Chapter 22: The Three Treasures of Peacock Plume

  Is the village haunted by zombies?

  Liu Weimin wrote two words on my leg: Ask ask.

  I climbed up and turned around to kneel on the chair, revealing a smile that I thought was very simple, and said to the big sister who was dressed in a rustic way: "Sister, what are you guys talking about?"

  The older sister was a bit embarrassed, forced a smile, and her eyes dodged, not daring to look at me. She said nothing had been said, but I told her I heard everything. Is it true that Guancun Village is haunted by zombies?

  Big sister closed her eyes, tilted her head and ignored me. I continued to say that we also want to go to Guanfu Village, can you tell us about it? Otherwise, we'll be eaten by zombies.

  As soon as she heard our destination, the older sister suddenly opened her eyes and exchanged a glance with the man beside her, asking me in a low voice what we were going to do.

  Liu Weimin had reminded me in advance, so I pretended to be mysterious and said: "Take a turn, take a look at the scenery, haha!"

  The older sister obviously didn't believe me, pouted and muttered a sentence, saying to me: "Our village is poor and remote, what scenery does it have? Young man, I'll be straightforward with you, my husband is the one who does that kind of work. You say, how many pieces do you want this time?"

  This big sister seems to be quite experienced, I weighed it in my heart and drew out three fingers: "Three boxes."

  I don't know what quantity is considered a large customer, but three boxes should be quite a few, right? Those in this line of work definitely won't provide free shipping. I'm taking the long-distance bus instead of driving, and if there's too much, no one will believe it, and we can't bring it back either.

  That big sister was very disdainful and gave me a white eye, closed her eyes and ignored me. The man next to her was even more extreme, scolding me as an idiot, making my stomach ache with anger. Just as I was about to ask Liu Weimin what was going on, he turned his head towards the gap between the seat and the window and said: "Three boxes of white goods, five black ones, and two kilograms of Luo Han fruit."

  As soon as she heard this, the older sister pounced on the man's body with the speed of a vicious dog seeing a bone, but it was to talk to Liu Weimin from the gap, however, Liu Weimin completely ignored her.

  The man also burst out laughing, and the woman, who was pressing against him, found it inconvenient to shake hands, so she nodded at me with a smile all over her face and said: "It turns out that we are brothers in Taoism, sorry for not showing respect earlier. We'll take care of all the goods you want, is that okay?"

  I agreed on the spot and said that we would discuss the specific details later, let's talk about that zombie thing first, if it's too dangerous, we won't go!

  Brother Li immediately advised us not to go, saying that the village was infested with zombies and it was very fierce. One person dies after going there, corpses are scattered all over the place, blood flows like a river, and there are hardly any survivors left in the village.

  I gave him a sidelong glance, what's wrong with this guy? Why did they run back there again?

  The guy in the other row couldn't take it anymore, grabbed my collar and dragged me away, sneering at those two guys: "My little brother is out for the first time, indeed a bit silly, but you can't bully him like that! If you want to say something, say it, if not, then just scatter, no need to make a big deal, who's going to eat pork with hair on it?!"

  Li Ge looked embarrassed, glanced around cautiously, and since the other passengers didn't notice them, he lowered his voice and said: "Just kidding, haha, it's indeed a bit exaggerated, but that zombie was really fierce, it's our ancestor who became like this, you don't know, in the past he was a high-ranking official wearing a peacock feather hat with three eyes on his forehead, isn't that fierce?"

  In the Ming and Qing dynasties, officials would embroider animals on their official robes, called Bu Fu. Civil officials embroidered birds to show refinement, while military officials embroidered beasts to show ferocity. Different ranks had different animals embroidered. I only knew that a lion embroidery was for first-rank military officials. After hearing Li Ge's explanation, I realized that peacock embroidery should be for third-rank civil officials. And that hat with the flower-shaped finial is unique to the Qing dynasty... So, does that mean our village has produced a Qing dynasty zombie?

  Liu Weimin is still listening with his ear sideways, without any indication, so I speak according to my own thinking. Then I ask Brother Li, how long has that old corpse been buried? Is it a soft and mushy wet corpse like a living person, or is it a half-rotten, jumping monster like in the movies?

  Li Ge's face looked a bit strange, and he told us that Lao Zu Gong had just passed the seventh day of his death, but before his death, he was just skin and bones, and it should be the same as in the movie.

  He's really angry now, saying you're all Qing dynasty remnants. Are you telling me it's just been 49 days? How many years did your ancestor live?

  Li Ge carefully counted on his fingers, somewhat uncertainly saying: "Between 120 and 125? I know you don't believe it, actually I don't either. The people who could prove his age have long since died. Anyway, when I was young, my grandfather still had to address him as 'grandfather'. As for whether he was a high-ranking official in the Qing dynasty, nobody knows. At least his family had peacock feathered ceremonial robes and some correspondence with officials, unfortunately all of which were sold by his grandson... His grandson is also dead, on the day of his funeral, Old Tribe Head wore an official uniform to see him off."

  While he was talking, I used my mobile phone to search the internet about the Qing Dynasty. If a 30-year-old became a third-rank official, then by now he would be over 130 years old. Then I searched for long-lived elderly people and was really shocked - there were even people over 200 years old, and not just one!

  It's really strange, how did a Qing dynasty old man like you survive the struggle sessions?

  Li Ge said, Lao Zu Gong is a person who has the final say in the village. Firstly, he is older and has high prestige. Secondly, he is also a good person, and everyone respects him very much. If I had known he would become a zombie, I should have cremated him earlier.

  I asked him if people bitten by old zombies would become zombies again?

  Li Ge said he didn't know, because it's still unclear whether there really are any zombies. All that's certain is that two little girls in the village had their blood sucked out, and someone discovered that Lao Zu Gong's grave was desecrated, with his coffin open. That's what led people to suspect a zombie, but the strange thing is that the two girls only had one puncture wound on their necks, whereas zombies are supposed to have two sharp fangs. It's not like Lao Zu Gong would become a zombie and then go get a tooth pulled before starting his killing spree, right?

  Yu Wu and I both laughed, he asked Li Ge, "Has anyone been invited from Xiangxi to catch a zombie?"

  Li Ge also laughed: "Corpse handler? More ruthless than the Taoist priest of Dragon and Tiger Mountain? It's still uncertain now, and it can't be ruled out that someone killed the girl and coincidentally someone dug up the old clan elder's grave. That set of peacock feather clothes he wore wasn't coveted by few people!"

  He chatted with me for a while, then wanted to discuss buying antiques again. I said we'd talk about it when we arrived at the destination, so I sat back and thought about chatting with Liu Weimin instead. But he kept tapping his fingers and calculating, speaking fluently, and I didn't dare interrupt him. After he finished, he asked me to ask Li Ge, on which day Lao Zu Gong passed away.

  I turned my head and asked a question. Liu Weimin also heard the answer, and mysteriously said to me: "On the same day as the old lady on the floor above your house."

  I was stunned for a moment and asked him what connection there was between them.

  Liu Weimin shook his head and said he didn't know, but he told me with certainty that under normal circumstances, a Qing dynasty descendant wearing official attire would be buried, and it's impossible to lift the coffin, let alone move the body.

  I said the zombies in the movie were all wearing Qing dynasty official robes.

  Liu Weimin made a joke that broke the sky, the good guys in the movie never die, he asked me to try and find some zombies to see if the halo of goodness would open.

  He asked a few more questions, and every time he encountered a key one, Liu Weimin was either tight-lipped or made jokes. The only explanation he gave was about the three boxes of white goods and five black ones. He said that in this line of business, people usually don't open their shops for three years, and when they do, they make enough money to last them three years. I asked him to open his mouth and show me three boxes of fake antiques, but even the most ordinary broken porcelain wouldn't sell, let alone three boxes of Yuan Datou (a type of Chinese coin), so naturally, he didn't bother doing business with me.

  White goods refer to counterfeit products that are openly displayed in small shops or street stalls, while black goods refer to high-end counterfeit products that are difficult to detect, such as fake ancient bronze artifacts. These products are often smuggled out of the country and sold to foreigners at exorbitant prices. The people involved in this trade have a reputation for being ruthless and cunning, which is why Li referred to me as his "brother in the trade". Two jin of Luohan fruit refers to two high-end counterfeit Buddhist artifacts, such as relics from a famous monk or ancient scriptures, which are extremely valuable and highly sought after by collectors abroad.

  Once they get hooked on faith, some people go crazy.

  We chatted all the way, and as soon as it got dark, we arrived at Guan Ci Village. We exchanged contact information with Brother Li and his sister, and then went our separate ways. At the entrance of the village, there was a stone tablet with two large traditional Chinese characters on the front - "Guan Ci". On the back were small characters that recorded the year and month when a certain official gave the village its name, as well as the official's life story. However, many of the characters had been scratched out, probably by Zhang Tian Shi to vent his anger.

  Liu Weimin said that there were less than 400 households in the village, with just over a thousand people. Huang Lao's ancestral home was the largest house in the south of the village, with a large willow tree planted at the entrance. Now his two sons and daughter-in-law lived there. The daughter-in-law was the wife of the third son, who had now become a widow. She was 27 or 28 years old this year, and it would be best if I could get her to marry me.

  You'd better say, since you have children, you should have kidnapped them long ago!

  Liu Weimin said he was not that kind of person.

  I didn't think much either, and I blurted out a boastful sentence: "Awesome, what can't you do?"

  Liu Weimin was taken aback, but also calmly smiled and explained that kidnapping is easy, but sending the message to Old Man Huang's hands is very difficult. Even if it's sent, Old Man Huang pretends not to know and refuses to show up, leaving him helpless. After all, he can't really tear the ticket!

  After finishing speaking, Liu Weimin pulled a long face and turned to leave, obviously somewhat unhappy. I hurriedly followed him to apologize. When we arrived at the only village-run hostel in Guanci Village, Liu Weimin handed me the hat he had bought on the road and asked me to open three rooms.

  There were usually no guests, and the reception area was very quiet, with not even a light on. The corridor was dark, and an old woman sat at the bar, cracking melon seeds as if she hadn't seen us. I steeled myself to speak to her, following Liu Weimin's instructions, and asked for the three rooms at the end of the first-floor corridor. She slammed the keys down on the counter and didn't look at us again.

  I gave Yu Wu a signal, asking him to come to my room for a chat after a while. After checking in, Yu Wu arrived soon. Before he could say anything, Liu Wei Min also pushed the door open and asked if we were tired.

  I've just offended him, how dare I say I'm tired? Just let him give orders as he pleases.

  Liu Weimin smiled strangely: "Not tired, just right. Take advantage of the darkness and no one noticing, you go out for a walk. If you meet someone sitting at the door, ask them if they want to take on a black job, say it's introduced by Old Man Huang, and ask if they've seen anything recently."

  He looked at me and then at him, jumped up and said: "Old master, I didn't say anything bad about you, you must be tired from the journey, why don't you take a bath first, I'll scrub your back for you?"

  Liu Weimin smiled and agreed, saying to me: "Then you go alone, if you're afraid, buy a scarf to wrap around!" After finishing speaking, he turned around and left.

  I was stunned, wasn't it just a sarcastic remark at the village entrance? Revenge came so quickly!

  Taking advantage of the darkness when no one is paying attention... what if I'm noticed by a zombie!

  He refused to go out with me no matter what, saying that even if he met a fierce ghost, he could communicate with it for a few sentences and beg for mercy. But who has ever seen a zombie negotiate with you?

  So I didn't go either.

  Don't bother to persuade me with good words, saying that I don't have to come is fine. The key is to save Wenjing. Now Liu Weimin has spoken out, no matter what, I have to go out and take a look. If I really annoy Liu Weimin, he'll turn around and leave immediately. I'll still have to ask him to stay. If I'm afraid, I can just smoke a few cigarettes at the door, take a walk around, and hurry back.

  Then he asked me if I had anything to say. I opened the door and took a look, making sure no one was listening behind the wall, then asked: "Do you think Liu Weimin is reliable?"