Chapter 185 - The Isolated Island (29)

The sun's glare blinded his eyes for a moment and even he refocused them the little girl's benign question echoed softly in his ears, 

Her face was morbidly white, but the two almond eyes were bright. Calm, with a thoughtful smile, he answered in a loose tone: "Pandora's box in Greek mythology... I heard that it was given to Pandora by Zeus, a sealed box full of disasters, and asked her to give it to her husband, but because of her curiosity Pandora opened the magic box in front of Epimetheus."

"A black smoke flew out of the magic box, causing plague, madness, calamity, evil, greed, and countless other scourges have spread to the human world..."

The little girl nodded satisfied with his answer, she stared curiously at the tall shadow behind him but didn't pry, she smiled up at him sweetly, "Big brother, the ancestral hall is very lively at night."

Chu Yi raised his head.

The words spit out all seem to have a clear direction, but they are vague. True and false, need to be carefully distinguished but one thing could be ascertained, the ancestral hall played a vital role in the scheme of things.

At this moment, the sunlight outside was still so dazzling, the little girl's black umbrella twisted neatly as she walked away, the sound of tiny heels tapping onto the rocks extremely clear in the silence.

Her departure was like an omen, 

In the next second, Chu Yi heard an extremely shrill cry from outside the house.

"Ahhhhhhh––"

From the voices, he could tell that multiple persons were involved; Regardless it was now broad daylight, what could have prompted such a commotion?

——The voices weren't very clear but from what he could hear, they should belong to the villagers, they were in an uproar and the panicked shouts traveled over the land. 

Chu Yi frowned and exchanged glances with Ruan Quixi

The black-haired youth opened the door, walked for a distance, and found that the originally silent village was now as noisy as water falling into a boiling hot pan.

Chu Yi walked forward and found that a bunch of old men and old ladies surrounded the front of a house in surprise, pointing and chattering remorsefully.

After he pushed the crowd away, he saw that there was a corpse belonging to a familiar ugly old man lying there.

The last time he saw him, the man had gnawed his fingers fleshless, however, at this moment, the old man's image looked extremely bad. His whole body was covered with blood and shredded flesh, the in on his arms had been completely gnawed away as if he had eaten himself in extreme hunger, even his stomach swelled a bit, pale and blue traces like a corpse soaked in water for too long 

With the grim state revealed after his death, all the clothes that should have been attached to his body were torn to shreds, making him look particularly hideous.

An old man stood at the front, holding the cigarette with shaking hands, the eyes that looked at the man were colored with horror. He kept calling out to the old man and patted his cheek with his hand.

It seemed that the man's body had inexplicably appeared here, attracting the attention of the entire village.

At first, when they saw the old man just fall to the ground, but slowly, as the time passed, he changed into the appearance he was now...

The old man seemed to think of something and had his entire face turned pale, licking his chapped lips and muttering indistinctly.

However, the old man still remembered his past feelings, suppressed the fear in his heart, and kept calling the other party's name.

"Ugly old man wakes up, Ugly, Zhengzi...what the hell is going on?!"

Chu Yi watched this scene silently. Not only that, but he looked sideways and found that the people in the villagers all held faces of untold horror and the commotion only became louder and louder– however, the fear on their faces seemed to be mixed with another type of emotion –regret.

He looked back at the mutilated flesh corpse.

The old man's death must be said to be particularly tragic;

His entire body was self-mutilated, filled with bloody lesions and remnants of flesh, leaving pools of hideous bloodstains on the ground...

He narrowed his eyes slowly, the bloodstains slowly trickled into the soil and some parts were darker than others and these dark parts seemed to form a word.

Chu Yi heard countless whispers, seemingly hovering around them.

"What happened...? Isn't this the ugly old man? Why did he become like this?"

"Zhengzi...his death is so tragic, it is like he ate himself !? Couldn't it be an evil spirit..."

"Move away, maybe it's a disease, don't get infected! 

"Fortunately he has no wife and kids, I remember he still had some relationships with that girl...."

"Shhh! Don't mention that person!"

The sound from the outside made the veins on his forehead jump. There was a slight confusion and the villagers suddenly created a path leading directly towards the body. Granny Li's familiar cloudy gaze turned to the body and tutted heavily, "What a sin."

She turned to the old man who still persistently patted the man's only intact cheeks and said lightly,

"Old man, he is dead. No matter how much you call him, he will not open his eyes again."

After hearing this, the old man suddenly raised his head, and when he saw Granny Li's benevolent face, he suddenly became extremely excited.

He stretched out his somewhat liver spot-filled hand and stuck it straight at Granny Li!

Although the old man is quite old, his body is still quite tough; the villagers uprooted, 

He clamped his hand tightly on Granny Li's neck, with bountiful resentment in his eyes.

"You are talking nonsense, Zhengzi and the others are not dead!"

"It's you, it's you—"

"If it wasn't for you, you proposed that ritual... It was all because of you that they would die!"

"I should just kill you and appease her spirit !"

The villagers frantically pulled at him and forcefully yanked his hands from his neck, 

...

Granny Li coughed uncontrollably but looked calmly at the old man who was obviously out of control in front of her, cloudy grey eyes as if looking at a jumping clown, "Do you think, If you all didn't tacitly agree to it, then could I go through with it? 

The old man's emotions are indeed a little out of control.

His emotional imbalance was not because of how good his relationship with the ugly old man was, but because he knew what his death symbolized.

Hearing Granny Li's words the regret in his eyes grew deeper. Chu Yi stared at them coldly, the existence of regret is the most hypocritical emotion known to human beings.

In a sense, they don't regret what they've done, they regret the consequences that come from it.

The old man's back seemed to become heavier, if this is what they have to endure now ... he can't imagine what the future will be like.

——What's more... what about the children?

The old man thought to himself.

He can represent the psychology of the elderly in their entire village.

These ignorant villagers... It's justifiable to get revenge on them, but the children in their family are still too young, they've already suffered enough but there was no way to ask for forgiveness...

No one thinks that life and death is meaningless, but their children, the existence that continues their lives, is it worth living...

——So, what should they do now?

Thinking of this, the old man's face became even more sinister, and there was an indescribable gloom on the face that originally seemed to be very kind.

The old man was restrained and persuaded softly,

"—The child is also watching, your actions don't seem to be very good."

On cue, a very mournful cry belonging to a child broke into the clearing, 

"Ughhhhhhh-"

Chu Yi paused, turned around, and saw the little grandson of the village chief's family, a boy named Huzi, whose round eyes were full of fear.

——Just being looked at by the villagers like this, the little boy didn't dare to speak.

The little boy's hand was originally holding a small toy, but when he glanced at the traces of the body between the tall bodies blocking it, his hand trembled slightly. The toy has long been thrown to the ground by him, unable to hold it.

The little boy moved his body but found that he stepped on a bloodstain with just a slight movement...

However, for all this, the little boy is not clear, he just feels a kind of fear, unspeakable anger, and despair...

All the emotions gathered in his chest, layer by layer, shrouded together as if he was about to crush his innocent soul.

Chu Yi looked at the villagers and unexpectedly walked forward, his movements were extremely light but still attracted the attention of the villagers, he stretched out his white fingers and gently lifted the black hair on his forehead.

"What are you crying for?" Chu Yi asked in a flat voice.

The little boy did not dare to answer, his fingers were shaking.

His stature looked very thin, and his little face was pale. 

Chu Yi knelt on one knee on the ground, slowly stretched out his fingertips, and gently rubbed the little boy's hair, with a smile on the corner of his mouth.

He repeated, asking, "What are you crying for?"

In the end, the little boy seemed slightly comforted and made a small whimper, which seemed to be squeezed out of his throat.

"Someone said...someone said..that the old man died because he sinned.."

Chu Yi just quietly watched the little boy cry.

There was still a smile on the corner of his mouth, like a teacher who patiently taught him, and asked softly, "Then you don't think he deserves to die?"

The little boy stared blankly at Chu Yi because he found that this man, who spoke like a devil, gently stretched out his hand and smoothed the tears hanging from his eyes.

––his movements are even gentle.

The little boy stared blankly at Chu Yi, but his thoughts still couldn't be sorted out.

Yes, that scary woman also said...this is what the familiar uncles, aunts, and grandparents deserved.

Chu Yi stared at the pitiful steambunned face and finally figured out the words the blood spilled on the soil,

"Gluttony."

At this moment, a new voice appeared amongst the villagers, truly innocent, "Then what should we do now? Burn the body?"

"Isn't that...too cruel?"

One person whispered, "What if it's a disease, we can't allow it to spread."

Granny Li looked around and spoke in a raspy, choking scrawl, "There is no other choice, burn the body at high tide."

The villagers nodded, looked at the body, continued to shake their heads with remorse, and slowly dispersed.

Chu Yi stood up, and spoke softly to Ruan Quixi, "Did you notice? None of them showed discomfort at the sight of the body, not even the little boy.. As if, it's not the first time, they've dealt with a corpse."