Chapter 28: The Death of the Ghost-Raising Old Man

  Each ring of that iron chain was as big as a grown man's fist, one end locked on the small stone pier by the well and the other hanging down into the well. A wooden charcoal stove beside the well had a fire burning brightly, illuminating the ground around it with a reddish glow.

  This well was originally under the roots of the tree, and it wasn't until the old locust tree fell down that the well was able to see daylight again. This old locust tree is estimated to be over a thousand years old, and when it was still a sapling, it was during the Northern Song Dynasty. The fact that the old locust tree grew above the well mouth suggests that this well is even older than the old locust tree. What puzzles me, however, is that this iron chain has also been around for a very long time, so why hasn't it rusted and broken? Or maybe it's not an iron chain at all, but a copper chain or some other metal.

  What was that iron chain hanging from the ancient well, which had been there for so many years? It couldn't be a bucket. My uncle's house also had a well, and only two ropes were needed to tie up the bucket to draw water, using an iron chain would be a waste of resources.

  The old ghost-raising man and the others also saw this well, at this time they were all staring at each other in surprise. The bearded butcher asked the old ghost-raising man if he wanted to go take a look. The old ghost-raising man nodded, then took the flashlight handed over by the woman, carefully stepped over the still-burning charcoal on the ground and walked to the edge of the well, then shone the light inside. All that could be heard was his exclamation: "What a deep ancient well, can't even see the bottom!"

  As soon as the old man's voice fell, three big-bearded butchers immediately walked to the edge of the well, and several flashlights shone into the bottom of the well. One person barked at the well like a dog, making me laugh out loud. The big-bearded butcher found a stone the size of a fist somewhere and threw it into the well. It took a long time to hear the sound of hitting the water surface coming up. According to my estimate, this well is at least 200-250 meters deep, which is about 50-60 floors high.

  The old man who raised ghosts and those people started discussing by the well, while my uncle sat beside me, gave a bitter smile, then took out cigarettes from his pocket to smoke.

  After some discussion, they decided to pull up the iron chain. The woman said that under the iron chain was a large box of precious antiques that were not allowed to be locked. Then I saw them really start pulling the iron chain, except for the old man who used a flashlight to shine into the well, the three of them worked together to pull the iron chain outwards, like a tug-of-war competition.

  Look at their bodies leaning to one side, their backs almost touching the ground. You can see how heavy the iron chains are. They pulled for a long time, and the iron chains on the ground were piled up high, but they still couldn't pull it out.

  My uncle and I were only more than 20 meters away from the wellhead. If my uncle untied me, it would take at least a few minutes. If there was a knife, it would be faster, but there wasn't one, so there was no way to escape. Those people pulled for a while, rested, and then pulled again, pulling for over 10 minutes in total. Finally, they pulled out a square stone from the well, about 1 cubic meter in size.

  This stone is square and regular, obviously a man-made product. It's surrounded by iron chains all around, but I didn't see anything strange about the stone. Maybe it's because it's a bit far away from me and can't be seen clearly.

  But this stone must be hollow, otherwise it's not three people, ten people may not be able to pull it up. But what is inside the hollow stone? Also, I dare to confirm that it is not an iron chain at all. Otherwise, such a long iron chain would also weigh 600 pounds, and three people would find it difficult to pull it up. It's not a crane either, so it should be a relatively light metal.

  This square stone was only slightly smaller than the well mouth, and the four old men who raised ghosts used a lot of force but couldn't pull the stone out of the entrance. It got stuck in the end, and there was no way to do it. They wrapped iron chains around the stone pillars on the edge of the well several times, temporarily fixing the stone in place at the mouth of the well. They held flashlights around this square stone and studied it for half a day without finding anything. Finally, the woman suddenly shouted with a ghostly cry, "There are words! There are words!"

  The old man who raised the ghost asked where the character was, only to see a middle-aged woman take out a short knife, which was my ancient bronze small knife. She pried up a stone slab with a thickness similar to that of a tile from the square stone, and it fell to the ground and shattered into seven or eight pieces.

  As expected, there were words on it. Even I could vaguely see them. After the middle-aged woman lifted up the stone slab, the words carved on the stone were revealed. The old man who raised ghosts held a flashlight and looked at these carvings, then he was extremely terrified and shouted quickly! Quickly! Quickly! Put it back!

  Before the three people could react, the old man who raised ghosts released the iron chain wrapped around the stone pillar, and the square stone immediately fell to the bottom of the well. In less than half a second, they heard the sound of it hitting the water.

  Almost at the same time, the old ghost shouted "Run quickly!" But it was too late. Just as they turned around, the surrounding well edge centered on the well mouth suddenly collapsed. The sudden collapse of the cave was five meters wide and five meters long, and the old ghost and the large charcoal all fell into the well together.

  Everything happened so suddenly that I barely had time to react, but at the same time, I heard a strange noise. The sound was like huge waves crashing against the rocks on the shore, as if some kind of giant beast might suddenly jump out of the well.

  However, the giant beast did not emerge, but instead a large hole suddenly gushed out of the black hole that had collapsed from the well. No wonder when the old ghost opened the iron chain, the square stone was immediately smashed into the water. It turned out that when they pulled up the stone, the water level began to rise, and by the time they finished reading the words, the well water had almost risen to the wellhead. The soil suddenly encountered a large amount of water erosion, so it began to collapse. This is truly heaven's intention to destroy them!

  After the water overflowed, it didn't take long to extinguish the charcoal fire on the ground next to it. Suddenly, it became pitch black and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The sound of that huge wave grew louder and louder.

  My uncle picked up his flashlight and hastily untied me, the more anxious he was, the more he couldn't open it. In less than a minute, the water had already flooded my ankles.

  I suddenly remembered to ask my uncle where the Hunan couple who took away my sister were from, and my uncle said while untying the rope that they were from Yongzhou, Hunan, but he didn't know exactly where. I asked what my sister's name was, after all, she was only six years old at the time, so I only knew her as "sister" and didn't know her actual name. My uncle told me that my sister's name was Li Mogu.

  As he was untying the rope from my feet, the entire valley suddenly shook violently like an earthquake, followed by a deafening sound like thunder.

  Uncle's flashlight shone, and all that could be seen was a huge cave-in with a water column shooting straight out. The water column was as thick as a bus, and it shot out of the ground to a height of three or four stories, like the Three Gorges Dam releasing floodwaters.

  The water column rushed into the air and fell back down, these waters fell to the ground with a huge impact force that swept my uncle away in an instant, I didn't know where he was washed away to, the flashlight fell into the water and went out in less than five seconds.

  I was in a tragic situation, although the rope on my feet had been untied, but my body was still tied to the tree, and my hands were also tied behind me. After a wave of water rushed past, the water level rose directly from my ankles to my chest. I almost used up all my strength to struggle, but it didn't work at all. On one side, I loudly called out for my uncle, but no one responded.

  Am I going to drown and become a water ghost too? As soon as I thought of the water ghost, I remembered Tóng Tóng and started shouting for her again. I wonder if she can come out after entering that pearl? The pearl has already fallen into the water with the old man who raises ghosts. If Tóng Tóng can come out now, it's just her territory! Now I can only hope that Tóng Tóng will come out to save me.

  But what made me desperate was that Tongtong didn't appear, my throat was hoarse from shouting, when the water level submerged my mouth and finally submerged my head, I couldn't shout anymore, and my mouth was gurgling with water. In my last consciousness, I felt a coldness and darkness that I had never experienced before, and finally, I knew nothing.

  I don't know how long I lost consciousness, but when I woke up, I found myself lying in a grass thicket. I got up with dizziness and blurred vision. Less than ten meters below the grass thicket was a small lake. The sun was shining brightly at this time, and thinking of everything that happened last night was like a nightmare.

  I had nothing around me, but I ended up pulling out a pearl from my pocket, which made me jump up with excitement. Tongtong was still there, and in the end, it was Tongtong who saved me. The pearl had fallen into the well with the old ghost, so now that it's back, it must be Tongtong. But I held onto the pearl and called out for a long time, without hearing any response from Tongtong, and I couldn't help but feel another wave of loss...

  However, I still think that Tongtong is inside, she was just injured by the golden powder sprinkled on her body by the old ghost and needs to rest and sleep.

  I started searching for my uncle along the edge of the small lake, not knowing whether he was dead or alive after being washed away by the water last night. The small lake in front of me was formed by the accumulation of water that gushed out of the hole last night, flooding the entire mountain valley into a lake.

  I walked along the lake for two rounds and couldn't find any trace of my uncle. My antique bronze knife, phoenix bone needle, money, and everything else were all gone, leaving only this pearl behind.

  I'm so hungry and tired, whatever happens is fate! I decided to go find something to eat before coming back to look for my uncle. In my disheveled and wet clothes, I walked for a long time before returning to Grandma's thatched hut. Grandma's body was still quietly lying on the bed.

  I killed two chickens to cook, one was brought to grandma's bedside for worship, and the other I took to the creek side to sit on a stone to eat. After eating my fill, I returned to grandma's bedside, knocked three heads for her, said the thing that harmed her had been eliminated, hoping she could rest in peace.

  I went out of the door and closed it after setting fire to the entire thatched hut, burning all the animal hides together, let the big fire take everything away!

  I went to the water pool where my uncle jumped, and found that the pool had dried up. The location of the whirlpool was now a TV-sized entrance to a cave. I jumped down into the dry pool and looked into the entrance, which was dark and bottomless, just like Tongtong said, it goes straight through to the bottom of the mountain, estimated to be over a thousand meters deep. There were also many dead fish in the dried-up pool.

  Perhaps it was the water that suddenly gushed out of the ancient well in the mountain pass last night, causing all the water in the surrounding area to be sucked over there, resulting in such a large column of water rushing out.

  I didn't know what the characters on that square stone were, nor did I know what was inside it. Moreover, I had no idea what was in that well. However, all these questions got answered two years later when I had the chance to return to the bottom of the well. I won't say more about this now, but will write about it later.

  The news of Tóng's parents and the news of Zhang Shén Pó were both lost with the fall of Yǎng Guǐ Lǎo Tóu's group, it is unknown whether this is what people often say, that this is fate.