Chapter 3: The Mystery of One's Birth (5)

  "After a while, I heard a faint footsteps, followed by a dark shadow appearing in front of me. He seemed to be constantly looking around, searching for my whereabouts. Although it was night and could only see the outline, I could still tell that this person was not a ghost, but a human being."

  "But why did he follow me?"

  "At this moment, I suddenly felt that there was something moving under my body, a sense of foreboding suddenly attacked my heart, and I immediately jumped up from the ground. Following closely, a black thing also jumped up, as tall as a person."

  "My leg cramped up and I fell to the ground, and that thing landed right in front of me. But what landed in front of me was actually a hedgehog, which was now preparing to attack me. Just as this was happening, I suddenly heard a rooster crowing, and then a wild chicken flew over, pecking out the hedgehog's eyes with its beak."

  Suddenly, a hand landed on my shoulder and I jumped up from the ground with a start. I saw an old man who was about my age, his face looked kind, and when he saw me, he chuckled.

  It wasn't until later that I found out the old man was a Feng Shui master, who had just overheard at the clinic entrance that I lived in Nanjia Village and my daughter had contracted a strange illness, so he wanted to get to the bottom of it and followed me.

  I was like meeting a lifesaver and invited this person back home, that Feng Shui master looked at his daughter, then looked at me with a serious expression and said: 'You come out and talk to me.'

  "That Feng Shui master pulled me to the hall and said softly: 'Was your daughter attacked by a monster, but your family's child seems to be a bit strange too, you must tell me what happened?'"

  So I told Mr. Fengshui everything that had happened, and he said with a serious face: 'You used to live in Beigua Village?'

  I hastily nodded and said: 'My family has lived in Beigua Village for generations. I only moved here when I was a child.'

  Mr. Fengshui's face became even more solemn, he was silent for a long time before giving me a piece of paper with a formula on it, telling me to only look at the formula to see if it works, and then left that wild chicken with me, he told me that this thing can deal with those Di Kui, if the child has any abnormalities in the future, just catch some poisonous sacs of Di Kui for the child to eat, maybe it will be effective.

  "After he finished speaking, he left. Several months later, on a certain night, my daughter suddenly woke up from her sleep and struggled in agony. The wound on her shoulder had rapidly spread to the entire shoulder and emitted a strong foul odor. After struggling for about one night, she finally passed away. Gold Bean also seemed to sense his mother's discomfort and cried non-stop. I hastily followed Mr.'s prescription and forced the poisonous sac of the earth turtle into Gold Bean's mouth. The little guy immediately stopped crying. My daughter passed away not long after that. Tang Jun was heartbroken after my daughter's death, lost his appetite, and soon followed her to the afterlife. Poor Gold Bean grew up with me from a young age, and his body became like what you see now - stunted in growth, and he needs to constantly eat the poisonous sac of the earth turtle to survive." Old Jin sighed heavily, looked at me, and said: "It's getting late, I'll heat up some food for us to have an early breakfast. Let's rest after eating. Looking at the sky, the heavy rain might stop tomorrow, right?"

  After listening to the old man's account of Jin Douzi's experience, I couldn't help but feel a deep sympathy for him, but at the same time, I was also filled with doubts about Jin Douzi's life. What was that strange creature with a human face and cat body? Was that mysterious black-clad person the mastermind behind the downfall of Jin Douzi's family? But what I was most curious about was those missing jars - what did he want to do with them?

  After dinner, I lay in the house with Old Jin Tou. I thought about the story he told and felt a little scared. I touched my bag by hand, and the letter was still there. Tomorrow, I will go to that Beidou Village.

  The whole night was very quiet, I opened my eyes and found that Jin Douzi was staring at me with a pair of dull gray eyes. I sat up in shock.