The old lady didn't shy away. She nodded and admitted, "Yes, it used to be. It has been passed down to others for several years. Now I am old, my legs and feet are bad, I can't walk anymore, and I can't burn incense for others."
"Oh... well, I heard someone said that every temple girl has a yellow talisman drawn by a Taoist priest from the Qing Dynasty?"
"Who did you listen to?"
I said Tang Gui’s wife.
Grandma Xiao Tang frowned and said, "That's a crazy woman. She doesn't say a word of truth. There is no such thing. Don't listen to her nonsense."
"Grandma, grandma, I'm back."
While we were talking, Xiao Tang came back.
"Grandma, Sister Xiaoyun is back from taking leave. I will bring some food to her house."
"There is bacon in the house, and I'm giving them half a bag of rice."
I helped carry the rice. The sister Xiaoyun mentioned by Xiao Tang was Yapa's granddaughter who was studying in another place. She knew that her grandma was injured and came back specially on leave.
Yabo's head was broken and injured, and her head was covered with a tourniquet. She was sometimes conscious and sometimes confused. She refused to see a doctor and kept saying that she should be punished.
"Little sister, who is this...?"
"Sister Xiaoyun, this is Brother Xiang. He came from a big city and temporarily lived in our village. Grandma asked me to come over and deliver rice. Brother Xiang helped me."
"Thank you then."
"Hey, you're welcome."
Xiaoyun and Xiaotang have been on good terms since they were little. Xiaotang is now in the second year of high school and Xiaoyun is in the freshman year. I see that this girl is dressed plainly and cleanly. The down jackets and trousers on her body are all of the older style. It is cold underfoot in the winter.
I wore a pair of breathable travel shoes for summer, probably because my economic conditions were not very good.
Looking at Grandma Na who was lying on the bed in pain, Xiaoyun's eyes were slightly red, and she gritted her teeth and said, "I must find out who did it, and I want to seek justice for Grandma."
"Yes!" Xiao Tang nodded repeatedly: "It must be someone from our village. I just don't know who threw the stone. This person is so bad! We must arrest him!"
"Grandma, open your eyes and look at me. Do you know who it is? Tell me."
Yapo closed her eyes, panted, and kept repeating one sentence.
"God, it's God, Zaizai God."
On the way back together, Xiao Tang told me that her sister, Xiao Yun, was both good in character and academics. She had been receiving scholarships since high school and was recommended to a key university because of her excellent grades. She majored in business administration and would definitely be able to find a job after graduation.
A very good job.
I said that I could see that she was an educated girl.
Nothing happened that day.
One night, something happened.
The hunchbacked toothpa's granddaughter, this girl who just came back for a day...
died.
I just heard the news and couldn’t believe it. He’s dead? How is that possible? He was a fine person yesterday!
I hurriedly ran to my grandmother's house to see her, and there were already a lot of people gathered in front of her house.
When you enter the courtyard, you can see that this girl, wearing a down jacket and sneakers, fell headfirst into the water tank at home, motionless, and drowned.
The crowd was talking a lot.
"What do you think I'm talking about?"
"This is the number..." A woman onlookers said with a look of fear on her face: "I will go back to my parents' house tomorrow, and the temple sacrifice has not been completed. This is all retribution. Our village has suffered retribution, and the clay statue has suffered retribution."
I can no longer control the devil."
"Sister Xiaoyun, sister Xiaoyun, wake up, wuwu..."
The villagers took the person out of the water tank, placed him on the ground and covered him with a sheet, while Xiao Tang kept wiping his tears and crying.
Ya Po seemed to feel something. She lay on the bed in the room and kept shouting: "Where are the clouds, where are the clouds, where are the clouds?"
How could someone as big as Yapa's granddaughter suddenly drown in a water tank after not seeing her overnight?
Could it be...
Is it true that there is an invisible Zaizai God in this village?
I do not believe.
There must be someone who had a grudge against Yabo's family. He knew her granddaughter was back, so he killed her overnight.
