Chapter 16: Lao Ba's Confession
One of Lao Ba's shoulders was chopped off by the mute woman.
At this moment, the evil arm was like a broken crow's wing, black and bloody, hanging on the side of his body, making Lao Ba look strange and it was hard to tell what kind of animal he was.
It turned out that before Lan Zi put poison in the pot as arranged by Ju Zi, Lao Ba had already poisoned the meat pot without the knowledge of the mute, hoping that these women who were toyed with and humiliated by him and who worked hard to grow drugs for him would become his victims willingly and without knowing it.
His so-called "paradise" was just a trick. He wanted to kill several women before leaving, including the mute woman.
The suspicious mute woman had been wary of Lao Ba for a long time. She had a premonition that Lao Ba would not commit suicide with her, so she was on guard.
As expected, Lao Ba wanted the mute woman to eat the poisoned human flesh first. This move shattered all of the mute's fantasies about Lao Ba... She finally and reluctantly recognized Lao Ba's true face: it turned out that after he seduced her in Banpo Village, all the "wishes" he made for her were just a means to trick her into the mountains to be an accomplice.
The mute suffered a fatal blow, and the resentment she had gradually developed towards Lao Ba over the past few days suddenly burst out into deep hatred at this moment.
How could she tolerate that the man to whom she was loyal, who had killed her husband and abandoned her family, and followed her desperately, would betray her at such a critical moment!
The mute woman's eyes suddenly turned red enough to almost bleed. At this moment, she stared at Lao Ba with the look of a man-eating female beast.
At this moment, Old Eight, who was screaming and howling due to the sudden severe pain, was like a monster injected with inexplicable vitality because he had just smoked opium. He dragged his crippled arm to confront the mute.
He staggered a bit, then came up to grab the knife handle from the mute's hand. The mute struggled with him while shouting:
"Come and help me! Hurry up..."
A bloody fight broke out in this open space in the forest.
The mute was held tightly by Lao Ba's one arm. The knife in her hand was trembling. She could have chopped it down and killed Lao Ba, but she hesitated and dodged again and again, preventing Lao Ba from snatching the knife.
"Cut! Chop! Chop him to death!" Yuhuan was shouting hysterically. She stomped her feet at the mute woman, expressing her dissatisfaction with her uselessness.
Juzi had already rushed over to pull Lao Ba's collar. She only heard Lao Ba scream, and the severed arm that was still attached to some flesh was torn off and fell into the grass with a "puff".
Shocked by all this, Juzi just stared at the broken arm in a daze. Unexpectedly, Lao Ba rushed over and grabbed her slender neck with his sharp five fingers.
Juzi felt stars appearing in his eyes, and his legs and feet suddenly became sore and weak that he could not hold on.
She heard Lan Zi crying, "Bring a knife! Bring a knife quickly, he is going to strangle Ju Zi to death!" and then she knew nothing.
When Juzi woke up, Lao Ba had been tied tightly to the pine tree where Da Feng had been hanged. The mute woman, Lan Zi, and Yu Huan were standing in a semicircle, anxiously staring at Lao Ba's pale face, and everyone was eager to find some priceless treasure from his dying face.
Lao Ba was already close to death at this time, and the blood in his body was rapidly draining out from his broken arm.
His eyes were dazed and he looked at the women in front of him who had suddenly transformed from sheep into tigers and leopards. It was as if he didn't know them at all and couldn't believe what he saw.
Juzi suddenly got up from the ground. She felt the same as those women. She was really afraid that Lao Ba would suddenly die and leave them in this endless forest to become food for wild beasts.
The mute woman was pulling Lao Ba's ear and asking him, "Tell me quickly, how do we get back home?"
"He cast a spell and a magic in the woods. We have to make him break the spell." Lan Zi stamped her feet anxiously.
"Listen to his nonsense, what kind of magic is this? It's a lie!" The mute spat on the ground and said to Lan Zi, "You brainless people deserve to be fooled!"
Lan Zi was so frightened that she dared not say a word.
Juzi thought of Dafeng and Shadiu's mother. They were fooled by Lao Ba's magic and believed that they could not escape from the forest. That's why they failed again and again. But why did she run back to the same place every time she escaped three times?
Lao Ba said nothing at this time. He seemed to understand that he had already stepped into King Yan's Palace, and he would die whether he told the truth or not.
In his opinion, these women were all extremely evil, and the only reasonable fate for them was to die in this primeval forest and be buried with him.
His yellow eyeballs rolled sluggishly, and suddenly a hideous smile appeared on his face, revealing his yellow teeth. A weak voice slipped out from his lips, which were originally purple and now gradually turned white:
"Mute...you bitch, I should have killed you and Erzhuzi...together and eaten your meat."
"It's too late! It's too late for you to say this now! You devil! A devil who eats human flesh and drinks human blood and kills people without blinking an eye. Why didn't I see through you long ago!"
"If I die, none of you can get out. You will all be fed to the wolves behind the mountain." As soon as Lao Ba's voice fell, as if echoing his nonsense, bursts of wolf howls suddenly came from the woods. Each sound was shrill and creepy.
It turned out that the sky was gradually getting dark, and the night was quietly falling over the forest.
Several women couldn't help but shudder. Did this bastard Lao Ba really want to put them in a desperate situation?
The mute woman no longer had the patience to argue with Lao Ba, and she went up to him hysterically and cut off his ears.
With a "click" sound, half of Lao Ba's face was immediately distorted into a terrifying shape. His eyes, nose and mouth were all moved and could not be restored for a long time.
The mute held up the bloodless ear, came close to Lao Ba, and said with gritted teeth: "If you don't tell me the way home honestly today, I will cut you into pieces and feed you to the wolves!" Then he threw the ear in front of Lao Ba's feet. Orange watched the little thing twitch a few times in the grass.
Lao Ba's face was twisted and he bit his lips tightly, like a dead pig waiting for another pot of boiling water to scald him, indifferent.
The mute woman became anxious, and she slashed Lao Ba's face with a knife: "Don't it hurt? Another one?" Then she slashed him again.
Then, the kitchen knife that the mute had sharpened very quickly and had been used to cut dead flesh was used to cut Lao Ba's chest and thighs left and right. Every time he cut, the mute asked, "Will you tell me or not?"
Lao Ba finally couldn't hold on any longer. He opened his eyes and opened his mouth to the mute, but before he could say anything he passed out.
"Quickly bring some cold water, he's about to confess!" When the women heard the mute's shouting, they rushed to the stove. After a while, Lao Ba was awakened by basins of cold water.
"I told you...you...wouldn't understand..." Lao Ba was panting heavily, half dead, and could only breathe but not make any sound.
"Hurry up and speak! Stop treating women like fools!" Juzi didn't know where she got the courage from, she rushed forward and got close to Lao Ba's face, trying hard to hold back her nausea, afraid that she would miss every word he said.
"See a pile of dead bones, turn right, see the second pile of dead bones, turn left... see the next pile, turn right... turn right again, and finally, keep turning right..."
As soon as Lao Ba finished speaking, he fell silent. Juzi didn't understand what he heard, but the mute beside her heard it clearly. She quickly drew the route that Lao Ba described on the ground, and when she looked at it, she found that she was back to the same place.
"Fuck your eight generations of ancestors!" The mute jumped up hysterically and cursed Lao Ba. She swung the kitchen knife fiercely and cut into Lao Ba's chest.
With a "puff!" sound, countless blood spots immediately splashed on the mute's fair face. Those blood spots quickly flowed into small red streams, turning the mute woman into a hideous vampire...
Lao Ba's internal organs burst out at this moment, and a strong stench immediately spread in the forest.
At this time, the wolves' howls became louder and louder, and the bloody smell emanating from Lao Ba's body obviously stimulated their olfactory nerves.
Juzi quickly closed her eyes. She heard Yuhuan vomiting loudly. Lanzi's footsteps were like a frightened little rabbit, and she ran straight to the straw hut. She was probably afraid that the crazy mute would kill her too.
At this time, the mute woman sobbed, sounded like crying and singing, and staggered all the way like a drunk, carrying the red kitchen knife back to the shack.
When Juzi opened his eyes, he saw Lao Ba, who looked like a blood gourd. His intestines were hanging on his body in strings, and black blood was still dripping from them.
The pair of restless yellow eyes of Lao Ba that she hated were finally locked by the door of death! From now on, she no longer needs to be afraid of this devil-like guy.
Thinking of this, Juzi let out a long breath and suddenly felt grateful to the annoying mute woman.
Although the mute is a little crazy and cruel, he cannot deal with a scum like Lao Ba without taking such extreme measures, which will not be enough to relieve the hatred in the hearts of these women who have been humiliated!
A strange sound was heard in the forest, like the footsteps of a group of animals, cautious and yet unscrupulous.
Juzi understood that the wolves behind him had surrounded them. These wild beasts, which had been fed by Lao Ba with the flesh and blood of women, were now eager to feast on the flesh and blood of their benefactor.
Juzi ran towards the shack as fast as she could, she didn't want to be buried with Lao Ba.
In the shack, Yuhuan was crying and Lan Zi was wiping tears beside her.
Juzi did not see the mute woman and thought that she must have returned to the shack where she and Lao Ba had spent the whole summer. There must be many things in that shack that she could not bear to recall and that made her linger.
Now, Juzi's strongest wish is to find the mute and discuss with the women how to get out of the mountains and back to the village.
But she didn't dare to go to the mute alone, because she could never forget the ugly scene of the mute sitting in Lao Ba's arms and having fun. She felt that the mute and Lao Ba were the same kind, and in this case, it was hard to say whether she was sincere to them.
What terrified her the most was the crazy look on the mute woman's face when she attacked Lao Ba just now. Juzi was worried that the mute woman was no longer normal, and she was scared crazy by the current situation... After dealing with Lao Ba, would she attack other women...?
But if he didn't rely on the mute now, who else could he rely on? Juzi looked at the two women who were frightened by the scene just now and could only cry and feel helpless.
"Stop crying, everyone. We need to find the mute and discuss going home tomorrow. When she came in with Lao Ba, she should have known a little about the way."
"What do you know? When Dafeng and I came in, Lao Ba blindfolded all of us, so no one could see the path on the mountain clearly. Lao Ba said that women can only have their eyes blindfolded when they enter the Valley of Confusion. If the mountain god sees a woman's eyes and has evil thoughts, none of us will be alive." Lan Zi wiped her nose and said disapprovingly.
"So you just believe what Lao Ba says?" Juzi was so angry that his teeth were itching. He wished he could catch Lan Zi and give her a good beating.
"What can I do if you don't believe me? It's because I was bewitched by Lao Ba and followed him voluntarily." Lan Zi started crying again.
Juzi still felt that in this remote forest, only this mute woman was a scheming person, so he took the two women and bravely walked outside Lao Ba's shack.
It was getting dark in the woods, and another night had fallen.
The mountain seemed quieter than ever.
With the death of Lao Ba, the atmosphere in the camp seemed to collapse in an instant. Juzi felt incredible. She looked around the camp and did not feel proud that Lao Ba was dead and she could control her own destiny. Instead, she felt that a bigger shadow was approaching them...
The danger comes from the mute woman.
Thinking of the corpses whose hearts had been cut out and their flesh peeled off, Juzi felt that the mute was a demon who ate people without leaving any bones. She was so obsessed with Lao Ba, but she could do such a cruel thing to Lao Ba who betrayed her, which showed that this woman had a heart of a snake and a scorpion.
Several women on the mountain were once the mute's enemies, and they had all shared Lao Ba's body with the mute. Dafeng was killed because of this, and Xiaoduo did not survive. Now, the knife handle is finally in her hands. Who will she deal with next?
When Orange thought of this, he felt frightened.
The two shacks were less than fifty meters apart. Juzi felt as if his legs weighed a thousand pounds. He moved and moved, but after a long while he still couldn't reach Lao Ba's shack.
In the darkness, the straw hut that had given her countless nightmares was like a monster, crouching in the shadows of the forest, emitting a bloody smell.
Juzi gestured to Yuhuan and Lanzi to wait aside, and he plucked up his courage and wanted to go forward to see what the mute woman was doing.
A faint light shone through the crack of the straw mat that Juzi had peeped into several times. Juzi leaned closer and heard the mute talking to someone inside. She was so scared that her legs went weak. Could there be another man on this mountain?
Juzi finally stood up and looked inside. He saw the mute kneeling on the ground, facing the oil lamp, with his head down and eyes closed, mumbling:
"There is no decent man in that damn place called Banpo Village. I followed my parents' arrangement and married the lame and stupid Erzhuzi. I was young and ignorant, and I was unwilling to be lonely, so I was seduced by Lao Ba.
"Old Eight used his rare skill as a man to bewitch me and get me on his pirate ship.
"This man, whose wife ran away with someone, was cheated of all his property by a woman he truly loved. He hated all women in the world. I later learned that he ran to Banpo Village because he had killed someone in the place where he used to live. His hatred for women forced him to attack all women. In the name of gods, he slept with almost all the women in the village who were slightly good-looking. He gave me a medicine that made me think about men day and night and want to do those ugly things with men all the time. I became half-human, half-ghost, but I still thought I had met a savior... Woo..." A hoarse sob came out of the mute's throat.
"I have committed many sins in my life. I was bewitched and followed Lao Ba, dreaming of a good life with love and care, and no worries about food and clothing. But I followed Lao Ba's instructions, lost my mind for a moment, and harmed you guys. Now I regret it so much. When I return to Banpo Village, I will set up tablets for you, burn incense and offer sacrifices every day, and provide you with three meals a day. Please be kind and spare my life..."
The mute kowtowed to the ground while speaking, his pious attitude even more than that towards Lao Ba's ridiculous theory.
The mute was so superstitious, no wonder she was so devoted to killing and robbing with Lao Ba, without blinking an eye or showing mercy! Juzi suddenly felt an inexplicable fear towards this woman, and at the same time, she was inexplicably curious about the hidden scheming behind her gloomy face.
Now, the mute must be feeling that the souls of those who fell at her hands are coming to claim their lives, which is why she is in a state of panic all day long.
Suddenly, the mute woman seemed to hear something, and then saw something. She jumped up from the ground in horror, with an expression of horror and despair on her face.
Her eyes followed something in the shack. She knelt here and there and begged for mercy with trembling lips: "Dafeng, please be merciful, please be merciful...Xiaoduo, please let me go, please let me go...Erzhuzi, it's my fault, it's my fault, I handed you over to the devil Laoba, I won't dare to do it again, I won't dare to do it again..."
The mute woman bowed with both hands, muttered something, and then ran away with her head in her hands, screaming and shouting, as if she was being chased by a group of evil spirits. "Help... Help..." The mute's hoarse screams echoed in the forest, and as darkness fell, it rose and fell like a magic spell , which was terrifying.
Orange was so scared that she ran away. The way the mute was dealing with a group of ghosts wholeheartedly frightened her. She even began to believe that there were really monsters and demons haunting the forest.
Maybe, it was Lao Ba's ghost causing trouble?
The wolves' howling stopped at some point; they were probably busy devouring Lao Ba's flesh and blood.
Juzi ran into the shack in horror, and Lanzi and Yuhuan who followed in were also scared out of their wits. The three women huddled on the straw mat, gasping for breath, unable to utter a word.
At this time, waves of high and low cries came from Lao Ba's shack, sobbing, just like the desperate and helpless pleas of women who were abused by Lao Ba. Juzi thought bitterly, the mute woman finally got this day! She should be allowed to taste the feeling of being tortured.
The ghostly howling of the dumb woman continued all night, and Juzi and her friends stared in the darkness in fear. They blocked the door of the shack with sticks and wooden blocks, but still felt unsafe, fearing that the "evil ghosts" who tortured the dumb woman would come here to pick a fight with them.
I never thought that this forest full of evil spirits would become even more terrifying because of the death of Lao Ba... For the first time, Juzi felt that in this haunted place where no one could get any help, having a man there was actually so different from having no man at all, no matter if this man was a human or a devil.
Xiaoduo's mother set a fire in a frenzy, returning the Banpo Village with decades of history to history.
The forest is most afraid of autumn fire.
The fire burned for a whole day and night, spreading to the woods in front and behind the village, and finally swept along the primeval forest of Beishanzui towards the Mihun Valley.
Thanks to the opposite wind the next day, the fire did not spread further. When the firefighters arrived, the village had already become a ruin.
The people were still in shock, their wives were crying, their children were shouting, their clothes were torn, their faces were black, and on the ground in front of their feet were some packages, tools, bedding and other miscellaneous items that were rescued from the fire, of unrecognizable shapes and colors, as if they had just been through a war with gunfire and smoke.
A few skinny pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks followed behind people, grunting hungryly.
Except for Xiaoduo's grandmother who failed to escape and was burned, and Xiaoduo's mother who refused to escape and was swallowed by the fire, everyone else evacuated the fire scene in time.
People from the township, county and province came, and soon it was decided to relocate all the residents of Banpo Village to a place outside the mountain with convenient transportation to rebuild their homes.
The young people were excited about leaving this secluded village and going outside the mountains to enjoy modern life. Although the elderly were reluctant to leave the place where they had lived all their lives, they had no better ideas and could only sigh and follow the crowd.
Only Juzi's mother sat in front of the old lady's grave, crying and refusing to get up.
"Let's go." Juzi's father advised: "After the case is solved and Juzi and Gou'er come back, we can visit the grave..."
When the people in the village were about to move away, someone sighed and said, "What will we do when those missing women come back and can't find their homes?" Everyone fell silent.
Finally, someone came up with an idea. That person was Cheng Dakua. He said, "Why don't we just leave a sign saying: This place is being relocated. Those who want to go back home should go to the village."
