Without paying attention to the old blind man, I dragged my mom home. Along the way, my mom was still worried and thought I was a little impulsive. At this point, I told my mom not to worry and explained that the Diamond Sutra and Great Compassion Mantra that my grandmother taught me were effective. Whenever I dreamed of ghosts, I just needed to recite the mantras and everything would be fine. Hearing this, my mom could only sigh and didn't say anything else. She was probably angry too and felt that the old blind man was a bit too much.
When we arrived home, my dad asked how we were doing, but we didn't dare to tell the truth. We just said we were okay, and then everyone went about their own business. My mom and dad went to pull weeds in the field, and I was left alone at home.
At that moment, I felt a bit bored. After all, the old yellow cow was already dead, and there was nothing for me to do. Moreover, my body was not fully recovered, and my parents didn't want me to do any work. So, I moved a small stool and sat under the shade of a tree in the yard, reading a book by myself.
I have a characteristic of being fond of reading books, and I basically read anything I can get my hands on. As long as I can get a book, I will read it from cover to cover, even including the footnotes at the end. Unfortunately, our family was poor when I was young, and we couldn't afford to buy books. So, I cherished every opportunity to read.
This time, the book I was reading was not a masterpiece but a collection of stories. The stories were short and to the point, and I was engrossed in reading them. Unconsciously, I forgot about the time, and when I looked up, I found that the sun had already set, and evening had arrived.
My house is located at the entrance of the village, surrounded by forests. Although the sun had not yet set, the yard was already dark, and the tall poplar trees rustled in the wind. A gust of cold air blew, and at that moment, I felt goosebumps all over my body. It didn't feel like a hot summer evening, but more like a late autumn night.
This situation caught my attention, and I knew it was probably because my fever had come back. I knew that people with a high fever usually feel quite cold, so I quickly ran into the house, found a piece of clothing to put on, and drank a big bowl of hot water. I started sweating a little bit, which made me feel a bit more comfortable, but I still felt very cold, shivering as if winter had arrived.
However, what was strange was that, even though I felt very cold at that moment, my mind was very clear, and my body didn't feel sore. I was puzzled and touched my forehead, realizing that my head was indeed hot but not hurting. Looking at my hands, I noticed that the black and white fingerprints were still there, but the black one kept twitching and trembling as if it had been burned by fire, and I didn't know what was happening.
I knew something was wrong, and I wanted to find my parents, but they were working in the field far away from home, so if I wanted to find them, I had to go to the field. I felt the situation was urgent, so I didn't care about anything else, wrapped myself up in clothes, and ran to the west side of the village where I knew my parents were working.
As a result, I seemed to have forgotten something. Little Huttu's house was located right at the western end of the village, and the stinking ditch where she drowned was right by the side of the road. So, this trip was basically a suicide mission.
But, at that moment, I just ran towards the west side of the village as if possessed by something.
As expected, when I arrived at the western end of the village, the sun had just gone down, leaving only a glimmer of light in the western sky. The cold wind from the fields blew over, making me shiver all over. I walked forward, unknowingly coming to the edge of the stinking ditch.
When I got here, I instinctively turned my head to look at the stinking ditch and saw a purple-black thing floating in the center of the ditch. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a dead pig, which had been thrown in for who knows how long, had already rotted and stank, and its flesh had burst open. Many maggots were crawling around inside, giving off a nauseating smell that made people feel sick.
I didn't dare linger by the drain and hurriedly ran forward, but before I could take a few steps, I collided with someone coming from the opposite direction. When I looked up, I couldn't help but tremble inside as I realized it was Xiao Hutu's father, Hu Jun, whom I had just had a dispute with at his home.
Hu Jun saw me as well, carrying a shovel, rolling up his pants, with mud on his feet and sweat on his blackened face, as if he had just finished some work. He naturally didn't have a good expression towards me, given the incident when my mother and I caused a scene at his house. He spat and said, "You, brat, will end up drowning in the water sooner or later!"
"Who are you talking about?!" I retorted back, glaring fiercely at him.
Unexpectedly, this scoundrel was so treacherous. Seeing that there was no one around, he suddenly rushed towards me and kicked me, cursing, "F*ck you, are you brave now?"
"I'll f*ck you!" I was no pushover either, and because of the incident with Xiao Hutu, I had been holding a grudge against him for a long time. So even though I was young and weak, I didn't back down. After being kicked, I immediately grabbed a rotten stick from the ground and rushed towards Hu Jun.
When Hu Jun saw me looking fierce, his expression darkened, and he raised the shovel and swung it at me. I couldn't dodge in time and was hit on the shoulder, falling to the ground. Hu Jun then jumped on me, lifted his fist and began to hit me in the face, cursing and saying he would kill me. As an adult who did farm work regularly, Hu Jun was much stronger than me, a sickly child. I couldn't fight back and could only flail my arms and curse back at him.
Just as I was feeling helpless, Hu Jun suddenly stopped hitting me and looked at me in horror, saying, "Xiao Tu, don't blame me, Dad didn't mean it. You're already dead, don't come looking for me!" His reaction startled me, but I didn't have time to think about it. I reached out and scratched his face. The four bloody marks left on his face made Hu Jun scream in pain and jump off me. He covered his face and ran away like a madman.