The Great Worm Lich

Walking along the stone road along the mountain all the way back to his ancestral home, Zhang Lisheng did not encounter any fellow villages on the dim mountain road.

When he came to stand in front of the square lock made of brass on his old house, he touched the heavy wooden door for a while, before finally taking out a key from his pocket to open it. After he walked into the courtyard, he latched the wooden door firmly using two heavy bolts, just like how he did it last time.

The scenery in the yard was exactly the same as when the young man left a few years ago. The broken wells, the messy kitchen, and the house that was still gloomy and cold in the midsummer.

Standing silently on the mud, Zhang Lisheng looked around for a long time, and finally, his gaze pierced through the night and landed on the bright table in the hall, prompting him to mutter, “I’ve gone away for four to five years but the table is still completely dustless. This house is really built in a gloomy place.”

Slowly, he walked into the wing room where he used to live.

The furnishings in the room were familiar, simple and crude. Apart from an old spherical display computer, there was only one wooden bed and two wooden boxes painted in red color at the head of the bed.

The young man touched the computer that allowed him to understand a lot of biological knowledge, and a reminiscing smile appeared on his face. Then, he climbed onto the wooden bed, and easily opened the lid of the wooden box that used to require his entire strength to open.

When he saw the ancient books neatly arranged in complete volumes that were made of different textures, he breathed a long sigh of relief. He began to mutter an ancient spell of ‘pst shh…’ and composed himself. Carefully, he took out a sheepskin book and began to read it with concentration, word by word.

When a person was paying great concentration to something, he would always forget to notice the passage of time. Unknowingly, the sky had already turned bright. When the sun shone into the wing room of the old house, only then did Zhang Lisheng realize that the night had passed.

Even though there were not many words on the ancient book, its meaning was profound and concise. When one carefully read it to work out the meaning contained in it, one would never be able to read more than ten books in one night. Based on this calculation, it would take him more than ten days to finish these two boxes of ancient books. If he had to stay so long in the mountain village, he would have to greet the villagers first.

When the young man thought of this, he put down the ancient book in his hand and closed the lid of the wooden box before walking out of the room. According to his habit of growing up since his young age, he cleaned his body using cold water and then after pondering a while, he walked to the main room where his father used to live. Taking out a set of black jacket, black pants and black cloth shoes made from handwoven cloth, he walked towards the main door.

After Zhang Lisheng reached the main wooden door with a few steps and was about to open the door, he suddenly heard a series of hustling footsteps from the outside of the door. Then, a seemingly familiar young voice muttered, “Uncle Ah Lie, why are you so rigid? Mountain Worm has already gone to the US to enjoy his good life and will never come back again so why are you still keeping this old house? Besides, this house has no title deed so it’s a house that belongs to the village. Now that a big boss has partnered up with the China National Tourism Administration and the town government to change this place to this — erm, what is it called again? Oh yeah, historical homestay! — that’s a great thing! What’s more, they have already said that they plan to do a protective development so this is also a good thing for the Zhang family! Look at how you…”

“Scram, Ermu! When Mountain Worm left, I promised him that I’ll take care of the house of him. Those, erm, historical, erm… what homestay and that protective development are all bullsh*t! It’s actually turning this Zhang Family old house into a hostel or hotel and so…”

“Comrade Lielin, so what even if it’s renovated into a hostel or a hotel? The money earned will be shared by your entire village anyway. This matter is both collectively and individually beneficial so come on! As the deputy village chief, you’ve served as a soldier before and have even held a gun so why is your understanding even worse than an ordinary citizen? Today, I’ve already walked up to this house door so it means that I’m already determined to open this door no matter what! This is also a decision made by all of the villagers in Guawo Village! Hurry and open the door now! Or otherwise, I’ll use the hard way!”

“No, Mayor Song! This place really can’t be renovated into a hotel! Other than the family members of the Zhang Family, nobody else can stay here! Ermu, you idiot! Tell me frankly, do you dare stay here for even one night if it’s renovated into a hotel?”

“O-Of course I dare to! W-What is there to be afraid of?” When the young voice finished talking, Zhang Lisheng slowly opened the bolt, pushed open the wooden door, stepped out, and said with a nonchalant smile, “Alright, Brother Ermu, you’re really a tough man! To think that you actually dare to live in my Zhang Family’s house. You’re the first one in our entire Guawo Village in these 1000 years. How about this, I’ll give you three days and you can settle your ‘arrangements’ first. Three days later when you come to stay in my house, I’ll send you ‘uphill’ alone, how about it? We’re a seven-foot highland man so we can’t drag our family members to die together for the trouble we pick, right? Don’t you think so?”

It was ten o’clock in the morning and the midsummer sun had already become extremely hot, but when the wooden door of Zhang Family opened, the Guawo villagers, who were surrounding in front of the door, still shuddered violently, feeling goosebumps all over their bodies.

“Daowu… D-Daowu…” Upon seeing Zhang Lisheng walking out of the house door dressed in black clothes, black trousers, and black shoes, a few older villagers turned pale right away. With a cry of astonishment, their legs trembled till they could not stand firmly. Staggering, they fell forward and even pushed a short and fat middle-aged man wearing beige-striped sweatshirt and a pair of black trousers, causing him to slam his head on the wall.

“W-What the hell are you guys doing? Didn’t any of you eat breakfast? You’re already so old but you can’t even stand still!” The short and fat old man grimaced and touched his face that was burning with pain. When he saw that there was no blood, he became relieved and shouted at the villagers behind him.

After roaring and venting his anger, he turned his attention to the young man, who had walked out of the old house, and asked Tao Lielin who was by his side, “Chief Tao, who is this fella?”

“Mayor Song, he’s Zhang Lisheng, the owner of this old house.” Tao Lielin, who was still wearing a cheap suit with his head wrapped up, just like how he always did several years back, was stunned for a while before asking Zhang Lisheng, “Mountain Worm, why did you come back? When did you come back? Why didn’t you tell me when you came back?”

“Uncle Ah Lie, I just came back yesterday night. See, I was just coming out to meet all of you guys this morning and I immediately hear somebody has coveted their eyes on my Zhang Family’s old house. Looks like people are indeed willing to sacrifice for the sake of money. I’ve just left not long ago, like what? Four to five years? And to think you’ve already forgotten your lesson. Well I guess it’s a good thing too. After all, a human would only know how to cry when they see the coffin.”

Upon hearing these words, even though they already knew that the reason the door of the Zhang Family’s old house opened was because Zhang Lisheng had come back and not because Zhang Daowu’s corpse had suddenly come back to life, the expression on Guawo villagers still did not improve. They only hated themselves for being befuddled with a craving for wealth and regretted their actions.

Only the Deputy Mayor who came from Damu Town to negotiate frowned and began to shout loudly, “Little fella, why do you talk in such a grotesque manner? And you actually threatened us! I’ve spent half of my entire life working as a cadre in villages and towns and the land used for rural housing in the village is not a collective property. This is determined by the national policy. If your residential registration is migrated, the land used for rural housing will have to be taken back as well…”

After saying a few sentences, he suddenly realized that this person being lectured by him now was an ‘international friend’ so it would be very troublesome if the other party went to visit a higher authority to safeguard his legal right. For this reason, his voice gradually became smaller and when he guiltily recalled the ‘benefits’ he had received, he shook his head and changed his attitude. “But of course, I don’t know the specific situation in your village so the town government can only consider from a broader perspective. The emergence of the first Chinese ‘historical homestay’ in Guawo Village will be a bright spotlight. Besides, this decision has also been approved through voting during your villagers’ assembly. However, it seems that the situation has changed again. Since there has been a change, we must reconsider some of the problems. Erm, Chief Tao, after your village committee has made the final decision about this matter, please send me a letter to notify me. Let us wrap up here now today.”

“Sure, Mayor Song. I’ll contact you by phone.” Tao Lielin could tell that Mayor Song had the intention to take a step back so he made way for him to step down in time.

“Alright, Xiao Wang, let’s go!” Mayor Song nodded and turned around to walk on the stone steps heading out of the village. He did not see a gush of visible black red mist drifting out of Zhang Lisheng under the sun and floating to chase up to him, before infiltrated into the small wound that he had scratched when he hit the wall.

The villagers standing on the stone lane of the mountain village saw this strange scene but they only felt chills running down their spines, not daring to say anything at all. Only Tao Lielin was stunned for a while before quickly shouting at Zhang Lisheng with a pale face, “M-Mountain Worm, what are you doing, kid? Mayor Song is our national cadre so we can’t, we can’t…”

“Uncle Ah Lie, according to the saying in the ancient times, wanting to occupy the ancestral home means that he wants to open up the coffins of my Guawo Village’s Zhang Family. Why should I care whether he’s a national cadre or not?” Zhang Lisheng interrupted Tao Lielin’s words and sinisterly swept his gaze around him. “I don’t have anything else to say. If I don’t receive any explanation about this, I’ll never let this matter go!”

When the young man was still persisting in this matter, Mayor Song and the clerk following him had already entered a black Passat that appeared to be still 50-60% new at most at the empty space in Guawo Village

“How unlucky this is! We’ve almost finished settling this matter and this ‘owner’ suddenly appeared out of nowhere! This is really, really…” Sitting in the back seat of the car, Song Zhengge frowned and complained in anger. “And what empty guts those Guawo Village’s villagers have! I’m a government official so I have to pay attention to my image and have to maintain my composure, unable to give rise to a conflict with a foreign nationality Chinese but they, on the other hand, what the hell are they afraid of? It’s related to their own income and interests so they should have at least fought for it a little. But in the end, did you see the expressions on their faces just now? It’s as though they have just seen a ghost!”

“Mayor, maybe you didn’t know but the Zhang Family in Guawo Village has a very eerie…”

“Xiao Wang, look at you! Even though you’ve not helped solve the organizational problems, you have at least been trained by the party for many years already, so how can you still believe in those ghosts or mystical things? Let me tell you, even though I’m not a native of Qu County, I’ve heard many rumors regarding the Zhang Family in the village before. Such rumors are just a waste of time…” When Song Zhengge interrupted his clerk’s words and was speaking in scoff, he was suddenly blinded by a few insects that flew into the car.

Rubbing his eyes with force, he complained in annoyance, “Ah there are so many flying insects in the summer, especially when we’re close to the woodland. All four windows of the car are tightly shut and yet I can still be blinded by the insects. Xiao Wang, bring my sunglasses for me…”

He opened his eyes abruptly but was dumbstruck when he saw countless flying insects charge into the car compartment through the air conditioning vents. Soon, they drowned him entirely.