Daomu Biji: A Thousand Faces

It was easy to gain information about everything that happened in Guangdong’s fishing village through the healthcare system. Xie Yuchen was sitting on the steps in front of the house when a street cat came strolling by. As he made phone calls one right after another, he teased the cat with a giant foxtail (1), making it roll on the ground in front of him. Later that evening, he finally got in touch with one of the people who was involved in the case.

The voice on the other end sounded very cautious and asked who he was for a long time. Xie Yuchen gave them a pseudonym. He had strong communication skills and knew after hearing this person’s cautious attitude that it wasn’t easy for the other party to tell the truth. This person seemed like the type to preserve their manager’s face, so he decided to cover up the key issues by asking questions surrounding the case.

Peripheral questions tended to be less sensitive, but if the questions were tricky enough, the other party would have no choice but to answer with key information.

Xie Yuchen stuck the end of the giant foxtail into the gap between the steps. Now that the seed head was higher than the cat, the cat kept jumping up to reach it. He shifted his attention to the call, "I saw you in a group photo. I heard that your team leader at the time was Dr. Pan Boda. I’ve read some of his papers”—he actually didn’t read any at all—“and would like to talk to him about them.”

"You've read some of his papers," the other party said. “From where? When were the papers published?”

Xie Yuchen was alarmed because the other party immediately made two detailed inquiries and seemed suspicious. But he couldn’t hesitate and replied, "Just after he finished the case study in that village, he published a paper.”

"You’re a liar. He never came back. He's dead. The entire medical team is dead. They all died in that village," the other party finished speaking and immediately hung up.

Xie Yuchen touched his chin, no wonder he’s so suspicious. I didn’t think it went that deep. He thought about how to save the situation and called the person again.

The other party picked up right away, "What the fuck do you want?"

"I want to clarify something. You know who referred me. I didn’t lie to you. It’s possible that the information on my end could be wrong. Can you give that person some face and hang up after I’ve finished talking, please?”

The other party was silent for a moment before he sighed and said, "Fine, go ahead."

"I did read his paper. It was about the rare case in that village. I figure Dr. Pan Boda started writing it when he was still in the village. I thought this paper was published, but after hearing what you said, it might not the case. But either way, it still reached me. I'm very interested in the disease because I think I also have it. I want to know the results of the case treatment."

The other party laughed, "Don't worry, your illness definitely isn’t the same as the one in that village. The things that happened in that village won’t save you."

"I saw the photo of the patient. I think we have similar symptoms,” Xie Yuchen said.

"The photo was very blurry so you can’t see it very well. You won’t be able to speculate what exactly happened in that village from a photo," the other person said. "Let me suggest something: Don’t look at that person's face. The more you examine his face, the more likely something bad is going to happen."

Xie Yuchen frowned and said, “Sounds like there’s a story there."

"There's no story, it's just a medical accident. Are you finished?"

"If the entire team died, then who are you? I heard that you were also a part of the team and you also went to the village.”

"I left early because I’m not a curious person and I didn't want to achieve anything. I just wanted to muddle along. I grew up in another village in that area and I didn't think there was anything unusual about the villages by the sea," the other person said. "Don’t go to that village; it’s a waste of time.”

"There’s a big house in that village. It dates back to the Republic era."

The other party fell silent. After a while, he eventually asked, “What exactly do you want to ask? You’re not a patient, are you?”

"I just happen to be someone who collects ancient houses on the side. My name is Xie Yuchen, you can search me up online. I collect a lot of ancient buildings." Xie Yuchen decided to put all his eggs in one basket, "If there’s no cure for my disease, I want to buy this house. Can you refer me? I can give you a twenty percent commission fee."

"How much is that?"

"I'd put it at about a hundred and fifty thousand yuan."

“Don't buy that house; they all died in it. Brother, I don’t care who you are, but my final words are: Curiosity killed the cat.” With that said, the other party hung up.

Xie Yuchen continued calling him—learning perseverance from the Jews could solve half of the problems in the world—but the other party had turned off the phone this time—science and technology could solve the other half.

He looked at the cat, which was tired of playing and was now sitting and looking at the lit street lamp. The sky was getting dark and there were flying insects swarming around the street lamp. He turned around and glanced at the house behind him. It almost looked like a large creature that was staring at him. He cautiously stood up and walked around the house, carefully observing it.

Along the way, he saw a lot of flies in the bushes behind the house. The backyard consisted of a hedgerow that separated the yard from the public road outside and a lawn that hadn’t been mowed in a long time. The lawn was now full of weeds and flies.

He hardly ever went to the back of the house because he had to pass through an indoor swimming pool to get there. The pool was all moldy and hadn’t been cleaned in a while. Now that he had walked around from the outside, he was surprised to find that the backyard was so dirty.

He walked onto the lawn, turned on his phone’s flashlight, and saw piles and piles of cat bones and rotting cat carcasses. They were all street cats from the surrounding neighborhood, and they were scattered in the bushes.

****

TN Notes:

(1) Giant foxtail (super common in Eurasia):