chapter 47
By the time Song Xiaotian and I ran back to the Village Chief’s house, dawn had already broken.
The Village Chief was an early riser. He opened the door and saw the two of us right away.
He was a bit surprised at first, and when he saw Song Xiaotian’s hand still bleeding, he was startled again.
“What happened to you two?”
“It’s nothing. We went out for a walk and accidentally cut our hand.”
We didn’t tell the truth.
The Village Chief was very kind and hurried inside to get us disinfectant and some medicine for the wound.
After treating Song Xiaotian’s injury, the Village Chief asked his wife to prepare breakfast for us.
After all, we were imposing on them, so we half insisted and gave them five hundred yuan.
“Village Chief, how did Li Liang’s Father die?”
After breakfast, we sat in the living room and chatted.
But when Li Liang’s Father was mentioned, the Village Chief’s expression became a bit awkward.
“Since you two are here to investigate, you should know what Li Yujiao did in the past. Those were things worse than animals-she and her man killed an entire family and even abducted a child who was only a few years old.”
“Tell me, is that something a human would do? After committing such heinous acts, Old Li must have been so angry that he died from it.”
Song Xiaotian and I exchanged a glance. It was obvious the Village Chief wasn’t telling the truth.
“Then why did we hear that Old Li hanged himself?”
The Village Chief laughed awkwardly and rubbed his hands.
“He did hang himself.”
“After all, his daughter did such terrible things. People in the village couldn’t help but gossip, and we’re all good people-we couldn’t stand what his daughter did, so sometimes we’d say a few words to Old Li. Who knew he was so fragile and ended up hanging himself…”
Song Xiaotian and I didn’t say anything else. We didn’t know what to say.
Isn’t this just real-life cyberbullying?
First you criticize someone to death, then you turn around and say it had nothing to do with you.
Human nature-sometimes you really don’t know what to say.
“Village Chief, we need to visit Old Li’s house. Could you help persuade the Old Woman later?”
“Sure, no problem. Leave it to me.”
We followed the Village Chief, left his house, and prepared to go to Li Liang’s home again.
Halfway there, we heard the sound of drums and gongs, and firecrackers going off.
Suddenly, I remembered that when we went to Li Liang’s house last night, there was a family nearby holding a funeral.
Looks like today is the burial.
“How unlucky, running into a funeral procession…”
The Village Chief led us to stand far away, planning to wait until the funeral procession passed before continuing.
The elders always say you should keep your distance from funerals; don’t cross paths with them, or you’ll have bad luck and the whole year will be filled with misfortune.
“Village Chief, you’ve built a lot of houses in your village, but why are there so few people?”
Standing by the edge of the field, we chatted with the Village Chief again.
The Village Chief said, “Our village is really strange. I don’t know if it’s a feng shui problem, but a lot of people have died over the years.”
Hearing this, Song Xiaotian and I immediately thought of all the graves we’d seen in the village, and the mounds at the Mass Grave.
Song Xiaotian asked, “How did they die?”
Village Chief: “All died of illness. No one knows what kind, and our villagers are poor-they can’t afford to go to the city hospital. Anyway, when they get sick, they suffer for a few days and then they’re gone.”
I thought this was strange. Two or three people getting sick is normal, seven or eight is still normal, but the graves Song Xiaotian and I saw must have been at least several dozen, not counting the mounds at the Mass Grave.
Did all those people really die of illness?
“Why aren’t there any children in your village…” I asked again.
The Village Chief sighed, “That’s why I say the feng shui in our village is bad. We used to have a lot of people here, and plenty of young folks. But then, for some reason, the young people just stopped having children. The birth rate has dropped year after year.
“What’s even stranger is, they don’t get pregnant while they’re in the village, but as soon as they go out to work, hey, they get pregnant!”
“After that, people started saying our village’s feng shui was bad. The young people didn’t want to stay anymore, so they left one after another. Some haven’t come back for years, so many houses here have been abandoned.”
Song Xiaotian and I exchanged glances, feeling more and more uneasy as we listened.
What kind of feng shui could actually cause infertility?
At that moment, the funeral procession was heading our way. The Village Chief seemed very wary and immediately turned his back.
But Song Xiaotian and I didn’t move. In fact, even in broad daylight, we both felt a chill.
At the front of the funeral procession, the deceased’s descendants were carrying a portrait of the deceased. And the person in that portrait… Song Xiaotian and I both recognized him.
It was the Old Man-we had helped him when we first arrived in the village last night.
“Damn…”
Song Xiaotian sucked in a cold breath.
We didn’t dare look any longer and quickly turned away, squatting down and trembling.
Last night, that Old Man-now I understood why he couldn’t get up after being pressed by a weightless wooden board. It wasn’t the door board itself pressing him, it was the door god pasted on the board that was holding him down.
He said he was moving early this morning. Turns out, it wasn’t the kind of moving we thought-it was moving from the world of the living to the world of the dead…
We waited until the funeral procession had gone far before we dared to turn around.
Seeing how frightened we were, the Village Chief quickly tried to reassure us, “Don’t be afraid, there’s nothing to fear from the funeral procession. Just keep your distance and nothing will happen.”
We hurriedly got up and urged the Village Chief to take us to Li Liang’s house as soon as possible.
This village was just too strange. Song Xiaotian and I didn’t want to stay a moment longer.
Led by the Village Chief, we arrived at Li Liang’s house again.
Li Liang and the Old Woman were sitting outside in the sun. When they saw us, it was as if they’d seen their enemies.
But when they saw the Village Chief with us, their expressions suddenly turned fearful.
“Liangzi’s mother, you’ve got some nerve.”
The Village Chief stood with his hands behind his back, not afraid of the mother and son at all, as if scolding servants. “Yesterday, you dared to order your son to attack the police officers. You’re really something, just like your daughter.”
“Believe it or not, I could have the police arrest you and parade you through the streets!”
The Old Woman was so frightened she didn’t dare speak, lowering her head and looking pitiful.
I thought to myself, I never asked the Village Chief to say any of this. Before we came, we told him not to make things difficult for the mother and son, and now he’s even threatening to parade them through the streets.
I couldn’t listen anymore and pulled him aside, letting Song Xiaotian take him away for a smoke.
I took out a thousand yuan in cash and forced it into the Old Woman’s hand.
She glared at me with resentment, but with the Village Chief present, she didn’t dare lash out.
“Alright, Old Woman, we’re just here to ask a few questions. There’s no need for you to be so hostile toward us.”
I spoke to her quietly, “Your Old Man wasn’t killed by us. You should know better than we do how he died. Take the money and get something good to eat with your son.”
“Just answer whatever I ask. When we’re done, we’ll leave.”
“You don’t want us to tell everyone about you ordering your son to poison the whole village, do you?”