CH 36.1

translator: baumkuchen  editor: ellabells

After Lu Qingjiu left Shuifu village, Yin Xun could only play by himself for a very long time.

He went up the mountain alone, he swam around alone, he climbed up onto what used to be their absolute favourite mill  and stared off into the far distance alone.

In the distance, there was a winding path between the mountains. Whenever new faces came or old faces returned to Shuifu village, they would have to pass through that path.

Whenever Yin Xun would watch the path, he would have several coins firmly grasped in his palm. These coins were game coins, he had bought them in town using his own pocket money, and had originally planned on giving them to his best friend, Lu Qingjiu, as a goodbye present. Unfortunately, in the end, he wasn’t able to hand this present to his friend.

Yin Xun didn’t give up. He remembered the promise that Lu Qingjiu had made to him when he left. Lu Qingjiu had said he would still come back again. So Yin Xun thought, when Lu Qingjiu came back, he would definitely hand these coins over to his best friend.

Yin Xun’s family situation was similar to Lu Qingjiu’s. Both of their parents went out to work, leaving their elderly and children behind. But Lu Qingjiu’s parents were more responsible, bringing Lu Qingjiu out of the village early on and sending him to go to school in the city. Yin Xun wasn’t as lucky. His parents’ financial situation was only so-so, so he still had to stay in the remote Shuifu village for many years.

Ever since he was young, Yin Xun had played together with Lu Qingjiu. Now that Lu Qingjiu had left, he was all alone.

Looking forward to his friend’s return, Yin Xun spent his days like this, waiting, waiting, waiting, until… one midsummer night.

Even now, Yin Xun still remembered the weather that day; clear, sweltering hot, not a single cloud in the sky. The bright moon hung above the curtain of night, glittering stars lighting the entire night sky. The noisy chirping of cicadas filled his ears and when he approached the side of the path, he could see the glow of fireflies in the dense grass.

It was an ordinary night that couldn’t have been any more ordinary. Yin Xun, who had lived in Shuifu village for a long time, didn’t notice anything unusual. The him from that time was still a young sprout not even 1.5 metres tall, wearing a baggy T-shirt and shorts. The glue that held his sandals together had come loose, making it a little inconvenient to walk. His grandmother had promised to buy him a new pair by the end of summer.

Yin Xun sat on the mill by the entrance to the village, holding two chirping crickets in his hands. He had just caught the crickets from the grass so they were still full of energy, constantly struggling in Yin Xun’s hands.

Even though it was already dark, Yin Xun still didn’t plan on going home.

It was very safe in Shuifu village and there was no deep water nearby for children to play in, so practically no accidents ever happened to the children in the village. Their parents had no need to worry. Yin Xun’s grandparents were also old. As people got older, they became less energetic, and the children of farming villages were usually brought up to be tough. So even though it was already so late and Yin Xun still hadn’t come home, his family didn’t come out to look for him.

If this was before Lu Qingjiu had left, Yin Xun would probably have gone back together with his little friend, but now, Lu Qingjiu wasn’t there anymore.

Yin Xun sat on the mill, played and played, and slowly drifted off to sleep. The mill was very hard and lying against it was painful. In the haziness of sleep, Yin Xun seemed to hear the sound of running water.

This sound became louder and louder, rousing Yin Xun and making him blearily open his eyes. When he opened his eyes and saw his surroundings, he was stunned stiff. He saw a huge puddle of water that had appeared at some point under the mill. The water in the puddle was swirling, the splashing sound of rushing water making the flow of water seem especially rapid.

Yin Xun stared at the puddle before him, a stupefied look on his face. The ground here was flat… why was there this puddle of water?

Aera jr Tlc Wec kjr rajglcu vjhfvis ja atf qevvif, j qjlg bo yijmx, tjlgs jgwr revvfcis gfjmtfv bea bo atf qevvif abkjgvr Tlc Wec. Par tjcvr kfgf rifcvfg yea lcmgfvlyis ragbcu, fjrlis ugjyylcu tbiv bo Tlc Wec’r ifur jcv yfulcclcu ab vgju tlw lcab atf gertlcu qevvif.

“Ct!!” Tlc Wec, oglutafcfv ys atfrf fnfcar, ifa bea jc jijgwfv rmgffmt. Lf gfjmtfv bea jcv ugjyyfv bcab atf wlii lc j mbcvlalbcfv gfoifz, yea tlr ragfcuat tjv cb kjs bo mbwqfalcu klat atja bo atf wbcrafg lc atf qevvif. Coafg ifrr atjc akb bg atgff rfmbcvr bo rageuuif, tf kjr obgmlyis vgjuufv vbkc.

The water quickly covered Yin Xun’s nose and mouth. His eyes opened wide and he began to struggle with all his might, but this didn’t get him out of danger. On the contrary… more and more air escaped from his airways. This was the first time Yin Xun had come into such close contact with death.

As the air slowly left his lungs, Yin Xun’s eye slowly began to close from lack of strength. In his trance, he seemed to hear the clear sound of a coin falling to the ground.

Ah… I still haven’t seen Qingjiu again… The moment he remembered this, Yin Xun had another rush of strength, actually freeing himself from the black hands holding him and swimming up towards the surface of the puddle.

I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die… Yin Xun thought, I still haven’t given the coins… to Qingjiu.

Even with this desperate wish, Yin Xun’s consciousness gradually became fuzzy. In the end, his vision was shrouded in darkness.

When his family noticed that Yin Xun was missing, it was noon the next day.

His grandma and grandpa made his breakfast, yet didn’t see their grandson return. After realising something was wrong, they searched everywhere, searching for an entire day, before finally finding a trace of their grandson.

That was a pair of little sandals below the mill, thrown haphazardly next to the mill. It could be seen how panicked their owner had been when he’d left them.

A child going missing was naturally a big matter. His grandma and grandpa called the police and asked everyone in the village, but they were still unable to find Yin Xun. After hearing the news, Yin Xun’s parents also rushed back home, inconsolable in their grief over learning about their son’s disappearance.

There was an insane person in the village who said that their child had been taken away by a water monkey. Everyone else thought he was talking nonsense. Clearly, there was no water in Shuifu village, just a little stream that reached up to one’s calf. No one had ever drowned in that stream so how would there be a water monkey.

The police’s final conclusion was that the child might have been abducted and sold off by someone passing by the village. Around then, someone came to Yin Xun’s home.

Yin Xun never saw that person. He only knew through his grandparents’ descriptions that he was a young man with a cloth covering his face that only showed a pair of dark eyes. That pair of eyes looked utterly terrifying — with only pupils, no sclera.

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The man entered Yin Xun’s home and told Yin Xun’s parents that Yin Xun was already dead.

Yin Xun’s parents were inconsolable. At the same time, they were suspicious if it had been this man who killed Yin Xun. Just as the family wanted to tie the man up and bring him to the police station, they watched with wide eyes as the man turned into a pool of water and like that, disappeared right in front of them. If not for their soaking wet hands still before their eyes, they would have preferred to believe that they had all just had a weird dream.

The next day, the man who had turned into water came back.

This time, Yin Xun’s parents didn’t dare to make a move against him, politely listening to the man talk instead.

“Your son can’t come back anymore,” the man said, “He’s dead.”

Yin Xun’s grandmother fainted when she heard the words. His mother and father burst into loud tears. The entire room was filled with sadness.

“But, I have a way to save him,” the man said, “But after he comes back, he won’t be able to leave Shuifu village. He’ll have to stay here, all the way until the end.”

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“The end?” His grandfather, the only one to hold onto his composure, asked, “What do you mean by ‘the end’?”

The man smiled and shook his head. “You won’t need me to explain, he’ll know.”

Even though the man’s background was unknown and he was incredibly suspicious, the family had no other options and could only choose to compromise. According to the method the man told them, they set up a tombstone for Yin Xun and held a funeral. The funeral was very grand, with everyone in the entire village attending. It was reasonable to say that when a child died a premature death, one shouldn’t hold anything too grand. But Yin Xun’s family held a funeral that lasted for a full seven days and seven nights.

A few days after the grand funeral, a soaking wet Yin Xun appeared at the door of his home. He was barefoot and his expression was a little blank, as if he didn’t understand why he was here.

When Yin Xun’s parents saw their son, they were overjoyed. His mother carried him into the house, both laughing and crying.

Because they never found Yin Xun’s corpse, this sudden reappeared child was easily accepted by the people in the village. Since Yin Xun had returned, that proved that that man hadn’t lied. Yin Xun’s family members followed what the man had told them, erecting a shrine on Shuifu village’s mountain, writing Yin Xun’s name inside, and leaving offerings of joss sticks and fruits. Abiding by what the man had said, they didn’t let the lights in the shrine go out and didn’t let the fruit run out.

Yin Xun’s family all followed the man’s instructions one by one, except for Yin Xun’s mother, who had a different idea form in her heart. She wanted to take her son out of Shuifu village.

“You can’t take him away, that man said that Yin Xun cannot leave Shuifu village.” His grandpa wanted to stop his mother.

But his mother, who had already lost her child once, refused to do so. She said, “This place has problems, the people here have problems, I can’t leave my child here! I want to bring him out of here!” She felt that if she left this place, she could leave all this madness behind and forget about that man’s pair of horrifying black eyes.

His father remained silent, his grandparents wanted to but couldn’t stop her. So, the next day, his mother, little Yin Xun in her arms, started on the path leaving Shuifu village.

His father had called a car to wait by the village entrance early on. The family of three walked towards the direction of the car.

But the moment his mother stepped out of Shuifu village, she discovered that Yin Xun, who hadn’t spoken up until now, had begun to melt in her arms. Water flowed down his body and he was gradually becoming transparent.

“Aaaaaaaaah!!!” Upon seeing this scene, his mother broke down. She screeched and threw Yin Xun onto the ground, scrambling out of the village as fast as she could. “This isn’t my child, this isn’t my child, it’s a monster— Monster—”

Yin Xun watched his mother dazedly. He only remembered himself being pulled into the puddle. He didn’t remember anything else. He thought the strange atmosphere in his home had been because he had been too playful and had never thought that there was a deeper reason.

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His mother left. She didn’t bring Yin Xun along, getting onto the car leaving Shuifu village with his father. She never returned.

Yin Xun was abandoned in this tiny little village.

Fortunately, besides being unable to leave Shuifu village, Yin Xun wasn’t any different from the other children.

Like this, Yin Xun slowly grew up. He also gradually noticed how he was different from other people. In the beginning, his grandparents hadn’t planned on telling him about it. Until one day, he found out that the shrine his grandma worshipped on the mountains… had his name on it.

When Yin Xun saw the shrine, he vaguely felt something. Only a long time later, did he finally realise what it was he’d felt.

It was his set task, his set task to forever keep watch over Shuifu village.

Someone had saved Yin Xun, who should have died, and gave him a new life, at the cost of passing on an inheritance.

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His grandparents told Yin Xun about what had happened back then, about the strange man, about his mother, about why he couldn’t leave Shuifu village.

Even though he had never tested them, Yin Xun knew that his grandfather’s words were all true. He even vaguely knew why he had become like this. But these things weren’t to be said. Words could be curses, and some things, if one said them out loud, would change one’s reality.

Even later on, his grandparents died, and Yin Xun gradually grew up.

After becoming an adult, the range Yin Xun had been restricted to became a little bigger. He could leave Shuifu village and go to the nearby towns and villages. As for whether he could go further, Yin Xun had never tried. Because whenever he thought about it, a whisper would seemingly come from the mountains, telling him, he couldn’t leave, if he left, he would die.

Shuifu was his life, it was the root he could never leave.

The story should have ended like this, but Lu Qingjiu’s return signalled a new chapter to the story.