Chapter 101: The Vanishing Strange Village
“My child!!”
“Why don’t you ever listen? I told you not to go near that bell tower, why did you have to go!!!”
As Sang Chu stepped out of the bell tower’s gate, he heard heart-wrenching cries. His steps faltered, and he was pushed aside by an aunt from behind.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
The aunt in the colorful clothes ran out as fast as a flying bird. Sang Chu jogged to catch up.
At that moment, they saw a young woman holding her son’s corpse, weeping and wailing.
The aunt in the colorful clothes, Lin Fengmei, walked up to her and looked at the child on the ground. Her face instantly turned ashen. “H-how could this happen again? Didn’t the Master say that as long as the Demon-Quelling Banner was hung, the monster wouldn’t approach the village?”
The young woman said, “He’s a liar! It’s all your fault, all your fault for believing him! Give me back my son’s life!”
The distraught woman released her grip on her son and lunged at Lin Fengmei, her hands tightly gripping Lin Fengmei’s neck.
Seeing this, a group of people quickly pulled them apart.
But this village is strange; there are only children and women!
The distraught woman possessed superhuman strength. Everyone who tried to intervene was useless. Seeing Lin Fengmei’s face grow paler and her breathing weaker, Sang Chu darted behind the woman and delivered a swift chop to her neck, rendering her unconscious.
The woman collapsed into Sang Chu’s arms. Someone quickly helped Lin Fengmei up. “Mei Jie, are you alright?”
Lin Fengmei weakly replied, “I-I’m fine. Little girl, please help us carry Lin Lin back to her home. Everyone, please help carry…”
She couldn’t finish her sentence through her sobs, only looking at the pale, shriveled child on the ground with a mournful expression and stammering, “Carry… carry Xiao Xiao home too.”
Clearly, this was not the time to ask questions. Sang Chu remained silent, carrying the unconscious woman and following behind a group of people with visibly red eyes and heavy hearts back to the village.
In the village, every house had a Demon-Quelling Banner hanging on its door, and even inside their homes. Yet, every household still had white cloth hanging, indicating that the Demon-Quelling Banner’s effect was minimal.
Sang Chu followed them to a house. An elder in this house sat by the door, leaning on a cane, seemingly blind.
Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, she shakily stood up and asked anxiously, “Is, is Xiao Xiao back?”
Sang Chu didn’t answer. The aunt who led them, however, was shedding tears unconsciously, trying hard to suppress her emotions as if afraid the elder would notice.
“Auntie, it’s, it’s Lin Lin who fainted, we’re taking him back…”
Before the aunt could finish speaking, Lin Fengmei had already walked up. “Auntie, we’re taking Xiao Xiao home.”
Upon hearing this, the elder at the door could no longer hold back her tears. Tears streamed down her face, and her lips trembled for a long time before she finally managed to speak, “Home, home is good, home is good, home… it’s good to be home.”
Sang Chu had never felt the word “home” carry such weight. When she heard the elder say it, her chest felt as if something was blocking it, making her feel suffocated and unable to breathe properly.
Tu You suddenly tugged on Sang Chu’s hair and whispered in her ear, “A Chu, the child’s corpse is a bit strange.”
“What?”
Sang Chu followed the direction of Tu You’s finger and looked. It did seem a bit odd. How to describe it? It looked a bit shriveled?
Even after putting the woman to bed, her thoughts were still occupied by the child’s corpse. After the Apocalypse, she had seen many corpses, but none were like that, giving the impression of an empty shell.
The elder trembled slightly as she followed behind Sang Chu. Seeing her silence, she spoke, “Little girl, thank you for bringing my daughter-in-law back. She must be very sad about her son’s death. If she did anything wrong, Grandmother apologizes to you. Please, don’t blame her.”
She had already learned about Yan Lin’s emotional outburst. However, she didn’t know that the person being choked was Lin Fengmei, and mistakenly thought it was Sang Chu, which is why she followed Sang Chu to apologize.
Sang Chu turned to look at the elder with a hunched back and white hair. She didn’t reveal the truth. Since those people weren’t saying anything, she wouldn’t expose them either.
“I’m fine, Grandmother. Are you… alright?”
“Little girl, you’re not from our village, are you?”
Although the elder’s eyes were blind, her hearing seemed very sharp. She fumbled her way to the bedside to watch over her daughter-in-law. Although her voice still held a hint of sobbing, her emotions had already calmed considerably.
“Yes, I’m just passing through. I accidentally wandered into that bell tower and was brought back by Aunt Mei. Grandmother, can I ask what’s going on with that bell tower?”
When the grandmother first heard that Sang Chu had accidentally entered the bell tower, she showed a moment of panic. Then, upon hearing that she was brought back, she instantly breathed a sigh of relief.
“There’s a man-eating monster in that bell tower. Little girl, don’t go in there again.”
Upon hearing this, Sang Chu knew there was something to it. She quickly picked up a nearby chair and sat down, asking softly, “Grandmother, can you tell me more about this?”
The elder paused for a few seconds. Her unfocused eyes turned towards Sang Chu’s voice. Despite being blind, Sang Chu felt as if the elder was ‘staring’ at her, her gaze so intense it felt like it could burn her.
After a long silence, when Sang Chu thought she would get nothing, the elder slowly began, “When you came in, you must have seen it. In our village, only the elders and children are left.”
“Yes, only women and children. What’s going on?”
The elder sighed deeply. “This all started five years ago. I remember the weather was very bad that day, and the Village Chief told everyone not to go out to sea, fearing something might happen. But Liu Family’s youngest son was short of money. His wife and child were in the hospital. If he didn’t go out to sea for a day, he earned less money. It might not be a big deal for others, but for him, it was a matter of life and death. The hospital costs a lot of money every day.”
“He secretly went out to sea behind everyone’s back. He didn’t return until very late. His elderly mother didn’t pay much attention at first, thinking he had gone to the hospital in town to see his wife and son, so she didn’t bother. It wasn’t until the next day when he still hadn’t returned that she realized something was wrong. Staying overnight at the hospital was expensive, and her son was reluctant to spend money in such a place. He always came home late at night, never staying out overnight.”
Seeing the elder pause, Sang Chu softly asked, “Then how did you discover he had gone out to sea?”
“Everyone searched for a long time. Later, someone had a sudden idea to check his boat, and indeed, his boat was missing. That’s when everyone realized he might have gone out to sea. But the waves were still very rough at the time, and no one could go look for him. They could only wait for the waves to subside and then go out to search, hoping he was still alive. But deep down, everyone felt he was surely dead.”
I’m so sorry, I was using scheduled posts before and thought I had a scheduled draft, so I forgot to upload. My apologies for being late.
Thank you, everyone, for your continued support. Wishing you all a happy National Day, eat well, drink well, and have fun! *^O^*
