Chapter 1: Almanac

The twenty-third day of the fourth lunar month, Grain in Ear.

It was raining outside. Ning Zhe walked into the ancestral hall where the Serpent God was worshipped, flipped open the old almanac nailed to the statue's tongue, and checked the fortune for the day: 【Suitable:】

【Taboo: Travel, Burial, Funeral Rites, Sacrifices】

"Taboo to travel... Does today's rule mean I can't go out?" Ning Zhe scrutinized the almanac before him, committing the content to memory.

The content of the almanac was the key to surviving in this isolated mountain village.

This village was called He Family Village, located in the center of a basin surrounded by mountains on all sides, completely cut off from the world. The entire village was divided into east and west halves by a river, connected by three arched bridges.

The people of He Family Village all believed in the Serpent God, and every household worshipped a portrait of the deity. The Serpent God was depicted as a large green jade snake with a pair of curved, long horns. A wooden statue of the Serpent God, carved from the root of a camphor tree, was worshipped in the clan ancestral hall at the south end of the village, surrounded by the spirit tablets of He Family Village's ancestors—which was exactly where Ning Zhe was currently standing.

An old almanac was nailed to the tongue of the Serpent God statue. The most important thing for the villagers of He Family Village to do every midnight was to come to the ancestral hall to turn the page of the almanac, check the day's fortune, and only then could they sleep in peace.

According to the villagers, the fortune in the almanac was a heavenly secret revealed by the Serpent God.

The "Suitable" and "Taboo" items given by the almanac each day were random. Knowing the content allowed one to seek good fortune and avoid disaster; doing what was suitable brought good luck, while violating a taboo brought bad luck. Repeated violations led to terrible misfortune, and those who violated too many or too severe taboos could even die bizarrely.

Ning Zhe had personal experience with this.

When he first entered the village yesterday, because he was unaware of the rules here, he had inadvertently violated the taboos of "Seeing Life" and "Exterminating Insects," which led to him having bad luck all day long:

He tripped in the gaps of the stone-paved road while walking, was hit on the back of the head by a falling roof tile while passing under an eave, and a torrential rain began the moment he wanted to go out... He barely managed to survive until midnight, and the isolated mountain village was about to welcome a new day. Ning Zhe crouched at the entrance of the ancestral hall, and as soon as midnight passed, he immediately flipped open the almanac to check the day's fortune.

Ning Zhe confirmed the content of the almanac once more:

【Suitable:】

【Taboo: Travel, Burial, Funeral Rites, Sacrifices】

"Burial, funeral rites, and sacrifices are easy to understand, but what exactly does 'travel' mean? Does it mean going on a long journey, or does it count as long as one leaves buildings like houses and reaches the outside world? Also..."

Ning Zhe felt suspicious, his gaze shifting slightly upward, landing on the blank space after the word "Suitable":

"Why is there only 'Taboo' and no 'Suitable' on the almanac?"

Is nothing suitable today?

Just as he was puzzled, the sound of light footsteps came from outside the ancestral hall; it must have been a villager coming to check the almanac. Ning Zhe left the lotus pedestal where the Serpent God statue was worshipped and walked toward the side door of the ancestral hall, preparing to leave.

The villagers of He Family Village were not decent people; if possible, Ning Zhe did not want to have much contact with them.

But the candlelight behind him flickered slightly, and Ning Zhe hesitated as he reached the side door of the ancestral hall. Without being able to determine the specific meaning of the "travel" taboo, he didn't dare to go out rashly; he had already had enough bad luck yesterday.

"Midnight has passed, and today's fortune has been refreshed. If leaving the house to move around within the village counts as 'travel,' then the villagers who left their homes to come to the ancestral hall to check the almanac have already violated the taboo at this very moment," Ning Zhe thought to himself.

The Serpent God was magnanimous; the ignorant would only suffer some insignificant bad luck upon their first violation and would not lose their lives. In other words, as long as he observed whether the villagers who came to the ancestral hall had bad luck, he should be able to roughly judge whether they had violated the "travel" taboo.

Thinking of this, Ning Zhe didn't rush to leave. He moved to the side of a pillar against the wall. The pillar was pitch black, hung with dark red old silk curtains, and the dim candle stand flickered slightly beneath the curtains. Ning Zhe hid himself behind the curtains, observing the main entrance of the ancestral hall through the gaps in the candlelight.

Light, muffled, low footsteps mixed with the sound of dripping water, and a pair of white sneakers stepped over a puddle on the street, arriving at the entrance of the ancestral hall.

"..." Ning Zhe stared fixedly at the figure walking in from the door, his pupils contracting slightly in shock.

It was a robust young man, looking under thirty years old, wearing a simple tank top paired with loose mid-length pants suitable for running. His thick arms and the sneakers on his feet indicated that this was a guy who loved to exercise. However, it was this plain attire that made Ning Zhe shudder.

"Ever since I was dragged into He Family Village, every villager I've seen here has had a strange appearance. They wear outdated hemp clothes, use primitive ox-drawn plows to till the fields, and speak with a heavy Hakka accent... There isn't even an electric light on the road or in the houses."

"If it weren't for the bizarre rules here and the villagers' stiff movements like shadow puppets, I would have even suspected that I had traveled back to ancient times." But in such a bizarre "ancient village," he had actually seen another person wearing modern clothing.

"Who is he? Was he dragged into this bizarre place just like me? Are there other living people here besides me?"

All sorts of doubts filled Ning Zhe's mind, but his cautious personality kept him from acting rashly. Slowing his breathing and trying his best to control himself from making any sound, Ning Zhe watched without blinking as the robust man in the tank top and sneakers walked into the ancestral hall, went straight to the inner hall, and stood still in front of the Serpent God statue.

"His goal is also the almanac," Ning Zhe realized.

This man in the tank top was likely an outsider who, like him, had accidentally been dragged into this bizarre village, and perhaps he had also inadvertently violated a Serpent God taboo. His purpose for coming to the ancestral hall in the middle of the night might also be the same as his—to flip through the almanac and check the day's fortune.

The man in the tank top looked up at the old almanac hanging on the Serpent God's tongue, a look of confusion on his face. Ning Zhe knew what he was confused about: "He thought he was the first person to arrive at the ancestral hall, and the almanac hadn't been flipped yet, still stuck on yesterday. Therefore, he might be wondering why the content on the almanac doesn't match the taboo he violated yesterday."

But in reality, Ning Zhe, who had arrived a step earlier, had already flipped the almanac to today, so of course, it wouldn't match.

The man in the tank top hesitated for a moment in front of the Serpent God statue, but eventually reached out toward the almanac. He was preparing to flip through it.

"Right, this almanac has no Gregorian date; it uses the lunar calendar. It's very difficult for modern people accustomed to the Gregorian calendar to judge whether what is displayed is today based on the lunar date," Ning Zhe roughly guessed the situation.

This situation could actually be solved by just opening a mobile phone to take a look; mobile phone manufacturers usually display both the Gregorian and lunar calendars on the calendar interface. But perhaps because the almanac content didn't match the taboo he had actually violated, the chaotic facts made the man in the tank top panic. Under extreme tension, he couldn't calm down enough to think of this.

If the punishment is unknown, the power is immeasurable. With ethereal rules and death close at hand, few people could remain rational in such an environment.

Ning Zhe held his breath, his eyes fixed on the man's hand reaching for the almanac: "If the almanac, which has already been flipped to today, is flipped again, will it display tomorrow's fortune?"

He had no intention of going out to warn the other party. Ning Zhe was only curious about one thing now: would the Serpent God allow checking tomorrow's fortune today? This question was answered very quickly.

The man in the tank top pinched a page of the almanac and flipped it, intending to hang the page with today's fortune on the nail. But before this page could be hung up, less than a second after he flipped the almanac, a dull thud sounded in the ancestral hall.

It was the sound of a human body colliding with the loess ground. He failed to successfully flip the almanac to tomorrow, and his whole body collapsed to the ground like he had lost all strength, motionless.

"It seems the answer is no," Ning Zhe said to himself.

Although he hadn't actually checked the corpse, an inexplicable premonition appeared in Ning Zhe's heart, as if someone had given him a hint.

He felt that this man was dead.

A cold night breeze blew in from the main entrance, and the flipped page of yellow paper didn't fall back to its original position for a long time, rustling like a withered leaf floating in the wind, and also like a butterfly with dark yellow wings fluttering in this quiet ancestral hall. "Tomorrow's Fortune" was vaguely visible under the butterfly's wings.

Ning Zhe took a deep breath, turned his gaze away from the almanac, but didn't prepare to leave.

The man in the tank top's sudden death wasn't due to luck, but because he had violated some hidden death taboo independent of the "today's fortune" taboos.

"Is it like an unspoken rule under the surface rules?" Ning Zhe thought to himself while walking quickly from behind the curtain.

A cool draft blew through the ancestral hall. Ning Zhe used nimble hands and feet to drag the man in the tank top's corpse away from in front of the Serpent God statue and hid it under the offering table covered by a bright red tablecloth. A person who had just died wouldn't have any smell for a short time, and hiding the corpse here shouldn't expose him.

Ning Zhe tidied up the tablecloth, walked quickly away from the offering table, and hid back behind the curtain against the wall.

"There should be other living people in this village besides me and this man. They might also come to the ancestral hall to flip through the almanac."

Ning Zhe wasn't scared out of his wits by the bizarre death that had just happened before his eyes. He still clearly knew what he should do—by observing whether others who came here from outside had bad luck, he might be able to judge the specific meaning of the "travel" taboo in today's fortune.

The content of the almanac was the key to surviving in this isolated mountain village.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 2 =====