Chapter 4: Strange Mirror
It was already noon when Xie Liang and Xiao Ha went down the mountain to return the cart and shovel to the villagers.
As soon as I walked into the courtyard, I saw that everyone except Xu He had a serious expression on their faces, while Hu Xiaojuan had a dull look and looked out of her mind.
"What happened?" Xie Liang asked Dai Tian.
"Another person died. Grandma Wang died." Dai Tian said weakly.
According to Dai Tian, after they arrived at the ancestral hall, Grandma Wang Mei and her granddaughter Hu Xiaojuan, one old and the other young, could not do much, so everyone let them sit on the steps at the entrance of the ancestral hall and wait for them to come back for lunch after they were done.
Several men were replacing broken tiles on the roof when something went wrong.
When they heard the screams, they hurried down from the beams in the inner room. When they arrived, they saw Grandma Wang lying on the ground, not breathing.
"Damn it, I always feel it's weird. Grandma Wang's expression looks like she was scared to death!" Li Dong said angrily.
"Yes, her expression was terrified, her eyes were wide open, and her whole face was distorted. You guys should finish your lunch quickly and come with us to take a look."
The few people who came back from the ancestral hall had already eaten. Xie Liang and Xiao Ha took a few bites without any taste, then took Xiao Juan with them to the ancestral hall.
Xiaojuan seemed frightened and was in a daze. Xie Liang couldn't get any useful information from her.
Xie Liang noticed that everything was very quiet along the way. The sun was blazing, cracking the earth. The surrounding trees were withered and yellow, but the tree in their yard was lush and green.
Xu He, who was walking in front, slowed down and walked side by side with Xie Liang.
Xie Liang looked at Xu He for a while. This man had starry eyes and sword-like eyebrows, and he had the temperament of a man in ancient costume. He carried a black sword on his back all day and wore black clothes and black pants. He was quite resistant to dirt. Unlike Xie Liang, his white shirt and white casual pants were already stained with spots of mud.
It wasn't long before they reached the ancestral hall, which was located at the end of the village. Built of blue bricks, it was the most magnificent of all the buildings in the village.
The gate of the ancestral hall is painted with golden boys and jade girls, and huge stone lions sit on either side. On the red wooden plaque, the characters "Lin's Ancestral Hall" are gilded.
It can be seen that this village attaches great importance to the ancestral hall and must have spent a lot of money to hire someone to build it.
"Grandma Wang's body... is... placed in the inner room of the ancestral hall." Dai Tian said in a trembling voice.
"Damn it, the inner hall of this ancestral hall is guarded by villagers, just like they are guarding against thieves. I told them that someone died here, but that person didn't react at all. He just kept emphasizing that the ancestral hall must be repaired within the specified time and kept urging us to renovate the tiles, as if he was afraid that we would delay their prayers." Li Dong couldn't help but mutter.
Xie Liang and Xu He walked towards the inner room of the ancestral hall, followed by Xiao Ha, while Dai Tian, Li Dong and Hu Xiaojuan were waiting outside.
The three of them went in and searched around the inner room, but they didn't find the body. They only saw bloodstains on the wall on one side of the inner room, and some residual meat and bone fragments.
"No way, the body was eaten?"
Xiao Ha stared at the scraps of meat and bones for a while and said he would go out to find Li Dongjin to take a look.
This was much more disgusting than the monster that Li Xi's corpse had transformed into; at least that one was still intact. Xie Liang tried to comfort himself that he was not surprised by anything.
After a while, Xiao Ha came in with Li Dong.
Li Dong looked at the bloodstains and meat scraps on the ground and gasped, "Holy crap! This is too scary! That's right, we put the body right here! What the hell!? Was that bald donkey guarding the ancestral hall responsible?"
"Bald donkey? Is he the villager you mentioned guarding here?" Xie Liang asked.
"That's right, damn it, who else could it be but him?" Li Dong said excitedly.
"There might also be man-eating monsters." Xie Liang finished speaking, and then recounted what happened when he and Xiao Ha went to bury Li Xi's body. Li Dong was also shocked and frightened after hearing this, and said that he would tell Dai Tian about it later and let him be careful.
After Xie Liang and the others came out of the inner room, they gathered with everyone to discuss repairing the roof of the ancestral hall.
Everyone was worried about Hu Xiaojuan waiting alone outside the ancestral hall, so they asked her to wait in the inner room on the other side. The tiles above also needed to be renovated, so they could see the situation below at any time.
"Is this little girl scared silly? Her eyes are dull and lifeless." Li Dong said to Xiaojuan who was squatting beside him.
"It's normal for children to be scared. Just go back and it will be fine." Xiao Ha said.
"I've done this kind of work before. After today, I can finish it in one more day tomorrow." Li Dong said as he climbed up the stairs to the roof, while Dai Tian handed him glazed tiles from below.
"Damn, aren't these green tiles nice? Why do they have to be replaced with glazed ones? This village doesn't look like it's rich." Li Dong muttered.
"Maybe they are more superstitious about this." Xie Liang said.
"The three of us will go to our respective areas to work. We will try to finish it tomorrow so that we don't have to come the day after tomorrow!" Xiao Ha said and turned around to get busy.
Xie Liang felt dizzy after climbing onto the roof. It was too high. He could only follow the same pattern, replacing the tiles one by one.
If death is inevitable, why not take it easy before you die? Tired, he sat on the roof of the ancestral hall, staring blankly at the withered trees.
Seeing him in a daze, Xu He also climbed onto the roof and sat next to him to keep Xie Liang in a daze.
Suddenly, Xie Liang noticed a ray of light reflected from a large tree at the entrance of the ancestral hall. He stood up abruptly.
"Xu He, look!"
Following the direction Xie Liang pointed, Xu He also saw the light. The two of them went down from the roof, one in front of the other, and walked to the tree.
"Mirror?" Xie Liang asked doubtfully.
"It's facing the gate of the ancestral hall." Xu He said.
"I'm afraid Grandma Wang's death is related to this mirror." Xie Liang said while looking at the mirror.
Xu He took the black sword on his back and struck the mirror directly, causing it to shatter.
Xie Liang: "..." Young man, you are so simple and crude.
After a busy afternoon, they finally saw that most of the tiles had been replaced. Except for the areas in charge of Xie Liang and Xu He, the work of the other three was almost finished.
Seeing that it was getting late, everyone took Hu Xiaojuan to the courtyard where they lived, chatting casually as they walked.
"Three people died in one day. I have no choice but to believe it." Li Dong said.
"With this little girl left alone, does she dare to sleep alone at night?" Dai Tian said tiredly.
"Let her stay in the same room with me. Let her sleep on the bed. I'll just sit and take a nap." Xie Liang said.
Soon, they returned to their residence before dark. The oil lamps in the room were already lit, and food sent by the villagers was placed on the inner hall.
Everyone was tired after a day of work, so after dinner they all went back to their rooms to rest. Xu He went to the room where Li Xi and the others had stayed to rest.
Xiaojuan was still dazed, refusing to eat or listen to anything he said, as if she were possessed by a demon. Xie Liang could only let her lie on the bed while he sat on the stool of the dressing table, propping up his head with his elbows, and drifted off to sleep.
In the misty fog.
Under the quiet starry sky, two little boys rolled, ran, and shouted loudly on the grass beside the reservoir.
"Can you whistle?" the boy in the white shirt asked another boy.
"Just like this." The little boy in the white shirt blew a long, winding whistle, which slowly turned into a nursery rhyme that was well-known at that time.
Another boy in a black T-shirt kept clapping beside him.
"Xiaoliang, you are so awesome. I can swim. I'll show you!" As he said that, the little boy took off his black T-shirt.
With a "whoosh", it jumped into the water like a fish, and swayed flexibly in the water.
"Aliang, come down! I'll teach you!"
Under the starry sky, fireflies are dancing. A boy is holding another boy's waist. They are swimming happily under the night sky, like two carefree fish.
Suddenly, the little boy, who couldn't swim, panicked and started struggling in the water. His feet seemed to be entangled in something, and he immediately sank into the water. He felt stuffy and couldn't breathe. Water began to fill his chest, and the loss of oxygen frightened the little boy.
Xie Liang, who was sitting in front of the dressing table, seemed to be trapped in this dream. Cold sweat kept coming out of his forehead, and his white shirt was already wet with sweat.
In the dream from which he could not escape, one of his feet was entangled by underwater algae, and his struggles became weaker and weaker.
Fortunately, another boy dived into the water and helped him untie his ankles that were entangled by algae.
Xie Liang, who had not yet fully learned to swim, panicked and tried his best to swim out of the water. A huge amount of air rushed into his lungs, dispelling the suffocation caused by drowning.
He was so frightened that he half swam and half choked on the water as he struggled back to the shore.
When he came to his senses, there was not a ripple in the reservoir, and there was no trace of the other boy on the quiet water surface.
Xie Liang was so scared that he started shouting the little boy's name, but all he got in response was dead silence.
He began to run quickly, sprinting towards the orphanage, hoping to call for help. But he fell and rolled down the hill.
At this moment, the little boy who disappeared in the reservoir appeared.
"Xiaoliang, I found a very interesting place. Come with me!" The disappeared little boy smiled and stretched out his hands to Xie Liang.
No! No!
Something went wrong, it shouldn’t be like this, Xie Liang muttered to himself, it’s not like this, no!
No! No! He's dead!
Xie Liang remembered.
Su Yubai's feet were entangled by abandoned industrial ropes in the reservoir and he was drowned!
Xie Liang watched as the police fished his body out of the river. The body, whitish from being soaked, dripped with green water droplets, and the air was already filled with a nauseating stench of decay.
The dream began to collapse, and the little boy in front of me began to gradually turn into powder, just like the dense white reed flowers beside the reservoir, floating towards the sky.
Xie Liang slowly opened his eyes in fear and guilt. It was an empty dream that made him feel scared.
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