Chapter 37: Deaf Descendant!!! |
Yu Xiao didn’t believe in learning. She thought it was all about talent. She gave them a quick summary of what had happened and added, “But it was only a guess. We didn’t know for sure if the ghost we were looking for had anything to do with the village plague.”
“It had to be that damn ghost,” Zhou Xiao Zhen snapped. “I would want revenge too, if I were him.”
Zhao Lan wasn’t convinced. “But the village chief was the one who wronged his family. Why would they kill the whole village?”
Lu Xun, who knew a thing or two about ghosts, said, “Ghosts aren’t like us. They’re made of hate. Hate that twists and grows when they die. They don’t care who they hurt.”
Zuo Qing nodded. “And the villagers never treated them well. They always shunned them. They probably hated them too.”
They reached a lonely spot at the edge of the village. Zhao Lan set the pressure cooker down, peeled off the talisman, and popped the lid. A small, pathetic, and terrified water ghost was curled up inside.
Zhou Xiao Zhen felt sorry for the ghost. She knew what her family had gone through. She squatted down, and the ghost cringed.
“It’s okay. You’re Zhang Cui Cui, right?” Zhou Xiao Zhen said softly. “We’re not here to hurt you. We just need to find your dad. We might need your help, but don’t fight back. They’re very mean to ghosts that fight back. My sister, Smiley, has a lot of talismans. You don’t want to mess with her…”
The ghost was scared before, but now she was terrified. Zhou Xiao Zhen’s kind words made her feel even more hopeless.
The ghost’s wails pierced the night, thin and pitiful. Yu Xiao and the others watched as the ghost sobbed, curled up in a ball. Yu Xiao clapped her hands and said, “Precious, you did great.”
“Huh?” Zhou Xiao Zhen blinked, confused. “What did I do?”
They had planned to use the water ghost as bait for the other ghost. But they didn’t have a clue how to lure it out. Luckily, Zhou Xiao Zhen had scared the water ghost so much that it cried like a baby. That was enough to do the trick.
The villagers heard the ghost’s cries and shivered. They slammed their windows and locked their doors. They wanted nothing to do with the ghost.
Mother Gu, who had been sleeping, woke up to the noise. Her heart raced. She threw on some clothes and ran to Gu Jing Rong’s house.
“Thud, thud, thud!”
“Little Rong, are you awake?”
Gu Jing Rong had a restless night. He had been bothered by too many things. He dragged himself out of bed, opened the door, and said, “Mom, what is it?”
His mother peeked inside the room. It was empty. None of his five daughters-in-law were there.
“Where are your wives?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” Gu Jing Rong sounded hopeless. “They never tell me anything. I can’t control what they do.”
“Hmph, you’re useless. You can’t even handle your own wives.” The village head’s mother scowled at him, annoyed. Then, she remembered the rumours about his daughters-in-law and the village doctor. And how they were missing at this hour. She couldn’t help but wonder…
Mother Gu couldn’t take it anymore. She needed to find someone, anyone. The middle aged woman stepped outside, and the wails hit her like a punch. She was going to check on the Gu family, but something pulled her in another direction. A dark curiosity. A twisted urge. She had to see. She had to know.
Mother Gu followed the sound for a while, until she stumbled upon a bizarre sight. All her daughters-in-law were there, along with those weird outsiders. They were huddled around a pressure cooker, and the wails were coming from inside. What the hell?
The woman was too scared to say anything. She hid behind a tree, and watched in silence. Then, she saw something that made her blood run cold.
A huge, black shape was moving towards them. Slowly, steadily, inexorably.
Yu Xiao and the others saw it too. They felt a wave of dread wash over them. Most of them started to choke.
“Cough, cough, cough, cough…”
Zhou Xiao Zhen clamped her hand over her mouth, hacking like crazy. Zuo Qing and the rest joined her in a chorus of coughs. Only Yu Xiao, Zhao Lan, Luo Jin, and Lu Xun managed to stay on their feet.
Yu Xiao was still standing, but barely. Her throat was on fire, and her head was spinning. The symptoms got worse as the black shape got closer.
“There’s the source of the plague, all right,” Lu Xun said, his voice tight. “Only those of us with stamina cards can fight it off, but the others need to stay away. Their bodies can’t take it.”
“I’ll get them out of here,” Zhao Lan said.
She helped Zhou Xiao Zhen and Zuo Qing to a safe distance. Then she saw a shape behind a tree. She narrowed her eyes and said, “Is that village chief’s wife?”
“How dare you call me that?” The woman stepped out, brazen and bold. “I’m your mother-in-law, you ungrateful wretch. What are you doing here at this hour? And what is that thing?”
The thing in the pot heard her and stopped moving, as if waiting.
Zhao Lan felt a surge of loathing. She settled Zhou Xiao Zhen and Zuo Qing and went back to the woman. She yanked her by the arm.
“Ow! That hurts… What are you doing? Have you gone mad?”
Zhao Lan dragged her to where Yu Xiao and the others were. The woman’s bravado faded as she got closer to the source.
“Cough, cough… Ghosts… There are ghosts…”
“Ghosts? You’re the ones who made them,” Zhao Lan snapped, pointing at the water ghost in the pot. “You killed other people’s children to save your own, and burned their families alive. They came back as ghosts and took their revenge, spreading the plague to everyone in the village!”
The pot was supposed to be empty. But when Mother Gu peered inside she saw a face staring back at her. A face that belonged to a dead girl. She screamed and curled up her fat body on the ground. “Get it away from me, get it away!”
Lu Xun sneered. “What’s the matter? You weren’t so scared when you killed her, were you?”
“Killed her?” Mother Gu whimpered. “We didn’t kill Them. They killed, they killed themselves. They set themselves on fire.”
“Really? They just decided to burn themselves alive?” Zhao Lan grabbed Mother Gu by the hair. “Don’t you dare lie to us!”
“I’m not lying!” Mother Gu sobbed. “We had to sacrifice their son. It was the only way to save mine. His grandfather had taken them in when they were homeless. They should have been grateful. But they were trouble. They made enemies of everyone in the village. And there were others who needed the gods’ help. So we thought, why not offer them all to the gods…”
She broke down in tears. “I didn’t murder them. They knew what we were planning. They set the fire themselves. It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault…”
“Ugh.” Wang Yang couldn’t stand it anymore. He had been coughing up blood now. And he felt something else coming up. “I think I’m gonna hurl… blargh!”
“Yuck…”
They all backed away from the vomit, covering their mouths.
Zhao Lan said, “What do we do now?”
Yu Xiao shrugged. She didn’t care about the woman on the floor, who looked like a lump of dough. She said, “Gu Shu told us to find the cause of the plague. He didn’t say we had to bring it back. This should do, right?”
“Right.” Lu Xun nodded. “Let’s go find Gu Shu.”
They supported each other and left the hut. As they did, the pot lid moved. The water ghost crawled out of the pot, shaping itself into a black figure. It stood over Mother Gu, who was still moaning.
Zhao Lan held Zhou Xiao Zhen steady, while Yu Xiao guided Zuo Qing. Zuo Qing’s face was twisted by sickness, flushed with a strange fever, her eyes flickering between rapture and agony.
Sun Yun, leaning on Lu Xun, watched her with a mix of pity and disgust. “You’re making a spectacle of yourself.”
“Boss,” she said to Yu Xiao, “Let me do you a favour and tell you what Zuo Qing is too shy to admit. She admires you and she wants your number. I can be your messenger, if you like. Or not. It’s up to you.”
Zuo Qing’s face burned brighter, as if she had been slapped. She wished Sun Yun would shut up.
Yu Xiao looked at her with a curious expression. “You want my number?”
“Yeah.” Zuo Qing whispered, barely audible like a mosquito’s hum.
Yu Xiao repeated, “Do you want the number of Zhuge Liang burning the Spider Web Cave?”
Zuo Qing felt a jolt of confusion, as if she had missed a joke. She didn’t know what she meant, but she nodded anyway. “Yes.”
“I can’t give you the number,” Yu Xiao said. “Maybe we’ll cross paths again someday, if fate allows.”
Zuo Qing’s heart sank; Smiley had turned her down.
They reached the old tree’s house, where the lights were still on. Yu Xiao knocked on the door, “Gu Shu, open up! We’ve solved the mystery. The ghost of Zhang Zhong Shi, the one who died on the other side of the river, he’s the cause of the plague. Come on, open the door…”
“I know,” Gu Shu’s voice came from inside. “You’ve done well. You can go now.”
“I’m going right away,” Yu Xiao said, standing by the door. “Don’t you want to see me one last time?”
The house was quiet for a moment, and then Gu Shu said, “Just go.”
“You’re cold as ice, you know that?” Yu Xiao said, her voice bitter. She turned her back on him, feeling the sting of rejection.
Lu Xun smiled, unfazed. “Come on, guys, let’s swap numbers, yeah?”
The nine of them disappeared into the night, leaving no trace of their presence in the village.
Dr Gu Shu brewed himself a cup of tea; he felt a surge of relief as the irritating woman finally left. He was in a good mood, and the tea wasn’t enough to quench his thirst. He thought about getting a bottle of booze.
He didn’t know that, at that very moment, upstream of the river in the village, a monstrous creature erupted from the temple’s water pool. It thrashed its many tentacles, slashing at the air where it smelled flesh and blood.
Gu Shu dug out his secret stash of liquor from the cabinet, along with his prized drinking cup. He wondered if he should stay, now that the annoying woman was gone for good.
Then he felt something and looked up.
“Boom!”
A loud noise shattered the silence, and Gu Shu’s house crumbled.
Tentacles sprang from everywhere, wrapping around Gu Shu.
Trapped like a dumpling, his mind blank, he was about to be dragged into a dark hole, when he realised what was happening.
A roar of rage shook the village that night.
“Deaf Descendant!!!”