/
On the surface, meanwhile, Mu Jiashi appears entirely normal, simply asking offhandedly, “hey, Tan Ming, why is there no one else around? Where’s everyone?”
Tan Ming smiles rather awkwardly and replies, “you know
 they’re all busy preparing the farewell feast for you guys.”
Then Mu Jiashi disses with an intentionally overfamiliar tone, “you guys
 don’t people always make the welcome feast the grandest instead of the farewell feast, huh?”
Tan Ming, looking slightly embarrassed but also a little proud, says, “that’s how it is here. We’re different from outside.”
“That’s true. I experienced that first-hand in just a few days,” Mu Jiashi smoothly transitions the topic along to the village, “no wonder you kept talking about coming back here in uni. It’s really distinct from the city.”
Every word of his sentence is an indirect praise for the village, which makes Tan Ming turn from awkward embarrassment to pride immediately.
Then Mu Jiashi continues, “and what a timing it was to have a meal with everyone, too. I was going to ask to see if I can come live with you guys.”
Tan Ming, shocked, asks, “what? Wh
 Why are you saying that?”
“There’s no stress living here. You go out at sunbreak and then rest at sundown, all living off the land, self-sufficient-like. It’s completely different from life in the city.”
Mu Jiashi then comments, with a possibly genuine tone, “if I can, I’d love to live out the rest of my life here. Better than spending my entire life toiling away only to find an apartment unit costs more than my entire life’s savings.
Seriously, what kind of life is that? If nothing else, remember how bad I’m having it these days just looking for a simple job? It’s excruciating!
Really, do you think your elders and the mayor might let me live here if I ask at the meal later?”
Tan Ming’s expression suggests he is struggling deeply inside.
Mu Jiashi waits for him patiently.
He has noticed from the very beginning this young man is fidgeting a lot. He should be more determined and cold if he were completely in on his closest relatives’ scheme of atrocious murder.
His state is more of that of someone who doesn’t dare oppose his elders and relatives, but who is also really conflicted about hurting his own fellow student.
Though it still has to be said, that between his morally bankrupt villagers and his fellow students, he chose the former.
But of course, now that Mu Jiashi is showing
 what, to Tan Ming, would seem like a sort of ‘redemptive’ quality, it tips him over the scale immediately.
After all──Mu Jiashi narrows his eyes──Tan Ming is no longer the simple farm boy he once was, ever since he left the village.
Mu Jiashi’s mention of the stresses in the city dragged Tan Ming’s mind right back to the urban lifestyle, in which, Mu Jiashi is his more familiar companion, rather than his blood relatives and fellow villagers.
Tan Ming wouldn’t help but end up recalling the messy, but happy and upbeat days spent with them, his fellow undergraduates.
To be honest, returning from the lively and prosperous city back to this backwater village that is still cooking food with firewood, is probably not something to which Tan Ming has managed to reacclimatise himself.
Mu Jiashi isn’t expecting this to drag Tan Ming completely over to his side, but at least, he should be telling him the truth, so that his ‘fellow undergraduate’ doesn’t die in ignorance.
Just as Mu Jiashi thought, after a while of internal struggling, Tan Ming sighs, and says, “no, don’t say that.”
If Mu Jiashi really told the village elders that, they would probably blow up immediately and kill him outright.
Mu Jiashi then asks, apparently surprised, “why?” He pauses, and asks, “could it be, that just like the big cities, you guys also need the citizenship documents and all that malarkey?”
“No, of course not,” Tan Ming looks speechless, and he explains, “you think we’d have those identity bollocks in this sleepy village? There’s practically no education or medical or whatever services here. Moving a citizenship here is practically worthless.”
Mu Jiashi shrugs and says, “but the land
”
Good. Tan Ming’s mind has been brought back to his urban life.
Though the mention of the ‘land’ seems to have triggered something in Tan Ming.
Although hesitant, Tan Ming finally explains, “I’m serious here
 these days, the village isn’t exactly in a chipper mood.”
“A chipper mood?” Mu Jiashi continues to act dumb, saying, “I thought it was pretty relaxing and laid-back these few days.”
Tan Ming rolls his eyes at him.
Then they continue walking along in silence for a while.
Over the hills, despite its best efforts, the sun inevitably sinks below the horizon. After that, Tan Ming also finally opens his mouth to tell Mu Jiashi what happened.
He says, “a few people
 have gone mad.”
“Gone mad?”
Tan Ming says, “they
 they seem to
 be worshipping some kind of, ‘Spirit of the Land.’”
Mu Jiashi’s expression changes a little.
“No, not the kind you’re thinking, not the simple reverence of nature
 it’s not that,” Tan Ming bitterly smiles, and explains, “when I first heard about it I also thought the same
 I even told my mom, ‘yeah so?  People did that all the time historically.’”
Mu Jiashi continues to listen attentively.
Tan Ming continues, “it turns out it wasn’t the kind of
 normal, respecting the Spirit of the Land with some incense and stuff, but
”
“What is it?”
“Human sacrifice
” Tan Ming is looking nervously around when he mentions it, before continuing with a quieter tone, “they say the outsiders have disgraced the honour of the Spirit of the Land, they say that it’s you
 well, us, farming, and hunting recently, that is disrespecting the land.
That’s why, they plan to use your
 our blood, to appease to that Spirit of the Land and make it have mercy on the village.”
Mu Jiashi nods, falling into thought.
Ah, so that’s the reason these students would die
 but, something’s off.
Tan Ming clearly looks like he’s completely against the side of those insane cultists, then why would he be bringing them to the fateful ‘feast’

Something suddenly clicks in Mu Jiashi’s mind, and he asks, “and what do the other villagers think?”
Tan Ming doesn’t answer for a bit, but finally, he dejectedly replies, “they believe that the outsiders are the ones who drove those madmen insane in the first place.”
Mu Jiashi furrows his brows a little, but then he rubs them apart.
Tan Ming, looking at what is basically a non-reaction from Mu Jiashi, then says with an almost threatening, but almost desperate tone, “if, after you guys are dead, the situation doesn’t improve, then it’ll be our turn to die.”
Mu Jiashi is surprised. So basically with the cultists there, they’re all going to die regardless of if they are natives of the village?
No wonder Fei still died even when she refused to attend the feast and escaped. She must either have been caught by the villagers who blame her for driving the cultists mad, or she was caught by the cultists themselves.