I shrugged. This young man looked rebellious; ordinary advice was useless. He wouldn't listen to us at all.
Sure enough, the next moment, the boy in the baseball cap pursed his lips, looking disappointed.
“I said, you look like a young person, how come you still believe in feudal superstitions?”
Li Huai wanted to say something more, but I stopped him with a look.
Luo Tianhe twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a slightly roguish smile:
"Thanks, but we're in a hurry and it's not on our way. Just a heads up, it gets cool in the mountains at night, so don't make too much noise. It's best to leave early."
"Tch, all mystical and rambling, just like my grandpa." The blond guy curled his lip in disdain.
Luo Tianhe's lips twitched. If this were in the city, he would have already slapped this kid for being so arrogant.
However, since they were here, he was too lazy to cause any more trouble, so he ignored the kid.
Luo Tianhe started the car and continued on. Since we weren't lost, we could just keep driving forward; the village should be just ahead.
In the rearview mirror, the group of young people were pointing and laughing at the back of our car, I don't know what they were saying.
"These idiots, they won't listen to my well-intentioned advice." Li Huai turned his head and looked at them with some anger.
"Hehe, put aside your desire to help others and respect their fate." I chuckled, then stopped worrying about it and leaned back in my chair to rest.
"Exactly, to be honest, they're so young and traveling all over the place, not even going to school. Do you think they'll earn their own money? They're just using their parents' hard-earned money to play around, and they don't listen to any of this."
Luo Tianhe shook his head and said.
These people look like they've just come of age; they should normally be in college.
After another bumpy ride of nearly half an hour, a village nestled against the mountains and beside the water finally appeared at the edge of our view.
Judging by the scenery alone, it doesn't seem like a particularly eerie place; on the contrary, it's quite pleasant.
But when I opened my third eye, I felt a slight stinging pain.
The village was indeed not clean; this peaceful and tranquil scene was just an illusion.
Moreover, one would expect to hear birdsong in such a natural village, but we didn't hear a single one; it seemed as if all the birds in the forest had died.
There was a gate at the entrance of the village, but it was only slightly ajar. An old man wearing a faded blue cloth shirt, who was squatting on a stone stool at the entrance smoking a pipe, saw us and slowly stood up.
He looked us up and down, seemingly with some prejudice.
Is this guy grouping us with those young people?
Those people from earlier should have seen him, and the old man must have said a few kind words to them.
But instead of listening, they probably mocked him, otherwise the old man wouldn't have looked at us so rudely.
"Hehe, tourists need not enter. Go wherever you want and stay there."
Sure enough, the old man spoke, indicating that he intended to kick them out.
"Uncle, we're not tourists, we're here to find someone, Sun Wang. We want to buy some local products from him."
This is what Dr. Sun taught us. It seems that Sun Wang does some business selling mountain products, and people come to the mountains to buy from him from time to time.
He also used this kind of transaction to have someone deliver the letter to Doctor Sun.
The old man, no longer on guard, simply said "Oh," and casually pointed into the village with his pipe:
"Look, it's the second house on the west end. There's a crooked tree in front of it, so it's easy to spot."
After saying that, he squatted back down and continued puffing on his pipe.
We drove in slowly. The road here was a compacted dirt road, which was fairly flat and much better than the roads outside.
The road was lined with wooden and stone houses, which looked quite old.
An elderly person or a woman sat at the doorway, silently doing their work: weaving bamboo baskets, drying medicinal herbs, and picking beans.
They would occasionally look up at our car, their eyes mostly vacant, before quickly looking down again, showing no curiosity or desire to communicate.
Luo Tianhe scratched his head, somewhat puzzled.
Logically speaking, these villagers, who have never seen the world, should have gathered around and looked at his SUV.
There were a few naked children by the roadside, who were looking at us.
However, he neither laughed nor made a fuss, and seemed somewhat dazed.
To be honest, the whole village was like a stagnant pool.
It seems the situation is more serious than we imagined. It was only the death of one animal, yet the entire village has fallen into this state.
"Damn, this place is as quiet as a ghost village. Those people are looking at me like I'm a block of wood. Have they ever seen this SUV before?" Li Huai muttered under his breath, feeling a little uncomfortable with the quiet atmosphere.
Luo Tianhe also looked grave: "Something's definitely wrong with this place. It's eerily quiet."
We quickly found Sun Wang's house; the crooked jujube tree was indeed very conspicuous.
Sun Wang's house was easier to spot than the others because it was the only one built of bricks and tiles.
Perhaps because of his business dealings, he has seen the world and is wealthier than other villagers.
We had just parked the car, and before we could even knock, their door creaked open.
A man in his forties, with a sallow complexion and puffy eye bags, poked his head out.
"Who are you?" His voice trembled slightly, and there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes as he looked at us.
"You must be Brother Sun Wang? Doctor Sun sent us. We're here because of the strange things happening in the village." I lowered my voice and spoke quickly.
Upon hearing this, Sun Wang shuddered, his eyes widening suddenly. He then quickly scanned his surroundings, and like someone caught in the act, he whispered urgently:
"Come in, come in quickly."
We slipped into the house, and Sun Wang immediately slammed the door shut. He then dragged a broken cabinet onto the roof, his movements so frantic that he almost fell over.
The room was low and dimly lit, looking far less glamorous than it appeared from the outside, and it was filled with a faint musty smell.
His wife, a thin and silent woman, was sitting by the stove with a boy of about five or six years old in her arms, looking at us in fear, like two frightened quails.
"I said, is it really necessary to be so cautious?"
I was a little confused; why was Sun Wang acting like a thief?
Upon hearing this, Sun Wang gave a wry smile: "The situation is complicated. But why didn't Uncle San come?"
“Dr. Sun has difficulty walking and is quite old. We came to check on him first. The letter sounded urgent. What's going on? Why are you so worried?”
I'll get straight to the point.
Sun Wang's face twitched as if a nerve had been struck, as if a nerve had been struck.
He glanced at the wall instinctively, as if worried that someone might be listening in.
He rubbed his hands together, gesturing for us to sit down and talk.
We sat down on the kang (heated brick bed), and he dragged a small stool over and sat very close, speaking in a very low voice:
"As you all know, Wu Laosi's cow died a terrible death, it wasn't a normal death at all! That thing came back, everyone in the village agrees."
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