Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 629 The Crowd
In the center of the crowd, a thin, curved plume of smoke rose, standing out starkly in the stagnant air.

"Over there, let's keep a little distance and observe."

Nan Zhuren gestured in a low voice, and he and Li Lingling stopped in the crowd in a place that was neither too far inside nor too far out, but where they could still have a clear view.

The other social workers were curious for a few seconds after seeing Wang Lili bring back two strangers, but then immediately turned their attention back to the ritual in the room.

The scene of the sacrificial ceremony appeared particularly rudimentary and out of place in the disaster relief site where supplies were scarce.

At the far end of the crowd was a small shrine, hastily constructed from a few broken red and blue bricks, with mud stuffed in the gaps. Inside the shrine was nothing or no statue, only a rough piece of paper, clearly torn from some kind of packaging box, with a bunch of crooked traditional Chinese characters written on it in what could be either charcoal or some rare ink.

Because it was written in traditional Chinese characters and the writing style was unfamiliar, Nan Zhuren could only use his discerning eye to find the characters "Dragon King".

In front of the "Dragon King" tablet was a strange-smelling incense made of cardboard and some kind of tobacco leaves. In front of the incense were a pile of biscuit boxes, plastic bowls, and small dishes made from cardboard packaging of some kind of snack, which should have contained offerings.

Wang Lili whispered in Nan Zhuren's ear: "Among these 'offerings,' the one in the very center is rainwater—this can be collected at any time now, and it symbolizes 'purity.'"

Wang Lili, who had almost succumbed to mass hysteria before, was quite familiar with this sacrificial scene, and explained it to Nan Zhuren as she watched.

As Nan Zhuren listened, he observed the area around the small niche with his own eyes.

On either side of the dish of rainwater, a symbol of "cleanliness" in a tin box, which Wang Lili mentioned, were three shriveled and wrinkled apples and two oranges whose peels had lost their luster. These fruits would be considered rare even in normal post-disaster rations; it was unclear how they had managed to save them, or whether they had gritted their teeth and taken them from their already limited private reserves.

In front of these fruits is a small "tower" made of just three pieces of pastry.

“These offerings are not arranged in a very proper manner, and I even feel that there are some strange things mixed in, but overall there are still some rules to follow,” Wang Lili continued to explain.

"Apples and oranges were the supplies we were allocated, and there were very few of them. They picked them out, apparently because of the homophones of 'peace' (平安) and 'wish fulfillment' (心想事成)."

"I used cookies because this processed food symbolizes 'human warmth' or something like that..."

Nan Zhuren nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

Before entering, he had thought there would be some ancient and mysterious rituals or rules that he couldn't cross, but when he arrived, he felt that the ritual was quite adapted to the local conditions.

It's even a bit punk.

"What will happen to these offerings after the ceremony?" Nan Zhuren asked.

He did not receive an immediate response. As the ritual progressed, Wang Lili's expression, which had relaxed slightly after meeting Nan Zhuren, tightened again, a sign of stress.

Then I saw her place her hand on her left chest—not her heart, but there was an inner pocket there containing the three self-questions that Nan Zhuren had taught Wang Lili during the psychological intervention.

After muttering silently for a while, Wang Lili let out a half-hearted sigh of relief before responding to Nan Zhuren: "These offerings are usually kept... but I know what you mean, Teacher Nan. Resources are very scarce right now, and using offerings like this is indeed a waste."

"Usually, these offerings will be stolen at night. Then Old Man Chen will start cursing, saying that everyone is still offending the Dragon King under these circumstances, that everyone is stubborn and unrepentant, etc... Old Man Chen is the one who is reciting the sacrificial inscription at the very back right now."

Nan Zhuren nodded; this was good news.

The offerings were being stolen, so the "mass hysteria" hadn't truly spread yet—even if it had, it was still controllable within the crowd. Nan Zhuren pondered this, then followed Wang Lili's subtle finger to look at Old Man Chen in the crowd.

……

The group of people performing the sacrifice numbered about twenty, mostly elderly, but also some middle-aged.

The other people at the resettlement site kept a distance of about one meter from them.

The person furthest inside among the twenty was "Uncle Chen," as Wang Lili had described him. He was wearing a Zhongshan suit with the elbows worn so thin they were almost see-through, but it was fairly clean, surprisingly without a speck of mud in the current environment.

Old Chen held a stack of rough, yellowed scraps of paper, some even bearing traces of original writing, and muttered to himself in a hoarse, aged voice:
"...Your Majesty the Dragon King, with your great supernatural powers, controls the clouds and rain..."

"This year's great flood has destroyed fields and houses, and disturbed the people. It must be because we were ignorant and offended them..."

"We humbly beseech the Dragon King to quell his wrath and stop the floodwaters... to bless us, the disaster victims, so that we may return home soon and rebuild our homes... If we have a good harvest next year, we will... on the fifteenth of the first lunar month, offer three sacrificial animals and wine as a sincere sacrifice..."

His prayer was a mix of classical and vernacular Chinese, with a heavy local accent. He was facing away from Nan Zhuren, so that Nan Zhuren could not see the expression on his face.

……

Nan Zhuren was actually very curious about the information on Old Man Chen's face at that moment. But even with Nan Zhuren's courage, he didn't dare to go around to the front of the sacrificial ceremony to get a view.

Researchers who come here have a history of nearly being attacked. Nan Zhuren is just more radical and bolder, not reckless.

But he could see most of the expressions on the faces of the other onlookers.

[Micro-expression analysis - Intermediate] It allows observation of multiple people in the current environment, where a multitude of information converges on Nan Zhuren like rivers flowing into the sea.

"Bang, bang, bang"

The loudest noise came from an old woman about two meters away from Nan Zhuren. She looked to be in her fifties, with half-gray hair that had started to turn black again due to the mud.

She was neither among the people performing the sacrifice nor among the onlookers.

She knelt down in the small open space separated by the two groups of people, not following the sacrificial rites, but just kept kowtowing as Old Man Chen recited the eulogy.

[Hands clasped together, knuckles white, fingernails seemingly digging into the back of the hands—the pressure was immense.]

The lower lip is curled inward and slightly bitten by the upper teeth.

The pupils intermittently lose focus, and the patient repeatedly makes rapid, forceful swallowing motions...

This is an attempt to suppress strong emotions; there should be sadness, anxiety, and confusion... It's not contradictory for these emotions to occur simultaneously.

(End of this chapter)