"I've heard a story about a town, not told by the locals, but by someone from outside who once visited the town..."
......
The story Li Chenghang spoke of was brought in from outside and circulated briefly in the town. But soon, perhaps fearing it might slander the town's deity, people gradually stopped mentioning it.
Not because the story was false, but because it was too true. Everyone knew the one at the heart of the tale; they all had an impression of him. His name was Gong Sanniu, a man in his forties. The Duan family remembered he had died of typhoid fever.
But Li Chenghang had heard otherwise—that the man had died a sudden and violent death.
