Only then did I realize that the place where Master and I were standing was a slightly raised little earthen bag. Since the terrain in the woods is originally uneven, it would be difficult for anyone to detect this little bumpkin unless the master explained it carefully.
This is a very small place, and the ground is full of fallen leaves. Master stretched out his feet to push away the fallen leaves on the surface. I saw many weeds growing on the ground, which didn't look much different from other places. Master said, it’s right here, it can’t be wrong. Then he stood there, started shaking the bell in his hand, and chanting a spell, which probably meant asking the soldiers and horses to return and thanking them for their help.
After retrieving the soldiers and horses, the master handed the bell to me and asked me to hold it well. Master and I both took a few steps back from the little dirt bag, because Master said he was going to start doing rituals on this grave.
Then he himself lay on the grave, putting his nose to the soil and smelling it. But he quickly stood up, because I noticed the smell when we stood still. It was a fishy smell, very much like a stinky smell. The feeling of a ditch.
After the master stood up, he told me that although the smell was permeating everywhere, it was not very strong after all. I smelled it on the ground just now, and the smell was very obvious. The soldiers and horses found the tomb and only confirmed that this earth bag was underground. A dead person is buried, but the smell I smell means that the dead person has turned into a ghost. This smell is a very important and easily detectable condition for ghosts to appear.
I began to have a vague premonition that Master was going to do some trick next, and I didn't like this trick.
The master stood in front of the grave, clasped his fists and saluted, then took out some rice and paper money from his arms, scattered them everywhere, and murmured, but his voice was so soft that I didn't know what he was talking about. Then he made a two-finger gesture with his right hand, piled the graves in the air and started writing. Since I was standing next to him, I couldn't see what he wrote, but it felt like a spell.
Then Master said to me, let’s split up and look for any stronger branches. I quickly said I won’t split up, I’ll just follow you. The master smiled and did not answer, but acquiesced.
So the two of us started looking for branches with higher hardness nearby. Soon the master found two branches as thick as his arms. Then he found a stone, raised one end of the branch on the stone, and then gave it a hard blow himself. With his feet, he trampled the branch into two pieces. The broken part becomes a little sharp.
I followed Master's example and stepped on the branches in my hands, and then asked Master, "What are you doing?" Should we plant a tree on the grave or chop it down and use it as firewood? I was actually joking, because in my hometown, planting trees on other people's graves is a very unlucky and even cursed thing to do.
The master smiled happily and said, silly boy, you think too simply, we are going to dig graves.
As soon as the master finished saying this, I immediately felt stupid. Digging someone's grave is so immoral. I would not do it even to my most hated enemy. So I took a few steps back and said loudly and firmly that I would not do this, and you had to dig it yourself.
Master asked me if I was afraid, and I said that it would be too damaging if fear was one of them. The master said coldly, "We don't know the names of the people buried here at all. We can't find them now if they were alive or if they had any relics. Digging the grave and finding the bones is the only way for us to establish contact with it. If we don't find some If it belongs directly to the ghost itself, subsequent rituals cannot be completed. If it is still there, none of us can guarantee that we can get out of this forest smoothly.
If I were to escape out of the woods, I would probably die a hundred times on the road. But now, Master's attitude is that he must do it.
Although I was reluctant, I walked to the master and prepared to dig with him. Just when Master was digging for the first time, a group of black birds suddenly sprang out from out of nowhere. The mass of black birds made Master and I squat down in fright. The echo of flapping wings echoed in the woods. But it flew away quickly, and we didn’t see where it went.
The master stood up and said, these beasts have gone crazy.
Then Master and I started digging in a hurry. The soil in the woods is not difficult to dig because it has been wet for a long time. However, because I don’t have a suitable digging tool in my hand, it is still a little difficult to dig. Fortunately, the soil is relatively loose, and the deeper the water, the deeper the soil. There was less and less soil, and the soil became looser and looser. As I dug deeper, I heard a clicking sound, and it was obvious that I hit a foreign object. I thought I had dug bones, so I looked at the master with a horrified face. The master stretched out his hand to pull me out. Pushing it aside, he began to carefully continue digging alone.
Soon, a white skeleton appeared in front of him.
As a person born in a war-torn era, I tend to be more open-minded about life and death. However, I am different. Not only do I not treat life and death with an open mind, I have never even seen a real human skeleton.
When I was a kid, I went to the theater with Di Baotian. There was a section of "Three Strikes of the White Bone Demon". The person who sang the role of the White Bone Demon was good at the face-changing trick of Sichuan Opera, so he quickly turned his head and then turned his head again without me being prepared at all. At that time, it became a skull face. That was the shadow of my childhood, because from that time on, I knew that people would turn into this ugly appearance sooner or later after death.
So when I saw this set of white bones at this moment, I quickly connected the most terrifying memory of my childhood. But at this moment, I know clearly that what I am afraid of is not this set of white bones, but that I am afraid that after death, I will not move at all. The quietness.
Because it was dug from a small earth bag, even though the position of the bones was actually about the same height as the ground, it still looked like a pit. The master jumped into the pit and started to use branches to push away the soil around the bones, because maybe it took too long and the bones They are all stuck in the soil.
However, the soil is relatively dry. Apart from some sparse tree roots and grass roots popping out of the soil, there are only a few small insects crawling around. I felt a little nauseous, so I couldn't help but start covering my nose, and stood watching the master doing this from a distance. Master soon cleaned out most of the bones, so I could clearly see that the white bones were wrapped in a piece of black cloth. Although the cloth had almost rotted due to time, I could still tell that it was A robe with a cape.
This confirmed the words of the villagers who had witnessed it before. Indeed, the woman in black robe they saw at that time was the skeleton in front of them. Although looking at the bones alone, we cannot tell whether it is a man or a woman, it at least shows that the ghost the villagers saw must be the original figure of this white skeleton.
However, the posture of this white skeleton is a bit strange. Normally, the dead are buried flat in the pit, but it is lying on its side. Could it be that it felt uncomfortable lying flat and then turned over? Personally? This is obviously impossible.
The master temporarily put the branch aside, patted the dust on his hands and said to me, look at it, brat, this skeleton was buried directly without even a coffin, and it was lying on its side. What does this mean?
I stammered and replied, could it be because of... poverty? Master rolled his eyes at me, obviously losing patience with my intelligence. The master said that this means that someone dug a hole and buried him casually. The person who dug the hole seemed to be a little anxious at the time, so he casually dug a hole just big enough to hold the body, and then gave it to him. Throw it inside. Look at this skeletal skull again.
I looked closer and found a small round hole in the center of Baigu's forehead. Master asked me, do you know what is going on with this hole? I said I don't know. The master smiled and said, I knew you didn’t know.
I answered him, I knew you knew I didn't know. Probably Master thought it was pointless to continue struggling with me like this, so he told me that this was a bullet hole and that this person was shot to death by someone. If you don’t believe it, let’s turn over the skull. If it was a bullet hole, If it's worn, there should be a bullet hole in the back. If not, we can find the bullet head in the soil under its skull. I quickly waved my hand and said, Master, I believe it, so there’s no need to go to such trouble. Because I think it would be a bit perverted if Master did this just to prove it to me.
Master said, this person should be a nun from the church we just went to. After speaking, the master pointed to the piece of black cloth robe and said, although it was almost in tatters, there was no doubt that this was the nun's attire.
Because it is black, it means that this is a formal nun, not a novice. Only formal nuns can arrange positions in the church. Generally speaking, a church has more than one nun, and there must be a priest.
The master pointed to the bones and said that the nun was beaten to death while wearing these clothes, which meant that she was killed while working. The road from the church to here must pass through the village, so it is unlikely that he was killed in the church and then transported here for burial. It should be that the murderer brought him here to kill him. As for why the woods were chosen, it depends on the relationship between the murderer and the deceased.
After saying that, Master handed me something. I took it in my hand and saw that it was a small silver cross. When I was a kid on Baixiang Street, missionaries and nuns would occasionally pass by. They had small cross pendants on their chests, just like the one I have. I asked the master where this thing came from. The master said that when he was cleaning the bones just now, he found it in the hand of the bones, and he dug it out.
Master said, now that the identity has been confirmed and the relics have been found, it is possible to perform rituals to let this dead soul leave. But...I still don't understand something.
