The Wu Family Village

After some silent deliberation, Li Huowang nodded. “Elder, go ahead. What are the rules?”

“First one: in our Wu family village, nobody talks back to their elders. Especially me.” The goateed village chief raised his index finger.

“That’s it?” Not just Li Huowang—everyone looked baffled.

They’d expected some bizarre, arcane restrictions. This was just… ordinary.

“Isn’t that just family rules? You’re going to bind outsiders with your own household code?”

Li Huowang tapped Gouwa beside him, then addressed the chief. “Please continue. We’re listening.”

“Second rule: we’re right up against the woods. Creatures come out of there all the time—rats, owls, whatever. You can’t kill ’em, can’t step on ’em. If you meet one on the road, you give way first. They’ve done our Wu family a favor in the past.”

“Third rule: you’re outsiders. No man is allowed to talk to any woman in our village. This one wasn’t always a rule, but a few years back, a peddler came through and ran off with two of our daughters-in-law! Ai-yo, just thinking about that peddler gets me angry…”

As the chief prattled on, Li Huowang and his group gradually learned all kinds of rules for Wu Village—even trivial ones like no relieving yourself wherever you pleased.

“Shallow water, lots of turtles,” Dogwa muttered. “This broken stockade has way too many picky rules. Maybe we shouldn’t stay here.”

“Quiet. Just listen.”

The chief was finally winding down. “Rule eleven: don’t light any lamps at night, and don’t go outside at night. And the last rule: no matter when, you have to wait until the other person turns around before you speak. Never speak to someone with your back to them.”

Li Huowang’s brow furrowed slightly. Those last two felt off.

“And if I break these rules? What then?”

“Break the rules?!” The chief’s eyes went wide with certainty. “Fine you! First time, one tael. Do it again, fine you again! Fine you until you don’t dare! Don’t say we’re bullying outsiders—our own clan gets the same.”

“…” Li Huowang suddenly wondered if he was overthinking things.

Feeling a tug at the hem of his clothes, Li Huowang nodded to the goateed old man. “Don’t worry, elder. We know how to behave.”

“Mm. Good. Otherwise, seeing you brought two little kids along, I wouldn’t have wasted my breath. I’m old—can’t stand to see children suffer.”

With that, he turned and walked toward the main courtyard. The two wagons pulled in, and Li Huowang’s crew carried their bedding into the west wing rooms, which smelled faintly of mildew.

By the time they finished cleaning and settling in, the sun was already dipping west.

Once everything was arranged, the village chief came back in, smiling. “Say, young man, are you eating dinner here? If so, I’ll have my daughter-in-law make a bit more.”

“Dinner?” Li Huowang’s gut tightened. Other people’s food wasn’t always safe to eat.

After a moment’s thought, he nodded. “Then we’ll trouble you, elder.”

Watching the old man walk away with his hands clasped behind his back, Li Huowang signaled to Xiaoman. “Go help in the kitchen.”

“Mm.” Xiaoman nodded and left.

The chief’s household was large—six sons, two daughters, plus grandchildren. At mealtime, dozens of people filled the place with clamor.

That was why he dared to take Li Huowang’s group in. In a village, as long as you had many sons, nobody dared cross you.

Despite living in a three-courtyard compound, the Wu family’s meal was the filling-but-stingy double-steamed rice, and the vegetables were all from their own field—plain, frugal fare.

By the time Li Huowang came out, they’d already started eating. No sign of a host waiting for guests; many plates were already scraped clean.

“Rice is over there—help yourselves. Country folk don’t stand on ceremony.”

Li Huowang shook his head dismissively. “No trouble, no trouble.”

He led his people toward the steamer basket in the corner, but in his mind he began counting silently.

Exactly when he reached ten in his count, the sharp sound of bowls shattering rang out behind him.

When he turned around, the village chief and all those dozens of people were lying facedown on the floor, fast asleep.

“Heh. That peddler’s knockout drops really are good. You get what you pay for.”

Whether these people were controlled by that “Layue Shiba” evil spirit and had planned to trap him, Li Huowang didn’t intend to find out. Better to strike first—that could never go wrong.

With a wave of his hand, the others quickly rushed toward the east wing where the host family lived and began searching for clues.

“First look for writing, then anything unusual—the stranger the better, like Buddha plaques or spirit tablets. I want to see exactly what they’re hiding!” Li Huowang ordered.

They searched high and low, turned the entire three-courtyard compound upside-down. Nothing. Not a single abnormality.

“How can there be nothing?” Li Huowang stood in the main hall, brow deeply furrowed, thinking.

After a whole day’s work, the only anomaly was the woods outside the village. Nothing else.

“Could Layue Shiba be hiding in those woods just now? No—I already checked. This village is surrounded by bamboo groves. If Layue Shiba is hiding anywhere, it has to be here.”

“Does finding their silver count?” Gouwa came over, holding some broken silver pieces in his hands.

He saw Li Huowang’s glare, sighed helplessly, and trudged back with the silver.

Li Huowang glanced at the darkening sky outside and gave another order. “Bring me the fire flint. Light the lamps.”

“Senior Brother Li, didn’t they say not to light them?” Bai Lingmiao asked, puzzled.

At this, Li Huowang’s eyes narrowed slightly. His right hand slid across the row of torture implements at his waist.

“I just want to see what happens when we do.”

If there was one other suspicious thing about this village, it was those rules the goatee had recited.

“Whoosh—” The candles and lanterns they’d found earlier were quickly lit. The Wu family compound blazed with light.

Li Huowang sat in the hall full of unconscious bodies, waiting quietly. The darkness deepened.

There was no moon tonight. The sky was like a huge black cloth draped overhead.

But that was all. Night came, yet nothing happened.

“Haah—” Gouwa yawned, leaning back against a pillar and starting to doze.

The others seemed infected by his yawn and followed suit.

Li Huowang looked at the Wu family lying drugged on the floor. Doubt crept in. “Did I really come to the wrong place?”

Just as he thought that, a playful giggle came from the top of the courtyard wall. “Hehe. You broke the rules.”