Chapter 2 Chapter Two

Grandpa put on his clothes and got up to open the door, and I was woken up too.I heard them talking in whispers, and since it was very quiet at night, I heard all of their conversations. The horse butcher panted heavily, and said, "Brother Yue Yun wants to save me!" Grandpa asked: "What's the matter? What are you doing here in the dark at night? If you have something to do, you can come tomorrow morning and explain it clearly." As Grandpa said, he let the horse butcher into the house and sat down on a chair. The horse butcher threw the pig's intestines and lungs on the table and said, "You can accept this little thing. You have to help this favor, or you have to help if you don't."

Grandpa asked: "I don't know what to do, how can I help you?" So the horse butcher lowered his voice and said, "I ran into a ghost today..." Grandpa was startled, and quickly got up to close the door. The rustling of footsteps in the room was clearly heard by me who was not sleeping in the next room.I was attracted by the horse butcher's words, and I listened carefully to their conversation, and heard the trembling of the hands that were propped on the bed afterwards. The horse butcher said with a slightly trembling voice: "I didn't come back from selling meat until very late today. I heard someone talking in the mountain pass when I passed by Huaghou Nest on the way. I thought it was wrong. Who else is talking in the barren mountains so late?" Huh? And in this place where almost no one wants to come during the day?"

I heard the tinkling of the teacups, and then the sound of water. I thought it was Grandpa pouring tea for the horse butcher.Grandpa said: "That's right. Many children who died in infancy are buried in Huaghou Nest. It is a place with many taboos. Except for a few young and courageous people in the village, everyone else will walk around there during the day." The horse butcher continued: "I think so too. I am not afraid of ghosts or not. I was very curious, so I squatted behind a big rock and listened to what they said. If you don't listen, you will be scared. I jump!"

Grandpa asked softly, "Why did you startle me?" The horse butcher said mysteriously: "I heard the voices of a little boy and a little girl." Both Grandpa and the horse butcher paused for a moment.The night was dead and quiet, I looked up at the moon outside the window, pale as paper. The horse butcher took a sip of tea and said: "The girl's voice said, the horse butcher's wife is pregnant again, are you going to kill him again? When I heard that they were talking about me, I was even more surprised, squatting behind a stone Then listen. The boy's voice said, of course you want to kill him. The girl's voice said, how are you going to hurt him? The boy's voice laughed a few times, the sound was ugly, like emery cloth wiping a chair, it made me goosebumps Pimple, shivering constantly. The boy's voice said, I want him to live or not to support."

Grandpa was also surprised and said, "How can you live but not support?" The horse butcher said: "That girl's voice asked the same thing. The boy's voice said, I want to be reborn in that woman's womb, die at midnight on the seventh day after giving birth, and then come to play with you. If she gives birth again, I will do the same again. Let him have a son and die a son. Later they made an appointment to come to this haunted den after the death of the child my wife gave birth to." Grandpa breathed in hissingly.My hair stood up next door, feeling cold under the quilt.

"You have to save me, brother Yue Yun. My daughter-in-law's belly has been growing for several months, and she might give birth soon. If I get killed by that scorpion ghost again, I won't be able to live anymore." Horse Butcher begged. What I want to tell you is that the residents of Changshan area call the ghosts of children who died before weaning after birth as the ghosts of the Jiji.The corpses of these children could only be carried out with a tool called "箢米" for picking up soil and buried.The used dustpan cannot be taken back, so it is turned upside down on the child's grave.The tombs of Ruoji ghosts cannot be built on any mountain at will, but can only be concentrated in a remote mountain depression. This is an old customary rule.And that mountain col is what people call "Hua ghost's nest".

The elders in the village said that the Ruoji ghosts still have a childlike innocence, and because many Ruoji ghosts are buried together, they often come out to play together after the sun goes down. They especially like to play with fire.Someone once saw clusters of will-o'-the-wisps floating over the "Hua Haunted Nest" from a distance, and heard indistinct giggles.On the second day, the man seemed to be smoked, and he kept crying. His two eyeballs were redder than those of a rabbit, and it took seven to forty-nine days before he recovered. The grandfather persuaded the horse butcher, saying: "Your wife hasn't given birth to a child yet, so it won't harm you for the time being. It's too late today, and I can't deal with it right away if I can figure out a solution. Go back first and sleep peacefully. I will Help you find a way, we are relatives in the line, can you help me? But to deal with the Ruoji ghost, it is difficult to say, it is not difficult to say it is not difficult. Okay, let’s not talk so much. You first Go back, and I'll go find you when I've figured out a way." After speaking, he brought up the pig's intestines and pig's lungs on the table and asked the horse butcher to take them back.The horse butcher said many more words of gratitude, but did not take back what he sent.

Grandpa persuaded and pushed the horse butcher out of the house, and then closed the door to sleep.But I heard grandpa tossing and turning on the bed, and got up to drink tea again in the middle. After a while, the sky began to turn white, and the rooster outside began to crow.I also didn't dare to close my eyes all night, I was both afraid and curious.