That night we stayed at Mr. Liu’s house. Since we were in a rural area and there was no extra room at home, we could only put two square tables together and put a layer of quilt on them to use as beds. When I went to bed at night, Master asked me , why did you ask Mr. Liu questions about the time before and after those things happened?
I thought Master was going to blame me, so I hurriedly said, because only by clarifying the order of time can we avoid bumping into each other during the subsequent investigation. Master, I didn’t mean to interrupt what you were talking about, I just couldn’t help it. After saying that, I started to smile playfully, trying to avoid Master's blame by pretending to be innocent. But the master did not scold me, but said to me, you asked a very good question. Sometimes in our industry, before officially starting work, we must understand as much as possible about the situation. Understand more now, and there will be less detours later. road. It's getting late, go to bed soon.
Being praised by Master makes me feel a little proud. Although Master and I laugh and joke most of the time, he rarely affirms my approach so seriously.
That night, I huddled with my master in a place that wasn't even a bed, and I didn't know how long I slept. When I woke up, it was already broad daylight. The kind-hearted Mr. Liu cooked poached eggs for us and prepared homemade cabbage in salted water.
While having breakfast, Master asked me, according to your opinion, where should we start today? I said, Grandpa Liu said that it all started when the construction team came, so it would be safest to start the investigation from the construction site. However, now that we have only asked Grandpa Liu, the statement is still relatively one-sided, at least not. Complete, so we'd better find people in the village to inquire more, maybe it will change our judgment. If the final result is still the same as our idea last night, it's still too late to investigate from the construction site.
The master nodded and said, that's fine, then let's do it. After eating, I followed Master around the village and asked many families. Everyone in the village knew about this haunted incident. Moreover, when I saw us two outsiders, Master was still wearing Taoist robes, I immediately Knowing that we both came here specifically for this matter, everyone was very enthusiastic to tell us what they knew about the situation. Most people had not seen this matter in person and had heard it from other people's mouths, so the content was In fact, there is not much difference, so we also asked about the person who finally walked out of the woods at that time and another person who saw the ghost of the woman in black robe with his own eyes. These two people were both personal experiencers of the incident, and their words should be the most valuable reference. .
We found the home of the man Mr. Liu mentioned who finally came out of the woods. He was doing farm work. After expressing his intention, he told us about the situation he encountered in the woods that day when there was a thick fog.
At first, like everyone else, he thought it was just a rumor and not credible. So he entered the woods that day to refute the rumors, but when the thick fog came out, he didn't think so. Because in the thick fog, he could not see anything except the trees around him. However, I heard a strange sound coming from all directions.
The sound was like the wind blowing rapidly in the woods, and then he saw a black shadow moving quickly in the fog, but he didn't see what it was specifically, because there had been rumors about a woman in black robe before. thing, so he also preconceptionally believed that the black figure was the woman in black robe. So by this time he was a little scared. He called out to his companions, but got no response.
Immediately afterwards, many people screamed one after another from one direction, as if his companions were being tortured. He turned his head to face the direction of the sound, but at this time he saw the thick fog. A gap opened up, as if a path was deliberately given to him. At the moment, he didn't have time to think too much, so he kept running forward along this road. Who knew that he would actually run out of the woods with this shot.
The master asked him, did you smell anything at that time, or were you injured? He shook his head and said that he was not injured, but he was quite frightened. His nose was filled with the smell of fallen leaves rotting in the soil, and there was also a smell similar to dead mice, but even if that smell appeared in his nose, he still felt Not so real.
He also said that before this incident happened, he had been going back and forth in that small forest for decades. He knew the situation in the forest very clearly. He had never seen such a heavy fog, let alone encountered such a heavy fog. This is something even weirder. The master asked him again, when you saw that black shadow, could you recall as much as possible what the starting point was? For example, were there any monsters in this mountain before? The man shook his head and said, I have never heard of spirits. It is true that there are wild animals, such as pheasants, hares, and monkeys. The larger beasts are leopards that were reported a few years ago. The carcasses of many animals are also in the woods. Found and found the footprints of big cats, but no one had ever seen a leopard with their own eyes.
That dark shadow moved sideways through the thick fog behind the trees that I could vaguely see. It was very fast and disappeared in the blink of an eye, and then I heard screams. But when I walked out of the woods and asked them, they said that no one screamed, but they heard me screaming in the woods. This was confusing. Maybe I was fascinated by something at the time, maybe everyone All were fascinated.
The master nodded, looking like he was thinking. Then he asked, after you have gone through this incident, do you think this mountain is really haunted as rumored? The man shook his head in frustration and sighed, "Who can say for sure? I didn't believe it at first, but I still believe it to some extent now. I just hope that this matter will pass quickly and our village will be at peace."
After bidding farewell to this family, we are going to visit the next villager who has witnessed the woman in black robe. Since he can accurately say that this is a woman, it means that at least visually, his observation is more realistic than others.
Master told me on the road that the dead and disappeared livestock, since the scratches were found on the big buffalo, and the footprints of leopards were also found by the villagers, whether they were leopards or not, they must have been caused by wild beasts, and we should follow them. That black-robed female ghost doesn't matter. I have been traveling around the world for so many years, and I have encountered animals that died due to ghost things, but most of them died suddenly. I have never encountered such animals with obvious external injuries. I remained silent. At this moment, the analysis of any clue is very important. Since the master said this, it must be based on experience. This is a process accumulated over many years, and it is also a step that I must take to enter this industry.
When we went to find another villager, he was working silently in the fields. My master and I came up to say hello and said that we were the people invited by Mr. Liu to help. He was willing to cooperate, but he looked a little colder. The man before was more depressed. Counting the days, it has been a long time since this incident began. For such a long time, no one has been able to get out of the original shadow. It is not difficult to imagine that the fright at that time must have been unforgettable for this villager.
The master asked him to tell us what he saw that day. The villager sat down with his back against the bamboo fence, took out a roll of tobacco and stuffed it into his pipe, and then told us what happened at that time.
That day he went to the free market in the county town to sell the mangosteen shoots he dug at home, but when he walked back after selling, it was already getting late. The villager told us that he had grown up here since he was a child. Except for the soldiers who fought against bandits in the area during the early days of liberation, and the battle was resolved within a few days, there was no war or turmoil here. Three generations of his ancestors lived here. Having lived here for generations, I have walked back and forth on this road countless times. Even if it is completely dark, I can still find my way home without lighting a lantern.
But when I passed by the small woods that day, I suddenly felt an urge to urinate, so I solved it on the spot. When I was putting on my pants, I heard a rustling noise. It sounded a bit like the wind blowing in the woods, but also a bit like the wind blowing in the woods. The sound of something moving quickly over the fallen leaves. At first he thought it was a nocturnal animal such as a field mouse, so he didn't pay much attention to it. Just when he was about to leave, he saw a tall black shadow on the narrow path between the woods and the hill in the dim light of the sky. He was startled at that time, but he did not run away, but stood there and asked: Who is in front of you?
When the black figure didn't move, he picked up the pebbles on the ground and threw them at the black figure. He didn't see clearly whether they hit him or not. Anyway, the black figure didn't make any reaction. So he boldly planned to go around the black shadow, because until that moment he had not thought about the ghost at all, and thought it was the man in the village who was drunk and standing here in a daze. But when he was about two or three steps away from the black shadow, the black shadow suddenly turned its head, opened its big mouth and roared loudly at him.
The villager rubbed his nose when he said this. Judging from his expression, he was still frightened even after many days. The master comforted him and said, brother, don't be afraid, I am here to solve this matter, so tell me everything you think of, so that I can solve it more smoothly.
The villager glanced at the master, and then went on to say that he would remember the roaring sound all his life, as if the voices of two or three people were overlapping. There were hoarse male voices and sharp female voices, and the black figure suddenly He turned his head very quickly, in the blink of an eye. There are no teeth or tongue in its mouth, and the sound sounds as hollow as the roar of a person without a tongue.
The master asked him again, did you see the ghost clearly? The villager nodded and said that its face is very white, the kind of white that can be seen clearly even at night. Its eyes only have two black eye sockets, and the eyes are not visible. The nose is a bit long and a bit crooked. I can’t remember whether it has eyebrows. But at first glance, I knew it was a woman. She looks much taller than the average woman. The black hat and black robe on her head are connected together, so only her face can be seen clearly, and the rest are just dark shadows.
The master asked, so it just roared and did nothing else? The villager shook his head and said no. He was so frightened at the time that he immediately ran away from the village, even leaving his own bamboo basket behind. However, the female ghost in black robe did not catch up with me. She ran away more than ten meters away from me. You can still hear its call, but when you look back, it disappears.
