By the time I had packed my things, a van rented by Zhang Jinya had already stopped at the courtyard gate. Looking at the setup, I knew that we were probably going for a long trip this time. We got in the van and found Heizi also aboard. Zhang Jinya was driving, looking casual as he leaned back in the driver's seat smoking, filling the whole van with smoke.
Over the past few days, Heizi and I had gotten along pretty well too. The dog was not as fierce as it looked. After taking care of it for a few days, it started to stick with me, which made Zhang Jinya jealous. He often complained that Heizi was heartless, saying that he had raised it with great difficulty, but in a blink of an eye, it followed me. As for this, I could only despise him, blaming it on people despising the dog.
As soon as I got in the car, Heizi rubbed up against me. While I was petting Heizi's smooth coat, I began to inquire about the details of this job.
While driving, Zhang Jinya gave me a brief overview:
The place of the incident was a small village about two hundred kilometers away from Yujiang County called Dingtao Village, with just over a hundred households, at most a few hundred people.
The strange incidents in Dingtao Village started about three months ago with the first victim.
The first victim was named Qin Hongmei, a local from Dingtao Village who had left to attend college four years ago. She returned to the village this April when she couldn't find a job in the city during her internship, and soon after her return, she was found dead at home.
On the night of Qin Hongmei's death, her parents didn't notice anything. They only heard a "squeaky" noise from their daughter's room, like cutting something with a knife, and then the next morning, no matter how they called her, she did not respond. Because the door was bolted from the inside, the elderly couple could not enter and had to wait outside. After waiting a whole morning without Qin coming out regardless of how she was called, they realized something must have happened. They asked two young villagers to break down the door, and as soon as the door was burst open, the two young men ran out screaming. The elderly couple, shocked, rushed in to see and fainted from grief on the spot.
At that time, Qin Hongmei was dead! And the skin of her face was peeled off, a bloody mess so that her face was completely unrecognizable. However, based on the body shape, the parents recognized immediately that the corpse was their daughter!
After this incident, the village became uneasy. The police investigated for a long while with no leads, even the autopsy didn't reveal any clues, leaving the impression as if Qin Hongmei had died a natural death because apart from her facial skin being cut off, there were no other signs of unnatural death.
In the end, the case fizzled out, and Qin's mother became a mad woman, constantly beating her breast and stamping her feet in remorse. She claimed she should have gone to check on her daughter the night she heard the squeaky noise, obviously at that time, her daughter was being skinned alive!
After the death of Qin Hongmei, Dingtao Village started experiencing more odd incidents roughly every few weeks. Over the past three months, people have been harmed continuously, totaling nine victims now, all unmarried women without exception. The prettier they were, the sooner they died. Dingtao Village wasn't populous to begin with, and there were even fewer unmarried women. By now, they were nearly wiped out, and all the dead had one thing in common — their facial skin was cut off!
The police got involved in succession but could never find any leads, they finally had to conclude it was a "serial murder case", but as for solving the case, it seemed a long way off. Dingtao Village residents were in panic during this time, rumors abounded, and they believed that some evil force was exacting lives, specifically targeting women. Anyone in such a situation had already fled elsewhere. At this rate, Dingtao Village would become deserted within a year. The village chief was so anxious, he no longer depended on the police. They called upon the households to raise funds and decided to find a Taoist priest for assistance. Hearing of Zhang Jinya, a demon-exorcising Taoist from Yujiang County, they approached him for help.
I asked Zhang Jinya if he knew exactly what was harming people.
Zhang Jinya shook his head, saying he was also a bit unclear about what it might be, but the situation was indeed strange, certainly a terrible evil was at play. We still needed to get to Dingtao Village to see the specifics.
Hearing this, I knew this guy must have taken a lot of money. He was infamously ruthless, always exploiting dire situations for profit, scheming through and through. If he were called a decent guy, probably even pigs wouldn't believe it. Now, with the villagers of Dingtao Village in peril, wasn't that the perfect opportunity for extortion? As long as the request was within reasonable limits, the village chief would certainly agree. Moreover, the case was bizarre, and even Zhang Jinya was unsure of the depth of danger, coming all this way expressly—unless the offer was very generous, why else would he, the type of person who wouldn't stir without profit, be so eager?
Curious, I asked Zhang Jinya exactly how much money he had taken.
"Not much, just over a hundred thousand."
Zhang Jinya guffawed, "But they'll only pay me once I've sorted their problems."
I gasped in shock at his audacity. A small village of just a few hundred households, presumably not wealthy, being demanded over a hundred thousand was practically a death sentence!
But Zhang Jinya remained unfazed, saying casually, "Little Tian, don't think I'm underhanded. My line of work is about dealing with those unclean things. You often have to beat those dirty spirits into scattering their souls, which is harmful to one's virtue. If I don't take a reward for this, doing it too often would mark me as a troublemaker in the underworld. Who knows, one day I might just sleep and never wake up, my soul taken away by the grim reapers!"
I was taken aback. "Really?"
"What do you think?"
Zhang Jinya rolled his eyes, "I know you must have heard about the child from the neighboring county possessed by a dirty spirit. Do you know why I didn't take money, only half of their high-yield rice harvest?"
I shook my head.
"It's because that kid's mother was too nasty! Not only did that jerk desecrate someone's grave, but he even urinated at the grave's door! You're from old Ge's lineage, you should know some souls who don't wish to reincarnate live in their graves after death. That damn kid dug up someone's grave, and just when the deceased thought their house was collapsing and tried to get out, he pissed on the door. You know the potency of a child's urine, it nearly scattered the deceased's soul! That's why the deceased took revenge on them!"
Zhang Jinya spat viciously out the window, fiercely saying, "It's okay for kids to be mischievous, but without limits, that's just lack of discipline. It's his irresponsible parents to blame, not teaching him, letting him out to bully the dead, almost scattering someone's soul, that's creating bad karma, you know? That's an account settled on their heads. Me taking half their harvest is just making them taste hardship, making them pay their debts!"
Listening to this, I also felt that kid was indeed a bit much. Kids able to visit graves should be older than twelve, surely at an age to understand, yet still misbehaved on someone else's grave, definitely a lack of discipline. As the saying goes, 'to not teach your child is the parent's fault,' and those who raised such a child are probably not good people themselves. Running into Zhang Jinya, it was like a beast meeting an animal, neither could blame the other, and they deserved to be extorted.
I didn't continue probing this topic with Zhang Jinya, choosing to close my eyes and lean on Heizi, pretending to sleep. However, the bumpy ride soon woke me. Looking outside, the van, unbeknownst to me, had hit a rugged path flanked by deep mountain ravines on both sides, scaring me enough. Moreover, the road ahead looked just as rough. I finally understood why Zhang Jinya asked me to get up at six in the morning. A van over such a road moved slower than livestock, becoming virtually impassable at night, prone to plunging into the mountain ravines if setting out late, leaving the arrival time uncertain.
The three men and a dog bumped along the rugged path all day until the sky grew dark. Glancing at the time, it was already past six in the evening.
Just as we entered the village, we noticed something unusual—several police cars parked at the village entrance. Seeing this, we were instantly apprehensive—had another incident occurred in this small village?
We parked at the entrance and Zhang Jinya called the old village chief. Before long, a man in his fifties or sixties approached with several young men, presumably the Dingtao Village chief. At the sight of Zhang Jinya, the chief was so moved he nearly burst into tears, and the young men accompanying him visibly heaved sighs of relief, clearly worn out by recent troubles.
After exchanging greetings, I curiously asked the chief, "Old village chief, has something happened here? Why are there so many police cars?"
"Ah, don't remind me."
The old chief sighed heavily, wiped his red eyes, and slowly explained, "Last night, Erniu from the village was also victimized. She's the tenth, the same situation: quiet all night, dead by morning, her facial skin cut off."
As soon as the chief finished, Zhang Jinya's face changed, exclaiming, "The tenth now? Damn, if there really is something evil stirring, it must have grown stronger!"
"..."