Chapter 200

Villagers usually go to rest early, especially the elderly. Around 9 o'clock, Grandma Huang walked into the room; as for whether she had fallen asleep, I and Pangzi weren't sure, but the room occasionally let out sighs—I thought Grandma Huang wasn't sleeping peacefully.

Around midnight, a loud knocking came from outside the house. When I and Pangzi rubbed our sleepy eyes and ran out, we saw a drunken young man carrying a large bag walk in.

Grandma Huang stepped out of the room ahead of us, and she was the one who opened the door for that young man.

"My son, you've finally come back—where did you go drinking at this hour? Come, put down your things first; Mother will draw water for you to take a bath." This young man was presumably Grandma Huang's son, Chen Biao. Upon seeing him, Grandma Huang's eyes welled up, and she shed two streams of hot tears, quite moved.

"Don't nag me here; where I go is none of your business. You're always saying I waste my days in debauchery and neglect my duties, huh? I tell you, I've got money now—plenty of it!" Chen Biao's attitude wasn't great; he instead scoffed at Grandma Huang.

With a clang, Chen Biao flung the bag on his back onto the table. Drunk, he swayed his body, fiddled with it for a while, and unfolded the bag.

Instantly, a heap of banknotes and gold and silver jewelry entered everyone's view. Chen Biao seemed indifferent; drunk, he casually pulled out a handful and flung it hard onto Grandma Huang, reeking of alcohol, he shouted: "Take it, this is what I won."

Having said that, Chen Biao gathered up the remaining money and jewels, drunk, and prepared to walk out the door.

As Chen Biao walked away, it frightened Grandma Huang. She hurried over, crying loudly, and clung to his leg to stop him. But Chen Biao seemed unmoved; he cursed and kicked her away, spat, and snarled: "Get lost, you old hag, don't block my fun."

"Fun your ass! You scum, how dare you treat your own mother like that?" Before Pangzi could move, I kicked Chen Biao hard.

With a bang, my light kick actually sent Chen Biao stumbling and crawling out, the force so great even I found it unbelievable.

Look at his sallow complexion—no need to look further to know his body has been drained by drink and lust. Someone like him, even if not killed by a blade, will likely die sooner or later on a woman's belly.

"You little thief, dare to move Brother Biao!" Chen Biao cursed, dizzy, grabbed the rake at the door and thrust it at me. In a flash, the rake was snatched by Pangzi who rushed over. Then Pangzi, taking advantage of the momentum, slapped him, flinging him away.

Although Chen Biao was drunk, he seemed to also realize we were not to be messed with. He took three steps, looking back each time, uttering harsh words, and fled miserably with that half packet of money.

I picked up the rake from the ground and intended to chase after him to give that unfilial son a good beating. Who would have thought, Granny Huang suddenly clung to my thigh, not letting me chase Chen Biao, and while sobbing she begged me to spare Chen Biao and not harm her child.

Granny Huang's crying frightened me and Pangzi, and we hurriedly helped her into the house.

"Granny, such an unfilial son isn't worth your tears! He should be dragged out and shot." After helping Granny Huang sit steady, I still couldn't vent my anger, cursing at Chen Biao.

Granny Huang wept, still defending Chen Biao, wiping her tears as she said sorrowfully: "Don't blame him, don't blame my son; it's all my fault. I gave him whatever he wanted since he was little. I only cared about satisfying him, never telling him what is right or wrong. Never told him to walk the proper path in life, to earn honest money."

From Granny Huang's lament, Pangzi and I roughly understood their family background. It seems that when Chen Biao was very young, his father passed away.

Granny Huang had doted on this child since childhood, giving him whatever he wanted, which fostered Chen Biao's bad habit of expecting clothes to be handed to him and food to be brought to his mouth. Later, Chen Biao grew up. Seeing the children of wealthy families dressed in fine silks and jade, he felt imbalanced. He constantly compared himself to them, reaching out to Granny Huang for money.

But Granny Huang's family was poor; how could they compare to the wealthy? Consequently, the unsatisfied Chen Biao began to scold his own mother and, for money, took up stealing chickens and dogs.

After growing up, Chen Biao's temperament became even worse—he indulged in eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling, all present. He would often go a year or more without returning home. And whenever he did come back, his body would inexplicably bear new injuries.

As a mother, how could she not worry! But her son repeatedly refused to listen; what could a mother do?

Granny Huang kept crying tears, her sorrowful state making Pangzi and I feel heartsick. The large pile of banknotes on the table seemed like a heap of waste paper; to a mother, this stack of toilet paper could never compare to her own son.

I thought, Pangzi and I should do something. After all, it was us two who drove Chen Biao away with a beating.

After helping Granny Huang into the house, I stepped to the doorway and quietly nudged Pangzi: "Old Wang, let's go find Chen Biao and bring him back."

Without a second thought, Pangzi immediately replied, "Good." It seems I wasn't the only one with that idea.

Pangzi and I gently closed the wooden door of the thatched house, and under the faintly whitening moonlight, we stepped out.

"Old Wang, there are some scattered banknotes on the ground; I think they were dropped by Chen Biao when he fled in panic. Let's follow this trail." I picked up a banknote from the ground and said to Pangzi beside me.

Unexpectedly, Pangzi suddenly furrowed his brow, lightly shook his head, looking solemn and inexplicably so.

"Hai Sheng, I constantly have a bad premonition, as if something is about to happen!" Pangzi stopped in his tracks and covered his heart.

"You're overthinking it; what could happen just looking for a person?" I thought he was being overly nervous. Although we cultivators have spiritual intuition, and we would have subtle premonitions about impending events, speaking of spiritual sense, I consider myself far stronger than Pangzi. It's impossible for him to sense anything while I feel nothing.

"I hope so..." Pangzi still wasn't entirely reassured.

"Hehehe..." Just as Pangzi's words fell, a strange laugh suddenly permeated the air. This laugh was eerie and grating, making me feel creepy from the bottom of my heart. I followed the sound to its source and found it in a tall old banyan tree.

The owner of the voice was a grayish-brown owl perched on a branch of the banyan tree, its eyes narrowed, its feathers all over trembling nonstop.

No matter how you look at it, the owl gives the impression of laughing, and moreover, laughing so hard its whole body shakes.

Pangzi and I exchanged a glance, both seeing the heaviness on each other's faces. "Not fearing an owl's cry, but fearing an owl's laugh" is a proverb known to everyone in the countryside.

This is not superstition; in today's technologically advanced society, this phenomenon has also been fully explained by science.

An owl's organs are more sensitive than a person's; whenever someone dies nearby, the owl's body secretes a liquid that affects its senses, causing it to emit a hehehe laugh.

Instinctively, Pangzi and I quickened our pace, beginning to run along the dim village road.

When we had exerted all our strength to reach the village outskirts, we saw from afar a figure collapsed beside the path. Turning over the corpse's back, Haoran discovered that the owner was none other than Chen Biao, whom we had just chased away.

At this moment, Chen Biao had become a cold corpse, with no breath on his nose, and the sack filled with banknotes and jewels was gone. Upon first seeing him as a cold corpse, I thought he had been murdered for money.

But when my gaze moved downward, my eyes widened in an instant; excessive fear made me shout in panic, stepping back several steps.

Why? How could this be? Chen Biao was still a living person half an hour ago. Why, half an hour later, did he collapse under the banyan tree at the village edge, and why is his stomach empty, his intestines and kidneys all gone, leaving only a deflated skin bag?

Moreover... his reproductive organs are also missing!.