Chapter 14
Chapter 14
After Sister-in-law Zhang left, Wang San could no longer contain his excitement. He tossed Hua Jiunan high into the air and caught him again.
He did it again and again, laughing out loud. “Xiao Jiu, you’re amazing! I didn’t dote on you for nothing!”
“Tomorrow I’ll take you to catch frogs again!”
While Hua Jiunan was flying through the air, he suddenly spotted the Red-dressed Woman drifting outside the courtyard under the hazy moonlight.
She seemed to be afraid of something and didn’t dare come too close.
A pair of white, pupil-less eyes stared greedily at the baby inside the house.
Hua Jiunan called out loudly, “Sis, what are you doing? Why don’t you come in and play for a bit?”
Deaf Granny frowned. “Xiao Jiu, who are you talking to?!”
“That sister I saw before. She’s outside our gate.”
When Old Li and Deaf Granny rushed out the door, they saw nothing.
On the spotless white snow, there wasn’t even a single footprint.
By now, the two elders no longer suspected that Hua Jiunan had simply mistaken what he saw.
“Those filthy things are pretty damn wicked, coming to my shrine hall again and again.”
“She needs a lesson!”
Deaf Granny went straight to the side room, took out three sticks of incense, and lit them.
“I beg the Immortal Spirits of the Earth-returning Hall to reveal themselves and help this disciple check the background of those filthy things!”
The moment she finished speaking, the three sticks of incense burned down at a terrifying speed, turning into ash in just a few seconds.
This meant the Immortal Spirits had accepted Deaf Granny’s request and taken her offering.
A short while later, it was as though someone dipped a finger into the incense ash and wrote on the incense altar.
Triple-Mix Soil, Iron Coffin.
Black water emerges, three hundred lives.
Just as Deaf Granny stood there stunned, another line appeared.
Each sweeps the snow from their own doorstep; do not mind the frost on another’s roof.
Deaf Granny broke out in a cold sweat. She hurriedly wiped the words away with her hand.
“Ai… why is it that everything that’s happened these past few years has gotten more and more evil?”
“Now even an Iron Coffin has shown up!”
“Even the Immortal Spirits are telling me not to meddle… what am I supposed to do?”
After everyone had fallen asleep, the uneasy Deaf Granny went out into the courtyard alone.
She walked straight over to the pine branch she had planted and set out three plates of vegetarian dishes.
“Elder Pine, filthy things have stirred up trouble in the village. It even crawled out of an Iron Coffin.”
“What should we do about that little girl? We can’t just watch her hurt people!”
A long time passed. The pine branch only swayed gently with the wind, showing no response at all.
Deaf Granny could only sigh.
“Elder Pine… you also don’t want me to get involved, is that it?”
Back inside, the kind-hearted Deaf Granny tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Only at daybreak, when Old Li came over to eat, did she quietly tell him what had happened.
Old Li’s expression turned grave.
“If there’s really no other way, I’ll bring a few strong men from the village and seal up that dry well!”
Deaf Granny’s eyes lit up. That really was a way!
But before the two elders could do anything, the rumble of machinery suddenly came from outside.
A child running past the gate shouted as he ran, “Come see! Come see! They’re digging a well at Old Fourth Tian’s place at the south end of the village!”
“They even hired people from town and brought a machine!”
“That machine’s huge!”
The two elders gasped at the same time. “This is bad!”
They didn’t even bother to eat. Throwing on their padded cotton coats, they ran out.
Old Fourth Tian’s family was always respectful to Old Li and Deaf Granny.
Even his eldest son, Tian Zhigang, who worked in town, was the same.
“The two elders are here! Come on in and warm yourselves up!”
Deaf Granny had no time to sit around indoors. She asked straight out, “Zhigang, what are you doing?”
Tian Zhigang looked proud. “I asked the town to send people to re-dig the old well. See? The machine’s already here.”
“Once we dig up water, it’ll be easier for everyone.”
And what Tian Zhigang said was true.
All of Jiudaogou Village only had two wells, and the other one was several miles outside the village.
Fetching water was extremely inconvenient.
If they could add another well, it would be a good thing for the villagers.
That was why half the village had come over, beaming as they watched the commotion.
Deaf Granny hesitated, about to say something, but Old Li stopped her with a look.
The Old Master took a puff from his pipe and said with a smile, “The government looks after us common folk, so we can’t shortchange the comrades who came to work.”
“Zhigang, come back with me. We’ll bring over the wild rabbit I caught yesterday.”
“And I’ve still got some white flour saved up-bring that too.”
“Tonight we’ll treat the comrades doing the work to something good!”
In these hard times, being able to eat white flour was already a big deal.
And there was meat on top of that.
So Tian Zhigang and Xiao Zhao, the worker sent to dig the well, kept thanking Old Li.
Xiao Zhao even said he’d work twice as hard and do his best to get water by tomorrow.
When they got home and only the two elders and Hua Jiunan were left, Deaf Granny finally couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“You dead old man-why didn’t you let me stop them just now?”
Old Li took a long drag from his pipe. “Could you have stopped them?”
“Didn’t you see it? The town government people brought a machine.”
“If you dared to stop them from digging the well, at best they’d call it feudal superstition; at worst, it would be sabotaging revolutionary production and construction!”
“You, an old woman, can’t shoulder that kind of charge!”
Old Li paused before continuing.
“Besides, we don’t even dare to say for sure the Iron Coffin is in that well.”
“If we got it wrong, wouldn’t we be delaying the villagers from having water to drink?”
Deaf Granny sighed helplessly. “Then what do you think we should do?”
Old Li glared. “What else? Just let it be!”
“I don’t believe filthy things are all that powerful-what, you think it can stop my big knife?”
“If she stays hidden and doesn’t come out to harm people, fine. But if she dares to come out, I’ll take her head off with one slash!”
Deaf Granny didn’t want to bicker with him. “Fine, fine, fine. You’re the amazing Old Li, alright?”
“Sigh… but even so, the two of us still need to make preparations ahead of time.”