Ghost Record

  The fetus was estimated to have been in the womb for only four months when it was taken out, and it is unknown from what channel it came. Also, it is said to be black, but it should actually be more like purple, only the red is too thick, so it looks all black.

  I don't know how long the infant's body has been buried here, and it hasn't rotted. What is the purpose of burying it here? The last time I encountered an infant's body was when a banana ghost buried it under a banana tree, but this time it seems more like a human burial, otherwise why would there be a wooden box, which is actually a small coffin. Judging from the old man who raises ghosts coming here, he should be the one who buried the baby here, but why did he bury it at the edge of the ancient tree in the tomb? Is it another ghost he raised?

  What kind of person is the old man who raises ghosts, and what is his purpose for raising them? Several questions popped into my mind. Suddenly, Tóng Tóng reminded me that she felt like someone was coming. Tóng Tóng's words are always accurate, such as the stone duck on Xiang Si Zhou last time, and the hole that was dug out from above. So I didn't ask any more questions, and immediately hid in the grass thicket by the tree, perking up my ears to listen for a while, but didn't hear any noise. Just when I thought of quietly asking Tóng Tóng where the person was, something fell off the ancient camphor tree next to me, which is at least three hundred years old, and heavily hit the ground less than three meters behind me, making a dull sound, just like a sack of rice being thrown from the top floor.

  The thing that suddenly fell made me jump, holding my breath and waiting for something. After a while, the fallen thing didn't come towards me as I had expected. What was this thing? Since no one came after waiting for so long, I quietly crawled out of the bushes and turned on my flashlight, running three or two steps to where the thing fell earlier. But nothing was found. Even with careful examination under the light, there were no signs of anything hitting the bushes. This was strange! Clearly something had fallen earlier, making such a loud noise, it must have been quite big, how could it just disappear? Just as I was getting frustrated, Tongtong called me to leave quickly for now! She couldn't come out to help me, if something bad happened, it would be terrible, and told me to come back another day.

  But I was not convinced, and asked her if she had seen what the thing that fell down earlier was, and where it went. Tiantian said she couldn't see clearly, anyway it wasn't an animal, it fell down and sank directly into the ground, just like a stone thrown into water sinks.

  I took a deep breath of cold air, what the hell is this thing that can sink into the ground and even Tongtong can't see clearly. I had a canvas bag on my back, holding a wooden box in each hand, with a flashlight in my right hand. I put the wooden box containing the black baby's body into the bag, freeing up my hands to take out an ancient bronze dagger, holding the flashlight to search around, trying to find some clues.

  After searching in vain, I was about to leave when Tiantian suddenly shouted at me to be careful, but it was too late. All I felt was a stinging sensation on my foot like a bee sting, and the pain made me shout out loud. I jumped back and shone my flashlight, only to see a nearly one-meter-long green snake escaping.

  "Green bamboo snake!" I involuntarily shouted its name, this kind of snake I used to kill countless when herding cattle as a kid, never thought I'd be bitten by it today. In the medically backward 90s, being bitten by a venomous snake in a remote rural area was a death sentence. Even though we're only five or six kilometers away from Guigang, it'll take at least an hour to get back to the hospital! Will we make it?

  I threw the small copper knife on the ground, with a flashlight in my mouth, and picked up the hoe that I had just thrown on the ground. I chased after the green bamboo snake and cut it into several pieces with a few swings. After killing the green snake, I sat down weakly on the ground, looking at the two tooth marks on my heel, and asked Tiantian in a crying tone what to do, if I would die.

  Tongtong told me not to worry, as long as she was there, even if I got bitten by a blood leech, I wouldn't die, let alone a small green snake. Tongtong told me that there was a ditch nearby and asked me to go jump into the ditch, saying she would take care of it herself.

  Following Tiantian's directions, I walked over 100 meters and came to a ditch about two meters wide. The water was knee-deep, so I rolled up my pant legs without even taking off my shoes and jumped in.

  Although the weather started to warm up in early February, the water was still quite cold and I don't know if it helped slow down blood circulation. Tiantian said she didn't have the strength to appear on land, asking me to throw the willow wood man into the water, and I did so immediately, putting this small wooden person into the water.

  I shone my flashlight on the wound and saw that it had swollen, turned a faint purple color, and was throbbing with pain like a burn. I was just about to ask Tiantian what we could do, this couldn't wait! But before I even opened my mouth, I saw leeches of all sizes crawling out from under the stones in the ditch, from the muddy water, and from the thick grass. They kept coming out, more and more of them, like they were rushing to a market. There were big ones as thick as fingers and small ones as thin as toothpicks, at least 200 or 300 of them. The leeches were black, yellow, and green, and they all swam towards my legs. When they reached my feet, they attached themselves to my legs and started sucking blood frantically. This was Tiantian's method, it was really amazing!

  It wasn't until then that I calmed down. How could there be snakes in February? Snakes are still hibernating in their dens, and they won't come out until after the Qingming Festival at least.

  Because of the snake venom in my blood, within a minute many leeches fell off my legs and weakly swam around in the water before sinking to the bottom and struggling a few times before dying. As soon as one leech died on this side, another one took its place on that side, and within 5 minutes, the numbness and pain in my legs felt much better.

  Perhaps the fear of death occupied my mind, with so many leeches attached to my legs. If it were in normal times, I would have been scared out of control and ran wildly like a madman. I'm most afraid of soft-bodied insects, just like when I stole grapes before, a caterpillar thicker than my thumb fell onto my head, and I was so scared that I jumped into the pond like a mad cow, then after getting ashore, I cried and shouted while running for hundreds of meters, no less than when a cockroach crawled into a girl's underwear.

  But now I not only don't feel nauseous and fearful, but even think these leeches are quite lovely. Watching them die one by one, all I can say is, in my next life, I'll be a cow or a horse, and I'll definitely cut grass for you to eat.

  I was enjoying the leeches' sacrifice, but they suddenly all left my legs, some dead and others crawling away. I was about to ask Tiantian why the leeches had all gone when she told me that it was almost done, the remaining bit of snake venom was no longer a threat, and if I let them suck any more blood, I would have none left.

  I finally let out a sigh of relief, it's great that I don't have to die. Tongtong saved my life again, I must help her find her parents first. Picking up the wooden puppet, I jumped onto the water ditch and looked at the small wounds on my feet, densely packed like corn kernels, these were left by the leeches.

  I was just thinking of leaving this place and going back to Hong Kong, but suddenly I remembered that the ancient bronze dagger had been dropped on the ground and hadn't been picked up yet. So I went back to look for it. This thing can't be lost.

  Back to the roots of the tree, found the ancient copper knife, just bent down to pick it up, suddenly a black thing sprang out from the ground. This black thing was as big as a bamboo basket, like a folded black cotton quilt, like steam opening a pot lid, and suddenly sprang up.

  Everything went black before my eyes, and that dark thing enveloped my head. Suddenly I felt like being covered with a cotton quilt soaked in icy water, it was so dark and cold that I couldn't breathe.

  I stretched out my hand and randomly grabbed at my head, but I couldn't catch anything. The thing seemed to be a physical entity, but it was actually a spiritual body, no wonder it could drill into the ground without leaving any trace. Tongtong told me to quickly pick up the knife, I immediately knelt down on the ground, my hand feeling around the surface, but the ancient bronze dagger that I could have picked up just by bending over earlier, now couldn't be found no matter how hard I felt around.

  I wanted to ask Tóng Tóng but couldn't open my mouth, nor could I breathe. Just as I was about to faint from suffocation, I saw a bright red thing in front of me, like a burning hot iron. This is truly amazing! In times of crisis, the ancient bronze dagger always turns into a burning hot iron that won't scald your hand. I immediately picked it up and slashed three times at the top of my head.

  After the three knives finished, I only heard a cry of despair in the air, similar to that of a mother duck, but this sound was several times louder. I only felt a sense of relief, and then I started breathing heavily, picked up the flashlight and shone it, only to see a black fog drifting towards the tree.

  This lump of black fog, as big as a folded quilt, floated into a tree hole about two stories high and drilled in. This was certainly not an animal, the tree hole was only as big as a basketball, but it managed to drill in, could it be an animal?

  Tongtong told me that this is a tree spirit. Generally, big trees near rural areas will have people burning incense and worshiping them. After a long time, lonely souls and wild ghosts will attach themselves to the trees to take advantage of the free incense offerings. Some also say it's the ghost servant of the Landlord God.

  But why does it want to harm me? Is it related to the small corpse I dug up? But this little corpse was buried by humans, could it be that the tree spirit is a ghost raised by the old ghost master to guard here. Then this little corpse is a ghost raised by the old ghost master, what's the point of raising so many ghosts?

  This old ghost-nurturing man is really not an ordinary person! He's far from being comparable to the likes of Zhang Shenpo. Last time, when I caught the fish demon with Zhang Shenpo, no one knew about it, but this old man was able to find his way home and even knew that Tongtong was trapped in a jar, so how did he know it was us who caught him?

  This series of questions tells me that the old man is not a simple person, but Zhang Shenniang's news and Tiantian's parents' news all have to be obtained from his mouth, how difficult it is!

  Fortunately, I got this black infant corpse, inside which there was a little ghost, just now being chased by me and running back to its nest, only to be dug out by me. I took out the small wooden box from my bag, opened it, and the black infant corpse was still inside. This might be a bargaining chip for exchanging with the old ghost-raising man. As for him killing Tongtong, that will be said later.

  I put the wooden box cover back in the bag, ready to leave when I suddenly heard the sound of a car driving on the road hundreds of meters away, and the bright light from the front of the car.