Six Days in a Deserted Village (Twelve)
As soon as they stepped onto the ground, a howling cold wind swept over, making everyone shiver despite being dressed in summer clothes.
It was still broad daylight outside, the sunlight even hotter than at noon, yet it felt no warmth on my body.
It's too quiet.
In the past, even if no one was walking around in the village, there would still be the chirping of cicadas and the rustling of leaves in the forest. But now, all sounds have been muted and all have disappeared.
Xu Wei walked out the door. The shadows of the trees were reflected on the ground. There was wind, but the branches and leaves were motionless.
She turned around, and all the teammates who had been following her were gone.
The village chief's house was even more empty than when I first entered. The portrait of the Yue ancestor god on the wall was gone, and the statue on the altar had not been painted red, so its face was clear.
Xu Wei thought about it, grabbed the statue and stepped out.
"elder sister."
A hoarse voice suddenly sounded in my ears.
"elder sister."
The source of the sound was rushing around in the air and its direction could not be identified.
Xu Wei ignored him and stepped onto the path at the door.
With a crackling sound, like the moment when a tape recorder malfunctioned, the surrounding environment came alive.
The aroma of food from the houses next door wafts into the air, someone is chatting in low voices by the fence, smoke rises in the distance, and the sounds of children playing are gradually becoming clearer through the wall.
The adobe house looked like it had just been renovated.
There was something cold pressed against my leg.
"Sister, can you give me something to eat?" The little boy raised his head and looked at me pitifully.
Xu Wei looked at the familiar face in front of him and said, "I don't have anything to eat."
"Are you hungry too, sister? Why don't we go beg together?" The dirty little guy raised his hand and held her hanging hand tightly, and moved closer, as if he was afraid that she would run away.
"What's your name?" Xu Wei looked down at him.
"If I tell my sister, will she tell me your name?" The little boy pinched her with his cold little hands.
Xu Wei nodded under his expectant gaze.
"My name is Wang Zhuangzhuang! Zhuang means strong and sturdy. My dad said that I will be stronger than all the kids in the village in the future!"
"Where's your father?"
"My father, my father..." He stammered, his eyes rolling around, "My father was disrespectful to the ancestors and was beaten to death by them!"
"Sister, what's your name?"
Xu Wei looked at the wooden sign hanging on his chest: "Mao Ting."
"Mao...Cing?" Wang Zhuangzhuang tilted his head, "Sister, your name is not Mao Cing."
"Your name is Xu Wei."
Xu Wei glanced at his broken neck and reached out to straighten his messy collar: "That was my sister's trick to others. Mao Cheng is the real name."
The little boy stared at her doubtfully.
"If you don't believe me, forget it." Xu Wei turned around and looked around. "Why did you drag me in again? Do you want to kill me?"
"Sister, don't you want to know what's happening in the village? I'll take you to see it." He was actually asking for advice.
"Let's go, then."
The little boy jumped up in joy and pulled her forward quickly.
The two walked step by step along the stone brick path towards the village entrance. The surrounding scenery changed dramatically with their steps. Time flowed backwards rapidly and everything returned to its original state.
A crowd of people wearing hemp clothes crowded under the old locust tree. The five or six people in the front carried a stone tablet with the inscription "Yue" and dropped it into the dug pit.
Two strong men each dragged a crying boy to the side of a dirt pit. Some people in the crowd covered their faces with their hands and sobbed softly.
"Why are you crying? It's a worthy death to sacrifice yourself for the ancestor god!" The leading man turned around and shouted.
The crying boy was forced to drink strong liquor. He soon began to foam at the mouth and his limbs twitched. The strong man pulled out the machete from his waist and swung it down neatly.
Hot blood spilled into the pit, splashing blood spots on the stone tablet.
"kneel--"
The crowd knelt on the ground and began to kowtow and pray.
The boy's body was casually dumped under an old locust tree, and the men filled the pit with soil.
Suddenly, someone in the crowd looked up stealthily, and when he found that no one was paying attention, he secretly took out a knife from his bag, walked to the corpse, and cut off a piece of meat.
He returned to the crowd and chatted with his neighbors.
"The flesh of a virgin boy is the best for prolonging life..."
Soon, a second person approached the body.
The scene freezes when the leader notices the furtive movements of the people behind him.
Xu Wei walked closer to the corpse.
Wang Zhuangzhuang rubbed his head against her palm: "Sister, do you want to eat too?"
Xu Wei shook his head.
"Then let's go."
He pulled her back and the picture started moving again.
From the entrance of the village to the big square, there is no barrier on the road side. The interior of each house is like the cross-section of a small box, or like the scenes in a stage play that pass quickly, showing the past at a glance.
Xu Wei saw that they first cooked and shared the meat, and then began to eat it raw. Their faces became younger and younger. In the end, a horse-drawn carriage outside the village carrying frightened people tramped on the stone road, passed through them and led all the way to the center of the square.
In front of the flat stone platform where the two men stood, the villagers gathered together again. They were in high spirits, none of them looked old, and they looked excitedly at the living person who was pressed on the stone platform and was waiting to be slaughtered.
Amid the screams, the blood, and the scramble, Wang Zhuangzhuang's hoarse voice rang in my ears.
"Sister, you interrupted the parade. This is a ceremony after the parade, so you can't eat it."
Xu Wei lowered her head slightly to look him in the eye, then pushed his crooked head away.
"Hehe, when you grow up a little, you can hug your sister." He came closer again, put his arms around her waist, and leaned his head against his arms.
Xu Wei shivered from the cold body temperature and pushed him away.
The boy, who was already a teenager, pouted and said, "Sister, don't you want to know my story?"
Xu Wei had no expression on his face.
He came up to her happily and continued to pull her along.
Time began to move forward, and the two walked to a bungalow.
Xu Wei saw a younger version of the little boy catch a mouse in the corner, then crush it to death with his bare hands, rip it open, and laugh happily as he tore off its flesh and blood.
Mrs. Zhang, who still looked normal, came back with the piece of meat, glanced at him, and went back to the house muttering.
Wang Niu heard the noise and came out of the room. He found out that Mrs. Zhang was planning to take the food for herself. He roared angrily and rushed forward to fight her.
"Son, I'm old, please let me go. I can't wait for another fifty years..." Mrs. Zhang was knocked to the ground, her forehead hit the corner of the table and her face was covered with blood. She crawled over and hugged Wang Niu's legs.
Wang Niu kicked her away and went back to the room with the piece of meat.
Mrs. Zhang banged on the door and shouted.
The little boy walked in at this time, and when he saw the blood on the ground, he suddenly became excited. He ran out quickly, and when he came back, he was holding a big axe in his hand.
"Sister, guess what I did?" Wang Zhuangzhuang watched himself smash the door with an axe and rushed into his father's room.
The screams pierced my eardrums.
Xu Wei did not go into the room. Instead, he walked around the furnishings in the main hall and observed Mrs. Zhang's frightened face.
"You cut off your father's feet so that grandma can eat his flesh more conveniently?"
Wang Zhuangzhuang squinted his eyes and recalled: "Grandma was so happy. She took me to eat a lot of delicious food and made me a new set of clothes."
Xu Wei looked at the shroud on him and did not answer.
The surrounding environment suddenly changed, turning into a scene resembling a cemetery nursery rhyme. The earth slope was still huge, but Wang Niu's name was engraved on the stone tablet.
The cold raindrops hit my cheeks.
An old man and a child knelt in front of the grave.
Mrs. Zhang coaxed the little boy into eating rice cakes from the grave and squeezed out the eyes of a live fish and put them in a bowl.
There were all kinds of strange things piled in front of her, including needles, thin threads, paper money, and vermicelli. After muttering a few words, she held down the struggling little boy.
"Xie Chong retreats, Xie Chong retreats...!"
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the little boy was forced to eat bite by bite.
Xu Wei wiped the rain off his cheeks, took a few steps back, but bumped into a cold wall.
"elder sister."
His voice became much deeper, as if he had just passed the voice change period. His figure grew taller, a full head taller than her, and his tone gradually became excited: "It has been so many years. It has trapped me for so many years since I was born... Only you can come in."
"I?"
"Yes, you are special, unique, and you are here for me." His neck stretched out from behind, circled around Xu Wei, and smiled gently, "Sister, where are you from?"
Xu Wei took a few steps back, as if thinking: "As for me..."
"I come from a place you can never go to in your lifetime."
She gathered her strength and kicked him in the abdomen, then grabbed the wooden sign from around his neck and ran backwards.
There was a muffled thunder in the sky, lightning struck, and dark clouds pressed down overhead.
"Where are you going to escape to, sister? Yuejia Village is so small..." His voice sounded above his head, neither hurried nor slow.
"I will find you."
He was imitating her.
The accumulated water had already reached above the ankles and was spreading towards the knees. Many corpses suddenly floated up on the water surface, blocking the way forward.
Xu Wei took a few steps forward and suddenly felt a chill on her ankle. The dead body held her tightly and dragged her into the water with a heavy force.
She struggled to take a few steps forward and paused.
"I guess you're stalling."
She suddenly spoke.
"You're afraid of me."
He didn't speak.
"If you could kill me, you should have done it the moment you dragged me in. But you didn't. You dragged me to see the origin of Yuejia Village, how your father and grandmother turned into ghosts, and how you died." She summoned a dagger and chopped off the corpse's arm. "You also deliberately said some nonsense to disturb my mind... It seems that you are not sure of victory."
"That's right. Even if the Yuezu God has been worshipped for hundreds of years, its power will still diminish over time. You have been trapped by it for so long. Could it be that you can still become stronger by eating the grass on your father's grave?"
There was no response in my ears.
The water level had risen to knee level. Xu Wei struggled to step over the floating obstacles while a radio gymnastics song was playing.
Regardless of how far or near, the floating corpses were forced to soak in the water, shaking their stiff limbs and slapping the water surface, making a "pa pa" sound. The scene was quite spectacular.
"The sacrifice was not completed. I stabbed you once, so I don't think you are that strong. Otherwise, why didn't you counterattack the moment I opened the coffin lid? Why did you have to wait until you came out from underground?"
"Are you afraid that I will join forces with the remaining power of Yue Zu Shen? Have you been observing me? Does my appearance make you feel panicked?"
"Are you... afraid of me?"
Rumble, the muffled thunder in the sky became louder and louder, as if trying to drown out her music.
The wooden sign in his hand started to break out, and his mind became hazy again.
She trotted quickly through the surging water, rushing towards her destination with a clear goal in mind.
Almost there.
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