It was so beautiful.

The gentle ripples on the water twisted light and shadow just right, and combined with Little Oriole’s graceful movements, it seemed as if a filter had been applied.

Li Zhuiyuan had previously been taken by his parents to see cultural performances at their workplace and had seen many professional singers and dancers. Yet, yesterday’s performance by Little Oriole had impacted him just as much as his older and younger brothers.

Under his parents’ upbringing, he had always understood and followed rules strictly. However, Little Oriole, performing under that crude makeshift tent, had shown him a different, wilder kind of charm.

It was provocative, unrestrained, earthy, and unpolished—unfit for a proper stage, yet its essence was truly intoxicating.

She was coming, closer and closer, like someone from a painting, stepping out of it, yet also moving back into it.

At that moment, Li Zhuiyuan had forgotten his predicament. He seemed to have forgotten he was still in the water, ignoring the terror of not being able to breathe and the water constantly choking his nose and mouth.

Until…

She extended her hand.

Yesterday, when he and his brothers were squeezed at the front watching the performance, Little Oriole had swayed her waist and sung as she came closer, even reaching out specifically to touch his face. Li Zhuiyuan, among that group of children, was as fair-skinned and delicate as a porcelain doll.

Originally, Li Zhuiyuan had hoped she would touch him again.

However,

This time, she extended both hands.

Both hands grasped Li Zhuiyuan’s shoulders.

“So cold… so painful…”

In an instant, the atmosphere twisted and ripped apart, and the strange, inexplicable fascination he felt earlier vanished.

Fear finally appeared in Li Zhuiyuan’s eyes, like someone whose anesthesia had worn off, suddenly regaining the sensation of pain.

He wanted to break free, to dodge, to escape, but those hands held him in a death grip, and no matter how he thrashed, he couldn’t get away.

Then, a force came from behind him.

Li Zhuiyuan felt himself being pulled, like in a tug-of-war game he used to play at school, but this time, he was the rope.

Finally, with a sense of detachment, Li Zhuiyuan was pulled up.

In his vision, he floated upwards, higher and higher, while Little Oriole below became increasingly distant and smaller.

Her arms were raised towards him, and between them, an abyss that should not exist gradually formed.

“Heave-ho!”

Fortunately, his grandson was carrying a bamboo basket on his back; Li Weihan had grabbed hold of it to pull upwards.

He was heavy, a dead weight. Though just a child, Li Weihan felt like he was struggling against a bull in heat.

From below, a force was preventing his grandson from coming up.

Leizi came over to help, wrapping his arms around Li Weihan’s waist and pulling backward.

Finally,

“Splash!”

As his grandson was pulled from the water, the resisting force suddenly vanished, and Li Weihan, Leizi, and Li Zhuiyuan, who had just been retrieved, all tumbled onto the boat.

“Go quickly!”

Li Weihan, without even getting up, roared at Panzi.

This time, Panzi didn’t mess up. He used all his strength to pole the boat, quickly moving them towards the other side.

“Grandpa, she’s coming, she’s coming!”

Leizi pointed ahead in terror.

Li Weihan looked that way and saw that as the boat moved, the mass of black hair on the water’s surface was also following them.

She was chasing them!

“Lei, go help Pan pole the boat, quickly!”

Leizi got up and ran over. The two brothers yelled in unison as they pushed, further increasing the boat’s speed.

Li Weihan grabbed a fishing rod, his expression grim. After realizing the mass of hair was still closing in on the boat, Li Weihan let out a roar and jabbed the fishing rod at a spot just in front of the hair.

The fishing rod entered the water. It seemed to hit something, yet met no resistance. Instead, a tremendous force began pulling the rod further downwards.

“Whoa…”

Li Weihan exclaimed in surprise. Fortunately, he let go of the fishing rod in time, otherwise, the terrifying force would have dragged him into the water.

The hair was closer.

Standing by the boat’s edge, Li Weihan could see the silhouette of the woman’s black qipao underwater in front of him.

The river was clearly flowing east, yet she was moving against the current.

She was walking; she was truly walking on her own!

“Thrum! Thrum! Thrum!”

The boat began to sway, steadily growing more violent.

Li Weihan could hardly imagine the consequences if the boat capsized and he and his grandchildren fell into the water. This was no longer a matter of knowing how to swim; this death was utterly sinister!

At that moment, Li Weihan’s gaze fell upon the fishing net at his feet. Without a second thought, he immediately grabbed the net and cast it towards the hair, which was now less than two meters from the boat.

The fishing net first spread across the water’s surface, and soon half of it sank.

Initially, the net on the surface was dragged along, but gradually, its speed slowed, and finally, it stopped.

It worked; she was tangled!

Li Weihan rushed to the stern, reaching out to snatch the bamboo pole: “Go check on Little Yuan!”

Panzi and Leizi were, after all, just big kids; their strenuous efforts poling the boat earlier had already exhausted them. After Li Weihan took over, they immediately rushed to Li Zhuiyuan’s side.

“Yuanzi, Yuanzi? Yuanzi, wake up, quickly wake up!”

“Grandpa, Yuanzi won’t wake up.”

Li Weihan, while poling the boat and gazing at the increasingly distant fishing net, shouted back: “Is he breathing?!”

“Grandpa, he is!”

“Pat Little Yuan’s back.”

The two brothers immediately followed the instruction: one helped Li Zhuiyuan sit up while the other patted his back.

But after much effort, Li Zhuiyuan still didn’t wake up.

“Grandpa, it’s no use!”

Li Weihan didn’t reply, simply gritting his teeth and continuously poling the boat, not daring to take his hand away to wipe the sweat that streamed into his eyes.

Finally, the boat reached home. Li Weihan tossed the bamboo pole aside, not even bothering to tie the boat rope. He picked up Li Zhuiyuan and jumped off the boat. However, he was utterly exhausted, and stumbled upon landing. To protect his grandson in his arms, he had to brace himself against the bluestone steps below with his knees.

“Ow…”

His knee had a cut, but the next moment he forced himself to stand up, carrying the child into the house:

“Guiying, Guiying!”

“Back so early?” Cui Guiying was cleaning ash behind the stove. Hearing the commotion, she stood up and, seeing her husband holding a child, anxiously cried out, “What happened, what happened? What’s wrong with the child?”

Li Weihan first carried the child to a mat in the inner room. With many children in the family, there weren’t enough beds, and as it was summer, they all slept on floor mats at night.

Cui Guiying held Li Zhuiyuan’s head and gently patted his face, but found that she couldn’t wake him up no matter what. She immediately burst into tears:

“Oh, my child, my child, what has happened to you?”

“Stop wailing!” Li Weihan kicked Cui Guiying’s calf. “Quick, change the child into dry clothes.”

Cui Guiying quickly wiped her eyes and got up to get the clothes.

“Panzi, go call Zheng Datong!”

Zheng Datong’s real name was Zheng Huamin. He was Siyuan Village’s clinic doctor, a barefoot doctor. Children first gave him this nickname because he liked to deliberately scare them with large syringes, and over time, adults also started calling him that.

“Leizi, go call Blind Liu.”

Blind Liu’s real name was Liu Jinxia. Her parents had died young, and her uncle had arranged for her to marry into the village from Si’an Town. In her first year of marriage, her in-laws both successively fell ill and died, which secretly made many wives in the village envious to tears.

The following year, one night her husband, after drinking, went to the toilet, fell into the latrine pit, and drowned, leaving behind only their newborn daughter.

At that time, rumors spread in the village that Liu Jinxia had a “hard fate,” bringing misfortune to her blood relatives.

Life was hard for a widow with a child. Besides managing the household chores and farm work, Liu Jinxia also started a business of telling fortunes and performing rites to ward off bad luck at the New Year. The more the rumors about her spread, the more people believed in her abilities.

In those days, working the land barely provided enough to survive. To live more comfortably, one had to rely on other trades. Liu Jinxia, through her fortune-telling business, actually managed to find a live-in husband for her daughter, Li Juxiang.

However, just in the second year after he moved in, her son-in-law suddenly collapsed and died while transplanting rice seedlings in the field, reportedly from a sudden heart attack.

This left Li Juxiang with a newborn daughter, just as her mother had been.

Now, not only in the village but also in the surrounding areas, people became convinced of the unique fate of Liu Jinxia’s family line. Consequently, Liu Jinxia’s business only grew better.

She simply rented out her family’s land to others and had her daughter buy a tricycle from town. Wherever there was business, she would have her daughter, Li Juxiang, take her there on the tricycle.

A few years ago, Liu Jinxia developed cataracts and couldn’t see clearly, which ironically completed her personal business image.

Meanwhile, Cui Guiying had just finished changing Li Zhuiyuan’s wet clothes when she saw her husband take a scoop of well water to rinse the blood from his knee. He then unlocked a cabinet and took out three packs of cigarettes.

He tossed one pack to Cui Guiying first, instructing: “When Zheng Datong arrives, open it and offer him one, then give him another when he leaves. The medical fees will be on credit.”

Next, Li Weihan threw over another pack: “Give Blind Liu a whole pack, and don’t discuss anything else.”

Cui Guiying reminded him: “I heard that Blind Liu charges a fortune for a single visit now.”

Li Weihan shook his head: “It’s one thing for her to be blind, but she shouldn’t be blind to her conscience.”

Liu Jinxia’s husband had grown up playing in the mud with Li Weihan. In the years immediately after her husband’s death, when she and her daughter were struggling as an orphaned widow, Li Weihan often provided some relief and helped with farm work during busy seasons. Because of this, Li Weihan had been the subject of much gossip back then.

Although the two families didn’t visit each other frequently anymore, if Blind Liu dared to accept money from his family, Li Weihan would spit right in her face.

The last pack, Li Weihan put into his own pocket.

Cui Guiying asked in surprise: “Are you going out?”

Li Weihan nodded: “I’m going to find Uncle Sanjiang.”

“What! What did you run into?”

Li Weihan glanced at the surrounding children, then glared at his wife: “We’ll talk about it when I get back.”

With that, Li Weihan pushed his old ’28-inch’ bicycle out the door.

Cui Guiying sat back down by the mat, gently stroking Li Zhuiyuan and continuously calling his name.

A little granddaughter curiously asked: “What happened to Brother Yuanzi?”

Huzi immediately said: “I know! Brother Yuanzi encountered a water imp and was dragged down to be a substitute ghost!”

Instantly, the surrounding children all looked frightened and retreated.

“Slap!”

A slap mark appeared on Huzi’s face.

Cui Guiying cursed: “Pah! You’re talking nonsense in your daze! Go outside and see if the people we called have arrived, quick!”

“Alright! Going now!”

Huzi wasn’t one to fuss. Though the slap stung, he didn’t take it to heart. He grabbed Shitou and a few others and ran out to look for the visitors.

Cui Guiying instructed her eldest granddaughter, Yingzi, to fetch her a bowl of water and a needle. She took the needle, lightly scraped it across Li Zhuiyuan’s forehead and the top of his head several times, then laid the needle flat in the bowl.

There was a local custom: if someone in the family had a headache, a fever, or felt unwell, they would use this needle to “call” them back.

Before long, a voice from outside called: “Zheng Datong is here, Zheng Datong is here!”

Zheng Datong entered the house carrying a wooden medical box on his back.

“Doctor Zheng, please look at the child, please look at the child.”

Cui Guiying took out the cigarettes, unsealed the pack, pulled out one, and offered it.

Zheng Datong took the cigarette, tucked it behind his ear, squatted down, and looking at Li Zhuiyuan, asked: “What happened to the child?”

“He fell into the water and hasn’t woken up.”

“Fell into the water?” Zheng Datong first checked Li Zhuiyuan’s nose and mouth, then lifted his eyelids. Afterwards, he took a stethoscope from his box and listened carefully.

When he put away the stethoscope, Cui Guiying leaned closer and asked: “Doctor Zheng, how is he?”

Zheng Datong frowned. He helped Li Zhuiyuan sit up, and Cui Guiying quickly reached out to assist.

He patted the child’s back and observed him, then laid him back down. Zheng Datong took the cigarette from behind his ear and put it in his mouth.

Cui Guiying hurried to the stove for matches, only to see Zheng Datong light it himself and take several deep puffs.

“How is he, Doctor?”

Zheng Datong looked at Cui Guiying: “How long was the child in the water?”

Cui Guiying looked at Panzi.

Panzi: “Just a short while. Yuanzi had barely fallen in when his grandpa pulled him out.”

Zheng Datong frowned again, took a long drag from his cigarette, and after exhaling a smoke ring, said: “Auntie, the child didn’t drown, nor did he choke on water. He’s fine.”

“Then why won’t he wake up?” Cui Guiying asked.

“Take the child to the town clinic for another check-up. It might be something else.” Zheng Datong packed his things and stood up. He was out of options.

Cui Guiying pulled out another cigarette and offered it to him.

“No more, no more,” he said, even as he took the cigarette and tucked it behind his ear.

Then, after smoking the cigarette in his mouth down to the filter, Zheng Datong threw the butt on the ground and stepped on it, whispering: “Have you invited Blind Liu to see him?”

“Ah, yes, we have,” Cui Guiying replied, a little embarrassed.

Zheng Datong nodded. Panzi had told him a few things on the way. At this point, he could only advise: “If he still doesn’t wake up by tonight, send him to town first thing in the morning.”

“Alright, alright, thank you for your trouble, thank you.”

Just then, Leizi ran in, wiping sweat from his face with his hand, and told Cui Guiying: “Blind Liu is here.”

Cui Guiying scolded: “You rude brat, you should call her Grandma Liu.”

Zheng Datong knew it was time for him to leave. He walked out the door and happened to see a tricycle being ridden from a distance, with an old woman sitting on it.

“Heh…”

Zheng Datong suddenly recalled the various miraculous new drugs being advertised in the newspapers recently. Wasn’t he, in a way, participating in that? Hey, what was it called again?

Oh, right…

Integrated Chinese and Western medicine.

Leizi had run home to inform them earlier. Li Juxiang, pedaling the tricycle behind, complained a little: “Mom, you shouldn’t have procrastinated so much, you should have come earlier.”

Earlier, someone from the neighboring Shigang Town had come to discuss arrangements for her mother’s posthumous birthday celebration. They could have been asked to wait at home while her mother came here first, but her mother had insisted on finishing that person’s business and then leisurely taking a toilet break before coming over.

Liu Jinxia, sitting on the small stool at the back, blew out a smoke ring and grumbled: “Why hurry? We won’t be getting any money from their family anyway.”

“Mom, you’d actually dare to take it?”

“Pah, if he offers it, I’ll take it.”

“But I remember when I was little, Uncle Han helped us a lot.”

“Well, he has four sons, why didn’t he give one to me?” Liu Jinxia flicked the ash from her cigarette. “None of them would marry into our family, and I didn’t even ask for a bride price. I offered him a daughter-in-law for free, and he still didn’t want one, huh!”

“How can you blame Uncle Han for that?”

“Listen, Xianghou, let others gossip about us, after all, their mouths are on their own faces. But why do you debase yourself like this?”

Li Juxiang pursed her lips.

“Xianghou, Little Cui is still young, and your mom doesn’t have many years left to live. Little Cui will have to rely on you later. So what if we don’t have men? I, Liu Jinxia, will prove that we, mother and daughter, can still live well, eat good food, and have a better life than others!”

“We’re here, Mom.”

The tricycle rode up the embankment and arrived at the Old Li family’s doorstep.

Cui Guiying eagerly stepped forward to help Liu Jinxia dismount. Liu Jinxia patted Cui Guiying’s hand and said: “Oh dear, how can I let you help me? Your Old Han is my benefactor.”

“Child’s Grandma, please come quickly and look at the child. He still hasn’t woken up.”

Liu Jinxia: “Lei told me he encountered something in the water?”

Cui Guiying: “His grandpa has already gone to ask Uncle Sanjiang for help.”

Hearing this, Liu Jinxia’s heart tightened. She gripped Cui Guiying’s hand and urged: “Quick, take me to see the child.”

Earlier, when Leizi came to deliver the message and call for help, he had also said some things, but back then, they thought the boy was just exaggerating and talking nonsense. Now that Li Weihan had gone to find Li Sanjiang, the matter was truly serious!

Liu Jinxia still remembered Li Weihan’s past kindness.

Entering the house, she heard a group of children chirping. Liu Jinxia’s eyesight wasn’t good; it felt like walking into a duck pond. She immediately waved her hand and scolded:

“You little brats, move aside! Stop chattering, you’re disturbing the Kitchen God!”

Cui Guiying quickly told the older children to take the younger ones outside and closed the door.

“Where is he?” Liu Jinxia asked.

“In the inner room.” Cui Guiying prepared to lead her inside.

“Bring him to the kitchen; there’s a stove here.”

“Okay, I’ll go bring the child out now.”

With Li Juxiang’s help, Li Zhuiyuan was placed on the kitchen dining table.

Liu Jinxia’s old hands first felt Li Zhuiyuan’s legs, then moved upwards all the way to his face. After touching his face, she stopped at his shoulders and gently pressed them.

Because of her smoking, her hands had a smoky, cured scent between her fingers, and combined with her habit of soaking them in white vinegar for care, the smell was even more pungent.

Anyone standing nearby could smell it, and if one were to sniff it up close, an ordinary faint might genuinely be roused by the smell.

Liu Jinxia felt for a moment, then asked: “Guiying, have you ‘called’ him yet?”

“Yes, I have, yes,” Cui Guiying immediately brought over the bowl with water and the needle. Then, she herself cried out in fright, “Ah!”

The needle in the bowl was not only rusty, but it was red rust, spreading out in a halo around the needle at the bottom.

Seeing this, Li Juxiang immediately leaned in and described it to her mother.

Liu Jinxia listened, took a deep breath, and said with a solemn expression: “Sister, the child has been touched by a malevolent spirit.”

“Ah?” Cui Guiying was startled again and immediately pleaded: “Please save him, save him! My daughter only has this one child, and he can’t be harmed while he’s with me.”

As she spoke, Cui Guiying took out the pack of cigarettes from her pocket and handed it to Liu Jinxia.

Liu Jinxia pushed it away and instead sighed.

Cui Guiying: “You smoke it first, and we’ll make up the ritual money afterwards…”

Liu Jinxia interrupted Cui Guiying: “I won’t take anything from your family. I cannot; it’s too hot to handle.”

“Sister, please don’t say that. My child…”

Liu Jinxia turned to her own daughter, giving a wry smile: “Did you hear that? It’s the son of your Uncle Han’s favorite young girl.”

“It’s Lan’s son,” Li Juxiang paused, then added, “Lan and I used to be very close.”

Lan’s real name was Li Lan, and she was Li Zhuiyuan’s mother.

At that time, everyone in the village considered Liu Jinxia’s family unlucky. Parents would also warn their children not to play with Li Juxiang, so Li Juxiang’s childhood was a lonely one. She couldn’t run around freely like other children because adults would roll their eyes at her when she visited other homes.

Li Lan didn’t care about that then and often invited her to play. This friendship lasted until Li Lan went to college and left the village.

Liu Jinxia closed her eyes, silent.

Li Juxiang looked at Li Zhuiyuan and said to Cui Guiying: “This child is so handsome, and he looks very much like Lan.”

Cui Guiying murmured a couple of acknowledgements, her attention still on Liu Jinxia. She couldn’t tell if Liu Jinxia was trying to politely refuse or playing hard to get.

Li Juxiang continued: “Little Cui also mentioned the day before yesterday that there was a big brother named Little Yuan who gave her chocolate to eat and went with her to pick up pebbles by the stream.”

Li Juxiang herself was isolated as a child, let alone her daughter Li Cuicui now. On normal days, her daughter could only stand far off to the side, watching other children play together.

Cuicui dared not approach. If she did, the children would say their parents told them not to play with her, and then they would scatter.

The day before yesterday, Cuicui came home very happy, saying a very handsome big brother had played with her all afternoon. Other children told him not to play with her, but he didn’t care and even gave her chocolate.

Liu Jinxia opened her eyes and cast a helpless and pained glance at her daughter. Then, she turned to Cui Guiying:

“Sister, let me tell you the truth.”

“Go on, tell me.”

“Usually, out of twenty cases, fifteen are actually nothing serious. I just go through the motions, and people seek peace of mind.

Among the remaining, four seem to be something, but turn out to be nothing in the end.

So, at most, only one case might have a minor issue, but even that isn’t hard to resolve.

I won’t take your money: first, because your husband genuinely helped us, mother and daughter, in the past, so I cannot accept your money; and second, the money I usually get for mere formalities is insignificant in a serious matter like this, so there’s no need to take it.”

“But, you, the child, you must save him, sister.”

“I’ll help him,” Liu Jinxia said with a smile. “Bring me some incense ash from the stove.”

“Okay.”

Local earthen stoves often have many indentations. One common hollow is located behind the stove, with a paper image of the Kitchen God pasted above it, and a small incense burner placed in the hollow.

Cui Guiying reverently brought down the incense burner and presented it to Liu Jinxia.

Liu Jinxia grabbed a handful of incense ash, held it in her hand, and began muttering incantations.

What she was chanting was unintelligible, but she continued for a while.

Liu Jinxia: “Cover him well.”

Before Cui Guiying could understand, Li Juxiang had already covered Li Zhuiyuan’s nose and mouth with her hand.

Liu Jinxia smeared the incense ash onto the child’s neck and shoulders, rubbing and rubbing, as if applying prickly heat powder.

But gradually, a terrifying sight appeared, and Cui Guiying immediately covered her mouth.

Because she saw, distinctly on her grandson’s shoulders, two purple marks that looked exactly like a pair of hands!

Liu Jinxia: “How fierce… Daughter, begin.”

“Yes.”

Li Juxiang responded, went out to the tricycle to get some items, and returned. She first placed an empty bowl and a writing brush into Liu Jinxia’s hand, poured ink into the bowl, then took out a ball of red thread from her pocket. It looked very much like knitting yarn, but once unraveled, a strong fishy smell permeated the air, and Li Juxiang’s palms were stained with a good deal of red.

Next, Li Juxiang tied one end of the red thread to her own wrist and the other end to Li Zhuiyuan’s wrist. After stepping back a distance, she stood ready.

Liu Jinxia dipped the brush in ink and continuously drew circles on Li Zhuiyuan’s forehead, all while muttering incantations.

At first, everything was normal; nothing happened.

But as Liu Jinxia’s chanting and hand movements grew faster, the red thread began to tremble.

Cui Guiying instinctively wanted to see if the other end of the thread was being pulled by Li Juxiang. But just as she looked up, she saw Li Juxiang open her mouth in great pain, then fall to her knees with a thud, leaning forward as if someone were pressing her down to make her kowtow.

Liu Jinxia cast a pained glance at her daughter, but did not slow down her chanting or hand movements.

“Ah… ah… ah…”

Li Juxiang fell sideways onto the floor in agony, rolling with her arms wrapped around herself, her legs kicking wildly. Saliva constantly drooled from her mouth, her eyes were wide, and her face turned pale.

Cui Guiying stood nearby, worried both for her grandson and for what might happen to Li Juxiang.

However, after reaching the peak of her pain, Li Juxiang gradually calmed down. Finally, she lay spread-eagled on the ground, gasping for air.

Liu Jinxia also stopped, her body swaying. Cui Guiying quickly reached out to steady her.

“Go get a basin of hot water to wipe down the child.”

“Yes, alright.”

Cui Guiying immediately complied, took a basin, uncovered the small lid in the middle of the stove, and ladled out hot water with a wooden spoon.

After wetting a cloth, she began wiping the incense ash from Li Zhuiyuan.

Not only the incense ash was wiped away, but also the two purple handprints, which dissolved like paint.

Cui Guiying even checked the cloth specifically and found that no purple color had transferred onto it.

“Sister, is the child… recovered?”

Liu Jinxia took out a cigarette, lit it, and after taking a deep drag, coughed violently, tears and snot streaming down her face—she had choked on her own smoke.

However, though Cui Guiying didn’t immediately receive Liu Jinxia’s reply, she noticed that her grandson, who had been unconscious, slowly opened his eyes.

“Little Yuan, Little Yuan, you’re awake!”

Li Zhuiyuan looked blankly at Cui Guiying, then around him, finally calling out hoarsely: “Grandma.”

“Oh, you’re finally awake! May Buddha bless you, may Buddha bless you.”

Nearby, Li Juxiang got up from the floor, helped herself to a clean bowl, poured some water, and took small sips.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out, grabbed Cui Guiying’s arm, and shifted his body slightly, wanting to be held by his grandmother.

Cui Guiying quickly pulled Li Zhuiyuan into her embrace, comforting him: “My child, my Little Yuan, my good child…”

Liu Jinxia: “Take care of the child. Let him sleep again; he’ll be fine when he wakes up.”

Li Juxiang walked over and helped her mother out the door.

Cui Guiying began: “When Old Han comes back, I’ll tell him…”

Liu Jinxia waved her hand: “Let’s talk after the child has fully recovered. We’re going home now; don’t see us out.”

Cui Guiying truly couldn’t see them off, so she simply continued holding her grandson.

At this point, comforted in his grandmother’s arms, Li Zhuiyuan began to drift off to sleep again, but this time his sleeping face was much more peaceful, unlike the worrying sight of his tightly pursed lips and furrowed brow earlier.

On the way back on the tricycle, Liu Jinxia leaned forward, pushed aside her daughter’s collar to look at the circular bruise, and asked:

“Does it hurt?”

“Mom, sit properly, don’t fall off.”

Liu Jinxia sat back down. After a long moment, she slapped her thigh and cursed:

“Xianghou, are we, mother and daughter, truly destined for such a hard life?!”

Li Weihan didn’t return for a long time. Cui Guiying sent Huzi and Shitou to look for him at Li Sanjiang’s house. When Huzi and Shitou returned, they reported that a worker at Li Sanjiang’s house said he had gone out to burn paper offerings, and Li Weihan had gone to find him.

Cui Guiying understood. Li Sanjiang had gone to deliver paper effigies. As was customary, the host family would offer a meal, and since he enjoyed drinking, waiting for him would be indefinite. Her husband had gone to hurry him up.

For dinner, Cui Guiying had the older children help her prepare the meal. After dinner, Li Weihan still hadn’t returned, so Cui Guiying arranged for the children to sleep in the inner room.

She herself, along with Li Zhuiyuan, set up a makeshift bed using a door panel in the kitchen. Li Zhuiyuan was sleeping soundly.

Cui Guiying fanned the child with a cattail leaf fan, wiping away tears of heartache; the child had truly suffered this time.

She also thought of her recently divorced daughter, wondering how she was doing now.

Unlike other families who favored sons over daughters, Cui Guiying and her husband doted most on this youngest daughter.

Their daughter wanted to study and was good at it, so they continuously supported her education. No matter what others said about girls studying being useless and better off marrying early, they remained unmoved.

This favoritism towards their daughter naturally extended to their grandson.

Li Zhuiyuan had a dream. He dreamt he was in a gifted class, and the old professor at the podium closed his book and said: “Alright, class dismissed.”

He followed his deskmate out of the classroom, walking among a crowd of tall adults.

The two of them walked into the restroom and stood on the urinal steps.

His deskmate had already unzipped his pants and started to urinate, then urged him:

“Zhuiyuan, you pee too, what are you waiting for?”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. Just as he pulled down his zipper, he suddenly became alert.

And with that, the dream ended. He opened his eyes and, by the moonlight filtering in, saw his grandmother sleeping beside him, still holding the cattail leaf fan in her hand.

Close call, he almost wet the bed.

Li Zhuiyuan’s memory of the daytime was already a bit blurry. He quietly got up, preparing to go pee.

The toilet was a small, separate building quite far from the main house. A pit was dug underground, a large vat buried, and a hollow wooden seat was placed over the vat. When Li Zhuiyuan first saw it, he thought it looked very much like a dragon throne from a movie.

Thus, locals generally referred to using the toilet as “using the porcelain vat.”

Initially, Li Zhuiyuan also went there to urinate. Later, with his brothers’ shared experience, Li Zhuiyuan finally understood that as long as he was outside the house and courtyard, he could “mark his territory” anywhere.

Going out the front door would mean going out through the yard too, which was a bit far. Li Zhuiyuan chose to exit through the back door and go to the riverbank; it was closer.

Just as Li Zhuiyuan was getting ready, he suddenly heard a “thump… thump… thump…” sound.

He looked down and saw that their boat, moored by the bank, was swaying.

Images seemed to flash in Li Zhuiyuan’s mind. Had he gone fishing with his grandpa and brothers earlier today?

And then, did they catch any fish? What did they eat for dinner? Why couldn’t he remember anything?

“Thump… thump… thump…”

The boat was still swaying, but there were no waves on the river, and no wind.

Finally, Li Zhuiyuan remembered the events of the day: the black hair, falling into the water, and what was beneath the surface… along with these memories came fear.

Li Zhuiyuan’s body went limp, his feet slipped, and he sat down on the ground, instinctively reaching for his shoulders, as if a pair of icy hands were still gripping them.

It was this sitting motion that changed his height, bringing the previously unseen bottom of the boat into his view.

“Thump… thump… thump…”

Below the water’s surface, there was a person whose head would periodically emerge, strike the boat’s bottom, then sink again, only to re-emerge and strike once more, tirelessly, over and over.

Suddenly, the thumping stopped, and the boat no longer swayed.

The head surfaced again, no longer striking the boat’s bottom. Instead, it slowly turned, and as wet black hair continuously slid to the sides, it revealed just a portion of a strikingly made-up woman’s face.

Her face was very white, so white it seemed it might melt away under the moonlight at any moment.

At that moment, she seemed to have found the person she was looking for. The corners of her lips slowly curved upwards, gradually forming a smile.

Her lips were still a vibrant red, almost jarring in the quiet night.

Li Zhuiyuan rubbed his eyes hard. When he looked again, he found that the other party’s upper body had emerged from the water at some point, her arms hanging loosely at her sides.

Daring not to delay any further, Li Zhuiyuan quickly scrambled to his feet and ran towards the house, using both hands and feet. He stumbled over the threshold but fortunately grabbed the doorframe, steadying himself.

He glanced back. Little Oriole, who had previously been in the river with only half her body showing, had now emerged from the water and was standing on the lowest bluestone step.

“Grandma, Grandma!”

Li Zhuiyuan ran to the makeshift bed, reaching out to push Cui Guiying, but she continued to sleep soundly, holding the cattail leaf fan.

“Grandma, wake up, Grandma, wake up!”

Li Zhuiyuan continued to shout, but Cui Guiying showed no sign of waking.

“Drip… drip… drip…”

The sound of dripping water came from behind him.

Li Zhuiyuan turned his head. First, he saw a pair of red high heels, then pale, swollen ankles. A black qipao clung tightly to her body, and water droplets ceaselessly dripped from the hem of her dress and the ends of her hair.

She was standing ramrod straight on the threshold!