I couldn't believe my ears.
So I stammered and asked, then...could it be that the cat hid behind the grave, and Granny Yang couldn't see it, so she thought it was the grave that was meowing? Aunt Xu said that when your master heard about this in the morning, he also asked the same question. Grandma Yang said that she thought so at the time, so she stepped forward and took a look, but found no trace of the cat. So she put her ear to the edge of the grave to listen, and then she was sure that it was the cat meowing from the grave. .
This is so surprising. I know that if Master heard about this, even if he had never encountered it before, his strong curiosity and thirst for knowledge would make him immediately agree to help without hesitation. So I asked Aunt Xu, what else did Granny Yang say? Aunt Xu said that there was not much else to say, except that when she heard the cat meowing, she was so frightened that she sat on the ground, her feet were weak and could not get up. She just sat face to face in front of three graves and listened to the cat meowing all night. .
Aunt Xu said that Granny Yang had the strength to go down the mountain after dawn this morning, so she came straight to me to find you. Grandma Yang looked like she was quite frightened and was covered in mud. She must have endured enough last night.
Aunt Xu could not provide any more information, because she said that after Master heard about the incident, he immediately agreed to go. You just left two or three hours before returning to the village.
Since it took me almost two hours to come back from Tianjiacun, and after I took care of the Tianjia affairs, it was actually close to noon. When I arrived at Aunt Xu's house, it was already around two o'clock in the afternoon. That means that the master left during lunch time, and Aunt Xu said that Granny Yang was the master who came to see her this morning. So I can basically calculate that it takes at least an hour to get from Aunt Xu's house to Granny Yang's house. distance.
So I quickly asked Aunt Xu, where is Grandma Yang’s house? I want to find my master. Aunt Xu said, just five miles further up the mountain from your master's grave, there is only one path there. If you go there, you will not find the wrong path. When you walk to the back mountain, the only house you see on the edge of the farmland is Grandma Yang's home.
So I quickly drank a large glass of water, immediately put on the satchel I had just brought back and hadn't had time to pack, and went out.
In the past, I came to Houshan very rarely. I only went to worship once when Master took me to the village for refuge, and during the Winter Clothes Festival. Master took me with him both times. We, Master and Disciple, always I want to sit by the grave and chat, and listen to Master tell some stories about Master and Master’s senior brothers. Although my master had several apprentices, my master was the one who accompanied him to the end and was the only one who came back every year to worship.
Therefore, I admire my master's abilities and respect him deeply. So when I pass by my master’s grave, I still have to respectfully hold the incense stick and kowtow. The master is no longer young. Since Granny Yang is a mother-in-law, her legs and feet must not be that agile. I am a young man with a relatively fast pace. In addition, I walk very quickly. When I found the only path to Grandma Yang's house, I hurried all the way. It was a five-mile road and I quickly walked. Arrived.
When I saw that house, it looked relatively poor, because there were only one or two solitary houses, and one of them might be a hut. Except for the door stone, which is a small step paved with stones, the rest of the place is filled with dirt. The walls of the house look white, but under the mottled spots, the red mud lining is still exposed. So this is a house with mud walls. The roof is like most other rural houses. A few wooden beams are added and covered with tiles. A wooden door painted dark green is opened on the wall. The wall on one side of the wooden door On the top, there is a pig iron sign nailed.
There is a shining five-pointed star on the sign, and below it are written four words in revolutionary font - "Glorious Martyrs". So I was sure that I was definitely looking for the right thing, and I saw that the door was open, which meant that there was someone in the house. Aunt Xu said that Granny Yang lived alone, so if the door is open now, it means that Master is also in the house.
According to my understanding of Master, I had already calculated the distance of the two elderly people on the way, and they should have returned to this house less than an hour before me. I opened the door and went in, and saw Master and a short old woman wearing a blue cloth jacket sitting face to face around a brazier. Master was a little surprised when he saw me coming, so he asked me why you are here? I said Aunt Xu told me that you were here, and I came.
The master nodded and said, it doesn't matter if you come, you can still help. So I said to the old woman, are you Granny Yang? I am Master Lin's apprentice. Grandma Yang smiled and said, "Young man, I know who you are, and I am here to find you today." Although she was smiling, she still looked frightened. This old woman is about seventy years old. She can live alone in the mountains, farm her own food, and has experienced ups and downs in her life. Although I don’t know if she lost her father when she was young, at least she lost her husband in middle age. My son, I have already experienced two of the three major tragedies in my life. If I can still live to such an old age, I must be relatively strong in my heart. But it was such a powerful rural woman who was so frightened that she had to find someone to help her.
Master said to me, has Aunt Xu told you about the situation here? I nodded and told her a few things, but she didn’t know the details. Master said, that's just right. I was just about to start investigating the matter. When you came, I just happened to tell you some of the contents.
It turned out that on the way Master and Granny Yang returned to this room, Granny Yang also told Master something else. She said that she had often encountered some strange things in the past six months or so, but the people in the mountains were rough. I have never thought about superstition about ghosts and gods, and I will forget about it as soon as the matter is over. It was only last night that she was so frightened that she sat in front of the grave in the cold winter night wind all night, and then she recalled those strange things. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that something was wrong. She felt that these things were related.
Master said that starting about half a year ago, Granny Yang’s house often heard some strange noises at night. At first, she always thought it was her old cat catching mice, but then the noises gradually became louder, and sometimes When I woke up in the morning, I found that the stools had fallen to the ground, and the lights often started to flicker on and off, but the lights were working fine. Sometimes when I was sleeping in bed, I could hear distant sounds coming from the tiles on the roof, and I felt like something was walking on it. Another time, a piece of the tile on the roof just disappeared. If it was said to have fallen, it would not They should have fallen off from the side first. There should be broken tiles on the ground, but nothing was found.
So Granny Yang blamed all these movements on her old cat. She thought it was the old cat that knocked over the chair, she thought it was the old cat that scratched the wires, she thought it was the old cat that ran up to the roof, she thought it was the old cat that pulled the The roof tiles were pulled down.
But after that, these things happened more and more frequently, and even some things that were impossible for cats to do happened. For example, when I went to bed the first night, I clearly turned off the lights outside the house, but when I woke up the next morning, I found that the lights were on. Another example is the wall calendar hanging next to the dining table at home. Sometimes I forget to tear off today's day, and the next day I find that the calendar has been torn off, but I have no impression that I tore it off myself.
When the master said this, he looked at the wall on one side of the room. I also followed his eyes and found a small iron nail nailed on the wall, and hanging on it was a calendar with a page torn out every day. . The date of stay above happens to be today. So I asked Grandma Yang, do you have the habit of tearing up calendars on weekdays? Sometimes once a person's habits last for many years, they gradually become natural behaviors, and whether they are done or not is not very impressive to them.
Grandma Yang said that she did have such a habit. She was old and knew that she didn't have much time. She counted the days and every time she tore out a page, she earned another day. She had already made enough. But a few months ago, I suffered from a heat stroke. I didn't stir much and just slept in bed for two days. I was so groggy during those two days that I basically never left the room. Naturally, I forgot to tear up the calendar. . I'm actually skeptical about this, because even if you're groggy, you always have to eat and drink, and you might just tear it up when you pass by the calendar. Habits developed over many years have gradually become part of our instinctive activities, just like we blink constantly when we are awake, but after blinking countless times in a day, can we really think of it deliberately?
I expressed my thoughts, and since Master is here, I am not afraid of being wrong. Master nodded and said that it was indeed possible, but Granny Yang said, well, even if I tear it off every day, where do I throw it? I also have the habit of throwing them into the woodshed, so that these papers can be used as fire starters. However, I once found that I had no memory of tearing up the calendar, but the date on the calendar coincided with the current day, and I couldn't find it in the woodshed. The day I tore it off.
Grandma Yang sighed and said, I just thought it was because I was getting old and confused, and I didn't take it to heart at all. If it hadn't been for what happened last night, I might never think about those things again in my life. , I always feel like something is causing trouble everywhere.
People do sometimes encounter something that they don't understand. After that, they can't help but think about every slightly strange thing. So I asked Granny Yang, apart from your speculations, have you actually seen anything, or something more specific?
Grandma Yang thought for a while and said, I dreamed about my wife who has been dead for many years. Does this count?
