Chapter 3

I stared at the table full of food.

All I could think was...

When should I act?

I picked up my bowl and chopsticks and forced down a few bites under Gran's watchful eyes.

Wait.

Why wasn't Mum feeding me today?

Why was Gran sitting beside me, watching me eat?

“Good boy. Could you fetch Gran a cup of water?”

“Yes.”

I stood almost immediately, took the cup, and went into the kitchen.

Out of her sight, I remembered the packet of talisman ash.

The old man said it could distract her.

Wasn't this the perfect chance?

I took it out at once, poured half into Gran's cup, and added boiling water.

Then I took Mum's cup, emptied the rest into it, and filled that too.

I carried both cups out.

“Gran, this one's yours. I'll take the other to Mum.”

She said nothing, merely taking the water.

I didn't dare look her in the eye. Holding the other cup, I headed toward the bedroom.

Suddenly, something hooked my foot.

I fell flat on my face.

Looking back, I saw Gran had deliberately tripped me.

“Gran...”

I didn't know what to say.

Swallowing the pain, I got up.

She pointed sternly at the floor.

“What's that?”

My cup had shattered.

The water left among the pieces was giving off thick black smoke.

“I... I...”

Words failed me.

It had been colorless and odorless a moment ago.

Why was it smoking now it was on the floor?

What excuse could I possibly make?

Gran hurled her own cup down.

Crash!

It shattered too. Thick black smoke rose from the water.

She looked at me.

“You mean to poison your mother and me?”

“No... I didn't... Maybe... something's wrong with the well water...”

I babbled.

She suddenly reached into my pocket, pulled out the paper that had held the talisman ash, and held it in front of me.

“Where did you get this?”

I instinctively tried to snatch it back.

She clamped my wrist so hard my eyes nearly bulged.

That wasn't an old woman's strength.

It was a powerful man's.

“Who have you been to see?”

Her eyes seemed ready to swallow me.

I shook my head wildly.

The old man said he'd protect me from the shadows.

Where was he?

Come and save me!

When I refused to speak, Gran sighed.

Her face slowly softened.

I dropped to my knees.

“Gran... I was wrong. Hit me.”

She shook her head helplessly and heaved a sigh.

“Ah... Xiwa. You're growing up. I can't protect you forever. You must learn to judge for yourself.”

She bent to help me up.

I bowed my head, full of guilt and unease, and placed both hands on her shoulders.

In that instant...

The silver needle in my right hand plunged into the Dazhui point at the back of her neck.

Gran clutched her neck and fell backward.

I was so tense that all my strength went out of me.

Dropping to the ground, I shouted toward the yard.

“Sir! I did it!”

Before I'd finished, the blind old man stood before me.

I immediately got up and hid behind him.

In an instant, I felt I had someone to rely on.

Gran sat on the ground and pulled out the silver needle.

One hand covered the wound.

Countless black threads emerged from that tiny hole.

They seemed alive, slowly writhing and crawling across her skin like tangled black vines.

They covered her eyeball.

Several moved back and forth outside it, peeling and knotting inside the socket.

Finally, they tightened around the large, slimy eye, severed it, and pulled it free.

Gran frantically tugged at the black threads and pointed at the blind man.

“You... Blind Wang...” she gasped in horror.

He roared with laughter.

“Ha ha ha! Zhang Cuihua... who'd have thought you'd fall to me in the end!”

“You... know each other?”

My voice trembled. I stayed well away from Gran, afraid the threads would crawl onto me.

The old man turned and looked at me smugly.

As though admiring a treasure that was already his.

His gaze made my hair stand on end.

That face suddenly seemed utterly unfamiliar.

As if I'd never known him.

I backed away without thinking.

“Blind Wang!” Gran screamed, clutching her bloody eye. “Don't you touch Xiwa! I'll skin you alive!”

The black threads kept wriggling.

They seemed excited, searching for their next target.

Just then, Mum struggled out of her room, holding her stomach.

The moment she saw Gran on the ground, she rushed over.

With her bare hand, she squeezed a lump on her face.

She screamed in pain as it erupted like a volcano.

A stream of thick yellow-green fluid shot onto the needle wound at the back of Gran's neck.

Some of the black threads immediately turned and burrowed back through the hole.

Gran shoved Mum away with all her strength.

“Forget me!” she said through clenched teeth. “Protect Xiwa!”

“Gran...”

The word escaped me.

Just as the blind man reached for me, Mum pulled me behind her with lightning speed.

“Blind Wang. Such filthy tricks. Deceiving a child. Aren't you afraid people will laugh at you?”

He spread his arms and laughed uproariously, in no hurry at all.

“You're so kind. You turned yourself into something half human, half ghost to protect the boy.

“But you must understand... to me, he's only material.

“You can't call me despicable. You eat meat. Is that despicable? You lure birds with grain and catch them. Is that despicable?

“I'm no different. I just want the finest material for refining corpse gu.

“What's despicable about that?

“Ha ha ha!”

I bit my lip until it bled.

The silver needle was still in my hand.

While he laughed, I thrust it at him with all my strength.

But he caught my wrist in midair.

“Xiwa... I'm not like your grandmother. I've been watching out for you all along.”

He twisted my arm behind my back, trapping me.

“Ha ha ha!”

Mum quietly picked up Gran's eye and rolled it through the fluid on her own face.

Just as he opened his mouth to laugh, she threw it straight in.

The laughter stopped.

He swallowed instinctively.

Then he clutched his throat.

His stomach.

His whole body began twisting in pain.

But he wouldn't give up.

He gripped me with one hand and dragged me toward the door.

Mum clawed another growth off her face and forced it into his mouth.

He held his stomach and lashed out wildly.

Clearly, the pain was unbearable.

Blood poured from the hole in Mum's face.

Yet she kept calling my name.

I wanted to slap myself.

His hand held me like a vise. I couldn't break free.

With the other, he drove all five fingers into the crown of Mum's head.

His knuckles sank into her skull.

Her eyes rolled back. Foam filled her mouth.

But both her hands still clung to him, and she kept calling me.

Her voice had faded to a whisper.

“Mum!”

I screamed my throat raw, hating my own helplessness.

Gran crawled painfully toward us.

She tore open her stomach and pulled out handfuls of stuffing.

Countless writhing black threads were tangled through it.

While both his hands were occupied, she frantically shoved the clumps into his ears.

His mouth.

His nostrils.

His gray-white eyes shook violently.

Suddenly, he released Mum and me and clutched his head in agony.

Gran forced out a cry.

“Xiwa... hurry... find your honorary grandfather... our clan chief... he's your only chance...”

My honorary grandfather?

A chill went through me.

“Gran... have you forgotten? The clan chief died a few days ago!”

She gasped for breath.

“He's... at... the abandoned ancestral hall... east of the village... Your blood... can save him... He'll tell you everything you want to know... Go!”

Could Grandpa still be alive?

But Mum and Gran were dying on the ground.

I...

“Go!”