Recommend Mo Yan's novel 'Adventures'

A Strange Encounter by Mo Yan In the autumn of 1982, I returned from Baoding Prefecture to my hometown in the northeast village of Gaomi to visit my family. Because the train was delayed, it was already past nine o'clock in the evening when it arrived at Gaomi Station. There was only one bus a day connecting the towns, which would depart at six in the morning. Looking up at the sky, I saw half a moon hanging high, and the air was clear and fresh. I decided not to stay in the county but to head home under the bright moon. This way, I could see my parents earlier and also breathe in the fresh air of the fields. I carried only a small bag for this visit, so I walked quickly. After passing through the railway underpass, I did not take the asphalt road, because the asphalt road turned at right angles, making the route much longer. Instead, I slanted onto an abandoned dirt road that had not been used for years, connecting to Gaomi's northeast village. The dirt road had been broken in places over the past years and few people walked on it, so grass grew thickly on the surface, with only a narrow strip in the center showing signs of footsteps. On both sides of the road were fields, including sorghum, corn, and sweet potatoes, with the moonlight glinting faintly on the leaves. There was almost no wind; all the leaves were perfectly still, and the chirping of grasshoppers came loudly from the fields, as if the sound penetrated my flesh and bones. As the road extended farther, the crops grew denser and the lights of the county were no longer visible. The northeast village is more than forty li from the county town. Besides the chirping, there were occasional calls of birds or small animals in the fields. Suddenly, I felt a chill at the back of my neck, and my own footsteps sounded unusually loud and heavy. I regretted walking alone at night. At the same time, I sensed countless secrets in the fields on either side of the road, countless eyes watching me, and I felt something trailing behind me. The moonlight also suddenly became dim. Unconsciously, I quickened my pace, and the faster I walked, the more unsafe I felt behind me. Finally, I instinctively turned around. Of course, there was nothing behind me. Keep moving forward. As I walked, I scolded myself: Are you a PLA officer? Are you a Communist Party member? Are you a Marxist-Leninist instructor? Yes, you are, you are a materialist, and a thorough materialist fears nothing. A Communist Party member fears death, so what is there to fear? Ghosts? No! Evil? No! Beasts? No! The world itself has no problems, only ordinary people worry unnecessarily, yet I was still tense all over, my teeth chattering, and the ghost stories I had heard in my childhood, endlessly, surged into my mind: One person is walking down the road.Suddenly, I heard the creaking sound of a street vendor's carrying pole ahead. Looking closely, I saw only two carrying poles and two legs moving, with no upper body visible. Once, someone walking at night encounters a person who smiles at them; looking carefully, it is a woman whose face has only a red mouth, and nothing else—this is a 'faceless' ghost. Once, someone walking at night suddenly sees an old man with a white beard eating green grass. Later, I realized that cold sweat had been flowing from me, soaking my clothes. I started singing loudly: 'Forward, forward, forward—kill—' Naturally, nothing happened on the way. Approaching the village entrance, it was already dawn, the red sun about to rise but not yet visible; the eastern sky was tinged with red, and the village roosters crowed, creating a scene of tranquility. Looking back at the road I traveled, the crops were crops, the road was a road, and recalling the fright of the journey, I felt utterly foolish and laughable. Just as I was about to enter the village, I saw an old man emerge from the shadows of a tree. Looking closely, it was my neighbor, Elder Zhao San. He was neatly dressed and stopped three or five steps away from me. I hurriedly asked, 'Elder San, up so early!' He said, 'Getting up early to go to town, I knew you were back, so I waited for you here.' I exchanged a few words of casual talk with him and handed him a cigarette with a filter. After lighting the cigarette, he said, 'Old San, I still owe your father five yuan. I can't use my money; take this cigarette mouth to him—it counts as me paying back the money.' I said, 'Elder San, is that really necessary?' He said, 'Hurry home—your parents are waiting for you!' I took the ice-cold agate cigarette mouth that Elder San handed me, quickly bid him farewell, and rushed into the village. At home, my father and mother stared at me, asking long and detailed questions, saying that I shouldn't have walked alone at night, as something serious could have happened. I laughed and said, 'I was hoping to encounter a ghost, but the ghost didn't dare to meet me!' My mother said, 'Don't be reckless, child!' While my father was smoking, I took out the agate cigarette mouth from my pocket and said, 'Father, I met Elder Zhao San at the village entrance. He said he owed you five yuan and asked me to give you this cigarette mouth to settle the debt.' My father asked in surprise, 'Who did you say?' I said, 'Elder Zhao San!' My father asked, 'Are your eyes playing tricks on you?' I said, 'Absolutely not. I talked to him for a while, offered him a cigarette, and here's the cigarette mouth!' I handed the cigarette mouth to my father, who hesitated and did not dare to take it.Mother said, 'Third Uncle Zhao died the day before yesterday morning!'