Chapter 4

When Li Sanjiang carried Li Zhuiyuan home, the eastern sky was just beginning to pale.

Cui Guiying took the child from him. After Li Sanjiang spoke with Li Weihan for a while longer, he left.

Li Zhuiyuan was settled onto a woven bed. He closed his eyes for a while, then opened them again.

He could not sleep. Whenever he closed his eyes, he seemed to see Little Yellow Oriole dancing in the fish pond again.

Cui Guiying and Li Weihan never went into the inner room to rest. Instead, they sat in the kitchen.

The woman kept rubbing her fingers until they turned red, while the man kept smoking his water pipe, bowl after bowl.

Looking at the brightening sky, Cui Guiying got up and said, "I'll make breakfast for the children first."

Li Weihan exhaled a mouthful of smoke. "The smoke's rising a little early."

Cui Guiying had no choice but to sit back down and look at her husband. "Then when do we wait until?"

"Until someone notifies us."

"Who's going to notify us?"

Li Weihan did not answer, merely continuing to suck on the pipe stem.

After sitting for a while longer, there came a knock at the door.

"Guiying Hou, Guiying Hou."

It was their next-door neighbor, Zhao Simei.

Li Weihan knocked out his pipe and said, "The notification's here."

Cui Guiying got up, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she opened the door. "What is it, Simei Hou?"

Zhao Simei grabbed Cui Guiying's arm and gave it a hard shake.

"Big Beard's family has people dead!"

"What?"

"Two of them died—Big Beard and his youngest son. They were just spotted floating in their fish pond. Everyone's gone to look. Come on, let's go too!"

"Let's go!"

Before leaving, Cui Guiying called toward the inner room, "Yinghou, the rice has been washed. Make breakfast later."

"Got it, Grandma."

After getting a response, Cui Guiying went out with Zhao Simei.

After waiting a while, Li Weihan touched the opened cigarette pack in his pocket, set his water pipe on the table, and went out as well.

Zhao Simei's earlier knocking had already woken the children. Knowing something major had happened, they all got up and ran out to see the excitement.

No matter how Yingzi shouted after them to brush their teeth and wash their faces, she could not call them back.

By then, Big Beard's fish pond was surrounded by people. Villagers were still streaming down the Village Road toward it, men and women, old and young, entire families in tow.

Two corpses floated on the pond, but no one went to deal with them, even though a small boat was moored right by the bank.

Big Beard's family had a terrible reputation in the village, but the villagers were not usually so heartless.

The reason no one had joined in to help bring the bodies ashore was that the corpses looked like biscuits soaked too long in a bowl—bloated beyond recognition. Their skin had turned a translucent, crystallized flesh color, like two huge slabs of human-shaped pork aspic.

Everyone knew that drowned bodies swelled up after soaking for too long, but how could two people who had been alive and well yesterday look as if they had swollen overnight like soaked wood ear mushrooms?

It was simply too strange. No one dared touch the bodies.

Big Beard's wife knelt by the pond and wailed loudly. Yet she only knew how to cry and had no idea what to do. People around her tried to comfort her, but she ignored them, simply howling about her miserable fate.

At last, Big Beard's eldest son returned from town. Finally, there was someone in charge.

But when the eldest son saw his own father and younger brother floating in the pond like that, his face twitched with fright. He did not dare go into the water to retrieve them either, so he had no choice but to ask someone to fetch Li Sanjiang.

Li Sanjiang arrived pushing a handcart loaded with his tools.

After reaching the pond, Li Sanjiang first looked over the situation on the water. Then he backed away, waving his hands in alarm.

"Damn it, I don't dare retrieve these. Doing it would cost me years off my life, years! Find someone else. Hurry up and find someone else!"

His performance stirred up an even bigger uproar among the surrounding villagers. They began whispering to one another about what terrible sin Big Beard's family had committed and what evil thing they had brought upon themselves.

Very soon, some villagers brought up what had happened to Little Yellow Oriole yesterday. After all, the White Cloth Band had nearly come to blows at Big Beard's home, and secrets were hard to keep in a village.

Li Weihan also spoke up then, telling those around him about what had happened when he took his grandsons down the river in a boat yesterday. He said his grandson had fallen into the water, then had nightmares about seeing a woman walking in the water. The child had been so frightened that he remained delirious and could not wake up. Even Zheng Datong had been unable to help, and it was only Blind Liu who resolved it.

At once, quite a few people deliberately crowded over to hear Li Weihan's account, constantly offering their own opinions.

Cui Guiying stood beside Li Weihan, looking extremely nervous. Normally, if she did not have cooking or laundry to do, she could sit in the village square and gossip with the other women for three days and nights straight. But today, she was stiff and mute, too afraid to speak.

Her heart felt hollow and panicked, like a thief crying thief, or a cat coming to mourn a mouse.

Pan Zi, Lei Zi, Huzi, and Shitou also started talking, saying they had seen a female water ghost yesterday. She had nearly dragged Little Yuanhou down to take his place in death. She had come seeking revenge!

For a while, the area seemed to have turned into a huge open-air tea party. Once everyone had thoroughly discussed Little Yellow Oriole's affair, the villagers, still unsatisfied, dug up all the old dirt on Big Beard's family and kept rehashing it.

Before long, Big Beard's second son returned with his wife, and his two daughters arrived with their husbands. The daughters clung to their mother and began crying with her, while the two sons and two sons-in-law stood together negotiating Li Sanjiang's price.

Li Sanjiang drove a hard bargain. Claiming it was a double retrieval and that the bodies were particularly sinister, he demanded ten times his usual fee for bringing one corpse ashore.

Once the price was settled, Li Sanjiang set up an Offering Table, made offerings, lit candles, and burned paper. He even threw in an extra half hour of Calling Companions, muttering incantations that drew everyone's attention.

His performance was certainly not as flashy as the White Cloth Band's, but everyone knew that funeral troupe was all show. This man was the real professional.

During this time, two Santanas arrived, each with a police light on top. The Police Station from town had sent officers.

Usually, if someone drowned, then they drowned. It was not considered a major matter. But this time, two people had drowned at once—a father and son, right outside their home. That changed the nature of things.

The police came over to inspect the scene and were stunned for a while too. They had seen bloated corpses before, but never bodies swollen so thoroughly.

Seeing this, they could only wait until the corpses had been retrieved. They did not interrupt Li Sanjiang's ritual, nor did they go near it. Instead, they returned to the cars by the roadside, smoking as they waited.

At last, Li Sanjiang finished his preparations. He slaughtered a rooster, then scattered a bowl of what might or might not have been black dog blood. Only then did he enter the pond and pole the little boat toward the center.

He first used the Guide Hook to draw the corpses to the side of the boat, then secured and lifted them aboard with the Soul Returning Basket. Next, he covered them with the Homecoming Net. After poling the boat to the bank, he bent over, lowered his head, and used a specific technique to put each corpse onto his back before coming ashore.

This was an important rule among corpse retrievers: the retriever's own feet had to touch land before the body was set down, because only then was it being "sent," "carried" home.

Finally, the body could only be set down after the bereaved family called out an invitation. This completed the exchange and settled the job, letting the Death Collapse know it had truly returned home, so it would not become a wandering ghost and follow the retriever.

After repeating the process twice, Big Beard and his son finally stopped drifting and were placed on two straw mats.

Once everything was done, Li Sanjiang looked toward the middle of the fish pond with lingering fear. Earlier, he had only retrieved the bodies according to the rules and had not dared investigate more deeply.

Who knew whether she was still in there?

The police cordoned off the bodies, but the villagers did not care. They still stood at a distance, craning their necks to look. Frightened screams from children rang out now and then.

After collecting his payment and packing up his tools, Li Sanjiang put a cigarette in his mouth and pushed his handcart home. All the villagers around him stepped aside to make way. After retrieving corpses, he was someone everyone avoided.

The police began their official investigation. Their temporary office was set up in Big Beard's home, and the village secretary came to help, calling people over, boiling water, and serving tea.

Big Beard's wife could not explain much. She had simply woken up to find her husband missing from beside her. It was only when someone passing by the family fish pond spotted the father and son floating in the water and shouted for her that she found out.

The deputy chief leading the team asked the village secretary who in the village had grievances against Big Beard's family. The secretary picked at his ear and replied blandly.

"Oh, there are quite a few."

Next, those with grudges lined up to give statements.

Li Weihan, who had told the story of Little Yellow Oriole, along with Pan Zi, Lei Zi, and the others, were also called in for questioning.

At first, the police thought another corpse had been discovered. They even sent an officer with Li Weihan to search that stretch of river, but found nothing. Combined with the fact that Li Weihan's account was far too bizarre, they could only treat it as a superstitious story an old rural man had made up for his grandsons.

They did not even know whether to keep the statement on record. When Li Weihan saw that no one believed him, he became anxious, repeatedly insisting that what he had encountered was real and pestering the police and everyone around him to believe him. In the end, the village secretary had to coax him away.

The White Cloth Band that had caused trouble yesterday was later summoned for questioning as well. But they had gone to handle business in the neighboring township the day before the incident, and everyone in the troupe had an alibi.

As for Little Yellow Oriole's disappearance and everything surrounding it, neither a person nor a body had been found, and the responsible parties, Big Beard and his son, were already dead. It could only be filed as a missing-person case for the time being.

In the end, the father-and-son drowning case was ruled an accident. The general conclusion was that Big Beard and his son had drunk that night, gotten drunk and rowdy in the fish pond, and both drowned.

Big Beard's family did not demand further investigation either, because after the funeral, the two sons and two daughters began fighting over dividing the family property. They tore all pretenses away and made an ugly spectacle of themselves, giving the village even more to gossip about.

That day, it was already dusk when the statements were finished. Li Weihan and Cui Guiying took the children home, with the children walking ahead and the old couple following behind.

Patting her chest, Cui Guiying asked with lingering fear, "Why did you go over and tell them all that yourself? The police even called you in for questioning. You scared me to death."

Li Weihan casually tossed the empty Cigarette Pack from his pocket onto the roadside, pursed his lips, and said,

"Uncle taught me that. It has to be said out loud. You can't keep it bottled up. Zheng Datong and Liu Jinxia know some things about Little Yuanhou too."

Cui Guiying complained, "You only needed to let them know and ask them to keep it secret."

Li Weihan shook his head. "Even if adults know to keep secrets, can children really keep from letting something slip?"

"This..."

Li Weihan let out a long breath.

Then he said,

"Uncle said the best way to keep a secret is to tell it in public."

Nearly everyone in the village had gone to Big Beard's fish pond to watch the excitement. Li Zhuiyuan did not go. He could not sleep while lying in bed, so he moved a Small Stool outside to the yard and stared at the distant farmland.

After a while, his sister Yingzi came out after washing the dishes. She first carried out a square stool and placed stationery, books, and homework on it. Then she sat on a smaller stool. That made a simple desk, while the Desk Lamp was the bright sun overhead.

Yingzi's parents had never paid much attention to her studies, but they had never said things like, "There's no point in girls going to school," "Better marry early," or "Use connections to get into a textile factory and earn money."

When tuition was due before each term, they paid it. For study materials and other everyday fees, she did not need to feel embarrassed or guilty. She could ask normally.

But everything was relative. Compared with the families of other girls in the village, Yingzi's parents, who simply left her to fend for herself without concern, became models of valuing their daughter's education.

Yingzi knew this was because of the influence of her younger aunt, Li Lan.

Back then, her younger aunt had relied on studying to change her fate in one stroke. She had become the pride of their Grandparents. Even Yingzi's father and uncles would unconsciously straighten their backs whenever they mentioned her to outsiders, proud to be related to her.

Still, Yingzi's grades could only be considered average, even though she truly worked hard and never slackened.

Of course, their Grandparents had not deliberately sacrificed their sons' education just to support their daughter. It was simply that Yingzi's father and uncles truly could not get books into their heads.

She could not help wondering whether all the brains in the Li family had gone to her younger aunt.

At first, this thought was only a passing one and not especially strong. That changed on the second day after Little Yuanhou had been sent here. He sat beside her, looking slightly reserved, and when she had been stuck on a math problem for a long time, she heard a quiet whisper by her ear.

"Square root of three."

After that, whenever Yingzi had a problem she could not solve, she would ask Li Zhuiyuan to do it. She also discovered that Little Yuanhou barely needed to think. He only had to glance at a question to give the answer.

Perhaps the greatest trouble for him was having to write out the solution process. Otherwise, his foolish older sister could not understand it!

She was already in her first year of high school, after all.

Yingzi had asked him what school he attended in Beijing, and Li Zhuiyuan had answered, "A youth class."

Yingzi instinctively understood "youth class" as elementary school.

She marveled to herself, As expected of elementary schools in the capital. Their curriculum is actually this advanced.

Li Zhuiyuan simply sat there spacing out. Every now and then, he would snap back to himself and help his sister solve a problem, then continue spacing out.

Feeling a pen cap lightly poke him, Li Zhuiyuan turned his head, thinking she wanted him to look at another problem. Instead, he saw his sister point toward the western side of the yard, where a little girl in a floral dress stood below the steps.

It was Cui Cui, Liu Jinxia's granddaughter. She stood there timidly, not daring to come up.

Yingzi frowned at Li Zhuiyuan, signaling for him to ignore her.

Normally, she would have spoken up directly. The village children all shared the same understanding: they did not play with Cui Cui. But Liu Jinxia and her daughter had come to their home yesterday to "treat" her brother, so Yingzi felt too embarrassed to say it now.

Li Zhuiyuan stood up and walked to the edge of the yard. Coming up to Cui Cui, he smiled and asked,

"You came. Is something wrong?"

Cui Cui looked elsewhere, pinching the edge of her skirt between her fingers. "I came to play with you."

"Sure." Li Zhuiyuan turned and waved to Yingzi Jie. "Jie, Cui Cui and I are going to play."

Yingzi did not say anything. She sighed, lowered her head, and continued doing her homework.

In truth, there was not much to play. Often, they simply did not want to stay at home, so they would run to a friend's house, call the friend outside, and then wander around aimlessly together.

Cui Cui looked at Li Zhuiyuan walking out with her, her eyes full of delight. This was the first time she had gone to someone else's home to call for them, just like the other children in the village did.

Yet she still did not dare walk into someone else's yard without permission. Children her age might not understand many things, but they were more sensitive than anyone. She did not want to receive the cold looks the adults gave her.

"Brother Yuanhou, my mom said you got sick yesterday?"

"Mm." At the reminder, Little Yellow Oriole surfaced in Li Zhuiyuan's mind again, and his smile gradually faded.

"Huh?" Cui Cui immediately apologized. "I won't mention it, I won't. Being sick really feels awful."

Li Zhuiyuan touched his pocket and said apologetically, "Um, I forgot to bring you snacks."

It was not really that he had forgotten. His Grandparents were not home, and the cabinet with the snacks was locked, so he could not open it. Yingzi Jie seemed to know where the key was hidden, but Li Zhuiyuan knew that if he asked her to get some for him, she would speak badly about Cui Cui to him inside the house.

"Snacks? My house has some. Lots of them. Come eat at my house."

"Go to your house?"

"Mm, come play at my house."

"Okay."

Once he agreed, Cui Cui gathered her courage and took Li Zhuiyuan's hand. The two walked together along the narrow path between the fields.

At that very moment, she hoped the adults in the roadside homes and yards would see her and ask, "Oh, Little Cui Hou, who are you playing with?"

She also hoped they would meet children their own age on the road so they could see that she had a playmate too.

Unfortunately, most of the villagers had gone to Big Beard's fish pond to look at pork aspic.

Still, she was very happy. The corners of her mouth never came down. If she had not been holding his hand, she felt she might have spun around in delight.

"Brother Yuanhou, did you not really understand us when we talked?"

"At first, I could not understand anything at all. Then I could understand if people spoke slower and used shorter sentences. Now, I understand everything, and I can say some things myself too. I just don't say them properly."

When he had first been sent to this home, he truly could not understand a word when the elders spoke to him. Only his siblings and cousins who had gone to school could communicate with him in Mandarin.

He remembered that whenever he called Li Weihan and Cui Guiying "maternal grandpa" and "maternal grandma," they would visibly become a little unhappy and repeatedly correct him, telling him to call them "Grandfather" and "Grandmother."

There really were no separate local terms for maternal grandparents. Often, people distinguished grandmothers by direction instead. For instance, the one living south would be called South Grandma, and the one living north would be called North Grandma.

"By the way, Brother Yuanhou, have you been to the Forbidden City?"

"Mm, I have."

"I want to go someday too."

"Sure. Call me, and I'll take you."

"Really? You won't lie to me, right?"

"I won't lie to you. I know the Forbidden City very well."

In Li Zhuiyuan's memories, there had been a period when Li Lan worked at the Forbidden City. He had been left there to play by himself. Sometimes, he sat on the steps by a side gate with an orange cat in his arms, watching the endless stream of tourists enter through the main gate all afternoon.

"By the way, Brother Yuanhou, have you ever had douzhi?"

"Um..."

"Have you?" Cui Cui blinked her big eyes curiously at him.

"I have."

"Is it good? What does douzhi taste like?"

What was that smell?

Li Zhuiyuan recalled the scene from last week when Cui Guiying had scrubbed out the vat of spoiled pickled cabbage at home.

"Some people like drinking it, and some don't."

"Really? Then I have to try it when I go to Beijing someday."

"Mm."

"Brother Yuanhou, look, that's my home."

Following Cui Cui's pointing finger, Li Zhuiyuan saw a two-story building beyond a field.

"You live in a two-story house."

The village had houses in every style. Most were single-story brick-and-tile homes, while a few families in dire circumstances still lived in earthen houses. Likewise, a few well-off families had already taken the lead in building two-story homes.

When they stepped into Cui Cui's yard, Liu Jinxia was in the first-floor living room, smoking a cigarette as she played bridge.

Her card partners were two old ladies and an old man. Anyone who came to play cards with Liu Jinxia could mooch a meal at her house, and the food was quite good, with meat and liquor. So Liu Jinxia never lacked card partners. She was happy to spend a little money to "buy" people to keep her entertained.

The card table truly was a magical place. Liu Jinxia clearly had cataracts and poor eyesight, yet it did not affect the speed at which she played her cards in the slightest.

"Grandma, I brought Brother Yuanhou over to play."

"Liu Nainai," Li Zhuiyuan called out.

"Mm, go play." Liu Jinxia responded, then turned her attention back to her cards. "Pong!"

Just moments ago, the card players had been discussing what was happening over at Big Beard's house. Liu Jinxia had casually responded while blowing smoke rings, but when she heard that her granddaughter had brought Li Zhuiyuan inside, she could not help pausing slightly, her eyes narrowing through the smoke.

This child had been haunted yesterday, and this morning Big Beard and his son had ended up floating in the Fish Pond.

If there was no funny business behind that, she, Liu Jinxia, would not believe it even if someone beat her to death.

Still, she did not say anything to stop her granddaughter from playing with Li Zhuiyuan. What a joke. They were both damn unlucky stars, so what was there to say about one disliking the other?

Cui Cui led Li Zhuiyuan through the main hall into the inner room. Li Juxiang was sitting on a stool picking vegetables. She was surprised to see her daughter bring someone home, but when she saw it was Li Zhuiyuan, a smile immediately spread across her face.

It reminded her of when she and Li Lan had played together as children.

Li Juxiang promptly stood up and wiped her hands on her apron. "Sit down, Little Yuanhou."

Then she immediately went into the room and brought out a great deal of food to entertain him. Liu Jinxia's family was indeed well-off, and Cui Cui was their only child, so she enjoyed the sort of snacks every other child in the village envied.

Li Juxiang also opened two bottles of lemon soda, giving one each to Li Zhuiyuan and Cui Cui.

This fizzy drink came in bottles shaped like beer bottles. It was cheap and popular. Children could not be bothered to pour it into bowls, so they just picked up the bottles and drank straight from them, imitating the grown-ups' bold manner of drinking liquor.

"Little Yuanhou, is your mother doing well?"

"She is, Auntie."

"I heard your mother had left..." Li Juxiang suddenly realized it was inappropriate to ask a child that and immediately changed her wording. "Your mother and I used to play together all the time when we were little. We were very close."

"Mm, Mom mentioned you before. Xianghou, Xianghou Ayi."

Generally, adding "Hou" after a name was only something elders and peers did. Juniors were not supposed to use it.

But Li Juxiang was hardly offended. Instead, she was delighted. She could imagine Li Lan telling her son about her and using the name "Xianghou." It proved that Li Lan had not forgotten her.

"Your mother was very clever back then, and she got good grades too. Unlike me—I got a headache just looking at books." Li Juxiang tucked the hair by her ear into place. "When will your mother come home for a visit?"

"My mom is busy with work. She said she'll come get me once she's done."

Cui Cui said, "Mom, I'm taking Brother Yuanhou upstairs to play."

"Mm, go ahead. Take good care of Little Yuanhou."

Cui Cui took Li Zhuiyuan's hand. When they reached the Stairs, she skillfully took off her shoes and changed into slippers. Seeing this, Li Zhuiyuan also started taking off his shoes.

"No, Brother Yuanhou, don't take yours off. Just come up."

Li Zhuiyuan still removed his shoes and planned to go upstairs barefoot. Cui Cui had no choice but to hand him her mother's slippers.

Wearing the oversized slippers, Li Zhuiyuan followed Cui Cui to the second floor and into her room, where there was a black-and-white television.

Liu Jinxia's family had bought a television long ago, but they had not announced it. The villagers were cold toward them, and she could not be bothered hosting people at her house to watch TV.

Cui Cui switched on the standing electric fan, but its blades did not move. "Huh? Is the power out?"

Li Zhuiyuan said, "It isn't plugged in."

"Hehe, you're right." Cui Cui bent down, picked up the plug, and inserted it into the wall socket.

"Vrrr... vrrr... vrrrr... vrrrrr—"

The heavy fan blades slowly began to turn, producing a heavenly sound that seemed capable of blowing away the midsummer heat.

"Brother Yuanhou, do you want to watch TV?"

"Either is fine."

Cui Cui turned on the television and rotated the dial. After going all the way around, there were only a few channels, and half of them were nothing but static.

"Jing Gege, are you all right?"

"Rong'er, I'm fine."

"Hmph, Ouyang Feng, you..."

Every winter and summer vacation, the television always aired The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

The two sat at the edge of the bed and watched television for a while before Li Zhuiyuan suddenly felt sleepy.

He had not rested at all since last night. Before, he had been emotionally overwrought, but now that his emotions had faded, exhaustion swiftly washed over him.

Cui Cui mistakenly thought Li Zhuiyuan did not want to watch TV, so she got off the bed and began introducing the dolls, toys, and picture books in her room to him.

Though he was very sleepy, Li Zhuiyuan still watched her and tried his best to respond to every introduction.

The little girl was immersed in the joy of sharing, but she soon realized she could no longer hear any response. Turning toward the bed, she found Li Zhuiyuan leaning against its side, already asleep.

Cui Cui immediately stopped talking. She quietly came closer, carefully eased Li Zhuiyuan flat, folded the thin summer blanket, and covered his stomach with it.

Then she pushed the electric fan closer to him and pressed the small button on its back. The fan began to oscillate.

After doing all that, she brought over a chair and sat beside the bed, resting her face on her hand as she watched Li Zhuiyuan sleep.

After looking at him for a while, she secretly smiled. Her earlobes turned red, and she turned her face away. A moment later, she could not help looking at him again.

Time passed without her noticing.

"Little Cui Hou, Little Cui Hou, bring Little Yuanhou down for lunch." Li Juxiang's voice called from downstairs.

Cui Cui immediately went downstairs and said to Li Juxiang, "Mom, Brother Yuanhou fell asleep."

"Then come down and eat first. We'll save some food for him."

"No, I'm not hungry. I want to wait until Brother Yuanhou wakes up so we can eat together."

Most parents in the village with any self-awareness would stop their children from going out to find friends around mealtime, afraid they would be invited to eat and seem like they had deliberately gone out to take advantage.

Still, sometimes it was unavoidable, and naturally they would end up at the table.

Cui Cui had never experienced that before. She was willing to wait for Li Zhuiyuan to wake up and eat with him.

Li Juxiang smiled, nodded, and went to the living room to call her mother and the card players to lunch.

Cui Cui ran back to the second floor, returned to her seat, and continued watching Li Zhuiyuan.

"Huh?"

Cui Cui leaned closer in confusion because she noticed that Brother Yuanhou's brows had furrowed.

"Is he dreaming?"

"Grandma, I brought Brother Yuanhou over to play."

"Mm, go play. Pong!"

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Cui Cui standing before him, then at Liu Jinxia playing cards with her three companions in the living room. He knew he was dreaming.

Because the scene around him was far too detached from reality. His entire field of vision was black and white, and every person and object seemed to have been traced out in charcoal.

They could still form corresponding people and objects, but they were somewhat blurry and distorted. The rough lines carried an eerie, careless quality.

Li Zhuiyuan looked down at himself and found that he was still normal. It was everything else in the dream that was abnormal.

This reminded him of the copied drawings in his mother's study, the same white background marked by charcoal.

He had dreamed of the moment when he and Cui Cui had just arrived at her house and greeted Liu Jinxia. Next, Cui Cui in front of him took his hand and led him inward.

What had once been the little girl's delicate hand now felt rough in his grasp, even a little painful, like sandpaper.

He could not help pulling free and stopping, but Cui Cui continued walking inside alone, her arm still held in the posture of holding someone's hand.

Behind him, the four people playing cards in the living room suddenly fell silent.

Li Zhuiyuan turned around and saw that all four of them had frozen in place, completely motionless.

Even the smoke rings Liu Jinxia had exhaled were fixed in the air, no longer dispersing.

This stillness gave Li Zhuiyuan a chance to observe them. The charcoal marks on the three card players were soft and light, while Liu Jinxia's image was drawn in lines that were thick, dark, and hard.

After standing there for a long time, Li Zhuiyuan was deeply puzzled. Every time he had dreamed before, the moment he realized it was a dream, he could immediately wake up. But this time, he was still trapped within it.

In the end, Li Zhuiyuan chose to walk farther inside. He saw Li Juxiang sitting there picking vegetables. The lines on Li Juxiang's body were hard as well, starkly out of place against the faint, delicate outlines around her.

Li Zhuiyuan walked up to Li Juxiang. Deep charcoal strokes defined the details of her expression. She was smiling, and her eyes carried a sense of reminiscence.

"Auntie Juxiang, Auntie Juxiang?"

Li Zhuiyuan tried calling out several times and even waved his hand in front of her, but Li Juxiang remained motionless, without even blinking.

After leaving there, Li Zhuiyuan came to the Stairs. Before going up, he took off his shoes and walked upstairs barefoot.

When he entered the bedroom, the standing fan had stopped turning, and Guo Jing and Huang Rong on the television had become nothing more than blurry sketches.

Cui Cui was pointing at one of her dolls, her mouth open as though she were explaining something, but she too was completely still.

The lines on Cui Cui were clearer and harder than those on her grandmother and mother, nearly becoming solid black strokes.

It was as though everyone and everything else had been drawn, while she had been carved.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at the bed. He was not on it. It was empty.

Not only had objects stopped moving, but sound had vanished too. Li Zhuiyuan suddenly realized that his ears had not heard a single sound in a long time. The entire world was terrifyingly quiet.

He began to panic a little, because he did not know how long he would have to remain in this dream.

He opened the bedroom door leading to the balcony. The second-floor balconies of the building were connected, tiled in red and white.

Looking into the distance, apart from the crude scribbles near the houses that barely resembled farmland, most of his field of vision was a bleak, empty white.

When he looked up, the place where the sun should have been held only a glowing patch of white. It looked very much like an eraser, ready to fall at any moment and wipe everything here away.

"Hello, is this Granny Liu's house?"

A voice came from the yard below, jarringly abrupt at that moment, even piercing.

Standing on the second floor, Li Zhuiyuan looked down. It was a man who appeared to be around fifty, carrying an old woman on his back.

The old woman was very thin. What showed beyond her sleeves was nothing but the tiny bit of bone still wrapped in shriveled skin. Her hair was long and tangled, hanging loose down her back.

"Hello, is this Granny Liu's house?"

The man asked again, anxiously turning in a circle with his elderly mother on his back.

Li Zhuiyuan did not know whether he should answer.

Just then,

the old woman lying on the man's back suddenly lifted her head, her face directly turned toward Li Zhuiyuan on the second floor.

Though they were all charcoal-drawn figures, the old woman's eyes possessed a delicacy that transcended the limits of that artistic style.

They held rage, viciousness, and venomous hatred!

The next moment, Li Zhuiyuan discovered that everything around him had begun to spin and distort, like a vortex appearing from nowhere and tearing everything around him into itself, including him.

"Brother Yuanhou?"

Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes and saw Cui Cui's concerned face.

"Brother Yuanhou, did you have a dream?"

"Mm." Li Zhuiyuan sat up and answered, "How long did I sleep?"

"Not long, about two hours. Brother Yuanhou, let's go downstairs to eat."

"No, I'll go home to eat."

"Oh, don't be so polite, Brother Yuanhou." Cui Cui pulled Li Zhuiyuan's hand and led him downstairs. "Mom, Brother Yuanhou is awake."

By then, Liu Jinxia and her three card partners had finished lunch and begun their afternoon round.

Li Juxiang smiled as she lifted the red cover from the kitchen table. Inside was the meal specially saved for him. "Little Yuanhou, come eat. I'll warm up the soup for you."

"Auntie, I'll go home to eat."

"Be good and listen. Don't stand on ceremony with Auntie. Auntie never stood on ceremony with your mother before. Besides, Cui Cui deliberately waited for you to wake up so she could eat with you."

"Thank you, Auntie."

"Brother Yuanhou, sit here." Cui Cui sat down first, while Li Zhuiyuan went to the other counter to help fetch bowls and Chopsticks.

"Go on, go sit down. Auntie will get them."

"Okay, Auntie."

Li Zhuiyuan returned and sat down. Soon, Li Juxiang placed the Chopsticks and a bowl of rice before him.

Though the dishes on the table were all served in small bowls and were not large in portion, there was more than enough for two children. There were two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. In particular, the bowl of braised pork with potatoes had only two pieces of potato as garnish, while the rest was all meat. It was clearly picked out and saved especially for them.

Li Juxiang brought over a bowl of fish soup, drizzled with sesame oil and vinegar, fragrant, fresh, and enticing.

Besides that, she opened a can of mixed fruit, pouring a bowl for each child.

It could be said that in the village, this was truly a lavish meal.

"Little Yuanhou, stay for dinner too. I'll make you some more delicious things." Li Juxiang said with a smile.

Li Zhuiyuan set down his Chopsticks and looked at Li Juxiang. "This is already a lot. Thank you for your trouble, Auntie."

"Hehe, don't put down your Chopsticks. Eat."

Li Juxiang patted Li Zhuiyuan's head, secretly envying how Li Lan had raised her son. A sensible and polite child was easy to like anywhere.

"Little Yuanhou, does your mother cook for you at home?"

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head, laid his Chopsticks across his bowl, and answered, "Mom can't cook."

"Is that because your mother is busy with work?"

"Mm, she's very busy."

"What about your grandparents' home? Don't they cook for you?"

"I don't go there often."

"Then where do you usually eat?"

"At the neighbors'."

Usually after school, in the Family Courtyard, those Grandparents who had finished teaching for the day or had retired would take the initiative to bring him home for a meal.

"Ah, what a pitiful child." Li Juxiang stopped asking questions. After telling the children to eat on their own, she picked up the thermos and went to refill the water at the card table.

Just then, a shout came from outside:

"Hello, is this Granny Liu's home?"

At the sound of that voice, the Chopsticks Li Zhuiyuan had just picked up slipped from his hand and fell to the floor.

Clatter!

In the main hall, Liu Jinxia tossed the bridge cards onto the table and clapped her hands. "That's enough for today."

The three card partners nodded and rose to end the game. Clearly, they were already used to this sort of thing.

Before leaving the main hall, however, they each went to wash their hands at the washbasin in the corner.

Banana leaves soaked in the basin. After washing their hands, they rubbed the leaves over them, shook off the water, then dried their hands with the towel on the rack.

It was meant to ward off bad luck, a ritual Liu Jinxia had arranged herself. She no longer cared how the villagers viewed her family; on the contrary, she had deliberately set up these rituals to make herself seem more mysterious.

Li Zhuiyuan and Cui Cui entered the main hall just as Liu Jinxia rose from her chair. "Have you eaten?"

"We're eating. We just came out to take a look," Cui Cui said.

"What's there to look at? Never mind. Little Cui Hou, help Grandma put away the cards."

"Okay, Grandma."

After giving the instruction, Liu Jinxia headed inside on her own. There was a shaded room deeper in the house that served as her office.

"Slow down, there's a Door Threshold here." Li Juxiang's voice came from outside. She had gone out to greet the visitor as soon as she heard the call.

"Alright, alright. It's nothing, it's nothing."

Li Zhuiyuan looked toward the Main Gate of the hall and saw Li Juxiang helping an old man over the Door Threshold.

The old man leaned forward, hunched at the waist, with both hands clasped behind his lower back. He was a hunchback.

It also looked as though... he was carrying someone who did not exist.

"Is this your Little Kid?" The old man looked at the two children and asked with a smile.

"The girl is mine. The boy is my older sister's. My mother is waiting for you. Go through the front door, turn right, and walk to the end."

"Alright, alright, I'll go right away. Can't keep Granny Liu waiting." The old man continued inward.

Standing behind them, Li Zhuiyuan kept his gaze fixed on the man's hunched back.

The old man walked through the inner door of the hall and turned right. He should have continued deeper inside, but suddenly stopped.

Because he was a hunchback who leaned forward, everything above his shoulders was now hidden by the wall. Only that hunched back remained in view.

Then,

his hands, which rested at the small of his back, unconsciously lifted a little. His left arm pressed down, his right arm swung upward, his buttocks shifted inward, and his shoulders angled outward. The side of his face had already pressed against the wall.

Li Zhuiyuan stared at that empty back. At that moment, he felt as if someone were there, propping themselves up on the man's back and "looking" at him.

Li Juxiang asked, "What's wrong with you?"

A trace of shrill hoarseness suddenly mixed into the old man's rough voice as he said:

"This Little Kid..."

Li Zhuiyuan clenched his fists nervously. He suddenly remembered how his mother had once taken him to look at a wall of Murals. He had asked why such a large section had been left blank, and his mother had replied:

"Little Yuan, this is blank space. It lets you imagine things for yourself, and the effect is better that way."

He had been too young to understand back then. Now, he seemed to understand a little.

"Hurry up. My mother's waiting for you inside."

Li Juxiang urged him again. She truly had no idea why the man had stopped there, though she did not find his posture strange. After all, he was a hunchback; even standing still, he looked rather strange.

"Mm." The old man answered, but suddenly squatted down. At the same time, his body tipped slightly backward, his hands bracing against the ground.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Li Juxiang reached out to help him, but although he was hunched and thin, the force of his descent was incredibly heavy. She could not pull him up at all. Fortunately, he maintained his balance with his hands and merely squatted back instead of falling over.

At the sight, Li Zhuiyuan staggered two steps backward.

That posture looked very much like the motion of setting down someone from his back.

Sunlight streamed into the main hall from outside. The old patterned tiles on the floor reflected little sheen, showing only faint shifts between light and dark.

Li Zhuiyuan lowered his gaze. Near the inner door, two areas about the size of footprints seemed to have darkened slightly.

It was so faint that Li Zhuiyuan wondered whether his eyes were playing tricks on him, whether he was overthinking it.

But then, two new patches darkened and returned to normal. Yet they were getting closer and closer to him.

At last, those two dark patches appeared on the tiles directly before him—and did not fade.

A cold wind brushed over him. Li Zhuiyuan felt his face, chest, hands, and feet grow cold, but he was facing into the house. Where could this wind possibly have come from?

The back halves of those dark patches vanished, while their front halves deepened. The chill before him intensified.

Li Zhuiyuan swallowed. His eyes began to flicker and drift aside. Instinct made him afraid to look directly ahead, as though an emaciated old woman stood invisibly before him, leaning forward, her face pressing closer to his own.

Li Zhuiyuan bit down hard on his lip.

Suddenly, the chill on his left cheek deepened further, as if a piece of ice had been pressed against it. His scalp began to prickle too, in wave after wave.

The old man squatting on the ground turned his head toward them and continued what he had left unfinished:

"This Little Kid is really such a sweet-looking one."