Even hybrid monsters have their day

Chapter 146 Birthday

However, just because she doesn't look at others doesn't mean that others don't look at her.

The old man came up to her and said, "Jiang Lao Er, I heard you lost your flashlight?"

Upon hearing this, Geng Miaowan immediately thought of the flashlight she had stored in her storage ring. It was such a coincidence that the old man she had transformed into had lost it. Before she could even think of what to say, the old man continued, "It's good that it's lost. It saves you from fiddling with that thing so much that you forget about the important matters. Tonight's events are not to be taken lightly. Be careful, or the consequences will be beyond our control."

Geng Miaowan didn't know what he meant, but in order not to arouse his suspicion, she quickly nodded and said, "Yes, yes, I know."

The old man looked at her with a puzzled expression. "What's wrong with you? You're acting strange. Did the fright last night scare you so much that you lost your nerve?"

"No...no." Geng Miaowan naturally denied it hastily.

Why are you always looking down if there's nothing wrong?

"I..." She was about to say something when the old man grabbed her and pulled her over.

She gasped and covered her face, then after a moment, realized she wasn't the same person she'd looked that morning. She sheepishly lowered her hand, saying, "I...I'm busy now..."

After saying that, before the old man could react, she ran off in a flash, leaving the old man alone, watching her departing figure in confusion, still not understanding why Jiang Lao Er looked like he had seen a ghost.

Geng Miaowan stopped running after a distance, panting and clutching her chest. She circled the village for a while longer but still couldn't find any trace of the carriage, and finally returned to the mountain empty-handed.

However, she discovered a strange phenomenon: there were no young people or even children in the village; all she encountered were elderly people.

Strange as it was, she didn't take it to heart.

That evening, Geng Miaowan sat by the fire, eating wild berries that Xu Ruwen had found for her. Seeing Zheng Xiuxiu standing in the woods in the distance, she waved and called out, "Xiuxiu, come over here quickly."

Her words were perfectly fine, but the scene...

A beautiful young woman warmly greeted a headless female ghost and invited her to sit next to her. The scene was utterly incongruous. Moreover, it gave one a chill down their spine.

Zheng Xiuxiu didn't go over, but waved to Geng Miaowan and pointed to the fire in front of her. Geng Miaowan immediately understood what she meant; even ghosts were afraid of fire.

However, the fire couldn't be extinguished now. She stood up, walked to Zheng Xiuxiu's side, and found a clean spot to sit down. Zheng Xiuxiu was still floating in the air, but she seemed quite excited, as her figure flickered between light and shadow, appearing very unstable.

"I thought you had already left." She really didn't expect them to still be here.

Geng Miaowan smiled. Her beautiful face was like a blooming flower. She didn't respond to Zheng Xiuxiu's words, but instead pointed to the wild fruit in her hand and asked, "Would you like one too?"

Zheng Xiuxiu shook her head, "We don't eat this."

"I forgot that you eat ingot-shaped candles."

"Pfft." Zheng Xiuxiu chuckled. "Before I became a ghost, I also thought ghosts ate ingots and candles."

"Is not it?"

“No,” Zheng Xiuxiu floated in front of her and said, “the gold ingot candles are only used to guide ghosts here.”

"So what do you all eat?"

"Actually, we don't need to eat anything."

"Then people offer things to ghosts as sacrifices. Isn't it all a waste?" Geng Miaowan thought of how, before her reincarnation, her family would go up the mountain to offer sacrifices every day on Qingming Festival.

“No, not really. If you want to eat, you can still have a little, but it takes a while.” Zheng Xiuxiu thought for a moment and then said, “People light ingot-shaped candles and chant the name of the deceased. If the ghost is still alive, it will feel their calls and come to the place where the offerings are placed. Only the things specifically given to the ghost can be eaten.”

"So that's how it is..." Geng Miaowan said she had learned something new today.

At this moment, Xu Ruwen called out to her, "All done!"

"Put out the fire," she said to Xu Ruwen.

Geng Miaowan led Zheng Xiuxiu to the spot where the fire had been lit. Xu Ruwen was digging through the extinguished pile of firewood, and soon the charred earth was revealed, accompanied by a burnt smell. He found a thick branch, pulled back the soil, and dug out an oval-shaped clod of earth.

"What is this?" Zheng Xiuxiu asked curiously.

Geng Miaowan looked at the clod of earth, her eyes seemingly gleaming with golden light, but she said to Zheng Xiuxiu, "It's delicious."

"What's so delicious?" This dark, unappetizing lump, could it possibly be anything delicious...? She was clearly skeptical.

"You'll find out soon."

As they were talking, Xu Ruwen broke the clod of earth into pieces, and immediately, a fragrant aroma mixed with the scent of meat wafted over.

“It smells so good…” Zheng Xiuxiu said.

Geng Miaowan wanted to say, "You don't even have a head, so how can you smell the aroma?" But then she thought better of it and was afraid of touching on her painful memories, so she refrained from saying so. She chuckled and said, "It smells good, doesn't it? This is the beggar's chicken that Hong Qigong ate back in the day."

At this moment, Little White, who was sleeping nearby, was also lured up by the fragrance and stood up. Its eyes gleamed with a sinister wolfish light as it looked at the thing in Xu Ruwen's hand. It looked as if it wanted to tear it apart and swallow it whole.

Xu Ruwen slowly peeled the chicken out of the lotus leaf, and the aroma became even more enticing. At first, when Geng Miaowan suggested that he do this, he wasn't very willing, thinking that burying a perfectly good chicken in the ground was a waste of food.

I never imagined that such a simple and crude method could make an ordinary chicken smell so delicious.

No one cared who Hong Qigong was. The two people, the ghost, the dog, and the three creatures present all had their eyes fixed on the chicken in front of them, thinking about how best to divide it up.

As Geng Miaowan tore the chicken apart, she said, "Today is your birthday. I originally planned to buy some hometown food for you in Qiluo Village down there, but who knew that the village was so strange and they wouldn't even let us in. In the end, I had to ask Xiaobai to catch a chicken and make you a beggar's chicken to enjoy."

Because everyone's attention was drawn to the beggar's chicken, no one noticed that Zheng Xiuxiu's body visibly stiffened when Geng Miaowan said those words. Geng Miaowan finished speaking, tore off a chicken leg, and handed it to Zheng Xiuxiu, saying, "Here, have some." (To be continued.)