Chapter 6 Chapter 5 The Tomb of the Dead

Meng Shaohui and Luo Fei walked out of the mountain depression and headed north.They walked along the foot of the mountain, the road was winding and winding, sometimes steep and sometimes slow.Everywhere the terrain is flat, there are always a few islanders living and living. At this time, Meng Shaohui often stops to ask for information about his father, but he has never gained anything. An hour later, the two calculated that they had traveled three to four kilometers, approaching the due east of the island.This section of the mountain road became complicated and steep, and the number of people became less and less. After turning a corner, a fork appeared in front of them.

Judging from the direction, the left entrance of the fork road is to the northeast, which should lead to the village at the foot of the mountain; the right entrance to the west seems to be the direction up the mountain.Luo Fei stopped to look around for a while, pointed to the high place in the west, and said in a calm voice: "There should be 'Ghost Watching Slope'." Meng Shaohui looked in the direction he pointed, and saw a cliff standing in front of him. Although it was named "Slope", the angle of the mountain wall was almost perpendicular to the ground, as if it had been chopped by someone with a big axe. over average.There are many shrubs and pine trees stubbornly drilled out of the mountain wall, all of which grow obliquely upwards, revealing an unyielding vitality.

Due to the extremely steep terrain, even though this mountain wall is only tens of meters high, it still shows a breath-taking momentum, which makes people breathless.Luo Fei now fully understood the meaning of what Sun Fachao said at noon: whoever wants to pretend to be a ghost on such a mountain wall, unless he has the ability to climb mountains and forests like an ape. Attracted by such wonders of nature, the two seemed to have forgotten the terrifying legend of "Ghost Watching Slope", and walked involuntarily along the fork road at the right entrance to the depths of the mountain to the west.

Climbing up the stairs, the path becomes quieter and quieter. Gradually, both sides are covered with dead trees on the mountain wall, and there is no trace of human presence. Seeing that you don’t have to go far to reach the bottom of the mountain wall of “Ghost Watching Slope”, suddenly you hear a voice saying: : "Going forward, there is a lot of hostility, where are you two going?" There was no one else on the mountain road, Luo Fei and the two were taken aback by the sudden voice, and Kaka also arched his back and stared, looking nervous.Just as I was wondering, I saw the bushes on the left side of the road rattling, and a man got out of it.

This man looked to be about fifty years old, with a slightly fat body, kind face, round head and bald head, wearing a black robe over a winter coat, but he was a monk. Luo Fei took a closer look, only to find that behind the monk there was a narrow path, hidden in the bushes and extremely concealed.Seeing the other party's expression of trying to save the world and persuade others, he smiled and explained: "We are going to the 'Ghost Watching Slope' to take a look." The monk's expression became dignified. After he looked around the two of them, his eyes stopped on Meng Shaohui.He was so focused, his eyes were bright, and he seemed to be filled with some kind of indescribable emotion.

Meng Shaohui felt uncomfortable when he saw him, and when he was about to say something, he heard the monk ask first: "You are the young man who lost his memory, right? How is it? Did you find anything on the island?" How could he know himself?Meng Shaohui stared at the monk, looking very surprised.But Luo Fei had a thought, and asked the other party: "You are the monk Deping, right?" The monk clasped his hands together and saluted: "Officer Luo's thinking is really sharp. Monks don't have names, and Deping is my Dharma name." At this time, Meng Shaohui also remembered that this Deping was the one who ordered the coffin that Lao Hu said, and he must have learned about the origins of himself and Luo Fei from Lao Hu.After dispelling the doubts in his heart, Meng Shaohui did not hide anything, and briefly described the relevant situation after going to the island.

Hearing that Meng Shaohui was a survivor of the tsunami disaster, a complex look of sadness flashed across Deping's face, then he sighed and said, "Come with me, you two, the answer you are looking for , maybe it’s all here with me.” After speaking, Deping made a "please" gesture, turned around and walked down the path.Meng Shaohui didn't know what to do, he turned his head to look at Luo Fei, and after seeing Luo Fei nodding, he followed. The path was full of thorns, Meng Shaohui was afraid of hurting the cat's feet, so he bent down and hugged Kaka in his arms.

After entering the shrub mouth, the road behind became more and more spacious. While leading the way, the monk Deping turned around from time to time and introduced a few words: "There are very few people coming to my place...even if there are tourists coming from the mountain road in summer. No one has ever discovered this path before... This is the resting place of the soul, and it should not be disturbed in the first place." After walking for about three to five minutes, the path has come to an end. Unexpectedly, the terrain here is flat, and there is a small world hidden here.Deping stopped, pointed to the front and said, "Here we are, this is the sacrificial hall for the victims of the shipwreck."

Deping's voice was not loud, but Luo Fei and Meng Shaohui's hearts trembled when they heard it.Since it is a sacrificial hall, the souls of thousands of victims rest here, and it is also related to the legend of "Ghost Watching Slope". The sacrificial hall doesn't look that big from the outside, it looks like a small temple.Luo Fei and Meng Shaohui walked into the sacrificial hall under Deping's guidance.When I went inside, I found that the room was divided into two rooms, the front and the back, and the outer room had beds and some daily necessities. It seemed to be the dormitory of Monk Deping.A young monk was tidying up the house. When he saw the three people coming in, he hurriedly took a step forward and called out respectfully, "Master."

Deping waved his hand: "You can do your work." The little monk nodded and retreated. "This is my apprentice, whose name is Huitong." Deping introduced to the two visitors.Luo Fei made a little observation and found that the young monk was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with an honest demeanor, but there was an aura between his brows. The three of them went straight to the back room without stopping.This place seems to be a Buddhist place, with Buddha statues enshrined on the table, incense burners around it, and two futons on the ground, but the first thing that caught Luo Fei and Meng Shaohui's attention was a coffin parked in the middle.

It was the same coffin they had seen on the ship.It seems that Monk Deping has indeed met Lao Hu, and Luo Fei's previous guess was not wrong. "Is this the place where you performed rituals for the dead on the island?" Luo Fei guessed, "This new coffin arrived on the same boat as us. Why, did someone die recently?" "Not in the past few days. But birth, old age, sickness and death are all predestined by God, who can predict it? It is not superfluous to be prepared." Monk Deping said lightly, as if he had long been used to seeing life and death. "Master Deping also experienced that disaster, right? If I'm not mistaken, your relatives also died in the tsunami?" Hearing what Luo Fei said, Monk Deping raised his head and looked at him in surprise: "Officer Luo is indeed not an ordinary person. You guessed it right. It was after that disaster that I saw through some things and voluntarily became a monk. , stay here all year round with those wandering undead.” Meng Shaohui was listening intently to Deping's narration, when he suddenly saw Kaka grinning in his arms, and had a strange reaction, he thought the cat was nervous because he came to a strange place, and he just wanted to stroke it with his hands But Kaka let out a "meow", kicked his legs suddenly, jumped out of his arms, then jumped onto the window sill, and went out of the house in a flash. "It's said that the black cat is psychic, and it seems that it's not all rumors." Seeing this scene, Monk Deping didn't seem surprised. He opened a back door and went out: "Officer Luo, aren't you against 'Ghost Watching Po'?" Are you interested in the legend, please come here and have a look.” Luo Fei and the two followed Deping to the back of the house, and a solemn feeling immediately overwhelmed them. In the middle of the barren grassland stood a solitary cement tomb, more than two meters high, and in front of the tomb stood an equally large tombstone without words.The black cat Kaka was hunched over, wandering around the tomb. Monk Deping stepped forward and gently slid his hand on the tombstone: "Officer Luo, you know a lot about what happened on the 'Ghost Watching Slope'. It must be difficult for you to believe in ghosts and gods, but I I want to tell you that it was after this sacrificial hall was built that the shadow on the "Ghost Watching Slope" disappeared... Although this is an empty tomb, and the tombstone is just a bare stone, there is a grave buried here. All the undead who died in the tsunami." At this point, he paused for a while, then slowly turned his head and glanced at Meng Shaohui, "Son, among them is your mother." Meng Shaohui's body shook slightly, and two lines of tears had already flowed down.Although he had guessed in his heart before, this is the first time someone has stated his life experience so clearly. For a while, he felt sad, happy and surprised, with mixed feelings. After a long while, he murmured: "My mother Who is it? Why did my father take me away from this island? How can I have no memory of these past events? Who can tell me all this?" "But why do you want to know? You are so lucky, but you don't know it. How many people want to forget those terrible memories, but they can't do it, they can only wake up from nightmares in the middle of the night again and again. But you, Come back here from thousands of miles to find something that is meaningless to you." Deping looked into Meng Shaohui's eyes, "Oh, people in the world often can't comprehend clearly, the past is past, compared to those who are Is there nothing more worthy of your cherishment and nostalgia for things that no longer exist in your mind?" What Monk Deping said made even Luo Fei feel quite reasonable.Meng Shaohui's heart was touched. For a moment, he thought of many things, including his girlfriend who broke up with him in the county. If he loses her because of this, is it worth it?But some things in my heart have tortured me for so many years, if I don't find an answer, when will I get relief? "Then... what should I do now?" Meng Shaohui murmured, not knowing whether he was talking to himself or asking for help. Deping sighed and pointed to the tomb: "First, burn a stick of incense for your mother and kowtow to her head." Meng Shaohui brought incense sticks, futons, etc. from the house, arranged them, and solemnly kowtowed three times to the unwritten tombstone.Luo Feirang stood aside, watching all this silently, thinking in his heart: I wonder if it would be meaningless in the eyes of this monk to explore the secret of "Ghost Watching Slope" by myself?