The three of them walked off to the side, and the village chief and the others raised no objection. Ding Shi followed along almost instinctively, his mind piecing together his recent observations as he tried once more to make sense of Truth One.
Zhang San said, "My view is simple. If we want to leave this instance, we either die or take the minibus at eight in the morning on the eighth day. Assuming there's no danger, we can complete the main task and leave the instance happy and safe. But assuming there is danger, if all the villagers run away, who's going to serve as our meat shields? Won't that ghostly thing come straight for us?"
Sun Qi found this thoroughly convincing. Having encountered a ghost before, she nodded. "That makes sense." She looked toward Ding Shi, hoping he would chime in.
Ding Shi looked at Zhang San. "Have you figured out what Haitang did to ruin the sacrifice?"
Zhang San turned away. "Don't talk nonsense. I have no idea."
Ding Shi said, "At first, I knew there was a chance you two were fooling around, so I never considered any other possibilities. But the rule the village chief mentioned caught me off guard. He said that even if you two slept together, it wouldn't violate the rules of the sacrifice. After thinking it over carefully, I realized I had been treating Haitang like an NPC devoid of player-like emotions.
"Haitang is an unmarried maiden. She fell in love with you at first sight, she's young, and she's a rural woman of this era," Ding Shi said. "I don't know what Haitang's personality is like, nor do I know how smooth your tongue is, but judging from similar girls I've dealt with, in the span of six days, you could make it to second base at most. Yesterday morning, I came to San Niang Temple and saw Haitang. She was completely normal. Today, she isn't."
Zhang San said, "Wang Wu, don't try to be clever. We're facing a crisis right now, and we need to stick together to solve it."
Ding Shi looked straight into Zhang San's eyes and said, word by word, "You forced yourself on her, and she forgave you and accepted you."
Sun Qi looked at Zhang San in shock. Zhang San opened his mouth several times, hesitating, before it finally dissolved into a single sentence: "You're full of shit."
Ding Shi continued, "As for what happened to Haitang, who serves as her stand-in—whether San Niang resents her for not fighting back, pities her misfortune, or is furious at her lack of resistance, I can't say for sure. But this is the source of San Niang's resentment."
Coming back to her senses, Sun Qi snapped furiously, "Can't you men keep it in your pants? Zhao Liu's cautionary tale is still fresh in our minds!"
"Keep your voice down!" Zhang San hissed urgently, casting a nervous glance toward the village chief and the others.
Their small circle fell silent. Zhang San murmured, "I truly love her."
Ding Shi nearly gagged. "Don't. Don't explain yourself to us. Since she forgave and accepted you, it has nothing to do with outsiders." Had Haitang asked Ding Shi for help, he certainly would have lent a hand—and he believed most people would have helped her, even if only by calling the police.
Zhang San said, "How about this: better safe than sorry. Let's have Haitang stay in San Niang Temple to repent. Who knows, maybe San Niang will forgive her? Regardless, we cannot let the villagers leave the village."
After weighing the matter, Ding Shi voiced his agreement.
Sun Qi nodded as well. She naturally understood the basic logic of letting someone else take the fall instead of herself.
Zhang San led the two back. Taking the three players' advice, the village chief and Daoist Baiyun decided that the sacrifice would proceed as scheduled.
Zhang San took the initiative to propose, "Since the Daoist divined that this matter might be connected to Haitang, why not let Haitang stay in San Niang Temple to repent?"
Ding Shi and Sun Qi exchanged a glance, neither saying a word. The best course of action right now would be to explain the whole situation to Haitang, who still had no idea how she had provoked San Niang; if Haitang could direct her repentance specifically at that, it might just appease San Niang's spirit.
Zhang San pulled Haitang aside and spoke to her in hushed tones for quite a while. Haitang nodded submissively.
In many people's minds, repentance meant making excuses for one's actions. To Ding Shi, true repentance meant unconditionally owning up to one's faults. For instance, when arriving late to work, many people would explain to their supervisor that there was heavy traffic or other excuses, while some would simply admit their mistake and promise it wouldn't happen again. To a supervisor, the latter was obviously far easier to accept.
As the supervisor in this situation, San Niang's spirit would surely rather hear Haitang examine her own errors than hear her make excuses. As a victim, Haitang was originally blameless, but the moment she forgave and accepted her abuser, the fault was born.
Ding Shi didn't even need half a brain to deduce what Haitang would say: because Zhang San loved her so deeply, he had lost control and done what he did; and because she loved Zhang San so deeply, she was willing to forgive and accept him.
Then again, San Niang was certainly sticking her nose into business that wasn't hers.
...
At noon on the sixth day, after lunch, the fog grew even thicker. Ding Shi walked to the entrance of the village, only to find the dense fog completely swallowing the highway. Sitting inside the bus shelter, Blind Zhao remarked, "No one can leave now."
Startled, Ding Shi turned back to look at Blind Zhao. "It's lunchtime. What are you doing out here?"
Blind Zhao sighed, stood up, and walked over to Ding Shi's side. Staring into the dense fog just a few paces away, he replied, "No one made lunch."
Ding Shi chuckled and asked, "Uncle Zhao, which is more tragic: having no one cook for you, or this dense fog?"
Blind Zhao said, "You can still laugh? Do you know what will be unleashed if the sacrifice fails?"
"San Niang's spirit?" Ding Shi asked.
"No," Blind Zhao said. "A malevolent ghost. An earthbound spirit. In its incorporeal form, it can phase right through doors and walls into homes. When it wants to kill, it will manifest its true physical form to deal its target a lethal blow."
Ding Shi said, "I've heard that malevolent ghosts are restricted by the Heavenly Dao."
"That's right," Blind Zhao said. "Its killings require prerequisites. Most malevolent ghosts have only one kill condition, and a few have two. For instance, sight: if it sees you, it can kill you. Or sound: if you make a certain noise, or make too loud a sound, it can kill you. The malevolent ghost San Niang is a bit different. Her domain covers the entire village. The wider the domain, the more prerequisites there are for killing."
Ding Shi asked, "Based on your experience, Uncle Zhao, how many kill conditions does San Niang have?"
"Three," Blind Zhao said.
"Which three?" Ding Shi asked.
"I only know one: do not make eye contact with it."
Ding Shi didn't understand. "It's a spirit. We can't see it, so we can't make eye contact with it. Since we can't make eye contact, the condition can't be met, and San Niang won't be able to manifest physically to kill anyone."
Blind Zhao frowned, looking troubled. "I don't quite understand it either, but this rule was passed down from my grandfather."
Ding Shi asked, "What about 'don't talk about people by day, don't talk about ghosts by night'?"
Blind Zhao said, "That's just a folk taboo. Supposedly, talking about ghosts at night draws nearby spirits over, just like tapping your bowl while eating brings beggars to your doorstep."
Ding Shi offered Blind Zhao a cigarette and remarked, "Uncle Zhao, you don't seem nervous at all." Did he have some way to escape? Why not tell Ding Shi, so they could get away together? Wouldn't that be grand?
Instead of answering, Blind Zhao countered, "From the sound of it, you seem very certain the sacrifice will fail."
Ding Shi laughed. "How could that be? Haha." If they discovered that he knew the sacrifice would fail yet still voted to proceed with it, he wouldn't even need to wait for San Niang to show up—he would end up just like Li Si: beaten to death by the villagers and buried in the dirt.
Blind Zhao started walking back, and Ding Shi fell into step beside him. Looking out over the village, Blind Zhao sighed. "Such a good, peaceful village... Why must it suffer such a calamity?"
Why? Because of us.
Chapter 26