Yu Daochen thought for a moment and began to speak.
Legend has it that over sixty years ago, during a severe famine when many people couldn't get enough to eat, everyone relied on hunting wolves and tigers for their pelts. In a village at the foot of the Greater Khingan Range, a three-year-old child was snatched by a wolf. The family was distraught, but they knew that a child taken by a wolf was almost certainly beyond saving. Still, the family refused to give up and decided to search for him in the deep mountains.
The child's mother also went into the forest to search for her son.
Things were different back then. Forget flashlights; even an oil lamp was a luxury few could afford. Only the wealthy families had the means.
Because it was night and they were searching separately, the child's mother accidentally fell from a high slope. Unfortunately, she broke both her legs.
The child's mother despaired, knowing that breaking a leg in the deep mountains of the Greater Khingan Range meant certain death.
The child's mother tried to climb up, but the slope was too steep. Without the use of her legs, she couldn't ascend.
The deep pit was covered in lilies. When the child's mother was thirsty, she chewed on the lilies, extracting moisture to sustain herself. This continued for three days.
Just as the child's mother was about to give up, she suddenly heard a wolf howl. From the bushes ahead, a gray wolf, twice the size of an ordinary wolf, slowly emerged.
The child's mother's heart sank completely. She knew that encountering a wolf now meant certain death.
The gray wolf held a piece of bloody meat in its mouth. The child's mother had accepted her fate and closed her eyes, waiting to die. But strangely, the gray wolf did not attack the child's mother. Instead, it placed the meat at her feet, then turned and disappeared back into the bushes.
The child's mother looked at the meat on the ground in astonishment. She had hunted with her husband for many years and had never encountered such a situation.
After much hesitation, the child's mother finally picked up the raw meat and began to eat. Only by surviving could she find her son.
Although there was a famine back then, and people were too poor to even afford food, the child's mother's husband would occasionally hunt a wolf and bring it back, so their family never went hungry. The child's mother squeezed the raw meat. Having kept wolf and tiger meat at home before, she had a rough idea of how old it was.
It looked like this piece of meat had been kept for more than three days.
The child's mother eventually ate it.
Even more bizarre and eerie was that from that day on, the gray wolf would bring a piece of raw meat almost every day.
The child's mother found it strange, but she had no other choice if she wanted to live. She could only eat the raw meat. In this way, the child's mother managed to survive for seven days, sustained by the daily raw meat.
However, the child's mother grew increasingly puzzled. What kind of meat was this? After seven days, the meat had begun to rot and smelled incredibly foul. It was clear that all these pieces of meat came from the same animal.
On the eighth day, the child's mother's husband, along with people from the village, finally found her.
When the child's mother asked if they had found her child, everyone present fell silent. Her husband then led her to a particular spot.
The scene that greeted the child's mother made her vomit uncontrollably.
She saw that her three-year-old son had been gnawed by wolves, leaving only his head and limbs. His body was essentially stripped of all flesh. Lying nearby was a gray wolf, shot by a hunting rifle, its mouth still holding a piece of the child's flesh.
And that gray wolf was none other than the one that had been bringing the child's mother meat every day.
Afterward, the child's mother went completely mad. She refused to eat or drink, wandering the mountains day after day, muttering about her son. Eventually, she returned to the original pit and starved herself to death. It was during the season when the lilies were in full bloom, and her body became nourishment for the flowers.
Yu Daochen sighed as he finished his story. "Because the child's mother's resentment ran too deep, she transformed into a ghost known as a 'Tie.' Whenever the lilies are in bloom, the scent of the lilies allows people to see the child's mother's spirit and fall into delusion."
Upon hearing the word "Tie," Qiangzi's expression changed, and he seemed to disbelieve it.
The so-called Tie was something where the soul merged with a plant. As long as the plant lived, so did it. Tie were extremely bizarre, impossible to kill, and inexhaustible.
Qiangzi swallowed hard. Eating the flesh of one's own child would drive anyone mad. That family made a living hunting wolves. They never expected that one day, the wolves would seek revenge in such a manner.
Wolves held deep grudges. As the saying goes, if a wolf turns back, there is always a reason; it's either to repay a kindness or to exact revenge.
"Master Yu, let's keep moving. I have a bad feeling about staying here," Qiangzi said, shouldering his backpack and standing up.
Yu Daochen nodded. He also felt that something bad might happen if they lingered.
"Have you seen my baby? So chubby and cute. Have you seen my baby? So chubby and cute."
Before the two could take a step, the woman in the red dress suddenly appeared from the woods to their left, still muttering the same words.
This time, she was not holding wood but the head of the dried corpse they had just seen.
Both their expressions darkened, and they exchanged a glance.
"Master Yu, what do we do now?" Qiangzi drew the copper coin sword from his waist.
Yu Daochen watched the woman in the red dress warily. "Let's hold our ground for now and see what happens."
Author's Note: