Chapter 8: The Live Cow Turns into a Skeleton

  Village head Zhang supported Third Uncle into Wu Litao's house, while Ye Fei and I returned to the village head's home to rest. On the way, Ye Fei chattered non-stop, even saying that she wanted to carve the words "Lei Feng" on my forehead. I didn't listen to her nonsense, my mind only thinking about why Village Head Zhang had told me this - that Third Uncle was someone who had blinded himself, and wondering if he had discovered my secret when we were retrieving the corpse from the river earlier, thinking that I was an extraordinary person just like Third Uncle.

  30 people who have been swimming in the river since childhood can't find the body, but I sleep for a while and know where the body is, and one person dares to dive in to retrieve it, which makes me seem a bit godly in their eyes.

  After returning to the village chief's home, I saw Xiao Jianzi crying loudly in the living room, and Zhang Village Chief's wife, Zhang Dajie, was coaxing her. As soon as Ye Fei and I stepped into the doorway, Xiao Jianzi rushed over and hugged my leg, tears streaming down her face, making me feel heartbroken. When I asked what happened, it turned out that after waking up, she couldn't find us and thought we had sold her off. The clever Ye Fei pulled out a piece of candy from his pocket for her to eat, and Xiao Jianzi finally cracked a smile. I let out a long sigh and lay down directly on the long bench.

  Zhang Aunt went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, and soon brought out several dishes. After I sat down at the table, I saw that they were all my favorite dishes, such as fried tofu, white-cut chicken, and twice-cooked pork, just like a holiday feast. However, unfortunately, everything had chili peppers in it. When I took a bite of the tofu, my mouth was so spicy that I couldn't even close it. I really don't understand Hunan people!

  Zhang Village Chief's dad, Old Man Zhang, a 70-year-old man, kept asking me about the body retrieval this morning, but due to language barriers, he let Ye Fei replace me and casually bragged.

  At noon, the village was filled with the sound of a funeral, with gongs and drums beating. People who didn't know any better thought someone was getting married and having a joyful celebration! I had nothing to do, so Ye Fei'chuan brought up her request for a raise again. After all, finding my sister still relied on her, so I agreed. Ye Fei'chuan said that her current wish was to earn some money and then buy a TV set for her family, so her mom wouldn't have to run to the neighbor's house to watch TV every time it rained or was windy at night.

  However, with the added salary comes an increased workload, which is learning to drive. It can be foreseen that this little motorcycle will accompany me in searching for my sister for a long time. Driving every day is too tiring, and Ye Fei Jiu just sits at the back, why not let her learn to take turns driving? Ye Fei Jiu said she had learned to ride a bicycle with someone before, so as long as she dares to learn to drive a motorcycle, it will be a piece of cake.

  In the afternoon, Ye Fei and Xiao Jianzi were taking a nap. I couldn't sleep on the bed thinking about things, suddenly decided to leave. This morning's mind was dizzy saying to stay and figure out how the ancestor and grandson who jumped into the river became skulls, forgetting the purpose of this trip. Finding my sister is the most important thing, delaying for a day is not allowed! I immediately woke them up and said let's go, next time we'll have the chance to come here and play again.

  Leave here, Ye Fei was naturally happy because she said that seeing me give so much money to others without blinking an eye made her look at it with pain, and it's better to leave quickly, otherwise I'll see me giving money to others again.

  When we told Zhang Auntie that we were about to leave, she politely asked us to stay a few more days and come visit often when we have time. We all said we definitely would when we have time.

  I rode my motorcycle to the door and found that I couldn't start it no matter how hard I tried. After checking, I realized that I had run out of gas. I had been riding this bike for many days and had forgotten that the fuel was almost gone. Yesterday, I even lent it to someone else to ride, and they only returned it this morning. I asked Aunt Zhang if there were any places in town where I could refuel, but she said no, there were only places that sold diesel fuel. After all, there aren't many motorcycles in a small town like ours. With no other choice, I had to stay in the village and wait until the next day to hitch a ride to the county seat to buy a large can of gasoline to bring back and refuel before I could continue on my way.

  Just as I was about to fall asleep again, Old Man Zhang rushed back home from outside in a fluster, still holding a cow rope in his hand. Old Lady Zhang was busy sweeping the floor inside and hastily asked Old Man Zhang what had happened, why he was panting so heavily.

  Mr. Zhang poured himself a bowl of tea and took two sips before speaking to his daughter-in-law, but I didn't quite understand what he was saying, only barely catching that the cow had disappeared from the river.

  Two people were talking in the hall, Ye Fei Chui told me that Zhang Dage returned from plowing the field at noon and took the cow to the shallow water area by the river to wash off the mud on its body. As a result, after the cow entered the river, it swam towards the deep water area, and no matter how hard he pulled, the cow sank into the deep water area and didn't see it float back up to the surface for a long time. Just yesterday, two people jumped into the river, and overnight they became two skulls, so when the cow sank, Zhang Dage was scared half to death and hurriedly ran back to the village to call for help.

  After Zhang Dage and his daughter-in-law Zhang Dasao finished talking, Zhang Dasao immediately dropped the broom and rushed to Wu Litao's home. At that time, in rural areas, the price of one cow could be exchanged for three or four pigs. Moreover, cows were much more important than pigs. Pigs were raised to sell for money, while cows were used for farming and plowing fields. Farmers couldn't do without cows, and losing a cow would result in losses far beyond just one cow.

  I and Ye Fei Jiu were both shocked, what on earth was in that river? A person jumping into the river to die would turn into a skeleton, maybe the small fish ate away the flesh. But a water buffalo weighing over a thousand catties! What kind of thing could pull a cow to the bottom of the water without even surfacing once? There couldn't be sharks in the river, right?!

  I'm Ye Fei Jiu, taking care of Xiao Jian Qi. I followed Zhang Da Shu to Wu Li Tao's house. At this time, Wu Li Tao had woken up, and his wife had also returned home. The couple was dressed in white clothes, wearing white hats, and crying like two tearful people.

  Zhang Village Chief was squatting at the door of Wu Litao's house smoking with a group of people. Seeing his wife rushing over, he quickly ran over to ask what was wrong. Zhang Da Shu said that the cow in their home had fallen into the river and hadn't come up, probably drowned, and asked Zhang Village Chief to go take a look.

  Village Chief Zhang was also anxious after hearing this, and he called me to go with him to the riverbank to take a look. Then he ordered his wife to call two more people to come and help. After Village Chief Zhang finished speaking, he quickly ran towards the riverbank, and I followed behind him. On the way, I touched my pocket and almost froze on the spot - I had left my pearl at home that morning.

  Thinking of Tóng Tóng and Zhūzi still in the river, I hurriedly quickened my pace to run towards the riverbank. The village chief arrived at the riverbank before me, and was now anxiously searching around like an ant on a hot pot, trying to find any trace of the water buffalo.

  I told the village chief that I would go take a look over there, then quickly ran to a shallow water area, took off my shoes and rolled up my pant legs to knee-deep place and shouted for Tiantian.

  I shouted for a while without getting any response, and suddenly something pulled me from under my feet, and I fell into the water with a splash. My clothes were all soaked. Scared, I scrambled up and ran towards the shore. At this time, I heard Tongtong's voice beside my ear, saying "River-jumping brother, why did you abandon me in the morning? I'm angry."

  When I heard Tongtong's voice, my heart was filled with joy. I quickly apologized and said I was wrong, and it won't happen again next time. After finishing speaking, I asked Tongtong if she saw the village chief Zhang's water buffalo sink to the bottom of the river. Tongtong said she did see it, and it was her who pulled it down, otherwise she was afraid I would forget that she was still in the river.

  As soon as I heard that Tiantian said it was her who did it, I immediately felt guilty and thought that this time I had gotten into big trouble. Later on, I didn't dare to tell Village Chief Zhang about it. However, Tiantian said it's no big deal, I took so much money that I can compensate for it, and the cow that drowned can still be taken back to be slaughtered and eaten or sold as beef!

  Village head Zhang saw me fall into the water and rushed over, asking what was wrong and if I was okay. I waved my hand to indicate that everything was fine. At this time, the two people called by Auntie Zhang had arrived at the riverbank - they were Village Head Zhang's elder brother and nephew. Behind them were Old Man Zhang and Auntie Zhang, as well as Ye Fei Jiu carrying Xiao Jian Qi.

  I bent down and picked up the pearl from the river water, put it back in my pocket, and walked back to the shore. Zhang Village Chief asked me if I knew where his cow was located, hoping that we could salvage it quickly while it's still fresh and sell some beef. I didn't quite understand what he said, so Ye Fei immediately repeated it for me in Hakka dialect. I told them to wait a moment, then ran aside and took out the pearl to ask Tiantian, "Where is the cow?"

  Tongtong said at the old place, this morning two people jumped into the river, hurry up and salvage! If you soak for too long, the beef won't taste good. After I picked up the beads, I returned to Zhang Village Chief's face and let Ye Fei tell him that the cow was salvaged in the same place where the bodies were salvaged this morning. Zhang Village Chief listened and told his nephew to go home and fetch a rope.

  After the rope was brought over, Village Chief Zhang and his nephew began to undress. Auntie Zhang anxiously asked if anything would happen when they went down to the river! The cows had all been pulled down, could it be that a water ghost was causing trouble!

  Zhang Village Chief looked at me after hearing that. I knew the water buffalo was pulled down by Tongtong, so I said to Zhang Village Chief "It's nothing, let's go into the water together!"

  Finally, I and Zhang Village Chief and his nephew went into the water together and swam to where we had retrieved the bodies this morning and dived down. However, there was no sign of the water buffalo anywhere. All I saw was another big pile of sand at the bottom of the river, which made my heart jump with fright. Could it be that the cow has turned into a skeleton again? It's only been half an hour since it drowned!

  The village chief and his nephew also said they didn't see it after surfacing, I said maybe it's in the sand! We opened up the sand to take a look, nodded at each other and dove back down. The three of us dived to the side of the underwater sand pile and started pulling out the sand, surfacing three times to catch our breath, and finally managed to pull open about half of the sand pile.

  When we saw that cow femur, although we were in the water, we still felt as if our cold sweat had flowed out. A nameless fear rose from the bottom of our hearts. Although we were afraid in our hearts, we had to confirm it, so we continued to pull out the sand and finally pulled out half a cow skeleton with no meat left. Only then did we give up and swim back to the shore.

  This water buffalo turned from a big fat cow into a skeleton in more than half an hour, if it wasn't seen with our own eyes, nobody would believe it. Although we found the water buffalo, it's meaningless to pick up the skeleton now, after all, only beef can be sold for money.

  The village chief told his wife and Old Man Zhang, and they were all frightened. What was it that ate up the beef in an instant, without even leaving a single hair?

  It's the right time to plow and plant, but without a water buffalo it's very inconvenient. Borrowing someone else's cow won't work either, as every household is using their cows at this time. Cows aren't machines and get tired too. Now that our own cow has died, the whole family of the village head is sighing with regret.

  I knew it was Tongtong who pulled the water down, so I must compensate. Pretending to be Lei Feng, I said to the village chief's family: "The cow is gone, I'll buy you one!" As soon as my words fell, the whole village chief's family stared at me with wide eyes.