Chapter 63: Mysterious and Supernatural in the Air

  Two hours later, the transport plane stopped briefly at Hong Kong Airport, refueled and then flew hastily to Yunnan, refueling again, before continuing northwest at full speed along the direction of the compass.

  To be honest, I was really nervous when the plane took off for the first time. The intense shaking of the cabin and the vibration caused by the hurricane blowing on the steel plate made me pale for a while. I found that Balza wasn't doing much better, constantly holding onto a paper bag ready to vomit.

  "You're still a big and capable man." Xuer's mother shifted her plump buttocks in disgust, moving away from Balza.

  But after the plane stabilized, I felt much better and let out a long sigh of relief.

  "We are now at an altitude of about 6,000 meters, the southwest and northwest areas are not calm, later the plane will continue to climb, you pay attention." Tian Wenliang reminded.

  I nodded, although Yunnan, Tibet, Qinghai and Sichuan have not yet fallen to the Communist Army, the call for uprising is rising everywhere. If it weren't for Chiang Kai-shek's gold as military pay barely supporting them, this place would have been red long ago. Moreover, many of the warlords stationed here are old members of the Northwest Army and not direct troops of the Nationalist Party. In an era of intense warfare, a transport plane was mistakenly shot down by "our own people", there's no place to reason with them.

  So we try to be careful and avoid unnecessary trouble. At an altitude of 7,000 meters, we can already avoid most anti-aircraft guns. As for air strikes? The Communist army's air force hasn't even been established yet. Overall, taking the aerial route is very safe now, Chiang Kai-shek is still flying back and forth between Taiwan and Chongqing.

  Tian Wenliang kept adjusting the compass and the direction of the machine head. I said, why not just give the compass to Xie brothers directly? Tian Wenliang refused to do so, covering the compass tightly, not giving it to anyone. Needless to say, he attached great importance to that stone.

  During the long and boring flight, I and several other companions also gradually had a 'flow' of conversation. As for our charcoal deputy captain, he was lying on the ground, sleeping soundly with his dog-like face exposed, and no one wanted to disturb him.

  After some thought, I still sat down beside Cai Lingchen, looking at her. She was three points less beautiful than Cai Lingyu, but seven points more aloof.

  Cai Lingchen's beautiful eyes flashed for a moment, and then she closed her eyes to meditate, completely treating me as air. I didn't get angry either, deliberately trying to trick her into speaking, lowering my voice to whisper in her ear: "I know your sister."

  Cai Lingchen's expression changed, with a slightly disgusted tone, speaking for the first time since boarding the plane: "I don't care about her!"

  "Haha, looks like the two sisters don't get along." I thought to myself, pondering that most relationships between beautiful women can be summed up in one sentence: "As long as you're doing better than me, I won't be able to stand it."

  Xu Erniang carefully watched the whole process, waved her hand and smiled: "Ah, little brother said some unpleasant words that made the little girl angry. Hehe, come on, let's warm up at my place."

  I hastily waved my hand: "I'm not cold, you can go find Tian Wenliang to warm up instead, he's older and his body is weak and cold."

  Xu Erniang snorted and glanced at Tian Wenliang, giving him no face: "He's not cold, it's just a false alarm!"

  Ba Erzha's stomach had long been emptied, his complexion slightly improved, and he shifted his position to join the conversation: "By the way, have you guys encountered anything unclean, such as... ghosts?"

  "You big fool, what are you talking about? At an altitude of several thousand meters, it's unlucky to say such things." Xu Erniang was very dissatisfied with Balza's topic.

  I'm actually interested, speaking of ghosts, I don't think I've ever really encountered one. Before, when I was with Oniichan and the others, we would run into some unclean things, but strictly speaking, those things couldn't be called ghosts.

  "Hmm, let's see, what the heck?" I asked curiously.

  When Balza saw that someone was paying attention to him, he suddenly gained momentum, threw away the paper bag filled with vomit, raised his 'legs', and shared a bizarre experience from a few days ago with us.

  Originally, Barza had only been in Taiwan for a month and was arranged by the Security Bureau to live in an abandoned farmhouse, except that there was no Chen Ah-po, everything else was similar to mine.

  But after staying for only three days, strange things started happening.

  At first, he had a series of erotic dreams at night, and Balzac was initially thrilled. During the day, all he wanted to do was sleep, and in his dreams, he would indulge in wild and carefree abandon. However, this couldn't last, and after seven or eight days, a once robust man became increasingly gloomy, with his weight plummeting drastically. Eventually, whenever Balzac felt drowsy, he would prick himself with a needle.

  In the dream, a beautiful woman named Bai Sao kept appearing, claiming to be lonely and helpless, hoping to rely on a strong man like Balza. As soon as Balza entered the dream, she appeared, and no matter how hard Balza struggled or pushed her away, Bai Sao would blow a breath of air, causing Balza to lose all ability to resist, and was then forcibly...

  "Got a good deal and still boasting about it!" Everyone in the cabin burst out laughing when they heard this.

  Balza didn't blush, and continued to say that he later asked the villagers about the situation with the house where he was staying. At first, the villagers were afraid to speak, but Balza pressed them hard, and they finally told him that the house was haunted by a female ghost. Every adult male who had lived there before had died suddenly within three months, becoming emaciated before their death. A long time ago, the villagers had invited a famous Taoist priest to exorcise the evil spirit, but that night, the priest ran away naked and shouting "I've been possessed!" From then on, no one dared to live in the house again, and it became a notorious haunted mansion known far and wide.

  Baoerjia was afraid and wanted to escape, but the secret police wouldn't agree, so he could only live in fear. One night, during a storm, Bai Sao didn't sleep with Baoerjia, instead she told him that if he could kill a young and beautiful woman for her and bury the body under the crooked neck tree in the backyard, she would let him go.

  Ba Erzha woke up in a cold sweat, and after a struggle in his heart, his conscience took over. He didn't kill the young woman, but instead ran to the mountain top's grave mound and dug up a young woman's corpse that had been buried for less than a month to replace her. That night, he buried the corpse under the crooked-necked tree.

  That night, Balza slept soundly for the first time, and didn't get out of bed until the sun had set the next day. When he opened the door and walked into the backyard, he saw that a large hole had appeared under the crooked-neck tree, and the female corpse was gone. Balza was frightened for three days and three nights, but finally, on a stormy night, the female corpse returned.

  Balza was terrified to discover that the female corpse not only came back to life, but also had a bulging belly, just like a woman who was nine months pregnant. What's even more terrifying is that the female corpse was rotting all over, with a hole in her belly, and inside, you could clearly see a bloody baby sleeping soundly. The female corpse was carrying a ghost fetus!

  Balza was a ruthless killer who didn't bat an eye, but even he was shocked into unconsciousness. When he came to, the 'female' corpse had finished giving birth and was thoroughly dead, while the ghostly infant gazed at Balza with its mouth open, emitting a foul odor, and called out: "Daddy... Daddy..."

  I felt a chill down my spine. Balza's face suddenly turned deathly pale, and he fell silent. I hastily asked: "What happened next? What about the ghost baby?"

  Ba Erzha's legs trembled slightly, and we clearly heard him swallow hard, his head lifted abruptly, staring straight at me with a hoarse voice, saying word by word: "Later... I took pity on it and adopted the ghost infant, naming it... Hong Xingdong!"

  "Hey, you're fooling me!" I got angry and threw a hiking boot at Balza's face with all my might. He burst out laughing, stretched out two fingers and caught the shoe, then tossed it back to me.

  "Balza, don't be ridiculous!" Tian Wenliang feigned anger.

  Balza shook his big head, laughed enough, and said in a low voice: "Actually, I didn't lie." Seeing me staring at him with anger, he quickly changed his words and continued to say: "Okay okay, haha, no more joking around, not even a little bit of humor. Actually, that ghost kid really appeared, really called me dad, but I buried him alive in the original pit under the crooked neck tree. That night, a fire burned down the entire house. And then was locked up by colleagues from the secrecy bureau, only released yesterday, and saw you guys."

  "Didn't your wife come looking for you to settle accounts last night?" asked Xu Erniang.

  Ba Er raised his shoulders and replied with a hint of nostalgia: "Bai Sao never showed up again. To be honest, I was annoyed at the time, but now I kind of miss her."

  I felt a chill, and at the same time I caught a glimpse of Cai Lingchen beside me with an equally disgusted expression. Who knows how many layers of truth and falsehood there were in Balza's words? Maybe the real Balza had already been killed by the ghost child, and the burly man sitting across from us was actually the ghost infant itself. Alas, I've experienced too many bizarre events, my train of thought is about to take off.

  "As a matter of fact, I also have a paranormal experience." Xu Erniang suddenly said, opening the conversation.

  She then spoke in a magnetic and slightly alluring voice, painting vivid pictures with her words.

  Xu Erniang had been in Taiwan for half a year, and was secretly arranged by the Security Bureau to be married into a wealthy family's household in Tainan. The family's surname was Wang, and a week later, the only son of the Wang family got married. However, on the night of the wedding, the bride used her hairpin to kill the groom, and eloped with a poor boy from the same village to the mountains. The old master of the Wang family was furious, and gathered the local gentry and thugs to search for them in the mountains. In the end, they were forced to hang themselves after being cornered. The old master of the Wang family was still not satisfied, and had the couple's corpses paraded through the streets, then made into wax figures kneeling in front of his son's grave. However, before the incident had blown over, strange things began happening in the Wang household.

  The newly decorated walls of the house began to seep blood, and there were signs of someone walking around inside. The hairpins, combs, and cosmetics on the dresser gradually disappeared. The Wang family was in a state of panic, with rumors circulating that the "forced" dead bride had returned to seek revenge. Later, the tragedy finally occurred. Mr. Wang was stabbed in the heart by a golden hairpin while he slept, and the hairpin was identical to the one that killed the groom. Before the funeral could be held, several close relatives of the Wang family died mysteriously one after another, and no one dared to hold the funeral anymore. The wealthy Wang family was in chaos, with many people fleeing to other villages but still unable to escape their bad luck.

  "Hmph, I'm no ordinary person. With just a few investigations, I saw through this 'yin' plot to murder people under the guise of ghost stories." Xu Erniang said coldly.

  It turned out that Xu Erniang secretly investigated the scene of death, and soon found some clues. In the end, she locked in on a distant nephew of the Wang family as the suspect. Under Xu Erniang's seduction and intimidation, the nephew confessed everything. It was indeed he who had committed the murder, with the goal of seizing the rich family property of Old Master Wang.

  Xu Erniang originally thought that the case was closed, but unexpectedly, Wang Jia's nephew died suddenly on the way to being escorted into the city, with a miserable appearance. This left Xu Erniang's husband bewildered.

  The Wang family continued to die one after another, until one day a sudden thunderbolt struck and knocked down the corner of the new house. During repairs, an underground tomb was unexpectedly found buried beneath the location of the new house.

  Under the leadership of Xu Erniang, the villagers dug up the earth and excavated the tomb. Inside the tomb chamber, there was a pool of blood that had dyed the soil red. On the surface of the blood pool floated an open coffin, inside which lay a beautiful woman dressed as a bride, wearing a phoenix coronet and a veil, looking like she had just been buried, her face still lifelike, with no signs of decay despite being dead for who knows how long.

  Later, a group of mysterious people got the news and bought the female corpse along with the coffin at a high price. Once the filthy thing was gone, the Wang family finally quieted down and there were no more bizarre human deaths. Xu Erniang said slowly.

  I was amazed and guessed that the mysterious person in Xu Erniang's mouth might be a group of grave robbers.

  "Dongzi, have you encountered anything strange?" Balza asked me suddenly.

  I thought for a moment and simply said: "I'm fine, I haven't encountered anything strange."

  "Oh." Balzar shook his head in obvious disappointment.

  "I've encountered it before." Cai Lingchen suddenly spoke up, only saying one sentence: "One day, I discovered that my sister wasn't human."

  My ears perked up and I asked, "Then what?"

  "Then I never saw her again." Cai Lingyu said nothing more after that sentence.

  I ate a humble pie again and shrugged. After this commotion, the atmosphere suddenly became lively.

  "This includes Tian Wenliang and me, who have all had paranormal experiences. Is this related to the task we are about to perform?" I thought so, but when Balza and Xu Erniang described their paranormal experiences, it seemed that the Bureau of Secrets was deliberately setting things up."

  Wait, I encountered a man-eating demon incident while recuperating in the mountain village, could it also be the work of the Secret Bureau? Otherwise, why would they arrange for me to stay with Chen Ah Po, someone I've never met before. Is there such a coincidence in this world?

  I involuntarily glanced towards the driver's cabin, I don't know if the Xie brothers had the same experience.

  Just then, Xie Ba opened the cabin door with a serious face and came before us. He looked at Tian Wenliang anxiously and shouted: "All instruments have failed!"

  Tian Wenliang's face changed upon hearing the words, and he stared fiercely at the compass in his hand. The needle was shaking violently, swinging back and forth with a small amplitude.

  He suddenly stood up and said in a low voice: "The destination is approaching soon."