Chapter Sixty: The Barbarian's Words

  Yang gave us a ride halfway and then headed back home. Cao Ke Rui and I walked slowly back, just the two of us.

  "Antique", Cao Ke Rui said.

  I looked around and then pointed at myself and asked her 'Were you calling me?'

  She gave me a white eye "There are only two of us in total, who else can I call"

  Okay, Cao Ke Rui has given me another nickname. Last time when I was organizing materials with her in the office, she gave me a name "Quick Memory Little Genius", and it's been called that for half a year. This time she changed it to "Antique".

  "You said, what did Brother Yang mean just now?" Even Cao Kerui could see that there was more to Brother Yang's words than met the eye, judging from how obvious his expression had changed. I couldn't figure out what he meant either, so I just said "Maybe it's because Zhaodi's place is small and the conditions aren't great, we'd be a bother if we all went there."

  "Why don't we go to the village chief's house tomorrow then? The village chief's house will definitely have delicious food, and it'll be more lively than Zhaodi's house."

  I suddenly remembered that Zhaodi's son had just passed away, which is a huge blow to a mother and it will be difficult for her to recover from this in a short while. It's really not suitable for us to live there.

  "Go back and tell Lao Da about it. Maybe we're really disturbing the situation at Zhaodi's house with so many people."

  Cao Keren nodded.

  When Cao Ke Rui and I arrived home, Eldest Brother and Lu Huan had not returned yet. So Cao Ke Rui and I could only wait at home. Zhaodi was going in and out of the house, busy with something unknown to me. I poked my head out to look outside the window. All I saw was her carrying some food, walking into the thatched hut in front of the house, and only coming out after a while.

  Her eyes met mine through the window, and I hastily turned my head, pretending to lower it and do my own thing. Zhaodi seemed to have not noticed, turned around and went into the house. I looked at that grass shed and felt a bit curious. At this time, my phone rang, I picked it up and took a look, it was not Ma Si Zhe, but Xiao Hai.

  I stood up with my mobile phone and walked out of the house 'Hey, Xiaohai'

  "Brother Sun Yi, the appraisal results are out."

  I looked around the house and Cao Ke Rui didn't follow out 'Hm, what's up?'

  "It's the Fish Skin Book" The thing I sent to Xiao Hai is also a stone slab from the boat coffin, which is also an ancient book that records the witchcraft events that I brought out of the secret room in Tongtian Temple.

  That ancient book had been soaked in water countless times, but the paper was getting whiter and cleaner, making me suspect it was a legendary fish skin book. It was brought out to let Xiaohai verify it, and it seems my guess was correct.

  I thought for a moment, "Alright, I know", and was about to hang up the phone when Xiaohai stopped me.

  Wait a minute

  Anything else?

  "That stone slab is broken," said Little Hai with an apologetic tone.

  "How was it broken?"

  I don't think it's a pity, just a bit strange. Before, under the Maoer Mountain, I was tossed around and collided many times, but the stone slab didn't break. How did it suddenly break now?

  "No warning at all, it was fine just a moment ago. The next day I looked and it had cracked."

  Then what?

  "There's a piece of paper stuck between the stone pieces," Xiaohai continued. I was even more confused, so I asked "What does it say?"

  Go to Hangzhou

  It was almost dark when the eldest returned.

  As soon as I got back, I lay down and fell asleep. It seems that today was exhausting. I picked up the notebook that had been thrown aside and flipped through it a couple of times. The notes were densely packed with information. It looks like we gained much more than the two of us expected.

  "How was it? Was the harvest big?" Cao Ke Rui asked from the side.

  Lu Huan went out to take a sip of water, came back wiping his mouth and said 'I gained quite a bit, whether it's useful or not I don't know. Today, Lao Da and I listened to a whole day of stories about snake demons and fox spirits.'

  The boss got up and said, 'What about you two? Did you gain anything?'

  I shook my head. "Nothing but what I've heard before, but there is one discovery. The girl saw the mysterious people moving things out of the mountain, and it might be related to the stele you saw that night."

  Isn't it just a rock?

  "How did she know what a stele was, a square and upright stone, and even took it out from the tomb, if not a stele then what?"

  The boss suddenly became excited, patted his thigh and said: "Right! When we asked her for the first time, I hadn't found that stele yet, of course, I didn't associate it with this. But where did that stele go?"

  I've asked around, and no strangers have ever appeared in the village. Those people never set foot in the village from start to finish, very cautious.

  "It seems like it was planned." The boss rubbed his chin. "They went to so much trouble to move the stele out of the grave, why did they just throw it there?"

  I thought for a moment and said 'Maybe they don't want that stele.'

  Isn't that the tombstone? What is it?

  "The truly useful thing may be on the monument and may have been taken away. As for what it is, it may only be determined after finding the monument."

  I flipped through the notes that Lao Da and the others made today. "What does this messy stuff mean?" I saw that it was written in a disorderly manner, something about disappearance and wild men. It should be the story they heard today.

  Lu Huan took over the notes and sat up straight, "Come on, come on, listen to me. Let's talk about this wild man first."

  This matter was heard from an old man sitting at the door, who sat in a recliner and spoke slowly.

  That was at the end of the Qing dynasty.

  In the village, there was a woman who became pregnant before marriage. At that time, this was a big deal that could get you thrown into a pigpen. When the furious villagers rushed into her home, they saw the woman lying on the ground, gasping for breath, with a large gash in her belly, intestines exposed, and blood continuously flowing out.

  The villagers were suddenly shocked by the scene and stood there, not daring to move. Some brave people went forward to take a look at the situation, only to see that the woman's belly was empty, with no fetus inside.

  Why did the fetus disappear? Was it killed by someone and then had a cesarean section?

  This scared the villagers, and they all dispersed at once. Later, everyone decided to set fire to this house. According to legend, when the big fire was burning fiercely, people outside heard a burst of wailing from inside the house. But as the beams collapsed, the wailing sound gradually disappeared.

  Just as everyone let out a sigh of relief, something strange happened again. A dark figure rushed out of the collapsed house, and before people could see its appearance clearly, the shadow lowered its head and ran up the mountain. The villagers plucked up their courage to search for it on the mountain several times, but found nothing and had to give up.

  But since then, the house has been emitting a mournful howl every midnight, just like on the day of the fire. The villagers couldn't do anything about it, so they built a temple on the spot to suppress the evil spirit. Later, the temple was destroyed in an earthquake, and the mournful howls disappeared forever.

  Lu Huang deliberately prolonged the last tail tone, making it sound eerie and terrifying.

  The boss laughed and said, "Hey, I didn't expect that you kid still have a talent for storytelling. If the archaeological team doesn't work out, go to the local radio station and apply for a job as a radio host."

  Lu Huan suddenly became energetic 'You won't believe it, when I was a kid, I really wanted to be a host, but then they said my appearance wasn't qualified so I didn't go'

  "So you want me to be a radio host?" I said, and Cao Ke Rui smiled slightly. Lu Huan seemed not to understand the meaning behind my words and asked Cao Ke Rui why he was smiling.

  I hastily changed the subject 'Don't talk about that, let's talk about this. What does this story have to do with wild men?'

  Lu Huan returned to the topic, "After that house was burned down, rumors spread in the mountain village that there were wild men. Many people who went up the mountain to collect medicine said they had seen them with their own eyes. The villagers speculated that the woman's belly might have been cut open by a wild man and the baby eaten. But this explanation doesn't quite add up - why would the wild man only eat the child in the woman's belly, but not harm the woman herself?"

  Then the legend of a wild man in the mountains who eats babies spread. Whenever a child doesn't eat well, adults at home will use this method to scare them. The saying that there is a wild man in the mountains also came out around this time.

  But after the reform and opening up, there was no longer any news about the appearance of wild men, and the legend of the wild man became an unsolved mystery.

  "Is this true or just a rumor in the village?" Cao Kerui asked, stretching his neck.

  "Who knows what's true or false? At the end of the Qing dynasty, there must be a lot of fabricated and legendary elements."

  "What about this disappearance then? I asked pointing at another place in the notes."

  "Ah, this is it. This is where the name 'Ghost Valley Marsh' comes from."