Chapter 6: The Suppression

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Liang Dan suddenly realized, “So cutting the neck to bleed someone out can revert the sacrifice to their original form.”
“But there’s still one problem,” Liang Dan said helplessly, her face full of frustration, “after bleeding out, the person turns into a dried husk. Even if they revert to their original form, they still can’t live.”
“Whatever, let’s go back first and figure it out later, damn it!”
“Peerless great benefactor Liang Dan, insulting the air, you’re dead!”
*
Liang Dan gently closed the door to the storage room and peeked outside from the doorway.
Although she hadn’t yet found a way to turn them back, she could at least figure out where they were being kept.
The three storage rooms should be where they initially stayed upon entering the village, and where they were turned into ducks.
After being transformed into ducks, they were first kept at the village entrance, then carried from the villagers’ homes to the sacrificial site. Liang Dan now planned to find out exactly whose house the dozen or so young people had taken them from.
After waiting a while, she saw a house’s door open, and a group of young people carrying cages came out.
This was the very house that had refused to let Liang Dan and Zhang Wei stay after learning they were father and daughter.
“Damn it.”
“Peerless great benefactor Liang Dan, insulting others behind their backs, you’re dead!”
*
Liang Dan stepped out boldly, slipped under a window no higher than her head, and crouched outside to eavesdrop.
The dozen or so youths inside were chatting and laughing, sounding very cheerful, but Liang Dan couldn’t make out what they were saying.
She crouched and moved closer, then reached the storage room beside the house and pulled open the unlocked door.
A middle-aged woman lay on the floor, battered and bleeding from her head.
Next to her stood the large iron cage Liang Dan had been longing for, containing three ducks and three geese.
“Quack!”
Liang Dan made a “wait” gesture and rushed into the storage room to support the fallen woman. “Are you alright? How did you get so badly hurt?”
One duck flapped its wings and bumped the iron cage door with its head.
Liang Dan lowered her voice. “Don’t make noise, I understand.”
She fanned the woman with her hand, then took off her own coat and used it to stem the blood flowing from the woman’s head.
The woman slowly regained consciousness, and upon seeing Liang Dan, her eyes widened. “How are you still human?”
Liang Dan said, “I didn’t stay in the storage room long enough.”

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The woman frowned.
“I didn’t touch the firecrackers.”
The woman remained silent.
Liang Dan added, “I ate the food they gave me.”
The woman sighed, “So that’s it. Then why haven’t you left yet? Why are you still here?”
Liang Dan looked at the iron cage. “Five of us came here, but now only I remain. I want to bring those three back — back as humans.”
The woman raised her hand, pressing the coat against her head to stop the bleeding. “You guessed it. As long as you eat the food here, you won’t be turned into animals by the firecracker formation. If you can find this food for them, they can change back.”
Liang Dan asked, “How does the firecracker formation work? How is it used?”
“Each room has a different formation, controlled by different people. The room you entered suppresses young women, your father’s room suppresses elderly men.
“The firecrackers at the door have a special scent. After smelling it long enough, the people inside transform into animals. The food here is the antidote.”
Liang Dan fanned the woman with his hand. “For those turned into animals, you cut their necks to bleed them out. What about those who aren’t animals?”
“You just let them go.”
Liang Dan asked again, “Each household can suppress different people. You didn’t take us in because you couldn’t suppress a father and his daughter?”
The woman coughed lightly, “I don’t want to suppress anyone.”
Liang Dan suddenly understood, “So they left these ducks here temporarily to warn you.
“Forcing someone to witness the suffering of their own kind is a form of torture.”
Upon hearing “their own kind,” a complex emotion flashed in the woman’s eyes.
Liang Dan stood and approached the iron cage, reaching to unlock the padlock on the chain.
The duck jumped and flapped its feet, quacking inside the cage.
Liang Dan picked up a stone and swung at the chain. “We’re leaving this place. If you don’t mind, come with us—”
Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She turned sharply to see the middle-aged woman standing before her, smiling, holding a brick stained with Liang Dan’s blood.
The woman curled her lips, “It’s not that I don’t take in a father and daughter — I just don’t take in a man’s daughter. But now it seems that man isn’t your father at all.”
Liang Dan collapsed instantly, and before her eyes appeared the words:
“Peerless great benefactor Liang Dan, attacked by natives, you are dead!”
*
Natives. So she wasn’t a stranger here at all.
*

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So that duck was trying to warn her of this.
Liang Dan touched the back of her head and didn’t waste time, heading straight to the storage room where the ducks were kept.
The woman lay bleeding on the ground beside the large iron cage.
Liang Dan rushed in, helped the woman up, and touched the back of her head. “Are you alright? How did you get hurt so badly?”
The woman’s head wasn’t injured at all; the blood wasn’t hers.
The woman woke and said, “How are you still human?”
“Don’t worry about whether I’m human,” Liang Dan helped her stand and placed her near the storage room door. “Rest here for a bit.”
Liang Dan picked up the brick and smashed the iron chain. After several hits, the chain fell off, and the cage door opened.
Something felt off—during the cage opening, the woman hadn’t made a sound.
Liang Dan looked back. A dozen or so young people blocked the doorway, staring at her wide-eyed.
Why did these people make no sound when they walked?
A goose jumped onto Liang Dan’s back and pecked the back of her neck. Liang Dan fell to the ground.
“Peerless great benefactor Liang Dan, attacked by outsiders, you are dead!”
*
Liang Dan quickened her pace and ran swiftly to the storage room. The middle-aged woman lay on the ground.
Liang Dan took off her coat and hurried over to grab the woman’s arm. “Oh my, you’re bleeding a lot. I need to bandage you quickly.”
She said this as she folded the woman’s arms together and tied them with her coat. The woman woke and struggled fiercely.
Liang Dan picked up some transparent tape from the floor, sat on the woman, and taped her mouth shut.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood. Don’t speak now; talking will only exhaust you more.”
Each storage room was equipped just like the one Liang Dan was locked in, with a hard bed and a clutter of miscellaneous items.
Liang Dan closed the door and forcefully dragged the bed to block the door.
She gently laid the woman down on the bed. “The bleeding is bandaged now. You must rest well on the bed and not move around!”