Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Deaf Granny first returned home and, as was her custom, offered incense and tributes to each shrine hall.
“This old woman still can’t stop worrying about the village elders. I’ve decided to fight it out with that evil ghost.”
“If I lose my life at the hands of that beast tonight, I ask all the Immortal Spirits to look upon our decades of friendship and keep my family safe.”
After Deaf Granny finished speaking, she bowed respectfully.
A moment later, the enshrined spirit tablets trembled.
A black character slowly appeared on the incense altar: “Granted!”
Deaf Granny’s face lit up with joy, and she offered three more sticks of incense.
After repeatedly instructing Wang San to look after the house, Deaf Granny picked up Hua Jiunan and kissed him over and over again.
“Good child, if Grandma doesn’t come back, you must be a good boy and listen to your Third Uncle.”
“Study hard in the future. If you can get into a university, this old woman will be able to smile in the afterlife even if I die.”
Hua Jiunan was young, after all, and didn’t understand what Deaf Granny meant.
He asked innocently, “Grandma, aren’t you sleeping at home tonight? I’ll be scared by myself.”
Deaf Granny pinched his little cheek. “Xiao Jiu, be good. Don’t be afraid.”
“A real man has to sleep by himself sooner or later.”
Hua Jiunan rubbed his fingers together dejectedly, his eyes welling with tears. “Alright then. Grandma, you have to come back early tomorrow.”
Deaf Granny fought back her tears, set Hua Jiunan down, and walked out the door.
When she reached the courtyard, she bowed respectfully to the small pine tree.
“Elder Pine, I leave my home in your hands!”
Just as Deaf Granny turned to leave, a single pine needle fell silently.
With a *whoosh*, it tucked itself into Deaf Granny’s graying hair bun.
Wang San watched the old woman depart while holding Hua Jiunan. He let out a long sigh and closed the door.
At this moment, the burly northern man’s face was already covered in tears.
Although Hua Jiunan didn’t know why Wang San was crying, he began to cry as well.
“Third Uncle, what’s wrong? Does your stomach hurt?”
“Don’t cry, Xiao Jiu will find you some medicine.”
Wang San could no longer contain the sorrow in his heart. He leaned down and pulled Hua Jiunan into a tight embrace.
“My mother and Old Li are going to fight those filthy things. I’m afraid they won’t be coming back!”
“From now on, it’s just the two of us!”
“If it weren’t for the fact that there’d be no one to look after you and my eldest daughter, I’d go fight those filthy things too!”
In his young heart, Hua Jiunan didn’t fully grasp what Wang San meant.
However, he vaguely sensed that he was about to lose his grandfather and grandmother.
Overcome with grief, Wang San drank a lot of liquor during dinner and fell into a deep sleep shortly after.
Hua Jiunan lay alone in Deaf Granny’s room, his large eyes staring unblinkingly at the ceiling.
A single thought kept echoing in his mind:
Grandma is going to fight the filthy things and she’s not coming back…
As he thought about it, Hua Jiunan began to cry again.
In the dark of the night, the five-year-old boy seemed so lonely and helpless.
After crying for a while, Hua Jiunan suddenly remembered something.
Grandma had said that the tall uncle who stayed with his mother was very good at “fighting.”
If he could help, he would surely be able to defeat the “filthy things” Third Uncle talked about.
So, the little fellow scrambled into his clothes and, summoning his courage, quietly slipped out of the house and headed straight for the snowy mountain.
A neat row of small footprints was left behind on the silvery-white snow.
After Deaf Granny returned to Old Fourth Tian’s house, she first sprinkled bone meal made from ground dog teeth in the courtyard.
Then, she stretched cotton threads soaked in black dog blood across the entire yard.
A bell was hung from every thread.
She had set up a “Soul-Constraining Net” and “Soul-Snatching Bells.”
These were not the methods of a spirit medium disciple, but rather things Deaf Granny had learned years ago from a passing Taoist priest.
Old Li sat in the middle of the courtyard with the Hundred-Slayer blade on his back.
“Comrade Xiao Zhou, you won’t be able to help once the filthy things arrive. Go get some rest.”
Chief Zhou remained unmoved, still standing behind Old Li.
“Old comrade, I’m brave enough to do anything, but I’m not brave enough to be a deserter!”
“Deserting in the face of the enemy is a shooting offense!”
“Besides, one more person means one more bit of strength.”
“When the filthy things come, even if I have to use my teeth, I’ll bite a piece of meat off them!”
Deaf Granny looked at the determined Chief Zhou and thought to herself: *This man is indeed a good helper!*
Ghosts feared two types of people: those with an aura of righteousness and those with an aura of bloodlust.
Chief Zhou, like Old Li, possessed both.
It was just that he had never been to a battlefield, so his bloodlust wasn’t as intense as Old Li’s.
Then again, even among those who had been to war, there weren’t many whose bloodlust surpassed Old Li’s.
After all, the enemies this old man had killed with his own hands were counted by the hundreds…
Deaf Granny smiled and handed the Immortal-Binding Rope to Chief Zhou.
“Since Comrade Xiao Zhou is so determined, then stay.”
“When the filthy things show up later, use this to whip them!”
Chief Zhou was as happy as a new recruit who had just been issued a rifle. He nodded repeatedly with a grin.
“Don’t you worry. I may not have learned whip techniques, but I’ve got plenty of strength.”
“If the filthy things don’t show up, then fine. But if they dare to come, I’ll lead the charge!”
At that moment, the two young officers who had come with Chief Zhou also walked out.
“Elder, do you have any more of those whips? Give us each one too.”
Inside the house, seeing this scene, Tian Zhigang asked Old Fourth Tian hesitantly, “Dad, should I go out and help?”
Old Fourth Tian glared at him and scolded in a low voice, “What are you going out there for? Do you have a death wish?!”
“Stay inside!”