Ghost Record

  After wandering around for a morning, I went home at noon to slaughter a chicken and cook rice. The pot was all rusty, and it took several scrubs to clean it. This house, which had been empty for over a month, only felt like home after the stove was lit.

  Four or five catties of big fat chicken were being cooked in boiling water, and then a few wild mushrooms were thrown in. The aroma was so fragrant that it seemed like taking one bite could make me ascend to heaven. Before it was fully cooked, I couldn't help but drool, and I pulled out a drumstick to eat first. Not long after finishing the drumstick, I fished out the whole chicken and ate it with my hands, getting oil all over my mouth and hands. It was so delicious.

  Only after eating can I work, tonight I still have to deal with a monster that I don't know what it is, it can actually eat such a big whip-tailed scorpion that's hanging so high, I really can't think of what this monster is and where it can hide in my house.

  I searched every nook and cranny of the house, except for the tiles on the roof, but all I saw were a few mice.

  It was late in the evening when I finished washing up, my aunt came to call me to have dinner, I just said I had eaten already and would go tomorrow night! After my aunt left, I started setting traps.

  The trap I set is very simple, just using a rope, setting a circle at the entrance of each room, as long as the monster steps into the rope circle, I pull it and it will be tied up, then I use that needle to stab it, guaranteeing it can't escape.

  This needle was dug up by the immortal from Zhang Sheng's family in the mountains, and it is unknown what dynasty this object belongs to. It looks like an ancient hairpin used for coiling hair. This needle looks very ordinary, so ordinary that if it were dropped on the ground, no one would pick it up. It has never had a name, so let's give it one - "Nameless Needle".

  After setting up the trap, I also need to find a place to hide myself. I took a large snake skin bag and wrapped it around me, leaving only a hole the size of an egg to observe the outside.

  Everything is ready, but that monster won't come out so early, at least not until one or two o'clock! During this time, I didn't have anything to do, so I reminded Tongtong to stand guard and let me take a nap first, asking her to wake me up around midnight.

  Perhaps it was the unease in my heart, but I couldn't sleep all night. I lay on the bed for a while and then got up to go to the village store to buy some melon seeds and candies to eat. Before long, it was already midnight.

  Just like the big whip-tailed scorpion last night, I tied up that chicken and hung it from the bamboo pole for drying clothes at the kitchen door, then I put on a large snake skin bag and hid in a corner.

  I hid in a corner about five meters away from the bamboo pole where the chicken was tied up. I held a needle in one hand and a flashlight in the other, but didn't turn it on. The chicken struggled for a while after being tied up, but eventually got tired and stopped struggling, and the surroundings became quiet.

  It wasn't until more than two hours later, when the big clock in the hall struck half past two, that a huge shadow swept across the rooftop. The shadow was at least two meters wide and one meter long, like a giant kite. It flew over the roof in an instant, and I didn't even have time to get a good look, but it scared me out of my wits.

  What on earth was that thing, wasn't it the monster that ate the big whip-tailed scorpion last night, and isn't it hiding in my house? Just as a string of questions appeared in my mind, that huge black shadow flew back again.

  This time it didn't fly over, but flew directly to the sky well and pounced on that chicken. With its two large wings flapping up and down, a strong gust of wind blew in the sky well.

  That monster bit the chicken hanging on the bamboo pole, wanting to pull off the rope tied to the chicken. The chicken was struggling, making me very anxious. This monster flew in mid-air, which I didn't expect, so those rope loops at the doors and entrances of each room were useless.

  No trap caught it, should I go out or not? Will there be danger! Just as I was hesitating whether to take off the snake skin bag on my head and rush up, Tongtong suddenly appeared.

  Tongtong was originally a water ghost, although she could appear on land at night, but only on the first and fifteenth of each month. Usually, she could only reveal herself for a few seconds. Now, however, she suddenly mounted onto the back of that strange creature.

  I quickly turned on the flashlight and tore off the snakeskin bag that was wrapped around my body. The flashlight shone on the strange creature, and only then did I see its true appearance.

  All that can be seen is that this monster looks like a dog, with two bat-like large wings on its body, no tail, and its body is about the same size as a domestic dog. Its four legs are like those of a sloth, with black and long claws.

  The monster saw the rope being pulled, and on its back was a child riding it. On the ground, I held a flashlight, so it gave up the chicken, flapped its wings several times, and flew away over the roof.

  The child is still riding on it! I rushed out to chase, along the village's small path just reached the mountain, and lost track of that strange creature. As soon as the creature disappeared, I didn't know what to do. If I don't chase, the child is still riding on that creature! If I chase, who knows where it flew to? I shone my flashlight randomly on the mountain, but dared not call out for Tongtong, fearing to wake up the villagers, as we were only a few hundred meters away from the village.

  Just as I was wondering whether to go home or chase after it, Tiantian returned. She floated in mid-air, her body glowing with a faint green light, and her figure kept appearing and disappearing. I quickly asked her if she had caught up with the monster, and Tiantian told me that she had ridden on its back. It flew very fast, flying over two hills before entering a cave, probably its lair. Tiantian said she had wanted to continue chasing but saw a corpse inside the cave, so she came out. Anyway, now we know where this monster lives.

  Is there another body? I asked Tongtong what kind of body it was, and Tongtong told me it was a man's body, lying on the ground with his face unseen, unknown age, and unknown appearance. However, judging from his clothes and build, he should be around thirty years old.

  I don't know why, but when I heard Tongtong say those things, I thought about whether the corpse might be my uncle. But didn't Auntie say he had run away to a distant place before New Year's? It's impossible for him to appear in the mountain cave! Although Uncle treated me poorly, I definitely don't want him to die - after all, he is a relative, the biological son of my grandparents and my mother's younger brother.

  I had Tóng Tóng lead the way, and after crossing two hills, we found a cave at the foot of a small hill. The entrance to the cave was not large, less than two meters high, but it was at least eight meters wide, like a small mouth split in the mountain foot. The entrance was overgrown with vines and moss, and when I shone my flashlight inside, I couldn't see anything.

  I didn't rush in, only a fool would do that. The next morning at dawn, I went to the town police station to report it, and the town police station reported it to the county public security bureau. Five policemen and a jeep came over. When the villagers saw me bringing so many policemen back, they didn't know what had happened, and they stood in front of their own doors, watching the commotion and discussing it among themselves.

  When I reported the case, I said that the body was in the mountain cave, so the police also came with a full set of equipment. Needless to say, there were pistols, ropes, police flashlights, daggers, water bottles, and I also brought the willow wooden man, ancient copper knife, and that nameless needle. When I reported the case, I also said that there was a bat as big as a dog in the mountain cave, with wings spread out like a door, but the police were half-believing and half-doubting, saying they weren't afraid even if there were armed tigers. After passing through the village and getting off the car, I led the police over two mountains and arrived at the entrance of this mountain cave.

  It looks like a mud hill, but it's just covered with mud on the surface. The huge rocks washed out by water from the foot of the mountain tell that this mountain is still made up of stones. I didn't see this cave when I was young, maybe it's because of the heavy rain in recent two years that caused the collapse of the mud and exposed the entrance of the cave.

  This place is a paradise for wasps, and people who came to cut firewood here have been stung to death several times over the decades. As time went by, no one dared to come anymore, so when the mountain collapsed and formed a cave, nobody knew about it. But how could there be a corpse inside? The police will have to investigate to figure that out.

  The police officers put on gloves and other protective gear against snakes and insects at the entrance of the cave, four police officers turned on their flashlights and walked into the cave, leaving a young police officer and me at the entrance.

  I insisted on going in with them, but the police wouldn't let me, only allowing me to tell them roughly where the body was inside the cave. But I didn't know either, Tongtong had only told me it was inside the cave. I saw that the police were clearly not very happy, but they could only grit their teeth and crawl in.

  The civil police officer guarding the cave entrance asked me how I knew there was a dead body inside, and I told him that I came here to catch cicadas and saw it, and had already said so at the police station.

  This young police officer, no more than twenty-one or two years old, gave me a thumbs up and said, "You've got quite the nerve!"

  We waited outside the cave for a whole morning, and the four civilian police who entered the cave had not come out yet. We were so anxious that we didn't know whether to sit or stand. The young policeman wanted to go in alone several times, but he didn't dare to. I said I could go with him, but he wouldn't let me, and it dragged on until the afternoon.

  It's getting dark, the police who entered the cave won't have any accidents, will they? The young policeman is just a little kid, only 5 or 6 years older than me, and he's so anxious that he's spinning around in circles. At that time, there were no communication tools, and it was impossible to call for support by phone.

  It can't be like this, the four policemen who entered the cave haven't come out yet, and the young policeman is anxiously pacing back and forth. I took advantage of his inattention and suddenly rushed into the cave.

  To be honest, I wasn't very scared. Firstly, four armed police officers had entered the room, secondly, I had an ancient bronze dagger to deal with ghosts and spirits, a nameless needle to deal with demons, and lastly, there was the water ghost - Huang Tongtong who had eaten over ten young boys.

  That young police officer saw me rushing into the cave, shouting at me to stop while chasing after me and also entering the cave. By the time he caught up with me, we had already gone 300-400 meters into the cave. I was carrying a flashlight that used two batteries, but its lighting effect in the cave was very poor, only allowing me to see three meters in front of me. After the young police officer arrived, he gave me a police flashlight, which could illuminate objects over 100 meters away.

  Once you enter, you will never come out again. As we walked and observed the cave, we saw pillar-like stalactites from the five-story-high dome top straight to the ground, as well as many thin stalactites like chopsticks, each about two meters long, if they fell straight down and stuck into our heads, they could go from the top of our heads to our feet.

  Unconsciously, we walked for twenty or thirty minutes, but still didn't see the four police officers who had entered earlier. At this time, a fork in the road appeared before us. We didn't know which way to go when this young police officer patted my shoulder. I turned around and followed the direction of his pointing hand, only to see a male corpse lying on the ground.