Chapter Twenty-Four: The Barn (V) An Obstruction

“What’s going on? It was here last night, wasn’t it?” Xiao Shao’s head was full of questions—he distinctly remembered it sitting beneath the window. He hadn’t stepped out of the house since waking at three or four in the morning. Unless… Unease twisted in his chest, and his cousin’s face was equally grim.

“Xiao Shao, let’s go outside and have a look. Maybe the old man moved the granaries somewhere else,” his cousin said after a moment’s deliberation.

Xiao Shao nodded, keeping his suspicions to himself, and followed his cousin outside.

They opened the courtyard gate and glanced around. But what they saw made Xiao Shao gasp, nearly dropping to the ground in fright. The three granaries from the Warring States era were arranged outside the gate, and the house’s owner—the eccentric old man—was kneeling on the ground, facing the granaries. He kicked his legs and drove his forehead into the rocky earth with desperate force, as if trying to burrow underground. Blood streaked his face from his battered brow; another few moments of this, and he’d surely crack his skull and depart this world.

“What… what’s he doing?” Xiao Shao and his cousin were stunned. “Cousin, is this some kind of mountain ritual, maybe a shaman’s dance?”

His cousin shook his head and watched for a while. “Have you ever seen a shaman dance himself to death?”

“Cousin, what should we do? We can’t just stand by and let him die, can we?”

His cousin nodded and approached the old man, who was still furiously burrowing.

“Hey