Chapter 15 Day Patrol Deity

The six corpses wanted to plead with Zhou Lingyi for their deaths.

At this moment, Zhou Lingyi's attention was not on the six corpses. She held the charcoal-like Nuomian in her hands, gently wiping it with a wet towel, and spoke in a soft tone, "Great ancestor, please don't be angry with me, Zhou Xuan was brought back by Grandfather, he is the apple of your eye. If there is someone to blame, you should blame him..."

Grandfather was not a Nuodai, but since he was a child, he had been loved by the ancestors.

One year during the ancestral ritual, Grandfather, still a child and fond of fun, sneaked off with a few friends to the theater to watch a play and did not return home on time.

During the ritual, the Nuomian masks squeaked and hopped disorderly, like a group of elderly people who were too disheartened by their grandson not returning home for the festival to eat.

It was not until the whole family went out and found Grandfather in the theater that the Nuomian masks calmed down and happily accepted the offerings from the younger generation.

Grandfather was so loved by the ancestors, why couldn't he enter the Secret Realm to become a Nuodai? Was it because he wasn't acknowledged by the ancestors?

On the contrary,

Zhou Lingyi knew that Grandfather had entered the Secret Realm, all the ancestors had acknowledged him, and the connection with the Nuo God was also successfully established.

It was Grandfather himself who voluntarily gave up the chance to become a Nuodai.

In the Zhou Family's Troupe,

Becoming a Nuodai is a good thing.

Not becoming a Nuodai is also a good thing.

The former can dance with the gods and possess the power that only gods can have.

The latter... at least can have longevity,

and also join other Tangkou, where the incense offerings can go very far as well.

Upon hearing that the idea of involving Zhou Xuan was Grandfather's, affected by emotional inertia, the Nuomian masks still felt upset and twitched slightly.

But this twitching was very formalistic, calming down after a while.

The charcoal-like Nuomian mask, representing the high status of the Zhou family ancestors, no longer agitated, and naturally, the rest of the Nuomian masks also settled down.

The ancestors, like Zhou Lingyi, trusted Grandfather almost to the point of obsession; whatever trick Grandfather used, even if incomprehensible, they believed it held profound implications, firmly convinced it was a brilliant move.

Even without a Nuodai, one still capable of managing the Zhou Family's Troupe for decades deserves such trust.

More than twenty Nuomian masks no longer turned around but resumed their upright positions, although the masks were not facing the entrance of the Silent Hall directly; they slightly tilted at an angle.

Their attitude was very clear.

They acquiesced to the fact that Zhou Xuan had been tainted,

but,

deep down, they could not accept it.

Zhou Lingyi heaved a sigh of relief.

The attitude of "turning a blind eye" was already an excellent outcome.

After handling the situation with the old ancestor's Nuomian mask, Zhou Lingyi cleaned the masks and walked to the table with the six corpses, saying,

"Your deaths are mysterious and are not unrelated to that surnamed Dai; due to my position, it's inconvenient for me to intervene, but there is someone in the Zhou Family's Troupe who can help you."

Zhou Lingyi stretched out her middle finger, gently swiped across, and sharp fingernails left a faint blood mark on the center of the six corpses' foreheads.

"When you are unoccupied, you can seek him out, but try not to make too much noise."

As her words fell,

the hands held stiffly by the six corpses were lowered.

...

Adding incense and reading at night.

Zhou Lingyi poured herself half a glass of yellow wine, added three petals of dried camellia, half-reclined on the bed, and leisurely read a novel manuscript by lamplight.

She was not fond of reading since childhood.

Serious books made her sleepy, and she used to read some leisure books, but after taking control of the Zhou Family's Troupe, with more worries on her mind, there was no spare time.

Just as she managed to sort out a messy situation in her mind, another tangled mess squeezed in.

It had become a habit, not something that could be corrected by simply correcting it.

Tonight was no different; after reading half a page, the text was text, the story was a story, and she was herself.

The three never formed a tacit understanding.

Zhou Lingyi, finding the reading unengaging, felt tired and thought about turning off the lights after reading a few more lines.

But these lines,

made Zhou Lingyi react chemically,

At this moment in the novel, the plot was about the female protagonist, Zhou Yun, when visiting Lu Mountain, thinking of taking photos of the Pillow Stone and the male protagonist Geng Hua, sitting on the Pillow Stone reading, accidentally entered her camera frame.

After Zhou Yun noticed, she politely asked Geng Hua to move, but when Geng Hua left, she saw that he had run far away, only then regretting her rudeness for driving him away.

This emotionally naïve plot, like a small stone, stirred more naïve ripples in Zhou Lingyi's heart.

That was when she was eight years old.

That year, Zhou Lingyi lit Witch Incense and joined the 'Witch' Tangkou.

The inheritance of 'Witch', closely associated with the Nuodai, belonged to the same branch of the Witch family.

When she had just joined the Tangkou, her master asked Zhou Lingyi to learn to control Paper Butterflies with bells; she practiced near the stream behind her old home.

Just as she managed to control the Paper Butterfly to fly somewhat steadily,

Her four-year-old younger brother clumsily approached the not-so-high flying Paper Butterfly, reaching out and catching it, bubbles of joy frothing from his nose.

"Sister, I caught a Butterfly for you to play with..." the brother opened his hands, revealing a tattered Paper Butterfly lying on the palm.

Zhou Lingyi was very angry, punching her brother twice on the spot and scolding him severely.

Her younger brother wept and returned home,

That night, Zhou Lingyi was still angry; when she saw her brother welcoming her at the door, she snorted and walked into the house without a pleasant expression.

Her brother caught up, gripping the hem of her clothes, "Sister, sister... sorry, I damaged your Butterfly, I'll make up for it, don't be mad."

As he spoke, he swayed the glass bottle in his hand, a black-winged Butterfly lying at the bottom of the bottle.

Only then did Zhou Lingyi notice, her brother's body was bruised blue and purple, with three other scrapes on his cheek.