Qi Family Gang (8)

Nan Yue squinted, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't see the figures clearly.

But she felt like they were...

Right!

Like blurry reflections in water.

The shadows blocked the path to Fish Fry Village completely; no wonder the black horse was so agitated.

The Bagua mirror flashed with golden light, and the intertwined shadows vanished, allowing the black horse to slowly regain its calm.

"It looks like we won't be able to leave tonight."

Headman Qi's expression was grave. This forest was strange enough, not to mention they were hauling five jars that were clearly problematic.

"Headman, should we open the jars and take a look?"

Nan Yue stepped forward to ask, seeing the opportunity.

Normally, a horse gang would inspect the goods upon receiving them.

It was a responsibility not just to the client, but to the gang itself.

In these chaotic times, if someone hid contraband in the cargo and the authorities found out, it would mean execution.

The horse gang took on all sorts of cargo, even dealing in the dead.

But they didn't do business with the government.

This was a silent rule of the greenwood trades.

They were, after all, in the unorthodox trades, and avoiding the authorities was a way to protect themselves.

However, this batch of cargo had never been inspected. Because its arrival was so eerie, incidents had occurred frequently during both the pickup and the transport.

Both the black horse and Shaman Zhu had a very bad feeling about the jars, so they had avoided getting close to the cargo.

Their only thought had been to deliver the goods as quickly as possible.

But now, the situation didn't seem that simple.

"We don't know what's in this forest, but we can at least figure out what's in the cargo," Nan Yue said.

"Otherwise, if we get attacked from both sides..."

Generally speaking, ghosts didn't think like normal people and wouldn't cooperate with each other.

But the scavengers knew well that things would only get worse as time passed.

They needed to know what they were facing to prepare.

"Fine," Headman Qi said through gritted teeth. "Open them up."

Nan Yue stood at the front. "Shaman Zhu and I will do it."

She was the one who suggested it, and besides the pressure of the situation, she had her own reasons for wanting to check.

It was only right that they be the ones to open them; with their awakened abilities and tools, they would be safer than the horsemen.

"Dammit, you're still looking down on your boss."

Headman Qi pushed past Nan Yue with a stiff face. "Manager Wu, come help me open these jars."

He wasn't being reckless, though. "Shaman Zhu, you and A-Nan stand guard on both sides. Make sure nothing gets out."

Shaman Zhu and Nan Yue stepped forward, while Gu Xiang Kai, Chi Yu, and Jiang Siyan followed closely behind, separating the other horsemen from the jars.

The black horse was led to the side by Headman Qi. It stomped its hooves, appearing extremely restless.

The Bagua mirror showed nothing; until the red cloth-wrapped plugs were removed, the contents would remain hidden.

With a loud shout, Headman Qi and Manager Wu grabbed a red cloth and yanked it upward. With a "poof," the jar was opened.

The five black jars were wide-bellied with narrow necks; even with the plugs removed, it was hard to see inside.

Shaman Zhu and Nan Yue brought their torches closer, and the four of them saw the contents by the light of the fire.

The jar was more than half-full of water, but through the flickering light, they could see something at the bottom.

It was a human skeleton.

It was unclear if it had always been just a skeleton or if the flesh had decomposed from being submerged for too long.

Regardless, a human skeleton lay at the bottom of the jar.

The moment the plug was pulled, Nan Yue smelled a powerful aquatic fishiness.

It was the same scent from the waterskin, but much more intense, nearly suffocating.

It felt like being at the bottom of a lake, a strange sense of oppression washing over her.

Strangely enough, the black horse, which had been restless, calmed down once the jar was opened.

It nudged Headman Qi with its head. Headman Qi pulled the bridle, aiming the Bagua mirror at the bottom of the jar.

The white bones did not change.

Headman Qi wiped the sweat from his forehead and replaced the plug.

They opened all five jars, and the situation was the same.

Five jars, five skeletons, without exception.

Once they had restored everything to its original state, everyone's racing hearts finally began to settle.

"What is this? Soaking people in wine?"

Headman Qi spat, his expression sour.

Though he had seen much in his years on the road, this was a first.

They all knew it was impossible to fit a living person through that narrow opening.

But the skeletons were intact, with no signs of being hacked apart. They hadn't been dismembered to fit inside.

So, how did they get the people into the jars?

Gu Xiang Kai said in a low voice, "Could it be... they were already just skeletons before being put in?"

Everyone's gaze shifted to the large jars. The skeletons clearly weren't old bones dug out of the ground; they looked like people who had died recently.

But how could a person of flesh and blood turn into this?

Everyone's expressions grew even grimmer.

"What bad luck."

Headman Qi rubbed his chest—a habitual gesture he made whenever he was confused or agitated.

"Tomorrow, once we unload the cargo, we're leaving immediately."

The Bagua mirror hadn't revealed anything else in the jars, which usually meant they were just jars soaking dead bones.

But the events along the way proved it wasn't that simple.

Either there was some other eerie quality to these jars they hadn't discovered, or the jars were ghost magnets, which was why the journey had been so troubled.

The group returned to rest, stoking the campfire higher.

"Those skeletons aren't right."

Only when it was just the few of them did Shaman Zhu speak. "I only saw the jars filled with white mist. I couldn't see anything clearly."

What Shaman Zhu saw with her intuition was the manifestation of danger. Although she didn't know what the white mist represented, the jars—or rather, the skeletons—were likely the source.

Nan Yue nodded, recalling the scene. "Even to the naked eye, those skeletons looked off."

Scavengers had seen many corpses and plenty of bones.

But even through the water, Nan Yue felt the skeletons were wrong.

They looked limp, lacking the hard curves and luster that bones should have.

Instead, they looked like a lump of dough, having only the form of a skeleton but none of the substance.

But they didn't mention this to the others.

The horse gang had to go to Fish Fry Village; that was an inevitability, so they needed the men's morale to stay stable.

If the thirty-odd men panicked, fear and alarm would spread like wildfire.

"Is that a human skeleton?"

Jiang Siyan, who had been sitting beside Nan Yue, finally spoke. "It is."

Though he had become a psychologist through his awakened ability, he had been interested in the field before and had read many books.

At the very least, he could identify a skeleton.