Oni-tsubo

Kapitel 22

"Me?" Fei Xiao smiled at him again: "My demonic aura is too strong, and this dance doesn't require a good figure!" After saying that, she took the breast protector from Shu Bai's hand and put it on Chen Kai.

"Is that so?" Chen Kai felt the burden on his shoulders getting heavier and heavier, not knowing whether it was because of the chest protector pressing down on him or something else.

After everything was arranged, Shubai's uncle treated them to a lavish meal, and Feixiao continued to enjoy his favorite chicken, which he never tired of eating.

"Shubai, you've changed so much I hardly recognize you!" Shubai's uncle smiled and patted her head. He was a simple country man, and he really didn't resemble Shubai's naturally aloof temperament at all.

"No!" Shubai seemed to be in a much better mood: "I'm still the same!" Turning to Chen Kai, she said, "The things we use for dancing and sacrificial rites are all kept at my uncle's place. You can go and take a look later!"

"No, no need!" Chen Kai waved his hand hastily, showing no interest whatsoever in those scraps of metal.

"Young man!" Shubai's uncle stared at Chen Kai: "You can't be careless. This isn't an ordinary dance; it's a life-or-death dance. You must learn it well later!"

Chen Kai's heart skipped a beat. He seemed to have heard of something like a dance of death before, and it seemed that he was in grave danger this time.

"Feixiao!" Chen Kai glanced at Feixiao, who was engrossed in playing PUBG next to him, hoping to get some comfort from her.

"No, it's alright~, I'm here~" Feixiao's mouth was already stuffed with chicken, and she could barely speak.

Looking at his face, which was distorted by the food, Chen Kai could only sigh deeply. It seemed that he couldn't rely on anyone this time.

"Chen Kai, we're waiting for you to come back!" Fei Xiao said to him when he left in the afternoon, while he himself was leisurely lying on the bed sunbathing.

"You, you're not coming with me?" Chen Kai was furious. Who was the useful person here, him or himself?

"Let's go, I'm playing chess with Professor Wang, we'll wait for you to come back!"

Professor Wang had already brought out a chessboard over there. "There are fewer and fewer young people who know how to play chess these days. It's rare to find someone to play with me!"

"You've come to the right person!" Fei Xiao said, rolling up her sleeves. "Over the years, I've become quite knowledgeable about chess! I'm ready to play any game!"

"That's great! I haven't found a worthy opponent in years!" Professor Wang was already itching to get started, but no one noticed Chen Kai.

Looking at the two men, their blood boiling with passion, Chen Kai knew he had been completely forgotten. He sighed, shook his head, and left.

An afternoon passed quickly. Shubai led them through the movements, giving each of them a wooden stick to teach them the postures. Chen Kai felt as if he had returned to elementary school, and all the curiosity he had previously had about this mysterious dance vanished.

"You're so brave!" a teenage boy from the countryside who was practicing dance with Chen Kai said.

"Why?" Chen Kai wondered. He could dance like that for several more rounds without any problem.

The boy looked at Chen Kai, head bowed, and said, "Two years ago, when my brother participated, his hand was eaten by a ghost."

"Eate it?" Chen Kai stared wide-eyed, hardly believing his ears.

"Yes, I don't know when or who turned into a ghost..." Before she could finish speaking, Shubai was already warning them.

Chen Kai's hand holding the stick began to tremble, and he was covered in cold sweat.

"These are wooden sticks now, but they'll be replaced with real knives for the real thing, so be careful, everyone."

Shu Bai's words from the beginning echoed in his ears again: Why use a real knife? Why are there ghosts eating people? Could this dance be a life-or-death battle?

Looking at Shu Bai's face in front of him, expressionless, indifferent and serious, Chen Kai suddenly felt as if he had fallen into another trap.

"Ugh, I'm exhausted!" As soon as I got home, I saw Feixiao and Professor Wang playing chess with little notes stuck to their faces, seemingly oblivious to my presence.

"I'm not playing anymore, I lost again!" Fei Xiao suddenly overturned the chessboard, scattering the black and white pieces all over the floor.

"Come on! Let's count the slips of paper and see who loses more!" Professor Wang said, reaching out to remove the slips of paper from his face.

Chen Kai then realized that these two guys who boasted so loudly were actually no better than each other, each worse than the other.

"Feixiao!" Chen Kai said, reaching for his sleeve. "Someone told me that when you dance that dance, someone will turn into a ghost and eat people!"

"It's alright, there's nothing unusual now. I'll help you when the time comes!" Fei Xiao lowered her head to count the notes. Chen Kai had never seen her so obsessed with anything before. It seemed that he had been completely forgotten by her.

A pang of sadness gripped my heart. What were they all doing here? Was I the only one here to die?

However, time did not allow him to linger in his sorrow. Five days passed in the blink of an eye, and it was already the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar.

Chen Kai went to Shu Bai's uncle's house to find her as usual. Just as he reached the door, someone grabbed his arm.

Looking back, there was a face covered in wrinkles, white hair, and dark skin; the stark contrast was chilling.

The man smiled, revealing a toothless, black hole in his mouth.

"What are you doing?" Chen Kai was startled and broke out in a cold sweat. It was that old woman, the old woman who stood at the village entrance the night he arrived.

"You, you—" The old woman's thin, bony hand seemed to dig into Chen Kai's flesh: "You're next! Heh!"

"What do you mean I'm next?" Chen Kai felt excruciating pain in his arm and desperately tried to shake her off.

"You're the one who got eaten by the ghost!" The old woman's toothless mouth curved into a crescent moon as she grinned, as if she had seen something very happy.

"Don't listen to her!" Suddenly, someone forcefully pulled Chen Kai's hand away from the old woman's, and Chen Kai finally broke free from her control.

"Grandma Mi, please don't scare the child, okay?" It was Shubai.

When the old woman saw Shubai, she suddenly looked as if she had seen a ghost. She grabbed her head with both hands, her eyes wide with terror, and kept muttering, "Sister, sister, I was wrong, sister!"

"What did you say?" Shubai took two steps forward, very curious.

To everyone's surprise, the old woman turned and ran away, shouting hysterically, "Sister, don't come back! Spare me!" She waved her hands as if trying to drive something away.

"What's going on?" Shubai seemed equally bewildered: "This Granny Mi has been insane for a long time, how come she's getting worse and worse?"

"Really?" Chen Kai asked her, "Who is the younger sister she's talking about?"

"I don't know!" Shubai said, waving her hand. "It starts tonight, let's go get ready!"

Chen Kai stared in the direction Granny Mi had run off in, feeling that there was something strange about this village, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong. It was a peaceful place, yet there was an atmosphere of tension, as if a fight was about to break out at any moment. He looked back at the sky; the weather was rather gloomy today, and it seemed that a winter snow was on its way. Thick dark clouds covered the distant mountains.

Will there be a moon tonight? What kind of moon will it be? And what will be dancing under that moon?

That evening, Shubai solemnly handed Chen Kai a mask—a red ghost mask with a ferocious face, no different from the ones she had seen before. Chen Kai held it in both hands; when he first saw it, he never dreamed that one day he would wear it.

"Be careful!" Shubai said, handing him another long knife, which turned out to be a real knife, gleaming with a cold light.

"Are you really going to use it for dancing?" Chen Kai held up the knife, its blade gleaming like water.

"No, this is just for show, it doesn't have a blade, don't be so nervous!" Shubai found his expression amusing.

"But, but I heard..." Chen Kai didn't know how to tell her what he had heard.

"Exorcism always carries risks, but sometimes if you don't believe, you won't see anything. Ghosts and monsters reside in people's hearts!" As Shubai spoke, she put on a colorful costume over her clothes, looking exactly like a sorcerer seen on TV.

"Hehe!" Chen Kai looked at her clothes and found them amusing. He put on the messy armor himself and turned to Shu Bai, saying, "How do I look?"

He turned around and saw a ghostly face in front of him, a red ghostly face, staring at him with wide-open eyes in the darkness, its dark pupils devoid of any expression.

Chen Kai was caught off guard in the dark room and his heart seemed to stop beating.

"What's wrong with you? Take this, we should go!" It was Shubai's voice coming from behind the mask.

"Okay, okay!" Chen Kai breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Shu Bai. He also put on the mask. The cold, emotionless ceramic mask separated reality from illusion.

Did anyone really wear such a mask to fight enemies thousands of years ago? Did wearing it feel the same as how you feel now? A feeling of losing yourself, of being transported to another time and space. Nalan's mask, Nalan's dance, how many myths have they enacted?

Outside was an open space with a bonfire burning in the center. The long flames seemed to burn up half the sky, and about a hundred villagers were watching.

Where is Feixiao? Chen Kai looked around, but only saw dancers next to him who were also wearing masks. The difference was that three of them were wearing ghost masks, with blue ghost faces that gleamed faintly in the moonlight.

"You'll be the one eaten by the ghost!" The old woman's words from that afternoon echoed in his ears again, and the blue ghost face looked increasingly terrifying. Chen Kai dared not look anymore, and could only stare at the campfire not far away. Through the mask, everything looked so unreal, and the flames seemed to be about to engulf them all.

Below, Fei Xiao and Professor Wang were also watching. The people around them didn't seem to understand the meaning of the dance, but they kept cheering and encouraging the show to start quickly.

A moment later, a loud "thump" of a drum sounded, and all the onlookers fell silent. Then came several more drumbeats, growing more rapid and piercing, reminiscent of the drumbeats on an ancient battlefield.

Six dancers began to dance around the campfire, performing what appeared to be a dance of warriors slaying demons. However, in the firelight, the blue and red masks, gleaming with the light of blades, looked more like a chaotic dance of demons, making it impossible to tell who was playing a warrior and who was playing a demon.

"This dance is really..." Fei Xiao sighed as she watched, all her beautiful dreams about this dance were shattered.

"Sigh, it's just a small village, what kind of grand ceremony could it possibly have? Besides, it's mainly a ritual!" Professor Wang said with a smile, as if all of this was exactly what he had expected.

"I hope nothing bad will happen later!" Fei Xiao said, her brows furrowing again, hoping everything would be alright.

Chen Kai performed mechanically, feeling as if he were in purgatory. The flames were so hot that his clothes were soaked with sweat in no time. The people playing ghosts took turns moving in front of him, their fancy clothes and armor dazzling him in the firelight.

Shubai, where is Shubai? Which one is Shubai? He peeked through the gap, but they all wore the same mask and clothes, and he couldn't tell which of the two remaining people wearing red masks was Shubai.

He turned around again, knife in hand, the blade grazing just in front of the person dressed as a ghost. What happened next? He took three more steps southeast, circling the campfire once more.

What's the point of going in these directions? Chen Kai just felt it was too troublesome. It would be simpler to just have a group fight, since it would just look like a chaotic mess anyway.

For some reason, the more he spun around, the more confused he felt. Why hadn't he felt this way when he practiced before? Or was it because of the full moon?

Looking up, I saw a hazy, round moon, which looked exceptionally large now, yet it emitted a pale, bleak light. Perhaps it was about to snow, which made the moon appear so ominous.

We have the full moon and the long sword, but where is Nalan?

"Oh no!" Fei Xiao suddenly shouted after the dancers had finished dancing around the campfire twice.

"What's wrong with you?" Professor Wang looked at him, puzzled. Although this man was a rare young talent, why was he behaving so strangely?

"That dance must stop!" Fei Xiao said, pushing through the crowd to rush out, having lost her usual composure.

"Why?" Professor Wang followed him out. "Wasn't there nothing wrong?"

Feixiao turned around and looked at him with a terrifying expression, saying sharply, "One person is missing! Do you know that? This dance is missing a person!"

One person is missing? How could one person be missing? Professor Wang looked back at the sacrificial site, where the burning bonfire was about to ignite the sky. There were exactly three warriors and three ghosts, so how could one person be missing? And who was that missing person?

Before I could figure it out, the crimson-white figure in front of me had already parted the crowd and rushed out.

"Wait for me!" Professor Wang shouted and ran out of the crowd with him.

Feixiao ran in a big circle to the drummers and shouted, "Stop it! You can't keep playing!"

"Why?" Shubai's uncle asked curiously, "If we stop now, the audience will complain, and an incomplete ritual is dangerous!"

“Danger?” Fei Xiao’s face was already as cold as frost: “A complete ritual would be truly dangerous!”

"Why do you say that?" Shubai's uncle was completely bewildered. "We've been doing it this way for years!"

“Look at where they are walking,” Fei Xiao said to Professor Wang, pointing to the dance floor.

"It seems..." Professor Wang stared at it for a long time, "It seems to be a reversed Bagua!"

"That's right, it's the reversed Bagua, and it follows the positions of the seven stars!"

"But shouldn't there be seven people in the Seven Stars?" Professor Wang finally understood why he kept saying that one person was missing.

"You still don't understand?" Fei Xiao said urgently, "The way they're dancing isn't exorcising ghosts, it's clearly trying to lure something out!"

"Could it be? Could it be?" Professor Wang adjusted his glasses. "You mean, if they jump, a seventh person will appear?"

“That’s right!” Fei Xiao nodded. “And the seventh one that appears definitely can’t be human!”