C5 Pointing the Sky Lantern

When the entire village witnessed the scene, they were dumbfounded. Then, they turned their gazes upon me, a mix of fear and anger in their eyes. Backing away, they muttered under their breath, "Omen of doom... Freak... Harbinger of disaster..."

It was then that the village accountant, standing next to the chief, threw more fuel on the fire. He pointed at me and declared, "I'm telling you, this kid is a monster. I saw it with my own eyes, over ten years ago on that stormy night—Zhao Changsheng crawling out of a coffin and gnawing on a corpse in the adjacent grave!"

The accountant's words sent shockwaves through the crowd and left me reeling. I knelt down, stunned, and turned to look at my foster father.

Finally, my foster father couldn't contain himself any longer. He yelled, "Don't listen to the accountant's wild tales! He's in cahoots with Sunn Youde, trying to set us up. The Sunn family, father and son, have been up to no good behind everyone's backs!"

But in such a charged atmosphere, who would take my foster father's word for it? Overcome with emotion, he turned to Ms. Xiaofeng, who stood isolated nearby, and cried out, "Xiaofeng, don't you remember what the Sunn family did to you in that dilapidated temple yesterday? Speak up! This whole situation started because of you!"

Ms. Xiaofeng shuddered, resembling a startled lamb. She glanced around at everyone, then at me, my foster father, and Sunn Youde.

All eyes in the village were fixed on Ms. Xiaofeng. She was visibly torn, her complexion fluctuating between flushes of red and pale bouts of white, her lips tightly pursed.

"Ms. Xiaofeng..." I called out gently, knowing the shame attached to this affair. If she lacked the courage to speak up, I would understand.

What I hadn't anticipated was Ms. Xiaofeng's hesitation before she finally spoke up, her voice quivering as she pointed at me, "It was... Zhao Changsheng who humiliated me..."

"Ms. Xiaofeng, how could you..." I was overwhelmed with a torrent of emotions—rage, helplessness, and sorrow. I was at a loss for words, only catching Sunn Youde's smug, cold smirk.

In that moment, the entire village erupted in a frenzy of curses directed at me. Some even picked up stones and hurled them my way. I was battered until I bled from my head, but by then, I was almost numb to the pain.

My foster father's complexion was ashen, his eyes glaring fiercely at Sunn Youde, the village chief, and Ms. Xiaofeng. Yet, I couldn't bring myself to believe that Ms. Xiaofeng had uttered those words; it felt like I was trapped in a terrible nightmare.

A stone struck my head with brutal force, causing a buzzing in my ears as I slowly lost consciousness.

Upon awakening, I found myself and my foster father atop a mountain, our bodies swathed in burlap and bound to wooden stakes. The dying light of the sunset bathed us, staining our figures with a crimson that resembled fresh blood.

By then, the crowd had thinned considerably, leaving only Sunn Youde's cohorts and a handful of burly men.

"What are you doing?" I yelled at the onlookers.

"Lighting the Sky Lantern..." a raspy voice emerged from somewhere. Straining to look back, I spotted a figure clad in black lurking in the shadows.

Before I could discern who it was, my foster father and I were thrust into an oil drum. Unaware of what 'lighting the Sky Lantern' meant, I watched my father flail and shout from within the drum, "You heartless fiends will get your comeuppance! I confess, all these deeds were my doing alone; Changsheng is innocent. You should let him..."

He was cut off mid-sentence, his mouth sealed and submerged in the oil drum. We were like sacrificial lambs, our bodies wrapped and restrained, submerged in oil.

As darkness enveloped the sky and a torch was lit nearby, the grim reality of their intentions became clear to me.

"Master, all preparations are complete. When shall we light the fire?" Sunn Youde inquired of the shadowy figure, his tone dripping with deference.

"The truly wicked deserve to have their bellies slit open, a wick inserted, and then set alight to burn the fat within. That is the true meaning of lighting the Sky Lantern," the mysterious man replied icily.

"Whatever you command, Master," Sunn Youde sneered, taking a butcher's knife from an underling and advancing towards us step by step.

My foster father and I struggled desperately. Just then, the distant sounds of drums and gongs erupted from the nearby woods.

As if on cue, everyone turned to look at the same time, and there, emanating from the southwest corner of the woods, was a cloud of green mist. Through it, I could barely make out a red sedan chair, carried by unseen bearers, advancing toward us at a slow pace.

Expressions of fear and shock flashed across everyone's faces, for the sedan chair seemed to move on its own, with no visible bearers, and the sound of a horn, though no one could be seen playing it.

The sedan chair drew nearer and nearer, and the once celebratory music turned into a chilling, spine-tingling wail...