Chapter 84

Chapter 84

When Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia returned with grim faces, they found Lin Zhu sitting alone, utterly dejected. None of the others had come back yet.

The moment Lin Zhu saw Cheng Miao, his eyes lit up and he ran over. Ignoring Qi Jiajia’s icy glare, he examined them both from head to toe and only relaxed after confirming they were unharmed.

“Our theory was wrong. The lanterns we make here can’t protect us anymore.” Lin Zhu touched the tip of his nose and lowered his head like a child who had done something wrong.

Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia had made a discovery of their own, but they had not expected Lin Zhu, who had remained at the workshop, to reach the same conclusion.

Cheng Miao glanced across the empty courtyard and roughly understood what must have happened.

Without wasting time, Lin Zhu gave a complete account: Zhang Lele and Xiao Xu had left for the privy and failed to return; he had found their corpses; something had nearly caught him on the way back; and Yan Qi had taken Yezi away, suggesting the two intended to pursue a different method of clearing the instance.

Cheng Miao regarded Lin Zhu with surprise. The young man had once been terrified of corpses. During the Secrets of the Chang Residence instance, the Steward’s body had frightened him so badly he could not walk. Now he dared search for clues alone and even spotted the critical detail beside such horrifying corpses.

Her teammates were growing at an astonishing, unexpected pace.

“You did extremely well.” Cheng Miao patted Lin Zhu’s shoulder encouragingly. “You did well making the lanterns, and you did just as well investigating today.”

Lin Zhu flushed and grew too embarrassed to continue talking about himself. He looked toward the displeased Qi Jiajia. “What about you? Did you discover anything?”

Cheng Miao sighed and relayed what the woman had told them.

Zhangjia Village was ancient. For more than a century, its residents had made their living by crafting lanterns.

In recent years, however, neighboring villages gained electricity and fewer people came to buy lanterns.

The Village Head at the time was the present Village Head’s great-great-grandfather. No one knew where he found the recipe, but it claimed that lanterns made from a virgin girl’s skin and bones could ward off evil, attract fortune, and resist every poison.

The village had grown wealthy from lanterns and raised few crops or livestock. If their lanterns stopped selling, they had no money, and without money, people would die.

In an isolated village like this, the Village Head’s word was law. Whether they wanted to or not, the villagers had to obey.

Besides, the two girls chosen by lot in the first year were made into lanterns that sold for astronomical prices. Certain secretive trades truly did need objects capable of warding off evil.

After that, no villager objected. Girls had never been valued as highly as boys in the mountain village. Every household had two or three daughters. If one was chosen, they simply called it bad luck.

The woman was Zhang Qiao. Her best friend, Zhang Yan, had been betrothed since childhood to Zhang Guo, the Village Head’s second son.

Zhang Yan had lost both parents young. When the lots were drawn, her name was chosen.

Zhang Qiao objected, and so did Zhang Guo.

But no one could resist a custom that had endured for decades. Zhang Guo and Zhang Yan decided to elope and leave the village. Anywhere would do.

Zhang Qiao had attended school for several years and knew a civilized society existed beyond the mountains. She believed that if they escaped and told outsiders about the village’s crimes, everything could end.

The three were caught during their escape. Zhang Qiao’s own father had betrayed them.

Zhang Yan was still turned into a lantern. As punishment, and as a twisted lesson, the Village Head forced his second son to watch while his beloved was skinned, dismembered, and made into one.
As the person who proposed the escape, Zhang Qiao had the skin cut from her face as a warning.

In a bitter twist, the Village Head rewarded Zhang Qiao’s father for reporting them by giving him a lantern. Its covering was made from his own daughter’s skin.

Every household later grew rich from lanterns made of young women. Gradually, more villagers decided they no longer wanted to continue the craft.

They had accumulated enough capital to pursue other businesses. Some even planned to leave the village and live in the city.

But at some point, the people of Zhangjia Village began dying one after another. Whether they remained in the village or moved to the city, not one escaped.

They all died through brutal punishments involving their skin. The Village Head finally realized that the vengeful spirits of the women they had murdered over the years had returned.

He tried many methods. His final solution was to turn the anniversary of the first lantern’s creation into an ancestral ceremony.

Lanterns contained the spirits’ resentment, but were also objects the spirits feared. For those three days, every household had to keep lanterns lit at all times, both as an offering and a threat.

The village had survived this way for the past two years. People still died occasionally, but far fewer than before.

“Zhang Qiao’s story doesn’t explain everything,” Lin Zhu pointed out. “Why did Song Yu die last night even though a lantern was lit? And why did our ordinary lanterns ward off evil yesterday, only to become much less effective today? There are too many holes in the logic.”

Cheng Miao nodded. “Zhang Qiao hasn’t left her room since then, not even once. There are many things she doesn’t know. We’ll have to work them out ourselves.”

There was still time before sunset. Cheng Miao led Qi Jiajia and Lin Zhu farther from the old craftsman and sat down. “I have some thoughts about both questions. I’ll lay them out, and we can discuss them together.”

“First, I do think lanterns can ward off evil, but only during the day.” Cheng Miao propped her chin on one hand, eyes narrowing slightly. “I’ve kept thinking about this instance’s hint: ‘Fortune and misfortune are intertwined.’ The only thing that fits is how the lanterns work.”

“They ward off evil by day but summon ghosts at night. Lighting a lantern after dark doesn’t protect anyone. It draws malicious ghosts instead.”

Lin Zhu and Qi Jiajia nodded. That explained why the villagers had deliberately come to light lanterns for the players. Increasing the players’ death rate would reduce the villagers’ own.

“As for the second question…” Cheng Miao smoothed a loose strand of hair at her temple. “Remember what I said? In some places, the offerings used during an ancestral ceremony become more real each day. With animal sacrifices, the first day’s offering might be an animal painted on paper. The second day’s might be a dough model. Only on the third day would they offer actual cattle or sheep. That still happens in some impoverished regions.”

Qi Jiajia already understood. She continued, “So on the first day, the villagers used ordinary lanterns just like ours. Today, their lanterns might have undergone some special processing. Tomorrow, they’ll bring out actual Human-Skin-and-Bone Lanterns. Meanwhile, we’ll keep stupidly carrying ordinary ones that can’t frighten the ghosts at all.”

Lin Zhu’s face fell. “But we can’t get that kind of lantern.”

Cheng Miao turned her back to the old craftsman. Her fingertips rubbed together, and an exquisite lantern appeared in her hand.

Its covering was unnaturally fine, while its frame and handle gleamed with the stark whiteness of bone. A cold, sinister aura instantly swept over all three of them.