28. The Best Brother in the World

"Young man, it's raining, where are you going?"

Yan Chu has lived in the village for three days. During these three days, the rain on the mountain has never stopped. He usually stays in Lao Gentou's room and only walks around when he eats.

He is very quiet. He has not been seen wandering around in the village for so many days. The villagers' vigilance against him has gradually dropped to the lowest level.

But now it is raining and the sky is getting dark. He is holding an umbrella and looks like he is going to go out, which makes Lao Gentou suddenly perk up. He looks at him with dim eyes and his voice is a little low.

"I think the rain is lighter now, so I want to go to the back mountain. The forest in the light rain has a different kind of beauty, which is a good material for photography."

Yan Chu pretended not to understand the subtle defense in his words, holding the camera in his hand, looking like an ordinary college student obsessed with photography.

He had a camera hanging around his neck and a small backpack on his back. It was not the big backpack he carried when he climbed the mountain. It was probably a small spare bag that he put in the backpack at the beginning. It was flat and didn't look like it was filled with too many things.

In addition, there was only the umbrella in his hand.

"It's getting dark now. There are wolves in the back mountain. Young man, are you going to die?"

The old man thought why the kids in the city were so strange. The climbers in the past were also like that. There were only trees on the mountain, but they thought the mountain was beautiful. The kidnapped girls didn't like the scenery like them and were willing to stay.

"It's okay, uncle. My mother brought me a blessing of peace before coming."

Yan Chu smiled and took out a yellow triangular talisman from his pocket: "My mother said that this blessing of peace can keep me safe. Not to mention the wolf, even if the evil person wants to harm me, he will have to pay with his life."

I don't know if it was Lao Gentou's illusion, he always felt that what the young man said was meaningful. After listening to the second half of his words, the whole person was chilled and uncomfortable.

But when he looked more carefully, the boy was still smiling, as if it was all his illusion just now.

"Then remember to come back early. When it gets really dark, those wolves and bears will really come out."

Lao Gentou didn't persuade him much. Didn't the daughter-in-law of the old Zhang family sneak out in the middle of the night and be bitten to death by a wolf? He was not kind, but if the young man in front of him was bitten to death by a wolf like the girl, who would he ask for the accommodation and food expenses for the next few days? That would be a considerable income.

He hoped that the rain would last longer. In a few days, he would be able to save enough money to buy a wife for his son. His son was 40 years old this year. If he didn't get married, their family would be extinct.

Yan Chu nodded and walked into the rain with an umbrella.

"Dazhu, follow him and keep an eye on him to see if he went to the back mountain."

The old people in such a village were not easy to fool. Although there was nothing suspicious about Yan Chu, he still asked his son to follow him and keep an eye on him to see if he went to the back mountain or took pictures in the village with the camera.

The son of Lao Gentou ate raw sweet potatoes, responded sullenly, put on his own raincoat, and followed Yan Chu closely at a distance of several dozen meters not long after Yan Chu left.

Yan Chu didn't seem to notice that there was someone behind him. He walked leisurely to the other side of the village. That road led to the back mountain.

Now the sun was gradually getting darker, and the continuous rain added a bit of gloom to the small village. He looked at the children playing and frolicking on both sides of the muddy road without fear of the rain, and the old men and women sitting under their eaves, smoking old-fashioned dry tobacco.

Joy, comfort, everything was shrouded in shadows.

Yan Chu smiled, with a layer of shadow and blood in his eyes, and he wanted to destroy it all.

The son of the old man followed him from a distance, watching him leave the village and walk towards the back mountain. He ate the last bite of sweet potato in his hand, sucked his fingers, and complained that his father was too cautious, causing him to take so many wrong detours on this rainy day.

Don't say that this young man looks quite normal, even if he has evil intentions, there are so many young and strong people in their village, how can he get away with it?

He looked again, confirmed that Yan Chu had gone far away, and went home shaking his head.

*****

It had rained for several days in a row, and the mountain paths were particularly muddy. Yan Chu was wearing a pair of hiking boots, and the toes and heels of his shoes were covered with yellow mud. He seemed to be walking aimlessly, but he seemed to be determined in his heart, turning left and right, not completely following the path that had been trodden by the predecessors.

I don’t know how long I walked. At this time, the sky had completely darkened. A full moon in the sky appeared and disappeared under the cover of clouds and mist. If you look up at this time, you will be surprised to find that this full moon is actually red.

The silent forest and the dark road ahead are creepy.

Yan Chu stood under a big tree that four people could hug together, took the backpack behind him and opened it in front of him. It was empty inside, with only a small folding hoe. He squatted down and shoveled at the overgrown weeds on the side of the tree.

One, two, three times... The soil had been soaked in rain for many days, and it was so soft that it took almost no effort to dig it out.

At first, all that was dug out was dirt, and gradually, a few white bones with some rotten flesh came out.

"These are my sister's hand bones."

Yan Chu wiped the bones clean reverently and carefully put them in his backpack.

"This is my sister's sternum."

He was mumbling words, and his originally clear face looked eerie in the dim environment, especially his eyes, which were coquettish and blood-red, like a complete madman.

"Yinyin, dear, my brother is here to find you. He will take you home. There is a father and a mother at home. Our family will never be separated."

He kept digging and looking for bones. He didn't stop until he dug a pit one or two meters deep and was sure that no bones could be found.

The scattered bones, many of which were incomplete, had been chewed by wolves and other ferocious beasts. The bones were chewed into pieces and swallowed until they were digested.

Yan Chu searched for two hours, but the bones he found couldn't fit into a small cloth bag.

His body and bones are gone.

"Ah-ah-ah-"

Yan Chu looked at the tattered talisman that was soaked in rain and blood. The original traces of the talisman had long been lost to a small ball of yellow talisman. The ball of talisman was tightly held in the palm of the half-eaten hand. It was originally It looks like the amulet on Yan Chu's body. It was requested by her mother before she went out to play with her friends.

There is one sister, Yan Yin, and one brother, Yan Chu.

"Yinyin, brother will take you home."

When he had finished crying, he wiped away his tears. He was kneeling on the dirt and stood up using the tree trunk beside him. He turned slightly to the side and spoke softly to his side.

A little girl wearing a white dress, covered in blood, mud and rain, without normal eyes and with blood holes as big as two fists in her eyes, looked at him and smiled.

*****

"Village Chief, the boy who lives in our house has been going up the mountain for several hours. It's already so dark now. Do you think something happened?"

Lao Gentou originally thought that the young man was going to take pictures in the forest near the village, and the round trip shouldn't take too long, but no one expected that it was already past dinner time, and he was waiting for someone who couldn't wait for him. .

Feeling that something was wrong, he hurriedly took his son to find Lin Youde, who had the most say in the village.

"He went up the mountain on a rainy day. He was looking for death. All the animals in the mountain came out to look for food at night. I didn't dare to let anyone go in to look for him."

Lin Youde was nibbling on a chicken leg. He patted his wife's hand with chopsticks. His wife pouted and put the chicken wings that had been put into her bowl aside into the bowl of his brother-in-law Lin Youcai, and then picked up another piece of chicken for himself. Eat the neck.

"But the village chief, the young man said something before when he came to our village. He said that before he came, he told his mother to come to our village to take pictures. If something happened to him, what if his mother called the police and made a big fuss? What to do? I'm afraid the mountain will be searched by then, and we won't be able to hide all those little wives in the back mountain."

Lao Gentou's words suddenly made Lin Youde angry.

"Damn it, if you didn't tell me earlier, you still let him go into the back mountain." Lin Youde got angry and stopped eating. He got off the kang and put on his shoes to organize the manpower.

"Dad, he's back."

Lao Gentou's son was waiting on the road outside. From a distance, he saw Yan Chu coming back from the mountain holding an umbrella and carrying a backpack.

Lao Gentou, Lin Youde and others heard what he said and ran out quickly.

"You kid, why have you been gone for so long? Everyone is preparing to go up the mountain to look for you. What happened to your clothes and shoes?"

Lao Gentou was a little angry. If it weren't for his greed for money, he wouldn't be willing to let this person live in his house anymore, which would only cause him trouble.

"It was raining and the road was too slippery. I just fell into a pit while picking mushrooms. I just climbed up now."

Yan Chu opened his bulging backpack, which was filled with small white-brown mushrooms, a dense bag, and he picked a lot of mushrooms.

This thing is not rare in the eyes of the villagers, especially in the mountains after the rain. One can pick a big basket, which means these city people are rare in this thing. Every time outsiders go into the mountains, they always buy some from the villagers. go back.

"It's fine, young man. From now on, don't go out to the mountains at night, you know?"

Lin Youde waved his hand. He was too lazy to care about such trivial matters. He just taught Yan Chu a few words and then turned around and went back to his home.

A gust of cold wind blew by, and brothers Lin Youde and Lin Youcai had goosebumps on their bodies.

Strange, why the temperature suddenly dropped.

Lin Youde, in particular, felt that his back was particularly sore, as if he was carrying dozens of kilograms of weight.

However, the coldness only lasted for two or three seconds, and the brothers felt that the temperature had become normal, and the pain in Lin Youde's shoulders disappeared.

They didn't see anyone. Just now, Yan Chu waved to where Brother Lin Youde was standing.

The little girl who was covered in blood and lying on Lin Youde's neck, looking at him with her blood-hole-like eyes, hesitated for a long time and followed Yan Chu away.