Corpse Retriever

Li Juxiang looked at Li Zhuiyuan and said to Cui Guiying, “This kid’s really good-looking, he resembles Lanhou a lot.”

Cui Guiying murmured a couple of agreements, her focus still on Liu Jinxia, unsure if she was dodging or stalling.

Li Juxiang went on, “Little Cuihou was saying the day before yesterday that a brother named Yuanhou gave her chocolate and went with her to pick pebbles by the creek.”

Li Juxiang had been ostracized as a child, and now her daughter Li Cuicui faced the same, usually only able to watch other kids play from afar.

Cuicui didn’t dare get close, if she did, the kids would say their parents told them not to play with her, then scatter.

Two days ago, Cuicui came home happy, saying a good-looking brother played with her all afternoon, ignoring the other kids who told him not to, and even gave her chocolate.

Liu Jinxia opened her eyes, glanced at her daughter with helplessness and heartache, then turned to Cui Guiying, “Sister, let me lay it out straight for you.”

“Yes, go ahead.”

“Normally, out of twenty jobs, fifteen are nothing at all, I just go through the motions, and people feel at ease. Of the rest, four seem like something’s up, but in the end, it’s still nothing. So, at most, one case has a bit of mess in it, but it’s not hard to clean up. I won’t take your money, first because your man helped us mother and daughter back then, I can’t take it, second, the money for routine jobs doesn’t need to come up in a case like this.”

“But, but, the kid, you’ve got to save him, Sister.”

“I’ll help him,” Liu Jinxia smiled, saying, “Get me some ash from the stove.”

“Alright.”

Local earthen stoves had several grooves, one usually at the back where the kitchen god was placed, with a small incense burner in it.

Cui Guiying took down the burner and brought it to Liu Jinxia.

Liu Jinxia grabbed a handful of ash, held it in her hand, and muttered something under her breath.

It was hard to make out what she was saying, but she went on for quite a while.

Liu Jinxia said, “Cover him up.”

Before Cui Guiying could fully process, Li Juxiang quickly covered Li Zhuiyuan’s mouth and nose with her hand.

Liu Jinxia smeared the ash onto the child’s neck and shoulders, rubbing it in like it was prickly heat powder.

But gradually, a chilling sight emerged, and Cui Guiying clapped a hand over her own mouth.

Because she saw, on her grandson’s shoulders, two distinct purple marks had appeared, looking just like two handprints!

Liu Jinxia said, “So fierce… Daughter, let’s begin.”

“Alright.”

Li Juxiang responded, stepped outside to grab some things from the tricycle, and returned, first placing an empty bowl and a brush in Liu Jinxia’s hands, pouring ink into the bowl, then pulling a ball of red thread from her pocket, which looked like it might be for knitting, but as she unraveled it, a sharp, fishy smell filled the air, leaving plenty of red stains on her palm.

Next, Li Juxiang tied one end of the red thread to her own wrist and the other to Li Zhuiyuan’s wrist, then stood at a distance.

Liu Jinxia dipped the brush in ink and began drawing circles on Li Zhuiyuan’s forehead, muttering something under her breath as she went.

At first, everything seemed normal, nothing happened.

But as Liu Jinxia’s words and hand movements sped up, the red thread actually started trembling.

Cui Guiying instinctively wanted to check if Li Juxiang was pulling the other end, but as she looked up, she saw Li Juxiang in agony, mouth open wide, then collapsing to her knees with a thud, her upper body pitching forward as if someone were forcing her to bow.

Liu Jinxia cast a pained glance at her daughter but didn’t slow her chanting or her hands.

“Ah… ah… ah…”

Li Juxiang, in torment, rolled onto her side on the floor, clutching her arms and thrashing, legs kicking wildly, saliva spilling from her mouth, eyes bulging, face turning blue.

Cui Guiying stood by, worried for both her grandson and whether something might happen to Li Juxiang.

But after the pain peaked, Li Juxiang gradually calmed down, finally lying sprawled on the ground, panting heavily.

Liu Jinxia stopped too, her body swaying, and Cui Guiying quickly reached out to steady her.

“Go get a basin of hot water and wipe the child down.”

“Yes, alright.”

Cui Guiying hurried to comply, grabbing a basin, lifting the middle lid on the stove, and scooping hot water from inside with a wooden ladle.

After wetting a cloth, she began wiping the ash off Li Zhuiyuan.

What came off wasn’t just the ash, but also those two purple handprints, dissolving like paint.

Cui Guiying even checked the cloth, noticing no purple stains remained on it.

“Sister, is the kid, is he better now?”

Liu Jinxia pulled out a cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag, and coughed violently, tears and snot streaming down, choked by her own smoke.

Though Cui Guiying didn’t get an immediate answer, she noticed her grandson, who’d been unconscious all this time, slowly opening his eyes.

“Little Yuanhou, Little Yuanhou, you’re awake!”

Li Zhuiyuan looked at Cui Guiying in a daze, then around the room, and finally called out hoarsely, “Grandma.”

“Yes, you’re finally awake, thank the Bodhisattva, thank the Bodhisattva.”

Nearby, Li Juxiang got up from the floor, grabbed a clean bowl, poured herself some water, and sipped it slowly.

Li Zhuiyuan reached out, grabbed Cui Guiying’s arm, shifted his body a bit, wanting to nestle into his grandma’s embrace.

Cui Guiying quickly pulled Li Zhuiyuan into her arms, comforting him, “My little one, my Little Yuanhou, my good boy…”

Liu Jinxia said, “Take care of the kid, let him sleep again, he’ll be fine when he wakes up.”

Li Juxiang came over, supporting her mother as they headed out.

Cui Guiying spoke up, “When he gets back, he and I…”

Liu Jinxia waved a hand, “Wait till the kid’s fully recovered to talk, we’re heading home, no need to see us off.”

Cui Guiying truly couldn’t see them off, staying to hold her grandson.

By now, comforted in his grandma’s arms, Li Zhuiyuan drifted back to sleep, but this time his expression was peaceful, no longer the tight-lipped, furrowed-brow look that had tugged at everyone’s hearts.

On the tricycle ride back, Liu Jinxia half-stood, pulled aside her daughter’s collar to check the ring of bruises, and asked,

“Does it hurt?”

“Mom, sit down quick, don’t fall off.”

Liu Jinxia sat back down, and after a long pause, slapped her thigh and cursed,

“Xianghou, are we mother and daughter really cursed with such lowly fates?”

----

Li Weihan still hadn’t returned, so Cui Guiying sent Huzi and Shitou to Li Sanjiang’s house to check, and when they came back, they reported that a servant at Li Sanjiang’s said he’d gone to deliver paper offerings, and Li Weihan had gone to find him.

Cui Guiying understood, Li Sanjiang was off sending funeral paper crafts, and as was customary, the host family would keep him for a meal, plus he loved to drink, so waiting around could take who-knows-how-long, her husband had gone to hurry him up.

For dinner, Cui Guiying had the older kids help prepare it, and even after the meal, Li Weihan hadn’t returned, so she sent the children to sleep in the inner room.

She set up a door plank in the kitchen to sleep alone with Li Zhuiyuan, who slept soundly.

Cui Guiying fanned him with a palm fan while wiping tears, heartbroken, the child had really suffered this time.

She thought of her newly divorced daughter too, wondering how she was doing now.

Unlike other families that favored boys, Cui Guiying and her husband cherished their little girl the most.

The girl wanted to study and did well, so they supported her all the way, unmoved by anyone saying educating a girl was useless and she should marry early.

This favoritism toward their daughter naturally extended to their grandson.

Li Zhuiyuan had a dream, he was in a youth class, and the old professor at the podium closed his book, saying, “Alright, class dismissed.”

He followed his deskmate out of the classroom, weaving through a crowd of tall adults.

They walked into the bathroom, stepping up to the urinal platform.

His deskmate had already undone his pants and started peeing, then urged him, “Zhuiyuan, you pee too, what are you waiting for?”

Li Zhuiyuan nodded, just unzipped his pants, and then jolted awake.

The dream ended, he opened his eyes, and by the moonlight from outside, saw his grandma sleeping beside him, still holding the fan.

That was close, he nearly wet the bed.

Li Zhuiyuan’s memory of the day was already fuzzy, he quietly climbed up, intending to go pee.

The toilet was a separate small shack far from the main house, with a pit dug underground, a large vat buried, and a hollow wooden seat atop it, which Li Zhuiyuan thought looked like a dragon throne from a movie the first time he saw it.

So, locally, going to the bathroom was often called “using the porcelain vat.”

At first, Li Zhuiyuan peed there too, but later, with his brothers’ shared wisdom, he realized that once outside the house and yard, anywhere could be marked.

Going out the front meant crossing the embankment, too far, so Li Zhuiyuan chose the back door, heading to the riverbank, it was closer.

Just as he got ready, he suddenly heard a “thump… thump… thump…” sound.

He looked down and saw their boat, moored at the shore, swaying.

Flashes of images crossed Li Zhuiyuan’s mind, he seemed to recall going fishing with Grandpa and his brothers during the day?

But did they catch anything, what did they eat for dinner, why couldn’t he remember?

“Thump… thump… thump…”

The boat kept swaying, yet the river surface had no waves, and there was no wind.

Finally, Li Zhuiyuan recalled the day’s events, the black hair, his fall into the water, what was underwater… along with it came the fear.

His legs gave out, he stumbled and sat on the ground, instinctively reaching for his shoulders, as if a pair of cold hands still gripped him there.

This act of sitting shifted his height, bringing the boat’s underside, previously out of view, into his sight.

“Thump… thump… thump…”

Turns out, someone was under the water, her head bobbing up now and then, hitting the boat’s bottom before sinking, then rising again to strike, over and over, tirelessly.

Suddenly, the thumping stopped, the boat stilled.

Her head surfaced again, no longer crashing into the boat, but slowly turning, wet black hair sliding aside to reveal half a striking woman’s face.

Her face was pale, so pale it seemed it might melt under the moonlight.

At that moment, she seemed to spot the one she sought, her lips slowly curving into a smile.

Her lips remained vivid red, almost glaring in the quiet night.

Li Zhuiyuan rubbed his eyes hard, and when he looked again, she’d somehow risen halfway out of the water, arms hanging limp at her sides.

Not daring to linger, Li Zhuiyuan scrambled up on hands and feet, racing back to the house, tripping over the threshold but catching the doorframe to steady himself.

Glancing back, Little Yellow Oriole, who’d been half-submerged in the river, now stood on the lowest stone step, fully out of the water.

“Grandma, Grandma!”

Li Zhuiyuan ran to the plank bed, shaking Cui Guiying, but she clutched the fan and slept on.

“Grandma, wake up, Grandma, wake up!”

He kept calling, but Cui Guiying showed no sign of stirring.

“Drip… drip… drip…”

The sound of water dripping came from behind.

Li Zhuiyuan turned and first saw a pair of red high heels, then pale, swollen ankles, a black qipao clinging to her form, water trickling from her hem and hair tips.

She,

Stood straight at the threshold!

(End of Chapter)