The Rural Doctor of the Mountain Spirit

  That face is not someone else's, it's my grandfather.

  The villagers were shocked to see a human face growing on the tree, and they were also frightened. Such a thing is simply unbelievable, and those who are not scared must not be human.

  In my memory, my grandfather was a madman. Except for the things that happened on the night when Duck Old Three died, which made me suspicious. I would never have thought that after he died, such a thing would happen.

  A face appeared on the tree, I wonder how it grew there?

  In fact, it wasn't a real face, but just looked like one. On the flat tree trunk, a small piece protruded for no reason, and this small piece was roughly the size of a human face. However, on this protrusion that was roughly the size of a human face, there were several concave grooves, which appeared to be a nose, eyes, mouth, and eyebrows.

  This face is just a scar on the trunk of a tree.

  What's even more chilling is that this scar looks exactly like my grandfather's face, not only the shape of his face but also the hair style is identical to what he had when he passed away.

  I stared at him in shock, my whole body trembling nonstop. My grandfather had really come back, and he had come to avenge me. Meanwhile, my parents burst into tears beside me.

  My father is a real peasant, who went out to make a name for himself when he was young, but for some reason, ended up staying in the small mountain village. My mother is a middle-aged woman from the mountain village, but unlike others, my mother takes good care of herself, her figure is not at all bloated, and her skin is very fair.

  Apart from this, my mother has a somewhat mysterious background. To say the least, it's puzzling that when my father was young, he wasn't bad-looking and had gone out to make a name for himself; in this small mountain village, he could be considered a somebody, yet he just couldn't find a wife.

  I remained single until I was twenty-five or six, which is already very old in rural areas. But that year, my mother suddenly came to my home. According to rumors, the reason why my mother came to my home was also because of my grandfather.

  My grandfather ran out of the house in a frenzy and it started raining heavily on the road, finally it was my mother who helped my grandfather back home.

  After my mother came, she immediately had feelings with my father, and later the two really got together.

  There are still many mysteries about my mother. To this day, I don't even know where my maternal grandmother's family is from. My mother has been with my father for many years now, and even when they got married, she never mentioned her hometown. After getting married, my mother stayed in the village all along, never leaving.

  Watching the two of them cry, I stood by and felt extremely uncomfortable. Unintentionally, I stared at Grandpa's face again, and suddenly found that the face on the tree had an unusually painful expression. I hadn't noticed it before, but only realized it now.

  Just then, another loud cry came from the village. My parents immediately stopped crying and turned around with me to look at another dead tree in the village.

  All of a sudden, on another dead tree in the village, a hand grew out.

  It was said to be a hand, but it was actually just a tree branch. What made people's hair stand on end was that the branch grew in a way that was identical to a human hand, with a shoulder at the base, an elbow in the middle, and a palm at the front, complete with fingernails that were almost visible.

  This scene scared the villagers to death. But before they could take a closer look, several shouting voices came from the village again, all of which were terrified screams.

  We immediately ran to the other side of the village and found that on another withered tree at a symmetrical position on the other end of the withered tree where there was only one hand.

  It also has one hand.

  This hand is opposite to the one on that tree before, giving people a feeling that this withered tree's hand and that withered tree's hand are just like human left and right hands.

  After that, the village began to hear continuous terrified screams. Among the five dead trees in the village, two grew hands and one grew a face.

  And when I followed my parents running towards the fourth and fifth dead trees, unexpectedly, there were two feet growing on these two trees.

  Like the tree with hands before, these two dead trees also grew a branch. The branch stretched forward and was shaped exactly like a human leg. The root of the branch was the thigh, while the front section had an ankle.

  In the village, five dead trees had faces, hands and feet appearing on one tree. At this moment, no one thought it was just a coincidence, and a branch that looked like a human hand grew out. The village was suddenly filled with an atmosphere of extreme fear, and people were in chaos.

  When I returned home with my parents, the terrifying scenes still kept flashing before my eyes, and my body was shaking non-stop. And my parents, after returning home, cried even more sorrowfully. The two of them hugged each other tightly, crying heart-wrenchingly.

  The people in the village also cried loudly, but it was not because of sadness that they cried loudly, but because they were scared to cry.

  Those who were previously mean to our family are now kneeling in front of the withered tree, crying and shouting: "Old madman, we were wrong! We were mean to you before, spare us, spare our village!"

  On the withered tree, my grandfather's face had no reaction at all, still with an extremely painful expression.

  I don't know how I got through that day, when I came to my senses, I was sitting at the dinner table, and it was already pitch dark outside. There was no food on the table, obviously, dinner hadn't been cooked yet.

  Just then, I saw that it was too dark outside and thought of my grandfather's body lying in the main room. My grandfather's face appeared on the withered tree in front of me, and I suddenly burst into tears.

  "My father rushed over and hugged my head: 'Little Sen, don't be afraid, Mom and Dad are here.'"

  After being comforted by my father, I cried even louder. It wasn't because I was not manly enough, but at that time I was really scared to the extreme. At that age, it's normal for me to be frightened and cry.

  "Will Grandpa come and strangle me?"

  "Don't talk nonsense, how could your grandfather harm you?" My father patted my head with his hand, trembling.

  "What's with those few trees?"

  My father let go of me, stood up and said with his back to me: "That's your grandfather's soul."

  I didn't understand the sentence at that time, until much later, I realized that my father was saying that the bitter tree on which my grandfather's face and hands and feet were, was my grandfather's soul.

  I was young at that time, but I also figured it out. My father knew what I meant. I immediately spoke up: "Dad, tell me quickly, what's going on?"

  My father shook his head and turned around, I found that his face was already wet. It was clear that he had cried again.

  He's a rustic man, full of strength, and since I was young, our family has been ostracized by the villagers, but I've never seen my father shed a single tear, nor has he ever sighed.

  But today, he not only sighed constantly, but also cried.

  Seeing my father cry, I held his hand tightly and said: "Dad, I won't ask anymore, don't cry."

  My father forced a smile and lowered his head to pat mine: "There are some things that I still can't tell you now, wait until you grow up, then I'll slowly tell you."

  Suddenly, Father clenched his fist: "We will definitely get justice for your grandfather."

  That night, my mother served dinner very late, but our whole family had no appetite to eat, and we just ate a few mouthfuls before putting down our bowls.

  At night, I had a nightmare. In the dream, my grandfather stood in front of my bed and quietly watched me sleep. On the withered tree, my grandfather's face suddenly smiled at me.

  It was also at night, I was sleeping soundly, when I suddenly heard a rustling noise. I was immediately startled awake, and for the past few days, I had been sleeping very lightly, so even with just a little bit of noise, I would basically wake up.

  As I opened my eyes and took a look, my parents were hastily running out of their house with something strange in their hands.

  I was suddenly puzzled, where were my parents going at this late hour?

  I also slowly got up and followed behind my parents. Before long, my parents went out the door, I ran out to take a look, my parents were heading towards my grandfather's mourning hall.

  A sense of foreboding began to grow in my heart, and I gripped it even tighter.

  As I arrived at the mourning hall, I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. My parents actually opened the coffin and took my grandfather's body out of it.

  What sent shivers down my spine was that my father was taking off my grandfather's clothes one by one, stripping my grandfather's corpse until only a pair of underpants were left.

  I hastily covered my own mouth, almost letting out a cry.

  At this time, my mother took out a hemp rope and tied up my grandfather's hands. Then, the two of them carried my grandfather's body out of the mourning hall.

  Then something happened that nearly made me collapse.

  After my parents carried my grandfather's body out of the house, they actually hung him on the old pear tree in front of our door.