Ghost Record

  It's already getting dark, and I have no idea how far Gongqiao Township is. Last night, that old man who smokes said it takes less than four hours to get to Xiayi Township, but the result was more than twice as long and we even encountered a mountain demon. So this time when someone told me it would take less than an hour to get to Gongqiao, I didn't dare believe it.

  I counted the money on me, from Guilin Pingjiangkou Town to Zhaoping Huangyao Town, eating and hitchhiking cost 23 yuan in total, leaving only 109 yuan, don't know how much more it will take to see a doctor.

  It was just getting dark, although some remote villages didn't have electricity at that time, the town and surrounding villages were already electrified. I took advantage of the light to stroll around Huang Yao for a few rounds, and finally fell asleep under a stone statue for a night.

  The second day, I set out early and walked to Gongqiao Township. It turned out that it wasn't far at all, and I arrived in over half an hour. From the village to Xuefei's uncle's village, it took just over 20 minutes.

  After asking villagers, I found Xue Fei's aunt's house, but no one was home. The neighbor said the kids were in school and the adults had gone to town to sell vegetables.

  It wasn't until dusk that I saw an old man in his fifties, wearing a Liberation Army hat and carrying a frame, appear. When he saw me squatting at his door, he asked me what I was doing there while unlocking the door with one hand.

  I said I'm looking for Huang Jinjun.

  The old man said his name was Huang Jinjun, and asked me where I came from and what business I had with him.

  I took out the letter written by Xue Fei's elder sister from my bag and handed it to him. He opened it, read it for a moment, then put it away and invited me into the house.

  He invited me to sit down, poured tea for me and asked when I arrived and how long I had been waiting. He also asked some other questions which I answered truthfully. I asked him what I should call him and Huang Jinjun said just call him Old Man Huang.

  We were chatting in Hakka dialect and talked about some trivial matters. At this time, a woman over 50 years old came back with two little girls.

  Old Huang said that this is his aunt, and those two are the daughters of his daughter, that is, his granddaughters. He also has two sons, one attending high school in the county and the other attending junior high school in Huangyao. His eldest daughter married into a neighboring village, and these two are the daughters of his eldest daughter.

  These two little girls were nine and eight years old, respectively. They were carrying a plastic bag with books inside. As soon as they walked into the hall and put down the books, Old Man Huang called out to me, "Brother", making me feel honored. He then gave each of them some pocket money. Mr. and Mrs. Huang hurriedly said not to give it to them, saying that I was still young, why should I be giving them money?

  I came empty-handed and felt a bit embarrassed, but Old Man Huang and his wife were down-to-earth people who wouldn't mind such formalities, besides I'm not a grown-up.

  Huang Laobo's family has been a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner for four generations, specializing in treating various strange diseases. For example, someone had shoulder pain and injections and medication didn't work, and even the city hospital couldn't find any problems. Later, Huang Laobo took a look and found out that it was caused by a ghost slapping his shoulder, and he easily cured him. Another person fell in love with a Yao ethnic minority girl, but later dumped her, resulting in being cursed with a "gu" worm in his brain, causing him to go crazy for several months. In the end, Huang Laobo also cured him. Although this is the case, there are those who have been cured, and the majority are not.

  A small town can have so many strange diseases, and having ten in a year is already a lot. So Old Man Huang still has to farm the land, which cannot even support his family, let alone his two sons who are studying.

  After sitting down, I told Old Man Huang the whole story. He brought over a bowl of water that looked like rice-washing water and had me wash my face. After washing my face, he handed me a mirror to look at myself. What I saw made me want to cry - my entire face had turned into a liver color.

  His liver-colored face lasted less than two minutes before returning to normal. Old Man Huang said it wasn't too serious yet, if he dragged on for another ten days or half a month and turned into a charcoal face, it would be difficult to deal with.

  Old Huang also prepared a large wooden barrel for me to soak in, with some unknown leaves in the water, emitting a scorching hot air. As soon as I undressed and sat down, my stomach started hurting like it was being twisted by a knife, the pain almost made me faint, but fortunately it only lasted for a few seconds, followed by an unprecedented feeling of comfort.

  After dinner, Old Man Huang arranged for me to sleep in his son's room and told me to get a good rest. His son's room was very simple with only a bookcase, nothing interesting, and since I had been traveling for two days straight, I fell asleep as soon as I lay down on the bed.

  That night I had a dream, in the dream I was walking along a riverbank on a drizzly and very cold day. I walked along the riverbank for an unknown amount of time, when suddenly I saw a little girl wearing a white dress, drenched from head to toe, sitting on a big rock by the river, shivering with cold.

  The little girl saw me coming, raised her head and revealed a pair of black and frightening eyes. I was so scared that my legs wanted to run but wouldn't listen to me. At this time, the little girl stood up, dripping with water, and walked towards me.

  I took a clear look at her, wasn't she that little water ghost from the other day? Thinking of her big mouth that split to her ears that day, I was both scared and anxious to run away, after all, I had an old feud with her.

  Just as I was anxious about how to escape, the little girl spoke up and asked, "Brother, can you help me with something?" Her voice was tender and sorrowful, seemingly pleading.

  I heard the little girl ask like this instead of pouncing on me, and my heart felt a little less fearful. I quickly said: "Little sister, where did you come from? If you need brother's help with something, just say so! If I can help, I'll definitely help, and if I can't, don't make things difficult for me, okay?"

  The little girl told me that this was in a dream mirror. She found me because we had fate, and she hoped I could help her find her parents from her previous life.

  The little girl continued to talk about her past, saying that when she was 6 years old, she contracted a serious illness. The doctor said it couldn't be cured and she would only live for three more months at most. However, just a few days after the countdown to her life began, a man came to her home and told her parents he could cure her illness as long as they let him take the little girl away. At first, her parents refused, but then the man gave them a large sum of money and promised to bring the little girl back within half a year. Her parents were desperate and couldn't bear to watch their daughter die, so even if there was only a glimmer of hope, they had to try.

  The little girl was taken away, and the man tattooed many strange things on her body. He carefully chose a day, took the little girl to the riverbank and drowned her.

  The little girl told me that after being thrown into the river and drowned, the person picked up her body and buried it in a small grove by the river. Her soul was collected in a bowl, which contained water scooped from the river. She lived in the bowl for a long time, until one day a finger-sized small fish was put into the bowl, and the small fish sucked her into its belly with one mouthful. When she came to, she found herself transformed into a small fish.

  She possessed the body of a small fish and was then put into the river by that person. At first, she was like an ordinary small fish, eating small aquatic insects and playing among the water grasses. Later on, as she grew bigger and bigger, she could never get enough to eat, and one day she dragged a swimming child down to the bottom of the water and ate him, after which she was full for a whole year.

  Later, she became hungrier and hungrier, so to eat her fill, every day she would go around searching for people swimming in the water to drag down to the bottom of the river to drown and then eat. At first, eating one person could fill her up for half a year, but later on, eating one person could only fill her up for a month. With no one to eat, her stomach was unbearably hungry, so every day she would go to the shore to lure people into being tricked.

  The little girl said that until the day I killed the fish, she was finally relieved, and after being muddled for so long, she was finally clear and free.

  Because she has been eating only young boys in recent years, and those lonely ghosts are different, her soul is very pure (similar to Tang Seng's flesh!). Because the demon egg (also called demon dan) was taken away, it became like this.

  The little girl asked me to release her from the catalpa wooden tablet, return the demon egg to her, and also hoped that I could help her find her parents in her previous life, hoping to see her parents again.

  After making these requests, the little girl gave me three kowtows. I hurriedly helped her up, and her hands were still so cold, and she was wet all over.

  The little girl didn't know where she was from, only knowing that her name was Huang Tongtong, and everyone in the family called her Little Lazy Huang. Although Little Lazy Huang looked like a 6-year-old, she had actually been dead for 8 years, and her age was only a few months younger than mine, so she didn't speak like a 6-year-old girl at all.

  I asked her how to get her out, how did you run out of the vase that day and hide where, will letting you out hurt me.

  Xiao Lan Huang told me to erase the talisman on the Sophora japonica wood, then put it in water and that's it. Also, the one who let her out was an aunt wearing white clothes, and quietly put her back into your bag.

  I asked her what kind of white clothes auntie was wearing and what she looked like. Little Lazy Huang shook her head, indicating that it was a secret and Auntie had told her not to talk nonsense.

  The day after I woke up from the dream, I told Old Man Huang about last night's dream. He became interested as soon as he heard it and hurriedly asked me to bring him the locust wood sign to take a look.

  This is a wooden board, about the size and thickness of a palm, with some text symbols and small human figures carved on it, which I couldn't understand either. Old Man Huang took it over, fiddled with it for a while, but didn't seem to understand it too well either, so he handed it back to me again.

  I asked him if he could let me go. Old Man Huang told me that this is what people usually call fate, whether to let me go or not is up to me to decide, but first catch the worm in my belly before making a decision!

  Today is also the same as last night, soaking in hot water, the water is still so spicy, the steam is so spicy that it makes me cough, my eyes are streaming with tears, but my stomach doesn't hurt anymore.

  At night, the little water ghost came to me in a dream again, asking me to help her and promising that she would listen to me if I let her out. I told her it's not possible now, first I need to catch the worms in my belly, then consider letting her out.