Chapter 28: Loss of Control (7)

"The Year of the Ox?"

Watching the old man walk away after speaking, Wei Ling felt a sense of confusion. This answer did not align with what she had expected, leaving her momentarily bewildered.

Lu Jinzhao, however, reacted differently. While a flicker of confusion crossed her face upon hearing the answer, it was immediately replaced by a grave expression.

The Year of the Ox...

A vague notion flashed through her mind—a thought not yet fully formed—but the mere possibility sent a chill through her heart.

"I truly hope it isn't what I think it is..."

She shook her head, not daring to dwell on it further. At this stage, it was nothing more than a plausible piece of evidence; she still lacked the decisive clue needed to confirm the truth.

"Let's go take a look at the altar first."

Lu Jinzhao did not linger on her doubts for long. It was never her style to succumb to paranoia while waiting for danger to strike. Even though the thought that had crossed her mind was unsettling, she immediately decided to proceed to the altar. If her suspicions were correct, the altar would surely hold more clues.

It was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. Perhaps because the ritual was approaching, the number of villagers gathered around the altar had increased. Even so, if one were to count carefully, there were only about twenty people in total. Besides Lu Jinzhao and Wei Ling, they spotted two other passengers.

"It seems not everyone is a coward."

Yet, given that this was a C-grade instance, Lu Jinzhao had expected more passengers to show up at the altar.

"...But then again, self-preservation is a biological instinct."

Knowing full well that the altar was likely to be the epicenter of danger, those willing to come were, in the end, few. Lu Jinzhao felt a faint sense of disappointment, but she pushed the emotion aside and adjusted her state of mind as she walked toward the altar.

The two passengers who had arrived earlier were negotiating with the gatekeeper. The man kept shaking his head; it seemed the altar was no longer allowing outsiders to enter.

Lu Jinzhao listened to the conversation for a moment after drawing closer, confirming that this was indeed the case. The passenger negotiating seemed to be losing his temper at the gatekeeper's stubbornness. His left hand, which had been in his pocket, twitched, but his companion tapped his shoulder, suppressing whatever action he had been about to take.

"Sir, we just want a peek. You can come in with us. We guarantee we won't touch a thing, alright?"

As he spoke, he took out a train ticket and nudged it toward the gatekeeper. Right, "life-buying money." People within the station were always fond of the passengers' life-buying money; usually, things became much easier when using it as leverage.

Sure enough, the gatekeeper’s expression shifted. He took the ticket and said sternly, "I’ll take you in for a quick look, then you come right out. Don't touch anything!"

"Understood, thank you, sir."

This life-buying money was truly... effective.

"Should we go too?" Wei Ling asked, turning to Lu Jinzhao for her opinion. Lu Jinzhao simply shook her head.

"Let them go take a look first."

Wei Ling recalled the calm with which Lu Jinzhao had stepped into the ancestral hall earlier. Now, facing the altar, she seemed much more cautious. Though she didn't know why, Wei Ling chose to follow her lead and simply replied with an "oh."

Soon, the two men emerged from the altar, but their expressions were grim. Seeming to worry about something, they didn't speak up on the spot. Instead, they signaled Lu Jinzhao and Wei Ling to follow them to a quieter area. Zhang Junjie, the more rational of the two, spoke with a heavy face: "Things have taken a turn for the worse."

"What happened?" Wei Ling asked. Within the station, unless it involved one's own survival, passengers generally shared information.

"The statue inside... it’s not right." He didn't refer to it as a "Buddha statue" like the villagers did, and the other passengers certainly didn't believe it was one either.

Zhang Junjie didn't beat around the bush. Lowering his voice, he revealed what he found amiss. "At the feet of the statue, there are two new, palm-sized dolls. A man and a woman, standing on either side of it."

As soon as he said this, the expressions of Lu Jinzhao and Wei Ling darkened. Others might not know, but they were acutely aware that the missing passengers were exactly one man and one woman. But that alone wouldn't have made Zhang Junjie look so grave.

What troubled him most was...

"There was a stench of blood on those two dolls. You could smell it as soon as you got close, but the people setting up the altar acted as if they couldn't smell a thing."

"The most critical part is..." Zhang Junjie paused, as if the memory still made him feel uneasy. "When I got closer, I saw something completely different from what I saw at first."

"Those two dolls were like vessels. They had no feet; they were severed from the waist down, like two cut-off plastic water bottles. A massive amount of blood was constantly leaking from the openings, dripping onto the base of the statue, where it was immediately absorbed."

"...Like two IV tubes feeding the statue, or perhaps two... offerings?"

"The blood seemed to wash down endlessly, yet it was absorbed instantly. As the smell of blood grew thicker, I felt... as if the statue had come to life!"

He still sounded shaken. "I wanted to leave right then, but in the blink of an eye, everything returned to normal. I looked again, and there was no blood. The two dolls were just normal wooden carvings, their legs perfectly intact."

"It was as if everything I had just seen was merely a hallucination."

Zhang Junjie’s tone grew urgent. "But you know, inside the station, there is no such thing as an unprovoked hallucination. Perhaps what I saw was the truth!"

Wei Ling and Lu Jinzhao did not dismiss his theory. In fact, they vaguely felt that it might be exactly as he described. The seemingly pristine wooden dolls were merely a surface facade; they likely represented the two missing passengers. And they, in turn, had become sacrifices for the ritual, their lives slowly draining away.

Wei Ling mentioned the disappearance of Ye Jingyun, which made Zhang Junjie’s tone even more certain.

"It really is that! This damned ritual—it uses living people as sacrifices!"

"Then the question is, where are they? It can't really be those two wooden dolls, can it?" Wei Ling asked.

Lu Jinzhao shook her head. "The dolls are likely just symbols. As for the two of them... I suspect they are still inside the altar, just not in a place we can see upon entering."

"I have a proposal," the man beside Zhang Junjie suddenly interjected. "Everyone should realize by now that the ritual won't just stop at two deaths. Instead of sitting here waiting for our turn, we should head deep into the altar and see for ourselves!"

The others' mouths twitched slightly. A reckless fool—a death-seeking, reckless fool. Was this some "seeking life through death" strategy?

"What’s the point?" Wei Ling asked, confused.

The man argued defiantly, "There must be more important clues deeper inside the altar!"

"And what about the danger?" Lu Jinzhao asked.

"Is it any safer staying out here?" He didn't understand. He felt Lu Jinzhao failed to grasp that danger existed both inside and out, so why not gather as many clues as possible before the most dangerous moment arrived?

Lu Jinzhao understood his logic—she had done the same in *Ghost Invitation*—but this instance was different.

She spoke slowly, "Do you remember the taboo Ah Luo mentioned?"

"'No killing allowed; the scent of blood will attract it.'"

"So tell me, where is the scent of blood the strongest right now?"

"Where do you think *it* is?"

Lu Jinzhao's barrage of questions caused the man's expression to stiffen. "If you want to go, fine. Go yourself. I’m not joining you."

She knew the difference between taking calculated risks within the rules and simply courting death.