Chapter 1.15 Attack (Extra)

I took Uncle Three to the store in town and bought a kind of pesticide specially used to kill snails. It was very expensive and I had to foot the bill since Uncle Three didn’t bring any money.

It was already sunset when we returned to the village, and when we got to the stream, I saw that it was being guarded by Uncle Three’s men. The snails didn’t seem to have gathered together again. After searching, Uncle Three’s men couldn’t even find a single one and didn’t know where they had gone.

Uncle Three didn’t care about this and just assigned some people to spray the pesticide in several places. It was dark by the time everything was finally done. “Well,” Uncle Three said, “no one will be eating snails from here in the next year.”

Feeling sick, I said, “I don’t want to ever eat any.”

We went back to the house to sleep, as I was a little tired after driving for several hours. My car hadn’t been maintained for a long time and the brakes seemed to have some problems, so driving was exhausting. As soon as I lay down, I fell asleep.

Before I fell asleep, however, I was still thinking about what would happen tomorrow, why the snails converged into that strange shape, and whether any ghosts were attached to the snails. Half dreaming and half awake, my mind was full of strange shadows, as if the snails had climbed out of the stream and came all the way to my bed.

This sleep was more exhausting than staying up late, and I couldn’t wake up even if I wanted to. It was after three in the morning when I finally woke up to pee.

I couldn’t go to the public toilet in the countryside. It was just a dung vat and I didn’t have the confidence to not fall down in it, not to mention the fact that I couldn’t stand the smell. There also wasn’t any toilet in my room, so I went to the playground outside and took care of my business. When I returned, I suddenly found that Uncle Three’s door was open and the light was still on inside.

The cold wind outside made me feel very invigorated and I walked over to get a look, wondering what Uncle Three was doing. No one was inside and I noticed that his clothes were gone, as if he had left in a hurry. I was returning to my room in a huff when I suddenly felt someone looking at me.

I wasn’t a neurotic person, but I felt this way because I was sure that I had seen something when I was wandering around.

But I wasn’t familiar with everything in the old house. I looked back but didn’t see anything that might have caused my delusion.

After looking around a few times, I couldn’t help feeling angry, thinking that the events these past few days had made me confused. It was said that creepy and mysterious things seemed to have a peculiar charm that always bewitched people.

I lay back down to try and get some more sleep. I hadn’t slept well before, but now I felt refreshed and could hardly fall asleep quickly. I turned off the lights and put on headphones to listen to some MP3s.

Strangely enough, after lying down for a while, I still felt like something was wrong. I felt uneasy all over, as if someone was still looking at me. This feeling wasn’t very strong, but it was very uncomfortable and wouldn’t go away.

In the end, I really couldn’t stand it. I turned off the MP3 player, sat up, and massaged my temples hard while taking a deep breath, hoping to settle down.

This was somewhat helpful. I took a few deep breaths for about ten minutes until I gradually calmed down. Although the feeling still existed, I wasn’t as agitated as before. I rubbed my face hard, feeling like I didn’t need to sleep. According to my experience, even if I fell asleep tonight, I wouldn’t feel any better. I would wait until dawn and then take a mid-afternoon nap.

Thinking about what I should do so early, I looked at my watch and found that it was a little before four in the morning. Shit, I guess I can accompany Uncle Two when he does his tai chi since he’ll come down soon. I yawned and reflexively turned to look out the window.

The sight scared me to death and my heart almost stopped.

I saw a shadow lying on my window.

A figure—

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Updated 11/22/2021