Chapter Thirty-Six Old Grudges

  I quickly emerged from the dense forest and returned to the only small path leading to the village. As soon as I flashed out, I bumped into a flustered and bewildered Ya Tou.

  "Huh? Didn't she go into the village to see the excitement? How come she's back?"

  The girl grabbed my hand and exclaimed in a panic, "Hongyi... Hongyi evil spirit! I just saw the red-clothed evil spirit running into the back mountain at the village entrance!"

  Village entrance? Red-clothed fierce ghost? Soul-cutting mountain?

  It took me a while to come back to my senses. After just sending away the autumn goose wearing a red robe and pretending to be a ghost, how did another red-clothed fierce ghost appear at the village entrance? Why are there red-clothed fierce ghosts everywhere in the village? And who did Yatou see disguised as?

  I rushed into the village to find Xiao Ge, shaking off Lü's hand and saying, "You can't be seeing things, can you? On a clear day like today, where did this red-clothed fierce ghost come from?"

  The girl looked wronged, stunned for a moment, and suddenly laughed "heh heh" again. "Go watch the show, go watch the show, tonight at the village entrance to watch the show!" After finishing, she walked away with a silly bounce like before.

  What's wrong with this girl? One moment she's awake, the next she's crazy. Is she stupid or am I? Her behavior is so ambiguous, true and false, real and fake, which side of her is really genuine?

  ……

  I guess Little Brother must be at Old Man Ba's house right now, and indeed he is. As soon as I walked into Old Man Ba's house, I saw Little Brother standing upright like a spear. What surprised me was that the village chief was also there.

  Little brother slightly frowned upon seeing me, "How did you come here?"

  I originally wanted to tell him about my suspicions of the village chief and Yang Zheng's conspiracy, but now that they're all here, I don't dare say it out loud. All I can do is respond absent-mindedly, "Uh...it was stuffy at Ga Ba uncle's house, so I came over to take a look..."

  A quivering voice rang out, "Is it Xiaolan? Since you're here, then take a seat!"

  I heard the sound and looked over, only to see Old Eighth sitting in a high-backed chair in the center of the main hall, with a canopy separating us, his face visible but not very clearly.

  "Uh-huh." I hastily responded and sat down in the chair beside him.

  The village head looked at me with a hesitant expression on his face, then turned to Grandpa Ba.

  Old Eighth Grandfather coughed lightly behind the curtain and said slowly, "Dai Yongguo, Xiaolan is someone brought back to the village by your younger brother, so she's not an outsider either. What's on your mind, just say it..."

  It turned out that the village head was restrained because I was present.

  I looked over at the young man, seeing him sitting there calmly and motionless. I quickly composed myself and listened carefully to what the village chief, Dai Yongguo, had to say.

  Dai Yongguo cleared his throat and said, "Eighth Grandfather, the ancient well legend that everyone in the village knows is said to be related to a big secret in our village. But almost everyone only knows the first few sentences, while the last four sentences are unknown to anyone. Eighth Grandfather, you are the only old longevity star in the village, do you know what the last four sentences of the ancient well legend are?"

  Is it another old well rumor? What secrets can be found in a poem about an ominous old well? I thought of the village chief's strange behavior and my heart skipped a beat. I blurted out, "Village chief, why are you so interested in the old well rumors, is there something else to it?"

  I blurted out this sentence without even thinking about it, and I was so startled that I scared myself!

  I originally thought the village chief would be furious and explode, but unexpectedly he just smiled slightly without making a sound, as if waiting for Old Man Eight to answer him.

  The old man didn't say a word, and the young man sitting next to him took over, "Lan Tian, don't doubt the village chief anymore. Don't mention him, all the villagers are interested in this ancient well song. Today, I'll just make it clear. The legend has it that this ancient well song is related to a huge treasure, but no one can say what's going on exactly. For us ordinary people, the treasure doesn't mean anything, but for some greedy people, it's very important. Brother, you might not know, our village chief inherited his position from his father - his dad, the old village chief, called him back before he died, even though he had already made a name for himself outside. Think about it, why would someone who has already succeeded outside be willing to return to this broken mountain valley? What's he after?"

  The young man's words were quite venomous. While he said not to suspect the village chief, in fact, he was hinting that the village chief had been eyeing the treasure of the ancient well.

  Isn't Xiao Ge already suspecting the village chief?

  Dai Yongguo's face turned red and white with rage, "Young man, what do you mean by this? I chose to stay in the village and take over as village chief because my father forced me to make a poisonous oath, I had no choice but to leave... Later, as time passed, I also couldn't bear to leave the village again, didn't want to go out and drift around. You're spouting nonsense, today, in front of Eighth Grandfather, if you don't clarify this matter, I will never let you off!"

  The young man burst out laughing, "What you said sounds better than singing. If you weren't greedy, how would my grandfather and father have died? Besides, who will let go of whom is still uncertain..."

  The young man didn't show any anger, speaking lightly and casually, but what I heard was a cold and sinister tone.

  I couldn't help but shudder.

  Dai Yongguo grumbled and said, "Don't think that just because Eighth Grandfather dotes on you, you can look down on all the villagers. Don't forget, who your grandfather and father died at the hands of, and how they died? If we're talking about greed, I think it's your grandfather and father who were the most greedy!"

  The young man's voice rose a few degrees, seemingly also stirring up anger, "My grandfather and father died for everyone. Don't spout nonsense."

  Dai Yongguo's voice rose by an octave, "We didn't kill him, it was the ghosts on Duanhun Mountain who did!"

  I saw the two of them getting more and more stiff, afraid that something would happen on the spot, so I hastily advised, "Young brother, village chief, it's all in the past, whatever you have to say, just talk it out."

  The young man, normally calm and collected, suddenly became furious and said, "You still say you don't care about our business? If my grandfather hadn't taken my father into the mountains to search for the relics of the Western Xia people, to find the secret of the ancient well legend, how would they have died on Broken Soul Mountain? And if you didn't have ulterior motives, why have you been desperately searching for the last four lines of the ancient well legend all these years? If it weren't for Old Man Eight forbidding it, saying that the ancient well legend is a curse, a sign of the destruction of Huanglong Village, I reckon you would have dug up Broken Soul Mountain long ago in search of that legendary treasure!"

  Dai Yongguo sneered, "Did we flatten the Soul-Breaking Mountain? Besides you and a few villagers, who else dares to enter the Soul-Breaking Mountain of 80,000 vengeful spirits? And what have you been doing outside all these years, appearing and disappearing like a dragon? This time you came back, and one after another, people died and ghosts appeared in the village. Maybe it wasn't humans who killed them, but evil spirits that you released from Soul-Breaking Mountain!"

  I thought the young man would blow up after hearing the village chief's words, but unexpectedly, I only saw a hint of tension flash across his face, and he didn't say a word.

  Dai Yongguo noticed that Xiao Ge's expression was off, and his complexion also became flustered. "Could it be... did they really come out? How dare you... is it really them who killed the stone, Big Cow, and Ah Dog in the village?"

  What I didn't expect was that the young man chose silence, lowering his head and saying nothing more.

  Dai Yongguo was about to ask further, when the Eighth Grandfather, who was separated by a screen, suddenly spoke up, "Dai Yongguo, you and Xiao Ge have been arguing for so long, aren't you tired of annoying people? In my opinion, the last four lines of Gujing Legend should be found in the sketch that Xiao Ge lost."

  "What?" Dai Yongguo and Xiao Ge asked in unison, their voices trembling with surprise.

  "Yes! The sketch was found by the young man from his grandfather's belongings... So many years have passed, and his grandfather kept that sketch so secret, it must be related to the secret of the four ancient wells. Unfortunately, the sketch has been stolen now, and no one knows where it is..." Eighth Grandfather sighed with a long sigh.

  "Eight Grandfather, rest assured," Xiao Ge suddenly replied. "If that sketch was stolen and the last four lines of the ancient well riddle were deciphered, as long as I'm around, I won't let those people's sinister plot succeed!"

  The young man finished speaking and glared at the village chief with eyes like sharp swords, a cold sweat rolling down from the chief's forehead.

  Old Man Ba coughed a few times, and his voice suddenly became stern. "Dai Yongguo, Xiao Ge, listen up! Whether or not there's really treasure in the old well legend, nobody knows, so let's not get hung up on that question anymore. I'm asking you, can tonight's opera troupe arrive at the village on schedule?"

  Dai Yongguo's body trembled slightly, and he respectfully replied, "Eighth Master, I sent Yang Zheng to Fenghuang Town early this morning to invite a theater troupe."

  "Is the stage tied up properly?"

  "We're getting ready. The stage will be set up before dark, and the show will start on time at 9 o'clock after dinner. I'll come to invite you over then!"

  "Alright, alright, you've all worked hard, I'm tired too, want to rest for a while, you all go ahead, ah?" Through the curtains, I saw Eighth Grandfather close his eyes.

  "Yes." The young man and the village head nodded in agreement as they led me out of Old Man Ba's courtyard.

  As he walked to the gate of the courtyard, the young man suddenly said to himself, "It's not that I want to say something about certain people, but rather that certain people should have a sense of self-awareness and not try to show off in front of me. Otherwise, hum... they should know the consequences!"

  The village head glanced at the young man and walked away without saying a word.

  It turns out that Xiao Ge had already been on guard against the village chief, so it seems I don't need to tell him those things after all.

  The little brother took me on a walk of about half a mile, suddenly stopped and said to me, "Lan Tian, you go back to Gaba uncle's house first, I'll make a trip to the town, try to come back before dark. If it's time for the opera performance and I haven't returned yet, remember to take good care of Eighth Grandfather!"

  He patted me heavily on the shoulder and instructed, "I believe in you! Tonight, we must not let those with ulterior motives play any tricks on the stage of Eighth Grandfather's birthday celebration!"

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