Chapter 68 Wugu Village 11
What should I do if a person is a grass witch and keeps using insects to harm people?
Just drag her out to the sun and expose her to the sun. The sun is the brightest and hottest thing in the world. It can eliminate filth and even ghosts are afraid of it.
After three days and three nights of exposure to the sun, all the bugs on her body will be killed and will never harm them again.
On the wind and rain bridge in Wugu Village, under the scorching sun, Xue Ligu was locked in a cage with disheveled hair, chapped lips and red eyes.
They surrounded her and questioned her angrily.
"Did you cast the poison on my husband's body last year?!"
"My mother hasn't woken up yet. Did you poison her? Please kill the poison quickly and save my mother!"
"Has our family's fortune been taken away by your black cat?"
"You shameless person, you put a love spell on my man. He has been honest all his life, but now he can't even hold his head up when he goes out! He is so pitiful."
"Give me back my son! Give me back my son! How can you be so vicious that you can even cast a spell on an eight-year-old child?"
Xue Ligu raised her head with great effort to look at them. The sun was scorching, and there were bright halos above their heads, like the holy light on the head of a Bodhisattva. Under the halo, the face facing her had a hint of madness in the shadows. In her dizzy eyes, it was so distorted that it didn't look like a human.
She smiled, her eyes were red. After being exposed to the sun for so long, there was no moisture in her body left to flow out of her eye sockets.
Her ears and head were buzzing as well. The questions were echoing in her ears, but she could hardly hear them anymore. The only sound she could hear was her own breathing, one after another, so heavy and loud, even the trembling breaths were long and lingering.
She slowly lowered her head, her shoulders were free of hair, because there might be bugs hiding in her hair, which had been burned off.
Fingers have no nails because bugs may be hiding in the nails.
A little ahead, the red color is the blood of her cat. A little further ahead, it should be the cat's body. Her rosary, the rosary that was killed by the iron hammer...
She could hardly see clearly.
I felt too dry and dizzy, and the sound of breathing in my ears was so hot, like the sigh of the sun.
There were no images in her mind, her whole life, trapped in this place, trying to live a good life... There were no good images.
I really want to go.
How can I walk across this wind and rain bridge?
She used up her last bit of strength and stretched her hand forward, moving only half a step into the cage.
She may never be able to walk out of this wind and rain bridge until her death.
She suddenly smiled.
She shouted in a very cracked voice: "It's me, it's me, I am indeed the Grass Ghost Lady, I am the Grass Ghost Lady, hahahaha."
"You deserve it. You deserve to be broke. You deserve your mother to faint. You deserve your husband to cheat on you. You deserve your son to drown. You deserve it..."
The indignant voices of questioning suddenly disappeared, and they stared at her with grim expressions and heavy breathing.
Suddenly a woman shouted, "It's her! She admitted it! It's really her! She can't stand us getting better! She's trying to hurt us!"
"That's her!"
"Kill her in the sun!"
"God will punish her!"
"She's still taking revenge on us even after she's dead!"
"Even the sun can't get rid of the ghosts. Our village has committed a sin. Our village has never had good luck for a hundred years and has been experiencing disasters all the time."
“Why are we so miserable and suffering?”
"Someone please save us, save my poor husband."
The players looked at the villagers crying downstairs and were speechless for a long time.
Jing Yan had to hold on to the wooden frame to stand steadily. He thought about how he was sweating so much at noon, and the village chief said it was still cool on the mountain, while the wind and rain bridge below could get a layer of sunburn off a person.
Is it an exaggeration for ordinary people to say that a layer of skin will be sunburned off, or did he see with his own eyes a woman whose skin was sunburned off on the bridge?
Xia Bai silently looked at the angry and aggrieved faces, and finally his sight fell on a boy. The boy was about seven or eight years old, with a numbness on his face that did not belong to his age. He was holding a small beige doll, watching and listening without any expression.
He is Wang Er's son, and his name is Xiao Qian.
When they first went to Wang Er's house, Jing Yan saw his slightly cold inner thoughts. They thought about getting some clues from him, but unfortunately, when they went to Wang Er's house for the second time, the village chief followed them and they didn't see Xiao Qian.
Liu Fu's wife suddenly shouted, "Doctor, doctor! My husband can't wait any longer. Can you give me the talisman paper?"
Fu Yuqing glanced at Xia Bai, who covered his pockets, which were not bulging to begin with, and asked, "Don't you have talisman paper too?"
"My talisman paper is not as useful as yours. If the villagers die from the strange disease, you can still control their corpses." Fu Yuqing said.
What he said made sense, but he really didn't have many corpse-controlling talismans left, and without the cinnabar pen, he would be eating up all his resources, and one less talisman would be needed if he used one.
Xia Bai picked up five of them and said, "There are no more. You can add them yourself."
Fu Yuqing distributed the talisman to several villagers and said, "One of our companions took five hours to work, and another took twelve hours to work. It varies from person to person. You should be more careful to keep it. If it still doesn't work after fifteen hours, it may be that the curse is too deep. Come to me and I will give you another one."
Several villagers nodded repeatedly, said several words of gratitude, and ran home quickly with the talisman paper.
There were other villagers who also wanted it, but Fu Yuqing said, "We don't have any now. Drawing talismans takes a lot of effort. I need to draw them bit by bit. I'll give them to you when I'm done."
The villagers were happy when they heard this. Even if no one in their family had a strange disease for the time being, who knew if one would in the future.
"Doctor, can you stay a few more days?"
"Yes, don't worry, draw slowly!"
The players looked at the village chief, who was staring at them with a cold face. All the villagers thought so, and he couldn't stop them.
He smiled and said, "Don't delay the experts' work. They said they would leave in three days. There is only one day left."
The village chief looked at them in the stilt house and said, "In that case, we won't disturb Doctor Fu from drawing the talisman, but some villagers may really want it and will wait here. I think they will be very quiet."
Lin Xiang smiled and said, "Okay, Village Chief, take care and have a good dream tonight!"
The village chief walked very hard when he left.
There were indeed villagers who stayed, and there were also those who left following the village chief.
Seeing Xiao Qian was about to leave with the crowd, Xia Bai shouted, "Xiao Qian!"
The boy turned around and looked over blankly.
Xia Bai: "Your father may not be able to hold on any longer. Your mother is not here. Don't you want a talisman paper?"
Xiao Qian walked into the stilt house hesitantly.
Tao Baobao squatted down and asked him: "They don't dare to come in, Xiaoqian, aren't you afraid?"
The boy shook his head.
Tao Baobao asked more deeply: "Aren't you afraid of being bitten by insects? Aren't you afraid of being poisoned?"
The boy shook his head again.
Tao Baobao asked: "Why aren't you afraid?"
The boy lowered his head and said nothing.
Xia Bai looked at the doll in his arms. It was a slightly dirty white cat. Because it was dirty, it looked beige from a distance. "Is this a kitten?"
Xiao Qian hugged the kitten tighter.
Erwa grabbed Xia Bai's pants, stuck to Xia Bai's legs, and looked at the kitten.
Xia Bai thought thoughtfully, "What is the relationship between this kitten and Xue Ligu's cat?"
Jing Yan immediately looked at the boy's inner thoughts: "It is the daughter of the rosary."
Jing Yan was stunned for a moment and said, "It is the daughter of the rosary, right?"
Xiao Qian immediately looked up, "You know?"
Jing Yan nodded, "I can communicate with spirits. The rosary told me so."
"Then can you tell Rosary a message for me?" Xiao Qian said immediately, looking at him excitedly.
"Okay, but you have to tell me clearly what you know, just like what they said just now." Jing Yan said.
Several players stared at him. The boy hugged the doll tightly in his arms, as if he really wanted to convey a message to the rosary. He bit his lip, hugged the doll tightly and began to speak.
"I'm not afraid of coming in because I used to sneak in often. Xue Ligu is my best and only friend." The boy said with his head down, his face as dirty as a cat doll, and his voice was flat.
He has a father who is a gambler. He gambles all day long and quarrels and fights with his mother when he comes home. Every day the house is filled with the scolding and crying of men and women, and the sound of pots and pans hitting the ground.
If they beat them too hard, they would be like crazy and he would be dragged into it.
He didn't like staying at home, and he wanted to go to a quiet place without quarrels. After wandering around the village, he found this place, which was Xue Ligu's stilt house.
At first Xue Ligu ignored him.
He didn't need to be cared for, he just needed a quiet place to breathe. He squatted in the corner and watched her raise silkworms, dry herbs, arrange flowers, and read.
After a few days, he would help Xue Ligu feed the cat and go to the river in Wugu Village to catch small fish and shrimps to feed it.
He loved cats very much. Whenever the black cat rubbed its head against his palm, his heart softened and he forgot all the quarrels and fights.
Later, after an unknown amount of time, Xue Ligu was willing to talk to him, and she said that the black cat was called Rosary.
He asked, “What does the rosary mean?”
She said: "A rosary is beads used for prayer and chanting. It is my rosary."
He said, "Do you talk to him and pray to him every day?"
She said, "Yes and no, the rosary holds my prayers for me."
He asked, “What is your prayer?”
She looked into the distance and said, "I have saved a lot over the years. The most important thing is to go out and see the world."
Later, Rosary became pregnant.
It is not known which little wild cat is the father of the children. Rosary gave birth to five children, and she watched four of them die one by one. She seemed to not believe it and licked them again and again, wanting to see them move.
She was very sad and said: "I now have a new prayer, hoping to take her to be sterilized."
He asked, “What is sterilization?”
She said: "It means never suffering as a female again. A lot of suffering in nature is inflicted on females."
He said, “Can I have the rosary put a prayer in it for me, too?”
She asked, "What is it?"
He said, “I can take Rosary out for sterilization.”
They became good friends because of a common prayer. She taught him to read and write, and gave him the only remaining child of the rosary, which she named Bodhi.
At the beginning, Bodhi was too small, so he was kept in Xue Ligu's stilt house. He came to see it every day and caught small fish and shrimps to feed it and his rosary.
When Bodhi was four months old, he took him home. He needed company at home so much that when they quarreled at night, he could hold Bodhi and squat under the stilt house, and he would not be so sad.
Bodhi is his most important treasure, which heals him.
Later, when his parents were fighting, Bodhi was kicked into a boiling pot and scalded to death.
He went to find her holding Bodhi.
Rosary kept calling out to her, so she buried Bodhi under the stilt house with red eyes. She sewed a doll for him that looked very much like Bodhi, and put some of Bodhi's hair when he was just born into the doll's belly, telling him that Bodhi was still with him.
He kept holding the new Bodhi tree, and every afternoon he would carry it to the river to catch shrimps to feed it. He was laughed at by Li Fugui from the same village. Li Fugui wanted to snatch his Bodhi tree, so he pushed him into the river and he didn't come out for half an hour.
He told her about it, and she told her not to say anything and just live her life as usual.
Li Fugui died. Villagers said that when he was playing in the river, he was caught by a water ghost in the river and used as a substitute. That's what they said at the time, not that he was killed by the insects planted by Xue Ligu.
Later, Grandpa Liu died. Doctor He from the village said that he had a poisonous insect in his body. The villagers suspected several women in the village, one of whom was her.
They said that she raised an ominous black cat, which has been associated with evil since ancient times. She closed the door and no one knew what she was doing. She might be raising a cat ghost.
He said, "No, she closed the door because she was afraid that the rosary beads would get out. She was just praying and reciting the rosary beads in there."
"She's chanting a spell! She chants a spell to the black cat every day. She must be raising a cat ghost!"
"Has Xiao Qian been to her house? I think he took this little doll from Xue Ligu's house."
"What is this? Is it a curse?"
They snatched Bodhi away and found cat hair in his stomach.
"She's been bewitched! These cat hairs are the evidence! She is indeed a grass witch, she even didn't let the children go!"
"That's her! She's the only one who can stay in contact with Liu Bo for a long time. What an ungrateful bastard she is!"
They put her in a cage to dry out the poisonous insects from her body.
He saw his father hit Zhuzhu to death with a shovel, and a lot of blood flowed.
Her only rosary was beaten to death, and her only friend was locked in a cage.
He ran over crying and shouting, but was kicked back by his father.
His Bodhi died, his only friend died, and her rosary died.
Xiao Qian took out the Bodhi that he was holding tightly in his arms. There were big holes on Bodhi's belly. "Can you tell Nianzhu for me that I'm sorry that I didn't take it for sterilization and didn't protect its daughter and owner."
"Ah, okay... okay, I will help you pass the message." Jing Yan murmured.
Ling Changye stuffed Bodhi back into his arms and said, "You failed to take the rosary to be sterilized, but you still have to take Bodhi to be sterilized."
Xiao Qian asked: "Can I still get sterilized if my stomach is ruptured?"
Ling Changye said: "Sure, but we have to go to a big city, like Fengning City."
Xiao Qian's face finally showed some emotion. There seemed to be light in his eyes. He hugged Bodhi tightly again and was about to leave.
Xia Bai asked him, "Don't you want to give your father the talisman to break the curse?"
Xiao Qian's face was confused again, "Should I give it to him?"
Xiao Qian was too small, thin, dirty, and malnourished. His hands were only enough to hold the Bodhi tree, not the talisman. He held the Bodhi tree tightly and went to the river to catch shrimps for it to eat.
The players watched in silence as his figure disappeared into the night.
Tao Baobao: "Is he mentally ill..."
Before she could finish, Fu Yuqing interrupted her, "No, I think he is the most mentally normal person in Wugu Village."
Tao Baobao didn't say anything else.
"No, have we found the truth about the strange disease? Why is the game not responding at all?" Qiao Youlin asked.
Lin Xiang: "Of course not. There are still many things that we haven't figured out, such as Dr. He."
"Isn't this clear? It is obvious that Xue Ligu is the protagonist of the story, and Dr. He is a doctor who came to Wugu Village to treat patients. His role was to discover the poisonous insect in Liu Bo's body, thus opening the door for Xue Ligu to be suspected." Qiao Youlin said.
Jing Yan said: "Of course not. There is something we haven't figured out in what you said. Who put the poisonous insect in Uncle Liu's body?"
Lin Xiang said, "Is it the village chief? This bad guy must have done something bad. This is usually the case in movies. Maybe Uncle Liu, the village chief's father, had something good but didn't give it to him. In order to get the treasure, he cast a curse on his father."
“…”
Tao Baobao: "As far as I know, a grass ghost woman, also known as a Gu woman, can only be a female?"
Lin Xiang: “This is gender bias and gender oppression.”
“…”
In order to stop Lin Xiang's rich imagination, Xia Bai took out several love letters he found at Xue Ligu's bedside, "I found this in Xue Ligu's bedroom, take a look."
Several players passed the love letter around and quickly finished reading it.
These love letters contain too much information.
"So, this is a love letter that Doctor He wrote to Xue Ligu?" Lin Xiang said, "Doctor He likes Xue Ligu? Then how could he say that Uncle Liu had a poisonous insect in his body? Oh, right, he didn't know at that time that the villagers would mistake Xue Ligu for a grass ghost."
Fu Yuqing suddenly laughed, "I know, I know what's going on, so this is how it is, hahaha, Xue Ligu is such a pitiful woman."
Lin Xiang immediately asked: "Sister, what's going on?"
Fu Yuqing said, "Didn't you see? These letters were all Dr. He expressing his love for Xue Ligu. There was no trace of Xue Ligu liking him at all. On the contrary, there were records of Xue Ligu being angry at him. Judging from the letters, it was probably anger at Dr. He for his offense."
"After entering Wugu Village, Dr. He fell in love with the beautiful Xue Ligu, but Xue Ligu didn't like him, even though he visited Xue Ligu every day and gave her gifts."
"That makes sense." Lin Xiang asked, "Then what?"
Fu Yuqing: "Then there was the matter of Dr. He treating Uncle Liu. I suspect that Dr. He is a doctor without any real skills. This quack doctor treated Uncle Liu to death. Uncle Liu was the father of the village chief, and he was a respected elder in the village as Liu Fu and the others said. He was afraid, and he couldn't let anyone know that he was the one who killed him."
"He knew that the villagers of Wugu Village were feudal and ignorant, and that there was a legend about the grass ghost woman here, so he said that Liu Bo was actually bewitched, and it was not because of his poor medical skills that he died."
"As for the person who cast the curse, it was naturally the beautiful Xue Ligu that he couldn't have. Maybe it was revenge for a man's self-esteem, or maybe he wanted to drag Xue Ligu to hell so that it would be much easier to take her away."
"As a result, you saw that Xue Ligu was framed and persecuted by the villagers, and endured all the villagers' resentment, resentment and anger, and was finally sunburned to death, while Dr. He got away with it perfectly and became a doctor respected by the villagers."
Lin Xiang was stunned. This was a story he had never thought of and it fit the clues very perfectly.
Tao Baobao was very excited. "That must be it! Ha! Men! This game accurately depicts the nature of men. When they see something beautiful, they want to get it. They pursue it relentlessly. If they can't get it, they will slander the woman or take revenge on her as a way of comforting themselves."
The men were silent, only Xia Bai said silently, "Not all men are like this, I am a good man."
“…”
"Yes!" Lin Xiang said, "Sister, I am also a good man like Xia Bai."
Ling Changye: "Me too."
“…”
Just as Jing Yan was about to speak, he was interrupted by Fu Yuqing, "Do you want me to open a radio station for you to spread the word that I am a good man?"
“…”
Fu Yuqing also changed, not as arbitrary as before. She asked: "Is there anything wrong with my speculation?"
Xia Bai said: "One thing is that I found these love letters behind a very delicate little door next to Xue Ligu's pillow. She carefully kept them. It doesn't seem like she hates Dr. He or doesn't like him at all."
Fu Yuqing: "That further illustrates Xue Ligu's misery. She was pushed into hell by the person she loved."
"Is Dr. He really that bad?" Lin Xiang had been supporting Dr. He from the beginning to the end. Earlier, he had imagined Dr. He to be a great and tragic man. "He went to the countryside to treat the villagers. He also wrote in a letter that he was willing to stay in Wugu Village for Xue Ligu. Judging from his writing, he was not that rude."
Fu Yuqing: "He may just be here to treat Uncle Liu. And can we trust what he said when he was chasing someone? His promises were just sweet talk."
Ling Changye interrupted their argument and said, "Instead of arguing like this, why not read the letter twice, analyze it carefully, and sort out the threads in it."
"Isn't it very clear?" Fu Yuqing said, "First, Dr. He expressed his love to Xue Ligu. Dr. He didn't know why he made Xue Ligu angry, so he apologized to Xue Ligu. Then he said he would take Xue Ligu away from here, and finally he said sorry to Xue Ligu."
Lin Xiang said based on the thread she had unraveled, "Doctor He told her he was sorry. I can think of two possibilities. The first is that he followed up on the previous letter and said he couldn't take Xue Li Gu out. The second is that he said that there was a poisonous insect in Uncle Liu's body, which led to Xue Li Gu being harmed by the villagers."
Jing Yan had a different understanding. "There is no time on the letter. Maybe Dr. He apologized to Xue Ligu first, and then said he would take her away."
Ling Changye: "If you apologize first and then take her away. First, why did Dr. He apologize to her? Second, why did Dr. He take her away?"
Qiao Youlin said, "Dr. He said he wanted to apologize, but he didn't know why Xue Ligu got angry. He wanted to take her away because he saw the villagers persecute Xue Ligu because of the poisonous insect he mentioned."
"I have a question." Xia Bai raised his hand like a primary school student, "Xue Ligu has legs and can read, why didn't she leave on her own, but Doctor He said he would take her away?"
"Yes." Ling Changye said, "This is a key question. From Xiao Qian, we know that Xue Ligu wants to leave Wugu Village. Going out to sterilize Nianzhu is her wish and a prayer. From the village chief, we also know that many young people in Wugu Village have gone to the city to live in high-rise buildings. Xue Ligu wants to leave, and other young people in Wugu Village can leave, so why doesn't she leave? Why does she have to be promised by a man to take her out?"
The other players were all stunned. They realized that Xue Ligu’s story was not as simple as they had imagined.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
