Behind the monster, which was coiled upright, black river water surged forward with unstoppable force. Accompanying it was that noisy muttering, as if countless people were speaking at the same time from within the black water. They desperately tried to express something, yet no one could understand what they meant.
“Don’t try to listen to it, and even less should you try to understand it, A-Chan.”
Wei Xilou had appeared behind Xu Muchan at some point. He reached out and covered Xu Muchan’s ears, looking at him as though he were a child who was always mischievous and refused to listen.
Xu Muchan turned his head, pursed his lips, and smiled at him before looking toward the surging river water again.
“Big Brother, Leigong Village is gone. The Mountain God Cave is going to be gone too.”
The viscous black water submerged everything in its path. Half of the enormous monster’s body had already sunk into the river. The souls of the villagers caught in its hands were still screaming in agony, but their bodies had already turned into lifeless corpses and floated away along the Black River.
Xu Muchan saw many familiar faces among them, including Cui Tong and even himself.
The eaten-clean corpse of the child floated face-up on the Black River, its frail body gradually sinking into the water.
“It’s okay. Guiyi Mountain is still here.”
The Black River arrived in an instant. Wei Xilou held his hand and led him down the mountain, his voice sounding very gentle.
“If A-Chan wants to come back in the future, he can still come back.”
The flood tide came quickly and receded just as quickly.
The terrifying flood tide swept through Leigong Village. The entire village sank underground along with the black river water, leaving only broken walls and ruins on the surface. The entire village, together with the people inside it, was erased from existence overnight by a flood that officially did not exist.
Zheng Shengli and Tao Shu led the survivors from the village and escaped to the foot of the mountain. At this moment, they sat sprawled on the ground, staring blankly in shock.
Under the enormous shock, many people had even forgotten their grief. They were simply immersed in the immense confusion and fear brought about by witnessing another side of the world.
Even when Xu Muchan and Wei Xilou came down from the mountain, they showed no reaction, as if they had already been frightened senseless.
A Jeep came speeding from the distance and stopped at the entrance to the mountain right on schedule. The driver got out of the car and respectfully opened the door, calling out, “Mr. Wei,” and inviting Wei Xilou and Xu Muchan into the vehicle.
Xu Muchan turned to look at Wei Xilou.
Wei Xilou explained, “I arranged it earlier. The plane tickets have also been booked. We’ll return to Jiangcheng today. There’ll be about two hours of rest time in between. If A-Chan wants to buy souvenirs, you can look around the airport.”
Xu Muchan silently got into the car. Just as they were about to leave, Zheng Shengli suddenly climbed up from the ground and hurried after them, knocking on the car window.
“Student Xu.”
Xu Muchan lowered the window and looked at him. His skin was snow-white, his eyes pitch-black, completely different from how he had looked before.
Zheng Shengli took a deep breath. Rationally, he did not try to investigate the incomprehensible changes in him. Instead, he quickly said in one breath, “The matter at Leigong Village will definitely alarm the authorities. They may send people to investigate. You and your brother are also witnesses to the Leigong Village incident, so they may need you to cooperate with the investigation later. Please leave a phone number and address where you can be contacted. That way, if the people from above ask about it later, I’ll have something to report.”
Xu Muchan cooperatively left his contact number and address.
Zheng Shengli held his phone and watched the Jeep quickly drive away. Only then did he dazedly walk back and plop down beside Tao Shu, muttering, “I thought he wouldn’t give it to me.”
After all, it was already obvious that he was no longer an ordinary human being. Even if the other party refused to cooperate with their work, Zheng Shengli would have had no way to do anything.
But unexpectedly, the other party was actually more cooperative with the police than many ordinary citizens.
Tao Shu was still in a state where his entire worldview had collapsed. He was also completely listless as he muttered, “Call the station and have someone come pick us up. There’s no way I can drive in this condition. And there are still so many people who need to be settled.”
It was a little over an hour’s drive from Leigong Village to the city airport.
Xu Muchan raised the partition between the driver’s seat and the back row, then turned his head toward Wei Xilou, who was resting with his eyes closed, and said quietly, “Big Brother, aren’t you going to explain things to me?”
“The Mountain God Tablet, and… did you already know that I had died a long time ago?”
Wei Xilou opened his eyes, faint amusement floating within them.
“I thought A-Chan would hold it in until we got home before asking.”
The car was not exactly a good place to have a conversation, but Xu Muchan really could not hold it in anymore. His heart was stuffed with a pile of questions, bouncing around like rabbits and making him unable to settle down.
Xu Muchan pursed his lips and stared at him unhappily.
Wei Xilou showed a look of remembrance. He curled his index finger and gently brushed it against Xu Muchan’s cheek, saying with a smile, “When those villagers sent you to the Mountain God Cave, you weren’t nearly as brave as you are now. You sat alone at the entrance of the cave, trembling as you hugged your legs, curled up into such a tiny little ball.”
That appearance had been incredibly cute. He could not help appearing and wanting to touch the little thing.
But the little thing had been frightened terribly. His whole body had trembled like a sieve. His eyes were clearly filled with tears, yet he endured without crying. Looking into the pitch-black cave, he had gathered up his courage and asked softly, “Are you Big Brother Mountain God?”
He had been pleased by that one cry of “Big Brother,” so he allowed the little thing to stay.
And worried that the little thing was too weak, that he might wake up after sleeping and find the little thing gone, he had deliberately used the old locust tree in front of the Mountain God Cave to make a Mountain God Tablet for him to wear.
“Your soul was unstable back then, like a sieve full of holes, and you didn’t know how to actively absorb yin energy. That was why you needed the Mountain God Tablet to gather yin energy and stabilize your soul. Later, the problems with your eyes were also because of this. The Mountain God Tablet was an external object after all, so it could only provide assistance. As you grew older, you continued to believe that you were alive and didn’t know that you needed to eat to replenish yin energy. Because there wasn’t enough yin energy in your body, your five senses gradually deteriorated.”
Originally, he had wanted to find Black Taisui to replenish Xu Muchan, but Xu Muchan had stubbornly refused to listen and insisted on returning to the Xu family.
Wei Xilou sighed.
“A-Chan never listens.”
Xu Muchan had not expected that his blindness was actually because of this. He pursed his lips awkwardly. After a moment of silence, he asked, “Then why didn’t you just tell me?”
Wei Xilou instead said, “After you died back then, Zhou Ping and his wife tied rocks to your corpse and sank it into a deep pool on the mountain. But your soul climbed out of the deep pool again, relying on an obsession with wanting to live. Wasn’t that because you didn’t want to die?”
He raised his hand and rubbed Xu Muchan’s head.
“Whether you want to be a human or a ghost, A-Chan can do whatever he wants.”
The previous impostor had not shown Xu Muchan where Zhou Ping and his wife had taken his corpse. Now, after hearing Wei Xilou mention it, he finally learned that his corpse had been sunk into the deep pool on the mountain.
He had been to that deep pool before as well. It was near the summit of Guiyi Mountain. It was not very large, but it was extremely deep. The water was emerald green, like a deep eye embedded in Guiyi Mountain.
Xu Muchan had passed by there once. For some reason, he had always felt an inexplicable fear toward that pool, and afterward he had never gone near it again.
Yet he had never expected that after he died, his corpse had been sunk into those waters.
“So that impostor really was a part of me?” Xu Muchan murmured.
“It was, and it wasn’t. Your fate was special, and your obsession after death was too strong. Although your soul turned into a fierce ghost, you completely forgot that you had died, so you continued living just like a living person. But your corpse was tied to rocks and sunk into the deep pool, soaking in the water for many years. The resentment within it was already extremely heavy. On top of that, Leigong Village had a tradition of worshipping the Mountain God…”
“Does A-Chan know where the girls who were sent into the Mountain God Cave ended up?” Wei Xilou suddenly changed the subject and asked.
Xu Muchan shook his head in confusion.
Wei Xilou continued, “They were all eaten by the evil spirits inside the Mountain God Cave. Their corpses were casually discarded into the river behind the mountain, then carried by the current into the karst caves, where they settled. And the entire water system of Guiyi Mountain is interconnected. After their unjust deaths, their resentful spirits were drawn by the yin energy and also gathered in that deep pool. As the yin energy and resentment within the deep pool grew heavier, they attracted the Black River…”
Xu Muchan understood.
Whether it was his own corpse lying at the bottom of the deep pool or the resentful spirits of those unjustly dead girls, under the catalysis of the pool water and the Black River, they had developed consciousness and transformed into monsters filled with hatred, wanting only revenge.
Xu Muchan sighed, relaxed his body against the seatback, and stared at the roof of the car as he muttered, “I went out for a trip and not only discovered that I had already been dead for a long time, but also discovered that I’m not even human anymore.”
Wei Xilou comfortingly patted his hand.
“This won’t affect your going to school.”
Xu Muchan was immediately comforted. He sat upright again and calculated aloud, “When we get to the airport, let’s buy more local specialties to bring back. Wei Yao and the others really liked the ones we bought last time.”
They took a plane back to Jiangcheng. After Xu Muchan rested properly for two days, school started again.
Xu Muchan, finally returning to school after his leave, received an unprecedentedly enthusiastic welcome. To celebrate, Wei Yao deliberately arranged a table in the cafeteria.
Those attending included Wen Dajiang, Wu Dong, He Jiaqi, as well as several of Wei Yao’s good-for-nothing friends.
The boys pushed two cafeteria tables together into one large table. Wei Yao generously slapped down his meal card and pointed toward the cafeteria serving windows, saying, “Pick the most expensive dishes! Get plenty! We’re celebrating Brother Xu’s return to campus and welcoming senior year!”
The buddy took the meal card, theatrically crooked his fingers, and said, “You got it,” before scampering off to get the food.
Xu Muchan: “……”
Wen Dajiang secretly whispered to the speechless Xu Muchan beside him, “Can we not sit at the same table as him? I feel like it’s kind of embarrassing.”
He Jiaqi and Wu Dong, sitting nearby, silently nodded. They shifted their butts to the side, not even willing to share the same bench with Young Master Wei.
“What? What’s wrong!”
Young Master Wei unhappily slapped the table, drawing curious glances from passersby, but he did not care in the slightest. “I said we should climb over the wall at noon and go out for a good meal, but you guys didn’t want to. So what else could we do but make do with the cafeteria? Sure, it’s simple, but we still need to have some atmosphere.”
Just as he finished speaking, the atmosphere team came back with the food, each person carrying a tray piled high.
Young Master Wei waved his hand grandly. “Everyone, help yourselves. Don’t be polite.”
Some of the students passing by recognized Wei Yao. They took out their phones and happily snapped pictures. Young Master Wei looked like a major celebrity, waving generously at them under the cameras.
Beside him, He Jiaqi and Wu Dong lowered their heads in shame, their toes practically digging out a three-bedroom apartment on the floor. They deeply regretted agreeing to this meal.
Wouldn’t it have been better to just sit at the next table and watch the show?
Seeing that Wei Yao was still about to continue showing off, Xu Muchan finally couldn’t stand it anymore. He kicked him under the table and said expressionlessly, “Just eat properly.”
Young Master Wei sucked in a breath from the pain and rubbed his calf, muttering, “How come after getting sick once, your temper got worse too?”
Xu Muchan ignored him. Wei Yao leaned over again and asked, “Hey, what illness did you actually have? You took two months off! You have no idea—when you weren’t in the classroom, even those few hairs on Old Man’s head lost their energy. The only time they’d stand up was when he looked at Wu Dong.”
The “Old Man” was their math teacher. He actually wasn’t very old, only in his forties, but he had prematurely gray hair and was balding. And since he taught the universally hated subject of mathematics, Wei Yao had always secretly called him “Old Man.”
The matter concerning Leigong Village was difficult to explain, so Xu Muchan could only vaguely say, “It was just to treat my eyes. My eyes are completely fine now, and there won’t be any lasting effects in the future.”
So that was why……
Everyone present breathed a sigh of relief. Wen Dajiang smiled and said, “We couldn’t get in touch with you back then. Old Wan only said you were on sick leave. We thought you had some incurable disease, just like in those TV dramas……”
Before this, they had all carefully avoided asking because they were afraid of suddenly hearing some terrible news. Now that they knew it had only been for treatment of his eyes, they could finally joke about it.
Xu Muchan pressed his lips together and smiled.
There really hadn’t been any incurable disease. However, he truly had been dead for a very long time.
But when he looked at his innocent, simple-minded friends, he decided not to tell them and scare them.
The curriculum in senior year was obviously more intense than it had been in junior year, and a conspicuous countdown to the Gaokao had also been hung up in the classroom.
Wei Yao and the others had already gotten used to this pace after attending make-up classes during the summer vacation. Xu Muchan was still a little dazed after returning, but after adapting for two days, he quickly threw himself into his studies as well.
Originally, he had still been thinking about the matter at Leigong Village, wondering if the police might contact him to ask about the situation or something. Who would have thought that half a month would pass without Xu Muchan receiving even a single phone call? He completely put the matter out of his mind.
After entering senior year, it seemed as though even time had been sped up. In the blink of an eye, autumn passed, and Jiangcheng entered December, bringing its first snowfall.
The day it snowed was Christmas Eve. Even the tense and serious senior-year class became lively.
It happened to be a Friday as well, so they rarely had to attend evening self-study. The moment the dismissal bell rang, everyone rushed outside like mad, running around and taking pictures in the not-too-thick snow.
With the climate growing warmer these past few years, snow had practically become a luxury. The students, who had been cooped up for so long, were faced with such a rare heavy snowfall on Christmas Eve and practically wanted to roll around in it.
Xu Muchan walked out of the classroom with his schoolbag on his back, only to have a huge snowball thrown directly at him by Wei Yao.
Xu Muchan instinctively dodged. The snowball hit Wen Dajiang, who had just come out behind him.
Wen Dajiang let out an earth-shaking, soul-rattling roar of “Fucking hell!” before charging toward Wei Yao.
The two began a chase through the snow, which ended when Wen Dajiang stuffed a handful of snow down the back of Wei Yao’s neck.
Wei Yao yelped from the freezing snow water. Wen Dajiang smugly said, “See if you dare mess with your grandpa again.”
Wei Yao shook the chunks of ice out of his clothes and viciously gave him the middle finger.
Xu Muchan walked behind the two of them at an unhurried pace, watching as they bickered like childish elementary school students.
The three of them left the school together before splitting up.
Xu Muchan got into the car, only to discover that Wei Xilou was there as well.
Recently, Wei Xilou had been getting busier and busier. He said he was going to start some kind of company. Xu Muchan didn’t understand it and hadn’t asked for details. He only knew that Wei Xilou left home with him in the morning, but by the time Xu Muchan came home after evening self-study, Wei Xilou still hadn’t returned.
Instead, when Xu Muchan slept until the middle of the night, he often felt a cold presence slipping into the bed. Xu Muchan would frown and try to push him away without success, and eventually just let him be.
Situations like today, where Wei Xilou came to pick him up from school early, were actually relatively rare.
Wei Xilou placed a beautifully packaged apple into his hand and said, “It’s Christmas Eve today. I gave Auntie the night off. Let’s go out for dinner before going home.”
Xu Muchan frowned as he looked at the beautifully packaged apple in his hand.
He hadn’t really understood it when he saw his classmates buying apples like this before. Now that Wei Xilou had bought one too, he understood it even less.
“What’s so special about Christmas Eve?”
In Xu Muchan’s view, the only festival that deserved to be treated seriously was the Spring Festival. After all, in the past, they hadn’t had the means to celebrate other holidays, so they were basically no different from ordinary days.
Only during the Spring Festival would he carefully choose two inexpensive and comfortable sets of new clothes for himself. He would also buy the pork ribs and beef he normally couldn’t bear to buy, then make himself a sumptuous New Year’s Eve dinner.
Wei Xilou looked at him disapprovingly and said, “Everyone else has one. Of course A-Chan should have one too.”
Xu Muchan made no comment. He took the apple out of its packaging, wiped it with a tissue, took a large crunchy bite, then held it out to Wei Xilou.
“He Jiaqi said apples are ‘peace apples.’ Do you want a bite?”
Wei Xilou looked at the bite mark, then raised his eyes to glance at the boy looking at him. He lowered his head and took a bite right beside the tooth mark.
Xu Muchan’s eyes curved into a smile. He took the apple back and continued eating it with loud, crisp crunches.
Perhaps because he hadn’t had much to eat when he was young, he wasn’t picky about food and treasured it greatly. A round apple was gnawed down until only a tiny bit of the core remained in the middle.
Wei Xilou watched from the corner of his eye and felt that A-Chan sometimes resembled a little squirrel from the mountains. Very cute.
No.
A-Chan was cuter than a squirrel.
Taking out a tissue to wipe the juice from his fingers, Wei Xilou said, “You like apples? I’ll buy you a few more on the way home.”
Xu Muchan hesitated, then shook his head. “No need.”
Sure enough, his living conditions had improved so much that he had even started becoming picky about food. Eating one for the good omen was fine, but eating several more would be unnecessary.
The restaurant had been reserved by Wei Xilou in advance—a relatively upscale private restaurant.
After the two finished dinner, Wei Xilou routinely took Xu Muchan around the shopping mall to buy things. Only after Xu Muchan had finished shopping to his heart’s content did the two head home.
When the car stopped in front of the courtyard, the driver carried the large and small bags into the house.
Xu Muchan muttered quietly beside him, “I already told you, there are enough clothes at home to wear a different outfit every day and still not finish them.”
Wei Xilou pretended not to hear and held his hand as they walked inside.
The moment the two entered the living room, Xu Muchan took off his down jacket, and the doorbell rang.
Wei Xilou was organizing Xu Muchan’s clothes in the walk-in closet. Xu Muchan shuffled over in his slippers to open the door and saw an unfamiliar man and woman standing outside, with a bag of apples in their hands.
Xu Muchan asked suspiciously, “You are……?”
The man introduced himself first. “We live in the villa across the street. We’re the new neighbors.”
So they were the new neighbors.
The villa across the street had originally belonged to the Xu family. After Xu Zhifei left Jiangcheng, the villa had been put up for sale and was sold not long afterward. Xu Muchan had seen the new owners several times when coming home from school, but they weren’t familiar with each other and had never interacted.
But these two weren’t the people he remembered.
“You’re the owners who moved in later?”
The woman smiled. “That’s right. We only moved in a few days ago. But there’s another reason we came to your door so suddenly today.”
She handed the bag of apples to Xu Muchan.
“This is a gift for you, as your neighbors.”
Xu Muchan hesitantly accepted it. The woman then took out an identification card and handed it to him.
“Hello, Student Xu. Let me formally introduce myself. I’m He Yunyi, a researcher at the Heihe Research Institute. This is my colleague Shang Chuan. We came here unannounced because we’d like to ask you about the flood-tide incident at Leigong Village in August.”
Xu Muchan accepted the identification card and discovered that it looked very official, unlike a fake. Even the official seal on it appeared to belong to a certain national security department.
But he had never heard of this Heihe Research Institute.
Xu Muchan hesitated before inviting them inside.
“I’ve never heard of the Heihe Research Institute. The police officer Zheng Chenggong who was in charge of Leigong Village did say that someone might contact me later to ask about the situation, but I’ve never received a call or message.”
He Yunyi smiled. “We’ve also been in contact with Officer Xiao Zheng. But Student Xu, you may have remembered incorrectly. His name is Zheng Shengli. There was also another officer who worked with him named Tao Shu. We’ve been in contact with both of them and learned some things about Leigong Village from them, including things concerning you, of course.”
Xu Muchan showed a look of realization. “Then I must have remembered incorrectly.”
Neither side exposed this little test.
Xu Muchan took the initiative to ask, “What would you like to know? I’ll tell you as much as I know.”
“Your research institute is called ‘Heihe,’ and you mentioned the flood tide just now. So you should already know something about the unusual things that happened at Leigong Village, right?” Xu Muchan probed.
Shang Chuan smiled when he heard this. He opened the notebook he had brought with him, pulled up an electronic map, and placed it in front of Xu Muchan.
“Student Xu, you don’t need to be so nervous. We came here with a great deal of sincerity. Actually, compared to learning about what happened in Leigong Village, we’d rather have an open and honest discussion about your situation.”
Xu Muchan frowned as he looked at the screen. It showed a map of the entire country.
Several red dots had been marked on the map, and Leigong Village was among them.
Shang Chuan said, “These are the locations we’ve discovered so far that have experienced a Heihe flood. We call them disaster sites.”
His finger swept across the screen.
“Besides Leigong Village, there are seven other disaster sites. The number of victims has reached an astonishing 4,521 people. The most severely affected disaster site was a street in a small town. Half a year ago, all 2,733 people on that street disappeared overnight. To this day, we still haven’t found any trace of them.”
“And apart from that street, not a single person who encountered the flood at the other six disaster sites survived. Leigong Village is currently the only known disaster site to have experienced a Heihe flood where there are still survivors.”
“Of course, according to what we learned from our investigation……” He Yunyi picked up the conversation. “The reason so many people in Leigong Village were able to survive the flood wasn’t simply luck or some other reason. It was because of you.”