My shout completely caught everyone by surprise. Old He chided me gently, asking why I had suddenly developed sympathy for zombies.

With no time to explain the situation with the Old Master and Gui Zhi, I simply pointed at Jin Bao'er and Gui Fang’s husband and ordered, “Turn these two zombies back into corpses; their families will come to claim the bodies.”

Li Xiaohao shook his head, looking helplessly at Bai Huaqian and saying, “Some human emotions are truly incomprehensible.” As he spoke, Jin Bao'er and Gui Fang’s husband flopped to the ground with a thud.

Watching their stiff, lifeless bodies, the huge weight that had been pressing on my mind finally lifted.

Now it was time to address the substantive issue of the negotiation: Li Xiaohao demanded that Li Xiaoshu hand over the stamp album. Li Xiaoshu countered that she would not give it to him until they had safely left Jingyin Mountain. Both sides remained locked in a stalemate, neither willing to yield.

Finally, Old He proposed a solution: they would let us leave the cave first, and we would hand over the album at the entrance.

Li Xiaohao and Bai Huaqian exchanged a look, deeming the plan viable, and stepped aside to clear a path for us.

Wang Jue supported his sister and rushed out first. Old He, Li Xiaoshu, and I backed away toward the cave entrance, maintaining a standoff with them. Just as we were about to exit, Li Xiaoshu made a gesture for everyone to stop. Slowly, she placed the stamp album on the ground. Old He pulled out another bottle, this one containing Ming insects, which looked even more terrifying than the one used to threaten Bai Huaqian—it was filled entirely with writhing bugs.

Old He uncapped the bottle and, turning it upside down, poured the entire contents onto the album. Instantly, the album was swarming with a dense carpet of Ming insects. Without protective gear, retrieving the album from that mass would be impossible for some time.

The three of us exchanged knowing smiles, turned, and fled back toward Jingyin Village.

As we reached the village entrance, the first rays of dawn were spreading across the horizon. The shadow of Jingyin Mountain receded farther and farther, gradually vanishing into the distance. It turned out that this mountain, just like Jingyin Village itself, could not be found during the day. That was fine by us; Li Xiaohao wouldn't be able to pursue us anyway.

We returned to Gui Fang’s husband’s house. The courtyard looked exactly as it had before. However, the Old Master and his granddaughter were asleep, huddled together on the steps, while Gui Fang was curled up alone in a corner, shivering.

I woke up the Old Master and Gui Zhi. Seeing that we had left as two people and returned as five, the Old Master knew that the mission had been accomplished and asked if we had found the bodies of his two sons. I recounted everything that happened with the zombie cave, telling him that the corpses of Jin Bao'er and Gui Fang’s husband should still be there, but caution was necessary when retrieving them due to the man-eating Ming insects blocking the entrance. The Old Master showered us with thanks, telling Gui Zhi to bring out some food from the kitchen to satisfy our hunger.

After being up all night, we were indeed quite famished. We sat in the courtyard to rest. I grabbed the baked flatbread Gui Zhi offered and wolfed it down in three bites. Old He was also eating ravenously, though Li Xiaoshu was slightly more refined. Wang Jue, however, behaved oddly. He glanced at the flatbread with disdain, flicked his wrist, and with a sharp snap, tossed it back onto the plate Gui Zhi was holding.

Gui Zhi looked at Wang Jue, stunned, not knowing what she had done wrong. The others looked at him in confusion, too.

He scrunched up his brow, pinched his nose with a delicate, orchid-like finger, and declared, “It smells absolutely awful. Is this sort of thing even edible?”

Gui Zhi began to cry, feeling wronged. The Old Master came over and drew her close, looking embarrassed and unsure of how to handle the situation.

Old He walked over and patted Wang Jue’s shoulder, asking gently, “Doctor Wang, what’s gotten into you?”

Wang Jue promptly shrugged off Old He’s hand, rebuking him sharply, “Have you no manners? I was sitting here perfectly fine; why are you putting your hand on my shoulder?” His demeanor was strangely similar to that of a respectable woman who had just been improperly accosted.