Half a Brick
Chapter 8 Debt Collection
Ge Xiang said he heard his dad sharpening his knife.
I patted Ge Xiang, telling him to quickly go home and rest. His dad was still on the mountain; how could he be at home sharpening his knife?
Ge Xiang said he definitely heard it. It wasn't at home, but on the mountain. When his dad walked the mountain paths at night, he was used to rubbing his knife against the nearby stones as he walked. One reason was to keep the knife sharp without having to specially sharpen it. The other reason was that the sound of sharpening would deter wild animals in the mountains and prevent them from being ambushed.
"That's right, it's my dad, it's my dad! My dad's back!"
As he spoke, Ge Xiang pushed me aside and ran towards the mountain. Huang Xing'er and I quickly chased after him. After running a while on the mountain, I also heard the sound of sharpening that Ge Xiang had mentioned. I vaguely heard a coarse song mixed with swear words. It seemed like Ge Lao Die (Old Man Ge) really had returned from the mountain himself.
I looked at Huang Xing'er, "Where did that placenta spirit get this ghost wall technique? How did the old man come back by himself so quickly?"
Huang Xing'er also looked puzzled. "It's quite far. In such a short time, even I couldn't have run here. How could he, with just two legs, be so fast?"
But despite the questions, Ge Lao Die had indeed returned from the mountain safe and sound, carrying a huge yellow weasel on his shoulder. Even three of Huang Xing'er's small bodies couldn't compare to that thing.
Ge Lao Die found a place to throw down the big yellow weasel. Huang Xing'er screamed directly, and that scream somehow sounded filled with joy. At first, I thought Huang Xing'er was seeing such a mighty member of her kind being slaughtered and was experiencing shock and sadness, resulting in an abnormal reaction. But after asking, I realized she was genuinely happy.
The body of this big yellow weasel was Lao Huang Nv Nv (Old Huang Grandma). With Lao Huang dead, no one would be chasing after Huang Xing'er anymore, so of course, she was happy.
Then, I carried the corpse of the big yellow weasel, Ge Xiang supported his old dad, and Huang Xing'er ran behind us as we returned to Ge Xiang's house.
The situation was also clarified. The Rou Tuan (Meatball) did indeed use a ghost wall to trap Ge Lao Die deep in the mountains, but Ge Lao Die had a body full of murderous aura, and the knife in his hand had been stained with the blood of countless animals. He actually managed to break through the ghost wall himself, and he even tracked down a few small yellow weasels to find Lao Huang Nv Nv's den and wiped out Lao Huang Nv Nv as well.
I asked Huang Xing'er, "Lao Huang Popo (Old Huang Granny) is already dead, can the demon fetus matter still be resolved?"
Huang Xing'er said it was no problem, as long as there was a corpse.
Then, under Huang Xing'er's guidance, Ge Xiang peeled off the skin of the old yellow weasel and had each pregnant woman with the demon fetus cover her belly with it for a night, and the fetus would return to normal.
As for the one that had already been born, they could only go to the hospital to cut off the tail. Lao Huang Nv Nv was already dead, and without Lao Huang's curse, he should slowly become more like a human. But to say there would be no traces at all was unlikely. Anyway, it was already like this, so they could only accept it.
The child's mother heard this pronouncement and cried and wailed, cursing the man for his sins and saying that retribution had come, harming the child for life.
It turned out that this man wasn't very capable. He was honest and often suffered losses. He never dared to argue when others said he was bullying him. But people always need a place to vent, otherwise negative emotions would accumulate and sooner or later the person would explode. The man had never exploded because he had found a punching bag in the form of yellow weasels. Whenever he was angered by the villagers, he would go to the mountains to catch yellow weasels and beat them.
He couldn't afford to offend the villagers, so he could only take his anger out on the yellow weasels. Now, he finally couldn't afford to offend even the yellow weasels.
The matter came to an end here. The yellow weasel issue was considered resolved. Huang Xing'er happily ran back to the mountain. Now that Lao Huang Nv Nv was dead, she wouldn't even be my pet.
I said goodbye to the villagers and drove back to the city. On the way, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my chest and almost flipped off the mountain road.
I quickly stopped the car, grabbed a small bag from the passenger seat, and got out.
Bai Tingting knew how persistent I was and knew that I wouldn't let her go. Keeping me around was a disaster, so she planned to strike first and get rid of me first.
We were old classmates for many years, and our social circles always overlapped. It was very easy for her to get my photo and birthdate. I only made a voodoo doll to whip her, but she directly stabbed me in the chest with a knife.
However, what she didn't know was that I was waiting for her move. I wasn't afraid of her finding a sorcerer to deal with me; I was just afraid that she'd forget to deal with me.
I pricked my finger with a needle, dripped a drop of blood on the abacus, surrounded the abacus with incense sticks, and then sat cross-legged next to the abacus and began to chant.
Soon, the abacus beads moved on their own, making a crackling sound. Finally, they formed the shape of a person. Although there were only a few dozen abacus beads in total, and the human figure was very crude, at first glance, it really did look a bit like Bai Tingting.
I wrote the words "debt collection" on yellow paper, lit it, and threw it into the air. Then, I slapped the ground, and seventeen incense sticks flew up at the same time, their burning ends pointing down, standing on the abacus. Five were on the face, and twelve were evenly distributed on the legs. All seventeen incense sticks emitted thick smoke at the same time.
Fighting with me? You're really not my opponent. Don't think you're amazing just because you have money. You'll still end up crippled.
The seventeen incense sticks burned upside down like this until they were completely burned. I rubbed my chest, shook the incense ashes off the abacus, and drove home.
I had been busy with the Huang Pizi (Yellow Weasel) affair for two days. Back at the shop, I first took a comfortable bath, and then I lay down on the rocking chair and started to sway, occasionally glancing at my phone to see if there were any big news stories.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the news I had been waiting for finally appeared.
Bai Tingting, the new head of the Bai Group, mistakenly believed a con artist due to missing her deceased husband. She set up an altar in her villa to summon ghosts to meet her deceased husband. Unexpectedly, the con artist suddenly went crazy. Bai Tingting suffered several stab wounds, with serious injuries to her face and legs. She has been sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, and the swindler has been taken into police custody.
I yawned, went upstairs, and lit an incense stick for the memorial tablet of Eight Miss. The tablet of Eight Miss had indeed become more lustrous than before, as if it had just been coated with a bottle of high-end skincare products.
Seeing that it was getting dark, I closed the door and went to the vegetable market to buy groceries. I kept hearing Huang Xing'er talk about eating chicken, which made me want to stew a chicken too.
Carrying the chicken back to the shop entrance, before I even opened the door, I heard two children inside chattering:
"You punch, I punch, beat you to death and won't pay!"
"You kick, I kick, stomp you to death, just right!"
"You headbutt, I headbutt, knock you off this planet!"
"You pestle, I pestle, mash you to death, you idiot!"
The crisp, tender voices of children, paired with domineering lines, plus the dim light, created a rather eerie atmosphere.
Damn, whose unlucky kids ran into my shop to cause trouble? My shop is full of incense, candles, and paper offerings. Can you just mash them as you please? If you mash them all up, how am I supposed to sell them?