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墨書 Inktalez
Human Sacrifice
In the eyes of the villagers, Futu Ridge seemed to have settled into a calmness amidst the disappearance of the Investigation Team.
However, only we who survived that night knew that beneath Futu Ridge's surface tranquility lay a storm brewing.
On the second day after Chen Jixian's death, I called the county police station to have them take away Chen Jixian's body. He could directly contact the leaders in the Provincial Capital, and he was likely a person of some importance. However, when the county officials heard I was from Futu Ridge, they immediately hung up. Even mentioning Chen Jixian's name didn’t help, and after that, I couldn’t get through no matter how hard I tried.
I asked Huzi to call the police as well, but before he could even speak, the call was cut off.
“What do these cops mean? They won’t handle matters in the mountains, but they have to take away Chen Jixian's body. They can’t just leave someone from the Provincial Capital dead and unattended, right?” I said.
“Maybe they’re scared. To outsiders, Guo Huaiyi is dead, and everyone from the Investigation Team who entered the forbidden area has also died. Who would dare come here?” Huzi replied.
“But we can’t leave Chen Jixian’s body here. If no one is going to claim it, I’ll go buy a coffin from Chen Coffin and bury him first. It’s still summer; we can’t let a body sit for too long,” I said.
“But outsiders can’t be buried in Futu Ridge Ancestral Grave,” Huzi pointed out.
I replied, “What rules are we talking about at a time like this? I can see that your grandfather and Liu Quaner have thrown in the towel. Although I haven’t known Chen Jixian for long, he was still a friend. We’re adults; we should be able to handle this.”
“With so many people seeing it in broad daylight, how do you plan to do it?” Huzi asked.
I said, “This afternoon, I’ll go to another village and hire a few villagers to dig a new grave next to the Wild Jujube Forest. I’ve checked that area’s feng shui before; it’s not bad. Then I’ll head into town to find Chen Coffin and ask him to prepare a coffin. We have some rapport; if I give him a few packs of good cigarettes, he’ll help us transport the coffin to the Wild Jujube Forest tonight. We can then secretly move Chen Jixian’s body over there and bury him. Others don’t need to know about this; we can’t just ignore it, can we?”
Huzi nodded and said, “Alright then.”
Seeing that Huzi agreed, I immediately hopped on his motorcycle and rode over to the neighboring village. There, I quietly hired two people by the roadside. After bringing them to the Wild Jujube Forest, I paid them fifty yuan as a deposit to start digging. Then I headed into town to find Chen Coffin.
Chen Coffin saw me wanting to buy a coffin and asked what had happened. I mixed truth with lies, saying it was my friend from outside who had died in an accident. Chen Coffin took my cigarette but didn’t say much. Since it was my friend, he agreed to prepare a good coffin, and the price would still be that of an ordinary one.
I thanked him and rode my motorcycle home. We exchanged phone numbers, planning to contact him later that evening.
I called Huzi to let him know everything was set. He sounded hesitant on the phone, saying he had something to discuss with me later that night.
Exhausted, I took a nap on the bed. During that time, I heard my mother enter my room; it seemed she looked at me for a moment before leaving.
When I woke up, it was already evening, and darkness was creeping in. I hurriedly rode Huzi's motorcycle to Wild Jujube Forest. When I arrived, the two villagers who were digging the grave were sitting under the shade of a tree. Seeing me approach, they quickly got up and said, “Brother, we’ve dug it according to your request.”
I glanced at the grave pit and found it satisfactory. I handed each of them an extra hundred yuan to send them on their way.
After the two villagers left, I took out my phone to call Huzi and let him know to head out, but I discovered there was no signal.
Bright Moon Village is at the center of Futu Ridge, right next to a signal tower, so the reception here is better than in town. Logically, I should have been in a coverage area; how could there be no signal?
I pulled out the Zhou Compass, and the needle was steady with no interference from any Magnetic Field. It seemed there was no magnetic anomaly beneath this land.
Getting to Huzi wouldn’t be a problem; it was just a short walk away. I could go pick him up in a bit. But Chen Coffin would definitely be anxious waiting for me. I had told him I would bring the coffin to Bright Moon Village east side of Wild Jujube Forest, and now that it was dark without contacting him, would he still wait or leave?
There are several routes from town to Bright Moon Village, taking over an hour each way. If I rode over and missed him, he would surely get angry and just throw down the coffin and leave. Neither Huzi nor I might be able to carry it alone.
I chased after the two villagers who had just left and asked to borrow their phone. One of them replied, “We don’t have any signal either.”
I felt a bit impatient and said, “I’ll pay.”
Another villager said, "Look at you, Boss. Our phones really have no signal. His phone might be out of credit, but I just topped mine up with fifty. You can check if you don't believe me."
The villager handed me his phone, and the signal indicator was the same as mine.
"Whether there's a signal or not has nothing to do with credit. It's probably Village doing maintenance and cutting off the signal."
"There's been no rain for so long; what kind of maintenance is that? The signal was fine in the morning, and now it's been cut for four or five hours in the afternoon without any fix. What a joke."
I suddenly felt a bit irritated and ignored the two villagers, driving straight to Huzi's house.
"Huzi, open up!" I shouted at the door, but there was no response from inside.
I leaned down to peek through the crack in the door and noticed that there were no lights on in their living room.
It was already evening; even if Li Fugui wasn't home, Huzi's parents should be there. I couldn't see Huzi's room from the crack; it wasn't too dark yet, so I wondered if his room had any lights on. I knocked on the door a few more times.
Still, there was no sound from inside.
I got back in my car and drove directly to town. When I arrived at Chen Coffin's coffin shop, I saw him sitting at the door smoking. Chen Coffin looked up when he heard me and said with a stern expression, "What time is it that you're finally here? I couldn't reach you on the phone. Is it easy to travel these mountain roads at night?"
I replied, "Uncle Chen, check your phone. I don't know what's going on; there's no signal at all. I couldn't get through to you, so I rode over just in case you were worried. I'll bring you a nice bottle of wine later—it's from Old Man, and I've been saving it."
Chen Coffin was a soft-hearted person; hearing this made his expression soften. He pointed at me and said, "At least you have some conscience. The coffin is already tied to your car. Do you want to prepare some wreaths or paper money?"
I said, "No need for all that; as long as he can rest in peace, that's enough. The body is still at Village Production Team, so I'll need to trouble Uncle Chen to make a trip over there since my motorcycle can't carry it."
"Don't you dare!" Chen Coffin shouted at me, his eyes wide as saucers. "This is absolutely unacceptable. We only carry our own dead, and now I have to personally lift the corpse onto the cart? What, do you want me to bury it too?!"
I nodded. "If you're not tired, that's how it is. Otherwise, I'll be digging until the middle of the night all by myself."
"No way! Even if you offer me an extra five hundred, I'm not doing it!" Chen Coffin replied grumpily.
"Six hundred," I said, directly shoving the cash into Chen Coffin's hand.
He hesitated for a moment while gripping the money. "Alright then, for Old Man's sake, I'll help you this once. Just don't forget about my bottle of wine."
"Let's get moving. You go ahead; I'll fill up the gas." I pushed my motorcycle into town to refuel and then caught up with Chen Coffin's cart.
When we arrived at the Production Team in Bright Moon Village, Chen Coffin saw me push open the gate and asked, "This Production Team is yours? You leave the gate unlocked at night?"
Normally, Liu Quaner would lock the gate every evening because there were grains and various items stored inside, worth at least ten thousand altogether. However, since last night, the gate had been left unlocked.
Perhaps Liu Quan was fed up with all the recent deaths from the Investigation Team and decided to quit; after all, no one wants to deal with bad luck. Huzi and I had been coming to the Production Team regularly too, so maybe he left it unlocked for us.
The only strange thing was that during these past two days, I hadn't seen Liu Quan at all!
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