Gan Tang widened his eyes in surprise, staring at Cen Zibai as if he might believe the boy in front of him was possessed by a ghost.
However, Cen Zibai only smiled back at him, silent, his gaze deep. Gan Tang hated that smile the most. He knew very well that every time that guy smiled like this, he was definitely scheming something malicious and dirty in his heart.
The more he smiled gently and reasonably, the more repulsive the things Gan Tang would eventually have to face would be.
But this “understanding” between the two, as a country boy, Yu Huai could never understand.
To him, Gan Tang seemed to be standing there, staring blankly at the young man from the city, completely ignoring the important matters at hand.
Yu Huai furrowed his brows and raised his voice slightly.
“Tang, Ya—”
Gan Tang shuddered slightly at the call, snapping back to reality.
Seeing that Cen Zibai still had that indifferent look, Gan Tang grew even angrier. He gritted his teeth and decided to ignore that pervert, directly leaping over the bed, climbing through the window, and landing in front of Yu Huai.
“What do you want to say?!”
Gan Tang asked sternly, his face hard.
“What else could it be? It’s just…”
Yu Huai suddenly fell silent and looked up at the windowsill.
Cen Zibai’s shadow was now clearly reflected on the window glass.
Yu Huai curled his lips and immediately grabbed Gan Tang, pulling him away from the window and into the corner. Gan Tang felt a momentary chill from the heat on his wrist, instinctively wanting to glance at Cen Zibai’s reaction through the window, but just as he was about to, Yu Huai’s words caught all his attention.
“I’ve seen Uncle Zhang hanging around your house a lot. He might already know about us going up the mountain that day.”
Yu Huai said.
Gan Tang’s chest tightened slightly.
“…So what if he knows?”
After a moment, Gan Tang responded stiffly, his face even paler than before.
“My grandmother said that whole ‘borrowing flesh’ thing was just some superstitious ritual from the village. What we saw back then might have just been a fake person they put there,” he paused, then added, “Even in the city, when people can’t be cured by Western medicine, they go to Chinese medicine, and if that doesn’t work, they go to temples to drink talisman water. Sometimes, after drinking it, they get better.”
Gan Tang’s voice was a bit rushed, sounding less like he was trying to convince someone and more like he was trying to convince himself.
“Enough, let’s not talk about this anymore. I shouldn’t have gone up the mountain that day…”
After saying that, Gan Tang prepared to leave.
But Yu Huai didn’t let go of him.
The boy’s face was serious, and his tone was very earnest.
“That’s nonsense! Both you and I saw it clearly. Uncle Zhang was definitely dead at that time. He came back to life through borrowing flesh!”
“I didn’t see clearly; I don’t know. I’ve said it; I don’t want to talk about it anymore—”
“I just want you to be careful! This ritual is really sinister!”
Before Gan Tang could finish speaking, Yu Huai interrupted him anxiously.
“…I only found out later that borrowing flesh isn’t even a custom of our village. It’s from the old village near the borrowing flesh well.”
“Old village?”
Gan Tang was stunned for a moment.
“Yes, the old village! I had to ask for a long time to find out. No one lived in this area before. It was said to be too close to the Dragon King Pond, so it was considered unlucky. The village used to be built near the borrowing flesh well, and that’s why the village was called Xianjing Village. People nearby heard that Xianjing Village could borrow flesh, and after borrowing flesh, the dead could come back to life. It sounded so mystical, and many people wanted to move to Xianjing Village… Then one day, everyone in that village disappeared.”
“Disappeared… what do you mean disappeared?”
“Just gone.”
Yu Huai sniffed and unconsciously glanced at Gan Tang’s room—the man he didn’t quite like was still standing motionless by the window, staring at the two of them with cold, sinister eyes.
Like a snake…
Yu Huai thought.
While distracted, he continued to explain the story he had gathered, word by word.
“Anyway, people who went there said they didn’t see any traces of bandits or wild animals. But in the huge village, not a single living person was found. On the bed, there were freshly mended clothes, and on the stove, there was even food left… The officials who went there thought the villagers had left for some urgent matter, so they waited for a day or two, but the village remained empty, with no signs of life. I heard that even the livestock—chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep—in the animal pens disappeared…”
“Everyone said that Xianjing Village became like that because the villagers borrowed too much flesh and couldn’t repay it. So, the gods in the well took them all away. This was reported to the government, and they sent people to investigate, trying to bring the villagers back. But after that, there was no news. They only said that if you got close to the Immortal Well, you could always hear someone crying down there, which made people uneasy. So, the village sealed off the well.”
“I heard that a few families from the village went to visit relatives and escaped the disaster. When they returned, they had no place to live, so they fenced off some land where we now live, and that’s how we ended up with the village we live in now.”
…
Yu Huai wasn’t the type to tell stories in a lively or dramatic way.
The past of Xianjing Village sounded dry and uneventful when he told it.
Gan Tang wasn’t supposed to be scared by that “story”—after all, as a modern person who had been influenced by the internet, he had heard countless folk ghost stories…
But he still shivered, a fear he couldn’t explain creeping over him.
“…Why are you telling me all this?”
Gan Tang’s face turned pale as he said stiffly,
“I don’t like ghost stories.”
“That’s not a ghost story!” Yu Huai corrected him. “That’s a real event!”
“How could something like coming back from the dead be real? Forget it, I don’t want to hear any more of this. I’m leaving!”
“No, Tang Ya, you were sick back then, so you didn’t know. But you were still burning with a fever, and Uncle Zhang came back. As soon as he returned, he kept wandering around your house, like he knew what you saw. I’m just afraid… I’m afraid that what crawled out of that well isn’t just Uncle Zhang, but something else. He was staring at your house the whole time, even though we both went there. You know, people have died in the village before, but Uncle Zhang’s family insisted on doing this borrowing flesh thing. I just feel uneasy. By the way, you’re not from the village, so maybe you should just go back home with your friend. Lately, I’ve had a bad feeling. I think something might happen in the village.”
As Yu Huai spoke, he kept rambling on, and Gan Tang’s irritation grew, his face turning even more unpleasant.
Yu Huai wanted to continue pulling Gan Tang into the conversation, but just then, Cen Zibai pushed open the window.
He leaned on the windowsill, smiling as he stared at the two by the wall.
Gan Tang felt like ants were crawling all over his body under Cen Zibai’s gaze. At this point, he couldn’t care about anything else and forcefully shoved Yu Huai.
“Alright, I get it. I’ll be careful. You can go now. Go on.”
The boy’s voice was cold and sharp, and before Yu Huai could react, Gan Tang turned around and jumped back into the room through the same window.
Yu Huai stood still, staring at the window. After seeing that Gan Tang had closed the curtains, he sighed and reluctantly went back to his own house.
Of course, Yu Huai didn’t know that at that moment, Gan Tang’s mood was actually worse than his.
As soon as he entered the room, Gan Tang had already braced himself for the storm of questions from Cen Zibai (after all, every time he made new friends, the other party always did this). But what surprised Gan Tang was that Cen Zibai didn’t immediately explode.
“You and he seem to have a good relationship.” The boy casually asked, “You two went up the mountain together?”
Gan Tang couldn’t understand how Cen Zibai had managed to learn these details from such a distance.
“…No.”
After a long while, Gan Tang replied stiffly.
To avoid causing more trouble, he didn’t admit to going up the back mountain with Yu Huai.
“I’m not that familiar with him.”
Then he added.
Cen Zibai smiled faintly, and surprisingly, he didn’t press the matter any further.
For the next few hours, Gan Tang remained on edge because of Cen Zibai’s reaction.
He watched as Cen Zibai smoothly charmed his grandmother, and even heard him complain, like any ordinary high school student, about the lack of internet in the village…
He even saw the true “young master” of the family helping his grandmother with tea and water during dinner. After a few sweet words, his grandmother almost treated Cen Zibai like her own grandson.
However, perhaps because the laughter had drained the old woman’s energy, not long after dinner, she yawned, rubbed her temples, and complained that her “head felt heavy.”
…
So, his grandmother went to bed earlier than usual.
As the bedroom door closed, the large rural house suddenly fell into a deathly silence.
It was as if the whole world had been reduced to just Gan Tang and Cen Zibai in front of him.
“Click.”
Cen Zibai placed the ceramic cup he had been holding onto the table.
Gan Tang’s heart tightened instantly.
He pretended to stay calm as he slowly stood up.
“I’ll tidy up the yard.”
Gan Tang said.
“You can go back to your room first. But there’s no internet here, and there’s nothing to do. If I were you, Cen Zibai, I’d hurry back to the city instead of wasting time in this poor, remote place…”
Before he could finish, Cen Zibai appeared in front of him like a ghost.
“What’s the rush?”
He grabbed Gan Tang’s hand.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment, Tang Tang. Now, it’s time for you to explain yourself.”
Gan Tang trembled.
“Explain? What the hell do I need to explain to you? Who do you think you are? I’ve already been kind enough not to kick you out earlier, especially with other people around—”
He yelled, putting on a tough front.
Cen Zibai stared at him with a gaze that grew darker and darker.
