"Zhang Ruoxu, come quickly. A 'big fat man' floated over from the other side of the stream. Take a look. If you don't hurry up, you won't see it." Zhang Xiaoxian, a neighbor who is one year older than me, ran over and shouted at me.
'Big Fat Man' is the term for floating corpses in our area. The village is adjacent to a stream, and people drown every year, especially in the upper reaches. Almost every summer, people drown while swimming and float down the river. In the waters near our village After passing by, and then continuing to be washed downstream, the drowned people formed a giant look over time, and we called the dead corpses "big fat men".
Because after a person drowns and is immersed in water for a long time, he will ferment, deteriorate, and putrefy. When he floats to the water, his skin will turn purple, and his torso will become very thick. No matter how thin the dead person is, they will look like this if they are soaked in water for a long time. , it looks like a floating fat man from a distance.
These drowned people naturally confirm what Grandpa Chang said about "water ghosts", which makes us young people even more afraid to go swimming and bathing in the water.
"Hoo, ho... Zhang Xiaoxian! You bitch, slow down, I can't run away from you, you have to wait for me." My body has been weak since I was a child, and Zhang Xiaoxian is older than me, and she is still recognized as a scud among the children in our village. , I naturally can’t keep up with Zhang Xiaoxian’s fast legs.
"What's the matter with you? You're such a girly girl." Zhang Xiaoxian's footsteps were dragged by me, and she simply stopped. She turned around with a complaining expression on her face. He was worried that if he arrived late, the fat man would be swept along the stream. Rush downstream.
"Tch, I'm such a sissy! I, I'm the one with the handle..." Although my body developed a little slower, my mind developed normally. At the age of six, I already had certain concepts of men and women. I knew Zhang Xiaoxian To call me effeminate is to belittle myself, he hurriedly defended himself.
"Not girly! Then why do you wear a big pendant all day long? Aren't you just stinky?" Zhang Xiaoxian turned around and pointed at the longevity lock hanging around my neck.
"Everyone in our family has said that only girls carry this thing around all day long."
At this time, a few more boys came to the village. They heard our conversation and started making noises along with Zhang Xiaoxian!
"Oh, Zhang Ruoxu is a girl."
"Zhang Ruoxu looks so pretty wearing a necklace!"
"I'm so shy that I'm so ashamed that I don't want to play with Zhang Ruoxu."
They laughed at me and ran towards the stream, quickly leaving me far behind.
I was left in the middle of the road, biting my lower lip, tears in my eyes falling continuously from my cheeks.
"Wow... wow..." I cried loudly, "I am a man, not a girl, I am not effeminate."
I also lost my temper and tugged hard on the longevity lock hanging around my neck. The thin red rope had no strength at all. Although my neck was painful from being strangled by the red rope, I still pulled it off, and then He threw it into the ground and ran toward the stream at the entrance of the village while crying.
When we arrived at the stream, 'Big Fatty' had indeed been washed down. Looking from a distance, 'Big Fatty' had become a black spot. Several children were so anxious that they beat their chests and stamped their feet beside the stream. The bold Zhang Xiaoxian rolled up Standing in the shallow water of the creek with bare feet and trouser legs, I stretched my neck to look into the distance.
"Hey, it's still too late. Fortunately, I stopped eating and ran over to see the 'big fat man'. I was disappointed."
"That's right! Normally, my mother won't let you see the 'Big Fat Man', but today she was not at home and still didn't see it."
"No, I ran from the east end of the village to the west end of the village to see it, but I still didn't catch up."
The children in the village stood there indignantly, complaining and turning to look at me who had arrived late.
"Huh, Zhang Ruoxu, it's all your fault. Your legs and feet are so slow that none of us could see it." Just as he was talking, a naughty boy who was slightly older than me walked up to me in three steps and hit me hard. He was punched in the chest. There were many bluestones beside the stream that had been hit by water all year round. They were very slippery. He hit me so hard that I fell backwards and squatted on my butt. Fortunately, the surface of the bluestones was very slippery. The fall didn't hurt me.
I replied unconvincedly: "You came late and didn't see the 'big fat man'. Why are you bothering me? I didn't ask you to wait for me."
The naughty kid who pushed me down saw that I was not only unfaithful but also quite reasonable. He became even more angry. He picked up my collar and was about to hit me. However, Zhang Xiaoxian who came ashore stopped me and said, "Don't hit me." , we won’t play with Zhang Ruoxu from now on.” With that, a group of children walked along the dirt road they came from, making noises and walking towards the village.
I was left sitting on the stone ground by the stream. My nose was sore and I couldn't help but cry again.
At this moment, I saw several black finger prints on Zhang Xiaoxian's left ankle. The thumb print was on one side, and the other four fingerprints were on the other side. The color was so black that it turned purple, as if someone had beaten her hard. As if pinched hard.
I remembered that Zhang Xiaoxian had just rolled up his pants and stood in the stream for a short while, and the water just covered his calves. I couldn't help but glance towards the stream, only to find that the 'big fat man' who had drifted with the current had floated back again.
This is one of the things that impressed me most when I was a child. Although I was only six years old at the time, as a child who grew up playing by the stream, I still had some understanding of the waters in my hometown. The stream in our village is not a backflow. The pool and the stream from top to bottom still have a certain slope, although the angle is not very big.
Objects drifting past always just pass by without making any stop. The 'big fat man' that should have continued to drift downwards has reversed course for the first time. This is definitely the first time, and it obviously defies gravity.
Seeing this floating corpse floating closer and closer, I finally saw clearly the appearance of the body that was already swollen to the point of being swollen. She was a young woman, smiling strangely, without any of the twisted and painful expressions on her face when she was drowned.
This female corpse was indeed dead. She stopped in front of me and stopped moving. Suddenly, a woman wearing the same clothes as her stood on the other side of the stream, but unlike the 'big fat man', the woman on the other side did not have a bloated body, and still maintained a normal figure, very slim.
I noticed that he was wearing a floral shirt just like the dead body in the stream, but the woman standing had beautiful features, a very delicate appearance, and her long black hair hung down to her waist. If there is anything that is different from a living person, it is her skin color, which is a sickly pale color, even whiter than white paper, so white that it makes people feel sick.
I looked at this woman and the female body soaked in the water, and felt a tingle in my heart. I turned my head and wanted to call out to Zhang Xiaoxian and the others, but the agile Zhang Xiaoxian and the others had long since disappeared. Then I turned my head back like a reflex, and the woman across the stream disappeared, leaving only the 'big fat man'.
The stream was still flowing slowly, and the 'big fat man' began to float slowly downstream again. I blinked and opened my eyes again. This time I opened my eyes, it scared half of my life.
On top of that 'big fat man' stood the woman who had just disappeared. She showed her pale teeth and was smiling at me...
I was so frightened that I could no longer remember how I got home. The joy of my childhood passed in a flash, but the psychological shadow stayed with me for a long time. When I got home, I was made to kneel on a wooden washboard that had been used by my family members for more than ten years.
There is no airtight wall in the world. We, a few children from the village, went to the stream to see what happened to the big fat man, but we were exposed by the big mouth in the village. This is considered to be against the taboo of the adults in our village, because in our village along the stream, it is the biggest taboo of the village for underage children to go to the stream to play privately.
My mother also told me that people drown in the stream next to the village every year, and the adults in every household are afraid that their children will become the 'big fat man' that we have been told by word of mouth.
Just because we naughty children violated the taboos of the adults in the village, we were inevitably beaten. They were also beaten, but the severity was different. As the youngest child in the village, my body was not very strong and I could not withstand the beatings. My father did not hit me with too much force. He just spanked my butt a few times with his thick palms. Don't look at it, my butt was swollen after just a few spanks. Seeing this, my mother quickly stepped forward and stopped my father, fearing that he would be beaten. So my father half-pushed and half-stopped from spanking me, but he still couldn't calm down. As a punishment, I was not allowed to eat dinner and had to kneel on the washboard to reflect.
But Zhang Xiaoxian was different. He was the most trouble-making child in our village, and he was also our leader. Moreover, he was the only one who got into the water with his bare feet, so naturally he was punished the most. Zhang Xiaoxian was thrown to the rafter by her animal-tempered father, who beat him with a belt and a stick from dusk until dark before he stopped beating him - it was said that his father had lost the strength to beat him. put it down.
Even though my parents made me kneel on the washboard to reflect, I had no regrets at all. All he could think about was the appearance of the big fat man and that weird woman by the stream, and then there was Zhang Xiaoxian's fingerprint on his ankle. As for the swollen buttocks that my father spanked, I have long forgotten about it. Why can I see that big fat man floating back? And the woman who giggled at me didn't know how to stand on the stream. Wasn't she afraid of drowning?
I couldn't figure it out even after thinking about it. When I was deep in thought, I was called back by my mother's cry, but my spirit was still very dissociated. It wasn't until my mother scolded me "Baby" again that I came back. God comes.
My mother still felt sorry for me. While my father was asleep, she heated up the leftover food at home and asked me to eat it in the kitchen. Maybe I'm still too young, I don't know how to read a watch, and I don't have any sense of time. I just know that I should go to bed when it gets dark and wake up when it gets light. Now that I think about it, it must have been about nine o'clock in the evening, and it had just gotten dark for a short while!
Because our village is one of the poorest in a radius of dozens of miles. There are few rooms in our house and there is no decent furniture. We just use the big wardrobe where my father sits and the big wooden box that my mother brought as a dowry as walls. A red curtain was put in the middle to separate the inner room and the outer room. I slept in the inner room, and my father and mother slept in the outer room.
When I went to bed, the uncle and aunt from next door were still ravaging Zhang Xiaoxian. Their house is next door to ours, and the sound insulation of the adobe house is not very good. I didn’t sleep well in the first half of the night. I could always hear Zhang Xiaoxian’s screams and his father’s beatings and scoldings...
In the middle of the night, I suddenly felt the need to pee. This is a problem I developed when I was very young, and my parents complained about it. She said that I didn't know how to pee first before going to bed at night, so I always got up in the middle of the night and asked an adult to pee for me. Later, my parents got impatient and got a used cooking oil bucket, cut off the neck of the bucket, and used it as a urine bucket for me, so as to avoid the trouble of going out to the toilet in the middle of the night.
When I got up to pee, I could no longer hear the screams and beatings next door. My family was so poor that they couldn't bear to light the kerosene lamp, and it was pitch dark. At this time, my parents were already fast asleep, and they were afraid of being disturbed if they were woken up. I was thinking about sitting up and looking for the urine bucket in the corner. But I didn't expect that I couldn't sit up. I felt like the air on my body was like a thousand kilograms of weight. I could vaguely see a white thing, or an irregular human shape. I wanted to use my hands to support myself, but found that I couldn't move my arms and felt like I had no hands. I tried to move my feet again and moved my body, but I couldn't move at all - at this time, I finally got scared and wanted to scream but couldn't. Now I have been deprived of three of my five senses, especially my body. There was no feeling except breathing and being pressed.
Could this be - being oppressed by a ghost?
I was panicked and frightened, and I wanted to shout, but my vocal cords couldn't vibrate, and I could only float in my throat, but I couldn't make a sound. I will never forget that uncomfortable feeling. To be honest, this is not the first time that I have been oppressed by ghosts. I was born when I was ten years old in the Shi Lingshi period and I am naturally a child of a certain age, so it is easy for me to be oppressed by ghosts. My consciousness is very clear, but my body is restrained. The cries of crickets outside the window are clear and crisp, and the breeze blowing the curtains is soft, but my body is not mine - even if I want to move my toes, I can't. .
The feeling of being oppressed by a ghost is really bad. Suddenly, I felt like there was a so-called person sleeping next to me...
Who is sleeping with me? Sweat dripped down my face, I suddenly trembled, and my heart was pounding. Who would sleep in my bed? Is it mother? Impossible, my mother hasn’t slept with me since she beat me for not crying or fussing. Is it dad? It's impossible, he snores too loudly in his sleep and has never slept in the same bed as me. Could it be that this is my misunderstanding?
Soon, I denied myself again. Because this feeling is so real and real. Although I couldn't move and it was pitch black without any light, I could really feel the person lying next to me. After all, I had not been deprived of my sense of touch.
In the hot summer, the person lying next to me is cool and wet, and that kind of coldness goes straight into my bones. Not only that, I also felt a stuffy and irritating moisture, which made me feel panicked. Even though it was so cold, it couldn't stop the big beads of sweat from sliding down my cheeks.
At this time, the human figure lying next to me started to play mischievously, rolling back and forth on my body, moving left and right. After finally settling down, I felt like he or she was looking at me and staring at me. But he remained silent and made no move.
I cursed in my heart: "What a fool you are, you are causing trouble so late at night that people dare not sleep and cannot pee. I want to cry but I can't."
It happened at this time that I felt my face being rubbed by two soft things. What was this? It just feels cold and soft. After a while, my nose felt hairy and astringent again, a bit like the sharp feeling when my mother, aunt, or aunt took me to the bathhouse to have wet hair brush my nose, which made me very uncomfortable.
It feels very familiar, but... I feel so scared! Big, soft breasts, wet hair, damp and stuffy air, and a cool body! Is this... this... the 'big fat man' I saw during the day, or the woman who giggled at me? They all have a pair of proud and erect breasts, and long wet hair!
Not to mention that the older generation in the village never let us get close to the long stream beside the village, and even strictly prohibited us kids from entering the water. Could it be that there really were drowned undead in the stream grabbing living people as stand-ins, and I happened to run into them by chance? It's over... She's trying to catch me as a substitute!
Today during the day, the horrific scene I saw in the stream by the village resurfaced in my mind. Although I tried not to think about it, my mind insisted on sketching that scene for me. The woman who giggled at me was wearing a floral shirt, with extremely well-proportioned facial features, and she looked pretty even without using beauty treatments. She had long hair that reached her waist, but her skin was pale...
I just thought about whatever I was afraid of, and just like that, I actually saw her. She was floating directly above me, smiling at me with her white teeth exposed, a smile that made me feel scared! Her long wet hair was still teasing my cheeks, and the cold air came out of her seven orifices, which was eerie and terrifying!
When I was most desperate, I really hoped that my father or mother could come over and take a look at me, but this was just my own expectation.
This drowned woman just floated above me and stared at me with a smile, teasing my young heart with her gloomy face. Now I can only be manipulated by her, and I can't do anything or work hard. It felt like a little lamb falling into the hands of a butcher to be slaughtered.
When I was desperate, I felt a wet hand grab my ankle. Isn't that what Uncle Chang said, the drowned ghost grabs the ankle and then pulls it into the water to drown? this……
A warm current came over, and at this moment, at the critical moment, the surrounding air solidified instantly. All of a sudden, everything returned to normal, and all the damp, cold, and long-haired female ghosts disappeared. Wow, I cried...
My father and mother heard my cry, quickly got out of bed, lit a candle and walked in to see that I had wet the bed. A large area of the thin blanket was wet under my urine, and half of the blanket was wet due to capillary action.
When my father saw my lost look, he asked, "Zhang Ruoxu, what's wrong with you?"
"I was lying on the bed just now, and suddenly I wanted to pee, but I was suppressed and couldn't move. I saw the big fat man floating in the river again during the day. She floated above me and suddenly pulled my ankle."
As soon as he finished speaking, his father and mother were stunned. Dad asked me again: "Then why are you so wet? Have you peed?"
I nodded with red eyes. Dad turned around with a smile and went back to sleep. He also ordered my mother to quickly change my bedding and wash off the pee-covered bedding in the morning.
Although my father didn't take it seriously, my mother took it seriously. She paid special attention to my left ankle. It was wet but not urine. He comforted me and said, "Zhang Ruoxu, my mother will sleep with you tonight. In the morning, I will ask my fifth grandfather to come over and take a look and drive away this evil spirit that is haunting you."
My mother's words stopped my crying. I knew clearly that this was not a dream, but a real fact. Moreover, I saw the clear five-finger scratch mark on my left ankle.
Accompanied by my mother, I fell into a deep sleep. This time I felt very at ease and did not wake up again until dawn.
At about dawn, there was a loud noise at Zhang Xiaoxian's house next door. My father went over to take a look. When he got home, he said to my mother and me: "Zhang Xiaoxian, this child! Hey, life is hard, I'm afraid. It's no longer possible. It's all his father's fault for beating him so hard. After the beating yesterday, Zhang Xiaoxian still knew how to beg for mercy. This morning his family got up, but Zhang Xiaoxian was the only one who felt completely cold. Now, the whole family is I am wallowing in sorrow, while the carpenter in the village is building a coffin!"
After hearing this, I jumped up to my father. The image of the female ghost who pressed me last night immediately appeared in my mind, and I also thought of the five fingerprints on Zhang Xiaoxian's feet.
He asked his father anxiously: "Dad, what did you say? Zhang Xiaoxian is cold?"
"Hey, you kid, you don't understand anything. Never mind, I know you and Zhang Xiaoxian play well, you have to remember me in the future and you are not allowed to play in the creek by the village anymore." My father knew that he was afraid. Tell me that Zhang Xiaoxian is dead. I couldn't accept it for a while, so I told a white lie. Then he turned to my mother and said: "Zhang Xiaoxian's parents have been getting along very well with our neighbors for so many years. I have to go over and help. Mother, please keep an eye on him. Don't let this child get along again." Running around.”
As soon as Dad left the house, Fifth Grandpa came over. As soon as he walked in, he looked at me and kept shaking his head. Finally, he frowned solemnly and said, "Zhang Ruoxu, it's a credit to the kid next door to protect you from the disaster."
When my mother heard what Grandpa Wu said, she was frightened and asked quickly: "Uncle Wu, what's wrong with this child?"
Grandpa Wu took out the dry tobacco from his tobacco bag, put it in the pot that he had smoked for who knows how many years, lit it, and started smoking one after another. He looked at the underwear and quilts hanging in the yard, and then Said: "Zhang Ruoxu, this doll, is too light in the horoscope, and it is easy for ghosts to follow him. I won't do it..."
Before he finished speaking, his expression suddenly changed and he shouted, "Wait a minute, Zhang Ruoxu, where is your longevity lock?"
Only then did my mother realize that the longevity lock hanging around my neck was missing, and she quickly asked: "Zhang Ruoxu, where did you lose your longevity lock?"
"Yesterday, we went to see Big Fatty. Zhang Xiaoxian and others said that I looked like a girl with the longevity lock. I was so angry that I threw her to the stream."
Grandpa Wu was very angry when he heard what I said. He quickly sent my mother away and asked her to go to the stream to find my longevity lock. Then, he asked: "What happened yesterday? Come and follow Wu." Grandpa, tell me."
So, I told them everything about the ghost that happened last night. Grandpa Wu's scalp went numb when he heard this, and he shook his head repeatedly and said: "Hey, you kid! You are so light-hearted, evil spirits like to find people like you as a substitute. Yesterday, the female ghost was supposed to take Zhang Xiaoxian's life. , in the end, I found out that you are such a short-lived child and wanted to take you away. Fortunately, your child's urine drove her away. Then the ghost went to Zhang Xiaoxian's house and took Zhang Xiaoxian's soul away. Fortunately, Your urine, otherwise you will be the one who dies."
As soon as Fifth Grandpa finished speaking, I pointed to the outside of the yard and said, "Fifth Grandpa, look, there is a woman pulling Zhang Xiaoxian out."
As soon as I finished speaking, Grandpa Wu gave me a big dick with his calloused hand and said: "Tongyanwuji, you bastard. Don't yell, what you see is not a human being." , this is the soul of the dead child taken away by the river ghost! Now stay here for me, and you are not allowed to go anywhere until your mother comes and puts the longevity lock on you."
After waiting for a while, my mother found the longevity lock that I had thrown away and put it around my neck. After seeing the lost longevity lock hanging around my neck, Grandpa Wu nodded and took my hand out of the door.
I happened to see Zhang Xiaoxian lying on a wooden board. He was only wearing a pair of briefs. His whole body was purple and lifeless. His eyelids did not completely cover his eyes, and his pupils could not be seen. People around him started making noises. Some said he was taken directly to the mass grave in the east of the village and buried, while others said he might be saved if he was sent to the hospital in the county town.
As for Zhang Xiaoxian's mother, she cried her whole life. If she hadn't been supported by several girls and aunts in the village, she would have collapsed on the ground and couldn't move. Looking at Zhang Xiaoxian's father again, with a straight face, grinning mouth, red eyes, a painful expression and twitching face from time to time, I know that he is extremely regretful now, but he doesn't know that his son was possessed by dirty things.
The adults carried Zhang Xiaoxian away like this. The moment my eyelids left, I couldn't help but look at Zhang Xiaoxian's ankle. I was shocked when I saw it. The five fingerprints on his ankle were still there yesterday, and now they are gone. It turned jet black.
Grandpa Wu covered his mouth and waited until everyone had gone away before letting go and said: "Zhang Ruoxu, I know what you saw. But you can't speak. That is the mark left by the river ghost to Zhang Xiaoxian. Once caught by the river ghost, If the ankle is blocked and it leaves a mark, it will most likely be hopeless."
I pulled the corner of Fifth Grandpa's clothes, pointed into the distance, and said, "Fifth Grandpa, look at the fingerprints on Zhang Xiaoxian's ankle, do they look like..." Suddenly, Fifth Grandpa slapped me on the back of the head and scolded me in a low voice: "You bastard, sooner or later your mouth will be ruined." After saying that, he smoked a cigarette and returned to the house.
The group of people was getting further and further away from me. I still couldn't help but miss Zhang Xiaoxian, so I immediately chased after them and kept up with them.
