While listening to this woman giving a lively description, doubts came to my mind. Therefore I said, “It’s hard for me to buy your story. Are you going to say that my calabash gourd is exactly the same as the one in the past?”

Unexpectedly, she nodded her head and said, “I am Wulan! I led these people to become bandits. After my brother died, I moved to this semi-farmland region and contracted the farm. Over these years, I have recruited many people. In public, they are farmers who have property and farms. However, in the dark, they are bandits. For men who have abandoned their wives and children, like your dad, we punish them on sight! You told me you could uphold justice for me. Now let’s see how you’ll do it!”

I said, “Okay, I will call my dad and ask about the story!” Then I rang my dad’s phone… Actually, I didn’t believe that my dad would cheat on anyone. And from what this woman told me, it seemed that my dad didn’t do anything to her. What’s more, for all I knew, my parents had been in love for over 60 years!

I got through to my dad’s phone and told him the situation. My dad explained on the phone. After that, I said to her, “You think my dad shouldn’t have left at that time, right?” The woman answered, “Yes! After my brother died, your dad was the only family I had. And he left me behind. I was young and helpless. There were many times that I tried to kill myself facing all the difficulties on my own!” I asked, “You said my dad was the family you had. Does it mean that my dad had agreed to marry you?” She answered, “My brother told me that he had already agreed to marry me. And by his oral agreement, he became my fiance. In the future, he would be the son-in-law of my family!” I answered, “But you didn’t know that it was a lie from your brother. He lied to you to make you feel better when you were sick. It was just an expedient of his. But my dad had never agreed to marry you! Otherwise, he wouldn’t be my dad!” I lit a cigarette and asked her, “Do you want to know what my dad did without a third party when you had the attack?” The woman brightened her eyes at once and asked, “What did he do?”

My dad took out the calabash gourd while holding her down with his body, and said to the sore spirit in her body, “I know you were wronged. You can tell me what happened. If you keep making trouble, I will take you down with the calabash gourd and use you to practice alchemy!” She paused and said, “Get off me! I will tell you the truth!” After my dad got up, she said with sad sobs, “I was a school graduate who got sent here. Because my background was not good, I suffered great discrimination. One day when I was pasturing, Bayinchaolu tried to rape me. I fought against him with all my strength, but he strangled me with his horsewhip. Then he raped me and fed me to the wolves! Nobody knew about it. The production brigades settled my death as a common industrial accident. My soul was unwilling to go after I died, and I wanted to take my revenge. That’s why I possessed his sister. I intended to ruin her body. But the two female members of the Revolutionary Committee guarded her strictly, and I failed. Then you came! I know you are mighty, please uphold justice for me!” My dad said to her, “The justice for you will soon come. In a few days, Bayinchaolu will be killed and consumed by wolves. But his sister is innocent. As the saying goes, ‘No debts without creditors.’ You shouldn’t do this to his sister. I promise you that after you see him eaten by wolves in a few days, I will send you to reincarnate. You should stop making trouble. Now go in the calabash gourd!”

In this way, my dad put the spirit into the calabash gourd. On that stormy night, my dad released the spirit. After seeing the man she hated died, she was sent to the road to hell by my dad. At this point, I flicked the cigarette ash and said, “However, you didn’t know that in the year of 1976, an earthquake occurred in Tang Shan. There were many spirits with grudges waiting to be managed. All the geomancers were summoned to go to Tang Shan. My dad was invited by hell to be a manager of the geomancers. He had a mission. That’s why he left with the sword in a rush. And as far as I know, my parents had already married each other in 1976. It’s impossible that my dad would betray my mom! You took my dad as a heartbreaker for so many years. But you didn’t know that if he had agreed to you, he would be the heartbreaker!” In fact, from what I was told, my parents had been together for at least 60 years!

After hearing this, Wulan sat down with a dispirited sentiment, looking blank! She opened her mouth, tried to say something but couldn’t. After quite a while, she said, “No! How old are you this year?!” I blinked my eyes, didn’t understood what she said, then answered subconsciously, “I am 22 years old now.” Wulan asked again, “Then how old are your parents?!” I shook my head and said, “I don’t know their exact ages.” Obviously, Wulan thought that I was giving her the runaround. So she said in a serious voice, “Your father was your age back in the old days. If you are 22 years old this year, could it be said that your dad had you around his 40s?!” Actually, many people had asked me this question, even the teachers from school. I spread out my hands helplessly with a smile, took out my phone, clicked on the album, handed it to Wulan, and said, “This picture was taken from last week.” Wulan took the phone and got astonished when she saw the picture. Then she shouted with shock, “Ah!” and almost threw my phone out.

The picture on my phone was indeed taken from last week when I was bored. It was a selfie, in which I was leaning on my dad’s right shoulder and my mom on his left shoulder. There was no age difference between the three of us. My mom looked even younger than me, and it was not surprising that Wulan overreacted. Forty years had passed, my dad didn’t age even a little bit, but Wulan was already a middle-aged woman. Seeing that she felt uneasy, I walked up to her and comforted, “Aunt Wulan, take it easy. For all I know, my parents have looked like this for over 60 years. I had asked about their ages when they met each other. But they always dodged the question by telling me that they didn’t remember. My dad had never answered me, only my mom. She told me, ‘Since always!'” After hearing this, Wulan sat down feeling dejected and stopped talking.

I snuffed out the cigarette and asked her after a while, “Did you plan this scheme since the beginning to lure us to Inner Mongolia?” She answered, “No. One of my trusted girls is dating a cop whose surname is Zhang. She got the information from him. After learning that the only son of the famous Murong Hai in those old years was coming here soon, I acquired your whole schedule and planned this robbery. But I just wanted to have you here to ask about your dad! After all, it’s been a knot in my heart over these years!”

While we were talking, Lin Feng arrived with a few female bandits whose faces had been beaten purple and their noses swollen. I said in my mind, “I thought you told me that you didn’t do anything to them?” Then I shook my head and asked Lin Feng about the whole matter with a smile. Lin Feng told me that after I went after the other, he followed the one on the left. Because he was worried that the fog would get too thick and that the woman would get out of his target range, he threw out a Shuaitou and bound her feet. With a bump, she fell on the ground right away with her face down. Lin Feng came forward and stepped on her. At that moment, her associates caught up. They actually had guns. However, right after they showed the guns, Lin Feng whipped at their hands and made them drop the guns. And in a blink, Lin Feng had the guns in his hand! After Lin Feng learned the situation, he brought them to me! I thought to myself, “Well, that’s a piece of cake for you!”

After a while, Chongxi also arrived, with a more amusing scene. He found a chair from nowhere, bound it with two poles to make slide bars, and made the women carry it all the way! These female bandits looked more embarrassed. It seemed that they had suffered a great deal!

It turned out that when Chongxi went after the one on the right, he didn’t hurry to follow her. Because he was short, he couldn’t run fast enough to catch her. Instead, he stopped and did geomancy with his fingers!

The four female bandits on the right flank gathered together after a few detours and were about to leave. When they walked up to a tree in the field, a man showed up behind the tree. That man was Chongxi! He got in the way and said with a weird long tone, “How dare you! Thieves! Bitches! How dare you steal my bags! This time I will give you a lenient punch (punishment). But next time you wouldn’t be so lucky!” After he finished saying that, with two claps, these bandits were slapped on their faces. The slaps were so harsh that their tears came out. But they couldn’t see who did that to them! Then they took out their guns angrily. But right after they did, their guns broke away from their hands as if they were grabbed. One of them staggered and almost fell when being pulled! Four guns flew over to Chongxi in a blink and suspended in the air without falling! Chongxi took one of them, dismantled it with a few moves, and threw the parts all over the ground. Then he sneered and said, “Hum! What a piece of shit! The rifling is old!” Then he waved his hand, and the other three guns were all thrown out into the field as if held by someone! Then Chongxi broke off a twig and said, “Should you four help me loosen bones and muscles? Or should I help loosen your bones and muscles? Should I?” Right after these words, with claps, Chongxi gave these bandits a hail of slaps.

There was no way for them to avoid or escape. Their feet were fixed. They felt so much pain that they had to beg, “My lord. Please stop! We won’t do it again!” I laughed after hearing this. It was truly unlucky for these women to be hunted down by Chongxi, Xiao Si, and Xiao Wu!