Chapter 452: The Evil God Festival - The Boathouse

Xiaokui and Bai six dangled the hook and shook it, she raised her hand to wipe the tears from the corner of her eyes and asked softly, "...... And Bai six, what is your wish?"

Bai propped one hand on the tabletop and lowered her eyes, tapping her knuckles on the table with a single movement: "I want to sacrifice the evil gods."

Xiaokui was startled: "Sacrifice to an evil god?!"

"Yeah." Bai six quirked one corner of her mouth, "It's because of Him that you're all suffering so much, isn't it? Wouldn't it be enough to sacrifice him to make it all end?"

Xiaokui felt something was wrong, but couldn't quite put her finger on it, so she frowned and asked, "...... Why is that your wish?"

"...... Why would that be the wish ......" Bai six turned his head sideways, and he cocked it lazily, his broad kimono sliding off his shoulders to reveal the scaly, ebony skin inside, He winked, "Because I hate evil gods, of course."

Xiaokui followed up with a puzzled, "Hate evil gods ......?"

Although all the sacrifices hate the evil gods, something tells Xiaokui that Bai six must hate them for a different reason than the ordinary sacrifices.

"That's right." Bai six's eyes were half closed, "When I was in the orphanage, I was not liked by anyone, I was rejected by everyone, the teachers were disgusted with me, they thought I was a badly taught child, so I was always outside the group."

"But there was another child like that, his name was Xie Ta."

"I was very curious about Xie Ta and used to observe him, finding that he liked to read the same books as me, play the same type of horror games, and was even hated by the same teachers and children, so I found him interesting and wanted to find out more about what he was thinking."

Hearing this, Xiaokui felt amused and relaxed again, "You want to be friends with him."

Bai six paused thoughtfully, "Common sense would indeed dictate that."

"But he turned me down."

Xiaokui was stunned: "Why?"

Bai six spread his hands and shrugged, "I don't know, in any case, no matter what kind of game invitation I extended to him, he acted as if he didn't see it, and even if he stood directly in front of him, he would simply ignore me and walk coldly past me."

"So then I got really annoyed with him."

Xiaokui frowned: "What's wrong with that? Even if you say no, you should say it properly.

"And then later." Bai six dragged the right side of his face and lowered his eyes, " Xie Ta just disappeared, some say he's dead."

Xiaokui looked up in dismay: "Dead?!"

"Right." Bai six sighed as if in regret, "Because I was the kid who had explicitly expressed dislike and hostility towards him and went back late that night, I was falsely accused of killing him."

Looking at Bai six's expression now, a strange feeling rose in Xiaokui's heart, and she inexplicably recalled the languid expression of laughter on Bai six's face when she was on the boat and saw him casually confess to killing Xie Ta and splitting his body.

...... That's not the attitude of someone who has been falsely accused.

But before Xiaokui can think about it, Bai six continues unhurriedly.

"Then, as more and more children hated me, hated me and wanted to get me out of the orphanage, my teachers started torturing me in various ways, such as constantly drowning me in the baptismal pool and forcing me to confess my sins, generally in a similar way to that used on Bei Yuan's side of the family."

"The only thing I could do was to escape to the church where Xie Ta had disappeared and pray to the statue there day after day. I couldn't find anyone who could help me, so I had to hope that the gods would take me out of my misery."

"But such an act of prayer to escape everything was described by my teacher, and the other children in the orphanage, as the evil deed of a psychopathic murderer returning to the scene of the crime to relive that thrill of killing after dividing up his own victims."

"- all this rumour started simply because I was smiling when I prayed at the church God Xiang."

Bai six raised her eyes and looked directly at Xiaokui with those dark eyes that seemed to suck in all the light, Xiaokui was creeped out and could not move, she could only watch Bai six slowly propped up on the table top and approached her, leaning her head lightly on her shoulder, dropping her eyes and whispering.

" Does Xiaokui feel the same way?"

"Is it my fault that I just don't have the means to be miserable and just think that God Xiang should be pious in praying for deliverance?"

...... Jiro, isn't this her Jiro?

Xiaokui's heart ached as she subconsciously stroked Bai six's head and loudly denied it in a trance: "It's not your fault!"

"It's the fault of those who tortured you!"

Bai six, who was leaning on Xiaokui's shoulder, curled his lips without a word, his tone becoming more and more dependent: "Is that so?"

Xiaokui takes a deep breath: "Yes!"

Bai six continued in a whisper.

"After I didn't know how long God Xiang had been praying, I had a dream in which I was like a resident here in Luming County, sensing the call of the evil one."

"The evil god brought me into a game with many people, and he said that if I won the game, I would get many things."

"Like money, like props."

"Then I woke up on a boat, and the evil god told me the name of the game was called The Evil God Ritual - Funhouse, and the only way I could win it was to sacrifice away the evil god in the shrine."

Bai six looked up slowly as he looked at Xiaokui: "When I walked into the shrine that first night, Sister Xiaokui, guess what I found?"

Xiaokui shook her head in disbelief as she gradually lost track of what Bai six was talking about.

Bai six smiles: "- I found the body of the evil god sleeping in the shrine, the one I was rumoured to have killed, Xie Ta."

Xiaokui's pupils contract to a point.

She walked out of the room where Bai six was giving her lessons, almost blankly, and when she had done so, Xiaokui turned her head in uncertainty and stared blankly at Bai six, who was skilled in receiving the next offering.

" Lord Xiaokui." Bai six smiled lightly as he leaned against the door with his chest clasped, "Don't forget our pact."

As the days went by, she began to get closer and closer to Bai six, who would remind her in class how to avoid torture, and occasionally bore her with games of horror and backgammon, sometimes doing nothing at all, lying on the tatami mats during class, staring at the ceiling and talking about nothing.

"If only I had met you earlier, Lord Xiaokui." Bai six said as he lay on the ground, "If only there had been someone around me who would have played the game with me back then, maybe I wouldn't be here."

"If only ...... I had a sister, too." He murmured very, very softly, "There would be someone born who would never abandon me, and someone who would always miss me when I die."

"For it is worthwhile to have people who look forward to his presence, even in death ......"

Xiaokui sometimes says: " Bai six is also very valuable."

"Is that so?" Bai six snorted, "Worth to whom?"

The more she touches it, the more she thinks Bai six is like a child.

--particularly like Jiro.

She gradually let her guard down with Bai six.

One day Bai six looked at Xiaokui and suddenly said: "Beiyuan Xiaokui, do you want to leave here?"

Xiaokui was stumped for a long, long time before she replied, "Yes."

"I have a way for you to get out of here." Bai six raised his eyes and he said quickly without any emotion on his face, "There will be a big conflict between the Gifune family and the Bei Yuan family in a while, and in the midst of that conflict each family will have a weaker guard on the boathouse."

"If you want to run, you can run at this time."

Xiaokui bit her lower lip and opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end no words came out.

Bai six picked up as if indifferently, "If you want the other sacrifices to run with you, then spread the word, and if you run out, don't come back."

Xiaokui looked up sharply, "What about you!"

Bai six smiled carelessly, "My target is here and I'm not going to run."

Xiaokui was about to say something else when Bai six cut her off: "I've contacted your sister and she'll run you straight to the county where she's living now."

"Run out, stay where you are and live well, forget everything that has happened here and start again."

Bai six looked at Xiaokui with a myriad of emotions in his eyes and he said very softly, "Including me, Sister Xiaokui."

Xiaokui eagerly stepped forward: "You run with us too!"

Bai six turned around and interrupted Xiaokui in a flat tone, " Lord Xiaokui, your lesson for today is over, go back."

"Don't come back."

Xiaokui gritted her teeth and tried to persuade again when Bai six's back paused: "If I get the chance, I'll come and see you in six months."

On the day of the conflict, the Gifune family set fire to Bei Yuan's house and half of Luming County was enveloped in the blaze. -!"

" Bai six--!"

"Where are you?!"

Xiaokui doesn't find Bai six in the fire after all. She is dragged out of Bei Yuan's house by Aota and meets Apricot who is waiting on the path leading to the shrine.

Apricot hugged Xiaokui and bawled, "Finally, finally I found you!"

Xiaokui turned back with a blank expression, and she saw high on the shrine hill, in the midst of a mountain of fire, a man in a white kimono standing by the shrine, untouched by a single spark, seemingly smiling at her and waving to congratulate her on leaving the place.

--It's Bai six.

Xiaokui's eyes welled up with tears for a moment and she mumbled unconsciously, "...... Thank you."

"Thank you, Bai six ."

She finally escaped this hell and went with her own sister to a place of spring blossoms.

After the early fears and scares, Xiaokui finally settles down after realising that no Luming County men are after her and settles into a happy and normal life with the acceptance of Apricot and her kind husband.

Good things seemed to follow one another, and soon the good news from Apricot came that she was pregnant.

The husband accused, slightly helplessly, "Look at the date, you were pregnant on the day you went to save Xiaokui, and I told you to let me go, but you wouldn't let me.

Apricot rubbed her stomach, her eyes looking tenderly at Xiaokui: "Even if I knew I was pregnant, I would have gone to pick up Xiaokui myself."

"She is as important a sister as my children."

" When Bai six's teacher contacted me, she said she was suffering a lot and was likely to distrust strangers and made sure I picked her up in person."

"That's a really nice guy." Apricot exclaimed, "Willing to help us Xiaokui."

Xiaokui's face was surprised as she carefully touched the apricot's belly and spoke of Bai six as if it were a century ago, her tone a little dazed: "I wonder if he's left Luming County yet."

Apricot smiled and smacked Xiaokui in the face, "Don't worry, Bai six is a smart and nice teacher, he must have left that shithole Luming County a long time ago."

"Didn't he say he'd come to see you in six months? There's still a month to go before the six months are up, so you might see Mr. Bai six when the door opens!"

Xiaokui smiled as she took a deep breath and hmmed.

But what Xiaokui didn't expect was that, as if she had been right, when the six months were up, on a gloomy afternoon when it was pouring with rain and she and her husband were out for a maternity check-up, Xiaokui heard a knock at the door and pushed it open to see Bai six, pale and drenched, standing in front of her.

Xiaokui asked in dismay, " Bai six teachers?

Bai six's face was blank as he reached for Xiaokui's wrist and dragged her away: "Come on, I want to show you something."

Xiaokui was dragged along by Bai six in the rain, trying to break free while wondering what terrible evil was about to happen to her after a long and happy life: "...... What happened Bai six teacher? "

"Did you come to see me?"

"Right." Bai six darted through the downpour, his tone so cold it could almost freeze, "but I'm also here to give you bad news."

"We've all been cheated."

Xiaokui asked back, confused, "What was cheated?"

"There's no way you'll believe me when I tell you, so let me show you straight away." Bai six explained methodically, "Besides you, seventy-three sacrifices ran out of that fire, four of them in a county near you."

"One of them is Aota, you know that, don't you?"

Xiaokui slowly began to feel uneasy: "I know."

Aota escaped with her this way and was soon adopted by a kind couple and is doing well, being encouraged by the couple to study hard for their exams and prepare for the school near where they are preparing.

Apart from that, the other three offerings that have escaped to this area are also doing well and Xiaokui and they still see each other from time to time, talking about their time in Luming County as if they were reminiscing about their previous generations.

"Don't you think it's strange?" Bai six spoke in a calm tone, "Why do all the sacrifices that escape get on so well?"

Xiaokui asked hesitantly in return, "It's such a beautiful world out there."

--That's what the Bei Yuan family teachers taught them.

Except for Luming County, which is hell, everything outside is heaven, with all the wonderful things and feelings waiting to be explored, and if they escape Luming County, they are sure to live the fairy-tale life described in the books.

"No." Bai six's hair dripped from the ends of his head and his tone was light, "From these teachings, to the fire, to your exodus, it was all a long-running scam."

Xiaokui gradually began to get a chill down her spine: "What does ...... mean?"

Bai six spoke in a calm tone, "See for yourself."

Bai six took Xiaokui for two rides, first to the floor below Cang Tai.

Mrs. Cang's family lives in a remote area and there is not much around, so they walked a bit before they arrived.

From far away, Xiaokui could hear Aoi's heartbreaking cries and pleas through the door: "No, Dad, Mom, you're lying to me, aren't you? It can't be like this, can it?"

Bai six took a glance at Xiaokui, whose expression was starting to falter, and took her by the wrist and led her to the back: "There's a window over here, so you can peek in and see what's going on."

Through the warm orange glowing window, Aota could be seen on her knees, holding up an A+ report card broken and crying incredulously, "I got into that school!"

"I'm fine! Please, can you not send me back?!"

Opposite Aota was the couple who had adopted him. The couple, who had always been so devoted to him, did not even look at Aota, who was kneeling in front of them, and stretched their necks to look at the two men dressed in black who stood in front of him.

The moment he saw the two men, Xiaokui's pupils contracted completely.

--These two men are the servants of the Bei Yuan family.

The two servants took out a wad of money from their arms and handed it over to the couple, "It's been hard work for you over the past six months."

The couple nodded and accepted the money with a happy face, "No, no, this is what we should do."

The two servants swept a glance at Aota, who was sitting on the floor with tear-stained face, "In order that Lord Aota may suffer a little more, I would also ask you two to escort him with us to the shrine and watch him being sacrificed."

"Fine, fine." The couple who received the money spoke readily, "All this was agreed six months ago, we will do as we are told!"

The maid nodded rather satisfactorily.

The couple fawned over the servants and handed them cigarettes, "Next time there is such a good thing as getting paid for raising a child for six months, please remember to call on us again, my lords."

The maids opened their mouths to take the cigarettes, dispensable, and gave a haughty hmm.

Kneeling on the ground, the pupils of Cang Tai's eyes were lax, and no light was coming through at all.

Outside the window, it is pouring.

"I'm sure you can see that this is a deliberate design on their part, an exodus plan to make the sacrifice more painful." Bai six looked indifferent, "Even I am being used as a pawn to send you a message."

"No, it won't." Xiaokui retorted in a trance, "It's my sister who's coming to pick me up, not some stranger."

"She treated me the best growing up, she was mad to stop my parents when I was sold, she wouldn't do that to me, we're real sisters ......"

"Is that so?" Bai six asked indifferently, "It was your real parents who sold you, too, wasn't it?"

"Your sister was pregnant when she came to pick you up, she wasn't exactly well-off and came to pick you up just when she was most short of money."

"She hasn't come to pick you up in all those years, and it just so happened that as soon as she was two months pregnant, she came to pick you up."

"Are you sure she won't sell you?"

Xiaokui turned around with a blank expression, she glanced down at the watch on her wrist and muttered, "My sister is coming back from her maternity checkup, I still have to go home and cook before I can, otherwise she'll come back from the rain without anything to eat and she'll starve her and the baby ......"

"That won't do. ......"

Xiaokui stumbles forward, takes a few steps, falls to the ground, rises again and continues walking in a delirious manner, falling to the ground again, her palms cut by small gravels, bleeding profusely, whispering to herself.

"That won't do. ......"

The rain drenched Xiaokui's face as she staggered along, not knowing whether it was rain or tears.

Bai six slowly walked over to Xiaokui, who had fallen to her knees again, and held out her hand to her, "There are three more offerings."

He looked up at Xiaokui with no light at all in his dark eyes: "Are you going to see them?"

Xiaokui looked up with slack eyes, "...... good."

"Yota, please, don't leave me behind, I'll do anything!"

Xiaokui watched numbly as Sonoko hugged her boyfriend's knee and cried hoarsely, "I love you, don't send me back, please!"

"I can help you earn a lot of money, more money than they will give you, don't send me back!"

" Kawano brother ......?" A boy looked incredulously at his big brother who had given him a job and room and board and had taken great care of him, he looked hard at the Bei Yuan family maid who was giving Kawano money and struggled to squeeze out a smile, "Is it a customer Kawano-go?"

"That's a lot of money, it feels like a big deal!" The boy tried his best to hold back the tears that were about to fall from his eyes and yelled, "Wait, wait, I'm skipping lunch, I'll help Brother Kawano with this order!"

Kawano turned his head, still with that big brother smile on his face, "Yeah, of course it's a big order, and only you could have done this one."

He fanned the money he'd just got in his hand rather smugly, "I sold you."

The boy struggled frantically at first, calling out to Kawano to save him, but when Kawano rolled up his sleeve and slapped him so hard that his teeth and blood flew out, the boy finally stopped struggling and the last light in his eyes went out.

Kawano counted the money while pointing his finger at the boy's nose, "Be honest, I raised you for half a year for such a sum of money, if not for this money, who would have raised you as a rice pail?"

Xiaokui stands motionless in the rain, a black umbrella held by Bai six next to her.

After a long, long time, long enough for the boy to be carried away unmoving like a dead body by the Bei Yuan family, Xiaokui's eyes rolled back and she looked at the spot of blood on the ground that was being washed away by the heavy rain.

It was the sacrifice that was just struck out by Kawano.

Bai six spoke calmly, "I could send you away to a place where Bei Yuan's family would never find you, but your sister's family already knows all about you, and to prevent her from finding you, and for you to escape for good this time, there is only one thing I can do."

His expression was unmoving as he placed a black dagger in Xiaokui's trembling hand.

"Choose to be trapped for eternity as they abuse your feelings for them and trap yourself in a prison of pain, a sacrifice that can only be offered, or choose to sever the connection completely and go far away to freedom."

"-it's up to you."

Xiaokui can't remember how she got home, how she showered, changed, washed, made a good table as if nothing had happened, sat at the table with vacant eyes and a regular posture, waiting for them to come home.

The only difference from her previous happy life was the extra black dagger that sat in her chair.

"Ding dong--"

After the doorbell had been rung twice, the door was opened.

Apricot grumbled slightly reproachfully, " Xiaokui, really, not opening the door again."

"If you have the key, you can open it yourself." The husband next to me was being Mr. Nice Guy again, "That's a bad habit you have, you have to be lazy."

Apricot retorted defiantly, "I held it down today because I had a lot of shopping to do and I didn't have time on my hands! It's not about being lazy!"

My husband nodded amusedly, "Mostly you're just too excited to buy a bunch of baby products before the baby is even born."

Apricot excitedly sat down across from Xiaokui: "The baby is healthy! It should be born in a month or two!"

Xiaokui looked at Apricot with unfocused eyes, "Is that so?"

Apricot finally noticed that something was wrong and she frowned, "What's wrong with you Xiaokui ?"

Xiaokui lowered her eyes, "A bit tired ......"

"Let me tell you something, you won't be tired soon." Apricot circled Xiaokui's arm and perked up again, "Guess who I met on the way?!"

" Bai six Teacher!"

" Bai six teacher saw me and gave me a big red envelope, said it was a custom on their side of the world to give red envelopes for the birth of a new baby." Apricot scratched her head, slightly shy, "I was embarrassed to ask for it, but he said it was for you too, and that I should ask you if I wanted it."

The husband turned his head and took a wad of money out of his briefcase, "This is it."

Xiaokui was stopped in her tracks the moment she saw the stack of money.

The paper on which the money was wrapped, the thick background, the markings, were all almost identical to the money given to those people by the servants of the Bei Yuan family before.

"Lie." Xiaokui bowed her head as she said in a very soft voice, " How could Bai six teachers give you money ...... he was with me all afternoon."

"This is clearly, clearly ......"

Xiaokui lifted her tear-stained face, her eyes ruddy, and she gripped the knife behind her: "Those are the people who paid you!!!"

"Liars! You're all liars!"

"What's the difference between you and my bitch parents!!! Both gained happiness by selling my pain!!!"

"You are not worthy to be parents at all!"

As she looked at Xiaokui's raised knife, she recoiled in horror and subconsciously shielded her stomach as her husband, pale with panic, ran forward and stood in front of her with his arms wide open.

The cold blade slid past, and the mournful screams and cries could not be distinguished for a moment whether they came from the killer or the victim.

Bai six leaned out of the door, his chest clasped and his eyes downcast as he looked at his watch, waiting patiently until almost the screaming inside had ceased, and then he pushed the door open unhurriedly.

Inside the door there is blood everywhere, her husband is lying motionless on the floor, Xiaokui is on her knees with a knife, covered in blood, her eyes out of focus, and in front of her lies Apricot, who can barely move.

Apricot covered her stomach as she struggled to reach Xiaokui's face.

Her hand left a shockingly bloody handprint on Xiaokui's face as Apricot hissed, tearfully, "I ...... poor Xiaokui."

"Sister ...... doesn't blame you."

"Sister knows you've been tricked."

Bai six skipped briskly over her husband's body, humming a song as she walked towards Xiaokui.

"If sister is serious about sacrificing Xiaokui to make a wish ......," the light in Apricot's eyes faded and her hand that was touching Xiaokui fell weakly downwards, "then, then wish for someone who can help my sister, Xiaokui, escape from all this horror."

"And then live happily ever after."

Apricot turned her head sideways, her pupils dilating as the hand protecting her stomach and the hand touching Xiaokui both fell to the ground, pools of blood spreading across the floor.

Bai six walked over to the pool of blood, looked down at the motionless Xiaokui as if examining the goods, then knelt down and smiled.

" Sister Xiaokui, you are finally perfect."

"You're now the most painful sacrifice in the whole copy."

Xiaokui paused and slowly lifted her head, the expression on her face faded for a moment, her pupils tightened, and she opened her mouth but couldn't say a word.

"Yeah, right." Bai six smiled up, "It was all a set up I made for you."

"I have no way of generating pain myself, so I need a top-notch sacrifice that is painful enough to awaken the evil gods and make wishes that can even be sacrificed to them."

"All the other sacrifices were indeed made by the Bei Yuan family, and they are indeed in the Bei Yuan family's [exodus plan], I'm not lying to you, Xiaokui."

Xiaokui's hand slowly came free and the knife fell into the pool of blood beneath Apricot, her pupils spreading.

Bai six smiled up, "But Apricot is the exception."

"She was indeed contacted by me specifically to come to your rescue, she didn't take anyone's money and is indeed a good sister."

"So you're the exception to the rule."

"You really an escape from hell and a sacrifice of happiness."

Bai six leans forward and looks at Xiaokui, who seems to have lost her face and breath, and smiles with great pleasure.

" Sister Xiaokui, how does it feel to have achieved happiness with your own hands and then destroy it?"

Xiaokui can't remember how she was brought back to Luming County by Bai six and dragged up to the shrine.

But Bai six, in case she died, broke Xiaokui's wrist right in the middle of her third snatch.

She was dragged by the hair by Bai six and left under the shrine inside like a wrestling cargo.

The door to the shrine, which was never open to Bai six, finally opened slowly the moment Xiaokui stepped in.

A pair of bloodless, bare feet nodded in front of Xiaokui, countless translucent threads flew out, and long silvery-blue hair washed away in the air as if in water, a dense luminescence on the surface.

Xiaokui looked up dumbly into those holy and joyless silver-blue eyes, and tears fell, unconsciously, drop by drop.

Is this the ...... evil god?

Xiaokui heard Bai six's pleasant wish echoing in her ears, "I offer a sacrifice to the supreme evil god [Beiyuan Xiaokui]."

"The wish is." Bai six smiled up, "I want to sacrifice this evil god body [Xie Ta] and pass the game."

Xiaokui saw that the body, the moment Bai six opened her mouth, glowed inward and its limbs began to take the form of wooden sculptures, except for the silver-blue eyes that seemed human and as if they were gods still looking at her, as if waiting for her - a true sacrifice of her own pain - to ask for a wish.

"I wish ......" Xiaokui's tears fell in big drops, her voice so soft it was inaudible.

If I had to make a wish, it would be that someone would help my sister, Xiaokui, to escape from all this horror.

She wept madly, hoarsely, and roared out as loud as she could, "God, please, let the one who can save all appear!"

"Let's escape from all this horror!!!"

[System prompt: npc (Beiyuan Xiaokui) world line memory fusion completed]

[Fusion copy opened.]