Chapter 112

Because he had pushed events forward ahead of schedule, more information had been brought to the surface.

A rough outline of the whole situation was beginning to take shape in Li Zhuiyuan’s mind. It was still thin and incomplete, but at least a framework now existed. Things were no longer a total blur.

The graveyards on those three hills corresponded to three families, or rather three surnames. So far, he only knew the Xue family was one of them. The other two were still unknown.

Paying respects at the ancestral graves during a specific period of time would trigger some kind of mechanism, like the immortal elder’s dream message Xue Liangliang’s dad had just received.

But for some unknown reason, the activation of that mechanism would also trigger another, opposing mechanism, like that “big fish delivered right to the door.”

Li Zhuiyuan believed that if he had not arranged for Xue Liangliang’s dad to celebrate his birthday early, that fish would not have been delivered today.

If things had followed the normal course, then on the day of the actual birthday feast a month from now, when Xue Liangliang’s dad went to pay respects at the ancestral graves, that fish would have appeared before him that same day, either in the form of the young fisherman next door or by some other plausible means, and ended up on the Xue family’s table.

The two mechanisms were in conflict. More precisely, one side was contaminating the operation of the other.

The original mechanism seemed to operate more like a generations-long inherited seal, passed down from descendants like some endless labor of moving a mountain.

The purpose of the contamination was clearly to break that seal.

Logically, Xue Liangliang’s dad should already have been preparing to head to Zhengmen Village by now.

But it was equally obvious that he did not want to go.

The earlier incident with the college student expedition had deepened his fear of Zhengmen Village, and Li Zhuiyuan’s little stunt with the immortal elder’s dream had also greatly weakened the sacred authority of the real immortal elder.

Still, there was another possibility. According to the original plan, Liangliang would return in a month, and he and his father would go pay respects at the ancestral graves together. If that happened, Qingxia would most likely target Liangliang.

Given Liangliang’s experience and temperament, after receiving the immortal elder’s dream message, there was a good chance he would accept the mission and go to Zhengmen Village. There was an even greater chance he would contact Li Zhuiyuan and ask him to come along and help complete this ancestral task.

Of course, in an even more extreme scenario, Liangliang might have gone alone, and then disappeared, dead or alive unknown. After learning the news, Li Zhuiyuan would come to his hometown to investigate the mystery of his disappearance.

In short, the only person through whom this could pull Li Zhuiyuan in was Liangliang. Xue Liangliang’s dad did not qualify.

At the moment, Li Zhuiyuan naturally had no desire to bring Xue Liangliang’s dad with him to Zhengmen Village. One reason was that he was Xue Liangliang’s father. The other was that he would be a burden.

Fortunately, it seemed the man himself did not need to go. Only a blood bowl was required.

Blood offering meant slaughtering livestock and using the blood for sacrifice. A blood bowl, meanwhile, meant using one’s own blood as the sacrificial offering and placing it on the altar table.

The amount did not need to be large. A small bowl would do. Slice open the palm and let enough blood flow to cover the bottom.

For Xiaohei, that amount of blood loss would be nothing at all, so it certainly would not be too much for Xue Liangliang’s dad either.

Li Zhuiyuan knew how to make an ink paste using pure yang black dog’s blood, and he had the materials for it too. As long as the blood donor was alive when the blood was drawn, he could preserve it for an extremely long time. Then it could be used as the blood bowl when the time came.

Judging from the Xue family’s situation, perhaps the other two families also needed to go to Zhengmen Village and present blood bowls as offerings.

If so, was the purpose of the contamination to wipe out these three families ahead of time? Or at the very least, to taint their bodies along with their blood?

But that led to another paradox he could not yet resolve. Since this Dead Sinker was plotting to break the seal and escape, why had it willingly bitten his hook?

Granny Yu had just left, full of confidence, only to have her hopes of revival snuffed out by him in advance. Was the next one really going to make the exact same mistake?

“Xiao Yuan? Xiao Yuan?”

Xue Liangliang’s dad’s voice broke Li Zhuiyuan out of his thoughts. Looking up, the boy saw worry and alarm in the man’s eyes.

“Yes, Uncle Xue? What is it?”

“Tell me, what were you thinking about just now?”

“I was thinking that this Zhengmen Village sounds really scary. Uncle Xue, you’re right not to want to go. I wouldn’t dare go either.”

Hearing that, Xue Liangliang’s dad let out a long breath of relief. He had truly been afraid the boy might develop an interest in Zhengmen Village, just like those young college students had.

“Exactly. We should just live our lives properly and stop messing with all that strange nonsense.”

“That’s exactly what I think too.”

The problem was, though, that a proper, ordinary life was no longer possible for him.

He might dodge the first day of trouble, but not the fifteenth. Once the mechanism fully collapsed and that thing came out, all the remnants living under that mechanism would be settled with and destroyed.

Li Zhuiyuan had already decided that later he would use a few coercive methods to collect some blood from Xue Liangliang’s dad, then go deal with the matter himself.

“Uncle Xue, does your family have a genealogy?”

“Yes. Why, do you want to see it?”

“Mm. I like reading genealogies.”

“If you want to see it, I’ll go get it for you in a bit.”

“Thank you, Uncle Xue.”

“Hahaha, eat up, eat up at the feast!”

The fool outside was still laughing.

Li Zhuiyuan walked out of the room and into the yard.

The fool looked to be around thirty. He was filthy and unkempt. While the other men had stripped down from the heat, he still wore a dirty, tattered padded jacket. His hair was a bird’s nest, wild as a dog’s bed.

At that moment, he was pulling candy from his pocket and handing it out to the children who had come to eat today.

The parents would not take any because they thought the fool was dirty, but the children did not care. They grabbed the candy and ran off, tearing open the wrappers and stuffing it into their mouths.

The fool ran with them, having the time of his life.

That young neighbor who had brought over the fish bragged to everyone he saw about how huge a fish he had caught today, and the fool was no exception.

“Hey, fool, you’re getting fish soup today. I caught a huge fish, this big.”

The fool, who had been grinning happily, suddenly froze when he heard that. Then terror spread across his face. Backing away, he waved his hands and shouted,

“The big fish, can’t eat it! The big fish, can’t eat it!”

“What do you mean can’t eat it? Don’t you like fish soup?”

“The fish soup is dirty! That soup is dirty! The fish is dirty!”

The young neighbor got annoyed and corrected him, “Bullshit. I just caught it this morning. It’s fresh.”

As the fool backed away, his foot slipped and he fell to the ground, but he kept shouting all the same,

“The Zheng family ate it and got dirty, the Zeng family ate it and got dirty, the Xue family is going to get dirty too!”

“What Zheng family? What Zeng family?” the young neighbor asked, confused. “What the hell are you rambling about?”

Li Zhuiyuan asked a woman nearby who had come for the meal, “Auntie, are there any families in this town with the surname Zheng or Zeng?”

The woman shook her head. “No.”

Several elderly people nearby shook their heads too.

“Never heard of any.”

“There are lots of surnames in our town, but I’ve never heard of a Zheng or Zeng family.”

“Right, neither have I.”

Li Zhuiyuan walked up to the fool. At first, when the fool saw a big kid walking toward him, he thought the boy wanted to play with him, and the terror on his face began to fade, replaced by joy and anticipation.

But when Li Zhuiyuan got closer, the fool showed an even more terrified expression than before. He hugged his head with his left arm as if trying to shield himself, pointed at Li Zhuiyuan with his right hand, and screamed,

“Ah! You’re not human! Ah! You’re not human!”

Li Zhuiyuan walked right up to him, wearing a gentle, innocent, puzzled expression, and asked,

“If I’m not human, then what am I?”

The fool pulled back the hand he had pointed with, covered his face, lowered his head, and said,

“You’re a monster wearing human skin. You’re a monster wearing human skin.”

“Hahahaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

Everyone there laughed.

Li Zhuiyuan laughed as well. The fool shrank into the corner by the wall, and Li Zhuiyuan stood in front of him with his back to the others, so no one else could see that although the boy was laughing, there was a grave, unfathomable depth in his eyes that did not belong to someone his age.

“What? The fish is gone!” Xue Liangliang’s mother shouted from inside the house.

Hearing that, everyone in the courtyard rushed in to see what had happened. A fish that big had gone missing. An ordinary cat or dog could not possibly have stolen it.

When the fool heard that, he actually burst into delighted laughter.

“It’s good the fish is gone. Don’t eat the fish, don’t eat the big fish!”

But because Li Zhuiyuan was still standing in front of him, his voice gradually quieted, and the fear returned.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “I got rid of the fish, because it was dirty.”

The fool nodded cautiously, keeping his face turned sideways toward the boy, only daring to look at him from the side. “Right. Don’t eat the fish. It’s dirty.”

“Fool, what’s your name?”

“Hehe, Fool. Fo... ol.”

Originally, that was not his name. But after enough people called him that, Fool had simply become who he was.

“Fool, do you still have any candy?”

The fool shakily reached into his pocket, felt around, then shook his head. “No... no more candy. It’s all gone...”

“How about I take you to buy some candy?”

“Buy candy?”

Hesitation appeared in the fool’s eyes. Clearly, he was weighing candy against a monster wearing human skin.

“Not just candy. Anything to eat or drink in the shop. Whatever you want, I’ll buy it for you. How about that?”

The fool’s mouth curled upward. With both hands in front of him, he kept fidgeting with his fingers and asked timidly,

“Re... really?”

Li Zhuiyuan answered as if it were obvious, “Of course it’s true. Monsters only eat people. They don’t lie.”

“Hehehe...” The fool nodded. “Right. Monsters only eat people. They don’t lie.”

“Then come with me. I’ll take you to the shop.”

Li Zhuiyuan started walking ahead. When he reached the doorway, he realized the fool was still hanging back, wanting to follow but too frightened to do so.

The boy said in a low voice, “Come along, or I’ll eat you.”

“I’m coming! I’m coming!”

The fool shivered and hurried after him at once.

Li Zhuiyuan led him out through the courtyard gate. As for Runsheng... he had to stay inside and keep explaining how such a huge fish had managed to disappear.

When they reached the little store, Li Zhuiyuan told the fool to pick something. The fool cautiously took only a small handful of candy, five or six pieces, and kept glancing at the boy as if afraid he had taken too much.

“Auntie, just estimate the cost yourself.”

Then Li Zhuiyuan picked up the big tray of candy and poured it straight into the fool’s pockets.

“Hehehe! Hehehe!”

Seeing all his pockets stuffed full of candy, the fool jumped with joy. The moment he did, a lot of candy fell onto the ground. He bent down to pick it up, but as he did, more kept dropping from his pockets.

“Hehehe, so much candy, can’t pick it all up, can’t pick it all up, can’t pick it all up!”

Some children nearby had already come over, but because Li Zhuiyuan was an outsider, they felt too embarrassed to approach.

The fool called out to them on his own, “Pick up the candy, pick up the candy, there’s so much, can’t pick it all up, can’t pick it all up!”

The children looked at Li Zhuiyuan. Earlier, they had seen that this boy was the one buying the candy.

“Go ahead and pick it up. The fool’s treating you.”

The moment they heard that, the children rushed over to help, and the fool grew even happier.

“Auntie, do you have more candy?”

“Yes, let me open another bag.”

“No need. Just give me the whole bag. And get me a big sack too. These, these, and those over there too, pack them all in.”

“You...”

Li Zhuiyuan pulled a small wad of large-denomination bills from his pocket.

“Oh! All right, I’ll pack it for you.”

Aside from the little bit still stuffed in his pockets, all of the fool’s candy had been picked up by the children.

Li Zhuiyuan handed him a big bag of snacks, then led him toward a secluded spot.

Along the way, whenever anyone deliberately asked the fool what tasty things he had in his hands, the fool would open his pocket and let them take what they wanted.

Whenever he met children or old people, he even tossed food to them on his own.

By the time they reached the quiet place Li Zhuiyuan wanted, the once-bulging bag had only a thin layer left at the bottom.

That college student expedition team from before had probably given him a decent guiding fee, but he had spent it all long ago.

Still, Li Zhuiyuan did not think he had done anything wrong, because he really was a fool. And a fool could never hold on to money.

The two sat down side by side. Li Zhuiyuan did not get to the point right away, and instead said,

“To be honest, I don’t want to be this monster either.”

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