Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Second Uncle was not easily frightened!

When he was young, he raised cattle and sheep for the commune. Back then, they even issued him a hunting rifle to keep wolves from stealing the livestock. He had shot several dead.

Why would he be afraid of a weasel?

He showed no fear of the beast and stepped forward to finish it with another slash.

Clutching its tail, the weasel darted behind a distant tree. It poked out its head, bared its teeth at Second Uncle, and glared with naked hatred.

“Damn! You bit me first, and now you’re angry? Hah, you filthy beast, you’re lucky you can run. Otherwise I’d be taking a fine pelt home today.”

Second Uncle was furious, but the weasel had fled too far. He knew there was nothing he could do and that he would never catch it.

He cursed a few more times and threw a stone, scaring it deeper into the grass. Then he shouldered the fodder he had cut and went home down the mountain.

Ordinarily, that would have been a trivial incident.

There were an enormous number of wild animals in the mountains in those days.

Not only weasels, but wolves, wild boars, and foxes were common sights while people worked.

During the summer after fifth grade, I was farming on the mountain with my father when a wild boar rooted through the villagers’ sweet potato fields. We quickly summoned everyone, and they came running with hoes and other tools.

The entire village ate wild boar for two or three days afterward! I nearly made myself sick on it.

But none of us realized that Second Uncle’s encounter with the weasel was not so simple…

My parents arrived after dark.

Second Aunt filled the table with country dishes: pork steamed in rice flour, Sichuan-style steamed pork belly, crispy pork, bacon stir-fried with garlic shoots, spicy sausage, and more.

It was a feast!

My favorite was the steamed pork belly, also known as upside-down pork. A whole slab of pork belly was seared skin-side down, boiled, and sliced into broad pieces. After being colored with soy sauce, it was layered over preserved mustard greens and steamed over high heat until meltingly tender.

It dissolved on the tongue, savory and slightly sweet, with a rich flavor that lingered.

How could we afford to eat so well?

It was already 1999. Second Uncle farmed half the year and worked construction in the city for the other half. He had learned a useful trade, so his income was considered good by village standards. He often treated us to excellent food.

The entire family laughed and chatted through dinner. Nobody thought much of Second Uncle’s encounter with the weasel.

We stayed overnight at his house.

Sometime after midnight, I woke in a daze.

I needed to use the toilet.

Suddenly, I heard a series of strange noises outside the house!

I quickly got up and threw on some clothes. The door of the main room stood ajar. Someone had clearly gone out!

“Huh? Did someone get up to relieve themselves?”

In our country homes, we kept a chamber pot in a corner for urinating at night. Only someone who needed to defecate would go outside to the pit latrine in a remote corner of the yard.

I approached the door and peered through the crack by moonlight.

What I saw made my heart skip several beats!

Beneath the cold moon, Second Uncle crouched beside the chicken coop on the western side of the yard!

What was he doing?

Eating a chicken!

I will never forget that sight.

Chicken feathers covered Second Uncle’s head and face. He held a fat hen in his hands. Its neck hung limp to one side, clearly bitten clean through.

His mouth was smeared with blood and feathers, and he was still chewing. Crunch, crunch. In the silence of the mountain village, the sound made wave after wave of horror crawl through me!

Second Uncle was eating a live chicken raw!

For some reason, the chickens in the coop huddled together with their wings tucked tight, trembling with fear. Yet none of them dared cry out or move. It was as though some oppressive aura held them down.

If this happened today, it might make even a grown man faint, let alone a thirteen-year-old boy.

But strange things were more common in the countryside back then, especially in sparsely populated places. Besides, I had helped Aunt Qin deliver a drowned revenant. This was not enough to paralyze me with fear.

After the first shock passed, I calmed down. Something had probably taken possession of Second Uncle!

Over the years, Aunt Qin continued to cackle and behave like a madwoman in everyday life, but I had still learned a few things from spending time with her.

Most importantly, when something evil caused trouble, one had to be brave! Fear in one’s heart was absolutely forbidden.

Aunt Qin once told me that men and children possessed three spirit flames.

Those flames burned brightest in youths. As long as you were brave and fierce enough, ordinary evil entities could do nothing to you.

I thought it over. Going back to wake my parents would waste time, so I decided to assess the situation first. If there was danger, I could shout. We were only in the yard, after all, and the house was close by!

More importantly, I would enter middle school after summer vacation. I was already nearly five-foot-three, not much shorter than my father.
And when it came to supernatural incidents, I might have had more experience than they did. I gathered my courage and approached.

Second Uncle, still crouching there devouring the raw chicken, whipped around and bared his teeth as I drew near.

Well, look at that!

By moonlight, I saw an eerie green glow in his eyes. Faint hair seemed to cover his face, and his fingernails were much longer and sharper than usual.

He truly looked unnatural.

My heart pounded, but I forced myself forward until I stood before him. I swung my arm and slapped him twice across the face.

At the same time, I shouted, “What kind of worthless thing are you, trying to scare people here? Get the hell out!”

Perhaps I had matured early and hit harder than expected. Or perhaps I simply looked fiercer than the evil entity itself.

Second Uncle froze.

The dead chicken in his hand continued dripping blood. A trace of astonishment appeared in those glowing green eyes–astonishment that surely belonged to the entity possessing him.

It probably had not expected me to confront it so boldly!

The next instant, Second Uncle toppled over with a thud and lost consciousness.

The moment he collapsed, every chicken in the coop began shrieking and flapping wildly, plainly terrified beyond measure.

The evil entity must have withdrawn, releasing the aura that had suppressed them.

“Dad, Mom, Second Aunt! Wake up and come outside! Hurry! Stop sleeping!”

I held my unconscious uncle and shouted at the top of my lungs for quite a while before the three of them finally emerged, rubbing their eyes in a daze.

My father kept yawning, looking unbearably sleepy.

Ordinarily, that would never happen.

He was famous in the village for being robust and energetic. Once awake, he became alert immediately.

His condition proved that the depth of their sleep that night was abnormal.

The entity behind Second Uncle’s spirit possession must have caused it! It had forced my father and the others into such a deep sleep that even moderately loud noises would not wake them.

Then why had I been unaffected?

There was no time to ponder that question. I struggled to lift Second Uncle from the ground, panting with exertion.

“Dad, wake up properly. Hurry and help me carry Second Uncle inside. He’s too heavy. I can’t do it alone.”

My father focused on the scene, and the shock instantly drove away his drowsiness.

He scooped water from a trough beside him and splashed his face. Once fully awake, he came over. Taking one side each, we supported Second Uncle and carried him inside.

Tears welled in Second Aunt’s eyes. She was frightened and worried, while my mother continually comforted her.

We laid Second Uncle on the bed, and my father tucked a quilt around him.

Then I suddenly heard a dog’s anguished yelp from the yard!

Only then did I remember that Second Uncle kept a watchdog.

It was a fierce local dog weighing more than thirty pounds, rather large for its kind. Normally it was formidable, yet it had not made a sound all night.

I turned back to the doorway of the main room and looked into the yard.

I searched everywhere but could not find the dog.

Finally, I looked up–and discovered the big yellow dog hanging from a tree in the corner of the yard!

A thick branch had pierced straight through its neck.

It was already dead, blood still dripping steadily from the body.

The scene was thoroughly sinister.

Clearly, the evil entity had done this!

No wonder the dog had not barked. It must have been impaled on the branch from the very beginning.

“Damn that evil bastard!”

I had always liked the big yellow dog and gave it leftovers whenever I visited. The miserable sight made me clench my fists and grind my teeth, but there was nothing I could do.

The dog was already dead.

After witnessing all these eerie sights, how could any of us dare sleep?

We tried repeatedly to wake Second Uncle but got no response. So we lit a kerosene lamp, and the four of us sat beside his bed watching him through the entire night!

The instant dawn broke, I sprang to my feet and raced outside.

“Dad, Mom, I’m going to find Aunt Qin at the edge of the village! She’ll know what to do.”

“Slow down, baby! Be careful!” my mother called anxiously behind me.

But the sun was already up. What was there to fear? I refused to believe any powerful evil entity could emerge in broad daylight and harm someone.

Even Wang Fei’s drowned revenant had been powerless to attack people after sunrise, according to Aunt Qin. All it could do was spread baleful energy and gradually undermine the village’s fortune.

Although I was fairly strong and could produce a burst of explosive force, my endurance had always been poor… Perhaps it was because of my light bazi and the life tribulations I had yet to survive.
Second Uncle’s house was less than two li from the far end of the village, yet by the time I reached it, stars danced before my eyes.

“Huff, huff… Damn it! Cursed heavens. Huff… Giving me all this trouble. A light bazi and three life tribulations. Just wait till I grow up, I’ll… huff.”

I cursed between breaths.

Truth be told, I had feared neither heaven nor earth from childhood. If heaven itself made me unhappy, I would curse it too!

At last, I reached Aunt Qin’s ruined house.

It was still early, so she had to be asleep inside.

Ordinarily, I would never disturb her. I would wait obediently until she emerged.

But with Second Uncle in that state, I did not dare wait. Nor did I dare barge inside. Standing in front of the ruined house, I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted.

“Aunt Qin! Help! Something evil got Second Uncle. I think some entity possessed him. Please come take a look. He’s been unconscious all night, and nothing will wake him.”

I was frantic.

I shouted for a long time. Several villagers passing on their way to work in the fields stopped curiously and tried to ask what had happened, but I had no time to explain.

My voice was nearly hoarse when Aunt Qin finally called from inside the ruined house, “Stop shouting. I heard you.”

She emerged from the dark room with her hair hanging loose, pushed through the weeds outside, and came to me. Ruffling my hair, she said, “Let’s go see your Second Uncle.”

My strength had not fully returned, and I could not run on the way back.

With a giggle, Aunt Qin lifted me in one hand, tucked me under her arm, and strode rapidly forward!

I had always known Aunt Qin was strong.

Years earlier, when I accompanied her to seal the drowned revenant in the Hundred-Bone Pagoda, her strength left a deep impression on me.

But I never imagined she was this strong!

I was thin rather than sturdy, but I had matured early and stood half a head taller than other children my age. I weighed around a hundred pounds.

Yet she lifted me one-handed and simply carried me under her arm!

She did not even breathe hard. It seemed effortless.

It was unbelievable.

Tucked beneath her arm, I twisted around and tried to glimpse her face from that angle. Unfortunately, masses of long, dirty hair still blocked my view. All I saw was a narrow chin.

I had known Aunt Qin for years, yet I still had no idea what she looked like!

We soon reached Second Uncle’s house.

He remained unconscious. By then, Second Aunt was so distraught that she had begun to cry.

Aunt Qin remained perfectly calm. She pulled open Second Uncle’s eyelids, pinched his head and face, then began muttering into the air.

The sounds were incomprehensible, yet carried a strange rhythm. Although I could not understand them, they were inexplicably pleasant to hear!

Fascinated, I secretly tried to memorize several syllables.

After chanting for some time, she formed a hand seal and traced several shapes three inches above Second Uncle’s head. Before long, he opened his eyes and woke.

“Big Brother, I…”

The moment Second Uncle tried to speak, he vomited. The mess splattered across the floor beside the bed.

Everyone’s expression changed!

Amid the sticky, half-digested mass, we could clearly distinguish organs such as a chicken’s heart and liver. There were chunks of partially digested meat too, some still clinging to feathers!

After sitting in Second Uncle’s stomach all night, they remained bloody, tinting the gastric fluid pale red.

Honestly, I was lucky I had not eaten breakfast.

If I had, the sight of that puddle would probably have made me add something of my own.

“Mix salt water with dried mugwort and make him drink several bowls.”

Aunt Qin’s cackling, madcap tone disappeared. Her voice became cool, clear, and pleasant.

My heart lifted.

This was the Aunt Qin I admired most.

“I’ll make it!”

Worried about his brother, my father turned and hurried away.

Mugwort was common in the countryside of Sichuan and Chongqing, and most homes kept some. People often hung it behind doors or on walls. Once dried, it could also repel mosquitoes and insects.

My father soon returned with salt water and dried mugwort. Second Uncle gulped down several bowls.

His complexion quickly improved.

Second Aunt supported him as he struggled upright on the bed. Looking gratefully at the Immortal Lady, she said, “Thank you for saving his life!”

“Immortal Lady, what happened to my brother?” my father asked worriedly.

Aunt Qin replied calmly, “He offended a weasel spirit. That’s what they call it in the northeast. In truth, it’s simply a weasel that cultivated into a spirit and came seeking revenge. Those creatures are extremely sinister.”