Everyone stood in the clearing within the old forest, carrying white lanterns.
There were five old graves in this clearing. One of them had collapsed, its tombstone lying on the ground. Judging by the traces, however, the collapse seemed to have happened only recently.
Besides that.
Each of the five old graves had a blue-and-white porcelain bowl before its tombstone, filled with white rice. Every grain was distinct, half-cooked, neither rotten nor spoiled, and so clean that there was not a speck of dirt on it.
Clearly.
This white rice was an offering prepared for the dead.
But what Yang Jian, Li Yang, Old Eagle, and the others needed to consider now was how many bowls of white rice they should take today.
Based on their earlier deductions, the fifth day at the old house was very likely to be a ghost banquet, and the white rice needed on that fifth day had to be taken today. Otherwise, they would have no chance to come here again later.
Everyone agreed with that assessment.
If they waited until the fifth-day ghost banquet to collect the white rice, they probably would not live long enough to do so.
"There's still plenty of time. We have time to think it over slowly, so don't rush," Yang Xiaohua said, trying to reassure everyone.
Old Eagle nodded beside her. "There is indeed plenty of time, but it's not worth wasting too much of it on this issue. We still need to check out other places later. We can't keep standing here thinking about a few bowls of rice."
"Five graves, five bowls of rice. Li Yang was right. One bowl definitely isn't enough. We need to take at least two," Fan Xing said thoughtfully.
Da Qiang said, "We can only take more, not less. If