Chapter Thirteen: Black Donkey's Hoof

  After hearing Da Zhuang's words, I was so angry that I almost couldn't catch my breath. "What kind of nonsense is this? It's just a shovel, an iron shovel! Why can't you just say you don't know instead of making excuses?"

  "Hey, little one! We all know your handwriting is ugly, but you can't use that as an excuse to turn me into a semi-illiterate youth, right? Remember when we were in school, we all knew your handwriting was terrible. Even with excellent grades, teachers would often give you a failing grade just because of your handwriting."

  Before Da Zhuang could finish, I hastily interrupted him, otherwise who knows what old tricks this kid would play on me again. "Is there no merchant around here selling that black donkey hoof?"

  As for the black donkey hoof, I only heard about it from the stories my grandfather told me. As for my grandfather, he didn't even bring these things when he was fighting in the past. However, Grandfather once said that Mō Jīn Xiāo Wèi (a character) often used Mō Jīn Fú and Black Donkey Hoof in the Mō Dǒu Men school, and the Black Donkey Hoof must be over 50 years old to achieve the effect of warding off evil spirits and preventing corpse transformation.

  And why the black donkey's hoof has this effect, I heard my grandfather say that in ancient times there was an immortal named Zhang Guo Lao. This immortal Zhang Guo Lao was one of the Eight Immortals, and his mount was a hairy donkey. This hairy donkey was very spiritual and followed the immortal to practice Taoism, so it had the effect of warding off evil and disaster. Therefore, using the black donkey's hoof can prevent the corpse from becoming a zombie.

  But after all, why even Grandpa didn't know, Grandpa had guessed that maybe there was something on the black donkey's hoof that countered the energy of the corpse's transformation, so it caused the corpse that was about to transform into a zombie couldn't transform.

  As for the things I let Da Zhuang go out to buy, they were all things that Grandpa had used when he told me about his past experiences. In case of any unexpected events, I asked Da Zhuang to prepare as many as possible.

  "I told Little Ke comrade, what you want is indeed available, but you said it must be over 50 years old black donkey hoof, that's really hard to find. Moreover, those small vendors can easily take out a few years' worth of black donkey hooves and fool Old Zhang me. Luckily, this kid could see at a glance that the vendor was cheating us, otherwise I would have already bought that donkey hoof."

  After hearing Da Zhuang's words, I also became cautious. Indeed, if the black donkey hoof bought is not over 50 years old, and we accidentally encounter a corpse that can become a zombie, our lives will be in danger.

  "So, let's leave it like this for today and go take a look again tomorrow. You stay here and rest, I'll go out and take a look." With that said, I put on my thick coat and walked out.

  The south isn't warmer than the north, both inside and outside are the same temperature. I walked quickly to Old Man's house, preparing to ask him where I could buy 50-year-old black donkey hooves. After all, he has lived here for a lifetime, so he should know where they sell them.

  The old man was still sitting in the rocking chair reading the newspaper. After I entered the house, I coughed lightly and the old man looked at me with a glance "Little monkey, have you finished your business with that little friend of yours?"

  I chuckled and said, "Yeah, he's spent a lot of money since he arrived, all he knows is how to have fun."

  The old man waved his hand and said, "You young people are used to spending money lavishly, it's normal. You haven't experienced the hardships we went through in our time... I remember when my father was still around..."

  As he spoke, the old man again brought up his father's experiences during the war of resistance against Japan, such as eating tree bark and grass roots. Listening to it made me feel very fortunate that I didn't live in those times. The old man chattered on for about ten minutes before finally taking a sip of boiled water due to thirst.

  I scratched my head and asked, "Old man, do you know where I can find that black donkey hoof? It has to be over 50 years old."

  When I finished speaking, the old man looked at me with a puzzled expression. Seeing the way he was looking at me, I felt a bit flustered. Could it be that the old man also understood this principle?

  After staring at me for a while, the old man asked, "What do you want to use that thing for? Are you going to eat it? That thing must not be eaten, it's used to ward off evil spirits and ghosts, it's only given to the dead."

  When I heard the old man's words, I felt that he understood a lot. "Old man, how do you know so much? Why did you say that black donkey hooves are for the dead to eat? Can the dead still eat? The reason I asked about black donkey hooves is that there is a friend in my hometown who specializes in collecting black donkey hooves, so I wanted to ask if there are any places around here that sell 50-year-old or older black donkey hooves."

  The old man chuckled and said, "I'm telling you, you young folks are so weird! And some of you like collecting sticks. Black donkey hooves are for the dead to eat, that's what I heard from people who came to my house before. At that time, a few people came to our house, dressed in strange clothes. I remember when they left, they accidentally left a black donkey hoof in the room. I quickly picked it up and returned it to them. Then I overheard the leader saying to another person that the black donkey hoof was for the dead to eat. If it got lost, he would feed that person to the dead. At the time, I didn't understand what they meant. Later, when others told me about it, I finally understood what was going on. It turned out that those people were professional grave robbers."

  When I heard the old man's words, I secretly wiped my sweat. It turned out that there were others who came to this mountain to fight, was it because there were many tombs in this place? This thought lingered in my mind.

  "Old man, I don't have their craftsmanship, I just want to buy a 50-year-old black donkey hoof for my friend to bring back. My friend was urging me repeatedly when I left, if I don't bring it back, he'll probably eat me up."

  Wait until I finish, the old man showed a thoughtful expression, half a while later "Ah, I remember now, come on, follow me" saying that, the old man put on his cotton-padded jacket and walked out of the house.

  Then I followed the old man out, and on the way, he introduced me to the local fun and local food. After walking for about 10 minutes, my grandfather and I arrived in front of a wooden house. Looking at the appearance of the wooden house, it has been some years. I thought to myself, is there still someone living in a wooden house? What era is this now?

  The old man gently pushed open the door and took me in.