Chapter Sixteen: The Black Dog Immortal

  Yefei Jie took me and Xiaojianzi into her grandmother's room, on the table there was a photo of Yefei Jie's whole family with her grandmother, in which Yefei Jie was only nine years old.

  We went into another room and saw a shrine inside with a small statue of a god on it, which looked similar to the little man I saw in my dream.

  I asked Ye Fei Jiu, is your grandmother a witch doctor?

  Leafy doesn't understand, asks me what is a witch doctor

  I told her that a witch doctor is a barefoot doctor who uses witchcraft to treat illnesses, especially some strange diseases.

  Ye Fei shook her head, but she knew that some people from the Tujia and Miao ethnic groups in Western Hunan were skilled at using poisonous insects, as for whether her grandmother was or not, she wasn't quite sure, according to what her mother had told her, her maternal grandfather was.

  Ye Fei Ji told me that in the past when she came to her grandmother's house, it wasn't located here, and now she doesn't know how it was moved here. There is nothing in this room either, empty and bare, we also don't have anything good to look at, so we sat back in the main hall chatting idly.

  Not long after, Ye Fei's grandmother came back with a bamboo basket, inside which were a big bunch of bananas, a piece of pork, a killed chicken and a golden yellow pomelo.

  Grandma walked into the hall with a basket, smiling and putting bananas and oranges on the table for me to eat. Then she turned around, put things in the kitchen, took out an empty basket, called Ye Fei Jiu and Xiao Jian Qi together to go to the vegetable field to pick vegetables.

  I'm alone in the house, and I recall what Tóng Tóng said last night about that short old woman, as well as the black dog jumping out of her sleeve. This doesn't seem to be the same person as Yè Féi Jiào's grandmother. Yè Féi Jiào's grandmother looks like an ordinary rural elderly lady, while the old woman in Tóng Tóng's story seems more like an evil witch. If I had known earlier that this short old woman was Yè Féi Jiào's grandmother, I should have brought Tóng Tóng here; now she is still by the river!

  Ye Feijiao's vegetable garden is not far away, less than a hundred meters from home. Soon they picked the vegetables and came back. Ye Feijiao and Xiaojianzi washed the vegetables at the door, while her grandmother cut chicken and pork in the kitchen, I volunteered to help with cooking.

  Perhaps it was her granddaughter who had not seen her for many years, Ye Fei's grandmother always smiled and occasionally spoke to me, seeing that I didn't understand, she used gestures to communicate.

  I asked Ye Fei Jiu, there are also people speaking Hakka in Xiangxi, can your grandmother speak it?

  Ye Fei asked her grandmother, and her grandmother burst out laughing, then spoke to me in Hakka dialect.

  It's much better to be able to communicate, Ye Fei's aunt is really nagging, asking where my home is, asking for my name, asking for my age, asking about my parents, checking the household registration, until the dishes are done and served on the table.

  In order to take care of me, Ye Fei and her grandmother also spoke in Hakka dialect. Her grandmother asked us how we suddenly came to visit her.

  Ye Fei looked at me and said that I hadn't asked her how she brought her to her grandmother's house, nor did I know where her grandmother lived. She had originally planned to come tomorrow.

  I say this is just a coincidence, I was just guessing that your grandmother is a witch doctor and wanted to bring little Miki here to see if she could cure her dumbness.

  Ye Fei Jie and her grandmother asked me at the same time, it was their first time in Feng Huang, how did I know she was a witch doctor.

  Under such questioning, I was speechless. Thinking that this old woman was also Ye Fei's grandmother, she shouldn't make things difficult for me, so I simply told them about last night's events.

  Ye Fei Jie was extremely shocked after listening to me, her chopsticks almost fell onto the table, she stared at me with a look of wanting to ask something but not knowing how.

  My grandma was also surprised and asked me: "Was that little devil last night raised by you?"

  I nodded and said yes, that little devil is mine, named Huang Tiantian.

  Ye Fei's grandma was excited and asked me in a hurry how I got that little devil.

  I also concealed half of the truth and said that it was my grandmother who caught it in a river in Guiping, Guangxi. It's an aquatic ghost, but since it used to have a fish body and had eaten over a dozen young boys, it has almost no ghostly aura.

  Yefei's grandmother exclaimed repeatedly, saying that when she first saw her last night, she really thought it was some family's little girl sneaking out to play at night, but upon closer inspection, she discovered it was a little ghost.

  I asked Ye Fei Jiu's grandma and said that last night our family's Tongtong saw a black dog coming out of your sleeve, what is it.

  She smiled and said that was Dog Da Xian, the spirit of a dead dog, which she had raised for over ten years. After it died, she couldn't bear to part with it, so she made it into a dog spirit.

  My conversation with Ye Fei Jiu's grandma has overturned Ye Fei Jiu's worldview. As a high school graduate, she was educated in atheism. Although Ye Fei Jiu didn't believe in these things normally, she still had a timid heart and would be afraid even if she didn't believe in ghosts. Many people are like this.

  I asked Ye Fei Jiu's grandmother, how was the thief who stole the human-shaped He Shou Wu last night dealt with, and what about the fierce spirit guarding the He Shou Wu.

  Yefei's grandmother didn't hide the truth, saying that she had let the thief go, and he would be crazy for a month. She estimated that when he came to his senses next time, he wouldn't dare to mess with her He Shouwu again.

  After learning that the He Shou Wu was replanted by me, Ye Fei's grandmother expressed her gratitude and said she already knew it had been replanted, so last night she dug it back up again.

  Ye Fei's aunt said that this He Shou Wu was wanted by two mysterious buyers, two years ago two middle-aged men came to her house and gave her 2000 yuan. However, the human-shaped He Shou Wu had already grown up during last year's Mid-Autumn Festival, but those two people never came, so she kept it without digging it back.

  Ye Fei's grandmother saw that I was also an expert in raising ghosts, and she knew a lot about the humanoid He Shou Wu she had cultivated last night. Moreover, as her own granddaughter's friend, she didn't hide it from me either.

  She said that his father dug up a real hundred-year-old ginseng in the 1930s, but it was forcibly bought by a local bandit leader with a gold bar. Fortunately, the spirit of the more precious hundred-year-old ginseng collected itself.

  As I guessed, find a wild He Shou Wu and put this hundred-year-old He Shou Wu Ling Yuan into it, then you can make the He Shou Wu grow into human form, and the growth time can be shortened by tens to hundreds of times.

  That is to say, the original true human-shaped He Shou Wu needs to grow for a hundred years, but after giving it the spiritual energy of a hundred-year-old He Shou Wu, it only takes one or two years to mature.

  My aunt Ye Fei Jiao told me that the guardian of He Shou Wu is not a malevolent spirit, but a kind of Gu insect. This Gu insect is made from ants and usually lurks at the roots of He Shou Wu. As long as someone touches He Shou Wu, it will immediately bite them. After being bitten by this Gu insect, people will immediately fall to the ground and convulse, with blood flowing from their ears and nose. Then they will become mad and confused. Every day at 12 noon and midnight, they will have to endure pain like being pricked by thousands of needles. It takes a month to recover.

  This Gu worm is too scary, compared to the ghost-raising old man Chen Erbing's leech at that time. Looking at it this way, Ye Fei Chui's old grandmother was indeed a honest and simple witch after all.

  We were talking about these things, Ye Fei was chatting idly and didn't join in on the conversation, eating his meal with a "clatter clatter" sound.

  I asked Ye Fei Jiu's wife if she could cure the dumbness of this little girl I brought, Ye Fei Jiu's wife shook her head and said that there was a cousin on the other side of the mountain river who might be able to do it.

  I asked Ye Fei Jiu where Shanjian was, and Ye Fei Jiu turned to ask her grandmother how far away Shanjian was.

  Yefei chuckled and said it's not far, even if we walk, it'll take at most two hours.

  After dinner, Ye Fei went back to her room and took out a snakeskin bag from under the bed, then pulled out that human-shaped He Shou Wu from last night.

  It wasn't until today that I realized this He Shou Wu is as tender as a newborn baby, completely different from those deformed ones grown using molds. This semi-genuine product was worth 2,000 yuan in the early 90s, before the inflation of '93, with which you could build a two-story house.

  Ye Fei Jiao's grandma wants to bring this human-shaped He Shou Wu back home for Ye Fei Jiao, saying that she is old and it would be useless if she kept it.

  I asked Ye Fei Jiu, "Isn't someone already booked? What if those two mysterious buyers come to the pharmacy?"

  Grandma said it's okay, just say it's been a long time and that's it. Besides, we originally agreed to meet in a year and a half, now it's almost two and a half years...

  Forget it, probably won't come anyway.

  In the afternoon, Ye Fei and her grandmother took Xiao Jianqiao out for a stroll. I came alone to the banks of the Tuojiang River and walked onto the Shi Tiao Bridge, calling out to Tongtong. A large black fish swam up to my feet, and as I stretched out my hand into the water, it spat out a pearl from its mouth before swimming away into the depths.

  In the evening, went to Ye Fei Jiu's grandma's house for dinner. The dinner was more sumptuous than lunch, with dishes like wild mushrooms, chestnuts and stewed wild chicken. Spent the night at Ye Fei Jiu's grandma's house instead of returning to the homestay.

  The next day when I was about to leave, Ye Fei's grandmother called me into the room and asked if I could show her that little ghost.

  I took out the pearl without hesitation and called out Tóng Tóng, Yè Féi Jiāo was also present. After all, it's not necessary to hide now that it's been said. Her grandmother wasn't an ordinary person, she could see Tóng Tóng, but Yè Féi Jiāo couldn't. What surprised me was that Xiao Jian Qi could see Tóng Tóng, she looked at me and then at Tóng Tóng, and Tóng Tóng made a scary face at Xiao Jian Qi, with a big mouth and sharp teeth, which immediately scared her into tears, making us laugh out loud.

  After having breakfast, we were about to leave. Ye Fei whispered to me and borrowed 300 yuan from me to give to her grandmother, saying that she could make money now and wanted to support her grandmother so that she wouldn't have to work so hard anymore.

  As she was leaving, Ye Fei's grandmother took out a dog's tooth from her sleeve and gave it to Ye Fei, saying that when she encountered dirty things, it would keep her safe.

  Is this the legendary black dog?

  Yeh Fei Ji's grandmother nodded and said that the Dog Great Immortal not only could bite evil spirits, but also could possess wolves or dogs to bite wicked people. Even if the possessed dog was beaten to death, it wouldn't harm it. Passing it down to her own granddaughter as a protective charm would also serve as part of her future dowry.

  Ye Fei's face turned red, and she repeatedly said that she was still young and getting married was still far away.

  This time we are going to Shanjiang Town, looking for Ye Fei's uncle, to see if he can cure Xiao Jian's dumbness. If it can be cured, stay and treat it, if not, return to Daozhou, sister Li Mei cannot find that first find parents for Tongtong.

  That person insisted that Ye Fei Jiao take the He Shou Wu leaves back home, but we hadn't prepared to return to Daozhou yet, so we stayed at her maternal grandmother's house for now, and it wasn't convenient to carry them either.