Chapter 17
The next day I woke up very early and saw a few messy shoe prints outside the front door. The shoe prints were intermittent and extended to the middle of the yard, and then suddenly disappeared.
This shoe print is a woman's.
But I am the only girl in the family, and these are not my shoe prints at all.
Moreover, my family is not popular in the village and no one will come to visit us. Most importantly, the gate is still locked. How did she get to the front door?
I couldn't help but think of Wang Hao's mother.
When I think of this, the scene of her death keeps coming back to me.
I opened the door. The street was deserted, a thick white mist filled the air. I could see a lot of white money scattered on both sides of the street.
I want to go find my grandfather because I can't sleep well alone at night.
As usual, I put the keys away and went out.
The fog was incredibly thick today. Standing on the road, I looked back at the village, which was completely shrouded in thick white fog. Even the old willow tree at the entrance was barely visible in the mist. It wasn't just our village; the entire mountain range was covered in fog, like a shroud, and it made me uneasy.
When I reached Chunhe Bridge, an uncomfortable feeling filled my whole body. I couldn't help but quicken my pace, but my eyes involuntarily looked at the guardrail on the side of the bridge.
I didn't want to look, but my eyes seemed to be controlled and searching.
The pair of footprints suddenly appeared before my eyes in the misty fog.
My heart was about to jump out of my throat. I pushed hard and ran all the way across the Chunhe Bridge until I reached the entrance of Xigou.
I was breathing heavily.
Is it because I know her? Wang Hao's mother frightens me more than anything I've ever encountered before.
I walked alone on the main road. It was a quiet morning, and there was no one around, not even a passing car. I walked all the way to the intersection where Xiaoliang had left. I saw three people washing clothes on the opposite bank of the Niujiawan River.
I looked closely and saw that the three of them were dressed in white, even their hair was white. They lowered their heads, the tips of their white hair immersed in the water.
Perhaps they felt my gaze, and the three of them suddenly raised their heads and looked at me.
The three faces had no facial features, were bald, and had two shallow pits where the eyes should be.
This is not a human being!
I quickly turned my head away and stopped looking at them.
"Beep beep beep!" I was awakened by a shrill car horn.
Because this road has a small bend to the north, and there is a high mountain on the inner bend, the road ahead of the bend is usually not visible. Now it is foggy, making it even more difficult to see clearly.
While I was staring at those three things, I had already walked to the middle of the road and didn't notice the large truck coming from behind.
Fortunately, the driver saw me and honked the horn urgently.
I ran quickly to the side of the road, and the truck sped past, brushing past my clothes.
My arm was scraped and bleeding, and the pain made me sober up a little.
I looked at my scraped arm and luckily the truck driver honked the horn in time, otherwise I would have become a dead soul under the car.
After the driver braked suddenly, he opened the door and looked at me: "How can you walk like a kid? What are you doing in the middle of the road?"
You can tell he is very angry.
He saw that my arm was injured and asked, "How are you? Are you okay?"
I shook my head and said, "It's okay."
At this time, I looked across the river again, but the three figures were no longer there.
The driver was also afraid of getting into trouble, so after hearing that everything was fine, he got in the car and left.
I covered my arm and hurried along the path beside the northwest mountain to Xiagou. Although it was a bit of a detour, I didn't dare to go to Niujiawan anymore.
It’s also because I’m young and a girl, so I don’t have enough yang energy, so I always encounter these dirty things.
In the "Yin Fu Lu", there is another explanation, which is that the women of our clan are prone to attracting ghosts and monsters. In addition, they were born on the winter solstice, which is yin upon yin, making it easier for them to be contaminated by unclean things.
I hurried down to Xiagou and arrived at my uncle's house, just in time to catch them having breakfast. Grandpa and my uncle saw me and made room for me. I sat down next to Grandpa, feeling relieved.
The master who performs the ritual has not arrived yet.
I saw a lot of things displayed in Grandpa Gan’s yard: an altar, an incense burner, yellow money, candles, incense, etc.
"Grandpa, when should we start?" I looked at my grandfather.
"The wizard will arrive tomorrow."
After finding out the date, I ran to Zhang Song's house to tell him the news.
Zhang Song saw me coming to Xiagou early in the morning and asked me curiously, "Why are you here?"
I smiled mysteriously: "I'll tell you a secret, do you want to hear it?"
"What secret?" Zhang Song asked me curiously.
"My grandfather just told me that the wizard will be here tomorrow, and the ritual should be performed tomorrow night. Should we go together then?"
"What about Maomao? Do you still call him?"
"Forget it, he should still be in the Northwest Mountain. Besides, he's so timid, it's hard to scare him again."
Zhang Song nodded after hearing what I said and said, "Then let's go together."
Zhang Song and I came to the reservoir again. Mist was floating on the green water surface, and the entire reservoir was covered by the fog and its true appearance could not be seen clearly.
"Lingling." A burst of sobbing came from the shore.
I looked at Zhang Song in surprise.
"It might be Aunt Xue," Zhang Song said. "She seems to have always disagreed with the ritual because the drowned girl was her child."
It turns out that the little ghost I met last time was called Lingling.
Listening to the crying on the shore, with deep longing in the tone, I felt a little uncomfortable.
Maybe she misses her daughter the same way I miss my parents!
I tugged at the corner of Zhang Song's clothes, unable to bear to listen any further, and motioned for him to leave with me.
After we were far away, I said, "The funeral will be held tomorrow. If she keeps thinking about it like this, Lingling will not want to leave the world of the living."
"What should we do then?" Zhang Song said.
I shook my head. "We'll just have to adapt to the situation. I hope the wizard who comes tomorrow is powerful enough to save Lingling."
"Can you think of a way to help Aunt Xue? She's quite pitiful. She's been in a bad mental state ever since Lingling passed away, and now she's acting crazy." Zhang Song said.
"But I don't know how to perform salvation at all!" I also wanted to help her, but the "Yin Fu Lu" was incomplete and did not record any method of salvation.
Zhang Song was silent for a while after hearing what I said.
The two of us just walked like this, no one speaking.
"Lingling, where are you?" Aunt Xue's intermittent crying came from a distance, and Zhang Song and I could still hear it even though we had walked a long way.
"Oh!" I sighed.
I was in a really bad mood today and had no mood to play. After Zhang Song and I separated, I walked back to my grandfather's house.
Squatting by the wall, I stared blankly at them busying around in the yard.
I really want to help them, but I simply don’t have the ability to do so, which makes me very upset.
Grandpa seemed to notice that I was in a bad mood and asked me if I was feeling unwell.
I said, "Grandpa, I miss my mom."
After hearing what I said, my grandfather didn't say anything. He just sat next to me and kept patting my back.
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