The Market Visit

1,181 words

Looking at the human skull that Mantou had brought over in its mouth, Li Huowang immediately pieced it together—the other bone Mantou had carried before must have been human too.

“Has it come to this? Is Mantou starting to crave human flesh because I’ve been feeding it my own skin?”

A wave of regret washed over him. His face dark, Li Huowang stared at the dog sitting by his feet.

“Woof?” Mantou tilted its head, puzzled by its master’s lack of reaction. It nudged the skull against Li Huowang’s foot again with its black nose.

Li Huowang reached down and stroked Mantou’s head, over and over.

Shink! He raised a knife, quickly sliced a small strip of skin and flesh from his own body, and tossed it in front of Mantou.

Then he held the bloody blade poised, aimed directly at the dog’s throat.

If the dog showed any interest in the meat, he would stab down instantly.

He had grown attached to the animal through their days together, but he could never keep a dog that liked eating human flesh—not for his own sake, and not for the others.

But Mantou just sat there, tongue lolling, still basking in the petting. It didn’t spare the chunk of meat a single glance. Only then did Li Huowang slowly lower the knife.

Mantou hadn’t become a mad dog that craved human meat. It was just a creature that liked to pick things up and bring them to him, trying to please him.

Mantou was just a beast. Compared to it, another human was far more suspicious.

That had clearly been a human bone, yet Sun Baolu had called it a horse bone. That was obviously wrong.

“Why did that kid lie to me?” Li Huowang’s brow furrowed. Now, every interaction with the Qingqiu people went through that boy. If he really was trouble, that was a very big problem.

“Brother Li? What’s wrong? You got quiet. Are you bored? If you’re getting bored, we can head back.” Bai Lingmiao picked up on the shift in atmosphere and spoke with understanding.

“No. Mantou just brought over a donkey hoof. It’s right in front of you—if you don’t believe me, feel its head.”

When Bai Lingmiao’s fingers found Mantou’s familiar head, a smile spread across her face. “It really is Mantou. I’ve noticed it’s been bringing things back a lot lately. I wonder where it learned that.”

When Li Huowang saw Mantou start to lick her hand, he gently pulled her hand away.

“That really is a bad habit. Come on, Mantou, let’s keep walking.” He kicked the half-skull away and spoke to the girl beside him.

This small interruption didn’t dampen Li Huowang’s mood to take Bai Lingmiao sightseeing. They continued strolling through the market.

They had to hit the road tomorrow. He couldn’t let some trivial thing ruin Bai Lingmiao’s good mood.

And so, the suspicion toward Sun Baolu was tucked away, too.

To keep Bai Lingmiao from accidentally glimpsing anything horrifying, Li Huowang did his best to steer them away from those areas for the rest of the day. As a result, their path through the market was very limited.

Soon, many of the Qingqiu villagers noticed a cripple leading a blind girl around the same spots in the market, over and over again. But the cripple’s words never repeated.

Under Li Huowang’s vivid descriptions, Bai Lingmiao, without her eyes, saw a market far more interesting than the real one.

They spent the entire day like this. As the sun gradually sank, the sky darkened, and the air grew cold.

“Miaomiao, it’s almost dark. We should head back.” Li Huowang reached out and lifted the ribbon from Bai Lingmiao’s face.

Bai Lingmiao blinked her long white lashes and looked around hopefully. But to her disappointment, she saw none of the vivid wonders Li Huowang had described.

“It’s dark, so the stalls are packing up. That’s normal. We should go back too,” Li Huowang explained gently.

Bai Lingmiao looked up at the sky and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I guess. Let’s go. Today was really fun.”

Seeing the smile on Bai Lingmiao’s face, Li Huowang felt a pang of pity. Was that all it took to make her happy?

“Brother Li, look, Mantou’s following us.”

Li Huowang watched her scratching under Mantou’s chin. “Stop petting him. Dogs are dirty.”

“Not at all. Mantou’s very clean. Every time we cross a river, he jumps in to wash himself.”

Looking at Bai Lingmiao, who knew nothing, and Mantou, who also knew nothing, Li Huowang ultimately said nothing. He leaned on his crutch and limped back the way they had come.

Seeing this, Bai Lingmiao quickly let go of Mantou and took his arm again, leaning against him and helping to share his weight.

“Woof!” Mantou barked, its tongue hanging out and tail wagging gently as it circled Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao.

The quiet didn’t last long. On the deserted street, Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao soon spotted a familiar face. It was Sun Baolu, driving a herd of several dozen sheep.

When he saw Li Huowang, he looked genuinely pleased. He hurried his sheep over.

“Brother Li, look at these sheep! Fat and strong! I picked them all day to find the best ones.”

“Oh, and Senior Sister Bai, here’s the leftover silver from buying the sheep.”

Li Huowang studied Sun Baolu again. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he spoke calmly, pretending not to have noticed anything. “In that case, drive the sheep back. We can set out tomorrow. The faster we go, the sooner you’ll be reunited with your family.”

“Mm!” Not noticing anything off about Li Huowang’s expression, Sun Baolu turned and started driving the sheep.

The rest of the walk was silent. When they reached the tent inn, Sun Baolu quickly got to work, carefully herding the sheep over to the ox cart.

He started boasting to Zhao Wu, who was watching the cart, about how well he’d chosen the sheep and how he’d haggled the price down to the bare minimum.

“Old Sun, is it really that exciting just because you’re almost home?” Zhao Wu, gnawing on a yellow corncake, stared at the uncharacteristically lively Sun Baolu.

“I’ve been wondering, though. You’re not like the rest of us. You don’t have any problems. So why did that Baldy want to grab you?”

Sun Baolu’s expression froze. He pulled his sleeve down a little more. “That Baldy grabbed people for no reason at all. The sheep are all here. Count them. This is our food from now on. Be careful with it.”

With Zhao Wu’s assurance, Sun Baolu turned and left the cart, heading toward his own tent.

The corners of his mouth still curled up in a smile as he began to daydream about seeing his family again after so many days apart. But his light footsteps came to a sudden halt.

He stared at Li Huowang, who was leaning against a wooden post in front of him. The look in the other man’s eyes was not right.

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Reading Guide Decoding

A Quiet Day of Fun, One Skull, and the Seed of Betrayal

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

The Human Skull & Folk Omens: In Chinese folk belief, a dog bringing a human skull to its master is a profoundly bad omen. Dogs are thought to perceive yin energy (ghosts, malevolent spirits), and carrying human bone is often interpreted as a warning about a hidden threat or an unclean presence nearby. Li Huowang’s reaction—offering his own flesh as a test—draws on a brutal pragmatic logic: a dog that chooses living meat over dead bone is a predator, not a companion.

The Art of “Describing the World” (说世界): This chapter contains a powerful, subtle example of Chinese narrative technique where a character’s lively spoken description replaces the reader’s direct perception. Bai Lingmiao is blind, so Li Huowang builds a fictional market for her with his voice. This is a deep-rooted literary tradition in Chinese fiction, where the power of telling is often prized over showing, especially in moments of emotional protection. Here, though, it’s a tragedy: the real world is cold, dirty, and menacing, and the painted world Li Huowang creates is temporary and fragile.

The Threat of the “Normal” Person: Sun Baolu is the only physically unmarked member of the group. In xianxia logic and folk-horror fiction, a character who is “too normal” in a world of grotesque curses is often the most dangerous. His lack of visible damage isn’t a sign of innocence—it’s a red flag. The trope flips expected sympathy: we start fearing for the one we should pity.

Army Shriek

A mass blood-sacrifice technique where all soldiers bleed from their seven apertures, and the evaporated blood forms a killing mist that drives them into a berserker state.

Mushroom Corpse Immortal

A corrupted Daoist concept of transcendence achieved through rot and decay, inverting the traditional “Corpse Solution” myth.

Chapter Overview

In this quiet, gut-wrenching chapter, we follow Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao through their last day of market fun before the group hits the road. It’s a bittersweet breather episode, but the Dao-Twisted World never lets you have nice things. Beneath the surface of this leisurely date, our boy Li Huowang catches a whiff of something rotten—and I don’t just mean the sheep manure. A single human skull carried by Mantou the dog unravels a thread of suspicion that points directly at the weakest, most hopeful member of the party. The chapter nails the art of showing tension through domestic quiet: a gentle hand pulled away from a dog’s tongue, a kick that sends evidence flying, and the hollow comfort of “let me describe the world to you because you can’t see the horror.” Get ready, folks—it’s the calm before the storm, and it smells like betrayal.

Key Plot Points

Mantou brings Li Huowang a human skull, confirming that the previous bone it found was also human. Li Huowang tests the dog’s loyalty by offering it his own fresh flesh; Mantou ignores the meat, proving it’s only trying to please its master, not feed on people.
Li Huowang immediately shifts his suspicion from the dog to Sun Baolu, who had previously lied about the bone being from a horse. This sets up a creeping distrust of the only normal member of the group.
Li Huowang takes Bai Lingmiao on a careful tour of the market, deliberately steering her away from anything grim. He describes an exciting, vivid world she can’t see, creating a poignant contrast between his effort and her disappointed reality.
At dusk, the pair returns to camp and runs into Sun Baolu, who has successfully purchased a herd of sheep. He acts cheerful, innocent, and eager to go home.
The chapter ends on a quiet cliffhanger: Sun Baolu, walking back to his tent, suddenly finds Li Huowang blocking his path. The look in Li Huowang’s eyes is no longer friendly.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a masterclass in atmospheric dread without a monster attack. If you came here looking for Flesh Buddhas and screaming spirits, you might feel let down—but don’t be fooled. This is the kind of quiet chapter where the author sharpens the knife before the next horror. Pay close attention to the small gestures: Li Huowang pulling Bai Lingmiao’s hand away from the dog, the casual kick that sends the skull flying, the repeated “don’t worry, nothing is wrong.” Every single one of these is a flag. Also, keep an eye on Sun Baolu. His sudden freeze at the end, when he sees Li Huowang’s gaze, is worth more than any screaming battle scene. Something is about to break—and it’s not going to be pretty.