Chapter 4: The Banana Ogre

  Zhang the shaman told me to lie down under the banana tree and sleep, I reluctantly lay down under the banana tree. Zhang the shaman instructed me to just pretend to sleep while lying down, she and four young men hid in the nearby bushes.

  I was unhappy as soon as I heard it, and insisted on leaving a young man with me, or else I would be scared to death. Zhang Shenniang didn't care about my request, saying that if I didn't do what she said, she would leave me alone here overnight. I don't know if Zhang Shenniang was really trying to scare me, but I was more afraid of being left alone here overnight, so I obediently listened to Zhang Shenniang's words.

  I lay down under the banana tree again, while Zhang Shennu and others hid in a thicket twenty meters away.

  I had just lain down and could only hear the various insects around me making a racket, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. I tried my best to calm myself down and used my hand to pull over some fallen banana leaves from beside me as a blanket to cover myself.

  The banana leaf covered it, and I heard a series of moans in my ear: "Hmm... hmm... hmm..." The moaning sound was very long, just like the moan of an old man who was dying from a serious illness.

  At this moment, my only thought was to get up and run away as soon as possible. However, thinking of Zhang Shenniang and the others observing me from the nearby grass, I endured my trembling fear and lay still. Not long after hearing the moaning sound, a gust of wind suddenly blew out from somewhere, blowing open the banana leaves covering my body, and the moaning sound also stopped abruptly.

  This scared the pee out of me, because in front of me was a huge green human face, as big as a computer screen. This green human face was blowing air onto my face, and the smell was both cold and stinky, just like the smell of a garbage dump, and my face was blown sticky.

  This really scared the pee out of me, I actually peed my pants, don't laugh at me, after all, I was only fourteen years old at that time. All I felt was a warmth in my crotch, and then suddenly I saw clearly that what was in front of me wasn't a human face, but a medium-sized banana leaf.

  Just now when I lay down there wasn't a banana leaf hanging down, but now there's one hanging from that tall tree right in front of me, isn't this strange?

  All the terrifying scenes are just illusions, so some people can see dirty things because they can affect your visual nerves and cause hallucinations. Of course, this is my own understanding. That huge green face scared me to pee in my pants, maybe it was because of the child's urine that made the illusion appear in its true form, but it was just a banana leaf after all.

  Just then, Zhang Shenniang walked out from the grass, and had the four young men stand in the east, south, west, and north directions around the banana tree. Zhang Shenniang told me I could get up now, and she took a white cloth from her yellow cloth bag and wrapped it around the trunk of the banana tree, then had me moisten my finger with saliva and draw a small person on the white cloth. After I finished drawing the small person, Zhang Shenniang took out a small copper knife with rust spots from her cloth bag, and stabbed it into the chest of the small person on the white cloth, directly into the trunk of the banana tree.

  I only felt a sharp pain in my heart for 0.01 seconds, and then I saw black-red-black-red ** flowing out on the white cloth. Unbelievable! The banana tree is bleeding, and where the small knife was inserted, smoke is still rising, and the green smoke floats in the air and disappears without a trace after a while.

  The banana ghost is formed under the coincidence of circumstances, and the reason can be that the mountain spirit attaches to the body of the banana tree, like a parasitic insect, taking in the essence of the earth through the banana tree. The mountain spirits and wild ghosts that can attach themselves to the banana tree are generally those ancient trees that have given birth to spirituality after death and have lingering resentment. So I advise some friends not to urinate or defecate under ancient trees, and in rural areas, ancient trees near villages all have people burning incense on them.

  Zhang the godmother pulled out the knife and put it in the cloth bag, with a satisfied face praising me for doing well, and called those four young men to come over and dig down the banana tree roots.

  Because they only brought a machete and no shovel when they came, they could only use bamboo to dig. After digging for more than half an hour, about one meter deep, a young man dug up the body of an infant. Zhang Shenpo went over to take a look and guessed that it was the son of Guo Xi who had died in infancy.

  Zhang Shennu picked up the infant's body and sighed, saying: "This child is really pitiful!" After finishing speaking, she let out another sigh.

  I saw that the infant's body had been dead for so many days, but it hadn't rotted at all. Instead, it looked a bit like the Ginseng Fruit from Journey to the West, a large Ginseng Fruit.

  We retreated and passed by the broom, Zhang Shenpo asked me to pick it up and bring it with us. So I reluctantly picked it up and brought this broom back into the bamboo forest.

  Zhang the godmother found a bamboo root, put Guo Xi's son's body on the ground, then asked me to cover the winnower over the body and told me to go back to the small road to wait.

  I remembered the cry of the baby when I came here earlier and couldn't help but ask a young man beside me, "Lao Ge, do you people in this village always throw dead children into this bamboo forest?"

  I saw Le Ge nodding, but he didn't say anything, and I didn't ask any more questions. About ten minutes later, Zhang Shenniang came out and just said "Let's go home!"

  We quickly walked out of the bamboo forest, and Zhang Shenniang repeatedly warned me and the four young men not to come to this bamboo forest to play, whether we had something to do or not. This place is very dirty, lightly bumping into dirty things that blind your eyes (ghost hitting the wall), heavily being possessed by it, if you're not tough enough, you'll be taken away directly.

  We nodded in agreement, and a young man couldn't help but ask Zhang Shenniang, "Why is it that we can't come here, yet there's still a road open?" Zhang Shenniang said, "This was opened during the production team era. Usually, during the day, people would often take this road to go up the mountain to cut firewood. Old Liu (Damei's father) has a brain made of tofu; he took a shortcut early in the morning and came here to pick bamboo leaves, or else we wouldn't have all these troubles."

  I wanted to tell Zhang Shenniang that I had run into the bamboo forest alone on the 15th, but I didn't say it. On the one hand, I was afraid of being scolded, and on the other hand, I didn't want to be asked about my family affairs.

  After returning home, the third aunt gave each of the four young men a red envelope and also gave a big red envelope to Zhang Shenniang. She also sent a large piece of pork, at least five catties, and accompanied by a flashlight, thanked Zhang Shenniang all the way back home.

  Only my sister Xuefei and I were left in the house, she asked me where I went just now, I said I went to pick bamboo leaves during the day. Then I asked Xuefei what happened during the day, she said that a wild chicken ran into the bamboo forest, so she chased after it. When she crawled into the bamboo forest, she didn't see the shadow of the wild chicken, and when she wanted to crawl out, she couldn't find the exit, so she kept crawling around in the bamboo forest. She kept calling us, but no one responded to her, in fact, we didn't hear her shouting at all. She said that when she was anxious to cry, she found that her feet were stuck on a road that couldn't move, and when she looked down, there was a small child with a pale face hugging her foot, and she fainted.

  At this time, San Gu sent Zhang Shen back and urged us to go to sleep quickly. However, after experiencing many things today, I didn't dare to sleep alone, so I made an excuse that I wasn't sleepy yet.

  Third Aunt knew that I actually didn't dare to sleep alone, so she called in Snow White Grandma to sleep with me. With an adult by my side, I wasn't afraid anymore, but Snow White Grandma's snoring was too loud and I couldn't sleep all night.

  Four days have passed in a hurry, and it's already the Dragon Boat Festival. The zongzi was packed yesterday, and the bamboo leaves were picked by Snow Queen's aunt. This morning, Third Aunt went to town to buy meat and vegetables, and there were guests at home, including a man around 30 years old, who later became Snow Queen's stepfather.

  Time flies, another month has passed, Xue Fei's school is already on summer vacation, and A Mei Gui Tou they are also on holiday. They are already 14 or 15 years old, but only in the fourth grade of elementary school, after all, it's better than me not going to school at all. I just live with my third aunt, she doesn't have the intention of adopting me, let alone sending me to school, besides, my household registration is still at my uncle's house.

  To be honest, I didn't want to read books. It's just that my companions all went to school while I had to work alone in the fields. Now they're on summer break and we can play together again. The weather is very hot every day in June, so except for early morning, we usually don't go out to do farm work. That's why these are the most leisurely days of the year, aside from Chinese New Year.

  That morning, Ah Kui and the others came to San Gu's house, wanting me to go with them to pick yellow skin fruit. After I told San Gu about it, she reminded us to be careful when climbing trees. The few of us then arrived at the vegetable garden behind Ah Kui's village house.

  There are three big yellow skin fruit trees in the vegetable garden, with a bunch of yellow...

  The fruit was so heavy that it bent the branches. We took off our shoes and started climbing the tree, Ah Kui told us to be careful not to break his family's fruit tree branches, otherwise he would get a beating when he got home.

  I picked a handful of fruit, chose the biggest and yellowest one and put it in my mouth, it was so delicious! The few of us were eating and bragging on the tree until noon.

  Agui suggested going swimming! Everyone agreed and we went swimming.

  The river water in the 90s was so clear! That summer, our days were spent playing like this. I also learned to swim that summer and had a good swimming ability. Next came the busy farming season, cutting rice was the most tiring, after a day of work, we were tired, hot and itchy. After finishing the rice harvest, we still had to dry it, and then go to the field to harvest peanuts, busy until the end of August when my playmates started school.

  I've been living at my aunt's house for almost half a year now, and I'm completely like family with my aunt and her sister Xuefei. In this short period of time, my body has also grown taller, from 143 cm to 150 cm.

  One day at the end of August, I helped Snowflake's family herd cattle by a small stream and met Zhang Shenniang returning from the market, who invited me to have dinner at her home that evening.