“What’s wrong?” Zhou Ze frowned, clearly, he had also smelled something.

“Nothing, I need to pee, you go first!”

The old Daoist finished speaking and immediately turned and ran outside.

Zhou Ze looked at his hand and didn't follow up to ask anything. Instead, he took a taxi directly back to the bookstore.

The old Daoist came to the side of the road and reached into his crotch, pulling out a talisman. The talisman had already turned red, and it turned to ash in the wind, scattering away.

This was the old Daoist’s ancestral talisman. As for why it was hidden in this location, it could only be said that it was not for outsiders to know.

But that scene just now had already been imprinted in the old Daoist’s memory.

Of course, looking down at the walnuts that were scorched and stuck together,

it was also imprinted on his flesh.

“Damn it, Boss, never would I have thought that I would run into your fellow townsman in Tongcheng, over two thousand kilometers away.”

In the dark,

there might be a kind of connection,

just like when Zhou Ze was watching the old Daoist’s live-stream video, seeing the young man in the video sitting behind the counter of the underworld shop, struggling to drink porridge, he felt a strange feeling,

that wasn't just anorexia,

actually,

they were the same kind of people.

In this world, he wasn't the absolute only and singularly different one.

Just like the faceless woman’s unwilling roar in hell:

“How can you leave too?”

This meant that,

it wasn't just Zhou Ze; someone else had left in front of the faceless woman before.

Adding the black-fingered old man that Zhou Ze saved from the car accident,

this world,

really wasn't as calm as he imagined.

………………

By the time he took a taxi back to the bookstore, it was already one o’clock in the morning. Zhou Ze cleaned up the glass shards on the bathroom floor, then boiled several kettles of water and used a towel to barely wipe his body.

He decided to have someone install a shower tomorrow to make it easier for him to wash. For someone with mild cleanliness issues, not being able to shower was definitely a form of torture.

Returning to the second floor, he set the temperature and lay down, closing his eyes, preparing to bid farewell to the day's fatigue and all the day's disturbances.

He slept soundly and peacefully.

Nothing happened overnight.

The next morning, after getting out of the ice coffin, Zhou Ze first washed up, then opened the door and glanced next door.

The next door was still closed today.

He couldn't contact Doctor Lin for the time being.

His wife was gone,

and now even he was gone.

Zhou Ze shook his head violently. Damn it, why would he have such a thought?

Xu Le’s lingering poison was harmful.

Yes,

that must be it.

Having not eaten anything since last night, Zhou Ze could only take out his phone and order takeout, noting for the restaurant to add extra vinegar.

After waiting for about twenty minutes, a young man in a yellow delivery uniform arrived on his electric scooter. He pushed open the door and walked in, handing the takeout to Zhou Ze, who was sitting behind the counter reading a book.

“Thank you, it’s really not easy, having to deliver takeout during the New Year.” Zhou Ze said politely.

“It’s not easy for you either, having to eat takeout during the New Year.” The delivery guy replied directly.

“…………” Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze felt like he had taken an arrow to the knee. He looked up specifically at the delivery guy in front of him. He was very young, looking only in his early twenties.

“Is this a bookstore?” The delivery guy looked around the store. “The kind where you can sit down and read? How much does it cost?”

“Pay what you want.” Zhou Ze opened the takeout packaging.

“Got it.”

The delivery guy sat down on a plastic stool and picked up a copy of *Doupo Cangqiong*, reading it with great interest.

Zhou Ze poured the vinegar provided by the restaurant into his mouth. Perhaps it was because he had been trained by Xu Qinglang's perverted level of sour plum juice recently, but Zhou Ze didn't feel much of anything from this ordinary vinegar.

Then, he wolfed down the food. Halfway through, a feeling of nausea began to hit him.

Zhou Ze grabbed his own neck with both hands, forcing himself not to throw up. Finally, after a terrifying stalemate, the nausea slowly receded. Zhou Ze wiped the corners of his mouth and then began to cough heavily.

“Bro, eat slower. In my grandma's words, the way you're eating looks like a starving ghost being reincarnated.”

The delivery guy said while reading his book.

Zhou Ze glared at him and simply sat down in his chair to catch his breath. He needed to recover.

Damn Xu Qinglang,

why hasn't he opened yet!

Zhou Ze decided that if he didn't open by the afternoon, he would have to break down the door and look for the remaining sour plum juice or bitter melon juice; otherwise, he really wouldn't be able to eat this meal.

The delivery guy seemed to have stopped taking orders and sat there reading the novel for an hour.

“Huh, why is there a smell of burnt coal?” The delivery guy suddenly sniffed his nose and then walked out of the bookstore.

Zhou Ze didn't take it seriously. The guy probably wanted to read for a while and didn't want to pay. It didn't matter.

This bookstore really made money by chance.

But then, the delivery guy who had just walked outside immediately opened his mouth and shouted:

“Wow, it’s on fire!”

Zhou Ze became alert and immediately walked out of the store. He looked up and his gaze immediately froze. On the fourth floor of the building above, thick smoke was billowing out.

That was,

the movie theater!

The only place in the original commercial center that still had some popularity was that movie theater, and these days, because it was the New Year season, many people came here to watch movies.

“Let’s go, let’s save people.” The delivery guy ran straight towards that direction.

Zhou Ze stood there and hesitated for ten seconds. The fire was definitely big, but it definitely wouldn't burn his bookstore. He was restraining the instinct deep within him to save people.

In the past, he couldn't remember how many times he had rushed to the front lines of disaster sites to participate in rescues, but recently, he had planned to change this bad habit.

However, after an intense inner struggle, Zhou Ze still ran over with him.

He,

was still cheap!

From the first floor to the third floor, there were many people running down the stairs, while Zhou Ze was running up.

Although this commercial center was “abandoned,” it was located in the city center, and the fire trucks should arrive soon.

There weren't as many people watching movies in the morning as in the afternoon, but the number was still considerable. When Zhou Ze ran along the stairs to the fourth floor, he saw that the smoke inside was much thicker, and the flames were burning very strangely. Even if it was an accidental fire, it couldn't possibly burn so dramatically!

But this was not the time to analyze the cause. In the smoke, Zhou Ze saw the delivery guy, his face blackened, carrying an old woman out.

The delivery guy glanced at Zhou Ze, smiled, revealing his white teeth, and then turned and ran back to the viewing area to continue saving people.

The fire had not completely spread out, but in the viewing area, the fire was very dramatic.

Zhou Ze didn't hesitate any longer. Since he had already come, he had to do something. He immediately ran into the smoke.

“Cough cough... cough cough...”

Without any protective measures, rushing in hastily was a very stupid thing to do; it was easy to fail to save people and end up dying yourself.

So Zhou Ze knew he had limited time. If he saw someone who needed help, he would bring them out. He couldn't do much else and could only wait for professional firefighters to come and handle it.

“Huff...”

Zhou Ze had just opened the door to cinema hall number 2, and flames actually shot out directly, forcing Zhou Ze to retreat to avoid the flames.

And inside, there were still cries for help.

Zhou Ze gritted his teeth and rushed in. The cinema hall was full of flames everywhere, on the floor, on the ceiling, on the walls. Everything was on fire, and because the space here was cramped, the smoke produced by the burning could only gather here.

Among the people who die in a fire, more people are suffocated by smoke than burned to death.

Only at this time did everyone feel how important the annoying fire safety video before each movie was.

As soon as Zhou Ze rushed in, he saw two people lying in the small space of the aisle.

One was an adult man wearing a black suit. He was lying on the ground coughing, obviously unable to get up.

The other was a boy about ten years old, lying unconscious on the ground, not knowing whether he had fainted or had already suffocated to death.

“Save me... save me... save...” The man in the suit barely raised his head, looking at Zhou Ze standing in front of him.

Zhou Ze skipped over him, picked up the little boy, and prepared to rush out.

He was already feeling dizzy. Obviously, without a gas mask or other professional equipment, he couldn't last long either.

However, just as he was about to run out with the boy on his back, Zhou Ze felt someone pull his foot, and he fell to the ground, with the boy rolling off his back.

“Save... save... save me first... I... I'll give you... money... save me first...”

The man in the suit used his last bit of strength, grabbing Zhou Ze's ankle tightly. He knew he couldn't hold on for too long. He couldn't breathe at all and felt a burning sensation in his lungs.

Falling down, Zhou Ze felt his head spin, almost passing out. Immediately, he bit his tongue to force himself to wake up.

“Bang!”

“Bang!”

Zhou Ze used his other foot to kick the man's hand and head,

After kicking several times in a row, the other party finally let go.

Zhou Ze staggered to his feet again, put the boy on his back, and rushed out of cinema hall number 2.

Rushing out of the billowing smoke and into the safe zone, Zhou Ze’s knees softened and he knelt down. The boy on his body also fell down, but because Zhou Ze had subconsciously cushioned him, he didn't fall badly.

The firefighters had arrived and were putting out the fire, and some firefighters were rushing into the fire in full gear.

“There are still people in cinema hall number 2.”

Zhou Ze grabbed the clothes of a firefighter running past him and said.

“Okay, I know.” The other party nodded and rushed into the fire.

“Huff huff... huff huff...”

Zhou Ze lay horizontally on the tiled floor, breathing heavily. Opposite him, the delivery guy, whose yellow delivery uniform had been blackened by the smoke, was also leaning there, panting. The two looked at each other and smiled weakly.

The paramedics had also arrived, a group of white-clad angels and doctors. Zhou Ze didn't have the strength to look for whether Doctor Lin was also in this rescue operation.

Gritting his teeth, he stood up again. Zhou Ze glanced at the boy who was being given emergency treatment by the doctor. The boy’s chest was still rising and falling, so it shouldn't be a big problem.

At the same time, Zhou Ze also saw several people who were carried out by the firefighters later. Some people couldn't be saved, while others were saved. The man in the black suit was lying on a stretcher, motionless, and should have died.

Zhou Ze didn't feel guilty. He had no reason to feel guilty.

He was doing good and saving people, but who to save first depended on him. No one had any reason to morally blackmail him.

Moreover, at that time, he simply didn't have the ability to carry a child on his back and carry an adult man out at the same time. If he had done that, the end result would have been that he would have died inside as well.

The body he had taken over belonged to Xu Le, a “scholar” with no strength to truss a chicken, not Schwarzenegger.

Besides, that guy almost caused him to die in the movie theater too.

Struggling to get up and refusing the help of the nurse beside him to check his physical condition, Zhou Ze walked to the bathroom at the other end of the building, turned on the faucet, and vigorously rubbed his face with cold water with his hands.

Finally,

he caught his breath.

Raising his head,

Zhou Ze looked at himself in the mirror,

and suddenly discovered,

that in the mirror, behind him, a faint figure slowly appeared.

This person,

wearing a black suit,

was staring at him with a look of resentment.

His mouth was open, constantly shouting, as if questioning him about something, hysterical, frenzied, and restless.

After death, if you encounter a specific opportunity, there is a certain probability that you may turn into a vengeful ghost to take revenge.

And now, this man had just died, and his soul was still in the stage of turning into a ghost, which would probably be completely formed during the seventh day after his death.

He was not yet a ghost, only a prototype.

But because of Zhou Ze's own special nature, he could detect the other party's existence in advance.

He hated himself,

for not saving him.

Even this hatred,

made him willing to turn into a vengeful ghost!

“Heh, interesting.”

Zhou Ze smiled,

and put his head back into the sink to continue washing himself with water,

and at the same time sighed in his heart:

“Heh, people ah…………”