Late that night, Aunt Xu and her family were awakened by a rapid knock on the door. Along with the sound of knocking on the door, there was also a woman shouting anxiously and in fear.
Since I slept in the main room, I was closest to the door. So I quickly got up and opened the door. The moment the door opened, a woman rushed up and grabbed my clothes, screaming at me to help me. This woman was one of the female educated youths who joined Meng Dongxue and Ji Youan and came to the village. I heard that she was from the same northwest city as Ji Youan, and she was also Ji Youan's roommate.
Since I never went to the house of the family they jumped in line with, I only knew that it was an old couple’s house about half a mile away from Aunt Xu’s house. Seeing her panic, I quickly helped her into the house and told her not to worry and speak slowly. At this time, Aunt Xu and Meng Dongxue also got dressed and came over after hearing the sound. Meng Dongxue sat next to the girl, hugged her shoulders and comforted her. Aunt Xu saw that the girl looked panicked, so she brought her a cup of hot water.
After calming down a little, the girl said that the accident was not hers, but Ji Youan's. Now she was a little abnormal, and she asked me to go over and have a look.
I know that most of the people who visit us in this way encounter some difficult problems. However, this group of educated youths had some misunderstandings with me because of the previous incident. Except for Meng Dongxue, everyone else kept a distance from me. Since they are willing to stoop down and ask me for help, this explains two things. First, this matter It's beyond their understanding, and a magic stick like me is needed. Second, the matter is already serious and there is no need to delay.
Meng Dongxue asked the girl to tell me the matter carefully, but I told her to talk as we walked, don't waste time, saving people is more important. So I put on my clothes and followed everyone out the door.
It was not safe to walk half a mile at night, and I was walking in a hurry this time, so I didn't let Aunt Xu go with me. But Meng Dongxue was worried about her partner and insisted on coming with her, so I didn't say anything. On the way, the girl was anxious, so what she said was intermittently, but when it became coherent, I could tell that this was generally what happened.
This girl and Ji Youan used to live upstairs in the cowshed of the old couple's home. It was a small cubicle built with wooden planks. When harvesting crops, the platform was used to dry the rice. The educated youth jumped in the queue. Later, the small wooden house where rice was originally stored was given to them. We had always been in peace, and we had slept here for several months, but last night when the two girls were sleeping, they started talking about Meng Dongxue and me for some reason. Originally, the two of them were just joking, saying that Meng Dongxue and I lived in the same villager's home, and that Meng Dongxue was very protective of me. Could it be that the two of them had a romantic relationship or something like that.
After hearing this, I thought it was okay. Teenage girls like this could only chatter and gossip about people who had nothing to do with them when they got together. But Meng Dongxue was a little embarrassed. On the dark mountain road , when the light of the flashlight shone across her face a few times, even a dull person like me could detect the blush on her face. The girl continued, and then the conversation came to me for some reason, so Ji Youan told her what he saw after knocking over the bamboo basket that day. Of course, there were some exaggerations in it. After all, Ji Youan was a little kid like Ji Youan. Girl, apart from that stack of charms, it's impossible for her to know what other tools are used for.
After talking about my affairs, the two girls became more and more excited in the night until very late. They were sharing with each other the strange events they had heard from the old people in their hometown, and the more they talked, the more frightened they became, and in the end they couldn't sleep.
I thought to myself that the two girls were really stupid. If they were scared, then they shouldn't say anything. If they said it, why would they scare themselves? Doesn't this mean you are being mean? The girl said that at about 12 o'clock at night, something suddenly flew out of nowhere and landed on the roof of the cabin where they were sleeping, and then made a strange cry.
Although these two girls came from a certain northwest city, the cities at that time, especially the northwest, were not actually that different from the more developed rural areas. They originally thought they were birds like pigeons or owls, that is, I didn't pay attention. After a while, the strange cooing sound suddenly stopped, and there was a sound like glass beads falling on the wooden board.
The girl said that there was nothing on their roof except some tiles. It would be nothing unusual for a bird to fly over, but it would be abnormal if there was a sound of beads falling on the roof and rolling for a distance. . So the two girls held their breath and listened to the movement on the roof. Then they heard the sound of someone walking a few steps, and then the sound of someone picking up the bead.
When I heard this, I interrupted the girl and asked, did you hear this sound, did Ji Youan hear it, or did you both hear it? She said that both of them heard it and it was very clear. So I thought to myself, this may be because the weather gets colder, and the wooden boards expand and compress when they get wet, so when the temperature or humidity changes slightly, these abnormal noises may occur. It's just because you think it is the roof, and the roof is on the roof. In theory, there shouldn't be anyone, and this sound is very similar to something you have heard in the past, such as someone walking, beads falling to the ground, etc., so you subjectively judge that this is the case.
Therefore, people still need to be educated, and I have to thank Meng Dongxue for this. If she hadn't told me some knowledge in her class in the past few months, I might not have thought of this level.
The girl said that they thought so at first, thinking it was a normal reaction of the wooden board to expand and contract due to heat and cold, but what happened later made her think so no more. She said as the footsteps above her became louder and closer to the top of the two girls' heads. Later, there was even the sound of many people walking on the roof. The girl described it to me. Each of the sounds was relatively independent. It had the sound of an ordinary person stepping on the ground, and it also felt like dragging one foot on the ground from one end to the other.
At that time, the two girls were a little scared, but they did not dare to open the door to see. So the two of them stopped talking for a day and hugged each other, looking at the wooden board above, trembling. Suddenly, the sound stopped, and the surrounding area became quiet for an instant. But not long after, the voice sounded again, but this time it was not from above the head, but from outside the door separated by a wall.
When I heard this, I was basically sure that something evil must have happened. If the previous noise might have been caused by the aging of the floor, then the sound at this moment was undoubtedly a ghost because of the person involved. Being timid, he behaves in an extravagant manner.
Master once said that although humans and ghosts have different shapes, they are fundamentally composed of souls. So its existence is not much different from the existence between people. People of the same kind have good and bad personalities. Some people are docile and some are vicious. When the docile person keeps giving in, the vicious person will get more and more aggressive. The same goes for ghosts, they become stronger when you are weak, and they become stronger precisely because they sense the cowardice of their opponents. This is why Master asked me to memorize the body-protecting mantra no matter how bad I am at it. Because these mantras can provide people with a kind of protection. When I know that I am being protected, my courage will naturally become stronger. Along with this, I use the mantras to improve my own Qi and righteousness. Once there are enough, evil spirits can be suppressed.
The girl went on to say that when those movements appeared outside the door, the two of them were frightened to death, but they did not dare to scream. By this time, they both knew that the noise outside was definitely not caused by humans, and for some reason, they thought without hesitation that it was ghosts.
I interrupted her and said, what the hell? These are all feudal ideas from the old era. They are cancer, dross, and the four olds. Do you understand? My words were filled with a kind of irony that finally relieved me. It was childish, I know, but I was still a little proud in my heart. I believe in metaphysics and cause and effect, but that doesn't mean that I don't believe in science. But Ji Youan and others, while believing in science, not only deny metaphysics, but also trample on metaphysics. This is the difference in morality between Chinese ancestors and foreign ancestors. We miss the past and can coexist with new trends of thought, but we do not forget our roots.
The girl probably heard the sarcasm in my words, but she seemed to pretend not to hear and ignored it. She went on to say that at this time there started to be a sound of someone pulling on the door, as if they were trying to enter the house. The two of them were so frightened that they were about to cry. After hearing the sound of the door being opened, they got into the quilt, covered their whole bodies with the quilt, and then hugged each other tightly, neither of them dared to open their eyes. But then, the door suddenly creaked and was opened. But when they entered the house, the door was padlocked from the inside, which meant that if they didn't use the key to unlock it, they wouldn't even be able to get out, let alone someone else.
Those footsteps seemed to have no regard for the two living people here. Ever since the sound of the door opening was heard, those various footsteps entered the room one after another, moving around the room unscrupulously. The girl said that at this time Ji Youan was so frightened that she started crying, but she did not dare to cry loudly. She was also scared in her heart. Being stimulated by Ji Youan, they both cried under the quilt.
After crying for about half a minute, the footsteps suddenly stopped again, and the surroundings returned to silence. The two of them were hiding under the quilt. They didn't know why the sound stopped, so the girl suggested slowly sticking her head out to have a look, because the two had been chatting before and the lights in the room were not turned off. But Ji Youan held on to the girl's clothes and refused to open her eyes even after saying anything. She had no choice but to see it by herself. He gingerly poked his head out of the side of the quilt, squinted his eyes, and found that the bed where he and Ji Youan slept, and even the headboard of the bed against the wall, were densely surrounded by tall, short, fat, and thin people of different genders. , facing the bed, raising his head slightly, but staring at himself on the bed with a downward gaze.
The girl said that she was frightened at the time. It felt as if she had been surrounded by a circle of people to pay homage to her body after her death. The only difference was that these people had no expression on their faces and just looked at her indifferently. She screamed in fright and immediately retracted her head into the quilt. But the moment she got into the quilt, she discovered that every space in the quilt was filled with various human heads.
No, it's Guitou.
