The fog gradually dissipated. Orange became anxious and his steps became uncertain. He could not run fast at all.
She looked back several times and found that she had not run very far. The dark tops of the forest above the camp were still like a dark cloud, covering her vision.
As Orange imagined the horrible "ritual" that was going on in the shack in the woods, he felt his throat tighten.
Why does Lao Ba, this bastard, always torture these women in different ways, as if they were the enemies who killed his father in the previous life, and he wishes they all died a miserable death.
Juzi guessed that Lao Ba must have a grudge against a certain woman, otherwise, why would he torture them so cruelly? Didn't he have a mother and sisters? How could he do that?
As she ran, she was guessing wildly, who was it that Lao Ba was calling this morning? Xiao Duo was already dead, was it Da Feng, Lan Zi, or Sha Diu'er's mother?
That afternoon, when Juzi and Xiaoduo had just run to the flower bushes not far from the shack and were about to take a breath, Lao Ba suddenly appeared at that moment.
Almost at the same time, Juzi and Xiaoduo saw Lao Ba bend down and come out of the shack. Then his uncomfortable yellow eyes stared straight into Juzi's eyes.
Originally, there was something in Lao Ba's eyes when he looked at people that made Juzi feel uneasy. Now, seeing his aggressive eyes, Juzi immediately got goose bumps secretly inside her clothes...
"How did you get in?" Lao Ba walked over slowly without saying a word.
"I just walked in!" Xiaoduo responded excitedly, "You guys made it so hard for us to find him!"
Lao Ba looked at them suspiciously for a full minute before he said to Juzi, "Since you're here, stay."
Then he just glanced at the woman hanging clothes next to him, turned his head and went into the shack.
Juzi recognized the woman at once. She was the wife of Erzhuzi, the lame and stupid boy in the village - a mute.
The woman was tall and strong. Although she lived in the mountains, her skin was still as fair and clean as when she was in the village.
It turns out that she followed Lao Ba here!
"You are here too?" Juzi was a little excited and a little surprised. The mute woman looked at Juzi carefully, as if she had never known her before. Her calm eyes had a kind of indifference that kept people away from her. Then, she turned around and led the way, striding into another straw hut a few dozen meters away from Lao Ba's shack.
It was already afternoon, and Juzi and Xiaoduo were tired and hungry. It was impossible for them to return to the village today, so they decided to take a rest and eat something first. With this in mind, they followed the mute inside obediently.
This shack was much bigger than the previous one. Once Juzi got in, he couldn't see anything clearly. It was dark inside, and a disgusting smell filled his nose.
She stumbled forward a few steps and suddenly tripped into a pile of weeds that she was using as a bed.
She heard Xiaoduo say in surprise in the dark: "Oh my God! What kind of place is this? Is it possible for people to live here?"
Juzi's hand touched something soft, which looked like a person's leg. She tried to identify it for a long time before she found a person lying next to her.
"Orange!" A terrified voice came from the darkness, "Why are you here too?"
"We came to find Lao Ba. Someone in the village is sick..." Xiaoduo answered for her first.
"You are...looking for death..."
Juzi shuddered. She could tell it was Shadiu'er's fucking voice! She didn't expect that she was also here with Lao Ba.
It took a while for Orange's eyes to adjust to the darkness in the shack. There were four straw beds on the floor, and women were sleeping on three of them.
The other one was empty, and the mute gestured a few times, meaning that she and Xiaoduo should sleep in the empty one. Then, she walked out and rolled up the straw curtain at the door of the shack, and some dim light suddenly came in.
It was the afterglow of the setting sun filtered through the branches and leaves of the forest, dim and yellow.
Juzi saw a woman sitting on one of the straw mats, her eyes gleaming coldly in the semi-darkness. It was Dafeng! Although Juzi knew Dafeng, they had hardly spoken to each other in the village.
The village is big and has many people, especially women who are slightly good-looking. They become competitors for the few decent men, so they are wary of each other.
At this moment, Juzi felt that Dafeng was extremely hostile to their arrival. From the moment they came in until now, Dafeng had only been staring at them in the dark without saying a word. Juzi thought that she didn't look like a woman from the same village at all. Once people leave their homes, even if they don't know each other, once they know that the other person is from the same hometown, they will still have a kind of "no matter how close we are, we are from the same hometown" emotion!
This Dafeng is really a bit inhuman.
Juzi felt very uncomfortable, so she turned her head away, avoiding Dafeng's cold gaze and ignored her.
Xiaoduo seemed to be frightened. She stopped complaining about being hungry and just sat there on the straw mat without saying a word. The other woman seemed to be asleep, without making any sound.
Juzi was eager to find out what happened in the forest, but she didn't know where to start. But she finally understood one thing: several women who had disappeared in the village recently were all here!
How did Lao Ba bring them all here?
What on earth are they doing setting up camp in this damn place?
"Stupid mother..." Xiaoduo spoke again, unwilling to be lonely, "What are you all doing here?"
"Keep your voice down!" Shadiu'er's mother said "hush" to stop Xiaoduo from talking too much. She sat up and poked her head towards the door of the shack to see that there was no one there. Just as she was about to speak, a miserable cry suddenly came from the corner of the shack:
"Oh my God!" Then they heard another burst of crying coming from the same place.
Everyone was shocked.
The woman cried and rolled over on the straw mat a few times, causing the grass leaves to rustle.
"Lan Zi is having a nightmare." Shadiu'er's mother said calmly.
Lanzi? Lanzi was one of the missing women in the village.
She was here too, which surprised Juzi a lot: How did Lao Ba use such a trick to bring such an honest woman like Lan Zi to this deep mountain forest? Juzi thought this was really a bit strange.
A strong sense of uneasiness hit Juzi. She had never felt Lao Ba's fear as much as she did now.
This dirty and smelly shack, which looked like a pigsty, was filled with a strong ominous atmosphere. She could not help but feel an inexplicable fear of the night that was about to fall.
Dinner was prepared by the mute woman. A pot of sticky corn and hawthorn porridge was cooked in a large iron pot, accompanied by half a salted duck egg. After being hungry for a day, the orange tasted particularly delicious, as if it was the best delicacy I had ever eaten.
The chewing sound coming from Juzi's mouth might be too loud, causing the women to turn their heads from time to time and look at her with ambiguous expressions.
Juzi saw Dafeng constantly looking at her secretly with hostile eyes, as if Juzi would pounce on her at any time and snatch the bowl of rice from her hand.
Juzi didn't understand the meaning of the look in Dafeng's eyes. Maybe she was bullying the newcomer. Juzi's arrival obviously disrupted the peace of others, so Dafeng would certainly not welcome her.
Thinking of this, she pretended not to see it. She looked at Lan Zi, and saw that the pale, thin woman looked at her with a sympathetic look, as if to say, "Why are you so stupid? Why did you come to this damn place ?"
The women didn't seem to have much appetite, and each of them put down their bowls and chopsticks after eating a little. Orange felt that they were all worried, as if they were waiting for some disaster to fall from the sky.
Lao Ba did not eat with them. He seemed to be enjoying his own special meal in his own shack, because Juzi smelled the aroma of stew, but the dish was never served to them.
It quickly became dark, as if someone had suddenly pulled down a black curtain, covering them completely.
Back in the shack, Juzi lay down in her clothes. She listened fearfully to the movements of the people around her and dared not sleep.
After a while, Dafeng, who was in the next bed, groped in the dark to take a shower and change clothes, and then slowly walked out of the shack.
Juzi wanted to ask Shadiuer's mother why Dafeng went out so late at night, but she didn't dare to ask. She just vaguely felt that this matter must be related to Lao Ba.
Because in this dark forest, apart from two or three huts, it is darkness and danger everywhere. Who dares to go into the old forest alone late at night? Unless you have eaten a leopard's courage.
Orange's ears stretched longer and longer as the woman's footsteps faded away. Sure enough, the footsteps suddenly disappeared near Lao Ba's shack.
Juzi seemed to be stimulated by something, she felt hot all over, her blood was flowing rapidly. She couldn't help but imagine what was going on between the man and the woman in Lao Ba's shack, and she couldn't help but think of Dalong, who was flaunting his woman on the street in Harbin, and the night when a wild man knocked on the door of her house in Banpo Village.
Xiaoduo's snoring could be heard. This girl was too tired.
Orange heard the other two women tossing and turning on the straw mat and sighing softly, not knowing what they were thinking.
She couldn't help but asked softly:
"Stupid mother? Are you asleep?"
"Hmm." The woman seemed reluctant to talk about this.
"How did you get in?"
"Just walk in!" the woman said impatiently.
"Why don't you go home?"
"Alas!" is a sigh with complex meaning, as if it is hard to express in words.
"What are you all doing here in this mountain valley?"
"Don't ask, we'll know tomorrow." Another woman named Lanzi interrupted their conversation, "Go to sleep, you still have to work tomorrow!"
The women stopped talking, and Juzi didn't dare to say anything either.
At this moment, his whole body felt exhausted, but his mind was exceptionally clear.
Tomorrow, what will happen tomorrow?
During the day, Lao Ba looked like a mountain village king, as if this place was his world. The humble Lao Ba in the village suddenly became a different person, so majestic and cold.
Juzi felt that the forest was full of danger, but she was not sure where the danger came from or what kind of danger it was.
Suddenly, a wolf howl suddenly sounded.
The long, lingering sound with a strong strange accent sometimes sounded like a child crying, sometimes like the pain of a dog with a broken hind leg, and sometimes like someone deliberately imitating the accent of some weird person to play tricks...
The howling of wolves spread through the forest, rising and falling in waves, making people feel creepy.
Juzi repeatedly pulled up the tattered cotton wool that served as a quilt, covering her head and ears, but it was of no use.
"Don't be afraid. Lao Ba has set up traps everywhere on the mountain. The wolves can't get in. They just bark for a while to scare people." Shadiu'er's mother said softly from the bed next to her. "There are wolves howling every day in this place. I think there is a big wolf den. Judging from the noise, there are at least dozens of them. When we go out to work during the day, the fields are covered with white wolf shit."
Orange huddled on the bed, trembling all over, not daring to move.
She could feel the damp smell of sweat on her body drilling into her nose. Her clothes had been soaked with sweat countless times on the way here, but now she had to wear them to sleep. Orange, who loved cleanliness, felt really uncomfortable.
The wolves howled louder and louder, as if they were in a competition.
Orange gradually fell asleep in the terrifying atmosphere of being surrounded by wolves, thinking that he must find a way to leave this damn place as soon as possible before dawn tomorrow.
No matter whether Lao Ba and Xiao Duo go back or not, she is going back anyway!
Suddenly, a long howl came from Lao Ba's shack. The women were awakened, and the howls continued, each one more shrill than the last, like someone's flesh being cut off piece by piece by a knife. Juzi could tell it was Dafeng!
"What's wrong with her? Why is Dafeng screaming like that? What did Lao Ba do to her?" Juzi asked in horror in the dark, but no one answered her question. The shack was as silent as a grave.
Juzi felt cold all over, and she shrank back and forth in the straw hut, but Dafeng's voice became more and more hysterical, and she couldn't lie still any longer. Suddenly, she jumped up from the bed, rushed out of the hut in a few steps, and ran to Lao Ba's hut.
Before she could run a few steps, she felt someone grabbing her clothes from behind.
Shadiuer's mother hugged her around the waist and whispered quickly in her ear:
"You don't want to live anymore! Go back now!"
The night comes especially early in Banpo Village.
Not long after the sun appeared over the eastern mountain, it moved over the western forest.
Before three o'clock in the afternoon, people were not paying attention, and the sun, which did not have much heat to begin with, was swallowed up by the high mountains and dense forests.
Juzi's father came back from working in the fields. When he walked into the yard, he felt that the atmosphere was not right and he couldn't help but feel shocked.
He rushed to the door in two steps, and before he even entered, he shouted, "Mom!"
A small dim light bulb was on in the room. The old lady was still lying on the kang, silent and motionless. At first glance, it was unclear whether she was dead or alive.
Juzi's father was startled and hurried over, lying on his mother's chest to listen to the old lady's heartbeat. Then he walked out of the house with peace of mind and went to the kitchen to scoop water to wash his face.
Orange's mother was busy cooking dinner, and the sweet aroma of cornmeal cakes was wafting out of the pot.
Juzi's father couldn't see his wife's expression clearly, but he felt that she was a little weird tonight, and couldn't help but look at her a few more times.
"Is it because Orange hasn't come back yet?" He seemed to have guessed what his wife was thinking.
"Hmm..." The woman sighed.
"Who did she go with?"
"Xiaoduo."
"Where is Lao Ba's medicinal herb field? Do they know?"
"I didn't ask. Her grandmother was so ill, and I was just too worried, so I just let her go."
"Women are all fools."
"If a man is useful, there would be no need for a woman to take the lead. But your son is useless."
“……” The man seemed to have been exposed and remained silent.
I had a sloppy dinner.
The old lady's illness, the bloody basket that her son picked up during the day, an orange whose whereabouts were unknown, and the troublesome envelope she left behind... These things were like a huge stone, weighing heavily on Orange's mother's head.
Juzi's father also kept his head down, and no one knew what he was thinking about.
The couple sat opposite each other in the dim light, watching over the old man who kept having nightmares and talking nonsense, sighing long and short, and neither of them spoke a word.
Suddenly, Goudan, who was sleeping next to the old lady, started crying in his dream, with a tone of despair and terror, as if he was being chased by a ferocious beast.
His legs kept kicking and thrashing on the kang. Juzi's mother hurried over and tried to calm him down with her hands for a long time. It was not until Goudan finally calmed down.
"What's the matter with him?" the man asked.
"I went to play in the woods today and got scared."
"You're so old, but you still only know how to play! You deserve it..."
"That idiot Erzhuzi—wasn't he lost a few days ago? The basket he carried up the mountain was picked up by Goudan..."
"Where are the people?"
"Who knows? There were some wild vegetables in the basket, and it looked like a bloodbath. It made Goudan's hands stink."
"What happened...was it caused by the blind bear?"
"Who knows? Tsk, take our Banpo Village for example. Strange things happen all year round. I really don't understand what's going on..."
The comatose old lady suddenly broke out into a hysterical coughing fit, as if she was going to vomit out her entire lungs. The couple was so scared that they hurried over to massage her back and give her water. The room suddenly became bustling with activity.
At this moment, the door was pushed open with a creaky sound: "Are you all here?" came the voice of a middle-aged man.
Under the dim light, a few wrinkles on the visitor's forehead flashed. It was Xiaoduo's uncle Cheng Dakua.
Cheng Dakua was a bow-legged man with deformed hips that stretched out in an exaggerated manner, hence his name. He was a lazy man in the village and had a bad reputation, so few people usually interacted with him.
As soon as Mother Juzi saw Cheng Dakua, she understood his intention and her face turned pale.
"Nothing else, just to see the old lady!" Cheng Dakua swung his hips and sat on the edge of the kang, not moving. However, there was no expression on his face that meant "to see the old lady".
After holding back for less than a minute, Cheng Daku finally tore off his disguise and got straight to the point: "Well! I'm short of money now, can you lend me some money?"
"What?" Juzi's father didn't understand what he said. Juzi's mother hadn't told him that Juzi had left the envelope. "Borrow money from me? My mother is so sick, I don't know who to borrow some money from!"
"Stop kidding," Cheng Dakua slid down from the edge of the kang and took a step towards Juzi's mother. Although he had bow legs, this step was much bigger than that of a normal person, causing Cheng Dakua to stand under the tip of Juzi's mother's nose.
He raised his head and said to Juzi's mother: "Sister-in-law, an honest person should not do shady things. Please tell my brother about the envelope..."
Juzi's mother wanted to lower her head and bite off Cheng Dakua's dirty nose and feed it to her little cat, but she thought he was too dirty.
She endured it, took a step back, avoided Cheng Dakua's face, then turned back to the man and said, "When Juzi left, she asked me to keep it for her. It's probably someone else's money... She said I can't touch it unless it's absolutely necessary."
"Who are you trying to fool? Everyone knows that Dalong has made a lot of money in Harbin. Just tell me directly whether you want to lend it to me or not." Dakua said impatiently.
Juzi's father raised his hand and drew an arc. There was a crisp sound of "slap", and a thick black slap came down. Juzi's mother's face immediately turned red: "You idiot, how could you make such a big thing like this..."
"I, I..." The woman stammered and couldn't explain herself clearly for a while, so she could only cry in grievance.
"No, no... Beating your wife for a little money, doesn't that hurt the relationship? I'm leaving, I'm leaving! Humph..." Cheng Dakua walked out of the door angrily.
Dahei in the yard kept his ears erect. When he heard the mess made in the house by Cheng Dakua, he ran to the door worriedly.
Seeing Cheng Dakua coming out, Dahei snorted at him fiercely for a while, and suddenly let out a "Woof!", scaring Cheng Dakua so much that he ran away.