“Who told you about ‘borrowing flesh’?”
Grandma’s face suddenly darkened.
Gan Tang was caught off guard by Grandma’s stern voice, and his chopsticks clinked lightly against the edge of the bowl.
Since he was young, Grandma had always been indulgent toward Gan Tang, never showing him such a severe expression.
Especially this time, Gan Tang had skipped school and suddenly returned to his hometown. Although his mother had tried to cover things up a bit on the phone, Grandma could sense that something was off. So, she treated Gan Tang, the city boy, with even more affection, practically treating him like a precious treasure, unwilling to say a harsh word.
Until now, Grandma looked completely startled and angry, as if if Gan Tang dared to mention a name, she would jump up in the next second and grab her walking stick to fight someone.
Gan Tang swallowed and awkwardly muttered, “…No, no one. I just overheard it by accident. There was a lot of noise outside yesterday, and I heard something like ‘borrowing flesh,’ ‘borrowing flesh,’ so I was just curious.”
Upon hearing this, Grandma’s expression relaxed slightly, though there was still an unmistakable look of fear and wariness in her eyes.
Gan Tang glanced at her face but didn’t dare to ask any further questions.
The dining table suddenly fell silent. At this point, Grandma seemed to realize her tone had been wrong. Her face, wrinkled like a walnut, twitched slightly as she forced a smile.
“Tang Tang, be good; don’t listen to those people talking nonsense… It’s just some village stuff, messy and confusing; nothing to do with you. You don’t need to worry about it, okay?”
“Okay…”
Gan Tang swallowed a mouthful of egg and replied.
But to be honest, Gan Tang was just bored and asking out of curiosity. However, seeing Grandma so on edge made his curiosity grow even more.
Before breakfast was finished, there was another sound at the door.
Gan Tang, sitting on the bench, glanced toward the door and saw the old, shriveled man who had visited Grandma last night, peering around the door.
In fact, most people in the village were relatives, but Gan Tang rarely returned to his hometown, so he still didn’t recognize them all.
According to past customs, Grandma would usually take him to meet the villagers and introduce him.
But probably because they had just talked about “borrowing flesh,” Grandma seemed a bit hesitant. She vaguely told Gan Tang, “This is your great-aunt,” and then pushed Gan Tang’s shoulder, signaling him to go into the room.
This was somewhat impolite, but the great aunt didn’t seem to mind.
Last night, in the dark, Gan Tang hadn’t seen her clearly, but in the daylight, he realized that the great-aunt seemed younger than Grandma, but appeared much older. Her face was yellowish, with dark circles under her eyes, and her eye sockets were sunken.
As soon as she saw Grandma, the great-aunt hurried over and said the first thing: “I’ve talked to the village head; I’m going to borrow flesh today, or the body—”
At that moment, Gan Tang hadn’t fully entered the room and happened to see Grandma’s face darken, glaring at the great-aunt.
The great-aunt then noticed Gan Tang in the corner and immediately fell silent.
Both elders turned to look at Gan Tang, and at that moment, he involuntarily took a step back, feeling a strange sweat on his back.
“I… I’m leaving.”
Gan Tang forced a smile and retreated into the room.
Through the door, he could vaguely hear the elders muttering something. Not long after, Grandma called out from outside, saying she had something to do at the village head’s house and might not be back by noon, telling Gan Tang to entertain himself at home.
Hearing the door close, Gan Tang turned over on the bed and sighed.
In Grandma’s mind, he was just someone who could stay home all day with his phone or computer.
But Grandma had no idea that for young people, the fun of phones and computers depended on having internet access.
Even if there was no internet, at least there should be some offline games.
Unfortunately, when Gan Tang fled, it was such a chaotic escape that he didn’t even grab many clothes, let alone anything else. Now, sitting in the room, he was so bored he felt like he might grow hair.
“Sigh…”
After wandering around the house aimlessly for a while, Gan Tang decided to go out.
He didn’t dare to wander around the village. After all, he wasn’t familiar with the people here, and he could only understand half of the local dialect.
As a city boy, Gan Tang’s greatest fear was being caught by someone who would chatter at him endlessly.
So, after leaving the house, he slouched his shoulders and headed straight for the back of the village—he remembered there was a pond back there.
*
…Indeed, there was a pond there.
And it was the kind of pond with particularly beautiful scenery.
The pond water was a deep, tranquil green, looking like a small piece of jade frozen in an ice block. The surrounding grass and trees were lush, and the air was quiet. Even before getting close, the humid, summer heat was replaced by a cool, serene breeze.
“Whoosh—”
Gan Tang looked at everything before him and let out a long breath, feeling that the heavy air in his chest had lightened considerably.
If only Fengjing Village weren’t so remote; otherwise, just the scenery in front of him could easily rival any 5A-level tourist attraction.
He pushed aside the branches near the pond and cautiously moved closer to the water.
The pond water was clear and cool.
Unable to resist, Gan Tang took off his shoes and sat by the water, dipping his feet in.
As he was wondering whether he should take off his clothes and go for a swim, a voice suddenly came from the side: “Hey, hey, Tang Boy, you’ve got some guts, huh…”
Gan Tang jumped in surprise, turned around, and saw a young man standing behind him. He was wearing a slightly worn t-shirt, tall and lean, with a dark tan, and his sharp features gave him a vaguely ethnic look.
“…You dare to jump into the Dragon King’s pond. Don’t you know? There’s a saying here that anything that falls into this pond is considered a sacrifice to the Dragon King. Once it goes in, it can’t come back to the mortal realm.”
The young man widened his eyes and stared at Gan Tang, speaking to him in Mandarin with a slight accent.
Almost as if it were a coincidence, at the moment he spoke, something in the center of the pond bubbled up, and the leaves floating on the water suddenly sank to the bottom.
Gan Tang froze by the pond, suddenly feeling a chill rise from his ankles all the way to the top of his head. His face turned pale.
The next moment, he saw the young man grinning widely, showing a row of white teeth.
“I was just joking. You really believed me?”
Gan Tang: “…”
He almost cursed out loud.
“You’re so boring, Yu Huai.”
After a long pause, Gan Tang finally managed to squeeze out a response.
…
If one had to say, Yu Huai could be considered the first friend Gan Tang made after returning to his hometown. Fengjing Village was underdeveloped, and the population had dwindled significantly. Anyone with any ability had long gone out to work, and now the village was left with either the elderly or young children who could barely walk, with only a handful of young people left.
Yu Huai was the only person around Gan Tang’s age.
Actually, at his age, even if he didn’t go to school, he should have gone out to work, not stayed in the village.
But Gan Tang had heard from Grandma that Yu Huai didn’t have a choice.
Yu Huai’s father’s surname was Yu, not Zhang, and he wasn’t originally from this village.
It was said that many years ago, he was a normal person and quite educated. The family had come to Fengjing Village temporarily, but for some unknown reason, Yu Huai’s father suddenly became insane, losing all ability to take care of himself. His mother disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a crying child. When asked about the details, no one knew anything, and even the family members couldn’t be contacted. Eventually, the madman and the child ended up staying in Fengjing Village.
Because Yu Huai’s father was from outside the village, there were no relatives or friends here, so no one helped take care of him.
Yu Huai grew up eating others’ food, stumbling through life in the village. When he was old enough to care for himself, he began taking care of his insane father. And so, the years passed.
After hearing about Yu Huai’s background, Gan Tang felt some sympathy for him.
However, perhaps because Yu Huai rarely interacted with the outside world, Gan Tang could never quite figure out his thoughts when they were together. Especially when Yu Huai spoke, it was often hard to tell if he was joking or serious, leaving Gan Tang uncertain. But the village was so isolated and boring, and it was rare to find someone his age, so no matter how difficult it was to get along with him, they eventually became friends.
“Splash…”
With the sound of water, Gan Tang quietly pulled his feet out of the pond.
Yu Huai grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up from the stone by the pond.
“I wasn’t lying to you.”
Then Gan Tang heard Yu Huai speak again.
“Huh?”
“The thing about the Dragon King’s sacrifice,” Yu Huai said with a smile, “…So anything that falls into the pond really can’t be retrieved. If you do, the Dragon King will get angry. You’re lucky you didn’t go in. If you had drowned, no one would have dared to go in after you.”
Gan Tang looked at Yu Huai with suspicion.
“You’re joking again.”
“No, I’m serious. I saw it once during a rainstorm.” The dark-skinned young man’s voice became serious. “The dragon looks disgusting, and it smells really bad, like a rotten fish. When it comes out, the whole pond stinks. And it eats anything…”
While speaking, he pointed to the still, calm water.
“Usually, places like this have ducks or geese, but the Dragon King’s pond doesn’t. Because once anything swims to the center, it gets dragged down. When there was a flood, animal carcasses floated by, but in the Dragon King’s pond, the bodies never float. They were all eaten.”
A gust of wind blew through, and the treetops rustled nonstop.
Gan Tang listened to him speak, feeling an inexplicable shiver.
“Alright, stop talking; it’s a bit disgusting—”
Gan Tang wanted to leave.
But Yu Huai seemed to have noticed that he was scared, and instead, he continued talking even more enthusiastically.
Gan Tang was getting really annoyed, but just then, he suddenly remembered that Yu Huai had grown up in the village… Perhaps Yu Huai knew what “borrowing flesh” meant?
The reason Gan Tang wanted to ask about it was simply to change the subject.
However, what Gan Tang didn’t expect was that even Yu Huai was taken aback when he heard the term “borrowing flesh.”
“Borrowing flesh? What’s that…?”
Gan Tang briefly explained what he had heard from Grandma.
The boy listened intently, his face slightly furrowing as he thought.
“Ah, this— I think I have a faint impression of it.”
He muttered.
Then suddenly, he slapped his thigh.
“I’m not sure about much else, but there’s a well on the back mountain; it’s called the Borrowing Flesh Well.”
“Borrowing Flesh Well?”
That name sounded a bit strange.
Just as Gan Tang was about to ask, Yu Huai continued.
“The mouth of that well has inscriptions. It says, ‘Borrow one tael of flesh, return half a jin. What’s borrowed must be returned, borrowing again is easy. Borrow life, return death, for the peace of the whole family.'”
“What does that mean?”
Gan Tang was stunned, almost thinking the boy was joking again.
But fortunately, this time Yu Huai was serious. He immediately said he would take Gan Tang to the back mountain to see the well.
However, as the two of them were heading towards the back mountain, they saw that the small path leading into the mountain had been blocked by tree branches wrapped in red cloth. An old man was standing by the side of the road. When he saw Yu Huai and Gan Tang trying to enter the mountain to see the well, his expression stiffened for a moment, then he waved his hand at them, repeatedly shooing them away, saying that the well had been sealed for the past few days and there was nothing to see. The old man’s voice was mumbled with a dialect, and the more Gan Tang listened, the more confused he became. He wanted to ask a couple more questions, but Yu Huai tugged at his sleeve and dragged him away.
“Lao Zhang is the most stubborn person. If he says you can’t go into the mountain, you definitely can’t go.”
Once they had walked a little further, Yu Huai stopped and looked directly at the tree branches blocking the path, speaking in a low voice.
“But with them doing this… it’s making me curious too. Here’s the deal, Tang Boy, you head back first, and I’ll figure out a way to ask about this ‘borrowing meat’ thing and what kind of ghost it is.”
“Who are you going to ask?”
Gan Tang couldn’t help but ask.
Yu Huai muttered a couple of words but didn’t answer.
__
Author’s note:
A mountain village story, trying a simpler writing style…
PS: Yu Huai is not the protagonist.
