Seeing Liu Qingzhu terrified me no less than seeing a ghost.
I hadn't seen him for days, but he still looked just as he had before: skin and bones, wearing a cloth shirt full of holes, his right eye like an emerald.
I'd swung a stool at the old man, and now he lay on the ground, clutching his head and groaning.
The village chief hurried over to help Liu Qingzhu up and scolded me:
"You little brat, why are you so rash? Look what you've done to the old man!"
Liu Qingzhu stood up and waved a hand.
"It's nothing. Won't kill me yet."
Under Sixth Uncle's and Liu Yunbo's influence, I'd always regarded Liu Qingzhu with hostility. Looking at that wrinkled face of his, he really didn't look like a good person.
But I had to admit, from his first warning of "don't carry too many passengers" to last night's "don't open the door if someone knocks," Liu Qingzhu's golden words had indeed put me on my guard.
Puzzled, I asked:
"Sir, what brings you here?"
Liu Qingzhu looked up at me and said:
"What, does your family own this village?"
I knew Liu Qingzhu had a bad temper and didn't want to keep arguing with him, so I said nothing more.
The village chief rolled his eyes at me.
"How can you talk like that, kid? You can come here, but nobody else can? Anyone who comes is a guest. Come inside and sit down, sir!"
The village chief helped Liu Qingzhu inside and seated him, then told me to go get a couple of dishes cooked at the restaurant at the eastern end of the village.
The village chief really was smooth. He got to play the good guy, while I had to pay for the food.
I hadn't slept all night, and on the way to the restaurant, I began to grow groggy with sleep.
Passing an intersection, I saw a large crowd of villagers gathered beside a field, all talking at once about something. Curious, I squeezed in.
In the middle of the crowd lay an ox that had died a gruesome death, its bloodshot eyes wide open.
It looked as though it had seen something terrifying.
Something had torn countless holes in its neck, leaving blood all over the ground. It was extremely brutal.
A little girl knelt beside the ox, crying nonstop. I recognized her at once: she was the girl who'd been looking for her ox yesterday evening.
An old man stood beside her, tugging at her, but instead of getting up, she only cried harder.
"Waaah... Old Yellow's dead! Without him to plow the fields, I won't have money for a schoolbag!"
The little girl was crying so pitifully that I took two hundred yuan from my pocket and offered it to her.
"Don't cry, little girl. Take this money. Think of it as a schoolbag from your big brother!"
Her big eyes red from crying, the girl looked up at me and timidly accepted the money.
The old man tried to stop her, saying over and over:
"We can't take your money. That won't do, that won't do..."
"It's all right." I patted the girl's head, then turned and left the crowd.
I'd only gone a few steps before the old man caught up with me.
"Young man, you don't look like you're from this village. Are you here to visit someone?"
I nodded. "Sir, I'm here for a little sightseeing."
Hearing that, the old man leaned closer and spoke quietly.
"Young man, what's there to see around here? Listen to me and leave as soon as you can!"
I nodded.
"All right, sir. Thanks for the warning!"
Only after I agreed did the old man turn back to find the little girl.
If an old man had said that to me a month ago, I'd have pissed myself in fright and fled back to the city.
But now I'd survived the dangers of the night of the fifteenth and witnessed the bronze bell killing people. I could count myself as a man who'd licked blood off a blade, and I'd built up some mental defenses.
I bought two dishes at the restaurant, along with a few bottles of baijiu, then returned to the village chief's house.
To my surprise, the two old men were sitting cross-legged on the kang, chatting away warmly.
When he saw me return, the village chief set down a little table, laid out the food and liquor, and said with a smile:
"Come on, Brother Liu. You've traveled such a long way. Have something while it's hot!"
My face darkened. In just this little while, these two old men had already started calling each other brothers.
During the meal, Liu Qingzhu didn't even glance at me, busy chatting with the village chief. With no presence at all beside them, I forced my way into the conversation.
"Chief, if you weren't the one knocking on the door all last night, who was it?"
The village chief had been smiling, but his face instantly darkened at the mention of this.
"It wasn't anyone. It wasn't a person knocking!"
That caught my interest.
"If it wasn't a person, then what was knocking?"
The village chief raised his cup and drank. As soon as he put it down, he sighed.
"Our village has a rule. Once it gets dark, every household has to lock its doors. Any living creature left outside unattended is guaranteed to be dead the next day!"
Astonished, I asked:
"What exactly is it? A tiger from the mountains or something?"
The village chief waved a hand.
"Don't ask what it is. Yesterday was my fault. I got drunk and passed out before I could tell you about it!"
I was about to ask more, but Liu Qingzhu gave me a look from across the table.
I thought to myself, You old man, I'm not on your side. What the hell are you signaling me for?
It was already afternoon after the meal. I went out for a stroll, my breath reeking of liquor, only for Liu Qingzhu to come after me with his walking stick.
I shot him an unfriendly look and kept walking.
"Don't you want to know what knocked on the door last night?"
Liu Qingzhu followed close behind and said this quietly.
Without looking back, I replied coldly:
"An animal, obviously. Tiger Waist Mountain is right by these mountains. There are plenty of wild beasts. It's perfectly normal!"
"It wasn't an animal. It was a person knocking!"
I chuckled, turned back, and stared into Liu Qingzhu's emerald-like eye.
"Sir, the village chief already said it wasn't a person. Why are you arguing? Then tell me, who knocked?"
"A dead person!"
Liu Qingzhu answered without the slightest hesitation, sending a shudder through me.
"Aren't you looking for the tiger-patterned copper coin? Stay another night, and I'll take you somewhere."
I'd planned to leave today, but Liu Qingzhu's words made me freeze.
"How did you know I was looking for the coin?"
Liu Qingzhu didn't answer me directly, only saying mildly:
"There's a lot you want to ask me. Come with me tonight first, and I'll tell you the truth, one thing at a time!"
That was exactly what I'd been waiting to hear!!!
All this time, I'd been mysteriously pushed around by one person after another. What I wanted most, deep down, was the truth!
"You know what I want to ask you?"
Liu Qingzhu's emerald-like eye slowly contracted.
"Old Tang, Old Wu, Liu Yunbo, Sixth Uncle, and the secrets of all of us."
Liu Qingzhu's words truly stunned me. These were the questions buried deepest in my heart, yet he'd laid them bare in a single sentence.
I gritted my teeth and nodded.
"All right. I'll go with you tonight. You'd better keep your word!"
Liu Qingzhu smiled and said nothing more.
The wind picked up. His skeletal body swayed in it, looking as though a strong gust could blow him apart.
That night, Liu Qingzhu and I stayed in the west room. The village chief had drunk a little with dinner and was once again passed out cold.
At ten that night, seeing that it was completely dark, Liu Qingzhu beckoned me to follow him for a walk through the village.
Deep down, I was reluctant. After all, I'd seen that gruesomely slaughtered ox with my own eyes.
But Liu Qingzhu hadn't seen it. Could I count on him?
Still, Liu Qingzhu claimed to know all the secrets, and that was simply too tempting.
I followed his stick-thin figure out of the house, trembling inside without the slightest sense of security.
The countryside night was eerily quiet. There wasn't even the sound of frogs or insects in the fields.
Fortunately, the bright moonlight just barely let us make out people's faces. We followed a village path and came to a house with its light still on.
Liu Qingzhu said quietly:
"This is the place. Let's wait!"
We crouched behind a pile of firewood, watching the house with the light on.
We stayed motionless, staring until midnight. I finally ran out of patience and was just about to speak.
Then came a creak! The door opened, and a young man of around twenty came out.
After emerging, he swayed his way out of the yard.
Liu Qingzhu gave me a look, and we carefully followed, keeping twenty meters behind him.
The man walked extremely slowly. About another twenty minutes passed before he reached a dilapidated house in the fields at the western end of the village.
The young man entered the house, and everything went quiet. As I yawned, a terrifying scream suddenly came from the rundown little house.
I shuddered in fright and fixed my eyes on the dilapidated house.
Just as I was concentrating entirely on the house, Liu Qingzhu nudged me and pointed to its other side.
Someone approached the rundown house from the west. Judging by the silhouette, the person wasn't tall and was dragging something long along the ground. The thing didn't seem to stay still, thrashing from time to time.
I hardly dared breathe. What did the thing that person was dragging look like?
A person!!
I stole a glance at Liu Qingzhu, but his expression hadn't changed at all.
A few minutes later, another piercing scream came from the rundown house.
Hearing that wretched sound in the otherwise silent night, I clenched my fists, sweat pouring from my forehead.
The screaming stopped after just a few seconds. The old door opened, and the two people walked out one after the other.
Watching their backs in the moonlight, I suddenly recognized them.
"Aren't those the young man driving the ox and the woman I saw when I first got to the village?"
They left the house, went around behind it, and disappeared from view.
Liu Qingzhu looked back at me and said:
"Stay here for now. I need to go inside and have a look!"
Before I could even say no, he got up and left.
I'd never seen anything like this. My heart pounded as though it were about to leap out of my chest.
Liu Qingzhu had been inside for three to five minutes without coming out. I was so tense that my fingernails were almost digging into my flesh.
Suddenly, I felt as though something behind me was getting closer and closer.
I whipped my head around.
There was no mistaking it. It was the dull-witted young oxherd I'd met that day. His mouth stretched into a huge grin, his broad face less than five centimeters from mine.
Every hair on my body stood on end in terror.
Just as I was about to bolt for my life, I couldn't help swearing loudly.
"Fuck, my legs are numb!"