Chapter 1: Zhou Yan
Dazed and confused.
His mind was blank.
Zhou Yan's thoughts slowly converged, but his last remaining memories hadn't returned. He only remembered that before, a group of people were deep-mountain hiking near Mount Tai. As a member of the city's volunteer search and rescue team, he was assisting in the search, and then he had no further recollection.
Did his horse stumble, did he miss his footing and fall?
My mom always said I was a child prayed for from the Mount Tai Goddess, and she wouldn't let me go up Mount Tai.
But I didn't even go to the main peak of Mount Tai.
It's a bit hot…
His mind was a jumble of thoughts.
He seemed to be lying flat on a small cart, only able to look up at the narrow sky. Perhaps he had escaped death by a hair's breadth; although his body was stiff and sore, he felt a great sense of relief and even had the leisure to stare blankly, thinking the sky was exceptionally blue, comparable to the prairie on a clear day.
The cart pulled him forward, and the things he saw in his eyes were constantly changing.
The ground was rugged, and the cart was very bumpy.
His bones ached.
Some people passed by, greeting the person pulling the cart, and seeing the paralyzed Zhou Yan, they asked in surprise:
"Found him?"
"Yeah, lucky. Today I felt it was boring to go to bed early, so I went for a stroll and found this person who fell from the mountain."
The voices in their conversation sounded like a dialect, but Zhou Yan, strangely, could understand them.
These people looked at Zhou Yan, talked amongst themselves, and finally just sighed:
"What good luck."
Yes, what good luck.
Zhou Yan himself felt that to fall from the mountain and still survive was truly good luck.
His ancestral graves must be lit up.
His great-grandmother's credit card with King Yama must be almost smoking.
Zhou Yan's body swayed uncontrollably. He could only guess that the rescue team had found him and was transporting him out of the mountain gully. No matter what, he was alive. His mom and dad must have been terribly worried.
His mom must have cried her eyes dry.
She was soft-hearted and cried at the drop of a hat.
He wondered how they would feel when they saw him return.
As for those bad friends.
Heh… tumbling down the mountain, clothes slightly dirty.
Zhou Yan felt a sense of relief. He had always been carefree, idly thinking about various trivial matters, and somewhat wished to return home quickly. He wanted to speak, to ask the other person for his phone to report his safety to his family, but his body was too tired. He opened his mouth, but only a mosquito-like hum came out.
The cart suddenly stopped.
A shadow seemed to fall in front, blocking the increasingly harsh sunlight. Zhou Yan felt a little more comfortable, lying there, squinting his eyes. From the edge of his vision, he could see what appeared to be a shop.
It was a very elaborate decoration, with exquisite curtains hanging down, swaying in the wind. The shadows fell on Zhou Yan's face, and the ends of the curtains were cleverly made with slits, so as they moved with the wind, the sunlight and shadows formed beautiful intervals.
Clang!
The two wooden poles of the cart hit the ground, and the cart bumped his occipital bone with a click.
It made Zhou Yan's head buzz.
Someone asked loudly with a laugh, "Is that Wang Chun? Buying meat?"
"All this meat today was just slaughtered, the blood has been drained. Want some?"
A friendly voice laughed and replied:
"Hmm, well, there's an injured person at home, so I'm buying some meat to replenish their nutrition."
"Hey, that's right. So, what do you want?"
Wang Chun said, "Three catties of good fatty loin, and half a piece of thigh meat, for making wontons. When you're sick, you need to recuperate."
"Haha, alright."
The shop owner was quite enthusiastic. Zhou Yan lay there, hearing the owner draw out a knife to cut meat, his movements quite nimble. Finally, he wrapped the meat, placed it on the chopping board, and said familiarly, "Cash, or on account to settle a debt?"
"Cash, I guess."
"Then it's this much."
"...Why did it go up again?"
"That's the price right now."
"Then put it on account."
"On account? No!"
"No? Why not!"
"Of course not. You, old brother, have already filled several ledgers. The meat from the butcher shop doesn't just fall from the sky. Even if we're good friends, I can't let you eat and drink for free. It's a coincidence today, so why not settle it all at once."
"Come, I'll show you the ledger. I've written down every single transaction."
"You, you—"
There were clattering sounds, like an abacus being used, and also the sound of a ledger being flipped.
Zhou Yan listened to the two of them conversing, thinking that his benefactor's financial situation didn't seem very good, needing to buy meat on credit. But this boss was quite nice; in modern times, with a small business like selling meat, who would still offer credit?
If that's the case, he would have to properly thank this life-saving benefactor when he returned.
Zhou Yan's benefactor, hearing the words, became anxious: "You, it's not time to settle the bill yet! Look at my situation, you're not unaware, I, I, I don't have money to give you!"
The butcher selling meat said, "Hey, hey, hey, we have to follow the rules! How can you buy things without paying? No matter what you need to do, you can't take my meat for free."
"Either use your sheep to pay off the debt, or don't buy."
"There's no such thing as eating for free."
The person pulling Zhou Yan, who was Wang Chun, seemed very distressed, his face twitching. Finally, after hesitating for a long while, he said, "Alright, the sheep isn't fattened yet. I originally planned to raise it until New Year's to eat. It's a pity to kill it now. I can let you have it to settle the debt, but you still owe me a thousand."
The butcher said, "Done!"
Zhou Yan was sighing about the good sheep in his heart when the person in front suddenly stepped aside.
A shadow fell, and a fishy smell smell wafted over.
Then a hairy hand burst through, grabbed Zhou Yan's collar, and yanked him up. The sunlight stung his eyes, and Zhou Yan's vision went black. Having been lying down, being pulled up so abruptly made his vision somewhat blurry.
It was as if his soul had been floating outside, and now, with this pull, it seemed to have returned to its place. All the colors and smells from all directions surged in: the dazzling sunlight, a dog gnawing on white bones by the roadside, the Crossroads, the Big Locust Tree.
He found it hard to breathe, looking down.
The butcher, wearing only a tarpaulin apron on his upper body, with a full beard and a scar over his left eye, grinned widely. Saliva was sticky between his teeth, and his eyes, looking at Zhou Yan, were slightly greenish.
At his waist hung an exquisite abacus with a red cord, and the writing in the ledger on the table was meticulous and precise.
The butcher squeezed Zhou Yan's arm:
"Hahahahahahaha, good sheep!"
He then leaned in and sniffed deeply, exclaiming, "Good meat!"
"Wang Chun, you're so lucky!"
?! ! !
What does this mean?!
Zhou Yan couldn't breathe. The earlier relief and joy of being rescued instantly turned into absurd, bewildered terror. The sluggishness of thought brought on by extreme fatigue dissipated in an instant. His gaze instinctively shifted, seeing the desolate land around him.
There was only one butcher shop at the Crossroads.
A row of arms hung from the shop's door curtain.
The arms were long and graceful, the fingers slender, the nails crimson.
Like the forked ends of curtains.
As they swayed in the wind, they cast shadows and gaps of sunlight.
Falling onto the human faces placed on the table.
So beautiful.
Extreme fear surged, but beneath the fear, an unnamed rage exploded in Zhou Yan's heart. He wanted to raise his hand; it was as if his soul had returned, and his limbs finally obeyed. This time, they finally lifted.
But that hand was much smaller, and although he was wearing his own clothes, they seemed to fit a much younger version of himself.
The enormous impact made his thoughts pause slightly.
Earlier, only the people buying and selling meat were talking, so he thought there were only two people.
Now, behind the butcher's shop, he saw more than a dozen people standing quietly, their necks tied with a grass rope, not daring to move, their eyes vacant.
In that fleeting moment of pause, the butcher used one hand to clamp both his wrists, lifting him up. Such great strength! Zhou Yan watched those greenish eyes scrutinize him up and down. The butcher raised his hand to carelessly wipe the saliva from his mouth, and still said:
"Good meat, good meat!"
"Lang Jun, you smell so good."
He stuck out his tongue, thick with a yellowish coating, and licked towards Zhou Yan's body, his breath foul.
The dry, scorching sun, the curled leaves, the people tied with thin ropes.
The curtains made of fingers moved in the wind.
Zhou Yan's heart pounded wildly from fear.
So scared, so scared!
I'm so scared!
I...
Zhou Yan's right foot instinctively lifted, then viciously kicked the butcher in the face.
His roar startled even the cicadas.
"Motherfucker!!!"