Chapter Thirty-Seven: Leaving the Village

“Go!”
Suddenly, Wang Erjun let out a thunderous shout, his face streaked with tears, yet he was the fastest among us, dragging us along.
At that moment, the door of a nearby courtyard suddenly swung open, and a voice filled with curses spilled out: “What the hell are you doing? I said I’m not leaving! Not leaving! A sham witch and a crazy woman—going on about how everyone in the village is about to die! If you keep this up, I’ll drag you to see the old village head!”
The door in question belonged to a courtyard right next to the crowd of ghosts.
A villager, groggy with sleep and looking very unwell, stumbled out.
Closest to him was an old man, perhaps seventy or eighty, whose body was covered in disgusting, festering sores. I remembered the elders of the village once saying that a plague had swept through here two or three decades ago, claiming many lives.
The moment the old man seized the villager, the latter suddenly screamed in terror, “Old Li! A ghost!”
The villager was in his forties or fifties, and naturally recognized the elders of the village.
The old man pressed his face close and took a deep, forceful breath.
A look of utter satisfaction bloomed on his face, while the other ghosts shrieked and cursed at him to get away, surging forward.
A chill of horror swept through me.
Mr. Wang murmured, “Leave them be! If they won’t go, they won’t go—Granny Li must have already tried to warn them all.”
Wang Erjun said nothing, forging ahead. I, too, had no intention of playing the good Samaritan and staying behind.
Toward these villagers, I felt not just hatred, but a greater sense of cold indifference.
My father and Aunt Hui ended up like this in part because of their support for Zhou Gang.
They couldn’t stand that the village chief’s family had money.
They gossiped behind our backs every day, talking about how we profited from the dead and would meet an untimely end.
After Carpenter Wang’s accident, they instantly blamed him for murdering the entire village chief’s family.
When trouble struck my family, they were quick to suspect us all as murderers.
There was no need to save people like these, even if they died.
It didn’t take long for us to reach the edge of the village.
But Granny Li and Aunt Wang were nowhere to be seen.
Wang Erjun trembled, his voice quavering, “Where’s my mother?”
Mr. Wang’s voice was hoarse. “Walk out one by one. Don’t look back, don’t stop. No matter who calls your name, do not turn around! Or you’ll never get out!”
“Wang Erjun, your mother and Granny Li have already left!”
As he spoke, Mr. Wang let go of my hand and strode out along the village road.
Strangely, the moment he stepped forward, his body vanished into thin air.
A wave of dread washed over me—it was as if some invisible force was sealing off our village.
Wang Erjun, pale as a ghost, said with a shiver, “Xie Yuan, you go first!”
I took a deep breath, suppressing the fear in my heart. “You go first—I’ve already left the village before. Don’t worry about me.”
Gritting his teeth, Wang Erjun bolted ahead.
I gasped twice, then broke into a run.
But at that very instant, a strange fragrance drifted up my nose.
Turning my head, I saw the old peach tree—
“Is it blooming?”
Beneath the tree, a woman in white with long, flowing hair beckoned to me—

My heart trembled. Chanshu? Isn’t she supposed to be waiting for me outside? Why hasn’t she left?
“Xie Yuan… come here…”
A faint, drifting voice sounded in my ear. It was unmistakably Chanshu’s.
My steps faltered, and I froze.
I couldn’t help but want to turn around—Chanshu, in my heart, was always a complicated presence.
She stayed here to buy me time, to save me. If she didn’t make it out, how could I leave her behind?
Just then, another familiar voice sounded by my ear: “Xie Yuan, look carefully—leave, now.”
It was Aunt Hui’s voice!
She sounded much less weak than before.
A fresh chill gripped my heart. Out of the corner of my eye, Chanshu’s figure beneath the peach tree vanished.
In her place was a single hairpin.
The hairpin was thrust deeply into the peach wood!
Chanshu had once used this very hairpin to wound White Funeral Liu. So that meant White Funeral Liu had already been to the village entrance?
My mind raced, but at the same time I felt something being pressed into my hand.
A moment later, someone shoved me hard from behind.
Stumbling, I lurched forward awkwardly.
Blackness, then blinding light—the glare of the sun almost blinded me.
A pair of plump, strong hands caught me by the arm, and a trembling voice said, “Child, you’re out, you’re safe now.”
It was Granny Li’s voice.
The hands holding me belonged to Wang Erjun.
I struggled to open my eyes. The road outside the village was bathed in bright sunlight.
My face stung, as if my skin, long used to darkness, could not bear the sudden blaze.
Granny Li’s face was a healthy, normal flush.
Aunt Wang’s was the same, her anxious look greatly eased.
Wang Erjun clung tightly to me, while Mr. Wang stared grimly back toward the village.
I took a few deep breaths, then turned my head as well.
Immediately, my face went pale, a cold, eerie sensation rising from within.
From where we stood, the village looked perfectly normal.
There were even one or two people walking along the village road, their faces lit by the brilliant sun, their expressions visible.
The passersby seemed to be talking, though I couldn’t make out what they said.
But if you watched a little longer, you’d notice something chillingly wrong.
None of them cast a shadow.
Though the sunlight was blinding, as they walked, there was nothing beneath their feet but bare earth.
Every few minutes, the same two figures would stroll by, over and over.
And a few paces away stood that old peach tree.
Its branches were lush and full, the peach blossoms in riotous bloom, bright as blood.

If you stared for more than a few seconds, you’d feel an irresistible urge to approach and pluck a blossom from the tree.
I could no longer see the hairpin thrust into the peach wood.
In that critical moment when Aunt Hui pushed me out, what I’d seen wasn’t Chanshu at all. She must have made it out as well.
“Corpse borrowing life, evil spirits seeking rebirth.”
Granny Li murmured these words, her face filled with both resignation and sorrow.
Only now did I realize there were just a few of us at the village entrance.
Aunt Wang spoke softly, her voice trembling: “We knocked on the doors of so many villagers, but not a single one was willing to come. They all said Granny Li was a fraud, and I was insane. Some even threw things at us.”
Only then did I notice the wound on Aunt Wang’s forehead.
“The black cat was caught. When the evil spirit gave up its chance at rebirth, the yin energy surged, and the evil spirit regained its strength. A black cat alone could never defeat it.”
Mr. Wang’s eyes, under the sunlight, had returned to normal.
He sighed and said, “If White Funeral Liu hadn’t killed the black cat’s companion, we would never have had a chance to escape. This village is a ghost village now. When the next full moon rises and the yin energy soars, it’ll be the evil spirit’s second chance at rebirth.”
My face went white, my voice hoarse. “But my father took the ghost fetus away…”
Before I could finish, Mr. Wang narrowed his eyes and said, “He’ll only delay things a little. He’s just a vengeful ghost—he can’t hide for long. He can’t leave this Hundred House Village, either.”
Wang Erjun, unwilling to accept this, suddenly spoke up, “And what about Aunt Hui? When I came out just now, I thought I saw her standing behind us, watching Xie Yuan. But I didn’t dare say anything.”
Granny Li turned to Mr. Wang, then asked me what had happened inside.
I didn’t hide anything and told Granny Li everything in detail.
The more she listened, the more her expression shifted—a look of deep dread flickered across her face.
“When a hundred ghosts descend from the mountains, the entire village is doomed. This is a calamity to wipe out families and clans.”
“With such overwhelming resentment, more vicious ghosts are bound to appear. And the ghost fetus—it kept crying, but once your father took it, it stopped… There’s only one possibility.”
A chill ran through me. “What possibility?”
Granny Li hesitated, then said, “It has a soul. It’s not just a ghost fetus anymore—it’s a spirit-born fetus.”
My heart skipped a beat. “A spirit-born fetus? What does that mean?”
“A ghost fetus has no soul, born from a living corpse. It breathes in the womb but is stillborn, so the underworld doesn’t record its name. The living corpse is long dead, and the underworld takes no notice.”
“A spirit-born fetus, though, means the child has a soul—perhaps reincarnated from the underworld, or possessed by a wandering ghost. A spirit-born fetus is not a ghost. It can see both the living and the dead, distinguish good from evil spirits. This one killed its father before birth, and its mother died giving birth. Its fate is already bound to darkness. Now, taken by a ghost, it won’t be easy to bring it back.”
Granny Li turned to Mr. Wang. “Wang Chong, surely you can see this. Aren’t you afraid that if you ignore such a monstrous grudge, you’ll never die in peace?”
My expression shifted. I hadn’t expected Granny Li to speak to Mr. Wang in such a tone.
She meant that all these deaths in the village were tied to Mr. Wang as well?
Mr. Wang fell silent.
Granny Li gazed at him a moment longer, then turned to me and said, “Child, let’s go back to Yakou Village. I want to take you to see someone who might help. We must return to Hundred House Village.”
A shudder ran through me, but I followed Granny Li forward.
Wang Erjun and Aunt Wang followed as well, but Mr. Wang did not.
Only now did I realize something was clenched in my palm. I looked down and opened my hand—a piece of black cloth, tightly wrapped around something within.
What had Aunt Hui given me?