Liu Yan's sinister smile, like an icicle, pierced straight down my spine. I gripped the black cloth bag in my hand; the Zhongshan suit inside, even through the fabric, exuded a chilling aura, as if something alive was writhing inside.
She… no, it was the thing controlling her that discovered it!
"Yan… Yanzi, what are you saying? What clothes?" The village chief clearly hadn't reacted yet, but he was also frightened by his daughter-in-law's chilling expression and tone, instinctively blocking my way.
Liu Yan ignored him, still staring at me with those bloodshot eyes, her grin widening to reveal overly white teeth: "Little master… so young, yet so bold. My 'man's' things, are you allowed to touch them?" Her voice was hoarse and dry, carrying a kind of inhuman friction.
I suppressed the fear in my heart, knowing I couldn't show weakness now. Grandpa always said that evil spirits mostly prey on the weak and fear the strong; the more afraid you are, the more rampant they become.
"Sister-in-law Liu Yan," I cleared my throat, trying to keep my voice steady, "you don't look well. I'm afraid you've been touched by something unclean. The village chief asked me to come and take a look at you."
"Something unclean?" Liu Yan tilted her head, her movements stiff. "I think… I'm fine. My 'man' treats me very well, much better than that good-for-nothing Chen Zhigang. He knows I'm hungry, he knows what I want…" As she spoke, her hand slowly touched her slightly protruding belly, a chilling "compassion" shining in her eyes.
The village chief's face turned green with shock and anger: "Yanzi! What nonsense are you spouting! Zhigang is your husband!"
"Husband?" Liu Yan scoffed, her voice sharp and grating. "He abandoned me in this godforsaken place, did he ever care about me? Only 'he' was with me… 'He' is my support, the father of my child…"
Seeing her words becoming increasingly absurd and her demeanor growing more and more erratic, I quietly reached into my canvas bag and touched the copper coin sword. At the same time, I noticed Liu Yan's gaze. Although she was still staring at me, her peripheral vision kept glancing at the black bag in my hand, revealing obvious fear and… greed?
That piece of clothing was very important to it! It was its core possession at this stage, or something closely connected to it!
I can't let it take the clothes back!
Without hesitation, I shoved the black cloth bag into my robes, drew my copper coin sword with my other hand, held it horizontally in front of me, and hissed, "What kind of demon dares to possess someone and harm a fetus! Show yourself now!"
Although the copper coin sword was small, it had been nurtured and enchanted by my grandfather over many years, giving it a certain degree of power against evil spirits. As I raised the sword, it seemed to emit a faint golden light in the dimly lit hall.
Liu Yan (or rather, the thing inside her) visibly flinched, her eerie smile vanishing, replaced by a venomous look. She didn't lunge forward; instead, she took a step back, her body trembling unnaturally, making strange "hoho" sounds in her throat.
"You...you're courting death..." she hissed, but her momentum had clearly weakened.
The village chief's legs trembled with fear, gripping my arm tightly: "Cha...Cha Nan, what do we do now?"
I stared intently at Liu Yan, my mind racing. Should I just attack head-on? Regardless of my skill level, Liu Yan is a living person, and a pregnant one at that; I'm hesitant to act rashly. That thing is clearly also wary of the clothes and copper coin sword in my hand, and dares not completely break ties.
A stalemate isn't a solution.
"Uncle Village Chief, where are the things I prepared?" I asked in a low voice.
"In...in the kitchen! Rooster blood, willow branches, and...and that..." the village chief quickly said.
"Go get the rooster blood and willow branches! Quickly!" I ordered.
The village chief scrambled off to the kitchen. I gripped the copper coin sword tightly, advancing step by step, buying time for the village chief and putting pressure on the thing: "I know you're hiding inside her body, nourished by the fetus's essence. But don't forget, this garment is in my hands now! If you know what's good for you, come out yourself, and I might consider sparing your life and sending you to where you belong. Otherwise..."
I brandished the copper coin sword, then patted the black cloth bag in my arms: "I'll destroy this garment, then beat you out of Sister Liu Yan's body, making your soul scatter!"
This was a bluff. Destroying the core of this evil entity wasn't easy, and forcibly expelling it might harm Liu Yan. But in negotiations, you need to have the right momentum.
The thing inside Liu Yan seemed enraged by my words, yet also more fearful. Its body trembled more violently, its face alternating between resentment and struggle.
Just then, the village chief came running back, carrying a bowl and clutching a few willow branches: "Coming! Coming!"
The bowl contained dark red rooster blood, emitting a strong, pungent odor, but this odor carried a masculine, exorcising power.
I took the bowl, quickly dipped a willow branch in the rooster blood, and drew a simple barrier line on the ground in front of me, simultaneously flicking a few drops of blood at Liu Yan.
"Hiss—!"
The rooster blood touched Liu Yan's trouser leg, immediately emitting a very faint wisp of black smoke! Liu Yan let out a bloodcurdling scream, staggering backward, her eyes blazing with venom.
"Go!" I growled at the village chief, grabbing the black cloth bag and protecting him as we hurried out the door.
The thing didn't chase after us. When we were outside the gate and looked back, Liu Yan was slumped against the doorframe, her face ashen, her eyes closed, seemingly unconscious. But the thick, sticky, grayish-black aura inside the door still lingered, like a lurking beast.
"Yanzi!" The village chief wanted to go back.
"Don't go!" I grabbed him. "She's temporarily unconscious, and that thing has been temporarily repelled by the rooster blood, but it's not gone! It's more dangerous for us to go in now!"
"Then… what do we do? My grandson…" The village chief was at a loss.
"This thing is very difficult to deal with, and it has already connected with the fetus." I frowned. "I need time to prepare more comprehensive measures, and I also need to find out the origin of this garment and that thing. Sister-in-law Liu Yan should be out of immediate danger; that thing needs her alive to nurture the 'fetus.' These next few days, try to keep her from being alone, and don't agitate her. You can secretly add a little incense ash to her food."
This was a temporary measure. Incense ash (especially specially made) can suppress evil spirits to some extent, but it's not a permanent solution.
The village chief nodded repeatedly, seeing me as his lifeline.
I carried the strange Zhongshan suit back home, my heart heavy. This thing was like a hot potato; even having it in the house made me feel uneasy. I mixed the remaining rooster blood with cinnabar and drew several sealing talismans on the outside of the suit. Then I found an old earthenware jar, stuffed the suit inside, stuck a talisman on the rim, and buried it in the sunniest spot in the southeast corner of the yard, hoping to use the yang energy to suppress the evil.
After doing all this, I finally breathed a sigh of relief, but that sticky, ominous feeling still lingered in my nose. I washed my hands several times, pondering what to do next. Grandpa's notes must contain relevant information, but I'd have to search slowly. This job—five hundred yuan didn't look easy to earn.
For the next two days, I locked myself in the house, rummaging through drawers and cupboards, searching through the yellowed booklets Grandpa had left behind. There was no further news from the village chief; I guessed Liu Yan had "woke up," but was temporarily kept in check.
The third afternoon was sweltering. I was feeling dizzy and overwhelmed from researching, so I decided to go for a walk to get some fresh air and wash my face by the stream behind the village to clear my head.
The stream behind the village wasn't wide, the current was gentle, and the water was crystal clear. It was where the village women usually washed clothes and the children played. I walked to a quiet bend in the stream, squatted down, scooped up some cool water and splashed it on my face, letting out a comfortable sigh.
Just as I closed my eyes to enjoy this moment of coolness, a faint, suppressed sobbing reached my ears.
Not again? My heart skipped a beat. Ever since the night of my grandfather's seventh-day memorial, I'd become sensitive to the sound of women crying.
I opened my eyes and looked in the direction of the sound. Behind a large blue stone not far upstream, I saw a young woman in a floral shirt squatting, her shoulders shaking, sobbing softly. Judging from her back, she looked a bit like Xiao Fen, the wife of Old Li from the west end of the village.
Xiaofen is two years older than me. She just got married last year, and her husband went to work in Africa. She's pretty, with fair skin, and considered one of the prettiest girls in the village. She's usually shy, with her head down, and doesn't talk much.
Why is she crying? Is she missing her husband? Or has she been wronged?
I didn't want to get involved, but seeing her crying so sadly, and remembering Grandpa's instruction to "help as much as possible," I hesitated for a moment, then went over.
"Sister-in-law Xiaofen? What's wrong?" I asked from a few steps away.
Xiaofen was startled and turned around abruptly, tears streaming down her face, her eyes red and swollen. Seeing it was me, she hurriedly wiped her tears with the back of her hand and lowered her head. "No...it's nothing. Cha Nan, what are you doing here?"
"I came to wash my face." I sat down on the rock next to her, keeping my distance. "Sister-in-law, don't bottle things up. Crying will ruin your health. Did someone bully you?"
Xiao Fen shook her head, tears falling again. "No one bullied me...it's just...it's just that I feel sad." She hesitated, her voice even lower. "I...I might be possessed by an evil spirit."
Possessed by an evil spirit? I perked up (that darn occupational hazard!): "What do you mean?"
Xiaofen blushed, looking somewhat embarrassed. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching before lowering her voice and saying, "I... for the past two nights, I've felt something touching me while I sleep... something cold, and... it even tries to get into my clothes. I wake up startled and turn on the light, but there's nothing there. As soon as I turn the light off, the feeling returns... especially after washing clothes in the river."
As she spoke, she instinctively hugged her arms, a look of fear on her face: "And, these past two days while washing clothes in the river, I've felt like something is watching me in the water... Sometimes, even when the clothes are perfectly clean, when I pick them up, there are water plants stuck to the cuffs or hem, and... and things like strands of hair, dark and grimy, even though the river is perfectly clean..."
A water ghost? Or a water spirit?
I frowned. Riverbanks do tend to attract yin spirits, especially places where people have drowned. But I haven't heard of anyone drowning in this little river. "And…" Xiaofen's voice trembled with tears, her face flushed crimson. "I… I hung my underwear out to dry in the yard yesterday, and when I went to collect it last night, I found… I found a fishy smell on it, like… like the fishy smell of a river, and… and some kind of… like snot… I was so scared I threw it away!"
This description… it feels familiar… that sticky, fishy smell…
A thought struck me. Could it be related to what Liu Yan had on her? Both smelled sticky and fishy? Or is there something else strange about this river?
"Sister-in-law Xiaofen, besides washing clothes, have you been anywhere else lately? Or… have you touched anything strange?" I asked.
Xiaofen thought hard for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I haven't left the village recently. I just come to the river to wash clothes every day… Oh, right!" She suddenly remembered something, "The day before yesterday afternoon, I was washing bed sheets in that backwater a little upstream, and I felt something soft under my feet, like… like an old cloth bundle. The water washed it away, and I didn't pay much attention."
A cloth bundle? A backwater?
I had a vague feeling that something was wrong. "Sister-in-law Xiaofen, take me to that backwater."
Xiaofen was a little scared, but seeing my serious expression, she nodded and led me upstream for about a hundred meters. The current was slower here, forming a small backwater, with lush aquatic plants on the bank.
I stood on the bank, concentrating my senses. Sure enough, there was a very faint, sticky, fishy smell mixed in with the water vapor, similar to the smell of Liu Yan and her Zhongshan suit! It was very faint, almost masked by the river's own scent, but it was definitely there.
Moreover, there seemed to be a faint, chilly ripple at the bottom of the water.
"Sister-in-law, stand back a bit." I told Xiaofen to step back, then squatted down to examine the water closely. The river was clear; I could see the stones and water plants on the bottom. Suddenly, my gaze was drawn to something half-hidden in the water plants, a dark blue object.
It looked like a piece of cloth, tangled in the water plants, swaying slightly with the current.
Could this be the "cloth bundle" Xiaofen had stepped on?
I found a long twig and carefully poked at it. The twig touched the cloth, feeling soft and slippery. I used a little force and pulled it out of the water plants.
With a splash, the thing was brought to the surface.
It was indeed an old-fashioned, patched blue cloth bundle, soaking wet and heavy. The bundle was somewhat rotten, and when I poked it with the twig, it tore open.
Several old clothes, soaked and whitish, slipped out from the tear. But what sent chills down my spine was that along with them fell a palm-sized, dark, ball-shaped object, seemingly made of countless tangled strands of hair! The hair ball was wet, dripping water, and emitted a strong, nauseating, sticky stench! It was exactly the smell Liu Yan and Xiao Fen had described!
And in the center of that hair ball, there seemed to be a small, blackened, and deformed wooden puppet, its face painted with distorted features in red!
"Ah—!" Xiao Fen screamed in terror at the sight of the hair ball, nearly fainting.
I also felt a surge of intense nausea and palpitations. This was definitely not ordinary trash! This was a "cursed object," deliberately cursed and abandoned in the water! The target was likely the woman who frequently washed clothes here, using the water as a medium to cast a curse or mark, facilitating the invasion of some evil spirit!
Who did this? Is it related to the thing on Liu Yan?
I suppressed my discomfort and poked at the hair ball with a twig, trying to find any other clues on the puppet. Just as the tip of the twig touched the puppet—
"Glug glug..."
A series of eerie bubbles suddenly rose from the water!
Then, a pale, swollen hand, its fingernails filled with black mud, shot out from the water plants at my feet and grabbed my ankle with lightning speed!
A bone-chilling cold and an immense pulling force instantly overwhelmed me, dragging me into the river!
"Cha Nan!" Xiao Fen's scream echoed through the river bend.
I was terrified. I braced my other foot against the rocks on the bank and stabbed the twig hard at the pale wrist!
The twig struck with a dull "plop," like piercing rotting leather. The hand trembled violently, its grip loosening slightly, but it didn't let go! Instead, another equally pale, swollen hand burst from the water, grabbing for my calf!
At the same time, the clump of wet hair seemed to come alive. The strands of hair on its surface moved without wind, wriggling like countless tiny black worms, "crawling" towards Xiaofen and me!
A water ghost! And a water ghost controlled or enhanced by evil magic!
My feet slipped, and half my body was dragged into the water. The icy river water reached my waist; the biting cold and the pulling force were utterly despairing. Xiaofen was terrified on the bank, only able to cry out.
In the panic, I suddenly remembered that I still had something in my canvas bag—although I hadn't brought my main magical implements, I always carried a small packet of cinnabar and a few spare exorcism talismans in my pocket!
I clung tightly to a protruding rock on the bank with one hand, and with the other, I laboriously reached into my soaked pocket and felt for the waterproof oil paper packet. He tore open the paper package, not bothering to examine it, and threw the mixture of cinnabar and incense ash, along with the few crumpled yellow talismans, at the ball of hair clinging to my ankle and in the water!
"Sizzle—!"
The cinnabar and talisman touched the pale hands and writhing hair, instantly emitting thick black smoke and a sound like hot irons scalding flesh! The river churned violently, and a faint, piercing scream, unlike a human voice, drifted through the air!
The grip on me vanished abruptly! I seized the opportunity, scrambling onto the bank in a disheveled state, soaking wet and shivering with cold. Several dark blue handprints remained on my ankles, burning with pain.
Looking at the river again, the two pale hands and the writhing hairball had disappeared, leaving only the ripped blue cloth bundle and scattered old clothes floating on the water, quickly swept away by the current.
Only the lingering stench and sticky smell in the air proved that what had just happened was not an illusion.
Xiao Fen sat slumped on the ground, her face deathly pale, trembling all over, unable to speak.
I gasped for breath, looking at the now calm but treacherous river, then down at the dark handprints on my ankles, a chill running through me. The village pond was deeper and murky than I had imagined.
The evil spirit on Liu Yan, the water ghost in the river, the strange hairball curse... what was the connection between them?
Grandpa's passing, my bizarre dream, and all these successive evil events... I had a vague feeling that I was being drawn into the center of a huge, dangerous whirlpool.
And there was Sister-in-law Xiao Fen on the bank, still shaken and pitiful, her floral shirt clinging tightly to her body after being soaked by the river... Damn it, why was I distracted again!
I shook my head, suppressing the inappropriate thought, and reached out to pull Xiao Fen up: "Sister-in-law, it's alright, get up quickly, you can't stay here."
Xiao Fen grabbed my hand, icy cold and trembling. She managed to stand up, her legs still weak, almost leaning against me.
"Cha Nan... just now... what was that?" she asked, her voice trembling with tears.
"Something dirty in the water," I replied briefly, helping her quickly away from the riverbank. "Sister-in-law, please don't come to the river alone these next few days, and don't wash your clothes here. And at night... try not to sleep alone."
Xiao Fen nodded repeatedly, her eyes filled with lingering fear and dependence.
On the way back to Xiao Fen's house, I was preoccupied. Liu Yan's matter wasn't resolved yet, and now something from the river had surfaced. Also, the blue cloth bundle and the hairball were clearly deliberate. Who was targeting the women in the village? And what was their purpose?
I touched the stinging, bruised handprint on my ankle; the chilling energy still seeped into my bones. I needed to soak it in mugwort and talisman water as soon as I got back, otherwise, it might become a chronic condition.
As I supported the still slightly trembling Xiao Fen, feeling the soft warmth on my arm, the fear in my heart was inexplicably diluted by another restless emotion, a mixture of responsibility and a secret excitement.