Corpse Retriever

She,

Is so beautiful.

The water ripples gently, blending light and shadow perfectly, complemented by the graceful movements of Little Yellow Oriole, as if a filter has been applied.

Li Zhuiyuan had been taken by his parents to watch performances at their workplace before, where he saw many professional singers and dancers, but yesterday, the impact of Little Yellow Oriole’s performance on him was no less than it was on his older and younger brothers.

Under his parents’ upbringing, he had always been well-mannered and rule-abiding, yet Little Yellow Oriole, performing under that simple shed, showed him a different kind of wild charm.

It was bold, it was unrestrained, it was rustic, it was unrefined, but that scent was truly so enticing.

She approached, coming closer and closer, like a figure from a painting stepping out of the canvas and walking back into it.

At that moment, Li Zhuiyuan forgot his surroundings, as if he no longer remembered he was still in the water, ignoring the panic of being unable to breathe and the water constantly choking his mouth and nose.

Until,

She reached out her hand.

Yesterday, when he squeezed to the front with his brothers to watch the performance, Little Yellow Oriole had swayed her hips and sung her song, coming right up to him, even reaching out to touch his face, because among the crowd of children, Li Zhuiyuan stood out, fair and delicate like a porcelain doll.

Originally, Li Zhuiyuan had hoped she would touch him again.

But,

This time, she extended both hands.

Both hands grasped Li Zhuiyuan’s shoulders on either side.

“So cold… so painful…”

In an instant, the atmosphere shattered and twisted, the strange, inexplicable fascination from before vanished.

Fear finally appeared in Li Zhuiyuan’s eyes, like someone whose anesthesia had worn off, suddenly regaining the sensation of pain.

He wanted to break free, to escape, to flee, but those hands held him tightly, and no matter how he struggled, he could not get away.

At that moment, a force came from behind.

Li Zhuiyuan felt himself being pulled, like a tug-of-war game he used to play at school, except this time, he was the rope.

Finally, with a sense of release, Li Zhuiyuan was pulled upward.

In his vision, he floated up, higher and higher, while Little Yellow Oriole below grew farther and smaller.

Her arms reached out toward him, and between them, an impossible abyss gradually opened up.

“Hey!”

Fortunately, his grandson was wearing a bamboo basket on his back, and Li Weihan grabbed it, pulling upward with all his strength.

It was heavy, a deadweight heaviness; though just a child, Li Weihan felt as if he were wrestling with a lust-driven plow ox.

There was a force below, refusing to let his grandson come up.

Leizi rushed over to help, wrapping his arms around Li Weihan’s waist and pulling back with force.

Finally,

“Splash!”

When his grandson was yanked out of the water, that resisting force suddenly disappeared, and Li Weihan, Leizi, and the just-rescued Li Zhuiyuan all tumbled onto the boat together.

“Move fast!”

Li Weihan, without even getting up, shouted at Panzi.

This time, Panzi didn’t falter, using all his strength to pole the boat, quickly moving it toward the other side.

“Grandpa, she’s coming, she’s coming!”

Leizi pointed ahead in terror.

Li Weihan looked over and saw, as the boat moved, a mass of black hair on the water’s surface following them.

She was chasing!

“Leihou, go help Panhou pole the boat, quick!”

“Yes, Grandpa.”

Leizi got up and ran over, the two brothers shouting in rhythm as they worked together, speeding the boat up further.

Li Weihan grabbed a fishing rod, his expression grave, and upon noticing that the mass of hair was still closing the distance to the boat, he let out a loud yell and thrust the rod toward a spot just ahead of the hair.

The rod pierced the water, seemingly hitting something but meeting no resistance; instead, a tremendous force pulled the rod downward even more.

“Oh no…”

Li Weihan exclaimed, thankful he had let go of the rod in time, or that terrifying force would have dragged him into the water.

The hair was closer now.

Standing at the boat’s edge, Li Weihan could even see the figure of a woman in a black qipao beneath the water ahead.

Though the river flowed eastward, she was moving against the current.

She was walking, truly walking on her own!

“Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!”

The boat began to shake, the trembling growing more intense.

Li Weihan could hardly imagine what would happen if the boat capsized and he and his grandsons fell into the water; this was no longer a matter of his swimming skill, it was downright sinister!

Just then, Li Weihan’s gaze fell on the fishing net at his feet, and without hesitation, he grabbed it and cast it toward the hair, now less than two meters from the boat.

The net first landed on the water’s surface, its edges quickly sinking halfway.

At first, the net on the water was still being dragged forward, but gradually, its speed slowed, and finally, it stopped.

It worked, it had caught her!

Li Weihan rushed to the stern, grabbing the bamboo pole from Panzi’s hands, “You two, go check on Little Yuanhou!”

“Yes, Grandpa.”

Panzi and Leizi, still just big kids, had exhausted themselves from their earlier desperate poling, and after Li Weihan took over, they immediately ran to Li Zhuiyuan’s side.

“Yuanzi, Yuanzi? Yuanzi, wake up, wake up quick!”

“Grandpa, Yuanzi won’t wake up.”

Li Weihan, while poling the boat and keeping an eye on the fishing net growing distant, shouted back, “Is he breathing?”

“Grandpa, he’s breathing!”

“Pat Little Yuanhou on the back.”

The two brothers immediately followed the instructions, one propping Li Zhuiyuan up to sit while the other patted his back with a hand.

But after a long struggle, Li Zhuiyuan still didn’t wake.

“Grandpa, it’s not working!”

Li Weihan didn’t respond, just gritted his teeth and kept poling, not daring to wipe the sweat dripping into his eyes.

Finally, the boat reached home, and Li Weihan tossed the bamboo pole aside, not bothering to tie the boat, picked up Li Zhuiyuan, and jumped off, though exhausted, he stumbled upon landing and had to brace his knee against the stone steps below to protect the grandson in his arms.

“Hiss…”

His knee scraped open, but the next moment he forced himself up, carrying the child into the house, “Guiying, Guiying!”

“You’re back this early?” Cui Guiying was clearing ash behind the stove, and hearing the commotion, she stood up, saw her husband holding a child, and immediately cried out in alarm, “What’s wrong, what’s wrong, what’s happened to the kid?”

Li Weihan first carried the child to a mat in the inner room, with many children at home and not enough beds, it being summer, they all slept on the floor at night.

Cui Guiying lifted Li Zhuiyuan’s head, gently patting his face, but finding the child wouldn’t wake no matter what, she wailed, “Oh no, my little one, my little one, what’s happened to you?”

“Stop howling!” Li Weihan kicked Cui Guiying’s shin, “Quick, change the kid into dry clothes.”

Cui Guiying hurriedly wiped her eyes and got up to fetch clothes.

“Panzi, go get Zheng Datong!”

“Yes, Grandpa.”

Zheng Datong, whose real name was Zheng Huamin, was the village clinic doctor in Siyuan Village, a barefoot doctor, nicknamed by the kids for his habit of scaring them with a big syringe, and over time, the adults picked up the name too.

“Leizi, go get Liu Xiazi.”

“Yes, Grandpa.”

Liu Xiazi, originally named Liu Jinxia, lost her parents early, was married off from Sian Town by her uncle’s arrangement, and in her first year of marriage, her in-laws died of illness one after another, leaving many village wives secretly envious to tears.

Then, in the second year, her husband, drunk, fell into a manure pit while using the toilet and drowned, leaving her with a newborn daughter.

Back then, rumors spread in the village that Liu Jinxia’s fate was too hard.

A widow raising a child alone was tough, so besides managing farm work, Liu Jinxia took up fortune-telling and blessing rituals for extra income, and the wilder the rumors about her grew, the more people believed in her skills.

In those days, farming only kept you fed, and to live better, you needed other trades, Liu Jinxia relied on this trade and even managed to arrange a matrilocal marriage for her daughter Li Juxiang.

But just two years after her son-in-law joined the family, he reportedly had a sudden heart attack while planting rice in the fields, fell face-first into the mud, and died.

That left Li Juxiang with a newborn daughter of her own.

By then, not just the village but folks from miles around were convinced of the hard fate of Liu Jinxia’s line, and her business only got better.

She eventually leased out her family’s fields, had her daughter buy a tricycle from town, and wherever there was work, Li Juxiang would pedal her there.

In recent years, Liu Jinxia developed cataracts, her eyesight faded, which only completed her personal business persona.

(Continue in Next Part)