Manual for Survival in a Strange World

It was the 23rd day of the 4th month in the lunar calendar, the Grain in Ear season.

Rain fell outside the house as Ning Zhe walked into the temple dedicated to the Serpent God. He opened the old almanac nailed to the Serpent God’s statue’s tongue to check the day’s auspiciousness:

[Auspicious:]

[Taboo: Traveling, Burial, Mourning, Sacrifices]

“Taboo for traveling… Does this mean I shouldn’t leave the house today?” Ning Zhe studied the almanac in front of him, committing its contents to memory.

The almanac’s content was crucial for survival in this secluded mountain village.

The village was called Hejia Village (何家村 Hejia can also mean He family/household.), located in the center of a basin surrounded by mountains, isolated from the outside world. The village was divided into two halves by a river, connected by three arch bridges.

The people of Hejia Village all worshipped the Serpent God, and every household displayed an image of the deity. The Serpent God was depicted as a massive jade-green Serpent with a pair of curved horns. A root-carved wooden statue of the Serpent God was enshrined in the ancestral temple at the south end of the village, surrounded by the ancestral tablets of the He family, which was where Ning Zhe currently stood.

The Serpent God’s statue had an old almanac nailed to its tongue. The villagers’ most important task at midnight each day was to come to the temple, turn a page of the almanac, check the day’s auspiciousness, and then sleep peacefully.

According to the villagers, the almanac’s fortunes were the divine secrets revealed by the Serpent God.

The daily auspicious and Taboo entries were random, and by knowing them, one could avoid bad luck and seek good fortune. Following the auspicious actions would lead to good outcomes, while violating the Taboo ones would result in misfortune. Repeatedly violating these taboos could even lead to bizarre deaths.

Ning Zhe had experienced this firsthand.

When he first entered the village yesterday, he unknowingly violated two taboos—‘seeing life’ and ‘exterminating pests’—from the previous day’s almanac, which led to a series of misfortunes: tripping on the cracks in the stone road, being hit on the back of the head by falling roof tiles, and getting caught in a torrential downpour just as he was about to leave the house… By midnight, he had barely endured the unlucky day. As the new day was about to begin in this isolated mountain village, Ning Zhe waited outside the temple. As soon as midnight passed, he immediately turned to the almanac to check the day’s fortunes.

Ning Zhe double-checked the almanac’s content:

[Auspicious:]

[Taboo: Traveling, Burial, Mourning, Sacrifices]

“Burial, mourning, and sacrifices are easy to understand, but what exactly does ‘traveling’ mean? Does it refer to leaving the village, or does simply stepping out of the house count as traveling? And also…”

Ning Zhe grew puzzled and glanced upwards, his gaze falling on the blank space after the word ‘auspicious’:

“Why is there only ‘Taboo’ on the almanac? Where’s the ‘auspicious’ part?”

Does this mean nothing is auspicious today?

As he pondered, the sound of light footsteps reached his ears from outside the temple, indicating a villager had come to check the almanac. Ning Zhe stepped away from the lotus platform before the Serpent God’s statue and headed towards the side door of the temple, preparing to leave.

The villagers of Hejia were peculiar people, and if possible, Ning Zhe preferred to avoid interacting with them.

However, as he reached the side door, he hesitated. The candlelight behind him flickered slightly. Unsure of the exact meaning of the ‘traveling’ taboo, he wasn’t ready to leave yet. After all, he had already experienced enough bad luck yesterday.

“It’s past midnight, the fortunes for today are now reset. If leaving the house to move around within the village counts as ‘traveling,’ then the villagers who came here to check the almanac would already have violated the taboo,” Ning Zhe thought to himself.

The Serpent God was magnanimous. Those who unknowingly broke a taboo for the first time would only face minor misfortunes, not life-threatening consequences. Therefore, by observing whether the villagers who arrived at the temple were unlucky, he could roughly judge whether they had violated the ‘traveling’ taboo.

With this in mind, Ning Zhe didn’t hurry to leave. Instead, he stepped behind a black pillar covered with a dark red silk curtain. The flickering candlelight below the curtain created a faint, swaying glow. He hid behind the curtain and peered through the gap to watch the main door of the temple.

The soft, muffled footsteps, accompanied by the sound of water splashing, drew closer as a pair of white sneakers stepped into a puddle before the temple door.

“…” Ning Zhe’s eyes locked onto the figure entering the temple, his pupils narrowing slightly in shock.

The figure was a young man, well-built and looking to be under thirty. He wore a simple tank top and loose running shorts, with muscular arms and sneakers, showing that he was someone who enjoyed exercising. Yet despite his ordinary appearance, Ning Zhe felt a chill run down his spine.

“Since I’ve arrived in Hejia Village, every villager I’ve seen has appeared strange. They wear outdated hemp clothing, use wooden plows drawn by oxen, and speak with a strong Hakka accent… There isn’t a single electric light on the streets or in the houses.”

“If not for the bizarre rules here and the villagers’ stiff, puppet-like movements, I would even suspect that I’ve traveled back in time.”

But in such an eerie “ancient village,” he now saw someone dressed in modern clothes.

“Who is he? Is he also trapped here like me? Is there another living person besides me in this place?”

A series of questions filled Ning Zhe’s mind, but his cautious nature prevented him from acting recklessly. He slowed his breathing, carefully controlling himself not to make a sound, and fixed his eyes on the man in the tank top and sneakers as he walked into the temple and stood before the Serpent God’s statue.

“He’s after the almanac too,” Ning Zhe realized.

The man in the tank top was likely an outsider, like Ning Zhe, who had been inadvertently trapped in this strange village. He probably violated a taboo of the Serpent God as well and had come to the temple at night to check the almanac, just as Ning Zhe had.

The man gazed at the old almanac hanging from the Serpent God’s tongue, his face filled with confusion. Ning Zhe understood what he was thinking:

“He thinks he’s the first to arrive, so the almanac hasn’t been turned yet and is still showing yesterday’s fortunes. Now he’s probably wondering why the contents of the almanac don’t match the taboos he violated yesterday.”

In reality, Ning Zhe had already turned the almanac to today’s page, so of course, it didn’t match.

The man hesitated in front of the Serpent God’s statue for a moment, then reached up to turn the almanac. He was about to flip the page.

“That’s right, this almanac doesn’t use the Gregorian calendar; it follows the lunar calendar. For someone used to the Gregorian calendar, it’s hard to tell whether the almanac page is for today,” Ning Zhe guessed, understanding the situation.

This could be easily resolved by checking a phone, as most modern phones display both the Gregorian and lunar calendars, but perhaps because the almanac’s content didn’t align with the taboos the man had violated, he became panicked and failed to think of this solution in his state of confusion.

In a place where rules were mysterious and death could come unexpectedly, very few people could maintain their composure.

Ning Zhe held his breath, eyes glued to the man’s hand as it reached for the almanac. “If today’s almanac has already been turned, what will happen if he turns it again? Will it show tomorrow’s fortunes?”

Ning Zhe wasn’t about to warn him. He was only curious about one thing: Would the Serpent God allow someone to check tomorrow’s fortunes today?

The answer came soon enough.

The man’s short, thick fingers pinched the almanac and began to turn the page, attempting to hang today’s fortune back on the nail. However, just as he was about to hang it, a dull thud echoed in the temple.

It was the sound of his body hitting the earthen floor. He had failed to turn the almanac to tomorrow’s page. His entire body crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

“Seems the answer is no,” Ning Zhe muttered to himself.

Although he hadn’t physically checked the body, an inexplicable premonition arose in Ning Zhe’s heart, as if someone had whispered the answer to him.

He felt it: the man was dead.

A cool evening breeze swept in from the temple door, and the turned page of the almanac fluttered in the wind. It hung suspended like a dead leaf, making a soft rustling sound, almost like a yellow butterfly flitting through the still temple. The ‘Tomorrow’s Fortunes’ on the page could still be faintly seen under the fluttering.

Ning Zhe took a deep breath, turned his gaze away from the almanac, and prepared to leave.

The man’s sudden death wasn’t due to bad luck; he had broken a hidden taboo beyond the usual ‘today’s fortunes.’

“Is this like an unwritten rule under the surface?” Ning Zhe pondered as he quickly moved from behind the curtain.

The cool wind blew through the temple, and Ning Zhe swiftly dragged the man’s body from before the Serpent God’s statue, hiding it under the offering table covered with a red cloth. A freshly dead body wouldn’t emit a smell for a while, so it should remain undetected.

He adjusted the cloth, quickly stepped away from the table, and returned to his hiding spot behind the curtain.

“There must be other people in this village besides me and this man. They might come to the temple too to check the almanac.”

Ning Zhe wasn’t frightened by the strange death he had just witnessed. He still knew what he needed to do—by observing whether other villagers who came to the temple would be unlucky, he might be able to figure out the true meaning of the ‘traveling’ taboo.

The almanac’s content was the key to surviving in this isolated village.