However, Gan Tang didn’t.
That night, he was so frightened that he completely lost the ability to act.
So, he could only watch helplessly as the village chief directed the villagers to gather the body, and then they carried it toward the well.
The villagers, wearing masks, swayed their bodies and began chanting the same syllables over and over again.
“Borrow flesh for one tael; return half a jin.
Borrow and return, borrowing is not difficult.
Borrow life, return death, family peace.”
…
Amidst the strange and illogical chanting, the village chief took the limp body from the villagers and handed it to the old woman by the well.
Even from this distance, Gan Tang could clearly see the old woman tremble violently when she received the body.
At that moment, Gan Tang even felt that the woman might faint at any moment.
However, the old woman steadied herself, and, trembling, she held the body and knelt by the well.
Then, she carefully placed the body into the well.
The opening of the “borrowing flesh well” was incredibly narrow.
If it were a normal body, especially that of a man… under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to fit such a body into this well.
But Uncle Zhang’s body had completely lost its shape.
It was as if all his bones had been completely shattered.
Now, his body was nothing but a mass of rotting flesh wrapped in a leather pouch.
*
The first part to be stuffed into the well was his head, followed by his shoulders, overlapping arms, the soft, shapeless waist, and the limp, boneless legs.
Uncle Zhang’s body was completely stuffed into the well.
Totally, thoroughly.
The villagers remained motionless, kneeling by the well, their faces hidden by the masks, making it impossible for Gan Tang to discern their expressions.
However…
However, the rough masks that had seemed so crude during the day now appeared strangely delicate and lifelike, as if the figures gathered around the well were actually a group of evil spirits just crawling up from the underworld.
Gan Tang’s eyes widened in shock as he stared at the scene before him.
He thought back to the uncomfortable muffled sounds he had heard in his room not long ago.
He deeply didn’t want to think about it, but the images he had never seen before vividly invaded his mind.
—The heavy, stiff body of the man, once already rigid, had been lifted by the villagers to the courtyard.
Then, with a stick, they relentlessly beat it, pounding through the flesh until the originally intact form gradually softened and collapsed.
He could also imagine that someone had placed the body’s head on their knee, then bent down, stitching its features one stitch at a time.
Grandmother…
At that time, Grandmother was right there at Uncle Zhang’s house, watching all of this unfold, or perhaps she was even involved in the actions herself. Just thinking about this made Gan Tang want to throw up.
*
Uncle Zhang’s body was finally completely gone, swallowed up by the borrowing flesh well.
However, the borrowing flesh ritual didn’t seem to end there.
The village chief knelt by the well once again, chanting something under his breath.
His voice was fast and urgent, and now Gan Tang truly couldn’t understand it.
He wanted to escape, but he couldn’t move.
The incomprehensible dialects felt like tiny saw blades cutting through his nerves… Time at that moment seemed to stretch on forever, long enough for the universe to be destroyed.
Long enough that Gan Tang couldn’t breathe.
He didn’t know how much time passed, but suddenly he thought he saw something move at the narrow edge of the well.
It felt like something in his brain snapped. The camel had received its final straw.
When he saw that thing, Gan Tang couldn’t take it anymore, almost screaming out loud—
But the next second, someone tightly covered his mouth.
Yu Huai’s hand was as cold as a corpse.
And his arm was firmly wrapped around Gan Tang’s shoulder.
“Shh—”
Yu Huai’s face was pale, trembling, as he carefully dragged the exhausted Gan Tang out of the bushes.
“Don’t scream, don’t, don’t let them notice.”
The boy’s voice was broken, his arm sticky, soaked with cold sweat from the fright.
*
For Gan Tang, the latter half of that night’s memories had already become somewhat blurry.
He could only vaguely recall that on the way home, he and Yu Huai tumbled and crawled, their steps unsteady, as if something ghostly were chasing them…
And the scariest part was, their fear might have been real.
But perhaps that was why the journey home was much faster than the trip there.
When they got home, Gan Tang immediately curled up deep under the blankets.
He kept trembling.
He vaguely remembered asking the same question over and over again.
“Why… why did they do that… How could borrowing flesh be like this? How could it possibly be like this?”
Gan Tang was crying in fear.
Yu Huai stood by the bed, his dark face completely devoid of color.
He crouched in front of Gan Tang, saying many things, but Gan Tang couldn’t remember what exactly was said. All he knew was that, to avoid leaving any traces, Yu Huai had taken his muddy sneakers with him.
The next morning, when Grandmother returned home, she found that Gan Tang had curled up in bed, shivering with a high fever.
In the nightmare caused by the fever, for the first time, there was no face of Cen Zibai. Instead, it was the well in the back mountain.
The body with no bones stuffed into the well.
And the “thing” that gently stirred at the edge of the opening.
Gan Tang didn’t know if the nightmare had filled in the scene he hadn’t been able to fully see that night.
In the nightmare, he saw a pair of hands.
Black, swollen.
The nails on the hand flipped up.
It was hooked on the edge of the well, slowly crawling outward.
……
When Gan Tang finally regained consciousness, it was several days later.
The first thing that met his eyes when he opened them was his grandmother’s face.
She was still as kind, gentle, and doting on Gan Tang as ever.
Seeing that Gan Tang had woken up, the joy on his grandmother’s face was unmistakably clear.
“Tang Tang—”
Tears even glistened in the fine wrinkles around her eyes, a result of her overwhelming happiness.
“This child—really scared me to death! How could you suddenly fall ill like that? Your body is too weak. Your mother too; how could she let you go back to the old house?”
Grandmother stared at Gan Tang, who was lying on the bed with his eyes wide open, motionless. In panic, she reached out to check his forehead temperature.
But in that instant, Gan Tang shuddered.
Before his brain could process it, he suddenly recoiled, avoiding his grandmother’s hand.
Grandmother widened her eyes in surprise.
“Tang Tang, are you still not feeling well? Where does it hurt?”
The old woman sat helplessly at the head of the bed, muttering anxiously.
It was at this moment that a strange chill ran down Gan Tang’s back.
“Grandmother, don’t come near me. I’m afraid I might infect you.”
Gan Tang coughed and explained.
His voice was hoarse, and his nose was still blocked.
He hung his head in despair, but his peripheral vision was carefully watching his grandmother’s face.
After a brief moment of surprise, his grandmother’s expression immediately softened with concern.
It didn’t seem fake.
The ominous feeling that had surrounded the old woman due to the “borrowing flesh” ritual seemed like nothing more than a dream Gan Tang had.
In fact, at this moment, lying in bed, looking at his grandmother by his side, who was so caring and everything seemed normal, Gan Tang truly believed that what he had experienced was nothing more than a nightmare.
Until someone knocked on the door of his house.
At that time, Gan Tang was in the living room, sluggishly eating breakfast with a dazed look and slow movements.
“Grandma Zhang? Are you there? You told me you wanted to bring some milk for the boy, so I’ve brought it today—”
Then, a man leaned in, neatly took the milk crate tied with nylon ropes from the back of his motorcycle, and placed it in the yard.
When he looked up, the man was met with Gan Tang’s surprised face in the living room.
He froze for a moment, then greeted Gan Tang in a friendly manner.
“Oh, you’re awake? Finally got your fever down? Feeling better? You’ve been burning up for days. Your grandmother was so worried, she was even thinking about asking me to take you to the town to get an IV drip…”
