After hearing what the paper figures were for, everyone couldn't help being surprised. "Do the colors on the paper figures fade when the Great Black Sky comes?"
"That's right!" Old Man Yao raised a hand and pointed behind him at the head of the paper boy. "I even put a little of my blood between the boy's eyebrows."
"Blood to open the brow?" A young man in camouflage frowned.
Old Man Yao looked the young man up and down in surprise. He had a scholarly air, like a teacher. "Young man, you're not that old, but you sure know a lot. That's right, blood to open the brow. It's an old method passed down from my ancestors. They say it can give the paper boys and girls a spirit."
According to Old Man Yao, paper figures marked with blood between their brows gained some of the spiritual energy of living people. When the Great Black Sky came, it would take the color from the figures, effectively giving the living a substitute.
"Does the Great Black Sky come on any sort of schedule? At a particular time, maybe?" This was important. Old Man Yao's earlier explanations had jumped all over the place, and Jiang Cheng wanted to pin this down.
"A schedule?" Old Man Yao shook his head without a moment's hesitation. "What schedule? If there were one, so many people in our village wouldn't have died. The Great Black Sky doesn't come often. Maybe it shows up less and less because there are fewer and fewer people in the village. It hasn't appeared for over a month now."
The Fatty opened his mouth, but after thinking it over, swallowed his words. He wanted to warn the old man not to speak so definitively. He might see the Great Black Sky