After all, this incident occurred in Ganzhou City, and experts from Qindao kept arriving in batches; equipnt wasn’t just brought in one by one, but rather departnt by departnt ca ard to the teeth. As for the university professors, two vans had brought them in. What does that tell you?
"Hey, Mr. Huang, I’m downstairs with Director Zhou’s family, helping them freshen up. They got sothing in their eyes on the way back."
Huang Yubin suppressed the anger bubbling up inside him, showing a concerned expression and quickly said:
"Is it serious? Should they go to the hospital to wash it out?"
"It’s been taken care of, we’ll be right up, but Director Zhou and the others will have to wait a bit longer."
Huang Yubin smiled and hung up the phone, seeing Zhou Ning looking over with concern. He quickly said:
"Director Zhou, your family got sothing in their eyes and are washing them out downstairs, do you think they should go to the hospital?"
Zhou Ning was sowhat worried, but since it had co to this, there was no point in making a fuss; he waved his hand and imdiately said:
"No problem, I will check on her in a bit."
While he was speaking, the door opened and Fang Dongsheng walked in with a few others. Mr. Qu had his backpack on, Xia Momo’s hair was a bit wet, Chen Cheng looked exhausted, and the cafeteria’s Mr. Liang was trailing behind them all.
Chen Cheng gestured to Zhou Ning and was the first to speak.
"Mr. Xia’s eyes have been taken care of, no issues there."
Zhou Ning nodded with a smile.
"You all can go rest next door, we will have a word with Mr. Liang about the situation, and then we can go get sothing to eat."
Upon hearing this, Xia Momo imdiately laughed, dragging Mr. Qu and the others out the door, which she quickly closed behind her. The cafeteria’s Mr. Liang was so nervous that he stood still, not even coming close to the table.
Fang Dongsheng waved his hand and simply dragged the man over to the table.
"Don’t waste ti, just hurry up and answer the leaders’ questions, say what you are asked, and tell us as much as you know—that’s the best cooperation."
Zhou Ning also laughed. It had to be said that after these few days together, Fang Dongsheng had co to understand his temperant completely.
"Mr. Fang is right—that’s exactly what I an. Don’t be nervous, we just want to understand the situation. Our Liu Da ntioned during his investigation that the locals know about a holy light on the Qilian Mountains, specifically in the southern foothills where we found the cave. There are pilgrims who go there; have you heard about this?"
Upon hearing this, Mr. Liang nodded slightly and looked towards Fang Dongsheng.
"You must be talking about Hege Langha, Mr. Fang, don’t you rember? A lot of people went there the year before last, gathering just below the snow line. So sang songs, so mingled for potential matches, and so sacrificed cattle and sheep. It was quite lively."
His words caught everyone’s attention, and Xu Dayuan and Zhou Ning both stood up and looked at Mr. Liang and Fang Dongsheng, asking in unison:
"What does Hege Langha an?"
"If translated directly, it ans ’radiance.’ At noon, when you look at the sun, you need to use your hand to block it, but the edges of your hand will appear even more dazzling. That is Hege Langha, which occurs once every two years.
Soone will spread the word in advance; for instance, if today is May 1st, they would promote early that Hege Langha will appear starting June 3rd, suggesting that everyone go there early to pray for blessings.
Then, everyone starts gathering from June 1st, singing and dancing; the gathering spot is in Sunan, and they call it Hege Langha Mountain. I’m always at the market, so I can understand a bit. I always thought it was so sort of irregular temple fair, and didn’t think of it in any other context."
After Mr. Liang finished explaining, Fang Dongsheng quickly leaned in.
"I rember this Hege Langha, but it was all hearsay; I haven’t known anyone personally who has actually seen it. For us, it just seed like a big temple fair—it was very lively."
Liu Yufei narrowed her eyes. If it really was a temple fair, to stimulate the economy, they wouldn’t choose to hold it on the mountain—at least they’d ensure the surrounding transportation was convenient. The local governnt would also offer support, such as setting a fixed date, conducting promotions, and having police maintain order. But it seed this event had none of that.
"Can you ask about the other cities in Longyou Province? Or so places near Ganzhou City, to see if they have this Hege Langha temple fair?"
Huang Yubin leaned over.
"Can you recall any other characteristics of this Hege Langha temple fair? Like what people wore, what they did, were there any ceremonies? Was there an organizer or soone who presided over the ceremony? What about ritual offerings, like the sacred knife you ntioned earlier?"
Fang Dongsheng looked at Mr. Liang, sowhat embarrassed, and said,
"We only ca upon the scene once and saw many people dressed in ethnic costus gathering. The girls were all dressed beautifully. At that ti, Mr. Liang was guiding us. It was from him that I first heard of this ceremony and event. It seems that those of us living in Ganzhou City don’t know about it."
Mr. Liang hastened to explain,
"My family situation is unique; the bureau leaders know all about it. My mother has been paralyzed from a cerebral hemorrhage for many years, my wife has injured one of her hands, and we have two children at ho. My salary alone can’t support the whole family. On Saturdays, Sundays, and evenings, I set up a street stall or attend markets to supplent our inco."
Fang Dongsheng waved his hand.
"There’s no need to explain that. Just tell us, when did you first hear about the Hege Langha temple fair?"
Mr. Liang thought for a mont.
"The first ti I went was when my second child was born, eight years ago. It wasn’t as large or as lively as it is now. Oh, I rember now, at the ceremony there would be people dancing on the mountain and so wearing devil masks and beating drums. In the end, they would distribute candy.
The candy was just ordinary candy, but people would rush forward and fight over it like crazy. They said it was a blessing, and eating such candy would dispel disasters and cure diseases—if you were ill, it would heal you; if not, it would strengthen your body.
At first I thought it was a joke, but the more people talked about it, the more miraculous it seed to beco. So people claid to have seen bedridden individuals walking with the help of a cane after eating the blessed candy. I was tempted and went a few more tis, but later it beca too crowded to get close. I never went forward, but the stories just beca more incredible."
Liu Yufei stood up as if she had an epiphany, seemingly recalling sothing.
"Is it the white, unmarked wrapping paper, with multicolored candies inside—red, green, yellow, similar to the marble-like ones from before?"
Mr. Liang nodded.
"That’s right, those traditional candies. Anyone who could get them would box them up, hold them above their heads, and bow towards the mountain, then bring them ho with great reverence. They wouldn’t do this if there were no effects, right?
The story spread from one and then another, and over ti, everyone started to believe in its effects. So every year, when the Yagelangha temple fair is held, there are even more people."
Although Zhou Ning didn’t agree with Mr. Liang’s words, the lack of education among the elderly, coupled with their isolated lives, made the so-called ’healing effects’ fatally enticing for them. The power of word-of-mouth was much stronger than any public advertisent.
Offering a cure-all gave hopeless people unlimited hope for survival. Once this direction was taken, it successfully revealed the true face of the Yagelangha temple fair; it was a process of creating a deity.
Opening her laptop and finding content she had searched for the day before, Zhou Ning stared at the screen in deep thought.
The developnt of Yagelangha was reminiscent of the embryonic form of Aum Shinrikyo in Sapporo Country, which caused widespread panic and lawlessness, engaging in extortion, kidnapping, murder, and threats, and had a heyday from the sixties to the eighties.
Their teachings focused on "saving the souls of the world from hell," appearing pure and noble, helping seriously ill individuals to start anew. For a ti, they nearly managed to rewrite the constitution of Sapporo Country, striving to push for a change in the human race. To this end, the followers of Aum Shinrikyo even manufactured seventy tons of sarin for poisoning.
They aid to destroy Sapporo to build a new Xiangbala. Subsequently, they participated in the House of Representatives elections; after their failure, they orchestrated a terrorist attack, releasing sarin gas in a subway station resulting in multiple deaths and over six thousand injuries, which finally led to their arrest and disposal.
Zhou Ning narrowed her eyes. Aum Shinrikyo began to decline in Sapporo in 1991-1992. Of course, the announcent of their complete capture was in 1995. If calculated this way, it seed that Yagelangha appeared around the sa ti.
With this thought, Zhou Ning felt a chill creep up her back.
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