Chapter Fifteen: Practicing Bravery in the Graveyard Encountering a Crying Sound

  After the master finished speaking, he lay down there, picked up the wine gourd and started drinking mouthful by mouthful. The three of us had no choice but to walk towards the tomb in Beiling with a stiff upper lip. Originally, I was not afraid and even felt that it was quite fun at midnight, but now that the master is no longer with us, I suddenly became terrified.

  Just after walking for a while, I came to a persimmon forest. From far away from the persimmon forest, I saw several fireballs jumping around in the forest, shining and dimming alternately. At that time, my heart was already in my throat. This is the ghost fire, which we often saw when we were young. That piece of persimmon forest is not a good place either. There are many stone towers there, built with stones in the shape of towers. However, these are not stone towers in temples, but rather the homes of children who died young.

  At that time, the villagers were poor and all gave birth with the help of midwives, which was one of the main reasons for infant mortality. The main cause of death was tetanus, now known as neonatal tetanus. Another reason was the poor medical conditions, and many children around my age did not survive to adulthood and were buried in this forest. The most common causes of death were smallpox and measles.

  The nursery rhyme "Ten Worries for Raising a Son" goes like this: One worry is that the son's body is cold, two worries that the son's belly is hungry. Three worries that the son is too young, four worries that the son will be bullied by others. Five worries that the son's body is sick, six worries that the son will have a difficult life. Seven worries that the son will get smallpox, eight worries that the son will be foolish and stupid. Nine worries that the son will drown in water, ten worries that the son will have a bad marriage.

  The persimmon forest is quite large, extending all the way to the northern ridge of Luanyanggang. There are many legends about this place in our village, and the most common one is that children often cry their hearts out here, so even when the persimmons on the trees are ripe in autumn, we usually don't dare to come and pick them easily.

  As we walked and were about to arrive at the persimmon forest, Skinny Monkey said from behind me: "Brother, my scalp is feeling tight. Do you think we will..."

  I quickly spat on the ground and said, "Pfft pfft pfft, what's wrong with your stinky mouth? In broad daylight..." Just as I was saying this, a small whirlwind suddenly swept across the ground, surrounding us in a circle. At that moment, I felt a chill run down my spine, and the rest of the sentence didn't come out.

  At this time, the silly egg said: "Grandma's bear, what are you afraid of? My dad said that a fool sleeps on a cool kang, all relying on strong firepower. We are Tongmen boys, and our firepower is very strong."

  I heard the fool say that the boy was a child, and I suddenly felt a chill. That night, I slept on the stone slab of the pier, just because I had urinated in front of the child, which caused a big disaster. However, now I must not show fear. My nickname is Big Courage, precisely because I have a big heart. So I said: "The fool is right, what are we afraid of? The master also said that as long as we have a righteous spirit, we don't need to be afraid of any evil spirits. Let's hurry up and go to the fool's second grandfather's grave, take out the wooden sign, and go back to sleep."

  As I walked forward, Dumb Egg and Skinny Monkey followed. Beside the persimmon tree was the path leading up the mountain. As we walked, a shrill cry of a child suddenly sounded, seemingly from the bushes beside us. We were startled to the point of almost jumping up, and the three of us stood together. Skinny Monkey said: "Big Brother, did you hear that kid crying?"

  "I said: 'I heard it, it sounds like it's in the bushes right next to us.'"

  As we were talking, the crying sound suddenly came from not far behind us again. The cry was very mournful. We quickly turned around to look and saw that the place where the cry came from was a bush. The grass in the bush was moving as if a child was struggling to climb out of it.

  The thin monkey said nervously: "Brother Shifu, it seems like there's someone moving in that bush."

  "I said: 'Nonsense, who would run into the mountains in the middle of the night for no reason?'"

  "Shuai Dan said: 'Brother, it's probably some family's abandoned dead child who has come back to life.'"

  As soon as I heard what the silly egg said, it made sense. Whoever's family must have thought their child was dead and had someone throw them away here. At that time, throwing away children also had its own rules. They would always get the old bachelor from the village to do it. The old bachelor was stubborn and had no children of his own. Whichever family asked him to throw away a child, as long as they told him once, he would carry a dung basket with wheat straw inside, go to the master's house, put the child in the dung basket, cover them with wheat straw, and then walk away carrying the dung basket.

  After returning, the child's mother couldn't bear it and asked where the child was buried, wanting to take a look. However, no matter how she asked, Old Guang would not say a word, directly taking over the things given by the host family and turning around to leave. When they were parting ways, Old Guang revealed the reason, saying that those people were ghosts who deceive humans, sending them to the persimmon forest was equivalent to cutting off all hope, and next year another child would be born who could grow up to support adults.

  Not far away, the grass was still swaying, and we were sure there were kids there. I thought to myself that when this old guy threw them, he didn't even check if they were dead or not, just threw them here. Isn't that a bit inhumane? Thinking of this, I said to Dumb Egg and Skinny Monkey: "Dumb Egg, Skinny Monkey, let's the three of us go take a look."

  The thin monkey said: "Brother, I think we'd better not go over there. As the saying goes, 'one less thing is better than one more thing.' Tonight our main task is to touch the wooden board, and Master is still waiting for us."

  I said: "No way, we can't just ignore it and let someone die. As the saying goes, saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda."

  Sha Dan said: "What is Master Brother's pagoda?"

  I said: "How would I know what it is? Anyway, it's a good thing. Come on, let's go take a look."

  As I spoke, I led the way in my mind, Skinny Monkey and Dumb Egg followed behind me. We slowly approached the rustling bush, feeling uneasy in our hearts as we walked. When we were about to reach the front of the bush, the crying suddenly stopped, and it became eerily quiet. The grass on that patch of bushes also stood still. This was a bit strange - just now it was moving around, how could a child just stop like that?

  I stopped in my tracks and said to the silly egg and skinny monkey, "No way, something's not right. A little kid says he can't move and then just doesn't? Let's go, we don't care."

  As we spoke, we turned around and walked away. But just a few steps later, that mournful cry suddenly rang out again, it was heart-wrenching. I didn't want to get involved in this matter anymore, thinking of leaving it behind, but the elderly often taught us that we should do good deeds and accumulate virtue, good will be rewarded with good, evil will be punished with evil. If we don't help, that's being evil. So I stopped in my tracks and turned around, Dumb Egg and Skinny Monkey also stopped. The three of us almost simultaneously turned around, I saw it was still the same place as before, following the cry, the grass there was frantically moving about. I was certain that there must be a child there.

  Then we walked in that direction again, and after just two steps, the crying stopped abruptly like last time. We decided not to give up halfway like last time, this time we wanted to see the child in the bushes.

  We all arrived at the front of the grass thicket, this grass that formed the thicket was the yellow grass from the mountain, it was very tall. At that time, our houses were all made of grass, relying on the yellow grass to cover the roof, the roof covered with yellow grass was warm in winter and cool in summer, it was a precious grass. However, the yellow grass now has become a barrier in front of us, we can only push open the yellow grass to see the truth inside.

  We stood in front of the yellow grass, all three of us motionless. After a while, I said to Skinny Monkey: "Skinny Monkey, little brother, can you part the yellow grass and see if there's a child inside?"

  The thin monkey said loudly: "You all don't take action, why should I?"

  I said: "In terms of size, you're the smallest, so it's up to you to make a move."

  Skinny monkey said: "I won't do it, when eating things, you guys don't care about size, especially stupid egg, grabbing faster than anyone else, Stupid Egg Master should take action."

  The silly egg said: "I won't go, it's not like I'm the biggest."

  "I said: 'Alright alright, you two can't eat enough and can't do anything right, I'll take care of it myself.'"

  After finishing speaking, I saw a small tree as thick as a thumb, so I rushed towards the small tree. The silly egg asked me: "Brother, what are you doing? Didn't you take action? Why did you run?"

  I didn't respond to the silly talk, and arrived at the small tree, suddenly breaking it off. Then I shook off the branches and leaves on the small tree, holding the small tree trunk towards the grass thicket, wanting to use this small tree trunk to part the yellow grass and take a look at the child in the thicket. My hand was shaking slightly, my heart racing, feeling an inexplicable sense of unease.