Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The voice made every single one of us freeze. Instinctively, everyone turned to look at Xu Er.

But Xu Er hadn’t said a word. The one that had just called out “Brother” really was that goat!

Xu Da’s hand trembled around the rope. He kept glancing back and forth between his silent younger brother and the goat with its pair of human eyes.

In the end, he still clenched his teeth and said, “It’ll be fine once the ritual is over. Once the ritual is complete, everything will go back to normal.”

None of us knew whether we should stop him, but at this point, I doubted anyone could.

The altar was on a slope behind the village stronghold.

To complete the ritual, they had to do more than just slaughter the goat. They also had to take blood from both the person and the goat, then smear each one’s blood on the other’s forehead. The goat’s head also had to be placed in the corresponding position on the altar.

We watched as Xu Da, utterly resolute, led the goat and Xu Er away.

Shi Yuhan was very worried. She grabbed Ren Meng’s arm and asked, “This ritual won’t go wrong, will it? Why can that goat talk like a person?”

Ren Meng thought for a moment, then replied, “If it’s supposed to take someone’s sins in their place, then it probably has to be like a person, right? Maybe this is part of the ritual. Let’s not overthink it.”

I didn’t know why Ren Meng and Shi Yuhan had come to participate in this ritual, but from the looks of it, they were out of options too.

Everyone ate a little something, then set off again on their own journeys to catch a goat.

I brought Zuo Hao and Ba Wuyue with me, planning to help the two of them look for goats while also searching for Dashun.

This abandoned village stronghold wasn’t very large. The houses were just built in a messy, haphazard way.

According to what those villagers had said, the four goats wouldn’t go too far from the village, so there was no need to head deep into the forest.

Ba Wuyue led us to the southern side of the village. She had seen a black goat there yesterday, so maybe we could run into it again today.

Along the way, I paid close attention to our surroundings, but I still didn’t find any trace that Dashun had passed through.

At noon, we rested in a shaded spot.

I asked Ba Wuyue why she had come to take part in this ritual.

Ba Wuyue raised a hand and touched her sunglasses. “I just want to replace these eyes. These eyes have been with me for ten years. I’ve had enough. I don’t want to see those things anymore.”

“Ever since I got these eyes, fear and misfortune have clung to me nonstop.”

“To destroy them, I’ve tried to blind myself more than once. But even after my eyes could no longer sense light, I could still ‘see’ them.”

Ba Wuyue’s voice was filled with deep despair. Even Zuo Hao, who was listening beside us, looked moved.

He patted his chest and said, “If we only manage to catch one goat, I won’t fight you for it. My illness won’t kill me. Your situation is more important.”

Ba Wuyue thanked Zuo Hao. I, however, was a little curious.

“From the way you’re talking, you weren’t born with those eyes?” I asked.

Ba Wuyue nodded. I might have touched the most painful part of her memories, but instead, she smiled.

“These eyes were a gift from the friend I once cherished most.”

“She was a very introverted girl, and she had an extremely strange temper. Because of those eerie eyes, no one in class wanted to play with her. I was the only exception.”

“I knew things were bad at home for her. She didn’t have a mother, and her dad was always either beating her or cursing her out.”

“So I often stole snacks from home for her to eat, and I shared my pretty clothes with her so she could wear them.”

“On the day she killed herself, she called me beforehand and said she wanted to give me a present.”

“When I rushed over to her house, what I saw was her body hanging from the roof beam-and those eyeballs that had already slipped out of their sockets.”

Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe it wasn’t, but just as Ba Wuyue finished that last sentence, a black goat with enormous eyes came strolling over at a leisurely pace.

Using the rope Ba Wuyue had given me, I made a loop. Almost without any effort at all, I caught the goat.

It was so simple that the three of us could hardly believe it.