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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
Li Tong's death indirectly saved Zhou Manman; he was found hanged in the bathhouse.
Throughout the night, Zhou Manman was either with me or tied to the Wind Stabilizer at the village entrance. During this time, Li Fugui personally stationed people around our home to prevent Zhou Manman from escaping.
No matter what, Zhou Manman had no time to kill Li Tong, which is why the village chief, Li Fugui, agreed to let her go.
Just before Zhou Manman was about to be burned alive at the village entrance, I couldn't understand the significance of Guo the Blind crushing the jade in his pipe. He first accused Zhou Manman of being a ghost and had the villagers capture her, then secretly crushed the jade in his pipe. I couldn't tell if this was a coincidence or if he intentionally tried to save Zhou Manman, but I could guess that his act of crushing the jade was definitely related to Li Tong's death. The jade on him shattered, and the jade near Li Tong also broke; there must be some connection that ordinary people cannot comprehend.
But who killed Li Tong remains a mystery. On the surface, it seems that apart from an invisible ghost, no one could have locked the door from the inside after committing murder.
Everyone witnessed Li Tong's will to survive; he would never choose to commit suicide.
This situation suddenly filled me with panic. The hidden murderer reaped lives like a grim reaper, and there was no way to defend against it.
Li Fugui's strength also shocked me. I never knew an old man could possess such power; he lifted me effortlessly without even breaking a sweat. I began to reevaluate Bright Moon Village and realized that after living here for over twenty years, I was only just starting to understand this place.
Guo the Blind had always been the person I disliked most in the village, but through this incident involving Zhou Manman, Li Fugui surpassed him and became the person I hated most.
Now, three of the seven youths who harmed Zhou Manman are dead: Yang Kuan, Dazhuang, and Li Tong. The remaining four are from Dagu Village. Their leader is Huang San'er, who is also the only grandson of Feng Shui Master Huang the Lame. The news of one person dying every three days must have spread throughout Futu Ridge; Huang the Lame is a capable man and would not allow his grandson to die without reason.
Zhou Manman has cleared her name and is temporarily out of danger, but Futu Ridge has undoubtedly left her with psychological scars. No one can withstand such a public humiliation as being bound and nearly burned alive.
I asked Zhou Manman if she wanted to leave Futu Ridge, but she refused and showed no intention of leaving. She stayed close to me, which touched my heart.
I spent an entire day at home with Zhou Manman, sharing humorous stories from our school days to cheer her up. As evening approached, my mother asked me to help her roll out dumpling wrappers because she planned to make dumplings for dinner.
“Mom, let Manman help you; I need to step out for a bit,” I said before leaving the house.
My mother chased after me from the yard and called out, “Hao, you’re going to see Mr. Guo, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, I need to clarify some things.”
“Alright then, go ahead. We’ll have dumplings waiting for you when you get back,” my mother said hesitantly as if she wanted to say more.
I didn’t think much of it and headed toward Guo the Blind’s house. Three people had already died in Futu Ridge; although the remaining ones weren’t from our village, I still remembered Guo the Blind’s ominous presence hovering over me like a dark veil. If the Ghost Killing incident wasn’t due to a bus falling off a cliff, then I might be next on the list.
Because the mountain village was made up of individual households, and Futu Ridge was located in a remote area where outsiders rarely visited, theft had never occurred. As a result, many families left their doors wide open during the day. When I arrived at Guo the Blind's doorstep, I saw him tending to some herbs he had gathered in his yard. His courtyard was filled with various herbs laid out on sieves.
I had heard from my mother that when Guo the Blind was young, he was uneducated and aimless. It wasn't until he married that he began to settle down. However, his wife suffered from a cold during childbirth, which led to her chronic cough. Guo the Blind took her everywhere seeking treatment, but nothing worked. Eventually, he decided to learn medicine himself and became a well-known local healer in Futu Ridge within a few years, able to cure villagers from over a dozen nearby villages of their ailments.
During his studies, Guo the Blind also apprenticed under an Old Scholar who understood feng shui and began to delve into that field as well. However, not long after, the Cultural Revolution erupted, and the campaign against the "Four Olds" swept through everything. The Red Guards, who targeted all perceived enemies like the Serpent God, naturally did not spare Guo the Blind. His wife was publicly shamed and denounced due to her class background.
After being paraded and criticized multiple times, Guo the Blind's wife could not bear the humiliation and went mad. Not long after, she committed suicide by jumping into a river. Guo the Blind survived the ten-year Calamity, but he lost one eye to an attack. His son also died seven years after the Cultural Revolution, for reasons unknown.
When I arrived at his home, Guo the Blind showed no surprise. He ignored me and continued bringing in the dried herbs from the sieves.
“Guo the Blind, I need to talk to you,” I said first.
While busy with his tasks, Guo the Blind replied, “By seniority, you should call me grandfather or just Old Guo.”
“Alright, Old Guo, I want to know what’s going on with the black veil above our heads and what it means when you quietly crushed jade stones at the village entrance,” I asked directly.
Guo the Blind paused and looked at me: “The black veil above your head has thickened; something unclean is targeting you. If you don’t believe me, then just consider me blind.”
“I believe you, and I suspect someone will die tonight; it’s very likely to be me,” I said with a deep breath.
Seeing my seriousness, Guo the Blind stopped and looked at me with certainty: “Someone will definitely die tonight, but it won’t be you.”
“How do you know?” I frowned and asked.
“I know more than you can imagine. If you want to stay alive, it’s best to let your girlfriend Zhou Manman leave; it would be better…” Guo the Blind trailed off.
“Speak plainly; I’m not a rigid person.”
“You’d better leave Bright Moon Village,” he said. “I’m only saying this because of your father’s past kindness.”
“Are you suggesting I abandon my mother as well?” I asked.
After looking at me in surprise, Guo the Blind fell silent. Once he finished his task, he said, “You’re smarter than I thought.”
“I want to know what’s really going on. You initially insisted that Zhou Manman was a ghost but later saved her when she was proven human—why is that?” I pressed.
Guo the Blind replied: “If Zhou Manman is human, why would I want to kill her? Do you think I'm in league with Li Fugui?”
"I originally thought you were all in the same boat, but you saved Zhou Manman. For that, I must thank you. However, she is clearly a human. Why would you let her leave? Is it just because she is an outsider?"
Guo the Blind replied, "Who told you that Zhou Manman is definitely human? The blood that was splashed on her that night was not Black Dog Blood."
"What?" I had never considered this possibility and asked in surprise, "Was it your bag that fell?"
Guo the Blind shook his head. "It wasn't my bag. I was right next to Li Fugui and didn't have the time for that. Besides your desire to save Zhou Manman, there was someone else who wanted to save her. Can you guess who it is?"
"My mom?"
Guo the Blind affirmed with a sound. "There was such a commotion last night, and your mom only went out when Zhou Manman was about to be taken away. Later, when you went to the village head with a knife to kill someone, your mom didn't chase after you. Don't you find that strange?"
"This means my mom is meticulous and guessed that you were going to use Black Dog Blood on Zhou Manman, so she secretly swapped it." As I spoke, I began to sense something was off in my reasoning and corrected myself. "Wait, my mom had no reason to swap the Black Dog Blood because Zhou Manman isn't a ghost at all. No matter what is splashed on her, it wouldn't produce thick smoke. Moreover, even if she were a ghost, why hasn't she harmed me?"
Guo the Blind sighed. "That's also where my confusion lies. Yang Hao, sometimes what you see isn't necessarily the truth. However, Black Dog Blood is an exorcistic substance with spiritual properties. As a Feng Shui Master, I can naturally distinguish whether that blood is Black Dog Blood or not. As for others, I won't draw conclusions for now. You can consider whether or not to come with me to the back mountain; I want to investigate what really happened with the Bus Crash Incident."
"Now?" I asked cautiously as I noticed the colors around us gradually fading.
Guo the Blind nodded. "Now."
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