Chapter 4 of Part 1: Secret Passage, Narrow Escape (4)

  I furrowed my brow in confusion, and couldn't help but start to suspect again. Who were those people at the door? Were they going to eat me too? But since the old lady said so, it's better to have one less trouble than one more, best to avoid trouble whenever possible.

  The old lady pulled us to the room opposite, lifted the curtain, and a foul smell rushed into my nostrils, almost making me faint. I immediately looked around the room. The room was not big, with almost no decorations, the curtains were tightly closed, only on the small table on the kang there was a small wooden table, on which a piece of cloth with dense and strange patterns was spread out, and on it was placed a glass ball the size of an egg, and a lamp that looked even stranger.

  Under the lamp, a quadrangular shape extends outwards with a finger-thick lamp body on top, resembling a lotus flower. On the opposite side of the table, a girl sits half-reclined, her long hair draped over her shoulders, her face shaped like a melon seed. However, this girl is blind in both eyes, and her lower body is covered with thick quilts. It's midsummer now, shouldn't she feel hot under those quilts? And that foul odor seems to be coming from the girl's bed of quilts.

  The world is so unfair, such a beautiful girl has lost her sight. Just then the old lady pushed me and said: "You two just stay in this room, no matter what happens outside, don't go out, do you understand?"

  I nodded half-believingly, then lowered my head to look at the blind girl in front of me. The girl furrowed her brow slightly, and her fingers moved lightly on the glass ball before she spoke softly: "Is your surname Luo?"

  Her question made me tremble from head to toe. From the moment I entered until now, I had never mentioned my surname. How did this girl find out?

  The girl's mouth corners slightly curved upwards, revealing a faint smile. She whispered: "Don't you think it's strange that I know your name?"

  I nodded, and was even more surprised in my heart. Could it be that this girl understood mind-reading? That should also be deceiving, I thought to myself.

  "It's not a lie." The girl's words struck my chest once again.

  The girl's face still had a smile on it, but at this time, I heard a noisy footsteps in my ear, and it seemed that more than a dozen people came in. Only the old lady said: "What are you all doing here?"

  "Sister, I'm telling you, you're really not being considerate. When guests come to our home, you don't even let us sisters know." a woman said with a tone of resentment.

  "Yes, yes, have they come back?" The other women chimed in and said.

  "What's wrong?" The old lady defended herself, "If they came back I would have told you all already!"

  "Sister, don't deceive us anymore. There must be a man who has entered the village. I just saw him, and since he walked into your house, he hasn't come out." The woman with the strange tone said, "You're not unaware that when a man comes to this village, it's a disaster. Isn't your granddaughter..."

  The woman seemed to swallow back the rest of her words, while the woman outside continued to speak relentlessly. Then, several women's footsteps entered the house, and both I and Jin Douzi were startled. I looked at the half-paralyzed girl on the kang, whose smile remained on her face.

  "Look, where is the man?" The old lady followed closely and said as she entered the house.

  Although they couldn't be seen, judging from the sounds, those women seemed to be rummaging through boxes and cabinets looking for something.

  "Where did you hide them?" the woman shouted sternly.

  "There wasn't anyone there." The old lady said calmly.

  "Didn't you hide them in her house?" The woman said, walking towards our room. I felt a chill down my spine and saw that Jin Douzi had already clenched his fists.

  "Do you have anything to do?" The girl on the kang suddenly raised her voice and shouted outside. As soon as her words fell, it became quiet outside. After a while, the woman who had been speaking in a sarcastic tone said slowly: "Oh, nothing, didn't disturb you, did I?"

  "There's nothing going on, you can all go back first!" The girl's voice dropped a few pitches, then let out a long sigh. Then I heard the sound of several people leaving.