The First Part: Miao Village Mysteries" Chapter Three, Section One

Furthermore, about my grandfather, after experiencing these ups and downs, he lay in bed for a month before recovering. This time, he didn't try to arrange a wife for my third uncle. Instead, he secretly had a fortune teller analyze my uncle's birth chart. The divination contained just two sentences: "A single goose flies from the south, and mandarin ducks are hard to pair." In plain terms, it meant that my third uncle had a rare destiny of repelling wives.

Considering the fates of my two previous third aunts, my grandfather accepted his fate and decided to have my uncle adopt a son. To keep things within the family, my second uncle came up with an idea. He summoned me and his own son.

My second uncle took out a box filled with green beans, dropped a red bean into it, shook it a few times, and challenged both of us to find the red bean. My cousin searched for a while and couldn't find it, while I casually dug around and discovered the red bean in my hand. From that day forward, I began to call my third uncle "father" and referred to my biological father as "uncle." (It wasn't until I turned eighteen that my uncle allowed me to switch back.)

I was told that I was born with my eyes open, which scared the old nurse at the maternity clinic. When I was just born, I cried a few times, but when the nurse picked me up from the hot water basin, she heard me giggling and felt my tiny hand pat her arm. The nurse trembled and almost dropped me.

At that time, some people considered me an omen of bad luck and even suggested that my parents should abandon me, believing I was a malevolent child who would bring harm to the village. However, my grandfather put those people in their place and insisted that I was an extraordinary child, destined for greatness.

Because I smiled right after birth, my grandfather believed I should have a strong name to balance my luck. So, he named me Shen La.

I started talking unusually early, speaking my first words like "grandfather," "grandmother," "dad," and "mom" when I was just six months old. My parents thought I might be a prodigy. However, everything changed after the incident with the "under-the-bed lady."

My mom told me that from an early age, I had a habit of talking to thin air. They initially dismissed it as a child's babbling or imagination. However, one day, my mom found me under the bed, and when she asked what I was doing, I blinked and said there was a lady under the bed who was complaining of feeling suffocated and wanted me to keep her company. My mom pulled the bed curtain aside, revealing an empty space. Her body went cold with fear.

That day, a new house was being constructed in the village, and my dad was helping with the construction. Left alone with me, my mom took me and rushed to my grandfather's house, trembling in fear. My grandfather, upon hearing the story, went to our house to investigate. When he came back, he asked me what I had seen. I recounted the incident under the bed, concluding with, "That lady has been in our house all along, but she doesn't let me talk about her." This time, my grandfather felt a chill run down his spine.

My grandfather summoned my dad back, and we stayed the night at his house. The next day, my grandfather brought back a bald-headed old man from the outside. Both of them first went to my house and stayed there for a long time until the sun set before returning.

When the old man entered our house, he immediately approached me, examined the top of my head for some time, and asked when I first saw these things. Finally, he wrote a few words on his palm, clenched his fist, and asked if I could see it.

To be continued in the next section!