ID No. 019 - Chapter 8.1

Chen Yang thought the young man didn’t let him bring Zhang Yan and the others because he distrusted them, but it turned out he just found them ugly and annoying.

Annoying he could understand, but unattractive? Chen Yang couldn’t see it—none of the three were ugly.

When Chen Yang and the young man arrived at the place where the coffins were kept, dawn was just breaking. What used to be a peaceful environment filled with lush vegetation was now nothing but a scorched and barren wasteland. It looked like a large blackened pit that had been consumed by fire.

Chen Yang had thrown up several times yesterday and hadn’t eaten breakfast, leaving his stomach empty. He popped three pieces of milk candy in his mouth and gave the remaining ones to the man.

“Search there.” The man sounded tired as he pointed in a direction. “Call me if you find anything.”

Chen Yang didn’t know what to look for, but he didn’t ask. He simply nodded and went.

The man glanced at the milk tablets in his hand, raised an eyebrow, and then put them into the pocket of his tracksuit.

The sky gradually brightened and the pit was bathed in the first rays of the morning sun, illuminating the two searching figures. That golden light almost washed away the eerie atmosphere from last night, until Chen Yang unearthed a small piece of a stone tablet.

Upon hearing the noise, the man approached on his crutches and saw Chen Yang wiping the stone chunk with his shirt. He frowned in disdain and said, “Don’t you have any tissues in your backpack?”

Chen Yang paused. “… I do.”

Even after using up a pack of tissues, the stone tablet was still dirty and uneven, making it impossible to see what was on it.

“Wait here,” Chen Yang said as he got up and ran off. When he returned, he was holding a large, broad leaf that he used to scoop up some water and poured it over the stone chunk.

“There are some big jars in the woods a short distance away from where we are. That’s where I got the water from,” Chen Yang explained to the man, crouching down to continue cleaning the stone tablet.

Slowly, the text on the stone tablet became clear. Most of it had been eroded by dirt and the passage of time.

Even though only scattered parts were visible, Chen Yang’s heartbeat quickened. He carefully traced the text twice with his fingers, then excitedly pulled the box out of his backpack.

He compared the two and found that the text on the tablet was indeed the same language as that on the box.

Chen Yang’s legs went weak and he sat down in front of the stone tablet. “Just as I guessed, another civilization once existed on this island. The people living on the island now had come from outside the island…” He looked up at the man with excitement in his eyes. “We should be able to get out of here soon.”

The man looked down at him for a moment before disagreeing. “Not yet.”

Chen Yang wasn’t upset by the man’s discouraging remark, just confused. “How? We’ve already got the main storyline. As long as we uncover the truth behind the vanished civilization, we can find the source of the curse.”

The man replied, “You’re forgetting two things.”

With this reminder, Chen Yang realized it was human nature and feelings that he had overlooked. These would complicate things and pose major obstacles.

When he thought of how the island didn’t seem to be haunted so far, Chen Yang’s confidence returned a bit. “What about the stone tablet? Should we bury it again?”

“We can’t bury it,” the man said. “Disturb the soil around it so it looks like it emerged from the ground on its own.”

Chen Yang understood what the man intended to do and couldn’t help giving him another look. He thought of how wrong Zhang Yan and the others were to consider him a useless burden. “How did you know there was a stone tablet in the mountains?”

“I didn’t know.”

Chen Yang didn’t doubt him. The dense vegetation around had burned away, so any clues would be exposed. The man was just taking a look to see if he could find anything. It wasn’t a big deal if there was nothing.

Speaking of which, the fire didn’t burn the island down despite the absence of rain last night. It just went out on its own.

In the morning, a few people went into the mountains and brought something back. It was bundled in coarse cloth and handed over to Old Madam Qi.

It was none other than the stone tablet.

Soon after, Old Madam Qi informed everyone that there was a new explanation for the two tragic events last night. It wasn’t that they offended the gods, but rather that they’d developed a strange disease.

The symptoms of the disease varied and the specifics were still unknown, but the common factor was eating fertilizer.

That meant they weren’t human anymore.

Since they weren’t human, there was no telling what they might do. Just because Mrs Liu’s son and Madam Li hadn’t harmed anyone before they died didn’t mean others with the disease wouldn’t. To be safe, they had to be captured and isolated.

Old Madam Qi led a group of people and inspected each household.

There was no real way to check for now, so they just counted the number of fertilizer bags. The quantity of fertilizer every household bought had been recorded.

Trouble started on the island after each household took their fertilizer home last night. No one had the presence of mind to care about their fields. If any fertilizer was missing, it meant someone had secretly eaten it.

If they couldn’t determine who ate it or if the family deliberately tried to hide the truth, the whole family would be captured.

Though it was a very sloppy way of handling the situation, it was necessary for the safety of the others.

It wasn’t just the islanders who had to go through the inspection: Chen Yang and the rest had to as well. This was what Old Madam Qi meant when she mentioned “cooperation”.

Chen Yang and the others were the first to be examined. After all, Madam Li was one of the infected and they had been staying in her house ever since arriving on the island. On top of that, Aunt Liu’s son was their neighbor. The chances of one of them being sick were high.

Chen Yang stood at the door as he watched Old Madam Qi and her group approach. He remembered the night they arrived on the island, when Zhou Xiaoxiao naively asked what the fertilizer was for. No one answered her, except for Huang Qing, who sarcastically said it was for eating.

No one could have guessed that that was actually true.

Li Dafu’s family had twelve bags of fertilizer.

Madam Li had eaten one bag, leaving eleven, which were all stored in the utility room.

Chen Yang was grateful he hadn’t used any fertilizer last night. Otherwise, if the bag was opened and fertilizer was missing, Zhang Yan and the others would definitely push the blame onto him to protect themselves.

He directed a look of gratitude to the young man.

The amount of fertilizer was correct and no one seemed sick. Old Madam Qi confirmed this several times, seemingly not expecting this result. She scrutinized the five outsiders one by one before moving on to the next house.

Chen Yang watched the old lady leave, noting the strength in her step even at her age. When he retracted his gaze, he noticed Zhang Yan looking at him and asked, “What?”

Zhang Yan said in an odd tone, “A lot of time has passed since you were cursed yesterday, but you seem just fine.”

Chen Yang lightly brushed against the two iron nails in his pocket. So Zhang Yan was asking why he hadn’t died yet.

“Don’t you feel any urge to eat fertilizer?”

“Not really.”

“Do you feel like burying yourself in the ground?”

“Not at all.”

“Your situation seems to be different from the two who died.”

“Yeah.” Chen Yang murmured, pretending to be lost in thought, effectively deterring further questions from Zhang Yan.