Broken heart

Unexpectedly, I fainted after my family's old yellow cow died. It's really strange because I was perfectly fine before. Suddenly, I felt dizzy and then my whole body went limp, collapsing to the ground. My mother was startled when she saw me like that and quickly helped me up, asking what was wrong.

At that time, I couldn't even stand, let alone speak, so all I could do was roll my eyes and make incomprehensible noises, which only scared my mother even more. She touched my head and exclaimed, "Oh no, you have a fever!" Then she quickly took me inside, helped me onto the bed, and gave me some fever-reducing medicine.

We had a common fever-reducing medicine at home called "Antipyrine", which had significant side effects and is not used much nowadays. However, back then, it was the only thing available, and it worked very well, but it made people dizzy after taking it.

My mother gave me two pills of Antipyrine, and I immediately became completely confused and disoriented. I fell into a deep sleep without realizing it.

After an unknown period of time, I felt a small figure standing by my bed in my dream, holding my wrist and pulling me outside. I knew it was Little Confused, and I wanted to talk to her, but I couldn't speak. Eventually, she pulled me outside, and I saw a disgusting gutter full of dead pigs and dogs floating in the water.

Little Confused stood still with her back to me, gazing at the gutter in a daze. I didn't know what she was looking at.

As I was wondering, she suddenly jumped into the ditch. "Don't, Xiaohutu, don't jump!" I shouted in shock, running towards the stinky ditch, wanting to save Xiaohutu. Unexpectedly, at this moment, bubbles suddenly appeared in the ditch, and then a pair of slender black hands stretched out. The black hand grabbed my ankle and dragged me into the ditch. "Help, help, I don't want to die!" I screamed in panic, struggling desperately. Suddenly, someone pushed my shoulder, and I woke up, opened my eyes and realized that I was lying in bed, not in the water. My mother sat by the bed, looking at me with concern on her face. "Yihen, how are you? Did you have a nightmare? I heard you calling out just now," my mother said to me. "I, I'm okay," I took a deep breath and found that I was soaked in sweat. When I recalled the scene in the dream, I was still scared. I unconsciously wiped the cold sweat on my forehead. Hearing my words, my mother reached out to touch my forehead, nodded and said, "It's better, the fever has subsided a bit, but it's not completely gone. Rest in bed and I'll make you something to eat." As my mother was speaking, a voice suddenly came from outside, "Ershu, Ershu, come and see!" It was my third uncle who came to skin the old yellow cow. Hearing my third uncle's voice, I asked my mother, "Mom, did you really kill the old yellow cow?" "What else could we do?" My mother sighed, "Such a big cow, if we don't kill it and sell the meat, we won't even get back the capital. Don't worry about these things, rest and recover first."

After my mother finished speaking, she turned around and left. I lay on the bed for a while, feeling some sympathy for the old yellow cow. So, I struggled to get out of bed and made my way outside to take one last look at the old cow. In the yard, I found that my third uncle was indeed skinning the old yellow cow. The cow was now placed in a large wicker basket with its belly already cut open and its organs pulled out in a pile. This caused the wicker basket to be covered in bloody stains, and the smell of blood mixed with the stench of the cow's innards and excrement formed an extremely nauseating odor. I could barely stand the smell, and almost vomited after taking a sniff. Neither my mother nor my third uncle noticed me. They were both standing next to the cow's carcass with solemn expressions, as if something unusual had happened. After a while, I heard my mother murmuring to herself, "What's going on? What's going on?" She then bent down to poke at the cow's belly as if there was something strange inside. My mother's actions aroused my curiosity, and I couldn't help but struggle to walk over. When I looked into the old yellow cow's open belly, I was stunned because I found that the cow's heart was broken. The kind of broken heart I saw was not caused by a knife but was more like a crushed piece of meat that had been squeezed and pinched by someone's hand. Seeing this situation at the time, I was shocked because I knew that a cow's heart is a very tough thing, even cutting it with a knife is difficult, let alone crushing it with one's hand. This was clearly not something my third uncle had done. But if it wasn't my third uncle, then what happened to the cow's heart? At this moment, my third uncle frowned tightly, holding a sharp bone-picking knife in one hand and pulling on a cow horn with the other, turning the cow's head towards my mother as he said, "Sister-in-law, take a look here. This cow didn't die properly." "What else?" My mother was confused and looked down at the cow's head.

I followed their gaze and was once again stunned to see a small blood handprint on the forehead of the dead cow. What could this mean? Seeing this, my heart sank and I immediately thought of last night's dream. I raised my wrist and noticed that the fingerprint on it had become even redder, which made me realize that something was definitely amiss. This cow was not a normal death, it was likely killed by the wandering spirit of Little Hutt! The cow had died to save me, which left me confused and wanting to tell my mother everything. To my surprise, my mother seemed oblivious to the blood handprint on the cow's head. Instead, she followed my uncle's actions and lifted the cowhide, examining the skull. It was only then that I noticed the skull was also broken. "Uncle, what's going on here?" My mother was shocked by the discovery. "I don't know, that's why I find it suspicious," my uncle replied with frustration. He then sat against the wall, lit a cigarette, and pondered, "Did we offend someone? Did they intentionally kill the cow?" "We haven't offended anyone recently," my mother said, looking at me. "Aihen, did you get into trouble outside?"

At that moment, witnessing the pitiful state of the old yellow ox, I was filled with grief and indignation. So, I made up my mind and couldn't help but loudly say to my mother, "Mom, didn't you see the blood handprint on the ox's head? It was caused by the mischief of Xiao Hutu's ghost. She came to find me, and this ox died to save me! It was killed by Xiao Hutu's ghost!"