Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In such heavy rain, why is this kid still playing under the tree all by himself?

I walked toward the little boy and pulled a piece of chocolate out of my bag to tease him.

“Oh, really? Where did you see it?”

The little boy took the chocolate, squeezed it in his hand, and wiped his nose.

“My Fifth Grandpa caught it fishing!”

“Pfft-and I’ve seen Ultraman!”

I pretended to snatch the chocolate back. The little boy immediately grew anxious, jumping up to kick me in the shin.

“Give it back! You bad woman, I’m going to tie you up on the mountain to bait a Wild Man!”

“Wang Yangyang! What kind of nonsense are you talking!”

A stout middle-aged woman suddenly rushed over from not far away. Her face paled as she grabbed the little boy and gave him several successive slaps on the buttocks, making him howl like a ghost.

After Jiang Haoyan and I offered a few words of mediation, the boy’s mother’s expression softened. She asked what we were doing in the village. Upon hearing that we were here to buy medicinal herbs, her eyes flickered, and she enthusiastically took my arm.

“Well, isn’t that a coincidence? My family has that Paris polyphylla you mentioned for sale. Come on, let’s head to my house and take a look.”

Sister Wang’s house was at the very end of the village, closest to the back mountain.

It was currently the end of May, and the temperature in the mountains was much lower than outside. Jiang Haoyan and I were wearing professional waterproof hiking gear with long sleeves underneath. Yet this little boy and Sister Wang were only wearing short sleeves.

Wang Yangyang was even barefoot, running happily around us.

The village was full of old red-brick houses with high courtyard walls. Occasionally, we encountered a few other children along the way; like Wang Yangyang, they were all running wildly through the rain barefoot.

“All the kids in our village are like this. They’ve been used to it since they were little. They’re hardy and in great health!”

“Brother Lin, we have guests here to buy herbs-”

Sister Wang opened the courtyard gate and enthusiastically busied herself with pouring tea and bringing us water.

Sister Wang’s house was built differently from the others. The first floor was about two meters high and hollow, somewhat like the stilt houses in Yunnan. Many medicinal herbs were hanging densely from the ceiling, and a man was looking up, rummaging through them.

Hearing our purpose, he pulled a stalk of dried grass from the pile and pointed to the leaves for us to see.

“This is Paris polyphylla. I know where it grows; I can take you there.”

“It’s just that the place is far. You have to cross several mountain peaks to get there. It takes a lot of effort to make the trip-”

The man and Sister Wang exchanged a glance. He gave a low cough and held up one finger.

“Ten thousand yuan, and I’ll take you there.”

“Ten thousand? That’s so-”

“That’s so cheap! It’s a deal!”

Before I could even haggle, Jiang Haoyan had already sealed the deal. Of the four people present, everyone except him immediately looked frustrated.

I was annoyed that he overpaid, while the Wang couple regretted setting the price too low.

Damn, it was infuriating. This rich second-generation brat was disrupting market prices. Even if I had offered five thousand, there would have been plenty of people in the village willing to take me.

Jiang Haoyan had brought cash with him. After receiving the money, Sister Wang prepared a meal for us with a beaming smile and arranged our rooms. The weather forecast showed it would rain for two consecutive days. Once my other friend, Hua Yuling, arrived tomorrow, we could set off as soon as the rain stopped.

Our rooms were on the third floor. There was a bathroom at the end of the hallway. I took my change of clothes and went to take a shower.

The bathroom was decorated in an old-fashioned style with small white tiles and a grimy curtain separating the shower area. I flipped the light switch; the bulb overhead flickered once and then died.

It wasn’t dark yet, but visibility was very low on a rainy day in the mountains. The bathroom was dim and gray, but I could just barely see, so I didn’t mind the broken light.

I put my clothes on a nearby chair and walked over to pull back the shower curtain.

The moment I pulled the curtain, my scalp went numb and my heart stopped.

“Holy crap! Who are you?!”

A young girl was standing in the shower.

She looked about my age, wearing a bright red dress with long hair draped over her shoulders. Her face was covered in multicolored paint. Her lips were painted pitch black and her eyeshadow was green, looking both eerie and terrifying.