Chapter Five: Arson

  I had everything ready, the candles and whatnot for later that night. I took a long bath in water with realgar and Chinese liquor added to it, and only came out at midnight, still feeling scared. I drank some of the liquor from back home to calm my nerves, but it wasn't enough, so I added more realgar to the liquor and drank some more. Around here, we call the liquor made from glutinous rice and millet "burning liquor". During Dragon Boat Festival, adding realgar to burning liquor can ward off evil spirits and has the same effect as white liquor. After drinking a few mouthfuls of liquor, my throat and stomach felt like they were on fire, but I took a few deep breaths and steeled myself to do what big brother told me to do - I turned off the power in the shop and made my way down to the basement with a flashlight, preparing for the worst.

  But even after drinking liquor to boost my courage, and even if I were to risk my life, when the light from my flashlight shone on the wooden puppet in the dark basement, looking at its blood-red eyes and that ambiguous smile on its face, I was so scared that tears almost burst out of my eyes, and a scream was about to erupt from my throat. I didn't dare move forward, nor did I want to retreat backward. It took great effort for me to control my stiff legs and walk closer into the basement, trying to avoid the puppet as much as possible. With a racing heart, I lit eighteen white candles in the corner of the room, then quickly climbed onto the bed and hid under the covers, trembling all over. However, before getting into bed, I left a pair of scissors under my pillow, just in case what my brother said wasn't true, so I'd have something to defend myself with.

  The outside of the house was pitch black, without a single sound. It was cold in winter and the neighbors went to bed early. The whole world was as quiet as if Pangu hadn't opened up the sky and earth yet. But just then, in this underground room where even the sound of a needle dropping on the ground could be heard, suddenly, a faint sound of footsteps came from outside the bed curtains. It sounded like a cat with fur on its paws, and one had to hold their breath to hear it. The footsteps slowly approached my bedside!

  My heart is like hundreds of rubber bands tightly strung together, clutching the quilt tightly, my palms are all sweaty, my eyes stare straight at the bed curtain, the dim candlelight in the basement downstairs flickers on the curtain, a dark shadow slowly rises from under the bed curtain...

  He's here!

  A strong gust of wind blew in from outside the door, and all the candles in the basement went out. The black shadow on the bed curtains instantly merged into the darkness, and at this moment, a heavy object fell on my body!

  I couldn't control myself anymore, and I let out a loud scream. Under the instinct of survival, my hands were shaking as I pulled out the scissors from under the pillow. Without thinking, I shouted and used the scissors to slash at the heavy object on top of me. But immediately, my hand was tightly grasped by two stiff hands at the edge of my head. The two hands squeezed with force, and my wrist bones instantly sent a cracking sound "crack crack crack!", causing my entire hand to lose all strength. My hand went limp, and the scissors slipped out of my hand and fell to the ground!

  The last thing that could defend itself was gone, I was like a porcupine with its quills plucked out, in an instant I didn't know what to do, my whole body was tense like a stiff corpse, even my brain couldn't control my thoughts, my heart was pounding violently, letting the puppet's stiff hand reach into my neck and lift up my head, making my lips stick tightly to his waxed and extremely smooth lips.

  My tongue was struggling to get out of the way, even pushing against his wooden, slippery lip seam. Just thinking about doing what normal people do between two sexes with this puppet made me feel like I was committing bestiality or something, and I felt an overwhelming sense of fear and disgust, almost going crazy. I didn't know where I got the strength from, but I let out a loud shriek and pushed the puppet off me, grabbing the blanket and phone in the process. I scrambled down from the bed, not caring about losing face or anything, and frantically dialed Grandma's number, sobbing uncontrollably as I spoke:

  "Third granny, I've been possessed by a dirty thing, save me, it's on my bed, third granny, what can you do? Save me!"

  Xī nǎi nǎi heard that I had encountered something dirty and was also flustered. Originally, the sound quality at night is relatively muffled, now I don't know if it's Xī nǎi nǎi who didn't speak clearly or because I'm nervous and didn't hear clearly. I could only vaguely hear Xī nǎi nǎi repeatedly mentioning the word "fire". Seeing that the wooden puppet was about to climb up from the bed, I hastily found a lighter, grabbed a few white candles on the ground, and quickly threw them onto the bed!

  "With a whoosh, the flames immediately climbed up the curtains, burning the entire curtain, and I quickly took out my money and bank cards and other important things. I found a large iron lock the size of a palm and locked the door to the basement! After doing all this, I leaned against the door, panting heavily, and saw that Xiuniang had not hung up the phone yet. I picked up the phone and said to her:"

  "Grandma, I set fire and burned the wooden puppet."