Chapter Twenty: Ghost Face

  As I looked at the large cowhide suitcase in Wang Long's hand, my heart suddenly surged. A hunch told me that there must be treasure inside! At this moment, looking at this kid, I liked him more and more. I gave him a thumbs up: "Look at our brother, he's really cool!" After saying that, the kid smiled proudly at me.

  "We can't hide anymore, let's hurry up and get out of here! This box needs to be taken back ASAP!" I said as I climbed up. Turning my head around, I saw that little guy hadn't moved an inch, still standing in the water with a silly expression on his face, hugging the big box. I was stunned for a moment: "What the hell are you staring at? Come on up here!" But all he did was flash me a smile and say: "I'm telling you, bro, you're not being very considerate. How am I supposed to climb up with this box?"

  I was so shocked at the time, I slapped my forehead, and I was really confused. So I used a rope to pull the box up first, and then pulled this little guy up too. After doing all this, we two quickly found out our clothes, wiped off the water on our bodies and were about to put them on. But before we could even put them on, I saw a little boy standing at the gate of the courtyard, holding a long stick in his hand, staring at me with a shocked face.

  Damn it! Luckily I had the foresight! Otherwise, I would have been screwed by this little brat! This is purely a retaliatory strike! Looking at that long and thick wooden stick in his hand, I glared at him fiercely, thinking: Who does this kid want to kill?!

  Looking at his unexpectedly surprised face, I smiled slightly: "Kid, you're too late, my brother and I have already surrendered voluntarily!" After finishing speaking, I hugged the box and walked out. This kid didn't react for more than two seconds, and after coming back to himself, he shouted from behind: "You can't play like this! Who surrenders voluntarily?" I thought to myself, nonsense, if we don't surrender, we'll be killed by you!

  He didn't even bother to respond, hugging the box and taking little brother Wang Long to run out. When we reached the temple gate, I saw a group of kids, all of whom were captured little ghosts. Little sister Wang Feng was also inside. Wang Feng looked at us holding a broken box and rushing out in a hurry, and was stunned: "Brother, what's going on with you two? What are you doing?"

  I hastily waved at her: "Feng, hurry back home, there's a major discovery!" After that, the three of us didn't pay attention to anyone else and ran all the way back home.

  Upon arriving at the old house, I saw that Old Dad and Eldest Uncle were still drinking. I rushed towards Old Dad and shouted: "Old Dad, found it!"

  Old Dad held up his wine cup, turned around and took a look at me. Seeing that I was covered in mud and hugging a broken box, he was stunned for a moment, then glared at me: "I'm telling you, Wang Can, how old are you? Do you know what's called cleanliness?"

  I hastily waved a hand at Old Dad and patted the dirty cowhide suitcase: "Dad, there might be treasures in here, my grandfather's treasures!"

  As soon as I finished speaking, the few people present were all stunned. The next second, they surrounded me with a whoosh. I took one look at this formation and thought to myself: Oh no! With your skills, coming for a few catties of wine is not a problem at all!

  My mother was wiping the mud off my clothes and asked me where I found it. Before I could speak, Wang Long shouted: "Found it in the mountain temple behind, a big well, my brother brought me to jump down and find it!" After finishing, he still couldn't forget to wink at me proudly.

  I suddenly felt something was wrong, I thought to myself that this kid clearly led me into the well, how did it become my fault for bringing him to jump into the well? As expected, after mom heard about it, she got angry and grabbed my ears, slapped my butt three times with a loud "slap slap slap", scolding furiously: "You little rabbit, do you know what danger is? How could you bring your younger brother to jump into the well?..." After that, she hit me several more times.

  After being scolded, I glared at the little brat with a fierce stare. To my surprise, he looked back at me with an innocent expression, fiddling with his fingers and pouting his mouth, whispering: "It was you who told me to say that, it was you who found this place..." Then he pretended to be wronged and hung his head in shame.

  I'm done for, I'm really done! I said to myself: Brother, are you my brother or not? Isn't this obviously a trap for me?

  Fortunately, several people were attracted by the box and I escaped. Everyone quickly gathered together to put the table away, placed the trunk on it, and began to study how to open it!

  Looking at this scene like a crime scene, I suddenly felt a sense of unease in my heart, thinking that it wouldn't be like on TV, where the box is opened and inside is a headless female corpse or something! My dad and the others fiddled with it for half a day, finally finding a screwdriver to pry the box open by force.

  It's okay, the terrifying scene I imagined didn't appear. All that was inside the box were big and small oilcloth packages. When my dad opened one of them, he found that it was a ceramic bottle wrapped in waterproof cloth!

  What a damn antique! Everyone present was excited at once. I looked at their greedy faces and thought: This beating seems to be worth it!

  So the old man and his family opened several oilcloth packages behind them, took out three bottles, a plate, and a more than 20 cm high white jade Guanyin! Looking at these treasures on the table, people couldn't help but exclaim again. The old woman hugged me tightly, and after a while, I looked at them with a mouthful of saliva, but they didn't pay attention to me, all happily holding their things back into the house!

  I wiped the saliva from my face, secretly laughing to myself: it seems that my wife had a backup plan all along! Just as I was about to go inside and join in on the fun, I suddenly noticed something off about this trunk. On the bottom layer of cowhide, there was a small, inconspicuous bulge. I looked around and saw no one, so I took out my screwdriver and pried open that piece of leather. Sure enough, inside, I found a thumb-sized stone emitting a black glow!

  I stared at the small stone in my hand, and for some reason, I felt it was getting brighter and brighter, emitting a black light that seemed to block out the sun. My whole body shuddered involuntarily, and I quickly grasped it tightly. After making sure no one was paying attention to me, I carefully put it into my pocket. I thought to myself: In movies, they always say that hidden things are more valuable than visible ones. Who knows, this might be the real treasure! Hehe, I've hit the jackpot this time!

  Everyone was indulged in the joy of money until it was time to sleep at night. I sat alone in a large tub in my room, wiping my body while fantasizing about how I would spend my money if I were rich. Just then, the door opened and someone walked in.

  I was startled and quickly covered my vital parts! I took a look and it was just my old man, so I put my heart at ease. Then I saw my old man walking towards me with a smile on his face, stretching out his hand to snatch the towel from my legs. I was taken aback for a moment, and then I saw my old man lowering his head to carefully examine the area between my legs. I quickly covered myself with my hands! This shameless old man burst into loud laughter: "Great, son, you've got hair down there now!"

  After hearing this, I really couldn't help but roll my eyes and think: Are you kidding me? Your son is already 15 years old, can he not grow hair?! So I said in a bad tone: "Old man, do you know what personal space means?" The old man walked behind me, wiping my back, saying: "Don't mess with your old man, when you were little, you even pooped on your dad's belly, why didn't you say anything about violating human rights back then?!"

  I was left speechless, just as I was about to retort, when I heard my old man's voice trembling with rage behind me: "Wang Can! You little scoundrel, when did you get a tattoo?!"

  Tattoo? I was taken aback at the time, and turned to my old man saying: "Dad, stop joking, your son is only fifteen, what would I get a tattoo of?" As soon as I finished speaking, I saw my dad glare at me, not looking like he was joking. Then I saw him point at my shoulder with his hand and ask: "You take a look yourself! This isn't a tattoo, you tell me what this is!" After that, he slapped the towel on my head with a loud smack.

  This really got me confused, I took away the handkerchief and turned my face to take a look, at that moment, it was a scalp numbness! All I saw was that on my left shoulder, at some unknown time, there appeared a ghost face with three eyes!

  I was so scared that I jumped up in a hurry, rubbing this ghost face with my hands desperately, and shouting non-stop: "What is this thing? Where did it come from? What is this thing?......" As I spoke, I couldn't help but burst into loud sobs.

  Dad saw me panicking too much, came up and grabbed my hand, facing the big cry to me: "Son, son, don't be afraid, what's going on? Tell Dad." So I cried while telling him about this afternoon at the mountain temple. After listening to me, Dad frowned, I could see that he was still suspicious of me. So neither of us spoke, and we both stared carefully at this ghost face.

  Something strange happened! We two were just looking at it, when this ghost face suddenly opened its mouth and revealed a full set of sharp teeth, and actually smiled!

  In the quiet and dark old house, such a strange scene appeared, I was scared silly at that time. I fell to the ground with a thud, and my dad was also frightened, his whole body shook violently. I quickly got up, grabbed a pair of underwear, pulled my dad and rushed out.

  The commotion in our house startled others, and everyone ran out. Dad told them what had happened, and they were all shocked. Mom hugged me and burst into tears. I comforted her while trembling with fear - who wouldn't be scared? If this happened to you, you'd be terrified too.

  A few elderly people came over to surround me and take a closer look, I felt like an expert consultation, they looked for half an hour without saying anything. Later, an old man with a beard said: "In my opinion, this should be the vengeful spirit of the Mountain God Temple! That temple was indeed not clean in the past, several Taoist priests died. These little guys ran to someone's turf to make trouble, they must have accidentally offended them! No big deal, I think we can buy some paper money and offerings, go there to worship, I reckon once they're happy, this matter will pass."

  At this time, everyone regarded the old man as an expert. After listening to his words, my father and uncle hastily prepared things and took me with them. A large group of us rushed to the entrance of the mountain god temple. The old man lit incense sticks, arranged offerings, and began to chant: "All passing gods, in front of our ancestors, today Wang Can's young son unknowingly offended you all. But he is a child, please forgive him for his youth and ignorance. I, an old man, offer apologies on behalf of the child." After finishing speaking, he pulled me along, bowed respectfully towards the temple entrance, and knocked three times.

  After doing all this, they made a gesture to the old man and his brother, who respectfully brought over a large bag of paper money and gold ingots, and started burning them at the temple entrance. The old man looked at the sparks from the incense sticks, nodded, and turned back to us saying: "It seems that the other family has forgiven our child, so it should be fine now, just go back and sleep for a night." After the old men finished burning the paper money, we returned to the old house.

  After thanking this so-called second uncle, I slept in the room of my father and mother. These two people sandwiched me in the middle, fearing that something might happen to me. I hugged my mother tightly, worried and fearful all night without sleep, until it was almost dawn before I fell asleep dazedly.

  I had a very strange dream, in the dream all around was dark, but in front of me was a cyan gray stone gate as big as a mountain! In front of it I was like an ant, extremely small. I stared straight at this eerie cyan gray stone gate, my mind was blank, always feeling that behind this stone gate, there was a voice constantly calling me. My head was dizzy and confused, and inexplicably I walked to its front, just as my hand touched it, it opened a gap by itself!

  Inside is a gray, dim piece! I rubbed my eyes hard, but still couldn't see what was inside, still a dull haze! Just as I couldn't help myself and wanted to go in and take a closer look, a voice from my soul stopped me: "Wang Can!! If you go in now, you'll never come out again! Never come out again! Never come out again!......"