Chapter 8: Revelation
At lunch time, Xiaoduo still didn't show up.
The women washed their hands and then their faces, but they still felt smelly after washing their faces, so some of them started washing their feet frantically.
Unfortunately, there are only springs on the mountain for drawing water, but no stream. If there were a stream, the women would jump in and have a good bath!
The lunch was accompanied by the stinking smell of manure all over the mountain, and no one could eat well.
Juzi held his breath, put a few mouthfuls of rice into his mouth, and ran to the shack.
Lao Ba was not in the forest that day. Da Feng said he would go out every ten days or half a month, and when he came back he would bring back some oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, salted fish, soy sauce, etc. He would also bring back a sack of food every time.
"Lao Ba is a really capable guy. I don't know how he managed to carry back that big sack of grain!" Da Feng exclaimed with admiration.
"Does he have that much strength? I think someone else helped him get in." Lan Zi continued, "Did you forget? We were helping him carry his things when we came in."
"Come on, once you enter the Valley of Confusion, no one except Lao Ba can get out!" Dafeng disagreed.
Juzi couldn't help but think wildly. Since the people who came in couldn't leave, what about the people who helped Lao Ba transport food? Why didn't I see any of them? Could it be that the manure pit... was their final destination?
She felt that Lao Ba's horror was far more than just his sadomasochism.
"Juzi! Xiaoduo is not at Lao Ba's place at all. I went to look for the mute just now, and there was no one in the shack." Lan Zi suddenly rushed in and said in panic.
It turned out that Xiaoduo had come out of Lao Ba's shack a long time ago, but he disappeared after that.
Several women hurriedly ran out and scattered in the woods, calling Xiaoduo everywhere.
By the time Juzi and the others found her, sweaty and disheveled, Xiaoduo had been bitten by wolves, leaving only half of her sternum and a head without a nose.
The old wolf that roared most of the night finally tasted the delicacy it had been dreaming of before dawn.
Xiaoduo's internal organs were emptied, his arms and legs were gone, but strangely, he didn't bleed much. This showed that the old wolf had at least four or five or seven or eight of its cubs with it, perhaps accomplices, who not only had a hearty meal on Xiaoduo, but also carried the leftovers back home.
Xiaoduo's eyes were wide open, full of fear, and his mouth was open, as if he was about to shout but wasn't.
Juzi was so shocked that she fainted on the spot next to Xiaoduo's body.
When she woke up, she saw the mute woman tying Xiaoduo's neck with a wild vine and dragging her into the woods behind the hill.
Several women were walking back with Orange. Suddenly, Shadiu'er's mother let go of her hands and said to Lan Zi, "You go back first. I have to see where the mute threw Xiaoduo. I have to cover her up, otherwise she will be eaten by wolves again at night!" Then she turned around to chase the mute woman.
Xiaoduo, who had dark skin, black hair, and walked like a tomboy, just disappeared.
Juzi recalled that day when the two of them were walking towards the Valley of Confusion, Xiaoduo kept chattering all the way, but she didn't hear a word he said.
She suddenly felt that she was unfair to Xiaoduo. This girl was not bad at all, she was just not that smart.
But if Xiaoduo took the bastard Lao Ba so seriously, why did she die just after going to Lao Ba's shack? Did she run to the forest out of anger and feed the wolves, or was she harmed by the devil Lao Ba?
Juzi was puzzled and couldn't accept the fact that Xiaoduo died suddenly.
She cried and cried: "Xiaoduo, I still want to go home with you! If you die first, what will I do?"
"Forget it, Sister Juzi. Xiaoduo is a stupid girl. Does she think Lao Ba is still the same Lao Ba as in Banpo Village? Come on, he has changed a long time ago! I noticed that Lao Ba has changed since the day we entered the mountains. Now he only thinks about how to grow good opium and sell more money. We are all his farmhands!" Lan Zi also sniffled with Juzi. While Dafeng was out, she quickly gave Juzi some advice.
Could it be that Xiaoduo was so obsessed with Lao Ba? Did she really die of despair over Lao Ba? Juzi didn't believe it.
She felt that there must be another reason. It was very likely that Lao Ba had been too harsh and killed Xiao Duo, and then he dragged her out to feed the wolves without anyone noticing. If Xiao Duo was killed by the wolves, why didn't they hear her screams in the woods?
No matter what, Xiaoduo's death made Juzi realize more clearly that his only way out was one word: escape.
Juzi wiped his eyes and nose clean and went to the stove to fetch water to wash his face.
Seeing that Dafeng and the others were washing clothes, she quietly strolled into the woods behind the shack, wanting to feel out the terrain nearby and familiarize herself with the environment.
She had just walked about a hundred meters when she saw Shadiu'er's mother coming back from the woods from afar.
Shadiuer's mother looked pale, with disheveled hair and a look of distraught, and was stumbling towards them. Juzi wanted to hide behind a tree, but she was frightened by Shadiuer's mother's appearance, so she couldn't help but go up to her and support her.
"Old Eight is a murderous devil!" Sha Diu'er's mother kept muttering, "Old Eight is a damn devil!"
"What's going on? You idiot? What's wrong with you?"
Only then did Shadiu'er's mother see the oranges in front of her clearly. She turned around and glanced into the woods. She looked like she was spying on an evil ghost hiding in the woods, and the horror on her face was beyond words.
"What did you see? What frightened you so much?"
"He is a murderous devil! He is a murderous devil..." Shadiuer's mother couldn't say anything else except this sentence.
Juzi looked at the woods behind her in confusion. She remembered that Shadiu'er's mother said that she wanted to go and see where Xiaoduo's body was thrown so that she could cover it up in case it was eaten by wolves at night.
She must have seen something even more horrifying! This forest was filled with dangers, not to mention the traps and snares set by Lao Ba. Now, Sha Diu'er's mother must have discovered another crime that Lao Ba had committed.
Juzi hurriedly sent Shadiu'er's mother back to the shack, then sneaked out and ran into the woods.
She followed the traces of grass left by the mute dragging the body and came to the woods behind the shack. A small hill as big as two or three houses blocked the way.
On the other side, there is a depression with dense bushes growing among the tall pine trees.
The dark bushes were a little scary. Orange was hesitating whether to go over. Suddenly, a pungent stench drifted over intermittently, choking Orange and causing him to cough twice.
Some bird in the woods was startled and flew up, which in turn scared Orange. She looked around in panic, unable to figure out where the stench came from, but she felt that the smell exuded an ominous aura.
At this moment, a crow flew up from the bushes in front of her, followed by another group of crows. Finally, a clumsy eagle flapped its long and big wings and landed on a pine tree not far away, still poking its head out to see her reaction.
From their unwilling and eager looks, Orange guessed that it must be the foul-smelling thing that was strongly attracting them.
Her heart was pounding, and although her feet were hesitant, she still moved forward involuntarily.
There was an obvious gap in the bushes that were as dense as a barrier. Although Orange's heart was pounding, he still walked in unknowingly.
Suddenly, she was stunned by the scene before her: in a low-lying grass area, there were several human corpses lying in a mess. Some were pale, and some were covered with rotten meat left over by crows and eagles.
The one lying on the top was Xiaoduo, who was just thrown away by the mute! In just a few minutes, Xiaoduo's two frightened eyes had been pecked until only two black holes remained.
Oh my god, Lao Ba actually killed so many people! No wonder Sha Diu'er's mother was so upset when she came back from here, and kept cursing Lao Ba as a murderer. It turned out that she must have witnessed all this when she came to find Xiao Duo.
Juzi covered her nose and mouth with her hands. She held her breath, her eyes subconsciously staring at the hideous corpses, unable to move for a moment.
After a moment's pause, she suddenly came to her senses.
Orange stepped back step by step and accidentally tripped over the roots of a bush. This unexpected incident frightened her to death. She sat down on the ground and screamed. The crows in the trees were frightened and suddenly flew away in all directions.
Orange suddenly got up and ran away with his head in his hands.
She felt like Xiaoduo, as if her internal organs had been hollowed out, her mind was blank and she was at a loss.
In the fall, when the opium harvest was over, Lao Ba would kill her and Sha Diu'er's mother and several other women, and then throw them into this dead body pit to feed the wolves or ferment for fertilizer! He would pat his butt and go back to Banpo Village as if nothing had happened, and continue to live his respectable and peaceful life... Thinking of this, Juzi's scalp was tingling, his eyes were full of stars, and his legs could not even move a step.
I can't go back to the shack! I have to escape!
Juzi made up her mind, took a deep breath, and then turned around and ran in the opposite direction of the camp. She thought, even if I have to feed the wolves, I have to run!
The appearance of a person startled the animals in the forest, and wherever she passed became eerily quiet.
Orange felt that the echoes of his footsteps were hollow, sounding very weird and creepy.
The bushes and wild vines formed a dragnet that I could never get through, layer after layer.
The sun's rays gradually faded, but when Juzi looked back, it seemed that he had not yet walked out of the inky black forest tops above Lao Ba's camp.
Juzi walked around in the forest until it was dark. She had no strength left and her stomach was growling. She was trying to identify the path in front of her, but suddenly she heard Shadiuer's mother and Lanzi shouting her name, only half a mile away from her. Upon hearing the shouts, Juzi collapsed immediately. She fell into the bushes and cried loudly: "Oh my God, is there no way for Juzi to survive in such a big forest?"
Lao Ba didn't come back from the woods until the third day.
During these three days, the women in the shack actually all guarded the opium field obediently, working from sunrise to sunset, and no one thought about escaping, not even mentioning it.
This made Orange very confused.
After dinner, Dafeng ran to Lao Ba's shack to get close to the mute woman.
Only Juzi and two other women were left in the shack. Lanzi sat on the straw mat, folding her old clothes in a disorderly manner, and carefully placed them under her pillow while folding them, preparing to flatten the wrinkled cotton clothes before going to bed at night.
Shadiuer's mother let her long hair down from the back of her head and used her hands as a comb to comb it over and over again. There were some grass foam, leaves and other things stuck to her hair from working during the day, so she picked them off and threw them on the ground while combing.
Juzi sat aside with a lot on his mind, watching the two women's neurotic movements, feeling sad and terrified for a moment.
She wanted to take advantage of Dafeng's absence to ask Lan Zi and Shadiu'er's mother some questions and find out the truth.
"You never go back. Don't you miss your children and home?" Juzi asked pretending to be indifferent.
The dry fingers of Shadiuer's mother suddenly stopped moving. She glanced at the orange out of the corner of her eye, then glanced again, and then said carefully: "Why not? Can't we go back?"
"Why can't I go back? Run!" Orange suddenly became impulsive.
"You want to run out of this forest? No way! Lao Ba has cast a curse on the forest a long time ago. There are bewitching ghosts everywhere. Once you enter, you will get lost. Otherwise, why is it called the Valley of Bewilderment?" Lan Zi pouted mysteriously. She didn't even look at Juzi, as if she was quite disdainful of her stupidity.
"Have you ever run away?" Juzi was unwilling to accept it. She repeatedly wanted to confirm whether there was really no way out once entering the Valley of Confusion. Why could Lao Ba go in and out as if it were flat ground?
"Oh! Think about it, Lao Ba has cast magic in the area within dozens of miles, and set traps and snares around here. Not even a fox can get in. How can such a living person want to get out? Didn't you also have a wire snare put on your thigh?" Shadiu'er's mother hastily pulled her hair behind her head, climbed up from the straw mat, walked to the door to spit, and came back to lie down.
"Once, a woman from another village wanted to escape and fell into a trap. She screamed for three days and three nights, but Lao Ba refused to let her be rescued. As a result, she was fed to the wolves alive! If you had seen this scene with your own eyes, would you dare to run away again?" Lan Zi's eyes became dull as she spoke.
Juzi thought that Lan Zi must not know about the mass grave behind the hill. If she knew that she would turn into bones there at a certain time, she would probably never be so calm again.
But what puzzled her was that Shadiuer's mother knew the secret of the death pit, so why did she remain calm?
At this moment, Juzi heard Shadiuer's mother sighing in the dark, and then she started crying almost silently. She thought that this poor woman was probably thinking of her children who couldn't take care of themselves - Shadiuer and his brothers and sisters.
"You idiot, have you ever run away too?" Juzi kept asking unwillingly.
Shadiuer's mother didn't bother to speak, so Lan answered for her: "She ran away three times, and each time she ran back by herself."
"Why?"
"I ran in a different direction. Once I ran for two days and one night, and at night I climbed a tree to hide from wild animals. I almost got fed to a bear. In the end, I ran back. Alas! Except for Lao Ba, no one can get out of the Lost Soul Valley." Lan Zi seemed very tired after saying this, and she took a long breath. "Even if Lao Ba died one day and asked us to get out, we wouldn't be able to find a way out!" Lan Zi added.
If Lao Ba is dead! This thought suddenly made Juzi extremely excited. She thought, if Lao Ba is dead, wouldn't they, the living ones, be able to find their way back?
But the fact is, later on, Orange discovered that not just anyone could enter or exit the Valley of Confusion.
At noon that day, the streets of Banpo Village were almost empty.
It was unprecedented that the villagers of Banpo were so enthusiastic to gather in a place where they normally wouldn't dare to come to watch the fun.
Xiaoduo's family had been preparing since the morning. At this moment, her brother and sister-in-law, parents, grandparents, and even her little nephew were present. Everyone in the family looked serious and the scene was solemn.
The onlookers were not so serious. The adults gathered in groups and talked a lot, while the children fought and chattered. They didn't understand what the adults were doing.
Xiaoduo's brother, who was tall, thin and dark, stood there, somewhat at a loss. He obviously didn't expect so many people from the village to come and watch their family's "soul-calling ceremony", and he inevitably felt nervous.
Now, he regretted a little that he had hit the "soul-calling banner" that was flying high when he entered the mountain just now.
Originally it was used for funerals. When Juzi's grandmother died a few days ago, Goudan carried one.
He made this thing by himself because he was eager to find his sister. He thought that since he was going up the mountain to call back the soul, a conspicuous soul-calling banner was indispensable. Otherwise, how could his family's piety be clearly shown in this deep mountain forest that blocked out the sun?
Who would have thought that this time, he would "summon" the souls of all the villagers.
"Does this... of yours work?" Shadiu'er 's father squeezed forward from the back of the crowd with sweat all over his forehead. He looked at the situation of Xiaoduo's family and seemed to be somewhat comforted. "If it works, I'll count as one of them. I'll also summon the soul of Shadiu'er's mother and ask her to come home quickly. These children can't live without a mother..."
"...What should I say?" Xiaoduo's father groaned for a moment, "Let's try it out. No one knows what happened to the person, but no matter what, we have to let them go home first? Letting them wander around as wandering ghosts is not a solution..." The old man's tears fell, and he choked and couldn't continue.
"Then I count as one too..." It was Dafeng's mother.
"I'm a part of it too." It was Lan Zi's father.
"Let's join in the fun and take some mushrooms to pay for the incense money, okay?" Another old couple squeezed in tremblingly. They were the mute woman's father and mother.
Only no one came out from Erzhuzi's family to call back his father's soul, because there was no one else in Erzhuzi's family except his father.
Suddenly, an old hand reached out from the crowd and pulled Dafeng's mother in. An old man cursed in a rough voice, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Go home now!"
Dafeng's mother suddenly burst into tears, like a flood that broke through a dam, drowning the entire mountain. Xiaoduo's mother's face suddenly turned pale, without a trace of blood.
"Oh my god! Now I understand why the doors of every house in the village are wide open. They all want to join in the fun and summon the souls of their own family members!" Someone in the crowd said in surprise. The crowd immediately started talking.
"When I was a kid, my family also summoned ghosts, but that was when people were at home and they got scared. Now that people are gone, what's the point of summoning ghosts?"
"I heard that by calling the spirit, people who are lost can find their way back on their own."
"Who can come back from the Soul-Losing Valley after entering it? Forget it!"
"Don't say that! Maybe it will work..."
"Oh! I think this matter should be reported to the government. If someone is missing, what's the point of not reporting it to the police and tinkering with it yourself?"
"Don't even mention the government. It's so far away. It takes a week to go back and forth. It's almost as long as going to Beijing to take the imperial examination."
"When a peddler comes in to deliver goods in a few days, I will write a letter and give it to him to take to the township police station and report the case."
"Stop making a fuss! A living person is missing, but they didn't report it themselves. Why are you making a fuss? Go home!" The young man who was about to report the case just now was scolded in public by his father and never said a word again.
A few people on the side laughed sarcastically.
The noisy mountaintop finally quieted down. Xiaoduo's father walked to the front of the family, faced the forest, lit a stick of incense, bowed respectfully several times, and then knelt down properly. The whole family, young and old, immediately knelt down as well.
The crowd watching the excitement became excited and began to "buzz" noisily again.
When the families whose women had been lost saw Xiaoduo's family kneeling, they rushed over in a hurry and suddenly knelt behind Xiaoduo's family.
This scene suddenly stimulated the crowd of onlookers, and the hilltop immediately became silent.
"Lord Mountain God, Lady Forest Goddess, I, Han Jiachang, have led my entire family to come and present gifts to you two." Xiaoduo's father raised his voice and shouted towards the mountain.
Only then did people notice that there was a large rooster tied tightly on the stone in front of him, its fiery red feathers standing out among the green grass.
The rooster seemed to understand what its owner said and crowed a few times to show that the so-called "gift" did exist.
"I pray that you two elders will bless my daughter Xiaoduo and her sister Juzi to have a safe journey and return home safely. My whole family is here to kowtow to you two elders to express our gratitude!" As he said this, he kowtowed on the ground continuously like a chicken sniffing rice, and the whole family followed suit.
"Xiaoduo..." Xiaoduo's mother's voice trembled. She cupped her hands into a trumpet, put it around her mouth, and shouted into the woods, "Come home soon..." The whole family lowered their heads and knelt on the ground devoutly, listening to Xiaoduo's mother calling for her soul. After the old lady called for a while, they would lie on the ground and kowtow for a while.
"Juzi..." Xiaoduo's mother called again: "You must take good care of Xiaoduo and come back together..."
The sound traveled far away, and the eyes of the whole village followed the sound into the distance. They looked into the woods involuntarily, as if Xiaoduo and Juzi would appear there soon.
Xiaoduo's family finally got up from the ground exhausted.
Now it was the turn of those villagers who wanted to "have a share" to come forward and call back the souls of their loved ones.
Suddenly, a hoarse voice of "Shadiu'er's mother..." startled everyone. It sounded like Shadiu'er's father was really moved: "Come back soon! You left a bunch of stupid kids at home and went away by yourself. What should I, a grown man, do?" The man complained to his wife in tears. Everyone wanted to laugh just now, but now they couldn't laugh anymore.
People immediately thought of the woman whose face was always rosy all year round, regardless of whether it was cold or hot, and who went up the mountain to pick wild vegetables and dug up dirt in the fields with her child on her back.
"This woman is so cruel. She just left the child behind and walked away... She's doing such a sin. Maybe she ran off with another man..."
"The life in his family is not worthy of a human being. If I run away, maybe I can enjoy a few days of happiness..." Although women have always been disparaged as "long hair and short knowledge", they are always eager to express their views on life on various occasions. Of course, these are conclusions they draw with their own eyes.
The noisy "calling back the soul" ceremony lasted until the sun set. People came down from the North Mountain in groups. All the onlookers had left, but Orange's mother was still standing under a big tree, leaning on her hand to look up the mountain, as if she wanted to find an orange in the vast sea of trees.
Her eyes were filled with suspicion, unable to conceal her inner fear.
"Let's go, Juzi's mother. Aren't you afraid here alone?" Xiaoduo's mother came over and held her arm. The two women followed the crowd and went down the mountain, looking back every step of the way.
