5
Another late night, I led my mother to the old carpenter’s door again.
“Sir, this isn’t my mother.”
“Child, this is your mother.”
“But Mother isn’t made of wood, and her hands aren’t cold.”
Faced with my words, the old carpenter slowly stroked his beard, unhurried.
“Touch your mother’s heart.”
I nodded and put my hand on my mother’s chest.
There was no heartbeat.
My mother hadn’t really come back to life. She was still a corpse.
Realizing this, I couldn’t stop crying.
The old carpenter patted my head and sighed. “Without a heart, you can’t live. Your mother may be able to move, but she can’t feel emotions or desire. She’s nothing but an empty shell.”
My heart ached even more. I bit my lip hard. “Then how can my mother’s heart come back to life?”
The old carpenter’s smile faded. His empty eye sockets stared straight at me.
“Are you willing to give your own heart to your mother?”
I suddenly trembled, unsure what to say.
The old carpenter chuckled to himself.
“Go home, go home. Let her rest in peace soon.”
In a daze, I led my mother back home.
In the moonlight, pale blue patches of death had appeared on my mother’s skin, and her body smelled of rot.
She was still smiling, as if she didn’t blame me at all.
Clack.
I saw her false eye fall out and hit the ground.
I hurriedly pulled her into the woodshed, then got some paste and glued it back in.
But without a heart, how much longer could she last?
At noon the next day, a funeral horn sounded in the village.
My father loved a spectacle, so I followed him and discovered that Mr. Ly’s bride, who lived at the end of the village, had hanged herself and was being carried to her funeral.
“See? Mr. Ly drove another woman to her death.”
“Hmph! What do you know? That fox spirit spent every day seducing men. She deserved to die.”
As the village women talked, I saw Mr. Ly weeping at the head of the procession.
Mr. Ly was notorious in the village as a thug, with a violent temper. He had taken three wives, and every one of them had chosen death rather than endure his beatings.
As I looked at Mr. Ly’s wife’s coffin, an idea came to me.
6
Because Mr. Ly’s wife had died so tragically, she could only be buried in the graveyard.
When night fell, I took a shovel and sneaked out of the house.
I kept digging until midnight, when Mr. Ly’s wife’s coffin finally emerged.
I opened the coffin. Mr. Ly’s wife was dressed in red, with a very long tongue.
I hurriedly knelt and bowed three times, then trembling, took out a knife and cut out her heart.
I took Mr. Ly’s wife’s heart to the old carpenter.
He asked no questions. He took the heart and implanted it in my mother’s body, stitched her up, and sealed her firmly with paste. He also washed her skin, scrubbed away the spots and rot, and patched the damaged places.
After smoothing my mother’s skin and putting it back on her, the carpenter took some powder and made her up, making her look smooth and lifelike, just as she had before.
At last, the old carpenter held the two round false eyes and pondered.
I was overjoyed to see my mother restored to her former appearance, but the old carpenter suddenly grabbed my hand.
“Fate has decreed it. Your mother has returned to life against the laws of nature. To keep her safe, you must always watch over her and never let outsiders near. If anything goes wrong, you must take her eyes out.”
I nodded, and the old carpenter put my mother’s eyes back in.
I watched my mother slowly sit up on the wooden bed and slowly open her eyes.
She was no longer a corpse covered in nails; she had become a living, breathing person.
She placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled as she called my name.
“Ngân Tử…”
I reached out and touched her face, feeling the warmth that had been absent from her body for so long.
7
News that Mr. Ly’s wife’s grave had been dug up and her heart cut out spread throughout the village.
Some said the graveyard was so steeped in yin energy that demons could take human form there, coming out at night to eat people.
Before long, another corpse, missing its arms and legs, was discovered in the village, leaving everyone terrified and uneasy.
My father grew more cautious. He stopped eating the food my mother cooked and spent every day inside, drawing talismans and pasting them on the doors. He looked at my mother with fear in his eyes.
One day, while I was playing in the yard, he suddenly rushed over, glared at me angrily, and asked, “Ngân Tử, do you think a demon from the graveyard has possessed your mother?”
I froze for a moment.
“Father, what are you talking about? Isn’t Mother fine? How could she be possessed?”
His expression grew more vicious. “Ngân Tử, did the demons eat you too that night? Are you and that bitch both monsters?”
When I tried to explain further, he looked at me with eyes as sharp as knives. “You’re trying to hurt me. You won’t get what you want!”
After saying that, he burst into tears again.
“Ngân Tử, I didn’t mean to hit your mother that day. Tell her not to…”
Before he could finish, I saw my mother standing by the woodshed door, staring at my father’s back.
Their eyes met, and she immediately smiled.
My father turned around, immediately leapt up, scrambled away, and hurried into the house.
I vaguely sensed that something was wrong with my mother’s eyes.
8
Another night, I didn’t let my mother sleep in the woodshed. Instead, we squeezed together on an old wooden bed.
I tossed and turned, unable to sleep, while my mother’s soft breathing continued beside me.
Although Mr. Ly’s wife’s heart had brought my mother back to life, her skin had fully recovered, her wounds had nearly vanished, and she was back to the way she’d been before.
The only strange thing was that my mother often felt hungry and ate a lot, but that wasn’t unusual for someone recovering from a serious illness.
I stared at the ceiling, soon growing drowsy and drifting off.
In my dream, I felt my mother slowly sit up.
“Mother, where are you going?” I mumbled in my sleep.
“I’m hungry. I’m going to find something to eat,” my mother answered softly, putting on her coat as she went out into the yard.
Before long, I heard a rustling sound in the kitchen.
I had a bad feeling. I immediately opened my eyes and went out into the yard.
The kitchen door stood wide open, and inside was pitch-black.
But in the moonlight, I saw a gaunt figure crouched by the stove, holding a bloody human hand and gnawing at it savagely. Every so often, she looked around like an animal.
It was my mother!
The hairs on my body stood on end.
My mother seemed to sense someone outside, so she headed for the door.
Without time to think, I hurried back to the room, lay down, and pretended to be asleep.
Before long, the bedroom door creaked open, and my mother quietly slipped back into bed.
I repeated the old carpenter’s words over and over in my head: “If anything goes wrong, you must take her eyes out.”
I got up quietly and saw that my mother was fast asleep.
I touched my mother’s shoulder, and she furrowed her brow in her sleep.
Just then, I suddenly reached out and took her eyes.
My mother woke up, realized something was wrong, and began trembling and sobbing.
“Ngân Tử, what are you doing? Give my eyes back.”
Trembling, I asked, “Did you just go out and hurt someone and eat them?”
My mother stared blankly, then burst into tears.
“I was so hungry…”
I clutched the pair of eyes in my hands, feeling a little reluctant.
“If you promise me you won’t hurt anyone again, I’ll give your eyes back.”
My mother waited a moment, then nodded through her tears.
“I promise.”
The next morning, I gave my mother her eyes back.
Weeping, she said, “I won’t eat people anymore. I’ll sleep in the woodshed at night. Please don’t take my eyes again.”
I pretended to agree, but at night, I would still secretly take my mother’s eyes while she was fast asleep.
“Mother, I’ll give your eyes back when it gets light.”
9
The next morning, I slowly opened my eyes. Warm sunlight was shining on me.
I felt as though I’d had a very long dream, but I couldn’t remember what it was about.
My father came out of the inner room and gently patted my head.
“Hey, kid, why are you standing there in a daze? Go chop some wood for me!”
He scolded me, but his face was full of affection.
I turned around and saw a lavish meal laid out on the table.
My mother poked her head out of the kitchen.
“Forget chopping wood. Hurry up and eat!”
The three of us gathered around the table. My father ate in a hurry, my mother gazed at him lovingly, and I stared blankly at everything before me, my mind empty.
After we ate, my mother took me to the market.
The streets were crowded and noisy. I couldn’t make out the faces of the people passing by; they seemed both familiar and strange.
My mother bought me my favorite candied hawthorn skewers. The berries were smooth and shiny, but the longer I looked at them, the more they reminded me of eyes.
I looked up at my mother. Her eyes were jet-black and seemed somehow unreal.
I stopped as we passed a narrow alley.
A head poked out of the alley.
It was an old man with white hair and a long beard blowing in the wind. What startled me even more was that his face had only two dark, empty eye sockets.
“Give me back my eyes.”
He suddenly grabbed my shoulder.
I screamed in terror, making everyone around us turn to look.
My mother hurriedly pulled me into her arms.
“Ngân Tử, what’s wrong?”
Trembling, I pointed deeper into the alley.
“Mother, there’s an old man who wants to take my eyes.”
My mother looked into the alley and burst out laughing.
“Silly, don’t talk nonsense. There’s no one there.”
10
I followed my mother into the market, where a large crowd had gathered at a street corner. It looked lively.
I let go of my mother’s hand and ran into the crowd.
A man wearing a conical hat was arranging round objects on his stall.
They were human eyes!
I stumbled backward in terror. The man looked up, and his face had two bloody eye sockets.
“Hey, kid, want to buy some eyes?”
I ran out in terror. None of the people around me had eyes.
“Mother! Mother!”
I screamed, then tripped and fell to the ground.
My mother crouched down and helped me up.
My mother’s eyes glistened like the spring waters of a lake.
“Mother, they don’t have eyes!” I pointed at the people around us and cried.
My mother said nothing, only smiled gently.
Suddenly, I felt something sticky on my face.
When I touched my face, my fingers met two bloody eye sockets.
I had no eyes either!
I fell to my knees and sobbed.
My mother held me close and gently comforted me.
I looked up, touched my mother’s face, and said, “Mother, could you give me your eyes?”
My mother suddenly trembled and tried to push me away.
But she was a moment too late. I had already taken her left eye.
My mother cried out and backed away, weeping as she retreated.
“Ngân Tử, don’t you need me anymore?”
I didn’t answer. I only comforted her as if she were a child.
Then I took my mother’s right eye as well.
As her right eye was taken out, everything around us seemed to turn into an illusion and slowly recede in every direction.