Chapter 74: Farewell, Grandma Fan! (1)

Grandma Fan sat inside her house.

“Meow… meow…” the white cat leapt onto the table, knocking over a teacup with a loud “clink!” that shattered it on the floor.

Grandma Fan, who had been resting with her eyes closed, suddenly jolted awake.

She calculated silently with her fingers.

Oh no!

Quickly, Grandma Fan shut the door and locked it tightly from within, her expression turning serious.

She began chanting incantations, burned a talisman, and let the ashes fall into another teacup. Then, she used the tea mixed with the talisman ashes to anoint the white cat’s eyes. She poured the remaining tea into the cat’s mouth, and finally placed the cat on the windowsill.

“Thump… thump…” heavy knocking came from outside the door.

Grandma Fan ignored it. She waved at the white cat, which immediately jumped from the windowsill and disappeared into the distance.

Bang! The door burst open from a gust of cold wind.

A strong wind.

Grandma Fan couldn’t stand steady.

She was forced back into the room by the chilling breeze.

A shadow appeared at the doorway.

“Bai Gui!” Grandma Fan exclaimed in shock…

It was another foggy day. In the morning, Liu Dashao opened the front door and saw a world blanketed in white mist. Because of the fog, everything seemed even quieter around—no insects could be seen, and the birds had fallen silent.

In the past couple of days, the village doctor had visited several times but failed to treat the village chief Tian’s wound, eventually causing him to fall into a coma. At this time, Tian Guoqiang had returned home. His mother was taking care of his father, so she found him a bother and sent him over to stay with Liu Dashao for a while. Meanwhile, the Lius were away trading grain, so Liu Dashao was actually happy to have some company.

“Huh, what’s that smell?” Liu Dashao was stretching when suddenly a foul, fishy odor reached his nose. Sensing something unusual, Liu Dashao immediately became alert, scanning the white mist around him, but saw nothing.

“Tian Guoqiang.”

…

“Tian Guoqiang, you bastard, come out here!”

“What the hell? Can’t a guy even get some sleep in the morning?” Rubbing his eyes, Tian Guoqiang sleepily walked out of the bedroom and turned to grab his teacup to rinse his mouth.

But Liu Dashao wouldn’t let him go so easily. He immediately grabbed Tian by the arm and, with a serious expression, asked, “Wake up! Can’t you smell something?” The odor was getting stronger, and Liu Dashao felt increasingly uneasy, sensing something unusual was about to happen.

Tian Guoqiang yawned lazily without even trying to smell the air, “What smell? You’re just too sensitive, my friend. What’s that phrase again? Oh yeah, ‘a bird frightened by an arrow.'”

“Could you be serious for once?” Liu Dashao was getting angry. This guy kept ignoring him, showing no sign of brotherly concern.

Seeing Liu’s anger, Tian dropped his teasing expression and sniffed carefully.

“Hmm, actually, there is something,” Tian replied this time not just pretending, but genuinely detecting the odor. However, it felt unfamiliar and somewhat nauseating to him.

“Now you smell it, huh? Why can’t you ever pay attention?” Liu Dashao said smugly.

“Dashao, what is this smell?” Tian Guoqiang sniffed again and felt increasingly uneasy, his chest tightening and a wave of nausea rising.

“It’s blood,” Liu Dashao answered. Having grown up in the countryside, he often slaughtered chickens and ducks during festivals, so he was no stranger to the smell of blood. At first, he had been puzzled, but as he recalled, the familiar sensation returned, and he immediately identified it as blood. Yet he found it strange—since he hadn’t slaughtered any animals recently, where could such a strong smell of blood be coming from?

“Blood?” Tian Guoqiang was taken aback. Where would blood come from all of a sudden?

Liu Dashao said, “Let’s go check it out,” and walked toward the door.

Tian Guoqiang wasn’t one to back down from trouble, so he casually followed Liu. The fog was extremely thick, visibility barely reaching two meters. For safety, the two walked closely together to prepare for any sudden incidents. The stench of blood made Liu Dashao feel suffocated, and he longed to escape and breathe fresh air. But after everything that had happened recently, he had become increasingly sensitive. No matter what, he had to find out where the smell came from, or he wouldn’t feel at ease.

They hadn’t walked far before they spotted the source of the horror—blood was splattered all around their house. The dew made it even more glaringly obvious. Even Tian Guoqiang’s expression turned serious. Was this intentional, or just a prank?

“Guoqiang…” Liu Dashao gave Tian a meaningful look, his face filled with suspicion.

Seeing Liu’s suspicion, Tian quickly said, “It’s not me! You know, I get queasy at the sight of blood!” Tian was actually telling the truth. He had always been sensitive to blood since childhood, and even a little blood would make him panic. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so serious now.

“Really?”

“On my honor!”

“Do you even have honor?”

“You…”

“Alright, fine.” Liu Dashao waved his hand. “I’ll believe you—for now.”

They circled the house, and bloodstains were everywhere, even splattered on the walls, creating an eerie scene. As they walked, they became more and more alarmed, finding it increasingly unbelievable. On the left side of the house, a trail of blood followed a path leading up the hill.

“Dashao, should we go check it out?” Tian Guoqiang pointed toward the blood trail on the path, his expression strange.

“Let’s go,” Liu Dashao naturally wouldn’t miss any clue and took the lead following the trail of blood.

“Ahh…”

“Ahh…”

With two screams, the two of them fell into a heap. Liu Dashao was on the bottom, with Tian Guoqiang on top.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tian Guoqiang dusted off his clothes, annoyed. They had been walking fine when Liu Dashao suddenly tripped, causing Tian to fall too.

“I… I…”

“Ahh…”

Before Liu could explain, a blood-curdling scream rang out. It was Tian Guoqiang. After screaming, he looked pained and then ran frantically back home.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Why the sudden panic?” Now it was Liu Dashao’s turn to be confused. However, he noticed just now that Tian had been looking at his feet when he screamed and ran off, so he looked down. He immediately felt chills run down his spine. Lying on the ground was a pitch-black dog, covered in blood, motionless. Its neck had been sliced open with a sharp object, its eyes red and bloodshot, its tongue sticking out long, as if it had been strangled.

Looking closer, Liu Dashao noticed that both of his pant legs were covered in blood, and one of his shoes was stuck beneath the dog’s belly. Liu Dashao immediately realized that when he had tripped earlier, he had stumbled over this dead dog. The fog was too thick, and the blood on the black dog had dried into a dark color. Liu, already nervous and focused on the smell of blood, hadn’t noticed and had tripped over it.

“Oh, so that’s what it was!” Liu Dashao chuckled toward the direction Tian had run off. Once, when they were kids, Liu had tricked Tian into catching a puppy, only for the mother dog to discover them. Naturally, she wouldn’t allow anyone to harm her puppies and launched a furious attack. Liu, with his fast legs, ran ahead safely, but Tian Guoqiang had it rough—chased and bitten by the mother dog, his whole body covered in blood. If not for a passing villager, they might have been eaten by the dog. Since then, Tian had developed a deep fear of dogs, shivering involuntarily at the sight of them, much like Wu La’er who had a stroke.

“Hmm, what happened to this dog? It looks so terrifyingly dead.” After laughing, Liu Dashao began to think seriously. Judging from the dog’s appearance, it was definitely killed by someone. But who would do such a despicable thing? And why spread the dog’s blood around his house?

Liu Dashao considered many possibilities but dismissed them all. Tian Guoqiang naturally wouldn’t do it—he had a deep fear of dogs. The elderly owners of the nearby houses were unlikely suspects; the dogs would probably kill them first before they could kill a dog, especially at night. If it were a ghost, that was even less likely—ghosts were supposedly afraid of dog blood, especially black dog blood, so that theory could basically be ruled out. The only plausible possibility was someone from the village, but why would a villager do this? Liu Dashao couldn’t figure it out. His grandparents were highly respected in the village, and his parents were trading grain in town, so they had no enemies in the village.

If there were no enemies, then who did this?

When Liu Dashao returned home, Tian Guoqiang was nowhere to be seen, but loud retching sounds came from the direction of the toilet. He ran over and laughed—there was Tian Guoqiang, bent over the edge of the toilet, vomiting violently, as if trying to expel everything he had eaten in the past three days.

“Tian Guoqiang, are you okay?” Liu patted his back.

“I’m fine,” Tian Guoqiang looked up with a bitter smile, then vomited again.

“Ahh…”

Sighing helplessly, Liu Dashao shook his head. Truthfully, he felt a bit of sympathy for his friend. Normally so bold, yet scared like this by a dead dog. At the same time, he felt a sense of satisfaction—when they were kids, Tian often teased him, but now, Liu could tease Tian in return.

The fog gradually lifted, and the sun came out. Sunlight shone on the blood on the ground, making it especially glaring. The heavy smell of blood made Liu Dashao feel like vomiting too.