Even though that expression flashed by, I still saw it clearly.
I have been following Master for more than a year. I have participated in many large and small rituals, but I have never dealt with ghost matters. But I have no doubts about Master’s skill in handling ghost affairs. After all, it was because he handled the ghost affairs in my uncle’s teahouse that I became my disciple. I am very vague about the concept of ghosts. When I was a kid, I listened to operas with Di Baotian on the edge of the stage. I once watched a piece of "Feng Sanniang". Because I was young at the time, I couldn't feel the little-known emotions in this scene. Instead, I was fascinated by the beautiful and touching scenes. The fox girl had a strong interest. However, at that time, monsters and ghosts had almost the same concept to me, so whether it was a white-bone demon or a painted-skinned girl, I equated them with ghosts.
In fact, after studying with Master, I also learned that ghosts are ghosts and demons are demons. One is transformed after death, and the other is cultivated while alive. Before this, although I experienced the ghost in the teahouse with my uncle, Something, but never seen it with my own eyes. In other words, although I was afraid, I didn’t know what I was afraid of. Master's words filled me with anxiety and also filled me with expectations.
So I listened to Master's words and went back to see my uncle, my second uncle, and Di Baotian. My second uncle broke his leg while setting up a stall and was hospitalized. Di Baotian was taking care of me in the hospital. He told me that he was going to join the army. My childhood best friend and I had almost the same childhood, but because of their different choices, they took two completely different paths.
Before we left, my second uncle said to me, Mangwazi, don’t leave without hearing from me for so long, and we’re not far apart. Come back more often to see your uncle and me when you have time. I’ll give you a call when you come. You make glutinous rice balls with sugar heart and eat them. I smiled, said goodbye to my second uncle, and Di Baotian sent me out of the hospital. At the door of the hospital, he hugged me tightly and told me that he would write me a letter when he got to the army. If he didn’t reply, he would definitely beat him after he retired. Kill me.
When I returned to Master's house, I heard a burst of Sichuan Opera singing in the distance, and I knew it was coming from Master's radio. Ever since he bought this gadget a while ago, he likes to listen to some singing arias all day long. So I quietly walked to the door of the room, and then secretly peeked into the room. I found the master walking pretentiously on stage alone, as if he was a character in a play, deeply intoxicated with himself.
In an instant, my mischievous heart arose, so I suddenly jumped in the door and said loudly: Hahaha! It turns out that you were secretly singing an opera while I was away! This sudden shock caught the master off guard. He hurriedly turned off the radio, then adjusted the sleeves that he had just put down for singing. His face turned red, and then he smiled at me angrily and said, "Little bastard, I didn't ask you to play more." God? Why did you come back in one day? I...I'm telling you, I'm learning the quintessence of our country! Do you understand the quintessence of the country?
It was really funny to see Master's harsh words, so I went straight into the house to drink water, and then asked Master, "I have done everything here, didn't you say you want to take me to another place?" When shall we set off? Master said, since you are back, let's do it tomorrow. You pack your things tonight, and we will take the car tomorrow morning.
Early the next morning, Master took me straight to the station. The traffic situation at that time was relatively backward. I changed trains twice and walked for almost an hour. Most of the day was wasted on the road. The master said that the place we are going to is called "Pengxi County", which is a subordinate area of Mianyang and is relatively backward in all aspects. He himself visited it once more than ten years ago and has never been there again.
However, Master told me that there is a Guangde Temple in this place, which is said to be the hometown of Guanyin Bodhisattva. In Taoism, Guanyin Bodhisattva is called "Cihang Taoist" and is one of the twelve golden immortals under the throne of Yuanshi Tianzun.
So if we still have time after this busy trip, we should still go to visit the shrine. I nodded and said yes. After all, it was considered a trip. If I had the chance, I would naturally visit the great rivers and mountains of my motherland. The master smiled and said, you stinky boy, you vomited like a dog just a little bit of the way. If you really walked far, you might have vomited out your intestines before you even reached your destination.
After saying this, Master burst out laughing, and I couldn't refute it. Since I didn't go out much, I naturally didn't ride in cars or boats. I couldn't control motion sickness, but seeing him tease me so unscrupulously, I secretly made up my mind. , if I still get motion sickness on the way back, I will vomit on his clean-looking robe.
Master's and I's luggage each consisted of a large satchel, but my satchel was still stuffed with Master's things. This pile of stuff doesn't look like much, but it's really heavy. The master said that because the other party's letter mentioned something strange that happened in the village, but did not specify what it was, the master could not prescribe the right medicine, so he could only bring everything he should bring with him in case of emergencies.
On the way here, Master briefly told me the content of the letter. It probably said that there is a small village in the mountains near the county seat. The village has always been peaceful, but since the end of last year, livestock deaths have continued to occur. Some people who go into and out of the mountains hear strange voices on the mountain when walking at night. Several villagers even saw a crying woman in black robe floating around in the woods. As the number of witnesses continued to increase, everyone in the village began to worry. There are rumors that there were leopards on this mountain before. A foreigner was killed by a leopard when he passed by, and no bones were left. However, before the end of last year, a construction team renovated an old house here to build a primary school and blew up the foundation. When she was there, she scared away the leopards in the mountains. The female ghost was originally afraid of leopards, but now that the leopards were gone, she started to act unscrupulously.
Master also tried to ask me on the way, if I were him, how would I start to investigate this matter. I thought about it and told him that he should ask the locals first. If he could find witnesses, he could ask a few more people, and together he would be able to get some clues.
I have no experience. In fact, these are all nonsense that I take for granted, but they are approved by the master. He said that what you said is only the first step. The second step is to go one by one according to the places where these people said they saw ghosts. Go, if necessary, send troops out to investigate. After finally finding the root cause, we will see what kind of ghost thing it is and find an appropriate way to deal with it. After all this is done, we still need to observe it for a period of time. If nothing goes wrong, then the matter is over.
It sounds really exciting. The master said again, follow me this time. I don’t expect you to be of any help, but just don’t cause trouble for me. I don’t know what happened this time. I don’t know how dangerous it is. Remember, keep your eyes open. When something happens, when you see something is wrong, you run away immediately.
Hey, you stinky old man, you are saying depressing words before this even starts. Why do you think I will be so scared that I will run away? Maybe you will run faster than me when you are older! Of course, I didn't dare to say these words, otherwise I would be beaten on the head a few times.
It was already getting dark when we arrived at the village. Master found his friend according to the sender's address on the letter. He was an old man who looked almost seventy years old and was the elder of the village. Master said that this old gentleman's last name was Liu, who had been with the Red Army for a period of time when it was passing through Sichuan, had a sympathetic friendship with a certain leader. After liberation, he returned to his hometown and helped reform education there. The central primary school in the village was built with state funding at the suggestion of Mr. Liu.
Mr. Liu was very enthusiastic. He knew that Master and I had not eaten yet, so he quickly asked his son and daughter, Zhang Luo, to cook noodles for us two. I was really hungry after a long journey, so I didn’t care whether the bowl of noodles was delicious or not. , just to fill his stomach, Hululu drank it. After eating, the master took me to sit down by the fire in the center of the room and asked the old man to tell the details of what happened. The master told me to listen carefully and don't forget any key things. I asked him in a low voice, "I must listen carefully, but it seems to be of no use. You won't let me do this anyway. Why should I remember it so clearly?" Master kicked me and then lowered his voice and told me, you brat, if I can't remember, you can remind me more!
Mr. Liu said that there is a mountain road distance between our small mountain village and the county town, but the village is poor and the conditions are poor, so we need to bring many things from the county town to the village. Villagers often go over the mountains to the county town to buy. I have never encountered any trouble in decades, but it has been appearing frequently since last year. At first, when I heard them talk about it, I thought it was too ridiculous. Is it possible that I saw some wild beast in this barren mountain? It's a ghost.
Mr. Liu said that after this incident occurred frequently at the end of last year, he called on a group of elders in the village to personally visit the haunted places in broad daylight. Although he did not see ghosts, he could see ghosts as soon as he got close to the place. You will smell a strange smell, like something dead. When everyone wanted to find what kind of body it was, the moment they entered the woods, thousands of crows on the treetops screamed strangely and flew away. Mr. Liu said, you know, in our village, although we can catch some game in the mountains from time to time, we have never seen crows in so many years. The strangest thing was that as soon as the crow flew away, fog would immediately form in the woods. Seven or eight of us were surrounded by the fog that day. Although we didn’t see anything weird, we heard some strange sounds. The voice was like a person who had lost his tongue and was speaking seriously, but he couldn't understand what he was saying at all, but the voice really reverberated in his ears.
Mr. Liu said that everyone was frightened and ran towards the entrance of the woods. I am old and my legs are not strong. It was others who helped me to get out of the woods. But after we walked out, we found that there was something missing. No one dared to go in again. They could only stand on the edge of the woods and shout that person's name loudly. After shouting a few times, they heard a scream coming from the woods. This scream was that person in the forest. There was no one in the woods who could come out.
I looked at Master sideways, and he seemed to be frowning a little. I also knew that this matter was of great importance. Although I was full of curiosity, it was better not to ask casual questions. Master asked Mr. Liu, what happened to the last person who entered the mountain? Rescued? Mr. Liu frowned and said, Hi! Why save? The boy ran out in a panic without any harm. We asked him why he screamed so loudly just now, but he said that he didn't scream, but that he heard us screaming outside in the thick fog. He ran out when he was anxious.
Master said, then this is strange. In other words, after you encountered the thick fog, you separated into two groups, and each one felt that the other was in danger. Is that what you meant?
Mr. Liu nodded and said, this thing is weird in this place. Everyone was frightened, but they were all safe. This is unreasonable! When I heard this, I felt a little funny in my heart, as if this old gentleman was eager for something to happen. The master asked again, then you said that the livestock in the village died one after another, what is the relationship between these two things? Mr. Liu said that this is just our guess, because no one can explain this incident. In the following days, the animals in the village died and disappeared, and everyone had different opinions, thinking that the two incidents were related.
These animals were all dead or thrown away at night. Among them was a large buffalo. We found it not far from another entrance to the grove the next day. It was not dead at the time, but its intestines had been pulled out, and its body was There were many wounds scratched by sharp objects, so the villagers speculated whether they were caused by the female ghost in black robes. Then some people said that there were leopards in the mountains, and the buffalo was injured by a leopard. Finally, an elderly man from our village came forward and said that there had been leopards in the past, but after the construction team entered the mountain, the leopards disappeared, and the female ghost came out.
Master said to Mr. Liu, your letter said that this female ghost was dragged into the woods by a leopard and bitten to death. Is this really what happened? Mr. Liu said, no one knows about this, but everyone is passing it on, one by one, and the more they say it, the more bizarre it becomes. In the end, we can’t tell the difference, and we can only tell you what we hear. In this regard, you are the best Expert, I’m asking you to check this out.
I thought to myself, after working on it for a long time, the content in the letter may not be completely accurate, so why bother talking about it? Why not just start from the beginning and check it out. So I couldn't hold it back and interrupted and asked, Grandpa Liu, do you mean that whether you saw a ghost or the livestock started to die, it all happened after the construction team repairing the Central Primary School came. Something? After asking this question, I quickly shut up and glanced at the master secretly.
Master did not blame me for interrupting, but looked at Mr. Liu waiting for his answer, as if he would ask if I didn't ask. Mr. Liu said without hesitation, yes, that's it. As soon as the construction team came, strange things happened.
But the construction team was in the other direction of the mountain col. Even entering and exiting the mountain, they would not pass through the haunted grove. They only used explosives when driving piles. That’s why the village said that the explosives scared away the leopards, and then the female ghost came out again. Mischief occurred.
The master thought for a while and said, Mr. Liu, at present, these things do not seem to have a direct connection. Let my apprentice and I think about it carefully. It is not too early now. I will take my apprentice to the village tomorrow. Let’s visit here and take a look. The sooner this matter comes to light, the sooner you will feel at ease. I will be able to live up to my mission as sir.
After chatting for a while, I was still stuck on many previous questions, so the master said to rest first and talk about it tomorrow.
