Free Web NovelHua Sang only learned of Teacher Huang's death three days later.
That afternoon, the cicadas chirped incessantly. Grandma wasn't home, she had gone somewhere unknown, instructing her to rest obediently at home.
She lay on the bed, half-asleep and half-awake, when she was suddenly woken up by the sound of playing.
Hearing the sound, Hua Sang got out of bed, put on her shoes, moved a chair over, climbed onto the windowsill, and leaned out halfway to look outside. She then saw several children playing in the bamboo forest behind the small building, among them two familiar figures, both her classmates.
Seeing this, she frowned, put her hands on her hips, pouted her small mouth, and shouted fiercely, "Qiang Wa, Xi Mei, how dare you skip class to come out and play? Be careful, Teacher Huang might find out and punish you!"
Hearing Hua Sang's shout, the two children's bodies stiffened slightly.
Immediately after, the thin, dark boy called Qiang Wa walked a few steps towards her and said unhappily, "We're not skipping class! We came out to play because school is on holiday."
School is on holiday? Why is it on holiday for no reason? Hua Sang tilted her small head, her eyes filled with confusion.
Before she could voice her doubts, the fair-skinned girl called Xi Mei glared at her and muttered, "Exactly! What are you talking about Teacher Huang? Teacher Huang is dead!"
"You're lying! Teacher Huang even came to see me two days ago!" Hua Sang blurted out, "I'm going to tell on you, tell on you for skipping class to play!"
"Xi Mei isn't lying..."
Perhaps worried that Hua Sang would really go and tell, an older boy who was with them stepped forward and said, "Teacher Huang has been dead for three days. My dad said he was bitten to death by a water ghost, and he looked especially terrifying. When the principal found him at his house, he was so scared he fainted."
"That's right, that's right!" Xiao Pang Duner echoed, "My Grandpa also said that there's been a water ghost causing trouble in the village recently. Yesterday, Aunt Li from the chicken farm was also bitten to death by a water ghost."
Teacher Huang, Aunt Li... As Hua Sang listened, her eyes turned red, her small face flushed, and she shouted loudly, "I won't listen, you're talking nonsense, you're talking nonsense!"
Teacher Huang had come to see her just a few days ago and brought her textbooks. Aunt Li from the tea stir-frying workshop had also come yesterday and brought her a large bowl of tea eggs, which were especially fragrant.
Hearing the news of their deaths and thinking that she would never see them again, Hua Sang felt as if something had suddenly pricked her chest, causing a dull ache.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew through, making the bamboo leaves rustle. Just at that moment, one of the children, she didn't know which one, shouted, "The water ghost is coming!"
And so, amidst a chorus of strange shouts, the children scattered.
While other children her age couldn't quite understand life and death separation and could still laugh and eat at feasts.
The young Hua Sang already vaguely understood the meaning of death for a person.
Dead means that person is no longer in the world, and you will never see them again.
She didn't know if it was lucky or unlucky.
Listening to the gradually fading noise outside the window, Hua Sang leaned against the wall, her small hands wrapped around her knees, pouting her small mouth in grievance. Tears welled up in her eyes and kept swirling, but she desperately held them back. The faint sound of sobbing came from her mouth; it wasn't loud, but it was very penetrating, echoing in the empty small building.
For a long time.
After her emotions calmed down a bit, Hua Sang quietly went downstairs. Ignoring Grandma's instructions, she left the house and walked towards Teacher Huang's home.
From childhood to now, that was the first time she had disobeyed Grandma. But she didn't believe, or wasn't willing to believe, what Qiang Wa and Xi Mei said. She had to see it with her own eyes.
Walking on the winding and quiet small path in the village, her heart pounded fiercely, as if it were about to leap out of her small body.
----
On the dilapidated and crumbling rooftop, heavy rain began to fall again.
Lu Yibei held up a broken umbrella, shielding her entire body and Qingji's head. Hearing this point, her expression changed, and she slapped her thigh, saying, "It's over, isn't this kid messing around? Something bad is going to happen now!"
As she was speaking, she heard a young girl's voice coming from Qingji's mouth, "Heh, I didn't expect that the first time I disobeyed, something like that would happen..."
"Later, I kept wondering, if I had obediently listened to Grandma that day, would nothing have happened?" freewēbnoveℓ.com
Lu Yibei, "..."
She couldn't answer this question.
----
Walking through more than half the village, she saw Teacher Huang's small courtyard located at the foot of the mountain, by the stream. From a distance, she saw the mourning hall set up in front of the courtyard and heard the sorrowful music drifting from inside.
The white soul-summoning banners hung limply, listlessly drooping under the scorching sun. The Adults in the village gathered in the open space outside the mourning hall, intentionally or unintentionally keeping their distance from it. Each of them had a solemn expression, occasionally discussing something in low voices.
"What do you think happened to Teacher Huang? His death is too strange."
"You ask me, how would I know? Even the police came and didn't find anything."
"Could it really be a water ghost?"
"..."
Hua Sang knew there was a rule in the village that children were not allowed to go near the mourning hall. So, she used the dense wild grass by the stream to conceal herself and secretly sneaked to the back of the mourning hall.
She lay on the roof of the mourning hall's shed, timidly peeking half her head through a gap, and then she saw Teacher Huang lying in the ice coffin.
Seeing the highly decomposed body, in that instant, Hua Sang's mind went blank with a buzzing sound.
She couldn't move, frozen there, her body numb, her hands and feet ice cold, until a burst of wailing woke her up.
"Oh my heavens, my child's father, hurry and come take a look, Qiang Wa is not doing well!"
A sturdy woman was wailing in the open space; that was Qiang Wa's mother.
Not long after, Xiao Pang Duner's Grandpa also arrived, shouting with a face full of anger and sorrow, "My Peng Wa is also afflicted! He's lying at home now, about to die!"
"I told you long ago, someone in our village has angered the water ghost, something big is going to happen, something big is going to happen!"
Teacher Huang, Aunt Li, Qiang Wa, Xiao Pang Duner...
In three or four days, four people, two died and two were seriously ill. For this small mountain village with only about a hundred households, it was a catastrophe as if the sky had fallen.
The open space in front of the mourning hall instantly turned into chaos. No one noticed that Hua Sang, hidden behind the mourning hall, stumbled and ran home like a frightened small animal.
The things happening in the village were too strange and too bizarre, beyond Hua Sang's comprehension. The vague realization that these terrifying events in the village were likely related to herself made her young heart even more unable to bear it.
Upon returning home, she burrowed into her ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) room, curled up in the narrow space between the small window and the corner of the wall, using a pillow to shield her body, and hid herself.
Without warning, the muggy air suddenly turned cool. Wind blew from the mountains, the sky darkened, as if daytime had instantly turned into black night.
"Rumble—!"
After a deafening clap of thunder, the heavy rain began to fall.
Hua Sang peeked out from behind the pillow with a pair of eyes and looked up towards the window.
The leaden clouds in the sky were like mountains, blocking the light and making it hard to breathe. The vast, continuous mountains were dim and dark, shrouded in mist, as if lost in another world, blurry and unfamiliar.
The torrential sound of rain echoed on every inch of the village's rooftops, like a dying scream.
Hua Sang's consciousness gradually became hazy, and she developed a high fever.
In a daze, she felt as if her body had lost its weight and was floating, drifting above the village.
The village was completely silent, without a single soul. In the heavy rain, the towering giant beast walked within the empty village, its massive and oppressive shadow enveloping it.
Lost in a bizarre and evil hallucination, a thought inexplicably arose in her mind...
She was that giant beast.
----
Grandma didn't come home until it was completely dark.
Returning home, she saw the house was dark, with no lights on, and was startled. Before she could turn on the lights, she anxiously shouted.
"Sang Sang? Sang Sang! Sang..."
She had only called out two or three times when she heard a faint rustling sound from upstairs. Her voice stopped abruptly.
She quickly went upstairs. As soon as she turned on the light, she saw Hua Sang curled up in the narrow space by the corner of the bed.
Hearing the sound, Hua Sang slowly woke up. She forced her eyes open and saw that the person was Grandma. Her eyes instantly turned red, and she began to sob softly.
"Grandma, Grandma, are you, are you not going to want Sang Sang anymore..."
Hearing this, Grandma walked forward and gently touched Hua Sang's forehead. Her face changed drastically, as if she had discovered something terrifying, and her cloudy pupils trembled.
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She composed herself, suppressing the fear in her heart. With a face full of heartache, she gently stroked her head and said softly, "Okay, okay, Sang Sang, be good. Grandma won't go out these days, I'll stay at home with you, I'll stay at home with you..."
Grandma gently comforted Hua Sang while fetching cold water to help wipe her down and cool her body. She then carried her onto the bed, sat by her side, and softly hummed a lullaby.
"The moon is bright, the wind is still, the tree shadows cover the window lattice. Crickets chirp, their calls like the sound of zither strings, the zither's sound is light, the tune is pleasant, the cradle gently sways..."
That lullaby was the one Grandma would hum every time Hua Sang cried since she was a child.
Accompanied by the soft lullaby and the pattering rain, she slept soundly, a faint smile gracing her small face...
----
In front of Yanzhi Tavern.
Qingji, looking as if he had sobered up, stared blankly at Hua Sang. After a long silence, he poured Hua Sang a glass of wine and said lightly, "I guess... something major happened in the village that night, right?"
He had originally intended to ask, "Are all the people in the village dead?" but considering Hua Sang's feelings, he used this more indirect phrasing.
In fact, when Hua Sang mentioned that Teacher Huang had died unexpectedly, he had already guessed that the cause of Teacher Huang's death was the black night disease emanating from Hua Sang's uncontrolled Spirit Mark.
And when Hua Sang said that she had disregarded Grandma's instructions, crossed half the village, and secretly run to Teacher Huang's mourning hall, Qingji knew something terrible was about to happen.
Based on Qingji's understanding of Hua Sang's physical condition, such an action would leave a certain degree of black night disease erosion in the places she passed through, enough to cause illness or even death in weaker individuals.
"Yes," Hua Sang nodded, her eyes cast down. "People died that very night, seventeen of them."
"In the next day or two, you could hear funeral music at any time, and the air was filled with a mix of incense and a foul, bloody smell. Sitting in the courtyard, you could often see yellow paper floating overhead. The entire village was permeated with an ominous atmosphere."
"People from the epidemic prevention station came more than ten times, taking various samples to investigate the cause of the villagers' deaths, and then suddenly one day they stopped coming. Everyone immediately panicked, thinking they had been abandoned, and then..."
"The villagers somehow guessed that the problem was with me. They surrounded my house overnight in the rain, carrying hoes and sickles, demanding an explanation from my Grandma. Even Village Chief Grandpa couldn't stop them."
"What did they do to you?" Qingji asked cautiously, probing.
The villagers, usually kind and friendly, had suddenly turned into wild, frenzied beings. A little girl facing such a situation must have been terrified, right?
In a state of collective excitement and irrationality, those people could do anything. Qingji thought.
"They..." Hua Sang took the wine glass Qingji offered, her pupils dim, her eyes unfocused. After a very long silence, she slowly said, "They didn't do anything..."
Qingji frowned, a hint of confusion appearing in his eyes. Then, as if he understood something, his pupils slightly contracted.
If the villagers didn't do anything, then it must have been her who did something...
----
In the early morning, the rain that had fallen all night finally stopped.
In the bamboo grove behind the small building, water droplets on the bamboo leaves were crystal clear, quietly sliding down the edges and falling. Because of the wind, they traced beautiful arcs in the air.
The damp, cold chill and the unbearable Fishy smell in the wind awakened Hua Sang from her sleep.
She opened her eyes, lying motionless on the bed, feeling her body heavy, as if something was pressing down on her.
Outside the window, there was a deathly silence, only the faint rustling sound of water droplets falling from one bamboo leaf onto another.
Usually at this time, the villagers would already be up, but today it was incredibly quiet.
The morning crowing of roosters, the barking of dogs, the crying of children who didn't want to go to school, the chattering of aunts going to work on the tea mountain together... all the familiar sounds had disappeared.
And as the morning wind blew, there was also a faint, unbearable Fishy smell.
She struggled to crawl to the edge of the bed and called down, "Grandma!" several times but received no response.
She vaguely sensed something was wrong, so she crawled out of bed and headed downstairs.
However, it wasn't until she got out of bed that she realized her body was so heavy, as if every bone was filled with lead. Every step felt like it would exhaust all her strength.
From her room on the second floor to the courtyard, Hua Sang took about half an hour, stopping and resting along the way. By the time she reached the courtyard, she was covered in cold sweat, her small face pale.
And when she looked through the half-open door and saw the scene on the drying ground in front of the courtyard, all color drained from her face instantly. Her lips trembled, her pupils shrunk to pinpoints, and her small hands, seemingly oblivious to pain, clutched the door frame tightly until her knuckles turned white.
On the flat drying ground, dozens of villagers of all sizes, men and women, holding farm tools, lay on the ground. Their bodies were stiff, their exposed skin beneath their clothes covered in blisters and eczema, their flesh highly decomposed, flies swarming, and the stench unbearable.
Seeing that scene, she wanted to escape, but her body grew heavier and heavier, as if something was pressing down on her, and her joints and bones made a grating sound.
Finally, her emotions erupted like a bursting dam. She covered her eyes and couldn't stop screaming in terror.
"Waaahhh—!"
Her wails echoed over the deathly silent village, carrying far and wide, filled with despair.
Just then, a soft, intermittent humming reached Hua Sang's ears, and her crying stopped abruptly.
"Moon... the moon is bright, the wind is still... the tree shadows... cover the window lattice..."
Grandma's low voice singing the lullaby drifted through the misty village. Hua Sang, with tears on her face, looked around blankly, shouting, "Grandma, Grandma, where are you?!"
Her calls received no response.
Then, she didn't know where a burst of strength came from. Fighting against that invisible heavy pressure on her body, she rushed out of the small courtyard and ran towards the piles of corpses, searching through them one by one...
----
At the table in front of Yanzhi Tavern, the wine glass in front of Hua Sang had been empty for a long time.
Qingji watched her quietly, not asking if she had found her Grandma later. After a long silence, he changed the subject and asked, "Then how did you end up going to Da Chunyang Palace?"
"Because of a man."
"A man?" Qingji frowned. "Was he a disciple of Da Chunyang Palace?"
Hua Sang shook her head.
----
Overnight, everyone in the village died, a total of two hundred and eighty-three people. Each died a tragic death, and even the livestock raised by the villagers were not spared; not even a chicken or dog was left alive.
The bodies of those who had suffered from acute black night disease due to black night disease erosion were unrecognizable, their faces completely disfigured, making it impossible to identify their appearance in life.
And Hua Sang was already young and weak, coupled with that invisible heavy pressure. The burst of strength she suddenly unleashed did not last long before it was exhausted.
She collapsed to the ground from exhaustion, the ground covered in foul-smelling, viscous sewage, with piles of corpses beside her.
Fear, cold, exhaustion... caused Hua Sang's consciousness to gradually scatter.
In a daze, she saw wisps of black mist drifting from the corpses, transforming into ghostly figures with bared fangs and claws, then converging together to form a colossal entity, approaching her step by step.
It carried a gloomy, wild aura and a suffocating pressure.
As if it was walking over to crush her body.
Just then, a tall man dressed in white walked over from a distance. He knelt beside her, touched her forehead, and said, "Little one, I finally found you. I'm sorry, I'm late."
"Don't... don't touch me, you'll..."
"It's alright, I'll be fine," the man said softly. "Little one, your name is Hua Sang, right? Will you come with me?"
"..." Hua Sang remained silent, shaking her head.
She just wanted to stay with Grandma.
She kept feeling that Grandma was still in the village, perhaps it was the completely decomposed body next to her.
"This makes things a bit difficult!" the man said with a wry smile. "Taking you to a magical place to cure your illness and help you grow up healthy is something your Grandma entrusted me with before she passed away!"
"Where is my Grandma?" Hua Sang asked urgently.
"She... she went to a very, very far place. When you grow up, she will..."
"Died?" Hua Sang said flatly.
"Tch!" the man spat, rolling his eyes. "I hate precocious kids like you the most... So, will you come with me?"
Hua Sang hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
And so, she followed that man up Zhenwu Mountain and entered Da Chunyang Palace.
