Chapter 01 part 2

"But there are a few things we don't know yet," Nguyen continued cautiously, his legs wobbling as if ready to run away if Mr. Silverbeard roared. So we wanted to ask him... Master Silverbeard looked like he wanted to roar. His beard quivered fiercely, indicating bared teeth behind it. The teacher's shirt puffed up as if about to explode. But in the end, no thunder came down. A moment of anxiety passed by Nguyen's request, and after considering for a moment, Mr. Silverbeard decided to close the crater in his lap. "All right, boys, come in." Silverbeard Master turned and walked ahead, with the two boys trailing behind. Nguyen nudged his friend's hip with delight, and just as Kăply was about to nudge back to share the joy of victory, Mr. Silverbeard seemed to have an eye behind his back and cleared his throat, causing Kăply to panic and pull his hand back.

The furniture in Mr. Rau Bac's house is very simple. It seems that the teacher never receives guests, so the table in the middle of the house only has an empty chair. "How can you live in a house like this?" Nguyen wondered to himself, rolling his eyes and looking around. He didn't know where the teacher slept when he saw that there was no place to rest his back in the house.

Leaving the children standing in the middle of the house, Mr. Silverbeard calmly sat down on the only chair and shone his bright eyes into Nguyen and Kăply's faces, as if he wanted to see through the thoughts in the children's heads. "You want to ask me about the Witch's Hill?"

"Yes," Kăply tried to calm down, "I think in Ke village, only you know the origin of that name."

"Correct guessing game!" Master Silverbeard proudly confirmed. "Except for those who have passed away, among those who are still alive, I'm afraid I am the only one who has ever set foot on the Hill of Witches."

Kăply's mouth itched to show that his friend had also been to Witch Hill a few times, but fortunately, at the last minute, he regained his composure to suppress that crazy excitement.

But as if Mr. Silverbeard saw what Kăply was about to say, his eyes suddenly flashed menacingly. "You guys shouldn't be foolish enough to think about climbing the hill. Many people have died on it."

Nguyen felt like an awl went through his head. He asked in astonishment, "Who are those people, sir?"

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't know. It happened a long time ago. But since the villagers began to shun the hill, almost no one has died."

Kăply hiccuped and nervously asked the question, as if spitting out an apple seed stuck in his throat, "Why... why did those people die, sir?"

Silverbeard's eyes were still fixed on the children's faces, and his jaw moved as if he were munching on his beard. From behind that unstoppable beard, came a gasp: [the text is incomplete, so I couldn't make any changes to it].

Maybe I should tell you guys a little bit about it!" Mr. Silverbeard suggested. "The west side of Ke village, as you have learned, is hilly. The hill resembles the back of a horse, a rocky mountain. Sorcerer's Hill is situated against the mountain, but it's not exactly adjacent to it. In the middle, there is a bottomless pit. Falling into it means certain death. That's it!" Mr. Silverbeard abruptly ended his lecture, leaving the two boys dumbfounded.

"What does that mean?" Kăply asked, licking his dry lips. "Are you saying people die because they stumble and fall off a cliff?"

"So as long as we don't go near the edge of the cliff, we'll be fine, right, teacher?" Nguyen added lazily.

"You guys are a bunch of idiots!" Master Silverbeard suddenly erupted. "Let's just go up there, then our parents can go and find us freely."

The teacher glanced around but didn't find a ruler to move, so he slammed his hand on the table to emphasize his words.

"You guys are being foolish. The problem here is not whether it's close or far from the edge of the cliff. Those who dare to climb the hill end up falling off the cliff. Do you guys understand?"

"Yes, I don't understand!" Nguyen swallowed, feeling foolish. "How do they fall off the cliff?"

Mr. Silverbeard jumped up from his chair, his beard shaking violently. Nguyen and Kăply could bet ten to one that the teacher was angry, even though they didn't understand the cause of his anger.

Standing upright, his arm raised almost touching the ceiling as if he were about to unleash thunder on the heads of the two stubborn students, Silverbeard suddenly collapsed back onto his chair.

"Well, I don't want to hide it from you anymore," Mr. Silverbeard's voice softened, sounding strange as if he were speaking in someone else's voice. "I will tell you, on the condition that you promise not to tell anyone else."

"We promise!" Nguyen and Kăply almost simultaneously exclaimed, competing to see who could promise first.

Mr. Silverbeard began his story by looking up, as if he had written it somewhere on the ceiling.

"A long time ago—I don't remember how long ago, I just know it was a long time ago—there was a woman living on that hill..." Nguyen and Kăply were so nervous they couldn't even breathe, their eyes fixated on the teacher's beard as if it were a loudspeaker. Their behavior wasn't like waiting to hear, but rather like stalking, trying not to miss a single word coming out of Silverbeard's beard.

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"That woman's house was probably as simple as ours, but the village children loved to play there. The woman was also very fond of children. She would give them sweets and toys, not from her pocket or purse, but seemingly out of thin air. With a wave of her hand, she conjured cakes, dolls, and other things..."

"Then the children must have been scared to death, teacher!" Kăply interjected, unable to contain his curiosity.

Silverbeard's gaze shifted from the ceiling to Kăply's face, glaring at him before responding, "Well, initially, the children were terrified. They thought the woman was a witch. But the temptation of delicious cakes and beautiful toys made them forget their fear." Silverbeard's eyes flashed.

"And then, one day, they all vanished. No one knows what happened to the children. Their relatives immediately rushed to the hill to search. And after that, you know what happened?" Kăply responded with a dry throat, "Yes, no one ever returned."

"Yes!" Silverbeard nodded, his beard swaying. "Well, it's been a long time since I heard something as clever as what your grandfather used to say from you."

Nguyen and Kăply's faces turned red immediately, one from happiness, the other from jealousy. It had been a while since they heard Mr. Silverbeard open his mouth to praise his students.

"During that time, due to this complicated incident, Ke village almost vanished from the map. It was only when the village chief ordered an end to all hunting and prohibited villagers from approaching the hill that the population of Ke village stabilized," Silverbeard sighed.

"Many years later, someone accidentally discovered numerous human bones at the bottom of the cliff."

Kăply felt as if he had fallen into an icy hole. He wanted to ask who made the discovery and if they were still alive, but his jaw stiffened, preventing him from uttering a word.

"Is that true, sir?" Nguyen blurted out a sentence without realizing how foolish it sounded.

Silverbeard erupted like an ignited mine. He shot up from his chair for the second time, his voice boiling with anger. If he hadn't been concerned about setting his thick beard on fire, he would have spat fire.

"How dare you ask me in such a disrespectful tone? Your grandfather was never as impolite as you are now."

Nguyen's face turned as white as flour. He stammered:

I'm sorry, teacher. I mean... I just wanted to...- You don't need to explain. I already know what you want. You want to explore, search Witch Hill, don't you? How many times do you think you've sneaked up that hill without me knowing? Nguyen didn't attempt to clarify this time. Like Kăply, their jaw suddenly hardened like wood, and they felt as if they were stepping into the same icy hole Kăply was in. Nguyen couldn't speak or move, but their mind wasn't completely paralyzed. They continued to wonder how Mr. Silverbeard knew about their activities.

Silverbeard's beard continued to emit smoke in front of the two children. "You must understand that it's not a coincidence that the hill is called Witch Hill. If you don't believe me, leave me alone. Just take your body up there and see if anyone brings it back!"

"Sir..." Kăply found their voice again, ready to speak up in defense, but Mr. Silverbeard waved his hand and growled, "That's enough, boys! I don't want to hear another word from you. Go home!"

With slumped shoulders, Nguyen and Kăply clumsily left Mr. Silverbeard's house, resembling students who had just finished their final exams and dropped their bags.

Kăply maintained a stern face for a few hundred steps. When they were certain Silverbeard couldn't hear them anymore, they burst into laughter. "Well, I've never seen Mr. Silverbeard so furious! I thought he was going to kick us both!"

"Same here!" Nguyen grumbled. "I asked such a foolish question!"

"Forget about it!" Kăply's face brightened. "Regardless, today's meeting surpassed our wildest imaginations. We've learned a lot about Witch Hill."

"Do you believe what Mr. Silverbeard said is true?" Nguyen suddenly asked.

"Well, it doesn't seem fabricated!" Kăply replied, confused. "I don't think he had any reason to make up such things."

"I think you're trying to protect the hill at all costs. Otherwise, you wouldn't have known about my visits up there."

Clearly, it didn't take much wisdom to see the validity in Nguyen's concerns.

"Oh, this is peculiar!" Kăply nodded. "I bet Mr. Silverbeard made up that scary story just to frighten us."

"Well, why would he try to stop us then?" Kăply slapped his forehead, suddenly caught up in the dramatic nature of the story. It not only didn't refute the use of "we" in Nguyen's sentence, but it also made the word jump into his own mouth. "Could there be a hidden treasure there?"

Nguyen discreetly glanced at Kăply, thrilled to see their friend becoming interested in the mystery of the hill. Kăply's immersion in the story, like a leaf being sucked into a whirlpool, delighted Nguyen as well.

"Ah, that treasure, if it exists, must be enormous!" Nguyen chimed in with unbridled excitement, as if they knew the exact location of the treasure.

Nguyen didn't expect their excessive enthusiasm to bring Kăply back to reality. Kăply gave them a wary look and asked, "Are you still inviting me to go to the hill?"

"If you don't want to go, I'll go alone..." Nguyen sighed, lowering their gaze with feigned sadness. "Because apart from Mr. Silverbeard, no one in Ke village can confirm whether the story he told us is true or not."

Although Kăply maintained a suspicious expression, as if they were about to face certain doom, they knew that Nguyen was right. Kăply had asked their grandfather, their grandfather's friends, and the long-time residents of the village, but no one knew the reason why the hill behind the school was called Witch Hill, and no one had ever set foot there. The name, along with the prohibition, had been around for a long time.

"What if what Mr. Silverbeard said is true?" Kăply voiced their concerns. "If there's a witch on the hill, we could end up scattered at the bottom of the cliff."

"Listen here!" Nguyen clapped their hands together. "What Mr. Silverbeard told us may not necessarily be true. If he wasn't trying to scare us, then all those events he mentioned would have happened a long time ago, right? Use your head! If the witch was still on the hill, wouldn't Ke village have experienced strange occurrences? But there's nothing significant to be afraid of, not even a rumor. My grandfather, my grandmother, my father, my mother, and now me, none of us have witnessed anything extraordinary!"

Kăply listened attentively, shaking their head, and responded to Nguyen's lecture with a curt statement, "What time is it?"

"We'll go up the hill tomorrow afternoon," Nguyen replied.

Kăply looked up at Nguyen, their shorter stature evident. "And 'we' are going?"

"Even if you don't come, I'll still go," Nguyen declared assertively, but their eyes revealed a hope that Kăply would accept the invitation and join them, even if it meant facing potential danger. However, Kăply suddenly averted their gaze.

"I'm busy tomorrow afternoon!" Kăply stated abruptly.

And just like that, they turned around and walked away. Kăply watched Nguyen's back with a fixed gaze, wondering why they didn't transform into something like a stinky toad.