Everyone was surprised, what was this plot development?

Yu Fuling frowned and moved her fingers. The next second, a silver flash flicked out from her fingertips and rose into the sky.

Xiao Tangqiu was shocked. At this moment, everyone, including him, looked at Yu Fuling. She turned her hand and took out another silver trinket.

Xiao Tangqiu took a closer look and realized that it was a small silver bug that looked a bit like a seven-star ladybug, but the idea was quickly overturned.

This silver bug was obviously not a bug because the next second, a faint sound came out from the “mouth” of the bug.

“…mother! Sorry! I can’t do it! I still can’t do it!”

Xiao Tangqiu reacted instantly, this was a gadget similar to a monitoring device!

Everyone else’s expressions were calm and seemed used to this. He silently looked at Tang Mianmian and Shen Yuan. Except for the blank expression on Shen Yuan’s face, Tang Mianmian was also stunned. He felt relieved.

It wasn’t just him that had never seen the world!

No wonder Yu Fuling always seemed to know the area, she had such an artifact! …Was this a special prop?

Xiao Tangqiu thought for a while, then quickly perked his ears and looked forward.

Although the audio and video were a bit out of sync, the information was still clear!

“Mother, I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” The man wept and kept apologizing as if doing something extremely unfilial.

The old woman was facing Xiao Tangqiu and the others so they could see the indignant expression on her face, “…Taro! How can you be so weak!”

“Sorry! I can’t do it! I can’t do it!” The man wept loudly and hugged the grandma’s thigh.

“Taro! Don’t be cowardly! You can’t be cowardly!” The old lady was very agitated and her wrinkles seemed to be rippling with agitation. “This had been the tradition of our Hundred Ghost Town for hundreds of years. It can’t be given up! Hurry! Get me back to the Holy Mountain! Just like you did that day! ”

“Mother! I can’t do it!”

The old lady scolded, “What did I teach you when you were a kid? Did you forget what I said? Are you no longer listening to me!”

“But mother… I can’t do it!”

The man cried bitterly, “But I can’t…”

“Have you forgotten how your father carried your grandma to the Holy Mountain?” The old lady glanced down at the son hugging her thigh, and her tone suddenly calmed, filled with kindness and love, “This has been our Hundred Ghosts Town’s tradition for hundreds of years. I have told you since you were a kid to eat well and become strong so that when you grew up, you would have the strength to carry me to the mountain… This day is finally here. Taro, look at yourself. It’s fine even if you are so thin, but how can you be so weak?”

The man shook his head frantically, “But… but…”

“Didn’t you do it that day? Today you just need to act like that day…” The old lady gently comforted her son, “I will stay on the Holy Mountain forever and bless you with the mountain god …”

The man struggled for a while and suddenly cried, “There are no mountain gods on the mountain, only wolves!”

The old lady’s expression suddenly changed and she slapped her son. “Shut up! How can you offend the mountain god?”

The man covered his face and cried, “Mother! Let’s leave here! Let’s leave Hundred Ghosts Town! I heard that there is no such tradition outside…”

“Shut up!” The old woman glowered, “You can’t leave Hundred Ghosts Town! No one can leave Hundred Ghosts Town! As long as you enter Hundred Ghosts Town, you can never leave!”

The man shook.

The old lady’s tone gradually calmed down again, “I met your aunt Junko that day and she wore her favorite kimono… Ichiro was braver than you even as children. When can you be brave like Ichiro? ”

The conversation between the two came to an abrupt halt. After a while, the man slowly picked up the humpbacked old lady and climbed up the mountain with difficulty.

The setting sun, originally hanging on the mountainside, gradually descended.

The scorching sun stained this hill called Holy Mountain red.

Xiao Tangqiu looked at the mother and son in front of them silently, his heart like a stormy sea.

Although he already had a vague idea, after knowing the truth, he was quite shocked… It turned out that this Hundred Ghosts Town had such a strange and terrible tradition!

“Fuck! So much information!”

Tang Mianmian was also stunned.

“They’re going up the hill, hurry and follow.”

Xue Junli’s expression was heavy.

With that order, the group immediately followed.

This time they didn’t need to worry about losing them. Hiking was already a strenuous task, not to mention that the man was carrying an old lady on his back, he was faltering and had difficulty moving forward.

The crowd followed not too far or close. The people ahead climbed too slowly and they had to slow down the pace of following. They even chatted because they were too bored.

Tang Mianmian turned his head and asked Xiao Tangqiu, “Qiuqiu, what do you think of this?”

Xiao Tangqiu pondered for a moment and replied, “Actually, I have heard of similar customs and traditions before…”

Tang Mianmian was immediately curious, “Oh? What about?”

Xiao Tangqiu said, “I heard that there used to be a poor, small mountain village. The whole village was very poor so they would carry the elderly who could no longer work up the mountain and let them survive on their own to save on food and let the young people live…”

Tang Mianmian was stunned, “Fuck! Isn’t that abandoning the old? They can just watch their parents die?”

Xiao Tangqiu pursed his lips, “For them, this should have become a tradition? They have abandoned their parents, but they know that they will also be abandoned by their children in the future. Their parents were sacrificed and at the same time they will be sacrificed for their children in the future.”

Tang Mianmian’s mouth twitched, “What kind of fucked up feudal and barbaric tradition is this? Even the poorest shouldn’t do this! What’s the difference between this and personally killing their parents?”

Xiao Tangqiu nodded, “This custom was too strange so I remembered it after one look. Compared with the era of trading children for food’s simple and crude cruelty in the 1980s and 1990s, this peaceful cruelty… seems crueler.”

Duan Hongzhen came over and interjected, “What’s going on with that mountain god? Is there really a mountain god in this damned place?”

Xiao Tangqiu shook his head, “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a local legend. Perhaps the ancestors of Hundred Ghosts Town made up the story that there is a Holy Mountain near the village in order to disguise and beautify their actions of abandoning their elderly. Since there is a mountain god on the Holy Mountain, they weren’t abandoning the old, they were sending the old to accompany the mountain god. The old people sent to the ‘Holy Mountain’ will protect their children and grandchildren with the mountain god and bless this Hundred Ghosts Town…”

Tang Mianmian snorted immediately, “If I were an elderly sent to this deserted area, I would never bless my rubbish offspring and that shitty Hundred Ghosts Town! You killed me and even want my blessing? Peh! You wish! I will curse you to die an ugly death! ”

Xue Junli sneered, “Are the old people sent to the mountains really innocent? Haven’t they abandoned their parents before?”

Tang Mianmian was struck dumb, Xue Junli’s words really made sense… Those old people who were abandoned on the “Holy Mountain”, each of them once carried the old people from their home to the “Holy Mountain” and abandoned them.

Were those old people innocent? No, as long as they were villagers in Hundred Ghosts Town, no one was innocent. They used to be young and once were the young people who carried their elderly to the hills. And now, the young people who carried them to the mountains would also grow old sooner or later and become the next old person to be carried uphill.

Although they had not stained their hands with blood, they had still fallen into the quagmire of sin, and each of them was a part of that cycle of sin.

No one was innocent.

Even that grandma was not innocent. She had witnessed the death of her grandmother and mother and thus benefited. She survived eating the food saved by her elder’s “self-sacrifice”, and now it was her turn. She became this “self-sacrificing” person.

Did she really want to die?

It probably was not the case. Everyone was afraid of death, but she knew that if she didn’t do this, the food at home may not be enough and her son may starve. The worst was to become “non-traditional” and being punished for challenging the authority of tradition.

Everyone was silent. Xiao Tangqiu was lost in thought. The man was still climbing up the mountain with his mother on his back not far away. He was exhausted and still didn’t stop. He didn’t seem to dare to stop. Maybe he was afraid that once he stopped, he would never have the courage to carry his mother on the top.

The old lady was so relieved that she sometimes wiped the sweat on her son’s face with a sleeve.

The sky was getting dark and the two of them were getting closer to the peak of the hill.

The man’s steps were getting heavier and slower and the old lady suddenly spoke again, “We’re about to reach the top of the hill, Taro is indeed my good son…”

The man gritted his teeth and said nothing.

“In the future, once mom is gone, Taro needs to take good care of himself, eat on time, and wear more clothes…” The old lady was like an ordinary mother about to go on a long journey, telling her son to wear more clothes to eat more.

Xiao Tangqiu was also feeling down. He couldn’t help but think of his mother and Meng Xinghe’s mother… Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but look at Shen Yuan and saw that Shen Yuan’s gaze was heavy and thoughtful.

His heart suddenly jumped, “Shen … Shen Yuan, did you think of something?”

T/N: To clarify, the idiom and the reference to the 80s, 90s are two separate situations. The idiom just means “life situation being so devastating that people will even go to the extent of selling and eating their children just to survive”. The 80s, 90s thing refers to a series of investigations and reveals that happened in the 80s and 90s regarding the Cultural Revolution in China where it’s discovered that there was an area where people were encouraged and threatened into cannibalizing others in order to show loyalty to the revolutionary cause. It’s suspected that thousands of people participated in this in the Guangxi Province in southern China in the late 1960’s.

You can read it in more detail here. WARNINGS FOR DETAILS OF RITUAL CANNIBALISM AND GENERAL INHUMANE ACTIONS!! Don’t read the article if you might be sensitive to the topic!!!