In 1983, under the old locust tree at the village entrance, Jiang Hongguo told a visiting police officer:
“I suspect my husband… isn’t human.”
The moment those words left her mouth, lightning struck the tree. Terrified, Jiang Hongguo ran home and never dared to say it again.
That same year, Gu Changzong returned from the fields carrying his hoe. Seeing the muscular young man, the officer joked,
“Changzong, your wife says you’re not human. So which part of you isn’t?”
Gu Changzong smiled calmly.
“Probably at night—I go a little too far.”
The village aunties burst into laughter, teasing Jiang Hongguo for bragging about her capable husband.
In truth, Jiang Hongguo’s educated-youth husband—who had been cold and separated from her for over a year—began visiting her room every night with relentless enthusiasm. She couldn’t fight him, couldn’t bite him, and eventually gave up resisting.
One night, she finally asked:
“Gu Changzong… are you really human?”
Gu Changzong answered without hesitation,
“I am. Of course I am.”
But Jiang Hongguo didn’t know that her husband truly came from a ruined future—
a world that no longer existed.
