My mom turned off the blender and leaned her ear close to my mouth in the silence.

I could clearly see the black mole on her earlobe.

She wanted to check if I was still breathing.

After a while, she moved away, her wet hand covering my face.

I was plunged into darkness as she closed my eyes.

I heard her snap at my brother, "Why are you so jumpy? She's your sister, she won't harm you."

I couldn't see her expression, but I could smell the heavy scent of blood.

My brother made a strange noise.

Maybe because he was scared, his asthma acted up again.

I heard my mom gently pat his back, helping him breathe easier, "It's okay, with the witch's remedy, you won't suffer anymore."

The witch's remedy.

Our village had always had many folk remedies.

For example, drinking some laxatives to cure appendicitis, a bottle of vinegar to cure gallbladder worms, using urine from a young boy to wash frostbite to prevent it from happening again, drinking chicken blood to cure congenital weakness.

There was even a remedy of drinking talisman water to cure madness.

Erzhuzi at the village entrance had been mad for many years and his family couldn't afford treatment. They found an old woman to call back his soul. The old woman splashed him with chicken blood and whipped him, and eventually locked him in the pigsty, only giving him raw rice and talisman water. In seven or eight days, he was no longer mad, gradually could speak properly, greet people, and even found a wife and had a child.

Because of Erzhuzi, that old woman became famous.

Now, when people talked about her, they called her "the witch."

The remedy in my mom's hand was bought from her. My tuition fees and the money I earned from my summer job all went into the witch's pockets.

The meat grinder started working again.

The fan was also roaring.

It was September, but the weather was still very hot. If the process was slow, there would be a stink.

Moreover, my brother's asthma couldn't be delayed.

But my brother must have been too scared. As he breathed heavily, he violently knocked down the medicine bowl my mom handed him. He started shouting again, "Sister, sister opened her eyes!"

I

was dead, my body split in half, but my eyes were still open.

My mom covered my brother's eyes and sent him back to his room.

After a while, she took out her phone and dialed a number. Her hands were shaking so badly that it took a while to make the call. Soon, the witch's voice came through.

She must have been eating something, smacking her lips as she asked, "Is it you, sister-in-law? How did it go? The remedy should work. You don't need to work too hard, just chop up a little and use it as a medicinal guide."

My mom seemed scared, or maybe she finally smelled the stench from my body. As soon as she opened her mouth, she vomited all over the place, her voice broken and intermittent, "She... seems unwilling..."

"What do you mean unwilling?"

"She's glaring at me."

There was a snort on the other end of the line, "A girl who died a terrible death, no heaven or earth cares for her, helping to save the family's male heir is her blessing. How dare she have an attitude? Sister-in-law, bring the phone over, I'll talk to her."

My mom put the phone next to my corpse and turned on the speakerphone.

But the witch didn't speak for a while. When she did, her tone had changed, "Sister-in-law, check if the girl's eyes have changed color." The once fearless voice now trembled as she swallowed hard, "A girl who died unjustly needs her eyes covered, otherwise... otherwise, something big will happen. Her eyes not closing is already a sign."