Chapter 015 Has Become a Spirit

San Quezi was a well-known old bachelor in our village. Fengxia's death was more or less related to him. It was said that when he was a child, he was too playful and broke his leg. At that time, the medical facilities were not perfect, and his family didn't take him to the hospital. After his leg healed, he had a slight limp. Besides, he was the third child in his family, so everyone called him San Quezi.

In my opinion, his leg didn't prevent him from doing farm work at all. Usually, if you watched him walking, you couldn't tell there was anything wrong with his leg if you didn't look carefully. And at that time, I even saw him stealing a chicken. He was quite agile. However, he was lazy and gluttonous. According to the adults, when he was a child, his parents always favored him, so they didn't let him do anything. After his parents passed away, he still remained the same. He would mooch off his eldest brother's family for a few days and then his second brother's family for a few days. He was already in his forties but still hadn't gotten married. He did all kinds of things like stealing chickens and dogs. In the village, neither the old nor the young liked him. But now he had made my Shengzi disappear. Looking at him lying on the ground, I couldn't help but step forward. "San Quezi, where's Shengzi? Where's my Shengzi!" San Quezi didn't care about me at all. He took out a red string from his pocket and then tied it to a blade of grass. There was also a small red flower on it, which looked exactly like Shengzi's topknot. I often played in the mountains and knew most of the flowers and plants there. I knew many things like the cat's flower bud and the edible "tian tian" (bittersweet nightshade) and so on. But I had never seen the one that San Quezi tied. But at that moment, I didn't care about that. I reached out and pulled him. "San Quezi! Where's my Shengzi!!" I felt like I was about to cry. How could a living child disappear because of him! While digging the ground with his hands, San Quezi glanced at me. "Ma Jiaolong, go to the side. Do you hear me? You're just a child and don't understand. Do you still think he's a child? This is a ginseng doll that has become a spirit!!" I grew up with Grandma, and some adults were used to calling me by my grandparents' surname. They both had the surname Ma, so most people called me Ma Jiaolong. Very few people knew that my actual surname was Lin. I was directly stunned and looked at San Quezi, who was still digging the ground. "What did you say Shengzi is?" San Quezi snorted and smiled proudly. "I'd say this is my fortune. When I was at home, my left eyelid kept twitching, so I wanted to come to the mountain. I didn't expect to see it as soon as I came up. It must be several hundred years old. If I sell this, not to mention building three houses, I'll have enough money to marry several wives." I saw that he completely ignored me and just kept muttering to himself, with excitement that he couldn't hide in his eyes. I was a bit anxious, squatted down, and grabbed his arm. "San Quezi, you make it clear to me! Stop digging. What exactly happened to Shengzi!!" "What Shengzi!!" San Quezi suddenly got angry and pushed me away violently. "Ma Jiaolong, I'm not going to argue with you, a little brat, for your grandma's sake. Do you understand? Go home! Don't delay my getting rich!!!" I was pushed by him, a grown man, and immediately rolled a few times. When I got up and was about to rush over, San Quezi directly stared at me with bloodshot eyes and raised his finger to point at me. "Scram! If you come over again, don't blame me for hitting you. At that time, not even your grandma, not even the King of Heaven, will be able to save you!" His appearance might have scared me. Besides, I didn't know where Shengzi had gone, so tears welled up in my eyes all of a sudden. I cried and muttered, "San Quezi! Give me back Shengzi!!" San Quezi looked at me and sneered. "Ma Jiaolong, you don't need to cry. You'll be able to see Shengzi soon. Don't worry. I'll let you take a look and broaden your horizons." I sniffled and looked at him, not knowing what San Quezi meant by that. After a while, the sun was about to set. I saw San Quezi take out something from the pit he had dug. I recognized that thing. I had seen someone selling it at the market. Grandma said it was ginseng. And the one that San Quezi had dug out now was obviously much bigger than the ones sold at the market. It had arms and legs and looked exactly like a child. I didn't know why, but my heart suddenly ached. I immediately felt that it was Shengzi. "Ma Jiaolong, I'm in a good mood today, so I'll explain it to you. The one you were playing with wasn't a child at all. It was a ginseng that had become a spirit. It takes hundreds of years for ginseng to become a spirit. Uncle is thanking you today. Thank you for making Uncle rich. Go home. When Uncle has money in the future, I definitely won't forget you. I'll buy you delicious food!!" San Quezi held the ginseng, waved it at me twice, and then was about to go down the mountain. I was immediately anxious and rushed up to hug his leg. "No! You can't go!! That's Shengzi. Bury him back! Bury him back! You can't sell him!!!" "You little girl, are you stupid! Is there any use in burying him now? Let go quickly. Do you hear me? Don't think that just because you played with him, he belongs to you. You don't know anything!!" I held onto his leg tightly. "He doesn't belong to me, and he doesn't belong to you either. He's Shengzi. Bury him back! He's from the mountains!!!" "Scram!!" San Quezi gave a hard pull and directly threw me to the side. When I stood up and was about to rush up again, he directly kicked me in the stomach with his slightly lame leg. At that moment, I couldn't hold on anymore. I let out a scream of "Ah!" and took a few steps back and fell to the ground. I almost lost my life because of that kick. San Quezi looked at me lying on the ground angrily. "You're so disrespectful. You're just a wild child. Do you know that? If it wasn't for your grandma's sake, I could have killed you. Damn it, you dared to delay my getting rich!" With that, he strode down the mountain. I didn't know where I got the strength from. I staggered to my feet and picked up a big stone and threw it at him. "San Quezi!! You can't sell Shengzi!!" The big stone flew straight towards San Quezi's head. Then I heard San Quezi let out a muffled groan. He covered his head and turned around slowly to look at me. "You little brat, you dare to hit..." Before he could finish his words, his legs directly gave way and he knelt on the ground. His body tilted and he fell down. At that moment, I didn't care about anything else. When I saw San Quezi fall down, I was almost scared out of my wits. My instinctive reaction was that I had killed someone. Then I ran to his side, picked up the ginseng beside his hand, and reached out to touch San Quezi. He was still breathing, but the back of his head was bleeding continuously. I didn't know what to do. I looked at the ginseng in my hand. "Shengzi, are you Shengzi?"

The ginseng was still covered with dirt and didn't give me any response. I looked back at the place where the ginseng had been dug out, then at San Quezi lying on the ground. With tears streaming down my face, I started running downhill as fast as I could.