Chapter 0039 Katha
My heart was pounding wildly, my mouth was dry, and my body was trembling all over. Finally, the man stopped hitting the wall and lay collapsed on the ground like a dead loach. The woman was also lying down beside him. At first, her hands and feet moved slightly, but then she became still. I shouted several times, calling for someone to come out and help, but the villagers were as silent as the dead, and not even a dog barked.
I don't know how I made it through that night. My heart leaped with fright, and I finally drifted into a confused sleep. When I opened my eyes again, the sky was faintly lighting up. Hearing sounds outside, I crawled up to look. Grandpa Hong and several male villagers walked over and stood in front of the corpses of the woman and the man. After a quiet discussion, two male villagers returned and found two wooden stretchers, carrying the woman and the man away. Grandpa Hong slowly came to the window. I quickly asked, "What exactly happened last night?"
Grandpa Hong grunted, "What were you shouting about last night? Haven't you ever seen a man beat his wife? Don't you beat your wife?" I was speechless. I asked him when he would let me out. Grandpa Hong said he would release me when someone came to look for me to treat the illness. Just then, a few people walked into the village entrance. One was short and thin; I recognized him as Bai Laosan, whose wife had died yesterday. Behind him was a middle-aged woman, and finally, a woman in her thirties. The guard at my door laughed and chatted with the other guard, pointing at Bai Laosan and the woman next to him.
I asked who they were. The guard said with a look of envy, "Bai Laosan's matchmaker introduced him to a new wife. Look at her bust; she looks really good!" I was shocked. Hadn't he poisoned his wife to death yesterday? He was already finding a new one today? I couldn't help but sigh at the high efficiency of the men here.
For breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the long chili peppers were replaced with a few salted radish strips. Although the food was poor, it was better than the chili. That night, it was cloudy. Like a prisoner, I gripped the wooden slats with both hands and looked out. In the darkness, I thought I saw an old woman slowly walking from a distance. Judging by her figure, she looked very much like the old woman who was rummaging outside my window last night.
The old woman walked very slowly, but I wished she would never come closer. Yet, no matter how slow she was, she eventually reached my window. The old woman was still hunched over, standing outside the window, asking me, "Noodles, noodles." I shook my head, and just in case she couldn't see, I waved my hand. The old woman then asked, "Flatbread, flatbread." I still waved my hand. The old woman stopped asking and turned to walk toward the right side of the house. There was only one window in the room, so I couldn't see the old woman's figure. I became anxious, straining my head against the window, trying to look out of the corner of my eye.
Suddenly, the old woman's voice came from inside the room: "There are noodles." I quickly turned around. The old woman had somehow entered the room and was sitting on a small stool in the center of the floor. In front of her was a small stove with a pot of boiling water on top. The old woman held a handful of wet noodles and slowly dropped them into the pot.
My body was pressed against the wall. I pointed at the old woman. "W-when did you come in?"
The old woman looked up at me and grinned. Her shriveled mouth was completely toothless. She smiled and said, "Eat noodles." How could I dare eat any noodles? I ran to the door and pounded on it hard. The old woman slowly stood up, mumbling softly, and walked toward the shadow in the corner. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared. My mind was in chaos. I rushed forward and kicked over the pot and the stove. The old woman's voice came from outside the window: "Noodles! My noodles!"
I looked back. The old woman was standing right outside the window, staring intently at me. Just as I was about to speak, the old woman tilted her head, seemed to see something, retreated a few steps, and vanished from sight. I was completely terrified. I didn't dare walk toward the window. Just then, a woman slowly approached and stood outside the window. It was the woman who had cast the spells on the entire village.
The woman smiled. "How is it? Is the village lively at night?"
I nervously swallowed a few times, unsure how to answer. The woman asked again, "Do you know how this old woman died?"
"Sh-she starved to death, right?" I replied.
The woman nodded. "You're very clever, but you probably can't guess that she was starved to death by her own son, can you?"
I was startled. The woman continued, "The old woman got older and could no longer work in the fields. The family didn't want to feed her anymore. She was fed inconsistently and eventually slowly starved to death." I remained silent. In fact, I was prepared for this. Bai Laosan's wife was in the prime of her life but had to be poisoned to death just because she was sick. An old woman like this would certainly fare no better.
The woman asked again, "Can you guess why the other woman was beaten to death by her husband last night, clever man?"
I thought for a moment and said, "Her husband was drunk and acted crazy."
The woman said, "You are only half right. Last night, the woman accidentally broke the wine pot. The man had already drunk a lot and took the opportunity to lash out, beating his wife to death."
I asked, "But how did he die? Did you do it?"
The woman shook her head. "I haven't killed anyone in this village. There are many ghosts here and strong resentment. People poisoned by rat poison, starved to death by family, beaten to death by husbands, suicides from in-law abuse, and those who fell off cliffs after heavy rain on the mountain roads—there are too many. They all come out wandering at night."
No wonder no one in the village dared to come out at night. So that was the reason. I boldly walked closer and, using the dim night light, carefully studied the woman. She was around twenty-six or twenty-seven, slender and thin, with sharp, bright eyes. It was obvious she was not a simple person. I asked, "Just because you had disagreements with your husband's family, you tormented them this way and affected the whole village. Isn't that wrong?"
The woman chuckled. "Do you know what kind of Gu spell I cast?"
I lowered my head and looked at the Five Poisons Oil necklace on my chest. I said, "You didn't cast a Gu spell; you cast a Southeast Asian Katha."
The woman was surprised and obviously found this unexpected. "Why?"
I smiled. "I don't know much about Miao Gu insects, but I know Gu is a kind of venomous insect, driven by the master to cause trouble inside the human body, and there is medicine to cure it. But it cannot cause mental derangement. The people in this village have various symptoms, including madness and mental illness. It shouldn't be Gu insects. Instead, you mixed Katha powder into the well water. Also, there's this." I lifted the pendant of the Five Poisons Oil necklace.
The woman asked, "What is that? Is the black liquid inside Katha oil?"
I shook my head. "No, this liquid is called Five Poisons Oil. The color darkens if there's a spirit nearby. You have Yin Qi (negative energy) on you, which suggests you are also a practitioner of black magic." The woman's eyes brightened. I could probably guess what she was thinking, so I was cautious. Sure enough, the woman quickly reached out to grab the pendant. I quickly dodged backward, avoiding her grasp by a few centimeters. The woman said, "Don't worry, you'll give it to me. Your abdominal pain will return tomorrow. When it does, you'll pass out from the pain. Let's see who helps you then."
I said my friend was in Thailand, and I had already sent him a message. He knew many Southeast Asian Arjans and would come to rescue me soon. The woman was skeptical and asked me, "How did you get here?" I told her honestly that Wang Hong had found me. The woman asked, "Do you know who Wang Hong is?"
"He's from this village and opened a matchmaking office in Bijie. You met him there, didn't you?" I replied. The woman said, "You're only half right. I met him at that so-called matchmaking office, but he's not a matchmaker at all; he's a human trafficker!" I was shocked and asked if she had proof. The woman sneered without answering. She walked from the window to the main door. I heard a few clicking sounds. Soon, the door opened. The woman pushed the door open, carrying an axe in her hand. I cautiously stepped out. The woman didn't say anything and walked straight toward her house. I had no choice but to follow her.
When we reached her husband's house, the woman opened the door and went inside. I followed her into the room. There was a strange smell in the house, both fishy and foul, mixed with medicine and decay. There were three rooms in total. In the woman's room, a young man was lying on the bed, shirtless, staring blankly at the ceiling. There was a large jar covered with a bamboo lid in the center of the room. An old man sat on a small stool next to it, with a blue scarf wrapped around his head, chopping something on a cutting board with a cleaver.
The woman sat in a chair, pointing to the man on the bed. "This is my husband. He bought me from Wang Hong for 3,500 RMB."
I was surprised. The man turned his head to look at me, then turned back to stare at the ceiling. The woman said, "My father is from Gongshan, Yunnan, and my mother is Burmese. My maternal grandfather is a very famous Katha master in Northern Myanmar. After my mother married and moved to Gongshan, they often quarreled. Once, they had a terrible fight, and my father left home. He never came back after that. I often asked if my father would return. My mother said that if he stayed away for more than fifteen days, even if he wanted to come back, he wouldn't be able to."