Chapter 4

When I saw these black shadows appear in my line of sight, a lump of flesh in my left abdomen began to tremble slightly. This time it didn’t hurt, but I felt uneasy, a strange sense of fear rising in my heart. This feeling was unfamiliar to me, but at that moment, I could clearly distinguish that it was the consciousness of another creature inside me.

It seemed to be pleading with me: Stay away, stay away...

But a surge of excitement welled up in my heart: The book said that the golden silkworm is a highly spiritual creature, unafraid of fierce beasts or humans, but only afraid of ten-year-old roosters with yellow crowns and golden claws, and the dwarf donkeys in the deep mountains. Since it has this kind of awareness, the black shadows that have come must be the dwarf donkeys I have been looking for for a long time.

I held my breath, waiting for the black shadows to get closer and then stop. I counted them, there were five in total, hopping and jumping as they walked. It was too dark to see their appearance clearly. At first, they looked around, but after a while, they started to fight and eat. As the clouds drifted by, the moon appeared, and by its light, I saw these legendary dwarf donkeys. They seemed to have faces that were a mix of human and ape, covered in green fur, with long hands, about thirty centimeters long, almost equal to their height.

They were very noisy, making sounds like monkeys in a zoo, "squeak, squeak," short but rhythmic.

For some reason, I felt their eyes were very bright, full of vitality.

I waited for about five minutes until they were more concentrated, then I slowly stood up. In my left hand, I held a handful of new glutinous rice mixed with egg whites and incense ash, and in my right hand, I held a hunting net. I moved bit by bit, following the route I had determined earlier, making no sound, only the sound of my heart beating "thump, thump." Fifteen meters, ten meters, eight meters... When I reached eight meters, the dwarf donkeys suddenly stopped and turned to look at me.

Without hesitation, I threw the new glutinous rice from my left hand, like rain falling from the sky, all landing on the heads and bodies of the dwarf donkeys. A pungent smell of burnt rice wafted up. I was overjoyed; the book said that dwarf donkeys were most afraid of new glutinous rice mixed with egg whites and incense ash, which felt like a red-hot iron when it touched their skin. It was indeed true. As soon as my left hand was free, I immediately threw the hunting net with my right hand. The net was bought from a local mountain villager, specifically for catching rabbits, and it was hard to throw. I had practiced all day and still couldn't get it right, but surprisingly, it worked this time.

A coarse polyester net with thorns and nails, like a black cloud, covered them.

I didn't expect the dwarf donkeys to be so agile. Except for one slightly taller one that was caught, the others crouched down and scattered. The one in the net struggled fiercely, making "squeak, squeak" sounds. I quickly ran over and stepped on the edge of the net, pouring all the new glutinous rice from my bag onto it. The rice weighed about two pounds, and as soon as it landed on the dwarf donkey, a plume of black smoke rose, which was truly amazing.

When it stopped struggling, I took out a red string and wrapped it around its body through the net, then tied the net tightly with a thick rope. Looking around, the escaped dwarf donkeys were nowhere to be seen.

It was late and the dew was heavy. I hurried to the forest guard's house with the net. The furry creature in the net didn't look big but was quite heavy, weighing about thirty to forty pounds. It was very smelly, with the burnt smell of rice and a strong, gamey odor. My heart was in my throat, and I felt a lump in my throat, unable to spit it out, making me feel very uncomfortable. The dark night seemed like a devil's mouth, and my heart was gripped by fear, unsure if it was me or the golden silkworm inside me. My steps quickened, and I covered the mountain path in no time.

Thump, thump, thump...

I knocked on the door vigorously, and my uncle and Li Decai's voices came from inside, asking who it was. I said it was me, and the light in the house turned on. The door opened, and my uncle, wearing a coat, came out, still half-asleep, asking what time it was and why I was back so late. I lifted the net and said, "I caught a dwarf donkey!" My uncle was startled, immediately becoming alert, and pulled me inside, closing the door to examine it under the light.

Hearing that I had caught a live dwarf donkey, Li Decai, who had been sleeping, also got up and came over to look.

Under the bright 100-watt light, I finally saw its appearance clearly. Apart from its wrinkled, dark face, it looked almost like an old man's face, with large, bright eyes and purple-red pupils that were dilated. When it opened its mouth, a set of snow-white fangs, interlocked and dense, were visible. Its face and neck had little fur, but its body was covered in green fur, now mixed with grayish-white glutinous rice, as if burned black. It looked like an ape, with a small tail, sharp claws on its limbs, and five fingers on its hands.

Most importantly, it had a red straw hat on its head.

The hat was made of red fern roots, woven crudely and roughly, as if a child had made it, but if the dwarf donkey had made it, it was astonishing. The hat was shaped like a bird's nest, fitting snugly on its head. It was covered in white and black sap, mud, bird feathers, animal fur, and many other unidentifiable things. Although it looked disgusting, I was very happy and carefully pulled the hat out of the net, folding it and putting it away. My uncle looked at it for a while and asked, "What do you plan to do with this thing?"

I shook my head and said I hadn't thought about it. My uncle, excited, said, "Tomorrow morning, we'll go down the mountain and take it to the forestry bureau. This is a rare animal, and if we offer it, we might get a reward. Xiao Zuo, you're really something. I've heard old people talk about this creature, but in my whole life, I've never seen one, and you managed to catch it. Impressive, impressive."

I smiled bitterly, thinking that if it weren't for the method in that old book and the glutinous rice, I wouldn't have been able to catch this quick, shadow-like creature.

If it weren't for that... I wouldn't even know how I would have died.

Li Decai, standing to the side, rubbed his hands and said worriedly, "This dwarf donkey is a mountain ghost raised by the land god in the forest. We should let it go. If they remember us and come to seek revenge, we won't survive."

"Who cares?" my uncle said dismissively.

The two argued, and then my uncle asked me what to do, since I was the one who caught it. At that moment, I only wanted to take the straw hat home and buy the necessary items to remove the curse. I didn't have the heart to deal with this. Seeing them argue, I said, "Don't you have a leader? Just call and ask for instructions in the morning." They both stopped arguing, and my uncle agreed, while Li Decai, worried, said nothing, lighting a cigarette and squatting on the threshold to smoke.

It was almost five o'clock, and the summer dawn was early. In another half hour, it would be light. I had been up all night and was extremely tired. I asked my uncle to help watch over it while I climbed into bed to sleep. Before sleeping, I carefully wrapped the straw hat in a plastic bag and put it in my travel bag. I was so tired that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I don't know how long I slept, but I was woken by a loud noise. At first, I thought it was a dream, but then I was shaken awake by a warm, large hand. I opened my eyes with difficulty and saw my uncle standing in front of me, his face covered in blood.

I quickly got up and asked what happened. My uncle groaned in pain, and I remembered that he had said there was medicine in the drawer. I jumped out of bed, barefoot, and fetched a towel from the washstand to clean his face. I found a white powder in the drawer, a hemostatic medicine, mixed it with water, and cleaned the blood from his left cheek, revealing four deep, bloody scratches. I carefully applied the powder and asked where Li Decai was.

My uncle, in pain, said that the guy had gone crazy, releasing the dwarf donkey and running off. He said he had been scratched by the dwarf donkey, which was very fierce. I felt a wave of regret, thinking that if I hadn't brought this thing back, my uncle wouldn't have been hurt. After bandaging him, I called the county forestry bureau's duty room.

The call took a long time, about twenty minutes, before it was answered. My uncle reported the situation, and the person on the other end was anxious, telling us to stay in the guard's house and that they would notify the local forestry station to send help.

While waiting, my uncle recounted what had happened. He said that they had been smoking and watching the dwarf donkey, but suddenly, Li Decai went crazy, pulling the red string and freeing the dwarf donkey. My uncle tried to stop him but was punched to the ground. Before he could react, the green-furred dwarf donkey had escaped from the net and scratched his face. The dwarf donkey was weak and didn't continue, but ran down the slope. When my uncle got up, everything was in chaos, and Li Decai was gone.

We didn't dare to go out alone, so we waited for three hours until nine in the morning. Li Decai never returned, which made us even more worried. Finally, the door was knocked on, and four of my uncle's colleagues came in, covered in dew, one of them carrying a hunting rifle.

After explaining the situation, they decided that two would stay to wait for Li Decai, and two would take my uncle down the mountain.

After a series of events, we finally arrived at the county hospital around one in the afternoon.

I stayed at the hospital until seven in the evening. After the stitches and when my uncle was awake, he told me to go home, saying that treatment was more important. My uncle had two children, an eighteen-year-old son and a fifteen-year-old daughter, and my aunt, who all looked at me with unfriendly eyes. The doctor said there might be scars on his face, and they probably blamed me for what happened to my uncle.

I felt very regretful and didn't say much.

Although my uncle's injury was considered a work-related injury and covered by public medical insurance, I still gave my aunt two thousand yuan as a nutritional fee the next day.

Since my aunt and my cousins didn't welcome me, I didn't visit them again. I returned home and, following the instructions in the book, bought the blood from the lower parts of a black donkey, a black dog, and a black cat, along with cinnabar, bupleurum, toad venom, purple snow, amber, silkworm cocoon, ox bile, scorpion, and southern star. I cooked these with the disassembled red fern for three days and three nights, reducing a large pot of herbal water to a bowl of black tea. I chilled it with well water from behind the temple and, at midnight, forced myself to drink it, despite feeling nauseous.

After drinking it, I felt a wave of relaxation, as if my mind had become much clearer.

About an hour later, I started to have diarrhea. It started with loose stools, then thick, black blood, mixed with unidentified meat chunks, thin skin, fibers, and keratin. Eventually, there was almost nothing left to expel, and it felt like a straight line from my throat to my anus, with air coming in from above and foul-smelling gas coming out from below. I was sweating profusely, severely dehydrated, and my father, by the toilet, kept giving me sips of water.

Later, even he couldn't take it and put the bucket of hot water aside to get some fresh air.

So I squatted, drinking water while having diarrhea, and that night, I almost collapsed in the toilet, nearly passing out.

I stayed at home for three days, like a woman sitting the month after childbirth, not leaving the house and avoiding the wind. My mother cooked old hen soup for me every day, without salt, and the taste... Even now, whenever I go out to eat and someone orders chicken soup, I won't drink a single drop, as I was scared of it then. On the fourth morning, I felt a bit better and decided to go out to get some sunlight, but I heard people talking in the living room, several voices.

A few minutes later, my door was pushed open, and several police officers came in.

They told me that I was involved in a dismemberment case and that they had come to take me for questioning.

{Piaotian Literature}