Chapter 5: The Abandoned Village of Honghu City

  Grandma said "that side", I also can't say what place it is.

  Yin world? Ghost realm? Neither is correct.

  That world I have never been to, in my understanding, should be a world parallel to the universe. People who can reach there all carry a bit of "spirit" on their bodies. This spirit doesn't necessarily refer to divine spirits, but also represents the soul's spirit. Because grandma said that souls also like to listen to flattering words, so we generally use "divine communication" to refer to communicating with soul spirits. In short, everything outside of humans that has thoughts is called a spirit.

  I simply packed two pieces of clothing and followed Old White out of the village, climbed over a small hill, crossed a shallow stream, and walked another ten miles east before finally getting into a white sedan.

  Sitting in the passenger seat, I looked at the side of White Boss's face as he drove, and couldn't help but feel a little scared. Before we left, my grandmother pulled me into the house and secretly told me that yesterday when I fell into the pond, it was White Boss who rescued me and sent me back home. However, my grandmother knew that I wouldn't go to the pond alone to play in the water, so there must have been something that pulled me into the water. But White Boss said that there were no evil spirits or ghosts in the pond, so my grandmother couldn't say anything more, she just told me to be careful on the way and if I saw anything unusual, to press his chest with my hand. At that time, I was very shocked, since they didn't believe White Boss, why did they still want me to go with him? And would pressing his chest do any good? His strength was many times greater than mine! My grandmother explained that White Boss had a high reputation in the entire Honghu City of Hubei Province, and this wasn't just hearsay, she had personally seen White Boss's abilities, it's just that for now, it's not clear what his purpose is.

  I clenched my fists and sat in the car, not even daring to breathe.

  Why did Mr. Bai hurt me? I can press him with my hand. Grandma said it's because of my hand.

  My hands are not like ordinary people's hands. Ordinary people have three joints in their fingers, but I have four. This is also another reason why my parents left me aside from the eight characters of my birth being unlucky. I used to feel inferior about this, thinking it was a deformed hand, but my grandmother told me that having four-jointed fingers is a Buddha's hand, which can drive away evil spirits and save people from suffering. Therefore, if White Boss uses his ghost to harm me, my hands can dispel him.

  Although grandma always calls me Little Buddha, I don't believe that a small rural wild girl can achieve much, but being able to ward off evil spirits is still somewhat reassuring.

  The car took a sharp turn, and Boss Bai quickly turned the steering wheel. The three light gray scars on the back of his right hand flashed into my line of sight, and I was suddenly stunned. These scars looked like they had been burned by fire, and couldn't help but remind me of when we were in the pond, I pinched his hand and smelled a smell of roasted meat.

  Can my hand burn him?

  His driving skills are quite skilled, shouldn't be a evil spirit right?

  As I thought about it, I couldn't help but slowly reach out my hand to him... closer and closer, lightly touching, warm, smooth, and didn't hear Old White cry out in pain. Touching again, the texture was fine, like a peeled hard-boiled egg, without any scarring from burns.

  "What's wrong?"

  The boss's voice suddenly came from above my head, I was stunned for a moment, hastily withdrew my hand, and calmly said: "Oh, I just wanted to study it, your skin is so white and good, how do you take care of it."

  “……”

  "Uh... you're a mortician, right? You do a great job with the deceased's makeup, haha, I wonder how you'd do with living people?" I made small talk to distract him from his suspicions.

  The old boss said lightly, "I only do makeup for corpses... Don't move around in the car, it's very dangerous." He paused and then said, "Do you know why there's always a dripping sound coming from inside the car?" I shook my head and said I didn't know, was it a ghost? He glanced at me lightly and said, "Put on your seatbelt."

  "Ah! Condom?"

  "Seatbelt!"

  "Oh... sorry about that." I twitched at the corner of my mouth, fastened my seatbelt, and the beeping sound immediately disappeared.

  The car drove on the country road for more than two hours, turned onto the provincial highway, arrived in Xinti City, then headed north from Xinti Road, turned right at Wanghe Town, and walked for 40 minutes to arrive at Grandma's village.

  This village is called Qi Village, and it has some connection with Jiang Yuan Village.

  According to legend, Jiang Yuan became pregnant before marriage when she was young. When her belly grew big and could no longer be hidden, her mother drove her out of the village. As she rode a mule, it also went into labor. She then used a golden needle to sew up the mule's vulva, after which the mule was never able to give birth again. Later, Jiang Yuan returned to the village and people heard about this incident, enshrining her as the goddess of childbirth. Because people believed she could control the power of giving birth in all things on earth.

  And then there's the fetus in her womb...

  Jiang Yuan was initially giving birth in the wild by herself and gave birth to a strange fetal membrane, like a giant egg. Jiang Yuan was very scared, so she threw the giant egg away by the water's edge. Who knew that after sleeping for a while, the giant egg returned to her arms? On the second day, Jiang Yuan again threw the giant egg into the deep mountains. After sleeping for a while, just like before, the giant egg once more returned to her side. On the third day, Jiang Yuan placed the giant egg on a tree. At this time, many birds flew over from the sky and gently lifted the giant egg and put it on the ground. They then used their beaks to crack open the giant egg, and inside was a healthy baby boy. Seeing that she couldn't abandon the child after three attempts, Jiang Yuan took him back home and named him Qi (meaning "abandoned").

  He grew up slowly, and at the age of six or seven, he always liked to collect seeds from wild wheat, millet, etc. and plant them in the ground, letting them grow and mature. When he grew up, he was excellent in farming and planting, and the villagers all followed him to learn. Emperor Yao knew about it and appointed him as a farming teacher, asking him to guide people all over the world to farm. Chui's outstanding performance made Yao very satisfied.

  After Yao's death, he abandoned his claim to the throne and moved to the city of Tai, where he changed his name to Houji and became the ancestor of the Zhou dynasty.

  This abandoned village is where Jiang Yuan abandoned her son three times back then.

  When grandma told me these stories, I thought they were funny. I was abandoned by my grandmother's family, and my grandmother's village was abandoned by our village, haha, it's fun.

  The white-haired boss stopped the car and entered the village with ease. At the entrance of the village, there was a large pagoda tree that several people could hardly embrace, its branches and leaves stretching out to cover the sky and block out the sun.

  Generally speaking, eighty percent of ancient trees like this one have a "spirit" cultivating on top.

  If someone were to cut it down, the consequences would be unthinkable.

  I rubbed the tree trunk a few more times, earning a cold stare from Old White. "Your hands are strangely talented, don't go around **." I hummed in response, thinking to myself that it's just an old tree, what's the worst that could happen if I touch it some more? If my hand was really as magical as Ma Liang's brush, then I'd want to rub Liu Dehua out of a poster too!

  The abandoned village has implemented the national policy of "village-to-village road", and a cement road has been built, which is much better than our Jiangyuan Village. Jiangyuan Village still lives in tile-roofed houses, while here every household has built three-story small Western-style buildings, with red lanterns hanging under the eaves, festive and elegant.

  I couldn't help but want to touch the pillar in front of the house again. Old White looked at me and said, "Didn't your grandmother send you to school?"

  Why ask this suddenly?

  I nodded: "Yes. The largest and most luxurious private school in the village, I've been attending since I was three years old. Hmm... how to put it, it should be equivalent to your junior high school here."

  "Is this your first time leaving the village?"

  Yes.

  The old white guy stared at me for a few seconds, his cold expression suddenly softened, raised his hand and stroked my hair: "Want to go out and take a look at the world?"

  "You think I've never seen anything? Niu Niu's computer has all the knowledge, and my theoretical knowledge is very rich."

  I looked at him hesitantly and he added another sentence: "Don't want to follow me?"

  "Hmm..." I touched my ear, my face was a bit red, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

  It's the first time in my life that a man has confessed to me and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him.

  The white boss didn't take me directly to my grandmother's house, but instead led me to the dike behind the abandoned village. He told me that this dike surrounded the entire city of Honghu, and every time the water rose, it would overflow the dike in the back and flood into each household's doorway. Many children sat on the windowsills of their homes fishing, and could even tie a rope to the window and swim. At such times, the leaders from above would come down to the countryside, going door-to-door to mobilize men for flood control. Those days were the most difficult for adults, but the happiest time for children. Children from nearby villages would ride their bikes here to play, and he was lucky enough to have come a few times, at that time it was June, with groups of three or five children playing in the water at each household's doorway.

  As I listened to him, I slowly felt that his icy face wasn't so icy anymore, and I wasn't as afraid of him either. Moreover, if he really wanted to harm me, I would have died countless times already. So I just observed quietly, waiting to see what he was going to do next.

  After strolling on the embankment for a while, we arrived at Grandma's house.