Hospital 444
Chapter 163 - 12: The Black Goat

Chapter 163: Chapter 12: The Black Goat

That day...

Wei Zhengxian got up very early.

He was cleaning inside the guesthouse.

Now... no one knew that he had secretly looked in the mirror within an hour of waking up.

That was, for him, the most advantageous thing.

What consoled him the most was that Ya Nan had left the village.

That way, he could stay in the village without any burdens, free from distractions.

As long as the people in the village... didn’t discover the secret of his looking in the mirror, it’d be fine.

"I say, do you really plan on working in my guesthouse?"

The landlady approached Wei Zhengxian and asked, "So your little girlfriend just left you behind?"

"We broke up," Wei Zhengxian lied, "I plan to live here for a while. The mountains and rivers are beautiful, perhaps they can soothe my heartbroken soul."

Mustn’t...

Let "them" notice anything amiss...

"Alright then." The landlady suddenly took out a picture, saying, "I painted this yesterday. What do you think? I had a talent for painting when I was young, but my parents wouldn’t let me study it."

Wei Zhengxian looked at the painting.

On the painting, there was a goat.

A real goat.

A herbivorous mammal with white fur and two horns.

The landlady had shown him such paintings more than once.

Wei Zhengxian knew... she was suspecting him.

She wanted to confirm that, as usual, he hadn’t looked in the mirror within an hour of waking up.

"Landlady, why do you always paint these fantasy creatures?" Wei Zhengxian continued to reply as before.

He had to pretend in front of all the villagers that he couldn’t recognize a real goat at all.

Only if the people of Heizhao Village were convinced that he couldn’t recognize a real goat would they let him live.

Wei Zhengxian remembered the day Ya Nan fainted.

He hadn’t lied to Ya Nan.

In the mirror, he had seen nothing.

That day, he had gone early in the morning to attend Uncle Huang’s second son’s birthday party and had recorded that video.

All the people of Heizhao Village would hold birthday parties at a cave on the east side of the village.

On everyone’s birthday, they had to slaughter a goat from their home.

After the goat was slaughtered, its head would be thrown into the cave as a sacrifice to the Black Blood Ancestor Mother.

Wei Zhengxian had been worried about being served goat meat at the birthday party.

Fortunately, that hadn’t happened.

The so-called "goat meat" wasn’t what he initially understood it to be.

But he had to disguise himself.

He couldn’t let them see through him.

Having infiltrated Heizhao Village for a week,

Wei Zhengxian finally had a chilling revelation.

That was...

"Ayuan, A’cheng!"

At that moment, the landlady was calling out to two men.

Wei Zhengxian looked over.

One was Ayuan, but he looked exactly like his younger brother, Zhengkang.

The other was Ayuan’s younger brother, A’cheng, who had just turned eighteen.

The first time Wei Zhengxian saw A’cheng was on his eighteenth birthday.

Compared to Ayuan, A’cheng was more like Uncle Huang’s son, having completely inherited his ugly genes. Standing together with Ayuan... nobody would believe they were brothers.

But now... he noticed that A’cheng’s face had changed.

His eyes had turned into phoenix-shaped eyes!

The bridge of his nose became high and straight, and his thick lips had also become much thinner.

This had all happened after... the birthday party that day ended.

He had been secretly observing.

A’cheng’s face was changing.

After offering a goat as a sacrifice to the "Black Blood Ancestor Mother"!

Wei Zhengxian didn’t hide his doubts about this bizarre phenomenon, and if asked, he would say...

This was the "Black Blood Ancestor Mother’s" blessing.

Blessing?

What a joke.

Wei Zhengxian knew that the villagers’ suspicions about him would probably not stop.

From the moment he told Ayuan that he was his brother, these people must have become wary of him.

That’s why there were the landlady’s repeated tests.

A’cheng was slowly changing from ugly... to handsome.

The transformation was almost visible to the naked eye.

With each passing day, the changes in his facial features became more pronounced. At this rate, he would soon be unrecognizable to himself.

There was no doubt about this.

He absolutely must not eat goat meat...

He mustn’t...

"Mr. Wei."

It was at this moment that A-Yuan approached him.

"What... what is it?"

Wei Zhengxian kept his head down as he continued to wipe the table, but felt it might make him seem guilty, so he looked up at A-Yuan.

"I want to ask you a question."

"Yes, A-Yuan," Wei Zhengxian hurriedly said, "I mistook someone else for you before, but I understand now, you are not my brother."

However, Wei Zhengxian knew very well that this lie would not deceive A-Yuan.

The stark differences in appearance between brothers, the brother’s facial features that were changing day by day, were enough to make anyone feel that something was off.

"Have you ever seen the black goat?"

Upon hearing this, Wei Zhengxian was taken aback.

What did ’black goat’ mean?

"We have always worshipped the Black Blood Maternal Ancestor, and sometimes, the Black Blood Maternal Ancestor would descend among us. That is the ’black goat.’ But we cannot distinguish between the white goat and the black goat. Only outsiders can tell the difference."

"You... can’t tell the difference?"

Even if colorblind... one should still be able to distinguish black from white, right?

"Yes. Although it sounds unbelievable, it’s that miraculous. If you can see the ’black goat,’ you must tell us."

Wei Zhengxian began to feel that something was amiss.

Was this some new round of testing?

After that day’s work was over...

Wei Zhengxian checked into the dormitory for employees of the guesthouse.

Conveniently, he was sharing a room with A-Lu.

Sharing a room with such a person, he could hardly rest easy.

But in order not to arouse the suspicions of the villagers, he had no other choice.

The clues he had gathered so far were... Hei Village had been worshipping the Black Blood Maternal Ancestor for several decades.

Everyone firmly believed that the Black Blood Maternal Ancestor resided in the cave to the east of the village, making that place absolutely forbidden. It was guarded day and night.

On one’s birthday, at the exact time of one’s birth, they would personally throw the head of a slaughtered goat into the cave.

Then... under the blessing of the Black Blood Maternal Ancestor, they would become more and more attractive.

This was true for both men and women. Of course, older individuals who had no desire for "cosmetic surgery" could choose to forgo the opportunity.

Because, everything was predicated on having a goat of one’s own. Giving up the chance meant leaving it for other family members.

Therefore, it was not difficult to infer...

The A-Yuan of the past, like A-Cheng, must have looked extremely ugly.

Wei Zhengxian knew that it was dangerous to stay, but he had to stay... to find out the truth. No one would believe what was happening here.

Yet, Wei Zhengxian did feel it was odd.

He had no desire to leave the village, as if something within him resisted the idea of departing.

Why he felt this way, he could not understand.

But now, there was an opportunity.

A-Lu’s birthday was coming up.

He already had a goat.

What A-Lu would do next, was to slaughter this goat and offer it to the so-called Black Blood Maternal Ancestor.

Afterward, everyone would leave the area around the cave.

For a short time, no one was allowed within a hundred meters of the cave.

He could use this opportunity to enter the cave and discover what this so-called Black Blood Maternal Ancestor was!

As Wei Zhengxian was contemplating these things, he suddenly felt something strange.

He opened the dormitory door and stepped outside.

Lately... he had not looked in the mirror after waking up in the morning.

He kept walking.

He didn’t realize that he was heading in the direction of the cave...

Finally, he arrived in front of the cave.

The villagers guarding the cave acted as if they couldn’t see him at all, letting him walk right up to the cave.

Then...

Wei Zhengxian walked straight into the cave.

Meanwhile...

A villager from Hei Village was sitting by the roadside when he suddenly saw a man and a woman approaching from afar.

The villager walked over and said, "Who might you be?"

"Hello," the man introduced himself, "My name is Dai Lin, and this is my colleague Gao Heyann. We’re here on a trip nearby, but our car broke down..."

"I see, come with me. I’ll take you to the only guesthouse in our Hei Village!"

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