A few nights ago, Zhang Henshui had some stomach irritation. He 

made

 his way to the toilet 

under

 the moonlight. While sitting on the toilet, he thought he heard someone crying. 

The voice was intermittent, so Zhang Henshui thought it was just the wind. He didn’t keep it in mind. After emptying his bowel, he 

went

 back to his home. However, this time, he heard footsteps behind him, just as if someone was following him. 

Zhang Henshui thought that 

a

 thief was 

visiting him

. He walked a couple more steps, then suddenly turned around. 

He saw

 no one.

But w

hen he was about to enter 

his

 house, he saw a shadow following him from the corner of his eye! 

When he came to this part, he gulped his saliva then 

said

, “When I 

took a careful look

, that shadow

 was no longer there

. I thought my eyes had tricked me. But from that night onward, every night, I 

have

 dream

ed

 about a man wearing a long robe. I have never seen his face, but I 

can

 hear him crying.” 

After talking, he smacked his tongue. “Could 

he

 be th

e

 person who instigated me to jump into the river?” 

I nodded. 

“

It c

ould be

. 

Take me to your house to see.” 

When Zhang Henshui saw the 

yellow fabric

 bag on my shoulder, he knew what Li Mazi and I did 

for a living

. He got up 

a

nd led us to his house. 

When we got to the village entrance, I saw a beefy man enjoying the shade. He looked relaxed. 

When Zhang Henshui saw the man, his face changed drastically. He rushed to the man and shook his arm. The man didn’t react, just as though he was a wooden dummy. 

“Not good!” Zhang Henshui patted his thigh. He rushed back to the row of willow trees at the riverbank and broke a twig. He came back and whipped the man hard. 

After three hits, the beefy man opened his eyes

. He looked 

puzzled. When he saw Zhang Henshui, he shouted, “Why are you hitting me?!” 

“I’m saving your life.” Zhang Henshui exhaled in relief when the man woke up. He then turned and explained to us. 

There was a rule that 

was 

kept through the generations in this village: People were not allowed to linger at the village entrance at noon or in the evening. 

In the past, not many people believed in this superstition, especially in the sixties. The Red Guards had come and persistently asked the villagers to take down the big locust trees at the back of the village. Unfortunately, the farmers who joined the task of chopping down the trees all drowned in the next few days. 

After that, some kids went to play by the chopped locust trees

 and

went

 missing. The villagers had to spread out and look for them everywhere. In the end, they found them at the riverbank with wet shoes… 

While talking, Zhang Henshui rubbed the willow twig in his hand. “

This is

a

 method imparted by our ancestors. If someone sits there and loses consciousness, we should break a willow twig and hit 

them

 three times. It’s how we can save 

them

.” 

This man had settled down in this village from another place

, so h

e didn’t know 

about the

 taboo. When he heard the story, his face changed. He 

quickly l

eft the place after thanking us. After he 

was

 gone, I couldn’t help but observe the big 

locust

 tree. 

A

 willow tree 

had a pure

 Yin attribute but it could expel evil spirits. 

According to

 legend, after the willow spirit was subdued by Guanyin Bodhisattva, it was put in her Jade Water Jar to be cleaned. That

 was 

why willow branches had some spiritual energy. 

Whether 

the story 

Zhang Henshui told me was real 

or

 not, if he had successfully helped the man wake up with the willow twig, it was true that the man had encountered something evil while sitting under the shade of that big locust 

tree

. 

I thought I knew the key information. A thick layer of black mist hovered around the locust tree, which became thicker and thicker down the tree trunk toward the root. 

However

, the locust tree looked lushly green, and it didn’t appear 

to be

 claimed by something foul. To me, it looked like a 

c

orpse-born 

t

ree. 

When the decomposed remains of people or animals 

nourished

 the seeds underground and the trees grew from 

it

, they became 

corpse-born tree

s. 

These

kinds

 of trees had thick Yin energy, and they were not 

very

 tall

.

In many places, lightning strikes would hit some trees during the rain. The tree barks would turn as dark as ink. Those trees were the 

corpse-born tree

s that were about to

 gain intelligence

. However, they couldn’t resist the heavenly tribulation. 

Anyway, it was easy to deal with 

corpse-born tree

s. We just needed to dig 

them

 up and cut 

them

. “Zhang Henshui, why 

hasn’t 

your village 

done

 anything to th

is

 tree?” 

“It’s 

not that easy

!” Zhang Henshui gawked

 and shook 

his head repeatedly like a rattle drum. 

“As long as we don’t 

come

close to this

 tree, it won’t harm people. Moreover, during the years 

of

 natural disasters, the people in the other villages 

would

 have starved, but many 

animals happened to appear 

under th

is

locust

 tree. That’s why generations of our village have been worshipp

ing

 this tree. We are afraid of it, but we also respect it.”  

I 

understood

 his idea. It was similar to worshiping the Fox Immortal. People knew that if they offended the fox spirits, they would be punished

. Even so, p

eople still wanted to worship them. 

It was the villagers’ choice and a cultural feature of the place. I had nothing else to comment, so I asked Zhang Henshui to lead the way. 

Soon, we arrived at his house. His wife greeted us and gave us a warm welcome when she heard that Li Mazi and I 

had come

 to help her husband. 

Zhang Henshui had a little daughter around three years old. The girl was sitting on the threshold and playing with a cloth doll. It seemed Li Mazi missed his little Nianchu, so he lingered and played with the girl. 

I wasn’t as free as Li Mazi because I felt confused as soon as I entered th

e

 house. As it was noon, there was no Yin energy in th

e

 house. I checked with my compass and found nothing. I 

decided to

 wait 

for

 nightfall. 

W

e stayed in 

his

 house that afternoon. Li Mazi was so happy playing with the little girl. As for me, I found a cool room to take a nap. 

At around twilight, Zhang Henshui’s wife cooked a table of 

delicious

 foods and invited us out for dinner. I woke up and washed my face. When I went to the table, I saw that Li Mazi was sitting and eating already. However, I didn’t see Zhang Henshui. 

“Madam, brother Zhang isn’t home?” I asked. 

Zhang Henshui’s wife waved her hand. “Brothers, you should eat first. Old Zhang went out to pick some watermelons for you. It’s good to have watermelon to cool down during the summer days.” 

When she turned around, she mumbled to herself, “Old Zhang has become strange, though. He has gone out for quite a long time just to pick a watermelon!” 

When 

I heard that

, 

I felt 

something 

was wrong. Something had forced him to jump into the river at noon

and now, it was twilight! Moreover, from what his wife just said, he had been out for quite a long time! 

With that thought, I pulled Li Mazi, who was eating to his heart’s content. Li Mazi was surprised, but he got it quickly. 

“Brother, if Zhang Henshui already rode 

a

 crane 

to paradise

, 

should we

bring him

 justice for his wife

’s

 and daughter

’s sake

?” 

“Shut 

up

! You are the one who’s going to ride

 a

 crane to 

paradise

!” I cursed him since I was anxious. We ran to the riverbank where Zhang Henshui had jumped this morning. 

No 

matter if it

 was the man 

wearing the long

 robe in Zhang Henshui’s dream or the old locust tree at the village entrance, they had something

to do with this small river. If the poor villager was in danger, he must be around the river! 

When we arrived, the water 

looked

 calm. There was no ripple

.

Li Mazi 

was panting.

 “Are we late?” 

I didn’t talk

 and scurried 

around the river bank to look for him. Eventually, I saw some 

water stains

and

 Zhang Henshui’s clothes by a 

pile

 of soil.

His garments were torn and deformed. It seemed he had 

struggled

 before he fell into the water. Li Mazi didn’t talk nonsense. He took off his shirt then jumped into the water. 

I felt a little cheered up

 and thought 

that Li Mazi still had his 

morals

. He had eaten meals 

with

 that family,

 a

nd now he 

was showing

 responsibility! 

I sat down cross-legged and read the “Sacred Text of Daoism.” As the sky was getting darker and the water was getting colder, only heaven knew what was in that river. Reading the 

s

acred 

t

ext could help scare them. I had to seize more time for Li Mazi. 

After around five minutes, 

nothing

 came 

out of

 the water. I didn’t have 

a

 calm mind to read the 

s

acred 

t

ext anymore. I got up and went to the riverbank

 and screamed

. “Mazi, where are you? If you can’t find him, get up here now!” 

After a few calls, no one answered me. I was worried that Li Mazi 

had

 drowned.

However, I couldn’t swim well, so I could only stand anxiously on the riverbank. 

Several minutes had passed. I looked at the calm water

. M

y eyes redden

ed

. In the back of my head, I thought that Li Mazi was already gone!