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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
In the dead of night, with the moon hidden and the wind howling, I experienced something so chilling for the first time in my life that goosebumps erupted on my skin, as if I had been suddenly thrown into an ice-cold pit.
How could Zhou Manman be dead and her phone call me at this moment?
I was so frightened that I tossed my phone away. In the silent darkness, I knocked over something, and hurriedly turned on the bedside lamp. I stared at the phone lying in the corner, hardly daring to breathe.
After a while, when there was no sound from the phone, I finally mustered the courage to get out of bed and retrieve it, crawling back under the covers. But just as I settled back down, the phone rang again.
This time, I was somewhat prepared. Looking at Zhou Manman's name on the screen, I braced myself against the chill and answered the call. On the other end, I could faintly hear a woman's sobs mixed with the sound of wind.
"Who are you? Speak!"
A broken voice came through: "Hello, are you Yang Hao?"
"I am Yang Hao. Who are you?"
"I'm Zhou Manman. Come save me," she said.
There were bursts of static on the line, as if the signal was being interfered with. Throughout the conversation, I became convinced that this person calling was indeed Zhou Manman.
Recalling today's news, there was no confirmation that the female driver had died, but there was also no news of her being alive. After some questioning, Zhou Manman recounted what had happened last night.
After I was kicked out of her car, feeling dejected, she accelerated as she approached a fork in the road while descending from the mountain. She intended to drive off the cliff with everyone in the vehicle. However, fate intervened and saved her.
As the bus plummeted off the cliff, a pine tree growing from the edge caught onto its body and flung her out of the driver's seat. Aside from her, everyone else in the bus fell to their deaths below.
My hometown is called Futu Ridge. During earlier urban-rural reforms, officials had repeatedly attempted to tunnel through the mountains but ultimately abandoned those plans for various reasons. Futu Ridge is rich in mountains, water, and trees—especially those ancient pines that have stood for over a hundred years—casting shadows across vast areas. Thus, when Zhou Manman was thrown from the bus, she got caught in a pine tree halfway down the mountain. The police at the bottom were completely unaware that someone lay stranded halfway up.
By the time Zhou Manman woke up, it was already night. Her body ached all over; she felt scared and hungry. She quickly took out her phone to call 110 for help, but due to poor signal in the mountains, she couldn't get through. So she clawed her way down using her hands until she reached lower ground where she finally got some signal after walking for quite a while.
Remembering that I had told her I lived in a village within these mountains during our time on the bus together—and seeing that her phone battery was running low—she decided to call me.
After listening to Zhou Manman, I finally let out a sigh of relief; she truly scared me half to death.
As a town on the outskirts of a county seat, Futu Ridge has been economically depressed. There is only one road leading into the mountains that was built by a former secretary over a decade ago. Developing mountainous areas requires vast amounts of manpower and resources; thus no county leader would willingly take on such an ungrateful task.
Futu Ridge was surrounded by mountains, with about ten villages nestled within, each home to around a thousand people. The village I lived in was called Bright Moon Village.
Growing up in Futu Ridge, I never dared to wander far. There were many taboos in Futu Ridge, especially at night; even the laborers wouldn’t venture out of the village after dark. My mother constantly filled my head with various superstitions, which made me hesitant to walk alone at night even when I went to school in the big city.
One reason Futu Ridge had not been developed was due to the unsettling occurrences reported by workers who had ventured into the mountains—one of them had gone mad from fear.
Although I had never encountered the "dirty things" that the adults spoke of, hearing their ghostly tales made me uneasy. It was now midnight, and all the villagers were asleep; there wasn’t a single light on the road.
I quietly grabbed a flashlight from the living room and stepped outside, careful not to wake my mother. My heart raced with every rustle of leaves or gust of wind, sending chills down my spine.
When I spotted Zhou Manman, she was crouched at the village entrance, surrounded by Reed Marsh. Seeing a girl alone at night coming from the cliff must have terrified her; her voice trembled when she spoke to me. I shone my flashlight on Zhou Manman, and her pitiful appearance tugged at my heartstrings.
Her clothes were tattered and barely covered her body.
Upon seeing me, Zhou Manman burst into tears, looking utterly helpless. I hurried over to support her and helped her onto my vehicle. In the light, Zhou Manman’s shadow stretched long and intertwined with mine. I had feared she might be in trouble; I had often heard that ghosts cast no shadows. But here was Zhou Manman’s shadow, and I could feel her warmth.
I reassured Zhou Manman not to worry and promised to call her family as soon as it was light. She nodded but didn’t say anything more.
Behind our village used to stand a Land Temple, now long abandoned and in disrepair. According to the elders, decades ago an old woman seeking shelter from the rain had entered the Land Temple and frightened a passing villager to death with her hideous appearance. Because of this story, my mother never allowed me to play near the back of the village. Later, a river was dug beside the Land Temple for irrigation purposes, where a child had drowned; since then, no one dared to go there.
Having grown up with this fear of the back of the village, I always felt anxious whenever I passed that way and would call friends just to distract myself until I got through it.
As I led Zhou Manman past the river behind the village, a cold wind blew through. Suddenly, a wisp of ghostly fire floated out from the ruins of the Land Temple under the moonlight. I was terrified; both myself and my vehicle nearly toppled over.
I remembered hearing from the village elders that this area had been a burial ground during the war; villagers believed that heavy resentment could affect the living, which is why they built the Land Temple there. Thankfully, over the years, I had learned enough about science to understand that ghostly fire was simply phosphorus ignited by heat from underground.
Zhou Manman also saw that ghostly fire; she clung tightly to my waist in fear and didn’t make a sound. To be honest, it was my first time being embraced like this by a girl; despite being in such a desolate place, it gave me some courage—I wasn’t as scared anymore. It seemed there was some truth to the saying about lust overcoming fear.
Once we returned home, Zhou Manman wanted to take a shower—a rather awkward situation since we didn’t have solar water heating at our house. During summer showers, we would fill a tub with water and let it sit in the sun all day until it was warm enough for bathing at night.
I poured some hot water from our thermos into the tub and turned around just as she stripped off all her clothes. I quickly turned away so she could wash in privacy while I searched for some clothes for her.
Zhou Manman took quite a long time in the yard washing up. Knowing she must feel dirty after what those thugs did to her made me understand why she took so long. When she finished bathing and stepped outside my room without entering, I turned off the light and handed her some clothes.
Perhaps I accidentally brushed against her somewhere; Zhou Manman let out a soft gasp of pain. Thinking about what she had been through and how she fell from that cliff made me realize she must be bruised all over. So, I went to get some medicinal alcohol to help her clean up.
“Turn on the light,” Zhou Manman said.
When I heard this, I felt a little excited, and immediately turned on the light. She only covered the area below her abdomen with her clothes, and the rest of her body was clearly visible. This was the first time in my life that I met a beautiful woman sincerely. I swallowed my saliva and carefully helped Zhou Manman apply the medicine, but she endured the pain without saying a word. After helping Zhou Manman apply the medicine, I asked her to go to bed, and I found a mat to spread on the floor. Seeing me like this, Zhou Manman looked a little disappointed. She didn't dare to look at me and asked: " Do you dislike me and think I'm dirty?" She felt a little inferior when she said this, but I quickly said no. I stood up helplessly, only wearing underwear. I was so hot that if there wasn't a girl here, I would definitely not wear any clothes to sleep. of. I tiptoed onto the bed. My bed was not very big, so it was a bit crowded to sleep with her. Zhou Manman Maybe I was really tired. I fell asleep within a few minutes of lying on the bed. She smelled like a girl, so I lay next to her and didn't dare to move, for fear of waking her up. But in the middle of the night, I suddenly woke up with a chill on my back. I heard the faint sound of window curtains rustling in my ears. It was windy in the mountains and the temperature was very low in the second half of the night. I forgot to close the window before going to bed. I stood up quietly to close the window, Zhou Manman let out a groan, turned over, and his fresh hands accidentally landed on my lower body. I wanted to move Zhou Manman's hand away, but she suddenly grabbed my hand and kept it there, and squeezed it gently. I was shocked, it turned out that she was not asleep yet! But this time I understood what she meant. Since she took the initiative, I didn’t bully her, so I got into the bed and kissed her smooth back. I couldn’t wait to take off my underwear and pushed the breasts on her chest with one hand. Softly, one hand ran up and down the curve of her back. Zhou Manman The gasping sound escaped from the darkness, which made my blood boil all over. I turned over and wanted to kiss her lips, but I saw her face was a bloody mess under the moonlight.
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