From Gu Zhisang’s perspective, she could see that each box was filled with freshly killed poultry and livestock, chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs. The blood dripping on the corpses had not yet dried, making the poultry carcasses on the top of the box particularly look terrible.

There were already many bugs on the riverside, and they were all attracted by the sweet smell of fresh blood and kept flying above the box.

On top of many poultry carcasses, there was also a cow and a sheep.

These two large livestock were still alive. Their four hooves were tightly tied with hemp rope, making it impossible to break free and run away.

They were frightened by the tragic death of other creatures below them. Their eyes were wide open and full of fear, and they screamed “moo” and “baa” at the top of their lungs. They shook the box slightly and were so frightened that they could not control themselves. Feces was continuously squeezed out from their anus.

The Old Shaman raised her cloudy eyes to look at Gu Zhisang and said hoarsely: “Little girl, please don’t disturb the auspicious time of the sacrifice, otherwise the ‘River Goddess’ will be angry with us.”

Gu Zhisang looked at her steadily and said for a long time: “There is no need to continue this. Since ancient times, anyone who requires human sacrifices to be satisfied, cannot be a god. At most, it is an unknown evil spirit.”

The Old Shaman looked stern: “What a stupid girl! How dare you be so disrespectful to the ‘River Goddess’? You don’t want your own life, but you have to drag everyone on the lake shore to be buried with you?”

After she said these words, shouts came one after another from behind Gu Zhisang.

Gu Zhisang ignored this.

She said calmly: “You don’t even know the reason why the corpse was buried, and you don’t know what’s in the river, but you call yourself a shaman and say you can solve the problem. Aren’t you ashamed?”

The Old Shaman’s expression paused, with a hint of disinterest in her eyes.

She didn’t know what was under the lake, but she had heard from her elders and classmates since she was a child that there was something under the goddess lake.

Since something was there, she better pays tribute with the ‘sacrifice’.

It turned out that her guess was correct. Just yesterday, some cattle and sheep were thrown into the lake, and the body of the woman who disappeared into the lake floated up.

After Gu Zhisang confirmed that the Old Shaman really didn’t think she was wrong and firmly believed that her guess was right, she felt a little bit dumbfounded.

She said in a cold voice: “I don’t care how much you believe that there is a goddess in the lake and that offering sacrifices can calm everything down. But if you want to offer the lives of innocent people for your ignorance, you better stop.”

This was said without any beginning or end, but it made the Old Shaman’s face change greatly.

“W-what do you want to do?!”

Gu Zhisang walked to the two big boxes. As soon as she got closer, the strong smell of blood penetrated her nose. The smell made her feel sick to her stomach.

She raised her foot and kicked the side of the wooden box.

The contact surface made a dull sound, and then the box, which was more than one meter high, flipped over and hit the ground hard.

The cattle and sheep above fell to the ground and screamed in terror. The pieces of meat and livestock carcasses in the box also spilled out and overflowed.

After the two boxes were kicked over by Gu Zhisang one after another, Gi Liaochan in the crowd suddenly widened his eyes and looked at the thing exposed at the bottom of the box: “That, that is?!”

She saw that after the contents of the upper layer of one of the boxes were spilled out, the tied-up person at the bottom was exposed.

It was a child of about five or six years old. His hands and legs were curled up. Her mouth was tightly sealed with tape. Her face was covered in blood and animal hair. She struggled very little with her eyes closed, and the sound she made was even more extremely weak.

Gu Zhisang took her out, tore off the tape on her mouth, and wiped some of the smelly blood from her, and then she could barely tell that she was a little girl with short hair whose hair was stuck together.

At the bottom of the other box was also a child.

His body fell limply on the animal’s carcass, his eyes closed and motionless.

After Gu Zhisang took him out, he found that the boy was in critical condition.

The two children were heavily pressed in the box and stayed for a long time. The surrounding air became thinner and thinner. Only traces of oxygen could pass through the gaps and be inhaled into their noses.

Coupled with the bleating of the live cattle and sheep on the box, it drowned out their subtle movements in the box.

She was afraid that if she came a moment later, even if the Old Shaman didn’t throw them into the goddess lake, they would die of suffocation due to lack of oxygen.

Gu Zhisang did not touch the child at will, she turned her head and asked coldly: “Is there a doctor?”

Ever since the two children came out from under the box, many nearby residents who criticized watching the theater were frightened, and the scene became silent.

They didn’t know that among these sacrifices, there were two children!

The Old Shaman said that the sacrifice required a caisson, so wouldn’t the two children in the box be drowned alive?!

A woman whispered: “I studied medical care before and passed the certificate.”

“Come here.” When Gu Zhisang stood up, the front of her clothes and hands were stained red with animal blood: “A’Chan, call an ambulance.”

With an angry look on her face, Qi Liaochan glared at the people around her and nodded in agreement.

Smelling her scent, Gu Zhisang was in a bad mood. She glanced around with a cold face and smiled:

“If these two children died, everyone here had played a role.”

“Hey, what are you talking about, a girl? We don’t know… There are two living people inside the box. We always thought they were only livestock!”

“Old Lady Shaman, what are you doing? This is illegal! It’s so scary. Where did you get these two kids?”

“……”

Hearing Gu Zhisang say that they were all accomplices, many theatergoers were unhappy. They expressed their innocence and began to denounce the goddess.

Some people were evasive and slightly guilty, obviously knowing something.

Only the middle-aged parents whose child had died were the most emotional. They looked at Gu Zhisang with eyes full of hatred, as if they were looking at the murderer.

“Why do you want to ruin our big event? Don’t you have any relatives or parents? Won’t you have children in the future? If they die, you won’t collect their body…”

Gu Zhisang interrupted these seemingly reasonable accusations in a cold voice: “What about the two children who were used as sacrifices? Should they die?”

The middle-aged couple who were questioned became weak.

The man gritted his teeth and said: “It was their parents who sold them, and they are all willing! You, a turtle who came out of nowhere, dare to interfere in my family’s business. You know what my family is in Hunan Province…”

Before he could finish his words, he staggered as if he had been slapped by an invisible slap. He sat down on the ground with a ‘pop’, his cheeks quickly became red and swollen;

Before the words came out, a few broken teeth came out of his mouth.

At this moment, a whistle finally sounded in the distance.

As soon as the police officers who arrived at their destination got out of the car, they saw blood, animal carcasses, and two red and unconscious children lying on the ground.

Their expressions changed: “What are you doing?! What’s going on here?”

*

After the local police station arrived and detained the parents of the dead boy, the Old Shaman, and some people involved in the incident, the two children were also sent to the hospital.

Gu Zhisang did not go to the police station immediately but followed Gi Liaochan to find a nearby bed and breakfast to wash off the blood on her body.

While she was wiping her long hair in her nightgown, there was a knock on the door of her room from outside.

After opening the door, Gi Liaochan held up a clean set of ethnic minority clothes and said, “Sangsang, please wear this first.”

“Okay.”

When Gu Zhisang changed clothes and was about to go to the local police station again, Gi Liaochan saw her coming out of the room with eyes full of surprise and sighed:

“Sangsang, your skin is so white and delicate. If you were in the Miao Village, you would be the girl most admired by the boys.”

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