ID No. 019 - Chapter 3.2

Chen Yang left and disappeared into the bushes.

The young man fished out the medicine bottle from his pocket and counted eight pills remaining. He downed two and went searching for a higher vantage point.

The newbies had left, leaving only the veterans in the room. Zhang Yan gazed at the sky lost in thought, while Lin Yue scrolled through the pictures she had taken this morning. The two had been together from the very beginning; witnessing the deaths of their teammates, enduring unimaginable pain, and barely escaping all while seeing the darkest sides of man.

Lin Yue discarded the act she had been putting on, but Zhang Yan still kept his vile character hidden under a gentlemanly facade.

“The newbies are utterly clueless that you’ve cast them out as bait. How pitiful.” Lin Yue stared at the pictures on her phone. Morning on the island was beautiful and completely void of ghosts.

Zhang Yan shrugged his shoulders and said, “The situation is way too bizarre. There’s been no progress at all, so we can only use someone’s death to unveil a clue.”

Lin Yue sneered and left.

Zhang Yan calmly wiped the rice congee he spilled onto his windbreaker. The odds of novices surviving were slim, so it was better to have them die with purpose. His goal from the very beginning was to lure the monsters out by splitting the group. 

The mission would begin once someone died.

Chen Yang hadn’t left the village. Instead, he had looped around and returned to Li Dafu’s house. He had some long, rusty nails in his pocket he yanked out of a broken piece of wood.

It would be great if he could find a few more.

Chen Yang passed by the house that neighboured Li Dafu’s and ran into Teacher Zhou, a school teacher.

He was a young man in his 20s who wore a grey changshan and black-rimmed glasses. Teacher Zhou was warm, humble and possessed considerable influence on the island due to the local’s high evaluation of him.

Chen Yang greeted him with a smile.

Teacher Zhou warmly returned his greeting and said, “The weather is nice today. Why not take a stroll around the island, Mr. Chen?”

Chen Yang replied, “My stomach feels a little queasy.”

“Ah, it must be the change in environment. I have some herbal medicine at home. You can come with me and – ” Teacher Zhou was interrupted by Mrs. Liu, who lived in the house next to Li Dafu, “Teacher Zhou, what brings you here?”

“Mrs. Liu, didn’t you mention that you will send your son to school today?” Teacher Zhou said, “Why didn’t I see him this morning?”

Mrs. Liu had been hanging her washing. She had an old wooden bucket by her feet and a metal clothesline right above her. As she was wringing out a shirt she said. “He refused to go!”

“I almost kneeled begging him. Can you imagine how frustrating it is, Teacher Zhou? I really don’t know what to do. If my husband and eldest son hadn’t gone missing at sea, they could’ve looked after him… sigh!”

Mrs. Liu sniffled, “Teacher Zhou, you have to help my son! He has to go to school. He mustn’t end up illiterate like me.”

Teacher Zhou adjusted his glasses, “Children have their own little worlds. You have to talk to them more.”

Mrs. Li revealed a bitter smile, “We can’t chat anymore. He complains that I’m annoying whenever I speak even a word. I don’t know how it ended up like this. My son used to love playing outside, and I had to yell for him whenever it was mealtime. He wouldn’t come home unless I dragged him back. It’s been many days since he last stepped out of the house.”

Chen Yang was thinking of cutting a section of that metal clothesline for himself, but Mrs. Liu’s youngest son drew his interest. He was perplexed and asked, “Did something happen at school?”

Mrs. Liu didn’t catch on. However, Teacher Zhou understood and his expression soured slightly, “Mr. Chen, I acknowledge your point, but it’s impossible for there to be bullying in the school. There are few children on the island and they know each other well.”

“,,,” Chen Yang cleared his throat and offered a placating smile before moving on.

Teacher Zhou knocked on the door a few times, but received no response. As he was the only teacher on this island he couldn’t linger for long, but before he left he asked Mrs. Liu to communicate with her son.

Mrs. Liu hung her laundry as she muttered to herself, “How am I supposed to talk with him? Children are debts of your past life. I’m busy all day long and still have to worry about him.”

Chen Yang chuckled, “It’s normal to not like school. I used to skip classes all the time when I was young.”

“He used to enjoy it.” Mrs. Liu heaved a sigh, “Still, he should go to school. What else can he do? I don’t need him to help me catch fish.”

Chen Yang could read the emotions on her face, “How old is your son?”

Mrs. Liu said, “He’s nine.”

Chen Yang remarked, “He’s in his rebellious stage. Children at this age have their own opinions, quite a lot at that. We can only explain things to them nicely.”

“It’s not as easy as you make it out to be. He won’t even come out of the room to eat. It’s like I don’t exist in this household. This boy becomes more defiant as he gets older.” Mrs. Liu let out a deep sigh, reluctant to continue this conversation. She spotted Madam Li steadily making her way to her doorstep with a winnowing basket in hand. Mrs. Liu shouted at the old woman, “Madam Li, Mrs. Chen said that there’ll be a meeting tonight! They’ll be distributing fertiliser!”

Madam Li couldn’t hear her clearly, “What?”

“Fertiliser! Just ask your son.” Mrs. Liu shouted till her throat was hoarse and shook her head, “She’s getting up there in age and her ears don’t work like they used to. Her son complains, but he still bears with her.”　

Chen Yang took note of the old lady’s crooked posture and directed a question at Mrs. Liu, “I noticed a lot of fertiliser had been shipped to the island. What are you going to do with it?”

Mrs. Liu dredged up the final pair of socks from the wooden bucket and replied, “What else can you do with fertiliser besides putting it in the fields?”

Chen Yang remarked, “There doesn’t seem to be that many fields on the island.”

“There are only a few fields and you can’t use it in some places too, like…” Mrs. Liu awkwardly halted and changed the topic. She raised her voice again, “Hey Madam Li, did anyone steal your fertiliser?”

Madam Li was squatting on the ground as she dried the wild herbs in her winnowing basket, “Huh?”

“I said— ”  Mrs. Liu had to scream a few more times before Madam Li understood what she was saying.

“No.” Madam Li waved her hand and said, “I shut the doors and windows whenever Dafu goes out to sea. When he’s home, those weasels don’t even dare to come in.”

Mrs. Liu recalled a painful memory and let out a drawn out sigh, “It’s different when you have a man at home.”

Chen Yang observed her weathered face and asked, “Mrs. Liu, did someone steal your fertiliser?”

“Yes.” She poured the water from the bucket and spat onto the ground, “That damned thief took most of it!”

Chen Yang spent some time chatting with Mrs. Liu. By the time she had to leave the house, she had lowered down her guard and asked if he was free to look after her son.

He agreed to her request since he wanted to meet the boy.

Soon after she left, he added a rusty strip of wire to his collection of nails. Just as he was thinking of ways to get the child out of his room, a child peeked into the house from the gate.

It was a scrawny boy with tanned skin and a curiously playful personality.

Upon enticing the skinny little monkey over with milk candy, he learned that the boy was in the same class as Mrs. Liu’s son. He had been stuck at home for the past few days and came to visit out of boredom.

“Teacher Zhou dropped by this morning because he didn’t go to school again. His mother seems powerless to do anything about it. Do you know what happened to him?” Chen Yang crouched to his level.

The skinny monkey sucked on the milk candy as he answered, “He wasn’t picked as the class monitor.”

Chen Yang sat on a tree stump with his head in his hands, momentarily speechless, “… So, just because he didn’t make class monitor, he’s skipping school?”

“His ego was hit real bad, you know? He was sure he would be chosen this time. He started flaunting his authority before he was even named class monitor and ended up making a fool of himself. Xiao-Xing isn’t even friends with him anymore.” The little monkey smirked.

Chen Yang wasn’t interested in playing along with the kid and took out another milk candy, “Mrs. Liu asked me to take care of your classmate, but he’s been holed up inside and refuses to come out, even when Teacher Zhou called for him. Do you know how to coax him out of his room?”

The skinny monkey snatched the piece of candy and carefully kept it away. He confidently stated, “You adults like to overcomplicate things. Getting him to come out is easy.”

“Watch me.” He patted his chest and shouted out loud, “Hey, Xiao-Xing is here!”

The door was flung open and a chubby boy ran out. He panted as he scanned the courtyard, but didn’t see the person he was looking for. He glared at the skinny boy and shouted, “Li Yang! You lied to me!”

The scrawny kid made a face and then ran away.

The chubby boy was furious, disappointed and aggrieved. His eyes reddened as he obstinately searched every corner of the courtyard, even peering out of the gate.

Chen Yang felt a sense of nostalgia as he watched the boy gradually become listless. Life was pure and simple as a child; you were either happy or unhappy.

Chen Yang offered him a piece of milk candy, “Eat it. It’s delicious.”

The boy hesitated to take it. Chen Yang nudged the snack forward, prompting the boy to accept the candy. With a blush on his face, he said, “Thank you, big brother.”

Chen Yang patted the boy’s head, but the smile on his face disappeared as he stood up.

There was a foul odour coming from the child’s mouth, which was so pungent it made him dizzy and nauseous.

It was the smell of fertiliser!