Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
“Why?”
“Why didn't the mortuary cameras record him?”
“Why could he come and go freely?”
“Why wasn't his secret exposed after the fire?”
Tần Nguyệt Nguyệt spread her hands with a helpless smile.
“Follow the occult far enough, and you end up with a practical explanation.”
“He has accomplices.”
“Lots of them.”
My eyes widened. My lips trembled.
The area was poor and difficult to reach.
Local girls did everything they could to leave the mountains.
Yet over the past ten years, many women of marriageable age had moved here.
Almost every older bachelor had found a wife.
The women came from all over the country.
Most were young, beautiful, and educated.
When interviewed, they gave the same answer.
They wanted to return to the remote mountains and contribute to rural development.
It was deeply abnormal.
Lý Cần's wife had originally come to investigate their fate.
Unfortunately, she'd ended up like them.
Somehow, he'd trapped her in the mountains forever.
The men benefiting from this might not know how he'd bewitched so many women.
But as long as they got wives, they naturally stood by him.
“He... he's monstrous.”
Every word carried anger and grief I couldn't suppress.
“If he feared retribution, he wouldn't have done it.”
Tần Nguyệt Nguyệt glanced back.
“There are too few of us. We can't act recklessly.”
“We'd both be in danger.”
Regret seized me.
“Why didn't you say so? Did I alert him?”
“I wanted him suspicious.”
“A guilty man always has demons. Frighten him, and he'll go looking for what he's hidden.”
She pulled me into cover.
“See? He's coming out.”
Lý Cần looked around, then sneaked along the wall.
I anxiously moved to follow.
She stopped me.
“You have no experience tailing someone. He'll spot you immediately.”
“Wait at the cold-noodle stall by the road.”
“Once I've got what we need, I'll meet you.”
At the stall, I kept looking in that direction.
The owner was very friendly, repeatedly sizing me up.
“Don't recognize you. Visiting relatives? Tourists stay in the old village. People only come here to see family.”
I shook my head, pretending not to understand the dialect.
She kept probing.
“Beautiful mountains, good water. The men are honest and know how to treat their wives. A girl who marries here is blessed.”
I held up my ring.
“I'm married.”
She glanced around.
“Oh. Waiting for your husband?”
Annoyed, I didn't answer.
She bent behind the counter to do something.
Then I noticed she was wearing gloves.
Alarm flared.
“Stay back!”
“Stay back!”
“What's wrong?”
A yellow-black pill lay hidden in her palm as she approached.
“You look unwell. Must be heatstroke.”
“Let me give you a massage. You'll feel better.”
I screamed and ran.
Several passersby saw me and immediately closed in.
Their facial muscles were rigid.
Their mouths twisted upward.
“What's wrong? Why are you running?”
Darkness was gathering.
An otherworldly gleam shone in their eye sockets.
I didn't dare call for help.
Didn't dare answer.
I didn't dare call for help.
Didn't dare answer.
This entire place was insane.
In my panic, someone suddenly grabbed me and dragged me into an alley.
“Trác Văn. Thank goodness I got here. That was too close.”
“Thẩm Nghiêu?”
I clung to his hand.
My fingers were icy with terror. My whole body had locked up.
My eyes were full of panic and the stunned relief of survival, as though I'd just awakened from a nightmare.
“How... how did you find me?”
“I told you there was something wrong with Tần Nguyệt Nguyệt. She's been streaming the whole thing, using you to make a name for herself!”
“If I hadn't followed her, I wouldn't even have known you were here!”
He didn't blame me for mistrusting him.
“She didn't stream today. I knew something had happened. Luckily, I got here in time.”
I opened my mouth, unsure where to start.
“I saw her follow that retriever, Lý Cần, into a courtyard. He opened the door for her.”
His expression was grave.
“They're working together.”
“Why... why would she deceive me?”
He held me, utterly certain.
“I consulted a master. She's one of those dark practitioners who borrow skins.”
“She helps Lý Cần bring young women here.”
“They took your mother's skin. She must have received a share.”
I lowered my head.
Disheveled hair stuck to my cheeks.
Tears slipped down silently.
“Silly girl.”
He wiped them away and comforted me gently.
“It's all right. I'm here.”
I truly didn't know what to do.
For Kỷ Quy Hoằng's fortune, Thẩm Nghiêu had resorted to every dirty trick.
I genuinely wanted a divorce.
But now I had nowhere to turn.
And I desperately needed someone to lean on.
“Come on. Let's get out of here.”
He looked at the darkening sky.
“It's late. The last bus to the city is gone. We'll take a boat.”
Mom's death was still so recent.
The word “boat” made my body recoil.
He pressed me.
“Everyone here is in it together.”
“You know their secret.”
“If we delay, they'll silence us!”
On the dark, winding water, an old covered boat floated alone.
Its hull was mottled. Its canopy low.
Faint lamplight cast warped reflections across the surface.
I touched the side.
Both the cabin and the gunwale were coated in sticky black oil.
A strange fragrance lay over a faint rotten smell.
A thought flashed through me.
This was a body-retrieval boat!
Thẩm Nghiêu admitted it readily.
“It's late. Tourist boats and transport boats have stopped.”
“This is an emergency. We can't worry about taboos.”
Hesitantly, I placed one foot aboard.
He immediately pushed me in.
“Stop! Get on that boat, and you'll die!”
Tần Nguyệt Nguyệt stood on the bank.
Her face was bruised. One arm hung loosely, apparently dislocated.
Thẩm Nghiêu gripped my hand.
“Don't listen! She wants to hurt you!”
He urged me on.
I lifted my foot again.
“The photograph is real! Thẩm Nghiêu and Kỷ Quy Hoằng are both hanba!”
Tần Nguyệt Nguyệt shouted, holding her livestreaming device high.
“Ordinary eyes can't see the deathly aura around him!”
“Look through the lens!”
I was frantic.
I had no idea whom to believe.
Thẩm Nghiêu tugged me again.
“We've lived together for years.”
“If I meant you harm, would you still be alive?”
“Think!”
As he finished, Lý Cần suddenly appeared behind her.
“Miss! She's getting away!”
Were they really working together?
I was thrown into confusion.
Thẩm Nghiêu seized the moment to pull me into the cabin.
Tần Nguyệt Nguyệt chanted repeatedly, to no effect.
Lý Cần held her fast.
All she could do was shout:
“You were born in Long Đường, too!”
“At a yin hour, on a yin day, in a yin month and year!”
“They're using up the pills too fast!”
“They can't wait for you to live through four cycles!”
“They're going to take you now!”
I sprang up and recoiled against the cabin wall.
The livestream viewers were just as confused.
【I don't understand either. Who are we supposed to trust?】
【We're watching from the streamer's perspective. Of course we trust her!】
【I can see it! There's a clear green glow around that man!】
The boat had entered the swift current.
Thẩm Nghiêu was no longer in a hurry.
He watched my struggles at leisure, eyes half closed, full of contempt.
“Seventeen minutes to the Water Ghosts' Lair.”
“Don't worry.”
“Lý Cần needs your skin.”
“I don't.”
Fear made my voice shrill and unsteady.
“You... you're really a hanba?”
Before 1949, a band of brigands had terrorized Long Đường.
The villagers paid a large sum to hire fighters to destroy them.
Afterward, the chief and his closest adviser were executed.
Both had been vicious.
The villagers hated them to the bone.
They put the two corpses into one coffin and buried it carelessly.
That year brought a terrible drought.
The crops failed.