06
After the two little demons left, I opened a drawer and took out a photograph.
It was a picture of me with a girl.
The girl was the very same Miss Lin from Linh Linh’s photograph.
She was also my very best friend—Lâm Chi Hạ.
I stroked Lâm Chi Hạ’s small face in the photograph, as if I’d returned to those days long ago.
My family was poor, and my parents died when I was very young.
My uncle and aunt had their eyes on my parents’ house, so they took me in.
Lâm Chi Hạ was different. She came from a wealthy family and had been spoiled since childhood, yet she didn’t have a trace of a spoiled rich girl’s temperament.
Everyone said our stations were as different as clouds and mud, yet we were closer to each other than anyone.
Perhaps because she came from such a good family, most of the people she met seemed kind and decent.
That was probably what nurtured her innocent nature and her constant desire to help the weak.
I, on the other hand, had seen through the evil in people’s hearts at an early age.
Back then, I often thought: It’s all right. Whether people were good or bad, I would do my best to protect her.
After all, apart from my grandmother, she was the only person in this world who had ever treated me well.
When she wanted to go teach in the mountains, I went with her.
The day before we were due to leave, my adoptive parents tricked me into going back to my hometown to force me into a ghost marriage.
Thinking back on it… Chi Hạ must have waited a very, very long time for me before she finally left.
How ironic. Now I’ve become a corpse demon, and she lies buried in this little village.
In the end, the two of us… shared the same fate after all.
I sighed, put the photograph away, then watched the two little demons tailing them through the eyes of the little paper figure.
07
The two little demons carried the little paper figure as they quietly followed the mother and daughter ahead of them.
One nudged the other’s shoulder and said in a hoarse voice:
“Hey, Hắc Nhị, why don’t we take this chance to make a run for it? Why keep following that woman?”
Hắc Nhị frowned and irritably shoved its hand away. “That woman even dared to swallow the boss. Her yin energy’s even heavier now—we have even less chance of beating her.”
“Besides, our soul veins are still in her lantern. Aren’t you afraid she’ll flick her hand and scatter our souls in an instant?”
Hắc Đại was about to say something else when Hắc Nhị gave him a sharp jab.
He angrily turned around to curse, only to see the little paper figure on his shoulder glaring at him. He immediately changed his tune:
“Uh… you’re absolutely right. The boss is a stingy bastard. The missus treats us much better.”
Hắc Nhị silently rolled his eyes.
I withdrew my gaze, no longer bothering with those two little demons, and turned my attention to Linh Linh and her mother.
Auntie Wang was leading Linh Linh away, but clearly not along the road home.
Where was she taking the girl?
From the direction she was headed, it looked like she was going down the mountain.
Sure enough, Auntie Wang kept looking around nervously as she went, sneaking Linh Linh all the way to the village gate.
Two men were waiting there.
Linh Linh resisted, but Auntie Wang dragged her over.
The two men looked Linh Linh up and down like she was an animal, then nodded with satisfaction.
“She looks decent enough. Thirty thousand.”
Auntie Wang eagerly counted the money. “My family’s taken good care of the girl for this day.”
“Eggs cost a pretty penny, too.”
After counting the money, she carefully tucked it into her pocket, then pulled out an old cellphone and showed it to the man.
“Take a look. How much do you think this one would fetch? She’s a little older, but she’s gorgeous.”
I made the little paper figure jump onto the man and looked at the phone screen with him.
To my surprise, it showed a candid photo of me.
The man’s eyes lit up.
“This one’s a catch. If you can lure her over, I’ll pay you this much.”
He held up one hand, fingers spread to show the number ten.
Auntie Wang grinned from ear to ear.
“Yes, yes, yes! The next time you come, I’ll make sure she’s yours.”
“But you’ll have to move fast. Plenty of people have their eyes on the girl.”
I stared coldly at them.
They treated even their own daughter this way… so I could only imagine what they’d done to Chi Hạ before.
I couldn’t bear to imagine what she had endured in this hellhole.
08
After Auntie Wang left, the two men swiftly tied up Linh Linh, who was struggling to escape, and shoved sleeping pills into her mouth.
They didn’t hurry to leave, instead chatting as if nothing had happened.
“I don’t get what those people out there want with all these girls. Boys are better anyway.”
“Who cares? As long as there’s money in it, what does it matter?”
“Good thing this village favors boys over girls. Makes things easier for us.”
The two men were about to get in the car and leave, but the engine wouldn’t start.
“What’s going on? Is the car stuck?”
One of them got out and bent down to look under the car—then his eyes widened in shock when he saw a vicious-looking demon staring right at him.
The demon opened its mouth and stuck out an impossibly long tongue.
Its tongue coiled around his neck, loop after loop, tightening little by little.
He opened his mouth to scream, but realized… he couldn’t make a sound.
Luckily, his companion had just gotten out of the car, too.
He tried to wave him over, but the moment he raised his hand, it froze in midair.
On his companion’s shoulder stood a little paper figure, grinning strangely at him.
And his companion had somehow been drained of all his blood, leaving nothing but a shriveled corpse.
I gave a satisfied, full-bellied burp.
After being in this village for so long, I’d finally had a proper meal.
The eerie markings on my body stirred faintly, slowly spreading over me as if stretching out to relax.
The little paper figure hopped down lightly and, under the remaining man’s horrified gaze, took step after step toward him.
A strange “heh-heh” laugh rang out.
It climbed onto his neck and opened its mouth in sync with me.
“Crack—”
His neck was bitten through.
09
“Missus, what should we do with this girl?”
Hắc Đại pointed at Linh Linh, who was lying on the ground.
“Are you going to drain her, too?”
As soon as he said it, Hắc Nhị rapped him hard on the head.
“Idiot. The missus obviously wants to save her!”
I told Hắc Đại and Hắc Nhị to carry Linh Linh to a small cave in the mountain.
It was very secluded, the perfect place to hide someone.
Soon afterward, the villagers discovered the bodies of the two human traffickers.
No, they couldn’t be called bodies—they were
two thin sheets of skin
.
When they were found, both sheets of skin were crawling with flies and maggots.
Crows surrounded them, screeching horribly.
The villagers chased off the crows, held their noses, and used sticks to turn the two scraps of skin over and inspect them.
Auntie Wang’s eyes flashed, her face full of horror.
She recognized the tattoo on that scrap of skin at once—it was exactly like the one on the arm of the human trafficker from the other day.
The village chief took a trembling drag from his pipe, slapped his thigh, and cried out:
“
It’s a ghost!
”
“How could an ordinary person die like that?”
I stepped forward:
“Everyone, don’t panic. There are
no such things as ghosts
in this world—only vicious criminals. There may well be some bad people hiding in our village. For everyone’s safety, I suggest we
call the police
.”
“
We can’t call the police!
”
Several voices rang out in unison from the crowd.
I glanced around—it was Uncle Wang, Linh Linh’s father; Da Liu, who had once tried to force himself on me; and several others.
They looked panicked and exchanged a quick, furtive glance.
The village chief spoke up:
“Teacher Xiao Yang, you don’t understand. Our village lies deep in the mountains, with winding roads and plenty of wild animals. People are often carried off by beasts.”
“Once those wild animals have tasted human blood, they won’t let up. They come back in packs at regular intervals to tear people apart.”
“We’ve figured it out. Another attack must be coming soon. It wouldn’t be good to send anyone out now—or let outsiders in.”
“Anyway, those two were outsiders. We can just
bury them for now
.”
Everyone chimed in. I said nothing more.
Once the crowd had dispersed, I quietly returned to the cave in the mountains.
As soon as Linh Linh saw me, her eyes lit up:
“
Teacher! So you were the one who saved me!
”
10
I gave Linh Linh a piece of bread. She took it and immediately began wolfing it down.
After a few bites, she began to sob, tears streaming down her face.
A bodily response… one I would
never
experience again.
Because now, I could no longer cry.
“Slow down. Tell me what happened.”
Linh Linh bashfully wiped her tears with the back of her hand:
“There’s a secret in our village: once girls here turn ten… they disappear one day.”
“The adults say wild animals carry them off and eat them. Those beasts especially like girls in their teens, so they tell us to stay with our parents and not wander off.”
“But I know…
that’s not what happens
.”
Linh Linh’s eyes were filled with terror.
“On my sister’s birthday, Mom took her somewhere. I thought they were hiding a treat from me, so I secretly followed them.”
“But… I saw with my own eyes as Mom
sold
my sister to those two men from before. They
tortured
her right in front of Mom.”
“After my sister disappeared, Mom started focusing all her attention on me, keeping a close watch on me all the time.”
“I know… I’m
the next one to disappear!
”
I looked at the little girl trembling in front of me and gently stroked her back.
“Your hand… it’s so cold.”
Linh Linh took my hand, hugged it tightly to herself, and warmed it with her body heat.
“Teacher, let me tell you another secret.”
“Lots of houses in this village have
cellars
where they keep
women from outside the village
imprisoned.”
I understood.
So this village didn’t just
sell local women to outsiders
—it also
bought women from elsewhere
.
There were many men and few women, and they favored sons over daughters.
This place… was
a breeding ground for evil
. There was no reason for it to exist anymore.