The man at the door was none other than Uncle Zhang, who had already passed away.
…The same Uncle Zhang whose body had been thoroughly broken and softened, then shoved into the “Borrowing Flesh Well” behind the mountain.
Gan Tang stood frozen in place, hardly able to believe his eyes.
But the man was indeed standing right in front of him.
A sudden chill ran down Gan Tang’s spine, and instinctively, he looked at the man’s feet. It was morning, and the sun was shining brightly. The shadow of the man’s feet was clearly visible.
The presence of a shadow meant that Uncle Zhang was not a ghost.
Gan Tang tried hard to calm himself.
But just then, he saw Uncle Zhang’s hands.
It was summer; the weather was hot, yet Uncle Zhang was still wearing long sleeves and long pants. His hands, exposed at the cuffs, still had faint traces of bruising that hadn’t fully healed.
One of his fingernails had been lifted, and there was dark, coagulated blood at the fingertip.
A wave of coldness surged through Gan Tang’s heart.
The boy’s prolonged silence caused Uncle Zhang’s gaze to grow increasingly strange.
The man still wore that kind, simple smile on his face.
“Tang Boy?”
He walked toward Gan Tang.
His pupils were deep and dark.
“What’s wrong? You look so pale. Are you still feeling unwell? If you are, tell me, Uncle will take you to the town to see a doctor…”
He said with a smile.
But Gan Tang stumbled backward, almost screaming in fear—
“Oh, this child… just got better, and now he’s all dazed.”
A pair of aged hands firmly rested on Gan Tang’s shoulders.
His grandmother, possibly hearing the commotion, came out of the kitchen.
Her face was filled with a smile, and she seemed completely unaware of Gan Tang’s pale face. She greeted Uncle Zhang as if everything were normal.
Then, she patted Gan Tang and casually said, “Didn’t I tell you? I made you a bowl of egg tea on the stove. It’s good for your lungs. It’s the best for you now that your fever has just gone down. But you didn’t even remember to drink it. Go on, go have the egg tea; you’re old enough to know better than to be picky when you’re sick.”
Gan Tang numbly followed his grandmother’s gentle push, step by step, away from Uncle Zhang and into the kitchen.
He didn’t look back, but he felt as if Uncle Zhang’s thoughtful gaze was still fixed on his back.
His body suddenly felt a cold chill.
On the stove in the kitchen, there indeed sat a porcelain bowl with yellowish liquid—an egg tea made with hot rice soup.
But Gan Tang clearly remembered that his grandmother had never told him about this before.
Even from across the kitchen door, he could still hear his grandmother speaking to Uncle Zhang in the yard.
Though the words were muffled from the distance, he could make out a few fragments.
“…He doesn’t know about this.”
“Mm, he won’t say anything… Don’t worry about it.”
“Alright, it’s all in the past…”
……
Towards the end, the old woman’s voice rose slightly, as if she couldn’t suppress some irritation.
Gan Tang couldn’t hold back and peeked through the door crack. He saw Uncle Zhang, head lowered, seemingly muttering a few words to his grandmother before leaving. His face wore an indescribable, gloomy expression, which made Gan Tang’s heart skip a beat.
Before he could make sense of what was happening, he saw his grandmother walking toward the kitchen.
When she opened the door, her expression was still calm.
“Tang Tang, go drink some milk. Milk is good, it’s nutritious and will help you recover.”
She said.
Gan Tang stood motionless in the corner, meeting his grandmother’s gaze.
His heart was pounding in his chest.
After a long pause, Gan Tang finally couldn’t hold it in anymore. Suppressing his panic, he hesitantly asked the question he most wanted to know.
“Grandmother…” The boy’s lips were pale, his expression filled with fear and confusion. “Uncle Zhang… didn’t he… pass away…?”
The kitchen fell into a brief, suffocating silence.
Grandmother furrowed her brows.
After a long pause, the old woman lowered her eyelids again and casually replied, “Oh, that… it was a mistake.”
She spoke softly.
“At that time, your second uncle fell and hit his head. He went completely still. You were just a little child, so you wouldn’t know, but for old folks like us, if we stop moving, even if we still have a breath left, we have to start preparing for the funeral. But Zhang’s second son… he’s young, and the elders at his home wouldn’t let go, so they used our local method, trying to treat a dead horse as a live one. And look, he’s recovered.”
After saying that, she stared at Gan Tang and added, “Anyway, none of this concerns you. Kids your age should focus on your studies… These matters in the village, you don’t need to get involved in.”
The stove was steaming with boiling water, but to Gan Tang, his grandmother looked strangely unfamiliar at that moment.
Gan Tang shivered.
Then, he nodded and dryly responded, “Okay.”
Only then did his grandmother seem satisfied.
“Good boy.”
She murmured.
Just as Gan Tang thought the matter had passed, he suddenly heard his grandmother ask, almost casually:
“By the way, Tang Tang… did you lose a pair of shoes? I remember you had a pair of white shoes; didn’t your mother say they were quite expensive? How come I can’t find them now?”
Gan Tang’s heart suddenly lurched.
That day, when he followed Yu Huai down the mountain, his shoes got covered in mud.
He hadn’t paid attention to them, but Yu Huai had taken them away for him.
He never expected that his seemingly forgetful grandmother would remember even such small details.
An indescribable sense of dread swept over him, and Gan Tang felt his heart race as if it might leap out of his chest.
“Ah, that…”
Gan Tang’s lips moved slightly.
In his extreme panic, his mind went blank, and he couldn’t even come up with a lie to brush it off.
Luckily, just then, someone suddenly called out from outside the door.
“Grandma Zhang… Grandma Zhang! Is your Tang Boy here?”
Both Gan Tang and his grandmother froze.
When they stepped out of the kitchen, Gan Tang saw the village chief standing at the gate with someone.
When the village chief saw Gan Tang, he immediately waved.
“Ah, great, you’re here—look, a friend of yours came to find you!”
*
After the events of the previous night, Gan Tang now felt an overwhelming sense of fear whenever he saw anyone from the village.
However, at this moment, as he looked at the person walking out from behind the village chief, he completely forgot about his fear of the villagers.
He could feel that even the village chief was acting strangely, his smile was stiff and fake, like a mask, and his gaze was filled with probing curiosity.
But at that moment, Gan Tang had no time to worry about others.
He stared at the tall, handsome young man, carrying a hiking backpack, his appearance still rugged from travel, but his beauty unmistakable. Gan Tang’s blood felt like it was flowing backward.
“Cen… Cen Zibai…”
A hoarse sob escaped Gan Tang’s throat.
He truly wished that this moment was just a nightmare.
After all, nightmares have an end—one can wake up from them.
But Cen Zibai…
Cen Zibai was a nightmare he could never escape from.
Gan Tang never expected the pampered Cen Zibai to appear here.
He had been so careful.
He had escaped to such a remote, desolate, eerie mountain village.
Why?
Why could he still not escape?
…
“Tang Tang?”
Grandmother looked at Gan Tang suspiciously.
“Is this really your friend?”
The old woman hesitated before speaking.
Her hesitation was understandable.
The boy standing next to the village chief, claiming to be Gan Tang’s friend, exuded an indescribable air of nobility.
His eyes were deep and his features strikingly handsome, with a slight smile on his thin lips.
The boy was very tall, and the muscles on his arms, exposed outside his T-shirt, were particularly firm and well-defined.
…In short, it was hard to imagine that such a young man would be Gan Tang’s “friend,” a boy still so youthful.
However, Fengjing Village was exceptionally remote, and many maps didn’t even mark it. Without someone specifically giving the address, it would be impossible for an ordinary person to find this place.
Could it be that Gan Tang had been so bored here that he asked a friend to come keep him company?
The grandmother couldn’t help but think this and asked aloud.
But Gan Tang, with a blank expression, stared at the boy, and after a long while, he murmured the boy’s name.
On the other hand, the boy was cheerful and very eager to introduce himself.
“Hello, Grandma—”
He smiled brightly and called out to the old woman.
“I’m Gan Tang’s friend. I came here to give him a little surprise. Haha, but this place is so hard to find! Even with the address, I searched for ages and almost got lost. Fortunately, I was picked up by this kind-hearted uncle when I was wandering outside. Otherwise, I’d have probably had to sleep in the woods. I must say, my luck is really great this time. Oh, and Grandma, I’ve heard Gan Tang mention you a lot. He probably didn’t tell you, but he often talks about how much he misses you at school. He says you make the best braised pork and mushroom meatballs. By the way, the scenery here is amazing, even better than he described. Oh, and I brought a gift for you from City A. It’s some supplements that are good for your age. My grandmother loves them and says they work really well, so I brought some for you. I hope you like them…”
While talking, Cen Zibai naturally walked into the grandmother’s yard.
After a string of words, the old woman, who had been a little suspicious of him, was now smiling from ear to ear, and even the village chief was blushing from all the compliments.
If one only looked at the boy’s current demeanor, no one would believe that he could be the kind of disgusting stalker and pervert he was secretly known to be.
No one would believe he had stolen his best friend’s underwear to use for DIY projects, spiked their food with his bodily fluids, or taken photos of his unsuspecting friend for his twisted fantasies…
Nightmarish memories surfaced.
Gan Tang struggled to control his urge to tremble and cry. He stood there, numb, watching as Cen Zibai laughed and chatted with the village chief and his grandmother in the yard. Deep inside, he wanted to scream, to cry like a madman and beg his grandmother to kick this person out.
However, every time he met Cen Zibai’s gaze, which never left him, he felt powerless.
Just like back in school.
Cen Zibai had looked at him with the same gaze, smiling coldly.
[Tang Tang, you said you were resting because you weren’t feeling well… But you clearly went to the internet café with Li Ke from Class 3, didn’t you?]
[Why did you call him and not me?]
[Hehe, Tang Tang, you’re so cute when you lie… Yes, I know, because I know everything about you… So, making excuses won’t work.]
[No, no, no, I’m not angry. I’m just… a little sad. And when I’m sad, I tend to do things that won’t make anyone too upset.]
[Oh, by the way, Tang Tang, you really like the wild cat behind the school, don’t you? That’s why you always sneak over to feed it. If that cat suddenly disappears, you’d be really upset, right?]
[Hey, don’t be so angry. This isn’t a threat, don’t worry. The little cat is fine. I just took it to the vet. It’s being well taken care of now, since it’s your favorite little animal. But… I can’t guarantee what I’ll do the next time I’m upset…]
