Chapter 110

“Oh, okay, then eat a little. I’ll go wake Brother Hu.”

“No need to wake him. Let him keep sleeping.”

“How can that be?” Tan Wenbin ignored the woman and still went to the bedside, shaking Hu Yiwei. “Brother Hu, Brother Hu, wake up. Time to eat.”

Hu Yiwei unconsciously waved a hand, mumbling as he kept hugging his own arm and sleeping.

“If you don’t come now, it’ll get cold,” Zeng Yinyin said before turning and leaving.

Tan Wenbin raised his right hand, curled it slightly into a fist, and copied Brother Yuan’s method, using the knuckle of his ring finger to tap Hu Yiwei on the forehead three times.

Sure enough... it did nothing.

Hu Yiwei kept sleeping soundly.

Tan Wenbin pulled out a CaCalming Talisman from his pocket and slapped it onto the man’s forehead.

The talisman took effect.

Hu Yiwei slept even more soundly. He stopped even talking in his sleep, leaving only thunderous snores.

“This...”

Tan Wenbin removed the CaCalming Talisman, then took out a lucky talisman from The Zhuiyuan Secret Scroll and tested him with it.

The talisman paper did not change color.

That meant Hu Yiwei had long since broken free of the malevolent spirit’s influence. Right now, he was simply exhausted past the point of collapse and could not get up.

And the effect of the CaCalming Talisman had only deepened his sleep.

There was no helping it. He really could not be woken.

Better to deal with what came next first, then find an excuse to go out and look for Brother Yuan so he could decide what to do.

Tan Wenbin took his toiletries from his hiking pack. As he walked out of the room, he glanced once more at the water well in the courtyard, the one that had been welded shut.

He went into the kitchen. The small dining table was there, and so was the coffin.

Zeng Yinyin was holding a basin of clothes. She glanced at him and said, “There’s a water vat out back. I’ll show you.”

The water vat was behind the kitchen, with a wooden dipper resting on top.

While Tan Wenbin brushed his teeth, Zeng Yinyin washed clothes beside him.

Her hands were very pale, almost bloodless.

And Tan Wenbin noticed that among the clothes in her basin were men’s clothes.

But originally, there had been no man in this house at all.

He and Hu Yiwei had only come over last night. Before sleeping, they had only washed their feet and had not changed clothes.

After brushing his teeth, Tan Wenbin used the dipper to wash his face, then casually asked, “Whose clothes are those? They’re pretty big.”

“My husband’s.”

“You remarried?”

“No. These are his old clothes. I’m going to wash them clean, dry them, and give them away. You city people don’t understand how hard life is in the countryside.”

“Oh, I see.”

Tan Wenbin knew that unless a family was so poor they truly could not survive, the living still considered a dead person’s belongings unlucky.

Back when he used to sit vigil with Grandpa Li, he had often seen bereaved families pile the deceased’s clothes and personal items together and burn them.

Min’an Town might be a mountain town, but life here was nowhere near that desperate. Washing a dead man’s clothes and giving them away as a favor?

Or was she actually washing the daily changes of clothes of a man who was still here?

Last night, Hu Yiwei had been the one on her bed, but the one who had truly done the deed had not been Hu Yiwei.

Zeng Yinyin worked quickly. After hanging the clothes to dry, she wiped her hands with a cloth, motioned for Tan Wenbin to sit, and then went to the stove to ladle out food.

It was soup rice, yesterday’s leftovers with some vegetables added, then boiled together with water.

These days, that was a very common kind of breakfast no matter the region.

After all, most families could not bear to buy buns, fried dough sticks, and soy milk from a shop every morning and bring them home to eat.

Afraid there would not be enough leftover rice, she had also added noodles.

When Zeng Yinyin turned to serve her own bowl, Tan Wenbin deliberately turned his back to the coffin, took out the lucky talisman from The Zhuiyuan Secret Scroll from inside his clothes, pinched the edge of it, and flicked it toward the bowl. It did not change color, which meant the food was fit for humans to eat.

“Hoo...”

He let out a sigh of relief inwardly and quickly put the talisman back in his pocket.

Tan Wenbin held chopsticks in his right hand and the bowl in his left. The bowl was not hot.

He took another bite. It tasted good, but it was only warm.

“How is it?” Zeng Yinyin asked.

“It’s good.”

Not scalding. Easy to eat.

Tan Wenbin quickly finished one bowl.

“There’s still more in the pot,” Zeng Yinyin said.

“I’m full, thanks.” Tan Wenbin looked around and asked, “Why aren’t they coming down to eat?”

“They already ate earlier.”

“Can I... see Miaomiao?”

“What do you want to see her for?”

“I just think some things may not be suitable for the person involved to say directly. As a friend, maybe I could offer a little advice.”

“Miaomiao is already engaged. She’s getting married next month.”

“I heard.”

“Then it’s even less appropriate for you to get involved now.” Zeng Yinyin gathered up the bowls and chopsticks. “You can persuade Yiwei to go back early, forget Miaomiao, and start a new life.”

“That’s hard.”

At that moment, Zeng Yinyin suddenly said, “In this world, other than death, nothing is hard.”

“I think the way your family handled this was not decent.” Tan Wenbin tried to draw out more information. “At the very least, you should see it through from beginning to end.”

Zeng Yinyin’s movements suddenly paused for a moment before she said, “What a nice thought.”

“What?”

“There’s nothing fun here. Leave quickly.”

“I think the scenery here is beautiful, really beautiful.” Seeing that she did not want to reveal anything more, Tan Wenbin knew he would have to go find Brother Yuan. “I want to ask you something. There should be a family with the surname Xue in this town, right? Their son is Xue Liangliang, a student at Haihe University, very good at making money, a really promising guy.”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“There are lots of families in town, lots of surnames too. Other than our neighbors, we don’t really deal with people from other surnames.”

“Oh, I see. Then I’ll go out and ask around, and take a look around while I’m at it. Thanks again for your hospitality.”

Tan Wenbin left.

Zeng Yinyin stared at the kitchen doorway for quite a while. Then she ladled out another bowl of soup rice from the pot and placed it beneath the coffin.

She stuck a pair of chopsticks upright into the bowl.

This was not firm steamed rice. There was too much broth. The chopsticks should not have been able to stand.

But after she let go, the two chopsticks remained standing perfectly straight.

...

Tan Wenbin first returned to the room and slung his hiking pack onto his back.

On the bed, Hu Yiwei was still sleeping soundly, and the dark red stain at his crotch had gradually begun to blacken.

Although he could clearly sense that something was wrong with this household, the level of danger was still within what he could bear.

Better to meet up with Brother Yuan first.

Tan Wenbin left the house, walked out of the alley, and came to the main street.

Min’an Town might not have the population of Shigang Town on the plains, but it was still a town. It was perfectly normal not to know every resident.

Tan Wenbin found a small shop in town, bought a bottle of soda, and then asked the shopkeeper auntie about Xue Liangliang’s family.

But her answer left him stunned.

She said she had never heard of any family with the surname Xue living in town.

A guess immediately formed in Tan Wenbin’s mind: could it be that Xue Liangliang’s father had married into the wife’s family, then later made something of himself and changed Liangliang’s surname back to Xue?

Even Tan Wenbin himself thought that sounded a bit ridiculous.

After leaving the shop, he began asking townspeople nonstop. He felt the Xue family ought to be fairly well known here. After all, Brother Liangliang surely counted as one of those “other people’s children.”

But the result was that nobody knew of such a family.

Only then did Tan Wenbin finally realize how serious the problem was.

If he could not find the Xue family, that meant he could not find Brother Yuan and Runsheng, who had gone ahead and settled in with the Xue family before him.

He took out the pager at his waist. There was no record of any pages.

That should not have been possible. It was already ten in the morning.

Brother Yuan might have thought it was too late last night, and with the small shops closed he might not have paged him then. But by this hour, if Brother Yuan still had not seen him, he definitely would have had Runsheng page him at once.

Tan Wenbin went back to the shop, picked up the phone, and dialed the number of the Bargain Shop.

Beep... beep... beep...

The phone kept ringing, but nobody answered.

That was impossible. Even if Lu Yi was in class and not at the store, someone would certainly be there during daytime business hours.

He called two more times in a row, but still no one answered.

After hesitating, he called his own father’s office. Beep... beep... beep... it went through, but no one answered.

He even called Aunt Zhang’s shop in Siyuan Village. Same result.

Finally, he called the paging station.

At that time, paging stations were everywhere in the country, and being a paging operator was quite a popular job.

But this time, no one answered there either. There was no chance to hear the sweet voice of the operator lady.

After hanging up, Tan Wenbin clenched his fist and lightly thumped the counter.

“What’s wrong?” the auntie asked, puzzled, glancing at her phone display. He had called for so long without getting a single answer.

“Auntie, could your phone be broken?”

“Broken?” The auntie pressed speakerphone and dialed a number herself. The other side quickly answered. In dialect, she told them to send a bit more of some goods next time. After the person agreed, she hung up.

“It’s not broken. Works just fine.”

The auntie cracked sunflower seeds and sized up the young man from head to toe. If not for the fact that he was well dressed and carrying a hiking pack, she would have suspected he was deliberately messing with her in broad daylight.

Tan Wenbin picked up the phone again and dialed the Bargain Shop. Still no answer.

After hanging up, he took out some money and bought some bagged snacks.

The auntie cheerfully fetched them for him. The snacks were not expired, but the bags were dusty. In town, loose roasted seeds and nuts sold better anyway.

Tan Wenbin left the shop and sat down in the riverside corridor.

Several tables of old people were drinking tea there, and there was also a storyteller telling a tale.

He was speaking in the local dialect, so Tan Wenbin could not understand it.

He looked out over the calm river. In the distance were fields and green hills, a beautiful landscape, but he had no mood to appreciate it.

Either something was wrong with this town, or something was wrong with him.

Perhaps the most reasonable choice now was to leave town at once, or at least go somewhere he could make contact by phone.

But he had come here because of a problem in the first place. If he ran away the moment he ran into one, then what kind of river walk was that?

After the storyteller finished one segment, Tan Wenbin went over to chat with him. He left the location of the Zeng family home, gave the storyteller a little money, and promised that if anyone managed to find him through the storyteller, he would pay him again.

Then Tan Wenbin took out pen and paper and started writing notes. He wrote many in a row, each with his name and address, then handed them out to shopkeepers.

After doing all that, Tan Wenbin did not hurry back to the Zeng house. Instead, he wandered around the town. He really did look like a backpacker out sightseeing.

He had arrived late last night, when it was pitch dark and impossible to see anything clearly. Now he could observe everything carefully.

The Huizhou-style architecture really was cultured and beautiful, but when you had unease and fear in your heart, the environment here only magnified those feelings.

Every open-doored household seemed to hide a secret, and every alley carried a strange, eerie air.

He wandered until nearly one in the afternoon before deciding to return to the Zeng house. Before going back, he stopped at a stall to buy some meat, as well as some grain and cooking oil.

The moment he walked in carrying those things, he saw Zeng Yinyin standing there.

“I thought you had already left.”

“No, I just went out for a stroll.”

“I already ate lunch.”

“I did too.” Tan Wenbin set the things on the counter. He had eaten snacks.

Zeng Yinyin glanced at them and said, “You didn’t need to buy anything.”

“It’s only right, it’s only right.”

If he did not buy something, how could he keep staying there with any decency?

For now, with Brother Yuan unreachable, the only thing he could do was remain at the Zeng house.

Zeng Yinyin said nothing and took the things into the kitchen.

Tan Wenbin returned to his room. Hu Yiwei was still fast asleep. It seemed last night had truly taken a great toll on him.

Of course, the toll was not just from that kind of activity. More importantly, it was from being possessed by a malevolent spirit.

But if he kept not waking up, Tan Wenbin would have no excuse to see Zeng Miaomiao.

Tan Wenbin reached out and patted Hu Yiwei on the face, but still could not wake him.

That whole afternoon, Tan Wenbin sat on a little stool beside the well in the courtyard.

At his feet were a pack of cigarettes and a bottle of mineral water, making him look as though he were simply resting in the sun.

After Zeng Yinyin returned to her room, she did not come out again. The old granny who had spoken up last night and Zeng Miaomiao also never came down from the second floor.

Together with Hu Yiwei, still asleep, the house was clearly full of people, yet it gave Tan Wenbin the feeling that he was the only one there.

And then there was that well...

Even though the well cover had been welded shut, cold air still seemed to leak out through the gaps, like the crack of a freezer door left ajar.

At dusk, Zeng Yinyin finally came out of her room.

She went to cook.

And at that moment, Hu Yiwei finally woke up as well.

“So hungry... I’m so hungry I feel dizzy,” Hu Yiwei said, lying on the bed with one hand over his stomach and the other over his forehead.

Tan Wenbin took a compressed biscuit from his backpack and handed it to him. As for the mineral water, he had already finished it.

No one carried much water in their pack. He did still have water purification tablets and things like that.

Tan Wenbin went to the kitchen to get a bottle of boiled water.

Zeng Yinyin stood by the stove, holding a spatula and stir-frying a dish, but there was not much steam rising from the wok.

Tan Wenbin walked around behind the stove and saw that inside the firebox there were only a few scattered embers.

“Need me to stoke the fire?”

“No need. It’s almost done.”

“Oh.”

Tan Wenbin nodded and went to get a thermos. He opened one and reached a finger inside. Warm. He tried a second one. Still warm, about the same temperature as the water they had used to wash their feet the night before.

“Um, is there any hot water?”

“Isn’t all of it?”

“It’s only warm, not hot.”

“It’s hot weather. I deliberately let it cool a bit before bottling it.”

“I see.”

Tan Wenbin could only pick one up and take it away. As he passed the stairs in the main hall, he looked upward again. The door was still shut.

Back in the room, he poured Hu Yiwei a cup of warm water and handed it to him, reminding him, “Save some room. Dinner will be ready soon.”

Crumbs covered Hu Yiwei’s mouth as he asked awkwardly, “Binbin, do you have a pair of pants? Could I borrow one?”

Clearly, he had discovered the stain at his crotch.

Tan Wenbin took a pair of pants from his bag and handed them over.

Hu Yiwei had borrowed a vehicle and driven over in a rush, fired up and demanding an explanation, so aside from money and cigarettes for the road, he had brought no luggage.

Tan Wenbin’s hiking pack, on the other hand, was fully stocked with basic gear.

He and Yin Meng each had one.

Runsheng’s was an upgraded version, because he also had to carry Brother Yuan’s share.

“Thanks, brother. How much? I’ll pay you,” Hu Yiwei said, reaching for money in his pocket.

“No need. We’re brothers. Don’t mention it.”

“How can that be? You even paid for the gas on the way here.”

“Don’t be polite with me. Just remember to handle the important matter.”

Hu Yiwei slapped his forehead. “Oh, right, the important matter!”

He found it strange himself that he had nearly forgotten all about it.

After eating something, Hu Yiwei recovered enough strength. They were both men, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about. He took off both his pants and underwear and changed into Tan Wenbin’s pants, which meant he was going commando.

“Binbin, don’t laugh at me. This is really embarrassing. I had a wet dream last night.”

Tan Wenbin rubbed his nose. Since when did a man have a wet dream that ended in blood?

Of course, after most boys had seen that sort of thing, their bodies generally would not even get the chance to have a wet dream.

“Brother Hu, at dinner later, you absolutely have to insist on seeing Zeng Miaomiao.”

“I will.”

“Once you’ve made things clear, you should head back. You didn’t take that much time off. Don’t let an old relationship delay your work too.”

“Mm, Binbin, I understand everything you’re saying.”

The room door was pushed open. Zeng Yinyin stood in the doorway, just as she had that morning, and said, “The meal is ready. Come eat.”

It was still the little table in the kitchen, beside the coffin.

But there were only three people’s portions on the table.

Hu Yiwei asked, “Where’s Miaomiao?”

Zeng Yinyin was carrying a tray. On it were two dishes, two cups of yellow wine, and two small bowls packed with dome-shaped servings of rice.

“They’re eating upstairs.”

“Sister Yin, let Miaomiao come down. I’ll make things clear with her, and then I’ll leave.”

“She doesn’t want to see you.”

“I know she doesn’t want to see me. I just came to get an explanation. Our marriage ended so inexplicably, she should at least come out and see me once. Tell her for me that I’m not trying to cling to her. Really.”

“All right, I’ll tell her.”

“Sorry to trouble you, Sister Yin.”

“You two eat first. It’s easier to talk after a meal.”

Zeng Yinyin carried the tray upstairs.

Hu Yiwei sat at the small kitchen table, his chest rising and falling lightly as he organized what he wanted to say.

Tan Wenbin, meanwhile, left the table and went to a corner of the main hall. He saw Zeng Yinyin walk to the second-floor doorway, grasp the door ring, and knock softly three times.

There seemed to be the sound of a lock dropping open from inside.

Zeng Yinyin pushed the door open. Before entering, she turned her head and looked down, meeting Tan Wenbin’s gaze.

Then she went in, and the door closed behind her.

At that moment, Tan Wenbin very much wanted to use force and break into the second floor to see what exactly was going on inside, and what kind of state Zeng Miaomiao was in now.

But he knew perfectly well that he lacked the ability to clean up the aftermath if he forcibly exposed the truth.

And the reason he had been assigned to work this lead alone was, first, that Runsheng’s personality was not suited to it, and he himself did not know Fan Shulin well enough to connect through that line. Second, Brother Yuan needed a strong person at his side for protection.

Tan Wenbin returned to the kitchen and sat down. “Brother Hu, get me a thermos.”

“Oh, okay.”

As Hu Yiwei stood up, Tan Wenbin took out the lucky talisman from The Zhuiyuan Secret Scroll again and tested the food. No problem.

He picked up his chopsticks and took a bite of rice. Tan Wenbin froze, then picked up some vegetables. His brow furrowed.

The morning meal could be explained by it having been cooked too early and him waking too late. But this dinner had just been made, so why was it still only warm?

Did this house not have anything hot in it at all?

After a while, Zeng Yinyin came back empty-handed. She sat down at the table and began eating with her chopsticks.

Hu Yiwei asked, “Sister Yin, Miaomiao, she...?”

Zeng Yinyin swallowed the food in her mouth. A strange, obscure smile appeared on her face.

“No rush. After dinner, you’ll get to see her.”

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