7. A Devil's Spawn

He decided to quickly wash up and go speak to the village chief about the matter in the forest. But before he could even begin to do anything, he heard a commotion at the door as someone began to bang on the door heavily.

Who could it be? Mao Yin wondered. No one ever comes to visit and it was already so late in the day too.

He took a step forward to answer the door, but in the next moment it was already broken down and a crowd of people entered.

"There he is!"

A woman of rather large stature ran up to Mao Yin and slapped him so hard, the edges of his vision turned black and he saw stars as he hit the wall behind him. "You bastard! You killed my son!"

She lunged to attack him once more, but one of the other villagers held her back. "Calm down! He's just a child!"

"Just a child?!" She snorted and glared at Mao Yin as if she wanted to tear him into a thousand pieces. "This is no child! This is a devil's spawn!" Her arms were held down by a few struggling villagers so she lashed out with her feet, kicking Mao Yin in the jaw. Bright blood escaped from between his lips. With wide eyes and a troubled expression, he scrambled away from the crazed woman and to a far wall. He just woke up several moments ago and was still disoriented from sleep.

"Mao Yin, we ask that you come with us for a moment to see the village head. If you're proven innocent then we will leave you alone and even compensate you, but..." The villager trailed off, seeing the dried blood that covered Mao Yin's body. He spoke no more, and together the group of villagers cautiously herded Mao Yin towards the village's main square.

As they walked, Mao Yin noticed that some of the villagers were glancing nervously at him while tightly gripping their weapons. He opened his mouth to ask if the villager closest to him was alright, but the moment the villager noticed Mao Yin looking, he gripped his pitchfork and pointed it at him. "Turn back around and keep walking! Don't think I won't stab you with this!"

Mao Yin was quite taken aback at the man's actions and fearfully shut his mouth.

What in the world was going on? He wondered.

On a regular basis, he does his absolute best to stay away from the villagers as to not disturb them unless it was absolutely necessary for him. So then with such little contact, what could he have done to cause them to be so angry towards him?

Outside of the village head's home and in the main square, Mao Yin's entourage approached the rest of the solemn-looking villagers who stood in the square. In the midst of them was a platform where the village head stood. It was unsettlingly quiet but Mao Yin was seemingly unaffected as he looked around with wide eyes at the going-ons.

Normally, Mao Yin was quite the charming child. Despite his living conditions, he liked to be clean and kept himself well-maintained. In addition, he was quite polite. So even though a lot of the villagers disliked him, there were still a few that were quite fond of him in their hearts. However, at that moment he was sticky with sweat and had dried blood all over his clothes, shoes, and face. He also had a bit of dried black vomit on the corner of his mouth and on his clothes as well. He looked nothing like the sweet child he normally was. Instead, his current look just served to further show how different he really was.

One of the villagers threw Mao Yin at the feet of the village head. He tried to stand, but a wooden cane held him down. His line of sight followed it upwards to see the village head's disdainful expression. He was an old man, with a wispy beard and a somewhat hunched back. He always had a kind expression on his face and smiling eyes, but as he glared down at Mao Yin, he could only see disgust. The situation confused Mao Yin, but he knew that he needed to speak with him about what happened in the woods. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Do you admit to your crimes, Mao Yin?" The village head pressed the cane deeper into Mao Yin's hand, making him wince. He didn't even get to speak yet!

"I-I don't understand what you're talking about." His voice involuntarily trembled.

The village head chuckled scornfully. "You still have the gall to act innocent? We have a witness who saw you hanging the heads of the village children on a tree for heavens sake! How dare you act like it has nothing to do with you!"

"I wanted to keep them safe so the animals wouldn't take them!"

The villagers gasped in horror and broke out in a commotion.

"He did kill them!" Someone called.

"Execute him!" Another shouted.

Mao Yin's face became as pale as a sheet as he heard these words and he hurried to explain.

"I didn't hurt them! It was the trees in the forest! There were trees with people in them and they hurt them! I just brought them so their families could see them again!"

"In the end, a child is still a child." The village head shook his head in disappointment. "Tell me then, if there really were people in the trees and they were the ones to hurt the others, why didn't they hurt you?"

Mao Yin was struck dumb at this question. "I-I don't know."

The village head lifted his cane and Mao Yin stood up.

"Take him to the post and light the fire. Tonight, we will rid ourselves of this vermin!"