Witchcraft

  Compared to last night, the bronze coffin is now even brighter in color, as if it had been washed clean by the fresh blood that flowed out of it last night. Under the sunlight at noon, the bronze coffin shone with a blue light, dazzling people's eyes, looking like new.

  Qin Guiren tried to talk to the young villagers, but it seemed that only the deceased village chief could speak Chinese. The others didn't understand what Qin and his companions were saying. However, through gestures, they managed to understand each other's meaning. One of the villagers pointed at Qin and then at himself, said something in their native language, and walked towards the mountain forest by himself.

  Qin Guiren and others did not dare to slack off, closely following the villagers' footsteps, they once again stepped into the dense forest.

  I won't go into details about the ups and downs along the way. In the deep mountains and old forests, encountering poisonous snakes and insects is a normal thing, and there's no need to elaborate on that.

  A group of people set out on the road, and this walk lasted for a whole five days. What puzzled Qin Guiren and his men was that the six young men carrying the coffin hardly ever talked to each other, they seemed to be in a hurry, and during the day, they almost had no time to rest, when they were hungry, they would take out dry food from their backpacks and eat while walking. At night, they also had very little rest time, with several people taking turns keeping watch, each watch consisting of one villager and one of Qin Guiren's soldiers, which showed that they did not trust each other at all. Every night, they spent the night in the crackling sound of the fire heap and the eerie rustling sounds deep in the mountains, hardly sleeping a wink.

  On the third day, Qin Guiren and others gradually felt that they couldn't keep up with the pace of those mountain people. Those mountain people seemed to be unaffected and continued on their way, as if they didn't take them seriously. Several times, the cook soldier shouted at those mountain people to slow down, but they just paused for a moment and didn't slow down their pace.

  "The cook complained: 'This damn thing is not taking us out, it looks like they want to get rid of us.'"

  Qin Guiren had the same feeling at this time, but as the leader of this team, he had to calm everyone's emotions and said: "Don't talk nonsense, since they promised to take us out of the mountain, they won't cheat us. I think they are in a hurry because they have something urgent."

  "It's not like we need to rush that much, I think they're not even human, walking such a long way, don't mention how tired we are, I see they haven't even sweated, it's really damn strange." The cook thought the mountain people wouldn't understand what he was saying anyway, so he said loudly.

  Qin Gui chopped at the vines and branches on the road with his knife, saying: "I think Old Han was right, it's too strange. Think about it, even if they are mountain people, their leg strength is better than ordinary people, but we are regular army troops after all, our training must be more than theirs, we're exhausted like this, while they can still carry that bronze coffin together and walk so fast, it's simply unbelievable."

  Upon further reflection, Qin Guihe's words were indeed correct. Although they didn't seem too tired, the massive bronze coffin was certainly not light in weight, considering its size and material. In this winding and difficult-to-walk mountain forest, they carried the bronze coffin with ease, maintaining its balance without letting it fall, and moving swiftly and effortlessly, almost as if walking on flat ground. The more the soldiers thought about it, the stranger it seemed, and a chill ran down their backs.

  Qin Guihe walked up to Qin Guiren and whispered: "Brother, I think there's something wrong with these villagers. Should we check on them at night?"

  Qin Gui replied in a low voice, "It's not just those few villagers, I think the whole village is strange. They're carrying that bronze coffin, there must be something wrong with it too. From now on, you guys need to pay more attention to them."

  Qin Gui nodded and continued to use his machete to clear a path, unsure if the villagers ahead had overheard their conversation.

  From then on, they were vigilant about the six villagers at all times. It's a bit funny to think about it, after all, Qin Guiren and others are real guns and nuclear bombs of the Liberation Army, while the six coffin bearers are just unarmed villagers, but now the situation is that these soldiers are actually afraid of those villagers.

  Under everyone's close surveillance, the strangeness of those villagers soon appeared.

  That evening, they were still rushing to catch up, the villagers in front of them were walking very fast, and Qin Guiren and others did not dare to stop, almost running towards the front.

  It was the turn of the cook to lead the way, and he hacked at the branches that blocked their path with a machete, but he was clearly not good at it. It would be easy for him to cut potato shreds as thin as needles, but cutting through those tough vines was no small feat.

  All along the way, they walked and walked, when suddenly that cook soldier let out a loud "wa" of despair, his figure flashed by, and in an instant he vanished into the thicket of trees before everyone's eyes.

  Qin Guiren and others rushed over to check, it turned out that the cook had slipped into a ditch. The ditch was not big, estimated to be about three square meters in size, but it was extremely deep, and it happened to be right in the middle of the mountain road they were walking on, with small steep slopes on both sides, making it difficult to walk. Unfortunately, the entrance of the ditch was covered with weeds, and people walking here would easily fall into the ditch if they weren't careful, and without someone else's help, they wouldn't be able to climb out for a while, it was simply a natural trap.

  Qin Guiren and others quickly pulled the cook soldier up, fortunately, the cook soldier did not suffer too much, only a few scratches on his arm, otherwise there was no major problem.

  "What a damn bad luck! Those people in front didn't even warn me, they're all damn mute!" The cook soldier said discontentedly.

  "Alright, alright, gentlemen, stop complaining. Look, those villagers don't even know what we're waiting for. If we don't hurry up, I'm afraid we'll lose them."

  Everyone looked up and saw that the villagers had already walked to a very far place, almost only seeing a few people's heads walking in the distance. Qin Guiren gave an order, and everyone rushed forward quickly.

  As he ran, Qin Guiren's mind began to doubt: earlier, he had seen clearly that the villagers were walking from the place where the cook soldier fell into the ditch, but why didn't they fall in? If it was said that the villagers had sharp eyes and discovered the ditch, then no matter what, they should have jumped over it, but he had seen very accurately that the bronze coffin had been extremely stable all along. In fact, from the beginning when they set out from the village, the bronze coffin had hardly shaken at all, and on this rugged mountain road, the stability of the bronze coffin was even a bit abnormal.

  Qin Guiren thought the more he thought, the more it didn't feel right, and then cold sweat came down. He found that from the beginning, he and other soldiers had neglected a very important detail - those six pallbearers were always walking in front of them, but they did not use knives to open the way like Qin Guiren and others, but instead walked smoothly all the way. And the road that Qin Guiren and others followed was all thorns and vines, which required an axe to clear the way before they could pass through.

  Is this why? Can those villagers walk through the grass and trees? Why did they carry the bronze coffin across the ditch without any bumps? Are those villagers not walking from above, but floating over from above?

  Qin Guiren's heart was racing, his mouth dry and tongue parched, and he felt extremely tense. Fortunately, he found that no one else had noticed these tiny details, otherwise it would have caused a certain degree of panic. However, this speculation was too far-fetched, and even he himself didn't quite believe it. It seemed that if he wanted to know the truth, he would have to go and investigate personally.

  At night, the villagers lit up bonfires and beckoned Qin Guiren and others to come over. Several people lay down around the bonfire, and the cook's physical strength had reached its limit, panting heavily there.

  Qin Guiren said: "I'll take the first night watch, you all go to sleep first."

  It wasn't long after the voice fell that the cook's heavy snoring sound had already started, he was really tired, in the past few nights he could still do half asleep and half awake, keeping a state of high alert at all times, but now, he couldn't take care of so much anymore, his eyes closed, almost instantly entering a dream.

  Those villagers also arranged the order of night watch, the first one to keep watch was a young man with high cheekbones, he and Qin Guiren sat by the fire heap, not speaking to each other, just sitting there quietly.

  Time passed minute by minute, and Qin Guiren occasionally looked up at the starry sky. The starry sky there was far more magnificent than that of the city, with a vast expanse of darkness on the ground, and the Milky Way had never been so clearly visible across the sky. The Big Dipper in the sky was clear as day. Before Qin Guiren and his companions entered the village, they had tried to use the starry sky as their guide, but the forest was too dense, and they often walked a few steps before the starry sky above was blocked by the dense treetops. When they saw the North Star again, they found that they had already strayed from their original route, lost once more in the dense forest.

  Qin Guiren pulled out a half cigarette from his pocket, lit it with the fire from the fire pit, took a deep drag, and then handed the cigarette to the villager. For men who smoke, two strangers offering each other a cigarette can immediately bring them closer together. However, the villager simply turned around, gave Qin Guiren a faint glance, didn't say a word, and turned back around, ignoring him.

  Qin Guiren looked at the other person, not giving himself face, and awkwardly smiled twice. He put the half cigarette in his mouth and said "I'm going to the bathroom."

  The villagers looked up at him again, but still didn't say anything. Qin Guiren walked around the fire pit and came to a tree closest to the bronze coffin. After urinating, Qin Guiren did not immediately return to where he was sitting earlier, but instead carefully turned his head back to look at the bronze coffin and the other five villagers sleeping around it.

  The sound of snoring filled the air, and the five villagers seemed to be sleeping very soundly. Taking another look, the night watchman didn't seem to have noticed anything either. Qin Guiren plucked up his courage, walked over to the bronze tube, and quietly crouched down.

  This was the first time he had watched this bronze coffin at such a close distance, and after taking a closer look, he finally saw clearly the totem patterns on the bronze coffin. It turned out that the totem patterns on the bronze coffin were not some auspicious cloud patterns, but some mountains, rivers, grasses, flying birds and walking beasts, only the painting method was more abstract, almost just a few simple arcs, so from a distance it looked like auspicious cloud patterns. Moreover, among those patterns, there were indeed some unclear words, which did not look like Chinese characters, but rather like texts composed of several tadpole-like lines.

  The bronze coffin looked very heavy, but when the six villagers lifted it, it seemed very easy. This not only made Qin Guiren produce a great deal of curiosity, he wanted to lift it with his own hands and try it out to see just how heavy this bronze coffin was.

  But thinking of the night when this bronze coffin flowed with crimson blood, Qin Guiren retreated a little. However, he was after all a soldier and still had some blood in him, so he gritted his teeth and stomped his foot, ready to lift the bronze coffin.

  Just as Qin Guiren's hand was about to touch the bronze coffin, suddenly, a slender and icy hand grasped his wrist tightly.