o Qiao..." My brother sat down beside my bed and leaned closer, whispering, "Don't be angry with Jiang Qiyun. He stayed here holding you all night, making sure the little ancestor in your belly wasn't...The gaunt Di Gong chuckled, "This...the surrounding area is desolate, so life here is a bit hard, hehe, forgive me, little Empress."

After he finished speaking, he bowed deeply again. I couldn't possibly hold it against him.

"Why has Little Madam come to this desolate place The nearest people are a hundred miles away. It's best not to go into this deserted village..." The Land God said with a sneer.

"Is this place haunted The soul-summoning banner on that sign looks a little creepy." My brother pointed at the sign.

To everyone's surprise, the Land God looked back in the direction my brother pointed and asked, “What did you two see Ghosts see differently from ordinary people. All I see are two lanterns…”

"Lanterns" I frowned.

There is a common kind of summoning banner, with a pole supporting a canopy-shaped circle. Plastic film is pasted on to keep it firm and eye-catching. Below it is a long strip of paper inscribed with characters, which indeed resembles a lantern.

"Isn't that the head of a summoning banner I saw two, one black and one white," I said.

Land God paused for a moment, then whispered: "Little Lady, this place hasn't had any residents for many years. Over ten years ago, after a landslide, the government provided relief and relocated the people here. Because of the terrain problems, if another landslide occurred, the entire village would be buried."

"Xiao Shen heard that there was an old sorcerer in the village who said he would hang lanterns to guide both living people and ghosts. After all, some families had been buried entirely, while others had children who were unfilial. They took the compensation money and housing and never came back or performed a memorial service. Therefore, some unfinished business spirits remained tethered to the world..."

I told the Earth God that we came here to look for someone, not just to mess around catching ghosts. We heard that three girls drove in here a few days ago, and their families were worried and asked us to help find them.

Landlord “Oh”ed softly, a little embarrassed, and said: “Little Lady, this area is desolate and barren, with no offerings. Look, even I don’t have proper robes, and there isn't even a land temple here anymore. Right now, I am temporarily residing in the land temple of the next village, with no one under my command to serve you…”

My brother chuckled and said, "Even the entry-level civil servants in your underworld have such tough working conditions We don't need to help, just ask you about the situation."

Tu Di frowned and thought for a moment, then said: “The little empress said she saw two soul-summoning flags, one black and one white… The little god has heard a bit of a rumor – in the first two years after moving out, some people would come back to worship their ancestors or dig up old houses to see if they could find anything important.”

But if these people drove in, something would happen to them on the way back. As they were dying, they all said they saw a black signal light... This year, there are only red and green lights in the world, where could there be black signal lights

After the rumor spread, no one dared to drive in anymore. But this was a remote and impoverished rural area. Without a car, it was a very long way to travel. Gradually, no one came back.

Maybe the little imperial concubine just saw black and white, which is what these people are talking about as signal lights...

I looked up and saw that it was still the black-and-white paper fluttering.

If someone flees in fear and panic, desperately trying to escape, they might mistake a flickering light for a signpost.

"That was clearly black and white, so why only say you saw black" I asked again.

The land god said he didn't know, because he couldn't see either.

My brother burned some paper money and sent off the local deity. He chuckled, "Such a clueless earth god, no wonder he can't be promoted to a prosperous place."

"This place really has a weird vibe... Those two white and black paper cutouts hanging on the sign, I don't even know what they mean... Should we walk in or drive in" I asked my brother.

"Nonsense, of course we go inside. I said driving is dangerous and we have to be careful." My brother fastened his backpack and reached out to pull me.

Hiking on this mountain path is indeed arduous. The path is uneven and rocky, and after a while, your feet start to ache.

"You say what those little girls are thinking, in such a remote and desolate place, aren't they afraid of running into ghosts or perhaps some bad people"

"Otherwise, how would it be called "building courage"... " I walked along the roadside, taking one step forward and then one step back.

After walking for a while, the sky turned completely dark.

In the valley, only when the moon was high in the sky would it be slightly brighter. At this time, it was pitch black, and we could only walk slowly, afraid to turn on the lights, carefully feeling the atmosphere around us.

Soon, we saw the village.

Datian Zhan Sha was like a heavenly blade descending from the sky, slashing from the U-shaped mountain's concave opening to the last surface.

The man who just killed the chicken's house is at the junction of U-shaped Mountain Road, right where the knife handle is, he escaped a catastrophe.

The other half of the village was destroyed by a landslide.

Among the ruins and soil, beneath the newly sprouted weeds, perhaps lie the bones of ancestors and the remains of villagers buried alive.

Such a sudden and unexpected death, perhaps while still asleep, if left unassisted, can easily linger.

I looked at the gloomy scene around me, and my heart felt a little sad — if I chanted incantations at this moment, Ameng and Ada wouldn't appear with their silly smiles anymore.

My brother suddenly grabbed my hand, and now I'm a "disabled person". He startled me with that squeeze, and I almost lost my balance and twisted my ankle.

"Psst..." My brother made a gesture: "There seems to be someone ahead!"

Actually, it wouldn't surprise us if there were people here but also no one at the same time.

With today's well-developed transportation and internet networks, it's not surprising to see individuals popping up anywhere. However, the person in front seems to have remained completely still.

Turning on the flashlight would completely expose our position, and we might startle them. My brother led me, and we crept forward slowly, hugging the mountainside.

As I got closer, I saw that it was a... covered in plastic sheeting...

The white paper is the skin, bamboo strips are the bones, it has four limbs, covered with a piece of torn plastic sheet, and the outside of the plastic sheet is tied with several coils of cotton thread.

"This is a paper man," I blurted out.

"What's with this paper cutout just standing here! It gave me a fright..." My brother crouched down, hiding his form in the shadows cast by the hillside, using night vision goggles to scan the surroundings.

This night vision device can see 200 meters in a pitch-black environment, but without any light source, what you see is a reflection of black and white.

There was an empty house behind the paper man. My brother observed it for a while and said in puzzlement, "How do I see... there's still a figure inside It's motionless too..."

We slowly moved forward, and inside the half-opened door of that empty house, we saw a chair with a paper person sitting on it.

My brother and I looked at each other, wondering who would have the time and inclination to put paper figures around the house, dressed as they were in life.

"Holy crap, what did I just see!" my brother whispered in shock.

He put down the night-vision goggles, rubbed his eyes, picked them up again and observed carefully, then in a serious and solemn tone he said to me—

“Xiao Qiao, I, seem to have, perhaps… seen some sort of, some sort of… feminine hygiene products!”

"Huh"ssed this young daughter. I'll go catch it and ask."Jiang Qiyun sighed and shook his head: "Since you know you're about to give birth, don't run around anymore. Just let your older brother handle thes...