Chapter 1 The Knock

"Dong, dong, dong... dong, dong, dong..."

The sound of knocking came from outside. Wang Ke, still sitting on the living room sofa, looked up, straightened his clothes, and walked to the entrance. He glanced at the monitor, which showed a hunched-over old man through the outdoor camera.

The old man was looking down, making it impossible to see his face clearly.

Wang Ke wasn't ready to open the door.

But then, with a "ka-cha" sound,

the door was opened.

Wang Ke stepped back. The old man appeared in the doorway.

A gust of cold wind swept in from the entrance, and the surrounding temperature slowly dropped.

With a "ba-ji" sound,

the plastic bag the old man was carrying fell to the ground, spilling sauerkraut, scallions, ginger, garlic, and other things.

"I'll cook later."

The old man's voice was a bit sticky, not like a young girl's voice, but more like the sound of phlegm in his throat.

Wang Ke took a deep breath. At this point, he was even calm enough to take off his glasses, wipe them, and put them back on, saying:

"I know it's unlikely to convince you, but I have to try. I really have nothing to do with that hospital."

"Oh."

The old man responded, then raised his head. His skin began to wrinkle at this moment. Previously, there were just a few age spots, but now, it had completely transformed into shriveled elm bark.

Rough, cracked, and his eye sockets were sunken in, with what seemed like a green flame flickering in his empty eyes.

"Who cares."

The old man took a step forward, closing the distance between himself and Wang Ke,

"No one cares about the cheap lives of people like us, so why should I care about other people's lives?"

Watching the old man getting closer and closer, Wang Ke sighed. "I consider myself a good person, and I sympathize with what happened to you.

Although I don't know what you went through..."

"Bang!"

Before Wang Ke could finish his nonsense, he was thrown to the ground. The old man's strength was immense, making Wang Ke, a grown man, seem like a chick in front of him.

The fall was severe. Wang Ke's left arm was directly fractured, and he didn't know how many ribs were broken in his chest.

"Sorry, I'm not a cop. I don't care about evidence."

The old man squatted down next to Wang Ke.

"Anyway, the people in that photo, anyone connected to that hospital, they all have to die."

With that, the old man reached out and patted Wang Ke's face. Several of the old man's fingers were missing, and green pus oozed from the broken areas, making it look disgusting.

Wang Ke took a deep breath, enduring the intense pain. He seemed to have resigned himself to his fate.

Just then, the old man looked up at the staircase. Wang Ke's wife was standing there, staring blankly at everything below. The woman had changed out of her pajamas and was now wearing sportswear, as if she had originally planned to go for a morning run.

"Go back to sleep. I don't kill women."

The old man grinned, stood up, reached out and grabbed Wang Ke's ankle. He walked ahead, dragging Wang Ke behind him, and they both entered the kitchen.

Wang Ke's wife walked downstairs. She stood at the kitchen door.

The old man looked at the woman at the door in surprise. He seemed to have prepared himself for a reaction, but he originally thought the woman would call the police. But she didn't.

He originally thought the woman would grab something to fight him with, to save her husband. But she didn't.

In fact, the old man would have understood if she screamed, cried, begged, or ran away, but the woman's next reaction was a bit jaw-dropping.

The woman paused at the kitchen door for a moment, then turned around, picked up the sauerkraut and other ingredients the old man had brought, took out various seasonings from the kitchen cabinet, and began to help the old man wash the pots and pans.

Lying on the ground, Wang Ke reached out and wiped his face, saying helplessly:

"Honey, you're having an episode again."

The woman's behavior left the old man somewhat clueless. Since he couldn't figure it out, he stopped trying. The old man picked up Wang Ke, pushed his head into the sink, turned on the faucet, and began rinsing it with cold water.

The woman on the side picked up a knife, but instead of hacking at the old man, she began to help him chop garlic and scallions, quickly demonstrating her cooking skills. At the same time, she also turned on the gas valve, poured oil into the pot, and lit the fire.

It was clear what the old man had brought so many ingredients for, and the woman seemed to be helping him as an assistant.

The kitchen was harmonious, with everyone doing their job and working hard to prepare a delicious dish.

Wang Ke didn't resist either. He knew he couldn't.

The old man reached out, grabbed Wang Ke's hair, and lifted his head. Then, the old man ran his fingernails over Wang Ke's face.

Like a customer at the market choosing which cut of meat to buy.

"First stir-fry, then make bone broth. Delicious."

Wang Ke's wife said to the old man from the side. She spoke seriously, indicating that she had given it careful consideration. At the same time, she swallowed her saliva; she was a little hungry.

The old man seemed used to the mentally unstable victim's wife, and actually pondered for a moment before agreeing with Wang Ke's wife's suggestion.

The old man prepared to cut the meat with his fingernails, but Wang Ke's wife proactively handed over the kitchen knife, indicating that he should use it.

She pointed at the old man's fingernails and said, "Dirty, unhygienic."

Any experienced housewife knows that the freshness of the ingredients often determines the quality of a dish. One must be meticulous and careful with the ingredients, preventing any external factors from affecting the taste. This is being responsible for oneself and one's family.

And the old man, who had already become a corpse demon (shi mei), had continuously "eaten" more than a dozen people from the hospital to replenish himself, making him a connoisseur.

He knew that a person's gender, age, work environment, and body shape often determined the differences in the taste of the dish. The old man had set his sights on Wang Ke, who had a lot of lean meat and was middle-aged, not too greasy, and had well-developed bones, making him suitable for consumption.

This was a gift from nature, and the old man knew the secret of how to cook this dish. This was the last person he planned to kill, so he planned to treat himself in a more grand way.

He believed that this method could soothe the anger and sadness he had experienced before his death. This was the magical effect of food.

The green flames in the old man's eyes flickered. He took the knife, but with so few fingers, he seemed unsteady when he picked it up, but he still managed to grip the handle with his remaining fingers.

Wang Ke was struggling. The old man could only hit the back of Wang Ke's head with the back of the knife, directly knocking Wang Ke unconscious, just like stunning a fish when killing it.

Then,

the old man brought down the knife!

"Clang!"

With a crisp sound,

the knife in the old man's hand flew away. A long tongue appeared from nowhere, like a whip striking the old man's wrist, and swept the knife away at the same time.

Wang Ke's wife turned her head and looked behind her.

The old man also looked at the kitchen door. There, stood a little loli.

The little loli's mouth was open, with half of her tongue still sticking out. The kitchen knife was at her feet. Her eyes gleamed, making her look intimidating, but one of her hands was actually gripping the door frame to support her body. Clearly, she was already at the end of her rope, teetering.

Wang Ke's wife looked at the little loli, gently waved her hand, and said:

"Rui Rui is awake? Come on, go brush your teeth and wash your face. Come down for soup later."

The little loli glanced at the woman in front of her with a complicated expression. She was still there, excited beyond words.

The old man turned his head slightly, staring at the little loli.

"The underworld is ordered, the Yellow Springs can be crossed!"

The little loli mustered her strength.

The tongue in her mouth stretched out again.

"The mortal realm is not a place for wandering ghosts like you to run wild. You are just a corpse demon (shi mei), not qualified to break free!"

The tongue shot out again, hitting the old man's chest.

There was a "ka-cha" sound,

the old man's chest caved in, and his whole body flew out, crashing into the tile wall. A dent appeared behind him on the wall, and a large area cracked.

But the old man with the gaping hole in his chest slowly got up again.

His fingernails were black and long, and pus began to drip from the corners of his mouth, but he still stood up again and continued to look at the little loli:

"There really is... the Yellow Springs?"

The old man was a little confused.

He seemed to be thinking of his relatives.

Everyone has a Yellow Springs complex, because everyone will always encounter the passing of loved ones in the process of growing up.

In the eyes of the Chinese, the Yellow Springs is a place to mourn the dead.

The little loli's tongue stretched out again, but it was clear that this time it was much weaker than the last.

The old man reached out and grabbed the tongue. Although his body shook, he was not blown away again. Then, his fingernails began to cut the long tongue like crazy.

"Pfft!"

The tongue broke,

the little loli knelt on the ground, her body convulsing. The light in the depths of her eyes was sometimes clear and sometimes blurred.

She had finally escaped from Rong City,

but unexpectedly, an unformed corpse demon (shi mei) had taken advantage of this opportunity to attack her home!

At any other time, if such a character dared to offend her, she would definitely make him disappear completely!

"You are... a ghost official (guicha)? There really is an underworld, and there really is a hell?"

The old man looked terrifying, with a big hole in his chest and pus all over his body. He first muttered to himself, then roared like a madman:

"Since there is an underworld, since there is a hell, then why haven't those who deserve to go to hell gone to hell!

Those evil people, those sinners, can still continue to harm people in the mortal realm!

I... I... I'm going to eat you all, and chop you up, you bunch of useless people, you bunch of freeloaders,

and throw you all into the pot to cook!"

As the old man spoke, he picked up the unconscious Wang Ke again, and with a "clang," he swept the original pot away, the blue flames on the gas stove still rising.

The old man grinned and pretended to send Wang Ke's head into the flames.

The little loli struggled to raise her head,

scolding:

"How long are you going to stand by and watch? I understand if you don't want me to come back alive, but are you even going to let your childhood friend die without helping him?"

"I really didn't expect you to be back already."

From the entrance, Zhou Ze's figure walked out. He walked up to the little loli, looked at her kneeling on the ground with her butt sticking up,

and a sense of low-level satisfaction, like a low-level extra who can't survive more than half an episode, inexplicably arose in his heart.

In short, it was like a small person who becomes arrogant when he gets his way!

You have this day too.

"Come, let uncle touch."

As he said that, Zhou Ze reached out and rubbed the little loli's head.

Hehe,

you actually have this day too.

The little loli bit her lip tightly, her eyes filled with shame and anger, and she squeezed out two words:

"Save him."

"Do you really treat him like a father?"

Zhou Ze was a little surprised.

Zhou Ze knew she was injured. She could have stayed upstairs, but she still showed up. It seemed that his childhood friend wasn't completely useless; he had actually made a ghost official (guicha) willing to risk her life to save him.

Looking back at himself,

he was now completely a villain.

Even he thought he was a bit of a scumbag.

He had to be cautious; the little loli's existence was a worry in his mind, and he had to treat it seriously.

Testing whether the little loli had returned was just a whim, but if Zhou Ze had stepped in earlier, Wang Ke wouldn't have suffered so much physically.

Zhou Ze was also a little dazed. People, it seemed, really did change.

The old him, how kind and eager to help others, a doctor with the heart of a parent,

The current him seemed much more selfish than before.

Of course, Zhou Ze couldn't help but be cautious. The little loli's existence was a problem for him, and he had to treat it with caution.

When the old man saw Zhou Ze walk in, he was stunned for a moment. Seeing that Zhou Ze ignored him and only cared about talking to the little girl without looking at him, he didn't hesitate. He continued to send Wang Ke's head towards the flames.

"Ying ying ying!"

A cry came from outside the kitchen window.

Then,

a slender white figure directly smashed through the window glass and flew in, knocking the old man to the ground. Wang Ke also rolled to the side, avoiding the fate of being barbecued, at least for now.

The old man quickly jumped up and grabbed at the white figure. For a time, muffled thuds kept coming from the kitchen, as if two people were swinging sledgehammers and desperately smashing things.

Next,

was the battle between the domestic and the wild.