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墨書 Inktalez
Seeing her grandmother's furrowed brow, Su Jin'er began to worry as well. Chu Feifan looked at them and asked, "Grandma, what is it that has you so worried?"
"Alas! Such a sin!" Grandma sighed.
Then, she recounted an incredible story.
It turned out that Niu Er's wife was about to give birth, which should have been a joyous occasion. Grandma was called to assist with the delivery, but there were complications. The child did not arrive after a whole day of labor, and as evening approached, it seemed that Niu Er's wife was losing strength. Just when it looked like she might not survive, the child finally emerged. However, they discovered that the baby was terrifyingly deformed, having two heads—one male and one female. This frightened everyone, and they insisted on killing the child. Niu Er's wife, exhausted from childbirth and pale as a ghost, continued to bleed profusely. Despite Grandma's best efforts, she could not save her; Niu Er's wife died, and the two-headed child could not survive either. Niu Er knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly. Grandma asked if they had done something wrong to deserve such retribution.
Niu Er refused to speak at first, but Grandma pressed him until he revealed that this was their sixth child. Their fifth child was a girl, and since they desperately wanted a boy but ended up with another girl, they felt unable to care for her. So they had secretly drowned the newborn in the river.
Su Jin'er widened her eyes in shock upon hearing this: "No matter what, that's still a human life! How could they be so heartless?"
"Alas! This is retribution! In truth, children are pure-hearted; they only wish to come into this world. But after struggling to arrive, they are ruthlessly killed by their own parents. This creates a powerful resentment in the deceased infant, which will ensure that her parents never find peace in their lives. Now their child has come back for revenge, turning their son into this."
After saying this, Grandma sighed again and wiped her eyes.
"What about the baby boy now?"
"He probably won't survive until morning."
As soon as Grandma finished speaking, there was a commotion outside followed by the sound of someone running in. It was none other than Niu Er himself.
"Niu Er! What happened?"
"Aunt! Please, save my child! I have lost my wife; I cannot lose my child too!" Niu Er's face was streaked with tears and his nose ran freely.
"Niu Er! It's not that Aunt won't save him; it's just that there's nothing that can be done! Who told you to harm your own daughter? Even if you didn't want her, you could have given her away! Killing her—how can you live with yourself?"
"Aunt, I really didn't know it would come to this! Killing our own child is hard for us to bear, but you know the conditions at home. How can we raise so many children?"
"Even so, you can't just drown the child!" Su Jin'er couldn't bear it any longer. Although she felt pity for him, the child they had killed was even more pitiful.
"The child's mother has already received her retribution. Please, save my child."
The grandmother sighed and said, "It's not that I don't want to save him; it's that I simply don't have the ability to do so!"
"Maybe if we take him to a big hospital, they can perform surgery and possibly save him," Chu Feifan suddenly suggested.
That's right! She remembered seeing in the news about conjoined twins born in America, and their situation was even worse than this one. They were two children whose heads were joined together. Originally, separating them would have been enough, but the doctors discovered that although they were two children, they shared one brain, meaning only one could survive.
"Exactly! With today's advanced technology, taking him to a big hospital should work."
Su Jin'er agreed.
Niu Er stopped crying and said, "But it's so dark now, and the roads are difficult to navigate. How can we get him out?"
Su Jin'er looked at the pitch-black sky outside and fell silent.
After seeing that everyone had stopped talking, Niu Er began to cry again. A grown man kneeling on the ground crying so heartbreakingly was truly pitiful.
The grandmother thought for a long time and said, "This child is surely beyond saving. However, since you have already killed the child, I can only ensure that she won't come back to haunt you in the future."
Hearing that his child still couldn't be saved, he cried out loudly again. Chu Feifan helped him up and said, "This has already become a fact; we can only accept it. Crying and refusing to accept it won't help."
Although Niu Er had stopped crying, he was still sniffling softly. Grandma returned to the house with some yellow paper and instructed Niu Er to go home and keep a black dog, letting some black dog blood out.
"Grandma, are there really ghosts in this world?" Su Jin'er asked while helping her grandmother tidy up.
"If you believe, then there are; if you don't, then there aren't. However, you are students, and I shouldn't be telling you these things. Yet, it seems you happened to stumble upon this matter."
"Then what is the Infant Grievance you mentioned earlier?" Chu Feifan also inquired.
"Infant Grievance refers to the resentment of infants. When a baby dies prematurely after being born, it generates resentment. Although the infant is very small, they have a strong desire to come into this world. If they die shortly after birth, it creates intense resentment that may cause their parents to suffer throughout their lives."
After hearing this, both nodded. Although they were unsure if such things were true, their curiosity about the matter was strong, and they even felt a bit eager to see the child with two heads.
However, in their hearts, they believed this was not so-called Infant Grievance but rather a genetic mutation issue. They recognized that genetics is complex; even now, people have not fully explained genetic mutations. There are many phenomena in this world that science cannot explain, which leads to what people call supernatural events. In reality, these are merely manifestations of people's fear of the unknown; fear combined with imagination gives rise to many unexplainable occurrences.
"Let's go!" Grandma's voice pulled Su Jin'er from her thoughts. Although she believed it was a genetic mutation issue, she couldn't explain it to these people since they were uneducated. Even if she told them that the child's two heads were simply due to genetics, they might not understand.
She turned to look at Chu Feifan; his eyes also reflected eagerness. Perhaps he wanted to see what the situation with the child was like as well. After all, they were studying medicine, and it might help them in their future work.
Su Jin'er and Chu Feifan followed Grandma out of the house. The sky outside was very dark; there wasn't a single star visible, and even the moon was nowhere to be seen. A layer of black mist seemed to hang in the air, making it impossible to see even five meters ahead. The flashlight emitted a pale light that cast faint shadows around them; everything was quiet except for the occasional croaking of frogs that made the surroundings feel even more silent.
The houses here were built haphazardly without any order. Grandma's house was on the west side while Niu Er's house was on the east side. Although one was in the west and the other in the east, they weren't far apart; however, they had to cross the small river where Su Jin'er often played as a child.
She could already hear the sound of flowing water from the river. What should have been a crisp and pleasant sound now felt strangely eerie in her ears, as if many Vengeful Spirits were wailing in the river of death. She couldn't help but tremble, but in the pitch-black night, no one noticed her pale face.
At that moment, Niu Er spoke up: "Aunt, hurry up! I'm afraid the baby can't wait."
"People grow old, and their legs become unsteady," Grandma said softly, her voice still calm, showing no signs of tension or fear.
Su Jin'er suddenly began to admire her grandmother. She remembered her father once saying that at first, Grandpa often did fortune-telling and feng shui for others, while Grandma did not understand it and was quite afraid of ghosts and monsters. However, for some reason, Grandma later started learning about feng shui. Although she didn't know much about it, Grandpa had left behind many books, which Grandma would read during her free time. Gradually, she grew fond of feng shui. Nonetheless, it was rare for women to practice feng shui, and Grandma only did fortune-telling occasionally. Even so, people from the village would come to her for advice on both big and small matters.
Lost in these thoughts, she unknowingly arrived at Niu Er's house. When she looked up at his home, she inexplicably felt a chilling sense of dread. She glanced around at others who seemed normal and thought perhaps she was overthinking it, so she dismissed the feeling.
Inside the room came the sound of a baby crying. The cry seemed normal enough, but when they saw the baby lying in bed, they felt a wave of unease wash over them.
The baby had two heads; the one on top was clearly a girl, while the one below was a boy. The crying was coming from the mouth of the boy baby, meaning he was normal; it was just that girl baby…
Su Jin'er glanced at the girl baby who had only one head; it should have been where her neck was but instead connected to the top of the boy baby's head. When her gaze fell on the girl baby's face, the girl's eyes suddenly opened wide, staring intently at her with a strange smile. She was startled by this sudden change and took a step back, nearly falling over.
"What’s wrong?" Chu Feifan, standing behind her, caught her just in time.
"That girl baby—" Before she could finish her sentence, she was astonished to find that the girl baby's eyes were closed again as they had been before.
"What happened to that girl baby?"
Su Jin'er shook her head and replied, "It's nothing."
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