Chapter 56: Chen Ah Po's Secret

  Chen Ah Po sat on the ground wailing, I stood coldly at the door, not paying much attention to her. A pitiful person must have a hateful place, if it's said that the dead bones in the cave, Chen Ah Po didn't help with the evil deeds, I don't believe it.

  Although she's quite old, it's a bit unbearable to see her cry like this. But the policeman's intuition tells me that Old Lady Chen might not be as heartbroken as she seems. I calmly observe and find that Old Lady Chen will occasionally steal a glance at me, her eyes fixed on the small path in front of my house.

  It's clear she wants to run away.

  After making a fuss for half an hour, Old Lady Chen finally got tired and fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. I didn't give her a chance to continue, and forcibly led her to sit down on a chair, with my hands on my hips: "The floor is too cold, you'd better stay in the chair so you don't catch a chill."

  Chen Ah Po did not speak.

  I shook my head and reluctantly said, "Let's report it to the authorities."

  Old Lady Chen's eyelids twitched wildly, and I continued: "Your other son is attending a meeting in the city, so he won't need to come back. You can catch him together with the others. Your body isn't strong enough, but your son is young and robust, so he should be able to withstand some severe punishment."

  "Don't touch my son, it's none of his business! You wicked person, I treated you so well in the past, but now you're repaying kindness with enmity, a treacherous dog thing. You killed my eldest son and now you want to harm my youngest son too? Even if I become a ghost, I won't let you off!" Old Lady Chen pointed at me, gnashing her teeth and scolding me.

  I was amused and coldly laughed: "So, I should thank you for giving me the 'flesh' soup to drink?"

  "Hum, you're eating pork. Human flesh? That's what the old lady uses to nourish her body." Chen Ah Po finally told the truth.

  "Take heart, your eldest son is actually still alive."

  "Really!" Old Mrs. Chen was overjoyed and shouted loudly.

  I nodded: "Otherwise, why would I take a broken mask and throw the corpse directly in front of you?"

  Chen Ah Po patted her chest and let out a long sigh of relief, muttering an "Amitabha".

  Next, Chen Ah Po began reciting a Buddhist scripture; I don't believe in Buddhism, so naturally I didn't know what she was reciting.

  I moved a small stool to sit beside her, and after more than ten minutes, Old Lady Chen stopped, her face suddenly looking much older, her throat moving several times, but in the end she swallowed her words again.

  I see a play, and immediately inserted a sentence: "Your eldest son was injured and can't run far or escape. Think about what Taipei is now? Everywhere is the Nationalist Party guard, he can't escape at all, can only wander around in the grass mountain. Hehe, as long as I report to the official, he will be unable to fly. You'd better tell me all the secrets now, and I might still be able to help you."

  Chen Ah Po struggled with great mental turmoil, her hands trembling uncontrollably. Finally, she closed her eyes and tears streamed down from the corners of her eyes as she lamented: "I said it wouldn't work out. I knew this day would come sooner or later."

  I quietly listened as Old Lady Chen spoke of a secret sealed for over twenty years.

  "I remember that year, our village had just experienced a typhoon, many people died, and later the bodies were not handled properly, which led to an outbreak of plague. In our village, three or four out of ten households died, including my husband who passed away at that time. I was left alone with my eldest son who had just come of age and my youngest son who was still in diapers. We didn't have anything to eat, so I went up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables, and sometimes I had to swallow my pride and go to other villages to beg for food, barely scraping by."

  "One time I fell seriously ill and couldn't go up the mountain to pick wild vegetables, so my eldest son took on the heavy responsibility of the household. A few days later, he not only brought back a large quantity of wild vegetables from the mountain but also wild boar, pheasant, and wild duck. I was both shocked and delighted, and tears of gratitude flowed. Not long after that, my eldest son became a well-known hunter in our village. From then on, the heavy burden of supporting the family was completely handed over to him. I thought I could finally take a good rest, but unexpectedly, the Japanese sent a large team of people to search the mountain, saying they were looking for a highland tribe's female shaman. At first, I didn't pay much attention to it, until that night when my eldest son brought that female shaman back home, and I realized disaster was looming."

  "It turned out that my eldest son didn't know how to hunt at all, it was all done by that 'female' witch who helped him. She's beautiful and has captivated my eldest son's soul, she's simply a fox spirit. My eldest son and the 'female' witch knelt down and begged me pitifully, I had no choice, I couldn't just watch my eldest son get beheaded by the Japanese. So I agreed to dig a cellar at home and hide them both. After a month of nervous waiting, the Japanese soldiers finally withdrew without finding anything. Another month passed, and after there was no more news, I let them out, but by then they had already done something shameful. Alas, I could only acknowledge it. For the next two years, the 'female' witch settled down with my eldest son in a hidden cave on the mountain, periodically coming down to send me some meat food. I looked at my second son growing up and could only tolerate their relationship. But... the tragedy has just begun..."

  "Have they started eating people?" I asked.

  Her eyes turned red, and she said hoarsely: "Later I found out that this 'female' witch was expelled from a certain mountain stronghold in the high mountains. She ate human flesh and drank human blood, and I don't know what she fed my eldest son, but he also started eating human flesh with her. One time, I saw them dancing with skull masks in the cave where they lived, holding corpses and splashing around, and finally stripping the skin and using fresh blood to paste the walls, performing some kind of inhuman ritual. But where did the human flesh come from? Hehe, at first it was eating Japanese people who were alone, and later it was villagers. Within a year, more than 100 villagers from neighboring villages disappeared unknowingly. This thoroughly triggered panic, and the news that two man-eating devils were living in the mountains spread like wildfire. Several villages gathered over a thousand strong men to encircle the mountain and capture them. I received advance notice and hid them in the cellar at home, narrowly escaping disaster.

  "What happened to that female witch later on?" I was drawn into their story and couldn't help but ask.

  "I set a trap and locked her in the cellar, not letting her out to harm the village." Old Lady Chen pointed down at the ground and let out a long sigh.

  "But you let your son continue to be naughty outside?" I said in anger.

  "My eldest son seems to have been poisoned, if he doesn't eat human flesh, he will foam at the mouth and suffer from epilepsy, more painful than a hundred times of opium withdrawal. I had no choice, they are my own flesh and blood, how can I just watch him die in agony? So I only let him target some bad people with poor reputation." Chen Ah-po burst into tears: "Later on, more and more outsiders came to our province, so I told him to target you people more often. If he died, it would be thought that he was murdered by locals who held grudges, no one would suspect him...I...sometimes I also killed a few..."

  "I've been with my big son for a long time, and now I'm starting to try the taste of human flesh... it's quite fresh and delicious..." Chen Ayi licked her lips, and I felt a chill. I've never heard that eating human flesh can be contagious.

  However, I seem to have heard of a theory that if cannibals use the same kind for a long time, they will produce a rare bacteria or parasite, and people will gradually lose their sanity and become undead who cannot resist the temptation of human flesh. After all, devouring one's own kind is taboo in nature, even snakes eating snakes are different species. This behavior that violates the natural law of reproduction, heaven will think of ways to eliminate it, "those who want to destroy must first make them mad", Chen Ah Po has a bit of madness.

  After Old Lady Chen let out all the secrets she had been keeping in her heart, she seemed to feel much better. However, I don't think she felt much guilt from her conscience. From the fact that she indulged her son's cannibalism, it can be seen that she is a ruthless old woman.

  I'm the kind of person who is straightforward and doesn't like to hesitate. Since Old Lady Chen has already confessed, I don't need to drag this out any longer. Standing up, I made a beckoning gesture and said coldly: "Let's get going, we'll arrive at the police station just as the sun is rising, consider it self-surrender."

  Old Lady Chen looked at me with a faint gaze and said, "I can go to confess, but that cheap person must be punished, it's all his fault that our whole family is in trouble."

  "Is she still alive?" I exclaimed. To be honest, I was curious to see what this 'female' witch looked like.

  Chen Ah Po clenched her fists and used all her strength to get up from the chair, walking out of the room with floating steps. I watched her closely. Behind my living quarters was a brick-built "chicken" coop.

  Chen Ah Po chased away the old hen, parted the thick thatch above and revealed a wooden board.

  "Wow, you're really good at hiding."

  Chen Ah Po opened the lock on top and laboriously pulled out the wooden board. She turned around to me and said, "It's inside here."

  I leaned over and took a look, it was pitch black inside, and a foul smell wafted up.

  "Bring her up." I said to Chen Ah Po.

  Old Lady Chen hesitated and said discontentedly: "She knows witchcraft, I can't beat her."

  "You go down first, I'll be right behind you." I said, secretly preparing a plan in my mind, just in case I went down and you locked me inside.

  Chen Ah Po had no choice but to walk to the wooden stairs leading down to the cellar, just as she was about to go down, suddenly, creaking footsteps could be heard, someone was coming up.

  "Ah!" Aunt Chen let out a strange cry and, like a mouse that had seen a cat, suddenly hid behind me.

  I immediately perked up and focused intently on what was ahead of me.

  A thin and small figure wrapped in a large red robe with a white gauze covering his face slowly walked up.

  "Don't move!" I shouted.

  The witch stopped and hung her head down.

  "It seems I have to bring handcuffs with me from now on." I found that there wasn't even a rope around.

  The woman witch didn't resist, just standing quietly like that. I stared at the faceless woman witch in front of me, feeling a bit uneasy, as if she was too calm. A person who had been locked up for so many years, how could they still be as calm as a normal person? Suddenly, my eyes narrowed, her clothes... were too clean.

  "Lift up the white veil!" I commanded.

  The woman witch slowly raised her hand, her hand was very weak, I nervously watched her every move, afraid that she had something hidden in her clothes.

  The woman witch stopped suddenly when she met the white gauze. I shouted: "Get your face out for Lao Tzu!"

  All I saw was her lightly brushing it away, and a white veil floated down, revealing a familiar face in an instant before my eyes.

  "It's you!" I was shocked and lost color, this is not a female witch, but obviously Chen A'po's eldest son, that wax-yellow-faced freak.

  Just as I was distracted, suddenly, someone pushed me hard from behind and I fell forward.

  "Go die!" Chen Ah Po shouted venomously.

  "Ah, gotcha!" I thought to myself, this is bad. At that moment, the strange person had been waiting for this chance and pulled my leaning body forward, dragging me straight into the cellar.

  Bang! I fell heavily on the stairs of the basement.

  Bang!

  The wooden boards were quickly covered up.

  "Impossible!" I staked my life on it, using my fingers to pin the wooden board in place. The pain was so intense that tears streamed down my face. After catching my breath, I used my other hand to support the board and pushed upwards with all my might.

  Chen Ah Po and her son were cursing me wildly upstairs, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. It seemed to be the dialect of the high mountain tribe. They pressed down on the wooden board with all their might.

  "Ah! Open it for me!" I roared, feeling a surge of brute force bursting out, directly resisting the desperate strength of two people.

  After a few seconds of stalemate, there was a loud cracking sound. The wooden board finally could not withstand the force of three people and cracked open.

  Bang!

  I flung open the wooden board and took a closer look, Chen Ah Po and her son had already slipped out of the back door.

  My blood rushed straight to my head, how could I let you run away so easily?

  Rushed over in pursuit.

  They rushed all the way, and these two people were extremely fast. The strange man was nothing to be surprised about, but Chen Ah Po's speed really made my jaw drop. This kind of 'wild' running around is not something that a nearly seventy-year-old old lady should be doing!

  Panting, they chased out of the mountain village, not along the mountain road, but rushing into the dense forest, dodging left and right, constantly changing direction, as if extremely familiar with this place. I chased out for less than three minutes before losing their figures.

  "Damn it!" I cursed, punching a tree trunk with one fist, so angry that my whole body was shaking.

  It was too unexpected that the strange man would rush back and perform this play with Chen Apo at the first time, almost suffocating to death in the cellar.

  Alas, still too little experience, thinking is not comprehensive enough.

  All the way back, the more I think about it, the angrier I get.

  When I returned to the mountain village, the sky was already bright. I beat the gong and drum to wake everyone up.

  Under their inquiring gaze, these ignorant villagers were summoned to Chen Ah Po's home.

  Everyone stared at the cellar in unison, their faces filled with confusion and uncertainty.

  I simply repeated the secret that Aunt Chen had told me to these people, hoping to see them look as shocked as I did when I first heard it.

  But after the secret was revealed, the villagers' reaction was unexpectedly calm. They looked at each other, scratched their heads in confusion and started chattering.

  "Twenty years ago? No way, I've never heard of such a big typhoon, let alone a plague." An elderly local said with doubt.

  "It was, the last big plague, it's been forty years since then, that time many people died." Another old lady from our province looked at me with distrustful eyes and continued: "Moreover, Chen A Po only had one son, who is our village head, never heard of any other sons."

  The more I listened, the more confused I became. Could it be that Old Lady Chen had been deceiving me all along? I couldn't help but hastily ask someone who knew the truth about Old Lady Chen: "Do you know what kind of person Old Lady Chen really is?"

  That person thought for a moment and replied, "Chen Ayi is an outsider who married into our village. Anyway, we've never seen her relatives from her hometown, they all said were killed by the Japanese. She married a hunchbacked widower's son in our village named Feng Ai Zi, Feng Ai Zi was good at hunting, unfortunately he was eaten by wild beasts once and left no bones behind. Chen Ayi then became a widow and raised the village head single-handedly, it wasn't easy."

  I learned from Oni's appearance and stroked my chin, and from this person's words, I seemed to have sensed something.

  "My goodness, there's a corpse down here!" The villager who had gone down to the cellar shouted loudly, and the crowd immediately became agitated.

  Several people carried out the corpse, which was a rotten skeleton with clothes that had also rotted away.

  I covered my nose and examined the corpse, suddenly discovering that this corpse's spine was curved forward, protruding a deformed hump. In other words, it was very likely that this skeleton had been a hunchback when alive.

  My eyebrows jumped, and a chill ran straight up to the 'gate' of my brain.

  Seriously said to a book-reading outsider: "You bring a few people and set off immediately, rush to the city police station, you must call someone over!"

  "But... I'm afraid they won't listen to us..." The outsider stuttered, and indeed the current atmosphere of the police station in Taiwan is not very good, you have to 'grease' them with money to get things done.

  I knew his concerns, so I didn't give him the silver dollar, but instead handed him my new ID card. The man took a look at the title "Confidential Bureau Lieutenant Intelligence Officer" and his expression changed, he immediately replied: "Yes!"

  I watched as he hastily departed, and my gaze turned cold.

  At this moment, I can almost be certain that what Old Lady Chen said was 80% true. But she misled me on two points, which are also the most crucial ones. Firstly, the time wasn't twenty years ago, but forty years ago. Secondly, the characters were misplaced, and the Old Lady Chen in the story was actually the mother of Feng Ai Zi, and not only did she not imprison the 'female' witch, but she was also conspired against by her son and the 'female' witch, and was killed in the cellar, which is where we found that humpbacked corpse.

  Later, the "female" witch lived with Feng Ai Zi as a foreign daughter-in-law until Feng Ai Zi faked his own accidental death and thoroughly became a man-eating devil.

  As for that 'female' witch, she changed her name and lived a plain life as an ordinary rural old woman, she is... Chen Apo!

  Thinking of this, I couldn't help but shudder.

  "As for the so-called second son, humph, there is no such person. The current village head, it's very likely to be Chen Ah Po, that 'female' witch, and the offspring of Feng Ai Zi." I thought to myself.

  As soon as the sky brightened, we couldn't wait for the police to arrive. Immediately, in the name of the Secret Service Bureau, we gathered all the able-bodied men from the village, picked up farm tools and kitchen knives, and went up the mountain with a fierce momentum to catch people.

  Absolutely cannot let this pair of man-eating dogs continue to harm one party.