“…Great, Cen Zibai is still alive. I didn’t kill anyone, I’m not a murderer.”
“Listen, he’s climbing so fast…”
…
Actually, Gan Tang was already too hot to handle, so saying nonsense was really the most normal thing.
Yu Huai thought.
However, in the hoarse and nervous muttering of Gan Tang, Yu Huai couldn’t help but glance at the dark well a few more times.
He saw nothing.
“Gan Tang… it’s time to go.”
Yu Huai withdrew his gaze, then reached out towards Gan Tang.
He thought that no matter what, he should take the person away first.
But in that instant, a cold sweat suddenly appeared on Yu Huai’s back.
As someone who grew up eating meals from various families in the village, Yu Huai had always been very sensitive to being watched. Just now, he distinctly felt… as if something deep in the bottom of the well had viciously and maliciously stared at him.
“Damn—”
Yu Huai suddenly shivered, jumping up and retreating several steps. His heart was beating so violently it felt like it was about to break through his ribs and explode out of his chest.
The well was so deep, and the rain pouring down was so heavy that it didn’t even make a sound. What could be down there besides the fresh corpse chunks Gan Tang had just thrown in?
It was as if Gan Tang, not satisfied with Yu Huai’s nervousness, had been possessed, as he now placed his hand on the edge of the well, his whole head almost about to fall into it.
“…What? What did you say?”
Yu Huai heard Gan Tang muttering.
A chill unlike anything he had ever felt pierced through his heart.
All the hairs on Yu Huai’s body stood on end, but he didn’t care about that. He grabbed the dazed and almost unconscious Gan Tang at the edge of the well, and without looking back, he ran down the mountain in a panic.
*
“￥#@%…”
“Rustle…”
…
Yu Huai wasn’t sure if it was his over-sensitivity or if he was really scared out of his mind.
On the way down the mountain, in his highly tense state, he felt as though something was following him, hidden in the damp, rotting-smelling bushes, trailing behind him from a distance.
And then, it seemed to follow them down the mountain.
—Impossible.
Yu Huai bit his tongue, the pain immediately snapping him out of his daze.
Even if there was something in the well, it shouldn’t have come that quickly. After all, Uncle Zhang only returned to the village the next day.
…So even if Cen Zibai had died and come back to life, that would be tomorrow’s issue.
After comforting himself for a while, Yu Huai finally managed to calm his mind.
Fortunately, after leaving the flesh well, Gan Tang, whom Yu Huai had dragged down the mountain, seemed to have regained some of his senses.
At least the boy remained silent, not delaying their descent, and didn’t repeat those “something is crawling in the flesh well” kinds of ghost stories.
In this way, without a word, Yu Huai and Gan Tang finally staggered back to Fengjing Village before dawn.
Fengjing Village, before dawn, was still shrouded in a deathly silence.
Yu Huai led Gan Tang to avoid the homes of villagers who kept dogs and silently returned to his own house. Gan Tang’s room was just as it had been when they left. Describing it as a mess would be an understatement.
The cabinet, the walls, and the floor were all covered with bloodstains left by Cen Zibai.
The copper statue of the god now lay crookedly in a darkening pool of blood, one of its arms already bent.
Yu Huai stared at the bloodstained statue, his heart skipping a beat.
It was truly unlucky…
The feeling was incredibly strong.
Fortunately, Yu Huai had taken care of his insane old father before—his father, when in a frenzy, would even smear feces around the house. Because of this, Yu Huai had become an expert in dealing with filth, and he estimated that no one in Fengjing Village could move faster than him in such situations.
Without wasting any time, Yu Huai, using the last of his strength, made Gan Tang take off the shirt that was covered in blood from the dismemberment.
Then he fetched some water and knelt down, starting to wipe the bloodstains on the floor.
After doing all this, he tore a few more sheets and instructed Gan Tang to wipe the floor and the furniture from the room to the yard…
By the time they finished, the first light of dawn was already faintly appearing in the sky.
At this moment, not only Gan Tang but even Yu Huai was on the verge of collapse, his face pale from exhaustion.
Gan Tang stared at him, his eyelids already red from the high fever, and even his eyes were filled with fine red blood vessels.
“What should we do next?”
The boy asked in a low voice.
“Burn it?”
He pointed to the bloodstained cloths used to wipe the floor and furniture at Yu Huai’s feet.
“The stove in the kitchen is for open flames,” Gan Tang said.
Yu Huai shook his head.
“Starting a fire early in the morning would make people suspicious.”
He explained, then added, “There’s a better way to deal with this.”
With that, he led Gan Tang to Dragon King Pond.
Standing at the shore, Yu Huai suddenly exerted force and threw the large bundle of bloodstained items far into the water.
For the first few seconds, the bundle of cloth only swayed slightly with the ripples, floating on the calm water’s surface.
Gan Tang, his eyes blurry from extreme fatigue, stared at it, then saw a strange ripple suddenly appear on the water’s surface.
It seemed like something was moving slowly beneath the water… but he saw nothing.
Then, a splash of water erupted from the pond.
The next moment, the bloodstained sheets and clothes that had been floating on the surface of the water had disappeared.
It felt like only an instant had passed, and the lake had returned to its original stillness.
Gan Tang stared in shock at the scene before him.
Thinking back to when he had unknowingly sat by the water playing without a care, he couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine.
“What was that…?”
“I told you, there’s a dragon in here.”
After doing all this, Yu Huai seemed to let out a sigh of relief, and even his voice sounded much lighter than before.
Then, he staggered, exhausted, and leaned against a large tree, slowly sitting down.
“Now, we just have to see what happens with your friend… who’s coming back because of the flesh borrowing ritual.”
When mentioning the person who was about to return because of the borrowing ritual, Yu Huai’s tone became a bit more serious.
“As long as the person is still alive, it shouldn’t be a big problem—”
Just as he was speaking, the boy’s voice suddenly cut off.
Something was watching him.
Yu Huai was certain of this.
The stare he had felt at the well’s edge earlier returned again.
He couldn’t control the cold sweat pouring out of him, and he even felt a bit dizzy.
Yu Huai’s pupils contracted as he looked at Gan Tang in front of him.
“You—”
Do you feel something is wrong again?
He was about to ask Gan Tang if he saw something when he noticed that the boy’s gaze seemed to be fixed in a daze.
Gan Tang’s eyes were wide open, and his gaze passed right over Yu Huai’s shoulder, landing on the bushes not far behind him.
“Tang, Tang Tang? What’s wrong? What did you see?”
Yu Huai gritted his teeth, mustering the courage to ask.
Upon hearing the question, Gan Tang’s eyes fluttered slightly.
“Nothing.”
After a long pause, Yu Huai finally heard Gan Tang respond.
But the boy’s voice was dry and hoarse, clearly trying to scare him.
At this point, Yu Huai, who had been frightened to the point of exhaustion, found that he had regained some strength.
He made up his mind, pulled out the knife from his waist—the same one he had used to chop Cen Zibai into pieces—and, with all his courage, suddenly turned around and threw the cleaver into the bushes.
The sharp blade cut through the shrubs several times, chopping off many branches and leaves.
However, through the dim shadows of the trees, neither Yu Huai nor Gan Tang saw anything terrifying.
At least, Yu Huai didn’t.
“Let’s go.”
Yu Huai sheathed the knife.
“Okay.”
Gan Tang nodded.
Neither of them mentioned what had just happened… though Gan Tang could clearly feel the cold sweat slowly sliding down his forehead.
His fever made his body burn, but he was still trembling from the cold.
He bit his lip, not telling Yu Huai…
It seemed that just now, Gan Tang had seen an arm.
A pale arm, with a fresh red cut, curled up like a snake, motionless in the bushes.
Then, at the moment Yu Huai swung the knife, that arm, like a flexible grass snake, quickly slithered into the shadows of the trees.
*
By the time Gan Tang and Yu Huai returned to Fengjing Village and headed back to their homes, the sky had fully brightened.
After a night of rushing, dismembering, and trekking…
Yu Huai was clearly so exhausted that he could hardly keep his eyes open.
Even if there were some huge matters, at this moment, they seemed insignificant to him.
After sending Gan Tang to the door, Yu Huai could barely walk straight, yawning and mumbling indistinctly.
“I’ll… check the information again…”
Then, the boy swayed and left.
Gan Tang watched Yu Huai’s retreating figure, his gaze somewhat dazed.
Perhaps it was because he was used to staying up late in the city, or perhaps because the events of the day had been too insane, his body was utterly exhausted, yet his mind was unusually alert.
Gan Tang took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, then pushed open the courtyard gate and carefully squeezed inside.
He didn’t dare to make too much noise, as his grandmother might have already woken up by now.
Just as he was about to sneak back to his room, Gan Tang’s movements suddenly stopped.
He looked around the courtyard, feeling the blood in his veins gradually grow cold.
He saw a trail of muddy footprints leading from the threshold of his house to the room where people lived.
Following the damp trail, Gan Tang soon stood in front of the closed door.
Thump… Thump…
His heartbeat quickened, and when he placed his hand on the doorknob, he even felt a strong metallic taste of blood rising in his throat.
Gan Tang had a faint premonition that whoever was waiting for him inside the room was…
Creak—
With the faint sound of the door latch, the door slowly opened.
A shadow stood in the weak, pale light of the window, motionless.
The tall boy had drooping shoulders, his head and neck hanging low.
The room, which had been cleaned earlier, wasn’t spotless, but it was still relatively tidy.
However, at this moment, the floor was once again stained with muddy footprints. The smell of bleach that had lingered in the room was now replaced by a nauseating, foul odor.
Gan Tang’s heart was nearing its breaking point.
He blinked desperately, trying to see the person clearly, but it was as though a veil hung before his eyes.
“Cen, Cen Zibai, is that you?”
He heard his voice emerge in a strained, breathy whisper.
But the “person” still stood motionless by the window, offering no response.
Gan Tang fought to suppress the fear rising in his chest and cautiously took two steps forward.
As he got closer, Gan Tang could clearly smell the strong, pungent odor of dirt and rotting flesh emanating from the person.
The boy was covered in muddy water, which dripped steadily onto the floor.
Soon, a layer of dark red stains began to gather on the light-colored ceramic tiles.
“Cen Zibai? You’re back… How… how do you feel?”
Gan Tang hesitated and asked again, his voice trembling.
It was at that moment that the boy slowly turned his head.
Then, the boy’s hollow, sunken eye sockets met Gan Tang’s gaze—those black, empty holes looked like crude, violent punctures in delicate porcelain, making his pale, handsome face appear particularly strange and unsettling.
Some murky mud overflowed from the boy’s eye sockets, slowly dripping down his face.
Earlier, when Gan Tang had been handling the corpse, his strength had been too weak, and as a result, the corpse’s eyes had filled with mud from the mountain path.
The boy’s scent was unmistakably that of a corpse.
__
Author’s note:
Why does Yu Huai seem to be more and more like gong… or maybe a housekeeping gong…
