Do You Want to Leave the Village?

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"": "The Lamp Oil soothed his throat, easing his aversion to light and his thirst for blood. He had recovered.

"There was something outside the door. I couldn't make out what it was. It seemed to keep peeking at us," Luo Bin answered quietly.

Luo Feng stared through the crack in the door for a long while again. So did Gu Ya.

Luo Bin lightly wiped the corner of his mouth, concealed the plastic oil packet in his palm, and casually tossed it behind him. He stepped on it and pushed it into a crevice at the base of the back wall.

There had been nothing outside the Wooden House.

Luo Bin was putting on an act.

Unless he created a distraction to draw Luo Feng and Gu Ya's attention away, how could he swallow Lamp Oil right in front of the couple?

If he held out any longer, something would go wrong.

Fortunately, in a place like this, even when nothing was wrong, a slight change in someone's gaze or behavior would make people think otherwise.

Whispers and quiet laughter rose, and shadows crowded outside the crack in the door.

"Kill them, and you can be with us. Go kill them."

The enticing whispers came from the wooden wall behind him. Luo Bin was not the only one who could hear them; Luo Feng and Gu Ya could, too. Yesterday, the Evil Spirits had tried to beguile the couple. Today, they had switched targets.

Luo Bin's heart sank. Any other villager would probably have started entertaining all sorts of thoughts. Fortunately, Luo Feng and Gu Ya were strong-willed. Otherwise, something would inevitably go wrong.

"Xiao Shan, don't listen to them." Gu Ya approached Luo Bin and took his hand, her eyes full of reassurance and concern.

Luo Feng walked over to the other side of the wall and sat down, ignoring everything the Evil Spirits said or did.

"Mom, go get some rest. You're tired, too." Luo Bin smiled and added, "I'm fine."

Only then did Gu Ya return to Luo Feng's side. Luo Bin lay on the floor as before, closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.

A candle burned in the cramped room, its orange glow spreading evenly into every corner.

Gu Yiren had been lying quietly on the bed. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright and stared blankly around the room.

"It's dark. Time to come out."

"He isn't here."

Her voice was gentle and soothing, as though she were coaxing something.

She got out of bed. The room was small enough to take in at a glance, but Gu Yiren found nothing.

She lowered herself to the floor and looked beneath the bed.

Her beautiful eyes trembled slightly, but the space beneath the bed was empty, too.

She slowly stood up, walked over to the cabinet at one side of the room, and opened it. It was also empty. There was nothing inside.

A sense of bewilderment welled up within Gu Yiren, along with a trace of anguish.

"Where did you go?" Gu Yiren asked shakily.

"Come out! Come out!" A scream suddenly burst from her lips. With a bang, she slammed the cabinet door shut, then screamed again as though she were losing her mind. She struck her head hard against the cabinet, leaving a red mark on her pale forehead.

Suddenly, her eyes widened. She rushed to the door and shoved it with both hands!

There was a loud clatter, but the door did not open. An enormous, heavy lock outside held it firmly shut!

"Spying! I know you're spying again!"

"You scared it away!"

"Only it can take us away from here! Only it can get us out of this village!"

"Get lost! Get lost! Drop dead!"

The Gu Yiren of this moment was utterly different from the quiet, gentle beauty she had been before!

There was no one outside the door.

In the main room, the Oil Lamp cast a soft glow. Two people sat facing each other beneath it, their shadows stretching long across the wall.

On the left sat He Gui, the Spirit Medium, with his hunched back, narrow eyes, hooked nose, hair combed over his bald crown, pointed chin, and goatee. His expression was especially gloomy.

On the right sat Zhong Zhicheng, with his square face, full beard, and Arhat Brows.

The tapping came from Zhong Zhicheng's fingers drumming on the table.

"I watched her on the first day. She just searched around the room for something and whispered to herself. When she noticed me watching, she started cursing nonstop. It's gotten worse these past few days," He Gui said.

"She can see things? Things we can't see?" Zhong Zhicheng stopped tapping.

"That's absurd. If she could see anything, I'd certainly be able to see it, too. She has epileptic fits and hysterical episodes. That Zhang Li wasn't lying. Zhu Qianqian must have believed the nonsense she spouted during an episode and gotten herself killed by an Evil Spirit." After explaining, He Gui paused, then said, "She's far too destabilizing an influence. Put her in the Mountain God Temple. Don't give her an Oil Lamp. Let her die."

After a moment of silence, Zhong Zhicheng said, "Zhang Li has disappeared. When the time came, he didn't come to collect his Lamp Oil. I went to check. His house was empty, and there was still quite a bit of Lamp Oil left. Thinking back, he never returned home after the day Gu Yiren was taken away."

"Obviously, Gu Yiren said something else, and he believed her." He Gui shook his head. "In my view, Gu Yiren is ill. That's a fact. He was just still clinging to hope, thinking there was some truth to what she said. He wanted to leave the village and was desperate enough to try anything. So he played along and told us Gu Yiren was ill, hoping to pull the wool over our eyes. But that was pure fantasy. Did he expect a sick person to become someone special in Guishan Village?"

"People like him think they're clever. If he's dead, he's dead. Good riddance. Even without Gu Yiren, he wouldn't have survived in the village for long," He Gui said scornfully.

"You don't think Gu Yiren knows something, too, do you?" Suspicion flickered in He Gui's eyes. "Old Zhong, you're the village chief. You need to be even more careful. Nothing must go wrong, or the order and peace the village has maintained all these years will be destroyed."

"Mm, no. I was just mentioning Zhang Li's disappearance in passing." Zhong Zhicheng shook his head.

"Send her away tomorrow. The sooner she dies, the sooner she can be reborn. If she dies early, she'll say less and influence fewer people," He Gui added.

"Mm." Zhong Zhicheng nodded.

At that very moment, in the Luo family home.

In Luo Bin's room, on the bed.

Chen Xianxian braced her hands on either side of the bed, gently swinging her legs and pouting.

"Two days and two nights, and they still haven't come back. They haven't died out there, have they?"

Chen Xianxian felt deeply melancholy.

Her sister had finally found a man she liked, and she wanted to see what was so special about Luo Shan, too. But Luo Shan had been unlucky enough to draw the black lot, and Luo Feng was famously cautious... and stubborn.

More than two years ago, Luo Feng had gone out scouting. Almost nine days had passed before he returned, and everyone had thought the couple had died. Back then, Luo Shan had even hidden himself away rather than go scouting with them.

Chen Xianxian had assumed Luo Shan would hide again this time.

Instead, Luo Shan had gone along without the slightest fuss.

That had ruined her plans.

She had always believed that good luck might save someone once, but certainly not two or three times. If Luo Feng and his family died outside, and Luo Shan died out there, too, eaten by another Evil Spirit, it would be such a waste.

"Ugh..." Chen Xianxian sighed and muttered to herself, "That Zhang Li really was an idiot... And the Spirit Medium and the village chief, too... They don't actually believe Gu Yiren, do they? Why haven't they let her out to die yet?"

Over the past few years, aside from those sent to scout around the village, the village had dealt with people who posed a risk or intended to harm others.

Of course, there were also those who were gravely ill, beyond treatment, or contagious. Guishan Village lacked doctors and medicine, and its resources were

limited.

Usually, such people would be thrown into the Mountain God Temple.

Chen Xianxian had been waiting all this time for her chance to retrieve someone from the Mountain God Temple.

But several days had passed in the blink of an eye, and the Spirit Medium's house remained quiet. Nothing had happened.

That gave her a bad feeling.

At that same moment, in another courtyard.

The Oil Lamp burned quietly in the main room. Beside the well in the courtyard, a tall, thin man was concentrating on trimming off flesh.

A basin beside him was piled with finely textured chunks of meat, all lean, without any fat.

There were two other basins. One held fat; the other held the skin he had cut away.

By midnight, he had cut off every part that satisfied him. Only then did he carry the basins toward the kitchen.

A few minutes later, the man came out.

His expression changed drastically!

Beneath the cold, pale moonlight, a woman stood beside the corpse by the well, its flesh stripped away to expose the white bones.

The woman held a Cloth Doll in her hands. The crude stitching made its face crooked and hideous. The woman was smiling. With her lovely features and poised bearing, she was beautiful, like the older girl next door.

"You slipped up. Someone found you out," Zhang Yunling said softly.

A knife slid from the man's sleeve, its blade as thin as a cicada's wing and chillingly white.

"Do you want to leave the village?" Zhang Yunling suddenly asked.

The man shuddered.

"I know it's you. I haven't told anyone. I have a way to leave the village, but I need your help," Zhang Yunling said earnestly. "There's someone stopping all of us from leaving. He needs to die. I failed, but you can definitely do it."

The morning breeze in the mountains was slightly cool.

The morning light in the mountains was warm and gentle.

Outside the fourth Resting Place, Gu Ya had lit a campfire and was boiling dried meat in a small iron pot, along with some pickled vegetables. The bubbling broth had a faint yellowish-white tinge.

It was the third day. Eating dry rations to fill their stomachs for the first two days had been fine.

But they couldn't keep eating them every day. The other Resting Places all had cooking stoves outside, but the fourth was too rudimentary. Very few people came here, and it was poorly equipped. At least they had found an old pot and a few old bowls. For chopsticks, they used branches gathered nearby.

She broke the flatbread apart and dropped it into the soup piece by piece. Soon, the pickled vegetable and Dried Meat Soup thickened, its aroma wafting through the air.

Using leaves to grip the rim of the pot, Gu Ya portioned out two large bowls and one small one.

After the family of three finished eating, Luo Feng spoke in a low voice. "We'll only explore for today. Tomorrow morning, we'll head back."

Gu Ya froze. She truly had not expected Luo Feng to make that decision.

As she understood him, once Luo Feng discovered a problem, he would insist on getting to the bottom of it.

Especially here, where there was actually another village.

Luo Bin was equally stunned. He had never considered returning, at least not now. He wanted to examine this place thoroughly and work out whether the people here had all died or had managed to leave.

Everyone had a peculiar confidence when it came to matters concerning themselves: only they could do it properly; no one else could be relied upon.

"There are more things spying on us now," Luo Feng continued. "That's a serious problem. If their numbers increase any further, they may attack us directly."

"The route we've been exploring is very likely wrong. We need to get back in time to tell the village chief. We can't die out here, or the whole village will follow the wrong route. Without Xiao Shan's warning, anyone who reaches this fourth Resting Place in the future will become trapped going in circles and never make it back."

"All right." Gu Ya nodded firmly, but she glanced carefully around, looking exceptionally wary.

Luo Bin said nothing. He, too, scanned his surroundings cautiously, but he saw no one.

There were "people" here.

They had already encountered them on the way yesterday. Luo Feng simply refused to explain it clearly.

Where were these people?

Why had Luo Feng seen them when he had not?

He focused slightly and went back over his memories.

Luo Bin recalled watching Luo Feng's expression while they ate. Indeed, Luo Feng's peripheral vision had been sweeping his surroundings, almost as though he were watching and listening in every direction.

Yet there had not been a single human figure anywhere within Luo Bin's sight.

Going over his memories once more, Luo Bin finally noticed something different.

There had been sheep grazing on the slopes, some nearby and some farther away.

That was all...