Once he finished the portrait, Song Ke felt utterly drained, as though he had expended all his energy. He colpsed onto the bed, his body limp as if all the strength had been drained from him. His mind was bnk, unable to process anything further.
At noon that day, San Laizi returned to Tang Town.
Upon his return, he learned of Shen Wenxiu's death, and he was extremely surprised. Muttering to himself, he said, "So that grave was really for her." San Laizi was certain that Shen Wenxiu's body had been buried in that very grave, and he also knew that the payment he was promised for digging the grave was now lost. With vacant eyes and a bnk expression on his dark, ugly face, he walked barefoot through the town, hearing not only of Shen Wenxiu's death but also the rumors of her ghost appearing.
On this sunny day, a rumor spread through Tang Town. It was said that someone had seen the ghost of Shen Wenxiu wandering the streets at night, constantly crying. The dogs in the town, upon seeing Shen Wenxiu's ghost, y down weakly on the ground, whimpering in fear...
Hu Ersao, the woman who ran the snack shop, was terrified when she heard this. She wondered to herself if Shen Wenxiu's ghost really existed and if it would come to seek revenge on her. She deeply regretted her actions and couldn't understand why she had allowed herself to throw filth at Shen Wenxiu. Fear took hold of her heart as she nervously waited in her shop, not knowing how many others in Tang Town shared her fears or if Shen Wenxiu would come knocking at her door that night.
When San Laizi returned to Tang Town, Song Ke felt a heavy weight lift from his heart. Even though San Laizi seemed to have forgotten him, walking past the painting studio without sparing a gnce and even ignoring Song Ke's attempts to call out to him, Song Ke couldn't help but wonder what had happened to San Laizi during his absence. San Laizi's indifferent attitude pained Song Ke. He didn't push the matter further—after all, they weren't exactly close friends. But Song Ke couldn't help but wonder if, after returning, San Laizi would still go to the chaotic graveyard on Wugong Ridge to dig more graves.
After San Laizi returned, he wandered through the streets of Tang Town like a stray dog, shamelessly drifting from one pce to another. Wherever he went, he was met with scorn and reprimands. No one would look at him with respect, not even for his work digging graves, nor would anyone treat him as a person worthy of dignity. People in the town considered him the lowest of the low, someone even beneath beggars. To their scolding, San Laizi merely grinned, his face full of ingrained shamelessness. He had long grown used to it, and, in truth, he believed himself to be a man of the lowest kind.
By some strange twist of fate, San Laizi found himself standing in front of the widow Yu Huaku 's door.
The widow Yu Huaku's home was located at the deepest part of a street called Qinghua Alley in Tang Town. San Laizi knew very well that Yu Huaku wasn't originally named that. It was after her husband died that one night, she was caught by the cn for sleeping with someone else. During the punishment, she was paraded through the streets wearing nothing but brightly colored floral underpants that exposed her bare thighs. Since then, the people in the town had called her "Yu Huaku"—a nickname that stuck.
Yu Huaku was almost thrown into a pig cage and drowned in the river for her infidelity, as she was left to die without anyone to care for her two children. But the cn eventually spared her, and over time, she lived without fear of others. She could sleep with whomever she pleased, and no one would interfere. When a person reaches a state of having nothing left to lose, what is there left to fear?
It was dusk. The sun had already set, and the shadows had deepened in Qinghua Alley, making it feel gloomy and dark.
San Laizi noticed that the widow's door was tightly shut.
He reached out and knocked on the door.
After a moment, the door opened just a crack. Yu Huaku's eye peeked through the gap. Upon seeing it was San Laizi, she was instantly filled with anger. "What do you want? Go away!"
As soon as Yu Huaku opened the door, San Laizi caught a whiff of meat, and his mouth nearly watered. He couldn't remember the st time he'd eaten meat.
San Laizi smiled and said, "Huaku, I missed you. I just came to see you."
Yu Huaku scowled, "Go miss your mother. I don't need you to miss me!"
San Laizi squinted his eyes and said, "Huaku, don't turn your back on me. Don't you remember st spring, when your family was starving and you were desperate? I gave you a silver coin I earned from digging a grave for Old Zhang's mother. That silver saved your family's life. Back then, you were willing to sleep with me, but now you're acting different?"
Yu Huaku let out a cold ugh and said, "San Laizi, you need to understand something. I took your silver coin, but I spent two nights with you. You took me over ten times each night. After two nights, I was almost dead. Do you think I owe you something? Think about it yourself. I′m not doing anything with you now, and I never will again. You're too filthy, only fit to sleep with a bitch. Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit! Get lost!"
San Laizi gritted his teeth and spat, "You heartless thing!"
Yu Huaku sneered again and said, "What's the use of a conscience? Go away! Just seeing you makes me lose my appetite. Go wherever you want, but you, you wild dog, better not ever step foot in my house again!"
With that, Yu Huaku smmed the door shut with a loud bang.
San Laizi heard a man's rough voice from inside Yu Huaku's house, "Who were you talking to outside just now?"
Yu Huaku let out a mocking ugh and said, "It was just a stray dog, don't worry about him, dear. Come inside, let's have a few drinks together."
San Laizi immediately recognized the voice of the man inside—Zheng Mashui, the butcher from Tang Town. He spat on the ground with venom and cursed, "You adulterous scoundrels! You should be thrown into the river to drown! And after you die, don't even think I'll dig you a decent grave! Let wild dogs tear your bodies apart so that you'll never be reborn as humans again!"
Unable to hold back his anger, San Laizi trudged back to the east end of the town, to the Land Temple. There, he knelt before the mud statues of the local gods, Land God and Land Goddess, and whispered, "Land God, Land Goddess, please, let me die in peace. My life is worse than death."
The silent mud statues offered no response.
San Laizi had no choice but to climb up to the altar, hide behind the cy statue, and lie down to take a big nap. He had been so exhausted these days after leaving Tang Town. He tried to escape everything about Tang Town, but he couldn't escape anything.
Everything was destined, and he couldn't change it. As soon as San Laizi y down, he started snoring. He hoped to sleep like this forever and never wake up, but that was just his dream. At night, when Tang Town fell silent again, San Laizi was awakened by the pain in his stomach.
San Laizi wasn't afraid of dying, but he was afraid of this kind of stomach pain.
San Laizi's stomach suddenly swelled up, like a leather bag filled with air. At first, it was just a swelling, like his stomach was stuffed with Guanyin soil, a swelling that couldn't be relieved, a swelling that felt like his stomach was about to burst. San Laizi felt like he was suffocating, breathing rapidly.
It's not that simple to die. If he died, it would be the end of everything. Anyway, he has no attachments in this world. The problem is, a bloated stomach is just the prelude; even more unbearable pain awaits him.
Sure enough, after a while, it felt like there were thousands of venomous snakes wriggling inside San Laizi's stomach, biting at his internal organs. His intestines were torn apart, his liver was gnawed to pieces, and his gallbdder was punctured... San Laizi was drenched in sweat, clutching his stomach and rolling back and forth, eventually tumbling down from the altar to the ground. San Laizi cried out pitifully, "Land God, please save me, please save me..."
