Chapter 2

His lips were purple.

His eyes had sunk into their sockets.

His mouth hung slightly open.

This wasn't a living person.

Dad!

What had happened to him?

We'd eaten together in broad daylight!

No...

That wasn't right.

This was no newly dead body.

One look was enough to tell he'd been dead a long time.

He was almost completely dried out.

I staggered backward, wanting only to get out.

Perhaps I'd moved too sharply and made a noise.

Mum and Gran suddenly fell silent.

Oh no.

Had they noticed me?

I could feel them coming toward this room.

I immediately ran back on tiptoe, lifted my quilt, and burrowed underneath.

Thank goodness I was barefoot. Otherwise, they would certainly have heard me.

I curled beneath the quilt, leaving only a tiny gap to peek through.

They were standing right beside my bed.

Gran still held the needle she'd used to stitch Mum's stomach!

I didn't dare keep my eyes open.

I squeezed them shut, lay still, and tried to breathe evenly like someone fast asleep.

Gran pulled my quilt away.

I smacked my lips a few times, pretended to turn over, and sprawled out again.

“Mum, he's been asleep the whole time. We must have heard wrong.”

That was my mother's voice.

Then silence.

No footsteps leaving.

Gran still didn't believe it.

Suddenly, she rolled me onto my back and pried my eyelids open.

I tried to keep them slack, like a sleeping person's, letting my eyes open only halfway.

Right in front of me was that face covered in grotesque lumps.

It hung directly above mine.

Thick yellow fluid seemed about to drip onto me from the ruptured growths.

Gran...

In that terrifying form.

One hand held my eyelids. The other held a long needle.

I kept telling myself they were only testing me.

If I pretended convincingly enough, she wouldn't really stab my eye.

Stay asleep. Stay asleep.

She'd been moving slowly.

Then, without warning, she drove the needle down.

As fast as a falling executioner's blade.

I nearly screamed.

But just as the sound was about to escape, Gran stopped dead.

As if someone had pressed pause.

“Mum, he really is asleep. He hasn't left his room.”

Gran nodded, lowered the needle, and released my eyelids.

All the strength drained out of me.

I heard them turn and leave.

I still didn't dare relax.

I kept pretending to sleep until the rooster crowed at dawn.

Only then did I pretend to wake.

I rushed out.

My first thought was to run.

Find the blind old man!

“Come and have breakfast, son. Why are you up so early?”

Mum had already filled a bowl with porridge.

She scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and put it into her own mouth to test the temperature.

Once she was sure it wasn't hot, she smiled brightly and called me over.

The spoon touched her two yellow teeth.

Her foul-smelling tongue, coated in white, pressed against the porridge.

Before, that sight had only made me nauseous.

Now, it terrified me.

I ran outside and saw Dad and Gran in the yard.

Dad looked ruddy, healthy, and full of energy.

Gran looked just as she always did.

Fair skin. A kindly face.

They came lightly toward me, opening their arms to hug me as they did every morning.

But the memory of them last night...

I hurriedly made up an excuse and fled as though escaping a disaster.

“Please, sir... help me...”

The blind old man stroked my head.

“What are you crying for? A big lad like you!”

His words were stern, but his voice was gentle and loving.

Stammering, I told him everything that had happened, clinging to his arm and shaking.

I was afraid Mum and Gran would come after me.

He listened with his hands folded over the head of his cane, his face grave.

“Are you sure they didn't discover you were pretending to sleep?”

“I'm sure!” I answered without thinking. “The needle nearly went into my eye, and I didn't make a sound. Please... what's happening? What's wrong with my family?”

He nodded and sighed softly.

“I never thought you were in even more danger than I imagined. Child... how am I to save you?”

Suddenly, his sightless eyes turned toward me.

His face became intensely serious.

His large hands felt over my face.

“Don't... don't frighten me... What's wrong?”

I didn't dare move.

It felt as though I were waiting for a death sentence.

I dreaded hearing something that would leave me utterly hopeless.

“Child... your face too...”

I frantically touched my face.

“What's wrong with it?”

“Does your father have sunken eyes and a slightly open mouth, with nothing left on his body but a layer of grayish, green-tinged skin?”

I nodded desperately and buried my head against him again.

“What are you saying? What's happened to my face?”

He sighed.

“Your eyes are starting to sink too. Ah... I miscalculated. I thought I could settle everything in one go. I never expected you to have such a powerful grandmother.

“Not only did I fail... I gave the game away.

“I'm afraid you won't survive tonight.”

My face went white.

“Tonight? Why? Will I end up like Dad? What are Mum and Gran?”

Tears spilled again.

“Please save me. There has to be a way. Your talisman ash was so powerful. If Gran hadn't been there, Mum would have died. You must have something else!”

“What are you crying for, boy?” he barked. “Stop!”

I bit my lip and fell silent.

The tears wouldn't stop.

“What are they? Why do they want to hurt us?”

He answered slowly.

“Everyone wants to live. Everyone wants immortality. Everyone wants a beautiful body.

“Your mother and grandmother stopped being human long ago.

“And the father you see is only a corpse they've finished using.”

I backed away a few steps.

For a moment, I couldn't even feel grief.

Only helplessness.

“Then... why won't I survive tonight?”

He looked up at the sky.

“Tonight is the full moon. The magnetic fields of heaven and earth will reverse. Your mother's badly injured. Her only chance of recovering is to drink every drop of your blood under the full moon, precisely in the Hour of the Ox.”

“Save me! I don't want to die!”

He held my shoulders and gently stroked my head, his face terribly serious.

“There is one way. But... you must do it yourself.”

He took out an unusual silver needle.

“This is a silver needle. If you drive it into the Dazhui point at the back of your grandmother's neck, she won't be able to resist.”

I took the needle, shining white in the light.

“I can't... It's too hard...”

He shook his head.

“Only you can do it. During the day, she still looks familiar. You must act before dark. Take her by surprise.”

He produced another packet of talisman ash.

“Your grandmother is extremely wary. This may help distract her. You'll have to improvise.

“Don't worry. I'll go with you and protect you from the shadows.

“This time, we must succeed. If you haven't acted by nightfall... even I may not be able to save you.”

I looked up.

The sun was almost down.

Then I looked at the silver needle.

Finally, I gritted my teeth.

“All right!”

He watched me intently.

“Listen. Once the needle goes in, your grandmother will change. She may look even more frightening than she did while stitching your mother's stomach last night. Are you prepared?”

I clenched my teeth and nodded firmly.

I put the needle away safely, drew a deep breath, and headed home.

As soon as I entered the yard, I saw Gran waiting.

“My good boy. You haven't eaten dinner yet, have you? Come here. I'll warm it up.”

Mechanically, I sat at the table.