The Old Fire Pit

"Was the voice in that dream real? Or had I been longing so desperately for my old world that I'd dreamed up something so strange?"

Hu Ma silently recalled the strange temple from his dream and the voice he'd heard just before waking. A heavy feeling pressed down on his heart.

He quietly threw off the covers and got out of bed.

In this bizarre place, he hadn't dared take off his clothes or shoes, so getting up was convenient enough.

Only...

...he didn't seem to have lain down at all last night. So who had covered him with the quilt afterward?

Outside, the old woman was indeed waiting, leaning on her cane with a bundle on her back.

When she saw Hu Ma come out, she said coldly, "Let's go!"

Hu Ma was both afraid of her and instinctively eager to please her. He stepped forward and said, "Shall I carry the bundle?"

The Old Woman seemed a little surprised. She gave Hu Ma a long, searching look.

Perhaps because he'd slept so poorly the night before, his eye sockets were deeply shadowed. His face was pale and bloodless, and he looked listless.

The Old Woman's expression seemed heavy. She shook her head. "Your shoulder's injured. You can't carry anything heavy."

"Let's go to the Old Fire Pit first and pay our respects to the ancestors."

"..."

Hu Ma had no idea what the Old Fire Pit had to do with the ancestors, but he was so weary that he couldn't be bothered to ask.

The road was paved with stones. Here and there, puddles from the recent rain made it muddy and slick.

Morning mist hung over the village, shrouding everything near and far in mystery.

It really was nothing like the world Hu Ma remembered: ancient and remote, with a strange air of alienation and decay.

For some reason, facing this world made Hu Ma feel faintly afraid.

Just then, his left hand suddenly turned cold. He looked down and saw that the little girl called Hong Tang had come up beside him and taken his hand.

"Come on, Brother Hu Ma..."

She looked up at him with a bright, playful smile.

She really did look like a little girl who was afraid to go out and always liked to hold an adult's hand as they walked.

But she's a little monster...

He didn't want to hold the little girl's hand, but he didn't dare pull away either. He could only force himself to endure it.

Holding her hand, he followed the Old Woman's hunched back and walked on.

This was Hu Ma's second time going outside. Unlike yesterday, when panic and dizziness had left him disoriented, this time he could clearly see what the world looked like. They seemed to be in the middle of a range of mountains. In every direction, he could see towering peaks and deep-green forests.

Rows of wooden buildings surrounded them, stacked one above another. Narrow paths of broken stone divided them irregularly, forming the shape of a village.

This time, he looked more carefully, but still found nothing familiar from the modern world.

The villagers' clothes, the farming tools, the clumsy stone mill, and the damp well all carried an ancient air.

"Creak..."

As they walked, someone up ahead opened the door to their house.

But when they looked up and saw the three of them, they quickly retreated inside and quietly shut the door.

People in the village rose early. They were already meeting groups of three or five on the road from time to time, but whenever they saw the Old Woman coming, they quietly got out of the way.

Those who couldn't move aside simply stood there awkwardly, smiling obsequiously at the Old Woman.

In the distance, Hu Ma heard someone whispering from inside a nearby house. "Old Woman Hu really is capable..."

"That Hu boy was possessed so badly, yet she still managed to save him..."

"..."

"Oh, look at the direction Old Woman Hu's heading. Is she going to the Old Fire Pit?"

"Will the ancestors accept little Hu Ma?"

"Shh..."

"..."

"Hong Tang doesn't like the villagers..."

As they walked in silence, the little girl suddenly looked up at Hu Ma. "Grandma's always helped them when they're sick. She's so poor she doesn't even charge them, and she gives them herbs, too. But now they're all avoiding Grandma. They're afraid she'll borrow their lives and give them to you, Brother Hu Ma..."

"Borrow their lives?"

Hu Ma looked at the little girl's face, unsure how to respond.

The villagers were afraid of the Old Woman, and so was he...

So, was this Old Woman something like the village doctor, or a spirit medium?

In Hu Ma's previous life, in some remote, ancient villages, one person often took on both the duties of healing the sick and driving out evil spirits.

Under the villagers' fearful, reverent gazes, one old woman, one little girl, and one young man crossed the village and reached a slope to the north.

Several people were already waiting at the foot of the slope.

The one at the front wore a sheepskin coat and had a long iron smoking pipe tucked at his waist. His elderly face was covered in wrinkles.

"Old Woman of the Hu Family..."

When he saw Hu Ma and the others approaching, he hurried over. He glanced at Hu Ma, then looked away and said hesitantly to the Old Woman, "Little nephew Hu Ma looks much better. But... are you really going to take him into the Old Fire Pit?"

The Old Woman slowly looked up at him, then glanced at the few timid, middle-aged men behind him.

"Is there a problem?"

"..."

"No, no..."

The old man hurriedly shook his head and lowered his voice. "Didn't little Hu Ma only just recover? Why not let him rest a bit longer?"

"It's because he's just recovered that he needs to go into the Old Fire Pit."

The Old Woman sounded resolute. "If the ancestors don't protect him, who will?"

The old man's face immediately grew deeply troubled.

But the Old Woman said no more. She had already led the way forward, with Xiao Hong Tang excitedly following behind, holding Hu Ma's hand.

At this point, the old man couldn't dissuade her. The people behind him all smiled and nodded at the Old Woman.

But after she had passed, they gathered around the elderly man in the sheepskin coat and said awkwardly,

"Clan Leader, what do you think of the Old Woman doing this...?"

"There's nothing we can do!"

The Old Clan Leader said, "Who in this village would dare stop her?"

"Would you have us throw away our conscience?"

"Let's see what the ancestors think..."

"..."

After climbing the slope, Hu Ma saw a pit on the flat ground. It was about twenty square meters in size.

The pit was lined with packed earth bricks and was long and rectangular, filled to the brim with ashes.

He could just make out dark-red coals hidden beneath the layer of ash. Smoke curled upward, as if the fire inside had never gone out.

Most importantly, Hu Ma saw a partially burned skull in the pit.

Only half remained. It lay atop the ash, its hollow eyes staring straight at him.

Hu Ma's heart lurched. Is the Old Fire Pit where they burn the dead?

"Kneel."

The Old Woman had now reached the fire pit. She took the bundle off her back and spoke to Hu Ma in a low voice.

Hu Ma obediently knelt down.

Xiao Hong Tang didn't kneel. She squatted off to the side, smiling as she propped her chin on her little hand and watched him.

"Kneel a little closer. Let the ancestors get a good look at you."

When the Old Woman saw that Hu Ma had knelt seven or eight meters away, she frowned and motioned him forward.

With no choice, Hu Ma knelt farther up, less than a meter from the Old Fire Pit. He could already feel the scorching heat coming from within. It was thick and oppressive, soaking him in sweat and making it hard to breathe.

The Old Woman took incense, a bowl, meat, and talismans out of the bundle.

One by one, she lit the incense, offered the meat, and burned the talismans, performing each step with solemn respect. Then she bowed her head and prayed:

"Twenty years since the Hu Family joined this village, we've helped our neighbors, guarded the village, and worked the fields."

"Now calamity's struck the Hu Family, with foes hounding us and evil spirits haunting the child."

"I beseech the ancestors to protect my grandson. I'll repay you with plenty of incense money in the future..."

"..."

She closed her eyes and murmured these words over and over.

Hu Ma hadn't heard her clearly the first time, but gradually he caught what she was saying. Seeing how earnestly she prayed, her expression grave, he felt a faint warmth in his heart.

The Old Woman really did care about her grandson...

What a pity...

Before the thought could fully form, a gust of cold wind swept over the Old Fire Pit.

Hu Ma's vision blurred. The scorching heat rising from the pit suddenly turned icy cold.

The chill seemed to seep straight into his bones, freezing his whole body.

At that moment, his ears filled with muttering from nowhere.

It was as if a hundred people were whispering, their voices packed together so densely that they poured into his ears.

Not only that, but his eyes hurt terribly. He instinctively raised a hand to rub them, then froze.

An eye had appeared in the half-burned skull in the Old Fire Pit, staring at him with cold, sinister indifference.

Then he saw a hand reach out from the ashes.

A second hand followed, then a face. A second face, a third.

One phantom arm after another, one cold, eerie, translucent face after another, crawled out of the ash.

Were there dozens of them? Hundreds? Or thousands?

They were packed together, tangled like a centipede sprouting hundreds and thousands of arms, pieced back together all over again.

Countless human figures were crammed into the fire pit, which was less than twenty square meters.

Their bodies overlapped and intertwined, like a crowd crushed into a heap.

Faces pressed against one another. Countless eyes shifted up and down, all staring at Hu Ma in unison, blinking again and again.

Some were sinister and cold. Some were lost and foolish. Others looked curious, yet afraid.

"Buzz!"

The sight slammed into Hu Ma's mind. Terror surged from his chest, and his heart nearly stopped.

He stared blankly at the endless human figures crawling out of the Old Fire Pit.

Cold winds whirled around the pit. The Old Woman's prayers grew more and more urgent, and Xiao Hong Tang retreated into the distance.

Like a monstrous tree made of human bodies, more and more phantom figures kept crawling out of the fire pit.

They were just a hair's breadth away, towering over Hu Ma and gazing down at him with cold indifference.

Not one of them reached out.

The Old Woman kept her head bowed, chanting without pause, as if she didn't even need to breathe.

But she grew more and more frantic as she chanted. Only when the three sticks of incense before her burned down at an unnatural speed did she suddenly stop.

Her messy hair hid her face, concealing her expression. All that could be heard was her disappointed sigh.