Chapter 10, Father

I was filled with excitement as I found myself developing a certain fondness for the naked infant

"Alright, dinner will be ready soon." My father was bustling about in a flurry, not noticing my emotional abnormality.

It is a naked infant, it must be it, its brain waves have influenced me, I am certain.

I trembled as I reached for the wine glass in front of my father and drank it in one gulp

The streetlights have already been illuminated, and the pedestrians on the street are few.

Conjoined monster baby! I said with a trembling voice, my whole body shivering uncontrollably

At this moment, I suddenly feel a chill all over my body. Now, I have no reason to doubt that the person in the photograph, Huangfu Zheren, is not the "father" standing before me.

"Are you saying that Wu Zitan... he has been dead for a long time?" I doubted whether my ears had heard incorrectly

"Hmm, I am a bit tired," I said coldly, and then walked straight into my room

I grabbed the strange baby by my pillow, preparing to throw it out with great force, but upon a moment of calm reflection, I couldn't help but let out a cold chuckle of "hehe".

"Xiaoming, do you think geological work is fun? Surveyors have to traverse mountains and cross paths where venomous snakes and fierce beasts lurk; it is indeed the most arduous work. " The father's six-fingered hand once again drew out a fluffy chick.

I am completely confused, my goodness, who exactly has died

The light turned on, and my father's vacant gaze was fixed directly on my head

I have been standing silently just outside the door, unsure of how to face him—the hunchbacked old man with whom I have lived for over twenty years

"Xiaoming, as a cultural relic worker, you should stay away from superstitions and certainly should not believe in ghosts or other such illusory things. Tell your father, where did you get that photo from?" The father said sternly, his expression markedly different from usual.

He died; he contracted leptospirosis, reportedly from drinking stream water contaminated by the urine of a mountain rat in the jungle, and he could not survive for more than a few days. The father said slowly

I woke up, a layer of cold sweat on my forehead, my eyes wide open in the darkness. The rain had stopped, and there was a profound silence all around.

Yes, when you brought it home that day, I recognized it immediately; it was exactly the same as the one in Wu Zitan's tomb. At that time, I was afraid of scaring you, so I didn't mention it

That night, I lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep

Another thunderclap resounded outside the window, the glass vibrating with a buzzing sound, the electric light suddenly went out, and the white flash of lightning instantaneously illuminated my father's eerie smile

At the dining table, my father continuously added meat to my bowl while complaining about my poor appetite. At the same time, he skillfully used his six fingers to extract the chick from the eggshell, tilted his head back, and with a couple of movements of his throat, swallowed it down.

"Dad, you haven't brushed your teeth again today." I detected that familiar bad breath, an indescribably nauseating odor

The sound of water splashing echoed from the bathroom, as my father was taking a shower late at night

The father busily closed his mouth, and an expression of apology appeared on his aged face

Raindrops fell gently from the sky, gradually soaking my clothes... In the end, I still walked into my own home

The sound in the room suddenly fell silent, as if the air had solidified... After a long while, I broke the silence: "Are you talking about that conjoined monster baby?"

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice trembling

My father cast a strange glance at me, then lowered his head to scrutinize the photograph closely

"Oh, how did you know?" The father's questioning gaze.

"That sounds quite interesting, running around everywhere, poking here and wandering there, just consider it a form of travel." I said calmly, appearing very naive.

In my mind, the three old brick houses of my family appear, dimly lit, with a lonely hunchbacked old man, and a plate of boiled eggs. Is this person my father? The surveyor Huangfu Zheren from back then has already died in a foreign land, but what about this Huangfu Zheren who raised me since childhood? ... A shadow has already formed in my heart; perhaps from now on, I will never be able to return to the carefree life I had three days ago...

"Huangfu Xiaoming, you have returned?" A familiar whisper came from behind.

I have once again arrived in the primeval jungle of Indochina, where the towering trees, reminiscent of the past, are still adorned with strands of chicken blood vine. The dense underbrush is filled with sharp thorns, which have torn my clothing. My right hand vigorously wields a blood-red machete. Ahead lies the familiar small river, its banks blooming with beautiful poppy flowers. I see the golden spire of a small temple and walk along the flower path towards it. The altar is adorned with some oddly dressed clay statues of deities smiling at me, while in a glass jar, a pair of conjoined twins remains, inexplicably reduced to one, with a bloody connection at their backs and green eyes radiating an evil glare.

I gazed into the eyes of the strange infant, as if I were hypnotized, gradually drifting into a dream...

The photo was obtained from there, I finally said

I shook my head and briefly recounted the death of the old man Xiao and the situation regarding my investigation in the small village called Lie Lie Pai by the You Shui River.

I gazed at my father's face, his eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth, and it was evident that he was the same person as in that photograph

I instinctively lowered my head to look at my body, only to find that the skin, stained with bright red juice from the chicken blood vine, suddenly burst open in petals, and the steaming fresh blood slowly flowed out from within me

I saw Wu Zitan just last night! I almost shouted at him hoarsely.

Is this the mountain of Xiangxi? My heart is beating faster and faster

Ah, why bring up old stories? However, your father was quite handsome in his youth, and he was not hunchbacked at all. " The father squinted his eyes, his gaze becoming distant, as if he had fallen into a reverie of the past

What if this naked infant is the petrified fetus that the old man mentioned? Perhaps it is the extremely rare human stone that Master Yue spoke of? Steaming it and consuming it or selling it for a large sum of money, ha, this is indeed a treasure

I quietly took out the yellowed black-and-white photograph from my pocket and gently placed it on the table in front of him

I turned back to look, and Pasum, adorned with bony earrings, was staring at me with eyes gleaming with malice, his face lined with wrinkles and looming close at hand

Father gazed intently at me, and I responded with a smile, though my heart was racing with anxiety, careful not to let him notice.

My heart suddenly skipped a beat, and blood surged upward

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I reached out and touched, only to find that the hair on the top of my scalp was standing upright

But that person is already dead

I walked along the sidewalk washed by the rain, lowering my head, hesitating more and more as I approached home

"Wu Zitan's wife." I exclaimed in shock.

"Xiao Ming, a person cannot be brought back to life. Are you feeling unwell? Does your head still hurt?" My father's kind gaze looked at me with concern

What job were you doing at that time? I cautiously inquired

My father's astonished gaze was fixed on me, as if he could not comprehend my words

"Buried in the Chinese Martyrs' Cemetery in Mengsa..." I mumbled in a daze, my mind in a haze

At the county bus station, two police officers waiting there took the old lady away. As she was getting off the vehicle, she glanced back at me, and I turned my face away, unwilling to see her sad and helpless gaze again

Once again, it is the same strange dream, the scenes in the dream are vivid in my mind, the dense forest, the ancient trees, the hills covered with red and white poppies, the clear stream and the temple, as if I had been there many years ago. That Pasum, the old witch with a wrinkled face, is both familiar and unfamiliar; where have I seen her before? A sweet feeling of returning home has begun to stir in my heart

What more can I say to explain this

"Who pried you open?" I asked in astonishment of the remaining strange infant

I stood silently under a large camphor tree across from the old house, gazing at the familiar faint light, feeling an unusual heaviness in my legs, and truly lacking the courage to step through that door

It has been over thirty years, Captain Wu... Hmm, and Pasum... Hey, where did you get that from?'' My father raised his head, his piercing gaze directed at me, causing a shiver to run down my spine.

My father's strange gaze lingered on me for a long while, and then he let out a long sigh: "Alas, he has been dead for over thirty years."

"Xiao Ming, are you alright?" his father asked with concern

A thunderclap sounded outside, and heavy rain poured down, with raindrops cascading down from the eaves, while lightning tore through the night sky

"Father, I am back." I must, as always, not let him see any flaws, however, the term "Father" sounds quite unfamiliar to my ears.

"Xiao Ming, doesn't it smell wonderful?" A joyful smile was evident on the aged face of his father

In the darkness, I heard my father's murmuring words: "It is impossible, I personally placed him in the grave, and he was still holding a half-formed conjoined baby in his hands..."

But father, I truly saw the living Wu Zitan yesterday, the very person in the photograph I said, my face pale as I spoke

"Wu Zitan, our geological team leader, is the one I personally buried. He is also one of us from Xiangxi. Have you seen his wife?" A trace of desolation appeared on my father's aged face

"The mountains here are larger, in Laos," the father said casually, swallowing the chick he had just caught with a gulp

Outside, the thunderstorm continues unabated, with lightning intermittently slicing through the night sky, illuminating the room in a stark white. The strange infant lying by the pillow has an unsettling gaze, difficult to define as either good or evil

Who? I asked in confusion

A strong aroma of stewed meat wafted through the air, the kitchen was filled with steam, and my father, hunched over, appeared before me with a smile on his face, radiating pride

I work in a geological team he said

"Father, were you also hunchbacked when you were young? Why have I never heard you mention anything about your youth?" I asked indirectly.

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