Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The men burst into laughter, insisting it was all made up.

I gazed up at the stone stele, my expression softening. “Back then, a great river ran through here, and its waters were crystal clear. The Tang Monk and his disciples traveled by this waterway when they came to the Western Liang Kingdom. Before they left, they even erected this stele to warn future generations…”

“Warn them that there was a paradise of beautiful women ahead?” Old Man Zhao roared with laughter.

“If I were the Tang Monk or one of his disciples, I’d plant myself there and refuse to leave. All those beauties would be mine! But if the Kingdom of Women really existed, and this place was both prosperous and full of beautiful women, why were the Tang Monk and his disciples the only men ever mentioned? All the other men who came here never returned. So where did they go?”

Exactly.

I smiled without answering.

Of all the eighty-one trials in Journey to the West, why was our Kingdom of Women the only place without a demon?

The stele was naturally meant to warn people that something far more terrifying than demons lived here.

All of a sudden, the car slammed to a stop. Zhao Peng, who was driving, cried out in alarm, “Look! There are human bones over there!”

The headlights pierced the darkness ahead, faintly revealing numerous ghastly white bones protruding from beneath the yellow sand.

The men immediately grew nervous and flatly refused to drive any farther.

I laughed, climbed out, and kicked the sand aside. “You city people are so easily frightened. Those are obviously sheep bones.”

Zhao Peng breathed a sigh of relief, but Zhao Qing was naturally suspicious. He pointed out that they hadn’t seen a single shepherd or flock of sheep anywhere along the way.

A very good point.

I smiled faintly, hiding the chill in my eyes. “Someone must have eaten them, of course.”

Dusk gradually settled over the land. Once the car passed Yingyang Post, the navigation system stopped working entirely. The wind also turned cold and sinister, chilling everyone to the bone as the car entered a tunnel through the mountain.

Zhao Qing, who had been feverish and delirious ever since we saw the stele, suddenly woke with a start.

The Red-string Guanyin pendant hanging against his chest had inexplicably grown scorching hot.

“Something’s wrong! There’s danger ahead! No one is allowed to go any farther!”

Damn that Guanyin. She was interfering with my plans again.

My expression darkened.

Zhao Qing’s face was deathly pale. “In my dream, Guanyin was sitting atop the stele. She formed the Demon-subduing Mudra with her fingers. That means there are demons inside! We can’t keep going!”

“Demon-subduing? You’ve watched too many female livestreamers doing hand dances. Zhao Qing, I don’t care if you pretend to be a Taoist priest online to scam gullible young women, but don’t bring that supernatural nonsense home and use it to scare us!”

“I… I also cast a hexagram before we left,” Zhao Qing said through gritted teeth.

“It foretold death – for every last one of us!”

As if on cue, thunder split the sky, making everyone in the car jump.

I reached over with a show of concern and felt Zhao Qing’s forehead. “Second Brother is running a fever. That’s why the pendant feels so hot to him. Zhao Peng, why don’t we turn around and go back?”

He really was burning up. Zhao Peng immediately recoiled in disgust. “Get in the back. Don’t infect me.”

Zhao Qing tried to say something else, but one fierce glare from his elder brother silenced him.

Of course Zhao Peng would never agree to turn back.

I concealed the cold glint in my eyes.

Earlier, when we had stopped to rest, I had faintly overheard him contacting a buyer.

“Song Qian said the girls in her hometown are real beauties. I’ll inspect the goods first. If they’re good enough, I’ll send them over to your club. We’ll split the profits seventy-thirty. Don’t worry, they’re just a bunch of country girls. They’ll be easy to control.”

“Ha! The more you deceive a woman, the more obedient she becomes. Words to live by.”

After the car emerged from the tunnel, the sky cleared. The dying sunlight painted the horizon a brilliant crimson, and an ancient village nestled among the mountains gradually came into view. Every child along the road clapped and snickered when they saw the men.

“…The breeding stock is here!”

Knowing how difficult my journey had been, my mother had come out early to wait for us.

She looked barely over thirty. Her skin was as fair as jade, and her embroidered cheongsam accentuated her voluptuous figure. The men stared at her, utterly transfixed.

Zhao Peng was the worst of them. His eyes practically glued themselves to my mother’s body.

“Qianqian, are these my co-in-law and my dear son-in-law?”

She looked so delighted that I had to shoot her a warning glance, reminding her to restrain herself.

Even then, she couldn’t stop her heated gaze from roaming over all four men, lingering especially on their abdomens and buttocks.

Suddenly, Zhao Qing, who had remained silent until then, stepped forward and asked, “Auntie Song, do you have any sisters?”

“What makes you ask that?” My mother’s smile never wavered, and her reply revealed nothing.

Zhao Qing held up his phone. On the screen was an old photo that had received a considerable number of likes.

The post was titled “Searching for My First Love from Forty Years Ago.”

“A user posted this old photo from his grandfather’s private collection. Look at it. Doesn’t this woman look exactly like you?”

The black-and-white photograph had been taken without the woman’s knowledge. In it, a stunningly beautiful woman wore a Mao suit.

My heart skipped a beat.

It really was my mother.

Zhao Qing’s dark, brooding eyes bored into us as he pressed aggressively, “Can two people really look that much alike? And how can you still look so young, Auntie Song? Could it be that you’re… immortal and eternally young?”