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Chapter 140: Living Person Stake
Chapter 140: Living Person Stake
Without Hu Ma's reminder, Zhao Laoye, who had stayed up all night and knew the entire story, angrily rushed over.
Raising his hand, he was about to strike the man in the room on the head: "I'll beat you, you turtle grandson, what got blown away?"
"I even had someone come over last night to check if you had spread the lime... How come every household has lime, but yours doesn't?"
The man, hit by Zhao Laoye's slap, didn't dare to retaliate, just holding his head and remaining silent.
The woman holding the child was also terrified, trembling as she called out: "He, he swept the ash..."
But before she could finish, the man suddenly turned his head, glaring at her fiercely, and she immediately stopped speaking.
"Still acting tough?"
Zhao Laoye, being a wealthy household in the village, was no fool. One look at the man's expression, and he already guessed something, making him even more furious.
He hit him a couple more times, but feeling the pain in his hand, he stopped and shouted to the people behind him: "What are you all standing there for? This turtle grandson is endangering the entire village. Come on, beat him, beat him until he tells the truth..."
Hearing Zhao Laoye's words, especially the part about endangering the entire village, the villagers were instantly riled up, shouting and cursing.
In this area, water had been getting scarcer, with mud mixed in the water used for cooking. The scarcity of water had built up a sense of restlessness in everyone, which was now being unleashed, making their eyes red.
The fear of a famine year, the anger at his actions, and the terror of the drought demon all came together, and they viciously surrounded him.
Hu Ma just watched coldly from a distance, using his eyes to signal Zhou Datong and the others not to get involved.
They were outsiders, here to handle the matter, but they needed to have a sense of propriety. They would deal with the drought demon, but they wouldn't meddle in village affairs, lest they stir up unexpected trouble.
Seeing the villagers surround him, the man was instantly terrified, trembling and shouting: "I don't know, I really don't know..."
"Maybe it's because the master you invited isn't effective, what does it have to do with me?"
"..."
"Still saying it's ineffective?"
Zhao Laoye led the charge, kicking him: "If it's ineffective, why did your sheep die?"
"If it's ineffective, why did you sweep the lime?"
"If it's ineffective... why were you thinking of my great-grandfather's grave?"
"..."
Zhao Laoye, who was usually kind and benevolent, a good person in the village, had never been seen harming others in his lifetime.
But now, even such a refined gentleman had taken action, and the young and strong men in the village were even less restrained, beating him mercilessly.
The man knew that the villagers could beat him to death, and he was scared out of his wits, screaming: "Don't beat me, don't beat me, I'll talk..."
"It was... it was my cousin..."
"..."
The villagers stopped, but they just looked at each other in confusion.
Especially the woman holding the child, who was stunned and then jumped up, hitting him on the head.
Zhao Laoye stepped forward to question him, while Hu Ma and Zhou Datong and the others just watched from the outside. It wasn't until the villagers started discussing it that they understood.
It turned out that the cousin he mentioned was originally from the same village. A few years ago, the two brothers went to the city to do business and made a small fortune. This man, being honest, brought the money back to live, but his cousin ran away with a brothel sister.
In other words, the woman in the room wasn't his wife but his cousin's wife.
But with no man in the house and a difficult life, he often came to take care of things and gradually moved in.
Not only did the villagers not say anything, but even the in-laws didn't say anything.
After all, the fields needed to be worked, and the children needed to be raised. In the village, the rule of the younger brother taking over after the elder brother's death had always been in place. With his cousin running away, it was almost the same as if he had died, and life had to go on.
"Your cousin, Dalengzi, didn't run away with a brothel sister?"
"How could he... how could he come back at night?"
"..."
At this moment, Zhao Laoye, out of breath, had already interrogated him.
It turned out that the story about his cousin running away with a brothel sister was a fabrication. When the two brothers went to do business, it wasn't a legitimate business; they were actually thieves.
Fortunately, their skills were good, and they really managed to steal from a wealthy household. He got envious and, on the way back to the village, killed his cousin, hiding the body in a secluded place and covering it with soil.
He killed his cousin not just to keep the money for himself but also because he had long been eyeing his cousin's beautiful wife. So, upon returning, he spread the rumor and started coming over often, using his money to gradually win her over.
However, out of fear that his cousin might return, he never formally married her.
He often regretted saying that his cousin had run away with a brothel sister; he should have said that his cousin had died somewhere.
"..."
"..."
"No wonder."
Now that the villagers had learned this big secret, Hu Ma finally understood the whole story.
No wonder we couldn't find that wanderer!
There was no grave at all; he had buried the body in some hidden corner. Moreover, his cousin had died with resentment, and the place where the body was hidden was inappropriate, which gradually caused the corpse to transform into a malevolent entity. And because this guy had a guilty conscience, he didn't actually want to be found, so he secretly swept away the lime at night. Even the blow he gave me earlier...
...wasn't just to scare me; he really wanted to kill me.
If my "master" died, no one would continue to manage this matter, and it might have been covered up.
This is really...
I came here to handle things, and instead of being tricked by the wanderer, I almost got tricked by a villager.
"Never mind, this is your village's business. It's not the right time to talk about it. Let him take us to see the body first!"
After the furious questioning was over, Hu Ma stepped forward and said to Mr. Zhao, "Since he buried it, he must know where it is. Now that it's already light, let's dig up the body and expose it to the sun; that will settle the matter."
Mr. Zhao was so angry that his whole body was trembling. Hearing this, he finally came to his senses.
He kicked the man on the ground angrily. "Aren't you going?"
"Going, going..."
The man hesitated for a while before getting up, head down, only seeing the hateful gazes of the villagers around him. He didn't dare look at anyone, just pretended to walk out. When the people around him moved aside, he suddenly pushed them aside and fled.
He knew that once this matter was exposed, the villagers wouldn't spare him. He estimated that he would be hanged from a tree, so he didn't care about finding the body and seized the opportunity to run.
But he didn't expect that there were also villagers outside the door, rushing over. Seeing him try to escape, someone quickly blocked him with a manure fork.
But he had been scared half to death last night and had been kicked and beaten by the village's young men, so his legs were unsteady. Whether it was due to some unseen force influencing him, he stumbled and fell, and the manure fork stabbed into his chin.
The villagers hurriedly scattered, then suddenly remembered and gathered around, asking where the body was buried.
But his mouth opened, and he couldn't speak. His eyes gradually dimmed.
The noisy surroundings suddenly fell silent.
Everyone looked at each other, and the anger on their faces slowly turned to fear.
The only one who knew where the body was buried had died unexpectedly. How could this problem be solved?
No one had a solution, each one at a loss.
Stunned, their gazes all turned to Hu Ma.
At this moment, Hu Ma also came to the man's side, seeing the manure fork firmly embedded in his chin, feeling equally helpless.
It was just a matter of following the tracks of that thing, digging up the body, and exposing it to the sun...
Solving this matter originally wasn't difficult, but because of the human element, it had become such a thorny situation.
"Given the current situation, there's no other way."
After thinking for a while, he could only step forward, looking at the woman who was crying harder and about to faint, and said softly, "We can only send people to search the more remote areas during the day to see if we can find it. If we can't find it..."
"Then we'll have to use a living person stake."
"..."
"Ah?"
Mr. Zhao and the people around him were shocked and hurriedly asked what a living person stake was.
Hu Ma was actually still a novice, and his knowledge of the Drought Demon came from stories told by Second Uncle, explanations in the Book of Year-Taming, and some techniques and principles discussed with Wu He Sister and Mr. Wu Hong.
But now, facing the villagers' reverent and fearful gazes, he knew that causing panic was the most terrifying thing, so he maintained his composure, looked at the child in the woman's arms, and slowly said:
"When a person dies, they no longer know anything. That wanderer returned last night and injured the livestock, so he will definitely come back tonight to harm people."
"While alive, one prioritizes family and blood relations, but when a person dies and becomes a malevolent spirit, they start by harming their own family. This is the principle of wronged kin and creditors."
"Now, this child is the closest person to him in the world, so he will target the child first when he returns tonight."
"By night, no one can guarantee that they can protect the child while fighting that wanderer, so we can only use the child's birth date and time, take some blood essence, and create a substitute."
"Using this substitute to attract its attention, we can gather people to eliminate it, which will truly resolve the drought in this village."
"However..."
"..."
He said, looking at Mr. Zhao, who was so moved by his words that his heart was in his throat, and subconsciously asked, "What?"
"..."
Hu Ma took a long breath and said, "We need more money!"
(End of Chapter)
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