The midday meal was soon ready. Dishes were placed on the table, yet the old man refused to join us. It was hardly surprising; we were all buoyed by the victory of our first success, and the table buzzed with laughter and chatter. Though the bodies of his two sons had been recovered, the family remained steeped in the grief of loss. Watching us laugh, he must have been overwhelmed by memories, the sorrow unavoidable.

I shot Wang Jue a look, signaling him to stop chattering on with my older sister about trivial family matters, but he paid me no mind, continuing his excited babble. Old He nudged my sister’s shoulder and whispered something in her ear; upon hearing it, she immediately lost her smile. Wang Jue was still talking when my sister placed a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture, finally silencing his incessant prattle.

Li Xiaoshu invited the old man and Gui Zhi to sit by the table. Seeing the sudden gravity and silence enveloping everyone, they couldn't easily refuse and finally took their seats.

The meal proceeded in profound seriousness. Apart from Li Xiaoshu occasionally serving the old man and Gui Zhi from her side, everyone else ate silently. Once finished, the discussion turned to the plans for the evening.

Wang Jue suggested we stay another night, intending for him and my sister to wander the village during the day. This proposal was unanimously rejected. He grew somewhat petulant, sitting sulkily in the courtyard, refusing to engage with the rest of us. At that moment, I deeply missed the wise and steady Wang Jue of before; I wondered what had happened to him to cause such a drastic shift in his character.

I had privately discussed this with Li Xiaoshu. Being naturally cautious, she advised me against raising Wang Jue’s issue until we returned; this was to prevent him from suspecting we were doubting him, as we would certainly find a way to investigate once we reached Xiangcheng.

After vetoing Wang Jue’s suggestion, the group decided to go to Jingyin Mountain that night to help the old man retrieve the bodies of his two sons. If things went smoothly, we would leave the village for Xiangcheng before sunrise. This urgency stemmed from the fact that the village’s young, strong men had been nearly wiped out by Li Xiaohao, leaving behind mostly the elderly, the weak, women, and children; finding capable hands to move the bodies would not be easy.

In the afternoon, everyone found a place to rest. As the sun set, we ate a quick bite, gathered our weapons and stretchers, and set out. Only my older sister remained behind at Gui Fang’s house. We had considered leaving the effeminate Wang Jue behind as well, but he adamantly refused, insisting he would face the danger alongside us.

We followed the moonlight, quickly arriving near the banyan tree. This time, I kept a careful watch on the path ahead from a distance, unlike my previous recklessness.

Fortunately, there were no signs of trouble; presumably, Li Xiaohao had already taken the post album and left. Li Xiaoshu lit a bonfire a few yards from the cave entrance, instructing us to wait at a distance.

Not long after the fire was lit, countless worms began to wriggle and crawl toward the flames from the ground, followed by a series of popping and exploding sounds as they burned. The air became thick with the acrid scent of scorched protein.

After about half an hour, the worms on the ground were mostly gone, and the crackling in the fire subsided. We filed into the cave entrance one after another.

The interior remained unchanged from our previous visit. We quickly located the two bodies lying at the three-way intersection. They were too stiff to carry on our backs, so we had to use the stretchers. Li Xiaoshu and I carried Jin Bao’er, while Old He and Wang Jue carried Gui Fang’s husband. The four of us moved swiftly, nearly jogging, and returned the two corpses to the courtyard in less than an hour.

Upon seeing his two sons, the old man, a white-haired man seeing off his black-haired sons, unleashed a torrent of heart-wrenching wails, beating his chest and tearing at himself. We did not disturb him, instead quietly retrieving our belongings and slipping out of the village.

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