Otherworldly Merchant

I asked the villagers to put up a ladder by the wall so Li Mazi and I could stand and properly check the situation outside.

I saw several silhouettes walking stiffly. They staggered down the mountain.

I recognized them. They were the folks that had chased us up to the mountain then went missing. Looking at them right now, I knew the wild dog spirit was controlling them. But I didn’t know if they were dead or alive.

I heard someone knock on the door, but those people hadn’t reached the bottom of the mountain yet.

What’s going on? They haven’t reached the bottom of the mountain yet. Who is knocking on the door? 

The sudden knocking also startled the people inside. They were nervous and looked at the gate. They asked me with frightened eyes, “What should we do?”

“Keep your eyes open. I’m going to see who is knocking on the door.”

However, from my position, I couldn’t see the other side of the wall.

We couldn’t do anything else but move the ladder to another wall. I climbed up then looked at the wooden door of the gate.

The area before the front door was empty. No one was there.

I took a deep breath. What’s going on?

I immediately looked at the mountain. I wanted to see if those bewitched villagers had descended the mountain.

However, when I turned to look, my head went blank. There was no one there. No one was outside the ancestral hall. I didn’t see anyone on the other side of the wall either. It seemed everybody had vanished into thin air.

I wasn’t convinced yet. I thought they were hiding in some corner. I had to check carefully!

However, the remote corners were likewise empty. Nobody was there! 

 Shoot, where were they? Where did they go?

I glanced at the villagers, and there seemed to be more people now. I was scared. Did they sneak in? But how?

If they actually came in, this ancestral hall wasn’t a safe place any more.

It was now very dangerous! At the same time, we couldn’t get out. I had a feeling that the wild dog spirit was hiding in some corner, gazing at us.

I never expected that the situation would turn like this. This was beyond my control.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. I glanced at Li Mazi and signaled him to climb up.

Li Mazi looked doubtful then climbed up the ladder with me. I lowered my voice and asked him, “Li Mazi, check things out. See if those missing folks are now mingling with the people here…”

Li Mazi couldn’t help but shiver while listening to me. “What do you mean? How could they get in? The big gate and the back door are closed. We have people watching, too. The exits are all blocked.”

I then said, “I don’t know how they got in. But I can tell there are more people than before. You should check to see if the missing folks are in the hall.”

Li Mazi took a deep breath. “Calm down. We can’t let the villagers know about this. If they panic, they will do something crazy. Then things will become more serious, you know.”

I nodded. I understood this even better than Li Mazi did!

Li Mazi observed things for a while then muttered to me, “Brother Zhang, I have found something strange.”

“What is it?” I asked immediately.

“Tie Niu was dead, right?”

Tie Niu? 

 Right, Tie Niu had hung himself. Did Li Mazi see Tie Niu amongst the group of folks over there?

This thought struck me and made me sweat.

Li Mazi whispered, “Look at the north-east corner. Who is that man happily chatting?”

I immediately turned to look, and I was dumbstruck. Tie Niu, who had died, was now alive. He was chatting happily with the other villagers. Those villagers did not seem to remember that Tie Niu was dead.

“Holy moly, what the hell happened?” I asked. That Tie Niu didn’t look like he was possessed. He was pretty much a living human. I couldn’t spot any flaws in his appearance or behavior.

“Now look at the south-west corner,” Li Mazi whispered.

I immediately turned to see.

After I glanced over, I almost fell off the ladder.

In the south-west corner, a group was chatting. In the center of that group was another Tie Niu!

Shoot, there were two of Tie Niu in the hall!

I could understand if there was only one Tie Niu as it might be that wild dog spirit’s doing. Maybe it was so powerful it could control Tie Niu and ‘resurrect’ him.

But now, there were two of Tie Niu here. What was going on? 

I observed the folks and saw they were all smiling. It was as if they didn’t know the danger they were in. They just happily enjoyed their conversations.

I took a deep breath. It seemed the wild dog spirit had controlled them again.

I immediately thundered, “All of you have to chew the soybeans now!”

But it seemed like they didn’t hear me. They continued their lively conversations.

I shoved a handful of soybeans into my mouth and got off the wall. I hurried and put soybeans into the villagers’ mouths.

It worked. After they had the soybeans and chewed on them, they gradually got together and nervously looked at the gate.

After they woke up, the first thing I did was go to the north-east and south-west corners to see if Tie Niu was still there.

Tie Niu was nowhere to be seen. The villagers were still talking and discussing how to resist the wild dog spirit.

I checked the villagers once again. Their number didn’t decrease. Instead, it increased again!

Damn, what’s happening here?

When I turned to look at the crowd, I suddenly felt a hand pat my shoulder. I thought it was Li Mazi so I turned my head to one side to look.

But when I saw the one standing behind me, I couldn’t hold my scream. It was Tie Niu!

He had a slight smile, which I found very scary. He even had a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth.

He grinned and said to me, “Are you looking for me?”

I screamed and kicked Tie Niu away. “Get off! Go away!”

Then, someone slapped me and forced me to open my mouth. That person put something into my mouth. I heard Li Mazi shout, “Chew it!”

I instinctively chewed. While chewing, my vision blurred. Tie Niu disappeared. He was replaced by a young female villager, who was looking at me with fear.

I immediately looked around. Everything was normal.

Li Mazi pulled me aside. “What happened to you? Did you have a hallucination?”

I took a deep breath. “What happened? Why are you all fine? Why was I the only one who hallucinated?”

“Haha, you asked us to chew the soybeans but you didn’t, right? You got affected.” Li Mazi laughed.

I understood. I had worried about the folks and didn’t think about myself.

I couldn’t help but burst out with laughter. “Oh right, I forgot about myself because of you guys. Who slapped me just now?”

My face was still hurting a lot.

Li Mazi grinned evilly and said, “I did.”

Then, he told me that after I got on the ladder, I started acting strange. I had even asked the villagers to move the ladder to the door. He spotted my strange behavior and didn’t allow the villagers to move the ladder. He kept observing me the entire time.

I had crouched in the corner and talked to myself. Li Mazi didn’t know what I was talking about. A young woman came to give me water and I kicked her.

I felt remorseful and apologized to the woman. The woman was scared. After seeing me approach her, she immediately hid into the group of folks.

However, the knocking on the door continued.

I asked the villagers to put the ladder to the wall, and with soybeans in my mouth, I climbed up.

However, as soon as I got there, a bloody hand reached over and grabbed my arm!

I was scared. Goosebumps rose on my skin as I tried to shake that hand away!