I didn’t even know when I fell asleep, nor how long I had slept. All I knew was that I was woken up by someone—villagers outside my house were anxiously calling for me.

When I looked, the sun was already high in the sky. I immediately thought to myself, “This is bad, I overslept.” Today the village was supposed to be working on the road—why were the villagers coming to me instead of working? Could something have already happened?

I hurriedly got up and opened the door, and saw Old Secretary standing outside with three or four villagers.

They were all covered in mud, clearly from working on the road, but their expressions were panicked, pacing anxiously outside my door. It was obvious something had happened.

As soon as Secretary and the others saw me open the door, they rushed over, grabbing me and trying to pull me outside, urgently saying, “Brian, something terrible has happened, quick… come with me to the village entrance to save lives!”

Seeing how flustered Secretary looked, I was frightened too. I quickly held him back and said, “Secretary, don’t panic, what exactly happened?”

Secretary, held back by me, sighed and stomped his foot in frustration, saying, “Isn’t it all because of today’s roadwork? Little Baker just led the villagers to the place with the head-shaped marker stones to work on the road, and in no time several people collapsed. Now that your grandfather isn’t here, only you can save them!”

Hearing that what I’d been worried about had actually happened, I was startled and angry—these people just wouldn’t listen to warnings, bringing disaster on themselves! But at this point, I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. As Old Secretary said, maybe only I could save them now.

Without delay, I went inside, grabbed the yellow cloth bag, and followed Old Secretary out the door, hurrying to the scene.

On the way, I asked Old Secretary and the others for more details. I wanted to know exactly what had happened—had they really smashed those head-shaped marker stones?

Old Secretary was both angry and anxious, but still told me roughly what had happened.

It turned out that after last night’s meeting, early this morning the new secretary Little Baker led all the village laborers out to start working on the road.

When everyone arrived at the site and saw those head-shaped stones that had been dug up before, they couldn’t help but feel afraid, so no one dared to start.

Seeing this, Little Baker got very angry, saying there were no such things as ghosts or gods, and that everyone had been poisoned by feudal superstitions.

To prove his point and break the so-called feudal superstitions, he took the lead, walking up to the pile of head-shaped statues, saying he would dig them all up and smash them in front of everyone.

At this point, Old Secretary’s face changed noticeably, full of fear. I quickly asked him, “And then? Did he really smash those head-shaped markers?”

Old Secretary nodded, saying he did—if he hadn’t, what happened next wouldn’t have occurred. Then he continued telling me the story…

Little Baker jumped right into the pile of head-shaped statues in front of everyone, picked up a hoe, and started digging. Before long, he dug up several more head-shaped statues. As he dug, he boasted to everyone that all this was caused by feudal superstition, and that he’d been digging for so long and was perfectly fine. “Who says you can’t disturb this soil? Who says there are evil spirits here? It’s all nonsense!”

Everyone was stunned. Previously, Edward had gotten into trouble for digging up that soil. But now, the new secretary had been digging for a long time and was still fine.

The villagers began to waver, whispering among themselves, wondering if ghosts and spirits really were just lies made up by feudal superstition.

At that moment, Little Baker struck one of the head-shaped statues with his hoe, sending stone chips flying, but he himself was still standing there unharmed.

The soil had been dug, the stone statues smashed, so Little Baker told everyone to hurry up and get to work. He threatened that anyone who talked about ghosts or spirits again would be labeled a superstitious charlatan, tied up, and brought to the village for a public struggle session!

Everyone knew exactly what happened at those struggle sessions—my grandfather’s fate was the best example.

Hearing this, and seeing that the new secretary was fine after digging and smashing the stones, the villagers naturally dismissed the talk about the head-shaped statues being evil. As the saying goes, there’s strength in numbers, so everyone picked up their hoes and started digging.

But that’s when disaster struck. As everyone crowded in to dig, suddenly someone inexplicably collapsed. Everyone was terrified, and when they helped him up, they saw it was Edward, who had fainted before.

Edward was just like last time—convulsing all over, foaming at the mouth, his face pale and frightening.

As everyone panicked, Little Baker jumped out and told everyone not to be afraid, saying that Edward probably had some illness that caused him to faint whenever he worked, otherwise why was everyone else fine?

Everyone thought he made some sense. But just as they calmed down and were about to have two people carry Edward to the clinic, there were screams from the crowd—someone else had fainted. And it wasn’t just one person—three people collapsed at once.