"Leave her alone?"
"Why?"
Su Xun asked, voicing his confusion. Then a thought suddenly struck him.
"Because they favor boys over girls?"
"That's one reason, I suppose."
The villager smacked his lips.
One reason?
So there was more than one?
"What else?"
Su Xun asked directly.
He noticed that when the villager spoke, the girl's body, which had just begun to relax, tensed up again.
She curled into a tiny ball, looking utterly pitiful.
He instinctively wanted to reach out and pat the little girl's head, to comfort her like the frightened little animal she seemed to be.
But remembering how she'd reacted to his touch earlier, he lowered his hand, which he'd just raised slightly.
He couldn't scare the little girl again.
"She used to have a twin sister."
The villager's cryptic remark instantly drew Su Xun's gaze away from the little girl.
He looked at the villager, puzzled, with a vague suspicion forming in his mind.
Used to? A twin sister?
The little girl's body suddenly stiffened, then began trembling even harder.
She clutched her head tightly with both hands.
Her face, buried between her knees again, remained completely hidden.
"Her sister disappeared half a year ago."
The villager's words startled Su Xun.
"Disappeared?"
He echoed the words without thinking.
Then he gathered his thoughts. "How did she disappear?"
"Did you report it to the police?"
"Who knows how she disappeared?"
The villager shrugged.
"At first, the girl came running back with a pale face and said her sister had been eaten by Niuniu."
"Eaten by Niuniu?"
Su Xun was astonished.
Did cows eat people?
"You find that strange too, young man, don't you?"
The villager smiled. "We didn't believe her much at first either."
"We've lived most of our lives and never heard of