"": 200,
"": "",
"": "Just how cautious and perceptive was the Village Chief?
Every compartment here held a corresponding number of oil bottles. Even if one went missing from this corner and escaped notice at first, it would be discovered sooner or later.
It wasn't as though drinking one bottle of lamp oil would make him "recover." He would have to return sooner or later, so he couldn't cut off his own escape route.
After making sure Gu Yiren was all right, Luo Bin returned to the main room. Even a plastic bag would do, he thought, but he searched everywhere and found nothing. He entered the other rooms, which contained beds, bedding, and all the necessities of daily life, but still found no container.
Returning once more to the room full of oil bottles, Luo Bin stared at the bottles covering the wall, some empty and some full, and sank into thought.
Time slowly passed.
The sky grew darker. This room had only a cloth curtain, which let in a trace of light from outside.
The closer it came to dawn, the darker the sky became.
Only when dawn broke did Luo Bin leave the woodland cabin with Gu Yiren on his back.
Fortunately, he could rewind his memories, allowing him to cross the trap-filled clearing without a single misstep. Near its edge, he spotted the holes the evil spirits had fallen into the night before.
The two evil spirits who looked like mountain villagers lay motionless at the bottom of the pits.
With daylight here, they were as quiet as if they were asleep.
But the bottoms of the pits were filled with bamboo and wooden stakes, all sharpened at the tips. Quite a few had pierced the two evil spirits.
Had daylight robbed them of the ability to move, or had they been impaled and killed when they fell in last night? Luo Bin had no definite answer.
Halfway back, Gu Yiren woke and struggled to get off Luo Bin's back.
"Are you all right?" Luo Bin asked cautiously.
"I... I'm fine," Gu Yiren answered, pressing her lips together. But her eyes were bewildered, and she seemed at a loss.
Luo Bin could tell at a glance that she couldn't find her way.
But how had she found the cabin so precisely last night?
Was it because she could see some kind of presence that he couldn't?
Despite his thoughts, Luo Bin said nothing. He simply led the way, and Gu Yiren followed close behind.
His reason for not pressing her for answers was simple. He had secrets of his own, and Gu Yiren surely had things she couldn't tell anyone, too.
If working together benefited them both, there was no need to put the other person in a difficult position.
The sun was already high when they entered the village from the foot of the mountain. They had barely reached the vicinity of the Mountain God Temple when someone suddenly rushed out, grabbed Gu Yiren, pulled her behind him, and hurled a vicious punch at Luo Bin's face!
Luo Bin reacted fast, tilting his head to dodge the punch and retreating two steps. Only then did he see that the person who had come out of the Mountain God Temple was Zhang Li!
Zhang Li looked furious, his eyes murderous!
"What did you do to Yiren?!" he demanded fiercely.
Luo Bin frowned. Before he could speak, Gu Yiren said in a trembling voice, "Zhang Li, n-nothing happened. Luo Shan saved me. Yesterday, just before dark, I left the house in a daze. I couldn't stop myself from wandering around, like I was sleepwalking. Luo Shan ran into me and told me it was getting dark and that I should go home. I heard him, but I couldn't control my body. I even went into the woods. If it hadn't been for him... I wouldn't have made it back..."
Zhang Li's face went pale.
Gu Yiren hunched her shoulders and gave another soft moan, as though she felt terribly unwell.
Zhang Li hurried to support her.
When he glanced at Luo Bin again, his eyes were guarded, his expression shifting uncertainly.
"Thank you," Zhang Li forced out.
Then he turned and helped Gu Yiren walk away.
Luo Bin relaxed a little. Zhang Li was emotionally unstable, and getting into a fight with him now would be unwise. Gu Yiren was clever, though.
But suddenly, Zhang Li came back. Leaving Gu Yiren in the distance, he walked over and stopped in front of Luo Bin.
"Yiren was lucky last night. You saved her. You were lucky too-you didn't die." Zhang Li's tone was heavy with meaning. He tapped his temple and continued, "She didn't wander out for no reason. She's sick here. When something triggers her, she hallucinates, sees things that don't exist, and does all kinds of terrifying things."
"She once went up onto the roof in the middle of the night. She's also turned on the gas and nearly killed her whole family. She jumped into a river to kill herself, as if she were possessed. She even looks in the mirror at midnight and combs the air. The reason I tied her up before was that she was having an episode and might hurt someone."
"If you get too close to her without keeping your guard up, she might stab you out of nowhere. Or she'll say all kinds of nonsense. Elsewhere, that might not matter, but in a place like this, believing her can get people killed."
"You'd better stay away from Yiren. When she has an episode, she's a lunatic."
Only after saying all this did Zhang Li leave again, helping Gu Yiren walk away.
Luo Bin frowned slightly.
Judging by Zhang Li's expression and manner, he didn't seem to be lying.
Thinking back over the details, Luo Bin found that they fit perfectly with Zhang Li's behavior.
Was Gu Yiren sick?
Perhaps that really was the case?
But was it really an illness?
Or was it because she could see things other people couldn't, because she was inherently different?
Was it simply that ordinary people couldn't perceive them?
And most importantly, why was Zhang Li telling him all this?
During the village patrol incident that night, Zhang Li had thought Luo Bin was leaving him to die. Yesterday, when Luo Bin followed him into the courtyard where they lived, they had each kicked the other. They had practically fallen out completely.
Was Zhang Li really saying this out of gratitude because Gu Yiren was safe? Or was it because... he had discovered something unusual about Gu Yiren? Did he not want her to have contact with any villagers other than them?
In an instant, Luo Bin worked out the answer!
Gu Yiren must have said something to Zhang Li.
What had she said?
Could she have told him... about my secret?
No, that shouldn't be possible. If she had, Zhang Li would surely have reacted differently.
If Zhang Li was so determined to keep Gu Yiren from interacting with the villagers, then she must have said something about the village's secrets!
Luo Bin's heart began pounding.
As the sunlight grew stronger, Luo Bin forced down his thoughts. He entered the Mountain God Temple first, found a plastic bag among a heap of clutter, picked it up, then hurried behind the mountain god statue.
He pulled a heavy bundle of clothing out of his pocket. It was his undershirt, soaked in oil.
He wrung the short-sleeved shirt hard, sending streams of thick, dark oil into the plastic bag.
He had carefully examined the stoppers on the oil bottles and found that they opened easily without leaving any marks. So he had poured a tiny amount of lamp oil from every bottle. With no point of comparison, even the most meticulous person would be unlikely to notice that any lamp oil was missing.
Finally, he tied the plastic bag tightly shut. By his estimate, he had nearly half a bottle's worth of lamp oil, enough to fill the Oil Lamp three times. He would be safe for at least a little while.
Luo Bin let out another breath of relief and tucked the plastic bag securely against his body. As for the short-sleeved shirt, he used the matches he carried to set it alight and burned it to ashes.
Finally, Luo Bin slammed his head hard against the base of the mountain god statue, then gave himself two resounding slaps.
A bloody mark appeared on his forehead, and his face was even redder,
with palm prints and considerable swelling. Luo Bin lowered his head to inspect himself, then simply rolled across the ground, making his clothes filthy and bedraggled. Only then did he stagger out of the Mountain God Temple and head home.
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