Ancient Corpse in the Mountain Village (VIII)
Yu Shu took the photo album back to his room and woke up Jiang Yu who was taking a nap.
"Look at this."
Jiang Yu opened his eyes a little with a confused look, and smoothed down his rolled-up shirt to hide his neat, white abdominal muscles with distinct ridges and curves.
Jiang Yu slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes, looking a bit like a student who was woken up on a day off.
"Just fell asleep."
"Drink some water first and sober up." Yu Shu poured him a glass of water and opened the photo album, pointing to the black and white photo of a girl in school uniform: "The female student that Cunxi saw is in my grandfather's photo album."
Jiang Yu wiped his lips after swallowing a mouthful, his pupils gradually brightening. He lowered his eyelids and quickly locked onto the female student.
She stood beside Yu Dingan, her eyes empty and her whole body numb, which was inconsistent with her age. She completely lacked the youthful vitality and vigor of a girl.
What's even more unusual is that everyone else in the photo is dressed coolly, obviously taken in the summer, but she has no exposed skin except her head, and she is wearing a long-sleeved dress with very awkward lace gloves.
The old black-and-white photo had low resolution, so some small objects would appear blurry. Jiang Yu squinted his eyes and stared at it carefully for a long time, but still couldn't make it out. He simply brought the photo up to his eyes and looked closely to identify it. Jiang Yu squinted his eyes and focused his gaze on the girl's ear. The ornament looked very familiar.
Jiang Yu held the photo in front of Yu Shu's eyes, pointed at the girl's earrings, and asked, "Do you still remember?"
Yu Shu was so surprised when he saw it that his attention was focused on the female student and he didn't notice any details. When Jiang Yu mentioned this, he couldn't help but get nervous and stared intently at the grayish-white dot.
Golden flower earrings are the golden flower earrings worn by Li Cailian.
Yu Shu suddenly felt a chill running through his blood.
The golden flower earrings were one of Grandpa's relics. Li Cailian took the golden flower earrings away and died mysteriously after wearing them for a few days. The owner of the earrings appeared in Grandpa's photo album, and judging from their positions, the two seemed to have a close relationship, but their expressions betrayed them, like strangers.
If the ghost that harmed Li Cailian was because of the golden flower earrings, then grandpa shouldn't be able to escape either.
Wait... My grandfather's cause of death is a mystery. He was said to have died of natural causes, but the dark red corpse spots would only appear if he had heart problems or was poisoned by a specific toxin.
But the golden flower earrings have always been on my grandfather's hands, and there was no problem with them for so many years. It doesn't make sense.
Yu Shu's Adam's apple moved up and down as he swallowed his saliva. When he met Jiang Yu's eyes, he saw his own face with a panicked expression.
"Li Cailian is wearing this pair of earrings. They were taken from my grandfather's belongings."
Yu Shu lowered his eyes and looked at the black and white photo. After a few seconds, he slowly raised his eyelids and took a breath. "Accompany me to visit my uncle and aunt's house again. I guess they will be the only ones who can recognize who this person is."
Jiang Yu frowned. He hadn't slept enough, but he still replied calmly, "Okay," and went to wash his face to refresh himself.
Boys in their early twenties are particularly concerned about the outside world. Jiang Yu, a Taoist priest, is no exception. He washed his face and combed his hair back in front of the mirror before coming out.
Yu Shu was stunned for a moment. He saw himself in his early twenties in Jiang Yu.
When he was in college, there were many medical courses and time was tight. He was vain and had to get up early every morning to dress up. Looking back, it was quite childish. When he was in his thirties and looked back at his twenty-year-old self, it was quite interesting and funny.
Yu Shu knocked on the door and called out to his uncle and aunt.
It took several seconds for my aunt to move out of the house.
Yu Shu bent down to support his aunt, matching her pace and walking at a leisurely pace. When he felt the dry, wrinkled skin and delicate bones of her hands, Jiang Yu's words suddenly came to his mind, "My aunt's bone age is over sixty."
He slid his hand inconspicuously to feel his aunt's bones, but he could not feel any difference between his aunt's bones and his other than the size and thickness.
The aunt-in-law took two steps and then stopped. Her cloudy eyes slid from Jiang Yu to Yu Shu, and then she looked into the room. After confirming that the door was closed, she gently patted the back of Yu Shu's hand, lowering her voice for fear that the sound could penetrate the solid wooden door.
"Are you okay?"
Yu Shu smiled politely: "Thank you for your concern, aunt. It's okay, I'm fine."
The aunt nodded with satisfaction and said in a slow voice, "That's good." Her gaze was always focused on Yu Shu's face. After a moment, she raised her heavy eyelids as if filled with lead, and a glimmer of light slowly appeared in her cloudy eyes.
When Yu Shu met his aunt's eyes, he felt as if he was being seen through.
"Your uncle is asleep. Let's go outside and talk." said the aunt, pointing to the flat ground not far away.
Jiang Yu wanted to take out the photo and ask directly, but Yu Shu glared at him and he withdrew his hand timidly.
Yu Shu first chatted with his aunt-in-law about some family matters, starting from the fact that leftovers should be put in the refrigerator in time because of the hot weather, then talked about his sleep quality in the past two days, and then returned to his uncle's health.
Sometimes my aunt couldn't hear clearly and would repeat Yu Shu's topic, but when she was asked about my great-uncle's health, she answered fluently.
As an outsider, Jiang Yu couldn't get a word in and could only stand there like a telephone pole. He listened to them chatting for almost twenty minutes with a helpless look on his face, but he couldn't interrupt. Every time he put his hands in his pockets, Yu Shu would glare at him fiercely and ask him to wait a little longer.
Jiang Yu admired Yu Shu's patience and conversational skills. He'd slowly build the conversation from irrelevant topics, only getting to the point once the other person's guard had dropped. If it were him, he'd just ask what he needed to ask and then leave, barely considering the other person's willingness to talk. But the difference was also obvious: he rarely had to ask questions, and those who did were always people seeking his help but, out of respect, couldn't bring themselves to speak directly.
"What did you want to ask today, uncle?" Aunt-in-law was the first to come out of the chat and emphasized what she wanted to ask. The implication was that she also knew something and she could ask her.
Yu Shu understood and winked at Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu finally ended his punishment of standing by and listening to family gossip. He took a long step and came in front of his aunt. He put on a polite smile and handed the photo to his aunt.
The aunt squinted her eyes and looked at it for a while. The photo was from too old and the quality was blurry and difficult to recognize. She held the photo close to her nose, but it became even more difficult to see. She stretched out her arms and held the photo further away, squinting even harder. The messy curves that outlined the traces of time appeared around her eyes.
Jiang Yu was about to ask his aunt if she knew this female student when Yu Shu's elbow poked his shark muscle, forcing him to shut up in disappointment.
My aunt-in-law trembled a little, and used her fingertips to pinch the photo into an arc.
"Yuya...it's He Yuya." The aunt raised her eyes excitedly, and her eyes, which were almost withered, became moist again. Then she lowered her head, pursed her lips and looked at the photo.
"Is my aunt familiar with you?"
My aunt nodded and said, "I know her. She's one year younger than me. That was the first time I saw a girl like that. She was different from us."
He Yuhua in the photo looked less than 20 years old. According to the age calculation, my aunt was only in her 60s. Yu Shu seemed to have pressed the pause button and turned his gaze to Jiang Yu with a look of surprise.
Jiang Yu glanced at Yu Shu and raised his eyebrows.
The eyes of the aunt's grandmother were filled with a deep sense of reluctance. She trembled as she stuffed the photo back into Jiang Yu's hands and murmured softly, "I don't really know her. She's not from our village. I've only met her once or twice. It seems she was trapped here and later died in an accident."
Yu Shu's heart skipped a beat after hearing this. His aunt's words were extremely concise, and he was unwilling to continue. He couldn't force his elders to speak, so he changed the subject, lowered his attitude, and asked about Uncle Zhang: "What about Uncle Zhang?"
The aunt avoided Yu Shu's blunt gaze and hesitated for a moment before speaking: "Your grandfather brought him into the village. Later... later, he buried He Yuhua at the foot of the mountain where your grandfather was buried. After He Yuhua's accident, people in the village would get into trouble if they left for more than a period of time. Zhang came back later for the same reason. He was afraid of death."
"Why did He Yuhua suddenly get into trouble?" Jiang Yu frowned, and the cold light reflected in Yu Shu's eyes stung him as soon as he finished speaking. However, he pretended not to see it because he didn't want to continue the conversation of pushing it out a little bit and then pushing it out a little bit.
My aunt frowned and thought for a long time. Like my uncle, she had symptoms of memory loss and couldn't remember it for several times.
Yu Shu felt that the village was increasingly strange. The villagers could not leave and said that this was their root. They also suffered from memory loss. His uncles and aunts had no specific memory of the cause of He Yuhua's death and the people involved.
When he thought about this problem, he suddenly realized that he had never had the concept of father and mother since he was a child. To be more precise, the only blood relative he remembered was his grandfather, and he had no memory of his parents.
When Yu Shu thought of this, he felt a slight chill in his hands and feet. He felt more and more that his grandfather's death was inextricably linked to He Yuhua and Zhang Bo who had passed away decades ago.
The uncle called out to the old woman weakly. Yu Shu realized that he could not get anything out of her, so he thanked her verbally and took Jiang Yu back the way he had come.
Yu Shu returned home and continued to flip through the old photo album. From beginning to end, there was only one photo of He Yuhua, and the rest were basically photos of the village's increasingly beautiful scenery.
Jiang Yu, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up: "Maybe I guessed wrong."
Yu Shu was thinking seriously about something when he was startled by the sudden shout that broke the silence. He patted his chest lightly to ease his panic.
"You're talking nonsense. What did you guess wrong?"
Jiang Yu raised his hand and pointed at Yu Shu: "She doesn't want me to go to the west of the village, but she wants you to go to the west of the village. The person she wants to see is you." As he spoke, his hair swayed gently in the early summer breeze, and the sunlight added more youthfulness to his clean and handsome face.
Yu Shu leaned back slightly and told Jiang Yu with a serious expression not to joke.
"The scene I saw in the red sedan chair might be the lost memory of my great uncle and aunt, and what you experienced in the white coffin might be the burial of He Yuhua." Jiang Yu analyzed seriously.
"Impossible. I can distinguish the sound of dry soil from wet soil hitting something. According to my aunt, He Yuhua was buried at the foot of the mountain, not in the mass grave west of the village."
After the Hongbai collision, they exchanged their experiences of strange things. Jiang Yu's experience made sense, but his did not. He was certain that he was trapped in the coffin and buried in the wet mud by the lake.
Obviously Jiang Yu also felt that the latter guess was incorrect. He frowned slightly, and a hint of heaviness appeared on his youthful face.
"Uncle Zhang is buried!"
"Uncle Zhang is buried."
The two of them spoke at the same time, breaking the silence.
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