Festival Suspended

August 20, noon.

The Sheep Transformation Festival in Xianyang Village proceeded on schedule.

A man stood before Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing. After hearing him out, Liu Jingqing went deathly pale and stared at him in disbelief. "You're committing a crime!"

The man's name was Chen Rui. That rabble had chosen him to tell Qin Manjiang everything and ask for help.

He gave a full account of what had happened on the night of August 19, including how they had chosen Li Rong, dragged her into the Ancestral Hall, restrained her, attached sheep horns to her head, and dressed her in a sheepskin.

Including how, at the very end... Li Rong had inexplicably vanished after the transformation had supposedly succeeded.

The incident was so horrifying that Liu Jingqing could hardly believe it had happened in this day and age.

"I... I know, but everyone has done this since ancient times! I had no choice... none of us did..."

Chen Rui had been trembling, but as he spoke, he actually began to grow agitated.

"The village is blessed by the Immortal Sheep, but we're cursed by the Immortal Sheep too! If we don't do this, we can't survive... haven't you seen it... this village, these paving stones, the food, the population, those houses... the Immortal Sheep gave us all of it!"

"When I was little, we only got a whiff of meat at home once a month. Poverty... is worse than death!" Chen Rui's face flushed with agitation. "So what if we kill someone? One person every three years, and killing that one person gets us two wishes. Isn't that a good deal?"

Chen Rui's words sent a chill down Liu Jingqing's spine. Only then did she realize what sort of place this truly was.

Suddenly, a firecracker went off, making Liu Jingqing flinch.

She turned to look. While they had been talking, the Sheep Transformation Festival had officially begun, hosted by Wang Ju, the head of the Wang Family.

As the three of them watched from a corner of the square, dozens of tables of various sizes had already been laden with food. The black sheep raised by every household had also been led out and allowed to climb onto the tables to eat first. Their hooves showed no restraint, trampling the fine dishes to pieces the moment they climbed up. Some even defecated as they ate, yet people clapped and cheered. Whenever a sheep climbed onto someone's table and touched their food, they grinned from ear to ear.

The crackle of firecrackers, the bleating of sheep, the people's eager cheers and chatter, and the Wang Family head's speech over the microphone made Xianyang Village a scene both lively and bizarre.

"If what you said is true, who will play the person transformed into the Immortal Sheep when they draw the winning name in a moment?" Qin Manjiang seemed unconcerned by Chen Rui's account and simply continued questioning him. "Li Rong, whom you turned into the Immortal Sheep, has vanished. So who's appearing as the Immortal Sheep today?"

"She didn't vanish! She turned into a vengeful ghost, and she's coming for our lives!" Chen Rui trembled all over. "You saw it. Uncle Chen died, and Zhang Yang, who was our age, died this morning too. And... you don't know this, but the people our age guarding the Ancestral Hall died too! They're all dead!"

"You said you had a way. You have to save us!" Chen Rui's eyes were bloodshot. Amid the deafening firecrackers, he stepped forward and grabbed Qin Manjiang by the collar. "I don't care whether you're a fraud or someone who can really exorcise ghosts. You said you had a way. If you play dumb, we'll kill you first!"

"Oh?" Qin Manjiang was a little taller than Chen Rui. Even with his collar in Chen Rui's grip, he still looked down at him. "If you don't let go, I'll tell everyone else how to escape Li Rong's revenge. Everyone except you."

"Or I'll tell your friends that Li Rong will stop taking revenge as long as they kill you." Qin Manjiang gripped his hand, slowly pulled it away, and straightened his collar. "Do you think they'll believe me?"

Chen Rui went pale, unable to speak.

Expressionless, Qin Manjiang leaned toward his ear and said quietly, "That's no way to ask for help."

Then he turned to Liu Jingqing. "Let's go."

Chen Rui was just about to say something when Qin Manjiang turned slightly and said, "Go back. I promised I'd help."

Liu Jingqing came to her senses too and hurried after Qin Manjiang, not sparing Chen Rui a glance as she passed him.

"Mr. Qin, do we... not need to ask him anything else?" Liu Jingqing asked.

Qin Manjiang gave her a puzzled look. Hadn't she always called him Classmate Qin?

Still, that wasn't much of an issue.

Qin Manjiang shook his head. "He's explained the whole story clearly enough. The question now is who exactly is appearing as the Immortal Sheep in Li Rong's place."

He looked toward the "Immortal Sheep" seated on the float being carried slowly toward them, doubts stirring in his mind as well.

"I... actually have a question too," Liu Jingqing said quietly.

"Do you?" Qin Manjiang kept his eyes on the float as he answered. "What sort of question?"

Liu Jingqing followed his gaze toward the float. The firecrackers and cheers were utterly at odds with the horrific ritual carried out behind the scenes in this village. After thinking for a moment, she said, "If that ghost... if the Sick Sheep mentioned in the ghost story is Li Rong, I think... she has no reason to kill us."

She turned to Qin Manjiang. "Everyone who's died so far hurt her before. We seem to..."

"Last night. The restroom." Qin Manjiang offered only those two brief reminders, and Liu Jingqing fell silent.

Qin Manjiang didn't turn to reproach her. He simply watched the float being carried slowly toward them and said calmly, "What we can establish now is that Li Rong has vanished, and the dead really are people who hurt her before. But that ghost isn't necessarily Li Rong."

"Huh?" Liu Jingqing couldn't follow his reasoning.

"I was thinking," Qin Manjiang said quietly, "Chen Rui just mentioned that this murder ritual happens once every three years, and they get two wishes. One belongs to the person chosen to become the Immortal Sheep. The other belongs to the lucky person selected by the Immortal Sheep."

"But if becoming the Immortal Sheep costs you your life, how could you not harbor resentment? How could you not seek revenge?"

"Miss Xiao Ran mentioned that these six great families rose to prominence over the last twenty years. At one ritual every three years, that would indeed give each family enough time to make one wish. But... what about the six wishes belonging to the people who became the Immortal Sheep?"

Qin Manjiang fell silent for a moment, then looked at Wang Ju standing on the raised platform. "They can rig things so their own family members become the lucky winners and make wishes to the Immortal Sheep. But they can't control the wishes of the people who become the Immortal Sheep."

Liu Jingqing finally understood his reasoning. Right... twenty years. If they wanted revenge, the people who became the Immortal Sheep would have wished for it long ago.

"So I have two ideas." Qin Manjiang looked away and gave Liu Jingqing a tug. "Come on. Let's see who the Immortal Sheep is."

Two ideas?

What were they?

Which two?

Full of questions, Liu Jingqing let him pull her toward the village's central square. The float carrying the "Immortal Sheep" had already been brought there.

The place didn't smell pleasant. Human body odor, the rank smell of sheep, the aroma of food, the gunpowder left by the firecrackers, and sheep droppings all mingled together, enough to make anyone wrinkle their nose.

But no one there cared.

By now, the square was packed. Everyone faced the raised platform at its center-or, more precisely, stared feverishly at the float on it.

"Is that Wang Ju from the Wang Family? Why is he hosting this year? Is he going to become village chief?"

"No idea, but the old chief is over ninety. He must be getting too old for the job..."

"Who cares? Look, they're starting the draw!"

Smiling, Wang Ju stepped onto the platform with a microphone in hand and picked up a sealed box.

Then he opened the box's outer front panel, revealing the glass inside, along with... a mass of paper slips covered in writing.

Each slip bore a name, and whoever the Immortal Sheep drew would be the lucky winner for this three-year cycle.

They could make a wish to the Immortal Sheep.

Everyone held their breath as they watched Wang Ju carry the box beside the Immortal Sheep's float.

Then Wang Ju lifted the float's curtain.

A face completely unfamiliar to Qin Manjiang and Liu Jingqing appeared inside, but the villagers seemed to recognize him.

"Huh? Isn't that Chen Ping from the Chen Family? His mother was chosen as the Immortal Sheep before, and now it's his turn?!"

"I heard this year's Immortal Sheep was supposed to be Li Rong, the Li Family's daughter."

"Who knows..."

Chen Ping?

He had exactly the same name as Chen Ping, one of the players in this game. That Brother Chen from last night had mentioned him too.

Was it pure coincidence, or was there some connection?

For the moment, Qin Manjiang couldn't reach a conclusion either.

The crowd's questions and chatter mingled across the square. Yet every sound abruptly ceased the moment the smiling Chen Ping reached into the box.

It's starting. Pick me... you have to pick me!

Everyone cried out inwardly, their hearts racing. The atmosphere across the square was both stifling and feverish.

At that very moment, a wind suddenly rose beneath the gloomy sky.

No one knew which direction it came from. It moaned and whimpered like someone crying.

Without warning, a corpse fell from the sky!

Bang-

The corpse slammed onto the platform. The "Immortal Sheep," Chen Ping, froze in the middle of drawing a slip, and the entire square fell silent.

Wang Ju nearly dropped the microphone. He stared in horror at the corpse that had crashed onto the platform. This was...

Those familiar clothes, that aged body, the upper torso torn into a bloody mess, the temples completely smashed open to expose the blood-red skull.

"Village chief!!!"

"It's the village chief!"

"Aah!!!!!"

Screams rang out one after another. The old village chief's eyes remained wide even in death. Blood flowed from the two gaping holes gouged into his temples. His unfocused pupils faced everyone below the platform, and bloody bubbles gurgled from his mouth. He seemed to want to say something, but could no longer speak.

"Stop!"

"Suspend the festival!"

"Someone, get up here!"

His face as white as paper, Wang Ju shouted into the microphone.

Soon, people came up, shoved Chen Ping back into the float, and carried it down again.

Looking as though his own parents had died, Wang Ju abandoned the scene and ran in another direction without looking back.

Qin Manjiang had been watching him the entire time. Seeing this, he immediately said to Liu Jingqing:

"Come on. Follow him."

There'll be another chapter in a little while. See you soon, everyone!

(End of chapter)