Seeing old friends
The funeral procession wound its way toward a mountain in Xiqiao Village, where many of the villagers' ancestors and relatives are buried, including Si Mucheng's grandfather.
He felt a little relieved; his grandmother loved being around people, so she wouldn't be lonely anymore.
The mountain was covered with tall trees and lush vegetation. The sun was blazing, and the tree canopies provided shade, offering a welcome respite from the intense heat. However, the overgrown weeds made the path difficult to traverse. Halfway up the mountain, Si Mucheng glanced to the side and caught sight of two people among the branches in a bamboo grove below.
His gaze was involuntarily drawn to one of them, which was not very clear due to the angle of the light, while the other was tall and slender. If it weren't for her cascading black hair, she would probably be mistaken for a boy. She was slender but not frail, and even her profile was more upright than the surrounding green bamboo.
Perhaps sensing Si Mucheng's gaze, the woman slightly turned her head and looked directly at him. Si Mucheng was caught off guard and their eyes met, her gaze as cold and clear as a spring, just as it had in his dream. This time he saw her face clearly; there was a heroic air about her, large, almond-shaped eyes, and distinct facial features, giving her an androgynous air.
Si Mucheng was completely stunned. Seeing him stop, his second aunt, thinking he was tired, supported his elbow and asked softly, "What's wrong?"
Si Mucheng snapped out of his daze, thought for a moment, and then asked softly, "Second Aunt, who are those two people?"
His second aunt followed his gaze, seemingly unconcerned: "There aren't two people, it's just that Wen family kid. She's the one who cured your nightmare before, what's she doing there all by herself..."
Si Mucheng was puzzled and looked again, only to find that the girl had turned away and the other person was gone. Although Si Mucheng didn't understand why the girl had a yellow piece of paper between her fingers, after listening to the adults' discussion about her and her half-asleep, rambling self-talk, he was pretty sure that this person was a charlatan, and one who had inherited it from his family.
He was momentarily speechless, but couldn't help asking, "Her surname is Wen? What's her given name?"
The second aunt withdrew her gaze, thought for a moment, and said, "It seems to be called... Wen Ya, yes, Wen Ya."
Si Mucheng chewed on those two words once, then stopped being distracted and focused on walking up the mountain.
By the time we buried Grandma, it was almost noon.
The funeral procession gradually descended the mountain, leaving Grandma on the hilltop. Si Mucheng walked at the very back, turning back again and again before finally silently descending the mountain.
With everything settled and the funeral finally over, the Si family treated the villagers who had helped to a meal as a token of their gratitude. The next day, the Si family's old house, which had been bustling for several days, returned to tranquility.
"You really aren't coming back with us?" Si Licheng frowned slightly, his eyes sharp.
Si Mucheng lowered his head and remained silent.
His second aunt looked around and quickly said with a smile, "Brother, Xiao Cheng is closest to Mom, it's normal that he can't accept it right away. It's okay, it's still summer vacation, let him stay here, I'm here for you."
Chen Hui sighed and lovingly patted her son's head: "Have you decided?"
Si Mucheng gave a muffled "hmm".
She nodded, making the final decision: "Okay, I'll stay for a while then." A hint of sadness appeared in her eyes. "I'll spend another summer vacation in Xiqiao."
Hearing her words, Si Licheng paused for a moment. The old lady was gone, and the old house would probably fall into disrepair. If he got busy, he might rarely have the chance to come back.
Second Aunt secretly wiped her eyes and said with a smile, "If you have something to do, you should go back quickly. I'll take care of Xiao Cheng."
Si Licheng pondered for a moment, then finally nodded.
After seeing his parents off, Si Mucheng moved a small stool and sat down by the door. He was too tall, and sitting there he looked very aggrieved, with a dejected expression. Seeing this, his second aunt checked his forehead and, after confirming that everything was normal, said to him gently, "Xiaocheng, why don't you come to my house to sleep? You can share a room with your cousin."
Si Mucheng shook his head: "No need, Auntie, I can manage here by myself."
Second Aunt glanced at the main room and joked, "When you were little, you were most afraid of being alone in the old house. You followed Grandma everywhere. Are you not afraid now?"
Si Mucheng sniffed: "I've grown up, and besides..." He pursed his lips. He didn't say anything more, besides, there was still his grandmother's scent here, and with his grandmother with him, he wasn't afraid at all.
Seeing that she couldn't persuade him otherwise, the second aunt had no choice but to give up. She decided to bring him food at mealtimes, but Si Mucheng simply waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need to bring it and would come over at mealtimes himself. The second aunt just nodded. She also had a lot of things to do at home, and the funeral had delayed her quite a bit these past few days. Today, her mood had eased up. The deceased is gone, and the living must continue to live. She gave a few more words of advice and then left.
Only Si Mucheng remained in the old house.
The leaves of the large tree in front of the door were lush and green. Sunlight filtered through, casting dappled shadows on the ground. Both the front and back doors of the old house were open, letting in a cool breeze. Si Mucheng felt a little sleepy. He stretched out his legs, leaned against the door, and dozed off.
Half asleep, he was suddenly overcome with a chill, and goosebumps rose all over his body. When Si Mucheng came to, he opened his eyes and saw the same tree in front of the door, with its leaves swaying in the breeze.
"What the hell..." he muttered under his breath, then rubbed his arms a couple more times.
Just then, his phone rang. Si Mucheng paused for a moment before pulling it out of his pocket. He had almost forgotten about his phone; it was quite remarkable that it still had power after lying in bed for so many days.
The name that popped up on the screen was "Dali," a roommate of Si Mucheng. He swiped the screen casually, and the call connected.
The person on the other end seemed surprised by the call and remained silent for a moment. Si Mucheng asked, looking bored, "What?"
"Holy crap, bro, you've been out of contact for days!" Zhang Dali exclaimed.
Si Mucheng stood up and shook his slightly sore legs: "Something wrong? Let me go."
"Hey, can't I call you if there's nothing wrong?" Zhang Dali grinned cheekily. "I miss you~ Mu Cheng geigei~"
"Stop being so mushy." Si Mucheng frowned, took a long stride, stepped over the threshold, and went into the room to get his water glass.
"Haha," Zhang Dali seemed pleased that he had disgusted Si Mucheng, "Young Master, are you back from your trip?"
The nanny from Si Mucheng's family once brought him a quilt, which was seen by his classmates, who then started teasing him and calling him "Young Master."
Si Mucheng's tone was somewhat sad: "My grandmother passed away and went back to her hometown."
Zhang Dali: "..."
"I'm so sorry! Oh my god, young master, I didn't mean to, I didn't know..."
Si Mucheng entered the room and passed by the window, facing the big tree. Out of the corner of his eye, he sensed something was wrong. He suddenly turned his head and saw only the branches swaying in the wind.
"..."
On the other end of the phone, Zhang Dali was still offering a dry explanation: "Please accept my condolences, young master. I really don't know how you're feeling right now. Are you still in your hometown? Do you need any brothers to come and keep you company?"
Si Mucheng blinked hard twice. Everything outside seemed normal, but he had clearly seen a dark shadow on the tree branch just now.
My vision has been blurry so often lately; it's probably a side effect of the fever. Si Mucheng hesitantly straightened up, took the water glass from the table against the wall, and then interrupted Zhang Dali's incessant chatter: "It's alright, he was buried yesterday."
"When are you coming back? Let's get together. Afei and the others came back for summer vacation too. It's been a long time since we played together."
Si Mucheng and Zhang Dali both attended Qicheng Sports University and were locals from Qicheng. Although they were in different classes in high school, they went to the same school, so they became very close. Si Mucheng came out of his room again and went to the corner of the main room to pour himself some water: "Not so soon, I plan to stay in my hometown for a while."
Zhang Dali knew that Si Mucheng had deep feelings for his grandmother, so he sighed and said, "Alright, then we'll wait for you to come back."
Si Mucheng hung up the phone, picked up his cup and took a sip of water. He was still thinking about the illusion he'd just had. It was so strange. His eyesight was excellent; he'd clearly seen a dark shadow just moments before, but it had vanished the next second.
He grabbed a handful of hair in frustration, then suddenly sensed something. He turned his head and saw a person standing at the gate, backlit, so he couldn't see their face, but their figure looked like that of a thin woman.
Si Mucheng was taken aback for a moment, then realized what he meant and politely asked, "Auntie, did you forget something?" It was probably something from the villagers who came to help a few days ago.
The person didn't speak, just stood at the door without coming in. Si Mucheng didn't think much of it and walked out while calling out, "Auntie, come in and sit for a while, have some water." However, before he even got close, he noticed something was wrong; the person's neck... was severely crooked.
But it was too late. Si Mucheng saw the woman's appearance clearly—her head was tilted, her eyes were bulging, her pupils were squeezed upwards, revealing most of the whites of her eyes, her tongue was sticking out, and the veins on her forehead were bulging, as if she was being strangled, but there was clearly nothing on her neck.
She doesn't look like she's still alive.
Si Mucheng's eyes widened, his voice caught in his throat: "I..."
He took a step back, his eyelids trembled, and finally, in utter terror, he turned and ran, the words stuck in his throat escaping as he roared, "My God!!!"
*
"So you mean there was a living corpse at the gate just now?" Qin Yu pointed at the gate of the old house and looked up at Si Mucheng.
Si Mucheng hid behind his cousin, but unfortunately, Qin Yu, a fifth-grade elementary school student, hadn't grown tall enough to block him at all. He looked down on his cousin's childish behavior and rolled his eyes in a subtle way: "Brother Cheng, are you filming The Walking Dead here?"
Si Mucheng was certain that he hadn't been seeing things; he could see it clearly—the woman's neck was broken, how could she still be alive!
He gripped Qin Yu's clothes tightly in his hand and said nervously, "Really, really! I'm not lying to you..." Suddenly, his gaze froze, and he looked behind Qin Yu.
Qin Yu hesitated for a moment, made by his expression. It didn't seem like he was faking it. Qin Yu turned around in confusion and saw the big tree in front of the old house. He had seen it since he was a child, so it wasn't anything special. He rolled his eyes again and said helplessly, "Stop playing around, Brother Cheng. This isn't fun at all. I'm not afraid of all this ghostly stuff."
Si Mucheng's lips trembled. His blank gaze shifted to Qin Yu's face, and he swallowed hard. "You...you can't see it???"
There was clearly someone hanging from a tree branch! Didn't you see someone so big?!
Qin Yu looked bored: "Oh, the tree has become a spirit? But that makes sense. Grandma said this tree was this big when she was little, so she doesn't know how many years it's lived. It's normal for it to become a spirit. Brother Cheng, is the tree spirit pretty?"
Si Mucheng's curse words stuck in his throat. "What a load of rubbish! That woman's tongue is practically falling off the ground!!!" How disgusting!!!
But... he suddenly realized that since Qin Yu couldn't see her, then the woman wasn't the zombie or some other monster he had initially thought. She... was a ghost?
Si Mucheng dared not look at the shadow hanging under the tree any longer. He pleaded, "Xiaoyu, you...you really can't see it? Stop playing with me!"
Qin Yu was speechless: "Big brother, are you kidding me!" Then she said sincerely, "Brother, if you're too scared to stay in the old house by yourself, you should have listened to my mom this morning and come to my house. We won't laugh at you."
Si Mucheng was on the verge of collapse: "I really wasn't joking!"
But Qin Yu was too lazy to pay attention to him and turned to leave: "It's not worth bothering with you. I haven't finished my homework yet, and my mom will scold me again. Forget it, I can't reason with you college students."
Si Mucheng: "..."
"Don't go, Xiaoyu!" Si Mucheng was on the verge of tears. He quickly followed, not daring to stay here alone! He strode forward while looking back. The figure on the tree branch was still there, swaying, but thankfully, "she" hadn't followed.
Qin Yu was convinced that Si Mucheng was playing a trick on him. He was already annoyed by his heavy homework load, and because of his grandmother's funeral, it had been delayed for a few days. His mother had given him an ultimatum: he had to finish all his summer homework this week. He didn't have time to joke around with Si Mucheng.
So no matter what Si Mucheng said, his cousin Qin Yu had a "I won't listen to your nonsense" look on his face, rushed home, went into his room, and locked the door.
Seeing this, Si Mucheng had no choice but to give up. However, he dared not return to the old house, so he stayed at his second aunt's house and guarded his cousin's door.
At noon, Second Aunt hurriedly returned from outside. When she saw Si Mucheng in the main room, her expression instantly relaxed. She laughed and said, "Little Cheng is here! You scared me. I was thinking of going to the old house to call you for lunch, but the doors and windows were open and you were nowhere to be seen. I thought something had happened."
Si Mucheng stared blankly at his second aunt for a while before hurriedly asking, "Second Aunt, did you go to the old house?"
My second aunt was preparing to cook, and as she worked, she said, "That's right. Remember to lock the back door and close the main gate when you go out. Although it's unlikely there will be any thieves, it's not good to leave the house open like that..."
Si Mucheng interrupted, tentatively asking, "Second Aunt... did you see anything unusual about the big tree by the door?"
The second aunt didn't even look up: "What's wrong..."
Before she could finish speaking, Qin Yu heard everything from inside the room. She opened the door and came out to complain to her mother, "Mom! Cheng-ge tricked me! I haven't even finished my essay!"
Auntie laughed: "Your brother isn't that kind of person."
"Really!" Qin Yu exclaimed indignantly. "He insisted he saw a monster at the old house! He was crazy and tricked me into going there!"
Si Mucheng hurriedly looked at his second aunt: "Second aunt, did you...did you see that?"
"What?" Second Aunt picked a bunch of scallions and casually said, "A monster? Second Aunt isn't afraid of the dark."
She smiled and glanced at Si Mucheng: "I told you you'd be scared living there alone, but you were being stubborn. There's nothing to be embarrassed about when you're family. If you're really scared, you can stay in the same room as Xiaoyu and stay at your second aunt's house."
Upon hearing this, Si Mucheng was certain; indeed, only he could see it. So, it really was a ghost! And a female ghost who had died a horrible death! She might have hanged herself from the big tree in front of the old house!
What's going on? What went wrong? Are there really ghosts in this world? How can he see them?
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