I first met those weird mothers and kids in the winter three years ago.
That day we were on a three-wheeler that entered the camp and the road was bumpy and cold. Reedefor hugged his mother — so careful as to hold her baby and let her rest on her legs.
I looked at them as if they were the right mother and son, downped their hearts and lent them cotton to warm her, and Reed thanked me with gratitude, and asked where he was from and why he went to the camp.
“The Hunan of Yoo-yang came to his relatives. I’m sorry.
Reed is so full of laughs.
And I glanced at the weak old woman, whose head was stiff, and her face was all yellow and ash, and the wrinkles on her throat were tenderly shaking, and her eyes were half-open.
I could not help but look at her two eyes, and in those two encounters of vision, I saw her with a pair of pupils raised, covered with brown marks, and occasionally piercing a shadow of gold.
And I was shocked, and when I looked at it, I only saw a blind eye.
Back to Tokiko, I thought I was finished with the mother and son. But early the next morning, the village chief Zhao found me, knocked on the door and dragged me to the village council. I looked in the door and Reedford was holding his mother and sitting there.
The relative they were going to leave for was long gone, according to Zhao, before Hong Kong returned in 1997. The mother and son, who also had no time to contact each other, ran into the door without a fly and without any money, slept in the corner of the broken house, almost freezing to death. The next day, when they found me, the mother and son only said my name, they brought me here.
“What do you say we take this to the rescue station?” I’m sorry.
I looked at Reedford and the old lady, and I thought about it, and I shook my head.
“Forget it, help station the old lady can’t hold. Isn’t there some empty rooms in school? Clear out the woodwood table or something. I’m sorry.
So Reed Foon and his son came to live, I had a primary school teacher in the camp, and the school had been short of a commissary, and I had arranged for Defu to open a small shop by the playground in which students could sell snacks and soda. I smoked with two other teachers, so he got some smoke in his shop.
Reedefu is a man with a nice, honest face, a big face, a national face, short hair, even though he’s a southerner, but he’s more of a Northeast man than the man in the tent. He’s a very open-minded man, he runs a commissary, and when life improves, he comes to my house a few days later with all kinds of drinks. In the winter, sickle knives were used to chop wood in the mountains, piled up the doors, and in the summer, fished in the river, and delivered in a basket.
Devereaux is still silent. Her body has become healthier as life improves, and her skin has become a little bit of bloody, which leaves me with the greatest fear (that she will not survive that winter), and she has apparently recovered from any illness. But she’s still dark, she’s not funny, and she’s not a big fan. All day long, in an old cotton stubble, with his waist on his waist, sitting in the corner of the playground, like the roots of an ancient tree that was thrown out of the ground.
Old Zhao said that’s what old people do.
In contrast to her own son, Tefoum was so stingy. One night I went to the store to get a cigarette and saw De Fu washing her feet, and I took credit for it without the money, and returned it to Reed Fu the next day. But every time she saw me after that, she would stare at me with a dazzling eye.
“Mrs. Kang, you still owe $5 for cigarettes. I’m sorry.
“Dev, I’ve returned it to Devon. I’m sorry.
I can’t stop crying.
“Oh, old man, can’t remember. I’m sorry.
She always answered that.
But next time I see you, I’ll be asked to pay back my cigarettes.
So repeat, again and again.
I told Reedford about it, he touched his head and laughed.
“My mother is a snake, and she’s better off. Teacher Kang, I’ll go back and tell her. I’m sorry.
His persuasion should have been ineffective, because DeFoure was still pushing me to pay back.
There is no doubt that Reedefu is a very kind man.
When the weather is good, he can see his mother on his back, singing something that we don’t understand, and walking around. DeFuux, who was so inconvenient that he tried to take her behind her back to a low-lying high ground, tried to make her look down and feel better. If we were to talk to him at this point, he would never have been present, but apologized with a smile. The old man in the camp was very impressed to see him walking behind his mother’s back.
I know what the old people are talking about — they’re envious that Mulder Foam has a filial son.
“Good luck. I’m sorry.
I heard Zhang Wang Ma and Zhao sit in the village courtyard whispering sighs once.
“When I’m old, I’ll be grateful for turning my face.” I’m sorry.
“No, I’m looking forward to it.”
I don’t know what to say, just walk away.
It is true that Reedefo’s filial filament is the only one in the island, and it is unlikely that in this time when traditional values have been destroyed to a similar extent. One time, I took language classes, I talked about Zhu Hsiao and Tsiao Tsai, and asked students to give examples of what they saw in their lives. Reedford…
In the spring of 2001, there was a fortune-teller in Tunley, a lot of people around the stalls, and Reede-Fu, who came back behind his fucking back and asked for luck. The fortune-teller threw all the copper money out of his head and looked at the cynics, squeezing his finger and obscuring his face, saying that the old lady’s life was excellent, and that she had two nails.
Two Aces — when I was 120, I felt like this guy was crazy, and most people would say he was a hundred years old, and he was 120 years old.
But Reederford heard the results and showed a smile in his heart.
“It’s been a long time, Grandma. I’m sorry.
DeFoumma also spreads her ever-silent face, smiling like a dead tree. The rest of us are naturally not happy, and we all say congratulations.
Shortly after that, Lidéfou began to send house-to-house invitations, and I picked up the big red sign to give his mother a birthday party.
“Dev, where’s your mother’s birthday? I’m sorry.
“Oh, it’s 108 this year. I’m sorry.
I heard that, and the whole person stopped.
“Your mother is 108 years old? I’m sorry.
“Hey, yeah.”
On the day of the party, the wine table had a dozen tables on the playground, and it was so much fun. Devon spent money, and the moderator alone hired three. The old lady sits at the main table in a big red and purple birthday robe. After the three rounds of wine, people started to talk to the birthday boy, and Zhao said that we haven’t had a centenary in our county, let alone an eight-year-old, and that you have to say a few words today: how can you live so long?
I can see that people are not so sure that Defu looks only 40 years old, and that’s when you’re rich, and if you’re a hundred, you’re not a child of the ancients.
Devereaux was in a very good mood that day, so she did as we wished, with a strong Southern accent, and told us about her life:
I was born in 19 years (1893), growing up on the edge of a cave lake, that big, fishing boat, a fog, the fog of a lake, and the water, just like the place where the gods lived.
Twenty-five years old, I was six years old, and there were a bunch of Chinese in the barn to teach us how to fight foreigners and priests. We, the elders, said that we only fish, and you and the foreigners had nothing to do with us, and the Han people caught us. (Han) He took us to practice boxing and said he was not afraid to fight. The men were taken to practice boxing and my brother was taken away and never returned.
Then came the Han, wounded, crippled, and asked us: “What do you believe?” My dad says we believe in snakes in the lake. The Han leaders are happy, right? My dad says he doesn’t know it’s a big snake. The chief wants my dad to take them to fix it. My father said he wouldn’t dare, so the chief put a knife around my neck, and my father took the Han and I to the Big Snake.
“What’s a snake repair? Zhao whispered to me.
I thought for a few seconds that maybe it was a snake that was written on the mountain and sea, and could swallow it.
Old Zhao has turned his tongue and turned his eyes, and I am in the same mood as he is — the heart says how the old lady talks mythology.
My father took the Han people, rocked the boat and came to the lake’s heart. We’re here to sacrifice the snake, to deliver a pig a year, or two sheep. My dad sent the sheep up, blew the whistle, the snake came out, the snake, big, big — the tail was still hanging on the hill, and the head was right under the foot of the hill!
The Han people ordered the arrows to be fired by the men of several boats, but without use, without the skin of the snake, and with the mouth of the snake, they swallowed a boat. The Han people came back with us, and my father asked him why he killed the snake, and the Han people said, “The snake is a fairy, and the blood of the fairy can keep people out of sight.” And then they came with people, and this time they brought “too old soldiers.”
“What is too old a soldier?” Zhao whispered again.
I shake my head — that’s the first time I heard that word.
Fortunately, DeFoumma quickly explained:
Too old, it’s feeding people too old — feeding the chrysanthemum, feeding them all the time, and that’s what makes the man too old, soft, soft bones and necks, lying on the ground like a piece of meat. I can’t cut, I can’t burn, I can’t live.
The Han people brought us back to the mountains, and they burned the incense, and said the curse, “To yellow watch, to cigarettes, to the gods.” The fairies go out, the gods go down the mountain, with the body passing the fist. I’m sorry.
The old ladies danced, their hands danced, and the people at the wine table squeezed, stretched their necks, listened, and even drank.
Then the snake came out again, and the Han people let the jars out and threw them on the snake, and tied them up. So the snakes went up and down, from the mountains to the lake, and the sky was dark and their fingers were blind. I look down from the sky and there’s a big wind, and the whole hole is empty! Hundreds of miles empty! There’s nothing down there, it’s just a dark, dark, dark, and it’s just the big snake that swims in that black cocoon. I thought, “That’s the bottom of the road. I just fainted. I fainted.
I woke up at the lake. When I look at the lake, the mountains are gone. The Han people, my dad, can’t find them. There were only two people left, one of me and one of the Han’s pawns, and the water in the lake was black and red, and it was like blood. I said it was too dry or too dry. I can’t help but drink twice. It’s dirty, it stinks. When I got home, the house was washed away, and I had to go to other houses to get a life.
Two years later, I dreamt that the big snake would give me a dream that it wasn’t dead, that it could be repaired in half by a nail. Says it blesses my life, and my children thrive.
DeFoumma came here and finally stopped. People were relieved, and after a few words of peace, the interlocking voice began to resonate — and no one took the words of the old lady seriously.
I sat at the main table, near the old lady, listening to her whispering:
I said, “Thank you, God, for saving my life and seeing the Snake God.”
I looked at Reedford again and found him smiling a little bit.
When I asked Mr. Baldwin to tell you his fortune, he had a smile on his face.
That night’s drink was too late, and Reedford had brought his mother back to the house long ago — after all, old lady couldn’t stand the noise at the table. After the night, my bladder got a little sick, so I got up and took a nap. Although the schools were all red-brick-walled flats, the toilets and classrooms were not together and were repaired separately, through the playground and through the de Fue and his mother’s home. I was walking, and I saw Devereaux sitting in her usual seat, standing still, hanging around my waist, like a dead wood.
I’m a little weird. How did this big sissy Li De Fu leave her here for her birthday? So he went that way, and he said, “De Fou”
Devereaux turned his head and scared me.
The wrinkles on her throat twitched and twitched.
The lamp of both the toilet and the bar was very far away, but the light was reflected in her dazzling eyeballs, and deep in her eyes — like a punctureded egg — came out of thick tulips that did not belong to the old man.
Devereaux turned her head back slowly, threw up something, took her toes, and then got up and walked towards me.
“Mrs. Kang, you still owe $5 for cigarettes. I’m sorry.
“Dev, I’ve returned it to Devon. I’m sorry.
“Oh, good, good, old man, can’t remember. I’m sorry.
She said, turn around and walk back to the house.
Two days later, Zhang Wang’s daughter, a member of the life committee in class, suddenly found me and said that there was one missing chicken in fifth grade. The chicken shed was right next to the classroom, and I looked over, and I didn’t see anything like a weasel, and there was only one missing chicken. I came back to look for a few laps, and suddenly a very strange thought came out of my heart, moving to the place where DeFou was sitting the other night and pulling the grass with my feet.
There are a few chicken hairs on the ground.
I moved the chicken coop out of the classroom to a nearby dwelling, and Devo asked me a little strangely, and I said that chickens ran around and affected children’s studies.
I don’t know why. I didn’t tell him what I found out that day.
A few months later, one day, I saw Devo standing by the road and laughing at the widow.
Widow Zhang is Zhang Wang’s sister and her husband died early, without children and living alone. DeFou has been providing free labour to the Tani for two years, cutting wood and wheat, and probably taking care of her.
I hid and watched them laugh for half a day and jumped out and punched him.
“Good boy, Devon, take a flower off our village! I’m sorry.
Deok-fu touched his head, he smiled, and his face was filled with joy.
Soon after that, Deok Fu and Zhang’s widow were doing well. There were not many young people in the camp, and they were naturally greeted with congratulations. He took Zhang’s widow to see his mother. The old lady wasn’t too happy, but she didn’t say anything.
In any case, his relationship with Widow Zhang is official. I’m in Zhao’s together, so we’ll have to fix him a new house — we can’t live in that house all the time? Widow Zhang’s house was broken. And I began to look for a place, not far north of the school, where there was a field of reeds, flat ground and good position, and I thought it was good, so I turned around a few times, and one day, when I was measuring my feet, I suddenly heard reeds talking.
It’s Devon.
I’m walking in the reeds, and I see Devon sitting by the creek and talking to the water waves.
“I said you didn’t mean to raise me to 120. Why did you turn back? He said I’d raise my mother. How could I not? I said you’d have your son when you got married. I’m sorry.
“Yes, Snake Fairy, half of him is Han, half of him is Chinese, and half of his children are Han, and half of him is Chinese.” I’m sorry.
“We have to live on our own. I’m sorry.
I walked out of the reed.
Somehow, I didn’t tell Devo about the day.
After a while, one night, Deok Fu suddenly came to me and asked me if I saw his mother.
“Didn’t you sit on the playground?” I said.
“No, not at all! My mom’s been telling me to walk alone, and I can’t let her go, but she hasn’t come back yet. I’m sorry.
I tried to calm De Fu and called Zhao and asked the people of Ton to come out and search for him. When he was depressed, his head was bright again, and he was so busy with Tefu Zhao and a couple of people, he went to the reeds, and after a few laps in the reeds, he found the old lady lying in the shallow water, all black.
“Ama! Ama! I’m sorry.
Defue ran, crying, pushing his chest again, breathing again, and half a day later De Fuenny finally made a move.
She opened her mouth.
The larger her mouth, the larger her upper and lower jaws, the upper and lower jaws, the upper and lower jaws, the upper and upper jaws, the upper and upper cheeks, the lower of her throat, the wrinkles, the wrinkles, and a large bowl from the bottom, the contents of the bag coming out of her mouth.
Zhao and I came together to see it.
It’s a wet, dead rabbit.
Devereaux didn’t tell us much. He ran home with his mother.
The doctor who came to see DeFouux showed her a visit, shaking her head and saying that she had been suffocated for too long, that she had suffered from a brain neurological damage and that the old body was so poor that she was going to be paralyzed.
That’s it. DeFoumma’s paralyzed in bed.
There’s nothing left but the neck.
Defu, who cried and said that he had killed his mother, and that Zhang and I had to try to calm him, said that it was lucky that the old man could save his life and that he was alive.
He began to take care of his mother, and Zhang followed her to the store.
But as I can see, it’s not very much in Zhang’s heart.
Time has passed slowly, a year has passed by by blinking, and it is almost winter vacation. I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t seen Deok Fu for a long time.
I went to the commissary, woke up Zhang’s slumbering widow and asked her where De Fu is, and she pointed her face to the inside of her finger. I walked past the door, and Devereaux pushed out the door, one hand with a bowl to feed, the other with a bucket on his hand, half of the obscenity in the bucket, the smell of the stench, and Zhang’s widow walking out of the house with her nose.
Deok-fu was embarrassed to stand down and smile.
“Sensei Kang, I’m sorry, I’m taking care of my mother. I’m sorry.
“Oh, you all right? Need money?”
“Well, it’s okay, it’s good, it’s good. I’m sorry.
He’s pretty thin, and the country’s got a little bit of a V on his face.
“How’s your mother? Let’s see. I’m sorry.
Deok Fu was in front of the inside door.
“No, no, no! Teacher Kang, go home, my mother is asleep I’m taking care of it I’m sorry.
“…”
His eyes were drowsing in his thin eyes, and there seemed to be something to hide, so I went back out of the store.
Since then, until winter break, I’ve never seen De Fu again.
D’Foots, though paralyzed and no longer proficient, had no problems with their throats, and I could not see her people and often heard her voice from that house. At first, the sound was flat, but it was just a blurry sound, as it was calling on her son, or a intermittent sigh and low groaning, but then it became big and sharp, as the winter became deeper, and more than a day strangling, and in the end it was almost a single squeal and a cry, and sometimes it was mixed with Tefou’s cry and a loud cry.
It’s crazy.
I can’t stand the sound of the squawking, heart-breathing, and I’m worried about what the children will do when they get back to school, and I’ll have to go over and over and over and let Devo do something about it, and he’s always full of promises, but the screams have not diminished. I can’t stand it, I have to call a doctor to show your mother that he’s once again in shock, that his eyes are beating in his eyes, that he doesn’t need a doctor.
What happened to your mother? Tell me the truth.
He said it’s okay. My mom’s fine. It’s just after winter.
I said Devon, you know, your mother stole chickens from the chicken shed, alive.
He jumped and his eyes stopped.
It stopped and looked at me for half a day and then suddenly turned around and closed the door.
A year ago, I saw Zhang’s widow come out of the home in a hurry with a bag, and I knew she could finally put up with it. Defeux came after him, tried to pull, failed to pull him, and he was crouching at the threshold and crying. I hesitated for a few seconds to stop Widow Zhang and ask her the truth. She shook her head in a panic and didn’t want to say anything.
In the spring of winter, I brought back students to the village government, cleaned up a few empty rooms on the first floor, moved the desk or something, and let them take their classes here for the time being. The children moved from the broken house to the village government building in Liang-joon.
I’m still living in school, listening every day to ghosts crying and crying from the dirt.
It’s more human every day.
And one morning, I went out and felt so quiet that I realized that there was nothing to hear from the hymns of spring, and there was no bird.
It’s more like a bird, the school’s perimeter, even the ducks and dogs are afraid to come any closer.
In the spring of 2002, there was another fortune-teller in Tuen.
There’s still a lot of people around him, money, life, peaches, everything. Even the students in the class stretched their necks and wondered, I had to beat their heads back with a ruler.
After a while, I saw a familiar and strange figure walking towards Mr. Talent’s stand — Devon.
I even ran over.
He’s as if he’s 10 years old, with a beard and clothes on, and even his waist is getting a little rusty. His eyes were dimmed in horror, as the dark depths of the two blizzards, with the smell of the infamous urine on his body, and the people were separated as they had avoided the plague.
He saw a widow in the crowd and tried to smile at her, and Zhang turned her face apart and left without a word.
I saw the dimness and sadness on Deok-fu’s face and couldn’t help but slap him on his shoulder.
“Devere, are you okay? I’m sorry.
“Hey, hey, I’m all right, Teacher Kang,” he smiles, “Come and tell my mom another story.” I’m sorry.
He gave his life to the fortune teller, and he looked at the elephants for half a day and looked up, and said that the old lady was in an excellent state of life and that she would suffer from all kinds of devastation, but would always be in a difficult situation and in a difficult situation, at least to keep her alive.
Reedfou heard the result, fell down his thin shoulder and sat on the bench, and We called out to him, and he turned to me.
“Amitoko, is it true? I’m sorry.
I said yes, last time it was a two-ace.
He had a very weird look on his face, and I couldn’t even describe it in words.
Two Aces, 120 years old.
He bowed his head and suddenly looked at me again.
“It’s been a long time, Teacher Kang. I’m sorry.
My fingers are shaking.
Devon, you…
He stood up and walked away.
The days are long gone.
Defort’s sarcasm was still broken, and Defort’s cry and squeals were louder every day, and one day I went out to fetch firewood and met Defort and saw a shocking blood stain on his face.
He seemed to realize my sight, stretching out his hand to wipe out the blood, laughing, “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s not my blood. I’m sorry.
“What?”
Once again, he had the look of an extreme charade.
As if something invisible had been revealed, he turned away in haste.
In spring and summer, temperatures are rising. One day, I saw Devon walking out on his mother’s back.
This is the first time since last winter that I’ve seen DeFouille, and I’ve been walking to say hello. Defort was wrapped in an autumn coat with only half her face, she was black and waxy, and returned to the way I saw her when I saw her, and her eyes were as deep as Defort’s, and her deepest eyes were shining.
And the light is slightly golden — I’m sure it’s not the sun.
She was staring at me, squeezing a blurry grunt from the bottom of her throat, salivating water to the horns of Devo.
I couldn’t hear her at all, but I had a strange assumption: She’s trying to say, “Mrs. Kang, you still owe 5 bucks for cigarettes. I’m sorry.
I asked Devon where he was going and he said he was taking his mother to town to see a doctor.
Didn’t I tell you to call a doctor? How do you figure that out now?
De Fuganba laughed and didn’t answer. I thought about it and said, “Be careful! It’s time for a lot of wolves in the mountains!
Deok Fu responded to the sound.
I didn’t see Devo and his mother back that night, and I was in bed on the other side of the bed, and I felt like I was not ironing. He climbed up and went out with a flashlight, took a picture of him in the commissary, and drove his foot to the port.
There was only one dirt-painted mountain road from the Tunnel to the town, with cliffs on the one hand and steep slopes on the other, and I was standing at the intersection for a few minutes, and the flashlights were running out of batteries and slowly feeling a little ridiculous. He wanted to turn his back, and suddenly he saw a dark man on the hillside walking in haste.
Devon?
I yelled.
People looked down on me.
He had moonlight on his back and I didn’t see his face.
The people went down the hill and ran into the camp.
The next day, I was woken up by crying, and I ran out of my house dressed and De Fu was kneeling in the middle of the road.
“Ama! My poor mother! I’m sorry.
As he started to cry, he fell on his head and the people around him were whispering.
I pulled the old Zhao, who had to look around: “What’s wrong? I’m sorry.
“He went out with his mother on his back yesterday and left her on the side of the road at night, so he turned away, and Zhao sighs, “Worded to roll down the hill, or the wolf took her.” I’m sorry.
I saw Devo who cried, and he got to me.
He’s staggered his eyes.
“O my miserable mother, I should never have left you alone and taken away by wolves.” I’m sorry.
He cried.
We haven’t cried yet. There’s a shout coming from outside.
“Defu, Defu, it’s all right! Oh, my God! I’m sorry.
Let’s look back, it’s Zhang Wang on a tricycle.
Zhang Wang, a three-wheeler tower, travels every day to and from the town and the town, and he jumps off the three-wheeler and takes the blood-stained DeFou mother from the back seat.
Deok-fu’s crying stopped.
“When I came back last night, I saw two shadows rolling down the hillside, and I had the guts to turn on my flashlight and look at it, and guess what!” I’m sorry.
Zhang Wang dragged down a bloody dead wolf from the back seat, with only a slit throat.
“DeFull’s mother bit him! I’m sorry.
“What? I’m sorry.
All of you.
“DeFoumma, that’s awesome! “When I saw her, she died and bit the wolf’s throat!” I don’t even know how she did it. She’s all over her body. Oh, my God, that’s terrible! One hundred and eight-year-old lady! I’m sorry.
People are surprised.
The old lady is a lucky man.
Zhang Zhang Zhongbai Zhi said.
I look to Devo, who is as coagulated as a sculpture in an adornment and talk, and he doesn’t move, and his face is as white as paper.
“DeFou. I’m sorry.
I whispered.
He’s still not responding.
I kicked him in the belly as if he had finally found his soul and jumped at his mother.
“Mama, great! Grandma — he’s shaking his voice and howling.
Mrs. Devon didn’t move.
She was still covered in that autumn coat, which was covered with blood, half of her mouth, with rugged teeth and, above all, with wolf hair and dried blood clots.
And she stares at me with bright eyes in her eyes, as if the golden gaze had the power to pierce the spirit of man, and turned my hands and feet cold.
Because I found myself filled with disappointment when Zhang Wang appeared.
After that, half a month without DeFou and his mother.
I can’t even look over there. Devereaux’ squeaks have disappeared since she was rescued, and the school is so quiet that what it means is what’s going on in that dark cabin, and I can’t think about it at all, and I can’t think about it.
Moving away, I think — I’m getting a house in the village, and Zhao’s okay.
I’ve planned this.
Deok-fu’s shop hasn’t been opened since I took the students away, and after I moved out, their mothers and their sons were eating on what they were doing and I shook my head, which is not my business.
I’ve done my best.
I thought I’d have to say hello before I moved, and then, just the day before I moved, I went to the crib and knocked on the door.
“Deok, are you home?”
Nobody answered.
The wood window that sells is also closed.
I stood at the door for half a minute and pushed the door in.
It’s dark, and some of the snack bubbles on the shelf are covered in ash.
“Deok”?
I cried again, but no one answered.
It’s like there’s a sound in the room — the breath of hiss.
I stood in front of the door in the house and fought in my heart for half a minute and pushed the door with my scalp.
The house was so hot and smelled of chubby piss and shit that DeFouux sat on the bed of the house and leaned on the bedboard.
In the middle of the summer season, she was covered in a bed of thick cotton, with only one head exposed, and she was tied to death by a thread.
She stares at me with a golden eyeball — and I’m sure it’s golden, because the part of her gill is completely dark with a patched texture and the pupil is a dark ball.
She’s breathing – hiss – and staring at me.
I feel deterred by some kind of primitive fear, frightful fingers and a stingy cold on the back.
If she hadn’t been covered in cotton, I’d have turned my head.
“Deok, Defu–“
I went around the bed, I shouted to the back door, and I tried so hard to control myself that I didn’t go to DeFou.
I know she’s staring at me, and the coolness behind it is clear.
Devo’s not in the house. I’m relieved somehow.
Get out of here, I think, get out of here, get as far away from the mother and child as possible, and never get involved again.
I reached my hand to the back door and the DeFoumma behind me suddenly made a grunt, and I almost fell on my feet and turned around.
Devereaux is still sitting in bed, still staring at me. There was a blurry murmur in her mouth, and her teeth had fallen out, and there was only some dead meat on her teeth, and the saliva fell from her mouth.
I said, “DeFoumma, I’ve returned the cigarette money to Devon.”
As if she hadn’t heard what I said, she was still murmuring and trying to get her head out of the cotton.
But staring at it for a few seconds, it’s starting to feel wrong.
It’s not right.
How could she turn her face on me?
When I entered the room, she pointed her face at me, I went around the bed behind her, and she was facing me with her face.
Her body could not move, and she was bound by cotton, which means…
I watched the head on the cotton tumble in cold sweat.
That means — she twisted her head 180 degrees.
I leaned on the doorboard, trying to support my soft legs, and I went crazy with my shaking hands to touch the doorknob. Devereaux saw my move, her head twisted even more, and she managed to rip her neck out a little bit, and the wrinkles on her throat shattered, sliding like an old tree’s dead skin — no, that’s not right.
Specs.
What has become of the body down there?
She put her neck out of the cotton.
Keep your head up.
I hit the back door and ran out of the house.
It took several hundred metres to get down and breathe. Raise your head and find DeFou with a bucket of water staring at me.
“Mr. Kang, how can you just go into a human room? I’m sorry.
He whispered.
“Defue, Defue– You, your mother! I’m sorry.
“How can you just walk into a human room? I’m sorry.
He repeated that he had turned his face around and walked into the house.
I moved out of school, moved to the village government and never returned.
The school turned into a no-man’s-man’s-man’s-hole, where I occasionally passed, where I could see De Fueon cut wood on his waist.
In the summer, I went to the city and applied for a sum of money to build a new school in the town — after all, it’s not a long-term solution. I bought a lot of rat medicine to go back to, and it was pretty bad for the inn, and I gave it to a couple of violent families, and I was just about to go back to the house, and I suddenly saw a figure from afar.
It’s Devon.
He was hiding under a fence by the side of the road and seemed afraid to come and never to leave.
I thought about it, walk over.
Deok-fu has lost weight, his cheeks are dim, his waist bends like an old man. He was a big man of one metre, and it was as if a wind could blow.
What can I do for you?
He smiled and laughed.
“I heard you bought rat medicine, Teacher Kang. I’m sorry.
“Oh, you’ve got rats too. I’ll get you two. I’m sorry.
I said turn around and walk back, two steps away, a twitch and stop.
I looked back and looked at Devo, and his eyes were staring at the ground, and he couldn’t lift them up, and his eyes were moving around.
I went back to my room, I looked at the rat’s medicine, and I took a half day.
Long time, pick up two bags, go out and hand them to Devon.
He kept his medicine in his hands and still couldn’t lift his head.
“How does this work?”
I jumped in the eye and said how the fuck did I know?
Defort was still there, staring at the wrapping. I rubbed my left eyelids, and I leaned over.
“Play in the rice. I’m sorry.
I heard myself whispering.
“Uh-uh. I’m sorry.
He turned around and left in a hurry.
A few days later, Devon died.
This time, he was dead, lying in a coffin, covered in a thick life jacket, with only a dark face.
De Fou is in the hall of God, crying to death and suffering.
I look far away, not close.
I’m afraid of looking at him.
“Hey, it’s time to die. I’m sorry.
Zhao sighs around me.
“There’s no reason not to die old, is there, Teacher Kang? I’m sorry.
He said he looked deep at Devo.
“There is always room for young people to live. I’m sorry.
But Devon’s life is not back on track because of his fucking death.
He remained in that house, wandering around the village like a ghost. Not only has he not returned to the man who was so generous, but he has become more obnoxious, weird and silent. I met him on the road a few times, and I found that his waist was stronger and more and more like an old man — once I even thought of his back as a return-to-the-heavy DeFou mother, who almost sat down.
The villagers fled him as they avoided the plague, and rumours of my hair was spreading in the camps, most of them related to the death of Devon’s mother and his strange transformation.
On one occasion, I met him on the road, looking away, trying to change the course and being pulled by him.
His head is shorter than mine at this time.
The skin of the bones is almost covered with skin, and only the eyes shine, and the light is broken.
Did you dream of my mother?
I couldn’t help but shiver.
What the fuck are you talking about? Why would I dream about your mother? I didn’t fucking do anything wrong. Why would I dream about her? What does this have to do with me? I have nothing to do with you!
He doesn’t dispute it. He just stares at me and says I dream of my mother again, every day. She’s covered in blood, she’s in my mouth. She’s in my stomach. Teacher Kang, she’s not dead! I’m short, I’m short…
I broke his hand and ran away.
The animals in the camp began to decline strangely.
First, the rats, we thought the drugs had worked, but Zhao said it wasn’t right. He went round and round, brought back some sticky fur.
I said, what is this?
He said it wasn’t drugs, it was snake food, snakes swallowed prey, indigestion, feathers, furs and so forth.
I had a chill and I wanted to draft the chicken hairs in the pile.
Soon the chickens began to disappear.
The family loses one today, the family loses one tomorrow, and the family has to watch their own chicken huts.
Then the lost animals began to turn into lambs and dogs.
The horrors began to spread in the camps.
Some people took their children back from school and locked them away from home, and I couldn’t stop because lambs and dogs were really close to children.
I can’t go on like this.
Whatever it is, we have to find a way to grab it and set up a trap or something.
I said, don’t make it too fatal. Old Zhao turned his head and looked at me with a strange look.
In two days’ time, the trap caught something, and when we got to the sheep’s collar, we saw De Fuu in the net, with his belly swollen, and he was struggling.
He was grunting to me about something, but that sound was completely alien and very similar to what his mother used to say. I didn’t respond, Deok-fu retreated a little bit, crouched in a weird position on the net and opened his mouth.
His mouth was so wide and far beyond the limits that human beings could have, and all the other organs of the face were squeezed into the corner. The upper and lower jaws, the toothbeds and the tongues are completely dislocated in the mouth, and the whole mouth is like a flower, and the petals of flesh and flesh move slowly.
The tummy of his drums pushed upwards and slowly pushed the tummy to his neck, with his throat on top of a large bowl. And then, from the depths of the wrinkled buds, a blood and flesh blurry, still shaking cat head.
He threw up the half-dead cat in pieces, in sight.
In case of danger, snakes throw out their tummy prey in order to ease their physical burden and to escape.
I thought about that in the book a long time ago.
Devon’s locked up.
He was tied to his legs by the ropes of the embroiled cattle and locked in an empty classroom which had been used for teaching, where windows were closed and black curtains were closed, and only heard howling and screeching with a single sound.
What do we do?
Is Zhao Six looking at me, asking a doctor or calling a cop?
My eyelids jumped and said no, it was neither a doctor’s disease nor a police officer’s.
So what?
I said, have a monk, a monk from Maoshan.
Old Zhao heard that he looked at me with a suspicious look.
I know what he’s thinking, and I’m an intellectual who teaches this superstition.
I don’t know if he noticed. I was afraid the police would come.
I’m afraid that Reedford’s already silent mouth will shake out the fucking death and the pesticide.
The monks are here, the yellow turbans, the twilight mirrors, which look like a fairy tale. He unmasked the black curtains and asked us to take him to see the dead cat from De Fu. And when he had turned his eyes, his beard, and he whispered, he opened his eyes, saying, “This thing came from the south-east, from the south-east, and it was a snake, and there was no wind, and he fled to the pavilion, and took advantage of the mountain, so that he could escape.” It is a dangerous thing, and if it is not removed at the earliest possible time, it will only deter him and take his place.
He set up the altar of law, covered the classroom with dungs, and began to burn.
The law was kept up late in the night, with a thunderstorm blowing through the sky and a heavy rain pouring down, extinguishing the lights and candles. Blood rays continue to roll and bloom in a melancholy cloud, wiping out one weird red thread in the night sky. The monk raised the sword, kicked the door open and walked in.
Me and Zhao waited for a few minutes in the storm, shaking, and heard in the darkness of the door the squalls of the monks, the screams, and the sarcasms of Devo.
I ran into the classroom despite Zhao’s bullshit.
The monk’s head was bleeding and fell on the ground. There is a human creature naked, crouching at the intersection of darkness and light and struggling in pain.
It’s covered in a white, like a sack of leather, translucent film, and I’ve been standing there for a few seconds to realize that it struggles and twists to get out of it.
I endured fear, I walked in front of the creature, and I crawled down.
“Drefu? Reedfu?”
And a thunderstorm casts the night into the day, and scattered the darkness in the depths of the house, and I saw a strange creature in it.
They have big, flat heads, golden eyes on both sides of their heads, and gray green scales over their long, smooth bodies.
And I sat down, and by them the De Fung jumped, and threw me down.
He also has big, flat heads, golden eyes, a laced eye, a smooth body — even with a thin film — and he can see the new green scales. It spreads its upper and lower jaws to the limit, but as the head is also covered with film, it is not able to hurt me with the fangs and poisonous letters below.
At that point, from the deep of its large throat, a man’s face was already decaying.
The man’s face was scrambled on the film, and he struggled with it.
The face has appeared in my deepest nightmares countless times.
“Oh, DeFoum! I’m sorry.
I screamed.
“Not me, not me!” I’m sorry.
I fainted screaming.
And when he wakes up dazzling, he finds himself lying on the ground in good health and without harm.
Lidéfou was on his knees and his feet were just faded white film.
He’s still naked, but in my blurry vision, he’s a human face.
He croaked three heads with respect to the darkness deep in the classroom.
“A child is a child, a child is a child.” I’m sorry.
“The child wants to live. The child wants to live! I’m sorry.
He kept his head on the ground and, as such, cried intermittently.
As I look deep into the classroom, the darkness is slowly fading — the morning is up, and the sun in the south-east is pouring into the classroom.
Again when I woke up, I was in the hospital.
When Zhao came to visit me, I even asked about Defu and the monks, and said that they had nothing to do with it, that one was a skin wound and the other was a mental attack on his mother, and that the strange acts had been committed and had stabilized after several medications.
I can’t believe it.
I am reassured and somewhat worried that doctors blame all this for mental problems.
It’s safe to say that the matter of pesticides should not come out.
It’s a matter of concern — we all see the weird picture of DeFou throwing out the dead cat.
“Oh, the doctor said, it’s just some kind of alien anorexia. It’s a type of anorexia. Although extremely rare, it is not the absence of other cases, DeFou and his mother, probably the same. I’m sorry.
“Pesophthalms…” I started to shake my head, “What about the layer that he’d fallen down the skin? I’m sorry.
Zhao’s face is confused about what skin?
I said the snake skin.
“When I burst into the classroom, I saw only three of you on the ground, and I saw no skin. I’m sorry.
Didn’t you see the skin?
I stopped for a second.
“Sensei Kang, you’re a teacher, why are you so obsessed with the superstitions? I’m afraid you’ve seen something. I’m sorry.
I’m mute.
Is it true that all this is but my illusion of fear and self-responsibility?
I don’t know.
Deok Fu’s body had been modified by the hospital and was improving rapidly, and by the time he was discharged, his waist was completely flat and his face had recovered.
His family sent wood and fish to each other to apologize for the effects of his strange behaviour. The Tundry people had some rhetoric, which was blocked by his sincerity.
One day I met him on the road, he smiled and said hello loudly, and I hesitated for half a second and laughed back.
The loan for the new school district was not granted and I had to move with the students back to the old school. Devo is still selling snacks at the commissary and is a happy smile for everyone.
In the spring of the following year, I saw Zhang’s widow carrying a bag and living in a home.
I said Devon, it’s time to fix the house.
He smiled at his head, and he said, “Wait a minute.
“You didn’t dream of your mother? I’m sorry.
I’m testing the road.
“How can it be?” Every day I dreamt that she would bless me. I’m sorry.
Devon’s got a cigarette for me.
After that, he raised his head and looked me in the eyes of God.
“I’m living with her life, Teacher Kang — my life is now in two hands. I’m sorry.
I smelled it, spent a long time filming his shoulder.
“Well, well, well, Devon, well said! Have a good life. It’s still a long time. I’m sorry.
“It’s very, very long. I’m sorry.
He smiled and gave me the cigarette.
I handed him ten bucks and he put it in the closet.
I waited for seconds. He didn’t give me a change.
DeFou?
I couldn’t help but say something.
That’s perfect. Keep the change, Teacher Kang. I’m sorry.
He kept his head down and counted his money.
“Aah?”
He raised his head slowly, and with his hidden gold guillotine, his pupils briefly strutted to me in a blink.
“- didn’t you owe $5 for cigarettes? I’m sorry.
(concluded)
Submitted by: Hyun-ho
I don’t know.
Keep your eyes on the road.
