Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I brought them back to the village and played the recording from earlier over the loudspeakers for everyone to hear.

Then I cleared my throat into the microphone. “Parents of the students whose names I just called, please come pick up your children as soon as possible. Miss your chance, and I won’t wait.”

I wanted to see exactly where the Curse of the Evil Children had begun…

It didn’t take long before the children’s parents arrived one after another.

Most of them were mothers.

Their attitudes were decent enough. They kept apologizing to me, looking as if they were one step away from dropping to their knees and kowtowing.

Then I saw Li He walk outside and slap his mother across the face.

He snarled, “What took you so long? Are you trying to die?”

After hitting her, he turned and stuck his tongue out at me through the window.

It was a provocation. A show of force.

I was just about to go out when I saw someone standing in the doorway.

“Teacher Yun, I’m Zhang Xiaolong’s guardian. I’m here to take him home.”

He was a plain-looking man in green work clothes, the fabric covered in a layer of dust.

I thought Zhang Xiaolong would treat his father the same way Li He treated his mother, with nothing but contempt. To my surprise, Zhang Xiaolong obediently walked over.

He stood beside the man in silence, extraordinarily well-behaved.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“Teacher Yun, I’ll discipline him properly when we get home!” The man gave me an almost ingratiating smile. “May I take him back now?”

The man kicked Zhang Xiaolong straight into the ridge between the fields, yanked the belt from his waist, and started whipping him with it.

“You little bastard! All you know how to do is make trouble for me every damn day!” He spat on the ground and struck harder. “You couldn’t even handle some pampered city girl. What the hell can I expect from you?”

“Useless, embarrassing little thing! If you’re going to go after someone, then go all the way!”

“Hesitating like a coward. You’ll never amount to anything!”

…

I stood beneath a locust tree not far away, watching the little performance unfold, and suddenly I understood.

So Zhang Xiaolong’s father was the true monster.

No wonder Zhang Xiaolong didn’t dare make a sound in front of him.

Zhang Xiaolong shielded his head, his entire body curled into a ball.

“Dad, she’s not human. She’s a ghost… She’s come back for revenge!”

His words came out in broken gasps.

The man cursed, “Gods, ghosts, whatever. I think you just need another beating!”

Zhang Xiaolong dodged his punches and kicks, staggering as he climbed up from the ground.

“Yun Ruyi! She’s Song Lanzhi’s ghost! Song Lanzhi came back for revenge!”

The man went rigid. He glared at him.

“What did you say?”

Song Lanzhi was the female student who had come to Shanglian Village as a volunteer teacher all those years ago, only to disappear.

I suddenly realized I had gotten one thing wrong.

Song Lanzhi hadn’t disappeared because of the Curse of the Evil Children.

On the contrary, it was only after Song Lanzhi vanished that this village was placed under the Curse of the Evil Children.

Song Lanzhi was the cause. The curse was the effect.

So what exactly had happened to her in Shanglian Village back then?