After Lily finished speaking, she buried her head in her mother’s embrace. No matter how much Yun Ge called out to her, she no longer responded. In the end, unable to persuade Lily to leave, Yun Ge could only choose to turn around and leave with a heavy heart. However, not long after Yun Ge walked out of Lily’s house, Luke chased after him.

  Luke handed a key to Yun Ge, telling him to stay in a warehouse at their house for the night, so that Yun Ge wouldn’t encounter any danger while wandering alone in Candy Town at night. Then, Luke also persuaded Yun Ge to stay calm, promising that he would come to find him early the next morning and help him find a new place to live.

  For Yun Ge, this night was destined to be a sleepless one. He hid alone in the warehouse, listening to the howling wind outside that sounded like ghosts wailing, while recalling the entire incident. Yun Ge’s mind was filled with images of Lily crying, as well as the scenes he imagined of Lily being led to the sacrificial altar, causing him to completely lose track of time. It wasn’t until a ray of sunlight shone through the small window above the warehouse and landed on his face that Yun Ge realized he had been sitting in this small warehouse for the entire night.

  Yun Ge walked out of the warehouse and breathed in the fresh morning air. At this moment, there was no sign of fatigue on his face, only anger and reluctance. Of course, after suppressing his emotions for the entire night, Yun Ge didn’t want to rush into Lily’s house and cause trouble again. Instead, he immediately set off for the town hall where the town chief lived.

  After a whole night of contemplation, Yun Ge had come to an understanding: since he learned during the confrontation with Lily’s father yesterday that the selection of the sacrificial offering was the responsibility of the town chief, he might as well go directly to the town chief to reason, demanding that the town chief cancel Lily’s status as a human sacrifice and allow her to regain her freedom.

  Yun Ge, whose head was filled with anger, naturally didn’t consider how to persuade the town chief. He only thought of expressing his dissatisfaction to the town chief and even using some more intense methods to force the town chief to abandon the idea of using Lily as a sacrificial offering. This led to Yun Ge causing a commotion right there in front of the town hall when he couldn’t convince the guards to let him see the town chief.

  Fortunately, the town chief had always governed Candy Town with a people-oriented approach, and since the residents of the town were all familiar with each other, the guard on duty that morning happened to know Luke quite well and quickly understood why Yun Ge had come to protest so early.

  With the coordination of this guard, the other guards who arrived on the scene did not make things difficult for Yun Ge. Instead, they escorted him into the town hall and reported the situation of Yun Ge’s disturbance to the town chief, waiting for further instructions from the town chief.

  After waiting for not long, a receptionist from the town hall walked into the lobby and said, “Yun Ge, the town chief wants to see you. Please follow me.”

  With that, the receptionist signaled for two guards to escort Yun Ge and follow her towards the end of the corridor on the first floor. Yun Ge soon realized that the direction the receptionist was taking him was to the medical room he had visited multiple times for the treatment of his amnesia. Feeling a sense of strangeness, Yun Ge cautiously asked, “Excuse me, isn’t this the way to the medical room?”

  The receptionist replied politely, “Yes. Whenever there are patients in the medical room, the town chief always makes it a point to visit the medical room first thing in the morning to ensure that he can understand the patients’ conditions immediately after they get up.”

  Seeing that the receptionist was being courteous to him, and considering that she had also received him multiple times during his treatment visits, Yun Ge didn’t feel right about losing his temper with her. Instead, he patiently followed closely behind her, hoping that this would prompt her to quicken her pace.

  The group passed through the clinic in front of the medical room and entered the spacious ward that Yun Ge had visited on several occasions. As soon as Yun Ge entered the ward, he saw the town chief inquiring about a patient’s condition. At the same time, on a hospital bed in the middle of the room, a patient was quietly eating breakfast that a nurse had brought over.

  The receptionist led Yun Ge behind the town chief, then stepped forward and whispered a report into the town chief’s ear.

  The town chief slowly turned around and, with a smile, nodded at Yun Ge and said in a low voice, “You’ve come to my place to cause a disturbance early in the morning. I suppose you haven’t had anything to eat yet? Come, find a hospital bed to sit on and have something to eat. After I finish checking on this patient’s condition, we’ll discuss your matter.”

  Since the town chief had already spoken, and considering that Yun Ge hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since the night before, and after causing a commotion at the town hall early in the morning, his stomach inevitably growled loudly when he heard the town chief offer him breakfast.

  Thus, Yun Ge could only nod awkwardly, then randomly found a hospital bed to sit on, wolfing down a piece of toast sprinkled with candy fragments while waiting for the town chief to complete his morning rounds of the ward.

  “Good morning, Yun Ge. I heard you have something to discuss with me? Let’s go. We’ll talk in the medical office inside,” the town chief said in a very amiable tone after finishing his rounds and walking over to Yun Ge. At this moment, Yun Ge, who had eaten something, seemed to have calmed down a lot. So, to avoid disturbing the patients resting in the ward, he got up and followed the town chief into the medical office behind.

  “Town Chief! Why do you use human sacrifices?!” Yun Ge impatiently questioned as soon as he entered the medical office.

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  The town chief didn’t rush to answer the question. Instead, after washing his hands and changing into a set of medical scrubs, he said, “I thought you were going to question why Lily was chosen as this year’s sacrificial offering.”

  “What’s the difference between these two questions? Please answer my question!” Yun Ge didn’t want to discuss the nuances of his wording with the town chief, so he somewhat rudely urged for an answer.

  “There’s certainly a difference. If I’m willing to consider your request and cancel Lily’s status as the Heaven’s Chosen Virgin, would you stop causing trouble?” the town chief said.

  Yun Ge had anticipated a rather intense argument with the town chief, so when he heard the town chief’s immediate concession, he couldn’t help but ask suspiciously, “You—, are you really willing to cancel Lily’s status as a human sacrifice?”

  The town chief nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, “That’s right.”

  “What’s the price for this?” Yun Ge asked again.

  “No price at all. Lily isn’t the only option, after all,” the town chief said.

  “What do you mean by that?” Yun Ge frowned and asked.

  “Exactly what I said. You should know that Lily isn’t the only candidate for the Heaven’s Chosen Virgin. She was fortunate enough to draw the lucky sign during our Heaven’s Chosen Virgin revelation ceremony, which is why she became the Heaven’s Chosen Virgin.” The town chief explained while gesturing for Yun Ge to sit on the examination chair.

  Yun Ge, completely focused on the town chief’s words, didn’t realize that he was being led to sit on the examination chair.

  The town chief continued in a somewhat disappointed tone, “Although Lily became the Heaven’s Chosen Virgin through a random draw, if she truly wants to give up this identity, we can’t do anything about it. We can only hold another ceremony and select a new lucky girl!”

  “Alas! It’s just a pity that once Lily gives up her identity as the Heaven’s Chosen Virgin, her family will no longer receive additional subsidies, and they won’t be able to continue living in their current house as comfortably as they do now! After all, the Heaven’s Chosen Virgin bears the mission of blessing Candy Town to continue to prosper for the next three years. ”

  “So, if Lily gives up this identity, she will be seen by all the townspeople as unwilling to consider the future of Candy Town, and thus will face the resistance of the entire town.”

  As the town chief spoke, he handed a cup of fragrant hot drink that he had just brewed to Yun Ge. Yun Ge subconsciously took a sip of the hot drink, then questioned, “Town Chief, what do you mean by that? Are you accusing my actions of endangering Lily’s family? Are you threatening me?”

  “Hahaha! I’m just stating a fact. Because Candy Town doesn’t discriminate against anyone, nor do we make such aggressive regulations. ”

  “However, if the townspeople themselves unite to resist something or someone, as the town chief, besides mediating, I can only solve the problem from the perspective of the majority.” The town chief quickly explained, then handed a plate of biscuits baked with candy fragments to Yun Ge, gesturing for him to try the taste.

  Yun Ge picked up a small piece of biscuit and took a bite, immediately nodding involuntarily as his mouth was filled with a baked flavor mixed with a rich floral aroma. This taste flowed down his esophagus into his taste buds, then spread throughout his body, giving him an indescribable sense of pleasure and comfort.

  So, Yun Ge couldn’t help but eat another piece of biscuit and drained the cup of fragrant hot drink in one go. Then he leaned back contentedly on the examination chair.

  Although his anger had subsided a lot with the help of the food, Yun Ge still continued to ask, “I don’t understand, why do you have to use human sacrifices? Don’t you think this is very cruel?”

  The town chief said after taking away the cup from Yun Ge’s hand, “For the young maidens of Candy Town, being able to become the Heaven’s Chosen Virgin is a great honor, and for their families, it’s an even greater blessing.”

  “And for the residents of Candy Town, the sacrifice of the Heaven’s Chosen Virgin is the guarantee that Candy Town will continue to have favorable weather in the coming year. So, this is clearly something that can satisfy everyone. How can you say it’s cruel?”

  “Humph! You’re just trying to whitewash the evil act of human sacrifice! In my opinion, such sacrificial activities shouldn’t exist at all! At the very least, you shouldn’t continue to sacrifice living beings to some nonsense deities!” Yun Ge wasn’t buying it. At this moment, his mind was filled with the image of Lily’s sadness and pain.

  If Lily truly took pride in this, why would she cry so heartbreakingly?

  Lily was forcibly chosen as the sacrificial offering by the town chief!

  At the same time, Yun Ge finally understood that Lily’s sudden distancing from him during the past few days must have been because she knew she was likely to become the sacrificial offering, so she deliberately kept her distance to prevent him from being too heartbroken after losing her!

  The town chief dismissively said, “It’s the Forest Spirit, not deities. The only one that protects us in the Lost Woods is the Forest Spirit. If there really were deities, wouldn’t they save us from this forest and let us return to the human world?”

  “Besides, human sacrifices aren’t our choice, but the forest’s choice. We’re just following the forest’s will to offer sacrifices in exchange for the Forest Spirit’s protection.”

  “Sophistry! What you’re doing is no different from killing the innocent! Lily, Lily was forcibly chosen as the sacrificial offering by you! Lily never wanted to become a sacrificial offering!” Yun Ge said.

  However, at this moment, the tone of Yun Ge’s voice had long lost the momentum of his initial rage, and he was breathing extremely unevenly while speaking. It was precisely because of this sudden significant change in his emotions that Yun Ge finally realized something was wrong.

  So, Yun Ge hurriedly tried to get up from the examination chair. But he found that his body had become weak and powerless, leaving him unable to move at all and could only collapse back onto the examination chair.

  “What! What did you do to me?!” Yun Ge stared at the town chief, whose expression remained gentle, and asked with great difficulty.

  The town chief stepped forward and leaned close to Yun Ge’s ear, gently pressing his palm against Yun Ge’s forehead, and whispered, “Don’t worry. I won’t harm you. I just thought that your angry emotions just now posed a risk of triggering another episode of your amnesia, so I gave you some biscuits containing sedative ingredients. What you need to do now is to relax and rest well. I’ll take care of the rest!”

  The sedative took effect quickly, and Yun Ge fell asleep under the strong urge of fatigue as soon as the town chief finished speaking.

  After sleeping for an unknown amount of time, Yun Ge finally regained consciousness. However, since his regained consciousness was very limited, he was still in a semi-conscious state. Moreover, apart from his hazy awareness, he couldn’t perceive the existence of his body at all.

  But fortunately, Yun Ge could still hear the conversations of the people around him with the bit of consciousness he had regained: “Town Chief, how is Yun Ge? Should we——”

  Before the person could finish speaking, the town chief said, “No need. From the current situation, Yun Ge is indeed different from others. Therefore, I need to observe him more. Moreover, even if he is special, I can still reset his memory by increasing the strength of the spell. So there’s nothing to worry about. I just need to make him forget this experience.”