The mountain road was pitch black. The hazard lights of the sedan blinked on and off, the orange-yellow glow casting shifting shadows across the faces of the The Shanxi Native, making them look eerily strange. Two-faced saw the terror on their faces, his scalp tingling. He had no idea what was going on with this Qi family shop, nor did he understand why these The Shanxi Native were so frightened.

Gray-haired steadied himself, then kicked the short man kneeling on the ground in the butt and cursed, “You idiot! What the hell are you panicking for? The girl saved us all—when she was alive, she cared for us the most. Now that she’s dead, do you think she’d turn on us?”

The young man who was kicked didn’t talk back. He kowtowed three more times before standing up. Gray-haired saw that Two-faced wanted to say something but hesitated, so he said, “Let’s move the car to a safer spot first, then I’ll explain everything.”

The four men discussed for a moment. Gray-haired took off his coat and draped it over the woman’s corpse’s head. Then, each of them pulled out a “water tap” and poured hot water over a tire. The scene on the snowy mountain road was bizarre, but the hot water melted the ice and snow caked on the tires, revealing deep treads with good traction as steam rose from the rubber. The north wind whipped up snowflakes as the four men finished pouring the last drops of hot water and each shivered. Two-faced stood on the mountain road for a long while. Cold Nose got back in the car and again smelled the aroma of braised beef. He ignored it, carefully reversed the car, while the The Shanxi Native watched from behind. The taxi slowly backed onto the asphalt, and only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

Chapter 4: Night of Terror (4)

Everyone got back in the car. Two-faced found a spot with better visibility on the narrow winding mountain road, stopped, and turned off the engine.

Gray-haired said, “It’s not safe to park here. We don’t want a coal truck to crash into us. Anyway, we’re close to my house now, so let’s talk as we go.”

Two-faced said, “We can’t go. According to funeral law, any out-of-towner who dies in the cremation zone must be cremated on the spot. Transporting a corpse across provinces is illegal! If we get stopped, it’s a 5,000 yuan fine for you, 10,000 for me, and they’ll impound the car for six months. If I can’t pay, they’ll auction it off. I’ve got a family to feed—why should I get into trouble?”

Gray-haired pleaded, “Brother, we’re begging you—just help us get our sister home. It’s not far! Out here in the wild mountains in the middle of the night, no one’s going to check. If we do get stopped, we’ll take the blame ourselves. You just pretend you don’t know anything.”

Two-faced knew that if they really got stopped, none of these explanations would matter. He shook his head and pulled out his phone to call the police, but glanced down to see there was no signal. One of the The Shanxi Native, Gray-haired, grabbed the hand holding the phone, and the tall, silent Tall Guy in the back seat growled, “Just drive, and don’t ask for trouble. You’re an outsider—don’t you know whose territory this is?”

Two-faced said nothing, his face shifting between light and shadow. He reached under the driver’s seat and pulled out a big tire iron, turning to glare at Tall Guy. From his days brawling in the streets with a machete, he’d learned: if I’m not afraid of you, you’ll be afraid of me. All the local thugs knew that when Two-faced’s face started to shift like that, it meant he was about to throw down. The The Shanxi Native didn’t know his past, but in that instant, they could tell from his expression that he was not someone to mess with.

Gray-haired cursed at his brother, “What the hell are you doing? This isn’t your place to talk. Go sit your ass down.”

Tall Guy immediately fell silent and turned to straighten his sister’s corpse.

“She was our Little Sister,” Gray-haired said. “Our mother is paralyzed—she eats, drinks, and relieves herself in bed. Someone has to look after her. The rest of us are either in debt or working in the coal mines, with wives and kids to care for. We just don’t have the energy to take care of our mother. So our unmarried sister took on the burden alone. She even had a boyfriend, and they were talking about marriage, but now that’s all ruined. The guy’s parents had a point: if you spend money to build a house and marry a wife, you can’t also bring in a paralyzed mother to care for. The guy really loved my sister—he waited seven or eight years. But as they got older, waiting any longer would mean missing the chance to have kids. His family was pressuring him, and he just couldn’t wait anymore, so he forced my sister to make a choice. She had no choice but to talk it over with us brothers, asking us to take care of Mom for a while so she could get married and then come back to look after her. As the eldest brother, I was selfish—I was afraid she’d never come back once she left, so I just dodged the issue.”

“We were all wrong!” sighed the two men in the back seat. “We all let our sister down!”

Gray-haired continued, “One day, my sister bought over ten pounds of the best beef shank. She cooked and smoked it, crying as she made a pot of braised beef. When it was done, she didn’t let us eat any—she just set it aside to cool. We had no idea what she was up to. Then her boyfriend showed up. As soon as he walked in and smelled the braised beef, he started crying. When he cried, my sister cried too. She took out a bag and packed all the smoked beef into it.”

Two-faced subconsciously sniffed as he listened, the rich, cold aroma of braised beef still lingering in the car.