Chapter 44 Human blood is also pig blood
"What happened up ahead?"
Lin's father craned his neck to look.
"I don't know, it seems to be coming from the kitchen."
Xue Yue'e carefully considered the situation, then reached out to take her daughter's hand: "Pingyu, stay with your parents. Let's go find Nezha, the four of us mustn't get separated!"
The gong-beater loosened his grip, and Ping Yu was easily peeled off.
She was led away by her mother, and when she looked back, the other person had already curled up back up.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Red lanterns flutter, the moon shines.
When the ghost messengers come to collect people, they will also strike a gong.
When the group entered the courtyard, almost everyone in the village stood up.
They gathered outside the kitchen, chattering amongst themselves:
"Oh dear, is it the village chief's wife who's been slashed with a knife?"
"How could the knife, which was perfectly fine in my hand, be used to cut into my stomach?!"
"Is she pregnant? How many months along?"
"I don't know, but it looks like they won't survive."
The sounds of gasps, sighs, and discussions were incessant.
But all Pingyu heard was: Xue Xuliu is pregnant?
She remembered that thin people don't show signs of pregnancy in the early stages.
Pingyu is short, so when he stands in the crowd and looks through the gaps, he can see more than others.
In the distance, a trickle of shadow flowed from the kitchen. Only when the lamplight shone on it could one see that it was still steaming blood. Pingyu saw someone holding a vessel under the threshold to catch the blood, muttering, "Ah, ah, this is very nourishing."
Lin Dong, standing nearby, asked someone, "Why were you shouting so loudly? What happened inside?"
"That's common!"
That man was a gossip: "It's an old man's birthday, and the woman in the house is pregnant—isn't that double happiness? The old man dies and is reborn into his granddaughter-in-law's womb, and the family is reunited. Usually, this Xue woman is very careful with her great-grandfather, afraid that if he bumps or breaks anything, the child in his womb will be born with a disability. The village chief is also very attentive to his wife, feeding her 'meat' every day. I don't know what happened today, but when Xue woman was chopping meat, she suddenly lost control of her hand and chopped herself up."
He spoke with great relish about how women self-harm:
One cut. One cut.
Treat yourself like a chicken, a fish, or a duck, and disembowel yourself.
They didn't even feel the pain, laughing so hard they were spitting out foam.
Hearing the conversation, bystanders chimed in, "It must be that the village chief's suggestion displeased the founding emperor, which is why he asked the mountain god to cut open his granddaughter-in-law's belly so she wouldn't be reborn into this woman's womb!"
Pingyu pricked up his ears and heard the two of them say in unison, "We mountain people shouldn't even mention such things!"
They're from the mountains again.
What exactly does the village chief of Balai want to do?
Just as I thought of the other person, the crowd suddenly fell silent.
Lin Dong stopped talking and looked into the room.
It turned out that a man stepped out from the kitchen; he was the village chief.
His clothes were soaked in blood, and he was holding a blurry mass in his hands. He looked like he couldn't hold it, and could only keep lifting it up with both hands. Ping Yu didn't care at all what he was holding, and heard the other man say, "It is my fault that such a thing happened on the occasion of my grandfather's birthday, causing you all to be frightened."
Everyone exchanged polite greetings.
The crowd erupted in uproar; everyone was unwilling! Even the polite words seemed much more sincere now.
Pingyu, taking advantage of the commotion, squeezed deeper into the crowd, almost reaching the innermost layer. The woman who had been angry at Nezha during the day was now lying on the ground, convulsing. As people had said, she was foaming at the mouth, her eyes rolling straight upwards so that no whites were visible. The girl only caught a glimpse of her before the village chief stepped in to block her.
“Kids shouldn’t look at this.” His face was covered in blood, but his tone was gentle: “Be careful not to get nightmares at night.”
Her scalp tightened instantly, and she ran towards her parents.
The village chief watched the girl leave, then slowly retreated back into the house.
Normally, pigs and chickens are slaughtered in the yard. The villagers don't mind blood in the yard; even if someone dies, there's no need to clean up the mess—a basin of water is enough to wash it all away. With the placenta and umbilical cord soup as an apology, the villagers happily returned to their original places. When Pingyu was led to sit at the children's table, he was still a little dazed.
Was it really caused by supernatural forces? In Ping Yu's eyes, Xue Xuliu's appearance just now looked like an epileptic seizure.
Moreover, the placenta will not flow out naturally in this type of violent miscarriage.
The village chief reached out and dug.
Thinking of this, a sour feeling welled up in my throat.
Pingyu covered his mouth, feeling like he was about to gag.
Nezha brought over a bowl of water: "What did you just see?"
"You didn't go?" Ping felt a little better after drinking ice water down her throat.
"No demonic aura," he said succinctly.
In other words, the villagers' claims are unfounded.
The boy tapped his fingertips lightly on the table, gesturing for Pingyu to look ahead.
Mother is dead, and the dog is no longer on the table.
With the position of leader of the children vacant, the other children were filled with anxiety.
"Which one is this?"
The child on the left said.
"It seems like this is the fifth one this year!"
The child who had previously replied to Nezha was terrified and burst into tears: "My mother told me not to interfere with children, but the children are all fine, only the adults are like this. What will we do if all the adults die?"
As she cried, her hand, which was reaching to wipe her tears, was grasped. A soft, fragrant handkerchief landed on the girl's face. She looked up in surprise and saw a stranger wiping away her tears.
Pingyu cupped the other person's face and said earnestly, "Don't cry, don't cry, your face will hurt if you cry too much."
Soft and fragrant.
Looking at the other person's angelic appearance, the girl couldn't help but blush.
The fairy maiden wiped away her tears and asked, "I just arrived at the village banquet today and received care from Aunt Xue. She's only been gone a short while before this happened. Do you know what happened to her?"
Everyone knew that a young lady from the city had come to the village, and they immediately surrounded Pingyu.
Through their back-and-forth conversation, Nezha and Pingyu learned what had happened in the village:
In Ba Lai, the adults in the village suffered from a strange illness. They would often stare blankly in one direction, talking inexplicably to thin air. Then, their limbs would suddenly convulse, they would foam at the mouth, collapse, and eventually die from various misfortunes. This illness only affected adults; children were immune. Everyone said it was because there had been too few long-lived people in recent years, not enough to send to Peach Blossom Spring to keep the mountain god company. The mountain god was too lonely, so he came to the village to collect people. But the faster the mountain god collected them, the fewer long-lived people there were. Children, without parents, would also die quickly. Therefore, whenever an elder celebrated their birthday, the village would hold a grand celebration. Firstly, to inform the mountain god that the villagers respected Him, and secondly, to hope that sending people and gifts up the mountain would slow His departure.
"Dog's mother must have been taken away because of a relapse," the girl said firmly. "That's how my uncle died, I know it very well!"
If a person suffers from hysteria caused by gods, ghosts, or demons, they will inevitably retain the aura of that being. However, when Xue Xuliu had her episode, Nezha said he didn't sense any demonic energy. Looking at the children's confident expressions and their seemingly genuine panic, it's clear they're not faking it.
Pingyu believed they had no reason to lie.
It seems I'll have to ask the local earth god for clarification when I go up the mountain tomorrow.
The children gathered together, but were quickly driven away by the aunties who came to serve the food.
"Little rascal, if you're a little late to the table, there won't be any meat left!"
Amidst the shouts and curses, plate after plate of steaming dishes were served. Roasted meat, boiled meat, wild fruits, vegetable porridge... the village chief's family had spared no expense; it was all hearty dishes.
In the center of the plate is a piece of tender, translucent meat jelly.
Human blood, like pig's blood, can be eaten after sprinkling some salt on it.
However, no one made a move; everyone immediately picked up the small bowls in front of them. Pingyu looked inside and saw that the bowls contained a soup diluted to a pale color.
It's topped with bits of minced meat and oil, and has a rich, sweet aroma.
Pingyu immediately recognized that this was the soup the village chief had just promised.
Only Nezha and Pingyu remained untouched on the entire table; they pushed the bowls away a little.
She stared at the half-cooked meat on the table and suddenly remembered what the gong-beater had said earlier.
Nezha's ears burned, and Pingyu leaned over to repeat the sentence to him.
"Did he really say that?"
The boy frowned.
"Absolutely true," Ping Yu said, holding up three fingers. "I guarantee I didn't mishear."
He didn't respond when spoken to. It wasn't until her parents, out of kindness, offered him meat that the man banging the gong nervously grabbed her and uttered this complete and clear sentence.
The contrast with the birthday banquet serves as a reminder.
“But his grandfather is already dead,” Nezha said. “These kids were just talking about that.”
"The last person to celebrate a big birthday in Ba Lai was his grandfather."
In other words, the food on this table is for the dead, and the living cannot eat it?
If everyone in the village were dead, Xue Xuliu wouldn't have died!
Pingyu pulled Nezha up from the table. She said anxiously, "We have to remind my parents about this! And we need to find..."
We need to find the person who rang the gong and get to the bottom of this.
The long, resounding beat of gongs and drums began again.
A tall figure appeared at the entrance of the courtyard.
Take the gong, strike it, and it rings out, bright and clear.
She didn't need to search; the gong-beater arrived.
"I knew this would happen when someone died, how annoying!"
Amidst the complaints, a flash of lightning streaked across the night sky.
There was no rain or thunder, only a cold, thin ray of light piercing the sky.
The little man in the large cardboard box stood there expressionless, looking at the villagers eating in the courtyard.
The village chief, holding a sign, called out, "Gentlemen, my wife has died, and I fear her death will shorten my great-grandfather's life. Let's go up the mountain today, and have a meal when we return!"
There are priorities and urgency in matters, and no one would disagree.
The plates were placed on the floor, their shadows scurrying about like earthworms. The children crawled under the table and lifted the cutting board, revealing neat rows of paper heads underneath.
"The bowl contains meat, and the meat symbolizes longevity; our ancestor is ninety years old this year."
"I share the meat, you gain longevity; the number of slices of meat you receive determines the number of years you live."
They laughed and put on the heads, their big heads and small bodies huddled together, and shoved towards Pingyu and Nezha who were standing there dumbfounded.
"The slices of meat are thin, with veins of blood clinging to them; to receive the meat, one must wait for the gods to arrive."
"The child cries, the child laughs, tears dry and laughter ceases, then the old man embraces him;"
"Child, child, don't cry; go to Peach Blossom Spring to taste this bowl of meat;"
"Peach Blossom Spring, Peach Blossom Spring, where is it? Peach Blossom Spring is right there by the ailanthus tree;"
The singing was interrupted by the sound of a golden gong, followed by a sharp, shrill laugh.
Children's eyes, like black holes, held their bowls high above their heads, calling out in turn:
"Dig up the roots to eat, dig up the flesh to swallow;"
"The branches are endless;"
"Endless Leaves;"
"God is endless;"
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