Chapter 5: The Ghost Flag

  Sucking the wolf's milk, Lei Zhen grew up day by day. By the time he was thirteen years old, Lei Zhen had grown to be a full 170 centimeters tall. The wolf mother would occasionally send prey to his doorstep, providing him with sufficient nutrition, making him look stronger than any child in the village. When he stood there, many people would unconsciously treat him as an adult, but at the same time, everyone thought that Lei Zhen was the most useless child in the entire village!

  Having lost a son once and then bringing him back to her side, after such great twists and turns, Lei Zheng's mother's concern for her son had reached a doting level.

  Other children, at the age of six or seven, would follow their parents to work in the fields. By eleven or twelve years old, they could already take on half of the household's heavy labor. However, Lei Zheng didn't even know how to use a sickle and hoe until he was thirteen years old.

  Lei Zheng's mother raised a few laying hens, and the mountain people would not eat the eggs they produced unless they were sick, celebrating a festival, or a woman was in confinement. They would save up these eggs until the peddler came to this small mountain village with his load on his back, and then the villagers could exchange their eggs for needles, thread, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and other such things from the peddler's hands.

  The whole small mountain village, only Lei Zhen could eat eggs every day. Lei Zhen's mother always managed to get some oil and fry an omelette for him every day, sprinkling a little soy sauce on top, which was absolutely a delicacy that even during the New Year, people in the small mountain village might not be able to taste.

  So every evening, when Lei Zheng was having dinner, there would always be a group of children squatting in front of their window, staring at the bowl of food in Lei Zheng's hands with wide eyes. Sometimes, Lei Zheng would pick up a small piece of egg drop soup with his chopsticks and toss it out the window. Immediately, a commotion would erupt outside, with sounds of scrambling and even fighting. At this time, Lei Zheng would smile smugly and make a face at his older sisters sitting at the dinner table, who were also quietly sniffing the air but never got to eat the egg drop soup.

  In Lei Zheng's heart, the egg was his exclusive privilege. Whether he ate it himself or teased those guys who were pressing against the window like a monkey trainer, that was his own choice. Otherwise, why did Er Jie secretly take a few eggs and exchange them with the peddler for a few skeins of colored silk thread, only to be slapped on the ear by her mother?

  Such a spoiled brat, obviously a second-rate guy, which family would be willing to marry their daughter off to him and let her suffer poverty and hardship for the rest of her life?

  Even if they use the most common way of changing relatives in the mountains, no one is willing to do so, just because of Lei Zheng's relationship. Lei Zheng's older sister is already 18 years old and looks pretty good, with a gentle and likable personality, yet she still can't find a husband. Lei Zheng, who has always been half-understanding about this kind of thing, once said to his older sister: "Sister, as long as you are always good to me, I will marry you in the future."

  After listening to Leizhen's words, Leizhen's older sister could only shake her head and sigh. After a long while, she stretched out her hand and gently tapped Leizhen's forehead, saying: "You, are really spoiled by your mother!"

  Lei Zhen just smiled and said nothing. He is his mother's only son, after all. His mother will have to rely on him for support in her old age, so why wouldn't she spoil him?

  Of course, Leizhen was not idle all day. Leizhen's mother found a master for Leizhen. This master could use a gun, although his gunplay was mediocre and even the standard of selling art was not enough, but under his mother's insistence, Leizhen still worshiped this master.

  The reason is simple. When Lei Zhen was full moon, he grabbed a "gun". Since he was destined to be with the gun for his whole life, let him learn Hongying Gun and Changqiang instead of being a soldier, holding a rifle on the battlefield as cannon fodder for the rich people.

  The master's marksmanship was not great, but his temper was very strange. He lived in a mountain cave several miles away from the village. In other words, every time Lei Zhen went to learn martial arts, he had to walk several miles of mountain roads. For those who practice martial arts, this kind of passive training is also a good choice.

  This naturally didn't faze Lei Zhen, every time he went to learn martial arts, he would call on Second Sister to carry him. If it wasn't for Second Sister putting a "gun" made of corn stalks on the kang during his full moon gift-grabbing ceremony, and coincidentally letting him grab it in his hand, how could he possibly run such mountain roads to go learn some useless gun techniques from a completely superficial master?

  Watching Lei Zhen, a half-grown boy who was already taller and stronger than an adult, lying on his relatively weak second sister, proudly walking through the streets, sometimes even patting his sister's shoulder like a general sitting on a high horse, making "giddy" sounds with his mouth, the villagers couldn't help but shake their heads in secret.

  "Alas..."

  Lei Zhen suddenly stretched out his hand and pulled a handful of Er Jie's hair, signaling her to "stop the horse", then jumped down from Er Jie's back. In the only place in the village that could be used as a gathering place, several circles of people had already surrounded it, without asking, it was known that the peddler who came to Wala Village once every few months with his goods on his back had arrived.

  A peddler, surrounded by a crowd of people, fanning himself with a straw hat and talking about something, suddenly opened his mouth and shouted: "Brother Zhang, have you brought some good stories to tell this time?"

  Everyone in the village knew that the peddler's surname was Zhang. Every time he came to Waverley Village with his load, after finishing business, he would ask the villagers for a bowl of water to drink and take the opportunity to tell everyone about what happened in the outside world. In this small mountain village, which is almost isolated from the world, such a peddler who comes only once every few months becomes the most direct channel for the mountain people to understand the outside world.

  Taking advantage of his height and physique, Leizhen carelessly pushed open the crowd of children gathered together and squeezed to the very inside. After Zhang Ge nodded slightly to indicate to Leizhen, he continued with his topic. It wasn't until half a while later that Leizhen finally understood: a group of robbers known as "Dongyang people" had broken in!

  "They're all so tall...” Zhang Da-ge stretched out his hand to gesture an exaggerated height, then he cupped his hands together to form a circle about the size of a pancake. "The Easterners look like they have a blue face and fangs, with a big bloody mouth. But the iron pot each of them carries on their back is only this big."

  Looking at the iron pot shape drawn by Zhang, Lei was shocked and widened his eyes. "No way, these Japanese people's iron pots are too small! Even if I eat, it's not enough to use, let alone they don't need each person to carry a pot on their back?!"

  "Hey, now you're getting somewhere!"

  "Those Easterners, if they can really afford to use big pots and eat their fill every day, would they have come to our place? Wherever they go, they burn and loot, each carrying a pot on their back. Why? Isn't it just to grab food and make cooking convenient?"

  Everyone around Zhang Dasheng nodded in agreement and accepted his seemingly reasonable explanation.

  "I also heard a secret," said Zhang, his face revealing a hint of mystery. He looked around cautiously, piquing everyone's curiosity, before leaning in and covering his mouth with his straw hat, lowering his voice to say: "It's said that these foreigners are human during the day but turn into ghosts at night, which is why many people call them 'ghost children.' To make it easier to command these ghosts at night, the corpse handlers even made special sun flags. As long as they raise these flags at night, the ghosts will see the sun flag and think it's still daytime, so they'll behave themselves and listen to orders, going wherever they're told to go. Remember, if you see such a ghost flag in the future, run as far away as possible!"

  Lei Zhen stared with wide eyes and asked cautiously: "But what if there are some clever ghosts, how can they not be deceived?"

  "This is easy, you think others haven't thought of this?!?"

  "Those corpse drivers not only have guns on their bodies, but also carry a knife of this length," Zhang said with a serious expression, "They even went to some shrine to invite some heavenly emperor or something, I don't know what that is, probably like those Taoist priests who claim to be able to exorcise ghosts. If they see any ghost not listening to orders, they'll pull out the knife and 'chop' it in two. This kind of intimidation works on the other ghosts too, after a few times, they'll all behave themselves."

  (Haha, the above content is purely personal opinion, if there's any similarity, it's truly an honor!)