Manual for Survival in a Strange World

“One light is enough. We don’t know when we’ll be able to leave, so conserve your phone battery. Remember to turn on power-saving mode,” Ning Zhe said, turning on his flashlight. “I’ll handle it; I brought a power bank.”

“Alright,” Feng Yushu nodded.

The two of them made their way through the narrow alley, guided by the beam of the flashlight. The sound of water flowing echoed from the stone pavement beneath their feet, coming from the drainage channels beneath the stones.

As Zhang Yangxu had mentioned, tonight, Hejia Village was eerily quiet, with every household shut tight, doors locked and windows closed. Ning Zhe tried several doors in succession, but they were all firmly locked, unable to be pushed open. He had no choice but to stop.

“Hmm… Ning Zhe?” Feng Yushu asked quietly.

“It’s nothing, I just want to ask you something,” Ning Zhe said, thinking for a moment. “Aunt, you mentioned earlier that after you pushed open the door to your hotel room, you found yourself here. The stainless steel door handle in your hand instantly turned into a brass latch, and the door you pushed open changed from a hotel security door to an old wooden door…”

Feng Yushu nodded repeatedly. “That’s right, what do you want to ask?”

“I want to know where the door you pushed open when you arrived in Hejia Village is,” Ning Zhe said directly. “Let’s go there and take a look.”

“Ah? Sure,” Feng Yushu agreed, leading the way.

The shrine to the Serpent God was located at the southern end of Hejia Village, but the door Feng Yushu had pushed open when she first arrived was closer to the center of the village. Starting from the shrine, she led Ning Zhe northward, walking deeper between the stone-built houses with tiled roofs.

Along the way, Ning Zhe frequently tried to push open the closed doors they passed, but despite his efforts, he found nothing suspicious. In the tranquil atmosphere, the two of them walked through the winding stone alleys under the pale moonlight, and soon a stone arch bridge appeared in front of them.

Hejia Village was built by the water, with a river running through the village from north to south, splitting it into two parts. There were three arch bridges across the river, and the one in front of Ning Zhe was the southernmost.

After crossing the bridge to the other side of the river, they soon arrived at the house that Feng Yushu had exited when she first came to Hejia Village.

“This is it,” Feng Yushu said, bringing Ning Zhe to the front of the house. Ning Zhe noticed that the door to the house was open—this was the first door he had seen open since they had left the shrine.

“The house is only one story. Inside, it’s completely empty, with only some scattered straw on the floor. It looks like a firewood storage or an abandoned cattle shed,” Ning Zhe said, closing the door and then opening it again. Nothing happened. “As expected…”

It was impossible to find an exit from the village so easily.

Feng Yushu looked down at her watch. It was 1:10 AM.

Forty minutes had passed. There was less than an hour left until their scheduled meeting time of 2:00 AM.

“Let’s go back and check other places on the way?” Feng Yushu asked.

“I suppose that’s the only option,” Ning Zhe replied, not having a better idea.

The two of them left the empty house with the ajar door and retraced their steps over the bridge. By now, the clouds in the sky had dispersed, and the bright moonlight bathed the scene. The sound of the river flowing beneath the bridge was clear and crisp.

Ning Zhe leaned one hand on the stone railing of the bridge as he walked quickly ahead. Suddenly, his foot slipped.

“Ning Zhe!” Feng Yushu cried out in alarm.

With the sound of stone cracking, Ning Zhe lost his balance, and one of his legs sank into the collapsed bridge surface. Fortunately, his reaction was quick, and he used both hands to support himself, preventing himself from falling further. The stone brick he had stepped on had cracked in the middle and fallen into the river below, splashing up a large wave.

“…What a joke…” Ning Zhe frowned, scrambling out of the pit and quickly stepping down from the bridge. He still had lingering fear in his heart.

Feng Yushu hurried over with the flashlight, shining it on him. “Are you alright? Are you hurt? Thank goodness… How could the stone bridge suddenly collapse like that?”

Ning Zhe stood by the bridge, his hand resting on a stone pillar, also feeling confused.

“What happened… Why am I so unlucky? And it’s such bad luck, too.” Reflecting on the dangerous moment just now, Ning Zhe was puzzled. “I’m sure I didn’t violate any taboos. Why would I have such bad luck?”

No… Did I really not violate any taboo?

Ning Zhe quickly ran through the events of the day in his mind:

[Good omens:]

[Taboos:]

Travel

Burial

Funerals

Rituals

“I’m sure I didn’t violate the travel taboo. Hiding Lin Zhiyuan’s body beneath the altar isn’t ‘burial’ or ‘funeral,’ and ‘ritual’ is out of the question. I haven’t performed any rituals. So why did this happen?”

His thoughts raced as he tried to remember everything he’d done since midnight, yet nothing seemed to conflict with the day’s taboos.

“I didn’t violate any taboos, so why am I unlucky? This makes no sense. Could the Serpent God have gone mad and started killing people randomly, no longer requiring taboos to justify it?” He could only offer this explanation.

But rationality told Ning Zhe that this explanation might not be correct.

“No, think again. Did I really not violate any taboo?” Ning Zhe muttered to himself, replaying the past hour in his mind: “Travel… No. Burial, unlikely… Funeral isn’t it. Could it be ritual? Did I do something that could be considered a ‘ritual’? Who did I perform a ritual for?”

Feng Yushu, her face full of worry, watched Ning Zhe, her heart racing. Ning Zhe’s inexplicable bad luck had terrified her.

“Wait, ritual? Yes… That must be it.” Suddenly, a flash of insight hit Ning Zhe. He figured it out. “It’s a ritual. I performed a ritual for the Serpent God… I used Lin Zhiyuan’s body as a sacrifice for the Serpent God.”

Now everything made sense. Even the fact that they hadn’t encountered any danger when they entered the shrine during the Serpent God’s outburst could be explained.

“Ning Zhe? Are you alright?” Feng Yushu asked cautiously.

“I’m fine,” Ning Zhe sighed and gently shook his head. “I accidentally violated a taboo today, which caused the bad luck earlier. But I’ve figured it out now.”

Though the bridge collapse had been dangerous, it wasn’t life-threatening. After all, he had only violated a single taboo. The Serpent God was generous—this wasn’t a situation that would lead to certain death.

“We have to be extra careful from now on. We can’t violate any more taboos,” Ning Zhe muttered to himself.

He looked up and faced Feng Yushu. “Let’s go. We need to head back to the shrine.”

“Alright,” Feng Yushu nodded repeatedly. Just as she was about to walk, her phone rang.

Unlocking the screen, the caller was—Xie Sining.

“Why is Xie Sining calling?” Feng Yushu asked in confusion as she answered the call.

Before she could even greet her, Feng Yushu’s face turned deathly pale. She pointed at the river ahead and screamed in terror, “Ning Zhe! There’s something in the river!”

Ning Zhe immediately turned around and, looking toward the river where Feng Yushu was pointing, saw a human-shaped object floating in the water. It was slowly drifting downstream with the current.

Under the bright moonlight, they could make out that the body was dressed in a women’s suit jacket, a tight skirt, and black stockings. One high heel had been swept away by the water, leaving only two ribbons dangling from the ankle, floating gently.

“The body is… Xie Sining?”