“Oh my god. It’s hurts! My mouth! It hurts!” Mrs. Gu’s shrieking woke up everyone who were sound asleep inside the large courtyard. When they looked over, they saw Mrs. Gu with her mouth wide opening and inhaling nonstop.
Gu Qiao couldn’t fall asleep till the middle of the night from that garlic breath of Mrs. Gu’s and was woken up by her early in the morning. He was so angry that he gave her a kick and said, “What are you shouting about so early in the morning?!”
“Husband… you… you….” Mrs. Gu, with her swollen tongue, could only made out mumbled words. She pointed her fat finger at Gu Qiao.
It was then when Gu Qiao noticed pain from his forehead. He touched it barely with his hand and it was so painful he almost started to cry.
“Husband, you have three pus-filled sores on your head and one was leaking pus and blood!” Mrs. Gu didn’t care about the pain in her mouth but fished out a handkerchief of ambiguous color to wipe away the pus and blood for her man.
“OUCH!” Gu Qiao shoved Mrs. Gu far, far away, “What are you doing? It hurts like hell! And what happened to you? Did you steal some food last night and burned your tongue? Is that why you are slurring in your speech?”
“My tongue hurts! My throat hurts! Take a look for me. Do I have canker sores in my mouth?” When she started talking, it hurt so much tears were rolling down her face. She inhaled rapidly and opened up her mouth wide to let her man inspect it.
The smell of the garlic she ate last night, after festering overnight, in addition to Mrs. Gu not having the habit of brushing her teeth, could rival that of bioweapons! It stank so badly that Gu Qiao almost passed out from it.
Gu Qiao gasped when he saw Mrs. Gu’s rotten throat and tongue. What had she eaten? Her mouth had rotten overnight, there was not a single intact spot on her tongue.
“Aiya! Your tongue was all rotted!” said Gu Qiao without thinking.
Mrs. Gu’s eyes widen. Her tongue was already numbed from pain and she couldn’t bare utter a word. She felt very suspicious too, if it was just from the food she ate, this couldn’t have happened overnight. So what was it?
When she caught site of a small figure out of the corner of her eye, she felt like she was stunned by lightning and she froze in the spot. What Gu Ye had said to her last night revolved around her head, “Your tongue will rot if you scold someone”, “Your tongue will rot if you scold someone”….
Looking back, before she turned mute, that girl had also said “the gods will punish you”. Was this all her doing? At that very moment, Gu Ye looked at her and gave her a diabolical smile. Mrs. Gu shuddered and she felt a tingle on her scalp.
Something was wrong with her! Very wrong. Mrs. Gu remembered clearly that she had stopped breathing before she tossed her into the mountain. In addition, she tossed where the wolves go. Logic would have it that there wouldn’t even be bones left after the wolves were done. But when she was found, the girl was in good spirit, almost like she had recovered from all of her illness.
And ever since she came back from the mountain, everything started to go wrong. There was definitely something wrong with the girl, perhaps…. She was possessed by some demons in the mountain? Right! That must be it! This girl was no longer the original Ge Ye. She must be some demons from the mountain! Looking at Gu Ye, Mrs. Gu’s eyes were filled with fear.
Gu Qiao looked in the same direction that Mrs. Gu was looking and saw the two siblings. He sighs, “Was there really karma? And it had come back to haunt us?”
People back then always have the rightful amount of fear from gods and spirits. Mrs. Gu’s fear was now deeply rooted. On their trip back she stayed as far away from Gu Ye as possible. She was afraid that the demon would appear all of a sudden and swallow her whole.