"Oh no, a ghost… wait, something's not right…"
Tiger was about to scream in fear when he noticed something strange.
The old man in front of him was tightly bound, with a cloth gag in his mouth, his eyes pleading with them, even welling up with tears.
Clearly, he was alive.
"What on earth is going on?"
Tiger's mind was spinning with confusion.
The man before him was none other than Zhao Ligen, the same elder who had sold him the copper coin. The villagers had held a funeral for him, even building an empty grave, yet here he was, bound and hidden in the spirit house.
"Leave him for now; let's finish collecting the grave soil."
Despite his curiosity, Lu Fei held back, focusing on gathering enough soil before approaching the old man.
"Mmmph! Mmmph!" The elderly man struggled, his frail body writhing as he desperately tried to make muffled sounds for help.
"Lu Fei, I need to find out if this old weasel tricked me on purpose!" Tiger said, his voice filled with anger.
"Keep it down," Lu Fei said, glancing at the door.
Tiger pulled the cloth from Zhao Ligen's mouth and gripped his black-spotted neck tightly. "Selling burial money taken from a dead man's mouth? Are you out of your mind?!"
Zhao Ligen coughed, pleading hoarsely, "I didn't know, I swear! I just thought it was worth something and figured I could sell it for money to escape…"
"Escape? Aren't you one of the villagers here?"
"Please, let me out! I'll bow and apologize a hundred times if I have to! Time is running out; it's almost midnight. The ancestors' death anniversary is approaching!"
"Death anniversary? What are you talking about?" Tiger looked skeptical.
"I beg you! If you don't let me go, you'll end up dead as well once midnight hits!" Zhao Ligen was drenched in sweat, visibly anxious and not looking like he was lying.
Lu Fei checked the time and spoke calmly, "If you don't explain, we won't let you go. You're the one tied up, not us. We have two hours left—plenty of time to get off this mountain."
Zhao Ligen hesitated, his breathing ragged as he seemed to be struggling with himself. Finally, he spoke, his voice tinged with fear, "Our village… has a tradition. Every year, on the death anniversary, we have to sacrifice someone, or the entire village will die."
"What nonsense! Isn't it your ancestor? Why would he curse his own descendants?" Tiger scoffed.
"It's not nonsense! The ancestor… he died filled with resentment. Before he died, he cursed the entire village, leaving us with these strange illnesses."
Lu Fei narrowed his eyes. "Explain. Tell us everything."
He was intrigued by the origins of the Hungry Ghost Coin.
With a deep sigh, Zhao Ligen began, his voice hoarse. "The village elders passed down the story. Over a hundred years ago, there was a terrible famine here. Every scrap of food for miles around was gone, and people were starving to death daily. Then one day, a traveling master came to the village and told us we had angered the mountain god, causing this disaster."
"The master said that if we sacrificed one of our own to appease the mountain god, we would survive the famine."
"So the ancestors discussed it and chose someone. They built him a grave and buried him inside…"
Zhao Ligen's voice trailed off as he glanced nervously at the tomb behind him.
"Buried alive?" Lu Fei frowned.
The old man stayed silent, confirming the truth with his silence.
"No wonder the resentment is so strong. Buried alive by your own people to die of starvation. How could anyone be so heartless as to believe in such a cruel ritual?"
"It wasn't us; it was the ancestors," Zhao Ligen said with a bitter smile. "They committed the sin, but it's us descendants who are paying the price. Once these black spots appear on us, we can't control the hunger. We crave meat, but eating it just makes us vomit. It's worse than death."
"And every year on the death anniversary, the symptoms get worse. We can't keep anything down and end up biting at anyone around us like mad dogs… people die every year. Eventually, they discovered that if they offered a sacrificial person to appease the ancestor, everyone else could be safe."
When Zhao Ligen finished, the room fell silent, the air thick with unease. He looked up at the two men, seeing their hardened expressions, and shivered.
He spoke in a low voice, "It was all the village chief's doing, not me…"
Lu Fei felt a chill spread through him.
People may fear spirits, but even spirits cannot match the malice in human hearts.
He had never imagined that human beings could be so ignorant and ruthless as to sacrifice their own in hopes of appeasing a vengeful spirit.
The symptoms they were suffering from were the same as the Hungry Ghost Curse. No wonder even the village's spirit tree had withered. It was hard to say whether they were more pitiful or simply reaping what they'd sown.
Suppressing his thoughts, he asked, "So what about the copper coin?"
"That master told them that placing the coin in the ancestor's mouth would suppress his resentment. But it didn't work at all. The villagers kept falling sick and starving unless they performed the sacrifice."
"This year, it was my turn to be sacrificed. I didn't want to die! I thought the coin was valuable, so I stole it and planned to sell it to fund my escape as far away as possible. But they caught me."
Zhao Ligen looked at them with desperate eyes, hoping these young men would help him escape. He didn't care how they found him; he just saw them as a way out.
"I didn't know the coin was cursed! Just let me go; I'll take whatever punishment you want to give!"
"You're a good actor! This cursed coin harmed your entire village, and you expect us to believe you didn't know?" Lu Fei sneered. "Did you really think that selling the coin would pass the curse onto someone else and let you walk away unscathed?"
"I… I didn't… I didn't think that far…" Zhao Ligen stammered, lowering his head in guilt.
"You old rat! Are you even human? You knew what would happen, and you still tricked me!" Tiger's anger boiled over as he grabbed Zhao Ligen by the collar.
Just as he was about to punch him, they heard the sound of footsteps outside.
"They're here!"
Zhao Ligen's face went pale with fear.
"Let me go! I know a shortcut down the mountain. If they catch you, they'll lock you up too! They won't let outsiders learn our village's secret!"
"Like I'd be scared of a bunch of old-timers!" Tiger didn't release his grip.
Lu Fei's face grew serious as he said, "Tiger, don't be reckless. There's more than one starving ghost in that village; if they all go crazy, we won't stand a chance."
Though furious, Tiger didn't want to put Lu Fei at risk, so he roughly shoved Zhao Ligen aside.
Lu Fei untied Zhao Ligen's legs, leaving his hands bound so he could walk but not cause trouble.
The sound of a lock turning echoed from outside, followed by flashlight beams cutting through the darkness.