Daomu Biji extra1 part15

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 came to the stream, I saw it was 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 assigned some people to spray the pesticide in several places. It was dark by the time everything was finally done, and Uncle Three said, “Well, no one will be eating snails from here in the next year.”

I felt sick and said, “I don't want to ever eat any.”

We went back 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 not to fall down, 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 very invigorated and I wondered what Uncle Three was doing as I walked over to get a look. I saw no one inside and noticed that the clothes were gone, as if he had left in a hurry. I was returning to my room angrily when I suddenly felt someone looking at me.

I wasn't a neurotic person, and the reason why I felt this way was because I was sure I saw 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 a few times, I couldn't help being angry, thinking that the events these past few days had made me dizzy. It was like those people who, when practicing Shinto, misguidedly focused on hallucinations that arose during meditation. It seemed to have a peculiar charm that always bewitched people.

I lay back down to 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 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 and gradually calmed down. Although the feeling still existed, I wasn't so agitated and I rubbed my face hard, feeling that 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 it was a little before four in the morning. Shit, I guess I could accompany Uncle Two when he does his tai chi since he would come down soon. I yawned and reflexively turned to look out of 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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Chapter end