deltrittennovels #566 - Another legend
#566 - Another legend
The first rays of dawn filtered into the assembly hall, carrying with them an unspeakable sense of oppression. Granny Rong, hunched over, her cloudy eyes gleaming with complex emotions, looked even more aged in the morning light. Every wrinkle on her face seemed to whisper untold secrets. She spoke slowly, her hoarse voice echoing in the silent space:
“This legend… it’s very similar to the stories passed down through generations in our village, but not entirely the same.”
Tang Yin noticed Granny Rong's hands were trembling slightly, weathered hands covered in age spots and gnarled veins. She took a deep breath and continued, “Rather than similar, it’s more like another side of the legend.”
Everyone held their breath. The air seemed to solidify, and even time stood still. Granny Rong's cloudy eyes gazed into the void, as if recalling something. “The Thousand Brightness God did indeed send five guardian beasts to help humanity, and four of them did join forces with humans to kill the wolves. All of that is the same as the stories.”
Her voice suddenly became low and heavy, as if weighed down by an invisible burden. “But the truth completely overturns our understanding of good and evil.” The statement was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, sending ripples everywhere.
“At the first Yellow Springs Requiem Banquet,” Granny Rong's voice trembled, as if recounting a nightmare she didn't want to remember, “humans and the four guardian beasts had already joined the Yellow Springs camp, becoming Yellow Springs people. And the only one who persisted to the end, the wolf, was driven out by these Yellow Springs people.”
Granny Rong's words continued to echo in the air, “In other words, this land has long been occupied by the Yellow Springs people. And the one who summoned the Wolf God back was the Thousand Brightness God himself.”
“The Thousand Brightness God bestowed the Wolf God's blessing upon some of the Mist Hidden Village people, allowing them to liberate the Mist Hidden Village occupied by the Yellow Springs people.” Her voice suddenly became firm, and a hint of fanaticism flashed in her eyes. “This is a holy war launched by the Wolf God.”
Speaking of which, tears welled up in Granny Rong's eyes. The tear traced a path down her wrinkled cheek. “When that drunken Hundred Abundance Village person told me this back then, I thought he was mocking us. But after we accepted the blessing, the Thousand Brightness God personally confirmed this truth to us.”
She turned to Wang Lina with difficulty, her voice choked with sobs, “So, Lina, we must execute everyone, no matter how difficult it is…” Her body trembled slightly as she mentioned this. “Zhao Gang was in so much pain back then…” Tears streamed from her cloudy eyes. “But… only by doing this can we redeem the Yellow Springs people… The Thousand Brightness God, the Thousand Brightness God said so.”
Looking at Granny Rong's tears, Tang Yin finally understood everything. The air in the assembly hall seemed even heavier, filled with sadness and despair. To her, killing was salvation, an unwavering belief that supported her to this day, allowing her to endure the condemnation of her conscience.
And the mysteries that had plagued him—the pollution, and the bizarre messenger—seemed to have explanations after the Thousand Brightness God's position was overturned. All the pieces finally came together to form a complete picture, but this picture was darker than he had imagined.
Tang Yin looked at the swaying shadows of the trees outside the window, the sunlight filtering through the leaves casting dappled light and shadows on the ground. He thought to himself: I never would have thought that terrifying getup came from the side of justice, probably influenced by the special culture here.
“...Never…” Her eyes widened, her beautiful pupils filled with confusion and unease. “I've never heard of such a thing…”
Wang Lina's voice echoed in the empty assembly hall, with a hint of undisguised trembling. She twisted her fingers subconsciously, her slender wrists appearing particularly pale in the morning light. Tang Yin narrowed his eyes, thinking to himself: Wang Lina obviously doesn't know this canon. The discovery made his heart tighten, and his gaze involuntarily turned to Qin Ming.
He was silent for a moment, as if weighing something, and finally opened his mouth and said, “I only found out when I received the blessing.”
The sentence stirred up a ripple in Tang Yin's mind.
In other words, Qin Ming didn't know about this before either. Suddenly, he remembered what Qin Ming had said before. The young man had said, “...According to the teacher, all we need to do is impart the ideology.” Then he added, “The key is that we must believe in the correctness of our actions.”
A thought flashed through Tang Yin's mind—this young man, always dressed in a black uniform, was indeed not good at lying. He had already told himself the truth in a subtle way.
The air in the assembly hall seemed to solidify, and the essence of the Yellow Springs Requiem Banquet gradually emerged, a terrifying system that made two faithful camps kill each other.
Tang Yin felt it was time to change the subject, and he turned his attention to Gao Mei, who had been silent all along. “Little Mei, how did you know?”
Gao Mei was wearing a light blue dress, the skirt swaying gently with her subtle movements.
The joy that had been on her face just now didn't seem fake. The heartfelt joy almost infected everyone present, and she had obviously agreed with the legitimacy of Qin Ming's actions. This meant that she also knew the canon that the wolf was on the side of justice. But why? Who told her?
Gao Mei lowered her head, her voice almost inaudible, with a dreamy etherealness. “...The Wolf God told me.” She slowly raised her head, her eyes flashing with a strange light. “On the day my grandfather died, I had a dream, and the Wolf God told me in my dream.”
Ridiculous! Tang Yin's heart was in turmoil, and he almost laughed out loud.
Are you kidding me? Making life-and-death decisions based on dreams or illusions? However, the day her grandfather died was the night before she tried to escape.
She chose to believe the content of that dream, like a drowning person grasping at the last straw. When she learned the truth that everyone was a Yellow Springs person, her pure heart fell into complete despair. Unable to accept this truth, she chose to escape this suffocating place.
Gao Mei's voice suddenly became firm, as if she had found a ray of light in the darkness. “Granny Rong must know the truth of the legend. There's no way she doesn't know.”
She clutched the corner of her skirt tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force. “But she didn't tell us, so I guessed it at the time.” She raised her head and looked in Qin Ming's direction, her eyes flashing with a complex light, with some shyness and firmness. “When I was alone with Brother, I also guessed it—”
Everything made sense.
Tang Yin sorted out the clues in his mind: this naive girl chose to believe that ethereal revelation, believing that the young man she admired was a member of the righteous camp, an overwhelming minority. It was this simple and persistent belief that drove her to betray humanity and join the wolf camp. She wholeheartedly believed in the legitimacy of the wolf and Qin Ming, a belief that transcended even life and death.
Tang Yin looked at the faces of these young people and suddenly realized that fate had played the cruelest joke on them—using illusory beliefs to push them into an abyss of opposition to each other. The wind outside the window gently blew through the leaves, making a rustling sound, as if composing a silent elegy for this absurd truth.
“Even if Sister Lina and Little Mei both vote for me, there's no way to execute me.”
Qin Ming's voice was unhurried, with a hint of playfulness. Turning to face everyone, his eyes swept over Wang Lina's tense face, then over Gao Mei's expectant eyes, and finally settled on Tang Yin.
“Even if you violate the rules and let Tang Yin participate in the banquet, you'll only have three votes. You'll have to hold a runoff vote, but you still won't be able to execute me at that time.”
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and a hint of imperceptible triumph flashed in his eyes. “In any case, the wolves have already won.” He paused, then added, “Easily won.”
These words were like a bombshell, stirring up a thousand waves in everyone's hearts. Tang Yin frowned, his eyes narrowed slightly, as if thinking about some profound question. His expression gradually changed from solemn to relieved, as if he had solved a long-standing mystery.
Wang Lina looked anxiously at Tang Yin, her figure in a light-colored dress looking a little thin in the sunlight. “...Tang Yin, what should we do?”
“Well, Qin Ming is right.” Tang Yin nodded, his eyes sweeping over everyone present. “Wang Lina, you—no, we have lost.”
The statement landed like a stone in a calm lake, creating ripples of varying intensity. Wang Lina instinctively took a step back, inhaled deeply, and unconsciously twisted the hem of her dress with her slender fingers. The elderly Granny Rong closed her cloudy eyes, let out a long sigh, and wrinkles etched deeper into her weathered face.
Little Mei still maintained a blank expression, her innocent eyes full of confusion, as if she hadn't fully understood the current situation. And Qin Ming's expression remained as still as an iceberg, as if all of this was within his expectations.
The most striking was Gao Mei, whose delicate face bloomed with a bright smile, her eyes sparkling with the joy of victory.
Tang Yin mocked himself inwardly: As a cunning and dirty adult, you should at least struggle. He called out softly, “Little Mei.”
Gao Mei's smile faltered slightly. “—What is it? Ah, Brother, he... what should we do with Tang Yin.” She looked at Qin Ming subconsciously, her eyes with some expectation and apprehension.
Qin Ming's gaze was still calm, his voice with a hint of nonchalance. “As long as he doesn't get in our way, just ignore him.”
“...Is that so?” Gao Mei's tone revealed a trace of relief, but with an undisguised worry.
Granny Rong suddenly spoke, a trace of vigilance flashing in her cloudy eyes. “Is it really okay not to execute him?”
“If necessary, the Thousand Brightness God will take care of it.” Qin Ming's tone was still calm, and he showed no reverence for the gods. He turned to Tang Yin, a hint of playfulness flashing in his eyes. “—However, you shouldn't give up so easily, right?”
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Tang Yin shrugged, revealing a meaningful smile. “Who knows? To be honest, if you guys are good people, continuing to help the Yellow Springs camp would be subtle, right?”
“...Tang Yin?” Wang Lina's voice held disbelief.
Qin Ming raised an eyebrow. “I didn't think you were so heartless.”
“Maybe it's because city people value rationality more?” Tang Yin's tone was somewhat teasing.
The corner of Qin Ming's mouth curved into a meaningful smile. “...A wise man submits to circumstances. That's the right judgment, quite right.”
The sunlight still shone warmly into the assembly hall, bringing this game to an end. Tang Yin looked at Qin Ming's face with a perfect mask, and sighed inwardly: He's really good at pretending.
Gao Mei suddenly stood up from her seat, her delicate face flushed red with anger, her hands clenched into fists. Sunlight shone through her light pink hair, forming a hazy halo behind her.
“—Wait, I didn't think you were this kind of person, Tang Yin!?” Her voice trembled slightly with excitement. “Didn't you say you liked Sister Lina? So now you're just going to stand by and watch her die!?”
Tang Yin leaned against the wall, his hands in his pockets, his eyes indifferent. He admitted that he was indeed an incurable cold-blooded animal, and he had always known this.
“...Yeah.” He responded softly, his eyes sweeping over the surprised or angry expressions on everyone's faces.
A suffocating sense of heaviness filled the air. Tang Yin raised his head, the corner of his mouth curling into a faint smile. “I don't like being criticized, so let me refute it.”
He walked slowly towards Gao Mei, his leather shoes making a crisp sound on the wooden floor. “—Little Mei.”
Gao Mei took half a step back subconsciously, her voice a little trembling. “Wh-what's wrong!?”
Tang Yin stopped two steps away from her, his gaze as sharp as a knife. “You should know, right? You will die too.” He paused. “Is that okay with you?”
“Huh?” Gao Mei was stunned, her clear eyes full of confusion.
Reality is cruel. Tang Yin sighed inwardly, the Thousand Brightness God really didn't tell her about this, it's really evil. The sunlight filtered through the window and cast dappled shadows on the floor, as if silently telling the darkness of this world.
“Although you know the canon, you still belong to the human camp, right?” Tang Yin's voice was calm and cold. “You haven't turned into a wolf, have you? You're not the one who killed Zhao Gang and Qian Jin, are you?”
Gao Mei lowered her head, her voice almost inaudible. “—It's true that I'm not.”
“Although I don't know why, you're just a human who knows the canon.” Tang Yin's words were like sharp blades, cutting through the truth word by word. “In other words, if the human camp loses, you will die too.”
He turned around, his gaze falling on Qin Ming. “—You said you found out he was likely a wolf when you were alone with Qin Ming, right?”
The air seemed to solidify. Tang Yin continued, “I don't think Qin Ming would make such a low-level mistake. It must be because your behavior was too suspicious that he guessed your identity.”
Tang Yin continued to analyze mercilessly, “Then, under the premise of concealing his identity, he induced you to move in a direction that was beneficial to him.”
“—Maybe the wolves knew from the beginning that there was a human with this identity.”
Qin Ming finally spoke, his voice with a hint of playfulness. “So what?”
So that's how it is, he admitted it. Tang Yin looked at Qin Ming's handsome face, his heart full of doubt. Why not lie? Since you don't deny it, it means you knew Little Mei would die but still wanted to use her? This is simply admitting that you are the scum of all scums.
The sunlight still streamed warmly into the assembly hall, but the atmosphere was as cold as if it had plunged into winter. Tang Yin looked at Qin Ming's face, which wore a composed smile, and mocked inwardly: You really hate lying that much? How have you survived until now?