Ghosts Eating

When Zhou Yang returned to the front of the house, he happened to see Zhou Laogou and his two sons coming down the path.

The three carried farm tools over their shoulders, each silent, with no conversation between them.

Zhou Yang stood at the door and waited for them to come closer. Then he greeted Zhou Laogou. "Dad, it's me, Zhou Yang. Are you back from the fields?"

At first, Zhou Laogou had looked at Zhou Yang with a somewhat scrutinizing and confused expression, as though he couldn't quite remember who he was.

Once Zhou Yang gave his name, he seemed to come to his senses. The confusion faded from his face in an instant, and he squeezed out a smile and nodded. "Mm."

Then he carried his hoe through the gatehouse.

In the Zhou family, the master of the house, Zhou Laogou, actually seemed less intelligent and perceptive than Huang Shaozi.

Most of the time, he merely went along with her and had no ideas of his own.

Of course, that was only the impression Zhou Laogou's behavior had given Zhou Yang. What was really going on beneath the surface, and which ghost in this family was the most terrifying and held the highest position?

Those questions could hardly be answered by judging how intelligent and perceptive the ghosts appeared.

Baigou followed close behind Zhou Laogou. He gave Zhou Yang a silent look, then turned and went inside as well.

From his expression, Zhou Yang couldn't tell whether Huang Shaozi had mentioned what happened that morning and told him to pay more attention to looking after Zhou Yang.

Heigou had more to say. He gave Zhou Yang a teasing look and said, "Third Brother, you're eating at the big table with everyone tonight, right?"

"That's right." Zhou Yang nodded. "Aren't you eating with us, Second Brother?"

At the question, Zhou Heigou lowered his eyelids, his expression turning sinister. "Who here is 'us' with you?

"Third Brother?"

With that, Zhou Heigou walked away.

Zhou Yang stood where he was, watching Zhou Heigou's retreating figure as thoughts raced through his mind.

He had suspected earlier that Zhou Heigou might be a living person.

Even if he really was alive, he was still among the most dangerous to Zhou Yang-he might, like A Fu, possess some unknown means that allowed him to feel like a fish in water in Guan Village.

If so, why was Zhou Heigou so determined to stay in Guan Village?

Was it to obtain an Official Body in the Great Zhao dynasty?

Could living people also serve as officials in the Great Zhao dynasty?

So Zhou Heigou sees me as his rival, bears me ill will, and has repeatedly tried to lead the Zhou family's ghosts into exposing me as a living person?

Once my identity as a living person is discovered, I'll be dead for certain!

His intentions are vicious. I have to guard against him.

But a thief can strike any day; how can I guard against him every day? Merely watching out for him isn't enough. I have to think of a way to nip the danger in the bud. That would be best...

Zhou Yang's eyes flickered.

Even if he were to contend with Zhou Heigou, he absolutely could not confront him head-on.

For one thing, he knew nothing of Zhou Heigou's background or what means he possessed. He couldn't even be entirely sure whether he was a person or a ghost.

For another, Guan Village itself held too many unknowns, with dangers lurking everywhere.

No matter where in Guan Village he made a move against Zhou Heigou, he would be very likely to disturb the ghosts here.

If that happened, he would fail and bring even greater danger upon himself.

He could only carefully probe Zhou Heigou's background and wait for the right opportunity to nip the danger in the bud. If he could make the danger disappear without acting personally, that would be better still.

Heigou could use Zhou Yang's identity as a living person to lead the Zhou family's ghosts into harming him.

Zhou Yang could do the same.

But Heigou had been too crude about it. If Zhou Yang did it, he would need to plan carefully.

As Zhou Yang thought this over, he stepped through the gate.

He went first to the woodshed and greeted Huang Shaozi. "Mom, I'm back!"

Inside the woodshed, Huang Shaozi sat before a chopping board, her fat belly pressed against its edge. The rust-speckled cleaver in her hand chopped at the flesh, bones, and organs on the board, sending bloody scraps flying.

Hearing him, she turned toward the doorway. When she saw Yang'er standing there, her face immediately broke into a loving smile. "Oh, Yang'er, you're back?"

Her red lips drew back to reveal a mouthful of yellow teeth streaked with blood, greeting Yang'er as well.

Zhou Yang reached behind his head and rubbed the goosebumps on the back of his neck. Rather than leave the woodshed, he stepped over the threshold and went up to Huang Shaozi. "Is there any work I can do?

"Mom, let me carry the dishes and bowls for you!"

None of the Zhou family was gathered around Huang Shaozi to curry favor with her just then, so Zhou Yang could take advantage of the opening.

He had made up his mind to curry favor with Huang Shaozi more often from now on. Whether he needed her or whether it did any good, he would do it first and try his luck.

"What a good boy you are!"

The blade-like gleam in Huang Shaozi's eyes nearly turned into two streams of water and flowed from her eye sockets.

The fat on her face quivered as she smiled. She casually pointed to several pottery bowls on the small table beside her and instructed him, "Take these dishes to the big table, then scoop out the rice from the wood-fired pot."

"Okay, I'll do it right away!"

Zhou Yang readily agreed. He picked up two pottery bowls from the grease-stained little table and headed for the main room.

The big table where the Zhou family ate together was in the main room.

He carried the bowls to the table. Seeing this, Zhou Heigou caught on too, pushing past him into the woodshed. He also got some work from Huang Shaozi and set about it eagerly.

Before long, the Zhou family's dinner was ready.

Everyone gathered at the long table in the main room.

Zhou Yang sat at the end of the table, with Zhou Heigou on his left and Zhou Baigou on his right.

A bowl of rice sat before him. Though Zhou Yang had scooped the white rice from the wood-fired pot himself, it gave off no heat at all. Earlier, he had picked a grain from the edge of the bowl and eaten it. It had even been undercooked.

Pottery bowls and earthenware basins were arranged on the long table.

The pottery bowls held bloody scraps of meat and clots of blood, while the basins contained yellowish-white fat.

The people of Guan Village mostly ate this undercooked rice and parts of pigs, cattle, and sheep, along with a bowl of fat. There was rarely any variety.

The undercooked rice and the pigs, cattle, and sheep were almost always among the offerings laid on an altar to the dead.

Every day in Guan Village, Zhou Yang ate food no different from offerings to the dead.

"Eat."

Seeing that everyone was sitting straight and proper at the table, Zhou Laogou nodded. He stuck his chopsticks into the bowl of undercooked rice before him and fed it into his pitch-black mouth one chopstickful at a time.

Zhou Yang could barely see him make any movement to chew or swallow.

Once the food was pushed into his mouth with his chopsticks, it seemed to slide down his throat and into his belly without any obstruction.

The bowl on the table never moved from the time Zhou Laogou started eating until he finished. He never picked it up or shifted it even a little.

Everyone in the Zhou family ate in exactly the same way as Zhou Laogou.

Watching them all bow their heads and shovel in rice in unison, Zhou Yang felt an icy chill rise again and again from the back of his neck. He had intended to pick up his bowl to eat, but now he copied the ghosts, lowering his head and shoveling rice into his mouth with his chopsticks, not daring to move the porcelain bowl even a fraction.

He remembered that when he was little, he too had put his bowl on the table and stretched his neck out to eat, never willing to pick it up. The elders in his family had scolded him for it, saying that only dead people ate the way he did.

Now Zhou Yang was really watching a group of ghosts eat.

It was exactly as the elders in his family had described!