The village was completely silent; not even the barking of dogs could be heard. I couldn't help but frown.
In my hometown, if a car drives into the village at night, the dogs all go crazy and bark loudly around the car.
Without the villagers' help, the people in the car probably wouldn't have dared to get off. And the situation here is really too strange. For example, there are dogs surrounding the car, but they don't even bark.
Is there a custom in this village of not keeping dogs?
We now believe that Director Wang truly did not know the exact address of Old Liu's house, only that it was located here.
We had no choice but to stop the car and ask someone for help.
But what followed was disappointing. We knocked on almost every door, but either no one answered, or we saw terrified eyes peeking through the crack in the door.
Persistence pays off. Finally, we found an old man smoking a pipe in the dark in front of a low mud house in the village.
"Old man, if you're asking about someone, just tell me their information, and this wad of money is yours," Luo Tianhe said, pulling out a wad of hundred-yuan bills.
Director Wang, who was standing to the side, stared wide-eyed, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he couldn't utter a word.
The old man shook his head, his dim eyes glancing at the money before turning his head back.
Has this old man been in the village for too long and forgotten what money looks like outside?
Seeing this, Luo Tianhe took out another pack of cigarettes and handed it to the old man.
"Here, grandpa, have a smoke, this is good!" This time the old man reacted, took the cigarette from Luo Tianhe and then lit one and put it in his mouth.
"What are you doing in the village so late at night, young man? You're not just passing by, are you?" the old man said, his voice a little hoarse.
"Old man, I'm asking about someone. Is Liu Fugui in your village? And is there a temple nearby?" Luo Tianhe asked, raising his voice.
The old man, who had been leisurely smoking, suddenly widened his eyes in fear the moment he heard about Liu Fugui and the Niangniang Temple. As if burned, the cigarette in his mouth fell to the ground.
Then he took out the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, stuffed it into Luo Tianhe's hand, and waved his hand repeatedly.
"No, what's wrong, sir?" Luo Tianhe tried to shove the cigarette into his hand, but this time he absolutely refused to accept it.
At the same time, he kept shaking his head, trembling as he retreated back into the house, slamming the door shut. No matter how hard we knocked, we couldn't open it.
"It seems we haven't come to the wrong place. It's just that this Niangniang Temple and Liu Fugui are quite a topic of conversation in the area." My voice was somewhat bitter.
“That old man kept glancing eastwards; I have a feeling the temple must be to the east,” Li Huai said, unusually quick-witted.
Luo Tianhe and I exchanged a glance. We hadn't noticed it before, but we had no other choice.
“Li Huai is right, I noticed that too.” Zhao Jianguo spoke up, his thoughts agreeing with Luo Tianhe’s.
Following the direction Li Huai pointed, we actually found a path that was almost completely overgrown with weeds.
I couldn't help but smile and patted Li Huai on the shoulder.
"Even a fool's thousand thoughts can have one stroke of genius! Li Huai, you're absolutely right!"
Li Huai shrugged, shook off my hand, and said unhappily, "Who are you calling a fool? I'm not stupid; I can tell the difference between good and bad talk!"
The further we went, the colder the air became. We grabbed our equipment—lightning swords, talismans, and a few other items to ward off evil spirits—and, with Director Wang's legs trembling, we began our hike up the mountain.
Director Wang looked dejected, turning back every few steps, deeply regretting coming here:
“Are you guys really going? That temple is really eerie. Didn’t you see the people in the village? Not a single one of them opened the door for us in the middle of the night. The only one who did was so scared when he heard that we were looking for the temple that he stopped smoking and hid inside his house.”
"Why don't we call the police? Don't you know Qiang?"
"Call the police! By the time they find this godforsaken place, it'll be too late!" Luo Tianhe shoved him impatiently. "Besides, we're already here, why are you dawdling like this!"
"Hehe, Director Wang, if you really don't want to leave, just wait for us here. We'll go by ourselves. But if anything comes looking for you, you might be in trouble alone..."
Upon hearing what I said, Director Wang was immediately startled and dared not say another word. He followed behind us, stumbling along, no longer needing our escort. Instead, he seemed afraid that we would abandon him.
The mountain path was steep and difficult to traverse, especially since it was late at night. Luckily, we brought flashlights, otherwise we definitely wouldn't have been able to make it up the mountain.
After walking for a while, Li Huai, who was at the front, suddenly stopped, his voice trembling slightly: "Have you heard any strange noises?"
Upon hearing this, we all held our breath and listened intently.
Sure enough, besides my own heartbeat, there seemed to be an extremely faint other sound.
"Don't scare yourself. It's just the wind. In the mountains, there are steep ravines, so it's normal to hear this kind of sound," Luo Tianhe said. But when I looked at his hand gripping the flashlight, his fingertips were white, and he was clearly not as nonchalant as he claimed.
Although Zhao Jianguo was also afraid, he was burning with anger. His face was ashen, and he remained silent, clutching a wrench he had taken from the car tightly in his hand, his eyes scanning the darkness.
After another difficult climb, the trees ahead seemed to thin out a bit.
Just then, Director Wang, who was walking at the back, suddenly let out a short scream, slipped, and fell to the side!
Luckily, Luo Tianhe reacted quickly and pulled him back, preventing the fatso from falling to his death.
"No, what are you doing? Aren't you watching where you're going?" Luo Tianhe asked impatiently. This fat man weighed about 200 pounds, and the force of his fall was so great that it almost dislocated his arm.
"There, there's something there!" Director Wang pointed nervously to a slightly flat patch of grass nearby, his hands trembling violently.
I shone my flashlight over the area and found something was indeed wrong. There were some things scattered in the grass, several of which were of a safe color. There were some shriveled and blackened apples, some scattered grains of rice, and a half-burnt red candle.
There were also several stacks of rough yellow paper money weighed down by stones in the middle. The paper money had blurry patterns printed on it, but it was clear that it was definitely not the Jade Emperor.
“These are traces of a ritual.” I walked over, squatted down to examine them. The apples were dried and black, indicating they were at least a few days old. However, the paper money was very new, and the candles had been lit earlier, so they must have been lit within the last five days.
"Is it, is it Lao Liu?" Li Huai couldn't help but ask.
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