Yin Xiu glanced back at the direction of the sea. The people who were densely packed there, busy preparing for the sacrificial altar, were extremely vigilant about their surroundings. Rather than being cautious, it seemed more like they were wary of hiding something.
Everything unfolded just as Yin Xiu had guessed. It was as if the past was being recreated and presented here, or perhaps it was an illusion, merely a display of that bygone era.
If it's just about showing the past, then all he can do now is watch.
As if thinking of something, Yin Xiu turned his head and stared at the woman in front of him.
No...maybe...it's just an illusion...
"Have the villagers prepared all the offerings for the sacrifice?" Yin Xiu asked tentatively.
"Yes, everything is ready..." The woman sighed slightly, gazing into the distance. "I never thought our Hai Village would end up like this. This is a road of no return."
She shook her head, her expression full of helplessness. She could only say that it was inevitable to have come to this point. The more desperate people are, the more extreme they become in their struggle for survival. They had no other way to survive. Perhaps it was wrong from the very first time they started the sacrificial ceremony.
When will the sacrificial ceremony be held?
"Probably tomorrow night... The village still needs to make some preparations."
Yin Xiu nodded and didn't ask any more questions. Now that the offerings and the time had been confirmed, they must have temporarily locked the offerings away somewhere and wouldn't touch them until the ceremony began.
Seeing Yin Xiu looking around, the woman couldn't help but interrupt his thoughts, "I advise you not to do anything unnecessary, lest you bring disaster upon yourself. This is not a result that you or I can change."
Yin Xiu nodded calmly, "I know."
But he didn't show any restraint. The woman sighed, shook her head, and didn't know what to say.
The situation in Hai Village was quite sensitive at this time. If it weren't for the woman claiming to be her relative, Yin Xiu, an outsider, would definitely have been locked up. So, Yin Xiu naturally stayed at the woman's house.
The houses here, weathered by wind and rain, were uninhabited for a time and are now somewhat dilapidated. They have been repaired with wooden planks and are still barely habitable, but you can still feel the wind blowing in through the cracks.
"Sigh... My back aches and my waist hurts. It's really not easy being pregnant." The woman sighed and sat on the damp bed, touching her belly and sighing. "Hurry up and come out of Mommy's belly. Everything will be alright then, and you won't have to suffer from birth."
Yin Xiu picked up a stool and was about to sit down when footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.
A tanned and gaunt man carrying a cloth bag squeezed in through the door. He stopped abruptly when he saw Yin Xiu, then looked at the woman with a questioning gaze. "Where did you pick up this pretty boy? Why are you keeping him at home?"
The woman rolled her eyes. "This is my brother, what pretty boy?"
"I knew it." The man chuckled dryly. "You don't look like someone who lives by the sea. Unlike me, you're already dark and skinny."
As he spoke, he went inside, placed the cloth bag on the table, rummaged through it, and took out a piece of dried roasted meat, handing it to Yin Xiu. "Want some?"
Before Yin Xiu could take it, the woman beside him immediately slapped his outstretched hand away, glaring at him angrily, "Take it back! My family doesn't want meat!"
"Alright, alright, if you don't want it, then don't." The man laughed as he tossed the meat back into the cloth bag, then took out a moldy dry biscuit and placed it on the table. "There aren't many left. If you finish this, you'll have to eat meat sooner or later, or you'll starve to death. Think it over carefully, or you'll starve the baby in your belly to death."
The man finished speaking, tightened the opening of the cloth bag, glanced at Yin Xiu, and then turned and left.
Yin Xiu stared at the hard, moldy pancake on the table, then looked at the woman and asked, "You're eating this?"
"This is not bad." The woman shook her head. "But I don't have an appetite right now, so just leave it there. You can eat it when you're hungry, but whatever you do, don't eat the meat they give you."
"Remember, there is no normal meat to eat in Haicun anymore. Don't eat it no matter who gives it to you."
Yin Xiu nodded, indicating that he understood.
The woman lowered her head again and touched her stomach. "Although I don't know what your purpose is in coming to Hai Village, I can sense that you are different from those people in other villages. If you can leave here properly, then leave. Don't stay here too long. If you cause trouble, I won't be able to save you."
"I know what I'm doing." As long as Yin Xiu can stay here, he can slowly figure out more things.
He stood up from the damp, low-ceilinged room and walked outside. "I'm going out for a walk for a bit, I'll be back later."
"Go ahead, just don't go to the beach." The woman nodded, not imposing any further restrictions on him.
Perhaps the man carrying the bag had come under the guise of delivering food to check on Yin Xiu's situation. Once he confirmed that he was a relative of the woman's family, he would leave. Along the way, the unfamiliar villagers, apart from glancing at him curiously, did not come up to question him about who he was.
This made it convenient for Yin Xiu to stroll around the village, but at the same time, he could sense that there was an element of surveillance in those scrutinizing gazes.
Yin Xiu first went to the edge of the village and saw the things that were supposedly preventing them from leaving.
To prevent these people tainted by the curse from leaving, the people from the outer villages built a high, airtight wall on the edge of their village, practically trapping them inside. It's likely that when the wall was being built, several villages joined forces and dealt considerable blows to the people of Hai Village; otherwise, Hai Village wouldn't have just watched the wall being built, blocking their path to survival.
Judging from the current situation, the people of Hai Village will indeed be unable to leave for the time being. If they try to sneak out at night, they will need to scout the area and gather information. If there are other villages guarding the area, then they probably won't be able to leave.
After looking at the edge of the village, Yin Xiu turned around and walked back slowly through the village.
Perhaps because they had already seen him once before, this time when he wandered around, not many people paid attention to him.
Yin Xiu walked among the dilapidated wooden houses and noticed two or three people who looked like guards standing at the door of a wooden house closer to the edge of the village.
The room wasn't big, and it was in a rather remote location. We didn't know what was hidden inside, so it needed two or three people to guard it.
Yin Xiu walked over slowly, and as soon as he got a little closer to the wooden house, the person standing at the door came over with a stern face and shooed him away, "Go away, go away, go away, don't come here to wander around."
Yin Xiu tried his best to put on a kind face and smiled, "What's inside? Why are so many people watching?"
The person on the other end snorted, "It's food. Don't you know how scarce food is in Hai Village right now?"
"That's true." Yin Xiu nodded, agreeing with the other person, and turned to leave.
As soon as I turned around, I heard two knocks on the wooden house, followed by a childish voice.
"I'm so hungry...please give me something to eat..."