Su Wangsheng, once again, felt the terror from the child.
Last time in the villa, when Ning Su asked him to touch the
child, he was stared at by the child with that terrifying look that made people
go crazy.
Even though the child was not staring at him now.
Su Wangsheng subconsciously glanced at Zhu Shuangshuang and
saw her holding her chest, struggling to breathe.
Su Wangsheng quietly stood in front of her and looked at the
child standing silently.
Under the blood moon, the scarred male bride had no shadow.
The child did, but only half of him.
That half of the small shadow was strangely stuck to the
ground, connected to his little feet.
The scarred man’s hand holding the knife trembled, and he
felt the same sensation as he did at the wedding.
At the wedding, he didn’t want to kneel at all, but some
force pressed him down and had to kneel on the ground. It was a natural
suppression that he couldn’t resist, no matter how strong he was.
He saw black patterns creeping up the child’s face and the
only hand left on his body, becoming deeper and denser.
The patterns crawled around his black eye sockets and,
against his white-grey skin, looked like cracks. The eye sockets without
eyeballs seemed to be about to crack open.
At the same time, cracks appeared on the ground, and the land
in the village began to tremble.
In a few distance away, the wailing in the villa suddenly
increased, and the real cries of ghosts and animals echoed around the village.
Excited or painful screams mingled in the night sky,
accompanied by the sound of doors being knocked open in every household.
It was lively for a moment, then it became out of control.
The scarred man did not understand. He only put a knife on
the neck of a pig held by the child. How did it become like this?
Before he could react, the ghost child with black patterns
all over his face opened his purple mouth, froze for a moment, and then
screamed at him.
The sound waves of that sound were like something solid,
instantly pushing the scarred man dozens of meters away, breaking everything in
his body. His shattered self fell onto the grass, startling a green firefly.
The four people behind the child listened to the shaking of
Huaiyang Village and looked at all this in shock.
Chen Tian gritted his teeth and stopped shaking. “Could he be
the Ghost Master?”
Others had mentioned this child to him before, and he had
said to pay attention to this child. However, there were too many things
happening, and he had not seen this child again, so he temporarily forgot.
Hearing him say this, Chen Qing was silent for two seconds.
When she was at the slaughterhouse with Ning Su, the other
asked if the child was the Ghost Master. She thought Ning Su was just grasping
at straws.
Who could have thought that this child was so terrifying?
“Ning Su asked him before, and he doesn’t seem to be,” Chen
Qing added. “But he didn’t say he wasn’t either. At that time, I didn’t think
he would be so frightening.”
The child cleared the way for them and continued to run with
the little pig without delay.
Just as Chen Qing finished speaking, while they were still in
shock, the child had taken a few steps and fell to the ground with a “plop.”
“...”
Zhu Shuangshuang said, “Don’t just stand there, many ghosts
are about to come out, let’s go!”
The four of them caught up with the child in a few steps.
Su Wangsheng saw that the child’s face was bruised and
swollen and looked very pitiful. He gritted his teeth and picked him up.
The ghost child didn’t want to give the little pig to anyone
else and ran a few steps with his short legs, falling down again and again, but
still determined to keep running.
Su Wangsheng felt that the big and small figures of Ning Su
and the ghost child were just too similar.
The big one had a lazy and beautiful appearance, and with one
move, he broke the soul-locking rope of the black-robed man.
The small one was a foolish and clumsy idiot who could fall
while running, and just one shout from him made the Huaiyang Village shake.
One had black blood vessels, while the other has black veins
on his face.
What kind of monsters were they?
It took Su Wangsheng several seconds to dare to look at the
child. When he held the child, he was actually so nervous that he was sweating
all over, afraid that the child would scream and shatter him.
Fortunately, the child stayed quietly in his arms, holding
the little pig without moving.
Seeing the black lines on the child’s body begin to fade, Su
Wangsheng breathed a sigh of relief.
The four of them ran towards the villa, and many villa doors
were knocked open by ghosts along the way, chasing after them with angry
screams or eerie laughter.
Although they knew that these were all ghosts in Huaiyang
Village during the day, being chased madly during the day and night was
completely different.
“Why are they chasing us? Is it because of the ghost child?”
Chen Qing asked while running. “What do they want with the ghost child?”
The group of strange and grotesque ghosts, complete or
incomplete, stepped on their shadows and chased them closely under the blood
moon.
“Don’t worry about them, run to the villa!” Chen Tian shouted
at the three people, “The villa is safe!”
Zhu Shuangshuang ran desperately.
Su Wangsheng held the child and the little pig. His physical
fitness was good, and he was just as fast as Zhu Shuangshuang.
A horde of ghosts pursued them for almost half a block
beneath the blood moon, but managed to enter the door just in time to avoid
being captured.
Those ghosts had some scruples about this villa and did not
smash the door or climb over the wall to enter.
The four of them collapsed and leaned against the door,
panting heavily.
The entrance gate overlooked the front yard, where crimson
vines snaked their way up the walls, nearly meeting the blood moon in the night
sky. The dark green and red vines seemed almost black from afar, and they gave
life to eerie blood flowers that bloomed from the shadows. The bride, donning a
red wedding gown, sat still and silent, resembling a blood-red stone statue
against a backdrop of misty darkness.
Only then did the four realize that they had seen the bride
three times, and she had not moved once.
The noisy Huaiyang Village suddenly turned into a silent and
deserted place, so silent that it made people feel scared.
A gust of night wind blew by, lifting the corner of the
bride’s red veil, revealing a glimpse of darkness.
A strong smell of blood and a faint smell of decay passed
through their noses.
Chen Qing swallowed and asked softly, “What do we do?”
As soon as she spoke, the scarf around her neck was suddenly
taken away by a soft and beautiful hand.
Chen Qing ran wildly, mentally and physically exhausted, and
she did not have her guard up against the surrounding people, so Zhu
Shuangshuang, who had planned it beforehand easily took the scarf away.
“Chen Qing, I’m borrowing your scarf for a bit.”
By the time Zhu Shuangshuang said these words, they could no
longer see her and could only vaguely confirm her position by her voice.
“Shuangshuang, don’t be impulsive!” Chen Qing whispered to
her, “Last time, even the Butcher could sense us under the scarf when I was
hiding with Ning Su. If she is the Ghost Master, the scarf is useless!”
“But she’s not moving,” Zhu Shuangshuang said, “And we don’t
have time, we have no choice.”
By the time Zhu Shuangshuang said this, her voice had become
more and more distant.
Chen Tian and Chen Qing could not understand what they heard
next.
“Last time, I didn’t touch the face of the bus driver. This
time, it’s my turn to lift the red veil of the bride.”
At the entrance, there was a pair of small white shoes, and
the delicate feet of a girl stepped on the bluestone without making any sound.
She was most afraid of the night wind at this time. The
black-green leaves in the courtyard sway in the wind. The soft and slender
yellow-green grass on the ground also bent down with it.
Everything was normal.
Suddenly, a drop of water fell from the grass leaf.
Then, in a slow process, the sound of something falling on
the ground was heard.
Chen Tian, Chen Qing, and Su Wangsheng were all nervous and
sweating profusely.
At the same time, they were also worried, especially Su
Wangsheng.
Chen Tian and Chen Qing might just be scared of the possible
danger, but Su Wangsheng knew how sensitive Zhu Shuangshuang was.
Through observing her for the past two days, Su Wangsheng had
figured out a rule.
Zhu Shuangshuang didn’t feel uncomfortable in dangerous
places, but rather when the danger suddenly increased.
For example, when she was in the car on their first day here,
she felt uncomfortable passing by the slaughterhouse. When she got used to the
danger there, she felt much better, but when she encountered an increasing
danger from the butcher, she felt uncomfortable again. When she adapted to the
butcher’s presence, she didn’t feel uncomfortable anymore.
In this ghost village, she was normal when the environment
was peaceful, but she felt stressed when cracks appeared on the ghost child’s
body.
She could be called a human danger predictor.
She was like this now. It must be because this bride was
extremely dangerous.
Su Wangsheng: “Be ready. This bride is exceptionally
dangerous. She may be the ghost master.”
Chen Tian: “You two stay here, I’ll go.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a disturbance appeared in
front of them.
Zhu Shuangshuang was gasping for breath, huddled up under the
silk scarf. Her legs were so weak that she could no longer support her body.
She was gasping for air in big gulps, but her throat felt as
if sandpaper had rubbed it raw, making it hoarse and sore.
There were indescribable sounds ringing in her ears, shaking
her eardrums and brain like a volcanic eruption.
Her brain felt like a lump of paste that had been hit, unable
to think of anything.
Apart from those sounds, she couldn’t hear anything else. At
the sound of the mountain collapsing in her mind, there were faint cries of anger
mixed in.
Zhu Shuangshuang shook her head, propped herself up on her
thighs, and stood up.
She closed her eyes tightly and the boy who had always been
blocking her from danger appeared in her mind.
The corners of her eyebrows twisted upward with a fierce
determination as she lifted her hand and directly lifted off the scarf.
That way, she had no way out.
She could no longer hide behind that silk scarf and deceive
herself.
The blood-red moonlight fell on the girl’s pale cheeks, her
long eyelashes and the wet strands of hair on her forehead were damp.
As she ran, the scarf on her body began to ripple from her
long hair.
Her moistened fingers tightly grasped the corner of the red
veil, the knuckles protruding whitish curves, lifting it up.
“Who are you?!”
The light and fluttery red veil of the bride’s head was
lifted up by Zhu Shuangshuang. The veil moved up by 5 cm and rotated as it
fell, covering Zhu Shuangshuang inside.
One red veil covered two stiff bodies.
The moonlight penetrated the red veil, casting a thread of
red light into the space below the veil.
Zhu Shuangshuang rubbed her nose against a bunch of hard and
stiff black hair. Her eyes meet a pair of eyes that are soaked with blood and
tears, with shattered eyeballs and eye sockets that looked like the eyes of a
beast about to burst open.
Above the bride’s shoulder, the head of the black dog shook
like a demon awakened from the abyss, with its facial hair trembling and its
muscles tensing upwards. It opened its bloody mouth wide at her.
***
When Ning Su woke up, the cold pierced his skin.
It’s incredibly cold.
He hadn’t been this cold in a long time, he shouldn’t be this
cold.
When he was a child, he jumped around without a winter coat.
Even when Ning Su opened his eyes and found himself deeply
trapped in the snow, he was sure he wouldn’t be so cold that his brain would
almost stop functioning.
At the same time, his feet hurt as if they were cut by a
knife.
He tried to move and, using all his strength, pulled out an
intact pig’s foot from the snow.
“...”
The pig’s foot was too small, not even enough for him to eat.
Ning Su stared at his pig’s foot, wondering how many of these
pig’s feet would be enough for him to eat, when he heard an extremely faint and
desperate whimper.
Ning Su followed the sound and saw something stuck in the
snow like him not far away.
A small black puppy the size of a palm.
The northwest wind whistled on the snow, lifting up
snowflakes that fell on the little puppy’s head one after another.
Its whimpering became weaker and weaker, just like its
breathing, and its eyelids drooped bit by bit.
Ning Su also felt like he was freezing to death.
As its final whimper was about to fade away, a “creak” sound
of cowhide boots stepping on the snow came from not far away.
A puff of white vapor fell on the head of the little puppy,
and a gentle voice awakened a hint of consciousness in it.
“Little guy, are you okay?”
The little puppy trembled and weakly opened its eyes, seeing
a young girl with two dimples smiling at it.
The girl gently brushed off the snow on its head, didn’t
directly pull it out of the snow, but instead removed the snow beside it and rescued
its bleeding little leg from the trap.
“I guess you were caught in a trap.” The girl picked up the
little puppy, took off her gloves, and rubbed its frozen head with her warm
palms. “Don’t be afraid. I’ll take you home.”
Ning Su also jumped out of the snow, looked at his intact
paws, and then looked at the girl. He followed her all the way.
The north wind still roared, but Ning Su didn’t feel as cold
anymore.
There was a warm heat source that shielded him from the snow
and transmitted heat to him gently and uninterruptedly.
However, this should be the feeling of the little puppy in
the girl’s arms.
Ning Su said “huh” that almost sounded like a little pig’s
snort.
He followed in the girl’s footsteps, walked out of the snow
warmly and calmly, and arrived at the girl’s home.
The girl lived alone in a small courtyard with a stove
burning in the room, which was very warm.
She treated the little puppy’s wound and tied a bow on its
short leg.
The little puppy stared at her with a pair of moist eyes
without blinking.
She rubbed the little puppy’s head and found a ham sausage to
give it to eat.
It was a ham sausage with far more starch content than meat,
but it was exceptionally delicious.
Ning Su leaned over and wanted to take a bite, but he
couldn’t reach it.
For the first time in his life, he couldn’t taste the food,
but he could feel the satisfaction and happiness from eating it.
The little puppy licked the cheap ham sausage in the girl’s
palm and looked up at her.
The girl was amused by it, her eyes curved like a crescent
moon.
In the old and shabby wooden house, under the dim kerosene
lamp, the girl gently touched the little puppy and said, “Are you also unable
to find your family? Then let’s live together.”
The little puppy looked at her with big eyes, and the little
pig hummed comfortably beside them.
“Then I’ll give you a name. I found you in the snow, and I
saw that your head was round, so I’ll call you Snowball. How about that?”
The puppy kept looking at her without making a sound, and she
smiled to herself as she looked at the puppy’s black fur.
The warm yellow light shone through the window of the small
house.
That night, the cold wind passing through the small window
carried away the sound of “Snowball.”
That night, the little puppy slept a warm and peaceful sleep,
and so did the girl.
Not just for one night.
The little puppy had a home and lived with the girl in this
small house.
Its leg healed, and on sunny days, it loved to play in the
yard. Every time it played for a while, it would turn its head and look at the
girl, and its tail would wag slightly.
Later, the dog learned from the villagers that this yard
belonged to the girl’s grandfather, and she was raised by him.
The girl left the village before and didn’t get to say
goodbye to her grandfather when he died. And after coming back, she stayed here
for a long time, unable to leave.
Sometimes, she would teach at the school in the village, and
the children all liked her, thinking she was someone who had seen the world
outside the village.
In reality, she was very timid.
She was afraid of the dark, especially walking on dark and
quiet roads, as if there were monsters lurking in the darkness.
Whenever this happened, the little black dog would run ahead
and lead the way for her.
It would bark and scare away the silent “monsters” that the
girl was afraid of.
As it wagged its tail vigorously to dispel the darkness, it
would also look back at the girl with bright, moist eyes, reflecting her smile
clearly.
She was also afraid of getting into trouble.
Perhaps someone in the village noticed this, as someone came
to her house one night to steal something, but the sharp-eyed little dog
discovered him.
The little dog rushed out and fiercely bit the thief who
sneaked into the girl’s yard, and the thief kicked the dog’s head while
screaming in pain.
The little dog didn’t let go even after being kicked several
times until the thief picked it up and smashed its head.
Tears fell from the girl’s eyes onto the bloody head of the
little dog. “Snowball, why did you do that? Let him take what he wants.”
The little dog, who never made a sound no matter how much it
was beaten, finally let out a whimper and put its paw in the girl’s hand, as if
admitting its mistake and asking her not to cry anymore.
But the next time someone came, it still rushed up and fought
with all its might, protecting the girl no matter what.
Time after time, it would rush up and bite anyone who had ill
intentions towards the girl.
The whole village knew that the girl’s house had a fierce dog
that could guard it well.
When no one came to steal again, the small palm-sized dog
grew much larger, and it could raise its front paws to protect the white skirt
corner of the girl when the wind blew.
The girl was also going to get married.
She really wanted to get married because she had always
yearned for a home and a family.
That year, the girl came to a remote and poor place called
Huaiyang Village with the little black dog.
Her husband was very kind to her, and he was also one of the
few ambitious and successful people in this remote and impoverished mountain
village. He worked hard and made a living outside the village, and he built the
first small villa in Huaiyang Village.
Despite her husband’s frequent absences, the black dog
continued to guard the girl as it had before.
With more and more people from out-of-town coming to stay in
the villa and plotting against the girl, the black dog fiercely drove away one
person after another, almost as if it didn’t care for its own safety.
Its teeth were stained with more and more blood, its body
covered in more and more wounds, and its gaze becoming increasingly ferocious.
But it kept watch over the girl and protected her well.
The only thing it couldn’t understand was why the girl was
growing increasingly haggard.
Late one night, she saw the girl leaning over the toilet,
retching and unable to get up. The dog was anxiously rubbing against her leg
while whimpering.
The girl touched the black dog’s ear, and a weak smile
appeared on her pale face. “Don’t worry, Snowball, it’s just because I’m
pregnant.”
The girl’s eyes were particularly bright. “Snowball, baby,
there’s a baby in my belly.”
The black dog stopped whimpering, and those fierce dog eyes
looked at the girl, wet and glistening, just like when it was a puppy. It
gently rubbed her belly.
“Shh, Snowball, keep it a secret, and give him a surprise
when he comes back.”
The black dog moved away, but that night it sat by the girl’s
bed and watched over her all night long, without moving a muscle.
During the day, it couldn’t help but want to nuzzle against
the girl’s slightly swollen belly.
The little pig in the yard watched dumbfounded for a while
before quickly running to the girl’s side.
Approaching slowly, it rubbed against the white cotton and
linen fabric of the girl’s clothes, very lightly, as if greeting the little
baby inside.
Then the little pig lowered its head.
The joyous and contented atmosphere was gone.
I feel like I'm going to cry in the next chapter
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update!!
Why are dogs so kind and precious.
ReplyDelete