Cheng Laoben bought half a pound of cooked beef, half a pound of cooked pork belly, a few side dishes, and a bottle of wine. It was a fine bottle of wine, something Cheng Laoben would never have been willing to spend normally. 

Back home, Cheng Laoben set his alarm and began to drink slowly. He drank and drank, slowly. 

He couldn't hold his liquor well, and he hadn't been a heavy drinker before, so he soon felt dizzy and dazed. But he kept drinking. 

He treated this as his last meal, and he wanted to enjoy it. 

Later, he found Xiaoyu asleep, curled up on a small stool. He carried her to bed, tucked her in, and returned to drink again. 

Before he knew it, he had passed out in his chair. 

Suddenly, the alarm went off. 

It was exactly two o'clock in the morning. 

Cheng Laoben was startled and woke up. He was confused for a while before he figured out the situation and remembered his plan. 

He sighed, stretched his arms, slowly stood up and walked towards the yard. 

The gasoline was placed in the corner of the yard. 

When he picked up the plastic bottle, he found something wrong. 

It was obviously lighter. 

He opened the lid of the bottle and found that it was empty. 

What happened? 

He was shocked. 

After a while, he returned to the house with the plastic bottle. 

With the light of the lamp, he looked at the plastic bottle over and over again. There was no leakage. How could it be empty? Where did the gasoline go? 

Cheng Laoben sat on the chair, holding the plastic bottle in a daze. 

He couldn't figure out what had happened. 

Xiaoyu woke up and turned to look at her father. 

"Dad, I'm thirsty." Xiaoyu said. 

There was half a cup of cold water in Cheng Laoben's jar. Cheng Laoben added some hot water, held Xiaoyu in his arms, and fed her water. 

Xiaoyu took a few big gulps of water and smiled comfortably at her father. 

"Thank you, Dad," she said. 

Cheng Laoben felt that he should ask Xiaoyu in his arms. 

"Did you wake up just now?" Cheng Laoben asked. 

"Yes," said his daughter. 

"Then did you see anyone coming?" Cheng Laoben asked again. 

The smile on Xiaoyu's face disappeared. 

She nodded. 

"Who was it? Who came?" Cheng Laoben asked hurriedly. 

Xiaoyu didn't really want to say it, but Cheng Laoben forced her to ask, so she answered her father. 

"It's mom." She said, her face very depressed. 

Cheng Laoben was surprised. 

"It's impossible, how could it be mom?" Cheng Laoben said. 

"It's mom." The daughter insisted. 

"Really? Did you see it clearly?" 

"I saw it clearly." The daughter said, "But mom has changed." 

"Changed? How did she change?" 

Xiaoyu hesitated to speak, but in the end, she still said it. 

"Her belly has gotten really big," she said, gesturing in her father's arms. 

"So big, so big," she said. 

"But her neck has become so thin, like a scallion. As soon as she saw me, she started crying. She said she felt terrible and was very hungry, but her neck was so thin that she couldn't eat anything." 

Cheng Laoben's eyes widened. 

"Hearing Mom say that made me cry too," Xiaoyu said. "Mom comforted me, saying she'd done something bad and was being punished like this after death. It was the punishment she deserved, nothing." 

Cheng Laoben's eyes widened even further. 

"Mom asked me to do something. She said if I didn't do it, you, Dad, would become like her," Xiaoyu said. 

"What did she ask you to do?" Cheng Laoben asked his daughter foolishly. 

The daughter huddled in Cheng Laoben's arms and timidly raised her left index finger, pointing to the empty plastic jug on the chair. 

"Mom asked me to empty the contents of that jug into the toilet," she said. 

Cheng Laoben was even more stunned. 

After a while, he realized something was wrong. 

"Impossible, you can't lift that plastic jug," Cheng Laoben said, looking at his daughter in his arms. 

The plastic jug filled with gasoline was not light, and besides, it was not a short distance to carry it from the corner of the wall to the toilet. 

"At first I couldn't lift it, but then my mother pointed her finger at the plastic jug and I could lift it," said the daughter. 

Cheng Laoben's mouth was wide open, and he didn't close it for a long time. 

When Cheng Laoben, carrying a lot of bags and holding Xiaoyu's hand, walked to the village entrance, he met the village chief. 

The village chief's house was right at the entrance. 

It was a large courtyard with the gate open, and you could see that it was piled high with corn stalks. 

The village chief had been drunk the day before and got up a little late. He had just finished breakfast and was sitting on a chair at the door, smoking leisurely. 

"Laoben, where are you going with all these things?" the village chief asked Laoben. 

"Back to the mine," Laoben said. 

The village chief asked Laoben with a smile, but Laoben's face was ashen, without a trace of smile.