Chapter 3

I immediately went to the abbot.

He had headed the temple since I was born.

One glance at the broken statue, and he closed his eyes.

“For the next few days, you must not leave the temple. Whoever calls you, do not go outside. If you leave, I fear the chances of good fortune are slim.”

I panicked.

“I didn't spend any of the money. Why did her arm break?”

He patted my shoulder gently, his gaze darkening.

“You paid half the ticket's cost. Even though you haven't spent the winnings, your karma is already bound to it.

“It will be all right. Listen to me and stay here. Nothing will happen.”

His words soothed me, and I gradually calmed.

For the next few days, I ate and slept at the temple, though I could still use my phone to contact the outside world.

Online, I learned that the two roommates and the others were frantically searching for me.

It was useless.

I'd never given them my home address. Naturally, our adviser wouldn't readily disclose it.

Before they could find me, disaster struck.

The first roommate soon died at home.

Her whole body had been twisted like a fried dough stick and hung from the ceiling fan.

Blood from her organs dripped from it.

Her parents fainted when they opened the door. They were still receiving emergency treatment in hospital.

The second vanished without a trace from her home.

Her older sister reported her missing. The police searched for a long time and found nothing.

Until the family's cat kept scratching at the rug in her room.

Sensing something was wrong, her sister pulled it up.

Underneath was another rug.

Only, it had become a bloody mass of flesh. A long strand of meat stretched between the floor and the rug, with several teeth stuck to it.

Half a month later, everyone who'd attended the party was dead.

Horribly dead. No known killer. Unimaginably cruel methods.

I still knelt in the temple every day, worshipping sincerely and offering incense to Guanyin.

As I lit incense, an extremely familiar voice reached me.

“Xu Jia, so this is where you're from.”

My back stiffened.

I turned rigidly.

Xiaocao.

The moment I recognized her, I exhaled in relief.

I'd been in the temple so long that I'd only remembered a roommate's voice, forgetting whose.

She looked at the enormous Guanyin statue and followed my example, lighting a stick of incense.

“I haven't dared go back to the dorm lately. Being there alone is terrifying. I thought I'd come and find you.

“You know what happened to them?”

I nodded.

“I know.”

After the incense, I took her to my room at the temple and poured tea.

She looked around curiously.

“Your village is strange. It has a whole temple of its own.”

I sipped my tea and nodded.

“Since ancient times, we've worshipped only Guanyin. No other gods or Buddhas. You know the custom—everyone carries a little statue. Perhaps because generation after generation has prayed sincerely, she trusts us and is willing to follow us.”

Still curious, she asked, “Really? But I don't see your statue here. You used to keep it where you could always see it.

“Didn't you ask for a new one when you came back?

“Can outsiders ask for one too?

“Can Guanyin really only warn you, not stop the disaster?”

I froze.

Suddenly, the Xiaocao before me made my skin crawl.

9

Her face hadn't changed.

But sitting there, she kept picking at her nails.

It was an unconscious habit when she was nervous.

What was she nervous about?

I stood and backed away several steps, putting distance between us. My eyes were wary.

“Xiaocao. Tell me the truth.”

She tilted her head, looking innocent.

“Huh? What truth? What are you talking about?”

“Stop pretending!”

My voice suddenly rose.

“Do you think I know nothing? Do you think I'm an idiot?

“What did you mean by those questions?”

Her face turned white.

She slid off the chair, fell to her knees, and knocked her head against the floor before me.

Hard enough to make it thud.

Through gritted teeth, I asked, “Zhang Xiaocao, did you take Feifei's money too?”

Exposed, she didn't deny it. She only kept bowing.

“I must have been possessed. I shouldn't have taken those tens of thousands… I wronged you. I really… really don't want to die…

“She said she was perfectly healthy, so surely nothing would happen. Then she transferred me the money…

“I'm sorry! I was blinded by it. Please help me. I don't want to die!”

My lungs felt ready to burst with anger, but I couldn't speak.

Still on her knees, she edged over and hugged my legs, sobbing.

“Could you ask the temple to give me a Guanyin? Maybe if I had one, I wouldn't…”

“No.”

I cut her off.

“Even apart from the fact that these statues are only given to locals, how many times have I told you? She can only warn us. She can't stop the disaster. Having one would be useless.”

“I'm begging you…”

Before she finished, her expression froze.

Her pupils dilated as far as they could.

“It… it's here…”

I'd never seen such despair on a human face.

She looked behind me, then stiffly lowered her head.

Her whole body shook violently.

Her words made my hair stand on end.

I almost felt an invisible monster standing behind me too.

For an instant, I couldn't speak.

She knelt without daring to raise her head, as motionless as a stone statue.

My chest heaved.

Gasping, I struggled out of the room and found the abbot.

“It's… it's here.”

He remained calm and nodded, stroking a ginger cat on his lap.

The cat purred comfortably and kept rubbing its head against his hand.

Then he had someone take it away.

Cats could see what humans couldn't. He wouldn't let it be frightened.

“Take me there,” he said evenly. “I'm curious too. What could frighten Guanyin so badly that she breaks an arm to save herself?”

When we reached the room, Xiaocao was still kneeling, afraid to move.

He took a pomelo leaf that had been passed through fire and lightly tapped his eyes several times.

Then he opened them.

He went rigid.

Curious, I asked, “Is it frightening?”

He made a finger gesture, dispelled his Yin-Yang Sight, and turned to leave.

“I've seen it. Not frightening.”

“Where are you going?”

Yet I could plainly see he was walking with the arm and leg on the same side moving together. His hand shook enough to double as a massage gun.

“Stomachache. Latrine.”

10

I copied him, waving the pomelo leaf before my eyes.

After all, I hadn't spent the money. It wouldn't come for me.

The next moment, I froze too.

It stood before Xiaocao.

More than a dozen arms braced against the ceiling. Its body bent down, its head lowered toward her.

Its immense form almost filled the room.

One arm was right in front of me.

Eyes tightly shut, she murmured, “Please don't kill me. Don't kill me…”

Its face was serene and gentle, exactly like the Guanyin on the high lotus throne in the temple.

But its lower body had been split open.

The organs spilling out were covered in misshapen arms, writhing over and over.

That was only the horror of its shape.

What chilled me most was what its countless hands held.

Distorted, twisted human heads.

Its body nearly filled the room, yet its face remained compassionate and mild, as though the hideous deformity had nothing to do with it.

One arm reached toward Xiaocao.

Feeling something brush back and forth across her forehead, she couldn't help opening her eyes.

She saw Feifei's eyes.

Feifei's face was savage and contorted, her tongue hanging far out.

“Aaaaah!”

Xiaocao scrambled up to flee.

But her limbs no longer obeyed. They were as limp as water.

“Help! Help me! Xu Jia! Abbot! Save me!”

The next instant, her body burst like a balloon.

Pieces of flesh flew into every corner.

With a trembling hand, I waved the leaf before my eyes.

It vanished from my sight at once.

My hands and feet were ice-cold.

That “Guanyin” was gone.

Only the scattered flesh remained.

That night, the abbot and I hid in the main hall until morning.

Neither slept.

He performed the ritual again and gave me another Guanyin.

I looked at the flawless white statue in my hands.

But all I could see in my mind was the other one.

“Why… why does that monster look like Guanyin?”

He sighed and sat on the floor.

“Do you know? Long ago, there was only one Guanyin.

“But some Guanyin came to disdain human faith. They found a quicker way to gain power.

“Eating human flesh. Devouring souls.

“The righteous Guanyin drew strength from human belief. Naturally, they couldn't accept that evil path. The two kinds fought for years, determined to destroy each other. Finally, the Evil Guanyin lost and fled beneath the eighteenth level of hell, to the nineteenth. They never appeared again.

“But as the world developed, fewer people believed in gods. Guanyin's power gradually weakened. Her ability to suppress the Evil Guanyin was no longer what it had been.

“When she couldn't suppress them, she could only warn people not to touch them.”

I asked again, “There's still something I don't understand. Why does spending the ticket's money bring the Evil Guanyin? What does it have to do with that?”

He looked at Guanyin seated upright on her sacred throne and sighed.

“The karma of that ticket was never yours to touch.

“The cause wasn't yours, yet through you it bore fruit. That's why Guanyin warned you not to take the money.

“If you take an opportunity that doesn't belong to you, the Evil Guanyin will notice you. You'll become its food.

“Each of you carries a little Guanyin to remind you not to touch opportunities that aren't yours.”

I scratched my head, still feeling confused.

“Then why do only people in our village have these statues?”

A cat walked across his shoe, leaving a gray pawprint.

He asked, “Do you know why our village doesn't allow the dead to be buried?”

I shook my head.

“No.”

He laughed.

“Because the nineteenth level of hell is directly beneath our village.”