Chapter 304

Chapter 304

None of it had been an illusion.

Chen Ping had skinned them alive, burned them to death, buried them in pits… Their resentment had gathered, and they were being suppressed inside the Pawnshop!

Then who had encouraged Chen Ping and helped him bring about such a catastrophe?

Had that person really been helping him?

No. Clearly, Chen Ping had been deceived, manipulated without even realizing it.

He was merely a pawn in that person’s hands!

Who was it? Were they still alive?

For someone like that, death couldn’t possibly be the end.

Then where were they now?

Could they be… right here in Wufu Town?

Right beside us?!

At that moment, Li Qingying could understand exactly how I felt. We were both caught up in this. Neither of us could stand apart from it.

I took her hand. “We’re learning more and more, and that’s to our advantage. We’ll deal with whatever comes. Sister Qingying, if we take it one solid step at a time, we won’t necessarily be the ones who lose!”

Li Qingying nodded firmly. “Xiao Jiu, I’ll stay with you through it all.”

Dawn was approaching.

After that harrowing night, we were exhausted in both body and mind. We each went back to our rooms to sleep.

Early the next morning, pounding on the door woke me.

The moment I opened the Pawnshop’s front door, something came flying straight at me, giving me a fright.

I caught it instinctively. Li Qingying, who had hurried over, was already charging outside.

She was trained and quick on her feet. Before long, she returned with someone gripped by the back of his collar.

I was still holding the object, which had been carefully wrapped in a black garbage bag.

Li Qingying flung the man to the floor. “Liang Chao, have you got a death wish? What are you doing causing trouble at our Pawnshop first thing in the morning?”

Liang Chao was the pig butcher at Wufu Town’s farmers’ market. Supposedly, the cleaver he used had once cut down Japanese invaders on the battlefield!

In his early forties, he was burly and fierce-looking, a notorious troublemaker in Wufu Town. Most people wouldn’t dare offend him.

Today, however, he sat sprawled on the floor, pale and listless. There was even a trace of terror in his eyes.

I held the black garbage bag out to him.

He didn’t dare take it. Instead, he kept scooting backward, as though he had seen some dreadful monster.

Just before he reached the threshold, Li Qingying seized his collar again and dragged him back.

She had slept badly and was under immense strain, with nowhere to vent her anger. Impatiently, she demanded, “Tell us. Who sent you to make trouble? What’s in the bag?”

“I… I’m not here to make trouble.” Liang Chao clasped his hands together and waved them frantically at us. “I want to pawn what’s in the bag. I was afraid you wouldn’t take it, so this was the only thing I could think of…”

Li Qingying laughed in exasperation. “You’re trying to force us into a deal?”

Most of the Townsfolk knew the rules of the Wufu Town Pawnshop.

Liang Chao was alive, so his transaction would be a Yang Pawn, which I could refuse.

Clearly, whatever lay inside that black garbage bag couldn’t be anything good.

I pushed the bag into his hands. “Our Pawnshop has its rules. If everyone could throw something through our door and force me to accept it, what would become of this place?”

“It was my fault.” As he spoke, Liang Chao slapped himself across the face. Helplessly, he continued, “But I truly had no other choice. It… it drinks my son’s blood.”
Both Li Qingying and I felt our scalps prickle.

Holding Liang Chao by the shoulder, she forced him to open the black garbage bag in front of us.

It was a very large bag, nearly as tall as a person when fully unfolded.

At the moment, it looked flat, as though it contained a broad strip of dried kelp.

Yet when Liang Chao opened it and exposed its contents, we still froze.

Inside was a male Human-Skin Effigy.

The man looked to be in his thirties, with brows and eyes that bore a fair resemblance to Liang Chao’s. His skin was entirely intact, apart from an incision a little over ten centimeters long at the back of his head.

He stood quietly in the bag, utterly motionless, as thin as a sheet of paper, as though a gust of wind might carry him away.

But his cheeks held an unnatural flush.

It was exactly how Chen Fuying’s great-grandmother’s Human-Skin Effigy had looked after Chen Fuying fed her blood.

“Who is he? When did he appear? Did he start drinking your son’s blood on his own?” I asked.

“He… he might be my great-grandfather. I’m not sure,” Liang Chao said. “When I was little, my father told me this cleaver had belonged to my great-grandfather. He traveled all over the country, fought on battlefields, and sold pork. Then one day he disappeared, and the family never saw him again.

“Until last night, when this skin suddenly appeared in my house. In the middle of the night, my son sleepwalked over to let it drink his blood, as though he were possessed. If I hadn’t gotten up to use the toilet and caught him, then smacked him with the sole of my shoe, by morning he might have been nothing but skin and bones.”

The more Liang Chao said, the more frightened he became by what might have happened.

He scrambled up onto his knees and pleaded, “Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, I really wasn’t trying to cause trouble. I was terrified. All I wanted was to pawn this skin. Only if you take it can our family live in peace. Please, I’m begging you.”

Li Qingying looked at me questioningly.

I didn’t hesitate. “All right. I’ll take your great-grandfather’s skin. Tell me what kind of pawn you want and how much money you want for it. But I must warn you, this thing won’t be easy to suppress. It may cause more trouble later. Still, our Pawnshop will find a way to deal with it properly in the end. You can rest assured of that.”

“I trust you! I don’t trust anyone else now, only our Pawnshop and you, Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu,” Liang Chao said excitedly. “I’ll make it a Dead Pawn. As for the money… ten fen will do. Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, let’s get the paperwork done. The sooner it’s finished, the sooner I can stop worrying.”

I took him to the Southern Study. Li Qingying ground the ink while I took out a Pawn Ticket and began writing.

When I finished, I had Liang Chao sign it and press his fingerprint onto it.

There were two copies of the Pawn Ticket. One went to Liang Chao, and the other was filed away.

Holding the Human-Skin Effigy in its garbage bag, Li Qingying asked, “Xiao Jiu, shall I put this thing in the West Room?”

After a moment’s thought, I shook my head. “Bring the drying rack in from the courtyard. Leave it here in the Southern Study and hang the skin up on a clothes hanger.”

This thing was sinister, and it had already tasted blood. It couldn’t possibly remain so docile. I needed to observe it first.

That was also why I had agreed to take this Human-Skin Effigy.

It was the first. Many more would gradually emerge.

And that day wouldn’t be far off.

Only by knowing both your enemy and yourself could you keep from losing…