Chapter 20.1 The Banquet of Death
Although their speed increased, the heavy rain still fell before they reached the village.
Big raindrops pitter-pattered on the glass windows. The view in front of the car window became blurred, and the dirt road under the wheels became muddy. For safety reasons, Song Qingluo had to slow down the car. He originally planned to arrive at noon, but reaching their destination was postponed until evening.
Along the way, Lin Banxia was observing the surrounding scenery. As they went deeper and deeper into the forest, the surrounding area became desolate. Through the heavy rain curtain, Lin Banxia could not see any buildings, but occasionally he saw one or two desolate tombs on the side of the road.
The two people in the back seat of the car were already drowsy. Lin Banxia was afraid that Song Qingluo would be too tired from driving and did not dare to take a rest. He kept sitting next to him and chatting with him. Unfortunately, Song Qingluo talked very little, and Lin Banxia was the one talking most of the time. He talked about some things he encountered at work, such as someone jumping from a building and leaving a body that was smashed to pieces. Unfortunately, the new employee was careless and missed a piece. After it was discovered by the family, there was a long quarrel. Another incident was a man who took his mistress out for a car ride, but in the crash the two of them flew out of the cab since they weren’t wearing seat belts. The man collided with the mistress’s body. Because the impact was too violent, the two bodies were stuck together. They couldn’t be separated no matter what. When the man’s wife found out about it, she was so angry that she found a random place and buried them without even a funeral…
There were too many of these stories to mention, but Lin Banxia chose the ones that made the most impression.
Song Qingluo just listened and eventually asked Lin Banxia how long he had been doing this job.
“It’s been a few years.” Lin Banxia said, “I’ve been doing this since graduation, and I haven’t changed it.”
Song Qingluo said: “Haven’t you thought about changing to other jobs?”
Lin Banxia smiled and said: “I don’t need to change jobs; this one is pretty good.”
Song Qingluo glanced at him and didn’t ask why.
As they spoke, the scenery in front of them also changed. The lush trees outside the car gradually became smaller, and the field of vision broadened. After their car drove into a wide flat land, Song Qingluo stopped the car.
The rain subsided a little, and Lin Banxia and the others changed into raincoats in the car before getting out.
As soon as he got out of the car, Lin Banxia noticed a stone tablet standing on the side of the road. On the stone tablet were written three bright red characters: Sanshui Village.
This should be the name of the village. Lin Banxia was looking down at the stone tablet when an exclamation came from beside him.
“What is that?!” Mou Xinsi sounded shocked.
Lin Banxia followed her gaze and saw a dead tree that had fallen on the ground not far away. The dead tree looked to be some years old. The trunk was so thick that even two adults couldn’t wrap their arms around it. Most of the tree’s roots were broken. They were not neatly chopped off but were severely torn.
“There seems to be something pressed under the tree.” He Huaian had good eyesight and could tell that something was strange at a glance.
Song Qingluo walked toward the tree, followed closely by Lin Banxia.
When the four of them arrived in front of the tree, they finally saw what was under the tree. It turned out to be an off-road vehicle. The front of the vehicle was completely crushed by the heavy tree trunk. It was unknown whether there had been anyone inside.
The moment He Huaian saw the car, he had a bad premonition. After finding the deformed license plate, his face suddenly turned pale, and he said in a trembling voice: “This… is this not the car that the four people drove?”
Mou Xinsi thought: “Is it really?”
He Huaian said: “Of course it’s true. I remember the license plate number!!! Are they in the car?”
Lin Banxia squatted next to the car, observed it carefully, and frowned: “…Are you sure this car belongs to your companion?” He couldn’t bear it, and his voice was lowered, “There seems to be something in this cab… There is a corpse, and it looks like it must have been here for a few days.”
He Huaian and Mou Xinsi were stunned at the same time.
Lin Banxia was in this business after all. Although he didn’t do professional autopsies, he still had some experience in the state of corpses. The corpse had begun to decay. According to the current weather conditions, it had to have been at least three or four days. It could be estimated that it was about the time when the companions who came here lost contact with them.
Song Qingluo was wearing a raincoat and rain boots but did not forget to hold up an umbrella. He seemed to hate getting wet and tried his best to keep his body dry. He said softly: “This is not the only one.”
Lin Banxia looked back at him.
Song Qingluo pointed.
Lin Banxia glanced at where Song Qingluo was pointing, and sure enough, he saw another strange mark on the tree trunk not far from the cab. The trunk seemed to have hit something, and part of it was left on the surface. An uncomfortable stain formed. It had rained in the past few days, and part of the stain was washed away by the rain, but you can still see the remaining meat scraps and white bone residue on it.
“Let’s find a place to live first.” Song Qingluo said, “We’ll wait until the rain stops, then go into the village to investigate.”
“Okay.” He Huaian nodded.
The four of them got in the car and drove some distance into the village along the much wider road. Finally, they saw a series of houses. It was almost evening, and it got dark very early due to the rain. A little light shone through the windows of the houses on the roadside, but there was still no one on the road, as if the whole village was asleep.
Song Qingluo randomly found a house with lights on, parked the car next to it, went up and knocked on the door.
It was unknown whether it was because the rain was too loud and the people inside didn’t hear it, or whether they were unwilling to open the door at all, but there was no movement in the house.
“What can we do?” He Huaian became worried. He took out his mobile phone and frowned at the weak two-bar signal. He dialed a number anyway and muttered, “I’ll try calling again. I don’t know if I can get through though.”
Lin Banxia didn’t expect He Huaian to get through. Unexpectedly, a few seconds later, He Huaian’s eyes lit up and he said, “It got through!”
“Hey, is this the village chief? Yes, yes, we have sent someone over again.” He Huaian covered the microphone and tried his best to block out the sound of the rain. “We have arrived at the village now, and we are at the entrance of the village now. Are you coming to pick us up? Hello? Hello?”
“Damn, the signal is lost again.” He Huaian cursed.
“But it’s been connected. He should know that we are coming, right?” Mou Xinsi looked at He Huaian longingly, hoping that things were not that bad.
“It should be so.” He Huaian said, “We just have to wait for a while.”
They found a roof that could provide shelter from the rain and stood under it, waiting for the village chief.
About ten minutes later, a faint light appeared in the thick rain curtain. Behind the light was a middle-aged man wearing a bamboo hat and a raincoat. His expressionless face was stained with rain. He saw the four of them and whispered: “Why are you here again?”
He Huaian said enthusiastically: “Are you the village chief?”
“Didn’t I tell you not to come?” Although the village chief came, his attitude was not very good and he complained, “This has offended the mountain god. No matter how many people you send, you will only die. So why bother?!”
When He Huaian was told this, his expression suddenly became awkward and he said, “Why do you say that? Since we dare to come, there must be something we can do… We can’t just let people continue to die in your village, right?”
The village chief sneered: “There is a way, there is a way. Why are the four who came earlier dead, and each one died more miserably than the other?!”
Although He Huaian already had a guess in his mind, he still felt a little uncomfortable when he heard this sentence: “All dead?”
The village chief said: “They are all dead.” He turned around and led the four people in the direction they were going. “Forget it, forget it, you are already here. It’s too late to say anything. Come to the place where you will live with me first.”
The four of them followed the village chief to a small building very close to the village entrance.
After entering the small building, the four of them took off their rain gear, shook the rain off their bodies, and entered the house one by one. Song Qingluo said nothing after seeing the village chief. At this time, he took off his raincoat and his hands and face were stained with some rainwater. He frowned slightly and was about to wipe it off with his sleeves when he saw Lin Banxia hand him a clean tissue.
“You don’t like water then?” Lin Banxia said with a smile.
“Hmm.” Song Qingluo snorted softly.
“Then why do you like Coke so much?” Lin Banxia asked.
Song Qingluo hesitated for a moment: “Coke is sweet.”
Not liking water unless it was sweet, Lin Banxia couldn’t help but laugh, thinking that Song Qingluo looked a little cute like this.
The village chief over there turned to the kitchen and brought out several bowls of hot ginger soup for the four of them. The soup was placed on the table, but no one dared to touch it.
The village chief snorted coldly, took out a burning twig from the kang next to him, knocked heavily on the table, shook off some ashes, and said: “You dare to come here, yet you don’t dare to drink ginger soup?”
Lin Banxia actually thought what he said made sense, but Song Qingluo hadn’t moved yet, and no one dared to reach out for the soup.
He Huaian forced a smile, trying to ease the embarrassment, and said, “Mr. Village Chief, we want to know what happened.”
The village chief said: “Dead, all dead.” He took a puff of cigarette, his tone was cold, and he talked about people’s life and death as plainly as if they were discussing the weather, “One was bitten by an insect, and the other drowned in the water. The other two were crushed to death by a falling tree when they tried to run away. Each one died more miserably than the other. There are not many people in the village. The tree couldn’t be moved, so even the corpses couldn’t be collected… What are you doing here now that things are like this?”
When he said this, He Huaian and Mou Xinsi’s faces turned a bit pale. When they finally heard how the others died, Mou Xinsi was completely pale. She quietly glanced at Lin Banxia, who was sitting next to Song Qingluo, and found that the new monitor didn’t change his expression. He slowly took out the half-drunk bottle of Coke from his pocket and took a sip. After finishing the drink, he smiled and handed the remaining Coke to Song Qingluo.
Song Qingluo didn’t care either and took the remaining Coke and gulped it down in one breath.
Wait…drank it all in one gulp?
Mou Xinsi thought that if she remembered correctly, this supervisor named Song Qingluo was notoriously difficult to get along with. Would such a person drink Coke that others had drunk from? Mou Xinsi’s expression looked like she had seen a ghost.
He Huaian was much calmer than Mou Xinsi. After all, he had already been shocked in the car when he came just now, so he just patted Mou Xinsi’s hand gently to signal her to not be so obvious.
Mou Xinsi forced a smile and withdrew her gaze with difficulty, thinking that the rumors might not be completely true.
Still, no one wanted to touch the ginger soup on the table. The village chief picked it up and took a big sip. He said unhappily: “What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that I will poison you? If I wanted to kill people, why would I contact the outside world and ask them to come help? Isn’t it better to wait for everyone to die? ”
Mou Xinsi opened her mouth, but for a moment she couldn’t think of anything to refute.
“I advise you to go back tomorrow.” The village chief poured cold water on them. “I’m afraid this village is in trouble. If they know that outsiders are coming… I’m afraid it will be detrimental to you.”
“What’s going on?” He Huaian said, “Didn’t it just say that people started to die in the village at the beginning? Them? Who are they?”
The village chief said: “The older generation in the village. Indeed, at first, it was just dead people. I thought it was someone who was causing trouble at the time, but now that it has been so long, I can see clearly that it is really not a human being, but freak accidents sent by God to show his anger.” He took a few puffs of a cigarette, as if to vent the frustration in his heart, “The older generation said that the mountain god has been offended. As long as enough people die, the mountain god will calm down. Currently, the people in the village are scared, and yet more strangers have arrived… How can I have time to entertain you!?”
Lin Banxia asked strangely: “How did those two people at the village gate die?”
The village chief glanced at him and said, “Didn’t you see it? They were killed by a tree. A big lightning bolt struck down, and both of them died…” He sighed, “Such things can happen to you. Say, what does this have to do with anything?”
Lin Banxia was silent and thought about how the people were struck to death by lightning. It seemed that it was indeed beyond the scope of what humans could do. However, what the village chief said was not necessarily true. At most, he would only believe 60-70% of it.
“It’s too late, let’s rest first.” Song Qingluo, who had been silent all this time, said, “Mr. Village Chief, can you lend us a few rooms for one night?”
The village chief said: “There are rooms, but they were used by your people before. Now they are all dead. If you are not afraid, you can continue to live there. Their things are still in there and nobody had time to take it away.”
Having said that, there was no other way, so the four of them arranged their rooms. As a girl, Mou Xinsi was supposed to live in a room by herself, but everyone was afraid of something happening, so they let her and He Huaian make do. Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo slept on the same bed as a matter of course.
Although it was spring now, the weather in the mountains was a little colder. The village chief provided them with thick bedding. Lin Banxia tidied them up after entering the house.
Song Qingluo walked around the house and found something likely left by the previous wave of people. It could be seen that they were in a hurry when they left. He didn’t know whether they found something or were simply afraid. Many things were left in the house, and there was even a mobile phone. Unfortunately, the phone had a password set and Song Qingluo couldn’t open it.
After a day’s journey, Lin Banxia was a little tired. After a simple wash, he asked Song Qingluo to go to bed.
Song Qingluo hummed, changed his clothes, and lay down next to Lin Banxia.
“What are we going to do first tomorrow?” Lin Banxia was doing this for the first time and had little experience.
“Though the people are dead,” Song Qingluo said, “their bodies should still be there. Let’s go see the bodies first.”
Lin Banxia said: “Yes.”
Song Qingluo said: “Go to sleep.”
Lin Banxia closed his eyes and heard Song Qingluo’s breathing gradually becoming even by his side. This was the first time the two of them lay on the same bed. For some reason, he, who had always slept well, was a little nervous. He thought carefully. After thinking about it, he attributed it to the strange environment. The rain outside the window was pounding, with no intention of stopping. Lin Banxia’s consciousness gradually became blurred, and finally sank into darkness.
Translator’s comments:
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