Chapter 1 The Treacherous Bridge

The fatty held the teacup with both hands, wrapped in the cotton quilt Yao Shunyu had brought. He recounted the hardships along the way. Upon hearing about the Heartless Umbrella Ghost, the Child Ghost, the Dried-up Ghost, the Face-Dropping Ghost, the Old Man Who Gouged Eyes, and finally the defeated Gao Yanqing, even the experienced Jiang Cheng and others couldn't help but gasp.

Yao Shunyu patted the fatty's shoulder, relieved, and laughed, "I knew you could do it! It wasn't easy, truly not easy! Gao Yanqing deserved to die!"

After exchanging pleasantries, the fatty looked around the room. "By the way, where's that bridge? The paper bridge."

Li Bai refilled the fatty's cup with hot tea, his brow furrowed. "You don't know, but soon after you stepped onto that paper bridge, it suddenly burst into flames, a ghostly green flame. The fire couldn't be extinguished, and it burned the paper bridge to ashes, leaving no trace."

Tang Qisheng, who had suggested the idea of walking the yin bridge, looked ashamed. "It seems I'm still lacking in knowledge. Perhaps... perhaps simply walking the yin bridge isn't the way to find life. Only by resolving the vengeful spirits following behind is the true path. But fortunately, brother Fugui is blessed and has returned safely."

"No, I should thank you. Otherwise, how would I have prepared all those things?" The fatty felt grateful to Tang Qisheng. At this moment, the last joss stick was still burning, but only a small stub remained, stuck in a small incense burner on the table. The tip of the incense stick flickered, as if a breeze were blowing.

But the doors and windows of the room were tightly closed, and there was no wind at all.

This unusual behavior caught the fatty's attention. He also felt that something had changed in the room during his absence, but no matter how hard he looked, apart from the burned-out paper bridge, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Everyone was talking to the fatty, bombarding him with questions, as if they had inexhaustible energy. The fatty looked at the doctor, who was the most enthusiastic, and a sense of unease suddenly welled up in his heart.

The doctor was a man of few words when he was serious, especially after one had just survived a dangerous life-and-death experience. According to the fatty's understanding of the doctor, he would ask the most critical questions and then let him rest. The other less important matters could wait until he had rested.

Once a doubt was discovered, it was magnified infinitely. The fatty became vigilant. He observed carefully, and as he observed, more and more abnormalities surfaced.

He finally realized where the abnormality in the room came from. There used to be a dressing table close to the window, but now the dressing table was still there, but the bronze mirror in front of the dressing table was gone. In the same position, a quaint painting of a court lady was used as a cover. It was almost unnoticeable unless one looked closely.

Moreover, everyone's gaze was subtly focused on the last remaining joss stick in the incense burner, as if they were expecting something.

This series of discoveries sent a chill down the fatty's spine. He was certain that there was something wrong with this room, no, with this room and everyone in it!

He hadn't returned to the Marquis's mansion at all. He was still on that bridge, never having left!

"Brother Fugui, can you tell us again how you defeated Gao Yanqing? I was distracted just now and didn't hear everything." Tang Qisheng approached and asked with a warm smile.

Looking at the smiling faces around him, the more the fatty looked, the stranger they seemed. He had to find an opportunity to leave, but at the moment, his position was relatively inside, and the path to the door was blocked by Jiang Cheng and the others.

The incense was burning shorter and shorter, and the speed was much faster than normal. The smiles on the faces of the people around the fatty became more and more exaggerated. Li Bai and Zhu Jie even showed their gums.

He couldn't wait any longer. The fatty pretended to yawn and walked towards the window, but soon, Yao Shunyu followed him, asking if he was tired while blocking the fatty between himself and the window.

But the fatty's purpose was the dressing table. He took two quick steps and tore off the painting of the court lady. As expected, the bronze mirror was hidden behind the painting.

In the bronze mirror, the reflections of Jiang Cheng and the others had all changed. One after another, pale faces gathered around the table, greedily sniffing the white smoke from the incense. The tip of the incense stick flickered, burning several times faster.

These things didn't seem to have much ability to think. Even though they had been exposed, they were still trying to deceive the fatty as if they didn't know. The fatty knew that the path to survival lay here. He mustered his courage, rushed over, protected the last small stub of incense in his hand, and then opened the door. As expected, outside the door wasn't the Marquis's mansion, but the bridge!

The fatty ran out without looking back. He didn't have much time left. When the last joss stick burned out, he would be completely lost on this bridge, becoming a wandering ghost.

Faster!

Faster!

He ran as fast as he could, with only the sound of the wind in his ears. Finally, before the incense burned out completely, he saw the light, which was the end of the bridge.

The fatty almost crashed into the light. The next second, his body soared into the air and crashed hard into something. That something was soft, and the fatty fell to the ground, and that thing also helped to cushion the impact.

"Ouch, damn it!"

Hearing the cry from that thing, the fatty finally recovered from his daze. He looked closely and saw that it was none other than the doctor.

It's just that the doctor was in a slightly miserable state, having been knocked away by him, and his eyes were out of focus.

Tang Qisheng and the others, without saying a word, first controlled the fatty who had suddenly flown out. After the fatty's quick and detailed explanation, he finally cleared himself of suspicion.

"You're saying you encountered another room, and that room had an identical version of us?" Jiang Cheng rubbed his shoulder. The fatty who had flown horizontally almost knocked him apart.

The fatty nodded repeatedly. "That's right! I noticed the abnormalities in them, and that's how I managed to escape. I'm telling you, it was only because I was vigilant. Anyone else might have died in there!"

Listening to the fatty's account, everyone could sense the risk of this trip, especially Gao Yanqing. The fatty's ability to defeat him was not only due to his careful planning, but also to his extraordinary physical qualities.

"Not easy, not easy at all. Brother Fugui, this trip has really opened our eyes. If it were me, I wouldn't have been confident in coming back alive," Yao Shunyu said truthfully.

"By the way, did anything happen after I left?" the fatty asked curiously. "About that paper bridge, those guys told me that the paper bridge disappeared in the end."

Upon hearing this, Yao Shunyu immediately said, "Don't listen to their nonsense. After you left, we guarded this bridge the whole time. Nothing happened. It's just that strange sounds came from the other end of the bridge from time to time."

"Strange sounds?" The fatty immediately became interested.

"Yeah." Jiang Cheng took a deep breath. "Someone over there was calling my name."