Chapter 14: The 1956 Village Incident

She looked distraught, her body trembling violently with fear. When she saw it was me, her face showed wariness. She couldn’t speak Mandarin, and the Hakka dialect was truly difficult to understand, so we rarely communicated normally.

However, I had a strong intuition that people of her generation must know something. Seeing Xing’er returning from outside carrying two bundles of firewood, I stepped forward and stopped her.

“Xing’er, Teacher Lin wants to ask you something.”

Grandma Zhao glanced over in our direction, her gaze so cold it made one’s heart tremble. Xing’er met Grandma Zhao’s eyes and began stammering nervously.

“I, I…”

“Come with me!” I grabbed Xing’er’s hand and ran out of the courtyard, arriving at the freshly harvested wheat field.

“Teacher Lin?” Xing’er avoided looking directly at my eyes, her conscience clearly troubled.

I asked her: “Where did you secretly go with two steamed corn buns yesterday?”

Xing’er suddenly looked up, her face filled with terror as she waved her hands desperately at me: “Teacher Lin, I can’t say.”

I grabbed Xing’er’s shoulders and said angrily: “Even if you don’t tell me, I know! You went to Old Barren Village. You locked Little Stone in the iron cage in the cellar! Don’t you know this is illegal?”

Xing’er’s eyes reddened, filled with guilt and unease: “I don’t know why we have to do this either. Grandma said if we don’t do this, we might die. This is the village’s sacrificial ritual.”

Although I understood their feelings, I still couldn’t accept such cruel practices.

“Xing’er, your lives matter, and Little Stone’s life matters too. What you’re doing is just repaying evil with evil. In five years, in the next five years, people will still die. Maybe one day it will be your children’s turn…”

Xing’er wiped her tears: “Teacher Lin, Xing’er is very scared. Xing’er doesn’t want to do this at all. Little Stone is so pitiful, but…”

“Don’t be afraid. What exactly happened in the past? Tell Teacher Lin, and we’ll find a solution together.”

Xing’er shook her head: “Xing’er really doesn’t know. Grandma has never been willing to talk about this matter. But Teacher Lin, you can ask Old Man Lu San. He has always been in the village and definitely knows.”

Xing’er took me to the village entrance to find Old Man Lu San, who appeared to be around seventy years old. When we arrived at his house, he was sitting on the front steps rolling a cigarette, wearing an old yellow military jacket.

He seemed to recognize me, standing up with a smile to greet me: “Teacher Lin.”

I was surprised by how standard the old man’s Mandarin was. We shook hands, and he invited me into his house, brewing a cup of bean tea.

Sitting across from me, he licked the unrolled end of his cigarette, picked up a yellowed old-fashioned cigarette holder and tapped it to remove excess tobacco ash, then inserted the rolled cigarette into the holder before lighting it with a match.

I rubbed my hands together, and Xing’er spoke first for me: “Grandpa Lu San, Teacher Lin came today because of Little Stone.”

Old Man Lu San took a drag from his cigarette and said: “I saw that boy sitting alone in the wheat field yesterday and knew this matter wasn’t over yet. Every five years during the Ghost Festival in July, she always takes a life, without exception. For over sixty years now… my younger brother was taken by her.”

I pretended to take a sip of tea, set down my cup, unable to conceal my inner agitation: “Third Uncle Lu, could you tell me what exactly happened back then?”

Third Uncle Lu remained silent for a long while, took a deep drag from his cigarette, and slowly began: “This matter dates back to 1956…”

Back then, there was a man in the village named Xu Jinjun. Due to his violent temper, he often beat and scolded his wife without reason, so she ran off with another man, leaving behind two sons.

Two years later, someone in the village arranged a match for him. The woman came from another region her husband had died, and she brought along a four-year-old child who was adopted into Xu Jinjun’s household.

This woman had a hunched back, a frail physique, and couldn’t do much labor. Like a man, she also smoked. She was quiet, rarely spoke, and seldom went out.

Most of the time when people saw her, she was alone, smoking, sitting on an old bamboo chair in front of the door, her gaze vacant as she stared into the distance.

The child the woman brought was a daughter. No one knew her surname, and everyone called her Lingdang (Bell). In rural areas, feudal mindsets favoring sons over daughters were always quite severe.

Moreover, since Lingdang wasn’t Xu Jinjun’s biological child, he felt he was raising a worthless burden for nothing. Over time, his resentment grew increasingly unbalanced. When the woman wasn’t around, Xu Jinjun would burn Lingdang’s eyes with cigarette butts.

As time passed, Lingdang’s vision became blurry, and she always squinted. The woman grew suspicious and asked Lingdang what was wrong with her eyes.

Lingdang said: “Daddy burned them with cigarette butts.”

The woman was furious but dared not speak out, utterly helpless. Women in those days were in a vulnerable position, dependent on their husbands for survival. Seeing that the woman didn’t dare to say anything, Xu Jinjun grew increasingly unrestrained.

One of Lingdang’s eyes was burned blind and became infected, often oozing pus. The village children would hide far away at the sight of her and refused to play with her.

Xu Jinjun didn’t stop abusing Lingdang because of this. Since the woman couldn’t work, every time Xu Jinjun returned home, he would throw down his hoe, cursing and grumbling, grabbing the woman by her hair, slapping her, and slamming her against the wall.

Village officials and elders often scolded Xu Jinjun, urging him to treat his wife and child better. In response, Xu Jinjun would angrily grab a shoulder pole, shouting curses as he drove them out of his house.
Gradually, no one dared to approach him with advice anymore, avoiding unnecessary trouble.

After Lingdang lost an eye, Xu Jinjun began burning her chin with cigarette butts. Soon, a hole rotted through her chin water leaked out when she drank, and food spilled out when she ate.

The last time anyone saw Lingdang, she was wearing a bright red new padded jacket, carrying a basket, saying she was going into the mountains to pick wild vegetables.

The new clothes were something the woman had begged Xu Jinjun for a long time to have made for Lingdang. The woman was seriously ill and bedridden, knowing she didn’t have much time left this was her final gift to Lingdang.

But who could have known that Lingdang would never return from that trip? Villagers organized searches in the mountains but never found her body. Some said Lingdang had fallen off a cliff and been shattered to pieces; others claimed she was carried off by mountain wolves…

Half a month after Lingdang disappeared, the woman also passed away from her illness. Not long after, the village suddenly became haunted, the villagers said Lingdang had returned!

Six months later, the Xu family home caught fire. Xu Jinjun was working in the fields when villagers ran to tell him: “Old Xu, hurry home! Your house is on fire!”

Xu Jinjun threw down his hoe and bolted home, but the fire was too fierce to save anything. His two sons were burned alive inside.

Standing outside watching the blaze, Xu Jinjun threw back his head and laughed, clapping his hands as he cried: “It’s burning, everything’s burning! Burn it all! Burn it all! Hahahaha…”

From that day on, Xu Jinjun went mad. He often wandered through the village half-naked, begging for food door to door.

Sometimes he would point nervously into the distance, his face filled with terror as he muttered: “She’s coming, she’s coming… a little girl in red clothes.”