Chapter 4: The Little Devils Run Amok

  Everything that happened in the Snake King Temple was a bit mysterious, but the good villagers had already known about it and came to ask Ershu what was going on. However, Ershu knew that the fewer people who knew about this matter, the better, so he made up an excuse to brush them off.

  At night, Second Uncle thought of the little ghost that Nan San had mentioned before and was still filled with doubts. He didn't dare to blow out the lamp and sleep, although he was a tall and strong man, but he was also worried about this matter. Fortunately, there was an amulet under his pillow. Another person who couldn't sleep was Old Ba Dao, originally full of confidence, but Nan San's appearance had suddenly destroyed his decades-long atheism.

  It was midnight, and the village was quiet. Second Uncle tossed and turned, finally falling asleep, but suddenly felt a chill run through his body. Even wrapped in a quilt, he couldn't shake off the cold. For some reason, although Second Uncle felt the cold, he couldn't wake up, and his whole body shook violently. At the same time, it seemed like something was crawling on his body, with a sticky feeling.

  This state lasted for about half an hour, and Second Uncle finally opened his eyes. However, the dark scene in front of him made his fear surge. He clearly remembered that he hadn't turned off the lights before sleeping, so why were they out? At that time, the rural area had electricity, which was operated by a manual switch. Second Uncle fumbled in the dark towards the switch at the bedside, and suddenly touched something soft. At that moment, he didn't react, but only remembered to grab it forcefully and pull it down.

  At this moment, along with the switch and that soft thing, the light bulb in the house suddenly lit up. When Second Uncle saw clearly what was in his hand, he was so frightened that his heart skipped a beat and his hands trembled. He threw the thing to the ground. It was a small white snake, exactly like the one seen at the Snake King Temple, wriggling on the ground and crawling towards Second Uncle again.

  This snake thoroughly instilled fear in Ershu's mind, to the point where he would take a detour whenever he encountered a snake afterwards. The implication is obvious. He didn't understand how the snake got in, and as he saw the small white snake pouncing on him, he hastily remembered the charm given by San and stuck it on his chest. Strangely enough, after sticking the charm, the little snake stopped advancing, raised its head, and protruded its tongue.

  Seeing this, the second uncle finally relaxed completely, not daring to be careless. One person and one snake were stuck in a stalemate like this until it was almost dawn. Suddenly, the small snake slipped out from under the door gap, and only then did he relax, his back already drenched with cold sweat.

  Without time to calm his inner fear, Second Uncle hastily got out of bed to look for Nan San. On the way, he happened to run into Lao Da Dao, whose face was pale with fright. He couldn't help but ask aloud: "Lao Da Dao, you wouldn't have also encountered a snake, would you?"

  The old man's face was bitter, his expression guessed at a glance, and he sighed: "Alas, I almost lost my life, fortunately, Nan San's symbol resolved the crisis. Let's go find him quickly!"

  When the two of them rushed to Nan San's dormitory room, they saw him sitting at the table with a smile on his face. There were two cups of tea placed on the table. Second Uncle was about to speak hastily, but was stopped by Nan San who said: "I already knew what happened between you two, sit down and calm down!"

  Unable to fathom San's thoughts, Second Uncle could only drink a cup of tea to dispel the lingering fear in his heart. The three men sat silently, each lost in their own thoughts as they sipped their tea. Second Uncle and Old Blade were naturally thinking about last night's events, but as for San, this outsider had no way of guessing what was on his mind.

  It wasn't until Second Uncle's tea had stopped steaming that Nan San spoke up, "Today we'll probably have to subdue that little demon. You all saw it last night, this demon holds grudges, otherwise the village won't be at peace in the future."

  "Nothing's wrong?" Second Uncle was stunned, and hurriedly asked what was going on. Last night, he was indeed frightened by that snake, if not for the charm given by San San, who knows what would have happened. But as for the little ghost pointed out by San San, Second Uncle still didn't quite understand what it was. As for Old Wang with the knife, this person originally came to do "demolition" work, if he hadn't insisted on following along, he wouldn't have been scared to the point of having a pale face.

  Nan San saw the two men's confused expressions and explained: "I calculated it carefully last night, that widow and her daughter were harassed by Liu Lao San back then, they couldn't think of anything else to do, so they went to She Wang Temple, worshiped the stone statue, wanting Liu Lao San to die. But what they didn't know was that there's a little ghost living in She Wang Temple, so naturally those two women got into trouble too. As for Liu Lao San, he probably died because of this as well!"

  Seeing Nan San say something so absurd, Er Shu's expression was shocked. After thinking about it, if things were really like this, then it was indeed the case. Lao Ba had a gloomy face and stared at these two people. Outsiders might not know that he had firmly declared to overthrow feudal superstition during the struggle session, so when others were unwilling to come to Lingjiao Village, he came forward voluntarily. This would not only allow him to make achievements but also possibly get a position in the organization. Who would have thought that after arriving here, he kept running into obstacles, which was really frustrating.

  After understanding the cause and effect, Second Uncle hurriedly asked what to do, but Nan San's words were too mysterious, only able to understand about three parts, roughly meaning "the image of hooking up".

  What is the Hook Chen symbol? The "Huangdi Zhanjing" says: "The four hooks are guarded, the stars are prosperous and the people are auspicious; if not bright, the people will be exhausted, this is the star's occupation." The hook Chen symbol is used for divination and fortune-telling, but most importantly, it also has another name, the male yellow. Ershu heard that it was like a fog in the water, didn't care whether he understood or not, and begged Nan San to subdue that little ghost, otherwise something would happen in this village later, what should be done?

  Nan San nodded, and the reason he said so much was to deal with the little ghost. So he asked Lao Ba Dao to get some explosives and iron hoes, while Er Shu also collected three things: wu huang (yellow croaker, yellow fish, cucumber, salted duck egg, and Huangjiu wine), copper wind chimes, and Liu Di coins. The two of them didn't dare to delay, spending half a day preparing these things.

  Second Uncle collected these things, after all, they were not scarce in the countryside. The only troublesome thing was the Qian of Six Emperors, which was currency from the Qing dynasty era - where could he find it? Fortunately, there was an ancestral temple in the village, and at that time, most of the gods worshipped in rural temples had some copper coins or something. Second Uncle secretly took a few. As for Old Ba's knife, he brought over explosives and iron shovels as ordered, which were originally prepared for blowing up tombs.

  After doing all this, the three of them went to the Snake King Temple again. This was the third time for Er Shu, and each time he was terrified. If Nan San hadn't been there, he would have long since fled down the mountain in fear. He couldn't help but glance at the pit they had dug yesterday, only to find that the snakes inside were nowhere to be seen.

  "Where's the snake? It's gone!" Second Uncle exclaimed.

  Nan San glanced at him faintly and turned back to face the Snake King Temple: "No need to look, you'll know later."

  Then the three of them entered the Snake King Temple, a gust of yin wind swept in, and on this sunny day, it made Second Uncle and Old Ba Dao's whole body break out in goosebumps. This place was really eerie, especially that stone statue of the turtle-snake, which looked a bit off-putting. Second Uncle carefully thought back to the scene when they entered last time, and seemed to have detected something amiss - this stone statue appeared to have been moved. He hastily withdrew his gaze and followed behind Nan San.

  After Nan San came in, his eyes stared straight at the stone statue, and then he shouted to Lao Ba: "Blow this stone statue up for me!"

  The old man hadn't reacted yet and stared blankly, saying: "What, exploded?"

  The sudden sentence made both of them stunned, what's the point of blowing up this stone statue which is fine, Lao Dao's expression was hesitant, although he came to make a move on the tomb, but he had never done it personally. Suddenly being asked to blow up the stone statue, he was a bit embarrassed.

  To the side, Nan San saw Lao not moving his knife, shook his head, took over the explosive package, and placed it next to the stone statue. The three retreated outside the temple, lit the fuse line, and a loud explosion sounded. Fortunately, this was deep in the mountains and old forest, with sparse human habitation, so such a commotion didn't matter.

  After the smoke cleared, the originally intact stone statue was blown into a pile of stones. Second Uncle went forward to take a look and found that at the bottom of the stone statue, there was actually an overturned tombstone, possibly damaged by the explosion, with some cracks. After wiping away the dust on top, a line of words "Tomb of Li's Family" appeared, except for this, there were no other standing tombstones with people's names, which was indeed somewhat strange.