IS Chapter 43
by VolareActually, her death wasn’t obvious. At least, not to ordinary people.
It was only because cultivators had sharp eyes and ears that they could see that her heart wasn’t beating, her blood wasn’t flowing, and her pupils weren’t dilating or contracting.
This Zheng Niangzi was calling out to Immortal Master Feng, but three people had moved to the water vat to look at the fish.
Their reflections were clearly visible on the water’s surface.
Beneath the reflections, dozens of small, finger-length yellow fish were swimming.
At least the fish were alive.
Feng Jiang felt a sense of relief.
“I want them all. We have a lot of people. And they must be alive,” Feng Jiang said.
“Alright!” Zheng Niangzi readily agreed, rolling up her sleeves to scoop up the fish with a net.
The scooped-up fish were placed in a wooden bucket filled with half a bucket of clear water. The town only had three or four hundred households in total, and they saw each other often, so the customs were naturally simple and honest. If someone bought live fish, they would take the bucket along with them and return it next time.
After scooping up the fish, Zheng Niangzi took a few steps and handed the bucket to Feng Jiang, who was waiting under the window.
The sunlight near the window was brighter. As she handed over the bucket, Ye Zhuo clearly saw a faint purplish bruise that hadn’t fully formed on her rolled-up wrist.
In another day or two, livor mortis would probably appear.
Feng Jiang took the fish and settled the bill with Zheng Niangzi.
Although Zheng Niangzi was dead, she spoke briskly, saying that since they were buying all the fish, she would cut the price in half and then round it down.
Feng Jiang happily agreed and asked her which river she had been fishing in recently and how the harvest had been since spring.
Zheng Niangzi answered fluently.
Ye Zhuo naturally knew that Feng Jiang was deliberately talking more to see how lucid this woman was.
From the looks of it, she was perfectly lucid, no different from a living person.
“Immortal Master Feng, there’s actually one more thing I’d like to ask you,” Zheng Niangzi said.
Feng Jiang: “Please speak.”
“Oh, it’s nothing big. It’s just that my man hasn’t been able to eat anything lately, and he tosses and turns in bed without falling asleep. If this goes on, it won’t do. I was wondering if I could trouble Immortal Master Feng to prescribe some medicine to help him?”
Feng Jiang: “Of course, I can, but without seeing him in person, I can’t take his pulse. I’m afraid you’ll have to describe his symptoms in detail.”
Zheng Niangzi then rattled off the symptoms like she was reciting a treasure trove.
Feng Jiang listened and asked questions while writing down a prescription.
Was it just him, or did he feel a little cold? Could it be because there was a dead person opposite him?
Ye Zhuo’s fingers were already unconsciously resting on the hilt of his sword, quietly watching the scene before him.
Li Yuan didn’t need to look to know that Feng Jiang and Zheng Niangzi’s conversation had wandered far off topic, and that Ye Zhuo’s already limited patience was being exhausted.
Finally, Zheng Niangzi gratefully accepted the prescription.
“Zheng Niangzi,” Ye Zhuo said coldly, “Have you seen anyone or encountered anything unusual recently?”
Li Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.
Good, he didn’t start by saying, “You’re dead, what’s going on?”
“Ah? I…” Zheng Niangzi seemed to be stunned for a moment before saying, “I haven’t seen anyone recently, just customers coming to buy fish. And I haven’t encountered anything unusual either, every morning I go fishing with my father, and then come back to sell the fish… nothing else.”
Actually, her attitude was uneasy, and she seemed a little unnatural.
But that was all, and Ye Zhuo couldn’t determine anything. When ordinary people spoke to him, they often acted strangely for no reason.
“I heard you fell five days ago. You recovered quickly?”
Zheng Niangzi’s originally pale complexion seemed to turn even paler.
Her fingers unconsciously gripped the corner of her clothes, and she forced a smile: “My husband took good care of me, and we also hired a doctor. I fell quite badly, but… I got better after a couple of days.”
Ye Zhuo stared straight into Zheng Niangzi’s eyes.
“You’ve been dead for a few days,” he said, “Don’t you know?”
“…”
The atmosphere in the shop instantly fell silent. Zheng Niangzi’s expression suddenly changed.
Feng Jiang became instantly vigilant, wary of her suddenly lashing out.
But Zheng Niangzi didn’t do that. After a few moments, she gave a bitter smile.
“I…” She finally looked up and said, “…Maybe I am dead. I don’t know.”
“How did you die?” Ye Zhuo looked into her eyes. “How did you come back?”
People couldn’t come back to life after death.
People were born from chaos into the world, and when they died, they returned to chaos.
Even reincarnation, karmic retribution, and past lives no longer existed since the separation of the human realm and the Netherworld.
Since then, there were no more ghost stories in the human world.
Even if someone had great attachments or resentment before death, they would at most haunt the world for a few days before naturally dissipating into the world.
Therefore, Ye Zhuo could only think of two possibilities for the current situation.
The realm had changed, or someone was playing tricks.
“I think I hit my head,” Zheng Niangzi said, slowly loosening her hair and parting it on the right side, revealing a hideous, sunken wound. The blood had already stopped flowing, and all that could be seen were irregular pieces of flesh with a murky color, revealing a bit of the pale bone.
Now that the thing she had been trying to hide had been exposed, Zheng Niangzi, who had always been a generous and straightforward person, was much more frank.
“On the night I was carried back, I had a high fever and couldn’t remember anything. I probably died around that time.”
“When I died… I guess I became a ghost. I remember standing in a dark place filled with mist, and I couldn’t see clearly. I didn’t know where to go. I only heard my husband calling my name.”
“Don’t laugh at me, Immortal Master, my given name is Zheng Guanyin. At that time, I heard my husband crying and shouting. One moment he would say, ‘Guanyin, Guanyin, open your eyes and look at me, if you don’t wake up, I won’t be able to live either.’ The next moment, he would say that he had hired doctors and prayed to countless gods and Buddhas, saying that I would definitely get better.”
“I tried to go in the direction of his voice, but I couldn’t reach him no matter what. I kept walking towards him, but it was more painful than walking through a mountain of knives or a sea of fire. Just when I was about to run out of strength, a golden light suddenly shone from ahead, like a divine being helping me. I suddenly opened my eyes and sat up.”
“What did that golden light look like?”
“…Just golden light, about the size of a fist, neither hot nor cold, and it shot into my forehead,” Zheng Niangzi said, frowning. “It seemed like there was a sound chanting something, but I couldn’t hear it clearly.”
“I understand,” Ye Zhuo said. “Continue.”
“My husband wasn’t very bright to begin with. When he saw me wake up, he was overjoyed and thought I was better.” At this point, a trace of sadness finally appeared in Zheng Niangzi’s eyes, and she raised her hand to wipe away tears that weren’t flowing. “But from that day on, I realized that my body was getting colder and colder. I couldn’t feel pain when I was cut, and no blood would flow… like it is now.”
She sighed and looked at Ye Zhuo again: “Immortal Master, you look more dignified than Little Immortal Master Feng. You must be the one in charge of this place, here to take me away, right?”
Cultivators were neither Daoists nor ghost officers, and besides, she was just selling fish and hadn’t caused any trouble, so there was nothing to “take away.”
“No,” Ye Zhuo said. “Where is your husband?”
“He should be at the third house on the west side, teaching the children there how to read as a job.”
Next, he would have to go find her husband.
After thinking for a moment, Ye Zhuo said to her, “You can still live for ten days.”
After ten days, her physical body would fall apart, and her soul would no longer be able to possess it.
The topic suddenly changed from her husband to this, and Zheng Guanyin opened her mouth, staring blankly at herself.
“Then… will I rot?”
Ye Zhuo replied calmly, “Yes.”