Why does the old woman eat stones?

She belongs to a new folk religion centered on "Grandpa Shidu." The stones are a ritual food, and her ability to describe their "flavor" is a display of her faith's power over perception and reality.

Was the Daoist priest actually powerful?

No. His boasting about summoning thunder and killing Yakshas was a performance. When faced with real, immediate violence, he completely crumbled, showing himself to be a fraud.

What is the "monkey" secret?

The "monkeys" are not animals. They are real human children skinned alive and then covered in monkey fur to be used as props in a traveling show. The old woman exposes this by tearing the fur suit.

The Wonton Stall

1,377 words

Chapter 640: The Wonton Stall

Soon, two bowls of wontons in red chili oil were placed before them. Yang Xiaohai used his chopsticks to pick up a wonton shaped like a little white boat from the glistening, oily red soup.

He put the wonton, flecked with scallions, into his mouth and chewed. Yang Xiaohai couldn't help but nod. Even though it was coated in red oil, it wasn't greasy at all. Instead, it was packed with a mildly spicy, rich fragrance. It was delicious.

Even from his perspective as a cook, these wontons were expertly made.

On such a cold day, finishing a bowl of steaming hot wontons was pure bliss. One wonton after another went into their mouths, and the young couple ate with great satisfaction.

"Husband, can you make these too?"

"I can, but not as good as this place. They must have some secret recipe."

Yang Xiaohai secretly watched the stove from a distance. He noticed what looked like a few sticks floating in the pot where the wontons were boiling. His curiosity was piqued as he wondered what those sticks were for.

While Yang Xiaohai was eating and trying to learn the recipe, a trembling, white-haired old woman leaning on a cane approached the stall.

"Would you like some wontons in red chili oil, ma'am?" the stall owner, who was ladling out the wontons, asked.

The old woman licked her cracked lips and glanced at the wontons rolling in the pot. "Well... I have my own food, shopkeeper. Could you spare me a bowl of hot water? I can soak my food in it. How much would that be?"

Yang Xiaohai, still trying to learn the trade secrets, glanced at the old woman. He noticed her clothes were tattered and patched in many places. She looked like a withered locust tree, about to crumble.

"What a thing to say! A bowl of hot water doesn't cost anything. Have a seat, I'll pour it for you right away!"

The old woman thanked the shopkeeper profusely, then looked around and chose the table right next to Yang Xiaohai's.

When a bowl of hot water was set before her, the old woman opened her cloth bag and took out a small, black ceramic pot.

She first took a sip of water from the edge of the bowl, then pulled out chopsticks from a bamboo tube and carefully fished a pebble dripping with black liquid out of the ceramic pot.

"Hey, husband, look! That person is eating rocks!"

Yang Xiaohai looked over just in time to see the old woman put the stone into her mouth and suck on it with great relish.

Only after she had sucked all the blackness off the stone did she spit it back into the ceramic pot. Then she picked up the bowl of hot water and took another sip along its edge.

As she was about to put another stone into her mouth, Zhao Xiumei, unable to bear the sight, said to Yang Xiaohai, "Let's buy her a bowl of wontons. She can't possibly get full just eating rocks."

"Yeah." Yang Xiaohai nodded gently. He couldn’t stand to see people go hungry either. Having been a beggar himself, he knew exactly what hunger felt like.

Of course, Yang Xiaohai didn't dare to give too much. Ordering her one bowl of food was the limit; he was well aware of the rule not to show off one's wealth.

When the half-jin of wontons Yang Xiaohai ordered arrived, he carried the freshly boiled food to the old woman. "Ma'am, eat this. This will fill you up better than those."

The old woman was startled for a moment, then smiled at Yang Xiaohai, revealing a toothless, dark red gum. "Child, thank you, but I don't need it. I have everything here. See, this stone tastes like braised pork ribs, this one is like eight-treasure duck, and this one, this one is like a braised pork elbow."

She fished out various shaped pebbles from the ceramic pot to show off, then carried her bowl over to a monkey performer nearby and set the bowl of wontons down in front of his three monkeys.

The three monkeys were clearly starving. They pounced on the bowl immediately, eating ravenously from both sides. Soon, they had licked the bowl clean of even the red oil.

Yang Xiaohai walked back to his seat, looking back with a complicated expression. He sat down and watched the old woman, who was back to sucking on her stones.

After thinking for a while, he said to Zhao Xiumei with a look of pity, "Do you think this old lady has a sick mind too, just like Senior Brother Li?"

"If she's sick, they shouldn't let her wander around. Her family is so unfilial," Zhao Xiumei said indignantly.

"What if this old lady doesn't have a family, just like me?"

"..." They both fell silent.

Regardless of how they felt, as strangers, they had already done what they could. They couldn't very well take a crazy old woman along on their journey to visit relatives.

Though the young couple had good hearts, they weren't that good-hearted.

They continued eating in silence, but somehow, the wontons didn't taste as good as they did just a moment ago.

One, two, three. Once all the wontons in their bowls were gone, they stood up to leave.

But just then, an old Daoist priest riding a black donkey approached with two disciples. His long beard fluttered in the wind, giving him a very immortal and refined air.

"Master, let's eat here today."

"Mmm... alright. Speaking of which, the last time I ate wontons, I was out vanquishing evil. I called upon the Thunder God to strike down two Yakshas who were plaguing the mortal world."

Hearing this, everyone in the stall turned to look at the Daoist, their gazes filled with awe.

"Of course! My master is a venerable sage on the verge of attaining immortality! He has always hated evil like a bitter enemy!" The two young Daoist acolytes chimed in with flattery.

Upon hearing this, one of the three monkeys glanced at its owner, who was eating his second bowl. Gritting its teeth, it yanked at the chain around its neck and began screeching loudly.

Finally, it even knelt down and kowtowed to the old Daoist, stuttering out human words in a trembling voice. "S-save! Save me!!"

"Hmm?" The old Daoist slammed his hand on the table, his brows furrowed, his face instantly radiating authority.

Realizing his cover had been blown, the monkey performer violently flipped his table and pulled a short knife from his pocket, ready to fight for his life. "Goddammit! You old goat! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

But seeing the man's enraged, red eyes, the old Daoist’s body shook violently. His gaze turned shifty, looking elsewhere, and he remained seated without getting up.

This turn of events surprised everyone, including the monkey performer who was ready to kill. "Hahaha! You're all bark and no bite!"

He pulled the kowtowing monkey over and kicked it, sending it tumbling to the ground and spitting up blood.

"You dare to snitch, do you! I'll teach you! I'll teach you!" He kept slapping the monkey, the force almost stripping the monkey fur right off its face.

Just as Yang Xiaohai was hesitating, a pebble flew through the air and hit the monkey performer's arm, snapping it in two.

As he shrieked and clutched his arm, the old woman spat violently. The pebble from her mouth shot straight into the performer's gaping maw, shattering his bones and scrambling his brains.

Under the stunned gaze of everyone around, the old woman, hunched over, walked to the monkey whose head was now bleeding. With both hands, she tore open the monkey's fur skin. Inside was the bloodied head of a child.

These "monkeys" were actually real people, just wrapped in a layer of monkey fur.

"Oh, pitiful, truly pitiful."

She pulled out a piece of white cloth and carefully wrapped it around the child-monkey's head. "Come now, this world is full of suffering. Believe in Grandpa Shidu. If you believe in Grandpa Shidu, you can be reborn into a better life in the future."

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Reading Guide Decoding

Stewed Horror: A Bowl of Wontons and a Cult's Birth

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

“Eating” Stones (吃石头): The old woman sucking on pebbles isn't just a random crazy act. It’s a dark folk-tale motif, echoing stories of starving wanderers who trick their minds and stomachs by "tasting" imaginary food. It’s a terrifyingly practical delusion born from extreme poverty, made even more unsettling by its casual, ritualistic nature. The flaunting of "flavors" (braised pork, duck) is a cruel contrast between the imagined and the real.
The Daoist as a Figurehead (样子货): The "immortal and refined" Daoist priest who instantly crumbles when tested is a classic subversion of the xianxia trope of the "powerful hermit." Here, the appearance of power (the long beard, the mythical tales) is a social currency that fails utterly when confronted with physical reality. It critiques the cult of reputation and performances of holiness that lack actual substance.
Skin-Men (人皮 / 皮人): The revelation that the "monkeys" are actually humans wrapped in animal skin taps into a profound body-horror trope found in Chinese folklore and strange tales (zhiguai). It’s the visceral terror of a stolen identity, where a living person is reduced to a prop, their humanity stripped away and replaced with a costume. The "suit" is a literal prison of flesh and fur.
Grandpa Shidu (石渎爷爷): The emergence of this new faith is a classic Daoguai Yixian moment. A random old woman, after an act of brutal violence, becomes a missionary, offering a post-mortem salvation in the name of "Grandpa Shidu." This mirrors the epidemic-like spread of obscure folk sects in the novel, where suffering creates a desperate market for any promise of an afterlife. The "stone" motif now takes on a new, ominous significance.

Skin-man (皮人)

A person whose true identity is hidden beneath a suit of animal or human skin, a classic body-horror trope from Chinese strange tales. Here, living children are forced into monkey suits to be paraded as animals.

Chapter Overview

This chapter is a masterclass in slow-burn horror, served piping hot in a bowl of innocent-looking wontons. What begins as a cozy, domestic scene—Yang Xiaohai and his wife enjoying a meal while trying to steal a recipe—gradually curdles into something profoundly disturbing. The chapter introduces a bizarre old woman sucking on flavored pebbles, a performative Daoist priest whose courage evaporates at the first sign of real danger, and a "monkey performer" whose act hides a monstrous secret. The horror doesn't arrive with a scream; it seeps in through a cracked pot, a hollow boast, and a pebble that smashes a skull. Get ready, because this is the kind of chapter that makes you look at your food a little differently.

Key Plot Points

Domestic Bliss & Theft: Yang Xiaohai and Zhao Xiumei eat wontons; Yang tries to reverse-engineer the chef's secret (those mysterious "sticks" in the pot).
The Pebble-Eating Woman: A frail old woman arrives, begging only for hot water. She produces a pot of black pebbles, claiming each tastes like a different gourmet dish (ribs, duck, pork elbow). She politely refuses their offered wontons, instead feeding them to a nearby performer's monkeys.
The Blustering Daoist: A Daoist priest arrives, tales of his own heroism preceding him (calling down lightning on Yakshas). He is immediately idolized by the stall-goers.
The Monkey's Plea: One of the monkeys, terrified of its owner, kowtows to the Daoist and stutters, "S-save! Save me!!"
Collapse of a Facade: The performer attacks. The Daoist, however, recoils in fear, revealing his boasts are empty. The performer laughs, beats the "monkey," exposing it as a skinned human child.
Swift, Grim Justice: The old woman, previously the image of frailty, flings a pebble, snapping the performer's arm. A second pebble kills him instantly.
A New Faith: She reveals the "monkeys" are skinned children. She cradles the dying child and offers a grim salvation: faith in "Grandpa Shidu" for a better rebirth.

Reading Guide

This chapter is a perfect example of the novel's "human drama as horror" principle. It doesn't rely on cosmic threats or monstrous Simings for its punch. The horror is grounded in economic desperation (the old woman's "meal"), social cowardice (the Daoist's retreat), and the brutal exploitation of the powerless (the skin-children). Pay close attention to how Yang Xiaohai stays in the background, a passive reactor. His hesitation at the end mirrors the reader's own shock. The real terror is that the old woman, who is arguably the most "actively good" person in the scene (she gives the child a dignified death and a promise, while the hero-posturing Daoist ran away), is also the most lethal and is now spreading a new, unknown cult. The "tastes like duck" pebble was the first hint of her power; the "crushes his bones" pebble is the confirmation. The mundane setting (a street stall) makes the eruption of violence and pious horror all the more jarring and effective.

Quick Q&A

Lore recap (TL;DR) drawn from this chapter's Cultural / Xianxia Notes — same text as the FAQ structured data on this page.

Why does the old woman eat stones?: She belongs to a new folk religion centered on "Grandpa Shidu." The stones are a ritual food, and her ability to describe their "flavor" is a display of her faith's power over perception and reality.
Was the Daoist priest actually powerful?: No. His boasting about summoning thunder and killing Yakshas was a performance. When faced with real, immediate violence, he completely crumbled, showing himself to be a fraud.
What is the "monkey" secret?: The "monkeys" are not animals. They are real human children skinned alive and then covered in monkey fur to be used as props in a traveling show. The old woman exposes this by tearing the fur suit.