Chapter 5: A Mei Family Daughter Grows Up (Part 2)
The old man ate dinner earlier than most people. At 4:30 p.m., Village Head Gong invited Lu Li to join him. During the meal, he talked about the Mei family’s daughter. “She was a lovely girl, very sensible and intelligent. She only lived in Shanzhu Village for three years, but the young men in the village remembered her for the rest of their lives.”
The dishes on the table were simple, but heavily seasoned with oil and salt. Lu Li picked up a piece of dried bamboo shoots and saw Zhaocai trot in, licking his shoes with its tongue like an eager servant.
Village Head Gong chuckled. “Zhaocai is a strange dog. It’s a vegetarian.”
A vegetarian dog? Lu Li raised an eyebrow, looking at Zhaocai with curiosity.
“Continue about the Mei family’s daughter.” The old man kicked Zhaocai lightly. “Go on, go outside and keep watch, don’t let anyone else in.” The yellow dog whined pitifully, but still obediently went back outside. They said old dogs were clever, and it seemed to be true. Lu Li originally only liked cats, but now he was a bit more interested in dogs.
“What was the Mei family’s daughter’s name again?” He tapped his head with his chopsticks.
“Mei Jinliu,” Lu Li reminded him.
“Oh right, Mei Jinliu, Mei Jinliu… Tsk, she was the smartest woman I’ve ever met.” Village Head Gong reminisced. “Back then, she knew everything, from astronomy to geography. Whenever someone in the village wanted to move or build a house, they had to consult her for an auspicious date. A young girl, like a living Bodhisattva, answering everyone’s prayers.”
“That’s quite an exaggeration.”
“Yes. Yes. Yes.” The old man repeated three times. “That year, there was a big flood. The town hadn’t even issued a notice yet. The little girl went door to door in the middle of the night, waking everyone up, saying that a flood was coming and telling the villagers to gather their valuables and run to higher ground. Sure enough, a flood came in the early hours of the morning. The county even sent people for emergency rescue, but our Shanzhu Village suffered the least damage.”
Lu Li wasn’t surprised. If Mei Jinliu was truly the first to use the pendant for rebirth, it wouldn’t be strange for her to foresee natural disasters.
“Old Mei said she had excellent grades in school, that she was admitted to a high school in the provincial capital on special recommendation, and that she would even go to university. Going to university, how rare was that… The young men in the village didn’t dare to talk to her. They would nervously fix their hair with their muddy hands when they saw her. Every time Mei Jinliu took the bus to the city for school, they would follow behind, wishing her a safe journey. My useless nephew even said he would be willing to shorten his life by ten years if he could marry her. Hehe…” Remembering the past, the old man’s face became more animated.
“Then… was the Mei family’s daughter particularly close to anyone?” Lu Li became nervous. This was about An Baili’s biological father, he couldn’t help but be nervous.
“Yes.” An expected answer. “Later, when Old Mei returned to the city to work, his daughter never came back. That young man, in a fit of passion, rented out his family’s fields and followed Old Mei to the city. Later… later, I heard that the Mei family’s daughter got married, but the groom wasn’t that young man. I don’t know what happened after that.”
“Oh, right.” Village Head Gong suddenly remembered. “Mei Jinliu came back once, saying she wanted to sell the old family house. She stayed in the village for a while, then left without a word, never mentioning the house sale again. Is the food alright? I’m getting old, and if I don’t use enough oil and salt, the food tastes bland.”
“It’s delicious. You’re a good cook.” Lu Li smiled and picked up some food with his chopsticks. Suddenly, he thought of something and asked, “Village Head Gong, why haven’t I seen anyone else in Shanzhu Village? Is this village always this deserted?”
“They just don’t like going out. It’s cold, you’d better not wander around either, just stay here.” The old man put down his chopsticks and lit another cigarette. “You can sleep in the room my wife used to live in before she passed away. It’s not safe out in the wilderness. If you hear any noises at night, don’t open the door.”
Lu Li looked at Zhaocai. “What about Zhaocai?”
“It will keep watch.” The old man exhaled a puff of smoke. “That’s its job.”
The room was sparsely furnished, almost bare. An old wooden bed sat in the middle of the room, draped with a mosquito net that smelled of medicinal herbs. The only light source was a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, emitting a dim, flickering orange light.
A small toad jumped past Lu Li’s feet, startling him. Looking closer, he saw many more tiny toads, the size of his fingertip, hopping around in the corners of the room. This must be what they called “natural living.”
Through the dirty windowpane, he could see the outside world covered in a dark blue veil. The colder it got, the earlier the sun set.
Lu Li sat on the bed, carefully recalling everything that had happened today. Ever since he entered Shanzhu Village, he had felt something brewing in the shadows. This village was filled with strange things. First, there were those “people” in the abandoned brick houses, small in stature, wielding sickles, like wild animals. It wasn’t a hallucination, because Lu Li had just checked his backpack and found half a muddy handprint on it.
What were they?
Then there was the old man who called himself Village Head Gong. He had been too calm, as if he had anticipated Lu Li’s arrival. Even when recounting past stories, his emotions didn’t fluctuate much. And after he appeared, those strange “people” suddenly vanished without a trace. The most suspicious thing was that whenever Lu Li asked about the village, he would always give a brief and dismissive answer, as if hiding something.
The strangest thing was this village itself. Lu Li had been to other villages before. Rural women in China loved to gossip after dinner, strolling around in groups and chatting about their family affairs. But in Shanzhu Village, Lu Li hadn’t seen a single person, not even in the fields or by the pond. He only saw fishing nets and farming tools scattered around.
A chilling thought arose in his mind: Was there anyone else left in this village?
“Buzz, buzz, buzz—” The vibration of his phone interrupted Lu Li’s increasingly horrifying thoughts.
It was a video call. Seeing the golden retriever profile picture, the fear in Lu Li’s heart subsided, and his heavy mood lightened slightly. He answered the call and saw two small heads huddled together, jostling for space.
“Hey, Baili, move over a bit.”
“Jingyi, let me talk to Lu Li first.”
Lu Li noticed that the background of the video call was Chu Jingyi’s bedroom. Both girls were wearing pajamas, huddled together in bed while calling him. Lu Li was worried about An Baili’s safety in the low-rent district, so he had asked her to stay at Silly Goose’s place during the day. After all, she wasn’t Sister Yameng, who had single-handedly defeated the bullies in the low-rent district with her brute strength, almost breaking his back in the process.
An Baili’s face appeared on the screen, her lips pouting. “Why did you go to the countryside without telling me? Why didn’t you take me with you?”
“If I told you, you would have definitely followed me.” Lu Li said with a hint of annoyance. He came to Shanzhu Village for serious business, not for a vacation. If he brought An Baili along, would he even get any sleep at night?
Chu Jingyi was afraid that she wouldn’t get to talk to Lu Li enough. “Um, um… Lu Li, Lu Li, when are you coming back?”
“When do you want me to come back?”
Silly Goose’s cheeks turned pink. She was a bit shy with An Baili present. “I don’t know…” An Baili snorted. “Where are you staying? It looks so run-down.”
The room was indeed shabby. Besides a bed and an unplugged refrigerator, there was nothing else.
“I’m staying at the village head’s house.” Lu Li said with a smile. “Although my accommodation is a bit run-down, it’s the best house in this village. The village head is very hospitable.”
“Did you meet any cute girls there?” An Baili’s nostrils flared as she spoke into the camera. “The village girls must have thought, ‘Wow, a handsome guy from the big city, let’s get close to him.’ Then a certain someone would be happily surrounded by girls, left and right.”
“Lu Li wouldn’t do that.” Chu Jingyi whispered in his defense. Lu Li was touched. Silly Goose was so thoughtful. Whenever someone badmouthed him, she would always be the first to defend him. She looked at Lu Li with teary eyes. “Lu Li, you wouldn’t do that, right?”
“Right, right, right.” Lu Li nodded repeatedly. He couldn’t stand it when girls looked at him with teary eyes.
When he was with them, it felt like all his worries had disappeared.
The three of them chatted for hours until An Baili started to feel sleepy, her eyelids drooping. “Lu Li, I’m a little sleepy.”
“Then you two should get some rest.” Lu Li’s heart tightened. An Baili used to be a night owl, staying up late with him. But now… Chu Jingyi was considerate. She held An Baili’s hand. “Let’s go to sleep then. You can sleep with me, I’ve been having nightmares lately and I’m a bit scared.”
In the video, the two lovely girls lay down and pulled the blanket over themselves. Just as Lu Li was about to hang up, he heard An Baili mumble, “Don’t hang up… Stay with us while we sleep… Jingyi, ask Lu Li not to hang up, okay… He always listens to you…”
Silly Goose covered her face with the blanket, too shy to look at the phone. “It’s up to him.” Her heart was pounding. The little girl was still easily embarrassed.
“I won’t hang up, I’ll stay with you while you sleep.” Lu Li remembered when he was dating An Baili in his past life. She never hung up the phone at night, even if they didn’t talk, she would just listen to his breathing.
“Good night~”
“Good night, Lu Li.” The two girls said good night sweetly and placed their phones on their pillows.
Lu Li couldn’t see their faces, only hear their soft and steady breathing. Through the screen, he could almost smell their faint fragrance and feel the warmth of their bodies. A greedy fantasy arose in his mind. He wished he could be between the two girls right now, one arm around the nervous and sleepless Silly Goose, the other around the sound asleep An Baili.
Thinking of this, Lu Li felt a little sleepy himself. He didn’t take off his jacket, just his shoes, and lay down on the old wooden bed, slowly drifting off to sleep, accompanied by the smell of medicinal herbs and mildew. Before falling asleep, he vaguely heard someone knocking on the door. He used his last shred of consciousness to look towards the window and saw someone standing there, watching him… It wasn’t Village Head Gong, but a woman with wide, staring eyes…
Was it an illusion?
…Lu Li finally drifted off to sleep.
Midnight, 1:07:16.
The night in Shanzhu Village was silent. No frogs croaking, no cicadas chirping, no birds singing, only a deathly stillness.
Lu Li woke up from a nightmare. The moment he opened his eyes, the memory of the dream began to fade like peeling paint. By the time he sat up, he had completely forgotten its content. But his heart was still pounding with lingering fear. He looked towards the window, catching his breath. There was no woman’s head outside, no one knocking on the door, only the pitch-black sky and a bottomless darkness. Bottomless.
The video call had ended at some point. Lu Li couldn’t remember if he had hung up.
He was thirsty, so he got up to get his water bottle from his backpack. But as soon as he got out of bed, he heard a knock on the door. This time, it wasn’t a faint, almost inaudible knock, but a clear, definite rapping.
Was it Village Head Gong? What was he doing knocking on his door in the middle of the night?
Lu Li didn’t answer immediately. His mind raced, recalling the old man’s warning not to open the door at night and his strange experiences in Shanzhu Village.
Lu Li had always been a skeptic. Perhaps there were supernatural forces in the world, but definitely not ghosts or monsters. If there really were ghosts, the souls of hundreds of thousands of Chinese compatriots who died in the world wars would have already torn the Germans apart. He would rather believe it was some kind of creature, a living being that breathed, had a heartbeat, needed to eat, and had its own ecological niche. And if it was a living creature, it would bleed, and if it bled, it could die.
He took a few deep breaths, pulled out a small knife from his backpack, and slowly approached the wooden door.
“Auntie Zhao, are you home?” A little girl’s voice came from outside. Lu Li froze.
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