Chapter 34: Textbooks

"No," Liang Dan said, "she was a very clever person. If she had wanted to, perhaps it would have been possible for her to leave."

Shen Si replied, "Now that she's dead, whether she had the capacity to choose doesn't seem to matter anymore."

"She is dead," Liang Dan said, "but thousands upon thousands of others like her are still alive."

"You mean those children?"

"Yes."

Liang Dan stood up. "I want to go back to her home and dig through it again. There must be something important left behind."

Yang Liuqing stood up as well and followed Liang Dan toward the ruins of the house.

Shen Si shouted, "We haven't finished eating yet!"

Liang Dan said, "We're done."

Shen Si let out an "Oh dear," grabbed the remaining roasted chicken, and trotted after them.

Liang Dan couldn't help but laugh. "What are you doing?"

"Don't you guys know?" Shen Si said with a serious face. "Food that leaves your sight can no longer be eaten, so I'm taking it with me. We'll finish it later."

Yang Liuqing said, "Since we've already eaten the chicken they gave us, are you still afraid they might poison it again?"

"It's not just them!" Shen Si lowered his voice. "Today is our fourth day here. What if new players arrive today? What if they happen to be carrying poison? What if they decide to put that poison into the roasted chicken? What if we happen to go back and eat the poisoned chicken?"

Yang Liuqing stopped, picked up a hoe from the ground, and dug forcefully into the top layer of the ruins, sending dust billowing into the air.

The musty, aged scent of earth filled Liang Dan’s nostrils, causing Shen Si to yelp and stumble back several steps.

Liang Dan crouched on the ground, removing large chunks of the earthen wall, her search delving deeper and deeper.

"Huh," Shen Si pointed to the bottom of the ruins. "Look at that corner, doesn't it look like a book is buried there?"

Yang Liuqing and Liang Dan focused their efforts on the spot Shen Si indicated. A few minutes later, they successfully unearthed a notebook.

To call it a notebook was generous; it was actually a stack of old newspapers, sewn together with white thread to create a thick volume.

The cover was slightly damaged, with several neat, large characters written on it:

"Grade One Chinese Textbook."

Yang Liuqing placed the book on the ground, wiped her hands on her clothes, and opened it cautiously.

Most of the newspaper pages were already filled with original text, leaving only small patches of empty space. Those blank spots were filled with Pinyin written in red ink.

Flipping further, there were basic, commonly used characters.

Flipping further still, there were short stories composed of a few dozen words.

Further on, there were advanced characters.

Then, there was a section where the pages were poorly stitched, leaving a significant gap between the front and back.

Turning another page, the rows of characters with Pinyin were replaced by a few math problems.

Yang Liuqing gripped the stitched spine and flipped forward firmly. Sure enough, after a few pages, the content changed again—this time, it was English.

Further on, it covered science and nature.

Liang Dan felt a complex mix of emotions. "No wonder this textbook is so thick; it's a compilation of several subjects."

Shen Si said, "But it’s clear it wasn't a compilation when it was made. It was stitched together by hand later. Who did this, and why?"

Yang Liuqing remarked, "Look at these stitches—they are as neat as if done by a sewing machine. Someone with such nimble hands... it must have been her."

Shen Si sighed. "Sister Liang, when we were chopping firewood, we found that the wooden box containing the clay figurines was also handmade and very delicate. She really was a person of great craftsmanship."

Hearing this, Liang Dan dug with all her might into the spot where they had found the book. She no longer picked through the debris carefully as before, digging until her fingers throbbed with pain.

Yang Liuqing straightened her back and looked down at Liang Dan. "Don't do this. No matter how human she seemed, she is just an NPC."

Liang Dan froze, not knowing what to say.

After a long pause, she asked, "When the school was torn down by the villagers, the textbooks must have been confiscated. Why did she collect these and sew them together?"

Shen Si said, "To learn to read, probably. She was so smart; she must have hoped to learn more words. That line on the box might have been a trace left behind while she was practicing."

Yang Liuqing countered, "If that were the case, there should be many lines. Why only that one?"

"You're so silly, Sister Yang," Shen Si tapped Yang Liuqing’s arm. "If she wrote too much, wouldn't she be discovered? She would only write that one line in the most hidden part of the wooden box. If she wanted to practice, she could just find a brick and write on the ground, or use a stick to write in the dirt. Anything would work."

Liang Dan added, "Most importantly, that way, no trace would be left to be found."

Yang Liuqing crouched down and began digging with her bare hands. "The more you guys talk, the more curious I become about her."

Shen Si tossed the roasted chicken he had been carrying aside and joined them in digging through the ruins.

However, after digging for a long time, they only found pots, pans, and ordinary farming tools.

The three of them dug through the ruins for a long time until the azure sky began to fade visibly.

Shen Si gasped for breath and shouted, "I found another book!"

Yang Liuqing and Liang Dan rushed over, staring at the thin booklet in Shen Si's hand.

Compared to the textbook they had found earlier, this booklet looked more like a real book.

Its cover was blue, wrapped in a transparent sleeve. A large piece of the blue cover was torn, revealing the printed lead type beneath, and the pages had yellowed to the point where their original color was unrecognizable.

On the blue cover, two lines were written with a brush:

"Zhang Village Heirloom."

"Sacrificial Manual."

Shen Si’s hand trembled as he held the booklet, whether from fear, anger, or both, it was hard to tell.

"Damn it, this ghost village—the sacrifices are actually ancestral! Truly, if the upper beam is crooked, the lower ones will be too!"

Shen Si opened the booklet. The content on the first page described the method for turning people into animals.

It was illustrated with diagrams, teaching in detail how to kill people and animals, how to grind human bones into powder to put into firecrackers, and how to bury the firecrackers and animal bones beneath a house.

"They even had the nerve to shift the blame onto that river god, whose existence is questionable. The river god only told them to sacrifice villagers, but never told them to use such evil arts."

Shen Si flipped the page again, and Liang Dan’s attention was immediately drawn to several images.

They depicted several sculptures in the shape of young boys. The title read:

"Art of Veneration: Praying for the unjustly dead children to be reborn into a good life."

"Take soil naturally irrigated by rainwater, mold it into the likeness of the unjustly dead child, color it with natural pigments, and then hollow out the center of the sculpture."