Chapter 7

Chapter 7

My hometown wasn’t far from the city where I lived. It only took a morning’s drive to get there.

Over the years, the village had grown much better off than before. The roads were smooth and wide now, and every household had built a new house.

As I neared my destination, the sky darkened around me. A huge mass of black clouds hung overhead.

I had just gotten off the expressway when I saw a three-wheeled cart up ahead, loaded with funeral wreaths and paper offerings, heading toward the entrance of our village.

“Is someone in the village holding a funeral?”

I hadn’t heard a thing about it, and Uncle Ye hadn’t mentioned it on the phone either.

As soon as I reached the village entrance, I saw the same three-wheeler dump its whole load there in a messy pile. The driver didn’t even look for anyone to receive it. He turned around and fled.

I rolled down the window, intending to call out and ask whose family it was for, but the driver didn’t even turn his head.

By then, the sky had grown even darker.

With no other choice, I drove into the village, planning to stop by Uncle Ye’s house first. But before I had gone far, the more I sensed something was wrong.

The village was too quiet.

Most of the young people had gone to the city for work these days, sure, but our village wasn’t small. There were over a hundred households. No matter what, it shouldn’t have been so silent that I couldn’t even hear a dog bark.

On top of that, nearly every house I passed had its front gate shut tight.

It was noon, yet there wasn’t even the faintest sign of life in the village.

I frowned, and my car slowed down.

That was when I finally spotted someone by the roadside.

His back was to the road, and he was squatting in the grass. Right in front of him was the village drainage ditch.

At first, I couldn’t tell who it was. Only when I got closer did I vaguely recognize him. It seemed to be Ma San’er, the village loafer.

He was about my age. We had more or less grown up together in the village, though we were never particularly close.

I called out to him through the car window, but the person in the grass seemed not to hear me. He just kept squatting by the ditch with his head buried, completely motionless.

I figured he might have had too much to drink.

By the time I reached Uncle Ye’s front gate, faint thunder was already rumbling in the distance.

My car hadn’t even come to a full stop when someone suddenly smashed through Uncle Ye’s front gate, screaming and shouting, and rushed right in front of my car.

Fortunately, my foot was already on the brake. The headlights swept across the man’s face, and I managed to stop just in time.

Uncle Ye came rushing out as well, leading two villagers with him. Together, they pinned the man down.

I quickly turned off the engine and got out of the car. The man looked half-crazed, but the moment he saw me, he started crying and wailing. “Brother Long, save me! Brother Long, please save me!”

I fixed my eyes on him and realized, to my shock, that it was Tang Dong’s cousin, Jiang Kai.

“Brother Long, Brother Long-”

By then, the others could no longer hold Jiang Kai down.

As if fighting for his life, he lunged at me and wrapped both arms around my leg. “Brother Long, please save me. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.”

Confused, I looked up. Uncle Ye’s face had gone completely bloodless.

“What on earth happened, Uncle Ye? How did Jiang Kai end up like this?”

Uncle Ye let out a long breath and waved a hand at me. “Come inside first, Changdong. I’ll explain it to you slowly.”