For the next year, Ah Cui lived peacefully in her cave. Though the bear demon looked ferocious, it never let her suffer any harm and even taught her to identify mountain herbs. Ah Cui gradually lost her fear of it, sometimes even laughing at its face covered in juice from chewing wild animals. The other little demons in the cave also got along well with her. Most of them were simple-minded and not as vicious as others said.
At the beginning of the year, Ah Cui dreamed that her grandmother was sick and she cried and begged the bear demon to let her go. Although the bear demon was reluctant, he still sent her to the mountain pass and said: "If anyone bullies you, just call my name and I will come immediately."
Ah Cui returned to Chenjia Village, only to find her dilapidated house splattered with black dog blood and her grandmother lying on the kang, her face pale. When the neighbors saw her, they either hid or cursed, "How dare you come back, you devilish little wife! Don't bring bad luck to our village!"
Ah Cui only then realized that after her death, the villagers spread the story that she had been abducted by the mountain king and made his wife.
Grandma was blind and unable to defend herself, so she suffered from cold and hunger, and was often pelted with stones by the children. Ah Cui hugged her grandmother and cried, trying to explain to the villagers that the bear monster had never harmed anyone, but no one listened. They only believed their own "monsters eat people" and refused to believe that a "monster is a woman."
As the days passed, the villagers, realizing the bear demon hadn't followed them, grew bolder. First, they forced Ah Cui to gather herbs, then they threw feces at her doorstep, accusing her of being "improper and having an affair with the demon." Ah Cui's grandmother, who was ill, died of rage after hearing these obscenities.
Ah Cui buried her grandmother and stayed in the empty house. She looked at the villagers who spitted at her door as they passed by, and she couldn't figure out who was scarier in this world, humans or demons.
But before long, word spread through the village that a high-ranking monk from the Tang Dynasty, seeking Buddhist scriptures, was passing through. He had a disciple capable of slaying demons, and even the king was said to be respectful to him. The official who came to report this was arrogant and said, "The king said, 'Behave yourself! Don't try to fool him!'"
The villagers were more afraid of the officials than of the monsters, so when they discussed it, someone suddenly thought of Ah Cui: "She has lived with monsters, so she is half monster! If the monk sees her, he might think that our village is an unlucky place, and then..." As soon as these words came out, everyone fell silent.
At night, dozens of villagers holding torches surrounded Ah Cui's house. When the door was kicked open, Ah Cui was still burning incense to her grandmother's tablet. She watched helplessly as the villagers set her house on fire. She recalled the scene of herself fighting the bear demon to protect them. When the flames licked the hem of her skirt, the tears in her eyes were burned dry, leaving only poisonous hatred: "If I were a ghost, I would make you pay with your lives!"
When the fire was out, the roof beams collapsed. But that night, Chenjia Village was haunted. First, the villagers who had cursed A Cui were strangled by ghosts, then the people who burned the house kept hearing women crying at night, and finally, even the stove in the village chief's house was overturned.
In just three days, every household in the village was frightened and no one dared to go out.
Just then, Tang Sanzang and his disciples arrived. Sun Wukong, seeing the village dead and silent, drew his golden cudgel and tried to charge in, but was stopped by Tang Sanzang. Bajie knocked on the door, and the trembling inhabitant inside explained the situation: "There's... a vengeful spirit at work. It's a girl who was burned to death. She wants to kill our entire village! Please, Master, save us!"
They knelt down, begging and kowtowing.
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