Chapter 27: Providing Offerings to the Spirits
“Are the things inside the house normal? Does anything go missing from time to time? Or does something random just appear?”
Everyone looked at Jian Xingxia with a mix of dread and anticipation.
Most of the older generation held superstitions regarding “spirits” and didn’t dare pry too deeply. The younger generation, having mostly gone to school and received a scientific education, simply didn’t believe in them at all. It was only the demographic stuck in the middle who felt both terrified and deeply curious—longing to ask, yet dreading the actual answers.
After a moment’s thought, Jian Xingxia said, “This is my grandmother’s home. Even if there’s some noise, it’s probably just my grandmother coming back to check on me.”
The villagers fell instantly silent.
After a long pause, someone whispered in low tones, “She saw it! There’s more! There’s more!”
An uneasy atmosphere rippled through the crowd. Very quickly, the villagers began inventing various excuses to excuse themselves.
“I still have work to finish in my fields, I’ll head back first.”
“Xiaxia, come out to the village to play when you have time.”
“Let’s go, let’s go. Give us a shout if you need anything, we’re all right there in the village.”
Within a few minutes, the old house fell quiet once more, leaving only Fangfang, Auntie Lu, Little Hu Liu, and a couple of others.
The delivery men on the truck didn’t want Little Hu Liu and the others touching the solar panels, but the boys didn’t sit idle either. Since Jian Xingxia had mentioned wanting to set up two awnings in the courtyards, they pitched in to help level the ground.
Jian Xingxia brought out the wild fruits harvested from the mountain yesterday to entertain her guests. Though the nectarines were small, their flesh was crisp and sweet with a rich peach fragrance; the fully ripened mulberries were incredibly sweet, though they easily stained one’s fingers black; the watermelons had been chilled in the well, making them ice-cold and perfect for dispelling the heat…
Jian Xingxia also brought out the sodas to distribute to everyone. “Here, it’s this exact soda.”
Someone laughed, “So it’s this one! I saw it at the market before but thought it was too expensive, so I never bought it. Serves me right for not winning a prize.”
Jian Xingxia felt rather self-conscious. “I just had a craving for something sweet, otherwise I wouldn’t have bought it either.”
Everyone chuckled, expressing understanding, “Young people simply love these things.”
As they spoke, they finished leveling the ground and didn’t linger, heading out one by one. Exciting events were few and far between in the village, so everyone loved a good spectacle, but once the show concluded, daily life still had to resume.
Fangfang trailed after the workers to watch them closely, leaving only Auntie Lu, who pulled Jian Xingxia aside with a distinctly flustered expression, looking deeply hesitant to speak.
“Xiaxia, tell your auntie the truth. Are you… are you…”
“Auntie Lu, what’s wrong?” Jian Xingxia also grew a bit tense, wondering what Auntie Lu had discovered.
Auntie Lu darted a swift glance toward the back courtyard, and finally biting the bullet, she forced the words out, “Xiaxia, have you been seeing spirits?”
Jian Xingxia’s heart nearly jumped out of her chest. She swallowed hard and asked her, “Auntie Lu, why do you ask that?”
With a grimace, Auntie Lu pointed directly at the edge of the back door. “Have you been seeing spirits too? Just like your grandmother, setting out meals as offerings for them?”
Jian Xingxia followed the direction of Auntie Lu’s finger, completely struck dumb.
Da Hei’s bowl and chopsticks were still sitting on the stone foundation of the back courtyard fence. The bowl, platter, and chopsticks were arranged in a meticulous, neat set, and the bowl was even filled with chestnuts and millet porridge.
Jian Xingxia: “……”
If she claimed that she had eaten this herself and merely placed it on the stone foundation to let it cool, would Auntie Lu actually believe her? Her lips twitched as she tried to conjure up a fabrication.
But Auntie Lu saw right through her. She dragged her a few steps forward and pointed directly at the footprints outside the courtyard wall.
“This footprint certainly can’t be yours, can it?”
In the soil of the vegetable plot right against the base of the wall, several massive, messy footprints were starkly imprinted.
Jian Xingxia looked down at her own feet. “……”
They certainly weren’t.
She had watered the seedlings this morning, leaving the soil in this section damp and soft. When Da Hei took a stride over, it left a colossal footprint. Da Hei stood at 1.9 meters tall, perhaps even a bit more, and his feet were vastly larger than an ordinary person’s. Jian Xingxia’s standard size-38 feet couldn’t match them at all.
As Jian Xingxia remained silent, Auntie Lu grew both anxious and angry, “You child, why didn’t you ask an adult when you ran into trouble? How do you dare blindly mess around on your own!”
When it came to food offerings, if one encountered a benign spirit, it would leave after eating. But what if she ran into something malevolent that latched onto Jian Xingxia from then on!
Jian Xingxia sighed inwardly. She truly couldn’t keep up the lies anymore.
She fell silent for a brief moment, and when she lifted her head again, her eyes were already brimming with tears, “Auntie, my grandmother passed away, and my mother has gone missing. My father is still around, but he remarried and has a family of his own… Only I am left without a home.”
Jian Xingxia had initially just wanted to appease Auntie Lu, but as she spoke, a bitter pang hit her nose, and her tears honestly began to stream down.
“I know the conditions of the old house are poor and there are some strange things here, but this is the only place left where I can stay. Compared to being homeless, what do a few strange occurrences in the mountains matter?”
Auntie Lu’s reprimands were swallowed right back down along with her tears, “What a tragic child…”
Jian Xingxia sniffled, comforting Auntie Lu in turn, “Auntie, my grandmother lived in these mountains her entire life, and she lived to be over eighty before passing away peacefully of old age. I’m not afraid.”
Auntie Lu opened her mouth but hesitated.
You silly child, when your grandmother lived in these mountains, things weren’t always peaceful.
But at the thought that Jian Xingxia was practically devoid of family support now, Auntie Lu couldn’t bring herself to urge her to leave the mountain either. Advising someone was always easy—it took mere seconds to open one’s mouth—but offering advice without providing an alternative solution was simply causing unnecessary grief.
Auntie Lu stopped speaking further. She could only do her utmost within her own capability to help Jian Xingxia a bit more.
“Is the grain at home… still enough to eat? If it’s not enough, I’ll have your Uncle Lu bring some more over for you.”
Jian Xingxia smiled and pointed toward the several gunny sacks by the door, “No need for now. Uncle Chai just delivered some to me.”
She had bought the grain in the village yesterday morning, guessing it had been milled yesterday, but Uncle Chai hadn’t dared venture into the mountains alone. It just so happened that everyone came to watch the spectacle together today, so Uncle Chai brought the rice and flour along while he was at it.
Seeing this, Auntie Lu felt at ease. She hoisted a large plastic bag over, “The vegetables in your plot won’t be ready to eat anytime soon. I harvested some melons and beans at home, take them to eat.”
Jian Xingxia wanted to give Auntie Lu some money, but how could Auntie Lu possibly accept it? Grabbing Fangfang, she practically fled the scene.
Fangfang had wanted to stay a while longer to play, but Auntie Lu couldn’t possibly feel reassured. When spirits caused trouble, it wasn’t just a one-off occurrence; otherwise, why would the villagers be so terrified? Word had it that they had even abducted children from the village in the past, though whether the children were eaten or fell to their deaths was anyone’s guess. Auntie Lu couldn’t persuade Jian Xingxia, but she could certainly control her own daughter.
The villagers departed one after another, leaving only the installation workers. The workers were exceptionally quick and nimble, aided by specialized equipment that allowed them to install at a breakneck speed. The solar panels were already mostly secured, and they were currently connecting the wiring.
Jian Xingxia observed these workers. They barely spoke, interacting mostly through eye contact, doing nothing but laboring intensely from start to finish. When Jian Xingxia offered them watermelon and soda, they merely shook their heads, indicating they wouldn’t partake.
The more she looked, the stranger it felt. Out of nowhere, Jian Xingxia blurted out, “You all aren’t from my world, are you?”
