Chapter 100: Traces

I had no mind to care whether I was skipping school, I just walked ahead with a dark expression, while Su Rou followed behind me, almost unable to keep up.

Accompanying him in skipping school clearly put him in an extremely good mood, but after enjoying that pleasant feeling for a while, Su Rou clearly noticed something was off with me. While panting as he followed, he said, “San Wa Er, just say what is going on. Are you learning from your master? Leaving things half said like that makes people feel awful.”

I slowed my pace, took a deep breath, and said very seriously to Su Rou, “The worms, those worms, two of them are still missing. My master thinks they might have crawled into livestock. That cow from Qian Dagui’s family died in such a strange way, what do you think? I have to go take a look. If it is serious, I need to tell my master.”

“Then hurry up.” Su Rou became even more excited than I was when he heard that, and turned around and ran. It was impressive how fast he could still run despite his fat build.

But after a few steps, Su Rou stopped, and looked at me with rare seriousness. “San Wa Er, you are not going to act on your own again this time, right?”

“No. I cannot handle it. Last time was luck, and it even contaminated my tiger claw.” Thinking back, I felt a little cold. My master said not every worm was that powerful. What I encountered was a worm king, but even that worm king had only been parasitic for a short time before I pulled it out. This worm had already fed well inside a cow.

I did not dare think further. After agreeing with Su Rou, we jogged all the way to Qian Dagui’s house.

Qian Dagui’s gate was wide open, and many people were standing in the yard. That is how the market town was. Whenever something happened in one household, many people came to watch the excitement. What was rare was that I even saw a village cadre in the yard.

At that moment, Qian Dagui was holding the village cadre’s hand and crying out his grievances. His wife sat on a stone stool with a pale and haggard face, clearly frightened.

I pulled Su Rou through the crowd and happened to hear Qian Dagui say to the village cadre, “I, Qian Dagui, am stingy. This cow is dead, and my heart hurts. But which farmer does not treasure his cow? Seeing it die like this hurts like someone is cutting out my heart. You must help me find out what happened. Otherwise I will not be able to accept it.”

The village cadre did not look well either for some reason. He said, “It must be investigated. This must be investigated. I am worried other cattle in the village might also be harmed. Damn it, is this done by a person, or something else?”

At that moment, Su Rou squeezed forward and said, “Uncle Qian, can we go take a look at the cow? I have liked cows since I was little. Hearing this makes me feel bad too.”

The boy’s expression was very sorrowful. Qian Dagui was in a distressed state, and Su Rou’s words clearly resonated with him. He waved his hand weakly and said, “The cow is very miserable. Go take a look, as long as you do not have nightmares afterward.”

Su Rou said, “Uncle Qian, do not worry. I am very brave.”

After saying that, Su Rou winked and pulled me along, and we ran to the cattle pen. There were a few other people there as well, people I vaguely recognized as some of the bolder ones in the market town.

However, all of them had ugly expressions and were discussing something, clearly very uneasy.

I did not bother listening. I pulled Su Rou forward, and after only one glance, Su Rou immediately turned around and squatted down, saying, “San Wa Er, I cannot do this. I think I am going to vomit up those two bites of steamed bun from you.”

My stomach also churned violently. I forced myself to calm down using breathing techniques, and after a while I finally recovered.

The cow’s corpse was lying in the cattle pen, its eyes wide open, but filled with deathly stillness, looking dull and hopeless.

Dozens of flies were buzzing around the pen. It was even more disturbing because the originally clean and tidy cattle pen was now covered in large pools of blood. The blood had almost dried, and the fragments mixed within it were clearly visible.

What was even more disturbing was not that. There was a huge hole in the cow’s belly, its edges rotten and torn, as if it had been blasted open. Its intestines had spilled out from that hole.

Even so, that alone would have been tolerable, since disembowelment is what it is. The problem was that the intestines that had come out were torn and shredded, as if something had bitten and gnawed on them. Through that hole, one could even see internal organs.

After I calmed my mind, I gently kicked Su Rou, who was squatting on the ground retching, and said, “You can just vomit here. I am going over to take a closer look.”

Su Rou had been retching, and when he heard that, he suddenly spat out everything.

When I looked, the two bites of steamed bun were mixed in as well. I could not help but laugh.

“San Wa Er, are you messing with me?” Su Rou said bitterly.

I did not bother with him and walked straight into the cattle pen. My action made several adults nearby gasp, and someone said, “Whose kid is this? So bold. Not afraid of the stench of blood at all.”

“Right, quite bold. Seems like Old Chen’s kid.”

“The Old Chen family that moved to the county town?”

“You mean the one whose whole family left, but did not take the only boy with them?”

I could not help but break into a cold sweat, wondering if I had been born in a gossip capital, where even men had such strong gossip skills.

Ignoring their chatter, I squatted down in front of the cow’s corpse. I wanted to see if there were any clues. Looking at that hole, I saw that the cow’s internal organs were almost completely destroyed. I could even clearly see the cow’s stomach, and on that extremely tough stomach there were dense small holes, as if it had been gnawed repeatedly.

I held my breath. Even with a calm mind, I could not stand the strong smell of blood. Fortunately, I could hold my breath for a long time.

Carefully observing while squatting, I still found nothing at first because when the cow fell, it had disturbed a lot of dry grass on the ground. I pushed the grass aside and looked carefully, and finally I discovered a trace.

It looked like something had slithered across the ground, as thick as my wrist.

It was a worm.

I immediately stood up and walked out of the cattle pen. My calmness was only forced. I could not show even the slightest abnormality here.

My mind was extremely chaotic, and I was also very afraid. Looking at Qian Dagui crying in the yard, I suddenly felt very worried for his family. Where was that worm? Could it be hiding in their house, waiting for the right moment to strike?

But I really did not have the courage to investigate where the worm had gone. Yet given the situation, I felt I could not leave. Just think about it, a gigantic worm appearing among a group of people in this yard, how terrifying would that be?

My master once said that many things must be hidden from ordinary people. This is a kind lie. At least such a lie allows them to live peacefully and feel safe. In that sense, Daoist practitioners do not interfere with worldly affairs, but in reality, many true inheritors of the Daoist path carry a responsibility. It has always been like this since ancient times.

I walked over to Su Rou and pulled up this guy who was already vomiting bile water, saying, “How ugly. Wipe your mouth.”

Su Rou gave me a weak glare and directly wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then shouted, “Who did this? Who did this?”

“Only a fool would have time to harm you. I just went in to see if the worm left any traces.”

“What traces?” Su Rou immediately became interested.

“A trace as thick as a wrist. Think about how big that worm king was last time.” My expression was very ugly, and Su Rou’s expression also turned equally bad.

I continued, “Su Rou, I am afraid that worm might still be hiding in this house.”

“What?” Su Rou jumped back, looking like he wanted to leave immediately.

I grabbed him and said, “I am not a worm. Why are you jumping away? I cannot leave. I need to stay here and watch. You understand what I mean, right?”

“You mean I have to run errands, right?” Su Rou grabbed my neck and said, “Last time you were in danger and nearly exhausted me to death. Now you are ordering me around again. Do you even see how fat I am? You are trying to kill me with exhaustion.”

I pulled his hand away and said, “Anyway, I am staying here. There are so many lives involved. You figure it out.”

Su Rou slapped his forehead, glared at me fiercely, and ran off.

I smiled a little, knowing this guy would go.

Back in the yard, I found an empty stool and sat down. People kept coming and going, discussing the strange incident. Some women even screamed when they saw the cow, giving me a headache.

At first I was not noticeable in the busy yard, but when it was almost 11 a.m., there were fewer people, and sitting there made me stand out.

Qian Dagui and the village cadre who had not left both noticed me.

Qian Dagui was not in the mood to talk to me, but the village cadre walked over and said, “Young kid, I saw you came early. Why are you still sitting here now?”

I froze, thinking that a village cadre was indeed a village cadre, probably already preparing to lecture me about skipping school because I was carrying a schoolbag.

“I thought the cow’s death was strange. I heard you called a vet, so I wanted to see what the vet would say.” I quickly made up a reason, luckily I had been listening earlier and caught some details.

“The vet is in the town. He will only arrive in the afternoon. You cannot skip school just because you are curious. Go back to school now, otherwise I will tell your principal. I know the principal of the county middle school well.” The village cadre’s expression was very stern.

People of that era were indeed full of a strange kind of enthusiasm, which could be touching, but right now it was causing me trouble.

I really had to stay here.

“Hurry up and go. I will not pursue what happened this morning. Are you not going to attend afternoon classes either?” the village cadre scolded.