It was the village chief.
His face was pressed to the window, his mouth unmoving, yet outside there were faint, intermittent murmurs filtering into the room.
Jiang Yan realized she was not seeing a ghost, but desireโthe village chief was talking with someone, not wanting the three inside to overhear, so his โdesireโ was to see if they were asleep.
But desire, after all, is desireโitโs subconscious, unconsciously done or left undone. A human head can never turn 180 degrees; what desire gazes at can never truly be seen by human eyes.
So even as Jiang Yan smiled at that face in the window, the chief had no idea she was awake.
Jiang Yan dropped her smile, concealed her expression, stuffed her pillow under the blanket, and feigned lying in bed, then quietly stole over to the window and leaned against the wall, making not a sound.
If the chief had just chatted openly there, she might have turned over and gone back to sleep, but since he didnโt want her to hear, how could she not listen?
Jiang Yan half-closed her eyes, and those fragments of voices drifted in.
From their words, the two outside were tidying and collecting the drying medicinal herbs; the chief directed, and Wang Guilan dumped basket after basket into boxes.
The chiefโs voice was soft, as if worried about disturbing those inside.
โHavinโ outsiders at homeโs just inconvenient, cough… or else those people will start asking again… โ
He stifled his cough, hunching over with such force it seemed he might snap in half, trembling like a barren tree in a harsh wind.
โHurry up… itโll be two soon. In a bit, go find Baomin, give him these, then…โ
His voice trailed down to almost nothing, barely a whisper from his throat. Jiang Yan edged closer to the window, hoping to catch the last part. But the old manโs voice was too faint, muffled in his throatโJiang Yan heard nothing, and Wang Guilan didnโt ask.
Clearly, Wang Guilan already knew what needed to be done today, so even if she missed the words, she understood.
The herbs were finally packed. With a โcreak,โ the front door closed, and Wang Guilan left. Jiang Yan shut her eyes, a touch helpless, but soon reopened them, holding her breath.
A suppressed coughโmoonlight dimmedโshadows deepened in the room, and a bent figureโs shadow stretched to her feet.
The chief was peering in the window.
This time, it was a person looking.
Jiang Yan couldnโt be sure the pillow trick would fool him. To avoid extra trouble, she needed some protection, so she crept up to the window too.
The chief had just pressed his face to the glass when he saw a layer of white fog inside, a blank haze blotting out the room. He tried to wipe it away, but didnโt clear it.
Ohโthe fog was on the inside.
His thoughts turned sluggishly; then he pressed his face back to the glass, a tooth-aching sound as his features squashed out of shape, but he still couldnโt see in.
After a few minutes, frustrated and failing, he drew back, coughing and shuffling away.
โHahโโ
On the inside, Jiang Yan exhaled again, instantly fogging up the narrow window. The scene felt oddly familiar. After a moment, she realized sheโd seen it many times.
There are always unclear, misted-up panes in daily lifeโnew, old, fogged over, coated in dust. Sheโd seen them, but always from the chiefโs perspective.
The more she thought, the farther she driftedโimagining, behind every unseen midnight window, a mouth covering the glass from the other side, lips parted. She cut off that thought before it could go further.
Jiang Yan hauled her focus back.
Still, sheโd found somethingโher nightmares were not in vain.
Jiang Yan took a cocoon from her pocket, the one sheโd picked up in the silkworm house by day, for which Shen Huanhuan had given her an indignant look for breaking open and stealing one of the only living village cocoons.
But there was no reason to blame herโshe was innocent.
After all, if she hadnโt pried open that cocoon…
Jiang Yan held the cocoon to the moonlight, examining the pupa especiallyโthe tiny mole on its chin.
If she hadnโt split open that cocoon, how would she have noticed the chief also had a mole on his chin?
….
It was cold that night. After a while, Jiang Yan got chilly and crawled back into bed.
She began to consider the link between the chief and the pupa.
Just now, separated only by one pane of glass, sheโd seen every wrinkle on the chiefโs face, including the inconspicuous mole on his chin.
A mole right in the center of his chin, faint but identical in position to the mole on the pupaโs face.
This village was definitely strange. Cocoons with human faces were unnatural, so it made sense for Jiang Yan to connect the twoโshe could always reject the idea later. She started to speculate boldlyโ
The chief, or maybe the entire village, had hatched from silkworm pupae.
Theyโd crawled out of cocoons to become human, breeding into a village, surviving off the sale of silk. The mass silkworm die-off signalled the death of their newbornsโwithout fresh blood, the village, the species, couldnโt survive. Faced with extinction, they posted a hiring notice, hoping someone could find the cause.
But that wouldn’t explain the villagersโ attitude toward their newborns.
Most importantly, such villagers wouldnโt really be human, but spirits. Spirits and monsters are similar, but spirits are born of mountains, self-cultivated, averse to humans, and incapable of taking on human form.
Hypothesis one was out, so Jiang Yan quickly moved to the next.
โUnder some curse, the cocoons were tied to the villagers.
If a cocoon died, the corresponding villager died; if it survived, so did the villager. If she squeezed this healthy pupa now, the corresponding chief would die instantly.
Jiang Yan was tempted, but the odds were low.
Too many silkworms had diedโby those numbers, seven in ten villagers would be dead already. If a swarm of deaths happened so fast, that little boy wouldnโt be sad about his drowned sister, but numb and terrified.
Since neither theory held water, Jiang Yan went silent.
If not a mother-child relation, not a life-and-death bond, then what was the link between the human face on the pupa and the village? Or rather, what did this pupa have to do with the chief?
Or maybeโฆ
Why was it that the very first cocoon she opened, the first pupa she saw, was tied to the chief?
She had only met a handful of villagers at close range. How could it be such a coincidenceโthat the very cocoon she picked matched the chief, whom sheโd seen up close?
Jiang Yan smiled slightly.
The answer was obvious.
Someone โwantedโ to give her a message via the cocoon.
And that message was the key to the puzzle.
*
Later in the night, Wang Guilan returned.
She came in while blowing into her hands. Frozen stiff, her movements were sluggish. She shut the door.
The noise startled her. She stood stock-still, holding her breath, and when she was sure no one had woken, she carefully flexed her ankles and tiptoed to the kitchen.
It was almost four-thirty now. She planned to heat breakfast before sleeping so things wouldnโt be too rushed at dawn.
Wang Guilan brought some firewood from the back, placed it in the stove, and sat on a wooden stump to wait. Jiang Yan, on her way out, saw this scene.
She approached quietly and stood behind Wang Guilan.
At first, Wang Guilan didnโt notice. After a few minutes, seeing a shadow at her feet, she turnedโโDad, why are youโฆโ
Her voice cut off.
The person was standing extremely close; their noses almost touched. Wang Guilan flinched instinctively. Seeing her fright and confusion, Jiang Yan suddenly smiled, retreated two paces, and handed over a cup of hot water: โUp so early cooking?โ
Wang Guilan opened her mouth, but only after a while did she accept the cup. โMmโฆ yeah, woke up suddenly, so I got up.โ
She asked Jiang Yan, โJust wokeโฆ did I wake you?โ
Jiang Yan nodded, โYeah, the door was loud. Are you grumpy in the mornings?โ her tone teasing, as between friends.
Wang Guilan relaxed, โJust couldnโt sleep and have a headacheโฆโ She sipped her hot water, not noticing Jiang Yan’s cold expression.
After she finished drinking, just as she was about to speak again, Jiang Yan yawned lazily.
โNo problem, just came to see if you needed help,โ Jiang Yan said. โDoesnโt look like you doโฆ Iโll get some more sleep, then?โ
Wang Guilan hurriedly nodded, โMm.โ
Jiang Yan strolled back to her room. Wang Guilan stared after her until she heard the door shut, then, replaying the conversation, finally exhaled in relief.
Back in the room, Jiang Yan didnโt go straight to bed, but dug out her last red bean bun and, finishing it in a few bites, licked her lips.
She was feeling pretty pleased.
Because sheโd seen it.
Seen the mole on Wang Guilanโs chin.
…
Thatโs usually how it goes.
Sometimes all it takes is a clue, a wild guess, and the tangled thoughts are suddenly clear.
After sorting them all out, Jiang Yan rubbed her brow.
After so many years without really thinking, sheโd let a little girl throw her off.
Yes, a little girl.
Jiang Yan realized sheโd trusted He Miaomiao too muchโbecause she was sure He Miaomiao had no โdesire to deceiveโ her, sheโd believed her words.
But how could she trust a five- or six-year-oldโs logic?
Even with no intent to lie, does that mean sheโs right?
Jiang Yan found it almost funny, but she was used to sorting herself out; soon sheโd adjusted, reorganizing all she knew.
Since entering the village, all her information had been scattered, her judgments shifting back and forth. She was unsure if there was really an aesthetic confusion in the villageโwas it everyone, or just mothers of strange babies? She didnโt know why only newborns were affected, or why the curse made infants’ eyes be inverted.
But one thing she always believedโ
There was something wrong with this village; the horrifying babies were linked to something; a ghost or curse affected the newborns.
What shaped her judgment was He Miaomiaoโs words.
ใAll those aunts and uncles ate a lot of herbs and tonics before getting pregnant, just to have good-looking babies.ใ
He Miaomiao had heard this from Erzhuang.
And Erzhuang had gathered it from villagersโ words and behaviour.
The two of them assumed: the villagers first ate tonics and only then had โgood-lookingโ kids; in other words, tonics were the cause, the babies the effect.
Sheโd accepted this logic herself, taking supplements, spirits, or curses to be the cause of the deformity.
But what if that wasnโt the truth?
Jiang Yan wondered.
What if there was no curse at all?
What if, even without a curse, the women were likely to give birth to these horrific infantsโand their frantic supplement-taking was merely hope for better-looking children?
If so, the whole situationโs cause and effect was reversed.
Jiang Yan let out a soft breath.
She recalled the twin moles on the chins of the chief and Wang Guilan, thought of the villageโs remoteness, the villagers’ attitude toward outsiders, the unseen son of the chief, the chief giving Wang Baomin the reserved ginseng meant for his sonโs wine, and Wang Baomin and Wang Guilanโs sibling relationship.
A mole is not proof of close-kin marriage, but the rest might be.
Suddenly, Jiang Yan understood the cocoonโs messageโthese three peopleโs relationship went beyond father-in-law and daughter-in-law, or brother and sister.
It was overlapping, identical, blood-related: father and son, father and daughter, brother and sister, husband and wife.
Perhaps the whole village shared such ties.
Those backwards eyes were no curse, but a genetic disease from inbreeding.