Chapter 9: Bleeding White Bones

  This voice makes me feel a bit eerie and familiar, as if I've heard it somewhere before.

  For a moment, I tensed up all over, staring fixedly at the main gate of the hall with unblinking eyes.

  After the croaking of the toad, the outside fell into a dead silence again, and even the wind seemed to have disappeared. Time had stopped flowing. I vaguely felt that something else must have appeared in the yard, and now it was facing off against whatever was standing in front of the gate.

  At this moment, I suddenly thought of the situation when I met my second uncle that night. At that time, I seemed to hear a croaking sound from the pigsty, and then my second uncle walked out from under the eaves of the pigsty...

  For some unknown reason, I felt a chill run down my spine and didn't dare continue thinking about it.

  Just then, the terrifying and cold screeching sound outside the door started again, with a hint of intimidation and anxiety. As soon as this sound began, the croaking frog sound in the courtyard also responded immediately, without retreating. After a moment, I heard a sudden loud crash in the courtyard, and the eerie and cold screech suddenly echoed throughout the entire courtyard. Then, it suddenly disappeared into the distance, fading away with the rustling of the wind.

  After a moment of silence, two low and calm croaks came from the courtyard, just like before.

  After a gust of night wind passed by, all around fell into silence once again.

  The chill that had been lingering in the air slowly dissipated, and the icy pressure that had made the air seem to congeal also dispersed. After a while, I felt that the crisis outside had been resolved, and I slowly let out a breath, but for a moment, I couldn't say anything. Standing there dazed for a moment, I walked over to the door of the house next door, knocked gently on it, and said, "Second Aunt, Little Sister, it's all right now."

  The room echoed with the soft and surprised voice of Little Sister, followed by a footstep sound inside the house. It walked to the door, paused for a moment, and slowly opened it. After the door was open, I saw Second Aunt and Little Sister looking at me with pale faces, speechless. I took a light breath and said: "The thing outside has left, it's okay now."

  Upon hearing this, Erniang and Xiaomei's tense faces finally relaxed a bit.

  "Xiao Yu, are you alright?" Erniang asked with concern as she looked at me.

  I shook my head and said, "Second Sister, I'm fine."

  "Brother, what was that noise just now outside? It sounded like a mouse and a toad calling out, it scared me to death." My little sister said with a lingering fear, tugging on my hand.

  I didn't know what was outside the door either, and I didn't know how to answer her, so I just gently stroked her head in comfort.

  "By the way, why hasn't your second uncle gotten up?" Erniang suddenly asked.

  "My second uncle is not in the house," I said truthfully.

  There is tobacco growing at home, and the drying shed needs someone to add coal at night. Second uncle sometimes for convenience, simply set up a simple bed next to the drying shed to sleep. Now that second uncle is not in the house, he should be in the drying shed.

  The second daughter also thought of it and was shocked, worriedly saying: "I hope nothing has happened to him."

  I thought for a moment and said: "Second sister-in-law, little sister, you two stay in the house, I'll go outside to take a look at second uncle."

  Although I feel that the danger outside has been lifted, who knows if that thing will come back? Now if I let Erniang and Little Sister go out, I really don't feel at ease.

  Little sister said: "Brother, we'll accompany you, three people will be better taken care of."

  "No need," I shook my head and said, "You and Erniang stay here to take care of Zhao Yu'er, I'll go take a look and come back soon."

  Little sister wanted to say something else, but Second Aunt stopped her and looked at me, instructing: "Xiao Yu, you be more careful yourself."

  I nodded, letting Erniang close the door, then walked back to the front gate of the main hall. After taking a deep breath, I opened the gate. Suddenly, a cool night breeze hit me in the face, making my whole body shudder. Outside, the night was quiet and peaceful, with silver-white starlight shining down gently, and the night wind blowing softly, everything seemed so calm, as if nothing had happened just now.

  I walked into the yard, and under the starlight, I saw that there were withered and yellow marks on the grass. My heart was secretly shocked. Suddenly, a dark glaze of ceramics caught my attention from among the grass. I squatted down, carefully dug it out, and found that it was an old ceramic snuff bottle. This kind of snuff bottle is made in an ancient style, often used by elderly people in rural areas when they smoke. I remember my second uncle had one too, but why would it be here?

  But I didn't think much, picked up the tobacco pouch and put it in my pocket, and quietly walked towards the nearby smokehouse behind the house. As I approached the smokehouse, I heard Second Uncle's snoring sound, seemingly sleeping soundly.

  "Could it be that the big commotion just now didn't wake up Second Uncle?" I thought to myself, walking closer to take a look, and found Second Uncle sprawled out asleep on the simple plank bed, snoring away.

  "Second Uncle," I gently pushed Second Uncle and called out, "Wake up."

  After pushing him several times, Second Uncle finally woke up, rubbed his eyes dazedly and looked at me asking: "Xiao Yu, what's wrong?"

  "Something's happened." I said directly.

  "Second Uncle was shocked and said: 'What did you say?'"

  I carefully observed his expression and found that his reaction was not fake at all, which made me a bit surprised. But I didn't think much about it and immediately told him about Zhao Yu'er's situation briefly. Second Uncle was shocked to hear this, quickly got out of bed and said: "Take me to see her quickly."

  He slipped on his slippers and immediately walked with me to the front house. I followed behind Second Uncle, feeling a coolness emanating from him, like an air conditioner, even giving off a hint of chilliness. My mood became very complicated, not daring to think too much, just quietly following along.

  After walking for a while, I finally couldn't help it and suddenly stopped Second Uncle, took out the ceramic snuff bottle from my pocket and said: "Second Uncle, this is what I picked up in the yard just now, is it yours?"

  "My uncle was startled and said, 'It's mine.' Then he suddenly realized and said, 'So it was dropped in the yard, I've been searching for it in the house for a long time.' He took the snuff bottle from me, put it in his pocket, turned around and continued walking."

  As we walked to the front gate, suddenly there was a murmur of voices. I saw several uncles, including my eldest uncle, walking towards our courtyard, discussing something. My second uncle immediately turned around and walked into the courtyard, greeting them.

  At this time, Erniang and Xiaomei in the house also heard the movement outside and came out. Seeing that Shu uncle was safe and sound, Erniang and Xiaomei put down their worries. Shu uncle and Dabo as well as several other uncles were discussing what had just happened, their tone was serious, they would look back at the mountain from time to time while speaking.

  "I'm talking about the literary mountain," said the elder, looking towards the back mountain with concern. "Didn't you seal off the ghost cave with a spell last time? How can this kind of situation happen again?"

  Fourth uncle spat on the ground and said indignantly, "Big brother, what's there to say? Last time second brother must have sealed the ghost cave. Now it's midnight and there are ghosts, isn't it those few city brats who caused trouble? What nonsense about no ghosts in the world! The more people believe, the more ghosts there are. They're simply talking rubbish! Now they've gotten their retribution..."

  Fourth Uncle became more and more enthusiastic as he spoke, but Big Aunt couldn't help but glare at him and say: "Fourth Brother, say a few less words."

  Then, Second Uncle brought Eldest Uncle and several other uncles into the house to take a look at Zhao Yu'er.

  "So it seems that among the five of them, only this girl managed to escape?" The old man sighed when he saw Zhao Yu'er.

  "Great Uncle, I think others should have escaped too, they just didn't come here." I couldn't help but say, not wanting to think of the situation as too pessimistic.

  "It's a wonder those kids are still alive." Fourth Uncle said bluntly, "These city folks always think they're so smart, looking down on us country folk and refusing to listen. Now look what's happened!"

  I thought of the situation yesterday afternoon, including Erniang and Village Chief among many people who advised Zhao Yuer and others not to go to the Ghost Cave, but they didn't listen... However, I have some self-blame in my heart, thinking that if I had forcibly stopped them yesterday afternoon, perhaps this tragedy would not have occurred now.

  "Alas, Fourth Brother, just say a few less words, no one wants to see these children die unjustly." Eldest Uncle sighed and said.

  Not long after, I heard some noise outside the yard again. Looking out of the window, I found that the old village chief was startled and rushed over with several villagers. They saw Zhao Yu'er, listened to Big Brother briefly telling what had happened, and were extremely shocked.

  "Alas, what a calamity!" The old village chief sighed to the sky, his eyes welling up with tears as he looked at Second Uncle and said: "Wenshan, what are you waiting for? Hurry up and call the police."

  Second Uncle responded with a sound and hurried to make a call, but it was late at night, like in rural police stations where no one is on duty many times at night, so after calling several times, no one answered.

  Listening to the beeping sound on the phone, I felt an unusual heaviness in my heart. Returning to Zhao Yu'er's room, I saw that although she had fainted, her breathing was still normal, and I let out a slight sigh of relief.

  "Brother," Little Sister came to my side and looked at Zhao Yu'er with concern, asking "Is Sister Zhao okay?"

  "Don't worry, she's just scared, should be fine." I said.

  In the second half of the night, villagers kept coming to our house to see Zhao Yu'er, and we couldn't sleep at all. After struggling until dawn, almost everyone in Yunlongba knew about Zhao Yu'er's situation. However, it wasn't until 8 o'clock that my uncle finally got through to the police hotline. Taking advantage of the fact that the police hadn't arrived yet, the old village chief led some elderly villagers towards Hou Shan Gou Tou Po (Dog Head Slope). My little sister and I followed Second Uncle there, while Second Aunt stayed behind to take care of Zhao Yu'er. When we arrived at Dog Head Slope and saw the situation in front of the haunted cave, we couldn't help but gasp in shock.

  Only the grass in front of the cave was stained with blood, and some bloody white bones were scattered on the grass. It's like someone eating chicken legs and throwing away the bones at random, it's really terrible to look at. My little sister looked pale and trembled all over, tightly grasping my hand. Others also saw this scene and turned pale with fright, obviously Zhao Yu'er's companions had been eaten alive by something.