On the seventh day after fleeing from City A back to his remote hometown, Gan Tang lay under the eaves of the old house, where the cicadas were buzzing loudly, and had that nightmare again.
In the dream, a damp, slimy, scale-less giant boa constrictor pressed heavily on his body. He wanted to struggle but had no strength at all, unable to do anything but let the monster squirm and twitch over him, secreting thick mucus that covered his entire body… Then, bit by bit, it wrapped around him, dragging him into the dark, lightless depths.
Gan Tang remembered that he must have whimpered and cried out in the dream, but then he heard a familiar, hoarse whisper in his ear.
[Tang Tang…]
[Why are you crying? I love you…]
[I love you so much, why are you afraid of me?]
[You know, I won’t hurt you.]
[I just want to be with you forever.]
…
Then he turned his head and saw the head of the giant boa, which suddenly revealed the face of Cen Zibai.
The sinisterly handsome face was as twisted and disgusting as ever, and his gaze was still as nauseating as before…
Then, Gan Tang was so scared that he woke up.
*
After waking up, Gan Tang found himself covered in cold sweat, sticky and uncomfortable.
He instinctively reached for the air conditioner remote on the bedside table, but his hand grabbed nothing, and then he remembered that things were different now.
He was no longer in that convenient, well-off city, but had endured a long, exhausting journey, taking almost two or three days to return to his remote hometown deep in the mountains.
He remembered that he had only come back here once or twice when he was young, and later, because the conditions were so poor, even his mother grew impatient and stopped visiting often.
The outside world changed drastically from year to year, but here, it remained exactly the same as it was in Gan Tang’s memories, as if it had never changed—still barren, isolated, and backward.
If it weren’t for that incident, Gan Tang wouldn’t have doubted that he might never return to this extremely remote village. However…
“Ha…”
Gan Tang sighed deeply, frustration clear in his expression.
He turned over on the bamboo mat-covered wooden bed, reached under his pillow, and fumbled for his phone.
After unlocking the screen, Gan Tang wasn’t surprised to see a small red exclamation mark in the network section—still no signal.
Even so, he still instinctively opened his messaging app.
After scrolling up and down for a while, his gaze landed on the last conversation with his friend.
[Old B: Tang, when are you coming back? Did you go to cultivate immortality? I can’t find you anywhere.]
[Old B: Seriously, are you still going to school? I heard from the teacher that you took a leave of absence. It’s almost the third year of high school, what happened that made you quit school? Didn’t we agree to take the college entrance exam together and work in the factory, screwing bolts, and go to Sanhe? At this rate, you’ll be left behind.]
[Old B: Tang? Baby Tang? Damn, did you really disappear? No way! If you see this, reply to me.]
[Fruit Candy: Hmm, nothing much… just went back to my hometown.]
[Old B: Wow, you finally replied; I really thought you disappeared. You scared the hell out of me.]
[Old B: I didn’t think much of it at first, but then I saw Xiao Bai looking for you like a madman, and I really thought something happened to you.]
[Old B: But what actually happened? I remember you two were getting along fine before. Why did it suddenly turn out like this?]
Gan Tang looked at his phone, his finger hovering over the keyboard for a while, but in the end, he didn’t reply.
He only silently cursed in his heart.
He thought, if you woke up in the middle of the night, only to find your usually close buddy and roommate, who you could share a pair of pants with, secretly crouching in the corner of your bed, licking your feet with a look of intoxication on his face… you’d pack up and run away in the middle of the night too.
Moreover, the things Cen Zibai did after that were far worse than sneaking into his bed in the middle of the night to lick him.
It was only when he was avoiding Cen Zibai that Gan Tang realized how useful his former friend’s second-generation identity really was. It was like having connections everywhere—he had the power to control everything. In the end, Gan Tang even wanted to call the police, but still couldn’t stop Cen Zibai’s relentless pursuit.
In the end, even his parents couldn’t handle it anymore. With no other choice, they secretly arranged for him to take a leave of absence and quietly sent him off on a train. They said he would stay in the remote hometown for a few months or half a year to lay low.
After all, someone like Cen Zibai, being a psycho, might eventually lose interest once his excitement faded.
When Gan Tang finished sorting through his thoughts and tried to check his best friend’s WeChat again, the message still had the red exclamation mark next to it. His luck had only lasted for a short while, and now there was no signal again in the mountains.
He had endured this for today, but his luck didn’t come back.
For a young person, being without the internet was like a fish without water. Gan Tang sighed, holding his phone, and aimlessly opened various apps, zoning out for a while. Just as he was getting caught up in his phone addiction, a sharp, sorrowful scream suddenly pierced through the window, startling him and making him shiver.
“My child! Ahhhhhh—”
“Why did you leave like this? How am I supposed to live without you? Ahhhhhh—”
…
Before long, he heard people gossiping and slowly moving toward the direction of the sound.
The village was remote, and with the population dwindling, the few people left were mostly elderly. It had always been a quiet place, but now, it was unusually lively.
The noise was so loud that it hurt Gan Tang’s ears.
He tossed and turned in bed for a while, frowning before getting up.
As soon as he stepped out of the room, he saw his grandmother slowly walking in from outside.
When she saw Gan Tang, a fond, unmissable smile appeared on her wrinkled face.
“Tang Tang, you’re up… Want some peanuts?”
Saying that, she reached into her pocket to get him some peanuts.
She was stubborn by nature. Gan Tang’s mother had asked her several times to move to the city where the medical conditions were better, but his grandmother refused every time.
But, like most elderly people, she loved her grandchildren to the point where she would spoil them.
The reason Gan Tang had come back this time was something he couldn’t talk about, and neither he nor his mother dared explain it to his grandmother. So, his grandmother just thought he was on summer break and treated him like a little child, showering him with affection.
Gan Tang absentmindedly took a few peanuts from his grandmother’s hand, but his neck was stretched toward the outside.
“Grandma, what happened? It sounds like something happened at Uncle Zhang’s house?”
There was no internet in the countryside, and it was so boring that Gan Tang felt like, as a high school student, he had become just like the aunts and uncles he used to look down on, wanting to know every little thing.
But his grandmother, who usually loved to gossip about trivial matters, was unusually vague this time, just answering, “Oh, that… Uncle Zhang had an accident and passed away.”
Gan Tang froze.
Uncle Zhang, who lived across the street, was one of the few young people in the village who had worked outside and then returned to take care of his elderly mother. When Gan Tang first arrived at his hometown, it was Uncle Zhang who picked him up on a motorcycle from the roadside and brought him into the mountains.
Hearing that someone he knew had suddenly passed away was shocking, even though Gan Tang wasn’t close to the villagers. He was momentarily stunned and didn’t know how to react. He instinctively wanted to go outside and see if there was anything he could help with at Uncle Zhang’s house. But as soon as he stepped forward, his grandmother stopped him.
“Aiya, what are you doing, you child? Stay inside; it’s chaotic out there, don’t go causing trouble.”
She said.
Gan Tang couldn’t help but glance at his grandmother.
Usually, she would talk endlessly about even the smallest matters, like whose chicken had died in the village, but now, when talking about Uncle Zhang’s recent death, her expression seemed strangely indifferent.
Gan Tang found it odd but couldn’t pinpoint what exactly felt strange.
However, since his grandmother had said so, he didn’t argue and returned to his room, holding his phone, feeling down and zoning out.
The crying outside continued until evening, slowly tapering off.
That evening, Gan Tang had a simple dinner with his grandmother.
Then, around 7 or 8 p.m., the time when the night would just be starting in the city, the village had already fallen into a deathly silence.
Most of the houses had their lights off, and the whole small mountain village was in deep sleep.
Gan Tang had only been here for a little over a week, and his routine hadn’t adjusted yet. He could only lie in the darkness, his eyes wide open, staring like a copper bell…
It was at this moment that he suddenly heard someone knocking on the door.
“Who is it?”
Then he heard his grandmother shuffle over to open the door.
Outside, there was a rustling, low conversation.
It was clear that the person had deliberately kept their voice low.
At first, Gan Tang didn’t pay much attention, but now, unable to resist, he decided to eavesdrop, straining his ears in his room.
However, the person spoke very quickly, with a lot of dialect mixed in, and despite Gan Tang straining his ears to listen, he only managed to catch a few fragmented sentences.
“Zhang Ayi… yes, yes, I know. I know about this, you’ve always refused, and it’s true… But look at their family, they’ve really done too many wrongs… The new wife just married, and before the bed even got warm, her husband did something like this… Especially since you know their family has been passed down for three generations, there’s really no other choice… Now they can only borrow flesh. Borrowing flesh at least can leave a seed for their family, don’t you think…”
Borrowing flesh?
What does borrowing flesh mean?
Gan Tang couldn’t resist, so he secretly opened a crack in the door to peek into the living room.
The person who had come was hunched and withered, sitting with their back to Gan Tang.
Opposite them sat Gan Tang’s grandmother, whose face was much rosier than the other elderly people in the village, thanks to her daughter’s success, and she was well-respected in the village.
At that moment, she was puffing on a homemade cigarette, taking slow drags. Her usually kind face was now covered with fine wrinkles.
In the dim light, her drooping eyelids made it hard to read her expression.
But Gan Tang could feel that his grandmother seemed to be in a bad mood.
“Borrowing flesh… it’s best not to get involved in such things. It’s written clearly, borrowing flesh means borrowing and returning. Borrowing a little to return half a kilo… that’s too risky.”
After a long pause, she spoke softly.
“But I know you won’t listen anyway…”
She added.
“Ah, what era is this? Uncle Zhang’s family has money; they can buy livestock and send it over, that’s better than letting their family be cut off, right?”
The visitor’s voice was urgent and quick, pleading with her, sounding as though they were still trying to convince her to agree to “borrow flesh.”
This back-and-forth continued for quite a while. Gan Tang was about to yawn when his grandmother finally seemed to give in.
The visitor immediately relaxed, hunched their body, and hurriedly left.
Gan Tang’s grandmother stayed in the living room for a while longer, her expression fluctuating, as if she were lost in thought.
Finally, the old woman sighed deeply, put on her coat, and went to kneel in front of the Guanyin statue in the corner of the living room, mumbling prayers until late into the night.
*
The next day, his grandmother cooked corn and eggs and came to call Gan Tang for breakfast.
The corn smelled fragrant, and the eggs were soft and tender.
Gan Tang ate happily.
Then he glanced at his grandmother’s face and saw that she was smiling, completely different from the strange, gloomy mood from last night. Pretending not to care, he quietly asked,
“Grandma… what does borrowing flesh mean?”
