Chapter 121: Scared Out of His Wits, Zhou Sinian’s Strange Behavior

Wang Defa let out a terrified, high-pitched scream, but unfortunately, his entire head was wrapped tightly in the blanket, and no sound could escape to the outside.

Before he could struggle, an icy cold hand gripped his neck.

His head tilted to the side, and he passed out.

Zhou Sinian yanked the blanket off him and stared coldly at the man whose face had been beaten into a swollen mess, resembling a pig’s head.

The military dagger in his hand slowly rose as he gently traced it along the man’s neck.

Even in his unconscious state, Wang Defa seemed to sense the danger. His eyes remained shut as he struggled slightly, his neck brushing against the blade, leaving thin trails of blood.

Zhou Sinian watched the bright red droplets stain the edge of the blade. Strange images flashed through his mind, and a sharp, scattered pain spread inside his head.

He couldn’t help but withdraw the dagger and grabbed the edge of the nightstand for support as he gasped for breath.

When the pain finally subsided, he looked back at the man on the bed with increasing irritation.

He raised the dagger, ready to strike again, but suddenly remembered Ming Dai’s instructions: “You can beat people, but you cannot kill them.”

He pouted reluctantly, withdrew the blade, and his eyes suddenly lit up. He decided he could use Wang Defa to practice. Ming Dai had told him he should practice whenever he had time.

So, following Ming Dai’s teachings, Zhou Sinian struck every acupoint one by one.

Wang Defa, still unconscious, was unexpectedly cooperative. Other than constant muffled groans, he didn’t resist at all.

Zhou Sinian felt very pleased and generously gave him a second round, going over every acupoint once more.

By the time Zhou Sinian finally withdrew his hands, completely satisfied, Wang Defa on the bed had turned into a “soaked rabbit” — his entire body was drenched as if he had just been pulled out of water. Even the bed was soaked through.

A foul, fishy stench lingered in the air. Zhou Sinian lifted the blanket for a glance, then, with a look of disgust, covered him back up.

Feeling pleased with himself, he was about to leave. But after taking just two steps, he suddenly remembered something.

He returned, grabbed both of Wang Defa’s hands, and forced his fingers to scratch fiercely at his own neck.

When the neck was left a bloody mess, with shredded flesh stuffed beneath the fingernails, Zhou Sinian finally felt satisfied. He dropped Wang Defa’s hands and left the room the same way he had come.

Although Wang Defa lay on the bed with his eyes tightly shut, appearing to be unconscious, in reality, he hadn’t passed out. He had only been struck on certain acupoints, placing him in a state of sleep paralysis.

So, every single strike, both rounds of acupoint blows, he had felt clearly and painfully!

That kind of excruciating pain, combined with the inability to move or cry out, made Wang Defa wish for death rather than experience it again.

Though the room had a stove for warmth, his body was drenched in sweat and urine. In the middle of the night, he developed a severe fever. If it hadn’t been for the nurse on duty checking the room, he might have ended up brain-damaged from the fever.

Even so, it took him two full days before he finally regained full consciousness.

When he opened his eyes and saw his concerned parents sitting by his bed, the first words out of his mouth were, “The madman came to beat me again!”

Then his whole body began trembling uncontrollably. He curled up under the blanket, staring fearfully at the door, shivering non-stop and shouting, “The madman is coming back! He’s coming to beat me again! It hurts so much!”

Wang Youcai, seeing his son terrified to such an extent, was completely enraged. He immediately gathered people and searched every corner of the hospital, inside and out.

Unfortunately, Zhou Sinian had already erased every trace. There was no sign of forced entry anywhere in the hospital.

Wang Youcai had to wait until his son finally calmed down a little before carefully questioning him about what had happened.

Wang Defa shrank into his mother’s arms, trembling as he recounted everything that had happened.

When he heard his son say that the madman not only cut his neck with a knife but also beat him all over, Wang Youcai fell silent, staring at his son, who was clearly on edge and showing signs of hysteria.

After a long pause, he sighed and said, “Defa, you must have had a nightmare. The doctors checked your body as soon as you were found. Aside from the old injuries, there are no new wounds or bruises. As for your neck, you scratched it yourself — even your fingernails are broken and split.”

Hearing that his father didn’t believe him, Wang Defa became agitated. He tried to crawl out of his mother’s arms and stand up, but the sharp pain sent him collapsing back onto the bed. His face turned pale as he lay there groaning in agony.

It hurt too much!

Every part of his body hurt!

He didn’t even know where to hold or where to press to relieve it.

Wang Youcai and his wife rushed forward to help him, but the moment they touched him, Wang Defa let out a piercing scream, scaring them so badly that they didn’t dare touch him again.

Wang Defa cried with tears and snot streaming down his face. His mouth, missing several teeth, felt hollow and empty, and he had bitten his inner cheeks so badly they were full of cuts.

“Father! The madman really came and beat me again! Father, it hurts! It hurts so much I could die! Please save me! Save me!”

Wang Youcai only had this one son. No matter how useless or disgraceful he might be, he was still the only heir to the Wang family.

Seeing his son in such agony, as if he might truly die from the pain, Wang Youcai panicked. He immediately called every doctor in the hospital to come check on him.

The doctors took turns examining Wang Defa, but none of them found anything unusual.

In the end, the hospital director pulled Wang Youcai aside and quietly shared his own guess.

“Director, I think you’d better take Defa to the county hospital for a check-up. It would be best to get a scan done. Our conditions here are limited; maybe we really missed something.

If it’s not that… then perhaps Defa has been overstimulated and traumatized. In that case, he should also be seen by specialists at the county hospital.”

Wang Youcai shot the hospital director a cold glare, making the director lower his head in embarrassment.

So that was what he meant — if the scans showed nothing, then his son had simply been scared mad?

Wang Youcai looked at his son, who was curled up on the bed, crying endlessly. His eyes turned red with helpless frustration.

While Wang Youcai took his son to the county hospital for further examination, Zhou Sinian carried on as if nothing had happened. He played with the children in the village, ice-skating, throwing snow, and playing ice marbles.

Under Ming Dai’s guidance, they had built a massive ice slide. All the children from the village gathered on the threshing ground to play. At a glance, the entire field was filled with little ones wearing red scarves.

Zhou Sinian had truly become the king of the children.

Ming Dai specifically went to the village head’s house to ask about the situation with Wang Defa and the others. She learned that Wang Defa had been admitted to the hospital, and the other boys had been taken home by their families.

The commune didn’t punish them; they only instructed Liu Dazhu to keep a close eye on Zhou Sinian and not let him run around freely.

But Liu Dazhu simply let those words go in one ear and out the other. If the commune had been able to control Zhou Sinian, they would never have pushed this hot potato onto the village in the first place.

So those instructions were nothing more than empty talk.

Once Ming Dai confirmed there were no further issues, she relaxed completely. She never imagined that Zhou Sinian had gone over in the middle of the night and given Wang Defa another thorough beating — and even treated it as a chance to review his “homework.”

Meanwhile, far away at the county hospital, Wang Defa’s scans came out perfectly clear. Despite spending a large sum of money, there wasn’t a single abnormality on the images.

But several days passed, and Wang Defa still couldn’t move. Any slight movement brought pain all over his body.

The doctors concluded that it was likely a psychological problem.

And so, without Wang Defa even knowing what was happening, he was labeled as someone who had been scared insane and was quietly transferred to a mental hospital for “recovery.”

At first, Wang Youcai still suspected that the culprit really had been that madman — after all, his son had been beaten once before.

Later, when Wang Youcai received his subordinates’ investigation results, he confirmed that ever since Wang Defa had been injured, Zhou Sinian had stayed in the village, playing with the children every day without leaving even once.

The village’s horse-drawn sleighs had been running daily to Yudai River, but none had gone toward the commune.

In the end, he could only accept the bitter truth — his son was a coward who had been scared mad by Zhou Sinian.

Who could have imagined that Zhou Sinian would ride a wolf-drawn sled all the way to the commune in the middle of the night just to beat Wang Defa up?

If Ming Dai found out, she would probably praise Zhou Sinian for his boldness and skill — truly impressive!

Still, Wang Youcai bore a deep grudge against Zhou Sinian for driving his son insane. But there was nothing he could do. The official from the county had told him to keep an eye on Zhou Sinian but strictly forbade him from taking action.

For a while, Wang Youcai found himself stuck between anger and helplessness.

Ming Dai and Zhou Sinian knew nothing of this. At that moment, they were both at the village leader’s house.

Hei Laohu and Hua Baozi, Aunt Huang’s nephews, had returned from the mountains with their hunting rifles, bringing tiger bones with them.

Ming Dai had been waiting for this moment for a long time. The moment she finally laid eyes on the tiger bones, she was overjoyed, loving them so much that she wished she could take them home right away to start making medicine.

She was so caught up in her excitement that she didn’t notice Zhou Sinian’s odd expression.

He stood at a distance, refusing to come closer. As he stared at the open wooden crate, flashes of unfamiliar images bombarded his mind. His head throbbed more and more, and soon, cold sweat covered his forehead.