Ghost Record

  Who would come to this desolate place so late, and besides, there's a paddy field and a tomb at the foot of the mountain, and the nearest village is still a mile away. The most likely possibility is that the old ghost-raising man has arrived. Although I want to trade with him using this little ghost, it's not now. If I take out the little ghost here and negotiate with him, he might snatch it back, not to mention snatching Tongtong back as well, and I reckon I'll die a terrible death.

  I immediately fled up the mountain, without turning on my flashlight. In the early moonlit night, I could still run with difficulty. I ran for two or three hundred meters up the mountain, panting and looking back down. The car had already stopped at the edge of the rice field, its headlights still on. Two people with flashlights were walking among the graves, which were only about a hundred meters away from the ancient camphor tree.

  I found a big stone to block my body, only exposing half of my head to look down. Although it was so far away that the flashlight could hardly shine on it, I didn't dare to expose my body for safety's sake. As I guessed in my heart, those two people indeed walked under the ancient camphor tree. I could still hear their conversation voices, but the distance was too far and I couldn't make out what they were saying.

  I covered my ears with my hands to listen more clearly, at this time a flashlight was shining up the mountain, just shining on the position where I was hiding. I shrunk my head down, feeling uneasy in my heart, could it be that even from such a distance, they can discover that there is someone on the mountain? The little ghost in my bag wasn't wrapped in red cloth, probably it could be sensed by the ghost-raising people, maybe there's some kind of mysterious connection between them.

  Suddenly both flashlights went out, and the mountain below was pitch black. I'm not stupid, so I guessed that they might have caught up, and if I didn't leave, I'd be waiting for death. The urine I had just pulled out hadn't even cooled down yet, but I started climbing again. In the lower areas, because people cultivated land and chopped firewood, there were still roads to walk on. When I climbed to the middle of the mountain, it was full of all kinds of plants. It's not that I didn't have a flashlight at night, even if I had an axe in my hand during the day, it would be hard to walk. However, this wasn't just about me escaping, but also for Zhang Shenniang and Tiantian. Wherever there were trees that weren't as dense, I drilled inside, not caring whether there were poisonous insects or snakes inside, as long as there were no deep pits.

  I climbed for about half an hour, I was really tired, my legs were trembling, and all my clothes were soaked with sweat. I leaned against a tree, covered my ears to listen, but didn't hear any sound from below, probably they didn't catch up or the distance was too far.

  I rested for a bit, but I didn't dare to stay too long, so I continued climbing for another half hour. After crossing over a hill, I finally stopped, still not daring to turn on my flashlight. All around me were dense trees, and I was hiding under one of them. The surroundings were pitch black, and under the tree, I could barely see things within a meter's distance from me.

  Tongtong told me not to linger, the infant corpse was just frightened by my ancient bronze dagger, but it's powerful enough to summon all the mountain spirits and ghosts on this mountain, which would be troublesome.

  Helpless, I crawled out of the dense shrubs again, dragging my two tired legs to search around. For safety's sake, I put the ancient bronze dagger into a wooden box. But as soon as it was put in, the dagger turned bright red like molten iron, emitting a faint red glow, and barely visible was the black baby corpse trembling.

  I can only take out the knife, otherwise I don't know what will happen, this is an important chip, and it's not good if it gets damaged. Moreover, after this scare, I estimate that this little ghost will also become honest, although for a human, with such low intelligence, it's probably similar to a mouse, but for a raised ghost, it can already understand the relationship between benefits and harm.

  I walked on the mountain for a while, heard the sound of water, and went over to find that it was a small stream left on the mountain. This should be the same stream where Xiaotong had leeches suck out snake venom from me earlier!

  I don't want to run anymore, first I'm tired and second I've already run far enough. I plan to wait by the stream until dawn before going down the mountain. Even when it's daylight, I still can't go down the mountain from where I went up, or I'll be caught off guard. I must bring this little devil back, find a suitable day, and find a suitable place to negotiate with the old man. Of course, I also need to call that beastly little brother to secretly gather evidence and provide protection - he's a policeman and has been a soldier, so he should be of some help.

  I had just sat down when Tiantian told me that there was a room in front, not far from here, and asked me to go take a look. So I walked through the stream for a minute, and indeed saw a thatched hut. The thatched hut wasn't big, only about two rooms in size. Could it be that someone still lives on this mountain?

  The child said that there were two old people living inside, and I went to knock on the door. A voice of an old woman came from inside, asking who was knocking on the door. Her voice sounded frightened, and it's understandable that anyone would be scared when they hear a knock on the door in the middle of the night in the mountains. I immediately said that I was a person who had gotten lost while chopping firewood on the mountain. After hearing my voice, she knew it was a human knocking on the door, so she lit the kerosene lamp and opened the door. It was an old woman in her sixties who opened the door. After seeing that I was just a young boy, the frightened look on her face returned to normal, and she looked me up and down before asking which village I was from at the foot of the mountain and why I was running around in the mountains at night.

  I only said that I went up the mountain to cut firewood during the day, got lost and couldn't find my way back when it got dark. After walking for a few hours, I arrived here and saw a house so I came to knock on the door, hoping that the old lady would let me in to spend the night until dawn before going down the mountain again. The old lady looked at me, all disheveled, not very old, and considering it was also dangerous in the mountains at midnight, she let me into the house.

  As soon as I entered the house, I felt a strong aura of evil, feeling very oppressive inside, and my emotions were inexplicably anxious and panicked. The walls of the house were hung with various animal hides, including those of yellow weasels, foxes, deer, snakes, tortoise shells, and some unknown animals, filling at least two or three hundred of them on both sides of the wall.

  There were painful groans in the room, sounding like an old man who was seriously ill. The old lady said it was her husband, who had been bedridden for several months. I was about to ask why they didn't go down the mountain to find a doctor, but before I could speak, the old lady said she would boil water for me to take a bath, saying that my whole body was dirty and wet, making it easy to get sick.

  After I expressed my gratitude, the old lady lit a fire and asked me which village I was from at the foot of the mountain. I told her that I was from Guiping, visiting relatives, and got lost while playing on the top of the mountain. It turned out that the old lady was also from Guiping, Shebu, who married to Guigang Dahuai, and later came up the mountain to hunt and dig medicine for sale, and because it was convenient, she built a house and lived there long-term.

  The old woman sighed and continued to speak, since the Mid-Autumn Festival last year until now, she hasn't gone hunting or dug up any medicinal herbs. The old man in the house has been ill until now and hasn't recovered, so there's no time to take the animal hides and herbal medicine to Guigang to sell them. She thought that after the old man got better, but instead his illness got worse and worse.

  As we chatted, the water boiled, and Grandma asked me to take a bath first. I took a wooden bucket of hot water but couldn't find the bathroom. Grandma laughed at me, saying that as a child, I still wanted a bathroom; on the mountain, there were no people, and they all washed directly in front of their houses. She told me that if I was afraid of being seen, I could go to the small stream over there to wash up.

  A small stream is less than a hundred meters away, thinking that I can also wash my clothes, so I took a bucket of water in one hand and a kerosene lamp in the other, with a bag slung over my shoulder to the stream. The kerosene lamp was placed on a rock, and some cold water from the stream was scooped into the bucket, the temperature is just right, it's really comfortable to wash!

  A bucket of water was enough to finish washing, and when I was preparing to wash my clothes, the wind lamp suddenly went out without warning, and at the same time, something jumped into the creek from a rock. This is strange, how can the lamp go out with a lampshade, and it's not that there's no oil left, could it be that there's something strange around here? I've often heard that in the mountains at night, there are all sorts of ghosts and monsters that disturb people, either throwing stones or calling out names, or blowing out lamps. I've encountered stone-throwing before, but this is my first time encountering a ghost blowing out a lamp, I don't know if it's really a ghost blowing out the lamp. Although according to my eight characters, I'm more likely to attract these kinds of things, but now I'm not an ordinary person, and I'm no longer afraid of these ghosts and monsters. Plus, I have something to protect myself, how can they still come to provoke me? And what was that thing that jumped into the creek?

  I quickly went to pick up the bag on the stone, reached into the bag and felt for the flashlight, but it didn't light up when I pressed it. It turned out that the battery had fallen out. I hurriedly asked Tiantian what was going on just now.

  Tongtong told me that the little ghost jumped into the creek, and I was anxious to hear it. This is a very important thing! Zhang Shennu's message and finding Tongtong's parents all depend on this little ghost. If it escapes, it will be more important than not seeing the gold last time. Tongtong said that if she were watching normally, it would definitely not run away, but now she can only hide in the wooden man. Tongtong asked me to put the small wooden man into the water, and maybe she can catch up with the little ghost.

  I did what Tóng Tóng said, putting the small wooden man into the water. After a while, Tóng Tóng said that little ghost was very clever, didn't hide or escape downstream, nor did it go ashore, but instead escaped upstream and hid in a rock crevice above a waterfall on a short cliff.

  Tongtong said that a hawk-billed turtle had bitten onto Xiaogui's foot and couldn't run away. I finally let out a sigh of relief, this thing really can't be lost.

  I hastily washed my clothes and put them on, shivering with cold. I returned to Grandma's house, where Tongtong said that the old man in the room wouldn't live for another half month. The resentment in his room was so thick, and there were many vengeful spirits - all animals he had hunted.

  When I entered the house, I also felt it. Now Tiantian told me and confirmed it even more. But knowing that this is something the old man brought upon himself, I couldn't intervene. However, since we met, it's a kind of fate. I decided to help him out by driving away these vengeful spirits that are haunting him. As for whether his body can hold on or not, that's up to him.

  I asked Grandma if I could see the old man, and after hesitating for a moment, she nodded and led me into the room with a kerosene lamp. As soon as we entered the room, I smelled a strong stench, similar to that of a chicken coop. Under the dim light of the kerosene lamp, I saw an old man lying on the bed, his face like dry tree bark, probably in his sixties, but looking more like he was over ninety.