Chapter 7 – The Feast of Blood (II)
“You… you want to move to Ah Xiu’s house?”
After hearing Li Yin say this, Elder Zhang is completely nonplussed before he quickly asks in a low voice, “This, am I not treating you guys appropriately here? Ah Xiu’s house is so small, you all…”
“There is no such thing, elder. You have treated us really well. But we want to experience the true farm customs. Since you’ve treated us so well, the feeling of living in a farm has in fact been lost.”
This is obviously a lie without even half a soup spoon of sincerity. In reality, just who can you fool with such a bad lie like “experiencing the farm customs”? The elder clearly let them stay because of a misunderstanding, but now they can only try to make the best out of this mistake.
When the Village Elder saw Li Yin’s insistence, an epiphany suddenly seemed to dawn on him as he said, “Oh, so that’s what it is. That’s what it is.”
“What do you mean?”
“I understand. But Mr. Li you have to remember one thing.” Elder Zhang speaks to Li Yin in an abnormally grave manner, “Please keep this in mind. If Ah Xiu mentions anything like ghostly hauntings or some people who disappeared from this village in the past, definitely do not trust her. Those are all her nonsensical tales. Yes, indeed there have been some people who disappeared mysteriously within a month of Bing Er’s commemoration day, but those are all coincidences.”
“Coincidences?”
“Nowadays, everyone wants to go to the city to expand their worldview. Many think that staying in the village for their whole life ruins their future, especially the young ones. They all want to run to the city to find a job and seek development, believing that the city floor is covered by shining gold. But as to why they choose Bing Er’s commemoration day, I think they want to blame everything on the ghostly rumours so the villagers will not suspect that they have actually gone to the city. Otherwise they will be troubled by these annoying people from the village who go to the city to look for them…”
This logic is very strained. Li Yin feels that the elder is intentionally hiding something.
“Anyways… Mr. Li, please don’t believe anything that Ah Xiu says,” Elder Zhang says solemnly, “Her relationship with Bing Er was too good, which is why things have become like this.”
After leaving the elder’s house, Li Yin becomes more certain that the elder knows something but had not told him.
And Ah Xiu… Is Ah Xiu hiding something as well?
When he approaches Ah Xiu’s house, Li Yin notices a bespectacled youth walking in the direction of Ah Xiu’s house. And when that person spots Li Yin’s group, he furrows his brows.
“You guys… Are you the four non-native people from the city?” This bespectacled man is Liang Renbin. His tone dissatisfied, he says, “What are you guys doing here?”
After all, the elder already notified the villagers. So, being mindful of the elder’s face, his att.i.tude is only just a bit cold.
Luo Hengyang also recognizes Liang Renbin. This morning he saw this person pulling Ah Xiu back when she was to hit Ge Ling.
“I remember you…” Luo Hengyan thinks for a bit and says, “Your name is… Renbin, right?”
“Liang Renbin.” He answers him coldly. “My father is the only doctor in the village and he is very close to the elder’s family. I don’t know what is Elder Zhang thinking. But Ah Wu mentions to me that you are definitely not good people! I advise you to leave early. Anything you’ve heard about ghostly hauntings are all just nonsense. Don’t even think about trying to dig up news from that!”
Then, he suddenly remembers something and asks in a hurry, “Wait… you’re all bringing your belongings…to Ah Xiu’s house? It can’t be that you guys are planning to live in her house, right?”
“That’s correct.” Li Yin answers.
Liang Renbin immediately explodes in outrage, completely forgetting everything the elder has reminded him. He roars, “Who do you think you are? You guys dare to stay with Ah Xiu?”
“What kind of att.i.tude is that?” Luo Hengyan also gets furious, “So what if we dare? Who are you to Ah Xiu? Do you have any say over her?”
“She is my fiancée!” Liang Renbin strides towards them quickly. He grabs Li Yin’s collar with one hand and says, “You guys get out of the village right now! If you dare to step a foot in again, I will mutilate you!”
“As the son of a doctor, shouldn’t you possess at least a little compa.s.sion?” Li Yin says calmly, “Mr. Liang, please let go. We will leave after living for a month. We definitely won’t bring you all any trouble.”
“f.u.c.k off!” Liang Renbin’s anger takes over his mind. Just as he is about to give Li Yin a violent punch, Li Yin grabs his fist and says, “Mr. Liang, please do not test my limits!”
During this whole month, they can’t even take half a step out of the Village of Tranquil Water. So they must act absolutely unyielding! If they are too soft right now, then in the future, it will be very troublesome if all the villagers unite together to make them leave.
“You…” Liang Renbin seems to want to say more, but suddenly, he sees two people running towards them behind Li Yin, so he releases his grasp. He shouts, “Ah Wu, Ah Yue!”
The people who are approaching them are Zhang Hongwu and Zhang Suyue from Elder Zhang’s family.
“What are you doing? Renbin?” Suyue just saw that Renbin was about to hit Li Yin so she quickly dissuades him, “This is not decent, Renbin…”
“Ah Yue, both of us grew up with Ah Xiu. You tell me, should I let these strangers freely stay in Ah Xiu’s house? You know how I feel about Ah Xiu!”
Suyue nods her head and says, “I know that, which is why I rushed here.” Then, she looks at Li Yin. “Mr.Li, Mr.Luo, Mr.Qin, and Miss Ye, please leave. Look, none of the villagers welcome you here…”
“Who says so? I welcome them a lot.”
A familiar voice carries over as everyone turns their gazes towards the same person – Ah Xiu.
She glares at Liang Renbin coldly and says, “Liang Renbin, you grew tougher huh? Just who is your fiancee? And who were you about to hit?”
“Ah, Ah Xiu… listen to me, these four people do not come with good intentions.”
“Even then, they’re better than you!” Ah Xiu doesn’t even bother to look at him directly. She walks straight to Li Yin and says. “Please don’t mind him, Mr. Li. Come with me.”
Unable to tolerate any further, Liang Renbin grabs Ah Xiu’s hand and says, “Ah Xiu! What do you really mean by this?!”
“Exactly what it looks like. I am not your fiancée and I will not marry you. I can still remember very vividly how you treated sister Bing Er!”
Then, she turns her sight to Ah Wu and Suyue and says, “You two aren’t any better either. Ah Wu, you tried to rape sister Bing Er before, right?”
Ah Wu’s face immediately turns stark white. He angrily replies, “Don’t… Don’t slander me with your malicious words!”
“I knew it! You told sister Bing Er that since she is the wicked child from her mom’s affair, the blood flowing through her bones must be filthy anyway. That time…you tried to rape her by forcing her under a bush. If it wasn’t for Elder Zhang who happened to pa.s.s by, sister Bing Er would have…”
Ah Wu looks at the judgmental gazes from the people around them and explains in a panic, “She is lying! Don’t trust her! Suyue, you, you trust your older brother right?”
“And you, Suyue!” Ah Xiu points at her coldly and says, “Although you have not done anything directly to sister Bing Er, you grew up playing with her. You remained indifferent even when such a significant thing happened to her. And when her mother pa.s.sed away, you never even came to ask about her wellbeing!”
“Ah Xiu, I… I…” Suyue seems to want to defend herself, but was at a loss for words.
As he looks at this scene, Li Yin thinks that Ah Xiu must be really attached to Li Bing, to the extent that this attachment has been engraved into her bones and carved into her heart.
“Ah Wu,” Liang Renbin also asks in astonishment, “You couldn’t have done that, could you? You, you really did it? You’re insane!”
“It wasn’t me!” Ah Wu is still steadfastly trying to explain himself, “You believe Ah Xiu’s words? She also says that Li Bing’s vengeful ghost did not disappear and is coming back to take revenge on us. Don’t tell me you believe that as well?”
“I grew up with you, even playing around with our b.u.t.tocks naked. You think I can’t tell whether you are speaking the truth?” Liang Renbin then pays no further attention to Ah Wu. He continues to say to Ah Xiu, “Ah Xiu, alright, I get it. In the future, no, not in the future. Today is Li Bing’s commemoration day right? I will go there right now to pay my respects with you. I repent for everything that I did to her. Is this okay? Please don’t be like this! I really, truly like you!”
But Ah Xiu only reveals an ominous smile. “You like me? Fine, then prove it to me.”
“Prove? How?”
She points at the waterfall on the mountainside in far distance and says, “Go jump off from there. Oh, and don’t forget to cut off your tongue first. If you do that, I’ll believe that you actually like me.”
There is not a single trace of humour in her voice as she says this as her eyes fill with malice and cruelty.
This sends a chill down Li Yin’s heart.
“Ah Xiu…” Liang Renbin also becomes a bit scared by her gaze. He says, “You… you don’t really mean that, right?”
“Don’t want to jump? Then, just cutting off your tongue is fine too. If you cannot even do this, then don’t say you like me.”
This chilling grudge-filled look from Ah Xiu makes Li Yin, Luo Hengyan and everyone else shudder.
At the same time this is happening, Ge Ling sprints back home. The first she does is to shut the door tightly!
“I… I killed a person… I killed someone…” Ge Ling leans against the door. Recalling the scene from just now, she has still not recovered from her shock.
Just then, her husband Song Tian’s voice travels from the inner room, “What’s the matter? Have you lost your soul?”
She struggles to stand up, walks into the innermost room and says to her husband who is sitting in the room, “Hey… I said, we should go and burn some paper money for Li Bing.”
“Ah?” Song Tian is momentarily stunned and says, “Are…are you okay? Do you really think that Uncle Haotian disappeared because of the ghostly hauntings?”
“My, my heart is unsettled.” She takes occasional glances out of the window.
“You should stop overthinking!” Song Tian hurries to support her, sitting her down on the bed. “You are under the influence of Ah Xiu, right? There are indeed a few people missing, but that is not many at all. Only the son-in-law of the elder’s family died quite strangely, falling in front of the elder’s front door with his body fully soaked by water… but you can’t say these were caused by ghosts! This is all made up by Ah Xiu. Actually everyone is discussing whether Ah Xiu killed those people. But I don’t think that’s possible. How can a weak girl like her kill that many people?”
“I…I don’t know, I saw, I…”
“Why are you saying such nonsense?! Forget it and stop overthinking. I just thought of one more thing, this might have some connection with those four people from the city.”
“What?” After hearing this, Ge Ling hurriedly asks, “Just what is really going on?”
“About… a month ago, someone brought the elder a letter from the city, quite the rare occurrence. After the elder read that letter, his att.i.tude became very strange, treating those ghostly rumours as even more of a taboo. So no one dares to mention anything in front of him anymore.”
“A letter? Why am I not aware of this?”
“Of course you’re not aware. You never quite concerned yourself with things that happen in the village. I reckon that those four people might have something to do with that letter. Otherwise, why would the elder welcome them into his own house?”
This sounds quite logical.
“Alright, you should stop overthinking. Stay here. I am going to the bathroom first.” Song Tian walks out.
The bathroom is outside the room. After pulling the door open, he walks to the toilet bowl. Undoing his pants, he squats down.
At this moment…he suddenly feels a chilly feeling spreading from his b.u.t.tocks before he hears the loud sound of rushing water.
Before he even has time to react, he sees an extremely horrifying scene!
It is not clear water that is flushing down the toilet, but… fresh crimson blood!
And mixed in the fresh blood, are numerous minced chunks of flesh, organs… and even a skull that has been cut in half!
“Waaaaaaaaaaaa–!” Song Tian frantically pulls up his pants and stands up, rushing towards the bathroom door.
But the bathroom door is locked!
He immediately uses his body to slam against the door desperately, but no matter how hard he slams, the door refuses to budge.
He then begins to pound on the door, screaming with all his might, “Ah Ling, Ah Ling! You oblivious woman, hurry up and open the door for me! Quickly! Open the door right now!”
Just then, he unintentionally turns his head around to glance behind him and… his entire body freezes.
A hand covered fully in fresh blood extends from underneath the toilet bowl! Song Tian instantly collapses to the ground weakly. He wants to say something, anything, but the words stuck to his throat could not be uttered.
Then, a head covered entirely in long and thick hair emerges from the toilet slowly…