Ghost Record

  A plan formed in my mind, I don't know if it's right or wrong. I went to the village and asked if there were any police who came to the village yesterday to go up the mountain. After asking several families, they all said no, which made me feel at ease. This means that Chen Dabao's body has not been moved yet. Tonight, I will sneak into that cave alone before the police come back to move the body and do something.

  This idea is just a thought, but it's enough to scare people to death. The other day, so many armed police officers went into the cave during the day and that was already miserable enough. Now I'm going in alone at night, isn't that just asking for death? But who can go in my place?

  According to those few police officers, the corpse was thrown into a rock crevice in the middle of the Right Fork Cave, which means that after I entered the cave, I still had to search for the corpse instead of being able to see it directly and then doing something with it, on the premise that I could find the corpse.

  Tongtong said that this month can't be called her, but I definitely can't go alone, thinking about it, I decided to seek help from the immortal of Zhang Sheng's family.

  The next morning, I took a chicken and a piece of pork and rushed to Zhang Shennu's house. When I arrived at 10 o'clock in the morning, there was only her husband in the house. Although Zhang Shennu had been missing for nearly half a year, the incense on the god shelf at home had not stopped, and her husband had not gone out to work as a carpenter again. Last time, Zhang Shennu's daughter only came to live for a month during the Chinese New Year, and after the spring farming started, she also returned to Pingnan.

  After entering the house and exchanging some pleasantries, I simply stated my intention, saying that I just wanted to ask the immortal a few questions. However, I didn't actually know how to ask the immortal, as Zhang Shenpo hadn't taught me anything about it. But I'm someone who's relatively easy to communicate with spirits, so I figured that if I slept in front of the altar, the immortal would probably appear in my dreams.

  In the morning, after eleven o'clock, Zhang Shenniang's husband went to the town to rush to the market. I burned some incense and candles, killed the chicken, cooked it, and placed it in front of the ancestral altar for worship. The god statue on the ancestral altar in Zhang Shenniang's house is a small golden paper man, about the height of a three-dollar cola bottle, which would still look terrifying to outsiders.

  During the worship process, I made some of my own requests and then learned from Zhang Shenniang to lie on the table. Zhang Shenniang lying on the table is estimated to be communicating with the immortal, while I am lying on the table thinking of sleeping, hoping that the immortal can appear in my dream and guide me.

  When I wanted to sleep, I couldn't fall asleep. I reckon I lay there for over an hour and was still very spirited. Helpless, I had no choice but to give up. I cut that chicken in half to eat for lunch, leaving the other half for Zhang Shenpo's husband. After finishing my meal, I fell asleep on the long bench in the hall after a while.

  In a daze, I heard someone calling me. When I opened my eyes and took a look, the white snakeskin bag in the room that was filled with unknown things had turned into a woman wearing ancient clothing and a white dress. This really gave me a fright, I wanted to get out of bed but couldn't move no matter what, all I could do was stare at her with my eyes open.

  This woman in white is about twenty years old, and her whole body emits a faint white glow. The woman in white spoke up, saying that she was the master of Zhang Xiaolan's divine position, who died during the Ming Dynasty. After death, she was rescued by a fox and avoided falling into the underworld, so she made a pact with the fox as sisters and lived in a cave in the mountains.

  I don't know why, but I could understand the language that this woman in white was speaking. I didn't know why she wanted to tell me these things, but I couldn't speak and my whole body was paralyzed like being pressed down by a ghost, only my eyes could open.

  That white-robed immortal was actually a ghost, dead for ages. She told me that the cave she lived in connected to that mountain cave. She had traveled through this mountain cave countless times. Inside the cave, there was a giant snake that had lived for hundreds of years, seemingly guarding something. Sixty years ago, during the Republic of China era, this giant snake would often transform into a beautiful woman and lure men from the village into the mountains to eat them at night. Later, it was shot and wounded by several people, and never appeared outside the cave again.

  The immortal finally let me enter the cave at the time of Mao, which is between 5:00 and 7:00 in the morning. After 7:00, I must come out, otherwise there will be a risk to my life. She told me to remember to bring that phoenix bone hairpin, saying it was an object from her lifetime, made from the bones of a phoenix killed by our ancestors on a mountain. Of course, this phoenix is not the legendary phoenix, perhaps it's a very rare animal, just like the dragon is not the legendary dragon.

  After finishing speaking, the woman in white clothes turned back into a white snake skin bag. I suddenly woke up, covered in sweat, and the scene just now was like a dream yet seemed more real.

  It was already past two in the afternoon, after bowing three times to thank the immortal in front of the shrine, I went home on my own. When I arrived at home, I passed by my aunt's house and went in to take a look. My eldest uncle was scraping her back, we chatted casually, I borrowed a flashlight from him and then went home to sleep.

  At half past four in the middle of the night, I got out of bed and fished out the white strip that Tongtong had extracted from the belly of a leech last time. I mixed it with water and put it in a bottle, took two matches, a flashlight and a phoenix bone hairpin, and headed into the mountains. After crossing two mountain peaks, I found the entrance to the cave. At this time, the sky was still dark, but the immortal said that between five and seven o'clock is the safest time, so I had to come at this time.

  I walked into the cave and was still very scared, shining my flashlight around, after a while I arrived at that three-forked cave entrance. After entering the right fork and walking for a while, I saw that the bloodstain from last time had dried up and turned black, the corpse must have been lost in this area!

  I immediately searched around and found a crack about 30-40 cm wide and 5 meters long at the bottom of the rock wall. When I shone my flashlight down, I saw a male corpse lying on the ground below, which was exactly Chen's body that we saw that day.

  I bit the flashlight, grasped the rock wall to support myself, and jumped down. I came to this corpse. Chen must have been dead for at least a month! But the body was well preserved, as if asleep, without any signs of rotting.

  I carefully took off the overcoat that my uncle was wearing, and then poured a bottle of poisonous water into his mouth. At that time, I didn't know at all that dead people can't absorb anything, and thought that as long as the poison entered his belly it would be fine.

  However, to my surprise, after pouring half a bottle of the poisonous water, Chen's corpse suddenly started shaking all over. Was he going to come back to life? Scared, I quickly ran to the bottom of the rock crevice, thinking that if the corpse were to suddenly jump up, it would be best for me to climb up and run away. But things didn't turn out as I expected. The corpse shook once and then stopped, and soon insects started crawling out of its mouth, ears, and nostrils. These insects had blue-green bodies, similar in shape to ground beetles, but much smaller, only slightly larger than big ants.

  These worms crawled out of the corpse's orifices and fell to the ground, where they died one after another, with over a hundred dead. After all the worms had died, Chen Dabao's corpse suddenly changed appearance, with blood and water flowing from his ears, nose, eyes, and his face turned a terrifying eggplant color. If he were to suddenly stand up now, I reckon my legs would turn to jelly.

  My heart is racing as I stand by and look at this corpse. Perhaps due to the insects, the body has not rotted. After these insects died, his whole body became swollen, swelling like a balloon, then the skin cracked open, and nauseating liquid blood flowed out from the cracks, instantly the stench of death was so strong that it almost made me vomit just by smelling it.

  I saw the corpse turn out like this, it's definitely impossible to investigate whether it was a suicide or murder, or what bit it to death! I actually did such a thing, and my heart feels very complicated, I don't know if it's right or wrong.

  Before long, Chen's corpse had dissolved into a puddle of foul-smelling blood water, leaving behind a gray skull. I crawled out of the rock crevice, grabbed my uncle's coat and exited the cave entrance, finding a corner to burn the clothes, just as the sky was starting to brighten.

  I did this only because I listened to my grandmother's instructions, and I couldn't tell right from wrong. After going home, I went to my aunt's house for breakfast as if nothing had happened, then told them that I would be leaving the village today, and if the police came to the village looking for me, just say I've gone to Hunan to find my sister.

  By noon, I packed up all my things and took a bus to Guiping, then transferred to the one going to Guigang. The reason I left that day was because I feared the police would come to move the body, discover something unusual and come looking for me, fearing I might say something wrong.

  It's easy to find my uncle, just go to the underground casino, he can't live without gambling, and he can run away means he still has some money on him, after all, he sold a cow.

  Guigang is more prosperous than Guiping and Babu, I seem to have forgotten my purpose for coming to Guigang, strolling around until evening, finally found an inn to stay.

  The next morning, I went out to buy breakfast. A jeep drove by and I happened to glance inside the car. The old man driving it was none other than the ghost keeper, and I almost shouted out loud.

  The last time in Guiping this person went missing, Zhang Shenpo also didn't come back, life and death unknown, but now this person actually appeared in Guigang.

  I wanted to chase after him and ask about Zhang Shenpo's whereabouts, but thinking about it would startle the snake in the grass, and maybe I'd be caught and killed without anyone knowing. Moreover, this person was the one who threw Tongtong into the river to drown, he is absolutely not an ordinary person, I must think of a way to find his hideout.

  I chased after the jeep for a while, and finally saw it stop under a building. The old man got out of the car and walked into the house. After posting the notice on the neighboring door, I left here and returned to the hotel, intending to report to the police, but in the end didn't report it.

  Firstly, even if the police arrest him, there is no evidence; secondly, Zhang Shennu's whereabouts still need to be extracted from his mouth; thirdly, Tongtong's death is also related to him, and we absolutely cannot alarm the snake.

  After seeing this old man who raises ghosts, I put aside the matter of finding my uncle and followed him every day. After many days of following, it was discovered that this old man who raises ghosts did not have a job, and he drove out of Guigang every day. I could only follow for a short distance before being shaken off, after all, people can't keep up with cars.

  Later I bought a bicycle myself and followed him from a distance, but was shaken off again after walking. It wasn't until he went to a place that was very close by that I finally caught up with him.

  I hid in the bushes and waited for that old ghost to leave, then I came out and walked to where he had just gone, only to discover that it was a cemetery.