Mo Xiaoji was already accustomed to his cold demeanor, following closely behind. Though she wanted to ask about Brother Yu’s absence, she thought better of it, knowing she could hardly get Uncle Hao Lian to speak.
At the village entrance, Uncle Hao Lian stopped.
The entire village was encircled by towering trees, forming an impenetrable wall. You’ve surely never seen such a wall – hundreds of massive trees densely merged together, with no understanding of how they were originally planted to grow so naturally interconnected.
The village had only one entrance. Uncle Chong sat on a wooden stump at this sole entry point.
Wearing a black short-sleeved shirt, with stern eyes, he held a black cloth, carefully wiping a short knife. The blade, which gleamed with a cold light, was polished so meticulously that even a hair could be reflected.
“Uncle Chong,” Mo Xiaoji greeted respectfully.
Chong narrowed his phoenix-like eyes, looking at the knife in his hand, treating Mo Xiaoji as if she were invisible.
Mo Xiaoji shrugged indifferently. She had long been accustomed to the strange people and odd occurrences in their village.
However, Mo Xiaoji had always wondered if Uncle Chong’s smile would be as beautiful as Brother Yu’s, perhaps even more so. Unfortunately, she had never seen Uncle Chong smile. His angular face seemed perpetually wrapped in thousand-year-old frost.
Mo Xiaoji sighed and walked through the wooden stump into the village.
The village remained lush with ancient trees, luxuriant branches climbing everywhere, with a few wooden houses scattered sparsely among the trees.
Grandmother the Witch
Few strangers ever came here. Even if strangers arrived and entered the village, without a local guide, they would get lost. The wooden houses would be right before their eyes, seemingly just a few steps away, yet unreachable. Mo Xiaoji had lived here for twenty years and would sometimes still get trapped and unable to exit.
Moxiaoji walked to the pine tree with mottled old bark in front of her house, and saw her grandmother hunched over, kneeling devoutly before the incense table in the center of the wooden house.
