Since we were exhausted, we fell asleep the moment we crawled into bed.  

However, before dawn, I heard Er Dan cry from the room next to ours. “Dad! Dad, what happened to you?” 

I wanted to ask Li Mazi to go there and check, but he was sleeping like a dead pig. I had to get up and check out the situation myself. I put on some clothes and went to the room next door.

What I saw made me shudder. Li Mazi’s second uncle was lying on his bed, and his face was as white as a sheet of paper. His eyes had rolled to the back of his head, and his mouth was stuffed with yellowish-brown mud and soil. 

Er Dan was crying loudly, and his voice was almost gone from crying so much. I wanted to ask him what had happened, but...