Chapter 38
Believe

“Is that all you’re going to eat? Just one more bite.”

Nagu held the bowl and looked at Hamoyin with hopeful eyes. It was late afternoon when he finally woke up from his sleep. The first thing he did upon waking wasn’t to drink water or go to the bathroom but to hurriedly put on his clothes, seemingly still uneasy about having his body wiped down earlier.

Now, Hamoyin, dressed somewhat neatly, sat listlessly on the floor, tightly pressing his bloodless lips together as he faced the spoon Nagu was holding to his mouth.

“You’ve only eaten five bites. How can you not eat when you’re sick?” Nagu pushed the rough wooden spoon closer, just a few millimeters away from Hamoyin’s lips. “Come on, eat a few more bites.”

“…”

Hamoyin, pale-faced, shook his head at Nagu’s attempt to feed him. He really had no appetite; managing to eat half a bowl was already his limit.

“I really can’t eat anymore.”

“Then take your medicine first…” Seeing Hamoyin’s increasingly pained expression, Nagu picked up the medicine bowl. The dark brown liquid inside was somewhat thick. Out of curiosity, Nagu had dipped her pinky in it earlier and tasted it, almost screaming from the bitterness. “This is quite bitter.”

Then Nagu watched Hamoyin take the medicine bowl and drink it all without blinking. “…Isn’t it bitter?” she asked, wondering if he had no sense of taste or liked bitter things.

Hamoyin just shook his head and placed the empty bowl on the ground. “I should go back.”

“Why do you keep saying you need to go back?” Nagu immediately pressed Hamoyin’s shoulder to stop him from standing up. “You should stay here for a few days until you get better.”

“No.”

Maybe because he had slept, Hamoyin seemed to have regained strength, and even his tone became firmer. “You’re still running a fever. How can you go back alone now?”

“I have to go back.”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“…You can’t come with me.”

“If you leave now, I’ll follow you.” Nagu clung to Hamoyin’s wrist, refusing to let go. “If I don’t follow you and you faint halfway, what will happen? And it’s nighttime now; the forest is full of wild animals looking for food!”

Hamoyin looked at Nagu with a complicated expression. “But if someone finds me here, what will you do?”

“No one will come here, so just stay put. Even if someone does find out, I’ll just say you’re sick and have no one to take care of you. You saved me before, so it’s only natural that I take care of you now.”

It’s not natural at all. In fact, Hamoyin wasn’t worried about being discovered. He just didn’t want Nagu to keep seeing him in such a weak state, and he was also concerned she might help him wash his body while he was asleep.

Hamoyin had always disliked showing his scales because he found them disgusting. But now, Nagu had touched them countless times, even wiping the scales on his lower abdomen besides the ones on his back.

He didn’t want her to keep seeing those disgusting things, but he couldn’t refuse Nagu’s insistence on taking care of him. If he were a bit more resolute, he might be able to reject her. The problem was that he couldn’t bring himself to be harsh to the kind-hearted Nagu, which made him feel powerless.

“Just stay here until you get better,” Nagu said, noticing the hesitation on Hamoyin’s face. “I’ll take care of you. I’ll find whatever you want to eat, okay?”

“Okay…” Hamoyin felt a bit defeated. Why did he compromise again?

Nagu was delighted by Hamoyin’s concession. “I’ll go to the front room for a bit. After Granny falls asleep, I’ll sneak back to keep you company. Until then, stay here and don’t leave.”

“Okay.”

“Promise you won’t sneak away.”

“Okay.”

“You really won’t leave, right?”

“I won’t.” Hamoyin sighed. “I promise I won’t leave.”

Nagu looked at the man sitting on the animal skin. Even with the warm yellow firelight, his cheeks were still pale. “Lie down and rest. If you’re tired, sleep a bit more.”

Nagu left the storage room, looking back every few steps. She was really worried that Hamoyin might suddenly run away. After leaving the storage room, she hid in the backyard field to see if Hamoyin would leave. But after waiting more than ten minutes, there was no movement from the storage room.

She was overthinking it. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Nagu stood up from the field. She should trust Hamoyin more. He had promised not to leave, so he definitely wouldn’t sneak away. With this thought, Nagu turned her gaze away from the storage room and walked back to the front yard along the muddy path.

She thought the witch should be going to sleep around this time. After the witch fell asleep, she would tidy up the room a bit and then go check on Hamoyin. It wouldn’t take more than an hour.

Calculating the time, Nagu stepped onto the stone steps and placed her hand on the wooden door. Just as she was about to push the door open, she heard a man’s voice from inside.

It was a familiar voice—Gongudo’s voice…

What was he saying? Knowing that Gongduo might be the one who released the monster, Nagu was naturally wary of him. She didn’t push the door open immediately but pressed her ear against it.

“He will understand.”

Gongduo’s muffled voice came from behind the door. The witch didn’t speak; it was just Gongduo muttering to himself. “I’m doing this for him and for us.”

“Sacrifice is necessary. This will make others see that Azuran made a big mistake and will question him.”

“You will continue to help me, right?”

At this point, the witch finally spoke: “Your methods are somewhat inappropriate. I still think we should discuss this with Duogaluo.”

“…He came to ask me today. It seems he found out what I did,” Gongduo’s voice trembled, but there was no regret in it. “I denied it. After I denied it, he said he believed me. He believed it was just an accident.”

“A Gong, many people died.”

“That’s exactly why! Because so many people died, it’s the only way to make them deny Azuran! I have no other way… What else can make people believe he’s a liar full of lies?”

Nagu, eavesdropping outside the door, started to break out in a cold sweat. So it was really Gongduo… He killed so many innocent people to ruin Azuran’s reputation? And what does he mean by Azuran being a liar?
The answer came quickly.

“He’s a liar full of lies. He hid the truth about the ritual. You know it. You know it, too. That time, he deliberately let those young people into the pool. He’s a liar, and I found out.”

“Lying is one thing, but he even deceived that disgusting monster.” Gongduo suddenly let out a hoarse laugh. “He said he would find a way to turn it into a human… Did he forget the answer his father received from the Mother Goddess that night? It’s impossible. It will never become human.”

“And he and his father actually lured that filthy creature to stay in our territory for a few scales. I feel ashamed for the polluted land and river.”

“And now he even wants to use a live monster for the ritual. Does he really think he can control everything? How can I tolerate such arrogance and recklessness…”

Nagu couldn’t listen anymore. She was so angry that she almost lost her mind.

Deceived?

Hamoyin was deceived?

He endured the pain of having his tail cut off, the pain of having his scales pulled out, only to be played with in the end?

Chapter 39
Backyard

Although Nagu had never raised Hamoyin, she now felt like a mother whose carefully nurtured child had been beaten up by classmates, only for the teacher to dismiss it as mere child’s play. How could she allow such a thing to happen? Of course, she couldn’t!

And what kind of nonsense was this? If they had the ability to capture monsters alive, why were they still fixated on the few small scales on Hamoyin’s back? Did Azuran have any conscience at all? Hamoyin had not only saved Duogaluo when he was young but had also risked his life to help them lure adult monsters. Who among these people, besides Duogaluo, would remember his kindness?

Speaking of Duogaluo, it seemed he had also been kept in the dark by Gongduo. From Gongduo’s words, it appeared he had chosen a more radical approach for the sake of the tribe and Duogaluo’s future.

It seemed that a small faction led by Gongduo wanted to overthrow the current chief, Azuran. The trigger was likely Gongduo’s claim that Azuran was a ‘liar,’ hiding something important about the rituals from the people, which Gongduo’s faction had discovered.

Nagu quietly retreated from the witch’s door, pondering whether she should tell Hamoyin that he had been deceived. But he was still running a fever. What if hearing this made him feel worse, and his condition deteriorated? Patients should maintain a cheerful mood. But hiding something from Hamoyin made Nagu feel terrible. She paced anxiously in the dark space beside the house. Since Gongduo hadn’t left the house yet, she couldn’t go in. And if she went back to the storage room to see Hamoyin, she wasn’t sure she could control her facial expressions.

Leaning against the fence and biting her nails, Nagu thought. She didn’t care about the power struggles within the tribe, but Azuran’s actions towards Hamoyin were something she couldn’t swallow. However, she didn’t know how to take revenge. No, she did know. She just needed to hide Gongduo’s actions completely. But this was only a temporary solution. If Gongduo succeeded in overthrowing Azuran, who would take the position next? Nagu wasn’t sure if Gongduo intended to push Duogaluo up. People couldn’t resist the temptation of power. If Gongduo had the guts to secretly release a monster and let it kill his fellow tribesmen, it showed he was ruthless.

What if he decided to kill two or three people to secure the chief’s position? Nagu began to worry about Duogaluo, the kind-hearted man who was easily deceived and still knew nothing. And he actually believed Gongduo after he denied everything!

Shouldn’t a normal person be a bit suspicious? As the village chief, Nagu was about to say that as the chief, he should be more suspicious. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone sneaking around the corner of the house opposite her.

The person turned the corner and met Nagu’s gaze directly.

Duogaluo: “…”

Nagu: “…”

It seems Gongduo needs to improve his counter-surveillance skills; being overheard by two people at once isn’t very villain-like.

“I can’t believe any of this is true. Although I know Azuran can be very stubborn… I never thought he would deceive our own people.” Duogaluo’s expression was complex, something Nagu couldn’t quite describe, but it looked like he had just discovered he was being cheated on.

After Gongduo denied releasing the monster this afternoon, Duogaluo found the situation very strange. He began to follow Gongduo secretly and saw him enter the witch’s house at night. Naturally, he overheard Gongduo’s confession during his mental breakdown.

Azuran faked the rituals and deceived Hamoyin. These two things made Duogaluo’s head spin. “What should I do? Should I let Gongduo continue doing these things?”

“You… you’re asking me? I don’t know either…” Nagu, equally conflicted, looked at Duogaluo. The two of them crouched in the bushes outside the house, whispering like thieves.

The situation felt bizarre, almost surreal to Nagu. The mastermind behind the monster attack was confiding in the witch, the key witness to the attack was lying weakly in the storage room with a fever, and the village chief and an almost unrelated person were crouching in the bushes outside, exchanging bewildered glances.

“That ritual Gongduo mentioned, I should know about it… It was before I took office.” Duogaluo shook his head and then, in a dreamy tone, said, “Many young people were taken by the Mother Goddess as a sacrifice. Only Azuran and a few men who participated in the southern sweep came out of the pool.”

“Every time such a ritual is performed, people are taken. We just thought this time the sacrifice was larger. Azuran seemed very sad, saying he didn’t expect so many to be taken. But after that, Azuran and the others became much stronger than before. The witch thought it was because the Mother Goddess’s demands had increased, but Gongduo said it was all a lie. That means…”

It means Azuran knew precisely how many young people would be taken but still went ahead with the ritual, pretending to be unaware afterward.
Just like deceiving Hamoyin for his scales and tail, Nagu gritted her teeth in anger. “If these things are true, then he really has gone too far.”

Duogaluo nodded. “We also need to resolve Hamoyin’s situation. If we truly can’t turn him into a human, then there’s no reason to demand his scales. Azuran and my father must have gone mad to do such things to my benefactor…”

It was clear that Duogaluo genuinely cared about Hamoyin. This realization balanced Nagu’s emotions, and she felt Duogaluo was someone she could trust. “So what are you going to do now?”

“First, we need to deal with Hamoyin’s situation. I need to observe Gongduo and Azuran for a few more days,” Duogaluo said, looking much calmer now, though his fingers still occasionally brushed the loose dirt on the ground. “After the ritual tomorrow, I plan to go to Hamoyin’s house to explain everything to him. Do you want to come with me? You know about this now, too.”

“…”

“What’s wrong? It’s okay if you don’t want to go.”

“It’s not that… I just…”

“You don’t want to get involved in these matters? I understand. I’ll pretend you don’t know anything, so don’t worry.” As he spoke, Duogaluo reached out and ruffled Nagu’s hair a few times. “Nothing will happen. Just get a good night’s sleep and forget everything you heard today. I shouldn’t have discussed this with you.”

“…Let me finish.”

“Hmm? Go ahead.”

“Hamoyin is in the storage room behind this yard.”

“What?”

“He… he’s sick and temporarily staying in the storage room, so you won’t find him at his house tomorrow.”

Duogaluo looked at Nagu with a bewildered expression. “What… do you mean?”