Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Su Dayi watched as Zhou Yi removed his black-framed glasses, revealing his small, indistinct eyes. She immediately shot back at Wu Heng, "Wu Heng, as a shaman, fix his vision to 5.3 on the spot and show off your skills!"

Zhou Yi: "..."

Just because I told her to run to lose weight? Do fox spirits really hold such a grudge?

Wu Heng's mouth twitched. "Alright, next time I come across someone with eye trouble, I'll help Zhou Yi get a myopia surgery while I'm at it."

Shamanic medicine does have a way to fix myopia, which is not a difficult task. However, Zhou Yi planned to consult Wu Heng after the college entrance exam.

Noticing the sorceresses frozen in fear, Wu Heng picked up a bamboo tube and approached the corpse-eating gu, easily trapping it by flipping the tube and sealing it with a lid.

The sorceresses: "?"

Just like that? It was caught that easily?

It's common in traditional Chinese medicine to use venomous snakes, centipedes, and insects to make medicinal wine. The sorceresses weren't shocked that Dr. Wu caught the gu.

But some sorceresses weren't having it: "So my golden silkworm gu just died for nothing?"

The gu they'd raised for years just vanished? Just fed to Wu Heng's newly caught gu?

Wu Heng said, "Don't fret, ladies. Even though you lost your gu, I'll catch a few more corpse-eating gu to make it up to you."

The officers looked uneasy, their faces growing serious. Wu Heng's words... seemed off.

"Got it," Lai Yin Chai said, holding a skinny young male ghost with his soul-hooking rope. "When I went in, this kid was sitting on your couch playing games."

The courier barely heard the yin emissary's voice in his ear and suddenly widened his eyes.

The skinny boy quickly defended himself, "But I paid the electricity bill! I've been powering his lights, TV, fridge, washer, and AC lately."

Wu Heng glanced at the confused courier and said, "So you touched the appliances he charged, and that's how you got zapped."

The courier nearly laughed at the kid's nerve.

You could call him self-aware—he crashed at someone's place. But you could also call him clueless—he paid the electric bill.

"Wait, you were the first guy to find me after I fell. How are you a ghost?" Zhou Fenghua stared at the student ghost, confused. Just yesterday, she had seen the boy turn around to look at her in the classroom.

Earlier, the courier said his electric issue had been going on for days, so he couldn't have just died last night. So who was the male student she saw yesterday?

The student ghost lowered his head and stammered, unsure how to respond.

"Granny Lai guessed correctly. That corpse-eating gu was indeed raised on human blood," Wu Heng said, lifting his chin to look at the student ghost. "It fed on his blood."

Immediately, everyone took a step back, looking at the thin figure with horror.

The yin energy in the clinic was so heavy that even ordinary people like the Village Chief could vaguely see those figures.

"I... I was addicted to the internet, so my parents sent me to a rehab school, where I was electrocuted to death by the instructors," the student ghost said, his face filled with terror, speaking vaguely. "The ghosts and demons told us to release gu in various high schools, or they would continue to electrocute us."

This male student, having died from electrocution, was naturally terrified of it and could only obediently comply out of fear.

"I didn't want to do it anymore, so I ran away and accidentally rolled into a delivery truck. I ended up following this big brother home and found that his computer setup was quite luxurious but unused, so I just played a few games."

Chen Zhao suddenly asked, "Did they pay you for your work?"

The student ghost was stunned and shook his head, saying, 'No pay for this gig. Refuse, and you get zapped.'

The focus of the others wasn’t on whether there was a salary, but on the student ghost’s claim of planting bugs in schools...

Wu Heng looked at the bamboo tube containing the gu insect and said, 'These gu bugs breed easily; just swapping spit can spawn eggs. Once it’s fully grown, it starts silently feasting on flesh and blood. Once it dies, it takes over the body completely. And the gu insect’s master can remotely control these living corpses.'

It is precisely because of this devouring method that the original soul leaves a faint imprint in the body, allowing it to live normally, attend school, and take exams, making it difficult for the living to detect any abnormalities.

The Zhou family immediately felt relieved. Zhou Yi wasn’t about to have a teenage fling. Unless those little girls and boys were total brainiacs, only into smarts, not looks.

Zhou Yi’s face turned red with anger, and he clenched his fists, saying, 'Swapping spit doesn’t always mean kissing! Drinking from the same cup or eating the same dish could also do it!'

The Village Chief waved his hand and said, 'Stop talking. We all know it’s impossible for you.'

If he were a zombie, Wu Heng wouldn’t let him into Chengde Medical Hall.

Wu Heng looked at Zhou Fenghua’s ghost and said, 'Teacher Zhou’s will is so strong that she’s clung to her body for three years after death, while the others have already been taken over by gu insects.'

Wang Jun’s face darkened, and he almost gritted his teeth as he said, 'So, there are living corpses in the town’s middle school?'

Zhou Yi got the chills. So, it’s very possible that his classmates might be bugs, not people?

No one knows what those people in the shadows want to do by controlling living corpses. Your imagination is the scariest thing.

'Students... students...' Zhou Fenghua thought more and more fearfully, screamed, and bolted out of the medical hall.

'Fenghua, don’t go out yet!' The Village Chief saw this scene and shouted loudly, but found that Zhou Fenghua was even faster. Her ghost had already passed through the medical hall door and run out.

Zhou Yi quickly opened the medical hall door. The sun was blazing today, and the winter sunlight flooded in.

'Ah—it’s burning, burning!' The student ghost screamed in fear and quickly avoided the sunlight.

Lai Yin Chai stepped back, taking a fan from the lantern to cover his face as he chased after her.

It’s common knowledge that ghosts fear sunlight. Even yin emissaries, who are ghosts, fear it, but the impact isn’t as great. So, Lai Yin Chai was used to this discomfort during the day and could still work overtime.

The Zhou family was on edge, feeling that Zhou Fenghua hadn’t yet adapted to her identity as a ghost, thinking she was still human and unafraid of sunlight. Running out of the medical hall so recklessly would surely harm her body.

The Village Chief quickly grabbed old lady Lai’s wrist and urgently said, 'Grab a jar, old lady Lai! Hurry, trap Fenghua’s soul for now...?'

A group of people rushed out of the medical hall door, gaping at the hazy figure in the sunlight.

Zhou Fenghua, under the sun, was unharmed? From her body movements, it didn’t seem like she was being burned by the sunlight.

Lai Yin Chai pulled on his tall white hat and exclaimed, 'Is this what a ghost with a strong will can do? Not even afraid of sunlight?'

'This can’t be right. When I took Nie Wei, the fierce ghost, to the underworld, she told me she could move in sunlight but it made her uncomfortable.'

So, all the fierce ghost women of Ping’an Village prefer to move at night.

Is a ghost with strong attachments more powerful than a fierce ghost king? It shouldn’t be, right?

Wu Heng stood at the medical hall door, watching the distant figure, and smiled slightly, saying, 'She has merit.'

Besides her teaching merits, she also brought the concept of 'knowledge changes fate' into the eighteen villages of Nu River with her own strength. After all, this young girl is the first descendant of the Zhou family in nearly thirty years to enter through the ancestral hall’s main door.

Wu Heng looked at the dozen or so gu ladies and said, 'Ladies, take the leftover insect repellent I brewed last night and follow Teacher Zhou.'

Wang Jun realized something was wrong and said, 'Half of you stay to handle Teacher Zhou’s remains, and the rest come with us to the school.'

Zhou Yi ditched his electric scooter and quickly got into the police car, watching Officer Wang urgently report the situation to his superior.

Wang Jun asked, "Haven’t the students at Hezipo Town Middle School been vaccinated yet?"

Zhou Yi nodded and said, "The principal planned to vaccinate us after finals."

Wang Jun cursed under his breath, "Now, with this mess, finals might not even happen!"

Even though Zhou Fenghua had been dead for three years, it was her first time being a ghost, and she slowly discovered that ghosts could float.

She zoomed over at breakneck speed to the town middle school, first going to her own class, glaring through the classroom’s back window at the boy who was the first to discover her falling on the stone steps, now roughhousing with another boy.

The boy licked his parched lips, looking at the one-third empty bottle of mineral water on the desk, and said, "Tang Liang, I’ve finished my water. Let me have some of yours. Don’t worry, I won’t drink from the bottle."

"Sure," the boy smiled and handed over the water bottle.

Zhou Fenghua wasn’t sure why, perhaps because she had stayed in the same body as the gu worm for too long, she squinted and caught a glimpse of a gu worm in the boy’s throat, extending its ovipositor.

"Slap—!"

The boy had just taken the water bottle when suddenly, for no reason, it fell to the ground.

The boy froze, quickly bent down to pick up the bottle, but found that he couldn’t pick it up, as if something was holding it down.

The boy was immediately startled: "Ah?! What’s going on?"

The other kids turned to look, originally with some curiosity, a girl who was writing an exam suddenly said nervously, "You all saw Dr. Wu’s live stream with Teacher Zhou last night, didn’t you? Today, Teacher Zhou didn’t come, could it be... could it be..."

The classroom erupted in terrified screams.

The class monitor stood up at this moment, loudly saying, "What’s the big deal if it’s Teacher Zhou? Did you all watch the replay last night? She wouldn’t hurt us if she came back! What’s to be scared of? Zhou Yi could be possessed by a ghost and jump off a building, what else is there to fear now?"

"Right, from elementary to high school, these past ten years, Teacher Zhou’s always been the best to me, strict when she needs to be, gentle like a big sister. In my first year of high school, I only scored forty-something in English, but yesterday’s quiz, I scored 130!"

A sentimental girl sniffled and cried, "I broke down watching the replay last night, there will never be another Teacher Zhou."

"Teacher Zhou, is that you?"

Zhou Fenghua stomped on the water bottle, glaring at the worm in disguise.

"Tang Liang" gave Zhou Fenghua a somewhat strange smile, took out a new bottle of mineral water from the drawer, and handed it to the boy, "Drink this."

Zhou Fenghua flew into a rage, regardless of the fact that even as a ghost she was only 1.55 meters tall, she lunged at the 1.8-meter-tall Tang Liang.

The kids panicked when Tang Liang suddenly collapsed, the class monitor quickly went to get the homeroom teacher.

When the homeroom teacher and principal showed up, they saw the bizarre scene, the male student on the ground seemed to be wrestling with someone, like he was possessed.

The principal, thinking of the headache-inducing news from yesterday, the homeroom teacher advised:

"Teacher Zhou? Teacher Zhou Fenghua? Can you not cause trouble in the school? Don’t you love these students the most? This will affect their revision!"

It made no sense at all.

A dead teacher and a student wrestling? It doesn’t make sense.

And how did she manage to get in during broad daylight?

Just as everyone was puzzled, Zhou Yi arrived with Officer Wang and a group of gu grannies.

Old lady Lai cradled a bamboo tube in her arms, lightly dipped her left pinky into the insect-repellent liquid inside, and turned her palm upward three times in a rhythmic motion before flicking the liquid onto Tang Liang.

As soon as the brown-black liquid touched his skin, Tang Liang suddenly froze, his eyes fixed straight on the ceiling. A pitch-black gu worm, scorched, burst through his throat and crawled out.

Old lady Lai quickly grabbed her small jar and trapped the worm inside.

"Ah—!" The students screamed in horror at the sight.

The principal and teachers were stunned. What... what was going on? Had a student died in their school? This was a disaster, a complete mess.

Zhou Yi quickly recounted the situation. The principal felt like the sky was falling, but soon realized, "So, Teacher Zhou isn’t here to cause trouble?"

Wait, she’s here to protect the students?

The students were terrified. It meant that Tang Liang, who had been chatting and going to school with them, wasn’t a living person at all but a worm in human skin? A girl who was terrified of bugs nearly fainted.

The male student who had wanted to drink the mineral water earlier was now trembling with fear.

He knelt in mid-air and kowtowed three times, crying, "Teacher Zhou, thank you for saving me earlier. Otherwise... otherwise I..."

Zhou Fenghua didn’t have time to lift the student up. Instead, her eyes swept over the students.

‘I... seem to be able to see the adult worms inside the students.’

After old lady Lai explained the situation, the principal clenched his fist and struck his palm, shouting, "Lock down the school now! Have the homeroom teachers keep all students in their classrooms and restrict movement."

The principal looked into the air, nearly bowing to Zhou Fenghua, "Teacher Zhou, we’re relying on you."

After Teacher Zhou and the others left, the police moved Tang Liang’s body away. The students were nervous but began whispering among themselves.

Since seeing Zhou Yi possessed by a ghost and jumping off a building unharmed, their ability to accept such things had grown stronger.

"So, anyone who’s shared saliva could have those worm eggs inside them? Once the eggs mature, we’ll be the next Tang Liang?" The class monitor summarized Zhou Yi’s words, swallowing hard.

"I’m reporting Chen Yong and Li Jiajia for being in a relationship!"

"Then I’ll report too. I saw the study committee member making out with the class beauty from Class 2 the other night."

"..."

Zhou Yi, munching on the gossip his classmates were dishing out, quietly adjusted his glasses. Turns out, he was the only one truly focused on studying.

"Hey, what are you reporting? Is that the point right now?" The study committee member, holding a pen, asked, "Are we really going to let Teacher Zhou be sealed in the gu grannies’ jar after she’s done helping?"

Suddenly, the classroom fell silent.

Since ancient times, there’s been a clear distinction between reward and punishment. Wrongdoings must be punished, and good deeds must be rewarded.

Many of the students were from the mountains. Their grandparents had practiced feudal superstitions, taking them to gu grannies to treat illnesses with gu worms. They had seen those jars and pots before.

Even prisons have windows, allowing sunlight in. Would Teacher Zhou be confined there forever?

A student whispered, "Given the situation, it seems like evil spirits will be everywhere from now on. Teacher Zhou staying at the school until June isn’t a big deal. We’ll just get used to it."

"Actually, think of it this way. Even though Teacher Zhou is a ghost, she won’t harm us. And as a ghost, she can see things we can’t. Maybe she can even warn us? The principal could give her a new role, like teaching us ghost evacuation drills. Wouldn’t that be great?"

Another student objected, "But Teacher Zhou is a ghost. Doesn’t Dr. Wu always say that encountering ghosts can bring evil energy and cause illnesses? That’s why Teacher Zhou is afraid of harming us and willingly went into the gu grannies’ jar."

The students fell silent again. They walked to the window and looked outside. The school was locked down, surrounded by police tape. Many police officers were there, and funeral home workers were carrying body bags out. Clearly, they had caught a few more living corpses in human skin.

"Zhou Yi, why don’t you video call Dr. Wu?"

Zhou Yi took out his phone and video-called Wu Heng on WeChat. In the frame, Wu Heng’s face was tense, and Wu Su’s frantic yelling could faintly be heard in the background.

Wu Su had arranged a catering team from the village and picked out a few pigs to slaughter, planning to kill some for his son’s coming-of-age banquet. He intended to slaughter them in the backyard of the medical hall, but Chen Zhao and You Jin, the two useless guys, failed to hold them down.

Wu Su was now chasing a pig around the backyard, yelling, "Ahhh, help! Xiao Heng, I don’t want to ride a pig!"

Wu Heng let the little white snake handle it and sat down with his phone.

Zhou Yi held his phone, crowded by classmates.

"Xiao Heng, Teacher Zhou and the gu ladies seem to have caught quite a few zombies, but she can’t detect others who only have larvae inside."

Wu Heng nodded, "If there are only larvae and no adults, there’s no need to fear. A dose of deworming medicine should fix it, or those who have been vaccinated are also fine. In a few days, I’ll share some common remedies."

The students immediately recalled the online buzz about Dr. Wu from Chengde Medical Hall holding a press conference and felt reassured.

"About Teacher Zhou... Got any other ideas?" Zhou Yi couldn’t help but ask.

People are born and die, and if Zhou Fenghua could reincarnate peacefully, perhaps they wouldn’t be so worried. But the situation was too much to handle.

Wu Heng glanced at the little white snake as it hissed threateningly at the pig, which finally stopped.

"You’ve all seen 'Fengshen Bang,' right? After Nezha died, he got a new body."

Ancient times predate the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and witchcraft has been passed down, so we can trace its origins.

A student blurted out, "Lotus root? Yes, Nezha was a lotus root person!"

"Great! As soon as the school reopens, we’ll go buy lotus roots! They’re super cheap," another student stood up excitedly.

Wu Heng shook his head, "No need to buy lotus roots. If you are sincere, each of you grab a handful of dirt from the front of your family’s main hall, mix it with well water into a clay ball, and place it in front of the altar in the Nuo God’s temple."

Wu Heng had also considered paper effigies. A skilled Master Liu could allow spirits and demons to inhabit paper effigies, and during the day, they could live like ordinary people by simply carrying an umbrella.

But paper effigies have their drawbacks—they are afraid of fire, easily damaged, and need to be replaced frequently. Most importantly, yin emissaries might capture them.

Clay, however, is the most primitive thing in the world, a gift from the heavens to all things. Clay touching the ground is the best dwelling for spirits and demons who wish to live normally in the mortal world.

"If the clay ball is not dry or cracked by tomorrow morning..."

Zhou Yi anxiously followed up, "What if it’s not dry or cracked?"

Wu Heng looked at the small paper figure with Zhou Fenghua’s birth details and smiled, "It means the heavens are being kind to the spirit."

In ancient times, there was the story of Nüwa creating humans. Even as a shaman, Wu Heng didn’t possess Nüwa’s abilities. He once used clay to mold missing ears and teeth for Liu Ziyang, the son of a cultural relics police officer, but those were only decorative, like prosthetic eyes.

Only those with virtue receive heaven’s pity, resolving their obsessions. The clay would not just serve as decoration; yin emissaries would also regard it as a living person.

Zhou Yi and the others shouted in unison, "We understand!"

If it were something else, perhaps they couldn’t do much, but a handful of dirt from the front of their main hall was something they could definitely provide.

The incident at Hezipo Town Middle School was likely impossible to hide. A crowd gathered outside the school, pointing and gossiping.

Combined with the online frenzy yesterday about Dr. Wu’s free clinic for teachers, which seemed to be from this school, it seemed something had happened inside.

The students were dismissed early today, and as they left with their backpacks, they were bombarded with questions from the curious onlookers.

Zhou Yi was originally a commuter student and was thinking about digging up mud, but he immediately hit a snag. He usually rode his electric bike to and from school, but today he came to school in a police car. How was he going to get back now?

"Hey, aren’t you Zhou Yi, Dr. Wu’s good friend?" Just as he was wondering, Zhou Yi heard someone calling him.

Zhou Yi turned around and saw a high-end car from the provincial city. He peered at the people inside the car and said, "Oh, aren’t you the patient with the snake fetus?"

He Yunxiao nodded with a smile. Zhou Yi then looked at the other snobbish folks and said, "Oh, aren’t you the Beijing big shots who were wandering all over our Nan Nuo Village during the summer vacation?"

Li Hao and the others were about to explode: "!!"

"Why do you only remember us wandering around aimlessly? Why don’t you remember that the 5G base station in your village was built with our help?"

Zhou Yi apologized awkwardly, "Ah? That’s a bit more memorable."

Li Hao and the group: "..."

"Get in, we’ll give you a ride to Nan Nuo Village," He Yunxiao, almost laughing uncontrollably, invited.

Knowing that Wu Heng had a good relationship with them, Zhou Yi didn’t refuse and immediately got into the car with his backpack, guessing, "You’re here specifically to celebrate Xiao Heng’s birthday, right?"

This road was the only way to Nan Nuo Village, and they probably passed by the school on their way from the provincial city to see the commotion, and that’s how they spotted him.

He Yunxiao and the others nodded, that was exactly it.

Turning eighteen was very important, and they had decided to make time to come to Nan Nuo Village, especially since their parents were supportive. This was He Yunxiao’s first time here.

"What happened at your school just now? There was police tape, and it seemed like they carried out quite a few bodies?" Li Hao pressed, "Wasn’t it the teacher from your school who had the charity clinic last night..."

Zhou Yi snapped back, "Don’t speculate! It wasn’t Teacher Zhou, it was the gu."

Knowing they had a close relationship, Zhou Yi decided to reveal the truth, which made He Yunxiao and Li Hao’s eyes nearly pop out.

He Yunxiao said incredulously, "What? The gu manipulating corpses to act as living people and preparing to cause trouble? There’s really everything nowadays!"

Li Hao thought for a moment and suddenly asked, "Zhou Yi, do you know how those classmates’ grades are? They must be the bottom of the class, right?"

Zhou Yi recalled the class rankings and said, "Not bad, I might not know about others, but Tang Liang sometimes scores over 500, well above the first-tier line."

Immediately, Li Hao and the group were on the verge of tears, "What? Even the bugs are outscoring us living humans? Are we the bugs?"