Seeing Uncle Wangโs condition, Jiang Yan thought it best not to press further.
After bidding farewell to Granny Zhuang and Uncle Wang, she made her way to the hay sheds on the right.
Most of the sheds were utterly uninhabitableโeither reeking unbearably or with thick, congealed bloodstains on the walls and beds. Still, Jiang Yan searched each one systematically.
The first shed looked as if someone had died there only recently. Blood splatters covered the bed; the pillow was soaked as if someoneโs head had been bitten clean off in a single chomp.
The stench made Jiang Yan nauseous, and she couldnโt help but think of those two who had been thrown into the iron pot and boiled by Mr. Wang. Even from seven or eight meters away, the mingled scent of cooked flesh and blood had all but overpowered her.
Suppressing a surge of nausea, Jiang Yan lifted the blood-soaked bedding.
Beneath the bed was a dead adult chicken, its beak stuffed with a few lamb hairs, and a palm-sized old shoulder bag.
Jiang Yan kicked the chicken corpse aside, unzipped the bag, and found a badly worn tube of lipstick and a plain little mirror.
On the bagโs inner lining, a message was scrawled in lipstick:
ใI just started a new job. My parents are still in the countryside, my little sister waits for me to pick her up after school. There are so many things left for me to do. How did I end up here?ใ
Seems the bag belonged to a woman in her twenties.
Judging by the color of the blood, sheโd died two or three days earlier.
Jiang Yan stuffed the bag into her own backpack, then left for the second shed.
This one had six beds. Two were spotlessโnever slept inโwhile the others were bloody. From the blood spatter on the walls, she guessed all four had died the same way as the womanโbeheaded by some creature.
There were animal corpses under the beds: lambs beneath two, chickens beneath the other two.
All were adults and bore signs of injury. The feather and fur in their mouths and the shape of the wounds hinted that these animals had fought one another.
Jiang Yanโs gaze dropped.
Her prior theories were all but confirmedโ
Once one of the chicks or lambs matured, the other species would attackโbiting off their keeperโs head, then killing one of the other species as well.
The trigger for this aggression: ใJealousyใ.
On one bed, Jiang Yan found a tissue with several lines scrawled in red ink, carrying a faint stench of bloodโit had been written with blood and a fingernail.
ใA friend sat by the window all night. I asked him why he wouldnโt sleep. He said he saw a nine-eyed cow walk into the river. He looked derangedโdigging at the window frame, laughingโฆใ
ใHeโs fine. Hee hee.ใ
The handwriting changedโa new owner.
Jiang Yan pondered briefly, then stowed the tissue in her pack.
She entered the third shed, where she saw the twins; they were also searching for clues.
Shen Huanhuan was inspecting the wall; Shen Xiaoxiao was checking under the beds. The human and animal remains here had mostly lain for a long time, and the stench was all but solid.
A closer look at the beds revealed white crawling worms.
Shen Xiaoxiao, gagging and covering her mouth, dragged a lamb corpse from beneath a bed.
โJust now, urgh, I used the flashlight, urghโโ
The stench was so strong that she couldnโt finish her sentence.
After a long moment, she pointed at the lamb: โUgh, something seems to be in its belly.โ
Jiang Yan crouched; the lambโs abdomen was slit open, organs scooped out, leaving only a single lung. Jiang Yan accepted the flashlight from Shen Xiaoxiao and shone it on the lungโthere was indeed a faint shadow inside.
At once, Jiang Yan reached in. Tearing apart the lung, she found a trickle of black bloodโand, with it, a slip of paper.
The note was exceptionally clean, untouched by the black bloodโa sign this clue had not come from a human, but was left by the energy field itself.
Delicate calligraphyโonly the long-practiced could write so well.
ใIt seems my lungs were born curled up. I often feel Iโm suffocating.ใ
Jiang Yan turned it over, finding nothing else, and called to Shen Huanhuan.
Shen Huanhuan put away her search and pulled out a small card.
โYu Renwan just found this,โ she said, handing it to Jiang Yan. โThereโs a bathroom by the shed. Sheโd just gone in when a flowerpot fell from the bathroom window and landed on her foot. The note was buried in the soil.โ
ใHe appeared outside the bathroom window again. Iโm very afraid. But no one pays any attention.ใ
Another slip, the same beautiful calligraphyโthe same writer.
Shen Huanhuan read the note from the lambโs lung and mused, โIt seems a man has been stalking the note-writer for a long time.โ
โNo telling how long she was peeped on. And whether that sense of suffocation was a real illness, or caused by that manโฆโ
Jiang Yan nodded.
With too few clues, there was little to discuss.
โLetโs keep searching,โ she said.
The twins nodded.
With three people now, the search sped up. There were eight sheds in all, and partway through, they ran into Mint Candy and Zhang Du, making it a party of five.
In less than half an hour, they had finished searching and had pooled their clues before heading to the largest hay shed at the far right.
This was by far the cleanest, largest roomโplenty of beds for seven or eight, piles of firewood and wheat stacked in the corner, a little water channel, and in the center, the iron pot Jiang Yan had appropriated.
Lan Lin, Yu Renwan, and the ordinary man were already there, tending everyoneโs lambs and chicks.
When Jiang Yan came in, Yu Renwan stood up and whispered in her ear,
โJiang Jiang, because thereโs only one pot, Lan Lin suggested everyone sleep in this shed.โ
Jiang Yan agreed.
No one knew how often the chicks and lambs needed feedingโperhaps three times a day, five times, even up to eightโand no one could leave the shed during the day. Only by sharing a room could they all make use of the pot.
True, they could shred the corpses by hand, mixing chicken and lamb blood into the bran, but it wasted too much time. With only half an hour to feed the animals, while keeping things clean and tidy, the hands-on approach would never suffice.
โFine.โ
Jiang Yan picked a bed and began settling in.
Just then, the man with the mother sheep spoke. โDonโt worry about meโI wonโt trouble you.โ
He stood up, stroked the sheepโs head. The mother sheep looked gentle, nuzzling her horns against his palm.
Shen Huanhuan was taken aback: โโฆWhat do you mean?โ
The man had only been in the field a few hours, but his demeanor had shifted as if heโd lived a lifetime.
From terror and confusion, to patience and effort, to despair, and finally to acceptance.
โItโs nothing,โ he replied.
โTomorrow, when youโre allowed to leave the shed, check my roomโthere might be a new clue there.โ He thought and added, โIโll just stay in the shed next door.โ
โItโs not far for you to go.โ
Heโd already accepted his fate.
Heโd guessed when picking the mother sheep that something would go wrong, and now that feeling was only growing.
He feared death, but his wife was long gone; he and his daughter had only each other all these years. At the time, he could not help holding his daughterโs hand.
At the door, he smiled at them all: โI hope youโll all make it out.โ
After a moment, Shen Huanhuan reached out.
A small paper figurine leapt from her palm and floated into the manโs pocket. โThis way weโll know what happens to you,โ she said.
He nodded, bent to pick up the mother sheep, and his chick followed quickly behind, eyes brimming with jealousy, nearly stabbing through the man. But he didnโt look back, nor care.
Without a backward glance, he vanished from view.
*
After he left, the room fell silent for a long time.
At last, Jiang Yan resumed her preparations.
She fluffed the sheets and beat the pillow so hard the sound was heavy and dull, as if time itself was being beaten. Then everyone else began to busy themselves.
Mint Candy took out the few objects sheโd found; none with much information, just the personal effects of the deadโa broken shoelace, some curly blond hairs, a studentโs name tag, a stack of senior-year math review sheets.
2:00 a.m.
A feeding announcement came from the speakers in every shed.
Lan Lin set up the pot and boiled water, she and Zhang Du tearing open the chicken and lamb corpses, throwing the pieces in with the bran.
To save animal corpses, they used just half a leg of lamb and a single chicken, but unexpectedly, after just three minutes, all the chicken in the pot and most of the lamb meat vanished, as if completely dissolved.
The pot now looked like it held nothing but water.
They all grew nervous.
Jiang Yan frowned. โDonโt worry.โ
โItโs just the melting is faster now.โ
โLast time in the cowshed, I put in a lamb leg and a chicken; when I cleaned up the pot, I found all the bones were gone, and the broth was much clearer than before. The spirit probably accelerated the dissolution rate to keep us from using one animal to make multiple meals.โ
Yu Renwan peered into the pot: โThereโs no meat, the blood is gone, the waterโs so clearโฆisnโt this the same as giving them plain bran?โ
Jiang Yan replied, โAdd moreโone whole lamb and three chickens.โ
โMix with the bran and feed as fast as possible.โ
Fortunately, since they didnโt want to borrow earlier, Lan Lin and others had fetched more carcasses from the coop and sheepfold.
If the feeding frequency ramped up, it was unclear whether their original stock of corpses would be enough to last the whole group a night and a day.
But at worst, it wouldnโt be so bad.
Judging from Granny Zhuangโs and Uncle Wangโs younglings, the feedings likely wouldnโt be too frequentโat most twice overnight, maybe another two or three times by day. It should be possible to last in the shed until allowed to leave.
Jiang Yan finished feeding the chicks and lambs, then bundled up the spit-up remains they coughed up and tossed them outside.
With a plan, it became easyโjust following the motions. Soon everyone was skilled; they finished a whole bag of bran in under twenty minutes.
The sky was now very dark.
Lan Lin glanced at the window. โIโll take tonightโs watch.โ
Zhang Du said, โIโll stay up with you, Lan-jie. Iโm used to all-nighters.โ
But of course, they couldnโt take the whole shift; after some discussion, it was decided that Jiang Yan and Shen Huanhuan would take the first half of the night, Lan Lin and Zhang Du the second, and they would rotate for tomorrow night.
Three a.m.
Everyone else drifted to sleep, the shed echoing with the steady, shallow breaths of those at rest.
Jiang Yan and Shen Huanhuan sat by the straw, surrounded by drowsy chicks and lambs.
Jiang Yan studied them closely.
Aside from fear, there was no resentment in their eyes. As if, compared to the jealousy bred by favoring one over the other, equal cruelty did not give rise to the urge to eat the keeper.
Their hatred stemmed only from bias.
Jiang Yan drew her own two younglings close, idly tugging at their fur as she leaned against the wall, analyzing the situation. Shen Huanhuan sat with her eyes half-shut, head bowed, thoughts apparently empty.
She was following the manโs situation through the little paper figure.
A long time passed. The moon was slipping behind clouds, plunging the room into darkness. As the night deepened, Shen Huanhuanโs breathing grew lighter, quieter.
Just as Jiang Yan thought sheโd actually fallen asleep, Shen Huanhuanโs clear eyes opened.
Jiang Yan turned. โHow is it?โ
โHeโs dead,โ Shen Huanhuan whispered.
Jiang Yan nodded calmly.
For him, dying tonight had always been a certainty. It held no surprise.
โThe mother sheep protected him to the very end.โ
Shen Huanhuanโs lashes fell. โBecause their faces were pressed together, both their heads were bitten off by the chick simultaneously.โ
โIt wasโฆ heartbreaking to see.โ
โI never want to watch something like that again.โ