Reaching the entrance of Jianshan Village, Ma Hehua looked at the brand-new cement road and sighed with emotion. When she came here as a child, all the roads in the village were the same. Now, so much has changed!
Village Chief Wu sat in a rocking chair at the village entrance, with a middle-aged man holding an umbrella for him beside him; the afternoon sun was quite strong.
Ma Linghua looked around and, good heavens, wasn't that Wu Xiaozi and his son?
Ma Hehua clearly saw it too, and quickened her pace while carrying her daughter on her back, shouting at the top of her lungs, "Uncle Wu, we've arrived! You're still waiting for us at the village entrance? You're too kind of you."
Village Chief Wu immediately stood up from his chair, and his son rushed forward to help him up, feeling somewhat resentful towards Ma Hehua.
His father is so old, I don't know why he's waiting for this woman who looks younger than him.
This brings us to the story of Village Chief Wu's son. He was a brilliant student when he was young, so Village Chief Wu had his wife accompany him to study in the county town. After getting into university, he never returned to the village, so he has never met Ma Linghua.
"Grandma Ma, you've arrived? Come in, please. I've prepared food and wine at home, just waiting for you." Village Chief Wu's tone was full of respect.
His back, which had been held high, was bent at an angle, showing how much he respected Ma Linghua.
"Let's go! We'll talk about it once we get into the village," Ma Linghua said calmly.
“Wait, Uncle! We came all this way by car, you have to reimburse us for the fare,” Ma Hehua suddenly said.
Village Chief Wu smiled and said, "How could I not reimburse you? How much? I'll have Dali give it to you."
“Uncle, you’re still so savvy. I won’t lie to you, it’s 120 yuan.” As soon as she finished speaking, she glanced at Ma Linghua.
Ma Linghua understood and immediately took out her phone, opened the WeChat payment code. She was very familiar with this process and used it frequently!
Wu Dali, who was standing to the side, was stunned, but he didn't say a word.
"Dali, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and give the money to your aunt." Village Chief Wu looked at his clueless son and felt a surge of disappointment.
"What are you looking at? Take out your phone to scan it? You don't know how to use it, do you? That's okay, we accept cash, paying is the same as paying in cash," Ma Hehua said kindly to him.
Seeing that these people wouldn't enter the village without money, Wu Dali took out his phone from his pants pocket, scanned the code, and quickly transferred 120 yuan to Ma Linghua.
Now the three members of the Ma family felt relieved, and they followed Old Village Chief Wu into the village.
It has to be said that many places in the village have changed a lot. Several old houses have been replaced with brand new brick houses, but most are still wooden houses. The roads are not all cement roads, but the one at Village Chief Wu's house is.
Upon entering the village, a strong sense of oppression and tension was immediately apparent. Every household had their doors tightly shut, and although it wasn't completely dark yet, everyone was on edge.
Wu Dali looked at Ma Lihua on his back with displeasure in his eyes. How old is she? Why does she still need her mother to carry her? She's such a pampered child.
Ma Lihua noticed his disdain and kept it to herself, but she remained silent.
Jianshan Village is named so because each mountain has a pointed top, and there are many mountains, so the older generation simply called it Jianshan Village.
There are quite a few people in the village, at least fifty households, and they are not scattered.
The village chief system is no longer popular; now it's mostly named by some subdistrict office. And Old Village Chief Wu stepped down when he was over sixty years old.
However, everyone still calls him Village Chief Wu, which seems to have become his nickname.
Upon entering the Wu family home, one sees two corpses laid out in the main room. These are the two elderly people who died in the village: a 65-year-old man named Wu Laofeng and a 72-year-old woman named Gong Dazhen.
Old Wu was an elderly man living alone. After the policy was relaxed, he reported it to the state, which took responsibility. Gong Dazhen's son and daughter-in-law had died in an accident long ago, but they left behind a granddaughter.
My granddaughter is a woman of principle; she got into a university in the city, so her future looks very bright. However, Gong Dazhen's death may be a huge blow to her.
While they ate, Village Chief Wu explained things, but the three members of the Ma family just ate without looking up. Village Chief Wu didn't know if they were listening or not.
Wu Dali was dumbfounded. Were these three women reincarnated starving ghosts? The amount of food on the table was considerable, including the rice in the hazelnuts—enough for several meals for his family.
After finishing the rice and dishes, Ma Hehua even washed each plate with rice, making sure not a drop of oil was wasted!
This action made Elder Wu's face twitch. Not only him, but Wu Dali and his mother also twitched. They didn't even need to put dish soap in the dishes anymore.
After a hearty meal, Ma Hehua, with her belly full, lay down under the old locust tree at Village Chief Wu's house to cool off. Her daughter was there too, and the two of them lay there motionless, leaving Wu Dali speechless.
Ma Linghua circled the corpses once, then frowned and said, "Old Wu, I took a look. Neither of these two were killed by ghosts. Their bodies are full of yin poison. They must have been harmed by some kind of yin creature."
Upon hearing this, Village Chief Wu turned pale. He didn't quite understand, so he asked for clarification, "What does this 'yin object' refer to?"
Looking at the two corpses, Ma Linghua said in a deep voice, "They are beasts that specialize in eating corpses. They have become addicted to eating dead people, so they have become bolder and want to make fresh human flesh to eat, such as wild foxes, wild wolves, weasels, rats, raccoons, carrion dogs, mandrills, wild monkeys, lynxes, etc."
Village Chief Wu was greatly surprised. He never imagined that the world was so full of wonders, and he had learned a lot from this experience.
Wu Dali heard it too, but he scoffed at it. Having not grown up in the countryside, he didn't believe in those supernatural things and believed in science.
After a moment of silence, as if he had thought of something, Village Chief Wu hurriedly uncovered the white cloth and then rolled up Wu Laofeng's trouser legs.
Soon, a mark resembling a dog bite appeared before the three of them; he had indeed been bitten by some unknown evil creature.
What exactly is it?
Village Chief Wu turned his gaze to Ma Linghua, who yawned and said, "I don't know either. We'll just have to wait until tonight. The corpse will lead us there tonight."
"Grandma Ma... what do you mean by that?" Village Chief Wu's voice trembled, clearly unable to bear it any longer.
"What do you mean? I can't explain it to you, but it looks like I'll have to spend the night here."
As soon as Ma Linghua finished speaking, Village Chief Wu breathed a long sigh of relief. As long as Granny Ma was there, he felt at ease. However, before he could settle down, someone knocked on the door.
"Slap slap slap..."
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