I heard from the old people that in the early years, there were three southern barbarians who went out of the Great Wall to look for treasures. They were Wang Sheng, Liu Sheng and Zhang Sheng. They had been away from home for more than two years and had found nothing. So they decided to go to Changbai Mountain together to try their luck. .
The three of them traveled until nightfall, with no village or inn to be found, so they could only stay in a dilapidated temple in the wilderness. After making a fire and boiling water and eating some dry food, the three of them squeezed together on a dilapidated kang in the side room. The next morning, Zhang Sheng and Liu Sheng woke up and found that Wang Sheng had disappeared. They waited for the whole morning but still could not find him. Then they searched the ruined temple from front to back until the sun rose. Zhang Sheng felt that this dilapidated temple was evil and wanted to leave early and find another place to stay. Liu Sheng insisted on staying one more night to wait for Wang Sheng, thinking that Wang Sheng might just go out. Zhang Sheng was stubborn and couldn't go on the road alone, so he had to stay with Liu Sheng for another night. But Zhang Sheng was careful that night, deliberately sleeping lightly, squinting his eyes to pay attention to the movements around him.
At midnight, Zhang Sheng saw four little golden men suddenly jumping out from the four corners of the house. They were all chubby and wore red bellybands. They looked like four boys who brought money. They were covered in gold, but their mouths were full of sharp teeth and their pupils were deep. The four children jumped onto the kang, laughing and shouting, and began to make gestures and shout at Liu Sheng and me, arguing like they were picking on each other. Then the older child clapped his hands. Pointing at Liu Sheng who was sleeping next to them, the four children stopped making noises, bared their teeth in a coquettish manner, and happily spread their legs and hands to carry Liu Sheng away.
Zhang Sheng was so frightened that he froze on the kang, unable to move, not daring to breathe. He finally heard the rooster crow and the day began to dawn. He immediately rolled off the kang and ran out of the temple.
After running for seven or eight miles in the morning mist, Zhang Sheng estimated that he was quite far from the ruined temple. His mind went blank and his legs went limp. He fell down on the side of the road and fell asleep. In his dream, he vaguely saw a woman in tattered clothes. A man in tattered clothes came from a distance, with withered hair and a pale face. He must be a beggar. He came closer and bowed deeply to Zhang Sheng. He began to comfort Zhang Sheng and said that there was no need to panic. This place was safe. The ghosts were calling people . He also said that there was a ghost in the land temple. Zhang Sheng was stunned to find that the four little golden figures with red eyes were actually her four children.
The woman said that she was originally from Laizhou Prefecture, Shandong Province. She fled with her children because of a grasshopper infestation in her hometown. When she reached the land temple, she could not walk any further. Her four children were almost starving to death. She had no choice but to go back to the temple. The mountain dug up some Guanyin soil, cut a piece of meat from his thigh, and steamed a pot of meat buns. The four children ate them up so fast that they couldn't straighten their backs. When they were too hungry to bear it any longer, she cooked another pot of steamed buns to feed them. Who knew that these four children were so obsessed with eating human flesh that a few days after they finished eating the buns, the eldest child came with The three brothers held her hands and feet at night, picked up a broken branch from the courtyard and stabbed her to death, tore her into pieces, and cooked her in a pot. Soon after her death, the four children had nothing to eat and could not stand the hunger. Finally, they started to bite each other's flesh in the side room and died on the kang. The jar of gold was an ancient artifact from the previous dynasty, so the souls of the four children attached themselves to the gold and became spirits, eating people who stayed overnight. Liu Sheng and Wang Sheng were eaten by them.
Zhang Sheng was secretly afraid after hearing this, and was glad that he was lucky. However, he also wanted to get the four jars of gold buried in the corner of the house, so he begged the woman to help him. The woman told him that the remains of the four children were hidden in the kang. In the temple, he was told to go back to the kang at 15:30, take out the remains, burn them in the sun, and then put the ashes under the statue of the Bodhisattva in the temple, which would subdue the four little ghosts. The woman also asked Zhang Sheng to take her body out of the courtyard and bring it back to her hometown for burial. In return, Zhang Sheng could take the four jars of gold, which was a treasure. Zhang Sheng woke up with a start and found that it was noon, so he hurried back. When he got to the temple, he smashed the earthen kang as the woman said. As expected, he found a pile of stinking children's bones. After burning them, he sprinkled them on the statue of the Bodhisattva. Then he went to the courtyard and took out the woman's bones, tore a piece of cloth from his clothes to wrap them up, took four jars of gold, hired a car to go to Laizhou, Shandong, and built a large tomb for the woman. From then on, he lived in wealth and peace.