All Villains

A boy of eight or nine is an age that even a dog finds annoying.

Chen Shi was already eleven, past the age where dogs would find him a nuisance. Yet, he was still mischievous and troublesome, having become the terror of Huangpo Village. Wherever he went, chickens and dogs were unsettled. Even ducks passing by him would lay an egg before they could leave. It could be said he was universally disliked.

One morning, after finishing breakfast, Chen Shi put down his bowls and chopsticks and excitedly ran outside, shouting, "Grandpa, I'm going out to play!"

Grandpa, a tall man wearing a black robe embroidered with large peonies, stood before the ancestral shrine in the main hall. He lowered his head and responded in a low, muffled voice, "Don't run too far, don't go to the river, and come back early for lunch..."

"Got it!"

Before Grandpa could finish speaking, Chen Shi had already vanished without a trace.

Before the ancestral shrine, Grandpa continued to face it, chewing slowly and deliberately. After a long while, he managed to swallow, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty. Then, he put the candle in his hand into his mouth and took a bite, chewing unhurriedly.

On the ancestral table were two candle holders, an incense burner, and another candle holder. The candle on the latter had been eaten down to just the wax drippings at the base. The incense in the burner emitted wisps of smoke, nearing its end.

Grandpa put down the half-eaten candle, took out a few sticks of incense, lit them, and placed them in the burner. He took a deep breath of the smoke, a look of contentment on his face.

Behind the incense burner sat a black spirit tablet.

On the tablet was inscribed Grandpa's own name.

"Ancestral Virtue Flows Through Generations, Spirit Tablet of Chen Yindu of the Chen Clan."

"Once I'm full, I won't eat people anymore."

Chen Shi beat Granny Zhu's dog until it yelped in pain, forcing the big black dog to submit. Then, he led three or four village dogs in a battle against dogs from the neighboring village. After his victorious return, he climbed a tree to raid a bird's nest, getting pecked on the head by the mother bird and nearly falling from the tree.

A moment later, the young boy was seen carrying a dead snake, scaring Er Ni from the east end of the village into crying for her mother. Soon after, he was caught stealing melons from Old Lady Wu Zhu's melon patch and was chased for three li by the murderous Old Lady Wu Zhu before he could barely shake her off.

This was Chen Shi's simple and unadorned morning.

By midday, Chen Shi arrived at the Yudai River outside the village. Though he was sweating profusely from the heat, he resisted the urge to jump in.

Sounds of splashing and laughter came from the river. Three boys, around his age, were having a water fight in the middle of the river, clearly enjoying themselves.

They were three water ghosts who had drowned the year before, which was why Chen Shi dared not play in the river.

The last time he had jumped into the river to play, these three had dragged him into the deep water. One grabbed his feet, another his waist, and a third his neck, nearly drowning him.

Grandpa had jumped into the river, beaten the three water ghosts soundly, and then rescued him.

"Chen Shi, come play with us!" one of the boys waved at him.

The other two boys, with innocent smiles on their faces, also waved: "Come play with us! A water fight is more fun with four people!"

The older boy chuckled, "Don't be scared, it's not deep at all, only up to our waists!"

"Hurry up and come down! What's the fun in playing alone?"

Chen Shi ignored them and turned to walk under an old willow tree on Huanggang Slope.

The three boys were still standing in the middle of the river, but the sounds of laughter had ceased, their smiles gone. They slowly sank into the river.

"You scoundrel from the Chen family, you'll drown one day and become a substitute ghost!" one of the boys cursed angrily.

The river water gradually covered their lips, noses, eyes, and heads, and finally, the three boys disappeared.

A pair of legs slowly dangled from the willow tree, swaying in front of Chen Shi.

A scholar had hanged himself from the willow tree. Seeing Chen Shi look up, he stuck out his tongue, a shocking crimson, about a foot long.

Chen Shi paid it no mind. The scholar had been dead for a long time, his body long since decayed, only his soul remained hanging there.

He went behind the willow tree and placed a slice of watermelon before a stone tablet at the base of the tree. He bowed his head to the tablet: "Godmother, I've come to see you again. I brought you some watermelon, it's very sweet."

The stone tablet was his godmother. When Chen Shi was very young, Grandpa had said that while the child was good in all aspects, his fate wasn't strong enough, and he needed a godmother with a strong fate to raise him well. So, he had brought him to the crooked-neck willow tree and had him worship this stone tablet as his godmother.

Chen Shi had to visit and worship his godmother on festivals, offering sacrifices and incense.

Such were the customs in the countryside.

When villagers worship a godmother, some godmothers were ancient trees, some were stones of unknown origin, some were temple gates in the mountains, and some were nameless broken statues on hillsides. All were for the sake of praying for peace and protection from external evils.

Grandpa had once said that this stone tablet had an ancient origin and was definitely spiritual, capable of protecting Chen Shi, which was why he had made him worship it as his godmother.

However, in the past two years that Chen Shi had knelt to worship his godmother, he hadn't felt any spiritual presence.

The stone tablet was ancient, and a few characters could be faintly seen, vaguely resembling "Old Woman" and "Deity."

There were other characters buried in the soil, and the stone tablet was entwined with the roots of the old tree, making them impossible to excavate.

After worshipping his godmother, Chen Shi muttered to himself, "Godmother, Grandpa is getting stranger and stranger, always with his back to me. I haven't seen his face properly in a long time. He also eats things with his back to me, I don't know what he's eating... Several of our chickens died yesterday morning, it wasn't the weasels, they wouldn't dare come to my house to steal chickens..."

The stone tablet did not respond.

But whether it was an illusion or not, Chen Shi thought he saw the characters on the stone tablet faintly glow for a moment before disappearing.

The young boy paid it no mind. He took out a few sticks of incense, lit them, and stuck them into the soil in front of the stone tablet.

The scholar hanging from the tree saw this and anxiously kicked his legs.

"There's one for you too."

Chen Shi took out a stick of incense, lit it, and placed it at the scholar's feet. The scholar hanging from the tree, smelling the incense, showed a look of contentment.

Chen Shi stretched comfortably, lazily lying down under the tree with his hands behind his head. He was not afraid of the scholar hanging from the tree or the water ghosts in the river. He didn't know when it started, but he could see these "people" that others couldn't, and he had long since become accustomed to it.

"Grandpa's almost done with lunch, but lately, his cooking has been getting worse and worse. Yesterday, the chicken he made was still raw, served bloody. Godmother, I just feel like Grandpa's been acting strange lately, like he's going to eat me."

Chen Shi held a blade of grass in his mouth, his gaze distant and lost in thought, possessing a maturity beyond his years. He spoke in a low voice, "Last night, Grandpa made me medicine again and told me to soak in the medicinal tub, but he burned the fire too high, and the water boiled over. I think he wanted to cook me..."

After a moment, the scholar ghost hanging from the tree finished inhaling a stick of incense, stretched, and said, "I'm done. Little Ten, you can ask your questions now."

--Little Ten was Chen Shi's nickname. In the village, some also called him "Little Honest," though it was often sarcastic.

Chen Shi put his worries aside, took out an ancient book, and began to read while asking, "I'm still a bit unclear about this passage. The Master said: 'The one who initiated the use of burial figurines, may he have no descendants?' How should this be interpreted?"

Huangpo Village was remote and had no private school. Furthermore, the Chen family was very poor, leaving Chen Shi with nowhere to study. Fortunately, the person who had hanged himself on the tree was a scholar. Thus, Chen Shi found some ancient books at home and would come under the willow tree whenever he had free time to ask the scholar for guidance.

Once the scholar ghost had absorbed enough incense, he would answer his questions, allowing Chen Shi, despite being only a dozen years old, to become well-read in the classics.

"This sentence means, the Master said, 'The first person who offended me has already been beaten by me until he has no descendants.'"

The scholar ghost explained, "The Master wanted to tell us that when we do things, we must cut off all roots, especially those who offend us."

Chen Shi nodded in a daze, reading word by word. He then asked, "What does 'Since you are here, make yourself at home' mean?"

"Since the enemy has come, don't leave. Bury them here."

"Then what about the sentence from the river: 'What passes is like this, not ceasing day or night'? How should that be interpreted?"

"The Master stood by the river and said: 'Truly formidable people should stand by the river like me, watching the corpses of their enemies float downstream day and night. The Master is too powerful; he killed so many enemies that their bodies filled the river. We scholars should learn much from the Master.'"

Chen Shi finished asking all his questions, and the scholar ghost answered them fluently, filling the young boy with admiration. He looked up and said, "When I grow up, I want to be like the Master and win people over with virtue! Oh, Scholar Zhu, you have great talent and vast knowledge, why did you hang yourself here?"

The scholar ghost sighed and choked back a sob, "The court is full of treacherous officials, and petty men control the literary world. Despite my extensive knowledge, I failed the imperial examinations ten times. I disgraced the teachings of the sages and could not face my family, so I took my own life here to end it all."

Just as he finished speaking, the sound of rumbling carriage wheels suddenly approached.

Chen Shi closed his book and stood up to look. He saw several fine horses escorting an exquisite and luxurious carriage along the village road.

On the horses sat sturdy men dressed in red flying fish robes, looking very capable. Their eyes swept over the area like torches.

"My Lord, there's a child!" one of the men said, bowing from his horse towards someone inside the carriage.

"A child? A child is good. A child is good," a woman's voice came from inside the carriage, laughing. "Children are simple and have no hidden motives, making them easy to handle and preventing complications. Fang He, go and ask the child."

"Yes!"

A man in a flying fish robe leaped from his horse and quickly approached Chen Shi. He took out a piece of silver the size of a thumb, a kind smile on his face, and said gently, "Little one, here's some silver for candy. Brother is asking you about something. While you were playing in this village, did you see any small children? Children who look strange, like they're not alive. They're like... like a group of porcelain dolls!"

Scholar Zhu, hanging from the tree, warned, "Little Ten, don't talk to him! This man is an Imperial Guard from the city, a lackey of the powerful. The money of the Imperial Guard is called 'life-buying money.' Take his money, and you might lose your life!"

Although it was still the Great Ming Dynasty, imperial power was weak, and local magnates were rising. The Imperial Guard was no longer the emperor's personal guard but had become bodyguards maintained by powerful families, often acting on their behalf.

Chen Shi stared at the piece of silver in the man's hand, wanting it badly, but he shook his head and said, "My Grandpa said I shouldn't take things from strangers."

The man in the flying fish robe smiled even more kindly and said, "My name is Fang He. We didn't know each other before, so we were strangers. But now that you know my name, aren't we acquainted? We're not strangers anymore, are we? This is my reward for you, not something from a stranger, right?"

Chen Shi nodded joyfully and took the piece of silver.

Fang He's lips curved into a smile. "Since we're friends now, can you tell me if you've seen those children who look like porcelain dolls?"

Chen Shi nodded. "The children you're talking about, are they less than a foot tall and do they appear in groups?"

Fang He's face lit up with joy. He quickly nodded, turned around, his voice trembling slightly, "My Lord, those things are really here..."

Before he could finish speaking, a figure suddenly flashed out of the carriage. Chen Shi felt a fragrance waft towards him and saw a dignified and beautiful woman in purple appear under the tree.

The other men in flying fish robes quickly dismounted and hurried to the base of the tree, surrounding Chen Shi and the woman in purple.

The woman in purple was beautiful, with snow-white skin. She wore a flying fish robe on her upper body and a purple horse-face skirt on her lower body. Her expression was somewhat agitated, but she feigned calmness and smiled faintly, "Little brother, have you seen those porcelain dolls? Where are they?"

Chen Shi did not answer. He looked at the woman's shoulders with a peculiar expression.

The woman in purple paused slightly, tilted her head to look at her shoulders, and found nothing amiss.

"Little brother, My Lady is asking you a question!" a man in a flying fish robe stepped forward and shouted, his authority evident.

Chen Shi withdrew his gaze. The reason he was looking at the woman's shoulders was because the scholar's feet were resting precisely on her shoulders.

The woman was standing exactly where the scholar had hanged himself.

The woman in purple glanced at the man who had spoken, her expression darkening. "How insolent!"

The man in the flying fish robe quickly retreated.

The woman in purple spoke kindly, "Little brother, we are from Xinxiang, we are not bad people..."

Chen Shi looked up, meeting the woman's gaze, and smiled sweetly, "Big Sister is so pretty, even prettier than Zhu Youcai!"

The woman in purple was delighted. "This child speaks well. I'll give him a whole corpse later. However, the name Zhu Youcai doesn't sound like a woman's name. I suppose it's a pretty woman, but the country bumpkin gave her a crude name."

---- Failed at stock trading, returning to writing books!