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墨書 Inktalez
Sun Guiying and her husband had just returned home, barely settling down when they heard a noise coming from Dog Wazi's bedroom. The three of them quickly rushed in, finding Dog Wazi sitting up.
“Mom, Dad, is there food? I'm so hungry!”
“Yes, yes, Mom will go get you some food right now.” Sun Guiying rushed in and hugged her son tightly, tears streaming down her face as she spoke.
“Brother... are you okay?” Chun Ni felt it was all too strange. After their mother left, she quickly grabbed Dog Wazi's hand and examined him closely. Their father didn’t say much to express his joy at seeing his son awake, but the happiness on his face was evident. After a long search, Yeziyan finally found a lighter, his fingers trembling as he lit a cigarette with it.
“Mmm... I took a long nap at home, it felt so good...” Dog Wazi mumbled. Sun Guiying, along with Chun Ni and Dog Boy's Father, were at a loss for how to explain to Dog Wazi what had happened over the past few days.
Dog Wazi had inexplicably slept for several days and then woke up just as mysteriously. Once awake, he devoured an entire bowl of dry rice along with steamed buns.
When everyone asked Dog Wazi about the dreams he had during those days, he replied, “Damn it, dreams are so much better than reality. There was this super beautiful older sister who fed me all kinds of food I’ve never seen before. Man, waking up I was still so hungry.”
...
“Is this story for real? It can't just end here!” Ziya remarked, captivated by Severe Cold's storytelling style.
“Yeah! How strange! Are there really ghosts by the river?” Sun Meng asked in surprise.
“This is just the beginning; the real bizarre stuff comes later. You’ll understand once you hear what happens next,” Severe Cold said with a teasing smile, a hint of mystery in his demeanor.
“And there's more!” Ziya exclaimed excitedly at Severe Cold.
Sun Meng chuckled, "Look at how happy she is; it seems like she's found a good topic!"
Ziya entered the ward, took out some fruit, and washed it clean in the sink before handing one to Severe Cold and Sun Meng. The warm sunlight poured down gently, and laughter echoed from the small balcony.
As time passed, the Dog Wazi incident seemed to fade away. Severe Cold and a few friends gradually forgot about it. The heat was unbearable, and they longed to immerse themselves in the river for a refreshing dip. The riverside in summer was bustling with activity; the water sparkled under the sun, clear and transparent, with stones and small fish visible beneath the surface—this was before the upstream factories polluted the river. Later on, some brownish, viscous liquid flowed down from upstream, turning the water filthy, but that was another story...
On this day, the children in town ran to the riverbank to play. They splashed water at each other, their laughter ringing out across the surface of the water. Severe Cold playfully splashed water onto his sister Chun Ni.
One child was trying to escape while another chased after them. The girls typically wore swimsuits that reached their midriffs and tight-fitting shorts below.
Chun Ni had just turned fifteen; she had developed into a young woman, her body surprisingly well-formed despite not being conventionally pretty. However, Severe Cold always regarded Chun Ni as his sister. Since the Dog Wazi incident, his usual bravado had vanished, and he willingly followed under the leadership of the child king, Severe Cold.
Now seeing his sister and Severe Cold chasing each other in the water made him clap and laugh as he joined them. The three of them moved upstream when suddenly Severe Cold stopped and wiped his face with his hand, looking at the river's surface as he loudly asked Dog Wazi and Chun Ni, "Hey... do you smell something foul?"
Chun Ni wrinkled her nose as she sniffed the air for any unusual odors. "Hmm, there's a rotten stench."
The three of them stood up straight and carefully examined what might be decaying upstream that could be blocking the flow of water. This area formed a bend where the rushing water collided directly with the riverbank, making it much larger than other places; the depth of the water here was also greater.
Additionally, several sand-dredging boats had created deep pits along the riverbank. There had been instances where outsiders came to collect medicinal herbs but drowned after jumping into unknown depths. Subsequently, the town enforced a rule prohibiting outsiders from swimming near the riverbank; however, some still ventured in without knowing better, leading to bodies floating downstream without anyone knowing how they had died.
Without further ado, they turned back to look at Severe Cold. They noticed that just two meters away from them lay a series of larger stones arranged like stepping stones in shallow water. These stones were placed by villagers to create a path across to the other side of the river. The gaps between them were wide enough for women carrying baskets on their backs to cross over to cut grass for feeding livestock when local supplies ran low. When they ran out of grass nearby, they would go across to harvest from the other side of the river.
From the perspective of the Stone Pillar, it seemed as if a corpse lay somewhere nearby.
"Let's go take a look!" Severe Cold suggested.
"You all go. I really don't want to," Chun Ni replied, feeling nauseous at the thought of the decaying smell and corpse water flowing down from upstream. The memory of her brother Gouwa's incident still haunted her, making her reluctant to approach the body.
"Don't even think about leaving; those who see it share in the experience, right?" Severe Cold teased Dog Wazi, his words laced with sarcasm, recalling how Dog Wazi had insisted on claiming the belongings of a female corpse during their last encounter.
"Tch, don't mess with my head. It's been so long; if you say we should go check it out, then let's just go," Dog Wazi retorted before plunging into the water and swimming ahead.
Seeing that her brother wasn't leaving, Chun Ni felt she couldn't abandon him either and quickly followed suit. The three of them swam to the Stone Pillar and finally got a good look at what was blocking their path. It was undoubtedly a corpse, but not a human one; it was the severely decomposed body of a large dog, covered in green flies. Its fur had fallen away, revealing dark brown skin beneath which wriggled countless maggots...
"Ugh... wow..." Severe Cold, Chun Ni, and Dog Wazi all felt an overwhelming wave of nausea and desperately tried to spit out the river water they had accidentally swallowed.
As they were all retching, Chun Ni suddenly felt something crawling on her thigh. She quickly looked down, and the sight sent her into a panic.
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