Wang Haibao was tall and burly. Carrying a frail little woman like Chuntao was as light as carrying a bale of cotton; it was no effort at all for him.
He practically jogged all the way forward. Wang Haichao, who was shorter and had stubby legs, followed behind, panting heavily.
"Haibao, slow down, wait for me!"
Wu Jinshan's hometown was Niuzhuang, west of Wulipo. He ran a restaurant in Nangang and only stayed in his old family house during the New Year.
Today, he had returned to Niuzhuang early and was waiting there.
After Wang Haichao told him about Chuntao, he had specifically asked around and even sneaked over to Wangjiazhai to catch a glimpse of her. Just one look, and he was completely mesmerized.
He was a businessman, shrewd to the bone. No matter how much he liked her in his heart, he didn't show a hint of it in front of Wang Haichao.
They had previously agreed on twenty yuan a time. When Wang Haichao tried to raise the price, he stood firm at twenty, refusing to budge. "If you don't want to, then forget it. Women are the last thing I'm short of anyway!"
Wang Haichao was also a crafty one and immediately replied, "I only introduced her to you because of our friendship. If you don't like her, I won't force it.
There's an old driver in town who has looked for me several times. He saw Chuntao when he came to my house for drinks last time, and he was absolutely smitten..."
After some haggling between the two, Wu Jinshan paid an advance of fifteen yuan, with the remaining fifteen to be paid after the deed was done.
Today, he deliberately went to the oilfield bathhouse to take a shower, visited the barbershop for a haircut and a shave, and changed into new clothes.
He returned to the old house just as it was getting dark, making the bed neat and tidy, waiting for Wang Haichao to deliver the person at midnight.
He checked his watch; it was already eleven o'clock, and they still hadn't arrived. Burning with impatience, he paced around the courtyard in circles.
At the thought of Chuntao's delicate and soft little figure, he swallowed hard, wondering if that old fox Wang Haichao was playing him.
Could he be taking a bite for himself first before sending her over? If that was the case, he could forget about the remaining fifteen yuan!
Back to Wang Haichao's side, Wang Haibao wasn't listening to him at all, just stubbornly charging forward.
How could he not know what Wang Haibao was thinking? The kid was crazy with lust.
Anyway, Chuntao had long been kicked out by Zhou Zhijun, and she wasn't a virgin anymore.
Unable to catch up, he simply stopped trying. Panting heavily, he shouted ahead, "Wait for me on the slope up ahead!"
Wang Haibao was nearly thirty and had long been starved for a woman, ready to take anything he could get.
The other night, when Liu Cuilan went to the outhouse in the middle of the night, he had cornered her in the toilet.
But Liu Cuilan was in her forties; how could she compare to a tender young wife like Chuntao? He thought about her so much every day that he couldn't sleep.
The more Wang Haibao thought about it, the more excited he got, and his strides grew longer.
Wulipo ahead was a desolate slope with no signs of human habitation for five miles around. In the middle of the night, you couldn't even see a rabbit.
Wang Haibao gasped for breath, his face and body covered in sweat. His clothes were soaked through, clinging stickily to his skin.
He laid Chuntao flat on the grass and impatiently groped around to undo her clothes.
...
While Wang Haibao ran ahead, Wang Haichao caught his breath and started jogging again.
He was afraid Wu Jinshan would get anxious from waiting, and also feared it would be too late and they would be discovered when bringing Chuntao back.
Wang Haichao ran until he was out of breath. The beam of his flashlight swayed wildly in the dark, dazzling his eyes.
Suddenly, a dull pain struck the back of his head. Before he could even let out a groan, he collapsed heavily onto the ground.
On Wang Haibao's side, his hands were shaking like leaves. He fumbled wildly at Chuntao's waistband, trying to untie the belt, but unexpectedly pulled it into a dead knot.
It was pitch black all around, and he couldn't see a thing. Wang Haibao was so anxious he felt like he was on fire, wishing he could just bash his head against a wall.
"Damn it!" He reached into his pocket for matches, intending to burn the belt off.
"Guh—heh—heh..."
Suddenly, the chilling laugh of an owl echoed from not far away, a sound that made one's blood run cold.
Much of Wang Haibao's eager anticipation was instantly scared away. Before he could strike the match in his hand, it dropped to the ground.
There was an old saying in the countryside: "Don't fear the owl's cry, fear the owl's laugh!"
An owl's laugh surely meant nothing good. Wang Haibao was terrified, but he absolutely refused to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He thought he could definitely get Chuntao pregnant tonight.
Liu Cuilan hadn't gotten pregnant even a year after getting her marriage certificate, but he had hit the mark on his first try. Wang Haibao had that kind of confidence.
With trembling hands, he pulled another match from the box and struck it hard. But the matchstick broke before it could ignite.
"Damn it!" Seeing the swaying beam of a flashlight approaching from a distance, he grew even more frantic.
His brother was almost catching up, and he hadn't even managed to take her pants off. He had to hurry!
He tried striking matches again, going through several before one finally lit.
He quickly brought it close to Chuntao's waistband to burn it, but before it could do the job, the match burned down to his fingers.
Wang Haibao gritted his teeth, cursing under his breath, feeling as though God was deliberately making things difficult for him.
Just as he was striking another match, he was suddenly struck on the back of the head with a club.
He whipped his head around, only to take another blow to the face, making him see stars.
Unable to see who the attacker was, the first name that popped into his mind was Zhou Zhijun.
Even if all four of their brothers teamed up, they were no match for Zhou Zhijun. Facing him alone, he was bound to suffer a terrible beating.
It was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over Wang Haibao, chilling him to the bone.
He tried to turn and run, but tripped over something and fell flat on his face.
"Ah..." He barely squeezed a single syllable from his throat before he went silent.
Both Wang Haichao and Wang Haibao had been taken down. In the darkness, a pair of large hands reached out toward the unconscious little woman.
Just as those calloused palms were about to touch the woman's face, they jerked back as if electrocuted, and the man's breathing grew increasingly heavy.
He reached out again, but paused before making contact.
This little woman—he thought about her every day and every night, so much that it had become an obsession.
At first, he thought that if he could just get her to look him in the eye once in this lifetime, he would be satisfied.
During the wheat harvest, when Chuntao was pulling a handcart up a slope, he had helped push from behind.
The corners of her lips had curled up slightly, her eyes full of gratitude, and she said two words: "Thank you!" Just those two words had kept him thrilled for days.
But humans are never satisfied. Once she finally looked at him, he began to harbor deeper desires.
If he could just have her once in this lifetime, dying would be worth it.
Now, this little woman was right in front of him in the middle of nowhere. This was the opportunity he had dreamed of, yet he found himself afraid.
A voice whispered in his ear, "Don't you like her? Hurry up... then your life won't have been in vain!"
Gritting his teeth until they ground together, the man suddenly reached out, gathered her feather-light body in his arms, hoisted her over his shoulder, and ran...
The night was like an impenetrable net, terrifyingly quiet. The laughing owl had gone silent, leaving only the heavy thud of the man's footsteps and his rapid, ragged breathing.
