Hibiskus als Gemälde

Kapitel 49

"No! Nizi, you can't go with him." Youliang stood in front of Nizi, speaking with righteous indignation.

“Brother Youliang,” Nizi stammered, “but…I really miss my mother…”

"He's a liar, he's lying, you mustn't believe him," Youliang said, his face flushed, trying to explain.

With tears welling in her eyes, Nizi said softly, "But all these years, no one has ever mentioned my mother..."

Facing Master Jia, Youliang said indignantly, "Then, who is Nizi's father? You're not going to say you know again, are you?"

“Of course I know,” Master Jia said calmly. “His name is Yang Gong, and he’s from Huanglong Prefecture in Guandong.”

Nizi's eyes widened, and she asked blankly, "My father...you know my father too?"

Master Jia stood at the door, pushed it open with one hand, and the night breeze blew in gently. "Girl, do you want to come with me or not?" He was absolutely certain that a six or seven-year-old girl who had been separated from her parents since childhood would be tempted once she learned of their whereabouts.

"I...I'm leaving." Nizi made up her mind and silently stretched out one hand...

Master Jia grabbed Nizi, pulled her into his arms, leaped backward out of the room, and then suddenly jumped more than ten feet into the air, leaping over the wooden fence in the backyard. He carried Nizi through the thicket and headed north.

"Meow..." A cat meowed from Nizi's arms, and only then did Master Jia notice that Nizi had also brought the "coffin-carrying cat".

Inside the warehouse, Youliang stood there, stunned... Over the past few days, he had come to regard Nizi as his own sister. Ever since their parents died, he had secretly vowed to take care of Nizi forever, never to leave her side. Although at twelve or thirteen years old he didn't understand much about matters of the heart, Youliang firmly believed that the only meaning of his life was Nizi.

At that moment, Youliang suddenly realized what was happening. "Nizi!" he shouted, stepped over the unconscious Captain Zhang, rushed out of the door, climbed over the wooden fence, and chased after her into the thicket.

When Youliang stumbled out of the woods, Nizi and the others had already disappeared. Youliang sat down on the ground and burst into tears.

For the entire night, Youliang wandered around Tongguan City like a lost soul, searching for Nizi's whereabouts.

As dawn broke, he leaned wearily against the corner of the South Water Gate wall, staring blankly at the sky, muttering to himself, "Nizi..."

At this moment, an old monk walked over from a distance and stood in front of Youliang.

Youliang's gaze slowly shifted to the old monk's face, and he exclaimed in surprise, "Uncle-Master Weidu..."

(Part 1 Complete)

Chapter 71 of the main text

In late spring, in Jiangnan, "the willow catkins have all fallen and the cuckoos are crying," willow catkins are flying, cuckoos are singing at night, peonies are blooming, and cherries are ripe. Meanwhile, in the distant Guandong region of Huanglongfu, the earth has just recovered from the frost, and people are starting to drive oxcarts and horse-drawn carts to deliver manure to the boundless black soil. As the saying goes, "Sow wheat during Qingming, plant crops in the fields during Guyu," and it's clear that the farm work in the fields will soon be in full swing.

The Songhua River, known as "Song'achali Ula" in Jurchen (Manchu) and translated as "Heavenly River" in Chinese, originates from Tianchi Lake in Changbai Mountain, on the border between China and North Korea. It is nearly 2,000 kilometers long and eventually flows into the Heilongjiang River. During the Eastern Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, the upper reaches were called "Sumo River" and the lower reaches were called "Nan River". It was named Songhua River during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty.

The confluence of the Songhua River and the Yitong River has a gentle surface and has historically been a place where red-tailed carp are produced. These carp are large with red tails and extremely delicious flesh. In the past, they were a precious tribute from Jilin Ula to the imperial court.

Yaowopu Village in Kaoshan Township is located on the bank of a branch of the Songhua River. In addition to growing some sorghum, corn and other grains, people also go out to fish and catch small shrimp in the river in the morning and evening. Although they are not rich, they can still get by.

The name "Yaowopu" is strange. Even the old people in the village can't explain its origin. Although it may seem a bit unlucky, the soil here is fertile and there is enough food, so people don't care whether the name is good or bad.

From roughly the time of the Manchukuo regime, the villages along the banks of the Yitong River were never peaceful. Young men would frequently die suddenly in their sleep at night, their deaths highly suspicious, and their bodies unusually gruesome – typically with sunken, caved-in chests and bulging eyes, a chilling sight. From the Japanese military police in Xinjing during the Manchukuo era, to the later Kuomintang Changchun Police Department, and even the Jilin Provincial Public Security Bureau after liberation, for half a century, no one has been able to determine the cause of death of these corpses, while new cases continue to occur.

Over the years, Beijing has sent several investigation teams to secretly investigate the local geography, culture, and other environmental conditions. In the end, they only found that the local well water had a high fluoride content and that the villagers, regardless of age or gender, all had yellow teeth. Apart from that, there were no other abnormalities.

Old Master Li Dihuo is over seventy years old and is the oldest in Yaowopu Village. Although he is thin as a rake and has been lying on the kang (a heated brick bed) for many years, he is always sickly but never dies. The villagers say, "Look at this old man, who would have thought he would live a long life?"

The old man had no children and was a recipient of the "Five Guarantees" (a government-provided social welfare program for the elderly, disabled, and orphans) in the village. Each year, the government gave him some sorghum and corn, barely enough to survive. Years ago, he took in a homeless, mentally challenged man named "Ge Lao Er" (Old Ge the Second), who is now in his thirties. The "mentally challenged" man was actually intellectually disabled; in today's terms, he was a complete idiot. In his youth, he often swaggered around with a sickle hanging between his legs, and one day he accidentally cut off a piece of his penis, demonstrating his intellectual disability. Thus, in the locals' impoverished cultural life, another proverb emerged: "jibashanggualiandao—gelaoer (cutting off an old man)."

At dusk, Old Master Li, lying on the kang (a heated brick bed), suddenly instructed, "Ge Er, go and cast your line tonight and catch some fat catfish. We will have distinguished guests at our house tomorrow."

"What is a 'tortoise shell'?" Ge Lao Er asked, looking rather naive.

Old Master Li ignored him and muttered to himself, "Catfish eats 'death' so well, it's perfect for entertaining distinguished guests."

"What is 'death'?" Ge Lao Er blinked and asked patiently.

“They’re people who drowned,” Old Master Li coughed twice and replied.

At night, the moonlight is hazy, and the surface of the Yitong River is shrouded in mist, a phenomenon caused by evaporation due to the temperature difference between day and night.

The Yitong River, which is "Yitu River" in Manchu and a transliteration of an ancient Jurchen word, is an ancient river that has flowed for thousands of years on the Changchun Plain. It originates from the northern foot of Qingding Mountain in the Hadaling Mountains in Yitong County, Jilin Province, and flows into the Yinma River, a tributary of the Songhua River, at Yaowopu Village, Kaoshan Township, Huanglong Prefecture (now Nong'an County).

Under the moonlight, Ge Lao Er set out his "fishing hook" along the riverbank. This is a traditional local method for catching catfish: a small wooden stick is stuck into the bank, a thin hemp rope five or six meters long is tied to it, a fishhook with a large green earthworm on it is attached to the end of the rope, and then it is thrown into the water and left unattended. The next morning, when the rope is pulled, almost every hook will have a large catfish on it, a sure thing. It is the most popular fishing method among the local children.

Ge Lao Er cast more than ten "snagging hooks," then yawned, turned around and walked back. When he was almost in the village, he suddenly saw a figure in the moonlight jumping over the wall of Wang Laonian's house...

He rubbed his eyes and was surprised to find that the figure looked exactly like Old Master Li Dihuo. Ge Lao Er muttered, "This is really a ghost. The old man has been 'lying in bed' for most of his life. How could he have climbed over walls and ridges to become an immortal?"

Back home, the east room was dark, and the old man was snoring loudly. "Hmm, I must be seeing things," Ge Lao Er thought to himself.

At dawn the next day, Ge Lao Er groped his way to the riverbank in the dark, reeling in his hooks one by one. He had caught seven or eight catfish of various sizes, including one particularly large one that weighed three or four pounds. Ge Lao Er excitedly carried the catfish back, but just as he reached the edge of the village, he heard a woman's heart-wrenching scream, extremely eerie and terrifying in the night sky. It was coming from inside Wang Laonian's mud house…

As he approached, the neighbors had already run out of their homes, dressed in their clothes, and gathered in front of the mud houses, discussing amongst themselves, their faces filled with fear.

Ge Lao Er squeezed inside. On the heated kang bed inside the room lay Wang Laonian's naked corpse, his chest sunken and shriveled, as if his ribs were broken, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling...

Although the two old men, Ge and his companion, were somewhat simple-minded, they still knew that a person should close their eyes when they die. So they reached out and touched Wang Laonian's face a couple of times. Seeing that the deceased had finally closed his eyelids, they smiled with satisfaction.

Suddenly, Wang Laonian abruptly opened his eyes again, his fixed pupils staring directly at Ge Lao Er...

"Oh my god!" Ge Lao Er was startled and turned to run, shouting, "It's terrible! A zombie has come back to life..."

Everyone was shocked and rushed into the house to see that Wang Laonian's body was still the same as before, with empty eyes staring blankly into the air.

"Alas, another one has died..." an old woman sighed with heartache.

"Fish, a big catfish!" Ge Lao Er, carrying the catfish in both hands, excitedly kicked open the door and rushed into the east room.

"What an idiot, rushing to be reborn?" Old Master Li scolded from his bed.

"What a fat catfish! Second brother wants to eat fish..." Ge Lao Er happily held up the fish in his hand to show the old man, while saying, "Hehe, another one died."

"What did you say?" the old man asked.

"Old Wang is dead, but he still won't close his eyes. He's like a zombie, trying to scare people..." Old Ge said with lingering fear.

"A zombie? Hmph, what a liar." The old man scoffed.

"Old man, can you scale walls and leap across rooftops?" Ge Lao Er asked casually, recalling the silhouette of the nighttime pedestrian he had glimpsed.

"Flying over rooftops and scaling walls? What are you talking about?" The old man stared at Ge Lao Er and asked, puzzled.

"I saw a figure climbing over the wall from... from Wang Laonian's house, it looked like..." Ge Lao Er stammered.

"Who is it?" the old man asked sternly.

"It looks like you. I thought you had become an immortal." Ge Lao Er chuckled foolishly.

"Don't talk nonsense! I'll kick you out of the house!" the old man said angrily.

Upon hearing this, Ge Lao Er turned pale with fright and mumbled repeatedly, "Lao Er won't say anymore, Lao Er won't say anymore." He then hurriedly turned around and went to the kitchen to clean the catfish.

In front of the stove, Ge Lao Er grabbed a kitchen knife and gutted the lively catfish one by one, removing their gills. By daybreak, the catfish were all cleaned up.

"Second son, bring all the fish in." The old man's voice came from the east room.

Ge Lao Er hurriedly carried the fish basin into the house.

"Put it on the kang (heated brick bed)," the old man instructed.

"Yes." Ge Lao Er obediently placed the fish basin on the kang (a heated brick bed), then looked at the old man, wondering what he was going to do.

"Go out and make some flatbread. Our important guests will be arriving after dawn. You stay put and don't say anything out of line, understand?" the old man scolded.

"Second Brother understands." Ge Lao Er replied respectfully, then turned and left.

In Northeast China, people cook by burning sorghum stalks, which are corn and millet. They need at least a large bundle at a time. Old Ge was clumsy, and the kitchen was filled with smoke, making his eyes water. So he ran outside for some fresh air. Suddenly, a thought struck him: what did the old man want fish for? Could he be secretly eating it himself? With that thought, he tiptoed to the window and peered through a small hole in the torn window paper into the house…

The old man held the largest catfish in both hands, his head bowed, kissing the catfish's head...

Chapter Seventy-Two of the Main Text

Daylight had broken, and more and more people were gathering in front of Wang Laonian's house. The children hid behind the adults, both fearful and curious, too timid to peek inside.

Ge Lao Er walked in from the north end of the village, clutching a scallion in one hand and munching on a cornbread pancake, humming the Northeastern folk song "Eighteen Touches": "Reach out and touch my belly button, it's like Maitreya's navel back then; reach out and touch my buttocks, it's like a big white sheep..."

"Ge Lao Er, someone has died, and you're still singing 'Eighteen Touches' here? Be careful, or you'll get a slap!" someone scolded fiercely.

Ge Lao Er quickly shut up and slipped to a corner on the outskirts of the crowd, standing on tiptoe to watch the excitement.

The village chief said to everyone with a heavy heart, "The township said that the county police will be here soon and that we need to protect the scene. Damn it, every year or so, a strong laborer dies in this Yaowopu village. We have to find out the reason."

"That's right, what kind of evil spirit did we encounter..." The villagers started discussing among themselves.

Just then, a car horn sounded from the south end of the village, and criminal investigators from the Nong'an County Public Security Bureau arrived. The car stopped, and several policemen jumped out, parted the crowd, and went into the house. One of the technicians was carrying a black leather bag.

While conducting the on-site investigation, the criminal investigation team began questioning the villagers one by one. Since the incident occurred late at night, all the neighbors in the village were fast asleep, and there were no witnesses. Wang Laonian's wife was sleeping even more soundly. Although they were on the same kang (a heated brick bed), she did not notice anything amiss until she went out to urinate at dawn and realized something was wrong.

"Didn't you hear a thing?" Officer Qi asked, holding a small notebook in his hand.

"No...no," Wang Laonian's wife replied, sobbing.

“Officer,” the village chief said with a serious expression, “you came here when Li Zhuzi died the year before last, but the case is still unsolved. Today, Wang Laonian died exactly the same way as Li Zhuzi. We, the common people, are not willing to wait like this indefinitely.”

The villagers started shouting, "Yeah, who knows whose turn it will be next time? Are you all just sitting around doing nothing?"

“Fellow villagers,” Officer Qi waved his hand to quiet the noise, then explained, “In Kaoshan Township, not only now, but since the time of the Japanese occupation of Manchukuo, there have been nearly a hundred murder cases similar to Wang Laonian’s. Although the Japanese and the Kuomintang couldn’t solve the case back then, now it is the new China, the world of the Communist Party. Please trust the Party and the government, this case will be solved sooner or later.”

The crowd continued to chatter, refusing to listen to Officer Qi's explanation.

"The hardest thing about these kinds of cases is the lack of eyewitnesses. Sigh, if only someone could accidentally stumble upon one..." Officer Qi sighed to himself.

"Second brother... I saw it..." Ge Lao Er stood behind the people and said hesitantly.

People seemed to stop breathing, the air became deathly still, and all eyes were fixed on Ge Lao Er...

"What did you say? You saw... the murderer?" Officer Qi was genuinely shocked and stammered as he asked.

"Second Brother saw it... It was leaping across the rooftops of Wang Laonian's house, it was a fairy..." Ge Lao Er said timidly to Officer Qi.

Someone couldn't help but chuckle first, and then a burst of hysterical laughter erupted from the crowd.

"What are you laughing at?" Officer Qi shouted impatiently, then asked impatiently, "What time of night did you see it? What were you doing at the time? Do you know that person? What does he look like?"

"Officer, he's an idiot," people told Officer Qi with a laugh.

Officer Qi remained unmoved. This was the first eyewitness he had encountered in many years. Even if the person was a fool, he would still press for details.

"Lao Er saw it last night when he came back from setting up the 'ground hook'..." Ge Lao Er raised his eyes and looked timidly at the police officer.

"Don't be afraid, keep going," Officer Qi encouraged.

“Second Brother really saw him, Second Brother knows him…” Ge Lao Er said in a low voice.

People gradually quieted down and listened attentively.