Linbiangui Village-Infinite Streaming Chapter 14

Living People Made Into Mules

Wu Zeng walked down the stairs. Only his footsteps echoed in the stairwell as he went on his own.

After the sounds faded, Chen Jin slowly got up. He opened Wu Zeng’s room door. In the center of the room, Aunt Jiu was tied to a chair, her head drooping, still looking forlorn.

Seeing the person who entered, Aunt Jiu merely raised her head for a glance, then made no other movement.

Chen Jin walked over and untied the ropes. “Come with me to a place.”

Aunt Jiu flexed her wrists, which had just been bound, and raised a hand to smooth her stray hairs. She followed Chen Jin out the door without a word.

Wu Zeng arrived at the Village Office. The surrounding residents had long since turned off their lights and gone to sleep, but the Village Office was still brightly lit.

“Why did you come alone?” Uncle Cai was startled when he saw him.

“Who else should have come with me?” Wu Zeng’s tone was laced with a smile, yet it sent a chill down the spine.

“What did you do to Aunt Jiu?!”

“Do I look like a benevolent soul?” Wu Zeng approached step by step. He was much taller than Uncle Cai, exuding intense pressure. The young men helping around also grew nervous. “A woman in her fifties came to deliver harmful things to me in the middle of the night. Should I have kept her for dinner?”

“What are you trying to do!” Uncle Cai took a step back, asking warily.

“I…”

With a thud, Wu Zeng collapsed before he could finish speaking. Behind him stood Gao Fang, holding a wooden club.

“Aiya, if you killed him, he’d be useless! Quick, check him!” Uncle Cai hurriedly called for people to check if Wu Zeng was alive.

Gao Fang reached out and touched him. Wu Zeng was ice cold. “He’s… cold.”

Uncle Cai quickly squatted down to check his breathing—it was steady and strong. Enraged, he kicked Gao Fang to the ground. “Take him downstairs!”

On Mengle Street, Chen Jin and Aunt Jiu walked side by side. The cool night wind made their faces feel icy.

“Where are you taking me?” Aunt Jiu didn’t know Chen Jin’s intention.

“How did your son get addicted to the grass?” Chen Jin didn’t directly answer her question.

Aunt Jiu paused. She hadn’t expected Chen Jin to ask this. “He had problems with his legs since childhood. He couldn’t walk and was in pain every day. We used many medicines, but nothing worked, until he took the poisonous grass…”

“Do you know how many people have died because of this poisonous grass?”

Aunt Jiu fell silent.

The two walked to the edge of the village. It was late at night, and the Grandma was unusually absent from her usual spot in the courtyard.

“If you want to save him, after you get out, first find someone to rescue the people at the Village Office, then blow up the earthen cellar. Only this way… only this way can the source of the poisonous grass be permanently cut off. Otherwise, when he comes out of the Village Office, the addiction will take hold, and he will be trapped here for the rest of his life, just like… just like my son.” Aunt Jiu spoke a long passage intermittently, her words filled with sorrow.

In the basement of the Village Office, cutting boards, sharp knives, buckets, and flat carts were all present. The equipment was so complete it resembled an underground slaughterhouse. The butchers were busy with their respective tasks: bleeding, cutting meat, deboning, and packaging. Everything was orderly, except that during the day they processed pigs, and now they were processing—people.

“Uncle Cai, is there a problem with this batch of external packaging? Several batches of goods have already leaked, and several mules have died,” asked the young man who usually poured wine at the butcher’s stall.

Uncle Cai didn’t answer him. Instead, Gao Fang slapped the back of the young man’s head, signaling him to shut up.

In the center of the room, Wu Zeng was tied backward to a small wooden stool, currently unconscious.

“Wake him up!” At Uncle Cai’s command, several women grabbed buckets and splashed water over Wu Zeng.

With a splash, Wu Zeng was soaked from head to toe. Water dripped from his hair, his clothes were wet, his face was pale, and his eyes were tightly shut. Combined with the surrounding chaotic, bloody background, it looked like a dark, gory movie scene.

Wu Zeng slowly woke up, his eyes meeting Uncle Cai’s gaze.

Uncle Cai stepped up to him, grabbed his chin, and said fiercely, “Young man! If you eat our grass, you have to be our mule.”

“Oh? And what am I supposed to carry?” Wu Zeng’s tone was languid, completely ignoring the dangerous atmosphere around him.

“Bring it.”

Gao Fang placed a small bag of something into Uncle Cai’s hand. The contents of the bag were dark green powder, very similar in color to the bathhouse.

Uncle Cai pinched a small amount out and held it up to Wu Zeng’s eyes. “Snort this.”

“What if I say no?”

“Then your fate will be his.” Uncle Cai pointed behind him. A recently dissected human head lay on the table, its eyes wide open, dying with grievances.

“I refuse.” Wu Zeng smiled slightly, completely unconcerned.

Uncle Cai violently slapped him across the face. Wu Zeng’s fair face instantly swelled up. “Do it!”

Gao Fang immediately complied. The master butcher on the stall took a sharpened knife from the wall and walked step by step toward Wu Zeng.

Chen Jin checked the time. Nearly an hour had passed since Wu Zeng left. He looked back at Aunt Jiu, who was sitting silently by the roadside, saying nothing.

The next second, Chen Jin strode across the boundary. The familiar dull pain returned.

“If you don’t hurry, I’ll be dismembered.” Wu Zeng’s teasing voice came from behind him.

Chen Jin turned around and saw that his cheek was slightly red and swollen. He was a little surprised. “You were hit?”

It was rare to see Wu Zeng suffer a loss. It seemed this group of people was unusually vicious.

“Worried about me?”

Chen Jin was speechless. He turned and opened the door to leave. Outside was Wu Zeng’s room.

During the day in Wu Zeng’s room, the two had agreed to split up tonight. Wu Zeng would pretend to eat the sausage. If a fish took the bait, he had to personally investigate this dangerous place, and Chen Jin naturally had to prepare for the retreat. The plan was going smoothly so far.

“Dismembered?”

“That’s right.” Wu Zeng took a mouthful of water and rinsed the bloody taste from his mouth. Uncle Cai’s slap just now had been full force. “It’s just as Sister A Ping said: they get people addicted to the grass, force them to transport the drugs, and dismember them if they don’t cooperate.”

Chen Jin searched for the process of the fish burial.

Fish burial: In some minority areas that live by water, people believe that the deceased should return to the rivers and seas, hoping their soul returns to the water country and ensures they are born with water in their next life. On the third day after a natural death, the deceased’s family will dismember the body, chop it up, and feed it to carnivorous fish, thereby completing the fish burial ritual.

“The poisonous grass has harmed many. How can they dispose of the bodies without a trace? Earth burial can be traced, cremation is too conspicuous, and fish burial after dismemberment might be the best choice for Mengle Village.” Wu Zeng dipped his finger in water and drew randomly on the table.

“A fish burial after a natural death is a peaceful departure, but a fish burial after an unnatural death is a death with grievances. The feeding of the alligator snapping turtles was precisely to counter evil with evil.”

Just like the arrangement for feeding the Old Man the fish, these villagers delusionally hoped that the chopped-up, eaten alligator snapping turtles and the dismembered, eaten humans would form a clever soul-suppressing counter-balance. Evil cancels out evil, and the truly bad people are isolated outside, allowing them to escape safely.

“People who can commit such heinous acts probably don’t care about these things at all. The concept of ghosts and gods only works if you believe in it,” Wu Zeng thought these people were not afraid of such things.

“The end of science is metaphysics; behind the prayer is cruelty. Bad people dare to do bad things, but that doesn’t mean they can’t fantasize about mitigating their sins by doing good deeds. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many capitalists who suck blood and then engage in philanthropy.”

“Folk customs wrapped around the bones of the tragically dead. The victims endure the suffering of grass addiction, evisceration, dismemberment, and fish feeding. If it were me, the resentment wouldn’t be small.”

“To resolve this resentment, do we have to… all these people?” Wu Zeng smiled and made a gesture of slitting a throat.

“With so many people involved, who is the one truly responsible for directly killing people?” Chen Jin suddenly felt an itch in his abdomen. He reached through his clothes to scratch it and felt something hard. “Perhaps this poisonous grass is the source of everything.”

“What’s wrong?” Wu Zeng noticed his movement.

“Nothing.” Chen Jin put down his hand and continued, “When I took Aunt Jiu out just now, she said that to save you, we must blow up the earthen cellar. Otherwise, as long as the poisonous grass exists, this matter will never end.”

“Do you believe her?”

“Not entirely, but I agree that the poisonous grass is the source,” Chen Jin shook his head.

“Whatever you do, I’m with you.” Wu Zeng gazed at Chen Jin intently, his eyes full of tenderness and determination.

The day before, when they were on the street, the two had stopped at a butcher’s stall.

There wasn’t much beef displayed on the stall, but some rough, reddish fruits on the left caught their attention. A piece of cardboard next to them read: “Firecracker Fruit, FREE with meat purchase!!!” in large characters.

“Boss, how much is the meat?” Wu Zeng seemed very interested in the Firecracker Fruit, which was likely the same fruit used at the butcher’s stall.

The boss, a short, stout man, was sitting on a small stool playing a game. Hearing a customer, he didn’t rush to get up, but yelled out from his spot, “23 yuan a jin!”

“And this Firecracker Fruit?”

“That comes free with the meat. Buy one jin, get six fruits!”

Buying meat was like getting a bundled item—that was new.

“Can this be used to start a fire?”

“You know your stuff.” The boss smiled and stood up. “Put two fruits together, step on them or smash them with something, and they’ll light up. The fire is strong and hard to put out. It’s perfect if you’re grilling meat!”

So, the two bought two jin of meat and received 12 fruits, then returned to the Guesthouse.

“Get out the Firecracker Fruit and your power banks.”

Wu Zeng had brought eight power banks of various models. When Chen Jin first saw them, he thought the man had charging anxiety, but now they could be put to great use.

Wu Zeng pulled out two identical compressed hiking bags. “This one is for you.”

Chen Jin took it. Inside were four power banks and six Firecracker Fruits.

The road was dark and dangerous, making it inconvenient to go out.

“We’ll go up the mountain tomorrow morning when it’s light,” Chen Jin arranged in a low voice. “If Aunt Jiu comes again, just send her away.”

Back in his room, Chen Jin felt the itching in his abdomen becoming more pronounced. He lifted his shirt and saw a thin, cocoon-like layer on the upper right side of his abdomen. It didn’t hurt, only itched. Chen Jin tried to scratch it off but failed.