In general, such practices were common in remote areas.

To prevent seriously ill people from infecting the others, or a mentally unstable family member from wreaking havoc, they would decide to take those poor souls to the mountains, leaving them to survive on their own.

This girl was young and vulnerable. She would soon die if she were taken to the mountain!

As soon as Mrs. Wu heard that, she screamed until her lungs almost gave out. “No, we don’t want to do that! She’s our only hope, the only thing that allows us to carry on in this life. If she’s taken to the mountain… we don’t have any reason to live anymore!”

The Village Elder frowned. “You tell me then, what should we do now? What if this crazy girl hurts you?”

Mrs. Wu answered, “Even if she’s really crazy, we would never send her to the mountain. We’ll follow the Wang family’s example. I’ll tie her up and take care of her.”

The Village Elder sighed. “Both of you, how old are you now? How many more years do you think you could linger in this life? If you two die, wouldn’t it be the same as all of you dying, including your daughter?”

Mrs. Wu pursed her lips. She didn’t know how to answer.

The little girl giggled innocently. “She’s calling me again. Let me go. Let me go. I have to run to her. She can’t wait for me. She said that I have a beautiful face. She wants my face.”

The Village Elder listened to her, and his countenance changed immediately. “Listen to her. She’s already starting to spout nonsense! If you don’t send her away, no one in our village will be able to survive. If you can’t make up your mind, we will summon a Hall meeting!”

The so-called Hall meeting was made with representatives sent by every family. They would talk and vote to solve the matter.

This kind of practice had existed before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and it was abolished long ago. Old Wu looked at the girl next in his arms and nodded with his teeth gritted.

I didn’t dare to linger, so I moved away from the corner where I was hiding.

It seemed that similar things had happened in the village before, even before the madwoman’s case. However, the villagers ultimately decided to keep silent about it. They either didn’t know what to do or were hiding something.

When I returned to the old fellow’s house, we happened to run into each other as he was on his way out to answer the Hall summon.

He vigilantly looked at me. “Where did you go?” His tone wasn’t friendly at all.

I turned to him, saying, “I was bored, so I went out for a walk to get some fresh air.”

“Don’t go wandering around.” The old man frowned, his voice growing strangely strict. “This place isn’t a tourist attraction. Just stay in the room if you have nothing else to do. Or leave this place if you’ve already taken enough photos.”

Then, he left in a hurry.

I went back to the room and only saw Zhao Wuyang inside; Li Mazi was nowhere to be seen.

Zhao Wuyang was lying on the bed, but he sat up the moment he saw me. “How’s it going? Did you find anything?”

I looked at him and replied, “Yeah, I did find something. It’s just like you said. Every corner of this village is strange. I think that everybody knows about the oddness of that tomb, but they keep silent about it. And, even the madwoman in this family—”

Before I finished talking, Li Mazi suddenly rushed into the room. “I got something!” His face looked excited.

“What is it?” I was curious.

“I’ve chatted with the madwoman. Guess what? Although she has lost her mind, she still remembers something. I asked her why she wanted to go to the mountain… She said that Xiao Mei from the Village Elder’s family took her there, telling her that it would be fun to go play in the mountain. I asked her to tell me more, but she was too scared to continue. She shivered and stopped answering. My guess is that whatever happened after that was really horrifying, enough to make her lose her mind.” Li Mazi winked at me. “How was it? Is this a big find or not?”

This case seems to be related to the Village Elder. He’s tried his best to send all the people affected by Zhong Wuyan’s resentful power to the mountain. What is he trying to hide?

I knew we couldn’t linger there anymore. I grabbed Li Mazi and Zhao Wuyang, heading to the Village Elder’s house.

The Hall meeting was still in session. Old Wu sat in the middle, looking dispirited, while the others were raising their voices and shouting as it seemed they had yet to reach a consensus. Some agreed to send the girl to the mountain; some said that there weren’t many people in this village and that she should stay to continue the family bloodline.

While they were still discussing, I pushed the door and entered with a casual attitude.

All the people present stopped talking and could only gawk at me.

Our host was surprised, but he got himself together quickly. “Why did you come here? Get back to your room!” He sounded angry and restless. He even tried to shove us away.

The Village Elder frowned. “Old Wang, what’s going on? Who are they?”

“They are visitors. They just wanted to take some photos—”

I introduced myself, not even letting our host finish, “I’m a merchant, specialized in collecting strange items. This time, I came to the Wuyan Village because of the abandoned tomb in your forbidden area.”

The entire yard became dead silent.

The old fellow gawked, pointing his finger at me. “You… You…”

The Village Elder stood bewildered for a while. He soon gathered himself. “We don’t have any kind of forbidden areas or abandoned tombs. You should leave!”

His reaction was clearly making his guilt evident.

I looked at him with a gentle smile. “Village Elder, I have some questions I want to ask you. Before Miss Wang lost her mind, I heard that she had gone to the mountain with Xiao Mei from your family. Is this true?”

The Village Elder wasn’t pleased. He glared at me and replied, “Everybody in this village knows that.”

Still, he carefully scanned around to check for reactions.

The people in the village didn’t seem to know all the details.

I nodded and continued, “Back then, Xiao Mei told the madwoman that there was something fun to do in the mountain. What was that ‘fun’ activity? Did it have something to do with robbing the tomb over there?”

I had just made that up to probe a bit. However, the Village Elder’s face quickly changed when he heard that. He took several steps backward as if he had been hit by lightning.

“You… Who are you? How did you know that?”

Oh, I was right.

I decided to scare him. “The person in the tomb told me.”

“That’s impossible. She’s a white skeleton. How could she talk to you?” the Village Elder said without thinking to debunk what I said.

Haha, gotcha!

Li Mazi took a step forward. “Village Elder, how did you know that the person inside the coffin had become a white skeleton? Did you open it to see with your own eyes?”

The Village Elder was pale and his lips shivered. He couldn’t utter a word. All the people in the courtyard were baffled and slack-jawed by this revelation. They started to discuss.

“The Village Elder pried the coffin open? Wasn’t that a forbidden area?”

“So, Xiao Mei took the crazy girl to the mountain to look for the tomb?”

“How scared was that girl that she ended up losing her mind?”

After some exchanges, all the people turned to look at the Village Elder.

Our host couldn’t believe it. He gazed at the Village Elder and asked, “You… Did you purposely harm my daughter?”

The Village Elder shook his head. “No, it wasn’t me. I didn’t hurt her.”

He seemed to be too scared at the moment. He took a few steps, but he was stopped by the villagers present at the Hall meeting.

“Village Elder, what happened?”

“You must tell us the truth. We want justice!”

“The abandoned area isn’t a place someone can freely visit. How could you go there?”

“Did you dig up the tomb?”

All the villagers showered the Village Elder with questions.