Book 1: Chapter 189


    Under my questioning, ck sses reluctantly talked about what had happened in that vige. There hadnt been a chance to talk with him about Uncle Twos ns, so we exchanged a few sentences.


    Time was short and Fatty kept scratching his head the whole time, so the chat wasnt very detailed. Basically, when Uncle Two investigated the local folk customs, he found a vige in southern Fujian where the vigers had a disability that ran for several generations. They checked the water and soil, but couldnt figure out what the cause was. Even the local government''s attempt to relocate them was fruitless. Since the vige was located at several possible centers of the South Sea king''s tomb that Uncle Two had investigated, he hired ck sses to go there and investigate.


    When ck sses went there, he met a team who was filming a TV documentary. He had a few conflicts with them, but I didnt know the specifics since he didnt borate on this part. All he would say was that the leader of the documentary team was a woman who didnt like him very much. ck sses found a lot of traces of the South Sea Kings tomb there, which was very simr to what we had seen before. For example, there were totems of the eyes we had seen in the murals and thunder god statues scattered in the viges ancestral halls, stables, and along some stone walls.


    ck sses thought that people in this vige either participated in the construction of the South Sea Kings tomb, or were the remnants of the West Seas Falling Cloud Country. The signnguage and writing system the vigers used were different from those outside, so they could hardlymunicate with outsiders. The stone mortar in this vige was very old, and was probably left over from when the tomb was built.


    Either the people here had entered the underground river system of the West Seas Falling Cloud Country, or these things had been moved out of there a long time ago. ck sses believed that there had to be some clues in the vige, but the most important question was whether these peoples muteness was rted to their ancestors entering the West Seas Falling Cloud Country.


    Based on what I had heard, the second possibility seemed more likely.


    After some investigation, he found that there was a special ceremony in the vige. Since it was inevitable that the babies would be mute after they heard their first thunderstorm, every newborn underwent a special ceremony in the vige on the night that it thundered. ck sses wanted to attend the ceremony and film it for information, but was ultimately denied.


    He tried every means to get into the ceremony, and found that its real purpose was to put a silver ring into a gap on the baby''s head. This way, the baby''s skull couldnt be closed and a cavity would eventually form. ording to the locals, the children couldnt leave the vige if they didnt do this. Only people with this skull cavity could leave.


    ck sses also found that when it started to thunder that day, it was like the vigers were experiencing a nightmare. Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened to the thunder.


    This was exactly what had happened when I saw Boss Jiao''s team in the woods before.


    The documentary teams leader thought that it was a foolish old custom, but ck sses felt that there had to be a reason for it. After all, no one could leave even though the natural environment of the vige was so bad. They checked through countless resources and found the only exception in the viges posterity examination. There was a girl who was born when the vige was suffering from a three-year drought. By the time the first thunderstorm came, she had already grown up and her skull had closed, so they could no longer imnt the silver ring.


    When she was three years old, she encountered the first thunderstorm of her life on the way to herding cattle. Not only did the thunderstorm not render her mute, but it also made her see a strange sight, thus revealing the mysterious centuries-long truth behind Mute Vige.