After my mother and third uncle helped me into the house and lay down, my father came back. He called the veterinarian, but it was already too late; the cow had died and was already gutted. Nonetheless, it worked out fine since the veterinarian helped my father and third uncle slaughter the cow, and they cooked the meat for dinner. After the cow was killed, people from the village came to buy the beef, and the entire cow was quickly sold, which helped recover some of our losses.
After all the commotion, it was already dark outside. During this time, I had been lying in the house humming, and my mother hadn't had a chance to explain my situation to my father until everyone had left. She dragged my father into the room and explained what had happened. Upon hearing my situation, my father was also worried and immediately said to my mother, "This won't do. If we leave it to chance, we don't know what will happen. You have to take him to see someone."
"Who should we see? Our old ancestor has been dead for over a year," my mother said helplessly.
At that time, when my dad saw how bad my fever was, he said to my mom, "It's okay, go to the south village and find the one from the Yousong family. She seemed to be close to Grandma before, maybe she learned something."
Hearing my dad's words, my mom's eyes lit up and she couldn't help but say, "Yes, finding her is a good idea, but it's a bit ominous. You know her, her husband died during springtime, and the villagers said she was a white tiger spirit that killed her husband."
My dad rolled his eyes at my mom's words and finally said to her after a while, "I knew you women were talking nonsense in private. Yousong was accidentally hit by a brick during the firing of the kiln. Can we blame her? Listen to me, quickly take Yihan to find her. Who knows what might happen if we wait any longer."
"Go now? It's almost completely dark outside, is it a good idea to go now?" My mom hesitated when she looked at the darkening sky outside.
"Do you want to wait until tomorrow? Can you see if your son can hold on until then?" My dad lit a cigarette and pulled me up from the bed, putting on my shoes while saying to my mom, "If you don't want to go, I'll go."
"I'll go instead. You stay and watch the house," my mom quickly stepped in front of my dad and helped me walk outside.
At this point, I was burning up and completely disoriented, not knowing which direction was which, so I could only follow my mom as we walked towards Qian village.
We didn't walk far before it became completely dark outside. There were no streetlights in the small village and it was not yet electrified. Every household only had kerosene lamps and candles, so it was very dark in the village. Fortunately, there was a crescent moon in the sky, barely enough to see the way forward.
Walking forward all the way, I unconsciously arrived at a four-way intersection. The road surface was covered with a layer of frost under the moonlight, making it look white and shiny. Just then, I suddenly felt a gust of cold wind blowing from my side, which made me shiver all over. When I turned my head, I saw a large grave on the side of the road with a banyan tree growing on it. It was July, and the banyan tree's canopy covered the entire grave like a big umbrella, blocking it from view.
Standing on top of the grave, I vaguely saw someone waving at me. When I saw this scene, I felt my skin crawl, and my legs suddenly felt like they were made of lead and couldn't move.
My mother grabbed my arm and pulled me forward. Seeing me staring straight at the grave, she quickly covered my eyes and urged me in a hushed voice, "Yi Hen, don't look around, and even if you see something, don't say anything. Hurry up and follow me!"
Luckily, my mother covered my eyes in time, which brought me back to my senses. My legs also regained consciousness, and then I ran after my mother in a panic all the way forward.
Finally, we arrived at our destination, outside the gate of the oil pine family. Speaking of this oil pine, he was actually my distant cousin. This was not surprising, as it was a small place, and almost everyone in the village had some kind of family ties.
However, I am not very familiar with Yousong. Firstly, he is more than ten years older than me and not of the same age group. Secondly, our families are quite far apart, so we never played together when we were young.
Nevertheless, I still know a few things about Yousong, especially his wife. She is said to have been bought from another region, maybe from Yunnan or somewhere. When she first arrived here, she couldn't even speak our local dialect. It took her almost two years to learn it.
No one knows her original name, but she changed it to Baixinghua when she registered her residency here. She rarely goes out and usually stays at home, so I have hardly seen her up close. From a distance, I could tell that she was a very "stylish" woman, different from the local village girls, at least in terms of her figure, which was not as broad as theirs.
She usually wears a light-colored long shirt with blue pants, and I haven't been able to see her shoes clearly. As for her appearance, it's not very clear to me, but I can say that she has a fair complexion and delicate facial features.
Yousong's wife is quite strange. Normally, the other bought wives would have been thinking about running away during the first two years of their marriage, but this woman is different. She not only didn't run away but also lived with Yousong quite well. She kept the house tidy and clean, and she had good luck. However, Yousong was unlucky, and he died suddenly less than a year after their marriage. As a result, this woman became a young widow.
Because of these reasons, there were many rumors about her in the village. I only know about her from listening to other people's gossip. However, in reality, Baixinghua is a very decent person. Especially after Yousong's death, she rarely went out to avoid gossip. Therefore, in the past half year, I have hardly seen her around.
Obviously, before this, Baixinghua and I were completely different people living in two different worlds. Our lives had very little intersection, and we were like two ships passing in the night. I never intended to change this situation.
So, it feels a bit weird for me to take the initiative to visit her now. It's not that I think widows are unlucky or anything, but it just feels strange, and I can't quite put my finger on why.
However, I have no choice but to follow my mother's lead and arrive at Baixinghua's doorstep, where she then knocked on the door.
My mother knocked on the door, but there was no answer. After a while, someone inside shouted to ask who it was. My mother introduced herself and explained my situation, and eventually, Bai Xinghua opened the door.
That was the first time I had a good look at Bai Xinghua. To be honest, it felt like watching a movie. I felt like she didn't belong to our era. She held a white, creased, oval-shaped flower lamp with some text on it. She was wearing clothes that looked even more ancient - a floral jacket on top, brown and black pants on the bottom, and self-made square-toed cloth shoes with embroidered phoenixes or chicks on them (it was too dark to see clearly). Her hair was tied up, and her facial features were delicate - thin eyebrows, big eyes, a small mouth, and a snow-white neck. She looked like someone who had traveled from ancient times, and if she held a handkerchief, I would definitely have thought she had come from the Qing Dynasty.
Bai Xinghua had a pleasant fragrance that smelled like apricot blossoms. When the door opened, I could smell it right away. Strangely enough, even though I was burning up and my consciousness was fading, as soon as I saw her and smelled her fragrance, I suddenly became more awake and alert.
However, that did not completely alleviate my symptoms. I was still weak and had been standing while holding onto my mother's arm. I did not say anything to Bai Xinghua.
My mother approached Bai Xinghua and explained my condition, asking her to take a look and help. To our surprise, Bai Xinghua shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, Er Auntie, but I can't help you. My skills are not enough. I've only been learning from Laozunai for less than a year, and I really don't understand this powerful spell of the Sealed Heaven Gate. Could you please try to find someone else?"