Chapter 112.2

Some things, it seemed, could only be said to a fool.

The fool looked ingratiatingly at Li Zhuiyuan, then pulled out a pack of instant noodles from his bag. He tore the wrapper open too hard, and the noodle cake fell to the ground.

He picked it up, hurriedly took a bite, then carefully offered it to Li Zhuiyuan.

“I don’t eat that.”

The fool withdrew the noodle cake and kept eating, his mouth making constant crunchy noises.

Li Zhuiyuan asked, “You can see the Zeng family and the Zheng family?”

The fool said nothing and kept chewing, as if he had not heard.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his voice. “Answer me.”

The fool jolted in fright and choked.

Li Zhuiyuan had no choice but to pick up a bottle of soda, pop the tab for him, and hand it over.

The fool took it and gulped down the whole can in one go, then let out a long belch.

“You can see the Zeng family and the Zheng family. Those two families ate a big fish some time ago.”

“Right, ate a big fish. They ate it, they ate it.”

“Have you seen any other strangers? A man and a woman, both young, carrying hiking packs. The woman was very pale, and the man liked to walk with his hand hooked at his waist.”

The fool went back to eating the noodle cake.

“If you don’t answer, I’ll eat you.”

The fool burst into tears and started shouting, “Get me a shipment. Get me a shipment. Get me a shipment.”

Li Zhuiyuan thought it over for a moment. He actually managed to follow the fool’s train of thought, and even pictured the scene.

After discovering the phone call would not go through, someone asked the auntie at the convenience shop whether the phone at her house was broken, and the shop auntie proved it was fine by making calls herself.

If nothing unexpected had happened, the convenience shop auntie should have made three supply-order calls yesterday.

The fool liked to squat beside the shop and pick up dropped candy, so he must have witnessed that whole process.

He really could see all three Min’an Towns!

“Did they say anything to you?”

The fool kept eating the noodle cake.

This time Li Zhuiyuan did not press him for an answer, because no matter how hard Yin Meng and Binbin tried to get messages passed along, they would never think to use a fool.

And the same went for him. Even knowing the fool could see through all three Min’an Towns, he still would not dare tell him anything and have him try to pass it to Binbin and the others.

Who knew how he would chop off the beginning and end and turn the meaning of a sentence completely upside down?

“In Zhengmen Village, is there a very, very big fish?”

The fool froze mid-motion, as though time had stopped.

But on closer look, his eyeballs were darting nonstop.

Gradually, the skin on his face began to tremble, and then his whole body started shaking.

“There’s a big fish in the village, there are grown-ups in the village, there are lots and lots of people in the village…”

“Fool, last time, how many people went into the village with you?”

The fool held out both hands. All ten fingers kept rising and straightening over and over. He could not count that high.

Li Zhuiyuan asked again, “How many people came out of the village in the end?”

The fool tucked away all his other fingers, leaving only the index finger of his right hand, which he waved excitedly in front of Li Zhuiyuan.

“I want to go to Zhengmen Village. I need you to take me there.”

The fool shook his head wildly.

“If you won’t go, then I’ll eat…” Li Zhuiyuan stopped.

He looked at the fool again, very seriously.

The fool grew a little scared under the boy’s gaze. Trembling slightly, he opened another pack of biscuits and started putting them into his mouth one by one.

Li Zhuiyuan stood up. The fool was so frightened he hurriedly scooted aside, and two biscuits fell from his hand onto the ground.

Seeing that, the boy put away the Dragon King’s rite of homage he had been about to perform and sat back down.

Li Zhuiyuan reached over, picked up one of the biscuits from the ground, blew the dirt off it, rubbed it with his fingers, then put it in his mouth and took a bite. As he chewed, he said:

“I’m a Corpse Retriever.”

The fool picked up the other biscuit from the ground and stuffed it into his own mouth, muttering:

“Heh heh, I’m the one who stays by the village and eats.”

“Fool, if that thing comes out of Zhengmen Village, then this town will become a second Zhengmen Village.”

When the fool heard that, the chewing in his mouth stopped. He began looking around involuntarily. Sitting down, he could not see clearly enough, so he simply stood up and kept staring all around—at the shops, the houses, the mountains, the water, the people.

Li Zhuiyuan put the remaining half biscuit in his hand into his mouth, then clapped off the crumbs from his hands.

“Fool, take me to Zhengmen Village. Let’s haul that thing up.”

“Okay.”

…

Tan Wenbin set down his bowl and chopsticks.

Hu Yiwei, sitting beside him, had not taken a single bite. His stomach was already full of compressed biscuits and was bloating badly.

After draining the last half bowl of warm soup, Zeng Yinyin stood and said:

“Come on, Yiwei. I’ll take you upstairs to see Miaomiao.”

Hu Yiwei got to his feet.

But Tan Wenbin grabbed his wrist.

Tan Wenbin looked at Zeng Yinyin. “Why isn’t Miaomiao coming downstairs? Why does he have to go up?”

Zeng Yinyin asked back, “Is there a problem with that?”

Hu Yiwei also said, “Binbin, how about this? I’ll go up, ask Miaomiao everything clearly, explain everything clearly, and then I’ll drive back to Jinling with you.”

“Brother Hu, are you really sure Miaomiao is on the second floor?”

“What?”

“Since we came into this house, have you heard Miaomiao’s voice even once?”

The moment Tan Wenbin finished speaking, the voice of a young girl came from upstairs:

“Yiwei, I’m waiting for you on the second floor.”

Hu Yiwei cried out excitedly, “It’s Miaomiao!”

Tan Wenbin still did not release his wrist. “Brother Hu, have Miaomiao come downstairs. You came here for an explanation, not to apologize. You need to hold your ground!”

“I…”

“Yiwei, if you don’t come up now, then leave.” Miaomiao’s voice came again from upstairs. “There’s really nothing left for us to talk about.”

“Miaomiao, there are things I have to say to you.”

Hu Yiwei started trying to pull free from Tan Wenbin’s grip. “Binbin, let go already. I’ll go talk it out with Miaomiao and come right back down. It’ll be quick.”

“You…”

Right then, Tan Wenbin heard something knock inside the coffin beside him, and at the same time a chill invaded his body.

Binbin’s whole body immediately stiffened. His strength was stripped away, and he could not even speak.

Damn it, this thing got inside me!

Hu Yiwei finally pried Tan Wenbin’s hand off.

Zeng Yinyin said, “Come on, Yiwei. Follow me up. Miaomiao’s in low spirits, so don’t say anything that might upset her.”

“I know, Sister Yin.”

Zeng Yinyin led Hu Yiwei into the main hall and up the wooden stairs.

She pushed open the upstairs door, stepped to one side, and gestured for Hu Yiwei to go in first.

Hu Yiwei frowned slightly, because he caught a strong smell of oil—heavy, stifling, and oppressive.

But he did not hesitate for long before stepping inside.

Zeng Yinyin had no intention of entering. She grasped the doorframe and shut the door.

Then, smiling faintly, she walked back downstairs.

…

“Miaomiao! My Miaomiao! My Miaomiao!”

Inside was an offering table. On it, apart from several candles, was half of a large fish split lengthwise and set upright, as though it were being offered there in worship.

Under the dim candlelight, Hu Yiwei was holding a woman… or more precisely, a dried corpse, and sobbing uncontrollably.

The dried corpse’s face still retained its original appearance, and one could tell she had once been a girl about Hu Yiwei’s age. But below the neck, her body had long since shriveled into something impossibly thin. Even skin and bones was not enough to describe it—her bones themselves had clearly been drastically contracted.

It was as if someone had used matchsticks to build a person’s torso and limbs, then set a normal human head on top.

And behind Zeng Miaomiao stood another dried corpse. It was no longer even possible to tell whether it had been male or female, because even its head had shrunk down. Yet that very distortion somehow gave it a grotesque kind of overall harmony.

Beside this dried corpse lay a walking cane.

This was probably the old grandmother of the Zeng family.

Hu Yiwei still had feelings for Zeng Miaomiao. Seeing his former lover reduced to this state, he was truly heartbroken beyond measure.

But Zeng Miaomiao’s eyes were closed. She could not speak, and perhaps could not even perceive anything anymore.

“What did you do to Miaomiao? Why did she become like this? Why?!” Hu Yiwei was almost insane with grief.

But the moment he shouted that sentence, his whole body went numb and he crashed to the floor.

His mind was still perfectly clear. Now he realized there was probably poison in that oil smell.

Tap, tap…

The half-bodied fish on the offering table began flopping about, then finally dropped beside Hu Yiwei, splattering grease as it hit the floor.

Hu Yiwei forced his eyes wide open. So this was not the smell of cooking oil. It was fish oil.

“Urgh!”

Zeng Miaomiao’s mouth suddenly opened, and streams of tiny fish poured out from inside. As the little fish flowed out, her head, which had still looked relatively normal, began shrinking rapidly, turning into a dried corpse at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Hu Yiwei’s eyes reddened from what he was seeing, but he could not move at all.

All those tiny fish flopped toward him. They were clearly little fish, yet each seemed to have sharp teeth. Hu Yiwei felt his entire body being torn and bitten everywhere.

Then the fish with only half a body left opened its mouth and, incredibly, spoke in Zeng Miaomiao’s voice:

“Yiwei, didn’t you want to talk to me? Then speak, Yiwei. Why aren’t you saying anything?”

A horrifying despair was slowly swallowing him whole.

…

Zeng Yinyin walked back down the stairs and returned to the kitchen, carefully studying Tan Wenbin, who was still sitting there with his head lowered and not moving at all.

She slipped one finger into her mouth and sucked on it, smiling as she said:

“We’ll use him tonight. That brother-in-law of mine really is nice to look at but useless in bed. I’m not satisfied, and you can’t bring yourself out properly with him either. What do you think, my man?

He should last three or four days. Once we’ve used him up, we’ll toss him upstairs as an offering, then we’ll find someone new.”

After waiting a while and seeing Tan Wenbin say nothing, Zeng Yinyin asked curiously:

“What do you think? Say something.”

Tan Wenbin slowly raised his head, and Zeng Yinyin’s expression changed at once.

Because on Tan Wenbin’s forehead was a Yellow Talisman that had come from who knew where.

“In your dreams!”

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