Chapter 20: Ghosts in the Abandoned Graveyard (2)

I recognized the man. He was the one who had just lunged at me earlier. The other was a woman, and she gave off an even more uncomfortable feeling.

At that moment, I finally realized that something about this situation was indescribably strange. Fear started to rise in me. I stood frozen in place, afraid to move, and they also did not move. They just stared at me, as if they were afraid of something, or wary of something, yet also as if there was something about me that strongly attracted them and they were unwilling to let me go.

What were they afraid of? Could it be that flash of light from my chest earlier? Since I was young, I had always worn a pendant. My mother told me it was a tiger claw and that I was never allowed to take it off. Were they afraid of that?

I was not sure, but I instinctively reached toward my chest and grabbed the long tiger claw. Only then did I feel a little steadier. Once my mind settled slightly, I suddenly remembered something very important. Extremely important.

I finally recalled where I had seen the clothes they were wearing.

It was two years ago. Old Li from our village had passed away. My mother went to help with the funeral arrangements. Because my father was not home and my two sisters were at school, my mother could not manage everything, so she took me along. I personally saw them placing Old Li into the coffin, and he was dressed in exactly those clothes.

My mother even told me very clearly that those were burial clothes.

So these people were all wearing burial clothes.

I was a flower of the motherland, raised under the care and education of the country. How could there possibly be ghosts in this world? In an instant, all kinds of thoughts surged in my mind.

Do not ask me why I would have such unreliable thoughts at a time like this. I do not know either. All I knew was that at this moment, none of those thoughts could give me courage anymore. A terrifying idea began to force its way up, impossible to suppress.

There are ghosts.

I let out a wild, instinctive scream, then collapsed onto the ground because my legs went weak, and started crying loudly in a completely unoriginal way. Only after the tears came out did I realize my eyes had been closed just now, and only now were they open.

I had no time to think about how I had been walking with my eyes closed. No one should expect a seven year old child to have logical thinking in a situation like this. Besides, it would have been better if I had not opened my eyes. The moment I did, I saw that there were no people, no houses at all. Under the dim bluish moonlight, I could only see mound after mound of shadowy hills.

Those were graves.

For a child to be alone in a graveyard in the middle of the night was an incredibly cruel situation. And that cruelty was happening to me right now. I had no idea what to do. I had lost even the courage to walk. All I could do was cry, and desperately clutch the tiger claw hanging around my neck, because only it could give me a sliver of safety.

My piercing cries echoed far into the quiet night, so sharp that even I felt they were unbearable, but I could not stop.

After who knows how long I cried, more than ten orange yellow light spots lit up in the distance. Instantly, I thought of that strange dream again. Had everything started from that dream?

I could not stay here crying like a fool anymore. I gathered all my strength, stood up, and crying and shouting, ran in another direction.

At that moment, a familiar voice came from afar. “San Wa Er, is that San Wa Er?” Then came a mix of noisy voices and hurried footsteps.

That voice felt both familiar and warm, but I was so terrified that I could not recognize who it was. I did not dare stop. I just ran while crying and shouted back, “Who are you?”

I had an inexplicable trust in that voice, which was why I responded instinctively, but I truly did not know who it was.

As soon as I finished speaking, an extremely angry voice roared from the other side. “Who do you think I am? I am your father.”

The moment I heard that shout, I immediately reacted. Who else could that be but my father’s voice?

I stopped. My crying grew even louder. If a few hours ago that voice would have terrified me, now it sounded like the sound of heaven itself.

Not even a minute after I stopped, those orange yellow beams of light shone on me. Now somewhat calm, I realized it was actually the light from flashlights. A group of people rushed over. Leading them was none other than my father.

My father saw me, grabbed me immediately, and swept the flashlight from my head to my feet, carefully checking me over. After confirming I was not injured, he stuck the flashlight into his mouth.

Without saying a word, he lifted me up and slapped my bottom. His mouth was still muttering something. I guessed he was trying to curse me for running off, but with the flashlight in his mouth he could not speak properly.

That slap was heavy. I had just barely stopped crying, and now I started crying again. One of the village uncles behind him could not stand it and pulled my father back, saying, “Old Chen, at least the child is found. It is the middle of the night and he is already crying so badly. He must have been frightened. Take him home and comfort him first. If you are so harsh and he runs off again, what will you do?”

Normally, no one could persuade my father once he was angry, but for some reason this time something must have reached him. He stopped hitting me. His expression instead grew heavy, as if remembering something.

After a moment of silence, my father said, “I was just too angry. Alright, I will take him back first. Thank you everyone. I will treat you all to a meal another day.”

The villagers were simple and kind. Once they heard I was missing, so many of them came out with my father to search for me, not caring that it was late at night or that the road back to the township was far.

My father carried me as everyone walked back toward the village. After everything that had just happened, all the fear and panic, I finally leaned into my father’s arms and felt my whole body relax.

My body still felt hot. After crying for so long, I was even more thirsty. My father touched my forehead and muttered while walking, “Is this child running a fever?”

I could not respond. The sudden overwhelming sense of safety made me drowsy again. But just as I was about to fall asleep, I vaguely saw a red light spot following us.

When I looked more carefully, it was that woman who had given me the most uncomfortable feeling, the one who smiled in such a sinister way.

I instantly woke up, my whole body stiffening. My father patted my bottom and said softly, “Still not behaving?”

Then I realized there was no red light at all, no woman either.

Everything I had just experienced felt like a dream and yet not a dream. I had realized several times that I had not even had my eyes open. Even as a small child, I could not convince myself that what I had seen was reality, because that feeling was impossible to describe. It lay somewhere between real and illusory.

Lying in my father’s arms, surrounded by the group of villagers, I stopped thinking about it. This time, I truly fell asleep in my father’s embrace, and I never saw any more red light spots.

After returning home, I lay down on the bed in a daze and fell asleep. That night, I kept dreaming, strange and chaotic dreams, but I could not remember what they were.

When I woke up the next day, it was almost noon. My whole body felt uncomfortable, and my head was so heavy I could barely lift it.

My mother was sitting by my bed. When she saw I was awake, she quickly fed me medicine. I was still groggy and just swallowed whatever she gave me. Only then did I learn that I had a fever. My father had gone to the village clinic early in the morning to get medicine. Things were slightly better now, as the village had a small, simple clinic.

My mother also said that if the fever did not go down by the afternoon, I would have to be taken to the township clinic for an injection.

I was afraid of injections, so I quickly prayed in my heart that Chairman Mao would bless me and make me recover soon. My mother paid no attention to my little thoughts and brought me porridge with pickles to eat.