For thirty years, he has roamed the Northeast, his divine might overwhelming all immortals under hea

After we had everything ready, my parents and I headed home.

The oxcart creaked and groaned along the road. The sky was just before it got dark, and the distant mountain ridges looked like splashes of ink, each one darker than the last.

A cold wind crept in through the collar and cuffs, and my mother hugged the newly bought fabric tightly to her chest.

She had been holding it in all the way, but now she was finally able to speak, and naturally the topic was still the supply and marketing cooperative incident from earlier in the day.

Thirteen.

Her voice was low and trembling with fear.

"You scared your mother to death today! Those bastards, they even pulled out guns! You... how could you dare to rush in? What if those bullets had no eyes..."

My dad sat in front, his back stiffened, but he didn't turn around, though I knew he was listening.

"Mother, I was just... in a hurry."

I scratched my head and mumbled something.

"Besides, that gun looks scary, but it's just a homemade cannon and hard to operate. Look at me, I'm fine."

"Nothing happened? You're just lucky!"

My mother reached out and poked my forehead; her eyes were a little red.

"Don't do it again next time! You hear me? We're just ordinary people. When something like this happens, the most important thing is to stay away and protect yourself! You still have to get married..."

"Those guys look like desperate criminals; they might actually shoot."

I actually know better than my mother.

Those people really will shoot, after all, these days, human life isn't that valuable.

As they were talking, the oxcart rounded a bend in the mountain.

There was a person standing in the middle of the road ahead, their figure indistinct.

The driver let out a "whoosh" and slowed down.

It was getting darker, and all that could be seen was a woman, wearing drab gray clothes and trousers, standing in the wind with her neck hunched over, her face not very clear.

"There's no village or shop in sight, whose wife would be out here at this hour?"

My mother muttered something and peeked ahead.

The oxcart drew closer. In the last glimmer of daylight, I could make out the woman's face.

He had a pointed mouth, monkey-like cheeks, prominent cheekbones, and long, narrow eyes that shone with an indescribable light.

He's... well, he's not exactly good-looking.

In rural areas, even those of the third or fourth class wouldn't be considered.

She saw the oxcart, took two steps forward, and raised her hand as if to stop it.

The driver was an honest old man, and upon seeing this, he prepared to pull the reins.

When you're out and about, especially in this desolate wilderness, it's the rule to carry whatever you can.

But at that very moment, Huang Dalang's voice suddenly exploded in my ears, urgent and sharp, like an ice pick piercing straight in:

"Kid! Don't stop! That 'thing' isn't human!"

I felt a jolt run through my body, and my scalp tingled instantly. Not human?

This person is standing right in the middle of the road...

Huang Dalang's voice was unusually tense.

"Something's not right! It smells earthy and deathly! It's a 'passerby'! Let's get out of here!"

I have absolute faith in his vigilance.

The memory of that monstrous fetus from last time is still fresh in my mind.

Seeing that the driver was about to stop the cart, I didn't have time to think. I stood up abruptly and shouted ahead.

"Uncle! Don't stop! Whip it on! Keep going!"

My parents were startled by me.

The driver was also stunned, turned around and looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Thirteen, what's wrong? It's so cold, and you're all alone..."

"Listen to me! Let's go!"

My voice cracked with anxiety, and my eyes were fixed on the woman in the middle of the road.

The woman seemed to have heard me, and her slender eyes suddenly turned to me.

Through the deepening twilight, I seemed to see the corners of her mouth curve upwards very slowly. It wasn't a smile, but more like... a grin as if she were sizing up her prey.

Just one glance, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

The driver was a little flustered by my yelling, and subconsciously raised his whip, cracking it in the air with a "snap" that went in the air.

Startled, the old ox lunged forward headfirst.

The oxcart sped up and rushed past the woman.

As we brushed past each other, I turned my head and stared at her intently.

She didn't chase after it, nor did she make any further attempts to stop the cart. She just stood there, her head turning little by little as the oxcart moved, the angle of her neck twisting looking awkward.

Finally, her face turned completely toward the direction the oxcart had left, and her slender eyes seemed to flash briefly in the dim light, like two small, cool phosphorescent lights.

Only after the oxcart had gone far away, rounded a bend, and disappeared from sight did I plop back into the carriage, my heart pounding in my chest, my palms sweating profusely.

"Thirteen, what happened to you just now? Were you possessed?"

My mother patted her chest, still shaken.

"That woman...is something wrong with her?"

My father also turned his head, frowned, and looked at me with a probing gaze.

I opened my mouth, and a blast of cold air rushed in, making me cough twice.

Huang Dalang hummed in my ear and then fell silent, as if he had retreated back to rest.

"No...it's nothing."

I caught my breath and wiped my forehead, which was covered in cold sweat.

"Well... I just don't recognize that woman's face, and this place is so remote, I'm afraid she's not a good person. Let's get out of here, it'll be safe."

My mother was skeptical, but she didn't ask any more questions. She just looked back at the dark road we had come from with lingering fear and hugged my father's arm even tighter.

My father gave me a deep look, then turned back to face the dark road ahead and said in a deep voice.

"Hold on tight."

The oxcart sped along in the increasingly dark night, the sound of its wheels rolling over the earth exceptionally clear.

The image of that woman standing there, craning her neck and staring intently, is like a thorn stuck in my mind, impossible to shake off.

Passerby...

The night completely swallowed up our little car as we hurried on our way.

In the distance, the sparse lights of Zhujiakan flickered in the wind, like wary eyes blinking.

It was already completely dark when the oxcart bumped its way into Zhujiakan.

The kerosene lamps shining from the windows of each house, dim and yellowish, appeared particularly warm, yet also particularly fragile, in the inky darkness of the night.

What happened on the way here is like a block of ice stuck in my heart, and it hasn't melted away.

We arrived at the gate of our own yard.

My dad and I unloaded the things.

My mother pushed open the courtyard gate first, muttering to herself.

"Finally home, this damn weather..."

Before she could finish speaking, she exclaimed "Huh?"

In the courtyard, a sliver of light shone from the kitchen, which should have been dark, and there were also slight rustling sounds.

The three of us looked at each other, and our hearts were pounding.

In those days, although the village was relatively peaceful, there were still people who broke into houses and picked locks.

My father casually picked up the shovel by the door and gestured for us to follow him, treading lightly as we slowly made our way toward the kitchen.

As I got closer, I could hear a low whimpering sound coming from inside, like some small animal whimpering.

And... the sound of chewing?

My dad suddenly pushed open the kitchen door!

The kerosene lamp was placed on the stove, and the flame flickered.

Under the lamplight, we could see a thin figure huddled in front of the stove, his back to us, his shoulders shrugging.

Several cold cornbread buns that we had put in the pot before leaving home that morning were scattered on the ground, already bitten into pieces.

Hearing the noise, the man froze and turned around very slowly.

It's a child.

Judging by his size, he's only eight or nine years old.

His face was so dirty that his true appearance was unrecognizable, his hair was a messy, matted mess, and his eyes looked particularly large in the dim light, filled with terror.

He still had half a cornbread bun stuffed in his mouth, staring blankly at us, forgetting to chew.

My mother exclaimed "Oh dear!" and almost dropped the cloth in her hand.

"Whose child is this? What's he doing in my house?"

When the child saw that there were many of us, he shrank back in fright. He wanted to spit out the cornbread in his mouth, but he couldn't bear to, so he choked and stretched his neck.

My father put down the shovel, frowned, and looked him over.

I took a closer look too. Although the child was dirty and thin, his eyebrows and eyes... seemed somewhat familiar. Especially the small, dark red birthmark on his forehead, which looked like a small maple leaf.

"You are... Little Lock Pillar of the Sun family?"

My dad asked, somewhat uncertainly.

When the child heard the words "Little Lock Pillar," his eyes widened suddenly, and he burst into tears, crying out incoherently.

"Uncle Li... I'm Suozhu... I'm scared..."

It's true! Suozhu is the only son of the Sun family and lives at the west end of the village.

Two years ago, Old Sun had an accident while hauling timber up the mountain and was paralyzed on his bed. His family relied solely on his mother's work points to make ends meet, and they were struggling to make ends meet.

But Suozhu has always been a tough and daring child. How did he turn out like this and even sneak into my house to steal cold cornbread?

My mother, being soft-hearted, quickly went over and, disregarding his dirtiness, pulled him up from the cold ground.

"Don't cry, don't cry, child, what happened? Where's your mother? How did you get here in the dark?"

Lock Pillar stammered and struggled for a long time before managing to explain himself in fits and starts.

It turned out that the day before yesterday evening, his mother asked him to go to the gully behind the mountain to collect some firewood.

He was playing around and wandered a little deeper into the ditch. As it was getting dark, he saw a woman in gray clothes squatting under an old, withered tree, her back to him, her shoulders heaving as if she were crying.

Suozhu, being bold, even leaned closer and asked a question.

"Auntie, why are you crying? It's getting dark, go home quickly."

The woman stopped crying and slowly turned her head...

As Suozhu spoke, his whole body trembled violently, his eyes filled with fear, and he gripped my mother's clothes tightly.

"Her face...her face was sunken! Like...like it had been sucked dry by something! Her mouth stretched to her ears, and she was smiling at me...she had no teeth, just a dark, empty hole...and she...she was waving at me!"

Suozhu was terrified and ran home in a panic. That night, he developed a high fever and started talking nonsense.

His mother gave him medicine, which brought down his fever a little, but he remained in a daze, often waking up in the middle of the night, talking nonsense, and afraid to close his eyes.

This afternoon, his mother went to a relative's house in a neighboring village to borrow money to send him to the commune clinic, but locked him inside the house.

Somehow, in his daze, he saw the woman in gray standing outside the window smiling at him again. Startled, he pried open the window and ran out, wandering aimlessly. Cold and hungry, he found his way to my house, saw that the door wasn't locked, and crawled inside.

"A woman with a sunken face... dressed in gray..."

My mother gasped and instinctively looked at me.

I felt a chill run down my spine and immediately thought of that weasel-faced "passerby" who had flagged down cars on the road.

Huang Dalang clicked his tongue in my ear, his voice sounding somewhat serious.

"That matches up. The thing that drains people's yang energy specifically targets children and the elderly who are weak and have bad luck. This brat has lost a wisp of his soul from fright; if it had been two days later, he probably wouldn't have been saved."

"Big Wave Bro, what do we do now?"

"What's the panic?"

Huang Dalang snorted.

"This thing isn't particularly powerful, but it excels in its insidious and stealthy nature. It will definitely come looking for the child's scent again tonight. Your house has readily available 'evil spirits' to block it, so it can't easily get in, but it might use other methods to steal the soul."

"What should we do, Dad?"

"This is the only son in the Sun family..."

My father pondered for a moment, then looked at me and said, "Thirteen, go and scoop some old ashes from the stove. Get the bottom layer, the one that hasn't been damp."

I agreed and hurried off to do it. I knew in my heart that, according to folk beliefs, stove ash, especially the ash from the bottom of an old stove, could ward off evil spirits.

My father then asked my mother to fetch a pair of chopsticks and a bowl of water. He carried Suozhu to the kang (a heated brick bed) and made him lie down. Suozhu was still terrified, his eyes wide open.

"Let him sleep in this room with me tonight."

"And Father, go tell Mother."

My father nodded repeatedly, and my mother heated up the remaining cornbread in the pot and stirred a bowl of porridge for Suozhu to eat.

After the child ate something warm, his face finally regained some vitality. He leaned against the corner of the kang (a heated brick bed), his eyelids began to droop, but he still dared not fall into a deep sleep.

At night, I lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), with Suozhu curled up beside me, our breathing gradually becoming even.

But I couldn't sleep; I kept my ears perked up, listening to the sounds outside.

The wind swept across the eaves, making a whooshing sound that was both crying and laughing.

The window paper made a soft, rustling sound as it was blown by the wind.

Huang Dalang didn't say anything more, but I could tell that he wasn't "asleep" either.

A slightly cool consciousness lingered around my mind, alert.

Around midnight, when people are most tired and their yang energy is at its weakest.

Suddenly, a very faint "rustling" sound came from the courtyard, as if someone was gently dragging their toes across the snow.

My muscles tensed up instantly.

Suozhu stirred restlessly in his sleep, his brow furrowed.

The rustling sound stopped outside the window.

Immediately afterwards, a very faint sound, like fingernails scraping against a windowpane, rang out.

"Squeak...squeak..."

Slow and steady, with a tooth-grinding patience.

I quietly clenched my fist, feeling my palms sweating again.

Huang Dalang's consciousness fluctuated, conveying a warning.

The scraping sound continued for a while, then stopped.

There was a brief moment of silence outside the window.

Then, a faint, echoing female voice slipped in through the window crack, so ethereal it seemed unreal:

"Lock... Pillar... Ah..."

"Come out... and play..."

"Auntie... I'll take you... to eat something good..."

The voice was both alluring and chillingly deathly.

Lock Pillar trembled violently, his eyes snapped open in the darkness, pupils dilated, staring intently at the window, his mouth opening to respond!

I had a bad feeling! Just then, near the window crack, a few wisps of light suddenly rose up without any wind, casting a very faint, almost invisible white glow in the darkness.

"laugh!"

The sound outside the window seemed to be scalded, letting out a short, sharp gasp before disappearing instantly.

The scraping sounds and whispers vanished without a trace.

In the courtyard, only the howling wind remained.

The confusion in Suozhu's eyes faded, replaced by a deeper fear. He burst into tears, buried himself in my arms, and trembled like a leaf in the wind.

I hugged him, gently patted his back, and stared intently out the window.