"Surprised? Actually, I'm surprised too!" Jian Hou said.
"Isn't he... obviously a psychopath with antisocial personality traits?" Cao Youfeng exclaimed in disbelief.
As he said this, he secretly glanced at Jiang Yan, who was holding hands with Yu Xiu, who was carrying the town mayor’s severed arm.
He whispered, "How could Jiang Yan be with someone like this, a person with antisocial traits?"
Jiang Yan: "..."
"Don't talk nonsense! What antisocial personality?" Jian Hou quickly denied.
"Yu Xiu just has a special interest. He helps unidentified bodies find their families, provides clues to help them find their real killers, and even asks for the bodies as gifts from the relatives. But when the relatives refuse, he doesn't continue to pursue them. How can this be called an antisocial personality?" Jian Hou continued.
Hearing this, Jiang Yan, who was walking ahead, nodded in satisfaction.
He couldn’t speak out of turn since it was unrelated to the mission, but thankfully, Jian Hou was there to help him explain.
Although Jiang Yan thought Yu Xiu was a bit of a weirdo, and despite the fact that they were divorced and no longer a couple, he still had to say that Yu Xiu was definitely not a bad person! He didn’t want others to think that Yu Xiu was a bad person.
Jian Hou continued, "Yu Xiu's interest is a bit special, but he would never do anything illegal! For example, he really likes to collect specimens, not just human ones, but also animal ones."
"But he would never touch specimens of protected animals, he’s more compassionate than many people!" Jian Hou insisted.
Jiang Yan listened with satisfaction.
Yu Xiu never collected specimens of protected animals.
To be honest, Jiang Yan thought that Yu Xiu's collection hobby was less about being a weirdo and more about his unique understanding of life.
From the moment Jiang Yan met this guy, he realized Yu Xiu had a different worldview.
Yu Xiu really liked the bodies of creatures, but he didn’t have any perverted desires or obsessions. He didn’t harm any living beings, obeyed the rules of the world—almost to a fault.
He was not afraid of death or corpses like most people; he didn’t worship or glorify death like many who had such oddities. He had a strange, unique respect for both death and bodies—a respect that was his alone.
In truth, the reason Jiang Yan had agreed to Yu Xiu's pursuit wasn’t just because Yu Xiu was handsome or because they were perfectly suited for each other.
There was another reason—Jiang Yan was curious about him.
He was curious about why Yu Xiu saw the world in such a special way.
In fact, even when he knew that most people couldn’t tolerate Yu Xiu’s hobby, Yu Xiu openly told Jiang Yan about it, not fearing that his peculiar interests would scare him off or ruin his pursuit. This level of honesty amazed Jiang Yan.
It made Jiang Yan deeply curious about this person.
Since his birth, Jiang Yan rarely felt curiosity about anyone or anything. For him, curiosity was something exhausting—if you became curious about someone, you would want to know more about them, but understanding others always seemed like a tiring, unnecessary task.
He had always been a lazy person, only engaging in things when absolutely necessary. He had never gone out of his way to understand someone he had no need to know.
But Yu Xiu was different. He was the first person who made Jiang Yan want to understand him.
Sadly, Jiang Yan never managed to truly understand Yu Xiu, nor did he ever understand why Yu Xiu had such a worldview. And then, they got divorced.
Jiang Yan’s mind drifted back to the day Yu Xiu had asked for a divorce.
"Yan Yan, do you love me?" Yu Xiu’s voice, full of grievance, echoed in his mind.
Jiang Yan’s long lashes fluttered slightly, and his calm blue eyes darkened with a trace of emotion.
Love?
He had never imagined that his marriage would end for such a ridiculous reason.
He had never imagined that Yu Xiu would get so caught up in something so absurd.
Love...
Sensing Jiang Yan’s emotional shift, a dark tentacle hidden within him subtly moved, trying to reach out. It coiled around Jiang Yan’s waist, its suckers affectionately licking his smooth skin.
As the tentacles continued to touch, they became increasingly inappropriate.
Jiang Yan couldn't help but roll his eyes and grabbed the tentacle around his waist, giving it a firm pinch.
This guy...
At this moment, he wasn't as curious about how Yu Xiu's worldview had developed. What intrigued him more was how Yu Xiu even ended up in this game! And why had he turned himself into this... thing?!
As his ex-husband, Jiang Yan was now collecting the mutilated remains of Yu Xiu in this horror game. The whole situation sounded like something out of a tragic story.
Jiang Yan thought to himself, but he didn’t notice that both versions of Yu Xiu, who were walking beside him, cast resentful glances in his direction when he pinched the tentacle.
One of the Yu Xius, holding a withered arm like a tree branch, waved it in front of Jiang Yan.
"Yan Yan! Where should I hang this?"
His emerald green eyes were filled with manic excitement.
Jiang Yan: "…Whatever, if you like it, you can put it in your coffin as a burial gift."
"How can that be? My coffin can only have you in it!" Yu Xiu immediately rejected the idea.
Jiang Yan: "..."
Thanks, but he didn’t want to be in a coffin.
Behind them, Cao Youfeng, Tao Shi, and Jian Hou listened to the conversation and were left speechless.
At that moment, Yu Jia stepped forward, joining in.
"See that? This couple is even more messed up than the other! We at Puppet Workshop always said killing Jiang Yan would be a public service! Are you sure you don’t want to team up with us?"
"Ridiculous! Yan Yan is perfectly normal!" Jian Hou defended.
Yu Jia crossed his arms and looked at Jian Hou.
"Mr. Jian, you being friends with these two freaks for so long and still playing all this mind game stuff, you don’t exactly seem like a normal person either," Yu Jia remarked.
Jian Hou: "..."
[Ha ha ha ha... I can feel Yu Jia's exasperation.]
[Mr. Jian really is amazing]
[Mr. Jian really did seem scared when he first entered the game, but after a while, his emotions started to stabilize.]
[After all, how could someone who’s friends with a body collector stay emotionally stable?]
The group continued along the blood-soaked stone path, stepping over scattered limbs and severed arms. They finally reached the other end of the town.
At this point, two massive locust trees had crushed several houses along the sides of the street and now blocked the way.
"This must be the other two locust trees of the town," Tao Shi said.
"One... the one being imprisoned isn’t the townspeople, but rather this group of wronged women and the dead female ghosts?" Cao Youfeng questioned.
"Yes, they’ve been imprisoned for many years, so their resentment runs deep. Once the seal is broken, the backlash will be terrifying," Yu Jia explained.
"They deserve it," Jian Hou said coldly.
Cao Youfeng suddenly seemed to recall something and asked, "I’m really curious about that ancestral curse..."
"The curse clearly couldn’t suppress the resentment, and the backlash was inevitable. Their resentment is too deep, too strong. The entire town is filled with sinister energy. The Red Ghost Woman’s curse is actually a form of backlash, a way for them to get revenge," Yu Jia explained.
"But this ghost... Ha!" Yu Jia sneered.
"What’s a ‘Ghost’? A Ghost refers to the soul of a human who was eaten by a tiger and became its servant. These are despicable people who often lure others to be eaten by the tiger, which is what people call ‘doing the tiger’s bidding,’" Yu Jia explained slowly.
He was quite knowledgeable about feng shui and folk customs, and he had been through this kind of scenario more than once.
"At first, I thought this tiger was the Red Ghost Lady but clearly, this tiger isn’t her. When I heard the noises at night, I thought the Ghosts were helping the Red Ghost Lady look for her child. But now I realize they were mocking her."
"Mocking... her overestimating herself." Yu Jia's gaze darkened.
"They mocked her for thinking she had the power to love her daughter, mocked her for thinking she could resist the rules of the entire ‘town.’ And at that time, the rules of the town were the laws of the entire world."
Indeed, she had greatly overestimated herself...
Yu Jia sighed deeply.
"These four locust trees didn’t just imprison the Red Ghost Lady and the Mountain God; they imprisoned themselves, turning everyone in the town into Ghosts."
The group sighed in unison.
At that moment, Tao Shi said, "Let’s move ahead and check it out! The couple is nowhere to be seen!"
After speaking, the group jumped over the two locust trees blocking their path.
Jiang Yan’s "mother" and the two "children" of Cang Rou had been tied to the trees by a few members of the group.
As they crossed over the trees, they were shocked by the scene in front of them.
"My... God!" Cao Youfeng gasped, wide-eyed.
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