The Rural Doctor of the Mountain Spirit

  Wu Xianyi seemed to see that I was very puzzled, and he smiled at me: "You silly kid, do you know that you are lucky because of misfortune?"

  I'm very puzzled and confused: "What does it mean?"

  Wu Xianyi looked down at the drum in my hand, sighed and said: "This drum is the village's guardian spirit, unfortunately, all these years, no one has been able to make it sound. Yesterday, I was holding onto the last bit of hope and let you try, didn't expect it to actually work."

  I became even more perplexed, so I stretched out my hand and tapped the drumhead twice. Along with my tapping, the drum immediately emitted two crisp sounds. This was just a drum, how could it not make a sound when struck? I looked at Wu Xianyi with an expression of incomprehension, as if waiting for him to respond.

  At this time, Wu Xianyi shook his head slightly: "Because this drum is a spiritual object, the drum can recognize people. To be honest with you, this drum has been placed in the temple for nearly a hundred years. In these hundreds of years, many people have tried to play it. However, this drum has never been beaten."

  I was shocked: "A hundred years? That's an exaggeration!"

  I didn't expect that this small drum would completely exceed my expectations. But what I couldn't understand was whether this drum was really the same as what Wu Xianyi said? How could it be possible that no one had been able to ring it for over a hundred years? But I clearly only hit it once and rang the drum.

  Wu Xianyi said: "It's been a hundred years, and finally someone in the village has appeared who can strike this drum. From now on, this drum is yours, you must take good care of it, and be careful not to discard it casually. It will accompany you until the day you die."

  I stared blankly at Wu Xianyi, unsure of how to respond. Wu Xianyi let out a long sigh and said, "Remember, you must not give up."

  "Why?"

  Wu Xianyi said: "Because this drum is a spiritual object, it has chosen an owner. Before the owner dies, he will not choose another one. This drum can communicate with ghosts and gods, and can also communicate with the underworld hell. If you discard it at will, you will be punished. From now on, your fate is tied to this drum."

  This time I understood, and after Wu Xianyi finished speaking, he turned around and went back into the house.

  This drum is not big, only the size of a palm. I hold the drum with one hand and stare at it quietly to see if it's as powerful as Wu Xianyi said. However, just staring at it doesn't reveal anything.

  In the following days, I stayed in the house and made a frame for this drum to carry on my back. During these days, Wu Xianyi also stayed in the house without going out, but he was also doing something mysterious in the house.

  The day Wu Xianyi woke up, I knocked on his door because I was still worried about the village and asked him if there was anything else to do next. However, I found that his door was locked and couldn't be pushed open. A small voice came from inside the house: "Don't worry, everything is fine in the village."

  "That's it?"

  Wu Xianyi didn't answer me again, his house was dead silent. I walked away uninterestingly and started making a frame for the drum.

  A few days passed in the blink of an eye, and my frame was finally done. I put the drum in the frame and hung it on my body, going out for the first time.

  These past few days I haven't gone to the village to take a look, and I don't know if it's like what Wu Xian said, that the village really has nothing going on. With my drum hung on my body, I headed out.

  Along the small path in the village, I came to the village. Looking around, I found that the village was quiet. Indeed, several villagers were carrying hoes out of the door to work. These villagers did not know about the events of that night at all, they just had a grudge against the dead livestock.

  I arrived at Er Gou's home, only to see his mother holding an axe and chopping firewood, while Er Gou was helping out beside her. Seeing them like this, I finally felt completely at ease.

  It seems that after the death of the livestock, nothing else happened in the village. Wu Xianyi gave the villagers money again, which was enough to buy those livestock.

  I took the initiative to greet them first, and when they saw me, they were also very enthusiastic.

  "Hey Xiao Sen, it's been a few days since I've seen you, where did you go?"

  "It's nothing, I'm just at home, just busy with some things."

  After all, we were just kids, and when I met Second Dog, the two of us started playing again, completely putting everything else aside. Second Dog's mother didn't scold me either; she still liked me a lot. After all, I was living with Dr. Wu Xian, who had saved Second Dog's life more than once.

  I was playing with Second Dog, when suddenly I thought of going up the mountain to hunt. It's been a long time since we last went up the mountain, and with all the livestock in the village dying one after another, it's been several days since we've had meat to eat.

  I and Second Dog were hungry, so we called Niu Egg to join us. Then the three of us set off with our bows, arrows, and some muzzle-loaders. These muzzle-loaders are a type of shotgun that almost every household in the village has.

  As for hunting, we still have some shadows in our hearts. Because not long ago, the three of us almost died on the mountain. And this time up the mountain, we didn't dare to go too far, only searching for prey around the mountain.

  After entering the mountain, Er Gou and Niu Dan quickly pulled the dog and ran wildly on the mountain. I shouted to them from behind: "You two be careful, what's the hurry?"

  The two dogs turned their heads and said to me, "Xiao Sen, we understand this hunting thing better than you. Those animals are cunning, if you move slowly, they will run away."

  As we spoke, we continued to push deeper into the mountains.

  Niu Egg is more agile than Er Gou, with a hunting dog in his hand. The body of the hunting dog is not very large, at least compared to the wolf dog, but in the mountains, this hunting dog is abnormally ferocious.

  As soon as they entered the mountain, the hunting dog was like it had gone mad, running wildly all over the mountain. Niú Dàn led the hunting dog and also ran wildly all over the mountain. However, his harvest was not bad either. Before long, Niú Dàn had hunted a wild rabbit and two wild chickens, which made me and èr Gǒu extremely envious.

  But unexpectedly, as I was running, the hunting dog suddenly let out a very painful howl. In an instant, I looked in the direction of Niu Dan, and saw that he had led the dog into a thick clump of grass. The clump of grass was too dense, and I couldn't see where Niu Dan was at all.

  At this time, from the grass nest came the continuous barking of the hunting dog, sounding extremely painful. I became worried and hastily summoned Er Gou to approach the grass nest, while we two held our guns and bows and arrows aimed at the grass nest.

  "Niu Dan, are you okay?" I shouted towards the grass nest, but there was no response from inside.

  I got a bit anxious, and the two of us, Er Gou and I, quickened our pace. Before long, we arrived at the place where Niu Dan had entered the grass nest. Upon taking a look inside, we discovered that the grass nest concealed an entrance to a cave. The cave was of unknown size, dark and gloomy, and the barking of the hunting dogs was coming from the entrance of the cave.

  "I rushed towards the entrance of the cave and shouted: 'Niu Dan, are you okay?'"

  At this moment, the barking of the hunting dog is a bit clearer than just now. I heard that the hunting dog not only made a loud barking sound but also occasionally made a fierce barking sound, as if it was still fighting something.

  I'm just a bit puzzled, what's wrong with this cow egg, why doesn't he make any noise when we call him?

  Due to worry, we couldn't care about anything else. I said to Er Gou: "Let's go into the cave and take a look, I'll walk in front and you follow behind, if something is off, don't bother with me, just turn around and run."

  After finishing this sentence, I took out the pine resin that I had prepared in advance from my body, casually picked up a wooden stick on the ground, and made a torch with the pine resin. After igniting the torch, I rushed into the cave.

  This cave is really too deep, and it's bottomless. Looking into the cave, I feel a bit dizzy. However, I'm worried about Niu Dan, this cave is something I must enter.

  I then accelerated even more and started jogging inside the cave.

  The two dogs were getting anxious, one of them barked loudly: "Niu Dan, are you there or not?"

  His voice echoed in the cave, but there was no response from within. At this moment, I stood frozen on the spot. I had already seen the hunting dog, and at that instant, it lay motionless on the ground, letting out a series of mournful wails.

  The hunting dog was covered in blood all over its body. The dog had a hole in its belly, and its intestines were spilled out on the ground.

  And deeper in the pack, I saw a fluffy face. The face was ferocious and had several fangs in its mouth. It stared at us motionlessly, without making a sound.

  I also saw that next to that fluffy face, Niu Dan was lying on the ground, also covered in blood.

  Suddenly, I became impatient.