Chapter 2: San Gu and Xue Fei

  After sleeping in the small temple for a night, I got up early in the morning and knocked my head three times. I took some peanuts from the offering table to eat. While eating, I said to the statue of the god, "If there's a day when I make a fortune, I'll definitely kill a fat pig to repay you."

  For more than a week, I went out to find food during the day and washed in the river when I was dirty. At night, I stayed in this small temple until one day someone came to this small temple.

  That morning I was still sleeping soundly in the temple, when a woman in her 30s suddenly came in. The woman saw me and was startled, scolding "Whose wild kid are you? Running to the immortal's house to sleep, aren't you afraid of stomachache at night?"

  The woman walked to the altar, holding a bamboo basket in her hand, inside which were incense sticks, paper money and a small piece of pork about the size of a palm. She put down the basket on the table, squatted down and asked me: "This little one is from which family? He looks so unfamiliar, how did he end up sleeping here?"

  I quickly crawled out from under the table and whispered to her that I was from Sha Po, driven out by adults with no home to return to, and drifted here.

  The woman looked me up and down after I finished speaking, and then said: "You look like a honest person, did you get into a fight or steal something? Which wild child is so cruel to drive you out? It's 70 miles from the village to here! Have you eaten yet, come to my house for dinner!"

  As soon as I heard there was food to eat, my head nodded like a little chicken eating rice, and I followed her home, staying for almost half a year before leaving, but that's another story.

  The small temple passed a hill and it was the village, the woman asked me to call her San Gu, she took me home after finishing worship. On the way, there was a man with a hoe on his shoulder who smiled slyly at San Gu and said, "Where did you steal such a big kid?" San Gu scolded him until he was speechless.

  San Gu is from Tong County, she has a 9-year-old daughter named Xue Fei who is in the first grade of elementary school. Her husband passed away two years ago and she is also planning to remarry.

  I moved in with my third aunt, her family was very poor, they cleared out a corner of the room where they stored firewood and laid out a bed for me. At the entrance to their home was a pigpen where they raised two pigs, the income from these two pigs supported Snow White's tuition fees, as well as everyday expenses and holiday spending. Apart from raising pigs, they tilled the land and grew crops to be self-sufficient in food, basically without any cash income.

  That day, the pig got sick. The neighbor village's veterinarian was called to give it a shot, but it didn't get better. Then they went to the village's shaman and asked her about it. She said that the pig had been haunted by a hungry ghost. San Gu let the shaman send away the hungry ghost, then went to the temple to burn incense and worship the gods before running into me.

  Because there were no men in San Gu's family, she had to act as both mother and father at home. Fortunately, her sister Xue Fei was sensible and rarely caused her any worry. However, when it came to farm work outside the home, San Gu did everything by herself. Sometimes she would get so tired that her waist and back ached, and she couldn't sleep at night. Every few days, she would ask someone to help her with the chores. There were some bachelors in the village who often wanted to help San Gu with her work, but their intentions were not pure. San Gu was afraid of being gossiped about, so she always refused their offers and did all the hard work herself.

  Although I am already 14 years old, due to long-term malnutrition, my height is only about 1.4 meters tall. However, since the age of 7, I have been working hard for many years and have considerable strength. I can easily carry two buckets of water back home on my shoulders, and I can do most farm work, being very diligent, which has alleviated a lot of burden from Third Aunt.

  Although San Gu's family was poor, they had fewer people, so their food was considered good in the village. They bought a catty of pork for 46 cents every three days. In the rural areas of the 1990s, where material goods were still scarce, it was rare to eat pork once every three days, and not even three households in the entire village could do so.

  Time flies, and it's almost been a month. The Dragon Boat Festival is approaching. On this day, my third aunt woke me up at dawn to go with the villagers to pick calamus leaves to wrap zongzi, saying that if we start late, the scorching sun will be unbearable.

  After getting up, I ate a bowl of leftover porridge from last night and took a snake skin bag to the village entrance to wait for people picking bamboo leaves. That day happened to be the weekend, Xuefei didn't need to go to school, and she also wanted to come with me to see if there were any wild mushrooms to pick.

  It was just past six in the morning, and we set out to pick bamboo leaves. The companions who went with us were our usual playmates, Ah Kui, Da Mei, Ah Fei, Xiao Chong, Gui Tou, and the only adult was Da Mei's father. The rest were all 14 or 15-year-old companions, as well as 9-year-old Xue Fei's younger sister.

  Companions jumped and jumped for nearly half an hour, and actually came to the bamboo forest where I met the ghost fire that day. However, since it was daytime and there were many people, I wasn't afraid, but couldn't help looking around.

  That night, the bamboo forest was too dark to see clearly. It turned out that this piece of bamboo forest had many kinds of bamboo, but I couldn't name them. There were thick and long thorny ones, sugarcane-sized thin and long ones, and finger-thick ones. The bamboo grew densely, except for a one-meter-wide small path in the middle, it was impossible to move anywhere else.

  The leaves of these bamboos are no more than five inches large, and the small ones are only as big as fingers. They can't be used to wrap zongzi, so we need to go through the bamboo forest to the foot of the mountain to pick larger leaves.

  From the time we entered the bamboo forest, it took about ten minutes to walk through a small stream and finally arrive at our destination. We spread out the snake skin bag on the ground to rest. Dà Měi's dad took out tobacco and paper to roll a cigarette. Dà Měi and ā Féng were flipping over stones in the stream to catch crabs, while Xuě Fēi was crying and shouting that she had been bitten by mosquitoes all over her hands and wished she hadn't come. I sat on the ground, glancing around, feeling a chill run down my spine.

  At this time, the sun had just climbed to the top of the mountain, and the sunlight shone over. The stone wall was dripping with water, and we rested for nearly twenty minutes. Da Mei's father threw away his second cigarette butt, stood up, and called Da Mei and Ah Fei to come and pick some bamboo leaves.

  Dàmei's dad took out a machete, cut down a long bamboo stalk and knocked off all the dew from the leaves of the glutinous rice dumplings they were about to pick, then grabbed a bag and crawled into the bamboo thicket.

  This piece of bamboo and the incoming bamboo forest are different, they all have big leaves, the bamboo is thicker than a small thumb, I believe people who grew up in rural areas all know.

  I also picked up the snakeskin bag on the ground and followed it into the nearby bamboo thicket, just plucked two bamboo leaves, feeling that something was secretly watching me from behind, my whole body felt uncomfortable, I called Ah Kui to come over and pick with me, Ah Kui responded with a sound and started crawling over.

  A Gui dug halfway and cursed loudly, "What the hell is this?!" I immediately went over to take a look, on the ground there were several baby clothes, and a winnowing basket for grain. The basket was upside down on the ground, with a small leg exposed, next to it were some unburned paper money and candles.

  It was clear that what was covered with the broom was a dead baby, Ah Kui shouted twice for Sixth Uncle and called over Ah Mei's father.

  Ah Mei's dad walked over, and before we could say a word, he spotted the overturned dustpan and those paper money. His face changed color, and without saying a word, he raised his hand to signal us to leave quickly.

  In our rural area, there is a common saying that if you see a corpse or a coffin washed out by rainwater outside, you can't speak, otherwise you will be unlucky for the rest of your life.

  I and Ah Kui quickly crawled out of the bamboo thicket, Ah Mei's dad also crawled out, then Gui Tou Ah Fei and others came out too, but I didn't see Xue Fei sister come out.

  I quickly told A Mei's dad that Xue Fei was gone, A Mei's dad's face sank, and he told us to go to the small stream and wait for him, not to run around or shout out Xue Fei's name. After finishing speaking, he turned around and entered the bamboo forest.

  We didn't know what happened, we just felt scared, and then we huddled together and walked towards the small stream where we had rested earlier.

  The bamboo forest is only fifty meters away from the stream, and we just sat down after walking over. Then we saw Ah Mei's dad coming out of the bamboo forest with Xue Fei on his shoulders, and he ran to us in no time.

  Xue Fei's sister seemed to be asleep, but her father's face didn't look too good. He only said one sentence: "Go home immediately and don't get lost on the way." After that, he turned back from where we came from. We followed behind him, not daring to speak a word along the way.

  A group of people walked in the bamboo forest, nobody spoke, only the sound of footsteps echoed, it was very eerie. The sun came out for a moment and then was blocked by dark clouds, making the bamboo forest gloomy.

  We walked out of the bamboo forest, and Da Mei's father instructed Ah Gui to take us home, while he carried Xue Fei on his back and ran ahead to hurry home.

  After Da Mei's dad left, we several companions started talking, one...

  Walk and talk.

  A Gui spoke up, "What we just saw should be Guo Xi's son. My grandma said that Guo Xi's wife gave birth to a child recently, but the child died as soon as it was born. Maybe it became a ghost."

  A-hei continued A-kwei's words and said: "It is said that Kwok Yee and his two brothers packed up the dead son and buried him in the mountains overnight."

  I felt a sense of unease in my heart and couldn't help but ask them: "What happened to Xue Fei?"

  Although I've been at San Gu's house for less than a month, Xue Fei has already become like a biological younger sister to me in my heart. Sometimes I think, if my own sister hadn't been given away by my uncle to that couple from Hunan, and Xue Fei was actually my real younger sister, how great would that be?

  But no one answered what happened to Snow Princess, Gui Tou said she was possessed by a ghost, Ah Kui said he saw the ghost and fainted, Xiao Chong said she was hit by evil spirits.

  I felt terrible after hearing that, and didn't say another word. I shook them off and quickened my pace to hurry home. As soon as I entered the village, I saw Zhang Shengpo walking towards San Gu's house, so I followed closely behind her.

  Zhang Shennu was a nearly fifty-year-old person who looked like sixty years old, with a head full of black and white hair, tall in stature.

  Back at San Gu's home, there were already many adults from the village in the house. Ah Mei's father was fanning himself with a bamboo hat on one side. San Gu was in the room, her eyes red from crying, and she didn't say anything when I walked into the room. Xue Fei, my sister, was lying motionless on the bed, her eyes wide open but not moving at all.

  The fortune teller walked around the outside of San Gu's house before entering. San Gu saw Zhang Shenniang come in and burst into tears, saying: "Wu Jie! Why is my life so bitter? Every bad thing happens to my family. You must help me see what's wrong with Little Fei! What's going on with her, I'm at my wit's end."

  Zhang the godmother asked San Gu to prepare a bowl of rice, an egg and a stick of incense and a bowl of water. I tidied up the table, San Gu put the bowl filled with rice on the table, there was still an egg hidden in the rice, then lit a stick of incense inserted into the rice.

  Zhang Shenpo sat on the long bench in front of the table, closed her eyes and sang a paragraph like singing, then knocked her head hard on the table and didn't move.