This village is actually almost deserted now, with very few people living there.
Even those who remain here are mostly elderly people and some children. As the village chief puts it, all the young people have gone out to work.
In the past two years, film crews have frequently come to the village to shoot scenes, so the village has cleaned up the vacant houses and rented them out to the film crews. The rent is used to repair the houses, and the rest is used to provide welfare and assistance to some elderly people in the village.
Knowing that Song Mengmeng and the others were coming, Yao Anna was naturally the happiest.
Her current status is different from before; she now lives alone in a separate courtyard. She had already arranged with the director that Song Mengmeng would stay with her when she arrived.
The rooms in the courtyard had already been prepared and were waiting for them to move in.
Yao Anna was at the filming location and hadn't stayed in the village, so Song Mengmeng and the others calmly settled down there first.
"There's no foul air in this village right now."
Hu Da put down her luggage, slowly went out for a walk, and came back to tell Song Mengmeng in a low voice what she had discovered: "However, I did see a few stone sculptures of foxes and monkeys at the entrance of the village."
I asked some of the kids playing there, and they said that these things are quite old. Apparently, the stone carvings were already there when their great-great-grandfathers were around!
The villagers all say that it is the village's guardian spirit, protecting the village from evil spirits and ensuring good weather and abundant harvests.
As she spoke, Hu Da took out her phone and showed Song Mengmeng the photos she had just taken.
Those stone carvings are probably too old; now, you can only barely make out what animals they represent from their shapes.
There are foxes, monkeys, and it seems there are even turtles and such...
“These are all animals commonly found in the mountains and forests.” Hu Yue overheard the conversation, glanced over, and gave her opinion. The little girl muttered something under her breath, showing little interest in the stone carvings: “If the mountain people here really believe in mountain gods or something, it’s normal to have sculptures of these animals.”
In the hearts of these mountain people, these animals are messengers of the mountain god!
Inviting them to guard the village is equivalent to inviting the mountain gods into the village.
In this way, if something happens in the mountain village, the mountain god will certainly not ignore it.
I've seen these things elsewhere before, and I guess they're all pretty much the same in terms of use.
Hu Yue's speculation was indeed similar to the actual use of these stone carvings. When the village chief heard Song Mengmeng and the others' questions, he did not shy away from the matter and simply told them the origin of these stone carvings clearly.
“These stone carvings can be found in every village here.”
Not only in the village, but even in the courtyard of every household, there are one or two talismans for seeking peace and blessings!
As the village chief spoke, he pointed to the small monkey stone sculpture next to the hand pump well in the corner of the yard and introduced it to Song Mengmeng and the others: "Look, almost every household has one!"
"What would happen if we accidentally damaged these sculptures?!"
Song Mengmeng seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly asked the village chief a question that made his expression change immediately.
The village chief's expression immediately turned serious, his previous smile vanishing. He stared intently at Song Mengmeng for a long while before speaking, enunciating each word carefully and earnestly: "She will suffer retribution."
After a pause, as if worried that Song Mengmeng and the others wouldn't believe him, the village chief added, "I did tell that young man in your crew before, but he didn't believe me!"
"What a pity!"
"You mean, the staff member who caused the accident in the village before damaged this statue?!"
The village chief's words immediately roused Hu Yue. She turned to look at the village chief with curiosity and asked in a low voice.
"That's right!"
The monkey statue in their courtyard, I don't know how they did it, they managed to knock off half its head! The village chief's face was still a little pale when he mentioned this.
Every time a film crew came, he would repeatedly remind the guests to be careful.
But there are always some people who just won't listen to advice, what can he do?!
“I’ve heard that quite a few film crews come here to shoot scenes every year, and there are also many tourists who come to experience life and stay here. Isn’t it possible that no one accidentally bumps into these sculptures?!”
Were they also punished by the mountain god?!
Song Mengmeng looked at the village chief. She wasn't really concerned about how the statue got damaged; what she cared about was the probability of it happening.
If everything really was caused by the destruction of the stone sculpture, surely this couldn't have been the only time in all these years?
"Of course, there are also times when guests accidentally damage the sculptures."
However, they all listened to the advice, went to the mountain god's temple to apologize to the mountain god, and made offerings to cover the cost of repairs as atonement!
As a result, your young man, I told him that he had damaged the stone carving of the monkey, and that he should go to the mountain god temple to apologize and pay some money to repair the monkey statue, but he just wouldn't agree!
Not only did they disagree, but they also accused me of extortion!
Honestly, it's undeniable that he ruined the monkey sculpture!
How can asking him to repair the stone sculpture of the monkey be considered extortion?!
But he insisted that our stone carving had been broken for a long time, and that he had only accidentally hit it with a clothesline pole while hanging clothes. How could it have been broken so easily?!
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
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