Chapter 27: He Is Back (1)

“Xiuyun sister, usually when something like this clings to a person, it is because it has some unfinished wish. Just like my husband. When he passed, he saw that I was pregnant and worried about us, a widow and child alone, unable to let go, so he stayed attached to me. You might want to ask what unfinished wish is binding the thing that has attached itself to your second daughter,” Widow Zhou said quite sincerely.

“But that thing does not look like it has any unfinished wish. I feel like it just wants to harm my second daughter, like it will not stop until she is dead,” my mother said bitterly. Even so, she could speak her true feelings in front of Widow Zhou, since the two of them had shared hardship before.

Widow Zhou was silent for a long while before saying with a heavy expression, “This thing might be an evil one. I heard my husband Zhou Da say before that there are ordinary ghosts, but there is also a kind of evil ghost. Even he would not dare provoke it. Those ghosts have heavy resentment and no restraint. Once they latch onto someone, it is a real trouble. I am afraid you will have to find Master Jiang for this.”

“We did, but it has been so long and still no word. My heart is…” my mother said helplessly.

Back then, communication was nowhere near developed. Apart from waiting in anguish, my parents had no other choice.

Another three days passed. Because of my second sister’s condition, the village was shrouded in a growing gloom. The usual peace and quiet was gradually disappearing. Everyone had worries in their hearts. People rarely greeted or chatted anymore. Every household went to bed early, yet many families still heard that strange opera singing in the middle of the night.

By then, my second sister’s condition had worsened to the point that after 11 p.m. every night, she would get up and walk toward the graveyard while singing.

I did not dare say it, and I did not dare admit it, but in my heart I felt my second sister was about to die. During the day, she almost never opened her eyes anymore. When she occasionally did, her gaze was no longer empty like before, but instead carried a vicious, resentful look as she slowly examined every member of our family, as if thinking about something.

I knew that was absolutely not my second sister, but that female ghost!

Just think about it. That female ghost could cling to my second sister even in daylight. Was my second sister not already close to death?

When I thought of this, I felt very sad, but I was powerless.

Several times I thought about what had happened that night in the graveyard, and about the amazing effect of the tiger claw amulet hanging around my neck. I wanted to take it off and give it to my second sister to wear, but my parents firmly stopped me. I did not even have a chance to secretly put it on her.

Because they were now guarding my second sister almost day and night. My father had not worked for several days.

I finally could not hold it in and asked my father, “If this thing is really useful, why not let me put it on my second sister?”

My father thought for a long time before answering me for the first time with helplessness, “If you take it off, the consequences might be even worse. Something even more unpredictable could happen. Besides, it may not even save your second sister. I will do everything I can for her. I cannot lose another child.”

The meaning of his words was a bit hard for me to understand at the time, but I still grasped it. If I took it off, something even more terrible would happen. I could not remove this thing.

So I was powerless. That feeling was like a cold hand gripping my small heart, making me feel an unprecedented heaviness and suffocation.

On the afternoon of the third day, an old man appeared in the village.

He was filthy, wearing a gray short sleeved dacron shirt, his chest openly exposed. He wore a pair of loose pants with wide legs and crotch, tied with a cloth cord. Ridiculously, one pant leg was pulled up above his knee while the other hung straight down, as if he had just come up from working in the fields.

Looking closer, that gray dacron shirt was not gray at all. It was clearly white, only too dirty to see its original color.

His hair was messy, his uneven beard tangled, and his face was covered with strange marks that could not be clearly identified as dust or mud.

Just like that, this old man silently appeared in the village in the afternoon, hands behind his back, his eyes darting around the September fields, occasionally letting out a laugh.

It seemed as if he was admiring how abundant the mature crops were in the autumn fields of September.

Such an old man made the village children, six or seven years old, feel puzzled and wary, yet the adults inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity and warmth. This appearance was too familiar to them. Was this not the Old Man Jiang who had disappeared from the village for a long time?

After he disappeared, people in the village had also talked about him. Everyone felt some sympathy for a lonely old man, even if he was somewhat indecent. Some even worried he might have frozen to death during that extremely cold winter seven years ago, but those words were always denied by others.

People preferred to believe he had gone to stay with relatives. Did he not once have an uncle who came to visit?

“Is that Old Man Jiang?” someone in the village greeted him. The honest villagers had feelings for this man who had once wandered the village for so long, otherwise they would not have felt that sense of familiarity.

“Yes, yes,” Old Man Jiang replied warmly.

“Where have you been all these years? We have not seen you for many years,” another villager asked kindly.

“I went to my northern relatives’ place. I remembered how good the chili here is, and how pretty the girls are, so I came back. By the way, does Liu Fang still miss me? Do not fool me, tell me the truth, does she miss me?” Old Man Jiang replied very seriously.

Everyone present was left speechless, then burst into laughter.

Old Man Jiang was still the same Old Man Jiang. His nature had not changed at all. Liu Fang was the most beautiful girl in the village, and Old Man Jiang loved following her around. Once, her father even chased him away with a broom in anger, but even then he could not drive him off. The next day, he would still follow her again.

Afterward, the villagers got used to his personality and let him be. They never expected him to come back like this.

“Old Man Jiang, Liu Fang is already married. She probably does not miss you anymore,” someone teased.

Those words were like a bolt of lightning to Old Man Jiang. He immediately deflated, muttering, “That Liu Fang’s father really does not think about me. Liu Fang did not wait for me either. I was going to earn a dowry…”

“Sigh… sigh…” he kept sighing, looking heartbroken.

Liu Fang’s father was also among the crowd, half amused and half annoyed, but unable to lose his temper. Everyone knew this old man was always talking nonsense anyway. He was not really serious about marrying Liu Fang.

Soon the villagers began inviting him warmly.

“Old Man Jiang, my eggplants are ripe. Come eat some fresh ones.”

“Old Man Jiang, my tomatoes are still hanging on the vine, bright red and tasty…”

“Old Man Jiang, my…”

“I am not going, I am not going. Liu Fang is already married. Today I am going on a hunger strike. I am not going!” Old Man Jiang put his hands behind his back and walked away dejectedly, leaving laughter behind him.

The villagers smiled as they watched his back. They found him extremely amusing and decided they should bring him some fresh produce another day. They should not let him do any work.

Old Man Jiang left quickly, and the villagers dispersed as well. They were already used to his mysterious comings and goings. Some even wondered when he had returned and why they had not seen any luggage. Was he still living in the mountains?

But no one thought too deeply about it. Old Man Jiang was both very noticeable and strangely easy to overlook. His arrival and departure were always confusing, and people seemed used to his unpredictability.

Our family did not know he had returned. Because of my second sister’s situation, my parents had not left the house for several days, except when they followed her to the graveyard at night when she went out to sing opera.

At that time, my parents barely rested at all.

While Old Man Jiang was causing a stir in the village, my mother was feeding my second sister porridge. My second sister would no longer eat on her own. She was already so thin she was only skin and bones.

My parents were heartbroken by this. In desperation, they chopped minced meat and vegetables finely, mixed them with rice, cooked them into a thin porridge, and once it cooled slightly, forcibly fed it to her.

Even so, my second sister swallowed very little and vomited most of it. The situation was extremely bad.