C3 Execution

To keep up with the strangers, I turned and headed back to the village. On the way, I asked him his name, but he didn't answer me. After a while, we came to a deep alley in the village. One of the families had taken in quite a lot when they were building the house, leaving a relatively spacious space at the base of the wall. He then placed another pile of dirt on the ground about a meter high and plastered it with cement, creating a platform that was about ten meters long and five meters wide. Usually sunning some crops or something on it.

A few people were standing on the concrete platform. They were all wearing ancient clothing. There were fake jade ribbons carved out of bamboo strips, a beaded pheasant feather hat, and wide, thick-soled shoes. The woman's face was heavily powdered and rouged, and the man wore a fake mustache. It was clearly a costume for a singing show.

As the stranger and I approached, a few people on the stage remained silent, their bodies motionless as they stared at us like statues.

The moon in the sky became increasingly bright, illuminating the world.

When we came to a stop below the concrete platform, the people on the stage suddenly moved and began to croak. One by one, he finished her song. The voice was clear and distant. One could tell it was someone who had put in a lot of effort, but ordinary people wouldn't be able to sing such a voice. But after listening to them for a long time, I still couldn't understand what they were singing.

Logically speaking, the loud noises these people had made should have attracted the attention of everyone in the village. But I kept turning my head to look at Hu Tong, and there was no sign of him.

After a while, the people on the stage were still singing excitedly. The stranger who was standing next to me asked, "How is it? Is it nice?" I smiled bitterly and shook my head. "I really can't understand what they're singing!" The stranger frowned slightly and said, "Since you don't understand, then let them not sing and let them change their act!"

The stranger waved his hand. The people on the stage stopped singing. They all stared at me as if I were some rare object. I thought their eyes were full of something strange, something complex and deep. I even thought I knew them, but I couldn't remember where I had seen them.

On the concrete, besides the few of them, was a large box. It must have been used for carrying props and clothes. On top of the box was a large shining knife and a bundle of rope. A man and a woman walked over. The man, dressed in the tight-fitting Wusheng attire, used a piece of cloth to cover his face and picked up the huge sword to carry on his shoulder. The woman was dressed like a maidservant. Her face was covered with a thick layer of white powder while her lips were covered with red pills. She grabbed the rope and lifted it.

Another man, wearing a dark robe embroidered with ferocious tigers and a fake beard that fluttered from his face, tore open the trunk. There was actually a person hidden inside. His head was covered with a cloth, and he was wearing white clothes with the word 'Prisoner' written on it. Judging from his skinny and crooked body, it was most likely an old man.

The two men brought up the prisoners in the box. He dragged them to a man wearing a beaded crown, a golden dragon robe, and a fake jade belt carved from a thin bamboo strip hanging around his waist.

A loud and clear sound entered his ears. The prisoner knelt down heavily before the man in the golden dragon robe. The maidservant, who was carrying the rope, rushed over and quickly tied the prisoner up.

"Heavens, spare me!" The prisoner let out an old mournful wail. It was a woman. I heard it in my ears and felt very familiar. In my mind, I thought of my clan's great-grandmother, Hu Shizhen.

But I'm not sure it was her. She was so old, how could she have come to this kind of stage!

"Do you know what crime you have committed?" The yellow-robed man had a dignified expression as he shouted with a deep voice.

"Extremely evil! "It's a heinous crime!" The prisoner kneeling on the ground didn't say what crime he had committed, but only forcefully said these four words twice.

"I won't forgive you. It depends on the other person's wishes!" As I spoke, the man in the golden dragon robe cast a glance in my direction.

The prisoner's knees moved, changing the direction he knelt in, he faced me, who was standing below the stage, and wailed, "Jin Shi, spare me!"

I couldn't help but ask, "Are you Granny Gao Zu?"

The prisoner did not respond.

The scene fell into absolute silence. The full moon in the sky was like a silver plate. The weather was unusually hot and stuffy, without even the slightest breeze. The clothes that were soaked in sweat stuck to his skin, causing him to feel extremely uncomfortable.

About two minutes passed. The stranger next to me inclined his head and said, "Follow the script and the prisoners on this stage will be executed."

Feeling inexplicably depressed, I said, "Can you not follow the script?"

The stranger said, "Then it wouldn't be a good play! Do you want the show to be more exciting? "

I nodded. "Since I don't understand how to act, I'll leave it to you to decide!"

The stranger said, "Then you must call for a decision!"

"Please don't!" Jin Shi, spare me! " The kneeling prisoner on the stage began to beg again.

I sternly and solemnly shouted, "Dismissed!"

The masked man dressed as a martial arts practitioner with a saber on his shoulder was already standing aside and waiting for him. Hearing my shout, he grabbed the handle of the saber with both hands and raised it high into the air before fiercely slashing downwards. A crisp click. The prisoner's head had actually been chopped off. Blood spurted at me, and I couldn't dodge in time to be drenched in it. The blood was still warm and smelly.

The prisoner's head rolled off the table. The Non-head Body fell down.

I remained in a daze for a long time, slowly reacting and looking down at the prisoner's head at my feet. There was still a cloth bag over it. I looked up at the table again. The Non-head Body lay motionless on the ground, blood still gurgling from its severed neck. Several of the singers were staring at me with shining eyes.

The stranger next to him said, "It's about to be a scene!"

I couldn't help but ask in a quavering voice, "Did he really kill someone?"

No one answered me directly.

The stranger pointed at the people who were singing on the stage, "They didn't come here today to sing for you, they still have something for you!"

Excluding the prisoners who had been beheaded, there were a total of five people on the platform. Three men and two women. Each of them handed me a pocket-sized bag made of silk. The five silk bags had different colors, and on them was written the number "One, Two, Three, Four, Five". Then, they put the Non-head Body and the big blade into the boxes, and two of them carried the boxes down the concrete platform, and left in a hurry through the alley.

There were exits at both ends of the alley, and it connected north and south. If you walk straight out of the alley, you will be in a puddle of water, and the north entrance leads to the main street. It was from the north end of the alley that strangers and I came in. However, the five singers followed the alley and headed south.

I think they forgot to pack up a "prop": the one in the cloth bag at my feet, the prisoner's head.

The stranger said to me: "These five Silk Bag, you must open them one by one according to the serial number! Open one every other month! " Without waiting for me to say anything else, he hurriedly headed south along the alley. I didn't want to chase, but looked down at the prisoner's head.

Silence returned to the long alley. Suddenly, the sound of insects chirping could be heard. Gradually, more and more bugs started shouting. It was a lively scene. This was what a summer night should be like. It was as if everything had returned to normal.

I finally mustered the courage to bend down and pick up the head from the ground. With trembling hands, he opened the wet cloth bag. He saw an old face with burn scars on it. It was very familiar. It was exactly the face of Grandmother Hu Shizhen. However, the thick scars on his face and eyes had been cut open, revealing a pair of extremely shrivelled eyes. Under the bright moonlight, his eyes were filled with fear and despair.

Somehow, I actually carried this head home. Passing by a big tree, there was a group of villagers gathered together in the shade. My parents were among them. Mother called out to me: "Shier, what are you holding in your hands?" I said, "Didn't you hear the singing just now?"

"Where's the singing?"

"It's in the alley to the east. It's under the wall of my Second Uncle's house!"

The crowd burst into laughter, saying that I was out of my mind. His mother said angrily, "Stop bullshitting and go home!"

As I approached, I saw several people surrounding an old man. The old man was sitting in a rattan chair with a cane in his hand. My grandfather was nearby, fanning her. Who else could it be other than Gao Zu Grandmother Hu Shizhen. The two burn scars on her face covered her eyes like two large copper coins. He just turned his face in my direction, as if he were looking at me. In the moonlight, I could see the coldness in her face.

When I got home, I filled a basin with cold water and washed the blood off my head and body. He threw the head into an abandoned wooden bucket and added a lid to it. Then, he used a brick to hold it down. Then he went back to bed. After tossing and turning in bed for the night, he was unable to fall asleep. Under the pillow were the five Silk Bag s. He always felt like he was in a dream.

I was like a hundred claws scratching my heart. He suddenly stood up and reached under the pillow. He picked up a silk sachet. The serial number on the sachet was five. After a moment's hesitation, he switched to a piece of paper with the serial number "1" written on it. He opened it and took out a piece of paper.

Borrowing the moonlight that shone through the window, I read the contents of the slip of paper word by word: 2006 Lunar New Year, 15th July. Jin Yuxia had lost her life in Jin Shi's hands.

I was surprised. Jin Yuxia is my eldest sister. My name is Jin Shi. As for me, how could I kill my own sister?