Eaten While Alive

Chapter 20

Wild boars biting people was not an uncommon occurrence. Xinghua Village was surrounded by deep mountains and old forests. During the Republican era¹, there had been several wild boar rampages where crops were trampled and devoured, and incidents of boars injuring people were frequent.

After the founding of the People’s Republic², the area underwent two major periods of land reclamation. The territory of the wild boars shrank, forcing more of them into the living space of Xinghua Village. Every year, crops were eaten by the boars.

For this reason, farmers with land in the mountains would build shacks at the edge of their fields. When the corn or sweet potatoes ripened, someone would be stationed there specifically to guard them.

Once or twice a year, the village would organize a collective hunt for large wild boars.

Occasionally, incidents of boars biting people still occurred, but generally, they were not severe. These mountain creatures had been dealing with the people of Xinghua Village for hundreds of years, and usually, they would just flee after eating the crops.

The only time they had fought humans to the death was because someone had killed two piglets. In the evening, as the man carried the two piglets home on a shoulder pole, seven or eight large boars chased him into the village and gored him to death.

From then on, the people of Xinghua Village followed an unwritten rule: when dealing with wild boars, you either kill them all or simply drive them away. Thus, the boars and the villagers maintained a strange sort of peace.

When the other villagers heard that a wild boar had eaten Madman Zhang, they were astonished. Hadn’t he just been bitten? How could he have been eaten?

The word “eaten” was far too grave.

The corpse was carried back from the mountains by several men and placed under the large tree at the village entrance. Everyone in the village ran to see.

One look was enough to terrify them. Even the bravest men in the village didn’t dare take a second glance. Madman Zhang’s mother ran over from a distance, took one look, and nearly fainted.

Indeed, “bitten” was the wrong word. It had to be “eaten.”

The corpse’s right arm and left shoulder were almost completely hollowed out, leaving behind only a bone clinging with scraps of flesh…

Ming Wen also came over. She didn’t feel afraid at the sight, but she found it very strange that a wild boar would eat a human.

Naturally, she stepped forward to examine the situation.

No one stopped her. In the eyes of the others, Ming Wen had every right to look.

The man was certainly dead, but the body was not ice-cold; it still held a lingering warmth.

In cases of massive blood loss, body temperature drops. Ming Wen made a rough estimate that he had been dead for less than four hours.

The others were still discussing how the body had been found.

“I passed by that way today and saw that most of your sweet potato patch had been trampled by boars. I was going to go over and see what happened, but man, as soon as I got close, I saw blood.”

Three days ago, when Madman Zhang heard his family say that Ming Wen was pregnant, he had been instantly enraged. Even after beating her, the anger in his heart hadn’t been fully vented.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He had owed so much money to buy this Trafficked Bride, and now she was pregnant.

But he had been unable to perform lately. He didn’t know what was wrong, but he had simply gone limp.

His mother asked him what was going on. Now that his wife was pregnant, how could he still beat her?

Madman Zhang opened his mouth but found it impossible to tell his family about his impotence.

At that moment, he suddenly realized that he couldn’t let this matter blow up. He even had to keep the child in her belly.

If the child was gone, the villagers would surely mock him later for being unable to father a child.

The more Madman Zhang thought about it, the more stifled he felt, so he ran out.

He was a nuisance in the village and had nowhere to go, so he went to the shack on the mountainside.

This shack was where people usually slept at night to guard the crops when they were nearly ripe.

He lay in the shack, thinking about this Outsider Wife, thinking about her close relationship with Sha Niu and Sha Niu’s Mother. If she told Sha Niu what happened, Sha Niu was a brainless big-mouth, and soon the whole village would know of his shame.

The fire of rage in his heart burned hotter and hotter.

It was at this moment that a grunting sound came from outside the shack.

The anger that originally had no outlet was suddenly unleashed.

Madman Zhang’s entire mind was consumed by fury. He grabbed a nearby hoe and stepped out of the shack.

In the adjacent field, a small wild boar was grunting as it rooted through the sweet potato vines.

Perhaps sensing danger, it turned and bolted.

Madman Zhang swung the hoe but missed. He couldn’t kill a person, and now he couldn’t even kill a wild boar!

His rage flared even higher, and he took off in pursuit.

Today, he was going to hack this boar into eight pieces to vent the fire in his heart!

In the past, everyone’s reaction would be to scare the boar away. No one would ever chase a boar into the mountains alone.

Madman Zhang was different. In the darkness of the night, he chased the boar into the mountains. He was like a man possessed, determined to kill that piglet.

As the piglet entered the mountains, its grunting grew louder, and several large boars nearby naturally heard it.

Yet Madman Zhang persisted in trying to strike the piglet.

When the pack of boars arrived, this was the scene they witnessed. The wild boars of the mountains also followed the laws of nature.

Though their species lacked a recorded civilization, certain emotions transcend species.

The pack of boars watched with their own eyes as this human struck the piglet dead with a hoe.

Madman Zhang was delighted. See? Dead!

However, in the next second, he heard a sound.

Madman Zhang sensed danger, but it was already too late. A boar charged, goring him and flipping him to the ground.

Immediately after, seven or eight boars began goring and biting him. Finally, the dying man was dragged into a cave.

By then, Madman Zhang’s legs were broken. Lying in the pitch-black cavern, he could hear his own blood flowing out. He could hear the sound of three to five boars devouring his body.

He desperately wanted to die, but his body wouldn’t move. He could only stay alive. Consciously alive.

Every time the boars returned, his heart trembled. He hoped he would die quickly, die quickly, but he couldn’t move, and so he couldn’t die.

Ming Wen stood among the crowd, listening to the villagers chatter back and forth. She said nothing.

It turned out that wild boars would actually eat people. Furthermore, Ming Wen had not told anyone else about it. Judging by the man’s condition, he had likely been gnawed on by the boar for two days while he was still alive.

Translator’s Notes