Chapter 9 Chapter 8: A Dark Shoe

A new gravekeeper came to the cemetery. He was called Rong Xiaodi, a nineteen-year-old boy.He was very white, as if he had never been in the sun.Even though he came from the provincial capital like me, it is very rare for people in the city to look as fair as him.He is extremely shy by nature, and he is timid when talking to people, especially when talking to Ye Zi, he often blushes before opening his mouth.Of course, these habits of his were slowly discovered by me later.I don't know how he got to the cemetery. When I went downstairs that evening, I saw a young man eating with a bowl sitting on the pile of stones in the yard.When I walked into the kitchen and asked, I realized that a new colleague had arrived.I said, why doesn't he come to the table to eat?Zhou's mother said that he likes to eat out alone, and no one can call him in, so let him go.

I didn't ask any more then, because I lay in my upstairs room drinking herbal water all day, and by this time I was feeling very hungry.The herbal medicine that Zhou's mother prepared for me is really effective, saying that it can dispel evil spirits and strengthen the body. I feel much clearer after drinking it.Ye Zi and Poet Feng, who were guarding my bed, both heaved a sigh of relief.Ye Zi said, judging by your face, the problem is not too big.When you fell outside my door last night, even your lips were pale.Poet Feng said that the scene at that time was really scary. You fell unconscious on the corridor outside the door, and you were still muttering in your throat as if talking. I knew that your soul was out of your body, probably to the side of the dead.After listening to you tell what happened to you, it proves that my judgment is correct.

I'm sane, but I still can't figure out what happened last night.The door of Ye Zi's room was wide open in the dark, and Mei Zi, who was dressed in black and had a black face, was sitting on the platform outside the house... I still get chills when I think of this scene.Poet Feng said to me, don't think about it, sometimes the soul of a person goes to another dimension, and I often do this, but I am not afraid, because what I saw was my fiancée Qinqin. From then on, Poet Feng regarded me as a person like him, that is, sometimes he can walk between life and death.He analyzed for me that Ye Zi was actually sleeping in the house that night, and the door was closed. It was when you walked up the last stairs in the attic that your soul came out of your body.

I was skeptical, but there was nothing I could do about it.There have always been countless mysteries under the flowing water of time, and what I have experienced is only the smallest one among them.Anyway, since I can come back out of my body, and I'm still alive to do my spy work, it's not all that scary.I continued to observe Ye Zi, and found that she was very enthusiastic about the new tomb guard, and she often called him little brother, which made me unhappy.During the meal, the young man named Rong still didn't come to the table. He put some vegetables in the rice bowl and went to the yard.And Ye Zi would send him some food halfway, and the younger brother would dodge with the bowl, his face already on fire.Ye Zi did this, as if she wanted to see him like this.

In fact, the origin of this little brother is suspicious.I have learned that he was originally an employee of Manager Xue and guarded the mortuary of the hospital.Manager Xue transferred him to work here, which is unreasonable.Because not long ago, Manager Xue said that there was a shortage of people under his command and wanted to bring the mute to her, but now, she sent her own people instead. I really don't know what she was thinking.Moreover, in order to accomplish this, she called Yang Huzi who was away on business in advance, and asked Yang Huzi to accept this person.His specific job here was also determined by Yang Huzi, which is to let him clean the tombstones on the mountain alone.There are some tombstones on the mountain that the family members of the deceased paid us to maintain. The maintenance fee is 40 yuan a year.In the past, farmers in the vicinity were regularly hired to do this work. After the younger brother came, Yang Huzi said that he would take care of it.Let him do some yard work when he's free.

The younger brother does not eat with everyone, works alone, and sleeps in the same room with the mute at night. All this seems to be in line with his wish. For the little brother, I was wary at first.After all, I have a rough relationship with Manager Xue, and she might be suspected of doing something against me by introducing this person.But after a few days of observation, I saw that my little brother avoided people everywhere and had no interpersonal skills at all. I was relieved. This kind of timid and lonely kid can't do anything bad if he thinks about it. After the shock and coma that night, I felt that my body had not fully recovered. At night, especially after midnight, I often experienced inexplicable shortness of breath and heart palpitations.I realized that if the truth about the horror of that night was not solved, the root cause of my illness might be left behind.Although Poet Feng gave some space travel explanation for this matter, how can I believe it without evidence?So, I came up with a plan and decided to let Poet Feng go up to the attic in the middle of the night to try.Since his ability to connect yin and yang is stronger than mine, he should be able to see Meizi in black when he goes to the attic.

This evening, I went to Poet Feng's room to chat with him before expressing my thoughts.I still talked about my doubts about the horrors of that night, and I also talked to Poet Feng for the first time about my first experience here.I said that Ye Zi was supposed to go to Xihe Town that night, but I found that she was dressing up in the house in scarlet pajamas after midnight.I confessed this matter to Poet Feng after fully considering safety.Because I need help with my scouting.Poet Feng was not surprised when he heard what I said. He said that the red clothes you saw at the beginning were the black clothes you saw later, and the colors are different in different spaces you enter.Speaking of this, Poet Feng pointed to the pile of electronic components on his desk and said, you treat me as a friend, so let me tell you the truth, I am developing an instrument that can see through the present space, wait for me After it is developed, you can see plums in black whenever you take it to the attic.

I smiled, and Poet Feng saw that I didn't believe what he did, so he said, you don't understand science, so you think it's a myth.You know the story of the invisibility cloak when you were a child. It used to be a myth, but now it is true.The invisibility cloak developed by Japan would have already been sold on the market if there were no legal obstacles.When I was working in Shenzhen, our company was also developing stealth technology. Not only people, but even aircraft, tanks, bridges and houses can be invisible.So, don't think that what I'm developing is just a joke. My expression became serious, and with a different mindset, I had to admit that everything is possible, because Plato said in ancient Greece that it is possible for people to go back to the past.I think the so-called going back to the past is to go back to the dead people and time.

However, for my current situation, even if I inadvertently returned to the cemetery five years ago and saw the dead Meizi, the question now is, did Meizi really hang herself?This was said by Ye Zi, but what Yang Huzi told Zhou Ma was that Meizi had been transferred to work at the company headquarters, and when I called the company to inquire about Meizi, the other party said that the company had never had such a person. To my questions, Poet Feng said, I came late and didn't know the situation at that time, but according to my guess, Ye Zi was telling the truth.You think, someone hanged himself here, and Yang Huzi would definitely cover it up if he was afraid of being responsible.

This remark makes sense.In this case, I suggested that Poet Feng go to the attic after midnight to try it out.Poet Feng hesitated and said, you went there to chat with Ye Zi, I see that you like her, don't you?It's not appropriate for you to let me go in the middle of the night.If Qinqin found out from the grave, she would blame me. I said, it's okay, you didn't knock on the door after you went to the attic, you just stood in front of the door and then came down.I'm just trying to see if you can experience what I've been through. In the middle of the night that day, Poet Feng went up to the attic.I waited nervously on the stairs below. I thought he might soon see the door wide open in the dark. He walked through the empty room to the platform, and the plum in black was sitting with his back facing him. There... my heart was beating wildly, and when I was expecting the expected scream, Poet Feng came downstairs calmly and made a gesture to me to go back to the house.After entering his room, I was very depressed by what he told me - the door of Ye Zi's room was closed, but there was light in the room and the sound of pages being turned.

After Poet Feng finished talking about the situation upstairs, he thought for a while and then said, your experience may be special, which is formed by your personal reasons.Perhaps, you have too much information about dead people attached to you, so it is easy to step over there. Think about it, have you ever stayed in a pile of dead people? I said angrily, you have only been among the dead. Poet Feng said, do you mean that I guard the tomb earlier than you?But there are souls on the cemetery, which is different from the dead. That night, I dismissed Poet Feng's words, but when I woke up the next day, I suddenly realized that I had packed so many body bags at the scene of the plane crash, and Poet Feng was right when he said that I had been among the dead . I gasped.It seems that I can't let others verify the fact that I met Meizi. In a flash, it was night again.My current psychological time is that the days are short and the nights are long, and when it gets dark, I feel short of breath and palpitations.If I were in the city, I should have consulted a psychiatrist for stress counseling in this state, but in this desolate cemetery, I can only counsel myself.I lay on the bed and said to myself, don't be afraid, the plum you saw was just an illusion.However, I have recited these words thousands of times in my heart, but I still cannot convince myself.When it was almost midnight, I was excited by a sudden idea. How about asking the new guy to go up to the attic to have a look?Speaking of personal conditions, my younger brother has been guarding the mortuary for a year before coming here. He is a person who has been in the pile of dead people. If you let him go to the attic, the probability of seeing Meizi should be no less than me. After making up my mind, I went to knock on the door of the room where my younger brother and the mute lived together.In the middle of the night, there was a loud knock on the door, and the younger brother quickly came to open the door.I said I had a headache, and asked him to go to Ye Zi and get some cold medicine for me.Seeing his hesitation, I explained again that I was a coward and dared not go up to the attic at night, so I had to excuse him.The younger brother had no choice but to "hmm" and went out to the attic.After I heard his footsteps disappear step by step on the stairs, there was no scream. It seemed that my horrible encounter was unique.I had no choice but to stand there boredly waiting for my little brother to come down with the medicine, but after a few minutes passed, there was no movement on the stairs. I waited patiently for a while, but still no one came downstairs, and my nerves were tense again. Could it be that he fainted before he could yell out when he encountered something?When my heart was hanging, my younger brother came downstairs.He said that Sister Ye Zi searched the drawer for a long time but couldn't find the medicine, and later found it in the bedside cabinet.After speaking, he put a white pill in my palm, and hurried back to the house. The next day, I told Poet Feng about the incident and pointed out that his personal reason for meeting Meizi was not valid.After finishing speaking, I stared at him, hoping that he would say that everything is an illusion, so that I could relax.However, Poet Feng held his chin and thought for a while and said, I know, to see a dead person, the dead person must be willing, for example, between Qinqin and me.And although you said you have never seen Meizi, she came to you first. Did a dark shoe appear in your house before? I couldn’t figure out what was going on at the time. In the house.Oh, where did you throw that shoe? Then I remembered the shoe worn by the dead again. It once appeared on my bed, and I almost ran away from the cemetery in fright.Later, I analyzed that this incident was artificially made by Ye Zi, with the purpose of forcing me to leave here, so I resolutely stayed, and quietly threw the shoe back to Ye Zi's door one night.After that, I forgot about it.Listening to Poet Feng now, I realized that it was not as simple as I thought. I had no choice but to tell Poet Feng, I threw away those shoes. Poet Feng was shocked, how could you do that? Didn't Zhou's mother tell you that you have to choose a date, offer incense wax paper money, and burn this shoe.You throw it around, no wonder Meizi is looking for you. My head is a mess.From an outsider's point of view, this has grown to borders on absurdity, but I think anyone who is as deeply involved in the cemetery as I am is awed by these strange things.I timidly asked Poet Feng, what should I do if the shoes have been thrown away?He said, you have to buy a shoe like this and burn incense again.The shroud shop in Xihe Town sells these things.I said buy a shoe, will others sell it?He said then you can buy a pair. However, before buying the shoe, I still want to ask Ye Zi first, wouldn't it be easier if I could get the shoe back.So, after lunch, while Ye Zi went upstairs to take a nap, I went upstairs to ask about this matter.Unexpectedly, Ye Zi was very angry when she heard what I said. She said, how could you do that?Throwing shoes at my door, what do you mean, hurt me?I haven't seen that shoe before, but I often have nightmares, so it was a good thing you did!How could you think that I put the shoes in your house? I, Ye Zi, never do anything harmful.I wrote the note telling you to leave here, so I did it for your own good, because after seeing that shoe appearing in your house, I think you are quite a vicious person. If you stay in the cemetery, you may walk on it. Plum that way. Things are clear.What I have to do now is to go to Xihe Town to buy shoes.Because since I can't leave the cemetery, I can only do my best to save the day. The shroud shop in Xihe Town is located in a dark alley, if it weren't for the conspicuous wreaths placed at the door, it would be really hard to find.I said to the old woman in the store, buy a pair of shoes, ask for women's.The old woman hurriedly said, yes, yes.And the shroud, what grade do you want?I said, just shoes.The old woman was taken aback for a moment, as if it was inconvenient to ask me more questions, so she said that there are three grades of shoes for women's feet, and the cheapest one is 14 yuan a pair.I said, so expensive?She said that it is not expensive, it is a lifetime, how can it be said that it is expensive to wear a pair of shoes at the end?I said, without further ado, just buy a pair of fourteen yuan. I put on my shoes and turned around to leave, but at this moment, I heard the old woman say to the old man in the house, today is really evil, just now when Village Chief Luo came, he only bought shoes but not clothes, I really don’t know how they gave The dead wear it. I was taken aback, turned around and asked, where is the Village Chief Luo you mentioned?The old woman said, besides Xitu Village, where is there a second Village Chief Luo?What, you know him?I said, yes, who died in Mr. Luo's family?The old woman said, we only do business and don't ask other people's business.However, Village Chief Luo also bought a pair of women's shoes. How is this going?There is no one else in Village Chief Luo's house except his newly married wife. Could it be that the eighteen-year-old girl died suddenly?I thought of her faint voice when she opened the courtyard door to guide me, and thought of the scene where a Taoist priest sprayed rice on her body to drive away ghosts, and I suddenly felt an ominous feeling in my heart.I decided to turn to the village chief's house on the way back to the cemetery.Originally, since I arrived in the town, I was planning to go to Zihua's, because she called me twice at the cemetery in the middle of the night, and she denied it when she talked about it, so I had to figure it out patiently. reason.However, seeing that the sun is already in the west, I don’t have time to see purple flowers today, so I have to go to the village chief’s house first.I didn't do this out of simple curiosity, but because I felt for no reason that I had something to do with the village head's family. It was nearly dusk when we arrived at the village chief's house.Looking from a distance, the gate of his courtyard is quiet and elegant, and there is no sign of a funeral.The gate of the courtyard was ajar. I opened it and went in. I called Village Chief Luo in the courtyard, but no one answered.I walked into the main room, still no one.There is a passage on the side of the main room, which connects many rooms. I heard movement in one of the rooms, so I walked over and saw a woman kneeling on the ground wiping the red-painted floor.It seems that this room is the village head's bedroom. An old-fashioned carved bed is placed in the room. This kind of bed has four thick bedposts and a bed lintel across it. This structure makes this bed look like a Small separate room. It was the village chief's young wife who was mopping the floor. When she saw me, she got up from the floor.She said, are you looking for the village head?He went to Xihe Town.She was still holding a rag in her hand when she spoke, and there were beads of sweat on her forehead.She was wearing a little sleeveless blouse, and I noticed for the first time that she had very high breasts. The village chief was not around, and the woman was healthy and alive, so I didn't know what to say for a moment.I faltered, I went to the village chief, and nothing happened.I was passing by here, and I stopped by to have a look. The woman took me to the main room to sit down, and after making tea for me, she said, it's a hot day, please drink some water.But don't stay here for too long, or I will be beaten when the village chief meets you when he comes back. beaten?I was taken aback, the woman said, he wouldn't let me have any contact with men.Sometimes I talked to a man from Murakami outside, and he would beat me when I came back. The woman's expression suddenly darkened, she lowered her head and almost cried. I said unfairly, if this is the case, why did you marry him.Besides, you are younger than his son, why should he? The woman was already sobbing, she said, my family is in the mountains, so poor.My eldest brother is in his thirties and has no money to marry a wife. I married here to help my eldest brother start a family with a bride price.Because sister Meizi from our village worked in your cemetery before, she knows that the people here are rich. My heart skipped a beat, do you know Meizi? She said, why don't you know me from a village? My name is Lianzi, and sister Meizi is six years older than me.The villagers said, Meizi and I are summer flowers and the other is winter flowers.But I'm not as lucky as Meizi, and I'm going to suffer a lot if I marry here.The village chief wanted to have another son, but he couldn’t, so he tortured me every night, and even his son couldn’t bear it at home, so he moved to live in the factory and never went home again. I sympathize with Lianzi's situation.She said that Meizi's life is better than hers, but the plastic bag I'm carrying now contains the dark shoes that are going to be burned for Meizi.It seems that Lianzi didn't know about Meizi's death.So, I tentatively asked, how is Meizi doing now? Lianzi said that she heard from her family that Meizi later went to work in the city.It's just that since then, Meizi has lost contact with her family.The family members went to the city to look for her, but Meizi's work unit said that she had left her job long ago.Speaking of this, Lianzi sighed, alas, this Meizi is too cruel, no matter where she goes, she should contact her family. I asked again, the leaves in our place also come from the mountains, do you know them?Lianzi shook her head and said she didn't know her, and then asked me, oh, I heard that you and her are getting married soon, right?I said that's not the case.She looked at me suspiciously, then said in a low voice.You have to be careful, the son of the village chief said, if you get married, he will use dynamite to blow up your new house. I was deeply shocked.During this period of calm, I thought Brother Luo had given up on Ye Zi, but now it seems that Ye Zi and I have to take precautions against him in the future. At this time, someone called the village chief at the gate of the courtyard. Lianzi was startled, and immediately ran to the courtyard and replied loudly that he hadn't come home yet. Back in the main room, Lianzi said in a panic, it's getting dark, you should go, I won't be able to tell if he bumps into me when he comes back.He has been kind to me these days, because it will be my nineteenth birthday in two days, and he said that he went to town today to buy me presents. I suddenly felt scalp tingling.Gift, what gift, is that pair of dark shoes?The behavior of the village chief made me feel more terrifying than what happened on the graveyard.When I got up to leave, I thoughtlessly said to Lianzi, you have to be careful these few days. Lianzi gave a casual "hmm", obviously not understanding the weight of my words.So I said again, do you know the phone number of our cemetery?If you are in a hurry, just call me and I will help you. I went out of the courtyard gate and walked towards the cemetery in the growing night.The bag I was carrying contained the dark shoes I bought for Meizi, but I no longer felt afraid, what I had was strength, and I wanted to make my way through the fog around the cemetery.I don't regret coming here alone for an unannounced visit at all. What I'm doing now is much more exciting than the mediocre interviews and scripted reports when I was in the newspaper office.Men should live like warriors, these are the words I wrote in my diary a long time ago. That night, I saw Meizi in a daze. She was sitting on the stairs to the attic, wearing the pair of green cloth shoes I bought on her feet.I was about to get closer to see her face clearly, when a soft hand suddenly came from behind and rested on my shoulder.I turned around and saw that it was Lianzi. She raised one foot and asked, are these shoes good-looking?I looked down and saw that Lianzi was also wearing dark shoes on her feet.I was taken aback, knowing something had happened to Lianzi, so I grabbed her arm and asked, did the village chief hurt you?She didn't answer, she broke free from my hand and ran away.I chased after him and entered a room, where there was a large carved bed, and Lianzi, who was wearing dark shoes, was lying upright on the bed.I woke up from my dream with a yell, and at the same time I heard the phone ringing from downstairs.In the deep night, the ringing of the phone was frightening.I patted my forehead hard, allowing myself to quickly return to reality from the dream.No, something happened to Lianzi. I asked her to call me for help when she was in distress. When I went downstairs, the phone had stopped ringing, and Ye Zi had already answered the phone before me.She said to me who came downstairs that maybe Zihua was playing tricks again. I just picked up the phone and said "Hello", and the phone was disconnected.I said excitedly, it wasn't Zihua, it was Lianzi who called, something might have happened to her!what to do?I must rush to the village chief's house immediately to have a look. Leaf looked at me in bewilderment.I quickly told her what happened during the day, and then said, I'm going to check it out, and if I don't come back in two hours, you call the police. Ye Zi said, going out in the middle of the night is dangerous.Well, I'll go with you. I was overjoyed by Ye Zi's heroic cooperation.We walked out of the courtyard gate and hurried towards the village chief's house along the road that looked gray in the dark night. The gate of the village chief's courtyard was closed, and dogs were already barking inside.After thinking for a while, I jumped onto the wall.Ye Zi said in the darkness at the base of the wall, be careful, that dog is very fierce. I climbed on the top of the wall, and the dog had already jumped down the wall and barked at me, preventing me from jumping into the yard.There was no light or movement in the house, and things were pretty bad.The scene in my dream flashed before my eyes, Lianzi was lying upright on the bed wearing dark shoes, it was possible.Lianzi will be nineteen in a few days, and the village head may only be infatuated with eighteen-year-old girls. He wants to keep Lianzi at eighteen forever, so he wants to stop her life.This kind of madness in a man's genes is not without precedent in the world.I climbed on the wall and thought nervously, recalling in my mind the method of subduing vicious dogs I learned when I was a special soldier.However, maybe I was too nervous, and my brain suddenly felt a little out of order. At this time, a light in a window came on, and soon a figure came out, and I recognized that it was the village chief.He didn't dare to come into the courtyard, but stood on the edge of the steps and looked around.After a while, a woman's voice came from the room saying, is there anyone outside? My nerves suddenly relaxed, the lotus seed is not dead yet.Her nineteenth birthday was only a few days away, and the village chief probably didn't want to do it tonight. I jumped off the wall, shaking my body, Ye Zi had already reached out to support me.At this moment, the warmth of her arms and the pleasant smell of her hair made me a little fascinated.Since entering the cemetery, Ye Zi came out with me as an ally for the first time to perform a mission, which made me very satisfied.The male protagonists in detective movies often have a beautiful girl as an assistant. Such a brave man is braver because he has admirers. On the way back to the cemetery, I was grateful to Ye Zi.Before thinking of this, I thought that Ye Zi was guarding me against me, and even pretended to be a drum-eyed ghost to follow me on the graveyard.Now it seems that this is all my villainous heart.I stopped, looked at her and said, you followed me in the middle of the night, but nothing happened, I'm sorry.She said, oh, I didn't expect you to go to the village chief's house. My heart suddenly became cold.Is this what my allies and my assistants say?She didn't believe that I would go to the village chief's house, so she came out with me.This kind of close monitoring made me feel a sense of loss while being vigilant. On the next road, Ye Zi and I stopped talking.Unknowingly, I quickened my pace and left her behind me.As I walked, I listened to the footsteps behind me, wondering why Ye Zi was so wary of me.If she really came to the cemetery to do something to save her father, then there's no need for her to treat me like this.Logically, the fact that she's going out of her way to me can only mean that my presence gets in the way of what she's going to do. As I walked and thought, I suddenly realized that the footsteps behind me disappeared.I turned around and looked back, but there was no one on the road.Where did she go?I'm a little creepy.I thought that she might be a plum, and Feng Poet said that the red clothes and black clothes are all the same color, but it is still hard for me to really believe these things from the bottom of my heart.At this moment, she disappeared from behind me, and I was afraid of her again. For courage, I sang a song and strode back to the cemetery.When I looked up and saw the courtyard gate, I saw Ye Zi stepping into the gate at the same time.I called her, and she stopped at the door, and when I approached, she said, you ignore me, leave me like a trot, but what?I'm still ahead of you. She had a smile on her face when she spoke, but I felt cold. She said proudly, I am much more familiar with the trails here than you are. It suddenly dawned on me that she had taken a detour.But I immediately reminded myself, don't listen to her.You didn't see the gesture of her stepping into the courtyard door just now, like floating. I went upstairs with the leaves.When I got to the second floor, I didn't go back to the room immediately, but stopped at the stairs and watched her go to the attic.She seemed to have eyes behind her back. She turned around after going up a few stairs, looked at me who was standing there without any surprise, and said, there will be a phone downstairs before dawn, so I don’t need to answer it, it’s so annoying. I thought, she followed me for nothing, she didn't see anything wrong with the village chief's house, and she didn't find any flaws in me, so of course she was upset.But I am a little happy, she will gradually believe me if she can't find my flaws.Because to be honest, the male protagonist always hopes to have a beautiful female assistant.Although it is much more difficult to do this in reality than in the movies, I still have the luxury. When I opened the door to enter the house, a black figure suddenly jumped out and ran away from my feet.I was startled, but then realized it was the black cat.I saw that my window was half open, and the ability of this cat to fly over walls is really better than that of me who was a special soldier. My playful thoughts about the cat, however, changed once I was in bed.The last time this cat was on my windowsill was the horror of my encounter with Plum in the attic.It jumped into my room again tonight, is there anything terrible going to happen? I lie in the darkness of my bed.There was no sound in the corridor outside the door, and there was no movement in the attic.There is wind outside, with the cool breath of the graveyard, making some small noises on my window. I suddenly remembered my dream, Meizi was sitting on the stairs in the attic wearing dark shoes.When I thought of this scene, I wanted to go outside the door like a demon, but I still held back the idea because I didn't want to cause any trouble again.