Volume 2: The Days of Playing with Monkeys in the Village
Little Brother and the Monkey
The little monkey has been eaten!
Stumbling along for who knows how long, the person leading her suddenly stopped, and a voice came from beside her: “You can open your eyes now.”
It was Lou Jingmo!
Shen Maomao opened her eyes and not only saw Lou Jingmo but also discovered that they had already left the back mountain, facing the houses at the end of the village. She couldn’t help but burst into tears with a “wah”: “Wuu wuu wuu wuu wuu, Goddess! I was so scared! Your hand is so cold!”
Lou Jingmo rarely held her left hand in both of hers, warming her cold little hand: “Isn’t it your hand that’s colder?”
Shen Maomao cried loudly: “Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you respond when I called you?!”
Lou Jingmo said helplessly: “I did speak, but you couldn’t hear me, and I couldn’t hear what you were saying either.”
After realizing this, she felt genuinely relieved.
The mist’s method was simple, yet effective.
If she had been just a little less cowardly, she would have let go of Lou Jingmo’s hand and tried to find the exit herself, ultimately ending up lost in the white mist.
She shared her thoughts with Lou Jingmo, leaving Lou Jingmo unsure whether to praise her or scold her.
Forget it, we’re already out, and besides, hitting people is quite tiring.
After wasting most of the day in the woods, it was already afternoon when they left.
The village in the mountain valley was as quiet and peaceful as ever, with only the outsider players perishing in silence.
When they returned to Zhang Jianshe’s house, Wei Yu and Wang Xiaoming were not there. The Zhang family, however, was leisurely sitting under the big tree in the courtyard playing mahjong.
Today seemed to be Saturday, and the children didn’t have school. Two little girls were writing and drawing on the ground with pebbles, while the little boy was jumping up and down, climbing trees one moment and scaling walls the next, moving with exceptional agility. The Zhang family didn’t seem to worry about their precious grandson getting hurt and rarely paid attention to what he was doing.
Lou Jingmo thought for a moment, then said to Zhang Jianshe, the head of the family: “Uncle Zhang, I have a favor to ask.”
“Two of bamboo,” Uncle Zhang spared a glance at her, “What is it?”
Lou Jingmo said: “I’d like to take a family photo for you all, and then have it developed and sent to you later.”
Zhang Jianshe seemed somewhat interested: “Wouldn’t that be too much trouble for you?”
Lou Jingmo replied: “It’s no trouble at all. We’ve been imposing on you for so long; if anything, we should be the ones troubling you.”
“That’s great—oh! I’ve won!” He pushed down the tiles in front of him and stood up abruptly, looking eagerly at Lou Jingmo: “When shall we take the photo? How about right now?”
Lou Jingmo naturally had no objection.
The Zhang family stopped playing mahjong. Zhang Aiguo happily brought over a long bench, intending to find a clean spot in the courtyard to take the photo.
Lou Jingmo suggested: “Why don’t you—remove the red cloth from the Monkey God, and take a photo with the deity’s statue? It’s rare to have a photo taken, and isn’t the deity’s statue also a member of the family?”
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Shen Maomao didn’t dare make a sound, quietly watching Lou Jingmo’s performance, afraid that the Zhang family might get so excited they’d drag Lou Jingmo out to offer her to the Monkey God as well.
Auntie Zhang hesitated a bit: “This might not be appropriate. What if we offend the deity’s statue…”
Old man Zhang coughed twice: “Ahem… No, we can’t let outsiders see the deity’s statue, or great misfortune will befall us!”
Auntie Zhang, who had been conflicted before, immediately became resolute in her gaze. She smiled at Lou Jingmo and said: “Thank you for your kind intentions, young lady. The Monkey God doesn’t like to be seen by outsiders. If you were to see it, not only would we have trouble, but you would also have bad luck.”
Lou Jingmo didn’t insist further. She had the eight members of the Zhang family stand in the middle of the courtyard and took a photo of them with her DSLR camera.
“Click” —
The image of the eight people was frozen in the photograph.
Shen Maomao stood behind her, looking at the photo, her gaze sweeping across each person’s face in turn. She paid particular attention to the little troublemaker, examining him carefully several times. Apart from noticing that the troublemaker’s teeth were quite white, she didn’t see anything else unusual.
The Zhang family also eagerly gathered around: “How did it turn out? Can we have a look?”
Lou Jingmo generously handed the camera to them, letting them see for themselves.
The three children huddled next to the adults, clamoring: “Let me see!” “I want to look first!” They argued while trying to grab the camera.
With a “smash,” the small DSLR slipped from their hands and shattered into pieces on the ground.
Lou Jingmo glanced at Shen Maomao, who seemed to receive some signal and immediately squeezed into the crowd dramatically, saying in a sing-song voice: “Oh no! This camera was very expensive! It also contained all the photos we’ve taken on our journey!”
Cameras were rarely used in the village, and the Zhang family didn’t know how much a camera might cost. Hearing her say this, they immediately felt that something terrible had happened.
The children’s mother directly gave each of the two girls a kick: “You two little brats! What were you fighting over! I’ll beat you to death today!”
The two little girls were frightened into wailing, and the courtyard descended into chaos.
Shen Maomao watched as the camera slipped from the little boy’s hands, yet Zhang Aiguo’s wife immediately started hitting her daughters. Angered, she disregarded the camera’s remains and stepped forward to stop the woman from beating the children: “Enough! We didn’t say you had to compensate! Why are you hitting them? I clearly saw the little boy drop the camera!”
Zhang Aiguo’s wife’s expression changed as she shielded her son, muttering: “Xiaoyao is so young… If these two wretched girls hadn’t insisted on grabbing it from him, the camera wouldn’t have broken…”
The little boy, protected behind her, tilted his head and glared fiercely at Shen Maomao.
Shen Maomao was nearly furious, inwardly despising such blatant gender discrimination and wanting nothing more than to grab the troublemaker and teach him a lesson. She hugged the two still-whimpering girls under her arms: “What started as a happy occasion has now resulted in a broken camera… Let’s forget it. Don’t hit the children anymore. We won’t pursue the matter of the camera; it wasn’t worth much anyway.”
Auntie Zhang came out smiling to smooth things over, forcibly changing the subject: “My, it’s almost dark. We’ll go prepare dinner. Why don’t you rest in the courtyard?”
The little boy was carried into the house by his mother, and the whole family dispersed, leaving only the two teary-eyed little girls in the courtyard.
Shen Maomao took a piece of tissue from her backpack and crouched down to wipe the tears from the two children’s faces, which were red from crying.
Lou Jingmo looked at the remains of the camera, and after confirming it was beyond repair, retrieved the memory card from the debris. She then said to Shen Maomao: “Although you looked quite awkward without acting skills, you were really cool when you protected the kids.”
Shen Maomao: “??”
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Lou Jingmo: “The tree in the courtyard seems a bit off. I’ll examine it. Why don’t you go play with them?”
Shen Maomao couldn’t control her gaze and couldn’t help but glance twice at the tall tree of unknown species in the center of the courtyard.
The older of the little girls said softly: “Thank you, big sister.”
The younger sister imitated her: “Thank you, big sister~”
Girls are so adorable; she really couldn’t understand why the Zhang family valued that troublemaker so much, just because he was a boy. Is gender an original sin?
She patted the older sister’s head and asked: “Come on, let big sister take you to play jump rope.”
The two little girls cheered, quickly forgetting the beating they had just received, and began playing with the rubber band alongside Shen Maomao.
Lou Jingmo stood upstairs, glanced at the three youngsters below, and sighed helplessly.
After they grew tired of jumping rope, the two girls took her to the sand pile by the entrance to draw.
Shen Maomao felt it necessary to demonstrate her sophisticated adult drawing skills, so she drew a small butterfly for each of them.
The older sister perfunctorily praised her: “Big sister, your drawing is really pretty.” She didn’t even raise her head.
Shen Maomao leaned over to see what the two sisters were drawing.
The drawing in the sand consisted of a bunch of lines. She had drawn a small figure with hair standing on end, and next to the figure was an animal of some sort, though it looked more like another person.
Shen Maomao asked: “What have you drawn here?”
The younger sister quickly answered: “It’s little brother! And a little monkey!”
Shen Maomao suddenly raised her head: “Little brother and a monkey?”
The older sister glanced at her sideways, as if not understanding why she was so surprised.
She continued drawing in the sand with a small stick, making an arc to represent a tall mountain, then drawing an arch below to represent a cave. The little brother and the monkey were inside the cave, with a double-headed arrow drawn between them.
Shen Maomao became a bit excited, her hands shaking uncontrollably as if she had Parkinson’s: “Can you tell big sister, what’s the relationship between little brother and the little monkey?”
The older sister said: “We can’t talk about it. Mom will beat us if we do.”
Shen Maomao gently coaxed: “I absolutely won’t tell anyone else, and little sister won’t tattle either, right? Mom won’t know.”
The younger sister came over and drew a circle for the little monkey’s eye: “Even if we tell you, you won’t believe it. We told Mom before.”
The older sister continued: “You two wretched girls, you just can’t stand to see your brother doing well!” She imitated quite convincingly, sounding very much like Zhang Aiguo’s wife when she had scolded them earlier.
Shen Maomao spat: “Your mother and brother are close, and big sister is close to you. We just played jump rope for a long time. How could big sister not believe you? Besides, big sister has seen monsters outside the village that eat liars. If big sister doesn’t believe you after hearing it, then let the monsters take big sister away, okay?”
The younger sister covered her mouth dramatically: “Wow! There are monsters outside too!”
The older sister glanced at her upon hearing this, her small face showing suspicion beyond her years: “Then shall we pinky swear?”
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Shen Maomao extended her pinky finger and hooked it with the older sister’s, listening to her chant: “Pinky swear, hang a hundred years, no changing allowed. Whoever changes becomes a little monkey!”
After making the promise, she began writing on the little monkey’s face. Her writing was still crooked and messy, but Shen Maomao could still make it out clearly.
She wrote — “Little brother.”
“The little monkey became little brother, and little brother became the little monkey. Is the little monkey little brother? Is little brother the little monkey? Hee-hee~”
The previously normal little girl seemed possessed by something, using a small twig to draw circle after circle in the sand, continuously muttering this phrase.
The younger sister, as if unable to see, crouched in the corner poking ants with her finger.
Shen Maomao asked her quietly: “Then… where did the real little brother go?”
The older sister’s hand stopped, and she looked up at her with an expressionless face.
Shen Maomao was greatly alarmed, involuntarily stepping back and nearly tripping over a stone.
The older sister raised a smiling face, showing her a mouthful of white teeth: “The little monkey has been eaten!”