Chapter Thirty-Six: The Mysterious Case of the Dead Infant and the Thunder God

  Yuexi, at the junction with a small town in Guangxi, stretches a vast and endless mountain range.

  This mountain range is different from the general mountain ranges, it presents a curved shape, like an unconnected ellipse. This strange mountain range is called Leigong Mountain Range, and in the deepest part of the mountain range, there are some primitive villages scattered around, named Shatian Village.

  However, later due to a custom called "year example", the Shatian Village was divided into two villages. The village head was called Upper Yuan Village and the village tail was called Lower Yuan Village.

  In between, there is a narrow river like the Chu River that separates Shangyuan Village and Xiayuan Village. Normally, people from the two villages do not interfere with each other, and they coexist peacefully.

  However, after the Spring Festival, a peculiar custom in western Guangdong emerged - Nian Li. Starting from the first month, Nian Li began one after another and lasted until March or even April.

  The annual festival is even more lively and festive than the Spring Festival, with every village setting off firecrackers, offering various tributes, worshiping Buddha, visiting relatives, it's really very lively. The most peculiar thing is that a colorful paper boat will appear, several strong men carrying the paper boat in the midst of firecrackers to sail the boat.

  On the day of the annual ceremony in Shangyuan Village and Xiayuan Village, people from both villages will carry paper boats to a field on the north bank of the river for a boat tour. After a certain period of time, the two paper boats will collide with each other, and then both sides will start fighting.

  It is said that in the 1990s, he had beaten many people to death, with some having their bellies ripped open by iron forks and their intestines flowing out.

  In recent years, this custom still exists, but since there are police on the scene to maintain order every time, there will no longer be any deaths.

  Alright, having explained the cultural background of the entire village, this terrifying story begins with these two villages.

  At the end of the year, many people who work outside the city return home to prepare for the New Year, but I, along with Ruo Lan and Qiu Yang, took a 6-hour bus ride to Maoming City, then transferred for an hour to reach Leigong Town, and after another hour of riding a tricycle, we arrived at a hotel in the Leigong Mountains, where we will be staying to investigate a mysterious case.

  This case is related to Qing Jiang - Qing Jiang is from Xiayuan Village.

  The women of Xiayuan Village have been afflicted with a curse in recent years: all the babies born are stillbirths.

  Although it was clear that the fetus was healthy during prenatal check-ups at the hospital, once the child is born, it is discovered that the child is stillborn.

  What's most shocking is that no matter whether the pregnant woman gives birth in the village or is sent to a hospital in town, and regardless of whether it's a natural delivery or a C-section, as soon as the baby comes out of its mother's body, it's found to be dead.

  Even pregnant women in other cities far away from their hometowns cannot escape this terrible fate when giving birth.

  So, the daughters-in-law of Xiayuan Village gradually didn't dare to get pregnant, and people nearby also knew about this terrifying curse. As a result, when others heard that the man was from Xiayuan Village, they didn't dare to marry him; while those women in Xiayuan Village who had reached the age of marriage couldn't get married and became old unmarried women.

  So many years have passed, and the population of Xiayuan Village has become sparse and is getting worse.

  On the contrary, Shangyuan Village is prosperous and has a high birth rate of twins.

  This is a later story, to be told another day. Back in Xiayuan Village, 36-year-old Lei Yongchang had married a Vietnamese girl. It was said that this Vietnamese girl was actually bought by Lei Yongchang with money. The Vietnamese girl did not know about the curse of Xiayuan Village, so she became pregnant three months after getting married.

  Lei Yongchang also didn't believe in evil, insisting that the child must be born, and the terrifying thing was that this child came from the Vietnamese girl's belly - she became pregnant last January, until August this year, the child in her belly still did not come out.

  After going to the hospital for a check-up, all the data showed that the baby in the womb is healthy.

  Zou Guanjia had us travel thousands of miles to this deep mountain wilderness just to investigate this Vietnamese girl who has been pregnant for 20 months.

  Leigong Hotel is divided into three floors, each of which is very low and has a long outdoor corridor. It is said that it was invested by a Taiwanese businessman to provide accommodation for tourists who come to visit Leigong Mountain.

  The environment of the hotel is very poor, with the first and second floors being made of cement, while the third floor has walls made of wooden boards. Especially in the humid southern climate, the wooden house on the third floor has thick moss growing on its walls and ceiling, and when I just arrived, I even saw black fungus growing on the wall of the third floor.

  This damp place is full of nose mites, and the walls are crawling with dense nose mites.

  As soon as I saw these gray, white and black boogers, I thought of the boss lady of a restaurant on Jiǔjiē Street who had a booger as big as a washbasin... My mood suddenly dropped a lot.

  "It's great here, the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant, everything I see is lush green, especially the air is really fresh!"

  Chen Qiuyang was also beaming with joy, saying: "Ah, yeah! The air is indeed much better than Long City's! It's especially rich in negative ions. Lanlan, do you know? Negative ions are great for the skin! Every time I take a breath here, I feel like I'm applying a whitening and moisturizing face mask to my face!"

  Chen Qiuyang's words made me shudder again and break out in goosebumps.

  I know that Chen Qiuyang has countless types of masks, including whitening, moisturizing, freckle-removing, Chinese herbal, natural, silk, and platinum ones, which left me stunned. What's even more unbelievable is that they are also divided into daytime and nighttime versions.

  I remember when he told me that, I said: "Wow, face masks are also divided into day and night types, just like the sanitary napkins for girls! Qiuyang, you're putting a sanitary napkin on your face every night!"

  "President, you're so annoying! I'm a boy, I don't need that thing!" Chen Qiuyang replied with a blush on her face.

  Looking at his unaffected and shy appearance, I often think that heaven seems to have mistaken his gender with Rouran's.

  Just the other day when I was shopping at the supermarket and happened to be passing by the paper towel shelf, Rouran Kuai, who was pushing a shopping cart, saw me from afar and shouted at me: "Thirteen, help me get two packs of the 'Girl' series sanitary napkins next to you, remember they have to be the ultra-thin type Girl series!"

  Her earsplittingly loud voice, like a pig being slaughtered, made everyone around me stare at me in unison, I was so embarrassed that I wanted to dig a hole and hide.

  I said: "We're not here on vacation, we're here to investigate that Vietnamese girl who's been pregnant for 20 months."

  "We're not obstetricians, how can we investigate?"

  Chen Qiuyang said: "Lanlan is absolutely right, Director, you should have asked Dr. Ruan from the Central Hospital to come together."

  What I didn't expect was that I actually saw Dr. Ruan Defeng walking down the stairs.

  I greeted him in surprise and said, "Dr. Ruan, I've run into you again here? What a coincidence!"

  "Is the great detective here to investigate again? I am our hospital's quarterly obligation to send warmth to the grassroots free clinic activities. I saw the news some time ago, so I chose this area."

  "Is free medical treatment really free?"

  "Yes, I've heard that the Leigong Mountains here have super high negative ions, so it's great to come here and take a breath of fresh air. Are you guys coming to investigate again?"

  "Yes, but this case is a bit strange. There's no client, it was Zou Guan Jia who asked us to come and investigate. Apparently, there's a Vietnamese girl here who has been pregnant for 20 months. Doctor Ruan, do you believe it?"

  "Haha, this doesn't conform to medical common sense at all. In ancient myths and legends, Li Jing's wife was pregnant with Nezha for a very long time, but these are just myths and legends, not credible."

  I said: "We are just going through the motions with Director Zou anyway. The expenses can be reimbursed after we get back."

  We lived on the second floor of Leigong Hotel, while Ruan Defeng and his medical team stayed on the first floor, which made Leigong Hotel lively.

  I live in the room at the very end because it's quiet here as it's at the end of the corridor.

  That night, the landlady of Leigong Inn held a bonfire to roast a whole sheep in the empty space in front, inviting all the guests to participate. I only realized that there were so many guests, about 50 or more people, everyone gathered around the bonfire eating roasted sheep, chatting and laughing, the atmosphere was warm and harmonious.

  Among us, including me, Ruo Lan, Qiu Yang Chen and De Feng Ruan, there was a Taiwanese couple, Mr. and Mrs. Wu, who were traveling with their adorable twin boy and girl. They came from Zhanghua, Taiwan and used to be neighbors of Wu Bai.

  Mr. Wu said: "We come here for a month's rest at the end of each year. Please give us more guidance in these days."

  His wife, Cai Yilin, is a elegant lady with refined manners. She politely introduced their adorable twins to us: "Six years old, the older brother is called Wu Zongxian, and the younger sister is called Wu Yongwei. Zongxian, Yongwei, call them Brother and Sister."

  Wu Zongxian and Wu Yongwei were extremely shy, refusing to call out for people, and their faces were too pale.

  "Excuse me, I'm a doctor. I saw that your two children seem to be ill."

  Mr. Wu's expression changed slightly, and he said, "Yes, they are ill, and the reason we come here every year is actually to treat their illness. The air here is very suitable for their recovery."

  Mr. Wu had a look of wanting to say something but stopping himself, and we all tactfully changed the subject, no longer discussing their two children.

  Among the other group of people next to us, there was a middle-aged man with a goatee who might have had too much to drink. He suddenly opened his throat and sang loudly: "You are my little apple! How..."

  He sang so badly that people around him booed. The goat beard was also embarrassed to continue singing, and said: "If you don't like listening to me sing, then I'll tell you a scary story about the nearby Shangyuan Village and Xiayuan Village! Especially Xiayuan Village, hehe, it's famous for producing monsters! 7 years ago, when I first came here to collect medicinal herbs, I encountered a strange thing in the Leigong Mountains.