“What’s the matter, Immortal Girl, are you scared?”
The snake spirit seemed satisfied with Grandma Fan’s reaction and burst into laughter again, rocking back and forth. “Let me give you a sincere piece of advice before I leave! Just as you said, one must know when to advance and retreat. This thing—if it were just you, even ten of you together wouldn’t stand a chance against it!”
As soon as the last word left her lips, Grandma Fan’s vision blurred. At that moment, the village chief, Tian, collapsed onto the ground. His facial expression had returned to normal, no longer crooked-eyed or lopsided-mouthed, clearly indicating that the snake spirit had indeed left. Still, Grandma Fan remained cautious. She squatted down and pressed two fingers hard against the middle finger of Tian’s left hand. Only after hearing him cry out in pain, recognizing the voice as distinctly male, did she finally relax and collapse onto the floor, gasping for breath. The previously composed mask she had worn completely fell away, revealing a sallow complexion. Sweat poured down her face like a stream, leaving her elderly features drenched and disheveled, her back soaked through and sticking to her clothes.
Looking around the room, things had gone from relatively orderly to completely chaotic. Tables were overturned here, chairs lay scattered there, incense burners rolled across the floor, and pillows and quilts flew everywhere, as if the house had been robbed and then trampled by bears and wolves together. Meanwhile, Liu Laoshi had been comfortably laid in bed by the dutiful Liu Dashao, who had also covered him with a quilt. Seeing Grandma Fan so utterly exhausted, Liu Dashao felt guilty and tried to find a kettle to make her some tea. But after searching high and low, he couldn’t find the kettle anywhere. Upon closer inspection, he realized it had been knocked to the ground during the earlier magical battle, its corner dented. The hot water had spilled out, pooling on the floor—it was clearly no longer usable. Fortunately, while all the cups in the bedroom had shattered, a few remained intact in the living room. With no other choice, Liu Dashao grabbed one of the surviving cups, went to the courtyard, lowered the well bucket, drew up some relatively clear water from the old well, poured some into the cup, and returned to Grandma Fan.
“Grandma, you must be exhausted. Here’s some water for you,” Liu Dashao offered the cup. It might have been better not to mention it—once reminded, Grandma Fan suddenly felt her throat burning like it was on fire, her lips painfully dry, her mouth parched and saliva-less. She tried to reach for the cup but found she couldn’t even lift her hand. Even attempting to move her little finger felt like climbing a mountain. Sigh! The previous battle had clearly drained both her physical strength and mental energy, leaving this elderly woman, well past her sixtieth year, completely spent.
“Child, I can’t move. Could you please help me drink some water?” Grandma Fan managed to grind out the sentence through clenched teeth. Immediately afterward, the sharp pain in her lower abdomen returned, wiping the brief moment of relief from her face. Just as the sweat on her back had begun to dry, another wave of perspiration soaked her again.
“I understand, Grandma. Don’t move,” Liu Dashao, who had some knowledge of medicine, naturally grasped the situation. He quickly supported her waist with one hand and held the cup to her lips with the other, feeding her sip by sip. Clearly, Grandma Fan was extremely thirsty—once the water touched her lips, she gulped it down greedily, as if she had never seen water in her previous life. However, this rural well water, unfiltered and untested, naturally contained a lot of salt and alkali. At first, it didn’t taste strange, but after about ten seconds, a wave of discomfort flooded over her, making Grandma Fan furrow her brow repeatedly.
“Sorry, the kettle was knocked over and there was no spare one, so I just drew some well water. Otherwise, by the time I boiled some, you might have been too weak to breathe,” Liu Dashao explained.
“It’s fine,” Grandma Fan nodded, offering a brief thank you.
“No need to thank me. Truthfully, it was you who saved all of us in this house. We should be thanking you!” Liu Dashao smiled, but his eyes soon narrowed in confusion. “Wait, now that I think about it, aside from my father and Village Chief Tian, Dog Egg’s father and Xiao Mazi’s mother didn’t seem to be directly hit during the fight. Where did they go?”
“Achoo!” Suddenly interrupted by a sneeze, Liu Dashao sniffed and cursed, “Why does it smell like urine in here all of a sudden?” The house’s ventilation had never been great, but this stench was overpowering—thick and pungent, like the super-concentrated milk advertised on TV. Even Liu Dashao, who usually had a strong tolerance, couldn’t help but feel nauseated, let alone others. Looking around, he saw swarms of green flies circling like Japanese bombers, buzzing incessantly. Following the flies, Liu Dashao discovered that Dog Egg’s father and Xiao Mazi’s mother were hiding in a large cabinet near the corner of the room, the door half-open. Judging from Dog Egg’s father’s terrified expression and the dampness on his trousers, it was clear this foul odor originated from him.
“You… you two?” Liu Dashao pointed at Dog Egg’s father, speechless.
“Ghosts! Ghosts! Monsters are eating people!” Dog Egg’s father hadn’t fully recovered his senses yet. Upon hearing a voice approaching, he thought the snake spirit had finished devouring everyone outside and was now coming for him. How terrible! He wished he could shrink smaller, squeezing desperately into the cabinet, but the limited space meant Xiao Mazi’s mother, equally terrified and screaming, kept bumping into the corners. To an outsider, it might have looked like the two were engaged in some improper activity.
“Uncle, it’s me—Dashao!” Liu Dashao, half-amused and half-embarrassed, grabbed Dog Egg’s father, who was trembling inside the cabinet. His face, already twisted from the stench, now wore an expression of deep discomfort.
“Don’t… don’t kill me! Eat her first! Eat the one next to me!” Dog Egg’s father screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Cough… cough…” Liu Dashao was at a loss for words. He had always known Dog Egg’s father was timid and unsophisticated, a simple and honest man. But he never imagined that a grown man could be this cowardly—it was truly unheard of in both ancient and modern times.
“Can’t you just open your eyes and look? It’s me, Liu Dashao! Your son’s friend! The monster has already been driven away by Grandma Fan!” Liu Dashao tried to explain.
“I won’t open them! I won’t! The moment I do, you’ll eat me!” Dog Egg’s father flailed his arms, trying to break free from Liu Dashao’s grip.
“Enough!” Liu Dashao wasn’t known for his patience, and even his tolerance had limits. After repeated attempts, even a clay Buddha would glare. Without hesitation, he kicked the cabinet, jolting the two people inside and silencing their cries and panic.
“Alright, you two! Come out now! The monster really is gone. What a pain!” Liu Dashao rolled his eyes, muttered the words, and then ignored the two completely, walking directly toward the bed. He had assumed that once the monster was driven away, Tian Guoqiang and the others would recover, maybe even wake up immediately. Unfortunately, their faces remained darkened, and their pulses had become even weaker than before. If not for his careful examination, he might have doubted whether they were still alive.
Liu Dashao’s face turned pale. “Grandma, come quickly! You said the monster was already driven away. Why are Guoqiang and the others getting worse instead?”
“Hmph! Superstition! Pretending to be spirits, deceiving people—it’s been exposed now, hasn’t it?” Village Chief Tian had somehow regained consciousness at some point. Judging from his appearance, he seemed to have mostly recovered. Yet, the moment he awoke, instead of asking about others, he immediately resumed his usual habit, sarcastically criticizing Grandma Fan for “endangering socialist unity and stability.” His tone was as condescending as could be, as if he hadn’t just fainted out of fear upon seeing the snake spirit. Now, with his hands behind his back, he paced toward Grandma Fan and said in a solemn tone, “I told you all along that my child’s illness was acute—possibly food poisoning. But you wouldn’t listen and insisted on bringing her here. Isn’t this just delaying treatment? With that time, we could have contacted Old Hu from the neighboring village and taken them to the town hospital by tractor.”
Faced with the village chief’s scolding, Grandma Fan once again displayed her unique talent for ignoring criticism. She simply sat cross-legged, focusing on recovering her strength, pretending not to hear a word he said. Only when Liu Dashao spoke did she finally wipe her sweat and open her tired eyes.
“Dashao, go check—do Guoqiang’s children have blackened hallmarks?”
“Oh? Let me see!” Liu Dashao leaned over the bed and examined Tian Guoqiang and the others closely. Sure enough, just as Grandma Fan had said, each of them had a coin-sized mark right on their hallmarks. The mark was entirely black, darker in the center and gradually fading outward, like a drop of ink on rice paper. Liu Dashao tried to wipe it off with his fingers, rubbing until he had cleaned out the pores on Tian Guoqiang’s skin, but the mark remained stubbornly. He had no choice but to give up. In fact, if Liu Dashao hadn’t known Tian Guoqiang since childhood and spent every day with him, he might have mistaken this mark for a birthmark.
“That’s right. Not only Guoqiang, but also Dog Egg and Xiao Mazi have the same marks on their faces,” Liu Dashao confirmed.
“Now, look carefully—how dark or light is the black mark?”
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