Although Changkeng Village is located in the countryside, due to Dong County being fairly expansive, you can reach the city in seven or eight minutes by bus, so the rural development isn’t much different from the city. All necessary living facilities are present.
Wang Longhu, full of energy, ran past the stone bridge and saw several hand-pushed carts parked by the roadside, with steaming trays and big smoking iron pots on them, precisely where the breakfast vendors were.
"Kid, want some?" an old man making fresh wontons asked with a smile.
The wontons he made were placed one by one on a stainless steel plate, thin-skinned and translucent, looking both delicate and tempting.
"I’ll have a bowl of the largest serving, with extra dried shrimp and pickled mustard greens, by the way, do you have glutinous rice?" Wang Longhu, his appetite aroused, asked hurriedly.
"Then give me the largest serving of that too, add more crumbled fried dough sticks and broth, I like it soaked in soup."
Since these breakfast carts did not have tables or chairs, after paying, Wang Longhu could only eat as he walked with the food in plastic bowls, giving it a bit of a marketplace feel.
Changkeng Village is very small; once you cross the stone bridge, there is just a street’s length, and reaching the end of the street you exit the village, encountering a road with various shops lining the roadside.
Strolling around for a while, Wang Longhu discovered a telecom business office. Considering he would be staying at his grandmother’s for quite some time and planning to make money through live streaming, having no internet wasn’t an option, so he walked in.
"Hello, what services would you like to process?"
Seeing Wang Longhu enter holding a bowl of glutinous rice, an aunt in the office who had presumably just started her shift asked while holding a bag of steamed buns.
"I want to install broadband."
"There’s a promotion going on right now, 100M broadband for 800 yuan, 200M for 1200 yuan, with a 30-yuan monthly rebate on your phone bill, you can pick one," the aunt said, handing over a paper detailing the promotion.
With limited funds left, Wang Longhu, naturally aiming to save, said without even looking, "I’ll take the 100M one. When can the installation be done?"
"That depends on where you live; morning is fine for the city, but for outskirts or islands, it might be afternoon or the next day."
"I live right at the top of Changkeng, it’s very close."
Upon hearing the location Wang Longhu mentioned, the middle-aged aunt instantly showed a surprised expression.
"Is there still anyone living at the top of Changkeng? Wasn’t it vacated long ago?"
Wang Longhu casually replied, "I’ve come back from outside to stay in my old home for a while."
"Young man, I advise you to think carefully; it’s best not to live in that place," the aunt advised quickly.
Wang Longhu was puzzled. Having been a Dong County resident for over twenty years, it was the first time he heard such advice, prompting him to ask in bewilderment, "Why do you say that?"
"You probably don’t know because you just returned. A few months ago, an old man passed away, and his ancestral home was right at the top of Changkeng. According to local customs, his sons and daughters-in-law took his body there for the wake,
and one night, while a daughter-in-law went out to throw out the trash, she saw a snake, standing as tall as a person, waiting outside the house, scaring her into a faint on the spot." ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ ɴovᴇl(F)ɪre.ɴet
"Is there really something like that? No photos of the snake were taken later?" Wang Longhu couldn’t help but ask.
"Several family members saw it too, but they were all so scared that no one thought of grabbing a phone, and by the time they realized, the snake had crawled away."
The middle-aged aunt sincerely advised, "The elderly always said, as long as mountains are uninhabited for long, they aren’t clean. Plus, the top of Changkeng has been strange since the ’70s and ’80s. Consider again, either stay at home or rent a place, both are fine."
Her words reminded Wang Longhu of some past conversations with his parents over dinner.
While still in college, he once casually asked his parents if they had heard any strange folk stories from Dong County.
His father, whose registration was at the top of Changkeng, briefly spoke of a few occurrences.
First, the Changkeng Reservoir near the stone bridge was unfenced in the early years, allowing villagers to wash clothes and vegetables by the reservoir.
It’s said that one woman went there alone to wash clothes one noon. After finishing, she found her keys missing on the way home and turned back to look for them.
Returning to her washing spot, she noticed a woman in white spinning around opposite the reservoir as she knelt to find her keys.
People were friendly then, so they’d greet and chat upon meeting. The woman stood up and shouted to ask if the other had eaten, or was looking for something, but upon seeing the figure clearly, she was so shocked she ran home without even searching for her keys.
According to her recollection, the woman in white wasn’t on shore but was spinning with her head lowered on the water’s surface.
Second, there used to be a barely passable mountain trail behind the top of Changkeng, lined with overgrown grasses taller than a person.
Walking down this path would lead to the reservoir and greatly shorten the time to reach the village compared to taking the road.
On the hillside beside this path stood a small shabby temple of unknown origin. According to his father’s memory, the temple was dilapidated with a deity statue on the altar inside.