The Land of Unforgettable Death 1
At dawn, there was a knock on the big iron gate that had been painted a festive red before the New Year.
Chen Laojiao, who was standing outside the door, forced a warm smile, hunched over with a large bag in one hand. It seemed that he had something to ask for, and it was not a small request.
Jianlin was secretly amazed that a man known for being stingy would actually offer a gift. With one foot dangling outside the door frame, he started chatting with him at the door.
"I haven't visited your house for a long time. Please accept this. There's no need to be polite when a junior brings me a small gift." Chen Laojiao said, "Don't be polite" as he picked up the things.
It shows sincerity and paves the way for the next request.
"Grandpa, you know I work far away, so it's hard for me to come back except during the holidays. This time I came back because something happened at home. The neighbors should all know that my father is getting old and confused, and he's doing some crazy things. We asked a fortune teller to look at the location where the ancestral graves were moved a while ago, and they said the feng shui was not good. After much calculation, they found that the bamboo forest next to your house is the most suitable. So I was wondering if we could be more convenient and move it there another day at a good time."
Hi, so that’s why.
The Chen family's two original graves were built directly on their land for convenient worship, close to the road and prone to frequent traffic. However, with the development of a road-to-road conversion program, the path surrounding the graves became a major thoroughfare. The township government, concerned that this would be a negative influence for outsiders, ordered the graves to be relocated.
The original location was not suitable, so the Chen family had to move the grave to the other side of the land.
As luck would have it, Chen Laojiao's father, also known as Chen Jiuzhang, went to dig up someone else's ancestral grave in the middle of the night on the second day after the grave was moved. He was caught by the other family's children and sent back home.
Thinking that he was getting old and confused, the victim's family didn't give him any trouble.
Who would have thought that the old man with gray hair and hunched back would continue to dig all night on the third day, so people in the village started to spread the rumor that he was doing it on purpose because he was dissatisfied.
Chen Jiuzhuang felt that he was wronged and insisted that he had done it because he was sleepwalking.
Fearing that his reputation would be ruined by this incident, Chen Jiuguan's only son, Chen Laojiao, rushed back from another place overnight. He thought about it and turned the neighborhood dispute into a feng shui issue of the ancestral grave.
He came this time just to finish the trick and find a new grave site so that he could announce it to the public: "I've found out. My father's evil deeds were not evil deeds. It was all because of the unreliable Feng Shui master who found a bad location for the ancestral grave last time. Now I'm reburying it. Once this matter is corrected, it will be over."
Jianlin saw through the Chen family's little tricks clearly and gave up the idea of refusing. There were already two tombstones in the bamboo forest, so one more would not be too much, and he could also do a favor, so he agreed immediately.
But one condition—
"My granddaughter sleeps on the second floor, right next to the bamboo forest. Don't choose a place too close to our house, or the little girl will be scared if she sees it."
"Don't worry, it won't happen."
After watching Chen Laojiao leave happily, he went back to the living room to put his things away.
Yinsui was already sitting at the table waiting for dinner. When he saw the colorfully wrapped gifts, he thought they were some novelty. He jumped off his chair and asked, "Grandpa, what is this?"
He mistakenly thought his granddaughter was asking who sent it, so he casually said, "The Chen family wants to use our bamboo forest as a cemetery."
"Oh." She had already looked at them one by one, but she felt bored because she didn't find any unexpected gains.
Thinking of the whole incident, Jianlin's face suddenly changed drastically. He lowered his head and taught his granddaughter seriously: "Do you know Chen Jiuzhuang? The oldest old man in the Chen family. He's been mentally unstable recently and has been digging up people's graves in the middle of the night. If you pass by, stay away from him. If you see him at our doorstep, run back and ask the adults for help."
This is fun and she enjoys discussing it.
"Qin Yun said he was possessed by an evil spirit. Is that true?"
"In my opinion, the drunkard has become insane due to his age. His excessive drinking has damaged his brain. If he deliberately dug up someone's grave, then he's crazy. He's not even vindictive and is just trying to get back at someone's ancestors. If he didn't do it on purpose, then it's even worse. He's truly insane and unconscious. Who knows what he might do? Anyway, it's best if you stay away from him."
"I see—and why does our water smell funny lately?"
Before Jianlin could answer, Qingqiong, who was closest to the kettle, stood up and gulped down a mouthful of water, but could not taste any other flavor.
She frowned and asked her granddaughter, "What smell? How can there be any smell? Water just smells like water."
Yin Sui replied seriously, "It smells like chicken."
"Others drink water while you drink chicken soup, then you're making a killing." Jianlin thought the kid just made up his mind and joked happily.
"It's not chicken soup, it's the smell of a live chicken. You can smell it if you get close to the chicken feathers and smell them carefully."
The hot and stinking smell is not pungent but has a strong presence. A deep breath can penetrate deep into the internal organs.
Angry at being slighted, she sat back down, tilting her head to look at the ground.
A row of ants crawled across the ground, and she was no longer angry. But when the delicious food was served on the table, all her worries were thrown away.
But when she lay in bed, the question came back from the clouds again, standing at the head of the bed, staring at her with burning eyes.
Practice makes perfect, and knowledge can only be gained through repeated practice.
Thinking of this, Yinsui threw back the quilt and sat up.
The night in the countryside is composed of heavy silence and subtle movements that cannot be suppressed beneath the silence. Human voices have completely disappeared, with only the occasional crowing of chickens and barking of dogs and the chirping of crickets.
"Da Huang?" As soon as a low voice came out, the chaotic noises disappeared completely.
A vague black shadow appeared in front of the back door. When Dahuang heard the little master's call, he immediately stood up and wagged his tail, adding a lot of sense of security to this night trip.
The old electrical wires always had minor problems with poor contact. The light bulb, yellowed by the smoke, flickered a few times before bursting into light, and the dim warm light enveloped the small kitchen.
Yinsui randomly picked up a small bowl from the cupboard and placed it under the faucet. He turned on the rusty faucet, and the crystal clear tap water flowed into the bowl continuously. It stopped when it was about to be filled, and tiny bubbles made the water surface turbid and milky white.
I waited patiently until it returned to normal before picking up the bowl and taking a sip. The foul-smelling water was spat into the sewer as soon as it entered my mouth.
It just tastes like chicken.
Only live chickens have a hot and disgusting smell.
After pouring out most of it, only a thin layer of transparent bottom remained in the bowl. When I poked my finger into it, it had the texture of slime and was slightly sticky, but the movement when I lifted it up and shook it along the edge was unique to pure liquid.
The sticky gelatinous substance slid down her throat into her stomach unimpeded. She felt so nauseous that she squatted on the ground and coughed hard, but she couldn't cough out what she had swallowed.
The loyal guard dog barked at the sound.
The dog woke up her grandparents. Knowing that she would be criticized for drinking tap water at night instead of sleeping, she hurriedly packed up the dishes and ran upstairs.
The slippers were a little big, and they made a sound with every step. When the sound reached the second floor, the thin black shadow that had been lying in ambush by the bedroom door frame twitched, and then pressed the switch.
The European-style chandelier emanated a vibrant orange spark—its warm, soft yellowish glow tending to turn red with age. Hanging overhead, it resembled a blood-red moon, held within a metal frame spread like chrysanthemum petals. The light was cold, red and yellow alike, and so was the moonlight.
Time has added fine ripples to her delicate and plain white oval face, which is as white as water. When the silver mother, who is wearing plain pajamas, opens her mouth, the ripples expand.
"Do you have a cold? Why are you coughing so badly?"
"I just choked on my saliva. Mom, I don't have a cold." She rolled her eyes guiltily and asked, "Did I disturb you just now?"
"Your mother never fell asleep. I don't know where all those frogs came from. They croaked incessantly, making it impossible for anyone to sleep. Your father, on the other hand, slept like a dead pig. Even our talking couldn't wake him up."
"I haven't heard much."
"It's indeed quieter over there. It's so noisy over there that it makes me dizzy." After complaining, the woman did not forget to remind her daughter to go to bed early and walked back to the master bedroom.
The door of the master bedroom was like an invisible barrier. Inexplicably, the moment I stepped in, the croaking of frogs began again, and the sound became louder the further I walked.
Unable to bear it any longer, she stopped midway, turned her head towards the glass window, and looked out again and again through the thick emerald green curtains.
No wonder the croaking was incessant; the outside was filled with frogs. On the tiles, at the base of the walls, on the dirt road... the green flesh covered everything tightly, leaping and wriggling, encircling the house.
"Why are there so many frogs this year?" Yinmu lay back on the bed and said to her husband, but got no response. She tried to push him, but the man still slept soundly with his eyes closed.
Eat, sleep, sleep, eat, just like a pig. I wish I could have such good sleep quality.
At the same time, Yinsui, who was separated by a concrete wall, was complaining about the same thing.
It would have been fine if my mother hadn't said anything, but as soon as she did, I could hear the croaking of frogs coming from all directions.
In the past few years, frogs could not come to my house during the summer.
Yinsui's home is far away from the pond. Although a few birds can survive in the dense forests around it, the impact of a few scattered birds is limited. Sometimes when they jump into the yard, his grandfather just uses a broom to drive them out. They rarely disturb people in the middle of the night.
Is tap water secretly pumped from ponds? If there's a frog infestation this year, and a pond is teeming with frogs, wouldn't the surface water be mixed with their mucus or eggs? Perhaps that's what the frog secretions smell like?
The thought that the saliva just now might have sent all sorts of mess into the intestines made me feel nauseous, and I instantly had the urge to dry heave.
Yinsui felt like ants were crawling all over his body. He was twisting and turning under the quilt, like a silkworm trying to turn itself upside down. He raised his feet and leaned against the white wall at the head of the bed. His body was completely stretched into a long strip, and his churning stomach finally felt a little relieved.
If it's not poisonous, rush out and lick it now, and the result will be clear immediately...
"Why aren't you sleeping yet?"
The sudden question sounded like thunder to her ears as she was deep in thought, and she sat up with a jerk.
"You're right, Mom. They're too noisy."
Yin's mother leaned over and tidied up the sofa next to the small bed while continuing, "Your place is quieter than ours. Mom will come over tonight and stay overnight. I have to work the day shift tomorrow and can't stay up any longer."
"Okay." He straightened his posture and moved to the other side.
Putting the sundries aside, Yin's mother sighed comfortably, "Go to sleep now. We're mother and daughter together today, and your dad has such a good sleep quality. It would be great if you inherited this from your dad, so you wouldn't need your mom to coax you day and night when you were little."
Fearing that she would talk endlessly about the past, Yin Sui quickly interrupted: "I'm sleepy."
"Okay, okay, go to sleep. I know you don't want to hear about the bad things you did in the past."
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