Chapter 4: Xiaoxue's Story

  The next morning, I left the house before dawn without planning to go with Xiaoxue. Last night, Second Master and I talked a lot, mainly about explaining the things written in that notebook. If not, I'm afraid it would take me a long time to slowly realize them myself. Although one night's time is short, I don't know if I was born sensitive to these things or what. Anyway, I understood a lot, but understanding and being able to actually operate are two different things. The notebook recorded many supernatural events and explained how to deal with them. This is essentially Chen Ying's memoir, which made me understand a lot about how to handle certain things, such as the symptoms of evil spirits, the method of breaking spells, and the rural saying of "zhàikè" (a kind of evil spirit), as well as some things about children being frightened. In the end, Second Master warned me again for no reason, saying that Xiaoxue's fate is not good, and being with her would harm me. He said it was better for us to be apart, and also said that Xiaoxue is a yīn person (a person with a dark or unlucky aura). Although I didn't quite understand, my heart was still affected. So the next day, I secretly left without telling anyone. When I stored things away, Xiaoxue wasn't at the village head, and Second Master seemed to have let out a sigh of relief.

  After walking twenty or thirty miles of mountain roads, it was almost noon when I arrived at the place where I could take a ride. Fortunately, I still hitched a ride on the way, and the people in the mountains are very simple-minded. As long as you stretch out your hand, someone will give you a ride. They even took me to the end of the road, which is actually just a small village next to Provincial Highway 305. Generally, most mountain people take the bus from here.

  It was already very hot by ten o'clock, and I stood under the shade of a tree, dazed, thinking about what had happened in the past two days. It really felt like winning the lottery, and I believed that not many people would have such good luck. I remembered Old Man Two saying that running into ghosts wasn't easy either, and the probability was almost as low as winning the lottery. Thinking of this made me burst out laughing bitterly. Just then, while I was lost in thought, I felt someone lightly patting my shoulder, and when I turned around to look, I found that it was actually Xiaoxue standing behind me with a lively expression.

  "Xiaoxue, you... how..." I was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say, feeling a bit guilty in my heart. We had agreed to leave together, but I ended up sneaking away quietly, which wasn't very honorable of me.

  Fortunately, Xiaoxue didn't get angry, she just stood beside me and snorted, gazing into the distance, saying slowly: "Yesterday your second uncle must have warned you again not to be with me, I know he dislikes me, so I came early this morning to wait for you, anyway you'll come here to take the bus ——"

  I was stunned, and I didn't quite understand. Yeah, it seemed like Second Master disliked Little Snow in an unusual way. Thinking carefully, every time I came back to my hometown to play, Second Master would always tell me not to hang out with Cousin's family's Little Snow. So actually, I didn't interact with Little Snow that much. However, I remember that Little Snow almost had no playmates in the village when she was young, and she often stayed at home alone. I hadn't thought about it carefully before, but I just remembered that back then, Little Snow would always avoid the other kids in the village. At the time, I only thought that Little Snow was autistic, but later I found out that she wasn't well-liked by the villagers, and people said she was a jinx. However, I didn't believe those things at the time. Every time I came back, I would secretly take Little Snow out to play, of course without anyone else knowing. It seemed like Little Snow was actually a pretty cheerful girl, but I don't know why she wasn't well-liked. It didn't seem like anything had happened either.

  "I thought you'd be at the village head..." I said weakly, feeling a bit guilty and quickly changing the subject: "You're just a girl walking so early, aren't you afraid of encountering bad people on this mountain road?"

  "Who told you not to wait for me?" Xiaoxue pouted, looking very cute and lovely, gave me a white eye: "Besides, I didn't say the village head was our village's, this is also a village head, isn't it? I've been waiting here for a long time, didn't expect you to come so late. I told Dad and Mom that I'm going out to work, need to catch a bus, so I came out early, before dawn."

  Just then, the bus to the county town arrived. There is no direct bus to Jiang City from here, so we have to transfer in the county town. I estimate that it will be almost evening by the time we arrive in Jiang City. As we rode the bus towards the county town, we chatted idly along the way. I couldn't help but wonder why such a lovely girl would be disliked by Second Master.

  As we were approaching the county town, I finally couldn't help but ask in a low voice: "Xiaoxue, to be honest, why does Second Master dislike you so much?"

  "Didn't he tell you? He said I'm a yin person, that whoever is with me will have no good fortune, that my yin energy is too heavy and all that. Anyway, he said so, and the villagers all believed it. I don't even remember what I did - " Xiaoxue said this with some resentment, her eyes cast down, with tears welling up inside: "I heard from my mom, when I was just born, my third uncle passed away at the same time. At that moment, my mom was carrying me and walking past the wall outside, and it's said that third uncle almost came back to life, and several young men couldn't hold him down. Luckily, your second uncle was in charge of handling the funeral, and he said I'm a yin person. From then on, whenever there's a white event at someone's house, I'd stay far, far away - "

  I don't know if this thing is true or not, but I heard that it happened in a nearby village. A widow had died and they didn't prepare much for the funeral, so when a black cat startled her, she came back to life. She chased after a young man, running very fast, and kept going for several miles. To avoid being caught by the resurrected corpse, you can't run in a straight line because people usually can't outrun them, so you have to zigzag around. It's said that when people die, their joints become stiff, making it hard to turn corners. If not, they would easily catch up. The young man was exhausted and leaned against a large poplar tree, seeing the resurrected corpse charging towards him. He was so scared that he urinated and slid down, and the resurrected corpse tried to hug him but ended up hugging the tree instead, breaking it in half. Some people said that the widow had an affair with the young man, which is why she chased after him, otherwise, why would she only chase him when there were many others guarding the coffin? I don't know if this is true or not, but the young man was scared out of his wits and remained stupid until he died. When I was a child, I saw that idiot and heard my father tell stories about him.

  But Xiaoxue's story didn't end there, she sobbed slightly and her expression turned somewhat miserable: "Later, a wandering Taoist priest passed through the village, my mother specially invited him to tell my fortune, but he also said I was a yin person, saying that anyone, regardless of age or sex, would be unlucky with me. He didn't even accept any money, nor did he drink a drop of water before leaving. From then on, I became the village's jinx, and all sorts of unfortunate events were linked to me."

  Whenever I mention Xiaoxue, I get a bit excited. However, when I heard Xiaoxue say that she also felt it was somewhat excessive, for example, the eldest son of the Li family in the neighboring village drowned, and they said it was Xiaoxue's fault, but Xiaoxue didn't even know that kid. Anyway, they dragged her into it, and even that year when there was a severe drought, they said it was Xiaoxue's fault too. They also said that whoever's family had misfortunes was all because of Xiaoxue being a jinx. In short, everything bad was blamed on Xiaoxue, as if every unfortunate event in the surrounding villages within a ten-mile radius was her doing. If Xiaoxue really had such abilities, why would she still be stuck in this remote mountain village?

  Actually, Second Master spoke the truth last night. He's a man who never speaks nonsense. In his words, he eats dead people's food and speaking nonsense will bring trouble. He said Xiaoxue is a yin person, whoever gets involved with her will always encounter some supernatural things, in short, it's attracting ghosts. As for other things, nothing will happen, saying that she can kill people is absurd. I deeply believe Second Master's words, or maybe I've encountered ghosts because I'm with Xiaoxue, but why haven't I ever encountered them before?

  Seeing Xiaoxue looking sad, I gently patted Xiaoxue's shoulder and tried to comfort her: "Don't listen to those people talking nonsense. Actually, my second uncle said that yin people are only prone to being haunted by ghosts, and the rest of the things are just rumors spread by those people."

  Xiaoxue nodded, actually she knew all this herself, but saying more would only make her feel sad. I didn't know what else to say when Xiaoxue suddenly leaned against my arm and into my chest. My body tensed up at that moment, and for a while, I was at a loss for what to do. I could feel Xiaoxue's slight trembling, and her mood must have been terrible at that time. I let out a soft breath, stiffened my body without moving, and simply placed one hand on Xiaoxue's shoulder, letting her sob in my chest.

  Unfortunately, I didn't know that the one who had truly let her guard down was Xiaoxue. If someone were to say that Xiaoxue liked me, I would have thought it impossible, but that's exactly what happened. A 19-year-old girl is at an age where she's beginning to awaken to love, and Xiaoxue, a renowned beauty in the village, didn't even have any friends, let alone a boyfriend. But which young girl doesn't harbor romantic feelings? Xiaoxue was just like that. When we were younger, we would play together without understanding anything, but girls mature early, and by the time she was 12 or 13, Xiaoxue already understood things. Meanwhile, I was 15 or 16 at the time, still in a state of youthful confusion. Although I didn't know what love was, it didn't stop me from reacting to her presence, nor did it stop me from wanting to be with girls or having some fantasies about them. Every year when I returned to my hometown, the only girl who would play with me besides Xiaoxue was that other kid. The other girls already knew how to feel shy and wouldn't hang out with us boys anymore. But Xiaoxue would secretly play with me, a boy who didn't know any better. So naturally, she could only interact with me, and it was also natural for her to develop some feelings towards me, who wasn't bad-looking either. Otherwise, when we played together, I would often get excited due to physical contact, but most girls would have stopped paying attention to me by then. Only Xiaoxue gradually took it as a matter of course and wouldn't hold it against me. Hehe, of course, this was also why I especially liked hanging out with Xiaoxue - it's true that I was being a bit lecherous.