I have no feelings for Third Aunt. During her lifetime, she always relied on the power of her natal family to dominate the Zhou family.
Although I was still young at that time, I can't forget the scene of my third aunt pulling my mother's hair and calling her a bitch.
It's just that grandma and the others were really frightened.
Seeing the third aunt's miserable death state covered in mud, grandma's face turned pale, she jumped up and said to my father,
"It must be that bitch. Is she, is she back?"
My father didn't say anything. He was also frightened and trembling like a quail.
"No, I have to ask Grandpa to come and take a look."
In the end, grandma made up her mind, went to the kitchen, picked up a basket of free-range eggs, and forced it on me, saying,
"Zhou Xuan, your aunt is dead. Your father and I want to take care of the family affairs. You go to the East Village to find your grandpa and ask him to come to my house to help. You must give this bitch a good treatment this time!"
I was very reluctant because my grandma kept calling her "bitch" but forgot that this bitch was my mother.
But my grandma had a very strong personality, and she had the final say in everything at home. I was only 12 years old at that time, so I couldn’t say no, so I went to the East Village carrying the eggs.
As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the village, I saw my grandfather coming in a hurry.
The news of the sudden death of the third aunt spread quickly, and it spread to eight villages in ten miles. The grandfather received the news early in the morning.
He held my hand hard and said with a serious face, "Why is your third aunt missing?"
I was frightened by his eyes, took two steps back and said, "He drowned."
"Come on, take me to see the body!"
Grandpa grabbed my arm and ran to my house.
Looking at the corpses on the ground, he shook his beard hard and said with a pale face, "Retribution, it really is retribution..."
Grandma burst into tears and ran to Grandpa to ask what was going on.
"Didn't you say that as long as the scenery is buried, everything will be fine?"
"well!"
Grandpa stamped his feet and sighed, glanced at me, and said hesitantly,
"Zhou Xuan's mother hanged herself in blood-stained clothes. The hanged ghost is the most resentful. The old Zhou family is sorry for her. At that time, I asked your whole family to kowtow in the mourning hall, but your third daughter-in-law... Oh, I didn't expect her to be so resentful. Seriously, it’s been three years and I still refuse to leave.”
Grandma was so frightened that her face turned yellow, and she cried and asked what to do?
The grandpa took a long puff of dry cigarette and said, "What should I do? It's all your family's fault. Only now do you realize that you regret it. Why did you go there a long time ago!"
Grandma was submissive and was trained so that she didn’t dare to talk to him.
The grandpa was so senior that even the village chief would call him "grandpa" when he saw her. Grandma also expected the grandpa to save her life, kowtowing and bowing, begging him for another idea.
The grandfather's face turned black as coal. He said that he had no other good solution now. He would bury the third aunt first and build a mourning hall.
"Go to the coffin shop in town and find a coffin maker named Wang, and ask him to prepare two coffins, one is an ordinary birthday coffin, and the other must be made of sycamore tree core, as soon as possible!"
Grandma didn’t quite understand. It was said that the third aunt was the only one who died. Why were there two coffins and the second coffin had to be made of sycamore tree core?
"If you don't want anything to happen to your family, just do as I say!"
The grandfather gave me a fierce look, which scared my grandma so much that she didn’t dare to talk back. She quickly called my dad and we went to the coffin shop in the town.
With the help of the grandpa, the mourning hall at home was quickly set up. The grandpa called me and said that he would first lay incense sticks for the third aunt.
I didn't move and looked at the third aunt's body with resentful eyes. I couldn't forget how she bullied my mother back then.
The Taigong sighed, "Everyone is dead, so why bother?"
I was forced by my grandfather to burn incense. Afterwards, he found a piece of white cloth and was about to cover Third Aunt's face when he suddenly noticed something. He threw away the white cloth with an exclamation and reached out to touch Third Aunt's scalp.
After groping for a few times, the grandfather's face became increasingly ugly. He put his hand behind the third aunt's messy hair and pulled out a three-inch long embroidered iron nail!
The iron nail was only three inches long and was stained with rust. It penetrated deeply into Third Aunt's scalp. When it was pulled out, a black blood like ink came out.
"What's this?"
I witnessed the whole process, my face turned pale, and I looked at the nail in disbelief.
The grandfather's voice was obviously trembling when he spoke, and he said that these were the coffin nails that he personally wedged on the lid of my mother's coffin when she was buried!
"Your mother is too violent. She will definitely find someone else to take revenge."
I wasn't very scared at first, but when my grandfather said this, I became nervous, "Then who will be next?"
"have no idea!"
Grandpa shook his head helplessly, looked at me deeply, and said word by word, "The sins committed by the Zhou family must be paid for with your life. Others can just pay it back. It's just that you are so young... Alas!"
Grandpa’s words gave me goosebumps.
Could my mother harm me?
The grandpa glanced at me and said, "You are also from the Zhou family, and your mother was forced to give birth to you. As long as you are alive, her injustice will never be washed away."
I instantly felt my forehead buzzing.
"Oh, in most of my life, this is the first time I've seen such a resentful ghost."
Grandpa gritted his teeth and stood up, patted my head and said, "Your family is in too much trouble. I may not be able to handle it alone. I have to find a helper. You stay home first and don't run around."
Before leaving, he gave me a copper coin and asked me to hang it around my neck.
"Put this away, it will help you in critical moments."
"Your mother will not give up. She just hopes that no more deaths will occur in the Zhou family before I come back."
"Um."
I responded blankly, but I couldn't believe that my mother would harm me.
As soon as the grandpa left, there was no one in the mourning hall.
The third aunt's death was so evil that no one in the village helped to keep the funeral. I faced the third aunt's body alone, and the more I looked at it, the more frightened I became. I quickly ran back to the room and blocked the door with a bench.
But after waiting for a long time, grandma and the others didn't come back. It was getting dark. My eyelids were heavy and I leaned against the wall and dozed off.
I don’t know how long I slept for, but the air in the room became colder. I shivered, and I wanted to crawl into bed and sleep.
But when I opened my eyes, I saw my mother, who was hanging on the beam of my house with her hair disheveled, her hair hanging down long, and there were still big drops of blood oozing from the corners of her eyes. She was looking straight at me with her eyes. Without blinking.
I was instantly frightened, leaning against the wall motionless. My mother seemed to be crying, and her cold voice echoed in the room.
"Zhou Xuan, get up quickly and follow mother. If you are late, it will be too late..."
Grandpa just said that my mother would never let me go. Has it come true so soon?
I was sweating all over and was so scared that I couldn't move. My mother stretched out her chicken claw-like hands and slowly stretched them towards me. There was a cold air coming from her hands, which made me breathe hard and all the hairs on my hair stood up.
I didn't know where the strength came from, I leaned against the wall and shouted, "Mom, don't hurt me!"
boom!
The stool under my butt fell over, and I fell to the ground. I touched my forehead and was in a daze for a while. When I looked up, I found that my mother was not there. The room was as quiet as before I fell asleep.
"It turned out to be a nightmare."
I breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off my forehead.
Thinking back to the dream just now, it was so real. I was so frightened that I wanted to go to the kitchen to wash my face, but after opening the door, I saw a hazy figure, leaning on the door frame outside the courtyard, staring motionlessly at the body of the third aunt in a daze.
It was too dark and I couldn't see the man's face clearly, but I vaguely thought it was my third uncle.
"Uncle Third, where did you go during the day?"
Since Third Aunt's accident, Third Uncle hadn't shown up all day. I was about to walk up, but I found that Third Uncle had his head drooped, his clothes were wet, and there was a sound of dripping water coming from his sleeves.
There was a lot of humidity in the mountains, and fog would form at night. The third uncle just stood in the middle of the thick fog, his face as pale as a piece of white paper.
The cold wind blew by and extinguished the ever-burning lamp in the mourning hall. My third uncle waved to me numbly.
"Zhou Xuan, come here and give me a hand."
