Chapter 7

At this point I had nowhere to retreat, and I don't know where I got the courage from, but I stood up straight and faced her.

When she saw that I was no longer afraid of her, she opened her mouth and moved closer to me.

I just looked at her straight.

Suddenly, she chuckled and returned to her appearance when we first met.

She is so beautiful!

Even though I had seen her horrible appearance, I couldn't help but be attracted by her beauty.

Her every frown and smile was polite, and her eyes revealed a gentle expression that made people want to cherish her at first sight.

"Young lady, why don't you run away?" she said.

"If I can't run away, then I won't run away." I said courageously.

"I told you two at the beginning that you couldn't leave here tonight. Why are you wasting your energy?" Her voice was nice and soft.

"How do you know if you don't try?" Seeing that she had no intention of harming me, I became bolder.

"Young lady, are you sure you don't want to stay and keep me company?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"Well, I won't force you. If you can leave here, I won't stop you. If you still can't get out by dawn, just stay with me!" She turned around, leaving me with a lonely back.

I shouted to her, "If I find a way out, will you please let my friend go too?"

She turned her head to look at me, then looked at Maomao who was lying on the ground crying in fear, and nodded.

Maomao heard what I said and tried to stand up, but the ghost suddenly appeared in front of him, revealing the same terrifying face she had just shown, and screamed "Ah" at Maomao.

Maomao's eyes went dark and she passed out. Then she was seen covering her mouth with her sleeves and laughing softly, as if she had done something funny.

She turned her back to me and said, "You still have one hour."

Then he returned to the stage and continued singing in that graceful tune: "Don't worry about your academic achievements and your lack of fortune. I am afraid you will divorce your wife and marry again. I have letters from Qingluan here frequently. Don't return until you get your name on the imperial examination."

Her lotus steps moved lightly, her sleeves danced gracefully, and every move revealed her inner reluctance to leave. Her eyebrows were like spring mountains, her eyes were like autumn water, and her eyes were bright and shining. It was really hard to leave after just one look.

I shook my head and tried to wake myself up quickly. I had to find a way to leave, otherwise Maomao and I would have to die here today.

The contents of "Yin Fu Lu" appeared in my mind word by word. Only then did I understand what it meant to regret not having read enough books when you need them. I usually thought I knew something after just a quick glance, but now when I need it, I can't remember the contents at all.

After thinking for a long time, I finally remembered a method. According to the "Yin Fu Lu", shoes represent the road under your feet. Since you are trapped on the road, you can take off your shoes and wear them upside down. This way you can subvert the spatial order and get out of the maze. This is the so-called "wearing shoes upside down."

There are also stories about this in folk legends.

One theory is that ghosts track living people by their footprints, and wearing shoes backwards can disrupt the ghost's direction and help them escape from the trap. The other theory is that ghosts need to wear shoes backwards to walk in the underworld, and living people wearing shoes backwards can deceive ghosts, making them think they are "one of their own" and thus escape from the trap.

I found the way, and without thinking too much, I quickly took off my shoes, put them on backwards, and walked forward step by step.

At this moment, a strange thing happened. I was walking in a straight line, but the shoe prints behind me were zigzagging. After walking for about ten minutes, the scene in front of me suddenly changed.

The wide road turned into a forest. I looked back at the stage, but there was no trace of it.

At this point I finally breathed a sigh of relief, it seems I have made it.

But then I suddenly remembered that Maomao was still missing, so I shouted, "Maomao!"

I shouted about seven or eight times, but didn't hear any response from him. Instead, a bright light appeared in the distance. It seemed that someone was shining a flashlight at me.

"Who's there?" the man shouted.

When I heard him speak, I jumped up and waved my arms, not caring whether he could see clearly or not, and shouted loudly: "There is someone here, there is someone here!"

When the man heard that there was indeed someone there, he came over with a flashlight.

When he came closer, I could see clearly that it was an old man in front of me. He looked similar to my grandfather and was obviously a local villager.

Seeing a girl like me appear in the woods at this hour, he asked curiously, "What are you doing here when it's still dark?"

"My friend and I went to Xiaogangzi to watch acrobatics. We got lost on the way back and don't know how we ended up here." I didn't dare tell him that it was because I encountered something dirty, for fear that he would abandon me after hearing it.

He said in surprise: "Xiaogangzi? It's several hours' walk from here!"

"Yes, we are from Chunhe Village," I replied.

He was silent for a moment, as if thinking about something. Then he said, "You said you had a friend. Where is he?"

"I don't know where he is. Grandpa, can you help me find him?" I was telling the truth because I didn't know where Maomao was. I even suspected that the female ghost didn't let Maomao out at all.

He didn't ask any more questions and continued searching in the woods with me.

"Maomao!" I shouted.

The grandfather and I searched in the woods for about half an hour before we found him.

Maomao was leaning against the roots of a big tree, still unconscious. The moment I saw him, my heart finally settled down. It seemed that the female ghost was a person who kept her word.

It was already dawn, and a few roosters crowed not far away. Maomao finally woke up slowly. He opened his eyes and saw me, stammered for a long time without saying a word, and then fainted again.

It was his grandfather who was kind enough to carry him back home and put him on the kang.

He has a white-haired grandmother at home. The couple has always lived here. They have a child who is not at home.

I asked where this was, and he said this was Lijiazhuang. His surname was Li, and his name was Li Lianpu.

Lijiazhuang is indeed far from Niujiawan, connected by the forest. I don't know how long Maomao and I ran last night to end up here.

When the grandmother saw me, she was very happy and kept praising me, saying that this girl was very pretty and was obviously a beauty.

Her words reminded me of the female ghost last night. She also said that I was a beauty.

Now that it was daylight, I mustered up the courage to tell her, "Grandma, we actually got here last night because we ran into something dirty!"

Grandpa Li and Grandma looked at me in surprise and said, "What dirty stuff?"

I told them what happened. They looked at each other, and then Grandpa Li walked out of the house and puffed on his pipe at the door.

Grandma took out a photo frame with a painting inside and handed it to me.

I was shocked when I saw this painting. The person in the painting, with that delicate face and charming eyes, wasn’t she the female ghost I met last night?

But this painting is very worn and looks quite old.

"Is it her?" Grandma asked me.

I nodded, looking at her in confusion, hoping for an answer.

She sat back on the kang, sighed, and quietly told the story about the woman in the painting.