Chapter 5: The Defeated Village, Vegetables Eaten by Ghosts

Grandpa Li’s house is in front of Yang Fan’s. He quickly went home to get the key, followed by an old lady—his wife, Grandma Xu.

“How did you open it?”

Seeing her enter the courtyard without a key, Grandpa Li was very surprised.

Yang Fan pointed at the gate lock, her face calm and composed. “The door wasn’t locked, so I just came in.”

Grandpa Li: “Old woman, did you forget to lock the door yesterday?”

Grandma Xu retorted, “It was clearly you who came over to sweep the yard yesterday. You’re the one who didn’t lock it.”

Did I not lock it?

Grandpa Li looked at the lock on the gate and fell into deep thought. Was it me who came to sweep the yard yesterday?

“Alright, why dwell on it? It’s normal to be forgetful at our age.” Grandma Xu patted Grandpa Li, then turned to look at Yang Fan. She scrutinized her carefully, her eyes filled with emotions Yang Fan couldn’t quite decipher.

Yang Fan was tall and thin, standing a head taller than the old lady.

She smiled and greeted her. “Grandma Xu, long time no see.”

The original owner was very beautiful, with bright eyes and white teeth. Paired with Yang Fan’s unique elegant and noble temperament, it left Grandma Xu dazed for a moment.

“…Long time no see. Why have you become so thin, child? Your face has no color at all. You haven’t been eating well out there all these years, have you?”

The elderly always focus on whether a child has been eating well.

She reached out, took Yang Fan’s thin arm, and led her away. “You don’t have anything at your place right now. Come to Grandma’s house and eat something first.”

“You must not have eaten anything after rushing back all this way.”

As she spoke, Grandma Xu gave Grandpa Li a resentful glare. “You old man, you’re really something. There’s no food at her place, and you didn’t even think to bring the child home.”

Grandpa Li: …

He was just trying to bring her over to take a look; how did it become his fault?

Yang Fan didn’t resist and followed Grandma Xu.

In the original owner’s memories, she had grown up eating meals provided by the whole village, as her uncle, Yang Xiuwen, worked away from home year-round and only returned to the village when the original owner was in high school.

Yang Fan looked at the white houses standing everywhere in the village, each one bearing signs for "Farmhouse Fun" or "Summer Resort."

The original owner hadn’t been back for several years, and the village now was vastly different from the one in her memories.

After walking for about three minutes with Grandma Xu, they arrived at her house.

Grandma Xu’s home was also a three-story building, with the words "Fangfang Farmhouse Fun" written above the door.

Yang Fan looked at the large house with envy. “Grandma Xu, when did you open this farmhouse? That’s amazing!”

Running a farmhouse must be very profitable.

Why didn’t her uncle open one? If he had, she could have easily made money running it now that she was back.

Sigh, he just had to open a courier station instead.

“Don’t even mention it,” Grandma Xu complained. “At the time, they said the village was going to vigorously develop tourism, set up farmhouses and summer resorts, and get people from other provinces to come here to escape the heat. But in the end, not a single person came.”

Yang Fan was puzzled. With such a beautiful environment, how could there be no one?

Shangyuan Village was surrounded by mountains on all sides with a cool climate. While the city was currently hitting thirty-five degrees, the temperature here was only twenty-five or twenty-six.

With green hills, clear water, fresh air, and birdsong, it was a natural summer sanctuary. Plus, with the nearby Sanqingshan Scenic Area, it shouldn’t be empty.

“You haven’t been back in years, so you don’t know. Let me tell you.”

Grandma Xu explained all the changes in the village to Yang Fan.

Because of the unique climate and strong government support, every household had taken out loans or borrowed money a few years ago to build large houses and set up summer resorts and farmhouses.

They had expected to attract many people for summer tourism, but they were deeply disappointed; no one came to the village at all.

The village tried to promote itself, but still, no one came.

Seeing that the summer business couldn’t take off and with debts from building their houses, the young and able-bodied left to work, taking their children to school elsewhere.

In just a few short years, only the elderly were left guarding the village.

Grandma Xu sighed heavily. “Your uncle also thought tourism would develop. Since the village is far from town, it’s inconvenient for tourists to pick up packages, so he invested in a courier station. But now, there’s no one here at all.”

Yang Fan suddenly understood. So that was the reason for the business venture.

Grandma Xu’s children were all studying or working in other provinces, leaving only the old couple at home.

As they were talking, Grandpa Li walked in, carrying green beans and cucumbers. “Old woman, this year’s green beans and cucumbers are inedible again.”

Grandma Xu took a cucumber from his hand, bit into it, and then spat it out on the floor with disgust. “Pah, pah, pah! It tastes terrible.”

The cucumber tasted like wax in her mouth; it had no cucumber flavor at all. It was awful.

“I don’t know what went wrong,” Grandpa Li said, looking at the green beans in his hand with a worried face.

They had planted them exactly the same way as before, so why were the vegetables so bad now?

Yang Fan saw something wrong with the green beans and cucumbers at a glance. “Grandpa Li, let me take a look.”

She took the green beans from his hand.

Sure enough, she was right.

On the surface, the green beans looked fresh and green, but in reality, they were a dull, deathly purplish-blue, stained with faint traces of black energy. It was clear that these beans had been eaten by a ghost.

The cucumber was the same.

There was actually a ghost here.

Yang Fan asked Grandpa Li, “Grandpa Li, are all the vegetables you grow like this?”

Grandpa Li: “They’re all like this. I don’t know what went wrong these past few years; all the vegetables grown in the village are like this.”

“They look perfectly fine, but they just taste terrible!”

If all the vegetables in the village were like this, it wasn’t just an ordinary ghost.

Yang Fan became interested. She was curious about what kind of ghost it was.

Grandma Xu threw the cucumber and green beans into the trash can. “Even the pigs won’t eat this stuff.”

Yang Fan: Of course not. Pigs wouldn’t want to eat something that had been eaten by a ghost.

Seeing the crops they had worked so hard to grow go to waste, Grandpa Li, a man who had farmed his whole life, felt heartbroken.

Yang Fan observed their expressions, lowered her eyes, and said nothing, thinking about sneaking out at night to see what kind of ghost was eating the crops in the fields.

It was three o’clock, not yet dinner time, but Grandma Xu cooked noodles for Yang Fan and fried two sunny-side-up eggs.

The noodles were smooth, cooked perfectly, and soft yet firm. She added her homemade pickled chili sauce, which was sour, spicy, and very satisfying.

Yang Fan only said two words: “Delicious!”

She then buried her head in the bowl, slurping away quickly but elegantly.

Seeing this, Grandma Xu felt a pang of pity and stroked her hair. “Eat slowly. If it’s not enough, Grandma will make more.”

To eat a bowl of noodles like that—this child must have had a very hard life out there.

Grandpa Li sighed repeatedly from the side. It wasn’t easy for a young girl to be out on her own.

(End of chapter)