"What?"
Lu Fei and Huzi were both taken aback.
Has this old uncle been so scared by the monster that he's lost his mind?
"Uncle, Grandma's remains were cremated, right? Could you have seen wrong?" Huzi opened another bottle of water and handed it to Uncle Laogen, urging him to drink some to calm down.
Uncle Laogen drank half the bottle in one go, but his face was still deathly pale.
"I didn't see wrong; it was my old mother's face! It pounced on me, and I saw... it was her, it was my old mother!"
His pupils trembled, and he himself could hardly believe it.
Tiger and Lu Fei exchanged a glance, paused, and said in astonishment, "So it was a mistake back then? The bones that were burned weren't the aunt's?"
But in such a small village, where everyone knows each other, how could they not know which grave belonged to Old Root Uncle's family?
"No mistake, it was my mother's grave. When we dug it up, it was still intact, wearing the clothes she was buried in, with green mold all over her body..." Old Root Uncle shuddered, as if something had occurred to him.
"That's right! The bodies buried in dry bone funerals don't decompose. Everyone knew the aunt; how could we have burned the wrong one?" Tiger became even more puzzled.
"My mother is resentful because I was unfilial!"
Old Root Uncle covered his face with his rough hands, his voice choking with sobs.
"When she was alive, I didn't take good care of her, and after her death, I let her bones be burned... She has turned into a ghost to seek revenge on me!"
"A ghost?" Tiger glanced at the portrait on the side of the room.
The old woman in the photo had a sunken, drawn face, looking extremely miserable, and it seemed to bear a striking resemblance to the monster's face.
Huzi felt it was incredible: 'Boss, is that possible?'
Lu Fei thought for a moment and still shook his head. 'After a person dies, the soul leaves the body—the bones are just bones, and the ghost is just a ghost; it's indeed possible for such a situation to occur.'
'But that monster can eat livestock, and we've had contact with it—it has a physical form, it's not a spirit.'
Huzi scratched his head in confusion: 'Then what exactly is going on?'
Lu Fei didn't know either.
This matter in the village was getting stranger and stranger.
'We won't go to the old well tonight. Let's just stay at Uncle Laogen's place to prevent the monster from coming back.'
Lu Fei gave two more ghost-repelling talismans to Uncle Laogen, as the previous one had been reduced to a pile of ashes by the monster's malevolent energy.
That monster had such heavy malevolent energy!
What on earth is it?
"Mom, I was wrong, I know I was wrong! I shouldn't have just listened to my wife; I should have been filial to you..."
Uncle Lao Gen insisted that it was his mother coming back for his soul, and he knelt in front of her memorial portrait, kowtowing in fear.
Huzi wanted to offer some words of comfort but couldn't find the right words.
Uncle Lao Gen's wife was a domineering woman. Ever since she married into the family, she had a bad relationship with her mother-in-law. Uncle Lao Gen only knew how to keep the peace by siding with his wife, at the expense of his mother.
Later, when the old lady fell ill, the wife refused to take care of her and locked her in the woodshed, bringing her food only every few days.
It was said that when the old lady was buried, her body was so light it seemed to weigh nothing at all.
To save money, they didn't even choose a proper burial site and just buried her anywhere.
What use is it now to know he was wrong?
To put it bluntly,
his wife getting eaten is what she deserved!
The terrible thing is, it has implicated the whole village!
Huzi, ignoring Uncle Laogen, lit a cigarette and sat on the threshold.
Lu Fei, holding Xiaohei, also pulled a chair and sat down beside him.
Despite such a commotion, the village became even more quiet.
The night did not bring any coolness to this small mountain village.
Just sitting there, both of them couldn't stop sweating. The little black dog lay on the ground like a roasted duck, its little black tongue sticking out continuously.
Huzi was deeply worried, but fortunately nothing else happened in the second half of the night.
At dawn, with the first light of day.
Huzi said goodbye to Uncle Laogen and went with Lu Fei to the old well at the east end of the village.
Several broken wooden buckets were piled up beside the well, and the old well mouth, like a parched mouth, gazed up at the sky listlessly.
The two stood by the well.
Lu Fei bent down and looked into the pitch-black well.
There was no hint of moisture; the well walls were so dry they were flaking.
Lu Fei crouched by the well for a while and faintly detected a whiff of rotting stench from below.
"Huzi, do you smell anything?"
Huzi bent down to sniff and frowned: "Wow! It smells like a dead rat!"
"Huzi, go find a strong rope. I'll go down and see what it is."
"Boss, let me go down. This is my village's issue, and nothing major will happen in broad daylight. I can handle it!"
As he spoke, Huzi ran home and fetched a coil of rope.
One end of the rope was tied to a large tree by the well, and the other end was secured around Huzi's waist.
"Be careful! The bottom of the well is always dark, even during the day, it's very gloomy!" Lu Fei, feeling uneasy, stuffed several ghost-repelling talismans into Hu Zi's pocket and patted the black umbrella in his hand.
"Hu Zi is one of us, make sure to take good care of him!"
Then, he inserted the black umbrella into the back of Hu Zi's collar.
Feeling secure, Hu Zi quickly descended, holding onto the rope with dextrous hands and feet; his tall figure was soon enveloped by darkness.
Lu Fei patiently waited by the side.
At this time, many people in the village had already woken up.
From the house where the cow died last night came sorrowful cries.
Lu Fei shook his head sympathetically.
Soon after.
The rope started to move.
Huzi gave the signal.
Lu Fei quickly grabbed the rope and pulled with all his strength.
Huzi was also exerting himself down below, using his hands and feet to push against the well walls, climbing up bit by bit.
As soon as he emerged, Lu Fei caught a whiff of an overpowering stench of decay, causing him to drop the rope and take two steps back instinctively.
The little black dog moved even further away.
"Boss, look!"
Drenched in sweat, Huzi crawled out of the well, taking a few deep breaths before throwing a messy lump onto the ground.
"What is this?"
Lu Fei fanned his nose and leaned in for a closer look.
It was a dry, disgusting, filthy clump of matted fur.
"A cat?!"
After a few glances, Lu Fei recognized it as a dead cat.
Judging by its size, it was an adult cat, which had been dead for quite some time. Its body had rotted almost completely, leaving only a dried-up skin.
"No wonder everyone got sick after drinking the well water, all because of this thing!"
There is a saying among the folk.
Hang a dead cat on a tree, and throw a dead dog into the water.
When cats and dogs die, to allow their souls to rest in peace, the cat's body should be hung on a tree, and the dog's body should be thrown into a river.
If one does not observe these taboos and buries a cat's corpse randomly, the cat's corpse may absorb the earth's energy and turn into a monster, causing harm to people.
Regardless of whether these taboos make sense, a cat dying in a well is very problematic.
"Cats are very intelligent animals and fear water. How could it have fallen into the well and drowned?" Lu Fei looked at Huzi, "Huzi, whose cat is this?"
"I haven't been in the village for a long time, I really didn't know," Hu Zi shook his head. Seeing some curious villagers walking over, he asked loudly.
"Uncle, Auntie, this cat fell into the well, do you know whose cat it is?" Hu Zi pointed at the dead cat on the ground and asked loudly.
A few old folks squinted their eyes to take a look, revealing a surprised expression.
"Isn't that Da Hua from Old Gen's family?"