The Zhou family huddled around the long table, heads down as they ate.
Their movements were like crows drinking water, or wild dogs pawing at graves.
Bizarre and rigid, ravenous and vicious.
Inside the room, the sounds of gulping and chewing rose and fell in waves.
Had anyone eavesdropped from outside, they would likely have thought some foul entity had manifested within, gnawing away at a corpse.
Zhou Yang also kept his head bowed, eating quietly, lifting his gaze only when raising his chopsticks for dishes to secretly observe the others.
Choking down another large clump of hard, half-raw rice, he hurriedly glanced up, letting his eyes drift casually toward Zhou Heigou.
This man surnamed Zhou, human or ghost unknown, seemed to take immense pleasure in the meal before him. He wolfed it down with abandon, his chin smeared with blood and filth, appearing more ghastly than an evil ghost.
Judging solely from his eating habits, Zhou Yang could discern not the slightest clue.
There was no telling from this whether he was human or ghost.
As a living person, without special means, one could not consume this dead person's food for long.
When Zhou Yang first began living in Guancun, he was nowhere near as emaciated as he was now, looking like a dry wheat stalk—and that was only because he restricted himself each day to minute amounts of the dead person's food, barely sustaining his basic bodily functions.
Were one to gorge on dead person's food in large quantities over time, one would surely turn into an actual corpse.
Now, backed by the Ghost Breath, Zhou Yang could eat this dead person's food with ease, even using the breath technique to draw nourishment from fare inherently toxic to the living.
Was Zhou Heigou in a similar situation, then?
Did he also possess a breathing technique akin to Ghost Breath?
Just as Zhou Yang was about to look away, Heigou seemed to sense it. He suddenly turned his head, his gaze locking dead onto Zhou Yang's.
Heigou split his lips into a grin, his expression turning rather genial. Peering into Zhou Yang's bowl, he said, "What's the matter, Third Brother? Not enough rice in your bowl? Here, your brother will give you some."
As he spoke, he reached over with his bowl and scraped all of his half-cooked rice into Zhou Yang's.
Zhou Yang's face stiffened.
Just at that moment, everyone else at the dinner table turned their eyes toward him.
Under the collective gaze, he seemed forced to put on a strained smile and accept Zhou Heigou's 'kindness': "Thank you, Second Brother. This is plenty for me, no need to trouble yourself further—"
"What trouble?
"We're all one family. We ought to be warm and close.
"You used to always hide away in your room and never ate with us, growing distant from everyone." The smile on Zhou Heigou's face widened. He brought over an earthenware bowl and scooped more than half of the bloody meat inside into Zhou Yang's bowl. "Look how skinny you are.
"Eat more, Third Brother..."
Zhou Yang's smile remained frozen, a faint blue vein pulsing at his temple.
Seeing his expression, Zhou Heigou grew even more smug, the provocation in his eyes practically solidifying.
Right then, Huang Shaodiao chimed in with an amiable beam, "That's right! Isn't it wonderful when our family loves each other like this?
"Yang'er, I think you've misjudged your second brother. He has a harsh tongue, but in his heart, he knows how to care for his little brother!
"Eat, Yang'er, eat. Eat plenty..."
Huang Shaodiao's gaze was full of eager encouragement.
Zhou Yang finally lowered his eyelids and buried his head in his meal.
He deliberately ground the grains of rice and clotted lung tissue between his teeth, making sharp, crunching noises.
His cheeks bulged rhythmically.
Watching this, Zhou Heigou became all the more pleased with himself.
'That's it.
'In Zhou Heigou's eyes, I'm best seen as an insignificant nobody he can manipulate at will.
'Better yet, until the day he dies, he'll never suspect it was me who made a move against him...'
Zhou Yang pondered silently.
The dead person's food entering his mouth steadily dissolved into streams of icy air that circulated beneath Zhou Yang's skin. As this chilling breath seeped into his flesh and blood, a surge of strength gradually welled up from his limbs and bones.
The weakness lingering within his frame receded by several degrees.
The dead person's food was actually of great benefit to Zhou Yang now.
He wished he could eat more each day—yet in this household, the food apportioned to each person per meal was strictly fixed.
Zhou Heigou passing his share over had actually played right into Zhou Yang's hands.
After the meal, Huang Shaodiao stacked the bowls and dishes into a pile, while Zhou Yang hastily stepped forward to wipe down the table.
Seeing him eagerly curry favor, Zhou Heigou appeared rather disinterested.
Before dinner, Heigou had actively competed with Zhou Yang for chores to win their mother's approval. But after a single meal, he felt this person posed no real threat to him after all, completely losing interest in fawning over the old woman.
Huang Shaodiao took in all of this.
Sitting at the head of the long table, Zhou Laogou watched his wife and sons clear away the bowls and chopsticks. He tapped the tabletop, and the whole family directed their gaze toward him, knowing he had something to say.
His expression was dull and wooden as he drawled slowly, "Our family has an old chain, and the dogs at the Dog King's place are about to whelp.
"Once the Opening Rite is over, Heigou'er will be working in the village patrol squad.
"I plan to take that old chain when the time comes and go tether a fang puppy back from the Dog King's home for Heigou'er to use."
Hearing this, Zhou Heigou's eyes lit up at once, his face beaming with delight.
Seeing Zhou Heigou's reaction, Zhou Yang immediately understood that the pups whelped by the dogs at the 'Dog King's' house had to be of immense value!
Yet to claim a pup from the Dog King's place, the family's heirloom 'old chain' also seemed to be an absolute necessity.
Not yet understanding the circumstances behind it, Zhou Yang kept quiet, pricking his ears to listen from the corner.
"Indeed, there are ghosts outside the village; it's dreadfully perilous.
"A dog really should be leashed and brought back for the boy heading out on village patrols, so he has something to defend himself with." Huang Shaodiao echoed Zhou Laogou's words. Then, just as the joy on Zhou Heigou's face became almost impossible to contain, she suddenly shifted the topic. "After the Opening Rite, Yang'er is going to the village patrol squad too...
"If the old chain goes to Heigou, what about Yang'er? His body is far weaker than his second brother's."
Zhou Heigou's expression froze, and he turned to glare at Zhou Yang.
Zhou Yang wore a blank, dim-witted look, appearing as though he hadn't even processed what was said.
"They're both your sons. It wouldn't do for one to have it while the other has nothing," Huang Shaodiao added.
Hearing her, Zhou Laogou raised his eyes toward Zhou Yang in the corner.
On that dull, expressionless face, his eyes were gloomy and profound.
He stared blankly at Zhou Yang for a while before abruptly saying, "Heigou loves me. Yang'er does not love me.
"He might not even pass the Opening Rite.
"The old chain goes to Heigou.
"If Yang'er passes the Opening Rite, give him the bell left over at home. Have him take the bell to the blacksmith shop and ask Afu to forge a new chain—as for a fang puppy, let him go ask for one from another household himself.
"There are only so many pups at the Dog King's home, and only the old chain can tether them."
Huang Shaodiao lowered her head. Seemingly holding the highest standing in the household, she did not dare offer the slightest objection to Zhou Laogou's words now.
Zhou Heigou held his head high, the sideways glance he cast at Zhou Yang dripping with contempt and malice.
In this family, he did hold some status after all.
Even Zhou Yang hadn't expected Zhou Laogou to favor Zhou Heigou this much.
And whether Laogou favored Heigou was enough to determine Heigou's rank in this household.
What, then, had Zhou Heigou done to make Laogou like him so much?
Chapter 48