1.
“Ms. Vân, Trương Tiểu Long fell down there!”
Lý Hà pointed toward the cave ahead, looking at me with an innocent expression.
After school that afternoon, the boy hurried to find me and said his friend Trương Tiểu Long had fallen into a cave and gone missing.
Before I could ask what had happened, the boy had already dragged me here, saying he needed my help searching.
“Ms. Vân, come take a look! Do you think something happened to Trương Tiểu Long?”
The boy anxiously grabbed my shirt and pushed me toward the cave entrance.
I walked to the cave entrance and peered inside.
Suddenly, a powerful shove from behind threw me off balance, and I fell straight into the cave.
“Ha ha ha! You rotten woman!”
Several little heads immediately popped up at the cave entrance.
I dodged the animal trap in the cave, steadied myself, and looked up.
“You’re lucky! The trap didn’t crush you to death!” Lý Hà spat down into the cave.
Trương Tiểu Long stood beside him, making a face. “Who told you to scold me? I came to class as a favor to you. So what if I take a little nap?”
“You think you’re so impressive just because you came from a big city?”
“I know you look down on us. You dare act high and mighty with me, and I won’t let you get away with it!”
Two other children chimed in.
They had no intention of pulling me up. They even threw rocks down at me.
I glanced around, calmly looking for somewhere to sit.
I asked them, “You’re the ones leaving dead animals outside my room every morning, aren’t you?”
Trương Tiểu Long burst out laughing. “You idiot! You’re only figuring that out now?”
“Ha ha ha!”
I glanced at the boy, then continued, “Last night, that thug from the end of the village came to the teachers’ dormitory. I even heard someone calling for the door to be opened. Was that you, too?”
As soon as Lý Hà heard that, he grabbed a rock and hurled it down at me.
The sharp rock struck my forehead, and warm blood slowly trickled down.
I said nothing, only looking up at them.
Lý Hà’s youthful face twisted viciously. “Damn it! He’s my uncle. He wanted to have some fun with you, and you wouldn’t let him?”
“What are you acting so high and mighty for? You look down on us country people, don’t you?”
“I only touched your thigh a little, and you hit me so hard my hand swelled up!”
“Just you wait! I’ll go down the mountain and bring my uncle up here!”
The children exchanged glances and laughed gleefully, full of malice.
Actually, I rarely use the word “gleeful” to describe children.
Unless I truly can’t help it.
Blood filled my eyes. I slowly raised a hand to wipe it away.
Whispers came from the cave entrance.
“Let’s go. Leave her here to suffer!”
“What if she dies?”
“So what if she dies? It has nothing to do with us. Besides, we’re all minors.”
“Ha ha ha! Serves her right!”
“Lý Hà, are you really going to bring your uncle up here?”
“Of course. If she gets pregnant with my uncle’s child, I bet she won’t act so high and mighty anymore…”
They turned to leave.
I pulled out the phone I’d been recording with for a while and pointed the camera up at them.
“Hey! Turn around!”
At that, the children immediately turned around.
I smiled, my face covered in blood. “Come on, smile! A nice big smile.”
2.
My name is Vân Như Ý. I’m the wife of the Dragon King, and I’m also a demon slayer. When I’m not out slaying demons and monsters, I’m a bona fide college student.
Half a month ago, my school organized a rural volunteer teaching trip, and Thượng Liên Village was one of the destinations. There were plenty of students, but no one wanted to go to Thượng Liên Village. It was all because of a legend about its wicked children. The children in this village were born bad, born evil. These days, many captured murderers and bandits come from that village.
I’d also heard that a long time ago, a female college student went to teach in Thượng Liên Village, but after she arrived, she never came back…
I asked people from the ten great spirit sects to investigate, and the results showed that something really was wrong with this place. The demonic aura here was far too strong, and the Mountain God who guarded this mountain range had suddenly vanished. No one knew how many years ago the god had disappeared.
To investigate the curse surrounding the wicked children of Thượng Liên Village, I volunteered to teach there.
Looking back now, these wicked country children certainly lived up to their reputation.
I put my phone away, grabbed an old tree root that was embedded deep in the ground, and lightly leaped up. The children stared at me in terror.
Trương Tiểu Long, the biggest of them, rushed at me in a rage, trying to snatch my phone. I kicked him to the ground and planted a foot on his head. “What? What are you afraid of?”
“You were so smug just a moment ago.”
Trương Tiểu Long shrieked like a demon, struggling beneath my foot and cursing me with one obscenity after another.
I looked at my phone. “Trương Tiểu Long, Lý Hà, Lý Nhã, Vương Thắng Nam… Not bad. I got all your faces on camera nice and clear.”
I sneered. “You little brats, just wait. You’re dead.”
Those children had never seen me like this before. They stood there stunned, unable to react.
I kicked Trương Tiểu Long away, slapped each of them once, then tore off a long vine and tied them all up.
The children struggled violently and were hard to control. I had to give them a thorough beating before they finally settled down.
I walked over to the stream and washed the blood off my face. Trương Tiểu Long stared at me in terror. “Your forehead… y-you… what are you?”
There wasn’t a trace of the wound on my forehead now. No wonder he was so frightened.
I touched my forehead and smiled at him. “What am I?”
“I’m a vengeful ghost who’s come back from the dead~”
As soon as I said that, the children fell silent all at once, their expressions shifting again and again.
They huddled together, and their whispers reached my ears.
“It’s her. She’s come back for revenge…”
“Shut up! It can’t be her. She couldn’t have come back!”
“It has to be her… We’re doomed…”
I raised an eyebrow. Whoever they were talking about had piqued my interest.
But no matter how hard I tried to question them, they wouldn’t say another word.
3.
I brought the children back to the village and played the recording I’d made earlier over a loudspeaker for everyone to hear. Then I picked up the microphone and cleared my throat. “Parents of the students whose names I just read out, come claim your children now. If you’re late, there won’t be any waiting around.”
I wanted to find out where this curse of the wicked children had come from…
Before long, the children’s parents began arriving one after another. Most of them were mothers.
They were very polite, apologizing to me over and over. They practically got down on their knees to thank me.
I saw Lý Hà come outside and slap his mother.
The brat cursed, “What took you so long? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
After hitting her, Lý Hà turned around, looked at me through the window, and stuck out his tongue—a taunt, and a show of dominance.
I was about to go outside when I saw someone standing at the door.
“Ms. Vân, I’m Trương Tiểu Long’s parent. I’ve come to take him home.”
He was a plain-looking man in green work clothes, his clothes caked with dirt.
I thought Trương Tiểu Long would act like Lý Hà and treat his father badly, but to my surprise, the boy obediently followed the man.
He stood beside him without saying a word, perfectly polite.
I raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Ms. Vân, I’ll discipline him properly when we get home!” The man gave me an ingratiating smile.
“Would you let me take him home?”
4.
The man kicked Trương Tiểu Long down the embankment into the field, pulled off his belt, and began beating the boy.
“Damn it! You little punk, all you ever do is cause trouble for me!”
He spat and struck him hard. “You can’t even handle one girl from the city. What am I supposed to expect from you?”
“Useless! Next time you want to deal with someone, make sure you finish them off!”
“You’re a coward. You’ll never amount to anything!”
…
Standing beneath a nearby pagoda tree, watching this scene, I suddenly understood a little more.
So Trương Tiểu Long’s father was the real villain.
No wonder Trương Tiểu Long didn’t dare say a word in front of him.
Trương Tiểu Long covered his head and curled up into a ball.
“Dad, she’s not human. She’s a ghost… She came back for revenge!”
He stammered.
The man swore, “What ghost? You’re the one who deserves a beating!”
Trương Tiểu Long dodged his punches and kicks, then staggered to his feet.
“Vân Như Ý! She’s Tống Lan Chi’s ghost! Tống Lan Chi is back for revenge!”
The man suddenly froze and glared at the boy. “What did you just say?”
Tống Lan Chi was the female college student who had come to teach in Thượng Liên Village and then disappeared.
I suddenly realized I’d gotten one thing wrong.
Tống Lan Chi hadn’t disappeared because of the curse of the wicked children.
On the contrary, it was only after Tống Lan Chi disappeared that this village became afflicted with the curse of the wicked children.
Tống Lan Chi was the cause; the curse was the result.
So what exactly had happened to her in Thượng Liên Village?