Chapter 197: Xiao Ba's Speculation

"Believe it or not, it is your right," Shen Nian said.

"I only ask one thing of you.

"Take my child, wait here, and get on the bus. Then you can leave Blood Gate Village.

"This is my final plea to you."

Gao Tian would absolutely not take this child.

This "thing" that looked like Shen Nian's child.

If this chubby, robust "little boy" was fake, then where was Shen Nian's real child?

Had he already been murdered? Eaten?

The Wind Attendant Buddha asked slowly, "Why is your child here in Blood Gate Village, and how did you two meet?"

Shen Nian lowered his head. He thought for a long time before freezing up and stuttering again. "That is because... the blood, blood, blood, blood from twenty years ago—"

This question had caused him to crash. A corpse puppet was just a puppet; the moment it was asked about something missing from its memory, it would repeat a single word in an endless loop.

Gao Tian was very patient. This question had to have an answer.

After a long while, Shen Nian raised his head and looked at Gao Tian again, seemingly having found the answer in his fractured, shattered memories. "I think I know.

"Twenty years ago, I went to Blood Gate Village. Although I escaped later, I lost a portion of my memories regarding this place when passing through the white fog."

"So," Gao Tian prompted.

"At that time, my child and I entered Blood Gate Village together," Shen Nian said.

"When I left, I left alone. He was left behind here, and most of the memories related to him were erased as well.

"As a child in Blood Gate Village, he stayed here all alone for twenty years.

"Until I returned.

"This time, I would rather sacrifice myself and die in the well, as long as I can send him to the bus stop.

"I am an incompetent father."

Hearing this, Gao Tian almost laughed out of sheer exasperation. "Take a good look. What exactly is this child next to you?

"You left him in Blood Gate Village twenty years ago. Fine, even assuming the Shen Nian I know could actually do such a thing.

"Twenty years later, you return to Blood Gate Village, and the child still looks around ten years old. He hasn't grown at all in twenty years. A man in his thirties is still chubby and robust, right?"

As he said this, he kept his eyes locked on the seemingly harmless little boy who was climbing up and down the chair to play.

He figured that since he had punctured the flaw in the other party's logic, this thing was about to turn into a Fierce Ghost and start killing.

Regardless, the one who came here was the Wind Attendant Buddha. Even if it was killed, it didn't matter.

The little boy seemed completely deaf to the adults' conversation. He remained wholly focused, climbing and playing on the waiting room bench.

Every now and then, he would cry out that he was hungry, shaking Shen Nian's thigh, which already had more than half of its white bone exposed.

Meanwhile, in Blood Gate Village, another conversation was taking place inside Yin Jiu's house.

Regarding the things Qin Zhuguang had recalled, Gao Tian frowned, finding it somewhat unbelievable. "I don't quite understand—

"The file you saw on Shen Nian was about a person from twenty years ago?"

Qin Zhuguang shifted her gaze to Gao Tian. "Twenty years ago, he was already in his forties.

"At this current point in time, the real Shen Nian is at least in his early sixties.

"Roughly how old was the 'Shen Nian' you saw on the bus?"

"He—" Gao Tian started.

"Was a man around forty. Although his face looked a bit weathered and exhausted, he definitely wasn't over fifty."

What in the world was going on?

Had time completely frozen for Shen Nian over the past twenty-plus years? Had he never aged again?

"There is an even more serious problem that you haven't realized," Qin Zhuguang said.

"The timeline for the child doesn't match up either.

"Twenty years ago, he already had a child, and the boy was under ten years old.

"At this current point in time, Shen Nian's real child should be nearing thirty.

"But in Shen Nian's memories, his child is still a little boy around ten. That 'thing' in the waiting room also appeared in the form of a ten-year-old boy, which proves it is deliberately catering to Shen Nian's perception.

"This missing gap of twenty years simply does not exist for Shen Nian."

Qin Zhuguang's Light Cat was attached to Gao Tian's Wind Attendant Buddha. She had also seen the scene outside the mist.

Gao Tian forced out an extremely strained explanation, "Shen Nian just looks young for his age. A man in his sixties looking like he's in his forties... and maybe he remarried later on and had another child—

...

"Forget it. Pretend I didn't say anything. That's too much of a stretch."

"Have you ever seen Shen Nian anywhere outside the Inner World?" Qin Zhuguang asked.

"For example, back in reality, in Minghai City, or any other normal place."

"No," Gao Tian replied.

"I've only crossed paths with him once on the bus."

"Was anyone else with Shen Nian at the time? A companion of his?" Qin Zhuguang pressed for confirmation.

"No," Gao Tian replied.

"He was all alone."

This time, Qin Zhuguang only pondered for two seconds. "I have a speculation.

"Do you think the 'Shen Nian' from back then truly left Blood Gate Village?"

Gao Tian couldn't wrap his head around it for the moment.

Qin Zhuguang began to align the timeline. "Over twenty years ago, Shen Nian, a senior ghost hunter of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, brought a Fierce Ghost into his home following a certain supernatural incident. This caused his wife to fear him, shattering their family. His wife took their child, distanced herself from Shen Nian, and flew far away.

"After this incident, Shen Nian's perception began to break down."

Among ghost hunters, cases of mental breakdowns and psychological collapse due to overwhelming pressure were everywhere.

It wasn't strange at all.

"It was clearly a divorce, but from his perspective, his wife became his late wife.

"The child was taken abroad by his wife, but in his perspective, it morphed into his child being abducted into the Inner World by a Fierce Ghost."

"Shen Nian's mental illness grew increasingly severe. Guided by memories that never existed, he entered the Inner World to search for the child in his memory," she said, "and he arrived at Blood Gate Village.

"After experiencing a series of adventures in Blood Gate Village, he did indeed pass through the mist and escape. But the Shen Nian who escaped was nothing more than a corpse. Shen Nian was already dead by then, but he completely failed to realize this fact.

"He already suffered from mental issues. After dying, much like the people of the Old District, he didn't know he was dead. His cognitive issues worsened.

"Did he tell you he had been in the Inner World for a month?"

"That's what he said," Gao Tian replied.

"It hasn't been a month, but twenty years," Qin Zhuguang stated.

"Ever since then, a ghost named Shen Nian has been wandering every bus in the Inner World. His self-perception is that of a father, a retired ghost hunter. He gives everyone the exact same speech, and every time he gets off the bus, it's at Blood Gate Village.

"He can only live in the Inner World. He can't return to the real world.

"The moment he returns to reality, his rotting corpse would no longer be able to maintain the disguise of being normal."

"What exactly is Blood Gate Village?" Gao Tian asked.

"Is it really the netherworld, just as Shen Nian claimed?

"After entering this place and passing through the Blood Gate, we all became ghosts.

"Even if we escape, will we just be meaningless wandering souls?"

The cycle of Blood Gate Village bore some resemblance to Longshu Temple.

But there were differences as well.

In Longshu Temple, time truly looped, resetting the exact same day over and over.

Blood Gate Village, however, was just a father with broken perception constantly hypnotizing himself, carrying out a meaningless search.

"No one knows the truth about Blood Gate Village," Qin Zhuguang said.

"Every piece of history here might be fake; or it might all be true.

"The stops in the Inner World are born from certain events in reality—or perhaps more than one event.

"Multiple supernatural incidents overlapped, collectively leading to the birth of Blood Gate Village.

"In a certain village, a woman killed by the village chief's son became a Fierce Ghost. In another village, the village chief's son killed a completely unrelated woman to stop the spread of a plague.

"In some place unknown to us, a certain incident birthed a powerful obsession hoping for the netherworld to exist.

"Countless events overlapped, collectively forging the Blood Gate Village stop."

Perhaps no one could ever untangle the history of Blood Gate Village.

It truly had a thousand faces for a thousand people.

Qin Zhuguang finally let out a long sigh. "Shen Nian's son is around thirty years old. He emigrated abroad in his early years, and his current whereabouts are unknown.

"From the very beginning, he was never in the Inner World, nor was he in Blood Gate Village. There is a high probability that he is still in reality.

"We can go back now.

"The Supernatural Disaster Bureau creates backup files for the relatives of every ghost hunter, terrified that their family members might be replaced by Fierce Ghosts and cause problems for the Bureau.

"After returning to Shunjin City, I'll hand this over to the Archives Department to track down the whereabouts of Shen Nian's son from twenty years ago. I can give you an answer within two days at the earliest."

As for the "Shen Nian" left outside the mist, along with the "child" that had been formed from god knows what, Qin Zhuguang didn't care in the slightest.

Let them do whatever they wanted. If Qin Zhuguang wanted to leave this place, no one could stop her.

Right at that moment, beneath the pitch-black sky of Blood Gate Village, violent knocking rang out against the tightly sealed Blood Gate outside the house.

A mournful, grieving voice echoed over and over, "Gao Tian—Gao Tian. Gao Tian! Gao Tian..."

The Well-Coiling Bone was here.

She had come looking for Gao Tian. Last night, that warning sign had blinded her eyes, and today, he had dug up her well. The Well-Coiling Bone would absolutely not let Gao Tian off tonight.

The entire Blood Gate began to shake violently. There was no telling how much longer it could hold against the frenzied entity outside.

Gao Tian didn't really care; he was going to leave this place immediately anyway.

But what about Yin Jiu? What about the elderly, weak, and sick he had saved?

Qin Zhuguang had made it very clear that she wouldn't take these people away. They exceeded her limit.

The moment the two of them left and the Well-Coiling Bone broke in, everyone left here would die.

Gao Tian turned his head and realized that Yin Jiu was looking at him too.

The candle flame on the table flickered, casting jumping shadows across Yin Jiu's face, just like when they had first met.