Multi-fortune Town (25)

Nan Yue followed the path toward the Evermercy Restaurant. Just as she was about to reach it, the madwoman behind her suddenly stopped moving.

Nan Yue did not pull her forcefully; instead, she immediately stopped and stood beside the madwoman.

She saw the woman’s entire body trembling slightly. Her eyes were wide, and even her pupils were shaking.

Then, Nan Yue saw the woman snap her eyes shut. Almost instantly, she closed her own as well.

In the next second, she heard the sound of the madwoman’s teeth chattering. Her surroundings suddenly turned cold, as if... something had crawled onto the woman.

The madwoman remained motionless, and Nan Yue did not move either. After an unknown amount of time, the madwoman slumped to the ground, gasping for breath.

Only then did Nan Yue cautiously open her eyes. There was nothing there.

Or rather, whatever had been there had already left.

So, was closing one's eyes the key when encountering child ghosts on the road...?

Perhaps one also had to maintain absolute silence.

Nan Yue recalled that the child ghost had no eyeballs. She didn't know if they had been eaten or something else, but the sockets were nothing but black holes.

Therefore, it should be blind. Whether at the well or while fleeing before, Nan Yue hadn't intentionally muffled her movements, which was why she had been hunted by them.

She just didn't understand why the madwoman felt the need to close her eyes.

If she were to infer from existing clues, there was no supporting evidence for closing one's eyes, and it was extremely inconvenient.

Nan Yue felt this was more like the madwoman’s own behavioral habit, akin to a guilty conscience.

Could it be that those children had their eyes gouged out before being eaten, so the madwoman’s first instinct was to close her eyes to protect them?

Nan Yue wasn't sure. She dragged the madwoman toward the alley beside the Evermercy Restaurant. The increasingly thick scent of blood told her she had found it.

Nan Yue lit her lighter. The weak flame illuminated everything before her. It was Jiang Ningning’s corpse.

Jiang Ningning’s body had been torn into pieces, and the flesh and bone had been gnawed clean. The scene was utterly gruesome.

Nan Yue frowned as she surveyed the area, confirming there was only Jiang Ningning’s body.

Pu Yuan was gone.

While Nan Yue was lost in thought, the madwoman suddenly wrenched her hand away and plunged into the darkness.

Nan Yue hadn't expected the previously quiet woman to suddenly lash out. Caught off guard, she actually let her escape.

After a moment of hesitation, Nan Yue decided not to give chase. Once it was dark, child ghosts were everywhere; she couldn't risk her life to find the woman.

What puzzled her was that the madwoman should have known her chances of survival were higher if she followed Nan Yue. Why would she suddenly snap?

Nan Yue didn't linger. After confirming once more that only Jiang Ningning’s body was there, she began to head back.

...

The madwoman ran through the pitch-black alley. She didn't know why she was running or why she was so afraid.

Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would burst from her chest. She wheezed for air, her muddled head filled with regret.

She would have been much safer following that woman, but she had to run.

Because she heard a voice.

She could never have misheard it. It was her daughter’s voice.

Her daughter was calling, "Mama."

The madwoman couldn't remember how she had returned to the alley. She knew clearly that she must never return after being driven out of the town.

Especially as the day of the sacrificial rite approached.

She couldn't remember what had happened before, but when she heard that "Mama," she suddenly regained her clarity.

Enveloped in immense fear and despair, she wished she truly were insane, yet her mind became clearer and clearer.

She remembered her daughter clinging to her arm and acting spoiled, the way her husband pinned the girl down and gouged out her eyes while she was still alive, the way her husband and mother-in-law shared the meat of her daughter’s corpse, and how she had killed her husband in the dead of night because she hadn't been given a single bite...

Every scene of the past surfaced before her eyes.

She wished she were mad right now.

"Mama."

The young girl’s crisp voice was laced with infinite malice and curses. The madwoman felt a chill on her leg as something grabbed onto it.

It was just like the countless times her younger daughter had done so in the past.

The madwoman let out a scream. Her body moved before her brain could react, and she charged into the darkness.

She ran through the alley, her footsteps and heavy breathing echoing off the bluestone road.

The doors around her were tightly shut. No matter how she knocked or begged, it was useless.

"Sister Wu, Sister Wu! Please, let me in!"

"Brother Zhang, it’s me, Cuifen! Let me in!"

"I beg you, save me! I don't want to die!"

...The woman’s frantic pleas for mercy echoed through the town, but no one responded. It was as if it were a dead town.

Yet the woman knew they were all there.

Those neighbors, those former friends—they were all there, pressed against their windows and doors, listening to her screams without saying a word.

Just as she once had.

Finally, she could run no more. She slumped to the ground, her lungs burning like fire. The darkness made her lose all sense of direction.

She felt colder and colder. She finally remembered that she should keep as quiet as possible.

Those children had all lost their eyes before they died, so they couldn't see the targets of their revenge.

She covered her mouth and curled into a ball.

As long as she wasn't discovered, she could survive.

"Hehe..."

A girl’s giggling suddenly appeared in the alley. The madwoman felt her heart skip a beat.

"Mama... Mama, where are you? Xiaoya has come to find you."

The woman bit down hard on her own hand, her eyes filled with terror.

"Mama, why aren't you saying anything? Don't you love Xiaoya anymore? Didn't you say you loved Xiaoya the most? So much that you wanted to... eat... me?"

The originally cute, childish voice became extremely low and terrifying during those last few words, sounding nothing like a human.

The madwoman shook uncontrollably, but she didn't dare make a sound. The child ghost seemed not to have noticed her, continuing to describe the gruesome details of her death.

"Mama, it hurt so much. When Papa gouged out my eyes, it hurt so much..."

"But you didn't save me. Didn't you love me the most? You did nothing. You just kept saying that since you were my mother, you should get the largest share of my meat."

"I wanted to look at you one last time, but my eyes were gouged out... I hate you so much... I hate you!"

The suddenly shrill, piercing voice of the child was like a demon’s shriek. The madwoman bit her hand until it bled. As the child ghost spoke and stood just a few steps away with a hideous face, the madwoman’s mind completely shattered.

She reached out and violently thrust her fingers into both of her eyes.

Blood flowed down her face and the pain screamed wildly, but a smile appeared on the madwoman’s face.

The child ghosts and infant ghosts had no eyes; as long as she didn't make a sound, they couldn't find her.

But sight brought fear. As long as she saw her child, gnawed down to the bone, standing before her, the madwoman wouldn't be able to control herself and would make noise.

It was better now. She was blind too. She wouldn't be afraid, and she wouldn't be found.

She would survive, just as she had in the years past.

And then, one day, she would get a new child, eat them, and receive good fortune.

Two streams of bloody tears ran down the madwoman’s filthy face. Her mouth pulled back in a silent grin, as if she were already tasting that flavor.

In the next moment, her smile froze.