Twenty-fourth (1) County Annals

  Two days of hospitalization made my brain surprisingly clear, this clarity exceeded when I first arrived in Qinghe Town. My body felt an unprecedented lightness, making me not only doubt whether it was the night before departure, but also the night with lightning and thunder, and the red-clothed female ghost back to back had actually started to fever.

  It's just that I haven't realized it myself.

  The first feeling of being conscious was that this thing looked so strange.

  I know this sounds like nonsense, but it's really how I feel. The whole thing came too suddenly and too quickly, completely overturning my worldview and cognitive abilities.

  When people encounter such things at this time, they will definitely have a little doubt.

  Why did this thing happen like this?

  Why did it happen?

  Dai Ai said she wanted to get married, but the ancient village was deserted and I didn't see her anywhere. Besides, what kind of wedding atmosphere could that gloomy village possibly have?

  Did she get married in Qinghe Town or in Gucun?

  No, this question is unimportant, what matters is who she wants to marry and what thing she wants to marry?

  Fortunately, I live in an era of information, and I am the kind of person who cannot live without a computer. After leaving the hospital, I did not immediately return to the ancient village as planned yesterday, but instead found an internet cafe, where I must thoroughly investigate the past of the ancient village.

  Take a look at how terrible a wedding is in Zhao's aunt's mouth.

  Sitting in an internet cafe, the feeling of reconnecting to the network is like being reconnected with the entire world. It's as if I've suddenly appeared from the edge of the world and am now dancing at its center.

  This feeling can only be understood by people like me who are heavily dependent on the internet.

  I entered "Gu Cun Gui Cun" on Baidu and got many search results, but only a few of them were relevant, which mentioned the recent discovery of a ghost village that became popular among tourists.

  I know this is about an ancient village. These people have been on TV recently, with men and women pretending to be mysterious and making people laugh.

  This entry doesn't have the past of an ancient village, and I tried inputting wedding into it again, none of which conform to an ancient village, most of which are filled with joyful and boastful new people, completely different from what I imagined.

  I tried many keywords, but none of them could find any information about the ancient village. The village was too small and didn't even count as a pebble on the internet. Moreover, people like Aunt Zhao who came from the village were so evasive about it that even if someone occasionally shared some ghost stories online, they would eventually be drowned out by the vastness of the network.

  I have no choice but to resort to this, people who are addicted to the internet will browse online news and watch videos even when they have nothing to do, just to make up for the lack of internet use recently.

  I was browsing online when I saw a video of some fellow donkeys being interviewed, which I had seen before. At that time, I didn't know that Gui Village was actually Gu Village, and it was like watching a mentally ill person perform, basically fast-forwarding through most of it.

  This time, it suddenly appeared in my line of sight, and I felt that even the heavens wanted me to take a good look again. I opened the video, put on my headphones, and watched second by second, feeling that my initial impression was correct - this group of people were all speaking some kind of nonsensical gibberish, scaring themselves.

  Some necks have scratches, some beds look very clean, some chairs move, tables run, some mobile phones have no signal and so on.

  I lost interest and couldn't help but fast forward, until finally the host invited a online detective to comment on this matter, then I suddenly realized why I wanted to watch this video.

  I know this guy, he's one of my QQ friends. We often chat with each other about nothing in particular and tease each other from time to time.

  I opened QQ and found him. I first sent a smiling face, and after more than ten minutes, he replied, saying "What's up? Writing code?"

  I said, you're even on TV?

  He smiled with some pride and said, "You just saw? I shouted in our group for several days."

  I said, I didn't notice, what's your view on that ghost village?

  He said, where in the world has ghosts, it's all just scaring oneself.

  I said, aren't you just writing ghost stories? Don't you even believe it?

  He said, if I believe it, then I have to write myself into being mentally ill. Every time I write, I tell myself this is fake, it's fake. Besides, who has seen a ghost? Have you seen a ghost? This thing is just like a virgin, everyone has heard of it but no one has seen it.

  I said, would you tell me about your thoughts on Ghost Village? Did you hear anything unusual that day?

  He said, "How come you're so interested? Don't you also want to write suspense and steal my rice bowl?"

  I said, even if I wrote it, it's not as good as yours, is it? What are you afraid of?

  He said, "What's wrong with you? Have you seen a ghost? How come you're suddenly so humble?"

  I'm telling you, bro, I really don't have much time, can you say something useful?

  He said that day I went from head to toe, really didn't find anything useful, all were just scaring themselves. However, if you are really interested in this village, you can go take a look, who knows what you might discover.

  I said I'm just around here, but nothing was found. Do you have a good way? I want to know the past of Ghost Village, but nothing can be found on the internet, and people who meet are not willing to say it. Can you help me think of a way?

  He paused for a long time and said that in general, if it were him, he would go check the county annals. The question is, what exactly did you run into that made you so interested?

  I gave a vague answer saying I had no inspiration and wanted to find some, see if I could steal your thunder.

  The other party laughed and ended this conversation.

  However, this solution is really good, check the county annals, and it's possible to find some clues.

  It's now called Qinghe Town, I'm not sure if it was called Qinghe County before. I went to the town library and explained my intention to the librarian. After checking the computer, they told me that there is a county annals published in 1996 in Zone C. I found the book in the dusty corner, looking very old but with some differences.

  This area is filled with old books, seemingly all academic texts. Dust can be seen everywhere, but the surrounding of this log book appears to be quite clean, as if someone had touched it recently.

  Is someone else also coming over to check the county annals like me?

  This was originally a public library, and there's nothing strange about it. I took out the county annals, found a table to sit down at, and looked at the directory. On it were only years, without specific locations.

  And the years are not particularly specific, the further back the more rough, Ming and Qing are together, the further forward the more detailed, starting from 1956, there is a record every year.

  Since I've come all this way, I might as well flip through it. I quickly flipped through the pages, and because my attention was focused on the words "Guhuang Village", I surprisingly didn't find any mention of it in the Ming and Qing histories.

  Then, in 1966, the three characters "Gumiao Village" finally appeared. On June 6th of that year, Gumiao Village, in order to sweep away all the evil spirits, demolished the ancient temple and hung the carvings from a pagoda tree, exposing them to the scorching sun for five days. This behavior was affirmed by the higher-ups and laid a solid foundation for the smooth progress of the later "Destroy the Four Olds" movement.

  It's another string of 6s, looking just like the devil's number. As for the history of destroying the old, I'm not too familiar with it, but from this county annals, it seems that the destruction of the old should have happened after the ancient temple in Gugong Village was smashed and the statues inside were hung out.

  As soon as I thought that the ancient temple in Gu Village worshipped a flesh-and-blood Bodhisattva, and then thought about how my father and his generation had seen it when they were young, I felt a chill run down my spine.

  Further back, there were only a few sentences about Gugong Village.

  One is Guming Village changed to Hongqi Village.

  One was in Gumi Village where a plague occurred and four out of ten villagers died.

  Then there was nothing left.

  This is not the answer I need, and there's no description of the wedding that I have doubts about.

  I felt a bit regretful, and continued to flip through the pages until I saw another passage about Gǔ Cūn Village during the Da Shi Ji era, which said that the name of Hóng Qí Village was changed to Gǔ Cūn, marking the fourth time the village had been renamed.

  Fifth time?

  I counted with my fingers, Gu Miao Village was changed to Hong Qi Village for the first time, and Hong Qi Village was changed back to Gu Village for the second time. So there are still two more times left.

  That is to say, before Gumi Village was renamed as Gumi Village, it had two other names. Could they be hidden in the Ming and Qing histories?

  I looked at the time, it was already noon, I'm a bit hungry. Before nightfall, I must return to the village. This afternoon, I still need to buy a bicycle and ride it. It seems that time is a bit tight. However, when I flipped through the Ming-Qing history, there were many records. But I don't know what the ancient temple village was called back then. It will take some time to search for it little by little, and one afternoon may not be enough.

  After thinking for a while, I took out my phone and quietly took pictures of the Ming and Qing history books with over 80 pages, densely packed with text.

  After taking pictures, I put the book back in its original position, let out a sigh of relief, and returned to the ancient village to take another look.

  At least I have to go back and take a look, today should be the day of the wedding that Da Ai said, if she is in Gu Village, I must go back to save her, if she is not in Gu Village... where will she be?

  Someone I love called me over, but refused to see me. The only connection was a letter with the address of Erzi's home. Now that I've seen him and little Pangzi too, she still hasn't appeared.

  Is she deliberately avoiding me?

  Then why did she ask me to come again?

  I ate something casually, bought a broken bicycle, purchased some necessities in the small supermarket, and set foot on the road to the ancient village again.

  This time I went, I didn't plan on coming out.

  At least I won't come out until I know the truth.

  Ancient village, I'm back. You've waited for me for so long, I'm back.

  I'm ready to die, how about you?

  Are you ready to reap an ignorant and fearless soul?