The villagers' rules

"": 200,

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"": "Left to die?

Luo Bin was both angry and tempted to laugh.

A moment ago, Zhang Li had been adamant that he would never enter the house, declaring that the villagers were all lunatics. Now they were leaving him to die?

Had his own words come back to slap him in the face that quickly?

Still, Luo Bin kept his attention on the window and the concrete road outside.

The evil spirits were slow. They had not caught up yet.

His emotions were on a roller coaster. Just as things took an unexpected turn for the better, his heart was left hanging again.

Old Kong and Luo Feng blocked the doorway. Luo Feng shook his head slightly.

Old Kong swept his gaze over the others, every freckle on his face sharply defined, before his eyes settled on Luo Bin as well.

Every villager was staring at Luo Bin.

Luo Bin's eyelids twitched. This door... could no longer be opened.

Even setting Luo Feng aside, he could not defy Old Kong, the owner of the house, and so many other villagers by opening the door again.

Even if he wanted to, he could not do it.

"Xiao Shan, come over to Mom... You saved them before dark. You've already done everything you could." At some point, Gu Ya had come up behind Luo Bin and taken hold of his arm.

"Open the door!" Zhu Qianqian screamed even louder, while Zhang Li shoved harder against it.

Standing beside them, Gu Yiren swayed her head gently from side to side, as though humming a tune, though the noise drowned out her voice.

His being able to open the door before dark had not just been an act of generosity on his part. Every villager in the house had shown them mercy.

Now, no one would agree to let him open it again. Even if he spoke up, it would accomplish nothing except earning their disgust and hostility.

"Mom, why would I open the door?" Luo Bin smiled and turned to meet Gu Ya's eyes.

Only then did Gu Ya let out a long breath of relief.

Luo Bin took a few slow steps away from the door.

At this point, all he could do was make sure he did not end up on the wrong side.

"Lunatics! You're all lunatics!" Zhang Li cursed.

"Ah!" Zhu Qianqian screamed. She had clearly reached her breaking point and could no longer bear the terror.

On the concrete road in the distance, the evil spirits came "chasing" after them. Chasing was hardly the word for it. They were moving slowly, merely walking.

Grabbing Gu Yiren, Zhang Li ran headlong toward the car. Zhu Qianqian followed, crying.

The three climbed back into the car. Zhang Li started the engine again and sped out of the village.

Silence returned to the house.

A moment earlier, every villager had been on edge. Only now did they slowly begin to relax.

The dozen or so evil spirits that had followed them stood at the village entrance and looked around for a while. Then they came to the door and windows, strange, sly smiles spreading across their faces.

With a swishing sound, Old Kong drew all the curtains. The fabric was thick and blocked out the light almost completely, hiding the evil spirits from view.

Dawn came.

As Old Kong opened the door, the doors of the other houses along the road opened too. The road reeked of blood, feces, and urine.

Zhang Jun had lost control of his bladder and bowels long before the night ended.

The crowd streamed toward the far end of the village. Gu Ya looked pale and said she wanted to go home and rest. Zhang Yunling looked strained as well. She did not dare look at the blood on the ground; it was too horrifying.

"Xiao Shan and I will go take a look," Luo Feng said.

The four parted ways. Luo Bin followed Luo Feng, moving along with the crowd.

When they reached the far end of the village, in front of the Mountain God Temple, they saw a battered Prisoner Cart.

Zhang Jun had wasted away to little more than a skeleton. Even the flesh on his head had been reduced to less than a third of what it had been.

All the villagers were quiet. The anger with which they had demanded that he be paraded through the village was gone. Their eyes held wariness, horror, and fear.

Any sense of release had vanished, replaced by intense nausea.

A life for a life, a debt repaid. Cabinet Mountain Village had demonstrated the meaning of punishment to the fullest.

Zhong Zhicheng walked to the front of the Prisoner Cart. He was as resolute and unflinching as ever, his booming voice carrying a trace of severity.

"Those who kill will be killed! Those who harm others will be harmed!"

"I hope you all conduct yourselves accordingly!"

Luo Feng spoke quietly, for Luo Bin's ears alone. "Only consequences can keep people in line. Before the village had rules, it was always a complete mess. Back in those days, people like Zhang Jun caused a lot of suffering."

"Back in those days? Did the rules only come about in the last few years?" Luo Bin swallowed.

"Yes." Luo Feng had barely finished answering.

A few villagers came running from farther back, their shouts echoing along the village road.

"Those three outsiders are back again! They actually came back alive!"

Luo Bin's pupils abruptly contracted.

Every villager turned to look at the people who had brought the news.

Though last night's incident had only happened at the entrance, there were already many houses there. With so many villagers gathered at the time, word had spread from one to ten, then ten to a hundred. The whole village had long since learned of it.

"Quiet. They're no longer outsiders. They survived three days, so they're villagers now. Everyone, go home and rest. Luo Feng, lead a team to clean up."

Zhong Zhicheng's opening words were as resonant as a bell. For his last instruction, he looked at Luo Feng.

"Go home." Luo Feng glanced at Luo Bin, then headed straight for the Prisoner Cart.

Several men in their prime stepped out of the crowd. They were the same men who had captured Zhang Li and the other outsiders that day, and they too walked toward the Prisoner Cart.

The other villagers began dispersing.

Of course, a few stragglers still followed Zhong Zhicheng, though some may simply have lived near the entrance and been heading home.

Luo Bin did not go home. He trailed Zhong Zhicheng from a distance of several dozen meters.

When they reached the village entrance, a Santana was parked there. The car was a wreck: its bumper was warped, its headlights shattered, and both side mirrors hung crookedly.

Outside the driver's seat stood Zhang Li, his tall, lean frame hunched over. In just one night, he had become far more haggard. His cheeks were deeply sunken, his eyes ringed with dark circles and suffused with a dark red.

Luo Bin understood what had happened. Extreme agitation and an excessive physical response had burst the tiny blood vessels in his eyes, making them look so frightening.

Zhu Qianqian crouched a little farther behind him, while Gu Yiren stood to one side. The ropes around her were gone.

Last night, Zhang Li had truly come close to losing his mind.

The situation had been completely unlike what he had imagined. The villagers had left them to die, and so had Luo Bin. His only choice had been to keep driving, fleeing all night long. He had not dared enter the village because there were too many evil spirits there. Fortunately, with the evil spirits all in the village, the mountain road had been much quieter, with only the occasional straggler.

But that kind of terror was more than an ordinary person could endure. Even near dawn, when the evil spirits had retreated into the woods, Zhang Li had not had the courage to follow them. By the time he returned to the village, his fuel tank was nearly empty.

He had not kept Gu Yiren tied up because he knew that if he made things too obvious and let the entire village see her in daylight, it would be difficult to explain. His immediate priority was survival-staying alive in the village.

"Three days have passed." Gritting his teeth, Zhang Li called out hoarsely to Zhong Zhicheng.

Zhong Zhicheng walked up to Zhang Li and nodded slightly. "There are a few rules for villagers that you need to know."

"First, when night falls, close your doors and windows, light an oil lamp, and stay quietly at home."

"Second, resources in the village are limited. Every household must provide one

person to work in the village in order to receive the corresponding food rations."

"Third, you may not harm a villager in any way. There will be punishment. Zhang Jun, whom you saw last night, is an example. He was not punished for wanting to take away the two women beside you. Luo Shan helped you and beat Zhang Jun, and Zhang Jun, unable to swallow his anger, opened a window in Luo Shan's house and let the evil spirits inside. That is the most vicious thing anyone can do. Being paraded through the village is the harshest punishment."

"Fourth, we all want to leave this place, but for now, none of us can. On the first and fifteenth of every month, the whole village draws lots. The villagers chosen must explore the mountains for a way out."

Luo Bin's heart gave a sudden jolt. The information was not complicated. The second rule was, in essence, what Luo Feng was doing by working under the Village Chief.

Only the fourth rule was new to him.

So the people of Cabinet Mountain Village had been searching for a way to leave all along, rather than simply staying within this self-imposed prison?

Something called hope stirred in Luo Bin's heart.

The village was far too oppressive. He seemed to have made it through these past few days, but looking back, every day had been filled with confusion and a deathly chill. Given enough time, that kind of oppression would inevitably drive anyone mad.

Without his noticing, the morning sun had risen. Its gentle light mirrored the hope in Luo Bin's heart. Yet he noticed that the villagers around him seemed deeply subdued. There was even a faint trace of fear on their faces.

What were they afraid of?