Chapter 51: Delivering the message

I think the bartender also realized that I was about to be “squeezed dry” by him, so he no longer spoke to me with the same enthusiasm as before, and there was no new information to tell me. If I wanted to know more about this village, I was afraid I would have to take out that point of paper.

I thought I didn’t want to know anything, but in fact, when I thought about it, I realized that I wanted to know too much. For example, how many areas are there in this village? Because the dining hall is divided into time slots, each 5,000 people can only occupy one and a half hours, and this cycle repeats.

I was lucky to be able to see all my friends in the first three days, but then I realized that the meal times were based on a “flow” of time, and that it was about a three- or four-day cycle. I wasn’t able to see all my friends every time, and I realized that the village was much larger than I had imagined.

After all, this is a continuous range of loess mountains, almost like a no-man’s-land. It’s not as difficult as you might think to hide tens of thousands of people in such vast mountains.

However, due to the irregularity of time, I simply couldn’t calculate how many people there were in the village. I desperately wanted to know how many areas there were, so that I could determine the location of my friends.

Also, where is the inner village?

What is the hierarchy in the village? Who are the people in the inner village? Are they all cultivators? Or Taoist priests? Is there a power behind the village? If so, what kind of power is it? Where is the sacrifice? Is the inner village the area of the gods? If not…

The more I thought about it, the more questions I had. I didn’t dare to think any further, because I was afraid that many of them were questions that even this little bartender couldn’t answer.

I drank while feeling the object in my hand. It was like a ball of wax. I casually covered it up and put it in my pocket.

The bartender was so disinterested that he didn’t even notice me, so how could he have noticed my secretive little move?

My curiosity had been completely aroused by that adult, and I actually didn’t want to stay in this noisy bar anymore. However, in order to show that I was a newcomer, I pretended to drink all the alcohol I bought very carefully. For some considerations, I also pretended to be very generous and invited the bartender to drink two bottles. He didn’t show much gratitude, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to plant a few clues for myself in this dangerous and mysterious place…

Finally, I finished all the wine and pretended to be half drunk. I walked out of the so-called entertainment room with a light step.

Outside the door was the quiet village again. Everything in the entertainment room was like a world isolated from the village… Several patrolling village officials looked at me intentionally or unintentionally. I didn’t care and hummed a song, walking towards my cave with a happy look.

The difference is that today I saw a large area of flat land over there, where a group of children were led by a few women, and then in front of the children stood a man. That man was also a village official, but I was a little familiar with him. That set of strange exercises for strengthening the body and mind was taught by him. Those children…

Due to the distance, I couldn’t see clearly whether there were any children from the town in it, but after arriving at this place, I more or less understood why the village kept sacrificing children from the town. It’s easy to imagine how loyal and pious the children raised in such a way would be. Many of them were originally blank sheets of paper, and they were more easily influenced than adults!

This has been going on since the 1950s. If they live in the holy village and have offspring, then generation after generation… I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. What is the difference between this breeding ground? The sacrifices never stop, and they are all brainless and loyal…

At the same time, I began to feel sad!

Perhaps they saw that I had noticed the situation of the children there. These village officials were not happy. The previous village official had said that I was an untrustworthy ant. They must have talked to each other, so they paid special attention to me… It looked like they were trying to drive me away because I was spying on them.

I pretended to be drunk and spat on the ground. I turned my head without focusing my eyes and walked away carelessly. A drunkard’s thinking and reaction abilities are slower, so they shouldn’t care about me, right?

Seeing that I had left, and that the village affairs did not pay special attention to me, I walked back to my cave in a light and carefree manner. No one asked me any questions until I entered the cave and closed the door, and only then was I able to completely relax and finally stop acting like that.

I took a deep breath, quickly scooped up a ladle of water from the large jar on the side, washed my face, poured some water on my head, and chased away the remaining alcohol, allowing myself to completely calm down and sober up. In this village, what is needed is to always be on guard.

Fortunately, there is no surveillance in this house. Or in such a remote place, it would be a huge project to install surveillance in the cave. It is unrealistic. Or they don’t care what we know as long as we don’t escape. So…

I didn’t think too much about it. After all, coming here, just in terms of the terrain, escaping is an almost impossible project. The only entrance to the sky plus the surrounding environmentally friendly rolling hills, with almost no vegetation on them, is even more difficult than my previous escape from the encirclement by climbing cliffs.

After a moment of idle thinking, I took out the ball-like object from my pocket. It felt like a wax ball when I touched it before, but I didn’t expect it to really be a wax ball.

I held it up and looked at it. At a glance, I saw that there was a rolled-up piece of paper hidden inside the wax ball. Perhaps the person who made it was afraid that a piece of paper would not be easy to pass on and would not easily attract my attention, so he deliberately sealed it with wax.

I guessed the intentions of this mysterious person, then without hesitation, I pinched open the wax pill, took out the rolled up note inside, and almost couldn’t wait to unfold it.

The handwriting was unfamiliar to me, but it was neat and orderly, and it seemed that the owner of the handwriting was a person with self-control and self-discipline. The content was to meet in front of the house under the moon three days later.

Hmm? I frowned. Although it was just a simple sentence, it clearly stated the time and place of the meeting. The adult wanted to meet me? And in such a secretive way? But isn’t it too conspicuous to meet in front of the house?

I used a lighter to burn the note, and wiped away the remaining ashes until there was no trace left. I stood up and lit a cigarette.

We have no one to rely on when we come to this village and face such a powerful force. We are already the loneliest of bachelors, so it doesn’t matter if there is one more mysterious person to see me. I will just see him. However, inevitably, I will still guess the owner’s character from his handwriting, and slowly recall who I know who has such a character.

Xiao Chengqian? This was originally the person I suspected the most, but him? I smiled wryly. Master Xiao was actually a person with no strategy, and his personality was completely contrary to his handsome and somewhat effeminate face. He was simply a bandit…

Because of the wine, I was so confused that I drifted off into a dream. I don’t know when I fell asleep on the kang in the cave with my clothes on. During the free time in the afternoon, no one cared whether I was sleeping or going crazy…

I slept until dinner time. I was woken up by the village official who had come to check on the situation. Here, everything must follow the rules. Even if you don’t want to eat, you must go to the dining hall at the appointed time.

I didn’t care about these small rules, and I simply left with the village official.

After dinner, there was the so-called worship, exercise… and other inexplicable chores. After that, I returned to my cave and habitually scratched a line in a hidden place to record that I had another uneventful day, but at this time, the bug that had been lying on my arm moved violently.

My hand, which had been holding a yellow stone, stopped. It seemed that today was not going to be a peaceful day…