The Eerie Old Man

They returned to the village at high noon.

The old house naturally had no food stored, but Jiang Yue had brought back plenty of ingredients when he came from the city the day before.

The kitchen was very simple. All that remained was a small stove that burned briquettes, though there were several hundred of them stockpiled.

After all, it was a holiday. They couldn't make the meal too meager.

The salted duck was cooked food brought back from the city. They added a plate of stir-fried beef, a plate of braised fish, and a few home-style dishes.

The meal looked quite respectable, with a good mix of meat and vegetables, and it was delicious to boot. San Gou's appetite was thoroughly whetted.

"Second Brother, can I ask you something?" San Gou mumbled around a duck leg.

"No."

"I haven't even told you what it is yet!" San Gou protested.

"I know what it is without you telling me."

"Then tell me what you think it is. If you're wrong, you have to agree to one thing I ask." San Gou flashed a clever little grin.

"You want me to take you to the city. Fine! Get into a middle school in the city first."

Jiang Yue knew San Gou's little scheme all too well.

At the mention of an exam, San Gou wilted like a balloon pricked with a needle.

The duck leg in his mouth suddenly lost all its flavor.

"Second Brother, I promise I'll only go for a couple of days. Just take me there to have some fun."

The Qingming Festival came with a short break, so spending two or three days having fun wouldn't be a big deal. But San Gou was as slippery as a monkey; give him an inch, and he'd take a mile.

If Jiang Yue agreed too readily, San Gou would inevitably come up with all sorts of follow-up demands. Better to let him stew for a while first.

San Gou had no idea what Jiang Yue was thinking and was about to keep pestering him when someone called from outside the courtyard.

"Is anyone home?"

The brothers went outside to look. It was an old man passing by.

He wore a round bamboo hat and a blue-brown straw rain cape. On his feet was a pair of straw sandals, a rare sight these days, caked with mud.

He was already severely hunched over, and with a fish basket on his back, he looked even more bent.

His rain cape was strange, too. It was much wider than an ordinary one, and faint, peculiar patterns could be seen on it. It looked rather out of place, but overall, he could still be recognized as a fisherman.

"Young man, this old man was passing by and would like a bowl of water." The old man spoke in a heavy accent. His words were only just intelligible, though they certainly sounded like the local dialect spoken around these parts.

"Old Man, why not come in and sit for a while?" The Jiang family might not have been some prominent clan, but they had never lacked good manners. Jiang Yue was unusually well versed in the niceties of dealing with people for someone his age.

"No, no. I'm covered in mud. I'd better not dirty your home." The old man waved his hands repeatedly.

"San Gou, go get the Old Man a glass of water."

San Gou hurried inside and poured a glass of warm water.

The old man took it, but just as he raised it to his lips, he shook his head. "We country folk are lowly. I've never been able to drink boiled water in my life. It gives me a stomachache. Well water will do."

"Hey, now, Old Man, what's that about? Who turns down boiled water and prefers to drink it raw?" San Gou grumbled, but he was already heading to the well beside the courtyard to draw a small bucket of water.

Gulp, gulp, gulp...

Though the old man was thin and hunched, he drank with surprising gusto—and an astonishing capacity.

In the blink of an eye, he had drained the small bucket dry. He smacked his lips, still seeming to want more.

Even San Gou, who could eat and drink with the best of them, watched in amazement.

Taking the bucket the old man handed back, San Gou inexplicably remembered winning a "free bottle" prize on a drink in the city one year. The words slipped out: "Want another bucket?"

"Another bucket?" The old man seemed to consider whether that might be a bit inappropriate, then grinned cheerfully. "Sure, I'll have another."

He drained the second bucket, too.

San Gou said nothing, but thought to himself that he'd heard of bottomless pits for food, but this was the first time he'd seen a bottomless pit for water.

The old man seemed to have had his fill this time and waved them off before leaving.

After walking a few steps, he turned around unsteadily and beckoned to Jiang Yue.

"Young man, I've drunk two buckets of your water. Let me give you a few words in return."

"Please, Old Man."

"Heh heh heh..." The old man laughed for no apparent reason. Deep in his throat, it sounded like a fish blowing bubbles. He muttered a few words, or perhaps he hadn't said anything at all.

"Remember this. Remember."

With a strange smile on his face, the old man hobbled away.

"San Gou, did you hear what he said?"

"Second Brother, you didn't hear him either? That old coot must be messing with us. He clearly didn't say anything!" San Gou was annoyed and was about to chase after him to demand an explanation.

Jiang Yue stopped him and shook his head. "Forget it. He's an old man. It was only two buckets of well water."

The brothers went back inside, disgruntled.

They hadn't even reached the main room when they noticed something strange in the hallway.

"Huh? Second Brother, what's written here?!"

Three Lines of Big Characters had appeared in the hallway, the strokes flowing like dragons and full of stately presence.

The first and second lines each had ten characters, and the third had twelve.

Who had written them?

The back door was shut, and no one was inside. The two brothers had been outside in the courtyard the whole time. No one could have come in through the courtyard gate.

Besides, it was hardly possible to write so many characters in such a short time.

The strangest thing was that the characters had been written in water.

Jiang Yue had often seen people write big characters with water in the city.

In parks and even open areas in residential compounds, old men who enjoyed calligraphy often showed off their skills that way.

But there were four things that made this strange.

First, the characters had appeared in an extremely strange way. The strokes were leisurely, without the slightest sign of haste. It would have been very difficult to write them at a normal speed in such a short time.

Second, the courtyard was small. They had been standing at the gate, only seven or eight meters from the hallway. Even if someone had secretly written so many characters, there was no way they could have done so without making a sound.

Third, when people wrote big characters with water, they usually faded as soon as they were written. The marks gradually grew lighter and disappeared. But these water marks looked even darker than ink, with no sign of fading at all.

Of course—

The strangest thing of all was what the three lines said!

The White Tiger fights the Azure Dragon; heaven and earth are rent asunder.

The Vermilion Bird's Spine Broken; calamity will befall the world.

Where there is strife, strife abounds. Do not stay here long."

If Jiang Yue had only been guessing and relying on premonitions before, the sudden appearance of these three lines had shattered the last vestige of hope in his heart.

Those earlier premonitions were probably about to be confirmed.

San Gou was only twelve, after all. He hadn't even finished elementary school and couldn't make sense of these convoluted lines, much less ponder their deeper meaning. He grabbed the woodcutter's hatchet leaning by the doorway and rushed into the house.

He searched from top to bottom, then came out looking dejected.

He shook his head. "The back door's shut, and there's no one inside."

"Come with me." Jiang Yue seemed to have realized something and strode quickly out of the courtyard.

"The old man went this way, didn't he?"

Taking San Gou with him, Jiang Yue followed the route the old fisherman had taken. They kept going until the road ended, then stopped near a small stream.

Jiang Yue parted the grass. A fish basket and a pair of Worn Straw Sandals had been left inside.

The stream marked the end of the road. The only way onward was to wade across. But it had rained a lot lately, and the water was deep. Not even a strong young man could have crossed without some kind of aid, let alone an elderly man.

And even if he had crossed the stream, there was no reason for him to throw away the fish basket he needed to make a living.

"Second Brother, look! There's something in the water!"

San Gou had sharp eyes. He pointed at the water and called out.

Sure enough, twenty or thirty meters downstream, a living creature bobbed in and out of sight among the ripples as it swam away.

It had a head, four limbs, and a patterned shell on its back.

It was unmistakably an old turtle.

After getting a good look at it, San Gou sighed with regret. "If only we had a net! A turtle that big would be great for your health. We could sell it in town for at least a few hundred yuan."

This was where being young had its advantages.

He was too young to know better, too young to fear the unknown. He didn't let his imagination run away with him, so he had nothing to fret over.

All the way back, San Gou kept complaining about the old man who had asked for water. He was sure the man had accomplices and had deliberately put on a strange act to scare them.

As for the motive, San Gou decided they were being bullied because they were young and their parents weren't home.

Jiang Yue didn't explain. There was no need to make a twelve-year-old boy share his unease.