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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
“Smoke! Smoke!” a villager shouted, pointing at Zhou Manman.
The crowd exchanged glances; although smoke was rising from Zhou Manman, it was not thick white smoke, and she seemed unharmed, making no hissing sounds.
Old Man Wang, who had always been straightforward, couldn't stand it any longer. He stepped forward and said, “That Black Dog Blood was just poured out; it was already warm. When it splashes on you and the light hits it, it looks like smoke!”
“Could it be that this woman isn’t a ghost? But she looks exactly like the one in the photo!” a villager remarked.
“In my opinion, she’s definitely not a ghost. That Yang Hao kid survived, didn’t he? He’s lucky; he fell from the car and hung on the cliff. It’s already a different era; do we really want to kill someone without reason in our village?” Old Man Wang glanced at the village chief, clearly afraid of him, but he finished his point.
Li Fugui coldly shot a glance at Old Man Wang and said, “This is not your place to speak.”
“Fine then…” Old Man Wang muttered under his breath, looking unconvinced. He turned to Guo the Blind and asked, “Old Blind Man, since the Black Dog Blood hasn’t worked, what do you think—could this girl be a ghost?”
“Hmm…” Guo the Blind frowned as he looked at the village chief. “Although this woman has an inexplicable Yin Qi about her, the Black Dog Blood hasn’t reacted to her. Perhaps she really is meant to survive.”
“Perhaps?” Li Fugui glared at Guo the Blind with disdain. “Mr. Guo, you claim this woman is a female ghost, yet now you’re wavering in your stance. Do you really think Bright Moon Village belongs to you?”
“The village chief is joking; I wouldn’t dare,” Guo the Blind replied awkwardly. Despite his high standing in Futu Ridge, he still fell short compared to Li Fugui in Bright Moon Village.
During the Cultural Revolution, Li Fugui was a leader who tore down all remnants of feudalism; he was the captain of the Red Guards. By seventeen or eighteen, he was already leading revolutions in town, and most landlords from nearby villages met their end at his hands. He was ruthless and acted decisively; everyone in Futu Town feared him.
Li Fugui snorted and scanned the crowd. “There’s an ancient saying: raising ghosts brings disaster. Although the Black Dog Blood hasn’t reacted, this woman is the bus driver involved in the cliff accident behind the mountain. There’s no way someone could survive a fall from a hundred-meter-high cliff. The peace of Bright Moon Village has been hard-won over decades; any factor that could disrupt that peace must be eliminated—even if it’s just a possibility!”
Li Fugui's words sparked a heated discussion among the villagers of Bright Moon Village. Although they were simple folk, they were not foolish. Their intention to burn Zhou Manman alive stemmed from their fear that she might be a ghost, rather than a desire to commit senseless murder. Even Guo the Blind, a Feng Shui Master, had suggested that Zhou Manman might not be a ghost, as the Black Dog Blood showed no reaction at all. Yet Li Fugui remained adamant about burning Zhou Manman, eliminating any possibility of a female ghost bringing disaster to the village. Regardless of whether Zhou Manman was a ghost or not, once the fire was set, she would turn to ashes.
No one dared to stand against Li Fugui. In Futu Town, even the wildest ruffians would behave submissively in his presence.
Li Fugui took a torch from a burly man and approached Zhou Manman, who was bound to the Wind Stabilizer. Zhou Manman lifted her head; her body was drenched in dog blood, making her appear truly ghostly. She looked at Li Fugui with eyes full of hatred and said, "I may not know your name yet, but I swear that even as a ghost, I will not let you go."
"You won't have the chance," Li Fugui replied as he prepared to throw the torch onto the firewood at her feet.
At that moment, I could no longer bear to watch. If they could treat a vulnerable woman this way without any intervention from the police, then what right did anyone have to stop me if I killed Li Fugui?
I rushed up behind Li Fugui and swung my knife toward the top of his head. However, unexpectedly, it seemed as though Li Fugui had eyes on the back of his head; he accurately struck my wrist with the torch in his hand, causing my Steel Knife to clatter to the ground. With his other hand, he suddenly seized my throat.
I had never anticipated feeling such profound helplessness when facing a man in his sixties. I considered myself strong compared to my peers unless they were exceptional athletes; I had never feared anyone before. But Li Fugui gripped me as easily as one would hold a chicken.
He lifted me off the ground in front of the entire village.
"Do you want to die?" Li Fugui asked coldly.
I couldn't speak due to his grip on my throat; my hands flailed helplessly against his arm. A few villagers quietly pleaded for me, especially the older generation.
"Fugui, if someone from Outer Village harms us, then burning them is one thing. But Yang Hao grew up before our eyes; we know his character and virtue well. In ancient times, he would have been our village's only Scholar. You cannot harm him." An elderly man with a hunched back approached with assistance; he was our village's only centenarian and was affectionately called Old Man by everyone.
However, upon seeing Old Man arrive, Li Fugui showed no intention of letting me go. With a dark expression, he said, "Old Man, you know about the prophecy concerning our village. There is one that foretells destruction by an outsider. This may have seemed like mere superstition at first, but you witnessed what that young man did twenty years ago. He received the same prophecy—Bright Moon Village and even Futu Ridge could face annihilation."
Old Man coughed lightly and replied, "That may be true, but you seem to have forgotten that young man was Yang Hao's father. Are you really going to kill his son?"
"That's right, Brother Yang left back in the day, but he didn't die," Old Man Wang said with a fearless demeanor, his eyes filled with respect for Brother Yang.
Li Fugui snorted and released me. I knelt on the ground, coughing incessantly, nearly gasping for breath.
"With someone like you, I could crush as many as come. You're just a treacherous fool who doesn't know your limits," Li Fugui said, not even glancing at me as he tossed the torch toward the pile of dry wood beneath the Wind Stabilizer.
"Li Fugui, if you take matters into your own hands and kill, I may not be able to save anyone due to my own limitations, but I won't let this go just like that," I said, clenching my fists tightly.
"Hah, you're not the only one who has spoken to me like this. They’ve all ended up in coffins; I'll be waiting," Li Fugui replied, watching the thick smoke begin to rise.
At that moment, I suddenly noticed Guo the Blind reaching into his tobacco pouch. He gently pinched something inside it; it sounded like a pill being crushed. He was closest to me at that moment, and his voice was so low that only I could hear.
Moments later, a scream pierced the air as Widow Li stumbled over, crying out, "Mr. Guo, my son is in trouble! You have to save him!"
Hearing this, Guo the Blind felt around in his pouch and poured its contents into his hand—a pile of green powder.
"Oh no, Guo Tong is dead! This Zhou Manman isn't a ghost!" Guo the Blind exclaimed as he looked at several burly men surrounding the Wind Stabilizer. The flames were spreading rapidly and were about to engulf Zhou Manman, who had already fainted amidst the billowing smoke.
The men exchanged troubled glances with Li Fugui. Li Fugui shot a dark look at Guo the Blind, clenched his fists, and coldly commanded, "Let her go."
I picked up the Steel Knife from the ground and rushed toward the Wind Stabilizer. I slashed through the ropes binding Zhou Manman and carried her out of the raging fire.
As I passed by Guo the Blind, I muttered a quick thank you. He seemed not to hear me and followed behind everyone else toward Widow Li's house.
Zhou Manman lay in the village pharmacy receiving IV fluids throughout the night. The next morning, as I carried her home, I saw that Widow Li's doorway was still crowded with people. Her wailing pierced my heart like a thorn.
I also grew up in a single-parent family. Although Li Tong once did something that outraged everyone, his death still left me feeling uneasy. Perhaps this is the meaning behind the saying, "Rabbit dies, fox feels sad."
If I were to die, what would my mother do?
After returning home, Zhou Manman soon woke up. When she realized she was still alive, she buried her face in my arms and began to sob pitifully.
My mother told me what had happened at Widow Li's house when she returned from there.
The first person to arrive at Widow Li's house was the village chief, Li Fugui. Upon arriving, he noticed that a light was on in one of the rooms in the yard, and a shadow was cast on the glass door, motionless.
In our village, where conditions are poor, not many families have the luxury of building a dedicated bathing room like Widow Li's. This bathing room consists of a water tank built on top of the house, with a hole left open at the bottom sealed with a plug. On summer mornings, one can climb a ladder to fill the tank with water, and by evening, they can simply remove the plug to enjoy a solar shower.
Li Fugui pushed against the door of the bathing room, but it was locked from the inside and wouldn’t budge.
When everyone else arrived at Widow Li's house, Li Fugui suddenly broke off the doorknob in front of everyone. The door creaked open, and except for Li Fugui and Guo the Blind, everyone else took a few steps back in shock. There hung Li Tong, completely naked, his body grotesquely swollen and dripping wet.
Li Tong's eyes were wide open, and the rope around his neck had already embedded itself into his flesh. A water pipe was inserted into his mouth, and water from the tank above was continuously flowing into his body—a method used in many places to inject water into live pigs.
Widow Li cried out in despair, wailing as she rushed towards Li Tong's body, wanting to bring him down. Several villagers stepped forward to pull her away; even Zhang Widow, who usually had issues with Widow Li, felt pity upon hearing her heart-wrenching cries.
Once Li Tong’s body was lowered, it was covered with a military coat. Widow Li cried out to Guo the Blind: “Mr. Guo, didn’t you give my son a talisman and a protective jade? How could he still die?”
Guo the Blind had no words. He entered the bathing room where the tank was now empty. He picked up a half-burned yellow talisman and shattered jade from the table and said: “I told you before that talismans and jade must never leave one's side during bathing. But this child set them aside while bathing, which naturally gave evil spirits an opportunity. The talisman self-ignited and the jade shattered; that ghost’s resentment was too strong—it demanded Li Tong’s life—something beyond my control.”
Guo the Blind’s words caused an uproar among the crowd. If even Guo the Blind couldn’t handle such a ghost, how powerful could it be? In an instant, every villager in Bright Moon Village felt a sense of dread.
"Is the female bus driver still alive? She didn't kill anyone. Could it be that these people have provoked something else unclean?" someone questioned, puzzled.
"Did these seven have the audacity to disturb some long-dead grave and upset one of our ancestors?" another voice speculated.
Li Fugui naturally overheard the discussions. He turned around and, with a blank expression, questioned Guo the Blind, "How can you be so sure it was a ghost that killed?"
Guo the Blind hesitated for a moment. "The door of the bathhouse was locked from the inside."
Li Fugui replied, "The yellow talisman was burned, the jade was shattered, and the door was locked from within. There are no windows in the room. On the surface, it does seem like only a ghost could accomplish this. But don't forget, the two children who died earlier strangled themselves, while this one was hanged. It seems this ghost is getting creative."
Guo the Blind lowered his head and fell silent, but Li Fugui smiled lightly. "Interesting, truly interesting."
With his hands clasped behind his back, he kept his eyes fixed on Guo the Blind as he spoke. He patted Guo the Blind's shoulder twice and said, "If I find out that someone has been pretending to be a ghost all along, I will make sure that person suffers terribly."
The crowd parted to let him through as they murmured among themselves, watching Li Fugui disappear into the dawn.
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