Six households

Something terrible had happened.

The old village chief looked as pale as a corpse.

But he did not shout or scream. Instead, he called over the heads of several prominent families, and they huddled together to discuss the matter.

"Today's festivities will proceed as usual."

The old village chief looked back at the people behind him. His greatest concern was these young people, who still lacked composure.

"No one is to breathe a word about what happened in the Ancestral Hall. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes..."

The old village chief swept his aged eyes over each of them, then said to the head of the Wang Family, "You'll oversee this year's festivities. Remember, the Immortal Sheep must be found..."

The head of the Wang Family was overjoyed. Nothing about him suggested that two young members of his own family had just died.

"Yes! I'll make sure everything goes smoothly, Chief!"

"Go on. I'm old. I can't manage these things anymore..."

Dawn broke, and Qin Manjiang opened his eyes at exactly seven thirty.

"You're awake, Classmate Qin. Come have something to eat," Liu Jingqing said.

"Where is everyone?" Qin Manjiang glanced around. Apart from Liu Jingqing, everyone else was gone.

"They went into the village as soon as it got light. They said they wanted to do more investigating while it was daytime," Liu Jingqing replied.

"These are instant noodles we brought ourselves. Have some." As she spoke, Liu Jingqing brought over a bowl of noodles. "Apparently, in a previous Ghost Story Game, the problem was in a building's water supply. Everyone drank the water there, and in the end, ghosts from the water crawled out of their stomachs and killed them all."

She set the noodles in front of Qin Manjiang and said, "Ever since then, everyone has brought their own food and drinking water. Rationing what we have is better than eating something suspicious."

Qin Manjiang looked down at the noodles, picked up the bowl, and asked, "Aren't you going?"

Liu Jingqing shook her head slightly and said earnestly, "If I went, you'd be left alone."

Qin Manjiang asked nothing more. After quickly finishing the noodles and washing up, he left their temporary lodgings with her.

But the moment they pushed open the inn's front door, they ran into a girl.

She wore round glasses and had a braid at the back of her head. Her plain white shirt and faded jeans looked very clean.

Everything about her was clean and fresh, from her clothes to her looks and demeanor.

She seemed to freeze for a moment when she saw Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing. "Hello. Is it just the two of you?"

Liu Jingqing asked in confusion, "And you are...?"

The girl with the round glasses hurriedly said, "Oh, just call me Xiao Ran. Uncle Chen sent me to show you around the village."

As she spoke, she peered inside the inn. "Where are the others? Uncle Chen said there were five of you."

"They've already gone out to look around. Sorry for the trouble, Xiao Ran." Judging by the girl's age, Liu Jingqing thought she was no older than Qin Manjiang, so addressing her as a younger sister felt most appropriate.

"It's no trouble! Come with me! This village is huge! I'll show you around properly." Xiao Ran smiled, her braid bouncing as she turned her head.

Qin Manjiang gave Xiao Ran a thoughtful look, then followed without a word.

As they walked toward the center of the village, the road grew steadily better, even becoming paved with level tiles.

Xianyang Village was even livelier today than when they had arrived yesterday. Every household had come out, everyone dressed in their best, cleanest clothes, their faces beaming with joy.

"This whole area belongs to the Wang Family. They're one of the village's prominent families. That villa-like house behind the high walls is where the head of the family lives. It's so beautiful!"

Xiao Ran pointed at a large house nearby that looked expensive at a glance.

"That's the Zhang Family. Like the Wang Family, they're another prominent family. Over there is the Li Family, and next door is the Sun Family... Across from the Sun Family is the Xie Family..."

"If you go straight down this road, the big residence in the best spot, facing south with its back to the north, is the village chief's home. His family name is Chen. Those six families have the grandest homes in the village!"

There seemed to be envy in Xiao Ran's voice that she was trying desperately to hide.

Qin Manjiang asked, "What business are they in? How do they make so much money?"

Xiao Ran shook her head, then suddenly seemed to remember something. "I think the Sheep Immortal must be blessing them!"

The Sheep Immortal?

Those words immediately caught Qin Manjiang's and Liu Jingqing's attention. Liu Jingqing asked at once, "Xiao Ran, what do you mean by the Sheep Immortal blessing them?"

Leading them onward, Xiao Ran asked in puzzlement, "Aren't you here for the Sheep Transformation Festival too? It happens once every three years. One lucky person is selected to play the Sheep Immortal for three days. Then another lucky person is selected to make a wish to whoever is playing the Sheep Immortal. In the end, both the person playing the Sheep Immortal and the person chosen to make a wish get their wishes granted!"

"Chen, Wang, Zhang, Li, Sun, and Xie-all six families have made wishes to the Sheep Immortal before. They've grown richer and richer over the past twenty years. It must be the Sheep Immortal's blessing!" Xiao Ran pressed her palms together devoutly and murmured, "I hope I get picked this year. Please... let me make a wish too."

Liu Jingqing leaned close to Qin Manjiang's ear and whispered, "For this ghost story, it's very possible that something happened to the person playing the Sheep Immortal. If that's the case, those six families who made wishes to the Sheep Immortal are bound to face retaliation..."

Qin Manjiang nodded. Just then, Xiao Ran suddenly pointed ahead again. "Look! That's the Ancestral Hall, where the Sheep Immortal is worshipped!"

"The village has survived to this day entirely thanks to the Sheep Immortal. This Ancestral Hall was built specifically for the Sheep Immortal!"

Following Xiao Ran's finger, Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing looked toward the Ancestral Hall. Five-meter-high white walls enclosed the entire compound. The entrance was circular; with the doors pushed fully open, it would look just like the mouth of a hole.

"I was placed in a dark, narrow hole, and my eyes could no longer hold any light..." Liu Jingqing murmured.

Judging by that description, this Ancestral Hall was the dark, narrow hole mentioned in the opening words.

But... no matter how they looked at it, could this Ancestral Hall really be called dark and narrow?

Whether it was dark was another matter, but a place this large certainly was not narrow.

"Come on, let's go to the Hundred-Meter Banquet! The person who gets to make a wish to the Sheep Immortal is chosen there too. Let's hurry!"

The Hundred-Meter Banquet Xiao Ran mentioned was an event where every household contributed some of its best dishes. Tables were placed end to end in the village's central square and covered with food. It was said to stretch for a hundred meters, making quite a spectacular sight.

But the cheerful bustle of the villagers suddenly turned into a commotion, with faint sounds of crying mixed in.

Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing instinctively sensed that something was wrong. They hurried past Xiao Ran and ran toward the central square, where the Hundred-Meter Banquet was being held.

Sure enough, before they even reached it, they heard the villagers' frightened chatter and a woman sobbing at the top of her lungs:

"My son, please get up!"

The second update will be posted shortly. We have guests at home today, so I need to join them for a meal!

(End of chapter)