The Yin Sheep

A century-old curse in western Hunan has awakened, and I have become the sacrifice it chose.

Our ancestral rule in Longkougou is simple: never linger by a grave. The dead may open their eyes, and the living will know no peace.

Then Granny Luo from our village died a gruesome death. Her mouth was stuffed with wet grass, and her throat was blocked with sheep dung.

Her sheep had all vanished, too.

Then one strange thing after another began to happen:

On the night we watched over her body, the oil lamp suddenly turned ghostly green, and a wet chewing sound came from beside my ear.

The village's strong young men began to go mad. They knelt on the ground, frantically eating dirt and howling, “Our ancestors are hungry.”

The Liu family ancestral grave was dug open, and the inside of the coffin was covered in desperate scratch marks…

In the reflection of the well water, a woman in old-fashioned clothes appeared.

Everyone said Granny Luo's curse had brought evil spirits upon us.

Only I knew things weren't that simple.

When I secretly crept into the abandoned mine in the back hills and saw the mural depicting a human sacrifice from a hundred years ago, along with two tiny skeletons in red clothes in the corner…

Only then did I finally understand that the descendants of the Chen, Liu, Wang, and Luo families had owed a blood debt since the day we were born.

And now, the creditor had come to collect.

They were hiding in my family's sheep pen, their eyes glowing a dim green.

Grandpa shielded me with his life and said in a trembling voice, “Run!”

But I could no longer get away.

Because last night, I heard it clearly: a figure dressed in tattered cloth stood outside my window and rasped,

“You brought me grass, so I'll come too… and give you a little something in return.”

They were back.

And I would be the final sacrifice in this century-old ghost marriage.