Chapter 3 Night Road

  The house we rented was not hot, but both of us were sweating on our foreheads. I thought the strange person on TV would say something to us, but next, the whole screen disappeared and turned into the background color of the TV, and music started playing.

  A burst of singing in a high-pitched, quavering voice rose up, and it was clear that this was not a modern song. If I had to say, this was the tune from the Republic of China era, the kind that could only be heard on an old-fashioned phonograph.

  I'm really fed up with this kind of music and don't want to listen anymore, so I ejected the disc.

  The next afternoon, Panzi and I spent the time in depression. In the evening, we arrived at the train station on schedule and boarded the train that took us to a remote mountainous area.

  During the train ride, I took out my phone to go online and check. The remote mountainous area we were heading to was called Suīyuǎn Village. However, when we got off the train, I realized that we had only completed half of our journey, and the remaining distance couldn't be reached by train. We would have to figure out another way for the rest of the trip.

  I didn't think there was anything at the time, thinking that after getting off the train, I would just take a car or something, but when I really got off the train, I found that the actual situation was much more complicated than I thought.

  We took a long-distance bus, then a tractor, and finally even a donkey cart.

  The donkey cart was moving at a snail's pace, roughly the same speed as walking. The old man driving it didn't say much along the way, just kept yelling "hee-haw" and whipping the donkey, which made Panzi and me feel quite bored.

  At dusk, our group arrived at a yellow earth slope. I looked at the endless dirt road in front of me and secretly worried that if we continued at this speed, we wouldn't be able to reach Suizhong Village tonight. But at this moment, the old man stopped the donkey cart and said very seriously to us two, "Get off."

  I and Panzi were stunned at that time. Panzi even forced a smile and asked, "I said, is this Suifeng Village?"

  The old man wasn't confused at all, holding the whip and pointing to a distant place, saying, "Follow this dirt road, walk another fifty miles, and you'll reach Su Yuan Village. I can only send you here, and the rest is up to you to walk."

  I suddenly felt that we were both cheated, we didn't spend less money on the donkey cart, and spent two hundred "big oceans". This old man said it was good at the time, how did he bring us to this desolate place?

  I and Panzi definitely won't do it. Panzi was still fuming, wanting to continue arguing with him, but the old man's next words made us both extremely sensitive.

  He said that Suifang Village was a notorious ghost village, where people usually escaped from the village, and no one had ever seen anyone like us, who dared to enter the village with their heads held high. Moreover, the village was haunted at night, either by female ghosts pressing against windows or singing songs or combing their hair outside the windows. He was kind enough to send us here in a donkey cart, and if it were someone else, no amount of money could persuade them to come.

  I thought that since he didn't take us to our destination, Panzi and I should get the taxi fare back, even if we had to fight for it. But the old man was advanced in age and couldn't withstand the commotion. If we really fought, we might end up hurting him badly. In the end, I let out a sigh, admitted defeat, and let him go.

  At this time, the old man was quite abnormal. When he left, he suddenly laughed softly, and I couldn't describe what kind of feeling his laugh gave me. Anyway, it was strange and weird.

  I and Panzi carried our travel bags, continuing to walk along this yellow earth road. We were both in our thirties, in the prime of life, so these fifty li were nothing for us. If we didn't stop to rest, I estimated that we could reach the village before midnight.

  But in fact, the mountain road is much more difficult to walk than the asphalt road in the city. I'm wearing thick-soled leather shoes, and occasionally when I step on a stone, my feet still feel sore. The speed at which we're moving has also become extremely slow.

  Until ten o'clock in the evening, we were still wandering on the dirt road, with sparse wild grass on both sides of the road. I don't know why the natural environment here is so special, and at this time, a white mist floated up on the road.

  This white fog is strange, it's divided into sections and pieces, some places are particularly prosperous, can't see through at a glance, while others have thinned out a lot.

  If this scenery were placed in the city, it would definitely be considered a scenic spot and attract many tourists. But here, for me and Panzi, it seems exceptionally eerie. We looked at the white fog, feeling uneasy all over our bodies.

  During this time, a strong gust of wind would occasionally blow by. The strong wind not only made the white fog dance and run wildly like ghosts, but also made the wild grass on both sides of the road respond accordingly. Under the night sky, these wild grasses swayed back and forth like strands of hair growing out of the ground.

  I think we're walking like this, the pressure in our hearts is too great, so I made a suggestion to Panzi, let's walk and sing at the same time, first to relieve boredom, second to shift our attention.

  Panzi said okay. We used to sing songs in prison too, but not serious ones, similar to "Eighteen Touch" and "Blowing the Horn". The two of us started singing "Reach out and touch your sister here and there".

  They hadn't gone far when Panzi suddenly stopped and also stopped singing, narrowing his eyes to stare fixedly ahead.

  I was puzzled, so I followed his gaze and took a look. I found that by the side of the road in the grass there was something white, about knee-high, seemingly covered with a layer of fur, wrapped around with dry grass.

  Pan Zi didn't leave after all and asked me what that white thing was?

  I don't know what it is either, saying it's a rabbit? But it's bigger than a rabbit. Saying it's a lamb? But which lamb hides in the bushes at midnight and doesn't come out?

  I said to Panzi, "Let's go and take a look."

  We line workers can't carry guns, but we've developed a habit of hiding a spring knife in our socks. The two of us took out the knives and walked towards that place, one in front and one behind.

  We stopped five meters away from the white thing. I found that it hadn't moved during this period. Happened to have a small stone under my foot, I picked one up and threw it at it casually.

  I threw it quite accurately, the small stone hit its body with a "click" and then bounced back. I was stimulated by this "click" sound, and I thought of a possibility. The fact that the small stone made such a sound indicates that this white thing is also quite hard, I thought to myself, could it be a stone monument covered in moss?

  Panzi is about the same as what I thought, and he also cursed his mother.

  After approaching quietly, I found that the white thing was about one foot long and wide, wrapped in weeds. I poked it with a knife tip and scraped off some white hair.

  These white hairs are indeed moss. I looked around again and thought that since this is a stone tablet, it should be standing upright here, so there must be some reason for it, and maybe there are even words carved on it.

  We two are the first time to come to this remote mountainous area, suddenly encountered strange things, can not help but be cautious. I said to Panzi, "Let's not rush to leave, use the back of the knife to clean up the stone tablet and see if there is any information on it."

  Pan Zidong nodded and we went our separate ways.

  I mainly scrape this side, and I find that the spring knife is a great tool for removing moss. A few swipes and this side becomes exceptionally clean.

  Under the moonlight, I saw that there were indeed words written on it, still in that regular script - Su Yuan Village. Panzi was a bit stunned, who knows what he was thinking, and he actually scraped off the top part, as no one has ever seen anything written on the top of a stone tablet before. But he stumbled upon something unexpected. He exclaimed and pulled me to take a look.

  I knew he must have found something, so I went over to take a look.

  At the top of this stone monument, a large crack appeared. At first glance, this crack is almost like a natural fissure, except that it is particularly straight and its edges are particularly neat.

  Pan Ziqiang spoke first, pointing at the stele, "This thing has been repaired and has a fracture."

  I agree with this statement. In short, the stele was not so big before, but it was later renovated and a new "signboard" was attached to its original surface.

  Pan Zixian first used his hand to dig at the crack, saying that he felt this fracture was not so strong and could be kicked open with his foot. He then asked me to move aside, lifted his foot and aimed a kick at the stone tablet.

  Panzi had a burst of strength, and with more than ten kicks, the fracture loosened up, and the crack grew bigger. I didn't want Panzi to get too tired, so I took advantage of the opportunity to switch him out, similarly using thick-soled leather shoes to kick the stone tablet.

  I didn't think much and decided to use force to kick the stone stele, but an unexpected situation occurred during this process.

  Pan Zi leaned his face forward, wanting to observe the situation of the stone tablet moving at close range. At this moment, a burst of water suddenly sprayed out from the stone tablet with a "hiss" sound.

  The water was gushing right onto Panzi's neck, I could see it clearly from a distance. It was actually crimson in color and slowly flowed down along Panzi's neck.

  Pan Zibai casually wiped it, but after seeing a red palm print, he was stunned, his mouth opened and closed, unable to say anything for a while, and his feet retreated several steps backward.

  I can guess what Panzi is thinking, this water looks like blood and it's spraying out from the stone, anyone who encounters this would be scared.

  I didn't have time to study the stele, so I hurriedly pulled Panzi and told him not to move, and also touched his neck.

  Judging by the texture, this water is quite thick and has a bit of a bloody feel to it. But when I put my hand under my nose to take a sniff, I found that the smell was slightly sweet, completely different from the stench of blood.

  I made a guess, pointing to the stone and saying, "Panzi, I think there's some kind of plant growing inside this stele. When I kicked it just now, I broke it off, which is why that jet of liquid came out."

  Panzi still looked at me with some distrust, so I plucked up the courage to move forward a bit and inserted the knife again.

  I drew the knife from top to bottom, and when I reached the middle of the fracture zone, I found that the knife was blocked by something. There was a flashlight hanging around my waist, so I took the flashlight and shone it inside again.

  I saw that inside there was indeed a kind of plant, this plant did not grow leaves, all were small broken twigs, like blood vessels scattered about.

  I picked a small piece of the branch, cut it off with a knife and took it out. Looking at it reminded me of Yang Xie Cao, which I had heard about when chatting with friends unintentionally. Although I didn't dare to confirm whether the plant in front of me was Yang Xie Cao or not, but the juice of Yang Xie Cao is indeed red.

  I handed it over to Panzi again. At first, Panzi just stared at it, but later he became bolder and also took the plant with his hands, "playing" with it for a while.

  I gave Pan Zi some time to catch his breath, then called him over to help me clean up the fracture with a spring knife. Occasionally, a jet of red water would spurt out, but we didn't pay much attention to it anymore.

  Finally, we both worked together and pried open the fault. In that instant when Lushan's true face was revealed, I saw a human face painted on it.

  The man's face was painted very coarsely, and only a vague outline of his features could be made out, but overall he looked like he was grinning savagely.