Arc 3: Luodong Village
Chapter 37: Pingping's Death
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5039729
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com
Qin Dongwan suddenly recalled the legend of the Fallen Flower Cave Maiden.
The "Fallen Flower Cave Maiden" is a term used in the Xiangxi tribes. When a girl of marriageable age fails to find someone to entrust her life to, she develops a condition similar to depression and enters a state of complete obsession.
After finding a cave, they would neither eat nor drink for several days without dying. After coming back, they still would not eat or drink, and after a few days, they would die. At that time, the family would not think she died. They would think she married the Mountain God and gained happiness, and they would even hold a wedding.
Along with this legend comes an ancient and little-known secret.
In ancient times, women's desires, which they were supposed to have, were constantly suppressed and even became a symbol of chastity. Women were not allowed to express their maturity as boldly as men, otherwise they would be considered impure.
Some women, unmarried and forbidden from displaying their attractiveness, would pass by a cave and imagine a Mountain God, indulging in self-pity and self-love. As for whether the Mountain God in these legends truly existed, no one knows.
She looked at the empty space and couldn't help but sigh.
After a while, the child didn't want to stay and found an excuse to run away. Qin Dongwan did not stop him. She checked the time and went back to the restaurant with the others to wait for Luo Shu. The girl’s face was dark. Her fists made cracking sounds. Even her steps were heavy.
“She went home.”
Her words were filled with boundless anger, and Luo Shu's eyes blazed with murderous intent, as if she wanted to tear the person to pieces. It was unclear what she had seen. Qin Dongwan had already found some ingredients in the kitchen. When Luo Shu came back, she quickly made two dishes and put them on the table, served the noodles and listened to Luo Shu explain what happened.
The echoes in the mountains were quite strong, and the intimate voices and intermittent conversations of the two could be faintly heard. Luo Shu forced herself to stay perched in the tree and listen intently to the intimate moments, then heard the young man's deep, resonant voice:
"Don't be jealous. Once I catch those two women again, I promise I'll kill them after I use them. How can they compare to you? The preparations are almost complete. When I become a real person, you can perform another sacrifice, and then you can become my real bride."
"Can we stay together forever?"
Pingping’s voice carried soft unease, completely devoid of the ruthlessness that had lured people there. She sounded like a little lamb, yearning for the shepherd's warm embrace. The young man chuckled ambiguously before responding:
"Of course."
What he meant by "use" was, in essence, forcing women against their will, with Qin Dongwan and Luo Shu as his targets. At this point, the clues were clear: the young man was the Mountain God, and Pingping was his accomplice; their relationship was unusually ambiguous.
"Is Pingping the Flower Cave Maiden?"
Hua Qingjiu picked up shredded potato with green pepper and spoke while putting it into his bowl. “From your explanation, the Fallen Flower Cave Maiden stops eating and dies after returning home. But her state now is not like that. And the Mountain God is clearly not good. Is it possible that Pingping was Gu poisoned?”
"Since the level provides a way out, the ghosts generally won't have many tricks up their sleeves, otherwise there would be no point in continuing the game. The poison here is usually love gu, which is used by women to inflict on men, so it shouldn't be a curse. From what they've been saying, it seems the Mountain God can materialize, and the specific method... perhaps it's killing people?"
Previous memories slowly surfaced in Qin Dongwan's mind, and a clear thread connected all the events.
Pingping asked the Mountain God in the woods if she could take human form. The Mountain God said it would be soon, but it depended on Pingping. Last night, the Mountain God killed someone, and today Pingping lured someone into the water. She didn't touch the person herself, but the sudden change in the water's turbulent waves and the sight of blood and bone. Was it the Mountain God?
"The Mountain God is the River God, and the River God is the Mountain God! You're right, Hua Qingjiu. Two tigers cannot share one mountain. Pingping probably sent people into the river to feed the Mountain God!"
Qin Dongwan was extremely excited about her new discovery. If this was the case, everything that had happened before would be clearly explained. The main thing to pay attention to now was how to break free from the Mountain God's control. Relying on her intuition and the game system's prompts, she could escape the Mountain God's control. After successfully transforming into human form, the Mountain God would certainly not bring them any good fortune.
“Maybe. Then we must go to their base when both Pingping and the Mountain God are not there. It is hidden, so there may be the key. It is the third day. We must succeed within seven days. Time is tight. It would be best if someone could distract Pingping."
Hua Qingjiu said and took a sip of soup.
"Me."
Lin Fengque volunteered.
Among them, Lin Fengque was the most eloquent, and Pingping seemed to have some interest in him as well. At first, Qin Dongwan thought that interest stemmed from attraction between the opposite sexes, but later she realized something was amiss from Pingping's tone.
She wasn't interested in Lin Fengque himself, but rather in offering him as a sacrifice to the Mountain God to please her "lover".
One is a human by day and a ghost by night. The other is a human in the open and a ghost in the shadows. The seemingly innocent girl is an accomplice to evil, while the Mountain God who seems to protect the entire village secretly feeds on human life to satisfy his own selfish desires. They are truly a match made in heaven.
Tang Zihang only half understood what he was hearing. He was never entrusted with important tasks and usually just let things be. Only Luo Shu remained depressed. Besides hearing the Mountain God's disgusting fantasy, something else seemed to be weighing heavily on her mind, preventing her from relaxing her brow.
Qin Dongwan patted her shoulder, and before she could even feel a little warmth on the girl's cold face, Luo Shu walked straight out the door.
"I'm full, let's go back and rest for a bit."
….
As they approached Pingping's stilt house, the midday sky had already begun to darken, and a strong wind blew sand and stones, creating a desolate atmosphere thick with the stench of blood. They had barely returned home for the past two days while searching for clues, and upon seeing it, they almost thought they had taken the wrong turn.
Crimson blood flowed amidst the filth and stench of the ground, severed limbs were scattered in pieces, and sticky muscle fibers were torn and discarded, some even trampled underfoot by livestock and poultry, unaware of the situation.
A bald head sat atop the wooden bucket that had been soaking the sour fish soup. Its scalp had been roughly scraped with a knife, and long, jet-black hair lay tangled and scattered all over the ground.
That face, so familiar to them, stared straight at them, but it was lifeless, its unfocused pupils still holding a deep fear and hatred. Qin Dongwan, who was walking in front, was so frightened by the sight that she froze on the spot, her whole body trembling uncontrollably, a chilling aura creeping up her spine.
The big, dark eyes told a story of the atrocities she had suffered. Pingping's mother, who was crying loudly beside her, tried to close her daughter's eyelids, but her trembling hands failed several times. So she simply stuffed the bloody head into her bosom, not caring about the dirt.
Even Pingping's usually taciturn father had tears in his eyes and silently lowered his head to look at the mess on the ground.
Hearing footsteps, he suddenly looked up at the group of people hesitating at the door. As if he had found an outlet for his intense hatred, he pointed at Hua Qingjiu's nose and began to curse loudly.
The foul language was unbearable to hear, but the man in front of him remained unmoved and expressionless, simply explaining that they had just returned from somewhere else and had nothing to do with Pingping's death.
"If it wasn't you, then who was it? That damn buzz cut man rushed in with a knife and killed our Pingping. Who knew he would suddenly go mad?!”
Hearing the conversation of the people around her, Pingping's mother, who was holding her daughter's head in her arms, suddenly became hysterical. Ignoring the dripping blood, she rushed over and screamed hoarsely as if she wanted to tear her vocal cords in two.
Hua Qingjiu didn't dodge, but just twisted her shoulder, taking the angry punch from the woman. Looking at the blood and filth on the ground, he felt neither fear nor sympathy, as if only reason controlled his entire body. He grabbed the woman's arm and stopped her.
"When did that guy with the buzz cut arrive? What was your daughter doing before she died?"
"Brother Hua...!"
Seeing the woman driven to madness by the loss of her beloved daughter, Hua Qingjiu continued to ask questions without any emotion.
An even stronger rage surged through the woman's body, fueling her wickedness. She stood on tiptoe, and futilely tried to grab Hua Qingjiu's neck, but her overwhelming grief left her with no strength. Before she could even touch anyone, she collapsed into the mud.
The man, who was standing there trembling, rushed forward to help his wife up, picked up the mutilated head and put it in his arms, gently kissing it with his chapped lips.
The two NPCs were clearly the most ordinary type, possessing little offensive power and only a certain degree of intelligence. At this moment, the grief of losing their beloved daughter seemed to have aged them by more than ten years. The father, supporting the mother, disregarded the outsiders behind them, and choked back tears as he whispered:
"They'll get their punishment. Wait until tonight, Pingping will be back tonight..."
A fierce wind arose, overturning the wooden bucket containing pickled cabbage with a crash, revealing pale limbs inside, a sight so jarring it hurt the eyes. Suddenly, rain began to fall from the sky, and a huge ball of lightning struck the distant mountain peaks, its thunderous roar seemingly splitting the heavens and earth apart.
Amidst flying sand and swirling stones, a hazy dust rose in all directions, and heavy rain lashed the ground like a thorny whip, thundering and rumbling, deforming mountains and ravines.
They couldn’t stay in the stilt house. The sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard, and for a moment, there was nowhere to take shelter from the rain. The rain in the mountains came with tremendous force, threatening to overturn the heavens and the earth with an irresistible momentum. With nowhere to go, the group had no choice but to run back to the small restaurant they had come from.
Source: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=5039729
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com
In the heavy rain, Qin Dongwan turned her head to take one last look at the stilt house, but through the blurry rain, she saw something flash by in the second-floor window.
It appeared to be an exceptionally tall figure.
Author's Note:
This chapter has been revised.
