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墨書 Inktalez
The dawn had just begun to break, revealing patches of sky torn apart by the branches of the forest. Light clouds floated in the blue expanse, and the morning air always felt refreshingly crisp. This should have been a carefree, self-sufficient mountain village, but beneath the surface, it was shrouded by something invisible and intangible—something called evil.
He Caiqie stretched lazily, looking quite exhausted.
He continued to recount the events that followed to Jiang He: "That night, I discovered that the woman I had saved was actually Song Xiangmei, my sister's good friend. At the same time, I learned that the severed head I had seen was my sister's. Ironically, although I was hiding in the Cornfield and didn't witness what happened, I did see that head."
"The head fell to the ground; I saw it, yet I couldn't recognize it as my own sister's. It had been ten years—ten long years since I last saw her. But now, it was in such a horrific way. She had changed so much; her face used to be cute with big eyes, but how could I believe she had become like that!"
Jiang He had seen the woman's head and could not describe it as beautiful. Moreover, all her teeth were missing. Xu Yiman had mentioned that when the woman was still alive, she had already lost all her teeth. Jiang He deduced that the woman must have suffered immense abuse during her life, and a girl who endured such torment for ten years could not possibly remain beautiful.
He Caiqie's right hand clenched into a fist as he slammed it onto the table: "At that moment, I wanted to rush out and kill their entire family. I wanted to slaughter everyone in the village. But I held back because I knew there was no way for me to kill everyone in the village alone. How many people could one person possibly kill?"
"So I endured. I needed a plan—a plan that would allow me to kill everyone in this village." A fervor suddenly gleamed in He Caiqie's eyes. "This plan has only been in motion for a few months. I've thought it through carefully; there's no way for me to physically kill hundreds of villagers. Even if luck were on my side and I struck under the cover of darkness, I could only manage to take out a handful at most. Killing three hundred pigs would take considerable time."
"What do you plan to do then?" Jiang He asked. "Let me guess—you started using curses to kill people so that even if someone dies, no one would suspect you?"
He Caiqie nodded: "You're correct, but that's my second step. I couldn't accept that my sister died right before my eyes. So later on, I took Xiangmei to the Mass Grave and retrieved my sister's head from the grave."
Previously, Xu Yiman had also been there; the owner of that head had been dead for some time, yet it showed no signs of decay—someone must have taken measures to preserve it. The He Caiqie before him was a medical school graduate; achieving this was not particularly difficult.
He Caiqie continued: "I've been here for five years now. During this time, I've healed many villagers' ailments; they trust me deeply. About six months ago, I began secretly administering slow-acting poison to every villager who came to see me—poisons that might take five or even ten years to manifest symptoms. But that's fine; everyone gets sick eventually. Over five years, nearly every villager has come to me for treatment; thus, every person has poison inside them. As long as they continue taking their medicine, at some point, all villagers will succumb to poisoning."
Jiang He pondered briefly before understanding He Caiqie's intentions: "Exactly! Every villager will get sick and come to you for treatment. However, each person's illness will strike at different times; they will ingest poison at different intervals and accumulate varying amounts of toxins. Some villagers may die from poisoning while others remain unaffected. To prevent suspicion from falling on you when some villagers start dying off, you need to create a curse to cover up your poisoning actions—so even if part of the villagers die from poisoning, you can explain it away with this curse!"
"Smart!" He Caiqie appeared quite excited: "You know, over all these years, I've yet to meet anyone as clever as you. Being around these ignorant villagers makes me feel suffocated! No one understands what I'm talking about; no one knows what science is or what aspirin is—they only believe that drinking my talisman water will cure them! It's absurd! In reality, something else is healing them while they stubbornly insist it's the talisman water working its magic when really its only effect is causing them diarrhea."
Suddenly, He Caiqie burst into laughter: "It's quite inconvenient for outsiders to enter or leave this village; all my medicines are brought in by Li Sanhan and his group—yes, those deadly poisons! I'm very confident because no one in this village knows these substances are meant to kill them rather than heal them."
He whispered something into Xiangmei's ear before glancing outside and beckoning her over.
Xiangmei nodded and stepped outside.
He Caiqie turned to Jiang He: "We can't let Xiangmei be discovered by anyone in the village because they believe she has long since died in the mountains."
Jiang He understood why Luo Yu ran away upon seeing Xiangmei's face; in Luo Yu's mind, Xiangmei was already dead. Yet Luo Yu would never have imagined Xiangmei was fortunate enough to be saved by He Caiqie. Thus, Luo Yu truly believed he encountered a ghost and fled immediately.
"Where did she go?" Jiang He asked.
He Caiqie replied, "We found a cave in the distance. She stayed there when it was light."
"All the time?" Jiang He inquired.
"That's right," He Caiqie said. "Although it sounds boring and terrifying to stay in a cave, in reality, it was a much better life compared to what Xiangmei experienced in the past ten years. If she were discovered, she would return to a life devoid of light, losing all hope once again."
Jiang He stood at the door, watching Xiangmei's figure gradually disappear into the forest. He then spoke again, "If that's the case, why don't you take her out?"
"Now is not the time," He Caiqie shook a finger. "Once everyone in the village is dead, I will let her leave. You must understand, if someone doesn't know the way out of the mountains, they are likely to get lost. Without water or food, how long do you think you could survive in the mountains? So without me, she wouldn't dare leave the village."
As He Caiqie spoke, she closed the door.
At that moment, Jiang He suddenly dashed to the side, but it was too late; a knife was already pointed at him.
"You are really too clever. How did you know I was going to make a move against you?" He Caiqie said.
Jiang He glanced around; the door was blocked by He Caiqie. To rush out would mean fighting her, and he wasn't sure he could defeat her, especially with a knife in her hand.
"It's easy to guess," Jiang He said as he sat down on the bed. "Since the curse of the female ghost in the village was created by you and Xiangmei, and over half a year you've poisoned nearly all the villagers, it takes at least five years for these people to die from poison—some even take over ten years. The villagers are unaware of this, but if outsiders find out and spread this information, your plan could very well fail."
"Therefore, those who know your secret cannot leave," Jiang He continued. "But I don't understand; if you want me dead, then you wouldn't have saved me from Luo Yu's men. But if you don't want me dead, why tell me this? Is your reason for doing this simply to kill me yourself?"
He Caiqie smiled bitterly and shook her head. "Actually, I didn't want to save you because this is all your doing. I warned you long ago, but you didn't leave. Since you chose not to leave, letting the villagers kill you is the best option. It's just that Xiangmei—she insisted that I save you."
"Do you know? She is as kind as my own sister. It wasn't her business originally, but she insisted on saving you. But now that this has happened, you will definitely go out and report it to the authorities; that is something I cannot accept. If I miss this opportunity, none of you will be able to leave. I see Xiangmei as my own sister; I must fulfill her request. But now, you must die."
"No!" Jiang He said. "From my observations, you're just using Xiangmei to do things that you can't accomplish alone; you're exploiting her."
He Caiqie tightened her grip on the knife. "Don't waste your breath. I gave you all a chance, but you didn't cherish it; that's not my problem anymore."
"But since you've already poisoned us, why still go through with killing us according to the curse?" Jiang He asked in confusion.
"I didn't kill them; I don't care! Haha! Maybe it's truly the curse at work! They deserve it!" He Caiqie replied.
Jiang He suddenly recalled the strange knocking sound from the first night. "Was that eerie knocking sound you?"
"What knocking sound?" He Caiqie struck the doorframe with a knife, producing a loud thud. He stared at Jiang He and said slowly, "Don't distract me. Do you have any last words? After everyone in this village is dead in a decade or so, I will turn myself in. At that time, I will tell others your last words, so make it brief; otherwise, I might forget after so many years."
"Last words?"
Jiang He suddenly remembered what Wang Chao had said before coming to Desolate Village about what he would do if he couldn't return. Wang Chao had suggested that Jiang He call the person most important to him. At that time, Jiang He had called Shui Xinlan.
He recalled Wang Chao's words: "If you're going to die, who is the first person that comes to mind?"
"Then tell Shui Xinlan that the house belongs to her. Also, Aunt Wang next door has been asking me to help her fix the balcony; tell her to find someone else. And remember to return the original book that Old Wang lent me. I have a partnership with the pig farm, so tell them not to send anything over..."
"That's enough!"
He Caiqie interrupted Jiang He, "Too much. I don't want to hear it."
With that, He Caiqie swung his knife down.
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