The group followed the dirt road ahead.
Soon, they saw another house. This family was clearly much poorer than the woman's family from earlier. It was a single-story redbrick house with unplastered exterior walls.
A little farther ahead was a corner.
As they approached, they discovered that a bowl of blood had been set outside this family's door too.
They had barely looked it over when the door suddenly opened a crack. A pale-faced man looked surprised to see them, then cast a wary glance toward the corner ahead.
Then he urgently beckoned them over.
"Standing there in the middle of the night-do you have a death wish? Get over here! Hurry!"
At this sight,
Zhao Erhu and the two women all looked wary.
Jiang Chen, however, immediately walked over like a complete novice, even lowering his voice to ask, "Brother, what's going on? Is there something dangerous here?"
The man just kept waving. "Get your three friends over here too. Come inside first!"
"If you still value your lives!"
He added that last remark.
Hearing this, Jiang Chen hurriedly called back, "Everyone, get over here! Staying there is dangerous!"
The three gave him a few uncertain looks.
After some hesitation, they came over too.
The man opened the door. Once inside, they got a clear look at him. He was alarmingly thin, practically skin and bones, with deathly pale skin and a slightly hunched back, as though he had suffered from some illness.
"You really do have a death wish!"
The man looked at them and scolded, "Coming here in the middle of the night-don't you know something happened at that corner?"
"What happened?" Jiang Chen pressed.
"You're outsiders, aren't you? Some things in this village are a real mess."
"A couple of years ago, a layabout went to