Chapter Fifteen: Hundred Year Old Human Shaped He Shou Wu

  The first stop we went to on the second day was Fenghuang, because Ye Fei said she had relatives living in Fenghuang, and she came with her mother before, now that she has the opportunity, it's just right to go take a look.

  Phoenix is a county under Xiangxi, I think many people know that it's now a very popular tourist destination on the news - Fenghuang Ancient Town, at that time it was basically free.

  Actually, for a rural-born person like me, tourist attractions are not that unusual, they're just some houses that aren't particularly good-looking. It's mostly people from cities who like to come and play in these places. Just like the skyscrapers in cities, city people think they're nothing special, but rural people who have never been to a city find them very strange.

  After wandering around Fenghuang Ancient Town for a day, I checked into a family-run inn, which was a stilt house. The charges were very reasonable and wouldn't rip off customers like today. After all, at that time the country was very poor and there were very few people who could afford to travel, so every guest was treated with respect.

  I booked two rooms, Ye Fei Jiu and Xiao Jian Qi slept in one, I slept alone in the other, outside the window was a river. After dinner, Ye Fei Jiu took Xiao Jian Qi out to play, while I went back to my room to sleep.

  I don't know what time it was in the middle of the night, but Tongtong came out and woke me up, telling me that someone had just sneaked past the window outside, possibly to steal something. I immediately got up and followed him out.

  The crescent moon has come out, and the road can be seen clearly without a flashlight. That person is carrying something on his shoulder, which looks like a sharp hoe, sneaking around in the alley. I let Tongtong catch up with him, following closely behind him, while I chased after him at a distance of about 100 meters.

  Not long after leaving the ancient city, that guy was no longer sneaking around and carried a hoe on his back as naturally as he did when working in the fields. I don't know what he came to dig at midnight, could it be that like me when I was in Ba Bu, he discovered gold?

  He followed for a while, then went up the mountain and finally hid behind a row of cypresses. I immediately hid under the roots of the cypress tree and saw that he rolled up his sleeves and started digging with a hoe.

  At this time, Tongtong returned to my front and said that the place was very evil, and there were more than one fierce spirit, also known as a malevolent ghost. However, with this Soul-Absorbing Pearl in hand, no matter how fierce it is, I'll still capture it.

  That person dug for about half an hour, then lay down and scraped the soil, finally pulling out something from the pit. It was black and I couldn't see it very clearly. Tiantian said it was a human-shaped Heishouwu (a type of Chinese medicinal herb).

  As far as I know, He Shou Wu is not a human-made cultivar. It takes hundreds of years to transform into a human shape, and hundred-year-old He Shou Wu are all living things that can move on their own, just like thousand-year-old ginseng. They might be here today, but gone tomorrow. If it were a human-made cultivar, its value would only be a few dollars, so who would bother to sneak in at midnight to dig it up?

  That guy sneaked in to dig, I reckon this humanoid He Shou Wu is the real deal, a truly rare 100-year-old He Shou Wu. Whoever can find it must have incredibly good luck.

  When he dug up the human-shaped He Shou Wu, he excitedly kissed it several times, covered in mud. He took out a snakeskin bag from his waist and before he could put the He Shou Wu inside, he suddenly fell to the ground convulsing, then dropped the He Shou Wu and ran down the mountain, shouting strangely like a drunk.

  Tongtong said that man was possessed by an evil spirit and would probably be crazy for the rest of his life.

  I immediately ran to where that person had just fallen and picked up the He Shou Wu, asking Tiantian if this was really a natural wild hundred-year-old He Shou Wu.

  Tong Tong took it from his hand and threw it into the air three times. A small yellow light ball fell out of the humanoid He Shou Wu, which fell to the ground and absorbed the ground as if it was going to drill underground, but was caught by Tong Tong and pinched in his hand like a transparent yellow jelly.

  Tongtong told me that although this humanoid He Shou Wu is not a hundred-year-old He Shou Wu, it can't be said to be a human-made model, because this He Shou Wu has become a spirit. Only hundred-year-old He Shou Wu will become a spirit. Hundred-year-old He Shou Wu gives birth to spirituality, and its medicinal effect is thousands of times that of ordinary He Shou Wu. A 50-year-old person who eats it can become young again at the age of 30.

  This is truly youthful, and it's different from the fake youthfulness achieved through cosmetic injections. This skincare product is made with the genuine essence of hundred-year-old He Shou Wu, which was used by empresses and queens in ancient imperial palaces.

  Tongtong said that this He Shou Wu was cultivated with spirituality, first find a wild He Shou Wu, then let the real hundred-year-old He Shou Wu spirit attach to it, and it will grow into a human-shaped He Shou Wu in one or two years. So the person who cultivates this human-shaped He Shou Wu must have dug up a real hundred-year-old He Shou Wu beforehand.

  That is to say, this human-shaped He Shou Wu is man-made, but the tool used is indeed the real hundred-year-old He Shou Wu spirit body, and its efficacy is almost the same as that of the real hundred-year-old He Shou Wu.

  Before coming to Xiangxi, I knew that the witchcraft of Xiangxi was prevalent. I thought this human-shaped He Shou Wu was raised by a highly skilled witch doctor. The guy just now should be a thief, but I didn't expect him to raise such a He Shou Wu, how could he not have any precautions?

  If such a witch doctor is found, he will definitely have other rare medicines that can cure Xiao Jianye's dumbness, which would be an extraordinary thing.

  I let Tóng Tóng release the yellow light ball, after Tóng Tóng let go, the yellow light ball drilled into the humanoid He Shou Wu, and I buried it again. I reckon that fellow who was possessed by a ghost just now has probably run to the owner's house of this humanoid He Shou Wu to apologize!

  I told Tiantian to chase after that person and see if he was being led by a malevolent spirit to the home of someone who had been possessed.

  Tongtong and I chased after the dog-headed bat, floating up to the height of the rooftop, and then we went back down the mountain and returned to our lodging.

  Not long after, Tóng Tóng came back and told me that the person who dug up the He Shou Wu was taken by an evil spirit to a house with a big banyan tree in front of it. The person knelt down at the gate. The door opened and a short old woman walked out. When she saw Tóng Tóng, a small black dog came out from her sleeve and fell to the ground, transforming into a large black dog that rushed towards Tóng Tóng, scaring her so much that she ran back quickly.

  I learned from Tongtong that the house at the foot of the mountain is not far from here, and after dawn, I plan to go with Yefei to take a look.

  Tongtong said after she finished speaking and then climbed out of the window, I asked her where to go, she said to play in the river, we played for a whole day, she also wanted to play in this river outside the window.

  I told her to wait a moment, took out the pearl from my pocket and asked her to put it on, in case of any danger. Tongtong took it over, opened her mouth and threw the pearl into her mouth, then jumped into the river.

  The next morning I woke up Ye Fei Jiu who was still sleeping, bought some gifts and asked around to find the house that Tongtong mentioned last night.

  In front of the house there is a very large banyan tree, with a shaded area covering an area as big as half a football field. A group of squirrels are climbing and jumping on the tree.

  The gate of the house was tightly closed, and it seemed that no one was at home. I knocked on the door without getting an answer, and just as I was about to leave, I saw an old woman coming back. The old woman was not tall, probably around 1.4 meters, and over 65 years old. She wore a flower-patterned dress of ethnic minority style, with a large bundle of black cloth wrapped around her head, and carried a bamboo-woven basket on her back containing some medicinal herbs.

  Xiangxi is mainly inhabited by Miao and Tujia people, so this short old woman should be a Miao person. When Ye Fei saw this short old woman, he suddenly became excited and then his eyes became moist, while the short old woman looked puzzled. Before the short old woman could ask, Ye Fei took the initiative to greet her, speaking Miao language fluently, even easier than eating.

  I thought the short old woman was not easy to talk to, and I didn't know what Ye Fei said to her, but unexpectedly the short old woman became very enthusiastic, tightly grasping Ye Fei's hand, with a happy smile on her face, while her eyes became moist.

  I saw a gloomy face, what did Ye Fei Jiao say to this old woman? Could it be that this short and stout old woman was the relative Ye Fei Jiao mentioned.

  The short old woman and Ye Feiji chattered non-stop as they opened the door and invited us in, I put the gift on the table.

  On the wall opposite the gate in the hall, a portrait of Chairman Mao was posted. On another wall hung a bamboo pole with Ah Po's clothes on it. It could be seen that this house had only one occupant, the short and stout Ah Po.

  Ye Fei Jiao and the short old woman chatted for a while, then the old woman looked at me and asked me a few questions. I didn't understand and was at a loss. Ye Fei Jiao told me that she had asked if my stomach was hungry or not! And told me to sit down and rest first.

  The old woman smiled like a child, pointing at Kozue Sawaki and asking. After Yefei pulled Kozue to her side, Kozue was so scared that she became flustered all over, which made the short old woman laugh loudly. But after Yefei said something to her, the short old woman shook her head again while looking at Kozue. The old woman then stood up and took a bamboo basket out of the door after saying some words to Yefei.

  After grandma left, I asked Ye Fei why he seemed so familiar with grandma

  Ye Fei Ji told me that this short old woman is her grandmother, and she hasn't come to see her for seven years.

  I was shocked by Ye Fei's words and almost fell to the ground, how could she suddenly appear here with a grandmother? I asked her, isn't your grandma in Daozhou? How do you have two grandmas?

  Ye Fei Jiao couldn't help but sigh when I asked him this way. It turned out that his grandfather had been married twice, and the one in Daozhou was his second marriage, which means Ye Fei Jiao's mother's stepmother. The one in Xiangxi Fenghuang is actually her real grandmother, who divorced her grandfather when Ye Fei Jiao's mother was a child, and then returned to her hometown of Xiangxi Fenghuang, never remarrying again.

  Ye Fei Jia used to visit her grandmother every year with her younger sister Ye Fei Ji and brother Ye Fei Kou, but after she entered junior high school, she never went again. Then she went to high school, and last year she didn't get into college so she stopped studying. The last time Ye Fei Jia came was just after she turned 12, now she's already 19 years old, no wonder her grandmother couldn't recognize her.

  。