I quickly couldn't catch my breath, my legs flailed about, and my vision went black. It felt like my eyes were about to pop out.

I quickly took out a lighter and lit it.

With a whoosh—

A ball of flame burned across my neck.

I gasped for air, instantly sobering up, only to realize that just now, I was using a piece of braid to strangle myself.

The mother I saw just now was fake, and Caixiu was fake too.

Caixiu didn't give me any prayer beads. I just absentmindedly reached into my backpack and hung the braid from the memorial tablet around my neck.

I packed my backpack and crawled out of the ground onto the road.

Just as I was about to get on the bus, someone riding a bike came towards me and shouted from afar:

"Zhaoyang! Zhaoyang!"

The person was Xiaowen.

As soon as I saw Xiaowen, without a word, I threw a punch at him.

Xiaowen, Xiaoyong, and I all learned martial arts from the old white-haired man in the village and often playfully fought each other.

Xiaowen ducked his head to avoid it, and I kicked him in the thigh.

Xiaowen flipped over onto the road with his butt in the air, holding his thigh and looking at me.

"Got hysteria?"

I blinked my eyes, looked at Xiaowen's moves, then looked at his shadow, everything seemed normal.

"Is it really Xiaowen?"

"Of course, who else?"

Xiaowen looked me up and down.

"How did you end up like this? What are you doing?"

I didn't hide it from him and said I was going to the ancestral grave to see Qiuge.

"Perfect, I'm also going to the ancestral grave."

I suggested we go together.

Xiaowen suddenly looked very happy and said to me,

"I couldn't find you anywhere this afternoon, didn't expect to meet you here. It's our ancestors' blessing."

"Ancestors' blessing?"

He said something strange.

I was just thinking about what it meant—

Bang!

Suddenly, my vision flickered, and I received a heavy blow to the back of my neck and fell down.

In a daze, Xiaowen's face came close, and he grinned sinisterly at me.