Chapter 4: Zhang Daoye's Big Talk on Zombies

  After Zhang Daoye turned a few circles, he said: "No wonder this year's drought is so severe, it turns out that the drought demon has caused trouble. The drought demon that can move during the day must be kept away at all costs."

  "I said, 'Master Dao said that the dead within 100 days after death will transform. Those who turn into a drought demon will not rot, their grave will not grow grass, and water will seep from the tomb. The drought demon ghost will go to homes at night to fetch water. Only when the drought demon is burned will it rain.'"

  Mr. Zhang said, "This is also correct, but this corpse is different. In fact, the corpse is transformed from a zombie, buried in a place where zombies are raised. After a month, the body does not rot, and white hair slowly grows out. This kind of zombie is usually called a White-Haired Zombie. It can come back to life by borrowing human energy. The zombie moves slowly and is easy to deal with. It is extremely afraid of sunlight, fire, water, chickens, dogs, and especially humans. If the White Zombie eats the blood of cows and sheep for several years, its body will shed its white hair and grow black hair that is several inches long. At this time, it still fears sunlight and intense fire, and moves relatively slowly, but it no longer fears chickens and dogs. Generally speaking, Black Zombies will avoid humans and do not dare to fight them directly. They usually suck human blood when people are sleeping."

  The third kind is the hopping corpse, after several decades of absorbing yin and blood, the black fur falls off, and movement begins to be mainly jumping, with quick and far jumps. It fears sunlight but not people or any domestic animals. At this time, the corpse comes out at dawn when the sun has not yet risen to worship the sunrise, on full moon nights it comes out to worship the moon, and when the planet Venus rises, it begins to worship Venus, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon. What you see is probably the third kind, so go back and tell the people in the village, tomorrow we'll go together to burn the dry corpse. After we burn the dry corpse, it will soon rain.

  As soon as I heard the rain, I was overjoyed and wanted to hurry back to tell my father. At this time, Zhang Daoye called out to me, "You dare to look at what this is?"

  As he spoke, he took out an object from his bosom, wrapped in a lotus leaf. He handed it to me with a smile and said: "Take a look at this, what is it?"

  At this time, a meaty aroma wafted into my nostrils, and the greedy worms in my stomach almost ran out. In these times, even wild vegetable buns couldn't be eaten openly, let alone meat. That meaty smell was really too enticing, I looked at the thing wrapped in lotus leaves, and saliva flowed out of my mouth.

  Mr. Zhang smiled and said: "Do you dare to think about eating?"

  I swallowed and said, "I'm hungry."

  Zhang Daoye said: "You can eat if you want, but you have to kowtow and call me Master Dao."

  I immediately kowtowed and shouted "Master", Sha Dan and Shou Hou also kowtowed and shouted "Master". Zhang Daoye handed me the lotus leaf package, smiling and saying: "Get out, get out, don't disturb my old Daoist drinking wine. Go home and tell your parents to bring their stuff tomorrow and follow me to burn the dry corpse."

  We responded with a shout, hugging the meat and running to a deserted place. We opened the lotus leaf package, inside was a piece of roasted pork, waves of fragrance wafted up, I quickly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, those silly eggs were also swallowing saliva there. The three of us discussed dividing the meat, as a result, we divided it until nightfall, and finally divided the meat roughly. I licked my fingers, the meat flavor was really fragrant. We took the divided meat and ran towards home, when I arrived home, I saw that at home again were wild vegetable buns, my little sister was sitting there drinking wild vegetable soup.

  My mother took one look at me and said: "You naughty child, always getting into trouble from dawn till dusk, hurry up and go eat."

  I responded with a "yes" and ran to the table, at which point my little sister loudly exclaimed that there was a meaty smell. My mother said: "This child must be thinking about meat all day! Our family can't even afford to eat rice, where would we get meat from?"

  I took out the meat and put it on the table, my little sister quickly grabbed a piece with her hand and put it in her mouth. Watching my sister eat the meat, I couldn't help but swallow my saliva. At this time, my father came over and said: "Where did you get the meat from?"

  I said: "It was given by Zhang Daoye. Right, Zhang Daoye also said that he would let people shout to his Du Xian Palace to burn the drought demon."

  My dad was stunned when he heard about the drought demon, and I saw that my dad was stunned, so I started to show off. I told him how I met the wild dog spirit and how I hid in the tomb. My dad listened and suddenly took off his shoes. I knew things were going to be bad, so I ran away quickly. My dad's shoe flew out and landed in front of me with a loud "slap". My mom rushed over and said: "What are you doing?"

  "My dad grumbled and said: 'I'll break this little rabbit's dog leg, he's asking for death.'"

  My mother quickly persuaded my father, and it took a while for him to calm down. Finally, my mother called me into the house, and I ate my meal with a trembling heart, but unfortunately, due to fear, I didn't get to savor the flavor of the meat.

  At night, I lay in bed and vaguely heard the sound of dogs barking outside. It didn't seem right - it was as if they had been frightened by something and were letting out mournful cries. I quickly wrapped my quilt around my head and spent a restless night. Early the next morning, I followed my father to the Du Xian Palace. When we arrived, I saw Zhang Daoye standing there wearing his Daoist robe. Although Zhang Daoye usually seemed crazy and eccentric, when it came to serious matters, he was completely sane.

  Only saw Zhang Daoye wearing a yellow Daoist robe, with the Eight Trigrams printed on it, his white beard fluttering in the wind, looking quite like an immortal. As he approached, I heard him say: "It's already April and not a drop of rain has fallen. If it doesn't rain again this year, there will be no harvest. What do you all think? Do you want it to rain?"

  Everyone says they want it to rain. Zhang Daoye said, "Wanting rain is simple, just burn the drought demon in the tomb of the imperial historian, and I guarantee there will be a heavy downpour."

  Mr. Zhang said so, the people in the village all shouted to burn the drought demon. At this time, Mr. Zhang asked someone to find cypress wood and ropes, then Mr. Zhang carried a treasure sword on his back, and led everyone to walk towards the Imperial History Tomb. After arriving there, Mr. Zhang asked someone to set up the cypress wood and prepare to burn the drought demon.

  Everyone arrived there and started using the tools they brought to remove the earth mound. Although the earth mound was large, it was old and had collapsed in some places, so it was removed quickly. I, Dumb Egg, Skinny Monkey and a few other kids didn't have anything to do, so we watched with the other kids. With many people working together, they soon dug open a big hole that was large enough for people to easily enter and exit. Only then did Zhang Daoye tell everyone to stop, and then he had me follow him to point out the coffin from yesterday.

  As soon as I went in, everyone exclaimed. I knew they were shocked by that wild dog spirit. The wild dog spirit, which was as big as a donkey, had stiffened up now. Zhang Daoye didn't continue to pay attention to it, but instead asked me to point out which coffin the wild dog spirit was bitten to death in. I pointed to yesterday's coffin. A few brave people walked over to the coffin, and one of them said: "This is a good coffin at first glance. Although the paint on the outside has peeled off, the wood itself hasn't rotted too badly. It should be a nanmu wood coffin."

  Mr. Zhang walked up to the coffin and said, "There's a lot of resentment in this coffin. It's been so many years since he died, there shouldn't be any resentment left. When you open the coffin, be careful." Then he whispered to himself: "Heavenly three wonders, sun, moon, and stars, shocking ghosts and gods. The malevolent spirits see me bowing my head, the evil spirits meet me and cannot escape. The twenty-eight constellations listen to my orders, the six Ding and Jia follow my path. The nine oxen break through the earth, the general arrives, and the malevolent spirits and evil spirits retreat. The Supreme Elder Lord urgently issues an order, opening the coffin is extremely auspicious, nothing is forbidden, open the coffin."

  As they spoke, several young men exerted themselves to push the coffin board. With a creaking sound, the coffin board opened, and suddenly someone said: "Look, there's still a woman sleeping inside, just like a living person."

  Everyone rushed to surround it, praising the good looks of the person inside. I was anxious and also wanted to see what the woman inside looked like. At that time, my body was thin and small, so I could only crawl under other people's legs to get through. I crawled to the side of the coffin, held onto it, stood on the stone pedestal where the coffin was placed, and looked into the coffin. At that moment, I was shocked to see some black water in the coffin, emitting a nauseating bloody smell, about three fingers deep. The water was black, somewhat like blood, and at the woman's feet, something like a lotus flower had grown out. That thing was bright red, somewhat like it had been stained with blood. As soon as I saw that lotus flower, I felt a chill all over my body and couldn't help but shiver. I felt that this lotus flower was somehow evil. When I looked again at the woman sleeping in the coffin, I was even more shocked.

  The woman lay in the dark, bloody water, looking no different from a living person. Her eyes were slightly closed, with long eyelashes that seemed to be blinking. She had a high nose and a small cherry mouth of a deep red color, plump and moist. This woman in the coffin must have been a stunning beauty when she was alive. There was no phoenix crown on her head, only disheveled hair; it seemed that the tomb had been robbed, and the phoenix crown had probably been stolen by grave robbers. She wore a garment with patches and embroidery of auspicious lotus flowers, with a peacock perched on top of the lotus. Her hands were naturally placed in front of her chest, and they did not look dry; her long fingernails shone with a cold light. At this moment, someone said: "Hey, everyone, take a look at this! This must be the wife of a high-ranking official, at least a third-rank official. I've seen such clothing when watching plays. Just think, if the wife of a high-ranking official looks so good even after death, how beautiful she must have been when she was alive? If only I had a wife like this!"