Chapter Twenty-Eight: Cause and Effect

“I could never do that, and I absolutely won’t let you kill her.” I looked at Uncle Zhuzi as I spoke. He was not a man to make empty threats; I knew he meant every word he said. Instinctively, I stepped in front of the woman—whose name I still didn’t know—to shield her.

Uncle Zhuzi stared at me, slowly drawing out a small knife. The expression on his face grew colder and colder; in twenty years, I had never seen him look like this.

“Uncle, I don’t believe you’re a killer. I don’t believe you’re a bad man. My eldest brother told me that the man who killed my father all those years ago was someone with strange powers. To be honest, I once suspected you, but even I couldn’t believe it. I know you’re hiding a lot from me for your own reasons. Even now, you want me to do something I don’t want to do, but I know you have your reasons. I won’t force you. Since my father died so young, I’ve always seen you as a father. I swear I won’t make you say anything you don’t want to. But I beg you, please, stop this before it’s too late.” My voice trembled with pleading.

For Uncle Zhuzi, with his temper, to be driven to threaten murder to force my hand showed just how desperate he must be.

He kept looking at me, but the frost in his eyes slowly melted, replaced by a sorrow I couldn’t begin to describe. In his gaze, I saw a deep helplessness and inner turmoil.

I pressed on while his resolve wavered. “Uncle, please, let’s end this. I’ll pretend I never knew about any of it.”

“You have to do this! If you don’t, you’ll die!” Tears streaked down Uncle Zhuzi’s face as he shouted, kicking me aside and pressing the knife to the woman’s throat. “Sleep with her, or I’ll kill her. You have no choice!”

“Uncle!” I cried.

“Are you going to listen to me or not?” he roared.

As his words faded, a sudden “whoosh” sliced through the air, followed by the ringing clang of metal. There was a flash of light, and Uncle Zhuzi’s knife was knocked flying from his hand. In the next instant, a figure burst from the shadows, wrenched the woman away from Uncle Zhuzi, and as he tried to grab her back, delivered a savage kick that sent him sprawling. Blood trickled from his mouth as he struggled to rise; that blow had left him badly hurt.

The whole scene happened so fast I could barely react. By the time I came to my senses, my eldest brother stood at my side, his eyes cold as frost as he glared at Uncle Zhuzi.

Looking at my brother’s icy stare, I realized that, while I never believed Uncle Zhuzi capable of killing, I could see from my brother’s gaze that he truly might. He was someone who could do anything once he’d made up his mind. Afraid of what he’d do to Uncle Zhuzi, I grabbed his arm. “Brother, please, don’t…”

He shook off my hand and strode towards Uncle Zhuzi.

Uncle Zhuzi couldn’t get up again. I could imagine the force behind my brother’s kick. Still, he propped himself up and wiped the blood from his mouth, sneering, “Sun Zhongmou, yes, I killed Ye Tiancheng. I skinned him, ate his flesh—because he stole the woman I loved most! Isn’t this what you wanted to know? Didn’t you want to find the killer? Well, it was me. Go ahead, kill me!”

My brother lunged forward and kicked him again.

Uncle Zhuzi spat blood, his body flying back.

I wanted to stop him, but I was still reeling from Uncle Zhuzi’s confession.

This time, Uncle Zhuzi’s face had turned the color of a bruised plum. Bracing himself on his arm, he kept sneering at my brother. “Go on, if you’ve got the guts, kill me! Once I’m dead, everything will be over!”

My brother stepped up, grabbed Uncle Zhuzi by the collar, and only then did I manage to rush over and block him. No matter what, I couldn’t stand by and watch my brother kill Uncle Zhuzi.

“Uncle, is what you said true?” I asked, looking him in the eye.

“Yes. I killed him. Kill me, and you two can call your father avenged,” he replied.

I grasped my brother’s hand but couldn’t budge him. He still held Uncle Zhuzi up by the collar, but finally, he spoke, staring hard at him. “Do you think that by taking all the blame on yourself, it’ll be over? Do you think you can protect Yezi this way? Let me tell you, I can protect my brother—it’s not your place. And as for what happened back then, I’ll get to the bottom of it. No one will escape justice.”

With that, he let Uncle Zhuzi fall to the ground, then hefted the woman onto his shoulder. “We’re leaving.”

His words brooked no refusal. I glanced back at Uncle Zhuzi; his face was a ghastly white, but I wasn’t worried for his life. My brother hadn’t killed him, and I believed he knew what he was doing.

“Sun Zhongmou, things aren’t as simple as you think. If you insist on reopening this case, no one will be able to save you!” Uncle Zhuzi called after us.

My brother turned to him. “All these years, I’ve learned one thing: if you want something done, do it yourself.”

When we reached the village entrance, my brother and I parted ways. In the past, if he didn’t want to talk, I’d never press him, but after what Uncle Zhuzi did tonight, I had to know. I needed answers. Uncle Zhuzi was no criminal, much less my father’s killer, but I desperately wanted to understand why he would take all the blame upon himself, why he did all this—to save me.

It was as if my brother could read my mind. He looked at me and said, “I know you have a lot of questions, Yezi. Now isn’t the time for you to know everything. When the time is right, I’ll tell you.”

I started to speak, but he silenced me with a gesture. “Don’t ask. I’m your brother—your real brother.”

Then he said, “I’ll take her back. I believe the truth will come out soon enough.”

That was how he was—decisive, never looking back. He turned and left, leaving me alone with a thousand tangled thoughts.

I no longer cared about checking on the school. I wandered home in a daze. The house was silent; everyone was asleep. I slipped inside, lay down on the sofa, and smoked one cigarette after another, trying to piece together Uncle Zhuzi’s strange behavior.

He was determined that I sleep with that girl—the one from the online forum—even threatening murder to force me. He even said that if I didn’t, I would die. The whole thing was absurd, like something out of a martial arts novel: poisoned with some aphrodisiac, and if I didn’t find a woman to vent the poison, I’d die.

But at least in those stories, there was a logical connection.

What did sleeping with this girl have to do with my life or death?

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t see the link. It wasn’t as if I’d die for lack of a woman! Finally, I almost laughed at myself—did it have something to do with me being a virgin?

A virgin—a pure man. That’s often a big deal in ghost stories. Was Uncle Zhuzi implying that if I didn’t lose the “virgin crown” I’d worn for twenty-three years, I’d die?

And what kind of death would that be? Would my manhood just explode?

As I entertained these ridiculous thoughts, suddenly a woman’s voice sounded behind me. “You’re still up?”

Startled, I turned around to see Han Xue, her hair loose around her shoulders. For some reason, a mad idea seized me, and I asked, “Han Xue, if I told you that I’d die unless I slept with you, would you agree?”

In the moonlight, I could almost see her face turn bright red, then, in a flash, red as blood with anger. She snatched a sofa cushion and smacked me over the head with it. “Ye Jihuan, you pervert! Are you crazy?”

She hit me a few more times, leaving me dizzy, then spat, “Why don’t you just go die early?” before fleeing in embarrassment to her room.

After she left, I shrugged and muttered to myself, “See, any reasonable person knows there’s no cause and effect here.”

But just as I finished, Han Xue slipped back behind me, her voice barely audible. “If you really would die, I’d agree.”

“Really?” I turned to look at her, bashful and lovely in the moonlight, and stood up to scoop her into my arms. “Let’s go, I’m suffering from a poison that’ll kill me if I don’t vent it.”

Han Xue seemed mortified, but she nodded. “Alright.”

My heart swelled with joy.

But then she added, “But if I find out you lied to me, I’ll make you wish you were dead.”

She mimed a pair of pincers with her hand.

A chill ran straight down my spine.