Chapter 32: The Old Lady's True Identity Revealed

  After the big nose mucus worm fell to the ground, it didn't move and lay there. I was too lazy to care whether it had been knocked dead or not. In theory, it shouldn't have been knocked dead.

  I stood up and finally had to face this ultimate terror - a "thing" 5 meters in front of me.

  On the ground 5 meters away from me, a wooden armchair was neatly placed. This armchair is exquisitely crafted, and even I, an outsider, can tell that it's a masterpiece by a renowned craftsman. Made of top-quality wood, it shines with oil, and two lifelike flying dragons are carved on either side of the armrests.

  On the taishi chair, a dignified old man sat upright, just like the most respected elder sitting in the middle when taking a family photo. The old man wore a deep red changshan with many silver circular patterns printed on it.

  The old woman was white-haired, although her face was full of deep wrinkles, but her expression was very kind, a pair of shiny black eyes, and her lips were also painted with bright red lipstick, looking moist.

  This old lady, I recognize her, all the hairs on my body stand up, and I feel a chill running down my spine. Because this old lady is the respected elder of Liu Long Village, Grandma Du Huangniu, who should have died in 1982 and become food for the villagers' stomachs, whose black-and-white portrait hangs in every household in Liu Long Village.

  Isn't the old lady already dead?

  Wasn't she eaten by the villagers of Liu Longcun in 1982?

  So many years have passed, why hasn't grandma aged at all and still looks like she did in 1982?

  Could it be that my and Ruan DeFeng's conjectures were all wrong?

  The old granny had never been eaten, nor had she died, but instead appeared so mysteriously in a pig's trotter and ginger cuisine shop deep in the alleys of Upper and Lower Jiucheng Street in Longcheng.

  "Granny, what's going on here?" I asked the old lady with a burst of courage. Because I knew that Du Huang Niu liked me, and Granny shouldn't have any hatred towards me.

  The old lady remained silent and still, sitting upright in her armchair.

  I suddenly realized that the old lady in front of me was not a living person. Just now, when I was fighting against the giant booger, she didn't make a sound either. The biggest reason is that the old lady had already died.

  But her features, she looked exactly like a real person... This made me feel wave after wave of chill.

  "Old granny, I didn't know you were here. Later on, I found out that Old Man Du Huang Niu is your grandson, and before he left, he told me a lot of things. I really want to tell them to you too, can you hear me?" I felt like I was getting a bit incoherent.

  "She can look at you, but she's already dead. You talk to her, and she can't respond." A gloomy voice seemed to drift up from the depths of hell.

  A person slowly walked out behind the old grandmother.

  A middle-aged woman, who was the owner of the restaurant, looked at me with a cold expression and said: "You destroyed Yongcun Village. I had originally wanted to kill you. But I heard that you were with Du Huang Niu when he died."

  I guessed that the boss and Du Huangniu had a close connection, so I said: "Yes, he told me all his regrets, his thoughts."

  "Now, I want you to tell me the truth, without lying or exaggerating. Even if you are 5 meters away from me, I'm telling you clearly that I can kill you in an instant using a certain method."

  I know she wasn't threatening me, and I myself really wanted to say those words that Du Huang Niu said when he was dying, to pour out my feelings and give my repression a chance to be released.

  So, I slowly and carefully repeated to the boss's wife all the things that Du Huang Niu had told me that day. Although I'm a directional idiot, my memory has always been good, so I basically managed to tell the boss's wife everything word for word without leaving anything out.

  The boss's wife leaned against the old lady, silently listening to me finish saying Du Huang Niu's words. After I finished, she still didn't say a word.

  I said: "I didn't fabricate, I didn't add oil and vinegar, I didn't misinterpret."

  The boss's wife had already shed tears, she said: "I didn't think you were lying, because when you said these things, your own eyes had tears flowing out without you even knowing. My eyes are not good, but I can still distinguish between true and false emotions. Thank you for accompanying him on his last journey."

  I started to feel that the boss's wife had no malice, I said: "Boss's wife, the old lady in front of you, and you are..."

  The boss's wife smiled wryly and said, "To be honest with you, I am Du Huangniu's sister."

  I was secretly shocked and couldn't believe my eyes, she said she was Du Huang Niu's daughter I still believed it, saying she was Du Huang Niu's sister seemed unlikely, Du Huang Niu must be at least 60 or 70 years old, while the boss looked like she could be no more than 40.

  The boss's wife said: "I know you don't believe me, but I really am his sister. All I can say is that after all these years, I've managed to maintain my youthful appearance."

  I inappropriately asked a very gossipy and meaningless question: "You, you're really too young, what have you been eating to maintain this?"

  "The boss's wife said: 'If I tell you that for so many years, I have been eating nose worms to keep my looks unchanged, would you believe me?'"

  I remained silent, unable to respond to this question, because even if it were true, I wouldn't eat a snot worm anyway.

  "I continued: 'Boss's wife, can you tell me what happened? After going through the Liu Long Village incident, I was one of them, an old lady, that is, your grandmother, who in 1982, at the time, was killed by people from Liu Long Village, especially led by Du Jie's father.'"

  The boss's wife sighed and said: "You don't have to be evasive, what you want to say is that he was killed by Du Jie and his father and became their food, right?"

  I could only nod, it's a cruel and desperate topic, especially for the boss who is an old granny, this topic is too cruel, too sad, with no comparison to the desperation.

  "I'm fine, you can say what you want to say without having to worry about sparing my feelings. After all these years, I've gotten used to it. However, your guess has both correct and incorrect parts. Since you want to know the answer, I'll tell you that although I look the same on the outside, my body has already developed severe illnesses, with many organs dying. I don't want to take this secret with me when I leave."

  I nodded in gratitude.

  "You don't have to thank me, because knowing this secret will only bring you endless pain. The first thing I want to ask of you is, when you hear my secret, can you bow your head a few times for my grandmother?"

  I readily agreed, immediately knelt down and respectfully kowtowed to the old lady sitting in the armchair with a few loud thuds. I was sincere and earnest in my kowtowing, my forehead hitting the ground with a loud noise.

  "The old lady was actually eaten, leaving only a skull. For so many years, I spent countless days and nights to keep grandma's skull from rotting, not turning into ashes, intact as ever. Of course, this is not the point, the key thing, just like my brother said, everything started in 1982... Everything was irretrievable."

  ……

  The corridor was empty and desolate, with occasional gusts of wind blowing through, very cold. I stood still, listening to the boss's wife finish telling the truth about the entire Liu Long Village.

  After hearing this, the real truth, I suddenly wanted to squat down and cover my face in tears. The internal repression was unbearable, and I felt like I had fallen into endless darkness.

  Yes, the boss's wife is right. I've learned the secret of Liu Long Village, and it brings endless despair and boundless suffering.

  The truth of Ryūjin Village is cruel, dark, desperate, and miserable, yet it has also produced bright, warm, and soft flowers. However, this branch of bright and warm flowers is covered in sharp, festering, bloody thorns.

  I may have been standing for too long, when I wanted to move, I found that my legs were numb.

  "You go ahead, I'll be leaving soon too. It's really hard to bear, all these years, apart from my old grandmother, the biggest support for me has been making these braised pork trotters and rice noodles. For so many years, because of that thing, I haven't gone back to Liu Long Village, haven't seen my brother. Now, I think it's time for me to go back too, let the fallen leaves return to their roots, let me hurry back to Liu Long Village before I die, and take a look at those familiar scenes again... Alas, even if one's appearance remains youthful, it's no use, because once one's heart has grown old, it's old..."

  When I said goodbye to the boss's wife, I suddenly remembered the WeChat search result of a place called Liu Long Village 100 meters away from me. So I couldn't help but ask the boss's wife: "Boss's wife, do you have a WeChat account named Liu Long Village with a profile picture of a row of red teeth?"

  The old lady murmured, "I'm an old woman, I wouldn't use the things you young people use. The reason I recognized you is actually because I saw your photo in the newspaper..."

  I know the boss's wife won't cheat me, which means that WeChat is someone else, I just don't know who it is and can't find him, but I think the most likely possibility is that this person is Hei Hou Zi.

  He seems to know all my moves, so when I was investigating the Yang Hong case, he appeared in time to hit us with a car and steal the video of Yang Hong. And when I was investigating Du Jie's father, at the critical moment in Liu Long Village, he suddenly appeared mysteriously and saved me.

  Is he an enemy or a friend?

  Who is he after all?