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The maze, it was an endless labyrinth, no matter how they walked, the streets never seemed to have an end. Bai Yujing felt as if the walls were rippling like water, the path continuously extending, and that intersection kept turning around, always leading them back to a distance.
Bai Yujing and Li Hao realized they seemed to have lost their sense of direction. Besides the omnipresent singing, there were also occasional pleasant chimes ringing out.
The beautiful singing and the sound of instruments felt like a death knell to Bai Yujing and Li Hao, urging them to run for their lives. After a long while, Bai Yujing finally stopped. "I can't go on like this; we won't get out this way. We need to come up with a plan. How much battery does your phone have left?"
Li Hao checked his phone. After a frantic sprint, both of them were drenched in sweat. Bai Yujing was fine, but Li Hao could barely stand straight. "It's almost out of battery."
"This is troublesome!"
At that moment, Li Hao suddenly pointed his phone's flashlight towards Bai Yujing's back, trembling as he said, "Old Bai, look behind you!"
Bai Yujing felt something was off and turned around to suddenly find a shadow appearing behind him, illuminated by a bright beam of light.
"Bai Yujing, Little Li, is that you?"
"Lin Ruoqiao?"
Bai Yujing and Li Hao immediately ran over. Halfway there, Bai Yujing stopped him. "It can't be fake, right?"
"How could it be fake?"
As they rushed over, they saw Lin Ruoqiao standing at the village entrance with a flashlight pointed at them. Once they clearly saw Lin Ruoqiao's face, both of them finally breathed a sigh of relief; they had finally found the exit.
Li Hao directly hugged Lin Ruoqiao's leg. "You arrived just in time! I thought Old Bai and I were done for here."
Seeing Li Hao's pitiful state, Bai Yujing kicked him twice on the backside. "You weren't really in any danger; you scared yourself silly!"
"This is really damn strange. It's all your fault, Old Bai. You didn't leave when I told you to, and now look what happened when it dragged on until night!" Li Hao sat at the village entrance, took a short rest, and then quickly stood up again.
"We should hurry and leave. This place is too eerie; it's better to stay far away from here!"
Lin Ruoqiao, holding a flashlight, looked confused. "What happened to you two? Did you encounter a ghost?"
Li Hao immediately covered her mouth and glanced back at the dark village and the Paifang, which felt like a giant mouth ready to swallow everything. He shivered and said, "Shh, don't say that. Let's hurry up and go. I'll tell you when we get back!"
Bai Yujing picked up the backpack that Li Hao had thrown aside and stepped out of the village's boundaries. They slowed down only after passing through the woods in front of the village. Although Bai Yujing appeared calm, he was also feeling anxious inside. It was only then that he felt a bit relieved. "Lin Ruoqiao, how did you get here?"
Lin Ruoqiao had come on her motorcycle, parked right next to Bai Yujing's vehicle, with a red-and-white helmet hanging from the handlebars. "After you left, my dad and I got into another argument. I couldn't stay at home anymore, so I wanted to come find you guys and check out that place you mentioned. An old man in the town ahead told me you came here. I waited until dark and still didn't see you return, so I came looking for you!"
"What happened to you? Look at Little Li; he looks terrified!" Lin Ruoqiao teased Li Hao before curiously asking.
Bai Yujing thought for a moment. "Maybe some presence inside wanted to keep us there."
Lin Ruoqiao's expression changed. "You didn't really encounter a ghost, did you?"
"Let's go back first; I'll tell you when we get there!" Bai Yujing replied.
Lin Ruoqiao nodded and put on her helmet. "Okay, I found a place in town where we can stay. The homeowners seem to have an extra room. You two can talk to them; just offer some money, but you might have to squeeze in together."
"Having a bed is already great; I thought we would have to sleep in the car tonight."
When they returned to the town, most of the townspeople were already winding down for the night. There weren't many entertainment options in rural towns, and since most young people were not home, the older folks were just catching up on the news.
The room Lin Ruoqiao borrowed was in a Red Brick House, which had not been whitewashed or plastered; the red bricks were left exposed. The homeowners were a middle-aged couple who offered Bai Yujing and his group a bowl of noodles with two eggs and some lean meat when they returned.
"Swish!"
Li Hao, who is exceptionally picky about food, returned and ate vigorously, filling a large bowl and adding two spoonfuls of chili sauce, making his mouth turn bright red. Bai Yujing, while eating, asked the Homeowner about Shuiyuan Village. The Homeowner hesitated but eventually shared what he knew with Bai Yujing.
"I was young back then, so I didn't know much. That was over thirty years ago; Shuiyuan Village was still around, but we rarely saw the people from there. They seemed to never interact with outsiders, and very little information about their village ever got out. We were very curious about it when we were kids, but our families never allowed us to go near," the Homeowner, a Middle-Aged Man, said in slightly unstandard Mandarin. As he spoke about those times, he lit a cigarette, seemingly lost in memories.
Bai Yujing asked, "Why?"
The Middle-Aged Man smiled slightly. "I heard they practiced witchcraft. Every autumn, they would hold a grand sacrificial ceremony that was said to be very sinister. But I only heard about it; I never saw it myself. Then one autumn about thirty years ago, I remember it was around the time they were supposed to hold their ceremony when they all suddenly disappeared."
"Disappeared? What do you mean?" Bai Yujing inquired.
The Middle-Aged Man replied, "They just vanished, as if they evaporated into thin air. Not a single person from the entire village was seen again; they all disappeared. By the way, you must not go to that village at night. Everyone who entered the village at night never returned. Their village is very eerie; I heard that even those who took things from them met with bad ends. Almost no one dares to go there."
Bai Yujing nodded. "Thank you for your help. I won't disturb your rest any longer."
"Alright, I haven't seen outsiders for a long time either and wanted someone to chat with. My child went out to work and got married outside; I'm quite bored," the Middle-Aged Man said as he stood up and pushed back his chair. Suddenly remembering something, he turned back to Bai Yujing.
"By the way, there was also a group of outsiders who came in from outside. I remember there were quite a few of them, but in the end, only three people came out of Shuiyuan Village. At that time, I was herding cattle and was quite startled," the Middle-Aged Man recalled.
"Three people? What kind of people?"
"They seemed like experts sent from outside. When they arrived, there was a whole group of them, but later when I encountered them, two were unconscious while only one young man wearing glasses dragged them out on a mat—an old man and a woman. The villagers helped take them to the hospital."
Bai Yujing's heart skipped a beat as she connected many thoughts instantly. After the Homeowner went back to rest, Bai Yujing remained sitting at the coffee table in the living room in a daze.
"What happened to you two today? It's so strange!" Lin Ruoqiao looked at Bai Yujing and Li Hao. Li Hao remained silent while Bai Yujing appeared serious, completely different from their earlier playful demeanor.
Bai Yujing recounted the events of the day to Lin Ruoqiao, who found it hard to believe. "Is that place really so strange? You two must have scared yourselves."
Bai Yujing glanced at Lin Ruoqiao. "We're two people, not as fragile as you think. That sound was too bizarre; you can't tell where it came from, it felt like it resonated deep within."
Lin Ruoqiao asked, "What do you think the sound was?"
Bai Yujing pondered for a moment. "I think it could be a Siren. The legendary Sirens are mermaids that can enchant passing ships and sailors with their songs, leading them to shipwrecks and dragging the sailors down to drown. It's said that the Siren's song sounds very similar to what we heard. I checked the terrain; the mountain behind Shuiyuan Village leads directly to the sea, and this area is very close to the ocean. This town used to be a fishing village, but now there are hardly any fish left near the shore, which is why they abandoned that livelihood."
Li Hao finished two bowls of noodles, burped, and relaxed. "Old Bai, have you finished translating whatever you pulled out from that tree hole? We nearly lost our lives for it today; hurry up and show us!"
Bai Yujing took two pieces of paper from his pocket—one was a blank sheet he had translated, and the other was an oiled paper filled with Water Script. "Beyond the South Sea, there are Sharkmen, dwelling in water like fish, possessing pearls within them known as Shark Pearls. Consuming their blood grants longevity; swallowing their pearls ensures immortality. In ancient times, Peng Zu consumed their flesh and became divine without dying, living for eight hundred years..."
Bai Yujing continued reading; this turned out to be a recipe teaching how to concoct elixirs using Sharkmen and methods for luring them in order to kill them for their blood. It detailed information about Sharkmen and their weaknesses. The methods for creating elixirs from Sharkmen's blood were cruel and horrifying, allowing one to live up to eight hundred years. Some powerful Sharkmen possessed Shark Pearls, and consuming these pearls could grant eternal life.
The method for luring Sharkmen involved having young children consume powdered bones of Sharkmen. Through special rituals and methods, the unique powers of the Sharkmen would seep into the children’s bodies. The pain would cause the children to emit screams along with a special aura and sound waves that would make the Sharkmen believe they were being called, drawing them in.
However, given the immense power of the Sharkmen combined with their advantages in water—and their ability to control human minds—capturing them was nearly unimaginable. Thus, detailed methods for overcoming them were recorded afterward.
Bai Yujing, Li Hao, and Lin Ruoqiao exchanged glances in disbelief. Li Hao felt overwhelmed: "This can't all be true! It gives me chills; it's too cruel!"
Bai Yujing hadn't expected such content from this small piece of paper. It contained a lot of information but only an outline; it didn't detail methods for bait or elixir production at all.
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