No one knew when the once-clear sky had begun to darken.
Low clouds pressed against the barren ridges on either side, shrouding Locust Tree Village in a murky gray gloom.
Old Locust Tree's massive, broken body lay across the village entrance. Dark green sap still seeped from the stump, giving off a nauseating, earthy stench.
Jiang Yuechu lowered her gaze and looked impassively at the scene before her.
Zhao Hu and the others worked quickly, ropes in hand, binding the villagers who lay limp on the ground one by one.
"Have mercy, officers! I was forced into it!"
"I'm guilty... I'm guilty..."
A little while later.
Footsteps sounded.
Liu Chen had settled his men and walked slowly over to the tree.
There was no joy on his face at having finished the assignment. Instead, his brows were tightly knit, as though something still puzzled him.
"Miss Jiang."
Liu Chen stopped beside Jiang Yuechu. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "There's something... I can't make sense of."
"Hmm?"
"I remember the Bureau's records saying the last famine in Longyou was forty or fifty years ago."
"If they made a bargain with this demon back then to stay alive, I could understand that."
"But I just looked around. There are people in this village in their sixties and seventies, sure, but there are more in their forties and fifties, and even able-bodied men in their thirties."
Liu Chen pointed toward the dejected villagers.
"If they'd fed all their children to the tree back then, Locust Tree Village... should have died out long ago. How could it still be here?"
At his words, Jiang Yuechu raised her head. Her gaze passed through the windblown dust and settled on the ruined village.
"Have you ever heard this saying?"
Liu Chen paused. "What saying?"
"It's