That year, I returned to Luoyu Village, cut off from the rest of the world.
My grandmother had vanished under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind only a yellowed copy of The Village Survival Rules.
[Don't dry grain in the sun. When rain falls, grain sprouts, and people die in its place!]
[If you borrow a villager's medicine pot, borrow it, but never return it!]
At first, I thought it was just the kind of feudal superstition country folk used to scare children.
That was until I saw the corn drying in the yard grow black hair, then sink underground along with the flagstones.
That was until I discovered that everyone who borrowed a medicine pot and returned it of their own accord was covered in human-faced sores the next day.
Luoyu Village had no living people, only village shadows wearing human skin and following the rules.
Break one, and you die. No exceptions.
