Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Three: The Drum
This is a story from our Neighboring Village before liberation. Our Neighboring Village is called Baihe Village, a village built on three sides surrounded by mountains. There is a river at the entrance of the village, flowing rapidly, and when viewed from the mountain, it looks like a white river, hence the name Baihe Village.
Before liberation, all the land in the village belonged to a man named Liu. He used various deceitful methods to trick everyone into transferring their land to him. The villagers of Baihe Village worked as laborers for him. While they publicly referred to him as Liu the Landlord, privately they called him Liu the Skinner. Just how much did he exploit them? The most notorious was Zhou the Skinner, who would wake people up in the middle of the night by imitating a rooster's crow to make them work. This was already bad enough, but Liu the Skinner even exploited his own family. His table was always filled with dishes of chicken, duck, fish, and meat, yet his family never got to eat any of it. This was because Liu the Skinner had hired a carpenter to create lifelike models of chicken, duck, fish, and meat, painted them, and placed them on the table. During meals, his family would only have a plate of vegetables and a bowl of rice while staring at the lavish spread.
Although Liu the Skinner exploited others mercilessly, at least his family had rice to eat. The families of his laborers were not so fortunate; they could barely fill their stomachs with coarse grains and wild vegetables for every meal and still had to work hard. Otherwise, their debts would keep piling up.
After Liu the Skinner acquired all the land, he began hiring laborers. The laborers needed food but had no land of their own. Once their stored grain ran out, they had no choice but to borrow grain from Liu the Skinner. For every liter borrowed, they had to repay two; for every dou borrowed, they had to repay two dou. By the end of the year, if they hadn't repaid their debts, they would owe double the amount the following year. The grain given to laborers was not even enough to repay Liu the Skinner; this created a vicious cycle where every household was burdened with an insurmountable debt that they could never repay in their lifetime.
One year, for his fiftieth birthday, Liu the Skinner wanted to celebrate but didn't want to spend money. He approached Shuangxi, a laborer in the village whose family had been traditional Drum Artisans. What is a Drum Artisan? It is someone who performs storytelling accompanied by drumming to entertain an audience; it is also known as singing big drums. In nearby villages, he would be invited to perform during various celebrations.
Since he was an artisan, he should have had means to make a living; however, Shuangxi was unfortunate enough to be born with a stutter. Although it wasn't severe—he just couldn't speak clearly when nervous—his family's drumming tradition could not be passed down through him.
Liu the Skinner thought that if he could get Shuangxi to perform at his birthday banquet, he could save money on hiring performers. So he called Shuangxi into his yard and asked him to perform at his birthday celebration. Shuangxi's father hadn't taught him how to perform due to his stutter; thus Shuangxi hesitated to agree. Liu the Skinner then told Shuangxi that if he performed well, he would give him two liters of rice—about three pounds. Hearing this made Shuangxi's eyes widen in disbelief at how greedy Liu the Skinner was, but he nodded repeatedly.
Liu the Skinner then instructed Shuangxi to go into town and invite his father-in-law over. Liu's father-in-law was over seventy years old and lived in Town; it took a whole day of walking through mountains from Baihe Village to reach Town. Shuangxi complained that he was too hungry to walk any further, so Liu gave him two fist-sized lumps of bran. Bran is what remains after grains are processed; while rice refers to the edible part of grains, bran is typically animal feed—poor families often couldn't even fill their stomachs with bran.
Shuangxi held onto the two lumps of bran but couldn't bring himself to eat them; instead, he gave one to his wife before leaving. If Shuangxi's stutter was unfortunate for him, marrying such a beautiful Daughter-in-law was indeed fortunate; he cherished her deeply.
Before leaving, Shuangxi's Daughter-in-law told him that she would wait for him at home and urged him to return early. After promising her that he would hurry back, Shuangxi set off on his journey. By nightfall, he finally arrived in Town and found Liu's father-in-law's home where he stayed overnight. However, Liu's father-in-law wasn't kind either; he made Shuangxi sleep in the pigsty and only provided him with one and a half bowls of spoiled rice.
Early the next morning, Liu the Skinner's father-in-law had breakfast and then called Shuangxi to get up, only giving him a bit of leftover food from the night before, which was better than nothing. After finishing his meal, Shuangxi set off with Liu the Skinner's father-in-law towards Baihe Village.
Whenever they encountered puddles, bridges, or muddy roads along the way, Shuangxi would carry the Old Man. After walking all morning, they finally reached the outskirts of Baihe Village and crossed a mountain to arrive at the village. During a break, the Old Man took out some prepared steamed buns to eat without sharing any with Shuangxi, who had to take out his own coarse food to eat.
Just then, a group of robbers burst out from the forest. The robbers were sharp-eyed and immediately recognized what the Old Man and Shuangxi were eating. They directly kidnapped the Old Man and sent Shuangxi back with a message demanding one hundred dollars for his release.
Panicking, Shuangxi ran back to the village and found Liu the Skinner. Upon hearing this, Liu the Skinner became furious and insisted that Shuangxi was in cahoots with the robbers to kidnap his father-in-law. He ordered his men to beat Shuangxi severely, and as a result, Shuangxi could not withstand the beating and died on the spot in Liu the Skinner's house.
Liu the Skinner was not worried at all; instead, he felt somewhat pleased. His father-in-law asked Liu for money every year and was not even his real father. Liu actually wished for him to die sooner so that he could inherit the house in town. Moreover, Double Happiness Wife was quite beautiful, and Liu had long been itching to try something with her.
After learning about Shuangxi's death, Double Happiness Wife cried inconsolably. She borrowed some money from Liu the Skinner to bury Shuangxi and even buried their family heirloom drum with him.
That night, a black dog outside Liu the Skinner's door kept barking until it suddenly stopped. In the middle of the night, there was a rhythmic drumming sound coming from in front of Liu's house: "Dong dong dong!"
The drumming continued until dawn. No one from Liu the Skinner's family or his men dared to go out to check until it was light outside. When they finally did, they found that the fierce black dog had dug its own face apart with its claws and had literally dug itself to death.
That night, everyone in the village heard the drumming sound and said it was Shuangxi returning for revenge. Double Happiness Wife dreamt of Shuangxi that night; he was wearing his drum on his chest and continuously beating it with both hands, causing blood to flow profusely from his hands. After searching her home for a long time, she realized that she hadn't buried the drumsticks with Shuangxi. She went to his grave and burned them for him.
On the second night after the black dog died, drumming sounds echoed again outside Liu the Skinner's door: "Dong dong dong." The first among Liu's men was a man named Old Bear, who carried a box gun. He walked into the yard and started shooting in an attempt to scare away the drumming sound. However, after firing his gun, he saw a figure standing in the yard—it was none other than Shuangxi himself, covered in wounds from when he had been beaten. His face bore several severe whip marks where bones were exposed; his mouth had been split in two with lips hanging down revealing a mouth full of blood.
Shuangxi held a bright red drum under his arm while continuously striking it with drumsticks as he approached Old Bear. Old Bear was too frightened to shoot again; he urinated in his pants and dropped his gun while pressing his hands against his ears to block out the sound.
The drumming continued right next to Old Bear's ears: "Dong dong dong!" The next day, Liu the Skinner found Old Bear sitting on the ground in a state of shock; he had lost control of himself completely—urine and feces flowed out as he covered his ears with both hands while blood streamed from his eyes, nose, and mouth until he died from sheer fright.
On that day, Liu the Skinner's subordinates had all fled cleanly. Although there were silver dollars at Liu the Skinner's home, there was no life to spend them! Liu the Skinner's household was left with just a few family members. Liu the Skinner had committed murder and arson, and had engaged in deceit and trickery, but now he was terrified. With the guards gone, Liu the Skinner was scared to death; his father-in-law was still in the hands of the robbers, and now there were ghosts haunting his home.
Liu the Skinner personally delivered rice and five silver dollars to Double Happiness Wife, telling her not to report it to the authorities, as it would be useless. The one who caused Shuangxi's death, Old Bear, had already been scared to death. He urged Double Happiness Wife to go to the cemetery and persuade Shuangxi not to seek him out anymore. As long as Shuangxi did not come back tonight, he would immediately forgive Shuangxi's family debts and give them two acres of land.
The woman, soft-hearted and having received benefits from him, went to Shuangxi's grave and spoke for a while. Sure enough, that night there were no more drum sounds coming from Liu the Skinner's doorstep.
Liu the Skinner felt heartbroken; gritting his teeth, he forgave Shuangxi's family's debts and gave Double Happiness Wife two acres of poor land. This matter seemed to have passed but was far from over.
Liu the Skinner's father-in-law was killed by robbers who stabbed him several times because he couldn't wait for the silver dollars. As a result, Liu the Skinner's wife died from shock after losing her father; she fell ill and soon passed away.
Liu the Skinner found new guards again. After burying his father-in-law and wife, he began to ramp up his plundering of wealth. Meanwhile, Shuangxi's wife had her own land now and started to have her own harvests; life improved for her. With good food, she became healthier and more vibrant. Seeing this, Liu the Skinner began to have ulterior motives again. Since Shuangxi had turned to bones, why not taste this wildflower?
Under the cover of darkness, Liu the Skinner ordered his guards to silence Double Happiness Wife and bring her back home. Right then and there, they assaulted Double Happiness Wife. When the guards saw Lord assaulting her, they joined in as well. As a result, Double Happiness Wife died in Liu the Skinner's home. He secretly disposed of her corpse in the river, thinking no one would know.
However, the next night, drum sounds echoed again in Liu the Skinner's house. While sleeping in bed, he heard the drums and wanted to find his guards but was blocked at the door. He saw that Shuangxi's flesh had rotted away significantly; only white bones were faintly visible, with two eye sockets that had decayed completely and maggots crawling out. The only thing unchanged was Shuangxi's drum still hanging on his chest; with fingers that had rotted away, only two arms were left beating on that drum. Upon seeing Liu the Skinner, he said: "Aren't you Liu the Skinner? I will skin you alive!"
When Liu the Skinner heard the drum sounds, he felt an itch all over his body and kept scratching himself. The more he scratched, the itchier it became; slowly his body was covered with blood marks from his fingers yet he still felt itchy. He continued scratching until eventually all of his skin was scratched off without feeling any pain—only an overwhelming itch remained as he scratched incessantly. Blood flowed from his body onto the ground, soaking half of the room.
When people found Liu the Skinner, the guards had long since fled with their loot, leaving behind only Liu the Skinner’s corpse. That corpse had no good skin left from head to toe; all that showed was bright red muscle. His eyes had been scratched out completely, and he lay there with his mouth wide open in death.
Comment 0 Comment Count