Slaying God: I, the insane and witty god

Chapter 754: An Qingyu investigates the secrets of the fishing village, and everyone analyzes the my

Lin Qiye's back teeth were clattering.

The blood on the soles of my feet had already reached my ankles. It was sticky and had a rusty smell that went straight into my nose.

Shen Qingzhu's hand, which was clutching his sleeve, was shaking.

He could feel the warmth seeping through the fabric, like a thin rope tying his nerves.

“Lao Cao!”

He roared,

"Kill that old man! No matter if it's an illusion or not, just kill him!"

Cao Yuan's sword flashed and slashed past.

The hunchbacked boss was hacked through.

But the figure had no flesh and blood, and it dispersed and gathered like a ball of black mist.

Baili Pangpang huddled in the corner with his head in his arms.

His fat face turned pale: "Seventh Master, is this thing similar to the mirror monster last time?

Do you need to use the blood of a living creature to break it?"

"fart!"

Lin Qiye wiped the cold sweat from his face, and suddenly remembered the cinnabar talisman that An Qingyu had stuffed into his pocket before leaving.

"Chubby! Pick my right pocket!"

Baili Pangpang rolled and crawled over and took out a yellow paper talisman from Lin Qiye's trouser pocket.

Lin Qiye pinched the talisman paper and threw it to the ground.

With a "boom", flames rose from the blood.

The twisted walls around him cracked open with a hissing sound, letting in some moonlight.

The boss's strange laughter stopped abruptly, and the black mist "whoosh" back into the crack in the ground.

Shen Qingzhu leaned against the wall and gasped: "This...is this a formation?"

"Who cares what formation it is."

Lin Qiye bent down and pulled up Baili Pangpang.

"Deputy Captain An is not here, let's not wander around. Fatty, you guard the door, Lao Cao, check under the bed, Qingzhu, check the window—"

Before he could finish his words, his phone vibrated in his pocket. It was a message from An Qingyu: "Under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village, bring Wu Hen here."

Lin Qiye raised his eyebrows and nodded at Wu Hen: "Let's go find Deputy Captain An."

The night wind from the fishing village, carrying the smell of the sea, penetrated into my collar.

An Qingyu leaned against the old locust tree, holding an unlit cigarette in his hand.

Seeing Lin Qiye coming over,

He flicked the ashtray-like bark and said, "I just chatted with Old Man Chen for half an hour."

"What did you talk about?"

Wu Hen rubbed his hands.

"I saw that old man today, squatting on the dock mending his fishing nets."

"I asked him what time the fish market opens, and he said 'tomorrow' - but when is tomorrow?"

An Qingyu put out his cigarette on a tree branch. "He said the store closed three days ago, but I saw the lights on when I was patrolling last night."

He took out a banknote from his pocket and turned it over and over in the moonlight.

"I asked him for change. He gave me five dollars. Did you see that?"

Lin Qiye leaned over, and the year of issue on the banknote made him squint. "2025? Damn, we're only in 2023."

"What's even more sinister is..."

An Qingyu stuffed the banknotes back into his pocket.

"When he handed over the money, I saw he had another note with the same number in his trouser pocket."

He paused,

"Old man Chen can't read, but the folds on that note are exactly the same as the one I gave Jiang Er yesterday to buy water."

Wu Hen scratched the back of his neck: "Is time in this village going in circles?"

Lin Qiye took out a cigarette and lit it.

The fire star flickered in the night: "I just asked the night owl nearby using 'Starry Night Dancer'."

He exhaled a puff of smoke.

"An old orange cat said he saw a little girl in a red dress playing at the dock three days ago."

"The other black cat said he saw the girl late last night—but we fished her out on the first day we arrived."

An Qingyu didn't respond, staring at the flickering fishing lights in the distance.

Lin Qiye touched his arm: "What are you thinking about?"

"Old man Chen just said that."

An Qingyu lowered her voice.

"His grandson gave him a box of cigarettes yesterday, but he went out to sea three years ago and never came back."

He lowered his head and kicked a stone.

"I pretended to smoke, but he saw straight away that I didn't know how to smoke—he said, 'Comrade, you're holding the cigarette upside down, there's no way you can light it.'"

Lin Qiye laughed: "Deputy Captain An also has moments of weakness?"

"It's good to show your weakness."

An Qingyu tugged at his collar.

“He relaxed and told the truth.”

He suddenly looked up in the direction of the guesthouse.

"Pangpang and the others must be getting impatient, let's go back first."

The four of them walked back, and when they passed by the village store, Lin Qiye suddenly stopped.

There are packs of cigarettes in the glass window.

It glowed coldly in the moonlight—it was the same package he had seen yesterday, even the creases on the packaging hadn't changed.

"Seventh Master?" Wu Hen poked him.

Lin Qiye didn't say anything and quickened his pace.

Back at the B&B, Baili Pangpang was peeking out through the crack of the door. Seeing them coming back,

I quickly locked the door and said, "Sister Qingzhu said there was a bloody handprint under the bed. Lao Cao suppressed it with a talisman."

An Qingyu glanced around the room and saw Jiang Er and Jia Lan dozing off in their chairs.

He walked over and woke Jiang Er up: "You two, guard the door and don't wander around."

"Where is the deputy captain going?" Jiang Er rubbed his eyes.

“Something.”

An Qingyu pointed to the window.

“Don’t tell anyone.”

Lin Qiye leaned against the door frame and laughed: "Going it alone again?"

“Check the timeline.”

An Qingyu zipped up his coat to the top.

"You two keep an eye on Pangpang and don't let him steal the compressed biscuits I hid."

Before he finished speaking, he had already climbed out of the window, and his figure quickly blended into the night.

Lin Qiye looked at the empty window.

He stamped out his cigarette butt and said, "Wu Hen, go get Lao Cao—it's time to discuss the strange things going on in this village."

The sea breeze outside the window brought in children's songs that came from somewhere, vaguely.

Baili Pangpang huddled in the corner, rubbing his hands. "Seventh Master, what exactly is this 'Ghost Month' that old man was talking about?"

Lin Qiye didn't answer, staring at the old clock on the wall.

The hands stopped at a quarter past three, but he remembered that the clock had struck four just half an hour ago.

Lin Qiye squatted on the stone steps at the entrance of the B&B, the cigarette butt flickering between his fingertips.

Wu Hen leaned against the door frame and rubbed his hands.

His back teeth clattered. "Jiang Er said that Deputy Captain An escaped through the window in the middle of the night?"

"Um."

Lin Qiye flicked the ash from his cigarette and glanced at the white sea in the distance.

"This grandson always likes to work alone."

He suddenly raised his voice and shouted into the room, "Fatty! Divide the salted eggs you hid into two. I'm starving."

"without!"

Baili Pangpang's head popped out from the crack of the door, his round face still stained with the wall dust from last night.

"The deputy captain has locked all the compressed biscuits he hid in his backpack. I only have half a piece of shaqima left—"

Before he could finish his words, Shen Qingzhu grabbed his ear and pulled him back from behind.

As the morning light flooded the roofs of the fishing village, Cao Yuan's footsteps were heard from the village entrance.

The scabbard at his waist hit the stone steps with a clang. "The place I stayed at is deserted."

Shen Qingzhu followed in, her ponytail blown messily by the sea breeze.

Clutching a crumpled piece of paper in her hand: "Aunt Wang from the east end of the village said that her guest room has long been occupied by 'the guest who came the other day.'"

She slapped the note on the table.

"I kept a record. Every time I contacted someone over the past three days, they all said 'the day before yesterday' or 'yesterday'. No one could give the exact date."

Baili Pangpang leaned over to take a look, poking the corner of the paper with his fat finger: "Yesterday I asked the old lady who sells dried fish,"

“She said, ‘This fish was dried today,’ but the fish was so hard it hurt your teeth—”

He suddenly fell silent because Lin Qiye was staring at the old clock on the wall.

The hands still stopped at a quarter past three, but in the dust on the windowsill,

There were clear traces of where Shen Qingzhu had sat when he changed shifts at four in the morning.

"Seventh Master,"

Wu Hen scratched the back of his neck.

"Sister Qingzhu said that time in this village is going in circles. Do you think that's true?"

Lin Qiye pressed the cigarette butt into the crack of the stone steps. When he looked up, a cold light flashed in his eyes: "Going in circles? If we go in circles, the money in our pockets would have been worn out long ago."

He pointed at the half-extended banknote in Baili Pangpang's pocket.

"Is the five yuan change you gave me yesterday for instant noodles the same change you gave me today for soy milk?"

Baili Pangpang took out the money and compared it, his face turned pale. "It's... it's really true! Even the creases are the same!"

Shen Qingzhu twisted the corner of her clothes with her fingers: "That old man Chen said that his grandson went to sea three years ago, but he gave him cigarettes yesterday-"

"Are you sending Hongtashan?" Lin Qiye suddenly interrupted.

“How do you know?”

"I saw it in the store window yesterday."

Lin Qiye stood up and patted his trouser legs.

"That pack of cigarettes has been there since the first day we arrived. The creases on the package haven't changed."

He turned to Cao Yuan,

"Lao Cao, you used a talisman to suppress the bottom of the bed last night. Is that bloody handprint new or old?"

"The old one."

Cao Yuan touched the hilt of the knife.

"The bloodstains have turned black, but I went to see them this morning."

"And there's a new one—calluses on the fingertips, like the hands of someone who's been holding an oar for years."

The room suddenly became quiet.

The sea breeze blew in with a damp and fishy smell, making the notes on the table rustle.

Wu Hen kicked the stone at his feet and said, "So this village is not only in chaos, but also in chaos?"

“The things are not in disarray.”

An Qingyu's voice came from outside the window.

Everyone turned around and saw him leaning on the windowsill.

There were grass scraps on the shoulders of his coat, and he was holding a bag of Hongtashan cigarettes in his hand.

He turned over and went into the house,

Throwing the cigarette on the table, he said, "When Old Man Chen's grandson went out to sea three years ago, this was the pack of cigarettes in his pocket."

Lin Qiye raised his eyebrows: "How do you know?"

"I found it on the beam of the dilapidated temple at the west end of the village."

An Qingyu took off his coat and put it on the back of the chair.

"There was a photo in the cigarette box, a photo of the grandfather and grandson - the background was the pier,"

“It’s exactly the same as the one hanging in the main hall of Old Man Chen’s house.”

He pointed to the crease on the cigarette box.

"This mark is exactly the same as the 2025 banknote that Old Man Chen gave me yesterday."

Shen Qingzhu's eyes lit up: "So time really is cyclical?"

“Loop shit.”

An Qingyu tugged at his collar.

"If it's a repeat, then Old Man Chen should remember that I asked the same question yesterday."

"But when I went there again today, he acted like he was seeing a stranger."

He took out a crumpled boat ticket and slapped it on the table.

"I found this in the reed marsh behind the temple. The boat will depart on August 15, 2023—the day we arrive."

Lin Qiye stared at the date on the boat ticket, his Adam's apple moving: "Those cigarettes in the canteen...?"

“I haven’t moved in three days.”

An Qingyu's voice sank.

"I counted, the salted kelp on the innermost shelf has never been missing since we came.

This morning I went to the dock and saw the same few hairtail fish in the fishmonger's basket, their scales starting to get sticky.

The room was so quiet that you could hear the "clicking" sound of the clock gears turning idle.

Baili Pangpang swallowed his saliva and said, "Deputy Captain, are you saying... the supplies in this village are not flowing at all?"

“More than just supplies.”

An Qingyu glanced at the crowd,

"Old Man Chen said his grandson took 20 kilograms of rice with him when he went out to sea, but the rice bags we found behind the temple are just as heavy as new ones."

He paused,

"The weirdest thing is, I found our footprints in the reed marsh—two neat rows from the village entrance to the temple gate, exactly the same route we took this morning."

Lin Qiye suddenly stood up, and the chair made a harsh sound on the ground: "Let's go to the dock."

"What are you doing?" Wu Hen stood up.

“To verify something.”

Lin Qiye took out a cigarette and lit it. The sparks flickered in the morning light.

"If the village is really stuck in time, then there should be something we left behind yesterday on the dock—"

"footprint."

An Qingyu finished his words for him.

“I’ve already seen it.”

He pointed out the window.

"It overlaps with this morning's footprints. I can't tell the new from the old."

Shen Qingzhu pursed her lips into a line: "Then... can we go out?"

“It would be strange if I could get out.”

Lin Qiye flicked the cigarette butt into the sea.

"I asked Lao Cao to try it. He walked three miles outside the village and turned back to see the old locust tree at the entrance of the village."

He nodded at Cao Yuan,

"Lao Cao, take out the route map you drew."

Cao Yuan took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket.

There were crooked arrows painted on it: "I made a mark every hundred steps, but after three circles, the marks all overlapped."

The room fell silent again.

Jiang Er suddenly poked his head in from the doorway and said, "Deputy Captain, Aunt Wang from the canteen is knocking on the door and wants to collect our rent."

An Qingyu looked down at the watch, then looked up at the wall clock - the electronic watch showed seven fifteen, and the wall clock stopped at three fifteen.

He twitched his lips and said, "Let her in."

Grandma Wang walked in with a hunched back.

Holding a tin box in his hand, he said, "Young comrade, it's time to pay the rent."

Lin Qiye took out his wallet and pulled out a hundred-yuan note: "How much?"

“Five dollars.”

Grandma Wang squinted her eyes and smiled,

"It was the same price yesterday."

Lin Qiye's hand stopped in mid-air.

He stared at Grandma Wang's wrinkled face.

Suddenly he took the money back and said, "Grandma, do you remember who gave you the rent yesterday?"

“You.”

Grandma Wang pointed at Lin Qiye.

"He was wearing a black coat and had cigarettes in his pockets."

She took out a five-yuan note from the tin box.

"Here's your change, as fresh as yesterday."

Lin Qiye took the money and placed it on the table side by side with the one in Baili Pangpang's pocket - even the serial numbers on the banknotes were exactly the same.

The sea breeze brought the nursery rhymes from somewhere into the house again.

An Qingyu looked at the pile of banknotes on the table and sighed softly, "The most terrible thing is not that the time is messed up."

He looked up at the crowd.

"It's the village's supplies that are not being consumed at all."

"What do you mean?" Wu Hen scratched his head.

"We stayed for three days, ate twelve meals, and drank twenty-four bottles of water."

An Qingyu's fingers tapped the edge of the table.

"But Grandma Wang's rice jar is still full, and the mineral water shelf in the canteen hasn't even had its labels moved."

His eyes swept over everyone's face.

"That means... someone is resupplying this village."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

Shen Qingzhu's hands were clenched until they turned pale. "Is the person who is replenishing the supplies... a human or a ghost?"

"have no idea."

An Qingyu put on his coat again.

“But we have to find out—”

He suddenly stopped and listened outside the window. "Someone is coming this way."

Lin Qiye had already touched the talisman paper at his waist: "Who?"

“Old man Chen.”

An Qingyu opened the window,

"He was holding a pack of cigarettes in his hand - he said, 'My grandson gave me cigarettes again today.'"

Everyone followed his gaze and looked out.

In the morning mist, the hunched figure of old man Chen was walking towards the B&B, the cigarette box in his hand glowing dark red in the morning light.

Lin Qiye stared at the red.

His back teeth were clattering. "Fatty, get the talisman paper ready. Lao Cao, hold the knife tight. Qingzhu, stare at the window—"

He turned to look at An Qingyu,

"Deputy Captain, the person who is replenishing the supplies you mentioned, could it be that he is hiding in—"

"Shh." An Qingyu raised his finger.

Old man Chen's footsteps were getting closer and closer.

Mixed with his vague mumbling: "My grandson is really filial. He knows that grandpa likes to smoke Hongtashan cigarettes... He gave me a box yesterday and another box today..."

Lin Qiye's eyes fell on the package of Red Pagoda Mountain found on the temple beam on the table.

Then he turned to the new cigarette box in Old Man Chen's hand - the crease on the package,

It is exactly the same as the cigarette box in the photo taken three years ago.

In the morning mist, a fishing boat from somewhere sounded its whistle.

The sound was long and muddy, like the sigh of something waking up.