Chapter 24: The Old Man Who Raised Ghosts, Chen Er Bao and His Uncle

  The five flashlights that suddenly lit up made my feet, which had just touched the ground, quickly shrink back. I'm done for! I really can't think of anywhere else to escape, and I can only climb up the tree again. At this moment, I only have the instinct to run away! Climbing a tree isn't a dead end, is it? I don't have wings to fly away from the tree, and sooner or later I'll still have to come down. At this point, I truly understand what it means to be at the end of one's rope.

  The fire at Tongtong's place has gone out, but there are still embers burning. Those vines are probably from the same root and may be eating pain right now, so they haven't come to bind me again.

  Because the whole tree is full of rattan, it's not hard to climb, I climbed to the top of the tree in one breath, and the branches under my feet are only slightly thicker than fingers, and my hands are also grasping a branch to let the force under my feet be dispersed so as not to break.

  The treetop is at least four or five stories high off the ground, and if I'm unlucky, the branch I'm standing on will break, and I'll probably die on the spot.

  Those five flashlights rushed to the foot of the tree in an instant, all shining up at the tree, dazzling my eyes and making it impossible for me to see what kind of people were under the tree.

  I knew I had been exposed, and maybe they already knew I was in the tree, but were afraid of these entwining vines, so didn't climb up to catch me. Maybe they were thinking of ways to get me down, but then saw that a fire had started on the tree, and the vines loosened, and only when they saw me coming down did they rush out to try to catch me.

  They already knew that only fire could deal with these vines, I don't know if they would dare to climb up, but they are all adults and too heavy to climb so high, and I also guess they wouldn't dare to climb, after all, I couldn't escape.

  To stall for time, I pulled down my pants and urinated on the still smoldering charcoal below to extinguish it. This way, when they climbed up to catch me, these vines would bind them, and maybe I could take advantage of the opportunity to escape.

  At this time, the four flashlights under the tree suddenly turned off, leaving only the brightest one. The person holding this flashlight took two steps forward and touched the old locust tree with their hand.

  Suddenly, this person shouted at the tree, and although I hadn't heard his voice a few times, it was very familiar. This man was actually Old Wang Ba, the old ghost-raising man. Although I hadn't had many conversations with him, I could recognize his voice even if I were to turn into ashes.

  He only saw him raise his head and shout at the tree: "The friend above, why climb so high, it's better to come down and smoke a few mouthfuls together, study how this extremely rare gathering of yin is."

  I didn't respond to him, and the old man who raised ghosts finished speaking. After being silent for tens of seconds, he said: "Old Chen is a person who loves to make friends. I lost something small that I had raised for five years here. I don't know if the friends in the tree have seen it? It can be seen that you are also a person with real skills. If you have ever seen it, can you tell Old Chen? I will definitely thank you heavily!"

  Unexpectedly, the old ghost's speech was so elegant and polite, perhaps he didn't even realize that the person on the tree was the same young man who had been bitten by his leeches more than half a year ago.

  I still didn't make a move, because I really didn't know what to do for the better, and just hid in the tree without moving, looking down at the ground below with my head lowered. The distance was too great, plus the branches and leaves, so the other party couldn't see my appearance either.

  The old man who raised the ghost shouted a few more times, and several people in the same profession also shouted a few times. But when I heard one of the voices, I almost got startled and fell down. This voice was even more familiar to me, having listened to it for over a decade, how could I not know whose voice it was?

  That's right, this voice is my uncle. He was killed by Wu Dapao from the neighboring village for debt collection and then escaped to Guigang. But what I don't understand is how he ended up here and how he got mixed up with Lao Tou.

  I lowered my voice and shouted "Four-legged snake", that's Uncle's nickname, anyway the villagers all call him that. He was taken aback for a moment, then started scolding me severely. Uncle definitely didn't know that the person on the tree was his nephew who he drove out of the house last year! Last year when I left home, my voice was still in its childhood tone and I was only over 1.4 meters tall.

  A year has passed and now I have a hoarse voice, and I'm also 1.6 meters tall. Maybe if I stand in front of him without looking at his face, he absolutely won't recognize me.

  My uncle's mouth was full of foul language, scolding all my relatives, but he didn't know that the ones he scolded the most were his own sister and parents, who are my mother and grandmother. How sad!

  He scolded and then asked me who I was and how I knew him. The old ghost-raising man waved his hand, and my uncle shut up and retreated to the side.

  The old man who raised the ghost shouted again, and all he heard was him saying: "The friend on the tree is actually one of us! That's even more reason to come down and chat with me. If my lost little thing was picked up by you, my friend, I'll consider it a gift from Chen Erbing to you! But this friend of mine, I must meet!"

  These words that sound very friendly may have been believed by me a year ago, but after being out for a year, I know that if I go down, there will only be one dead end.

  I don't know how long I can hold out on this tree, even if they can't come up and I won't go down, but I still need to eat. It's a calamity that can't be avoided, so I sneered coldly and finally decided to negotiate with the old ghost under the tree now. So I shouted at the old man under the tree: "Excuse me, old sir, do you still remember the woman and young boy you kidnapped at the river mouth last year?"

  That old ghost heard me ask this and was taken aback, then burst out laughing saying "The friend on the tree is actually a little brother! Are you mistaken about who it is?"

  "I replied coldly: 'You won't have forgotten, will you? But I've been thinking about you every day. Tonight is just like what they said on TV - enemies meet on a narrow road!'"

  The old man who raised ghosts couldn't help but laugh a few times after hearing my phrase "narrow road of grievances". He didn't pretend to be ignorant anymore. All I heard him say was: "You're just a young kid, but you really have skills. Half a year ago, you caught the fish demon that I had been raising for seven years and swallowed my hornet's nest, yet you're still alive today. Now you've even caught the little ghost that I raised for five years, great skill! It's a pity that Chen Erpiao didn't meet a disciple like you! The greatest regret in life is probably this, right? Why don't you come down and return the two little ghosts to me? I promise not to pursue past matters again, and I'll even give you a large sum of money. How about it?"

  The old man who raised the ghost praised me, but I guess he didn't know that the one with real skills wasn't me. It was Zhang Shenpo who caught Tongtong. However, even if it were just Zhang Shenpo alone, she wouldn't have been able to do it either. She's just an ordinary rural woman, and the reason she can catch ghosts is because she has a celestial being possessing her body, as well as those two magical tools. Without the ancient bronze dagger and the phoenix bone hairpin, she would only be able to tell people's fortunes, help them choose auspicious days for moving into new houses, weddings, and that sort of thing.

  I was able to catch this little black devil not because I have real skills, but because I have an ancient bronze dagger. It's only afraid of my ancient bronze dagger. But apparently the old ghost-raising master didn't know that I had such a powerful dagger and thought I caught his five-year-old little devil with real skills. You should know that this little devil is like a nightmare for ordinary people. By the way, I also played a part in catching the seven-year-old water ghost he raised before, Tongtong, of course, relying on my ancient bronze dagger and phoenix bone hairpin.

  Perhaps the old ghost's praise of me was heartfelt, and from his tone I could tell that in his eyes I was a young but genuinely talented "genius".

  But praise is due to praise, the bill still needs to be settled. I cleared my throat and shouted under the tree: "Not bad, your little ghost was dug away by me. You old fool, I followed you for several days and you didn't even notice. You don't have the ability to raise so many ghosts, are you not afraid of being counterattacked? Why not go home and raise pigs instead? If you want me to return the little ghost to you, it's okay too. Tell me where the woman you kidnapped is, otherwise I'll kill your ghost and destroy five years of your hard work in an instant."

  The old man who raised ghosts was obviously a clever old man, and I was tender when discussing conditions with him. Even if he told me the whereabouts of Zhang Shenniang, how could I know whether he was making it up or not? Maybe even the old ghost-raising man didn't know where Zhang Shenniang was.

  The old man under the tree listened to me finish and sneered: "Little..."

  "Brother, I'm giving you a way out. You're still young and with your abilities, a great life awaits you in ten years. I hope you can cherish this opportunity before I get angry!"

  I also turned on the flashlight and shouted under the tree that it was useless to talk about it, so let's just wait! I had already informed the police before I came here, they will find this place when dawn breaks. Of course, this is just a lie I made up, just to scare them away, but this idea is really too naive.

  To be honest, I'm really scared. If I fall into the hands of that old ghost tonight, Tiantian will be taken back by him, and I'll never be able to find my sister again.

  The old ghost heard me say that I had already informed the police, and shouted a sentence to me on the tree, "Poor child, let me come to put a period at the end of your short life!"

  The old man who raised ghosts finished speaking, and then he started waving his hands over his head, humming and muttering to himself. Before long, a small snake emerged from his sleeve.

  The little snake was only as long and thick as a chopstick, after drilling out of the old man's sleeve, it climbed to his head and circled twice, then disappeared.

  At this time, Tongtong reminded me to be careful, that snake is called a spirit snake, and the evil spirit attached to its body is that of a woman who hanged herself. I asked Tongtong what to do now, there's no way to retreat anymore, even if we retreat, the branch will break, being bitten by the snake means death, falling also means death, are we doomed to die either way?

  Tongtong said I wasn't a needle with a root? Use that needle to prick it, and it will definitely be killed in one go. That's when I took out the phoenix bone hairpin from my bag.

  After a thrilling wait of over a minute, a small blue snake crawled onto the branch in front of me, about one meter away from me. It was only then that I got a clear look at this little snake's appearance - it had two heads.