There are hardly any men in the village besides those in my family. My father married into my mother's family, and my name is Jingsheng. I don't have a surname. I was born after my father died. On New Year's Eve, my father and maternal grandfather went to draw water from the well at the village entrance, and both died in it. My grandmother said they had fallen victim to witchcraft. That's how I got my name.
Twelve years later, my mother suddenly told me I wasn't her biological son after all. I was also a husband who'd married into the family, and she was going to force me to consummate my marriage with her adopted daughter.
Just then, someone else died beside that old well at the village entrance...
Mother said witchcraft was passed down to women, not men, and I was the exception. She said witchcraft could be used for good or evil: it could hurt people, but it could also save them. Because of it, beautiful women have never been far from me, and trouble has never left me alone.
