Chapter 7
Chapter 7
I waved at her and asked tentatively, “Sister, where are you from? Why are you here?”
She stared at me in disbelief. A few raspy, rattling sounds escaped her throat, her voice sounding like a machine that hadn’t been used in years. It took a long moment before she could speak slowly.
“A… human?”
As her gaze swept over me, she suddenly became agitated.
“Maogou Village? You’re from Maogou Village too!”
Only then did I notice that she was wearing a red dress in the same style as mine. Although the fabric was tattered and the original color was long gone, the wide shoulder straps were identical to the one I was wearing.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she began to cry and scream, flailing her clenched fists.
Once she finally calmed down, I moved closer to talk to her. That was when I learned she had been sent into the mountains twenty years ago.
Twenty years ago, Wang Cuiping was only nineteen years old when her own father personally delivered her to Wildman Valley.
“A pack of animals… they aren’t human! This entire village feeds on the flesh and blood of women! They’re nothing but animals!”
Wang Cuiping’s face contorted, her eyes filled with a torrential, overwhelming hatred.
According to Wang Cuiping, this custom had persisted for untold years. Every ten years, the village would send a woman into Wildman Valley. They would fit bamboo tubes over the woman’s arms. When the Wild Man found his prey, he would grab the tubes and laugh with delight.
While the Wild Man was distracted by his triumphant laughter, the woman was supposed to pull her hands out of the tubes and stab the Wild Man in the eyes with a dagger.
The eyes were the Wild Man’s weakest point. Once his eyes were injured, the Wild Man would fly into a violent rage, capable of tearing the woman to shreds in an instant. The other villagers waiting at the mouth of the valley would then take the opportunity to swarm in, using pre-prepared shotguns to deal with the creature.
After capturing the Wild Man, they would butcher him and distribute a portion of the Wild Man Meat to everyone in the village to be made into cured meat.
The men who ate the Wild Man Meat gained immense strength and sharpened senses; they rarely fell ill. If a woman was pregnant with a boy, she would also be given several portions of Wild Man Meat. This improved her constitution and ensured that the child would be exceptionally healthy from birth.
A sudden realization hit me. No wonder I couldn’t even overpower Sister Wang-this was the reason.
Because their physical capabilities far exceeded those of normal people, the residents of Maogou Village were always able to harvest wild medicinal herbs that others couldn’t reach. Every household in the village lived a decent life. Combined with their robust health and lack of illness, the temptation was so great that the villagers simply couldn’t bear to leave.