Chapter 2

Chapter 2

As we were talking, the workers beside us started shouting again.

Liang San’s assistant was directing them to load the truck, but the workers had gathered around one jar of wine, pointing and murmuring.

It was the jar Wei Liang had cleaned.

Liang San walked over to take a look and saw that a band of lacquer painting circled the body of the wine jar. It depicted a banquet scene so vivid it almost seemed alive.

In the painting, some of the guests were raising cups and toasting one another, while others drank as they watched dancing girls perform.

It should have been a lively, joyful scene. What made it eerie was this-

None of the people in the lacquer painting, whether guests or dancers, had any facial features!

“There’s no need to worry,” Wei Liang said, stepping forward to reassure everyone. “This lacquer painting is very old. The facial features are the easiest parts to be corroded away. It may look strange, but it’s actually normal.”

The workers who had stayed were already the braver ones, and Liang San had offered them double pay. After hearing Wei Liang’s explanation, they stopped hesitating, rolled up their sleeves, and got back to work.

There had been a total of twenty-four jars of wine hidden in that cellar. The one someone had died in had already been taken away by the police, leaving twenty-three jars.

The number wasn’t large, but the jars were tall and heavy, and moving them was still exhausting work.

Most of the workers were outsiders. No one from the nearby villages was willing to come.

By the time all twenty-three jars had been loaded, night had fallen completely.

The workers had no way to leave, so everyone could only make do in the deserted village for one more night.

Wei Liang was quite good at handling people. He had prepared plenty of food and wine in advance.

At first, no one was very willing to touch the wine.

But as the moon climbed high, the deserted village grew colder and colder. Add to that the aroma of wine drifting over from the truck every now and then, and some of the workers who already loved drinking began to lose their restraint.

Wei Liang cheerfully opened bottles for everyone, advising them not to overthink things. What had happened before was nothing more than an unfortunate accident.

The wine he had brought looked like ordinary grain liquor, and the alcohol content wasn’t too high.

The workers drank without much caution, pouring down one bowl after another.

Liang San had been tense the entire time and hadn’t eaten much dinner.

After dark, people kept calling him. I could hear his tone growing more and more impatient, and when he finally came back, the veins at his temples were bulging.

“Is it that the child still needs more money?” I asked him in a low voice. “How much are you short? I still have some.”

Liang San sat down beside me and waved me off. “It’s not about money. It’s my mother.”

“She and my mother-in-law are acting like they planned it together. They keep calling me and my wife nonstop. They just don’t want Enci to have this operation.”

Hearing that, I didn’t know what to say for a moment.

No one could bear to give up on a child, but the elders were also thinking of their own children.

For the past thirteen years, Liang San and his wife had basically lived in hospitals.

Little Enci’s illness wasn’t something one surgery could cure completely. Even if the operation succeeded, the treatment afterward might still have no end in sight.

Even with Liang San’s substantial family savings, things had now become rather tight.