twenty three.
The short grandma had a false alarm, but she didn't give up.
She once again carried the bamboo nails through Jiangjunpo to Wenwen's grave, but this time she did not do it at night. At noon, she carried a basket and pretended to pick vegetables. The basket was filled with bamboo nails and covered with a few vegetable leaves. She did not consider whether people would suspect that she was carrying vegetables to pick vegetables.
She used a stone to nail the bamboo nails around Wenwen's grave, and then returned as if nothing had happened.
But at night, Ma Bing still strangled himself desperately, foaming at the mouth. The short grandmother was so anxious that she didn't know what to do, so she hurriedly called Grandpa and Jin Bo to tie him up again.
As soon as we entered the door, we heard Ma Bing's screams, which were very shrill. The short woman rushed into the house quickly and pulled away Ma Bing's hand that was pinching his neck. Ma Bing was already dying, and his expression was strange, as if he was crying and laughing at the same time. I noticed that the smile he showed was very similar to the smile Wenwen showed to everyone when she first arrived at Huamei Village! And the way he cried was especially similar to the bitter face Wenwen had when she was just taken off the rope!
My hair stood on end! Grandpa and Kimber seemed to notice this as well and were both surprised. I asked myself, is this what it looks like to be possessed by a ghost? The answer was obvious.
Grandpa and Jin Bo held Ma Bing's hands. When the short grandmother went to the side room to get the hemp rope, she found Ma Jun wiping the mud on the wheelchair with a rag, and the short grandmother suddenly understood something.
"Did you pull out the bamboo nail behind me? Was it you? Tell me the truth! No wonder your brother still got angry and pinched himself!" The short grandma asked Ma Jun angrily.
Ma Jun stopped wiping the wheelchair and remained silent without reacting.
The short old lady couldn't hold back her anger anymore. She dropped the hemp rope in her hand, pushed Ma Jun's wheelchair, and yelled, "You heartless donkey! You don't know how to feel sorry for your brother! Do you want to kill your brother? Isn't he doing this for you? How can you be so cruel?" The short old lady got angrier and angrier. She picked up the broom behind the door and beat Ma Jun, who was lying on the ground and couldn't get up. We couldn't stop her.
Ma Jun did not resist. He let the broom hit him without using his hands to block it.
The short grandmother beat her son while crying, "Isn't it for you? Wasn't it because I was worried that your eldest brother would be left without a wife or son and no one to take care of him? Now that your brother is like this, you are still against me. What sin did I commit in my previous life?"
Ma Jun also shed tears and said softly: "I don't want Wenwen to become a ghost and be unable to move like me, a paraplegic… If you pin her down, she will be like me, a paraplegic…"
When the short grandmother heard what her eldest son said, she couldn't stop her tears from flowing. She dropped her broom, lowered her head and stood aside sobbing. We couldn't persuade her, and we couldn't stop persuading her.
At this time, Ma Bing's shouting interrupted our silence. Grandpa picked up the hemp rope on the ground, and several of us tied up the struggling Ma Bing in silence. Ma Jun and the short grandmother still stood aside.
Seeing Ma Bing's miserable state, Jin Bo timidly asked Grandpa, "Can you perform another ritual to relieve Ma Bing's pain?"
Grandpa said helplessly: "This vengeful ghost is too powerful. I can't deal with it alone."
Jin Bo said, "Do you want Liangzi to help too?"
Grandpa said: "If it's like last time, I don't have the strength to control it. I can't control it for a while, and I'm afraid that if I anger the ghost, the consequences will be disastrous." Grandpa said that sometimes the temper of a ghost is like a snake. If you don't provoke it, it won't provoke you. If you anger it, it will be very troublesome. Even a Taoist priest with deep Taoism skills sometimes cannot go against the ghost's will. If you follow its will, you can subdue it better. As the saying goes: "Speak human words to human beings and speak devil words to ghosts." But there is one thing that people don't often understand, that is: "You have to speak devil words to the ghost you see."
You cannot be weak against some ghosts that harm people, and you must not be afraid of them. Some ghosts are already very resentful, and it is unwise to go against them. For example, this hanged ghost has a deep resentment towards Ma Bing, and if you repeatedly offend it, it will retaliate against you even more. For such ghosts, you can only find a relatively peaceful solution. This is somewhat similar to the way to interact with people.
These are what my grandfather often told me. In fact, he taught me some relevant knowledge in a subtle way, but I have always been obsessed with that ancient book and ignored the good things my grandfather taught me.
Ma Jun suddenly spoke up: "Mom, Uncle Jin, Uncle Yue Yun, you don't have to worry about this. I will handle my own affairs. The person who tied the bell must untie it."
The short grandmother cried and beat her eldest son's chest, saying sadly: "It's all my fault. It's all my fault for coming up with this crooked idea. I killed the girl and made myself miserable! I'm so sorry, son!"
The short old woman kowtowed to Ma Bing who was struggling on the bed: "Wenwen, Wenwen, I know you are here. Please forgive my son. It's all my fault. If you want to blame someone, come find me! You deserve to torture and harm me. Go ahead and harm me, I won't complain!"
Ma Bing looked at the short grandma with hatred! That look was not something Ma Bing could give to his mother! It was Wenwen's angry look!
My grandfather, Jinbo and I couldn't help but take a few steps back, and I felt a gust of cold air blowing in my face!
Ma Jun crawled to the side of the short old woman, hugged his mother and cried, "Come to me, come to me! I am the one who really hurt you! Don't torture my brother anymore!" The mother and son hugged each other and burst into tears.
Jin Bo also spoke up, "Wen Wen, please forgive them. Please be kind!"
The horse soldier ignored them and continued to struggle on the bed, making eerie trumpet sounds.
The next day, Ma Jun spent some time to build a simple thatched hut next to Wenwen's grave, then hugged Wenwen's tombstone and cried, "I know I'm sorry for you, but in my heart you are already my wife, even in death. From today on, I will live next to you, sweep your grave, light a perpetual lamp for you, place offerings for you, and talk to you. Others are afraid of you and try to deal with you, but I am not afraid and I will not deal with you. If you still remember the hatred from your life, you can take revenge on me first!"
The short granny persuaded Ma Jun to go home, but Ma Jun refused to listen. The short granny had to compromise and helped him get some simple necessities of life, and sent him food, oil and salt on time.
From then on, people often saw a faint fire at the place where Wenwen was buried. It was not a ghost fire, but Ma Jun burning paper money for Wenwen. Every night people could see a little light swaying in the wind on the mountain. It was not a ghost eye, but the eternal lamp hung by Ma Jun.
Ma Bing finally woke up after sleeping for several days, but the red mark on his neck could not be removed for a long time. Once he came to my grandfather's house to express his gratitude. I invited him to drink some wine, but he waved his hand and said, "No, I drink a little wine, and it hurts here." He pointed to the mark on his neck.
Tick, tick, tick…
The story begins with a ticking sound and ends with a ticking sound.
"That saying is very true. People are most likely to make mistakes on the path they are most familiar with. Aren't corrupt officials and tax evaders all falling because they think they are best at what they do?" roommate Wang Bao concluded passionately.
“Yes.” The Hunan student smiled.
"It seems this is also a fable," I said.
This time everyone was very self-disciplined and went to bed obediently when they saw that the time was up.
This story collection consists of several stories. To read the previous story, please click: Every midnight has a strange story about marriage fraud
twenty one.
It's midnight again.
The student from Hunan rubbed his hands and said, "It's a little cold. It's midnight and cold, which is a good atmosphere for telling weird stories. Let me ask you a question. If you are walking on a very familiar road and suddenly a small fork in the road that you have never seen before appears in front of you, you will definitely be surprised, right?"
I said, "Is the story tonight about roads?"
The Hunan student nodded: "Yes. Let me continue from last night."
Tick, tick, tick…
Let me continue with what Wang Bao (my roommate, sleeping opposite me) asked last night. Later, Grandpa not only taught me some methods of catching ghosts, but also gave me a strange matchbox with a few strange matchsticks in it. In times of crisis, those matches can help me a lot. However, when I was dealing with this hanged ghost, Grandpa had not given me the matchbox yet.
Ma Bing is fine for now, but the hanged ghost will definitely find another chance to deal with him. This is what Grandpa said. Because even if it is a weak ghost, it will not disappear unless the grudge is resolved. Grandpa also said that you cannot know the grudge of some ghosts. This does not mean that these ghosts do not have grudges, but you are not there when the grudge occurs, so you have no way to find the location of the grudge. When encountering such a ghost, only Taoist priests or people who know Taoist magic can recruit it.
So, I guessed that the ghosts in the crooked Taoist's dilapidated temple must have not found their grudges, and the crooked Taoist was afraid that those ghosts would harm others, so he recruited them into the dilapidated temple to live with him, who looked ugly. I thought wildly, if the crooked Taoist came to deal with this hanging ghost and recruited it, wouldn't it save a lot of trouble?
Of course, the crooked Taoist priest did not participate in the matter of catching the hanged ghost in the end. It was all my imagination. But the short grandmother could not wait any longer. She wanted to deal with the hanged ghost herself.
The next day, when Ma Jun was pushing his wheelchair out, he saw the short old lady cutting bamboo in the yard. Bamboo leaves and bamboo shavings were all over the ground. Ma Jun didn't understand what his mother was doing.
Ma Jun asked, "Mom, Ma Bing isn't well yet and needs your care. I'm paralyzed and can't help much. Why are you spending time on these green bamboos? They can't be burned or eaten." Bamboo is indeed not suitable for burning. It explodes with a crackling sound when burned, and the burning charcoal in the fire can easily burst out and injure people.
The short old lady didn't even raise her head. She said as she was cutting bamboo: "I am doing this for your brother. I will cut a few bamboo nails and nail them on Wenwen's grave in the four directions of east, west, south and north to prevent her from harming your brother again." Later I learned that many older people knew how to nail graves with bamboo nails, not just my grandfather. In this area, when people reach a certain age, they more or less know some basic methods to deal with ghosts, even if no one tells them. I don't know why. After entering college, I didn't do any research to see if there were such situations in other places.
Ma Jun asked: "Why do you want to nail Wenwen's grave? Will it be useful?"
The short old woman said: "This will nail the soul's hands and feet, making it suffer excruciating pain and unable to move. It's like a person in shackles. It can't harm anyone." Ma Jun said nothing, pushed the wheel with his hands, and went back into the house.
Grandpa predicted that the hanged ghost would come again at night, but he didn't expect that the short grandma would go to hammer bamboo nails into Wenwen's grave.
The short old lady didn't dare to hammer bamboo nails into Wenwen's grave during the day, fearing that people would gossip about her being cruel and forcing Wenwen to death while she was still alive and torturing her as a ghost. She waited until the sun went down, the smoke from cooking rose, and people returned home from farm work to smoke and drink tea, then she sneaked to Wenwen's burial place…
The katydids in the corner began to chirp, the moon had come out, and Ma Bing began to pinch his neck again. My grandfather and I were called by Jin Bo to the short grandmother's house to help take care of Ma Bing.
Grandpa asked: "Where is the short granny? Why is she visiting other people's homes when her son is not well yet?" The short granny usually likes to visit other people's homes and chat with other women, chirping like an old sparrow. Wherever there is laughter and joy, she will definitely be there.
Only then did Jin Bo remember that the short grandma was not here, and hurriedly called Ma Jun to ask.
Ma Jun said: "I saw her go to Jiangjunpo. I don't know what she is doing and she hasn't come back yet." Ma Jun actually knew where his mother was going, but he just didn't want others to know.
Kimber asked, "When did you go?"
Ma Jun said, "I went out after dinner."
Jin Bo wondered, "He should have come back by now. Why is he still nowhere to be seen?"
Ma Bing screamed, "I'm going to strangle you, I'm going to strangle you!" He pinched his neck hard. Jin Bo and Grandpa couldn't hold him down, so they asked me to get a hemp rope to tie him up. But Ma Bing still struggled desperately, barking like a mad dog.
Jin Bo was extremely anxious, and was worried that the short grandma would fall and get hurt on the road if she came back late, so he called a few young people and prepared to go to Jiangjunpo to look for the short grandma.
Grandpa suspected, "Don't be lost."
Jin Bo laughed and said, "The short old lady has lived here for thirty or forty years, how could she get lost!"
Grandpa said, "I mean that the short woman might have run into a lost spirit."
When I heard this, I interrupted and said, "Who is the Lost God?" I have heard of various myths before, and I can name many gods, but I have never heard of the Lost God.
Jin Bo helped Grandpa explain: "The Lost God is not a god, it is a special kind of ghost. If you are still traveling in the wilderness at a relatively late time and you are worried, you are likely to encounter it. Maybe the short grandma was walking too fast and was not on guard, so she was caught by the Lost God's spell."
Ma Jun asked hurriedly, "Will that cost my mother her life?"
Jin Bo scolded Ma Jun, "Can anything good come out of your mouth? Are you hoping that something bad will happen to your mother soon? The lost ghost is not as scary as the water ghost or the hanging ghost. These ghosts are most likely to be encountered on the most familiar roads."
I was puzzled and asked doubtfully, "It's easiest to meet on the most familiar road? Why is that? Isn't it the hardest to get lost on the most familiar road? Only unfamiliar roads are likely to get lost."
"If you are on a road you are not familiar with, you will look at the road carefully, for fear of taking the wrong path. In this way, it will be difficult for the god of getting lost to make you lost. If you are on a road you have walked thousands of times, you don't even think about which road is right or wrong, and you step out before your left foot has even been put down. When you suddenly realize that the road ahead is wrong, it's too late." Jin Bo explained.
Grandpa nodded and told the young people who came with him, "Stop talking nonsense and go find her. Don't shout the short old lady's name too loudly, as it can easily drive her soul away at night."
Grandpa and I took care of the cavalry, while Jin Bo led a few people to the other side of Jiangjun Hill. In the distance, I saw a few flashlights flickering at the other side of Jiangjun Hill, like the eternal lights on a new grave.
But at midnight, they all returned dejected.
Jin Bo shook his head and said, "We looked everywhere, but we didn't see the shadow of the short woman, nor did we hear her voice. Did she not go to Jiangjun Hill?"
Ma Jun insisted, "She must have gone there." Because at that time only Ma Jun knew that the short grandma had sharpened bamboo nails in the morning to nail Wenwen's grave.
"There's nothing we can do. We shone the flashlight everywhere, but we couldn't see it." Jin Bo said, spreading his hands.
We were helpless and could only worry about the short grandma's safety while taking good care of the horse soldiers.
The horse soldier tied to the bed was in great pain. He kept trying to break free from the hemp rope, his wrists were rubbed raw, and the blood dyed the hemp rope red. His whole face was deformed, his mouth was puffed up and he bit his teeth hard, as if he was being branded, as if a branding iron was stuck to his back, it was horrible to see.
twenty two.
The next morning, the rooster crowed three times before Ma Bing finally relaxed and fell into a deep sleep. Grandpa, Jin Bo and I were all exhausted and drowsy. When Ma Jun opened the door and sent us off, he first discovered the short old lady lying on the ground. Ma Jun shouted, "Mom!"
We then saw the short old lady lying down. Her face was extremely pale and tired, and her hair and eyebrows were covered with night frost. At first glance, she looked like a strange white-haired old woman. Ma Jun thought she was dead and cried loudly. We quickly cheered up and carried the short old lady into the house. Jin Bo got a hot towel to wipe the short old lady's face. Grandpa stretched out his hand to feel her breath, and found that she was still breathing weakly. He immediately asked me to go to the village entrance to call a doctor, and asked Ma Jun to cook some hot soup.
The doctor came and gave the short grandma an IV. Ma Jun fed her a few mouthfuls of hot soup, and the short grandma finally woke up, her eyes weak, like a light about to go out.
Ma Jun cooked some noodles and gave some to me, my grandfather and Jin Bo. At that time, I was a little suspicious, why did their family like to cook noodles. The short grandmother also served a bowl of noodles to Wenwen on the first day of her wedding. When I lived in my grandfather's house, I often saw them eating noodles, but rarely saw them cooking properly.
After Wenwen's accident, I also heard some nosy women discussing: "The reason why Wenwen hanged himself was because he always ate noodles. Noodles are like ropes used for hanging." Of course, this is just a bunch of idle people's random guesses, and it is not credible. I just thought about it and let it go.
When Ma Jun saw that the short old lady had woken up, he asked anxiously, "Mom, what happened to you?"
"I was wondering too. I have walked on that road for decades, but I didn't expect to get lost! Just at Jiangjunpo, as I was walking, I suddenly found a fork in the road ahead. I thought, this is not right. Where does the fork come from? I must have taken the wrong road. I cursed myself for being old and blind. I took the wrong road after walking on it for decades. I turned around and wanted to go back to the original road. But as soon as I turned around, I was stunned…" the short grandma said in a low voice.
"What's wrong? What happened to turning around?" Ma Jun asked impatiently. The short old lady pointed at the bowl of soup, and Ma Jun immediately took it over and fed her a spoonful.
The short old woman drank it, her mouth trembling. She still felt frightened when she recalled it.
"Oh my God! I turned around and saw that it was also a fork in the road! Am I not familiar with the Jiangjunpo area? The trees are tall, the grass is thick, and the roads are straight. I know which road leads to which direction better than I know my ten fingers. Isn't this weird?" The short grandma's hands were shaking as she spoke, and there was terror in her eyes.
"So what do you do?" I asked.
"What can I do? I can only bite the bullet and choose a road to go back. I thought, how can I get lost in such a small place like Jiangjun Hill? Even if I walk around aimlessly, I will be able to get out of this small place." said the short grandma.
Grandpa chimed in: "It's over. We've fallen into the trap of the Lost God."
The short grandma continued what she was saying, "I turned around and walked a short distance. Huh? There was another fork in the road ahead. I had no choice but to choose another path. What else could I do? After walking a short distance, there was another fork in the road! Now I was panicking. The moon was out and I had to go home on time. I was anxious and panicked. There was a fork in the road if I went forward, and there was a fork in the road if I went back. I tried the left and right paths. It seemed that there were endless forks on both sides of the road. There was no straight road like the one in General Hill! But when I looked up, I was in General Hill, and the bright lights of the village were just ahead. I looked down and saw that the general's tomb was in the pine forest not far away, but this road didn't lead me there." It is said that a great general of an unknown dynasty was buried in this General Hill. When I was in junior high school, the general's tomb was still there, but I don't know if it is still there now.
Grandpa said: "When a fork in the road appears, don't go in. Go back immediately. Once you go in, you will fall into the trap of the lost god."
The short grandmother sighed and said, "I am very familiar with the road to Jiangjunpo. Who would have thought that I would fall this time? I have raised cattle for decades, and my cattle have nibbled every blade of grass there."
"What happened next?" I asked.
"What could I do? I was hungry, tired and sleepy. I thought I couldn't get out anyway, so I must have run into a ghost. I simply leaned against a pine tree to rest. I was so sleepy that I couldn't open my eyes once they closed."
"Then how did you find it back?" asked Jin Bo.
"All ghosts will leave before the sun comes out. The magic of the lost god will also be solved." Grandpa helped explain the ghost story of the ghost lady , "Now you can see the road clearly, but the short grandma is not in good physical condition. She struggled for a long time last night and she has no strength left when she reaches the ground." The short grandma nodded, indicating that grandpa's guess was correct.
"We also found General Hill last night, but we didn't see you either!" Jin Bo looked confused and tired.
"Maybe the lost god led you to a wrong path, so you didn't pass by the place where the short grandma was." said the grandfather.
"I'm sure I'm at Jiangjunpo," said the dwarf grandma firmly. "When I opened my eyes this morning, oh my god! I was on the same road. Then I looked again and saw that the grass around the pine tree where I slept was trampled to pieces. It turns out that I had been circling this pine tree last night!" We later learned that because of the encounter with the god of lost that night, the dwarf grandma's plan to hammer the bamboo nails failed.
We were greatly surprised.
Jin Bo said that the pine tree should be cut down, and Ma Jun said that incense must be burned to worship the pine tree.
I thought to myself: If I walk on a familiar road with the same caution as I walk on an unfamiliar road, then the gods will have no power over me if I get lost. Why should I hurt or flatter the tree? ≮For more good books, please visit≯
Jin Bo looked at Grandpa inquiringly: "Could the matter of the lost god be related to the hanged ghost?"
Grandpa shook his head and said, "Last night's horse soldiers' behavior proved that the Hanged Ghost had come. He would not tangle with the short old lady at Jiangjun Hill. This encounter was just a coincidence. Besides, it is easy to escape from the Lost God, but people who don't know it think they can't find a way out."
I asked, “How do we find a way out?”
Grandpa said: "If this happens, don't panic. Look down at the shadows of the trees, not at the trees. The lost spirit cannot transform the shadows cast by the moon on the ground, so just look at the shadows of the trees, walk out of the shadows, and follow the moonlight, and you will be able to get out."
The short old lady was not interested in how to escape from the lost god, as she was only thinking about her son. She said with some worry, "Did Ma Bing do that again last night? Does that mean Wenwen will come looking for him again? There's no end to this!"
Grandpa complained: "It's all your own fault!"
The short grandma and Ma Jun were so ashamed that they were speechless.
Grandpa added, "But this is not a solution. The dead are dead, and the living must live on. Ma Bing can't just stay like this. He still has to make a living. But I can't handle it alone now. It would be great if my grandson could learn some skills to catch ghosts. Haha."
Grandpa looked at me expectantly after he finished speaking, but I was still upset because Grandpa didn't show me the mysterious ancient book. Grandpa knew what I was thinking, but he just smiled innocently and didn't mention the ancient book on his own initiative.
After hanging out with my grandfather for so long, I have learned some basic knowledge about dealing with ghosts, but I want to have more powerful knowledge. If a person encounters a ghost, it would be so cool to be able to easily get rid of it! I can even deal with ghosts without getting angry, and I can communicate with ghosts like a crooked Taoist priest! How great!