Chapter 50: A Ghost
"Kid, when are you going to pay back the money you owe me? Let me tell you, I’m not running a charity. I don’t have that kind of heart." The words came from an unfamiliar man’s voice.
"Just... give me a few more days. I promise, I’ll find a way to pay you back in a few days, okay?" Listening to the voice, Su Qing found it a little familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it.
"Heh, ’a few days.’ You’ve said that to me plenty of times. How much longer do you plan on stalling? I’m telling you, kid, if you don’t pay up, I’ll go to your house to collect. Don’t forget, I have an IOU that you signed with your own hand."
"No, please don’t! If my grandpa finds out, he’ll kill me."
Hidden in the shadows, Su Qing watched the scene unfold not far ahead. She hadn’t expected that taking the long way back to the village would lead her to a couple of troublemakers.
’Collecting a debt in the woods in the middle of the night?’
Su Qing’s curiosity was piqued.
She controlled a vine to creep closer. Then, Su Qing saw the two men. One was a total stranger, probably not from the village, and looked to be in his thirties. The other, however, seemed familiar. He looked no older than eighteen or nineteen, but Su Qing didn’t know his name. She vaguely recalled seeing him around the village but had no idea whose family he belonged to.
"Hah, so you’re scared of your family finding out," the middle-aged man from the other village sneered, his voice low. "I heard you were the favorite at home. What, they won’t even spare a few bucks to pay this off for you?"
"My family doesn’t have that kind of money," the young man said, his face a mask of misery. ’A few bucks? It’s nearly two hundred yuan! They could squeeze my family dry and still not come up with that much.’
The young man was filled with regret. He couldn’t believe he’d been so foolish, letting himself get suckered into a card game. He’d kept losing and just wanted to break even, but by the time he snapped out of it, he had already racked up a debt of nearly two hundred yuan.
Nearly two hundred yuan!
’This spring, my older cousin on my dad’s side just got married. The family spent a ton of money and even went into debt. Grandma and Grandpa said there was no money left, and that for the next two years, they’d have to tighten their belts just to save up for my own bride price. There’s no way my family can afford nearly two hundred yuan!’
"Really no money?" the middle-aged man asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Brother Zhang, my family really doesn’t have any money right now. I’m not lying," the young man said, on the verge of tears.
"If you have no money, what are you doing gambling?" A calculating glint flashed in the middle-aged man’s eyes as he sneered.
"I... it was just this one time. I don’t know what I was thinking. Brother Zhang, please, just give me a few more days, alright?" the young man begged.
"Actually, there is a way for you to get out of paying," the middle-aged man, Brother Zhang, said, rubbing his chin and squinting at the younger man.
The young man’s eyes instantly lit up. "Brother Zhang, what is it? Tell me!"
Brother Zhang chuckled. "Don’t you have a younger sister? Go home and tell your grandma and your mom to marry her to me. That way, I’ll be your brother-in-law, you’ll be my dear older brother-in-law, and the debt will be wiped clean. How about it?"
The young man’s expression changed instantly. "No way, Brother Zhang. My little sister is only fifteen, and you’re over thirty. You’re old enough to be her father! Absolutely not."
"No way?" Hearing this, Brother Zhang’s face twisted. He glared at the young man. "So you’d rather do this the hard way. I offer to marry your sister to cancel that couple hundred yuan, and that’s me doing you a favor. Don’t push your luck."
"No. Absolutely not. My sister’s too young. I can’t let her waste her entire life because of my mistake," the young man insisted.
"What?" Brother Zhang’s eyebrows shot up, his voice turning vicious. "Marrying me is ’wasting her life’? Kid, say that again."
The middle-aged man’s viciousness made the young man swallow nervously. "I... I..."
Brother Zhang let out a savage grin and rolled up his sleeves as he advanced on the young man. "You really don’t know what’s good for you. Fine. I’ll teach you a lesson today. You won’t pay the money, and you won’t give me your sister, is that it? Then let’s see how you like being a cripple."
With that, Brother Zhang swung a punch at the young man.
Seeing this, Su Qing immediately directed a vine to wrap around Brother Zhang’s foot.
"AH!"
"OW!"
The young man cried out in fear as Brother Zhang’s fist flew toward him, scrambling to get out of the way.
As for Brother Zhang, he felt something wrap around his foot, rooting him to the spot. He had already lunged forward to throw the punch, so his momentum sent him crashing to the ground with a THUD.
"Son of a bitch," Brother Zhang cursed, furious. He turned to rip away whatever was tangled around his ankle and saw it was a vine from the ground.
"Damn it, what is this crap? It’s grabbing me," Brother Zhang muttered, reaching down to yank at the vine. But to his shock, the vine seemed to have a mind of its own, slithering up and wrapping around his wrist.
Before Brother Zhang could even react, his wrist was also tightly bound by the vine.
"AH!" It wasn’t just the ensnared Brother Zhang; even the young man, who had been about to flee, was stunned by the bizarre scene before him.
’Since when can vines on the ground grab people all by themselves?’
"What the hell is this thing!" Panic began to set in for Brother Zhang. He’d done plenty of rotten things in his time, and right now, a deep sense of unease was churning in his gut.
The more he panicked and struggled, the tighter the vines coiled. Then, with a sudden, violent jerk, they flung Brother Zhang against a nearby tree trunk.
"AGH! AH—A GHOST—" The pain of his back slamming into the tree was nothing compared to the sheer shock of what had just happened. He had been thrown by a vine!
’This is that insignificant thing I never even used to notice?’
Ignoring the throbbing pain in his back, Brother Zhang frantically tried to shake off the vines on his wrist and ankle. He felt like they were demonic spirits, clinging to him, refusing to let go.
The faces of several girls who had died tragic deaths flashed through his mind, and he became even more unhinged.
"Ghosts! Ghosts! Don’t come near me! Go away! Go away!" Brother Zhang thrashed wildly, his eyes wide with terror.
Su Qing raised an eyebrow slightly. She controlled a few vines, making them rise up and sway back and forth right in front of Brother Zhang’s face.
Brother Zhang was so terrified his eyes glazed over. He kept muttering, "A ghost, it’s a ghost!"
A smirk played on Su Qing’s lips. She gave a mental command, and two of the upright vines lashed out, smacking Brother Zhang right across the face.
’A man in his thirties, lusting after a teenage girl and using such despicable schemes.’
’He deserves a beating!’