Witchcraft

  According to Wang Chengbao's original plan, he most wanted to go to the village where the old village chief had died, but at that time, although China and Vietnam had stopped fighting, small-scale conflicts still occurred from time to time in the border area, and it had become a restricted area. Ordinary people could not enter, and the Qin brothers did not remember the specific location of the village either. After some discussion, the investigation team decided to go to the mysterious Miao ancient stockade first. It is already very clear that the Miao ancient stockade was actually the Miao village where I saw Ah Juan.

  Their route was almost the same as mine when I went to Miao Village. First, they arrived in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, then headed southwest into the mountains.

  Although Qin Guiren had made many marks when he left the Miao Village last time, it has been a year since then, and the marks were made in the deep mountains and old forests, so they also spent a lot of twists and turns in finding the Miao Village again. The ups and downs along the way are no longer described.

  To sum it up, when they arrived at Guzhai, two days had already passed.

  The ancient village is nestled between two mountains. My father and others stood in the dense forest on the mountain slope, overlooking the entire terrain of the ancient village.

  Qin Guiren pointed to a open area in the center of the ancient village, saying that was where the villagers worshiped the bronze coffin. He still remembered that when the villagers saw a young woman come out of the bronze coffin, they were not surprised but delighted, with eyes full of reverence as if they had met their gods. After the woman came out of the bronze coffin, the six villagers who carried the coffin quickly re-sealed it and seemed to have no intention of taking it back to their hometown, instead carrying it into a remote wooden house similar to a temple in the ancient village. Later, after a long time, the villagers did not come out, Qin Guiren and others felt strange and hastily retreated from the ancient village. Now, when he faced the ancient village again, his curiosity was still as strong as before, but this curiosity was always mixed with many fearful elements.

  Now, Qin Guiren has three professional historians by his side, and he hopes to get a comprehensive explanation of these bizarre events from the mouths of these three people.

  That night, they did not rashly go to Guzhai, because they were not sure if the villagers here would welcome their arrival.

  My father had originally planned to enter the ancient village openly and conduct an investigation, but was met with unanimous opposition from Wang Chengbao and the Qin brothers. At that time, my father was still a firm atheist, so he didn't quite believe in the words of the Qin brothers, who, as eyewitnesses and believers, insisted that the ancient village hid some unspeakable secrets. If they entered the village rashly, they might encounter danger, or at the very least, their investigation would be blocked by the villagers. Therefore, Wang Chengbao decided to sneak into the wooden house where the bronze coffin was hidden under the cover of night. My father opposed this, but had no choice; after all, the minority must obey the majority, and in order to maintain team unity, he decided to follow Wang Chengbao's plan.

  They first closely monitored the ancient village for a whole day, and found that the wooden house where Qin Guiren said there was a bronze coffin had no one entering or leaving from dawn to dusk. So, on the second night, they took advantage of the villagers' sleep and quietly snuck into the ancient village, coming to the front of the wooden house.

  The wooden house was built on the mountain, and its area was not large, about sixty or seventy square meters. When we arrived at the door, everyone was stunned, and it turned out that the windows and doors of the wooden house were all carved with totem-like symbols. It was these symbols again, which looked extremely familiar to Qin Guiren, and I also unconsciously thought of the symbols that Ah Jiaona had drawn on my face.

  Wang Chengbao and my father stared at these characters for a while, but neither of them understood. At this time, my father asked Duan Yiweng: "Duanzi, you specialize in the history and customs of ethnic minorities, can you take a look and understand what's on it?"

  Duan Yuwen looked at it for half a day and also furrowed his brow, saying: "This... I can see through it too."

  Wang Chengbao said disdainfully on the side: "Still specializing in the history and customs of ethnic minorities, it's not useful at all."

  The five of them hesitated for a moment, and Wang Chengbao said, "Forget it, whatever it is, talismans or words, let's just go in first."

  The wooden door had no lock, and Wang Chengbao pushed it open tentatively. The door creaked loudly in the silent night, making everyone's heart tighten with bated breath. Fortunately, nothing happened. The five of them plucked up their courage and walked into the wooden hut. As soon as they entered, a musty smell hit them in the face, indicating that the hut had probably not been opened for a long time.

  At first, everyone was worried that there might be someone in the house, but that strong musty smell seemed to have already indicated that it was absolutely impossible for anyone to exist in this house. The air here is very turbid and has a muddy smell.

  As soon as they entered, Wang Chengbao hastily opened the flashlight and swept it around the room, only to find that the entire house was empty, with nothing in it. The only thing that caught their attention was a stone cave on the wall opposite the door, about one meter high and half a meter wide. Everyone looked at each other in dismay, as this was completely different from what they had imagined beforehand. They had thought that when they pushed open the door, they would see a room like a temple, with the ancestors of the Miao people, Chi You, or other ancestors worshipped inside, and the strange bronze coffin placed in the center of the room. But now, a completely different scene was presented before their eyes.

  My father and Duan Yuwen looked around the other corners of the room again, while Wang Chengbao walked straight to the entrance of the stone cave, shining his flashlight at the pitch-black cave entrance. The Qin brothers stood by silently.

  The cave was very deep and had a downward slope, the flashlight couldn't shine on what was inside. Wang Chengbao stuck his head into the hole and sniffed, then pulled back and said doubtfully: "This seems to be an underground cellar."

  "Cellar?" Everyone was surprised, but after careful consideration, it didn't seem impossible. Firstly, the ancient village is located between two mountains, and on the way here, everyone found that the mountain bodies are mostly not high, not those thousands of meters above sea level peaks, but just small hills like hills, the rocks are not hard, very easy to dig, very suitable for building cellars, but because the slope is steep, it rains often here, in order to prevent rainwater from flowing into the cellar from the mountain, covering a small wooden house as a shelter also makes sense.

  Wang Chengbao pointed to the entrance of the cave and said, "The earthy smell in the house is coming from this stone cave. You all saw it earlier, this small wooden house was built on the side of the mountain, and the back of the house is almost attached to the entire mountain body. I think this cave might lead to the inside of the mountain."

  My father was not very convinced, so he went to shine a flashlight and found that there were indeed some stone steps extending down from the entrance of the stone cave. Then he turned his head and asked Qin Guiren: "Are you sure that the bronze coffin was carried into this wooden house at that time?"

  Qin Guiren nodded firmly and said, "I remember very clearly, it won't be wrong. At least before we left, the bronze coffin was carried into this wooden house. Of course, if the bronze coffin was later moved to another place, then I don't know."

  Wang Chengbao said on the side, "It doesn't matter whether it has been moved or not. If the bronze coffin hasn't been moved, then it must be inside. If it has been moved, then there's nothing inside. So, what's the point of talking about other things? Let's just go down and take a look, and we'll understand everything."

  After Wang Chengbao finished speaking, everyone was a little hesitant, especially Duan Yiwu. He was the youngest of these people and had experienced fewer things. At this moment, in an unknown Miao village, after listening to the strange experiences told by two retired soldiers, he felt a little scared when he was asked to walk into this deep cellar unarmed.

  Wang Chengbao felt very angry at everyone's hesitant look and said, "What's wrong? Are you afraid? How can your courage be so small? Old Qin, you two brothers have been soldiers after all, and have even gone to the battlefield. You don't dare to drill into such a small cellar?"

  As a soldier, he couldn't stand the provocation. Qin Gui's temperament was also very impulsive, and he immediately said: "Who's afraid? I'll go first!" He crouched down and prepared to crawl into the stone cave.

  Qin Guiren grabbed his younger brother at once and said, "Don't be impulsive all the time, I'll go down first."

  Qin Gui rolled his eyes and said, "Brother, do we have to take turns digging a hole? What's the big deal if I go down first? Is some kind of monster going to jump out of this pit?"

  In this way, several people each took a flashlight and crawled into the cellar.

  The depth of the cellar far exceeded everyone's imagination. Walking along the stone steps, it took at least five or six minutes, and the oxygen around was getting thinner and thinner. The deeper you went, the more dilapidated the stone steps became. As they walked, Qin Gui suddenly felt a little uneasy in his heart and said, "Where does this cellar lead to? Why is it so long?"

  Everyone ignored him, Qin Guiren wanted to say a few words of comfort to his brother, but he couldn't get them out either, so he just continued walking silently.

  After about the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, the downward tilt of the cellar gradually leveled out, and the originally narrow passage suddenly became spacious. Everyone arrived at a small open area, but when they got here, there was still no sign of the bronze coffin around them, instead, in the corner of this small space, there were more than a dozen large jars piled up.

  The color of the jars was reddish-brown, and they were covered in dust, as if they had been left there for many years. My father said, "It seems that this really is just an ordinary cellar, probably used for brewing wine." As he spoke, he walked towards the pile of jars.

  As soon as they entered the cellar, they could smell a faint aroma that was surprisingly similar to milk. The Qin brothers' interest was piqued when they heard it was wine, and they walked forward saying, "They say Chen's old cellar has the most fragrant and mellow wine, what harm is there in tasting a few cups?"

  My father was also deeply attracted to the fragrance, so he didn't stop them. The Qin brothers opened one of the jars and were about to dip their fingers in to taste it when Wang Chengbao stretched out his hand to stop them, saying: "Wait a minute, I feel like something is off."

  As he spoke, Wang Chengbao shone his flashlight into the jar. At this sight, everyone involuntarily took a cold breath. Inside the jar was an inky blackness, and a gigantic worm-like insect was slowly crawling within it.