Chapter 110 Chapter 110
It's late at night.
While Qingtong was still being pestered by his younger brother to play games, in the remote rural areas of Wangshui City, every household had turned off the lights and prepared to go to bed.
Such is the routine of life in the countryside, even though it is just past nine o'clock in the evening.
Because there is no entertainment life, there is no TV at home, let alone mobile phones. We have to get up early at five o'clock tomorrow. Even the most naughty brother Li Youfu has gone to bed early.
The couple slept in the east room, and the three children were in the west room. The oldest child, Li Zhaodi, was taking out a thin quilt from the cupboard. She turned around and saw her younger sister Pandi hiding in the corner of the bed, curled up in fear.
Li Zhaodi immediately looked at Li Youfu and said, "Youfu, did you catch bugs in bed again?"
Li Youfu immediately widened his eyes and shook his head: "I didn't!"
"Really?" Li Zhaodi looked at Li Youfu suspiciously, staring at his palm, "Let me see."
Li Youfu stretched out his hand reluctantly, and there was a small round stone in it.
"It's time to go to bed. Don't hold it all the time." Li Zhaodi took the stone away and put it on the table, and continued to make the bed. "You two sleep on either side of me, and no fighting is allowed. Got it?"
Li Youfu uttered an "oh", wrapped himself in the quilt, and fell asleep.
The eight-year-old boy remembered nothing and fell asleep quickly.
Looking at Li Pandi again, she was still hiding in the corner of the bed, shivering.
"Are you cold?" Li Zhaodi asked, "Shall I get you another quilt?"
Li Pandi looked at her sister and nodded slowly.
That night, Li Pandyi was wrapped in two layers of quilts, her forehead was sweating slightly from the heat, but she not only did not lift the quilts, but also hid her whole body in the quilts and leaned towards Li Zhaodi.
In the silent night, the only sounds that could be heard were the soft snoring of sister Li Zhaodi and the grinding of Li Youfu's teeth.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Pandi already felt that it was difficult to breathe in the quilt, and her clothes were soaked with sweat. She quietly opened a gap in the quilt, wanting to get some fresh air.
The cool air entered the quilt, and Li Pandi finally felt alive. The next second, a chill began to rise in her heart and her back began to feel cold.
The moonlight shone into the room through the window, and she saw a figure standing in front of their bed.
The figure was standing beside the bed where Li Youfu was sleeping, with his head lowered, as if staring at him, motionless.
Li Pandi didn't dare to move. She was shaking with fear. Then the figure shook his head slightly. Li Pandi immediately found that the figure was wearing a big hat.
It's that boy!
No, don't come over.
Li Pandi's heart began to call out, but no matter how she screamed in her heart, her mouth seemed to have suddenly suffered from aphasia and she could not say anything.
In the darkness, she saw the boy's figure move. He raised his hand, holding a curved object. Li Pandi, who had helped with farm work, recognized it immediately. It was the shape of a sickle.
"No——" Li Pandi finally shouted out, she suddenly sat up and screamed.
Li Zhaodi, who was sleeping next to her, was woken up immediately. She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and looked at Li Pandi: "What? What happened?"
The parents in the next room were not woken up, but they just slept a little more lightly. It seemed that they were too tired from doing too much work during the day.
"Sister, he..." Li Pandyi grabbed Li Zhaodi's arm fearfully, wanting to seek protection from the mature elder sister. She wanted to point at the boy's shadow and complain, but when she turned around, she found that the figure who had just been standing beside the bed had disappeared.
"Ah?" Li Zhaodi looked in the direction Li Pandyi pointed, but she saw nothing.
"There was someone here just now, a boy, and I had sex with him before..." Li Pandi spoke incoherently.
Li Zhaodi yawned, picked up the flashlight and shone it into the room, but found nothing. Then she waved the flashlight and looked at the clock on the wall. It was one o'clock in the morning.
"You had a nightmare?" Li Zhaodi turned off the flashlight and touched Li Pandi's forehead. It was wet. She immediately lifted the quilt from her sister and said, "Don't cover yourself so thickly in the future. It's not winter yet."
"Go to bed, it's late." Li Zhaodi lay down again.
"Youfu! Is Youfu still here?" Li Pandyi said hurriedly.
Li Zhaodi had no idea what her sister was doing in the middle of the night. She muttered Youfu's name in her sleep, but when she heard no response, she turned over and reached out to pat the bed on the right.
There was a bulge under the quilt, obviously someone was still there.
Li Zhaodi closed her eyes and continued to sleep: "You are blessed, go to sleep."
Li Pandi sat there in a daze. She couldn't believe that everything that had just happened was just a nightmare. But seeing that her sister was about to fall asleep again, she immediately lay down as well, hypnotizing herself to fall asleep as soon as possible.
Yes, that must be a nightmare. My sister said that Youfu’s annoying brother is still alive, so he must still be there. Fall asleep quickly, and everything will be fine when you wake up.
After continuous self-suggestion and hypnosis, Li Pandi finally fell asleep, but she slept very uneasily that night. She always felt that there was a figure standing at the head of her bed, staring at her. Li Pandi was very scared and wanted to open her eyes to take a look but didn't dare. Even in a real dream, she was still trapped in the fear of the straw boy and couldn't extricate herself.
It was not until dawn that Li Pandi woke up. The moment she opened her eyes, she saw her sister Zhaodi sitting on the bed, staring at the bed on the right.
"Sister?" Li Pandi said in a low voice.
Li Zhaodi turned back blankly, her eyes filled with confusion and a bit of fear.
Li Pandi immediately understood what was going on. She suddenly stood up and looked to the right of Li Zhaodi, where Li Youfu should be sleeping. But now, the quilt was indeed well covered, but the person sleeping inside was not Li Youfu, but a scarecrow.
A scarecrow boy, to be exact.
The round head is wrapped in linen, with black buttons as eyes and black lines for the nose and mouth, which looks a bit like Q version. The messy short hair on the head of the straw boy is made of black linen strips, which looks similar to the dog-bitten hair that Li Youfu had cut by Li Zhaodi.
What’s important is that the clothes the scarecrow wears are exactly the same as the clothes Li Youfu wears when he sleeps.
"He... turned into a scarecrow?" Li Pandi's face showed a look of horror.
Li Zhaodi immediately retorted: "People can't turn into scarecrows. It must be a prank of Blessed Sacrifice." After she said this, she subconsciously thought of the scarecrow she saw on the rice field yesterday. From a distance, it seemed that the image was also a boy.
No, don't think too much about it. How could such a thing happen in the world? It's all a coincidence.
"I'll go find Youfu. He must have gotten up early and gone out to play." Li Zhaodi herself wasn't sure what she said.
Because Li Youfu is a lazy child who loves to sleep, and he will not go anywhere before finishing breakfast.
"...I still have to make breakfast. Pandi, you go to the village to look for Youfu." Li Zhaodi changed her words after hearing the sound of her parents getting up in the east room.
Li Pandi's teeth were chattering with fear. When she heard what Li Zhaodi said, she wanted to shake her head. However, she recalled what the boy said yesterday. She thought that Youfu's disappearance was related to her. Li Pandi gritted her teeth and nodded: "I, I will go look for him."
As soon as she went out, Li Pandi immediately looked across the door. She vaguely remembered that it was there that she met the boy Qin Xiaocao last night. Of course, there was no one there now.
Li Pandi turned around and walked towards the inside of the village. When she met someone she knew, she would ask them first if they had seen her younger brother Li Youfu. What if Li Youfu had not been turned into a scarecrow, but had just gone out for an exception today? Secondly, she would ask if anyone knew a boy named Qin Xiaocao who was about her age.
Li Pandi walked around the village but didn't find out anything.
No one had seen her younger brother, nor had anyone heard of the name Qin Xiaocao.
Aunt Tian from the village knew the most gossip in the village. She told Li Pandi that no outsiders had come to the village to visit relatives in the past three months, let alone boys.
These words made Li Pandi feel a chill down her spine. When Aunt Tian asked her further, Li Pandi said she still wanted to find her brother and ran away.
Not finding anyone, Li Pandi returned home dejected. Li Zhaodi had already prepared breakfast, and her parents were at the table. When her mother saw Li Pandi, she asked, "Where is your brother? Call him to eat."
Li Pandi was so stunned that she didn't know what to say.
Li Zhaodi put the dishes and chopsticks in place and said, "I didn't see him when I got up this morning. I asked Pan Di to go look for him."
Li Pandi lowered her head: "I didn't find it..."
"Where did this kid go to play without even eating?" The mother complained, then took away a plate of bread and dishes from the table and put them away. "Go find him after you finish your meal and ask him to come back and eat."
Li Zhaodi hummed and pulled Li Pandyi to sit down.
There were only two dishes on the table, and only one was left after they were taken away. The family of four finished their bread with the last dish and salted vegetables.
After dinner, their parents went back to work. After cleaning up the dishes, the two sisters went to find Li Youfu.
Li Zhaodi walked in the village while calling her brother's name, and Li Pandyi followed behind, calling out weakly from time to time.
The whole morning passed and my voice was almost hoarse, but I still couldn't find Li Youfu.
Li Zhaodi finally realized that something was wrong. She thought of Li Pandyi's overly fearful behavior last night, the scream in the middle of the night, the scarecrow on Li Youfu's bed when she woke up in the morning, and the scarecrow boy who had disappeared in the rice field in front of the door.
Li Zhaodi held her sister's shoulders and asked very seriously, "What's going on? Tell me quickly."
The fear of the boy Qin Xiaocao, the guilt about her brother's disappearance, the fear of being discovered by her parents, the worry that her brother would never come back, all these emotions finally overwhelmed Li Pandyi when she was asked by her sister Li Zhaodi. The girl, who was only in junior high school, cried and told Li Zhaodi the whole cause and effect of the incident.
Li Zhaodi felt a chill in her heart and almost fainted.
"Because you made a wish, he granted your wish and turned Youfu into a scarecrow?" Li Zhaodi asked in disbelief.
Li Pandi cried and shook her head: "I'm just saying, I don't want him to disappear, I don't want to kill him..."
This was said sincerely. How could a little girl of only 11 or 12 years old have any deep hatred with her own brother? Her brother was already a bear at that age, and coupled with his parents' spoiled habits, he was a little annoying. But no matter what, he was still her brother.
Before Xiong reached old age, he would also hold her hand very cutely and call her "second sister's younger brother" in a vague voice with his saliva-filled mouth.
When I was very young and could not walk steadily, I would pick a wild flower from the roadside and give it to my second sister's younger brother.
"Did he tell me what price he would take from you to fulfill your wish?" Li Zhaodi asked, enduring the grief of losing a younger brother.
Li Pandi was dumbfounded. She shook her head and said, "No."
“But he didn’t say it doesn’t cost anything, right?”
Li Pandi became even more confused. She shook her head, then squatted on the side of the road with her hands covering her face, and burst into tears again.
"It's okay." Li Zhaodi hugged Li Pandi, "Sister will protect you."