Chapter 3: A Rural Shenzhou Tale (Part 2)
The fog in the countryside wasn’t the rough, grainy kind of smog, but a gentle, permeating mist, moving slowly across the fields, sometimes thick, sometimes thin. After walking a few hundred meters, the fog gradually dispersed, and everything seemed freshly washed. Looking back, the path he had taken was still shrouded in mist. Lu Li didn’t think much of it, assuming it was just the nature of the countryside.
Dilapidated red brick bungalows began to appear on both sides of the muddy path. Weeds grew unchecked within the houses, trees grew haphazardly, and overturned wooden chairs were covered in cobwebs. The marks of time were evident. Lu Li guessed that the owners of these houses hadn’t returned for at least thirty years. After walking for another ten minutes, passing seven or eight dilapidated houses, Lu Li still hadn’t encountered a single person. The entire village was dead silent, devoid of human activity. Not even the sound of birdsong could be heard.
Lu Li heard a rustling sound behind him. He turned around and saw a skinny, monkey-like figure dart out of an old house and disappear into the bamboo forest behind it. He couldn’t see it clearly. What was that? A monkey? It seemed to be holding a sickle. Did monkeys harvest crops too? Lu Li felt a sense of absurdity. His intuition told him not to go and investigate. This was a classic horror movie trope: a strong, athletic man hears a strange noise in a deserted, creepy place and, instead of leaving, foolishly goes to investigate.
Was it a monkey? It didn’t matter. Why was it holding a sickle? It didn’t matter either.
The important thing was to quicken his pace and find a living person. No matter how dilapidated this village was, it couldn’t be that he hadn’t seen a single person after walking for half an hour, right?
“Chirp.” At first, it sounded like a monkey’s call, but listening carefully, it was more like a human imitating a monkey. Lu Li turned around sharply and saw dark figures moving in the dilapidated houses he had passed earlier. As soon as he turned around, the figures disappeared back into the houses. A chill ran down Lu Li’s spine. What was going on? Did people actually live in those broken houses?
“Hello, is anyone there?” Lu Li called out. He would rather believe it was the village children playing a prank, but the man at the store had clearly said that there were only elderly people left in this village. Were the elderly so bored that they were pretending to be monkeys to scare him?
No one answered. Lu Li’s voice echoed in the empty countryside.
He had often heard that the most troublesome things in the countryside were dogs. They were ferocious and roamed in packs, attacking passing motorcycles or bicycles. But he had never heard of monkeys in the Chuanhai countryside.
Someone was laughing, hidden behind the dilapidated houses, a sharp, piercing laugh. It only lasted for a short while, as if afraid of being discovered by Lu Li. The laughter sounded like the cackle of a sixty-year-old man, sinister and vile.
Lu Li picked up a wooden stick from the ground for self-defense.
He continued walking. Whenever he turned his back, the chirping laughter of monkeys would come from behind him, intermittent, accompanied by the sound of some primate crawling on the ground. And there was more than one. Strange noises came from the tiles and cobwebs of those broken houses, along with the scraping sound of rusty sickles against red bricks.
This was definitely not normal.
Lu Li quickened his pace, from a brisk walk to a jog, then to a sprint. The sounds behind him became more and more frequent, more and more urgent, like hounds hot on his trail. Many thoughts flashed through his mind. Maybe this village had been occupied by monkeys or mandrills, or maybe the elderly in the village had been torn apart by starving stray dogs.
The strange sounds behind him grew closer, the chirping monkey calls no longer concealed, ringing right in his ears, right behind him.
It must be monkeys, right? It has to be monkeys, right? Lu Li’s heart pounded in his chest. That was definitely not a monkey. It was a human voice, someone imitating a monkey. But… why?
He felt a sharp tug on his backpack, and he stumbled. But Lu Li reacted quickly. He broke free from the grip, whatever it was, and sprinted forward with the speed of a hundred-meter dash. Those things were chasing him relentlessly. He could even hear the sound of their drool dripping.
“Woof!” A deafening bark erupted in front of him, and Lu Li felt his mind go numb. For a moment, the air solidified. He saw the clouds in the azure sky changing rapidly, white clouds turning into gray dogs in an instant. A large, yellow dog, about knee-high, stood before him. Its fur was rough, its nose black. It was a typical rural dog, and it was the one that had just barked.
“Young man, who are you looking for?” Beside the yellow dog stood an old man leaning on a cane. His gray hair was like dry grass, his face a roadmap of wrinkles, and he held a straw hat in his charcoal-like hand.
Lu Li’s breathing quickened. He looked back. “There are monsters…” But the country road behind him was quiet and peaceful. The early spring breeze rustled through the withered trees, as if everything had been his imagination.
Lu Li was stunned. “There were things making monkey sounds chasing me, trying to snatch my bag.”
“It’s just the village children being naughty.” The old man said.
Village children? What kind of children would make those sounds? Lu Li was about to retort when the yellow dog came up to him enthusiastically, licking his pants. He swallowed his questions.
The old man asked again, “Young man, who are you looking for?”
“…I’m looking for Mei Xiuzheng and his wife.”
The old man sighed and turned around. “Follow me.” Before Lu Li could move, the yellow dog eagerly led the way, its tongue lolling out. Lu Li looked back at the muddy path he had come from, still in disbelief. He could only see his own hurried footprints. The strange sounds from before seemed to have never existed.
Impossible… He clearly felt someone grabbing his backpack and heard the clang of a sickle dragging on the ground.
Those weren’t children.
Lu Li hesitantly followed the old man, who was walking slowly, glancing back every now and then. But the strange phenomenon didn’t reappear. The sun was shining, the wind was gentle, everything seemed normal.
“Sir, are there any children in the village? I heard… there are no young people left in Shanzhu Village.” Lu Li asked.
“There are.” The old man spoke slowly, each word carefully enunciated. He didn’t offer any explanation.
“The Mei family is long gone.” His eyes were cloudy, as if he was reminiscing about the past. The old man raised his cane and pointed to a small, overgrown hill. “That’s the old Mei residence. No one has taken care of it for many years.”
Before Lu Li could process the information, the old man continued in a trembling voice, “Young man, come to my house and sit for a while. There are some things… I need to tell you.”
The yellow dog barked twice and wagged its tail around Lu Li, clearly fond of him. Lu Li looked around and indeed couldn’t see any other living person. After hesitating for a moment, he agreed. He threw away the wooden stick he had been using for self-defense, suddenly realizing that this trip to Shanzhu Village might not be so simple after all.
Leave a Reply