Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

She dreamed that Xiaoyue was running among the bamboo bushes, and countless evil eyes were watching her.She saw Yingniang being dragged and pushed to the street, with broken shoes covered with feces hanging around her neck, and dirty words smeared with ink on her bare back and chest... In the evening, every household in the village was filled with smoke, but Lu Sheng was seen coming down the mountain with a bundle of firewood on his back—he was walking on one leg with two crutches, almost dragging the other leg, and twisting his whole body with difficulty.Wu Bingbing ran over quickly, unreasonably took off the bundle of firewood on him and carried it to his courtyard.

inside.Zhang Qun also stepped forward to support him, but he pulled out his arm in embarrassment. Lu Sheng looked at Wu Bingbing and said, "Thank you. You really look like her." Wu Bingbing asked, "Wang Xiaoyue?" Lu Sheng nodded: "She is a good person, those people will not be caused by her." After speaking, he raised his eyes and looked over the courtyard wall to the distant cliff. There are a few big trees on the cliff to the west, the branches are twisted and ferocious, and there are things hanging on them in a mess, fragmented, like torn pieces of cloth, silhouetted against the gray sky.

Lu Sheng said: "Wang Nao's family died terribly. The corpses were hung on those trees. No one dared to take them down for more than a month. The vultures tore them down, and others helped clean them up and buried them." She shook her head with lingering fear: "Others say it was Xiaoyue who killed her, but I don't believe it was her." At this time, they saw Village Chief Shi coming from a distance. Lu Sheng said: "Don't believe the surname Shi, he is no different from the old village head Wang Nao, he is not a good thing. He led people to dig Xiaoyue and her mother's graves, and he will have retribution. Don't believe this bastard the words said."

When Village Chief Shi came up to him, Lu Sheng had already turned around and entered the house. He tilted his head and looked into the house, and said to the two of them, "I've been looking for you for a long time, and I'm having dinner at Widow Bian's house tonight." Widow Bian placed a large pot lid on a square stool, which was regarded as a makeshift dining table. She said with embarrassment that she had never had any guests at home, nor had she ever used the dining table.A large stack of corn tortillas was brought up, a bowl of porridge with porridge per person, a bowl of steamed vegetables and a bowl of scrambled eggs with Chinese toon on the lid in the middle.The village chief ate with the two of them, saying that it was good enough in the mountains.The villagers are usually not willing to eat eggs, so they take them to the market in Badong outside the mountain to exchange oil, salt, sauce and vinegar.The village chief ate deliciously while talking.

After dinner, the village chief wiped his mouth and said, "You two are chatting here, I'm leaving early." The two said it's okay, the village chief, you can go.The village chief hesitated to leave, hesitating. "Oh, I'm addicted to cigarettes. I want to go to Badong outside the mountain to buy a few packs of cigarettes, but I forgot to bring any money with me..." Bingbing hurriedly took out a hundred yuan, and he took it and nodded repeatedly.The widow pouted and said, I know what you are going to do?Find that bitch!The village chief pinched her quietly and said don't talk nonsense, I really have something to do, I will come back to you later.The widow said that you have your business, and I have mine, so don't come later, I still have to visit.

After the village chief left, Wu Bingbing asked the widow Bian: "We asked about Yingniang, why didn't village chief Shi tell us? Did he have any conflicts with Yingniang before?" "There is, how old is Yingniang, and how old is Shi, he was still young at that time, and there would be no conflicts with Yingniang. But he is about the same age as Xiaoyue. Some people say that he liked Xiaoyue when he was young. That's because I married her here. It happened before. It is said that all boys his age in the village like Xiaoyue." "What do you think of the dead people in the village in the past two months?"

"I can't tell. Anyway, people are dying all the time, and I don't know who killed them. No one has seen it with their own eyes. It's all guesswork. It is possible that Yingniang and her daughter are back." "It is said that people in the village dug up the graves of both mother and son. Is there such a thing?" "No. Some people said that the graves of her mother and son were buried in the shade of the mountain, and that the ghosts lingered, and they turned into ghosts and came back to make trouble. Everyone in the village was afraid, and the village head took them to dig up the grave."

"Are those people who died Yingniang's past enemies?" "Not all of them? There are also people who have nothing to do with her. I don't think it's about her mother and daughter, and it's not a ghost. It may be a big bird, a big bird that can eat people and become a spirit. They come to the village to catch people to eat. Do you think who has the energy to catch people on the treetops except birds?" At this time, the widow Bian suddenly stopped talking and listened attentively.There was a knocking sound outside the window, and a gleam of joy flashed across the widow's face: "I have to go, I'm afraid of living alone at night, so I'll go to my cousin's house in Dongtou, I'm afraid she will worry about me if I go late. !"

When the widow went out, she took a change of clothes, closed the doors and windows tightly, and then almost trotted towards the east.Looking in the direction she was running, there was a man looking in front of a house on the hillside at the east end of the village.The widow ran towards him impatiently. They met the old woman on the road.The old woman was walking from the east to the northwest corner of the village with a bundle of firewood on her back. Her steps were brisk and powerful. If she hadn't had white hair all over her head, she would have looked like a young man from the back.Bingbing wanted to help her carry it, but the old lady said no, maybe you are not as strong as me.Bingbing asked the old man how old?Why not let your son carry it?The old man said that I am 83 years old and have no children. They all call me Granny Cuckoo, the kind of cuckoo that always calls "hardly".Bingbing said who was with you?The old man thought about it and said, are you a fool?He is not my son.If my son was alive, he would be 60 years old.Bingbing asked if we could go to your house for a sit down?The old man said that it is rare for someone to look at me as an old woman, and that would be the best.Finally someone talked to me and listened to my nagging.

"Grandma, do you know what happened to Yingniang earlier?" Bingbing asked. "Everyone in the village knows, besides, she and I are still neighbors, and she lives in the west." Granny Cuckoo led them westward, and the terrain outside the village was getting higher and higher, with sparse houses on the hillside, surrounded by tangled trees and weeds.Rocks jutted out from the ground in front of and behind the house, blocking the way and the view.They walked around the stone, and saw oleanders in front of them, tall and dense, and they couldn't see the edge, and the house was covered.The old man muttered as he walked. When the house was first built, the oleanders were not that deep. They grew taller and taller over the years, like crazy.Walking to his house soon, the old man said that Yingniang used to live in the front, and her house had collapsed long ago.

The mother-in-law's house is a low thatched house made of stone.After entering the house, she lit the oil lamp, and the bean-like light flickered to illuminate the dilapidated house.Zhang Qun said that electricity was used in the village, and asked why she didn't use electric lights.The old man said that I have no way to make money, and I can't afford electricity, so I save oil lamps.Hearing what she said, the two felt a little sad.Bingbing took out 200 yuan and handed it to the old man, saying that this is what we both mean, and the old man can supplement his life.The old man was very grateful for accepting it, saying that you are really kind people. She put the money in the rice bag behind her and said with a sigh, I am not much better than that Yingniang. "We want to know how Yingniang died?" "It was forced to death by the villagers, those people really did evil!" "Is it the old village head, Wang Nao? They say it's him?" "Not only him, but also those people in the village." Granny Cuckoo said, "There are crowds of bachelors, and good girls are married off from outside the mountain, but they have no ability to bring one from outside the mountain, and they will only bully the women in the village. Those who have wives also eat from the bowl and look into the pot, like boars, scurrying around the village every night, messing up the village. It is the helpless widows who suffer. Outsiders don’t know the hero How much my mother has suffered. After her daughter went to school outside the mountain, she stayed at home alone. How could she keep the door open? Those men broke in in the middle of the night to bully her, and jumped out of the window when they were done. Do not know at all. "Later, she couldn't bear it any longer, so she thought of using methods to deal with them. Her father is a doctor who has been passed down for three generations, and a junior sister who is close to her father is a witch doctor. She often flies around the mountains in her hometown to collect medicine. Knows a lot of magic and gods, and taught her some. When she grew up, she taught her the sun-shrinking spell, saying that if a man bullies you in the future, you will deal with him like this. She also taught her a lot of things. After her father died At that time, the master asked her to go up the mountain with her. At that time, she liked the painter and refused to leave. Now when she is suffering, she really regrets not listening to the master. She only cursed Yang Hongde and Wang Nao because she liked them. Originally, she didn't want to use magic to harm others, but the villagers forced her to use it. "Since then, some men in the village have contracted yang shrinking disease. At first they kept it secret, thinking that it would be cured after a while, but then they were disappointed, and they became afraid. Those men said that Yingniang would be poisoned. No one dared to go to Yingniang’s house anymore. Because of Yang shrinking disease, civil war broke out in many families, and half the village was in a state of chaos. The woman called Yingniang a villain and poured manure on the wall of her house. Splashing dirty water at the door of her house. Throwing stones at her house when it was dark, causing things in the house to fall here and there... "Another incident occurred in that autumn, which once again annoyed the people in the village. That day, Xiao Ai, the eldest daughter of Wang Nao's family, got married, and her in-law's family outside the mountain came to pick her up in a colorful sedan chair. Yingniang came down, and she was holding a bloody rabbit. They all felt a little disappointed, unlucky, and didn't think much about it. I didn't expect that after the accident the next day, everyone would associate it with Yingniang , we all believe that it was Yingniang who killed her." "Did something happen to the person who greeted you? What happened?" "When those people came out of the mountain, it was dark, and suddenly it rained heavily on the mountain road. The rain was so heavy that people couldn't open their eyes. The road on the mountain was very slippery, and they ran into a large group of wild boars. Those men were drunk Drunk, she just ran forward to escape for her life, but she knocked over the colorful sedan chair, and Xiao Ai rolled down the cliff and fell to her death." "What does her death have to do with Yingniang?" "But everyone in the village said that it was Yingniang's curse, saying that she hated Wang Nao. Wang Nao's family went to Yingniang's house to make a fuss, dragged her outside by the hair and beat her, stripped her clothes, and beat her with scars. Her leg was also broken. She had been lying on the bed for several months, and no one was taking care of her. She could not think of how to live. She ate dried sweet potatoes and corn seeds almost every day, moved out of bed once a day, and drank some raw water. There were also half a kind woman who came to see her, seeing how she felt that she might as well die. Yingniang seemed to have guessed what people were thinking, saying that I would not die, and I was still waiting for my daughter, who would pick me up and leave here. I think she is crazy, because her daughter died before that, and was forced to death by Yang Hongde's son. She is still waiting for her daughter, so she must be crazy." "An ordinary person would not want to live in such a bitter life," Zhang Qun said. "I think so too. Granny, when did Yingniang die?" Bingbing asked. "Two years later, it was winter... There was a lot of snow. She was sick at night, her whole body was cold, and her legs felt like convulsions. The quilt was on fire, she didn't have the strength to put out the fire, she didn't even have the strength to get out of bed, so she burned to death in the house." The two of them couldn't help but sigh when they heard this. Before they knew it, it was late at night, and the old woman spread a bundle of hay on the ground, took out a quilt, and spread it on it, letting the two of them sleep for a while.Zhang Qun lay down and soon fell asleep.But Bingbing tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep. After experiencing Yingniang's fate, she felt heartbroken and wanted to cry. When she finally fell asleep, she dreamed incessantly. She dreamed that Xiaoyue was running among the oleander bushes, and countless evil eyes were watching her from the bushes.Yingniang called out her daughter's name, and followed her figure; she dreamed that Yingniang was being dragged and pushed into the street, with worn-out shoes hung around her neck, stripped of her clothes, her bare back and Dirty words were written in ink on her chest; she dreamed of a house on fire, Yingniang struggled to crawl out, the fire burned her clothes and her hair, she couldn't move while crawling, Her whole body turned into a ball of fire, and her screams could be heard in the flames... In the middle of the night, she dreamed of Jiang Lan again.She flew back in white clothes, and flew to her mother's grave in the north of the village. She saw her mother's dug grave, and heard her mother's distant and misty cry... Knowing that Village Chief Shi led people to dig her mother's grave, she couldn't even be a ghost. There is nowhere to hide.Jiang Lan suddenly became furious, ran on the hillside, screamed, and cursed at the village chief surnamed Shi.People in the village beat pots and pans, trying to scare her off.She was flying over the village, and the silver light all over her body lit up the sky.She saw the village chief hiding behind the stone wall, rushed over like a bolt of lightning, and drilled a big hole out of the house.Grabbing the village chief by the neck, he was lifted out, and he was thrown back and forth in the air like a whip.Then hung him on the branch of the rock in the west, laughed loudly and left... Bingbing was awakened by the laughter, sweating profusely all over her body.At this time, it was bright, and she looked sideways at Zhang Qun, and cried out in fright—Zhang Qun was sleeping in the grass on the ground, and she was obviously lying on a pile of messy bricks and rubble.Look carefully again, the open-air roof, the collapsed walls, and the house is full of weeds. This is not a mother-in-law's house here, it is clearly the ruins of Yingniang's house that was burned.After Zhang Qun woke up, he also screamed in fright, unable to believe everything in front of him.It was already dawn, and after being surprised for a while, the two were no longer afraid. "The old lady lured us here to tell us some facts." Zhang Qun said, "The old lady is either Yingniang or a witch, Yingniang's master." Bingbing said: "She is not like Yingniang, I think it should be that teacher." They found that the money Bingbing gave the old man last night was buried on the mound next to it. "She will change the scene to deceive us, either a ghost or a demon." Zhang Qun said. "Let's look inside to see if there is anything Yingniang used to." "Maybe we can find that longevity lock?" Zhang Qun said. The stone wall stretched across the thorns and weeds, no one must have been there, even the unburned wood from the fire was still piled there, black and hard retaining the original state when it collapsed.The two of them searched around the house. The tables, chairs, and wooden cabinets in the past were all left with ash carbon, and even the stove and the earth pit were cracked and collapsed, and vigorous weeds spewed out from there.In a cave under a section of stone wall, they found a small square iron box with many rust spots.Open the box and there are three letters inside.Except for the dull yellowing of the lettering and color on the envelope, it is in good condition.They carefully opened the letter, all of which were written to Wang Xiaoyue, telling the pain of missing her, and hoped that she would reply.The unit of the letter is the fine arts major of the Art Department of Zhongzhou University, and the writer is Gu Hongsheng.When they were wondering who this Gu was, they saw Lu Sheng rushing over with a cane.The two waved at him triumphantly. Lu Sheng said: "I saw you two walking this way last night. I thought you were going to the village chief's house, but I didn't think you came here. Did you stay here last night, or did you come again early this morning?" Zhang Qun said: "When we came yesterday, did you see an old lady leading us in front?" Lu Sheng said: "I just saw you two, what kind of old woman is there. Come out quickly, I'm worried that you two will be fascinated by ghosts. Someone has been fascinated by ghosts before and almost died. You two come out quickly!" At this time, Village Chief Shi also came from nearby, and he said loudly, "Why are you here? No matter how curious you are, you shouldn't have come to this place? Let the villagers see you, and they will treat you as monsters. Damn it!" Wu Bingbing said: "We're going to hell, village chief. I had a dream last night, knowing that you dug the graves of Yingniang and her daughter, and her daughter came back to seek revenge on you!" "Revenge?" The village head was startled, "I didn't offend them, I was just afraid that their ghosts would linger and turn into ghosts to kill... It was the villagers who asked me to take them there, and I wasn't the only one!" "The dead are lying on the ground, and you don't let Ansheng. You dug their graves, which means that they have nowhere to live in the underworld. Her daughter is here for you." The village chief stammered, "You dreamed that she came again? What does she want to do?" "I saw her kill you and hang your body on the tree over there." "My God!——" the village chief cried out, "I didn't harm her, and I'm not Wang Nao, why did she want to kill me?...Don't scare me! I'll go and fill up the grave I dug, Is it okay to make it the same as before? I really regret it! You shouldn’t have listened to what the king said about those relatives, and you shouldn’t have gone to dig the grave with them. What should I do now? I’ll bring people to fill up the dug grave and restore it to its original state. Isn't it? What a bad luck!" Lu Sheng said next to him: "I said a long time ago that you shouldn't do this. This is a crime, and there will always be retribution. If you don't listen, you still call me stupid." "I have to go and fill up her grave." The village head hurried away. Zhang Qun said: "The village head is scared, maybe Jiang Lan will retaliate against him?" Bingbing said: "Very likely. When I came to see my dad, I heard from him that when Jiang Lan went to the prison to kill Geng Qingshan, she was shot by the prison guards. I also shot her with a shotgun before that. She was seriously injured. Maybe I can’t fly that far, so it’s no wonder I haven’t come back for a while. The reason why I dreamed that she came back again should be related to her current thoughts. I can sense her inner desire, which proves that she is thinking about coming back Revenge." Zhang Qun asked: "What if she came back with us? For example, she—" Bingbing said: "Don't scare me! I hope she never comes back, I hope she loses her magic power." Zhang Qun said: "No matter what, we must first find out her life experience and find the longevity lock." Bingbing said: "Yes, we can only follow her experience to follow up and investigate."