a stranger to the group, and no one had ever dealt with him before.

As soon as this thought entered everyone's minds, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Realizing this, Liu Yizhen and the others felt a chill in their hearts: they hadn't even entered Wuqing County yet, and had only encountered a group of villagers while passing through the canyon, but they were already on edge. Such a mentality was not auspicious.

"Grand Master Qingtian—"

As soon as Zhuang Laosi stepped forward, his tongue began to tremble.

He was shivering, with his shoulders hunched inward, neck tilted forward, back slightly hunched, face sallow, and eyes devoid of any luster. He looked both timid and had a very poor spirit—this was the kind of demeanor that people generally perceived as the normal appearance of a villager.

"Wu Jiabing said that a funeral is being held at Baili Temple," Zhao Fusheng asked him.

"The deceased was a woman surnamed Dou?"

"No, no, no—" Old Man Zhuang hurriedly waved his hand, then immediately retorted:

"Her husband's surname is Dou."

After saying that, he spat out a "pui":
"She doesn't deserve to be called Sister-in-law Dou. She's just a second-marriage woman, an unclean woman." He then added contemptuously:
"A woman cannot serve two husbands."

He said this with a smug look on his face, clearly pleased with his words.

Zhao Fusheng's face froze instantly.

A surge of inexplicable anger instantly filled her heart.

Kuai Manzhou and Xu Yu, who were holding her hands, immediately sensed that something was wrong with her. She immediately tightened her grip on the two children's hands, her palms slightly icy, and her anger transmitted through their clasped hands into the hearts of the two children.

Kuai Manzhou's eyes immediately turned hostile, his pupils turned red, and his face became somewhat cold.

Zhuang Lao Si was still unaware and said to himself:

"Your Excellency is innocent and must not know this woman's background. She was married twice before. It is said that her first husband died, leaving behind an only daughter. She then remarried a second man with her daughter."

As he said this, Zhao Fusheng pursed his lips tightly.

"The second man had another son, whom she brought to Dou Sange's house. Later, this son and Dou Sange got into an accident, and the woman went mad, wandering around the village all day—"

As he said this, Zhao Fusheng's eyes turned cold.

Chen Duozi stood beside Zhao Fusheng, her attention still partially focused on him. She immediately noticed Zhao Fusheng's unusual behavior and couldn't help but ask him:
"Sir, what's wrong?"

"fine."

Zhao Fusheng shook his head.

Zhuang Laosi's words were interrupted by Chen Duozi. He paused, looked up, and stared blankly at the people in the car.

Zhao Fusheng took a deep breath and said calmly:
"Go on."

Her voice sounded somewhat stiff, and not only the people of Wan'an County noticed it, but even Yu Lingzhu and Wang Zhiyi felt that something was wrong.

Zhuang Laosi, however, failed to grasp the implied meaning and hurriedly added:
"She had a ghostly encounter last night too. She didn't sleep in the middle of the night and went out wandering around, saying she was going to pick up her daughter. She just fell down over there as soon as she stepped out—"

He pointed in the direction the caravan had come from, where a narrow path, barely wide enough for one horse-drawn carriage, led him. Zhuang Laosi said:

"Anyway, I don't know how, I fell down there. Someone found me this morning. I was barely alive and they carried me home."

"Did she regain consciousness after being carried home?" Zhao Fusheng asked.

As soon as she finished speaking, Liu Yizhen and the others looked surprised, but Wu Jiabing and Zhuang Laosi were even more surprised, and the two said in unison:
"How did you find out, sir?"

Zhao Fusheng remained silent.

Zhuang Laosi said:
“This crazy woman has indeed come to her senses. She said not to tell her daughter and that she will not receive treatment.”

Wu Jiabing nodded:
“I originally intended to have someone carry her into Wuqing County. The daughter of the family in front of her is fourteen or fifteen years old and works as a maid in a wealthy household. But she said she didn’t want to implicate her daughter and insisted on dying.”

He didn't say how Dou San Niangzi ultimately died, only that:
"Anyway, she passed away before evening. Since Dou Laosan had already died, the villagers helped with the funeral arrangements. They dressed her in her burial clothes, prepared the coffin in advance, and sent someone to notify her daughter—"

Zhao Fusheng's expression was icy:
"Her daughter won't be able to make it back."

Her words startled Wu Jiabing and Zhuang Laosi once again.

After a long while, Wu Jiabing was the first to come to his senses and said with a forced smile:

"The rain was heavy tonight, and there was another landslide, cutting off the roads in and out of town. Now that the news has been sent out, it'll probably be another day or two before Third Sister-in-law's daughter can return to the village." He then added:

"But on the bright side, with this landslide, countless old graves will be destroyed, so it's not bad that Third Sister-in-law died at the right time."

Zhao Fusheng was exhausted by this simple conversation.

She stopped speaking to Wu Jiabing and instead asked:

"Has the car that got stuck in the mud been pulled out yet?"

As soon as he finished speaking, a shout of "One, two, three, heave-ho!" could be heard from afar.

After a few neighs, the horse neighed loudly, and the wheels rolled with a 'clunking' sound. Then everyone cheered loudly, and they knew that the vehicle had successfully escaped the mud pit.

Zhao Fusheng breathed a subtle sigh of relief.

This topic brought back distant and unpleasant memories. Zhuang Laosi's expression displeased her greatly. She even recalled the scene when she was marked by Qiao Yuesheng after she started investigating the Shilipo ghost case and suddenly fell into a ghost dream.

As Zhao Fusheng thought about this, his emotions gradually calmed down.

"Let's go into the village first and chat for the night."

As she said this, Wu Jiabing noticed that the adult, who had initially looked displeased after hearing about Dou San Niangzi's past, had adjusted her emotions and seemed to have returned to the way she was when she first spoke to him.

“Yes, yes—”

He hesitated for a moment, then nodded in response.

The villagers shouted as they set off, with Wu Jiabing and others leading the way. Zhao Fusheng and the others returned to their original seats one by one. Before long, the carriage started moving again, and the group headed towards Baili Temple in a grand procession.

“I just noticed that Wu Jiabing and Zhuang Laosi look a bit out of place, but it doesn’t seem like there’s anything strange about them,” Yu Lingzhu said first.

Jiang Jinshan's voice came softly from behind Wang Zhiyi's head:

"There's no ghostly aura about it."

His words startled everyone, and Meng Po continued:

You mean they aren't ghosts?

Jiang Jinshan said with absolute certainty: "No."

Is it guaranteed to be authentic?

Fan Bisi asked another question.

"Hmph." Wang Zhiyi snorted coldly. Yu Lingzhu didn't have time to argue with her this time, but instead spoke up for her:

“Jiang Jinshan has a very keen sense of smell. He can detect the aura of ‘ghosts.’ His very existence is a ghost. If you are one of his kind, you can sense it.”

After he said this, neither Jiang nor Wang refuted him.

Jiang Jinshan said:

“They don’t have any ghostly aura, but this place—” He hesitated for a long time before continuing:
"To be honest, it's not just Yu Lingzhu who has memory confusion; I also have a vague sense of familiarity, as if I've been here before," he said, pausing for a moment before shaking his head.
“But I don’t remember walking through this canyon at all, but the feeling is familiar, as if I’ve seen it in a dream.”

After a brief discussion, Yu Lingzhu felt uneasy and asked Zhao Fusheng:

"Why aren't you saying anything? Ever since Zhuang Laosi appeared, something's been off. Do you think there's something wrong with Baili Temple?"

She was initially slightly dissatisfied, and her question carried a provocative tone.

After the caravan stopped here due to an accident, Zhao Fusheng insisted on summoning people to ask all sorts of questions, but after asking for a long time, he couldn't get any answers. They only mentioned the funeral in the village, then the dead Dou San Niangzi, and then nothing more.

After Wu Jiabing and Zhuang Laosi left, Zhao Fusheng remained silent. She stayed quiet throughout the discussion, which inevitably displeased Yu Lingzhu.

As soon as she finished asking the question, Zhao Fusheng nodded immediately:

"Have!"

At this moment, her words were a far cry from her previous conservative attitude, becoming exceptionally firm, as if she had made a new discovery after talking with Zhuang and Wu.

"First, the village chief's surname is Wu, which is a coincidence with Shaochun's."

"Secondly, the village has 126 registered households, which is about the same as the population of Gou Tou Village."

"Third, the collapsed road outside the village is called Eagle Beak Cliff."

Zhao Fusheng counted three points in a row.

Upon hearing this, Yu Lingzhu quickly spoke up:
Is there something wrong with Eagle's Beak Cliff?

As soon as she finished speaking, Wu Shaochun remembered:

"When the Fengmen Village ghost case was related to the Red Shoes ghost case, Mr. Xie's old grave, where he was buried, was located at the foot of Eagle Beak Cliff."

"good."

Zhao Fusheng nodded:
"Besides that, there's also tonight's funeral."

"Are you thinking about the funeral of the Chang family at Wuxian Temple?" Liu Yizhen asked.

When the group entered the Five Immortals Temple that day, they encountered a scene similar to the funeral held by the Chang family: it was also a rainy night, and a funeral was being held in the village.

“No.” Zhao Fusheng shook his head solemnly.
"At first I did suspect that this funeral might be similar to the Chang family's, but after chatting with Zhuang Laosi, I found that this funeral might be aimed at me."

The people from Wan'an County immediately changed their expressions.

Liu Yizhen involuntarily straightened her back:

"How do you say this?"

Zhao Fusheng hesitated for a moment, then said:

"Dou San Niangzi's experience is similar to a situation I know of—"

The Fan brothers looked at each other, their lips moved, but in the end they didn't ask any more questions.

Meng Po's gaze shifted, and Zhao Fusheng frowned:
“But this is too strange,” she said.

My memories exist only in my recollections—

If there hadn't been so many coincidences at Baili Temple, and perhaps Zhao Fusheng hadn't thought much of it if she had run into Dou San Niangzi's funeral tonight; but considering everything that had happened before, she couldn't help but think too much.

"How did the people at Baili Temple know?" she pondered, guessing that it was possible:
"Or are we awake or asleep?"

Everyone was taken aback by these words.

Zhao Fusheng shook his head:
"We can only take it one step at a time and see how it goes."

Finally, as if remembering something, he added:
"And the name Zhuang Laosi, and this Wu family soldier, don't seem like uneducated peasants to me."

Although they didn't know what was so strange about the name 'Zhuang Lao Si', everyone nodded in agreement after hearing the second half of the sentence.

The people of Wan'an County explained the strange origin of the name 'Zhuang Lao Si': it was due to both the eeriness of Zhuangjia Village and the coincidence of Zhuang Si Niangzi.

In short, when it comes to the bizarre, no amount of over-interpretation is excessive.

As everyone was talking, the carriage quickly approached the village.

(End of this chapter)