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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
When Li Fugui returned home, he was greeted by the sight of a messy yard. With a dark expression, he asked, "Why didn't you come with me?"
Huzi replied, "I was so caught up in what just happened that I forgot."
"Where are your parents?" Li Fugui inquired.
"They're at the Hao Family," Huzi answered.
Li Fugui nodded and said, "I'm heading to the Production Team. You go find Captain Liu and bring him here, along with a few villagers. Bring some shovels."
After giving his instructions, Li Fugui walked towards the courtyard of the Production Team. Huzi glanced at me and called out to Li Fugui, who had not gone far, "Grandpa, are you going to kill someone?"
Li Fugui did not respond, but it was clear that seeing his home in such disarray had pushed him to a state of barely contained rage.
Neither Huzi nor I could guess Li Fugui's intentions. He took a group of villagers armed with shovels to the back mountain, and by the time they returned, it was already dusk.
At Li Fugui's doorstep, several green pickup trucks were parked.
The trucks were filled with furniture and various odds and ends. A group of tanned-skinned, muscular young men were moving items into Li Fugui's house. In about half an hour, they had unloaded everything from the trucks. The inside of Li Fugui's home was spotless, with all the furniture and kitchenware replaced with new ones.
Throughout the process, none of these strong young men spoke a word. Once they finished their work, an older middle-aged man approached Li Fugui. He stood tall, raising his right hand to shoulder level only to be blocked by Li Fugui.
Li Fugui said something to that man, and immediately afterward, the group got into their vehicles and left Bright Moon Village. Throughout the entire encounter, no one smiled or spoke; no one knew who they were.
"What kind of person is my grandpa?" Huzi wondered as he stood in front of the wind stabilizer, watching everything unfold at their doorstep with confusion.
In the past, Li Fugui had never revealed anything about his identity to anyone. He seemed like an ordinary farmer who often disappeared for periods—sometimes for days or even months at a time.
But due to his bad temper, no one dared to ask where he went, not even Huzi, whom he cherished most.
Li Fugui's home was already tidied up, so Huzi's parents had moved back in. Around nine o'clock at night, Huzi suddenly came to find me, asking me to accompany him to the back mountain.
"Captain Liu just came to our house looking for Grandpa and went out with him," Huzi said.
Huzi rode his motorcycle, and we quickly arrived at the back mountain. In the distance, we could see three or four green trucks parked below Winding Mountain Road.
Huzi hid the motorcycle in a nearby patch of reeds, and then we stealthily approached the Green Pickup Truck.
In the illuminated area, a group of burly young men stood beneath the truck, holding guns. These were the same individuals who had been moving things at Li Fugui's house a while ago.
From the Green Pickup Truck, one by one, people with their hands bound and mouths taped shut jumped down.
These captives were herded into the middle of an open area, where behind them was a large pit that appeared to have been dug by Li Fugui and the villagers earlier that afternoon.
At that moment, Li Fugui stood beside one of the Green Pickup Trucks, with Captain Liu, who was shorter than him, standing nearby.
Suddenly, a young man jumped down from the truck and ran towards the grass below the mountain. However, he had only taken a few steps before being shot in the head by one of the armed men, falling dead without a sound.
Several of the bound youths immediately knelt before Li Fugui, banging their heads against the ground like they were pounding garlic, their voices muffled as tears streamed down their faces.
Li Fugui appeared somewhat impatient and signaled for the muscular armed men to drag these individuals into the pit.
Once all the bound people were pushed into the pit, Captain Liu bowed slightly and said, "Village Chief, everyone on the list is here."
"Then let's get it over with," Li Fugui replied.
A middle-aged man standing nearby heard Li Fugui's words and shouted an order I couldn't understand. Immediately after, everyone raised their guns and began shooting at the dozens of youths in the pit.
The sound of bullets tore through the night like a furious wind. In an instant, those in the pit collapsed together, motionless.
The armed youths moved in unison as the middle-aged man saluted Li Fugui, his voice booming, "Report to the leader, mission accomplished. Please give further instructions!"
"Once it's filled in, you can head back. Don't linger here too long," Li Fugui said before turning to walk towards the village.
Captain Liu caught up with Li Fugui and asked, "Village Chief, why are several key figures crossed off the list?"
Li Fugui replied, "Killing a few is just to send a message. If we wipe them all out, what’s there to discuss about development? They have value in staying alive."
"Understood," Captain Liu said, stepping quickly to keep pace with Li Fugui.
Meanwhile, we had already reached the reeds where the motorcycle was hidden. Huzi fumbled as he climbed onto the bike; I could tell he was flustered. All along, I had known his grandfather was a ruthless killer, but Huzi had never believed it. Now he was witnessing Li Fugui's methods firsthand—killing dozens of people as easily as slaughtering chickens.
"What kind of person is he?" Huzi asked.
"It seems he’s military," I replied. "I never believed someone with such skills would settle for mediocrity. The reason you survived that night was mostly because of your grandfather. Although he was injured by the power awakened within me, I couldn't control that force, while he could control his own. He is definitely not an ordinary person."
Both Huzi and I felt lost. In our twenty-plus years of life before this, Futu Ridge had always been dark and shrouded in mystery. Neither of us blindly believed in ghosts or deities. Although our impression of the mountain village wasn't great, it had never felt so full of schemes and deceit, dirtiness and slaughter.
Any fondness I had just developed for Li Fugui vanished in an instant. I even began to think that the villagers' past accusations of his cruelty during the Ten-Year Catastrophe might have been misunderstandings. Now it seemed that whether it was misunderstanding or truth, he simply didn’t care.
Killing has been revered since ancient times as a strategy for maintaining order by emperors and generals alike. Human nature fears the strong and powerful; effective intimidation can suppress rebellious sentiments for a time and bring about peace.
Whether it was book burning or the Ten-Year Catastrophe, the original intent was good. For those in power, managing people's hearts is the most challenging task; this exploratory process inevitably leads to much bloodshed and hatred.
And Guo the Blind was merely one among many who suffered persecution.
Suddenly, I understood why Li Fugui hadn’t killed Guo the Blind all these years—he simply didn’t want to act yet; he wanted to see what Guo the Blind intended to do.
In just one night, dozens of people disappeared from the county town. Although these individuals were all unemployed youths from society, their disappearance was enough to cause a stir. Someone had captured footage on their phone of an unemployed youth being taken away, but within moments of being posted online, it vanished without a trace.
In the current Internet Age, the myriad of information, dazzling topics, and endless scams leave people unsure of what to believe.
However, the townsfolk know better, especially the parents who have lost their children. Some are migrant workers who left their sons as Left-behind Children, only for them to become Unemployed Youths, engaging in fights and debt collection. Others come from ordinary working-class families; in this peaceful era, they cannot control their children's desire for equality and a taste of the underworld, ultimately letting them be while secretly hoping they might carve out a future. Then there are the sons of local officials, accustomed to bullying the weak and fearing the strong, who love to stir trouble and grow up to do things that ordinary citizens would never dare.
Now, these Unemployed Youths have gone missing. Those with relatives in the police department are aware of the underlying truths; they quietly remember Futu Ridge and a name called Li Fugui, an Old Farmer whose life they wish never to intersect with.
The family of Huang San'er has perished, and the local ruffians have faced retribution. After a brief period of fear, life returned to its usual state—either busy or despondent.
Futu Ridge finally regained a fleeting calm after these events.
The soul of Zhou Manman, which lay dormant within me, still showed no signs of stirring. My mother continued her routine of gardening, cooking, and cleaning as before. She began attempting to share stories about my father—sometimes recounting events, other times sharing rumors about him. I could see her infatuation with him reflected in her eyes, which only deepened my sorrow.
My father had been gone for twenty years. The world is fraught with dangers; twenty years without a visit to his wife and child could mean he had either changed his heart or had already passed away.
I feared that my mother's waiting would dissolve into nothingness, leaving her despondent in the end.
Meanwhile, the villagers of Bright Moon Village enjoyed a long stretch of peaceful days. Since Old Man's death, no one else had perished, and the village was no longer haunted.
The villagers seemed to have forgotten certain things—forgotten a person.
Until one day, Old Man Wang rushed out from the direction of the back mountain in shock. Leader Guo from the Provincial Cultural Troupe was visiting for an inspection and walked into the forbidden area of the back mountain right before his eyes.
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