Chapter 39 Will you cast a spell on me?
The Miao girl in red who had called Cheng Ying's name quickly came down from the mountainside and stood in front of Cheng Ying, looking her over curiously. "Cheng Ying, how are you feeling?"
This Miao girl has a small face, fair skin, a slender figure, and big, bright eyes, making her look particularly charming.
She speaks like Long Buxi; although she speaks Mandarin, her Mandarin is very stiff, with each syllable stopping at unexpected places, making her sound stuttering and halting.
Cheng Ying looked at her, "Who are you?"
“I’m Arno’s sister, my name is Yalin.” Yalin smiled at her in a friendly manner. “But I’m not his biological sister, I’m his cousin. I’ve been taking care of you these past few days.”
"So you're Yalin. Thank you for taking care of me all this time." Cheng Ying smiled, and seeing Da Huang wag its tail at Yalin, she asked, "How do you know me and Da Huang?"
Dahuang isn't the kind of dog that follows strangers easily, nor is it the kind that wags its tail at the sight of people. The fact that it followed Yalin means that it knew Yalin before.
Sure enough, Yalin said, "Your father has been delivering mail to our village for over twenty years. I've known your father since I was little; I call him Uncle Cheng. I have an older sister who married and moved away, and an older brother who joined the army. They write letters and send things back every month or two. Uncle Cheng often delivers mail to our family, and I've heard him talk about you quite a bit. The night Brother Arno rescued you, he asked me to take care of you, and I recognized you as Uncle Cheng's daughter at a glance."
No wonder Big Yellow followed her; it seems it's seen Ya Lin quite often and knows that this girl poses no threat to it, which is why it followed her into the village.
After Ya Lin finished speaking, she asked her again, "Cheng Ying, what are you doing in the outer village?"
Cheng Ying, hearing her meaning, asked, "Does your village have inner and outer villages?"
“Of course it’s divided. The outer village is what you see here as stilted houses. You can walk around the outer village freely. As for the inner village…” Ya Lin paused, then said mysteriously, “Outsiders can’t enter the inner village, and even people from our Pucang village can’t just go in. If anyone ignores our warnings and insists on entering the inner village, the consequences will be very serious.”
Cheng Ying really wanted to ask her where Lizhai was. She had heard Long Buxi say that she had gone to Lizhai, but she didn't know what she was doing there.
Cheng Ying swallowed back the words she was about to say, mainly because she realized it was inappropriate for an outsider like herself to ask such questions.
She answered Yalin's earlier question, "I came here to find the three people who saved my father, and to kowtow to them on my father's behalf to express my gratitude."
"You're going to find them? I happen to have nothing to do right now, I'll take you there."
Yalin led Cheng Ying up the stone steps. "Speaking of which, one of the people who saved you was my father. At that time, my father was picking herbs halfway up the western mountain when he saw your father fall down the mountain. He went back to the village and found two familiar old men. Together, they carried your father into the village for basic treatment, and then carried him down the mountain to your home. Fortunately, the western mountain range is lower than the eastern mountain range where our village is located. During the fall, your father kept grabbing onto the cliffs and trees along the way to reduce the impact of the fall. He was also lucky to fall into the river below the mountain. Otherwise, falling from that mountain several hundred meters high, your father would have died long ago."
Cheng Ying was quite moved when she heard this. "That's really a coincidence. I feel a little embarrassed to come to your door empty-handed to thank you."
She had put the money she brought in the bag of her work clothes; she didn't know if Yalin had seen it when she was washing her clothes.
"It's alright. We people in our village don't care about your Han Chinese etiquette and customs. As long as the sentiment is there, that's enough," Yalin said nonchalantly.
The two people and the dog walked along the stone steps up the low mountain.
As she walked, Cheng Ying looked around.
When she first came to Pucang Village, she couldn't help but be curious about this mysterious Miao village deep in the mountains.
As far as she could see, there were stilted houses built against the mountain. The distance between each stilted house was about fifty meters. But starting from the foot of the mountain, another stilted house was built on top of each one, making them look like layers upon layers of tofu blocks, neat and dense.
Wooden staircases were built next to the stilted houses, connecting them to the winding stone paths that crisscrossed the hillside. At least a hundred stilted houses were built on this small hill.
There are several other low hills with stilted houses built on them. Cheng Ying made a preliminary calculation and estimated that there are at least five hundred stilted houses in total. In other words, there are at least five hundred Miao households and more than a thousand people living in Pucang Village.
So many people live in this small village nestled in a canyon!
Cheng Ying heard that the Miao people of Pucang Village had fled from western Hunan during the war. It must have been quite a large undertaking for so many people to migrate to this remote mountain forest.
Perhaps sensing what she was thinking, Yalin said, "There aren't as many people in our village as you imagine. When we first moved here, there were only a little over 700 people. We didn't have enough houses to live in, so we kept expanding and building stilted houses, and the number of houses kept increasing."
Later, the War of Resistance against Japan became so fierce that the flames of war spread to Qingqu Town. The town mayor at the time heard that the Miao people of our Pucang Village knew how to use Gu poison, that the Miao men were strong and healthy, and that the Miao knives were very sharp. He sent many people to ask our clan to come out of the mountains to kill the Japanese devils. Our old clan chief was eventually persuaded and sent nearly three hundred strong men to fight. As a result, countless people were killed or wounded, and only fifty returned.
Afterwards, the local government wanted to posthumously honor the fallen heroes of our village as martyrs and to report them for commendation. Our old clan chief directly refused, demanding that the local government conceal the matter and not publicize the existence of our Pucang Village, so that we could live in seclusion at the foot of Ayi Mountain and protect the remaining clansmen.
After decades of changes, many villagers have died or left, and now the village has a population of just over three hundred. There are too many houses, and many young people live alone in stilted houses.
Cheng Ying suddenly realized, remembering Long Buxi, "Your brother, no, Long Buxi, does he live alone in that stilted house?"
"Yes, Arno's parents died when he was very young. He was raised by our old clan chief. He lives alone in a stilted house at the foot of Zhongshan Mountain on the other side of the river. He is usually the only one in that house."
As Yalin spoke, she suddenly turned to look at her and said, "In front of the people in our village, try not to call Brother Arno by his full name. His name has a special meaning in our village. If you call him by his full name, the people in our village will be unhappy. Just call him Arno."
Cheng Ying: ......
There are so many rules.
Because of Cheng Ying's arrival, many curious Miao people stood on the corridors of the second floor of many stilted houses on the mountain, watching Cheng Ying climb up the mountain step by step. Every now and then, two or three people would whisper to each other, speaking in Miao language that Cheng Ying could not understand.
Cheng Ying heard their voices and looked over one by one. They didn't avoid her gaze and all looked at her with strange eyes.
Soon, Yalin stopped in front of a stilted house halfway up the mountain and led her into the living room on the second floor.
Yalin pushed over the half-meter-high wooden threshold in front of the living room and shouted, "Father!"
After speaking a lot in Miao language, a middle-aged Miao man in his forties, dressed in dark brown Miao clothing and a gray-blue Miao hat, with a thin build and a short stature, estimated to be only 1.65 meters tall, came out and looked at Cheng Ying, sizing her up and down.
Cheng Ying still remembered Cheng Jiantong's instructions: she should not step on the threshold of Miao people's homes, because in the eyes of the Miao people, stepping on their threshold would ruin and take away their fortune for the coming year, and they would be very angry. Therefore, she raised her foot and stepped over the threshold.
Cheng Ying noticed the middle-aged man looking her over, but she didn't feel uncomfortable at all. She looked at Ya Lin, who was standing next to the man, and asked, "Is this your father?"
"Yes," Yalin nodded.
Cheng Ying knelt down in front of the middle-aged man with a thud, kowtowed three times, and looked up at him, saying, "Thank you, Uncle, for saving my father's life. I kowtow to you on my father's behalf. I left in a hurry and didn't bring any money as a token of my gratitude. Next time I come to the village, I will definitely bring a good gift to repay you."
Yalin, standing beside him, acted as a translator, translating what she had just said into Miao language and relaying it to the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man's furrowed brows relaxed, and he quickly helped Cheng Ying up, speaking a string of words in Miao language, ending with three words: "You Ta Sha".
Cheng Ying understood the meaning of "welcome" in the Miao language, but she couldn't understand the other words.
Yalin translated, "My dad said it was just a small thing he did. Uncle Cheng is a postman. He fell down the mountain. My dad saw it and it was only right that he helped Uncle Cheng. He told you and your dad not to worry about it. My dad also said that you've come all this way, so you're a guest. It's almost lunchtime now, and my mom is cooking inside. Why don't you stay and eat with us?"
Cheng Ying remembered what Long Buxi had said: don't eat food from other Miao people in the village. Although she didn't know why, she had a feeling it might be related to Gu worms.
The rumors that the Miao people of Pucang Village use witchcraft are not unfounded. These seemingly kind Miao people are not so friendly to outsiders.
Cheng Ying took over her father's job as a postman, which is a government cadre position. The Miao people in Pucang Village probably won't use witchcraft on her, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.
She politely declined, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, Uncle. Longbu, no, Arno went to the mountain to pick vegetables. He said he would cook for me. After I thank the other two families, I will go back to Arno's place for dinner."
"Arno cooked for you?" Yalin asked with a strange expression.
"Really? What's wrong?" Cheng Ying noticed her expression and asked curiously, "Is his cooking bad?"
“No, he’s a very good cook, but I rarely see him cook.” Yalin pointed eastward into the dense forest and said, “He’s been eating at the village chief’s house since he was ten years old, and he rarely cooks for himself.”
Cheng Ying looked in the direction she pointed, and in a dense forest with many trees providing shade, she could vaguely see the dark gray roofs of several large stilted houses.
Is that Lizhai?
It looks quite far from here. I wonder how many stilted houses there are, and who else lives there besides the old clan chief.
She wanted to ask about Long Buxi, but felt that she was an outsider and had nothing to do with Long Buxi. Asking too much might cause misunderstandings, so she said nothing and asked Yalin to take her to the other two households to express her gratitude.
Yalin readily led her to thank the male heads of two families living in different places on the mountain.
Unlike Ya Lin's father, who promptly helped Cheng Ying up, the two men simply stared blankly at her after she kowtowed to them, without offering any assistance. After Ya Lin translated her words of gratitude, they merely nodded slightly, saying nothing to indicate that they understood.
Yalin led Cheng Ying down the mountain and explained, "Don't mind their attitude. Like many people in the village, they are quite old-fashioned and stubborn, and they strongly oppose outsiders entering the village, even if you are Uncle Cheng's daughter and a postman. In the past, they wouldn't have listened to anything you said and would have kicked you out of the village long ago. It's only now that we have more contact with the outside world, many young people have left the village, and many outsiders have come, that they have become much more restrained. But don't worry, they know you are a postman and have no ill intentions towards our village. They won't do anything to you."
Cheng Ying found this strange. Could it be that if an outsider stepped into the village, they would do something to that outsider?
Cheng Ying noticed something: the people of Pucang Village seemed to be exceptionally tolerant of Da Huang. As she followed Ya Lin up and down the stone path, the Miao people who watched her from the second-floor stilted house corridor or by the roadside looked at her with strange expressions of curiosity, inquiry, and sympathy. But when they saw Da Huang, their eyes were very friendly.
Some Miao people even petted Dahuang's furry head when it passed by, and Dahuang didn't resist, letting them pet it, giving people a strange sense of harmonious coexistence between humans and animals.
Soon, they returned to the stilted house where Long Buxi lived.
Yalin said, "You go up, I'm going home for dinner, so I won't go up with you. Your injuries will take a few more days to fully recover in our village. If you encounter any problems during this time, you can come to my house for help, or you can come to visit me every day. Anyway, I'm feeling bored staying in the village. Since you're from outside, you can tell me about the outside world and help me pass the time."
"Okay." Cheng Ying agreed, but before she left, she pointed to the irises blooming all along the roadside and asked, "Yalin, can I pick these irises?"
Yalin replied without hesitation, "Sure, you can pick as many as you want. Iris flowers aren't poisonous, and they grow everywhere in our village."
Cheng Ying paused for a moment: "Long Buxi said that many lovers' corpses are buried under these irises by the roadside. The flowers bloom on these dead bones, so they are called 'dead people's flowers'."
Yalin chuckled. "Don't listen to his nonsense. In our village, some people do plant irises on the bones of the dead and on graves, but when people in our village die, they are buried in the Valley of the Dead. How could we just bury them by the roadside? He's just teasing you."
Cheng Ying: ......
She watched Yalin leave, then angrily picked two irises from the roadside and held them in her hand.
She thought Long Buxi was no ordinary person, and that his words represented the people of Pucang Village. She never expected him to make up such nonsense to fool her.
Cheng Ying stormed up to the living room on the second floor with Da Huang, intending to question Long Buxi.
Unexpectedly, when I went upstairs, I saw Long Buxi carrying a freshly prepared meal, which she placed on a wooden table by the south window on the second floor.
Seeing her return, he said, "You're back? Let's eat."
On the table were a plate of bamboo shoots stir-fried with cured pork slices, a pot of radish stewed with cured pork ribs, a steamed fish, a plate of stir-fried sweet potato leaves, and a pot of steamed rice that was crystal clear.
The food emitted an enticing aroma that wafted through the room.
Cheng Ying swallowed involuntarily. Her anger at Long Buxi, which had initially made her want to question him, vanished. She looked at the two sets of bowls and chopsticks on the table and asked, "Did you make all of this? So much food, and it's just for the two of us?"
"Yes, I can do it." Long Buxi took a wooden spoon and scooped rice into two bowls, placing one bowl in front of her and gesturing for her to sit opposite him.
He pointed to the big yellow dog sitting obediently at her feet, drooling incessantly, and said, "It's not just the two of us eating; your dog, Big Yellow, will be eating too. This is your first time eating at my house, so as the host, I have to treat you well. My aunt treated your father the same way when he came to our village."
Cheng Ying took her seat and asked curiously, "Your aunt is...?"
"Her name is Mei Shu. I'll introduce you to her when I have the chance." Long Buxi put a piece of fish into her bowl, then a piece of cured pork rib with meat on it, and threw it on the ground for Da Huang to eat.
There was a lot of meat on that rib, at least the size of half a baby's fist. In a village outside, where people often lack oil and fat, such a large piece of meat would be too much to eat, let alone give to a dog. Even feeding it to one's own family would be a waste.
Instead, he just threw it to the dog.
"How extravagant," Cheng Ying thought to herself.
Big Yellow didn't care what Cheng Ying thought; it was overjoyed to have meat to eat and bones to gnaw on.
It barked at Long Buxi, wagged its tail twice, then lay down on the ground and buried its head in eating meat and gnawing on bones.
"Why aren't you eating?" Long Buxi frowned and asked when she saw Cheng Ying not touching her chopsticks. "Is this food not to your liking?"
"No, the food is very good, it's just that I..." Cheng Ying picked up her chopsticks, thinking that he had lost both his parents at a young age and probably no one had taught him how to take care of a sick person. She hesitated for a moment and said, "I'm just recovering from a serious illness. We Han people, when we're sick, we cook rice porridge for the sick to soothe their stomachs and make it easier for them to swallow and digest food. But I'm not that sick, I can eat meat and vegetables. I just want to ask you, you wouldn't have put a curse on my food, would you?"
Long Buxi lifted her eyelids to look at her, "Why do you think I would use a curse on you?"
“I’ve heard the legends of your village. Every clan chief in your village practices Gu poison. You are the young clan chief, the next one, so you will definitely use Gu poison. I don’t want to be poisoned by you. I am a postman, a public servant. I have my own job and life. I have no ill intentions towards your village. I am just delivering mail to you. I don’t want to be controlled by you.” Cheng Ying looked into his deep eyes and spoke frankly.
Long Buxi raised an eyebrow, a glint of something unreadable flashing in her narrow eyes. "Would you believe me if I said I don't know how to use Gu?"
“I don’t believe you. You’ve already lied to me once.” Cheng Ying pointed to the two blue irises she had placed on the table and said, “You said that there are human bones buried under those irises by the roadside, but Ya Lin said no, that people in your village who die are buried in a place called Dead Man’s Valley.”
Long Buxi raised an eyebrow, neither confirming nor denying. "So you're not planning to eat? You'll have to stay in the village for at least five days. You need my special medicine for your wounds to fully heal. Without my medicine, if you force yourself to leave, you'll be in excruciating pain. During these five days, you're not going to eat my food, but someone else's? Are you sure they won't use a curse on you? Or are you planning to go without food or water for five days?"
Cheng Ying's expression froze. She knew very well that even if she managed to grab a tree branch and land on a thick pile of fallen leaves and mud, she couldn't possibly have fallen unharmed from such a height. It was impossible for her not to have broken her arms and legs or suffered a broken back.
She vividly remembers the excruciating pain and inability to move that she felt when she fell to the ground.
But now, she woke up after only one week in Pucang Village, and her body was completely unharmed.
Although there is still some pain in my body, I can move my limbs freely, which is completely illogical.
Her father, a month ago, fell from a mountain nearly 800 meters high in the western Ayishan Mountains into the river below. Falling from such a height, even with the river as a buffer, it was impossible for him to be unharmed.
Her father, however, survived, becoming paralyzed on one side but living a good life. It's hard for others to believe.
In some documents about the Miao people that Cheng Ying had read, it was mentioned that the Miao doctors of some ancient tribes had superb and mysterious medical skills. In ancient times, the Miao medicines made by these Miao doctors could regenerate tissue and bring the dead back to life.
However, the medicinal materials used to make these Miao medicines are very difficult to find, and they often contain many poisonous insects and poisons, so the medicinal properties are usually very strong, similar to the practice of poisoning poisons, which most people cannot tolerate.
Even so, many people with serious illnesses are willing to risk spending a lot of money to try and cure their diseases, which is why there is a saying that Miao special medicines are hard to come by.
Cheng Ying pursed her lips and asked, "My dad fell down the mountain and was rescued by Ya Lin's dad and the others. They carried my dad back to your village and gave him some basic first aid. They applied some Miao medicine to him. You didn't make that Miao medicine, did you?"
“Yes.” Long Buxi admitted directly, with a half-smile, “In terms of how you repay me, I saved both your father and your life. Don’t you Han people believe in repaying a drop of kindness with a spring of gratitude?”
Cheng Ying remained silent for a long while before saying, "I have no way to repay the life-saving grace you have shown to my father and me. How about I give you some money every month after I get my salary, and also buy you some food and other necessities?"
Long Buxi shook her head, "I don't lack those things, nor do I need them."
"Then how do you want me to repay you?" Cheng Ying asked, gripping the chopsticks in her hand.
Long Buxi smiled meaningfully, "Let's eat first. I'll tell you about repaying the favor when I've thought it through."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
