Chapter 1: The Gu Village (1)

Chapter 1: The Gu Clan Village (1)

The sky was overcast, with leaden rain clouds shrouding the rolling mountain ranges, casting a dusky gray tint over the entire world.

In the mountains, the foliage was usually a vibrant emerald under the sun, but in this gloomy, humid, and sweltering weather, the plants seemed to fade into a slate-green. The towering peaks no longer exuded vitality but instead evoked a chilling, oppressive silence.

The world was eerily quiet—apart from the rattling of the dilapidated tour bus along the winding mountain road, not a single birdcall could be heard.

"Chirp chirp chirp…" "Squeak squeak squeak…" "Croak croak croak…"

"What is that noise? It’s been going on the whole trip—so annoying!" A girl who seemed carsick was woken up by the incessant sounds. She looked to be in her early twenties, petite with apple cheeks, wearing a sun hat adorned with tiny pink flowers.

You couldn't blame her for complaining. The bus ride was already uncomfortable, and the noise was grating, stirring an inexplicable sense of irritation.

"It's bugs," answered the tall, lean young man sitting beside her. The two were sitting close, likely a couple on a post-graduation trip. He wore black-framed glasses and had a boy-next-door face.

The tour guide, seated behind the driver and sporting a little red cap, piped up, "Yep, we’ve got lots of bugs in the mountains. Rainy weather brings them all out." From the grass and trees came this symphony—a chorus of insects performing their sonata.

The bus had 32 seats, currently occupied by 30 tourists—a mixed group from all over the country, all signed up for a seven-day, seven-night tour of Y Province.

Y Province was a region rich in ethnic minority cultures. Though vast in area, it was mostly mountainous with rugged terrain, leaving the tourists feeling like they spent nearly the entire day being jostled around on the bus.

"The scenery here is breathtaking! I’m going to paint it as soon as we stop!"

"Did you see that bug? I just spotted a huge beetle on a tree—looked as big as our faces!"

In the last two rows of the bus sat an energetic group of eight.

These young people bubbled with youthful energy, their faces full of vitality. They were art students from a studio in City A, just finished with their college entrance exams. A close-knit group of four boys and four girls, they had signed up for the tour together, planning to combine travel with outdoor sketching.

Sitting in the second-to-last row on the right by the window, with his easel on his back, Tan Yue was one of the eight members of this small team. However, as he had only joined the art studio this year, he wasn't very familiar with the others; they were just traveling together to take advantage of the group discount, which made it cheaper the more people there were.

Tan Yue grew up in an ordinary family, and studying art was expensive. Being sensible from a young age, he had always been mindful of saving money. This trip was funded by the lucky money he had saved over many years.

"Screech..."

The bus suddenly emitted a strange noise, and without warning, it came to an abrupt stop, causing several passengers' heads to bump into the seats in front of them.

Some passengers who hadn't fastened their seatbelts slid out of their seats entirely, hitting the floor with a loud "thud," leaving large, red bumps on their foreheads.

The wife of one of the victims immediately began to complain in a shrill voice, "How do you drive? You didn't even warn us before braking so hard?!"

"The road ahead has collapsed," the driver's voice was devoid of warmth, creating an oppressive atmosphere.

The tour guide, a young woman, spoke much more gently, "A heavy rain is coming. The mountain roads are dangerous at night and during rain. There's a village of mountain dwellers ahead. They are very hospitable, and we invite everyone to rest and regroup in the village."

The girl behind Tan Yue exclaimed in surprise, "Really? I didn't notice before, but there's such a beautiful village here! I can see a red house too."

White mist had started to rise in the mountains, perhaps due to the impending heavy rain, making the windows foggy. Tan Yue wiped the window with a handkerchief he carried, and with his excellent vision, he could indeed see white houses nestled among the green hills.

The houses were all white, resembling two- or three-story Huizhou-style buildings with white walls and blue tiles, topped with barrel tiles. Stone-carved toads squatted on the eaves, along with lifelike insects.

The walls were adorned with colorful mosaics made of pebbles, featuring spiders, centipedes, geckos... seemingly all five poisons.

Among the many white houses stood a red one, with red walls and tiles, standing out prominently. It might be a clan temple, though Tan Yue couldn't be sure. After all, this was his first time traveling, and his knowledge of Y Province was limited to its beautiful landscapes and clear waters; he knew little about local customs and culture.

"Can we stay in the village? Will there be enough room?" "Right, are there any hotels here that provide food and hot water?" "Is the road ahead blocked, so we can't turn back?"

The bus was filled with tourists, each voicing their concerns, but neither the driver nor the tour guide responded further. Their expressions were cold, and the complaining tourists gradually fell silent.

Tan Yue and his student group were quite excited, as those white houses looked beautiful. Young people always love anything new and embrace fresh experiences.

The bus quickly turned around and headed toward the mountain village. After half an hour of bumpy travel, the bus finally stopped.

Tan Yue noticed the wooden archway standing at the village entrance—"Black Dragon Village." Behind the archway was a stone wall built from bluestone, standing four meters tall. The wall extended outward, enclosing the white and red houses within its perimeter. Behind the archway was a three-meter-high arched gate.

At the entrance, a skinny old man wearing a straw raincoat was smoking a water pipe, guarding the village gate.

Tan Yue thought to himself that this seemed like a rather closed-off village. The driver remained in his seat while the tour guide stepped out first: "Wait here. I need to talk to the villagers."

By then, the sky had darkened considerably. The moment she stepped out, rain started pouring down.

From his seat, Tan Yue could spot the guide’s bright hat and red vest through the curtain of rain, but her figure grew increasingly distorted as she walked farther away.

His hand instinctively reached into his trench coat pocket and pulled out a 2B pencil, sketching on the notepad he always carried. As an art student, he was accustomed to capturing every spark of inspiration with his pencil.

Five minutes later, the guide returned, her face drenched, hair plastered to her forehead. Perhaps due to the rain, her complexion had turned ghostly pale.

Tan Yue noticed she was completely soaked. A puddle of dirty rainwater had formed inside the bus, with tiny black flecks floating in it.

The specks seemed alive. He rubbed his eyes—it must just be dirt stirred up by the water. Just ordinary specks.

Focused on the guide, Tan Yue didn’t notice that some passengers' faces had also turned pale, tinged with a sickly green. The reflections of the made-up female passengers in the windows, with their bright red lips, looked almost like paper dolls.

The guide used a megaphone to address the tourists: "I’ve spoken to the villagers. They’ve agreed to provide free lodging and meals. Please be polite—no complaining. The villagers dislike rule-breakers and those who waste food."

Free lodging and meals shut up the grumbling tourists. With the heavy rain making the roads slippery and dangerous, staying in the muggy bus was far less appealing than resting in the village.

Led by the guide, the tourists entered the village. Tan Yue peered curiously at the white houses. Up close, the details became clearer—the patterns on the walls indeed depicted the traditional five venomous creatures: snakes, toads, geckos, spiders, and centipedes.

Beyond these, there were patterns of other insects—dragonflies, butterflies, moths, longhorn beetles—though Tan Yue, no bug expert, could only recognize the more common ones.

The village houses were well-constructed. Many elderly men and women in traditional ethnic attire worked outside. The women mostly engaged in textile work, with many households raising silkworms. The entire process—from rearing the silkworms to spinning and weaving—seemed entirely manual.

Men returned from the fields carrying hoes, while others fetched mountain spring water. The village lacked modern amenities—no running water. The villagers drank from mountain springs or water drawn from man-dug wells.

This was a village cut off from modern tech, preserving its original way of life. Even the village chief’s home had no television, only a dim electric light.

Though the houses' exteriors were snow-white, most interiors were dimly lit by flickering candlelight, leaving the rooms dim.

Tan Yue followed the group to a villager’s home for shelter. His eight-member team was assigned to the home of an elderly woman living alone. Her home was immaculate, with three hens—no roosters—in the yard.

Large, rustic ceramic jars filled the courtyard, sealed with stones—likely containing pickled vegetables.

Once the novelty wore off, Tan Yue’s classmates began complaining: "There’s no electricity? My portable charger’s dying!" "The signal here is terrible—I can’t even get online!"

Tan Yue pulled out his old phone. Like the others, he had no signal—no calls, no texts, let alone internet access.

Fortunately, his classmates knew how to make the best of it: "I brought playing cards." "Me too!" "Game on!"

The seven split into smaller groups for card games. Someone invited Tan Yue, but he declined: "I’ll take a walk. You guys have fun."

His striking looks—thick lashes framing light amber eyes like ancient amber, clear and pure as a young deer in the wild—made him the epitome of a nature-boy look.

As friends had often told him, his simple but perfectly proportioned face created a natural, timeless beauty—like a refreshing forest breeze, naturally charming.

This gentle charm had always made Tan Yue popular—not just with animals, but with elders and children alike.

He bid farewell to the elderly woman hosting them: "Auntie, I’m going out for a look."

Granny Li couldn't speak Mandarin, and Tan Yue didn’t understand the local dialect, so he spoke while gesturing.

During their exchange, Granny Li stared fixedly at Tan Yue's face, feeling the young man's robust energy. Her lips curled into an unnaturally wide grin: "Go on, go on."

Old folks' meat was stringy, kids' too lean, but tender-skinned young men brimming with vitality were the most delicious.

Moreover, this young man was exceptionally clean, with such a handsome face and still pure, untouched—perfect for offering to the Dragon God. He would surely be pleased.

Watching Tan Yue's retreating figure under the umbrella, Granny Li waved her arms excitedly behind him.

Her somewhat hazy eyes then fixed on the young people playing cards inside the house, her wrinkled face twisted in disgust: dyed hair, exaggerated looks, unsettled energy.

They were still students, yet some already looked weak and depleted, their kidney qi insufficient—clearly no longer virgins. A bunch of rejects, though their youth and numbers made up for it.

Granny Li absentmindedly licked her lips. Her tongue was long, bright red like a rooster's comb, and forked at the tip.

A boy smoking inside happened to catch a glimpse of this. The cigarette slipped from his fingers, burning the back of his foot.

He immediately started hopping around frantically, howling in pain: "Ow, ow, ow..."

His classmates laughed at him. "How'd you manage that?"

The boy crushed the cigarette under his sandal and snuck another look at Granny Li, who was now quietly weaving, her tongue retracted, looking like any ordinary old woman.

He whispered nervously, "Don’t you guys feel like something’s off?"

"Off how?"

The boy rubbed the goosebumps on his arms. "The people in this village—they’re way too nice."

The villagers were indeed overly hospitable, greeting them with beaming smiles, offering free lodging and food without charging a dime.

But that wasn’t the weird part. The real issue was—normal people’s tongues couldn’t possibly be as long as a lizard’s, much less forked!

"The tour guide said the mountain folks are friendly," the others brushed him off. "We didn’t plan to stay here—it’s just because of the rain. We’ll leave tomorrow when it stops."

"Yeah, exactly." The group of just-graduated high schoolers was still naive, and the boy’s rising suspicion quickly faded: *Trust science—ghosts and monsters aren’t real!*

Probably just a trick of the eye. After all, hours on the bus had left him exhausted.

Among the group, the apple-cheeked girl and her boyfriend had been assigned to another household.

Apart from them, there was also the burly, bald man who hadn’t fastened his seatbelt earlier and his shrill-voiced wife, an elderly couple with graying hair, and a polished, educated-looking couple—a doctor and a middle school teacher.

While exploring, Tan Yue also glanced at the houses where the other tourists were staying. The village homes were nearly identical in layout, and this one, aside from lacking chickens, also had large jars that likely held pickled vegetables.

The hosts here were a middle-aged couple, busily chopping veggies to prepare dinner for their guests.

Tan Yue paused and tried to converse with them. After all, while Granny Li was elderly and didn’t speak Mandarin, the middle-aged couple might understand.

The wife stared at Tan Yue’s face, her gaze sliding down to his handsome jawline and the elegant curve of his swan-like neck.

Though Tan Yue wore a high-collared coat, his long neck was still evident. Standing at 190 cm, the young man had perfectly proportioned limbs, his posture so graceful he resembled a work of art.

*How long has it been since we’ve seen a human of this quality?* She stared with hungry envy. *This boy’s purity outshines everyone in our courtyard. Granny Li really lucked out.*

"Auntie, is there something on my face?" Tan Yue was used to being stared at, but this woman’s gaze was particularly intense.

Her husband, with a simple and honest expression, replied in awkward Mandarin, "My wife’s mute. Sorry, she’s just excited—can’t speak."

The husband was clearly on the same wavelength as his wife. As he hacked at bones with force, pig blood splattered all over the cutting board.

The man pressed Tan Yue further: "How old are you this year? Are you seeing anyone? Want to find someone in the tour group? I can introduce you—our village girls are very pretty!"

Tan Yue shook his head and made a quick exit after exchanging a few pleasantries with the uncle. At just eighteen, he had his own ideas about romance and wasn’t yet at the age where he needed matchmaking.

The courtyard where the tour guide, driver, and other tourists were staying had its door closed. Tan Yue took a glance but, though curious, didn’t barge in uninvited.

He had always been a rule-following model student, and outside school, he remained polite and civilized.

Without supernatural X-ray vision, Tan Yue naturally couldn’t see through the door to the scene inside the courtyard.

In the village chief’s large courtyard, the tour guide, driver, and remaining tourists were all submerged in huge water vats.

Their hair floated like seaweed on the water’s surface, their eyes tightly shut. As Tan Yue approached the courtyard, black streaks appeared on their pallid faces—but upon closer inspection, those patterns were actually wriggling.

Dense swarms of insects crawled out from the vats, covering their cheeks and slowly engulfing their "human" bodies.

Only sixteen were true outsiders; the rest were the villagers' cherished pets. Beneath those thin skins, everything was writhing insects.

Only the chosen "lucky ones" could enter Black Dragon Village through the special Portal. That gate was the boundary between two worlds, and the rickety tour bus was the vessel that delivered the sacrificial prey.

Once, it had been an ox cart, then a donkey cart, later a tractor, and now a bus.

But Black Dragon Village was a mountain enclave with unique beliefs—selective about outsiders. The sacrificial prey were tainted with corruption and needed to be "purified," their filth devoured by the insects, before they could be presented to the Dragon God.

The rain let up. Tan Yue, strolling outside with his green-and-white plaid umbrella, passed the village gate. The old gatekeeper was gone, and the gate had been locked from the outside with a chain. Unless one climbed the wall, there was no way out.

Tan Yue noticed the sharp glass shards embedded in the walls and the thorn-covered vines creeping over them.

The architecture here had a distinct aesthetic. Besides sketching, he carried a miniature camera around his neck, capturing every scene he wanted to remember.

After all, drawing took time, and even quick sketches couldn’t capture all his passing inspirations.

It was now 4:30 PM, and the villagers were busy preparing dinner.

The village still used traditional clay stoves that required firewood. Smoke coiled from every chimney, blending with the light rain and breeze, carrying the rich scent of meat through the air.

Tan Yue had eaten several oranges on the bus earlier and wasn’t hungry yet. As he wandered, he ended up near the red house.

As he had guessed, it was a shrine-like ancestral hall. The plaque above read: "Dragon God Temple."

Most of the roof decorations were stone carvings of *kui*-dragon patterns (mythical single-legged dragons), painted black. The stones were covered in countless "stone eyes"—hundreds of bluish-green dots per rock.

This must be *Duan* inkstone material, Tan Yue thought. He remembered that stone eyes were a distinctive feature of *Duan* inkstones. Using such expensive stone for a temple showed the villagers’ devotion.

Without overthinking, he walked straight into the Dragon God Temple. Since there was no gatekeeper, an unsealed temple was, to a tourist, an open attraction—free for outsiders to visit.

Once Tan Yue stepped inside, those lifelike "stone eyes" shifted positions. They weren’t stone eyes at all—just swarms of pea-green armored insects.

The Dragon God Temple was vast, its interior painted entirely red. The deity enshrined on the altar resembled not a dragon but a hulking centipede with dozens of legs. The Black Dragon God even had nine heads—clearly no righteous deity.

Still, Tan Yue remained polite, keeping his thoughts to himself. Since this wasn’t a conventional god, he didn’t offer incense.

After a few minutes inside, Tan Yue turned to leave. As he opened his umbrella—perhaps blocking his vision for a split second—something collided with him, forcing him back two steps.

When he saw what had hit him, his checkered umbrella clattered to the ground. Pink flushed across his cheeks, neck, and ears, turning him as red as a ripe tomato.

"Sorry, sorry..."

Tan Yue quickly reached out to help the person he had collided with—a fair-skinned, strikingly handsome youth with long hair.

The newcomer had a lustrous mane of shoulder-length hair, tied into a high, dashing ponytail with a cyan satin ribbon that bound his ebony locks. He exuded youthful charm.

His lips were red, his teeth white, and his flawless, porcelain-like complexion gave him the appearance of a porcelain doll.

Looking further down, the boy had a clearly visible Adam’s apple and a flat chest—clearly male.

He was dressed in traditional Black Dragon Village attire, though the embroidery and fabric were far more exquisite than usual.

The black garment’s collar and cuffs were embroidered with golden Kuilong patterns, his wrists adorned with jade bracelets, his neck draped in chunky silver jewelry, and his feet clad in wooden geta with leather straps.

Even his toes were artful—his nails a soft pink, his ankles tied with a red string bearing a golden cicada.

Everyone’s tastes differ, but Tan Yue knew with absolute certainty that hardwired into him, this face was the greatest in the world! A masterpiece crafted by Nuwa, the creator goddess!

Before today, Tan Yue had never considered that he might be gay. But this collision had hit him right in the heart.

From his features to his physique, from his skin to his bone structure, this beautiful youth—from the tips of his hair to his toes—checked every box for Tan Yue.

This serendipitous encounter had to be a muse tailor-made for him by the gods of fate and love! His missing rib! Otherwise, why would his heart pound so wildly the moment he laid eyes on them?

When his fingers brushed against the boy’s cool hand, a jolt of electricity shot through his entire body!

None of it mattered—whether they were male or female, how old they were, their family background, or whether they were already taken.

The frantic beating of Tan Yue’s heart and the dopamine flooding his brain screamed that if he let this person slip away, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

Young hearts are impulsive, passionate, and brimming with courage. Without thinking, Tan Yue blurted out, "Do you want a boyfriend?!"